Regardless of anxiety by most parents about over-sharing, the president’s aide brought one of his children to the White House
If the reversal of declining birthrates is genuinely a preoccupation of Elon Musk’s, recent reviews suggest that the exhibition of his four-year-old son, “X”, may not be the most effective fertility stimulus.
That there is more chance of the exact opposite, a global stampede for contraceptives, remains likely even if X can be persuaded not to pick his nose and, as the world witnessed last week, idly consume its contents beside the US president’s Resolute desk. I say “idly”. Donald Trump, in attendance, introduced X as “a high IQ individual”. Behind his show of mucoid innocence, the prodigy may have been reflecting, with wry amusement at the double standards, that no woman in his father’s role would get away with bringing a docile child to a presidential press conference, still less one as irksome as himself.
When a congressman is abducted from his beachfront home in 1970s Rio, his wife and children are left reeling – for decades – in Walter Salles’s Oscar-nominated drama starring an extraordinary Fernanda Torres
Sometimes, the course of a life changes suddenly and emphatically with an event so final and unequivocal that it shifts the very world on its axis. On other occasions that change, or at least the understanding of that change, comes gradually, with the enormity of the situation obscured by the natural human propensity to hope for a happy outcome. For Eunice Paiva – the phenomenal Fernanda Torres – in Brazilian director Walter Salles’s superb, factually based Portuguese-language drama I’m Still Here, both are true.
When we first meet Eunice, life with her husband, Rubens (Selton Mello), a former congressman and civil engineer, and their five children in a beachfront house in 1970 Rio de Janeiro, is full of friends and laughter; books and art; cigars, whisky and celebration. The flexing muscle of Brazil’s military dictatorship is background noise – the helicopter blades carving up the sky as the kids play beach volleyball; the rumble of a convoy of armoured vehicles on the seafront – that can be tuned out. It feels removed from the liberal intellectual social whirl of the Paiva household.
As much as we need to stay informed, that relentless ping of potential horrors can’t be good for us
How are you not going mad?” is a thing I’ve heard recently. “How are you not talking about this all the time, how are you merrily, some say stupidly, going about your business as if the world did not feel like a coin in an arcade 2p machine, being pushed slowly but definitely off the edge and tasting of blood?” My answer: I’ve turned off breaking news alerts. More than that, I’ve dramatically limited the news I read. How am I not going mad? This is how I’m not going mad.
Perhaps turning away from the news is a silly and job-endangering thing to admit to as somebody employed by a news organisation. Perhaps it’s unattractive or exposing, as somebody living in a time when news is currency and ignorance is fatal. But I have seen the red-eyed horror of people immersed, I have felt the heat of anxiety, that burning shiver of the spine, and I’ve lain awake beside scrolling thumbs that dig deeper and deeper into algorithms that know us better than our own mothers, and are just as likely to shape who we become.
An argument about Rishi Sunak’s identity reveals how ideas of ethnicity and race have become conflated
‘They think they’re English because they’re born here. That means if a dog’s born in a stable it’s a horse.” That was a staple of the comedian Bernard Manning’s routine back in the 1970s. Enoch Powell had, a decade earlier, expressed the same sentiment in more refined language: “The West Indian or Asian does not, by being born in England, become an Englishman. In law he becomes a United Kingdom citizen by birth; in fact he is a West Indian or an Asian still.”
Few today would laugh along with Manning or take seriously the claim that only white people can be English. Britain has transformed over the past half-century and most English people now embrace Ian Wright and Idris Elba as being as English as David Beckham or Joanna Lumley.
The crowds have left and the elements reign supreme on an off-season escape to Newquay
Surfers are bobbing in the whitewater shallows off Newquay’s Fistral Beach, poised for that ecstatic moment when a barrelling Atlantic roller will propel them to their feet. Then it arrives – the Big One. Despite the biting cold the surfers rise in unison, carving into the wave’s lip with effortless balletic grace.
There’s something quite magical about Cornwall off-season. Gone are the crowds; this is the time when the elements reign supreme. Storm Éowyn recently made that very clear, hammering the coast with brutal winds and booming surf. But even in calmer periods, the landscape feels untamed, an unpredictable theatre of darkened skies, crashing waves and howling gusts.
