↩ Accueil

Vue lecture

Rashford and Henderson named in Thomas Tuchel’s first England squad: football – live

  • Europa League reaction, England squad news and more
  • Get in touch: you can mail Barry with your thoughts

Thomas Tuchel’s England squad: There are a few conspicuous absentees from Tuchel’s maiden England squad, with the names Ollie Watkins, Jack Grealish, Nick Pope, Ethan Nwaneri, Adam Wharton, Morgan Gibbs-White, Conor Gallagher, Harry Maguire and Jarrad Brantwaithe leaping to mind.

It’s worth noting that Watkins came off at half-time during Villa’s win over Club Brugge on Wednesday night and his injury almost certainly accounts for his absence. Tuchel will be explaining himself when he faces the press at 11am (GMT) but in the meantime, feel free to get in touch with your thoughts on his squad via email.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Sebo47/Alamy

© Photograph: Sebo47/Alamy

  •  

Schumer decision to vote for Republican funding bill a ‘huge slap in the face’, says AOC - US politics live

Senate working to avert partial government shutdown before midnight deadline

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has warned Congress has a funding shortfall of $2bn for this fiscal year, Axios reported on Friday, citing two people familiar with the matter.

The European Union has the resources to respond to president Donald Trump’s threats to levy more tariffs on the European Union, French central bank governor and European Central Bank (ECB) board member François Villeroy de Galhau said on Friday.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

© Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

  •  

Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek: Yarın Yoksa review | Ammar Kalia's global album of the month

(Big Crown Records)
Fuzzy, hypnotic beats, soulful saz-funk and emotive balladry mark Yıldırım’s powerfully imaginative new music, produced by Leon Michels

Since the 1960s, Turkish groups have honed a distinct blend of Anatolian folk and psychedelia. Early pioneers Moğollar and Erkin Koray electrified the lute-like saz, while newer acts such as Baba Zula and Altın Gün have added synths, dub echo and heavy fuzz to the mix. German-Turkish singer Derya Yıldırım has meanwhile taken a downtempo approach since her 2019 debut album Kar Yağar, singing soaring vocals over hazy reverb to produce soulful saz-funk.

Yıldırım’s third album with her band Grup Şimşek is their first working with analogue soul producer Leon Michels (who produced pop singer Clairo’s acclaimed latest) and the resulting 11 tracks luxuriate in warm acoustics, tape hiss and earthy basslines. Opener Çiçek Açıyor sets the tone with Yıldırım’s powerful falsetto ascending beautifully over a driving, mid-tempo groove of fuzzing bass and softly piping Mellotron keys, while Cool Hand and Direne Direne pick up the pace, highlighting the tight interplay between drummer Helen Wells and bassist Graham Mushnik, who evoke classic 60s soul rhythm sections such as the Funk Brothers as they anchor Yıldırım’s high-register melodies.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: PR

© Photograph: PR

  •  

Keir Starmer is having his chainsaw moment – but all he will slash is democracy | Simon Jenkins

The PM sounds like Elon Musk when promising to fight the ‘blockers’, but his government’s plans will weaken the link between peoples and politics

Every new prime minister has an Elon Musk moment. A sudden attack of frustration leads to a burst of machismo, a chainsaw response. The system stinks. Slash the bureaucrats. Smash the machine.

Thatcher had her “subversives”, Tony Blair his “scars on my back”, David Cameron his “enemies of enterprise”. Now Sir Keir Starmer claims to be haunted by the blockers, checkers, regulators, bloaters. All are ganging up against the cry of his new friend, Donald Trump, to grow, baby, grow. So get going, chainsaw, do your job.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Oli Scarff/PA

© Photograph: Oli Scarff/PA

  •  

Tesla tells US government Trump trade war could ‘harm’ EV companies

Letter from Elon Musk’s firm to US trade representative warns of ‘downstream impacts’ of tit-for-tat tariffs

Elon Musk’s Tesla has warned that Donald Trump’s trade war could expose the electric carmaker to retaliatory tariffs that would also impact other automotive manufacturers in the US.

