Experts say central banks are increasingly stuffing their vaults as an insurance policy in a volatile world
Fifteen minutes after takeoff, the call came for Serbia’s central bank governor: millions of dollars’ worth of gold bars, destined for a high-security Belgrade vault, had been left on the runway of a Swiss airport.
In air freight – despite the extraordinary value of bullion – fresh flowers, food and other perishables still take priority. “We learned this the hard way,” Jorgovanka Tabaković told a conference late last year.
Craig Guildford’s retirement comes after inquiry found force used ‘exaggerated and untrue’ intelligence to justify ban
Craig Guildford has announced his retirement as chief constable of West Midlands police, after an official inquiry found his force used “exaggerated and untrue” intelligence to justify a ban on fans of an Israeli football team.
The pressure on one of Britain’s most senior chief constables had been intense after the basis for his force’s claims about the ban unravelled and the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said she had no confidence in him.
Donald Trump’s top economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, said he expects there is “nothing to see here” as the US Department of Justice pursues its criminal investigation of Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair.
The Trump administration has faced a chorus of criticism in recent days after it emerged that the justice department had served the Fed with grand jury subpoenas, in a significant escalation of its extraordinary attack on the US central bank’s independence.
Portland Communications, founded by Keir Starmer’s communications chief, linked to so-called ‘black hat’ edits
A high-profile PR company founded by Keir Starmer’s communications chief has been accused of commissioning changes to Wikipedia pages to make them more favourable towards clients.
Portland Communications, founded by Tim Allan, has been linked to the so-called “black hat” edits, sometimes called “Wikilaundering”. Several changes were made to Wikipedia pages by a network of editors, allegedly controlled by a contractor working on Portland’s behalf.
The BBC could soon make programmes for YouTube, after being put under pressure to produce more content on the increasingly dominant digital platform.
The corporation would begin making some content released first on the platform under proposals that could be announced as soon as next week as it seeks to reach younger viewers, who are the heaviest users of YouTube.
Goalkeeper has served five matches of the suspension
Reference to skin colour overheard by club colleagues
The Liverpool goalkeeper Rafaela Borggräfe was given a six-game ban by the Football Association after being found to have made a racist comment that involved reference to skin colour.
Borggräfe has served five matches of that suspension. She accepted the sanction and was also ordered to enrol on an education programme after an FA investigation into the language, which was overheard by some staff and teammates.
European countries sending troops to the island is only raising the temperature and generating fear – exactly what the US president wants
Is Greenland Donald Trump’s 25th-amendment moment? Last time around, this was when the Washington “grownups” debated his capacity to be president, notably in the final fortnight of his presidency, after the January 6 Capitol insurrection. Under the constitution, a president can be replaced should the vice-president and a cabinet majority decide their leader is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office”. The trouble today is that there are no grownups.
The US president’s designs on Greenland are clearly mad. He claims Russia and China are scheming to seize the island and that Denmark should be forced urgently to transfer its sovereignty. Denmark had long allowed the US extended military access to Greenland, but Trump seems to want to own it. None of his staff has been able to say why.
Small changes to sleep, diet, and exercise can have significant benefits – and I’m all for barely perceptible adjustments
A week into the first lockdown of the pandemic, I vowed I would never set foot in a gym again. This pledge seemed in keeping with the confused fatalism of the moment, but it turned out to be one of the few promises to myself I have ever kept.
Since then I’ve become a fan of evidence suggesting that minimal changes to one’s lifestyle make a big difference to overall health, and this week there was more: a study from the University of Sydney found that even small changes to three key behaviours – sleep, diet, and exercise – can have significant benefits. For those with the least healthy habits, an additional five minutes of sleep, two minutes more exercise and minimal dietary adjustments could add another year of life.
Moderators accuse social media firm of unfair dismissal after it fired hundreds in UK just before vote to form union
TikTok moderators have accused the social media company of “oppressive and intimidating” union busting after it fired hundreds of workers in the UK, beginning the process just before they were due to vote on forming a union.
The moderators wanted to establish a collective bargaining unit to protect themselves from the personal costs of checking extreme and violent content, and have claimed TikTok is guilty of unfair dismissal and breaching trade union laws.
When he returned to power last year, Trump was eager to negotiate a new deal with Tehran, but a diplomatic breakthrough has been elusive
Will Donald Trump order a US military attack on Iran? That question captivated the world for the past two weeks, as the US president issued bellicose threats warning the Iranian regime not to crack down on nationwide protests demanding economic and social reforms. On Tuesday, as he was scheduled to be briefed by Pentagon officials on various options for a strike, Trump posted a message on social media urging Iranians to continue their demonstrations and take over government institutions. The president signaled that he was leaning toward ordering an attack, telling protesters that “help is on its way”.
But by Wednesday, Trump pulled back from the brink of a military intervention, saying he had received assurances from “very important sources” that Iran had stopped killing protesters and was not moving forward with executions. A group of US allies in the Middle East – including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Turkey – seem to have succeeded in a last-ditch effort to convince Trump not to launch airstrikes against Tehran, warning it could unleash a wider conflict in the region. While many Sunni-led Arab states resent Shia Iran’s influence in the Arab world, they are also worried about retaliatory attacks by Iran and its allies, an influx of refugees and a civil war that could lead to the collapse of the Iranian state.