The star of Baywatch and The Last Showgirl answers questions from Observer readers and famous fans including Stella McCartney, Liam Neeson, Ruby Wax and Naomi Klein
Pamela Anderson, makeup-free and beautiful in a floral Westwood suit, is making a fuss of my dog. My dog likes her. I’m not a particular believer in the idea that animals are great character judges but, in this case, me and the dog are aligned. I like Anderson too. She combines openness with a kind of vulnerability, and you warm to her immediately.
Settled on a sofa in a small dressing room off a photography studio, she asks for a coffee and promptly spills it everywhere. “I strive for imperfection,” she jokes. “I strive for it, and I just hit it every time.” Cortado mopped, she takes a breath, before talking excitedly of a new phase in her eventful life. “A door opened, and I walked through,” she says. “It’s hard to believe.”
They are beloved by A-listers and surging in popularity. But claims that NAD+ infusions are a fix for addiction are unproven, risky – and possibly illegal, an Observer investigation reveals
It is billed as a “miracle” treatment that can reverse ageing and regenerate brain cells. And getting hooked up to IV drips containing NAD+ has surged in popularity, with record Google searches and celebrity fans such as Kendall Jenner and Joe Rogan.
Now NAD+ is being touted in the UK as a treatment for substance misuse. Infusions of NAD+, which is derived from vitamin B3, are being sold across the country as a “clinically proven” and “effective” way to quit drinking or get off drugs.
The stakes couldn’t be higher and the risks couldn’t be greater when the prime minister visits Washington this week
For British prime ministers, with their ideas about the world shaped by the histories of Churchill and Roosevelt, Maggie and Ronnie, and the rest of the folklore about the transatlantic alliance, the prospect of a visit to the White House usually causes tingles of excitement. One of our senior diplomats once offered me an explanation of the allure: “The red carpet is laid out, the national anthems are played, all that stuff is very seductive.” This will be customarily accompanied by ritualistic words about the importance and invincibility of the “special relationship”.
Number 10 lobbied hard to get Sir Keir Starmer across the Atlantic early in the second term of Donald Trump and, until recently, Downing Street people were telling themselves that an encounter between the two men needn’t be a disaster and might even turn out to be a success. In the weeks since Trump’s re-election as US president, UK policy might be summarised by the phrase “Don’t poke the beast”. Keep the temperature cool. Ignore provocations. Attempt to trade on British heritage – golf, the royal family – with which this US president has an affinity. Put David Lammy out there to suggest that there is lots to respect about the man whom the foreign secretary used to call a “woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath”. Softly-softly was the doctrine and they thought it was bearing fruit.
Ahead of a career retrospective, Sue Williamson tells how the US pair are dragging her country ‘through the mud’
For more than 50 years, Sue Williamson’s art has been shining a light on South Africa’s problems – first to campaign against the apartheid state, and then to question how far the country has progressed in reconciliation and remembrance.
But as she prepares for her first retrospective exhibition, the 84-year-old artist has a new pair of targets in sight: US president Donald Trump and his billionaire, South African-born adviser, Elon Musk.
Photographer Ewen Spencer captures the energy of a garage music night for working-class kids
Ewen Spencer took this picture at a Sunday club night called Twice As Nice at The End in London’s West Central Street in 1999. He’d been a regular there back in the days when it was held at the Colosseum in Vauxhall, south of the river. The move to the West End signalled that its garage music was becoming more a mainstream part of culture. Spencer, who grew up in Newcastle upon Tyne, had been documenting underground party nights for a decade by then for magazines such as the Face and i-D. He was a soul boy at heart, and saw in garage culture similar attractions: “It was working-class kids dressing up for a big night out,” he recalls, “quite different from acid house, for example.”
Spencer’s picture is included in a new Hayward Gallery touring exhibition After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989-2024. Spencer was influenced by north-east based photographers such as Chris Killip and Graham Smith; he wanted to make authentic pictures that captured “some of the moves and female-heavy love and jubilation of those nights”, he says.
This powerful new book examines the moral contradictions of the west and asks what liberal values mean in the face of such brutal and sustained obliteration of human life
Like many people, I have followed the unrelenting horror that has unfolded in Gaza since the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 mainly through the medium of social media. The Instagram reels of citizen journalists on the ground have become for me and countless others the most powerful testimony to the slaughter, destruction and trauma visited on the already beleaguered Palestinian population. Recorded at great risk, they are often heartbreaking and enraging: so many dead infants; so many maimed and traumatised children; so many obliterated families and communities.
