And here’s Jack Snape on that big disappointment for Joint. At 19, though, there’ll be many more chances for the US-born Australian, who was the first home player seeded in the women’s singles since Ash Barty four years ago:
Maya Joint has vowed to return to the Australian Open stronger, after the top-ranked local in the women’s singles draw crashed out in the first round on Tuesday with a straight sets defeat to Czech teenager Tereza Valentova.
Valentova made the most of an inconsistent display from the 30th seed, winning 6-4, 6-4 in 92 minutes.
Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, has vowed to overturn the Chagos Islands agreement, saying the costly agreement was fuelled by a misplaced feeling of “postcolonial guilt” in a government “run by human rights lawyers”.
In a post to X this morning, Farage, who has a close relationship with Donald Trump, said: “Thank goodness Trump has vetoed the surrender of the Chagos islands.”
The number of employed people in the UK has fallen again, particularly in shops, restaurants and hotels, reflecting weak hiring, while private sector wages grew at the slowest rate in five years, official figures show.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed the number of employees on payrolls fell by 184,000 in December compared with a year earlier, to 30.2 million.
World is short of a million midwives, report finds, with adequate access potentially saving 4.3m lives a year
A global shortage of nearly a million midwives is leaving pregnant women without the basic care needed to prevent harm, including the deaths of mothers and babies, according to new research.
Almost half the shortage was in Africa, where nine in 10 women lived in a country without enough midwives, the researchers said.
We are in 1942 Stuttgart – though the sight of modern wheelie bins says otherwise – as a woman at a facility dedicated to breeding Aryan babies tries to smuggle two Jewish children to safety
This second world war-set drama should not be confused with a famous unrealised film project of similar name. That one is the Holocaust-themed feature based on the novel Wartime Lies by Louis Begley that Stanley Kubrick tinkered with for years before finally abandoning; Suspiria director Luca Guadagnino is now rumoured to be trying to get it off the ground. Like the Kubrick/Guadagnino, this Aryan Papers, written and directed by ultra-low-budget film-maker Danny Patrick (The Film Festival, The Irish Connection), takes its name from the Nazi-issued certificate, also known as the Ariernachweis, which people were compelled to carry during those dark times to prove they weren’t Jews, Roma or from another persecuted minority.
Apparently, Kubrick abandoned his Aryan Papers in part because he feared it wouldn’t do as well at the box office if it came out after Schindler’s List – just as Full Metal Jacket appeared to have been eclipsed by Platoon. Fortunately for Guadagnino, no matter if and when his Aryan Papers comes out, he will have little to worry about with regards to Patrick’s film, a work that with any luck will be forgotten by next week. Like the embarrassingly bad comedy The Film Festival (AKA The Worst Film Festival Ever), this is a shockingly poor effort on just about every level, from the inept, back-of-a-beer-mat script, the lazy use of obviously not-German, non-period-proofed locations (a modern plastic wheelie bin is visible in several shots), to the frankly insultingly bad acting throughout.
While violent dingo and human interactions have been increasing, police refuse to speculate whether 19-year-old woman drownedor was killed by the wild canids
Two campsites have been closed and park rangers are increasing patrols after a 19-year-old Canadian woman was found dead on a beach surrounded by a pack of dingoes on a popular Queensland tourist island.
Two men made the grisly discovery while driving down the eastern beaches of K’gari (formerly known as Fraser Island) at about 6:15am on Monday. The discovery came up to 75 minutes after the woman left the backpacker hostel at which she had been working for six weeks, where she told colleagues and friends she was heading to the beach that morning.
ICE said that an immigrant who was found dead at an immigration detention center in El Paso, Texas, last week had killed himself, as authorities continue to investigate.
Jammy leeks, savoury sweet chawanmushi and toasted sesame seeds make this flaky pastry dish feel decadent and special
This savoury custard tart celebrates some of my favourite flavours (and dishes): jammy miso leeks, savoury-sweet chawanmushi (a Japanese steamed custard flavoured with dashi) and toasty sesame seeds, all enveloped in flaky pastry. It feels decadent, so it’s best served with a simple fennel salad, zingy with apple cider vinegar and mustard. It’s excellent eaten while still warm from the oven (be patient!), but even better as leftovers, because I have a soft spot for cold eggy tarts.
Ferment: Simple Ferments and Pickles, and How to Eat Them, by Kenji Morimoto, is published by Pan Macmillan at £22. To order a copy for £19.80, visit the guardianbookshop.com
The idea that the liberal rules-based order can survive his presidency now seems complacent. This is a historic moment – and a time to act
A European-wide chorus of resistance, led this morning by Keir Starmer, has greeted Donald Trump’s plan to take over Greenland, by force if necessary, and to start a tariff war if any country stands in his way. Have no doubt, this is a moment: if pursued as a non-negotiable demand, Trump’s plan ends any lingering hope that the liberal rules-based order can stumble on through his remaining time in office. The real question now is whether the 2020s will be defined by the complete collapse of the order’s already crumbling pillars and the atrocities accompanying it, or whether an international coalition of the willing can come together to build a new global framework in its place.
For, in quick succession, the US has abandoned its longstanding championing of the rule of law, human rights, democracy and the territorial integrity of nation states. Gone is its erstwhile support for humanitarian aid and environmental stewardship. Gone, too, is the founding principle of the postwar settlement: that countries choose diplomacy and multilateral cooperation over aggression and unilateral action. We cannot doubt any longer that the president meant it when he said he doesn’t “need international law”, and that the only constraint on his exercise of power would be “my own morality, my own mind”.
Gordon Brown is the UN’s special envoy for global education and was UK prime minister from 2007 to 2010
Studies detecting microplastics throughout human bodies have made for alarming reading in recent years. But last week, the Guardian’s environment editor, Damian Carrington, reported on major doubts among a group of scientists about how some of this research has been conducted.
Damian tells Ian Sample how he first heard about the concerns, why the scientists think the discoveries are probably the result of contamination and false positives, and where it leaves the field. He also reflects on how we should now think about our exposure to microplastics
Exclusive: Green party leader advocates leaving Nato and says Britain should wean itself off its reliance on the US
The UK should consider expelling the US from British military bases, the leader of the Green party has said, as he advocated leaving Nato and spending less on American weapons as part of a wider dismantling of the two countries’ defence alliance.
Zack Polanski told the Guardian he believed Britain should wean itself off its reliance on American military cooperation, though would not say whether he supported spending more money to replace that capability.
Fernando Mendoza bulldozed his way into the end zone and Indiana bullied their way into the history books on Monday night, toppling Miami 27-21 to put the finishing touch on a rags-to-riches story, an undefeated season and the national title.
The Heisman Trophy winner finished with 186 yards passing, but it was his tackle-breaking, sprawled-out 12-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-four with 9:18 left that defined this game – and the Hoosiers’ season.
Connexion
