From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break – whether in the UK or further afield – with twice-weekly emails from the Guardian’s travel editors. You’ll also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.
From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break – whether in the UK or further afield – with twice-weekly emails from the Guardian’s travel editors.
You’ll also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.
Be the first to see our latest thought-provoking films, bringing you bold and original storytelling from around the world
Discover the stories behind our latest short films, learn more about our international film-makers, and join us for exclusive documentary events. We’ll also share a selection of our favourite films, from our archives and from further afield, for you to enjoy. Sign up below.
Style, with substance: what’s really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved, direct to your inbox every Thursday
Style, with substance: what’s really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved, delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday
A weekly email from Yotam Ottolenghi, Meera Sodha, Felicity Cloake and Rachel Roddy, featuring the latest recipes and seasonal eating ideas
Each week we’ll send you an exclusive newsletter from our star food writers. We’ll also send you the latest recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi, Nigel Slater, Meera Sodha and all our star cooks, stand-out food features and seasonal eating inspiration, plus restaurant reviews from Grace Dent and Jay Rayner.
Sign up below to start receiving the best of our culinary journalism in one mouth-watering weekly email.
Ahead of the byelection in Blackpool South, the Guardian takes the temperature in the once prosperous northern coastal town, with many voters expressing complete apathy and disdain for the state of politics.
The area is going to the polls because the former Tory MP Scott Benton resigned after being found guilty of breaching standards rules in a lobbying scandal. Labour is hopeful of taking back the seat, which Benton won with a majority of 3,690 in 2019
Hundreds of protesters prevented an attempt to collect asylum seekers from a south London hotel and transfer them to the Bibby Stockholm barge. The Guardian witnessed crowds blocking the bus and the road outside the Best Western hotel in Peckham before police were able to move in and break up the protest. The bus eventually left the area after seven hours, with no asylum seekers onboard
South Africa's case against Israel over allegations of genocide before the international court of justice has raised a central question of international law: what is genocide and how do you prove it? It is one of three genocide cases being considered by the UN's world court, but since the genocide convention was approved in 1948, only three instances have been legally recognised as genocide. Josh Toussaint-Strauss looks back on these historical cases to find out why the crime is so much harder to prove than other atrocities, and what bearing this has on South Africa's case against Israel and future cases
Keir Starmer appeared in Dover and Deal alongside the Labour party’s newest MP, the former Tory Natalie Elphicke, to announce the scrapping of the Rwanda deportation scheme if Labour is elected. The Guardian spoke to people in Dover to get their reaction
Georgian protesters opposed to a 'foreign influence' bill picketed the Georgian parliament amid a major police presence during the third, and final reading of the bill. Police attempted to disperse demonstrators and people were seen being detained. The 84-30 vote has cleared the way for the bill to become law. The draft now goes to the president, Salome Zourabichvili, who has said she will veto it, but her decision can be overridden by another vote in parliament, which is controlled by the ruling party and its allies. Government critics and western countries have criticised the new bill as authoritarian and Russian-inspired
British surgeon Dr Omar El-Taji has been in Gaza for more than a week with medical nonprofit Fajr Scientific, working in one of Gaza’s largest remaining hospitals as Israel’s invasion of Rafah deepens. The European hospital, which was founded by Unrwa with a grant from the EU, has limited resources and fewer local staff to deal with high numbers of patients being admitted with devastating injuries. ‘These people have gone through this for six to seven months now, they cannot go through this any more,’ says El-Taji, who is currently living at the hospital after the medical team’s safe house was evacuated. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has so far rejected US pressure to hold off on a full-scale attack, claiming Rafah is the last stronghold of Hamas and that Israel can only achieve its war aims by killing militants and leaders in the city
Ban Khun Samut Chin, a coastal village in Samut Prakan province, Thailand, has been slowly swallowed by the sea over the past few decades. This has led to the relocation of the school and many homes, resulting in a dwindling population. Currently, there are only four students attending the school, often leaving just one in each classroom. The village has experienced severe coastal erosion, causing 1.1-2km (0.5-1.2 miles) of shoreline to disappear since the mid-1950s
Do you have a portrait of the king in your workplace and how do you feel about it? Or have you seen a portrait of the king in a public building and how do you feel about it?
From birdwatching to gardening, we would like to hear from people who have a renewed interest in nature,
Have you recently become intrigued by nature? We would like to hear from people who have recently become more engaged with the natural world, from birdwatching to gardening. Whether it was because of an amazing documentary or a new bird-identifying app, tell us what piqued your interest below.
This week, it was Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen’s turn to take the stand in the hush-money trial in New York. Cohen walked the jury through the steps he says he took to make any potential story that would damage Trump’s image go away, in advance of the 2016 election.