Some of these witnesses have achieved heroic status among their millions of followers, the likes of Motaz Azaiza, a photojournalist who was evacuated to Qatar after 108 days covering the carnage at close hand; Wael Al-Dahdouh, the Al Jazeera correspondent, whose wife, daughter, son and grandson were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their home in the Nuseirat refugee camp; Bisan Owda, who shares videos of the destruction that begin with the same defiant mantra of survival: “This is Bizan from Gaza and I am still alive.”
He has a prolific career and extensive portfolio, with his images of British life especially iconic. At 72, he tells Miranda Sawyer, he’s still thinking about what to shoot next
About 20 years ago, I was on a judging panel for a photography competition, and one of the other judges was Martin Parr. He was charming and affable, almost teddy bear-ish. He was also utterly ruthless. When it came to deciding which photographs were worthy of a prize, he went through the selection swiftly – no, no, yes, no – without hesitation or doubt. His eye was impeccable.
Has he always known what makes a good photograph? “Oh yes,” says Parr. “Right from the beginning. Total conviction. I knew I would be a photographer from the age of 13, 14, and I knew what was good even then. I was obsessive about photography. All artists are obsessive, I think.”
We are in his agent’s office, a small upstairs flat on a market street in east London. Parr owns the building, and this room used to be packed with his work as well as Parr-type things: his collections of Saddam Hussein watches, Soviet-space-dog ephemera, Spice Girls merch. He was obsessed with gathering all sorts of daft stuff, but he’s stopped now to concentrate solely on his work. Though as he says, “photography is a form of collecting.”
His obsession now is the Martin Parr Foundation, headquartered in Bristol, which he established in 2017 and which is where all of his photos have been moved to (along with the watches, space dogs and Spiceys). The foundation is a collection of documentary photography of the British Isles, his own and other people’s. Alongside maintaining Parr’s huge archive, it buys work by lesser-known photographers, gives bursaries to those who are just starting out, has a library and gallery, curates shows, and is Parr’s legacy, what he’s most proud of. He’s 72, is in cancer recovery and is conscious of his age. “Hopefully it will be of some benefit,” he says. “I’m not going to say I’m saving the world. I never expect photography to change anything.” Perhaps not, but the Foundation is clearly a good thing: the website is great and the current show, featuring Siân Davey’s photos of family life, is excellent.
“Have you been to visit it?” he asks. I haven’t. He looks a bit miffed. He’s quick to pick up on things he thinks I’ve missed about what he does. When we go for a coffee after the interview, he says, almost triumphantly, “You just missed me taking a photo with my phone, of that wall!”
In my defence, there is so much of Parr’s work to see that you could spend your whole life looking at his photographs. He’s been working since the 1980s, has had well over 80 exhibitions all over the world, has published more than 145 photography books. He is madly prolific, with an archive that’s endlessly recategorisable. “If you want me to do a book on dogs, no problem,” he says. “I can come up with 100 pictures straight away. Or cigarettes. I’ve just done a book called No Smoking, using my archive, edited by my gallery here in London.”
Is he constantly thinking about work?
“More or less, yes. I’m either thinking about things I haven’t shot, or things I’ve done. What’s got to be done. What can I do next? Where can I go?”
The comedian, 57, talks about jogging, not drinking, how his kids are the funny ones and why he’s depriving himself of those moreish ice lollies
Sundays to you? My kids are 10 and seven, and my son is always up by 6.30. As a younger man, I would have spent most of Sunday sleeping off a hangover. I don’t drink now.
Do you live in a funny household? My wife doesn’t think I’m funny at all any more, having lived with me for 17 years. Our kids are funnier. If I tell them to ‘read the room’, they’ll look around for things to literally read.
If you’ve got no time to make it to the salon, the latest leave-in hair treatments are the only answer
My hair is desperate for a salon treatment. But I have no time. In an ideal world, I want something I can use at home that gives me close to salon results. But it can’t take up too much time, because, well, no time. When I find myself in such situations – alas too often – a leave-in hair treatment is the answer. Leave-in conditioners are super easy; they seal in moisture without weighing down the hair and double up as a detangler, making hair easier to manage. But recent developments in the leave-in category mean it covers even more extensive hair needs. Ouai, Virtue, Aveda and Briogeo have serums for healthier scalps, thus promoting healthier hair. There are treatments to counteract hair thinning: Living Proof, Phillip Kingsley and The Ordinary all have serums that decrease shedding and increase density. For damaged, chemically (over) processed hair, you need a bonding treatment – these are concentrated to repair hair’s broken bonds, which dictate what your hair looks and feels like. (Frizzy, dry hair with split ends is a sign your bonds are not in good shape.) But there’s help from the likes of Olaplex, K18 and again Living Proof. And the treatment takes minutes. Which is perfect when you have no time at all.