In an unsigned letter to Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative, Tesla said that it “supports fair trade” but that the US administration should ensure that it did not “inadvertently harm US companies”.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Filip Singer/EPA

© Photograph: Filip Singer/EPA

  •  

Musk’s entitlement remarks show Trumpworld can’t keep its story straight | Austin Sarat

The billionaire foreshadows cuts to Medicare and social security – despite Trump’s campaign pledges

The Trump administration is setting records and shattering norms in many ways, including in its almost daily policy flip-flops and rhetorical missteps. The latest started on Monday, when Elon Musk torched Trumpism by trumpeting the need to make cuts in federal entitlement programs.

He did not clearly say whether or how those cuts would affect Medicaid, Medicare and social security benefits. But he was clear that those programs will be on his target list.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Samuel Corum/UPI/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Samuel Corum/UPI/REX/Shutterstock

  •  

Supermarket guards, truck drivers and ‘very big mistakes’: the failed role of western mercenaries in the fall of Goma

An investigation into the DRC’s use of hundreds of hired Romanian fighters reveals how a disorganised operation with untrained recruits became a deadly ‘circus’

In January, after the two-year siege of the Congolese city of Goma ended with victory for the M23 rebels and Rwandan troops, an ill-assorted group of nearly 300 white mercenaries were lined up to have their humiliating defeat televised.

“You must not joke with us,” barked Willy Ngoma, the M23’s military spokesperson, at one man he’d ordered to sit on the ground with his hands clasped behind his head.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images

  •  

Sun, fun and a favourite son: Melbourne makes a full-throttle return to the top of the F1 calendar

Grand prix fans thronged into the heaving Albert Park with renewed zeal, abuzz at the prospects of local hero and title contender Oscar Piastri

As Formula One prepares to open a season the sport hopes will be a spectacular battle royale, it surely could not ask for a finer venue than Melbourne’s Albert Park to see things off in a suitably splendid fashion.

The true form for the year ahead has yet to be discerned from the opening day of practice in Australia. But with the cars fizzing with intent round the glorious circuit in the parkland in the heart of the city, it was a pleasure to welcome Australia back as the opening race of the season for the first time since the Covid pandemic brought proceedings to a desultory close here on the Friday before the race in 2020.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Mark Peterson/Reuters

© Photograph: Mark Peterson/Reuters

  •  

You be the judge: should I let my boyfriend rip out the original features in our Victorian house?

Rupi thinks the period fittings are too beautiful to lose. Raf says they’re outdated and inefficient. You decide who is breaking the house rules

The old fittings are works of art – replacing them with dull modern ones would be blasphemous

Continue reading...

© Illustration: Igor Bastidas/The Guardian

© Illustration: Igor Bastidas/The Guardian

  •  

‘Meal prep’ your outfits for the week ahead and you’ll feel invincible | Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion

Mapping out what you are going to wear each day saves you time and gives you peace of mind

I’m sure ayahuasca is probably really great, but have you ever experienced the absolute rush you get when you have prepped a whole week’s worth of outfits in advance? No? Oh, then you haven’t lived. The thrill of it. The next-level smugness. The whole 10 minutes extra in bed every morning. The self-belief that comes from knowing you have nailed a killer look for the meeting you are dreading on Wednesday afternoon. This is what invincibility feels like, my friends.

