Tiny plastic pollution more than 50% higher in placentas from preterm births than in those from full-term births
A study has found microplastic and nanoplastic pollution to be significantly higher in placentas from premature births than in those from full-term births.
The levels were much higher than previously detected in blood, suggesting the tiny plastic particles were accumulating in the placenta. But the higher average levels found in the shorter pregnancies were a “big surprise” for the researchers, as longer terms could be expected to lead to more accumulation.
In the face of those who refuse to see our humanity, I choose to imagine that we are humane enough to believe in theirs
My grandmother, Holocaust survivor Olga Horak OAM, passed away in August 2024 just days after her 98th birthday.Just one week before, she attended her great-granddaughter’s Jewish day school to share her remarkable story of survival with the Year 6 students. Her parting message was simple: “Never forget. Don’t hate”. Although she could no longer stand up straight, in her decades-long commitment to Holocaust education as a volunteer at the Sydney Jewish Museum, she was indefatigable until the end.
When she died, we lost an empire of knowledge. Just as we do whenever we lose a survivor. Her strength of character, her disarming candour, her twinkly eyes, her testimony and her light have secreted themselves in the hearts of the thousands of people she touched, like little mirrors reflecting flashes of her life. A giant photo mosaic.
This was a rare case of Tottenham turning an injury into a positive. The loss of Radu Dragusin was Dane Scarlett’s cue. Recalled from a disappointing loan spell at Oxford United earlier this month, the 20-year-old striker came on for Dragusin and set Spurs on course to victory over Elfsborg when he headed in his first goal for his boyhood club.
It has been almost five years since Scarlett made his debut. He was an unlikely saviour but Ange Postecoglou was not complaining. There was more joy when another substitute, the 19-year-old winger, Oyindamola Ajayi, came on to score on his debut, then when Mikey Moore made it 3-0 with his first professional goal. Spurs had secured their place in the knockout phase. There was relief at avoiding two extra playoff games.
Sundance’s Free Leonard Peltier outlines the decades-long efforts to free the Indigenous activist from prison – up to the commutation of his sentence one week before the premiere
Of all the documentaries at the Sundance film festival this year, perhaps none is as timely as Free Leonard Peltier, Jesse Short Bull and David France’s film on the Indigenous activist imprisoned for nearly half a century.
Peltier, now 80 years old, is serving consecutive life sentences for the killing of two FBI agents during a shootout at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1975, though he has maintained his innocence. Activists, celebrities and liberation advocates such as Nelson Mandela have called for his release for decades, citing railroaded justice and evidence of prosecutorial misconduct; the FBI and law enforcement, meanwhile, have campaigned vociferously against any commutation of his sentence.
America’s biggest trading partners are bracing for Donald Trump to impose sweeping tariffs on their exports after the US president repeated his threat to hit Canada and Mexico with new duties.
Officials in Ottawa and Mexico City have drawn up plans to retaliate against Washington with tariffs of their own, raising the prospect of a damaging trade war. Businesses inside the US and across the world have warned of widespread disruption if the Trump administration pushes ahead.
On 68 minutes Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho combined for the Manchester United second that sealed passage into the last 16: over went a delivery from the No 17 and there was Mainoo to finish coolly.
For two young talents who are on the market for the right price here was a satisfying moment that showed Ruben Amorim what he can harness if each are retained beyond Monday’s deadline.
A collision on Wednesday between an American Airlines jet and a US military helicopter near Washington DC killed all 67 people onboard both aircraft and sparked questions over whether understaffing in an air traffic control tower played a role in the United States’ worst aviation disaster in years.
As it approached Reagan National airport around 9pm, American Eagle flight 5342 collided with a US army Black Hawk helicopter, plunging wreckage of the two aircraft into the icy Potomac River and killing all 64 passengers and crew on the plane, along with three soldiers on the helicopter.
On the screen and also in life, Marianne Faithfull experienced something similar to her contemporary Anita Pallenberg – the condescension of being treated like an icon or a muse. Maybe her very real success in music ruled her out of a serious acting career in the eyes of some, but Faithfull for a while occupied the epicentre of the late-60s pop culture zeitgeist, for an intense flashbulb moment she found herself in the overlapping worlds of music, movies and the explodingly important world of celebrity itself.
The famous photograph of her in 1967 on a couch between Alain Delon and Mick Jagger absolutely captures her magnetism: Delon is entranced by her, Jagger (her boyfriend) is jealous, looking grumpily down: she and Delon were starring together in The Girl on a Motorcycle by the British cinematographer and director Jack Cardiff in which she was the super-sexy rock chick in a leather body suit whose zipper Delon would lasciviously pull down with his teeth.