1. K18 Leave-In Molecular Repair Hair Mask £30, k18.co.uk 2. Davines OI All In One Milk £23.50, libertylondon.com 3. OlaplexNo.0.5 Scalp Longevity Treatment £41, spacenk.com 4. AvedaScalp Solutions Overnight Renewal Serum £42, aveda.co.uk 5. SisleyRevitalising Fortifying Serum £170, sisley-paris.com 6. Philip KingsleyBond Builder Restorative Oil £29, philipkingsley.co.uk 7.Living ProofTriple Bond Complex £42, livingproof.co.uk 8.OUAI Scalp Serum £48, lookfantastic.com 9. The OrdinaryMulti-Peptide Serum for Hair Density £20.80, theordinary.com 10.BriogeoScalp Revival Spray £27, spacenk.co.uk
Accepting the presidential nomination, the Arizona senator tells the Republican National Convention that Americans have been betrayed
‘We want Barry! We want Barry!’ cheered the crowd as Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater entered the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco. ‘The band blared the crusaders’ song of American politics, Glory Glory Hallelujah’, writes Theodore H White in the Observer Magazine on 20 September 1964, with Goldwater’s 89-year-old mother on the cover.
In his speech accepting the presidential nomination, the far-right Arizona senator, with his deep tan and ‘silvery white hair’, aroused both ‘fervour and fear… Then he swung into his theme: “The Good Lord raised this mighty republic, not to stagnate in the swamplands of collectivism, not to cringe before the bully of Communism.”’
Faithlessness doesn’t only have to take the form of infidelity. It can be the slow erosion of trust and care
The question My wife and I live in different countries and see each other once a year. The last time we saw each other we argued all the time and slept in separate beds. I’ll be going to see her soon and I’m worried she’s seeing someone else, although I have no proof. She will expect sex from me, and I think I should protect myself by wearing a condom. How should I broach the condom suggestion without upsetting her, especially if she is actually being totally faithful?
Philippa’s answer It seems that your marriage is not in great shape. Rather than worrying about condoms, I think you need to think and talk about your relationship together. It sounds like you’ll need time to adjust and get to know each other again, and gradually find a place that feels natural and comfortable for both of you.
US president hits familiar notes about election victories, ending the war in Ukraine and border militarization
In a campaign-style performance, Donald Trump delivered the more-than-hour-long finale at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, hitting familiar notes about his election victories, ending the war in Ukraine, US border militarization and what he characterized as the liberation of Washington from “deep-state bureaucrats”.
Speaking to an auditorium filled to the brim at National Harbor in Maryland, Trump went all-in on his deployment of active-duty troops to the southern border, which he characterized as responding to an “invasion”. He also boasted that his administration had terminated temporary protected status for Haitian immigrants and attempted to ban birthright citizenship for children of non-legal permanent residents.
Europe holds its breath as world’s third largest economic power and most populous EU country faces crossroads
German voters go to the polls today but it is a different world from when the campaign began only a few weeks ago.
Nearly 60 million people are choosing a government that will have to grapple with the breakdown of the transatlantic alliance under Donald Trump and new threats to European security just as the country’s vaunted economic model is hitting the skids.
The tiny former Soviet republic’s determination not to be cowed by the Kremlin could provide a template for the west on how to hold back the tide of subversion and corruption
How can a democracy defend itself from an attacker who does not respect any democratic rules?
When your assailant uses corruption, blackmail, economic war, cyber attacks, covert campaigns and street violence – while all you have are inefficient courts and even slower international institutions. Can you lose your sovereignty by being too soft? If you respond with censorship or even cancelling elections, don’t you lose your values?
Numbers of animals once hunted as vermin are rising across the continent. But scientists worry about how we are going to get along with these predators
Europe’s carnivores have had a remarkable change in fortune. After tens of thousands of years of persecution that wiped out sabretooth tigers, hyenas and cave lions, there has been a recent rebound in the continent’s surviving predators.
Across mainland Europe, bear, wolf, lynx and wolverine numbers have risen dramatically as conservation measures introduced several decades ago have begun to make an impact. There are now about 20,500 brown bears in Europe, a rise of 17% since 2016, while there are 9,400 Eurasian lynx, a 12% increase.