In the week that we mourn the death of the Guardian’s long-serving classical music critic, composers, performers, colleagues and others who knew and worked with him pay tribute to a writer whose passing is a huge loss to the music world
I owe Andrew Clements big time. He wrote so positively about my music early in my career and the last article he wrote was singling out my opera Festen for special praise. He did seem to go off me a bit in mid career but he was such a serious and thoughtful critic that I often agreed with him. I got to know him very well in the late 90s as he was the partner of the librettist and translator Amanda Holden. He had such a broad knowledge of music and a great enthusiasm for new music which he wrote and spoke about with such warmth and humour. We spent many evenings in Highbury talking about Stravinsky, politics and Arsenal football club – he cared about the most important things in life. Mark-Anthony Turnage, composer
Tourists keen to see island where couple exchanged vows, seven-star hotel where they stayed and paths trodden by their celebrity guests
For the residents of Venice who travel daily through the city’s waterways, the small wooden floating jetty outside the Gritti Palace hotel is nothing special, “no different to a London underground stop”, as Igor Scomparin, a tour guide, puts it.
But for a certain type of tourist it is a must-see spot. In June last year, Kim Kardashian disembarked from a water taxi here and navigated its planks during the five-day wedding of the billionaire Amazon boss, Jeff Bezos, and Lauren Sánchez, a former TV journalist.
US president also calls for return of final Israeli captive’s remains from group, which has refused to give up weapons
Donald Trump has issued a fresh ultimatum to Hamas, adding to calls for the group’s disarmament as the second phase of the US-brokered ceasefire with Israel begins, even as key elements of the first phase remain unfulfilled.
In a late-night post on social media on Thursday, Trump vowed to push for what he described as the “comprehensive” demilitarisation of Hamas, warning of severe consequences should the group refuse to comply. He also demanded the return of the remains of the final Israeli captive still believed to be held by the group, sharpening tensions at a fragile moment in the truce process.
Trend of mini-me dressing – wearing same clothes as one’s children – has extended to four-legged friends
Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian are some of the many who have long indulged in mini-me dressing – wearing the same clothes as their children – but now the trend is being extended to people’s four-legged companions, too. The dog clothing market is soaring and this winter it is coats that are topping the most in-demand list.
Bestsellers at Pawelier, a London-based luxury pet accessories shop include a £135 four-leg puffer coat complete with a fuzzy hood and toggle detailing, and a £110 reversible down-filled jumpsuit in cornflower blue and cappuccino brown that wouldn’t look out of place on a designer catwalk. The Italian greyhounds and whippets pictured bundled up in them appear to be prepped for an Alpine adventure rather than a lap around the park.
Todolí foundation produces varieties from Buddha’s hands to sudachi and hopes to help citrus survive climate change
It was on a trip with a friend to the east coast of Spain that the chef Matthew Slotover came across the “Garden of Eden”, an organic farm growing citrus varieties he had never heard of. The Todolí Citrus Foundation is a nonprofit venture and the largest private collection of citrus in the world with more than 500 varieties, and its owners think the rare fruit could hold the genetic secrets to growing citrus groves that can deal with climate change.
The farm yields far more interesting fruit than oranges and lemons for Slotover’s menu, including kumquat, finger lime, sudachi and bergamot.
Any Lucía López Belloza was detained at Boston’s airport in November and flown to Honduras two days later
The Trump administration apologized in court for a “mistake” in the deportation of a Massachusetts college student who was detained trying to fly home to surprise her family in Texas for Thanksgiving.
But the administration still argued that the federal government error should not affect her immigration case.
Judy Stokes, a retired GP, shares her experience as a spatial-sequence synaesthete
Read more stories of synaesthesia in the way I feel series
Did someone with spatial-sequence synaesthesia design the calendar app on mobile phones? Because that’s how time and dates look in my brain. If you say a date to me, that day appears in a grid diagram in my head, and it shows if that box is already imprinted with a holiday, event or someone’s birthday. Public holidays and special events like Christmas and Easter are already imprinted for the year, and the diagram goes backwards to about 100,000BC and then forwards all the way to about the year 2500 before tapering off.
It was only in my 60s that I discovered there was a name for this phenomenon – not just the way time appears in this 3D sort of calendar pattern, but the colours seen when I think of certain words. Two decades previously, I’d mentioned to a friend that Tuesdays were yellow and she’d looked at me in the same strange, befuddled way that family members always had when told about the calendar in my head. Out of embarrassment, it was never discussed further. I was clearly very odd.
The protests were hijacked by Reza Pahlavi and notions of Persian supremacy, then brutally repressed by a violent regime
In late December, Iran experienced the beginnings of an uprising driven primarily by economic pressures, initially emerging among merchant bazaaris and subsequently spreading across broader segments of society. As events unfolded rapidly, calls for regime change became the focus of international attention. Consistent with its response to previous protest movements, the Iranian government once again opted for repression rather than engagement, violently suppressing demonstrations instead of allowing popular grievances to be articulated and addressed.