His bronzed torso is ridiculously ripped – and will, once again, cause a shift in the acceptable minimum standards for the male physique
So much for the dad bod. David Beckham, who turns 50 this year, has released pictures of himself modelling his new bodywear collection for Hugo Boss. Bodywear, if you’re unfamiliar with the term, appears to mean underwear. In the corresponding ad clip, Beckham returns home for the day in his vintage Aston Martin, Bond-style, but he can’t wait to rip off his sharp suit and slouch around in a leather armchair in nothing but his tighty-whities. He has set the bar very high for middle-aged dads who like to relax by sitting around drinking in their pants, Homer Simpson-style. If you feel at all self-conscious about your soft, squishy, beer-induced centre, Beckham’s new line of smalls will not help.
In recent years, the dad bod seemed to be on the verge of widespread public acceptance, even cautious celebration, and a lot of us were congratulating ourselves on our timing: it was not uncommon for men of a certain age to emerge from the first pandemic lockdown looking like a heap of overproved sourdough. We felt ourselves, however unintentionally, to be in the dad bod vanguard – more oven-ready than beach-ready; soft, saggy and proud.
Discovery by coast guard comes five days after skiff containing five bodies found near Trinidad and Tobago
The coastguard of St Kitts and Nevis has discovered 13 decomposing bodies in a boat adrift off the coast, days after another five bodies were found in a skiff near Trinidad and Tobago.
Officials of the two Caribbean countries said it was not immediately clear if there was any link between the two incidents, or who the deceased were.
Key Trump ally strives to extricate himself from statements he had made earlier, claiming ‘mischaracterization’
Kash Patel sought to allay concerns about his fitness to serve as the FBI director at his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday, but declined to engage with questioning that explicitly asked whether he would use his position to investigate some of Donald Trump’s top political opponents.
The hearing revolved around Patel’s provocative public remarks attacking the FBI and his ability to resist political pressure from the White House, a topic that has come to the fore with the justice department rocked by the ouster of prosecutors who worked on cases against Trump.
With 47% approval rating Republican is only president to have sub-50% reading at start of term, Gallup poll indicates
Donald Trump is still historically unpopular compared with other new US presidents, a new poll showed.
“At 47%, President Donald Trump’s initial job approval rating for his second term is similar to the inaugural 45% reading during his first term, again placing him below all other elected presidents dating back to 1953,” wrote Megan Brenan, a senior editor for Gallup, which carried out the poll.
4 min: Collyer, the young United midfielder, has already done a good job of diffusing some of that early tension with a couple of nice chest traps and passes to help settle the visitors down.
2 min: Sut, Steaua’s captain, snarls into a couple of early challenges in midfield. Every time there is a home touch on the ball, the crowd go wild. The atmosphere is electric!
GOAL! Braga 1-0 Lazio (Horta 6). Victor Gómez advances down the right and cuts back for his captain Ricardo Horta, who whips into the bottom left. A lovely goal, and so Braga are on for the win they need to survive. Lazio, the table toppers, have little or nothing to play for.
Tottenham Hotspur 0-0 Elfsborg. A sprightly start for Spurs as Mikey Moore spins in from the right touchline and attacks the visiting defence. The ball’s switched to Son Heung-Min on the other flank. A scuffed shot. But a promising early attack.
After the Challenger space shuttle disaster, Ronald Reagan ended an Oval Office address with the consoling thought that its crew had slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God. Successors such as Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden also shone in the crucial US presidential role of consoler-in-chief.
How would Donald Trump fare in his test since returning to the White House? On Thursday he came to the press briefing room just 14 hours after the collision of a passenger plane and army helicopter near a Washington airport apparently left all 67 people dead.
The Oscar-nominated star of Netflix’s musical made racist and Islamophobic remarks in several tweets from 2020
Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón is under fire after old tweets uncovered a range of troubling opinions on subjects including Islam and George Floyd.
The Spanish actor, who recently became the first ever openly transgender person to receive an acting nomination at the Oscars, has since deleted a number of tweets after users, including writer Sarah Hagi, uncovered them. Variety and the Hollywood Reporter have since reported the news and translated older posts.