Russian and US leaders will meet face to face in move towards normalising relations, deputy foreign minister says
Preparations for a face-to-face meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are under way, Russia’s deputy foreign minister has said.
The event would mark a dramatic shift away from western isolation of Moscow, which has been in place since Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking to Russian state media, Sergei Ryabkov said a possible Putin-Trump summit could involve broad talks on global issues, not just Ukraine.
“The question is about starting to move towards normalising relations between our countries, finding ways to resolve the most acute and potentially very, very dangerous situations, of which there are many, Ukraine among them,” he said.
But he said efforts to organise such a meeting were at an early stage, and that making it happen would require “the most intensive preparatory work”.
Ryabkov added that US and Russian envoys could meet “within the next two weeks” to pave the way for further talks between senior officials.
Russian and US representatives agreed on Tuesday to start working toward ending the war in Ukraine and improving their diplomatic and economic ties, according to the two countries’ top diplomats, at a high-level meeting in Saudi Arabia that marked an extraordinary about-face in US foreign policy under Trump.
After the meeting, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, told the Associated Press that the two sides agreed broadly to pursue three goals: to restore staffing at their respective embassies in Washington and Moscow; to create a high-level team to support Ukraine peace talks; and to explore closer relations and economic cooperation.
He stressed, however, that the talks, which were attended by his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, and other senior Russian and US officials, marked the beginning of a conversation, and more work needed to be done. Lavrov, for his part, said the meeting was “very useful”.
No Ukrainian officials were present at the meeting. The country is slowly but steadily losing ground against more numerous Russian troops, nearly three years after Moscow launched an all-out invasion of its smaller neighbour.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said his country would not accept any outcome of the talks, since Kyiv didn’t take part, and he postponed his own trip to Saudi Arabia, which had been scheduled for last Wednesday. European allies have also expressed concerns that they are being sidelined.
The final findings of the “horrendous” eight-year long “massacre map”, tracing the violent history of the Australian colonial frontier have been released.
At least 10,657 people were killed in at least 438 colonial frontier massacres.
10,374 of them were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people killed by colonists.
Only 160 of those killed were non-Indigenous colonists.
There were 13 massacres of colonists by Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people.
The most intense period of massacres was from the late 1830s into 1840s, with a pivotal point being the Myall Creek massacre in 1838 – the first time any perpetrators had been punished.
After the Myall Creek convictions, the government could no longer involve the military and new “police” forces were created, which set a pattern for the rest of the conflict.
About half of all massacres of Aboriginal people were carried out by police and other government agents. Many others were perpetrated by settlers acting with tacit approval of the state.
Some perpetrators were involved in many massacres.
Contemptuous and sure of himself, the US president boasted of his victories and taunted his enemies
God save the king. Drunk on power, Donald Trump spent Saturday afternoon before adoring fans, boasting of his victories, taunting his enemies and casting himself as America’s absolute monarch, supreme leader and divine emperor rolled into one.
Trump’s appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the National Harbor in Maryland began with country singer Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA and raucous cheers in a crowded ballroom that included January 6 insurrectionists.
Dmitry Bivol became the undisputed light heavyweight champion of the world after he outpointed Artur Beterbiev in another absorbing and magnificent contest of great technical skill and profound courage. Bivol, who narrowly lost a majority decision to the 40-year-old former champion just over four months ago, won the rematch and the sweetest redemption in the early hours of Sunday morning in Riyadh.
The scores were exactly the same as they had been in October – with one judge ruling it a 114-114 draw and the two other officials reaching verdicts of 116-112 and 115-113 – but the key difference was that the winning margins were announced in favour of the deserving Bivol.
Jony Ive, the man behind the look of Apple’s iconic brands says the firm’s co-founder specifically asked him not to consider ‘what Steve would do’
Sir Jony Ive, the innovative designer of Apple’s iMac, iPhone and Apple Watch, and a close friend and collaborator of the late Steve Jobs, says he still often asks himself: “I wonder what Steve would do?”
Ive told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs on Sunday that he does so despite the fact that Jobs had specifically told him not to before his death in 2011, aged 56.
The cropped trench is an outerwear hero worth bookmarking for spring
A jacket thrown over layers is the best option for the changeable weather, so set your attention on transeasonal outerwear. There’s an array of jacket trends around, but top of the list is the cropped trench coat, which manages to be both classic with a twist and undeniably chic. The shorter, chopped length adds a fresh silhouette, perfect as the final layer, while working easily with your existing wardrobe staples to create a different proportion, with its boxy shape.