I’m not saying spontaneity is overrated, not exactly. Just that it has its place. And flicking through clothes hangers on a dark Monday morning when your phone is popping with work emails is not that place. There has always been a lifestyle trend for prepping meals, and it is rapidly advancing into fashion. Batch cooking is in vogue. TikTok is now full of uncannily wholesome looking influencers (possibly AI-generated: “Siri, make a perfect human being”) holding Tupperware boxes filled with colourful diced vegetables, as if proudly carrying a Fendi baguette bag. Meal planning for the week has a whole heap of advantages. It works out cheaper, you make healthier choices than you would in the moment, and it makes life simpler at the end of a busy day.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: David Newby/The Guardian

© Photograph: David Newby/The Guardian

  •  

Fernandes takes aim at Ratcliffe for saying some players ‘overpaid’ and ‘not good enough’

  • ‘It’s not nice to hear certain things,’ says United captain
  • Fernandes responds after co-owner’s critical interviews

Bruno Fernandes has aimed a barb at Sir Jim Ratcliffe by stating no player wants to be told they are “not good enough or overpaid”, as Manchester United’s co-owner said this week regarding some of Ruben Amorim’s squad.

The captain was speaking after his hat-trick in Thursday’s Europa League last-16 second leg 4-1 win over Real Sociedad that sealed United’s passage to a quarter-final against Lyon.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

© Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

  •  

Daveed Diggs’ sci-fi rap trio Clipping: ‘We are at war all the time. It’s one of the great tricks of capitalism’

Diggs’ harrowing music is a world away from his Hollywood films and a Tony-winning run in Hamilton. But his band’s world-building – setting resource wars in imagined cyberpunk clubs – is no less dramatic

As a child, Daveed Diggs and his schoolfriend William Hutson drew pictures inspired by the space-age album covers of funk legends Parliament, filled with gleaming UFOs and eccentric interplanetary travellers. Diggs would grow up to become an actor, winning a Tony award as the first person to play the roles of Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in Hamilton. He’s since voiced Sebastian the crab in The Little Mermaid’s live-action remake and appeared in Nickel Boys, which was nominated twice at this year’s Oscars. But away from Hollywood and Broadway, he’s still dreaming up fantastical sci-fi worlds with Hutson – now through one of the most imaginative, harrowing projects in underground rap.

Along with Hutson’s college roommate Jonathan Snipes – who had a similar childhood experience, inspired by the otherworldly paintings adorning classical albums – the friends formed Clipping in Los Angeles in 2010. Over Hutson and Snipes’s production, Diggs weaves blood-soaked horror stories about racial violence or fables of enslaved people in outer space. On their new album Dead Channel Sky, he raps with mechanical precision over warped rave music, creating a noirish cyberpunk world of hackers, clubgoers, future-soldiers and digital avatars.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Daniel Topete

© Photograph: Daniel Topete

  •  

New beauty products that will give your skin a a glazed look | Sali Hughes on beauty

Pearlescent skin has been on trend for a while – now there are products specifically designed to give you that glow

Glazed skin – very hydrated skin that looks smooth, shiny, glowy and glassy – has been hugely popular since 2022, and all manner of products like facial oils, clear lip glosses and even Vaseline have been used to achieve the look temporarily. But now we’re seeing products come through that have been developed and marketed specifically to give a glazed appearance.

Hailey Bieber’s Rhode brand is really very good across the board, but her most viral product, Glazing Milk (£32) – a beautiful, ceramide-rich skincare essence designed to be sandwiched between cleansed skin and serum – went stratospheric after she appeared in a TikTok video mixing it with her Dior foundation to give the latter a lighter, glassy finish.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Kellie French/The Guardian

© Photograph: Kellie French/The Guardian

  •  

Creating art under Trump will become harder but it will remain vital | Seph Rodney

The president’s attacks on diversity and immigration have already affected many artists and will affect many more in the coming months

One of the most pernicious effects of a bully’s intimidation is making victims afraid of being true to themselves, because it’s the essential and authentic parts of them that incite the bully’s contempt.

During his first week in office Donald Trump issued a blitzkrieg of executive orders. Among them, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity and Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.” According to the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, among the things these orders direct the administration’s agencies and staff to do are:

Terminate diversity, equity, and inclusion offices, positions, and programs in the federal government; terminate equity-related grants and contracts; and repeal prior executive orders designed to ensure equal opportunity in the workplace, including a decades-old executive order from the Johnson Administration ...