Mumbai Indians owners pay £60m for Oval Invincibles
Knighthead Capital take stake in Birmingham Phoenix
English cricket’s landmark Hundred sale produced an eventful first day as the Ambanis, India’s richest family, and Knighthead Capital, owners of Birmingham City, secured the right to buy 49% stakes in Oval Invincibles and Birmingham Phoenix respectively.
The Guardian has learned that Knighthead’s offer of about £40m for 49% of the Phoenix prevailed in a sealed-bids auction over that of private equity firm CVC Capital Partners. CVC had earlier lost out to Reliance Industries Ltd, owners of Mumbai Indians, in a three-way auction for the equivalent stake in Oval Invincibles.
Investors pay close attention to tech company’s foray into AI after Apple Intelligence’s glitches and inaccuracies
Apple slightly beat analysts’ expectations in its first-quarter earnings for fiscal year 2025 on Thursday. The iPhone-maker’s revenue rose by 4%, coming in at $124.30bn, barely above estimates of $124.12bn. Earnings per share were $2.40, just ahead of analysts’ expectations of $2.35.
Lawyers for Tucker say claims are ‘utterly baseless’
Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker has denied allegations accusing him of sexually inappropriate behavior towards massage therapists.
The Baltimore Banner spoke to six massage therapists at four spas and wellness centers around the Baltimore area. The accusations include claims that Tucker exposed his genitals, brushed some of the therapists with his penis and left ejaculate on treatment tables. Two spas told the Banner they had banned Tucker from returning. One therapist who spoke to the Banner described Tucker’s alleged behavior as “really degrading”. Another said that “I can’t watch sports anymore. I see his face everywhere.”
The Human Authored online portal allows members to register their book and use a specially designed logo on covers and promotional materials
The US body representing writers, the Authors Guild, has launched an online portal for members to confirm that their work “emanated from the human intellect” and not from artificial intelligence.
The initiative, called Human Authored, will allow authors to log on to the portal and register their book. They will then be able to use a specially designed logo on book covers and promotional materials to show that their work has been created without AI.
Albrecht Weinberg ‘horrified’ that MPs relied on far-right party to pass anti-immigration motion
A 99-year-old Holocaust survivor has said he will return his federal order of merit to the German president in protest over MPs passing an anti-immigration motion in parliament with the support of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland.
Albrecht Weinberg, whose parents were murdered in Auschwitz, told the Guardian he was “horrified” on learning that a proposal submitted by the conservative parties had relied on the anti-immigrant, xenophobic AfD to get it over the line.
The National Women’s Soccer League officially announced on Thursday that Denver will join the league as its 16th team in 2026.
“As the NWSL continues its rapid growth, we knew it was critical to launch our 16th team in a city with a passionate sports culture and vibrant fan base – and Denver is the perfect match,” NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said.
It is difficult to think of a moment in pop history less receptive to a 1960s icon relaunching their career than in 1979. At that point, British rock and pop resolutely inhabited a world shaped by punk: it was the year of 2-Tone and Tubeway Army’s Are ‘Friends’ Electric?, of Ian Dury at No 1 and Blondie releasing the bestselling album of the year. And it was a central tenet of punk that the 1960s and their attendant “culture freaks” were, as Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren put it: “fucking disgusting … vampiric … the most narcissistic generation there has ever been,” and that the decade’s famous names should no longer be afforded the kind of awed reverence they had enjoyed for most of the 70s. “No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones,” as the Clash had sung.
And yet Marianne Faithfull, who has died aged 78, turned out to be the kind of famous face from the 60s that a world shaped by punk could get behind. She was living proof that the rock aristocracy were remote and decadent and ripe for the culling. Never given the credit due to her by her most famous associates, the Rolling Stones, she had to go to court to get her name appended to the credits of Sister Morphine, a song she had co-written. She subsequently spiralled downwards, at startling speed, from having a seat at swinging London’s top table to life as a homeless junkie. Her years of addiction on the streets had so ravaged her voice that, by the late 70s, it was completely unrecognisable as coming from the woman who had sung As Tears Go By and Come and Stay With Me.
Calvin Robinson said he made gesture as ‘a joke’ to mock those who denounced Elon Musk’s similar salute
A Michigan priest with the Anglican Catholic church has been removed from his position for making what appears to be a Nazi salute.
Calvin Robinson, who held the title of priest-in-charge at St Paul’s Anglican Catholic church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, performed the gesture at the end of a 25 January speech at the National Pro-Life Summit in Washington DC. The priest appeared to quote Elon Musk, saying, “My heart goes out to you,” before mimicking his straight-arm motion.
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