As visual evidence circulated depicting the accumulation of bodies at Kahrizak, it became increasingly evident that the primary instigator of the violence leading to these fatalities was the Islamic Republic itself, which has refused to tolerate civil unrest and has consistently responded to popular mobilisation with force.
Behrouz Boochani is a Kurdish writer. Mehdi Jalali Tehrani is an Iranian political commentator
Exclusive: Secret report suggests fats, oils and grease accumulate in ‘inaccessible dead zone’ at Malabar plant, then dislodge when pumping pressure ‘rapidly increases’
A giant fatberg, potentially the size of four Sydney buses, within Sydney Water’s Malabar deepwater ocean sewer has been identified as the likely source of the debris balls that washed up on Sydney beaches a year ago.
Sydney Water isn’t sure exactly how big the fatberg is because it can’t easily access where it has accumulated.
World No 6 aims to progress past quarter-finals at a grand slam, while Maya Joint is Australia’s first seeded woman at Melbourne Park since 2022
Amid the annual upheaval at the Australian Open, of party courts, one-point fairytales, and ever-expanding festivals, some things don’t change. Alex de Minaur has had the same locker every year of the 10 he has played at Melbourne Park, and he once again carries the hopes of home fans into the year’s first grand slam.
On the Groundhog Day repetition of the international circuit, it’s the kind of familiarity that might breed superstition. But not for the 26-year-old. “Throughout my career I’ve tried to stay clear from superstitions, because I think it can consume you,” said the man entering the tournament – at No 6 – as the highest local men’s seed in two decades.
Films by Joachim Trier, Óliver Laxe, Mascha Schilinski and Jafar Panahi will jostle for recognition at tomorrow’s event – which has repositioned itself as a major tastemaker during awards season
The European Film Awards (EFAs) have long styled themselves as “Europe’s answer to the Oscars”, even if, in terms of boosting commercial successes at the box office, their impact has been negligible. But as American studios increasingly prioritise franchise sequels over serious drama, and European films vie for major trophies outside the “best international feature” silo, the EFAs are feeling emboldened about becoming a major tastemaker for grownup cinema.
This year, the European Film Academy has for the first time moved its annual jamboree from December to the middle of the US awards season, right between the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards.
The “arsonists” who tanked the reputation of the Conservatives are still in charge of the party, Robert Jenrick has said as he and the Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, trade blows a day after his dramatic defection to Reform UK.
Giving his first interview since his announcement on Thursday, the former shadow justice secretary said the Conservatives had not changed since the election, while defending himself against allegations of lying from his former party leader.
Sebastian Stan is being eyed as district attorney Harvey Dent and his supervillain alter ego – can Gotham residents expect an improvement in the city’s patchy justice system?
The arrival in Gotham City of Harvey Dent, AKA Two-Face, is rarely without consequence in Batman sagas. Tommy Lee Jones’ shrieking, neon-splashed Batman Forever iteration turned the character into a dissociative identity slot machine, endlessly pulling its own lever, while Billy Dee Williams’ take in 1989’s Batman was a promise of future ruin. In Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, the downfall of Aaron Eckhart’s crusading district attorney signalled the dangers of placing too much faith in the moral resilience of a single individual, especially in a city where the very idea of justice is already under existential strain.
With the news this week cautiously announced in the Hollywood Reporter that Sebastian Stan will be playing Dent in Matt Reeves’ highly anticipated forthcoming sequel to The Batman, it’s quite possible the new episode will be less interested in the masked theatrics of the 20th-century big screen caped crusader, and more in the idea that the very concept of justice is about to slowly disintegrate. In Stan, Reeves has an actor who excels at playing men whose morality erodes like damp plaster, which feeds beautifully into his vision of Gotham. In Reeves’ worldview, it is a city that is rotting politely from the inside, not one ruled by a carnival of freaks desperate for the spotlight. So it is hard to imagine this languid, gloriously doom-drenched Gotham giving birth to a Dent who goes down the rampant route of extreme, scenery-chewing theatricality.
There is even the potential here to move on from the Nolan era, with its focus on symbolism and high-stakes ethical thought experiments. Eckhart’s turn is one of the greatest performances in any comic book movie, but by utilising the madness of grief to transform him into Two-Face, rather than relying on the incremental, constantly self-justifying slide into monstrosity seen in the best comics or the excellent 1990s Batman: The Animated Series TV show, something was lost. When he’s at his best, Dent doesn’t “snap”, so much as reason his way into villainy, seemingly convincing himself step by step that the law no longer works and that only he is strong enough to replace it. This Two-Face isn’t chaos dressed up as madness (like the Joker) but justice stripped of empathy, clinging to the illusion of fairness – the semi-ruined coin he still pretends represents due process. His descent into villainy feels almost inevitable in a town as violently decayed as Gotham, and his arrival on the scene simply confirms how impossible Batman’s job is.
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