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Courtesy of the artist

© Photograph: Courtesy of the artist

  •  

The CIA Book Club by Charlie English review – ‘It was like fresh air’

A fascinating, exciting history of how the agency smuggled subversive books across the iron curtain

In, I think, November 1978, I got a call from a rather grand British journalist who’d heard that I was about to go to Moscow. “A Russian friend of mine would dearly like the latest volume of Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago. I don’t suppose you’d smuggle it in for him?” I did, of course, disguising it rather feebly by wrapping it in the dust jacket of the most boring book I owned: Lebanon, A Country in Transition. A customs official at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport flicked through it briefly, but even though the text was in Russian he didn’t spot what it was about. Two nights later, near the entrance to Gorky Park, I handed over the book to a shifty character who seemed to be a supplier of forbidden goods to the dissident community. He gave me a small 18th-century icon in exchange for it.

It’s only now, all these years later, that I’ve realised I was almost certainly a rather naive mule for a CIA scheme to smuggle subversive books through the iron curtain. According to Charlie English’s vibrant, beautifully researched and exciting The CIA Book Club, the Polish intellectual and political activist Adam Michnik read The Gulag Archipelago in prison; someone had managed to get a copy to him even there, courtesy of a CIA operation codenamed QRHELPFUL. Solzhenitsyn was far from being the only author whose works the CIA smuggled. George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm were probably the most popular among the dissidents the books were intended for, but a wide range of other authors including Adam Mickiewicz, Albert Camus, Nadezhda Mandelstam and even Agatha Christie also featured on the QRHELPFUL book list.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Alain Le Garsmeur/Bridgeman Images

© Photograph: Alain Le Garsmeur/Bridgeman Images

  •  

UK economy shrinks unexpectedly in blow to Rachel Reeves

ONS data showing 0.1% fall in GDP in January comes less than two weeks before chancellor’s spring statement

The UK economy contracted by 0.1% in January, dealing a blow to Rachel Reeves before the spring statement later this month.

In a surprise to City economists, who expected 0.1% growth in January, the Office for National Statistics data showed the services sector failed to offset a decline in the industrial sector and maintain growth from the previous month.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Hollie Adams/Reuters

© Photograph: Hollie Adams/Reuters

  •  

The Residence to Happy Face: the seven best shows to stream this week

A quirky whodunnit set in the White House starring Uzo Aduba, plus Dennis Quaid and Annaleigh Ashford head up a very meta true-crime show – and The Simpsons send up the White Lotus

Wickedness in the White House? Who would believe it! This series from Shondaland is a quirky whodunnit about a mysterious death at the heart of US power. Uzo Aduba stars as Cordelia Cupp, a brilliant, eccentric detective who is charged with unpicking the details. As the body of the building’s chief usher is discovered, a state dinner is in full swing. Soon, Cupp (a keen birder whose binoculars come in handy for professional reasons too) brings searching questions and inconvenient truths to the occasion. It’s a gently comic genre piece; essentially a country house murder mystery with West Wing bells on. And it’s great fun, largely thanks to Aduba’s wry central performance.
Netflix, from Thursday 20 March

Continue reading...

© Photograph: JESSICA BROOKS/NETFLIX

© Photograph: JESSICA BROOKS/NETFLIX

  •  

The global battle against the climate crisis needs China. I’m visiting Beijing, and that’s what I’ll tell them | Ed Miliband

I will be the first UK energy secretary since 2017 to visit. It is negligence towards today’s and future generations not to engage China on this critical topic

The climate crisis is an existential threat to our way of life in Britain. Extreme weather is already changing the lives of people and communities across the country, from thousands of acres of farmland being submerged due to storms such as Bert and Darragh to record numbers of heat-related deaths in recent summers.