On the catwalk, Burberry led the way with a relaxed cropped jacket inspired by its iconic trench, made from shower-resistant gabardine. This spring-ready jacket is all over the high street already. River Island’s beige short bubble hem trench works well styled with boyfriend jeans and a cropped rugby shirt (8), or try it with wide-leg, relaxed tailored trousers and loafers. Mango’s double-breasted khaki style looks sleek styled with an elegant dress or paired with a fit-and-flare skirt (1). H&M’s denim version (2) adds an urban edge to the trench. But if you want to have a go at a bit of do-it-yourself, why not pick up a charity shop preloved trench and customise it yourself?
‘I just don’t know how that’s a penalty,’ says head coach
Steve Borthwick: ‘They found a way to win the game’
Scotland’s coaches and players believe two key officiating decisions potentially denied them another historic Calcutta Cup victory. Gregor Townsend feels his team were unlucky to concede the crucial second-half penalty kicked by Fin Smith that ultimately proved decisive and doubts have also been raised over the solitary English try, scored by Tommy Freeman.
Townsend was particularly unhappy about the crucial penalty given against Rory Darge and Tom Jordan for lifting Ben Curry out of a ruck. “I’m going to go through the game two or three times to see whether we could have got better decisions,” said Townsend, the head coach. “I did feel the decision that counted against us for the winning three points where we cleared someone out of the ruck … I just don’t know how that’s a penalty.
Eliya Cohen spent more than 500 days in captivity fearing Ziv Abud had died in Hamas attacks in 2023
An Israeli hostage only discovered his fiancee had survived the 7 October attacks after his release on Saturday, Israeli media has reported.
Eliya Cohen had spent more than 500 days in captivity fearing his bride-to-be, Ziv Abud, was dead. The last time they had seen each other, they were hiding in a shelter with relatives and friends after attending the Nova festival.
National supporters will see their heroes play against each other when Manchester City meet Liverpool on Sunday
The rivalry between Manchester City and Liverpool has grown in recent years thanks to the coaching of Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp turning it into a battle for the title over numerous seasons. The fixture has become significant around the world but in one north African nation it has a new edge as their rising star and their national hero come face-to-face.
Omar Marmoush arrived in Manchester in January after City paid £59m to buy him from Eintracht Frankfurt. The Egypt forward built his reputation in Germany and has added to it in the Premier League after a hat-trick against Newcastle followed some promising performances to indicate he is up to Guardiola’s high standards. Marmoush is a beacon in a disappointing season for City but has some way to go to match his compatriot Mohamed Salah, the man leading Liverpool towards a second Premier League title. From Alexandria to Zagazig, eyes in Egypt will be on the Etihad on Sunday as the country’s heroes do battle.
“When I came back to the corner, [trainer Andy Lee] gave me the instructions just to be patient,” Parker says. “And when the overhead right comes, when he walks in and attacks, that’s when you have to take your shot. And that’s the best way, is to catch them when they’re coming in.”
He adds: “Martin Bakole, thank you very much for accepting the challenge and flying all the way here on short notice to give me a good fight. I just went out there and listened to Andy [Lee], stay calm, structured, composed, and got the victory.”
This fun, gory tale of women trying to set up a nightclub in the 1918 Soho underworld is lively – even if it tries to cram too much in. Shame about the ropey vocal affectations …
The Peaky Blinders comparisons have been flying around ever since filming on Dope Girls began, so it sounds as if the BBC was hoping that it might have a successor on its hands. Certainly, there are some superficial similarities between the two. Dope Girls is set in 1918 and deals with the aftermath of the first world war, as the surviving men return. But here, it’s the women who are in the spotlight, as the female workforce of the past four years suddenly find their newfound social status has been relegated once again. In mood and tone, however, it is less a return to Small Heath, and more of a predecessor to Cabaret.
Kate Galloway (Julianne Nicholson) is a businessman’s wife and wartime butcher, who falls on hard times after a family tragedy. Destitute and homeless, she heads to London, where Armistice Day is looming and the party of the century is about to kick off. With the help of a bright dancer named Billie (Umi Myers), who is as talented as she is troubled, Kate finds her way into the clubland underworld of Soho, where she spies the potential to apply her previous workplace-based knowledge, and sets the ball rolling on building a new empire of nightlife.