The only way to respond to this challenge is with decisive action at home and abroad. Domestically, this government’s clean-energy superpower mission is about investing in homegrown clean energy so we can free the UK from dependence on fossil fuel markets while seizing the immense opportunities for jobs and growth.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Thomas Peter/Reuters

© Photograph: Thomas Peter/Reuters

  •  

Devoted, dogged, defiant: the Mexican women who ‘sow the seeds of struggle’

Photographer Mahé Elipe has been taking pictures of women across Mexico since 2018 as part of her project Sembrando Luchas (Those Who Sow the Seeds of Struggle), which aims to highlight the lives and challenges of women young and old. She says: ‘The need to delve deeper arises from the desire to account for the commitment of Mexican women in all social struggles, those that generate an impact and become a source of inspiration for all others’

  • Words and photographs by Mahé Elipe
Continue reading...

© Photograph: Mahé ELIPE/Mahé Elipe

© Photograph: Mahé ELIPE/Mahé Elipe

  •  

‘Spring sings with birdlife and wildflowers’: readers’ favourite UK trips of the season

From best in bloom on the Lizard Peninsula to perky puffins in the Hebrides, our tipsters revel in the return of spring

Late spring is the best time to see the cliffs in colour as the bluebells, thrift and gorse battle it out for best in bloom on the Lizard in Cornwall. Walking the couple of easy miles along the coast between Kynance and Lizard Point will offer you a variety of exceptional, eye-catching and, in some cases, rare plants including Erica vagans, a variety of heath only found on the Lizard peninsula. Wildlife thrives here and in late spring your walk is likely to feature the soundtrack of Cornish choughs overhead. You may even see an adder or catch a glimpse of seals “bottling” (bobbing) in the Atlantic, enjoying the Cornish spring sunshine.
Layla Astley

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Jonathan Garland/Alamy

© Photograph: Jonathan Garland/Alamy

  •  

Swollen eyeballs, baby-like skin, and the overview effect: how astronauts feel when they return to earth

As Barry Wilmore and Suni Williams prepare to come home after their unexpected nine-month ISS stay, here is what they may experience

Gravity may seem like a drag, but spending long periods of time without its grounding force can wreak havoc on your body. On Friday, Nasa and SpaceX will launch the space agency’s Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station to retrieve astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Suni Williams, after what was meant to be an eight-day stay turned into nine months.

While it is not the most time a human has spent as an extraterrestrial – Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub hold the record, with 374 days – most long space missions are a maximum of six months.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters

© Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters

  •  

Dope Thief review – this crime caper’s hilarious moments are like Brooklyn Nine-Nine meets Breaking Bad

Apple TV+’s mesmerising, funny tale of low-level criminals stealing drugs while posing as DEA agents is fast, furious – and stars Brian Tyree Henry on heartbreakingly wonderful form

Contrary to popular belief, a man’s reach should ideally not exceed his grasp. All hell tends to break loose if it does. Never more so, it turns out, than if a pair of low-level criminals find a semi-lucrative groove posing as DEA agents to fake-bust other small-time drug dealers and relieve them of their cash without real police ever getting involved.

Such is the hustle of Ray Driscoll (Atlanta’s Brian Tyree Henry) and Manny Carvalho (Narcos’ Wagner Moura): best friends since they met as young men in prison, addicts at different stages of recovery, and now partners in crime moving through the minor crack dens of Philadelphia. The opening set piece is so funny (“Did you just pause the game?” Ray asks incredulously as the armed pair burst into a dealer’s house screaming at the computer-playing addicts to get down on the floor) that for a while the vibe is very much “What if Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s ‘Pontiac Bandit’ Doug Judy took things up a notch from stealing cars?”, with a light dusting of Pulp Fiction as the duo riff before, during and after the action on the power of an authoritative voice, Manny’s relationship, and the necessity of researching a job.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Jessica Kourkounis/AP

© Photograph: Jessica Kourkounis/AP

  •  

Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend

Myles Lewis-Skelly could return to an old role, Wolves are still in danger and United’s strikers are running out of time

Premier League safety is all that matters to David Moyes and an eight-game unbeaten run – Everton’s best sequence since going nine matches without defeat under Ronald Koeman in 2016-17 – has almost accomplished a task that looked much more onerous when he returned in January. Publicly, the Everton manager maintains the job is not done and that no contract issues will be resolved until the club’s top-flight status is mathematically confirmed. Privately, and beneath the more relaxed demeanour that he has brought back with him to Goodison Park, there may also be a fierce ambition to finish above two clubs who deemed him surplus to requirements. Everton can go three points clear of one, West Ham, and leapfrog another, Manchester United, with victory over Graham Potter’s visitors on Saturday. With Liverpool, Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, Manchester City and Chelsea to come after an impending two-week break, Moyes could do with a more clinical display from Everton to step closer to his aims. Andy Hunter

Everton v West Ham, Saturday 3pm (all times GMT)

Ipswich v Nottingham Forest, Saturday 3pm

Manchester City v Brighton, Saturday 3pm

Southampton v Wolves, Saturday 3pm

Bournemouth v Brentford, Saturday 5.3pm

Arsenal v Chelsea, Sunday 1.30pm

Fulham v Tottenham, Sunday 1.30pm

Leicester v Manchester United, Sunday 7pm

Continue reading...

© Composite: Guardian pictures

© Composite: Guardian pictures

  •  

Frankie Dettori reveals he is filing for bankruptcy in shock statement

  • Outstanding jockey of era ‘saddened and embarrassed’
  • Rider: ‘Consequences will affect me for many years’

Frankie Dettori, one of the most ­successful and popular racing figures of recent decades, said in a statement on Thursday that he is “saddened and embarrassed” at being forced to file for bankruptcy having failed to resolve a dispute over unpaid tax with HMRC.

Dettori was revealed to be in dispute with HMRC over a scheme to reduce his income tax payments in December 2024, when an injunction to prevent him being named was lifted following an application by HMRC and media organisations.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: David Davies/PA

© Photograph: David Davies/PA

  •  

How much do you spend on health and wellness a month?

We want to know more about your health and wellness budgets – whether it goes to skincare or therapy

Taking care of oneself can be expensive and time consuming. According to the Global Wellness Institute, Americans spend over $6,000 per person a year on wellness – the “largest wellness economy by far”. The UK is the fifth biggest wellness economy globally, with a per capita average annual wellness spending of $3,342.

Wellness means different things for different people. For some, it may include nutritious groceries, fitness classes and treatment for chronic pain. For others, it may be a comprehensive health insurance plan, skincare products, therapy and a subscription to a meditation app.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Westend61 GmbH/Alamy

© Photograph: Westend61 GmbH/Alamy

  •  

Jonathan Powell: the veteran negotiator being lauded over US-Ukraine detente

Insiders say UK national security adviser avoids limelight, but it found the ‘calm operator’ this week

In the topsy-turvy world in which Keir Starmer and his aides operate, the US putting the onus on Russia to agree to a truce with Ukraine marked a significant victory.

The proposed 30-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine is the culmination of two weeks of high-wire negotiations involving Ukraine, the US, UK, France and Germany.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: James Veysey/Shutterstock

© Photograph: James Veysey/Shutterstock

  •  

Ed Davey calls on Keir Starmer to back Canada against Trump attacks

Lib Dem leader says PM should make public show of support for ally against ‘shocking attacks’ on its sovereignty

The leader of the UK’s Liberal Democrats has called on the prime minister to publicly support Canada and oppose the “shocking attacks” on Canadian sovereignty, as the Trump administration further escalates its global trade war against longstanding allies.

Ed Davey, who leads the third largest political party in the UK, has called on Keir Starmer to travel to Canada in a show of support to the nation’s new prime minister, Mark Carney, as the commonwealth nation faces a generational crisis under Trump’s tariff war and suggestions that the country might become the 51st US state.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA

© Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA

  •  

What could Apple’s high court challenge mean for data protection?