US president’s 75-minute tirade of repeated false claims ranges from voter fraud and stolen-election lies to foreign wars
Donald Trump launched into his speech by assailing “the fraudsters, liars … globalists and deep-state bureaucrats” that he said “are being sent back”.
“We’re draining the swamp and restoring government by the people for the people,” he said before going on to his oft-repeated claims of Washington DC being controlled by a “sinister group of radical-left Marxist warmongers”.
Living artists who have represented Australia at the Venice Biennale over the past five decades – and the estates of a number of now deceased artists who have done the same – have signed an open letter to the board and chief executive of Creative Australia to reinstate sacked artist Khaled Sabsabi and his curator Michael Dagostino.
Some of Australia’s most distinguished living artists, including Imants Tillers, Mike Parr, Susan Norrie, Fiona Hall, Judy Watson, Patricia Piccinini and Tracey Moffat have signed the petition, as has the estate of Howard Arkley who represented Australia in Venice more than a quarter of a century ago.
A pair of stunning catches to dismiss dangerous England batters helped set Australia up for making record run chase
Catches win matches? Well, they certainly help set them up. Alex Carey’s brace of afternoon wonder-grabs sent the dangerous duo of Phil Salt and Harry Brook trudging back to the sheds blinking not from the afternoon Lahore sun but in disbelief.
Carey’s acrobatic, sinew straining exertions in the outfield (gloves? who needs ’em) exemplified a razor sharp Australian performance in the field that kept England’s progress constantly in check and eventually paved the way for a historic run chase, the highest ever in International Cricket Council tournaments no less. The Aussies can turn it on in major tournaments, who knew?
Accident happened in Siem Reap province that saw heavy fighting in 1980s between government soldiers and Khmer Rouge
A grenade believed to be more than 25 years old killed two toddlers when it blew up near their homes in rural Cambodia, officials said.
The accident happened on Saturday in Siem Reap province’s Svay Leu district, where there had been heavy fighting in the 1980s and 90s between Cambodian government soldiers and rebel guerrillas from the communist Khmer Rouge. The group had been ousted from power in 1979.
Juan Soto wasted little time in showing off his power for his new team. Again.
Soto homered in his first spring training at-bat for the New York Mets, hitting a solo shot to left-center field in the first inning against Houston on Saturday. The Mets went on to win 6-2.
Recovering Shiffrin misses first cut in GS since 2012
Italy’s Brignone wins second straight on home snow
Mikaela Shiffrin is not yet competitive in her tentative return to racing in giant slaloms. Federica Brignone is currently close to unbeatable.
In just her second GS race Saturday three months after a serious crash, Shiffrin did not qualify for a second run for the first time since 2012 by placing outside the top 30.
Unai Emery recently graded Aston Villa’s season as a seven out of 10, acknowledging while their progress in Europe has been eye-catching, they badly needed to kick-start their Premier League campaign to bank another Champions League adventure. Approaching the 89th minute, Villa’s season appeared to be stalling, a third consecutive draw incoming. Then the Chelsea goalkeeper Filip Jörgensen made a mess of a routine save, allowing Marco Asensio’s lukewarm volley from Marcus Rashford’s cross to squirm through his gloves.
Rashford’s half-time arrival proved inspired given he also laid the ball on for Asensio to cancel out Enzo Fernández’s early strike. This was a big result for Villa after taking four points from their previous five matches and one that squeezes the order towards the top. Chelsea can vouch for that. Villa are now seventh, a point behind fifth-placed Bournemouth and sixth-placed Chelsea, though those above and below Emery’s side have at least one game in hand.
When contraception has stagnated for decades, it is hardly surprising it’s fallen victim to culture wars and a wellness cult
Something is changing when it comes to contraception. Lots of people aren’t using it. Last week we heard that this includes a third of young Irish people. Meanwhile, there has been a significant rise in abortions in England and Wales. Prescriptions for the contraceptive pill in England dropped from 432,600 in 2014 to 188,500 in 2021. And this month data from abortion clinics found that demand is being fuelled by women coming off the pill and using natural methods instead.
When the study compared contraception used by women seeking abortions in 2018 and in 2023, it found that the proportion using smartphones to track their menstrual cycle had increased from 0.4% to 2.5%. The use of hormonal contraception among this group fell from 19% to 11%, while the group not using any form of contraception when they became pregnant increased from 50% to 70%.
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