The UK’s battle for access to encrypted services could define how companies are able to safeguard customer data in the future

Apple will challenge a UK government demand to access encrypted customer data at a high court hearing in London on Friday.

The appeal will be considered by the investigatory powers tribunal, which investigates claims the domestic intelligence services have acted unlawfully.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

© Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

  •  

‘All the birds returned’: How a Chinese project led the way in water and soil conservation

The Loess plateau was the most eroded place on Earth until China took action and reversed decades of damage from grazing and farming

It was one of China’s most ambitious environmental endeavours ever.

The Loess plateau, an area spanning more than 245,000 sq miles (640,000 sq km) across three provinces and parts of four others, supports about 100 million people. By the end of the 20th century, however, this land, once fertile and productive, was considered the most eroded place on Earth, according to a documentary by the ecologist John D Liu.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Xinhua/Alamy

© Photograph: Xinhua/Alamy

  •  

Dragged from a taxi and driven to the border: Kenya’s ‘safe’ reputation tainted by forced deportations

Dozens of activists, critics and asylum seekers are thought to have been abducted and sent home in the past year

The woman wearing a cap seemed suspicious to Maria Sarungi. She had walked into the spa in an affluent neighbourhood of Nairobi in January where Sarungi often spends her Sunday afternoons, stared at her and then immediately walked out.

Sarungi, a Tanzanian journalist and activist living in exile, shrugged it off and texted her husband that she would be home soon. But a few minutes later, after leaving the spa, her taxi was forced to a stop and she was dragged out, kicking and screaming, by a group of armed men. She was thrown into a black van and, as it sped through Nairobi’s streets and beyond, she felt sure she had become the latest victim of Kenya’s enforced deportations.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images

  •  

A president touting Musk’s cars from the White House shows this: the Tesla boycott really irks him | Gaby Hinsliff

Trump has met a force he cannot control: people’s ability to parade their anger and distaste through consumer choice

What do you buy the richest man in the world? The answer, obviously, is the one thing that usually can’t be had for love nor money, and that’s pimping out the presidential office for advertising purposes.

Posing with Elon Musk beside a scarlet Tesla parked on the White House driveway, Donald Trump announced that he was buying one of his friend’s cars despite not being allowed to drive for security reasons because: “I just want people to know that you can’t be penalised for being a patriot.” The billionaire currently chainsawing his way through so many ordinary federal workers’ jobs had, he said indignantly, been unfairly treated by people who inexplicably now seem to have turned against his cars.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

Continue reading...

© Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

  •  

‘My career flashed before my eyes’: Steven McRae’s devastating onstage injury and proud return as Romeo

When the Royal Ballet star snapped his achilles tendon during a performance in 2019, he feared for his future in dance. A new documentary charts his gruelling recovery

Debuting in the role of Romeo as a young dancer with the Royal Ballet in 2007 remains one of my all-time highs. Each time you step out to tackle the iconic repertory feels surreal and to perform on the Royal Opera House stage is the most extraordinary feeling.

That’s something I have regularly experienced since joining the company in 2004 until … Bang! In October 2019, alone on stage with 2,250 people watching, I took off for a jump and my achilles tendon snapped.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian

© Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian

  •  

‘Ruined this place’: chorus of boos against JD Vance at Washington concert

Attendance of vice-president – who once disbelieved that people listened to classical music for pleasure – strikes sour note at Kennedy Center in light of Maga takeover

JD Vance, the US vice-president, was booed by the audience as he took his seat at a National Symphony Orchestra concert at Washington’s Kennedy Center on Thursday evening.

As the normal pre-concert announcements got under way, the vice-presidential party filed into the box tier. Booing and jeering erupted in the hall, drowning out the announcements, as Vance and his wife, Usha, took their seats.

Continue reading...

© Composite: Reuters | The Guardian

© Composite: Reuters | The Guardian

  •  

Dinosaur footprints found in the Banana Shire? A true and also nice story where nothing bad happens | First Dog on the Moon

What were these dinosaurs doing?

Continue reading...

© Illustration: First Dog on the Moon/The Guardian

© Illustration: First Dog on the Moon/The Guardian

  •  

Australian researchers asked to confirm they align with Trump administration interests if they receive US funding

Researchers told to respond within 48 hours to more than 30 questions, including on DEI, gender and climate

Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

The Trump administration has been accused of “blatant foreign interference” in Australia’s universities after researchers who receive US funding were asked to confirm they aligned with US government interests, including only recognising two genders.

The questionnaire, sent to university researchers over the past fortnight, seeks a response within 48 hours to more than 30 questions to support “program determinations”, according to a copy of the questionnaire seen by Guardian Australia. The questions relate to the priorities of the Trump administration, including whether the organisation receives funding from China, whether there are DEI elements, and whether the project is taking “appropriate measures” to defend against “gender ideology” in line with Trump’s executive order on gender.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Bianca De Marchi/AAP

© Photograph: Bianca De Marchi/AAP

  •  

National Trust creates living gene bank of endangered native black poplar

Cuttings of tree captured by John Constable being planted on restored Devon floodplain

Captured by John Constable in one of his most celebrated paintings, the black poplar tree was once as common as oak and beech in Britain.

Now the rarest and most threatened native species in the country, the National Trust is creating a living gene bank of the black poplar to ensure Constable’s The Hay Wain does not become a tribute to an extinct breed.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: National Trust Images/James Beck

© Photograph: National Trust Images/James Beck

  •  

Baroness Sue Campbell on changing the game – Women’s Football Weekly podcast

Baroness Sue Campbell joins Suzy Wrack and Sophie Downey to discuss her journey and her recent book, The Game Changer

On today’s podcast, Suzy Wrack and Sophie Downey sit down with Baroness Sue Campbell to talk about her new book, The Game Changer, and her remarkable career in sport. From kicking a ball around in the school playground to leading the transformation of women’s football as the FA’s Director of Women’s Football, Campbell shares the challenges and triumphs of her journey. She discusses her role in the London 2012 Olympics, the importance of grassroots development, and the impact of England’s historic Euro 2022 victory. Plus, Baroness Sue Campbell shares her thoughts on the future of the game and what still needs to be done to ensure lasting progress.

Join the Fantasy League this season on FantasyWSL.net. Code GUARDIANWFW.

Sign up for our weekly women’s football newsletter – all you need to do is search ‘Moving the Goalposts sign up’ or follow this link.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Fabio de Paolo/The Guardian

© Photograph: Fabio de Paolo/The Guardian

  •  

‘Musicals can be quite sinister’: Tilda Swinton and Joshua Oppenheimer on bonkers bunker singalong The End

Inspired by a Russian tycoon’s survival bunker, the pair’s post-apocalyptic tale takes in environmental collapse, our facades and delusions – and big ol’ show tunes

Time is short for the family at the heart of Joshua Oppenheimer’s new film. Mother, Father and their adult son eke out their days in an underground bunker with the walls decorated with priceless old masters, fine wine on the table and half a mile of bedrock above their heads. They gather each evening for formal dinners. They sing upbeat songs to keep the darkness at bay. “We thrive in our happily-ever-after,” they burble. “Together our future is bright.”

Time is similarly tight for the writer-director and his star when they beam in via video link from Berlin. It’s the last day of the film festival, a late scramble towards the finish line, and Oppenheimer and Tilda Swinton are each working to a separate stopwatch. Oppenheimer is scheduled to take part in a panel discussion; Swinton is booked on a plane out of town. Once Berlin is behind her, that is it, she is done. Hard deadline, clean slate. Her new life of freedom starts tomorrow, she says.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: PR

© Photograph: PR

  •