The defence is trying to chip away at Cohen’s credibility, to sow seeds of doubt among the jury listening to his testimony. So how did he do? Jonathan Freedland asks former federal prosecutor Ankush Khardori what he makes of the prosecution’s star witness so far
Hundreds of climate experts expect global temperatures to rise to at least 2.5C (4.5F) above preindustrial levels by 2100. Damian Carrington reports
When the Guardian’s environment editor, Damian Carrington, decided to survey the world’s top climate scientists, he had no idea how many of them would want to participate.
“I was astonished by the flood of responses that came back,” he tells Hannah Moore.
Last week the founder of the dating app Bumble forecasted a near future dating landscape where AI ‘dating concierges’ filter out prospective partners for us. But does AI, or even science, really understand what makes two people compatible? Madeleine Finlay speaks to Amie Gordon, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, to find out what we know about why two people go the distance, and why she and her colleague associate professor of sociology Elizabeth Bruch, are designing their own dating app to learn more.
While the initial knock-back may sting, the insights you gain from an unsuccessful presentation can propel you to success
It’s a big moment for any entrepreneur. The pitch can make all the difference when it comes to securing investment, getting stocked, gaining customers – or being selected as the winner of the Westfield Grand Prix, where the prize is a free retail space in one of the two London Westfield Centres for up to 12 months, along with a contribution to pay for design and fit-out. When it comes to opportunities that could be a gamechanger, a lot is riding on one brief moment that makes up a pitch. But what happens if it goes wrong?
Ask any entrepreneur about their failed pitches, and they’ll have plenty of examples. But most have something else in common too: the firm view that those failed pitches helped them move on to better things.
Westfield’s new competition could land you a trading spot in one of Europe’s best shopping destinations. But are you ready to rise to the challenge?
For many businesses, launching exclusively online is a safe option, enabling them to start building with lower overheads, fewer commitments and a chance to test the water. But there often comes a time when a more visible, physical presence is required. The Westfield Grand Prix is giving sustainable businesses that very opportunity – the chance to win a free retail space in one of the two London Westfield centres for up to 12 months. Winners will also receive a contribution to pay for design and fit-out, together with personalised guidance and financial support from design and retail experts, as well as in-centre advertising created by the retail media agency Westfield Rise.
Most entrepreneurs would jump at the chance to sell their wares in one of the world’s most iconic malls. But before taking the leap, your readiness should be considered. How do you know when your business is ready?
From knowing your figures to speaking from the heart, three business owners share their secrets for winning investors with a knockout presentation
Motivational speakers and life coaches love to tell us that if we can dream it, we can do it. But coming up with an initial idea for a product, service or business is only the start of the journey; try as you might, simply manifesting the cash to fund your startup just isn’t going to cut it.
What budding tycoons actually need to move them up to the next level is investors. Whether the money might come from a personal contact, venture capitalist, or angel investor, a stand-out marketing deck and killer pitch are required. It’s a tried and tested route that most businesses will have to engage in to achieve their potential.
From denim workshops to lessons on mending household items, Westfield’s Europe-wide festival gives visitors the chance to transform their wardrobes and reduce waste
As consumers, we’ve all come to appreciate that individual changes to our behaviours can have a collective impact on efforts to protect the planet and reduce environmental damage.
The Westfield Good Festival, which is taking place at Westfield shopping centres across Europe this month, aims to help consumers make these kind of changes to their behaviour. The event, in collaboration with brands and with organisations working in the community, will showcase activities and initiatives to inspire people to embrace the circular economy and get creative with repairing and repurposing. “Brands and consumers can share insights, best practice and motivate one another towards adopting eco-friendlier shopping habits,” says Katie Wyle, UK head of shopping centre management for Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW).
One female director hides that she has a child; younger women face a 39% gender pay gap; and harassment is widespread. Insiders say it’s a wonder the television industry has any women left at all
‘When is the good time to be a woman in TV?” asks Michelle Reynolds, a former TV producer and director. “In the start you get molested and infantilised, in the middle if you have babies they won’t let you work flexibly, then when you get past 45 you’re too bloody old.”
Now is not the best time for women in TV. According to recent research by the Creative Diversity Network, whose Diamond report collects data from the UK’s big broadcasters, the gender gap is widening. The number of women in senior roles fell 5% between 2019 and 2022. One in three directors are women, yet they get only a quarter of director credits. Contributions from female writers fell from 43% to 32% between 2016 and 2022. Behind these figures, women are less likely to be employed on peak-time shows,which are generally more prestigious and have larger audiences, than men.
People who claim the £81.90-a-week carer’s allowance for looking after loved ones while working part-time are being forced by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to pay back money that has been erroneously overpaid to them, in some cases running to more than £20,000, or risk going to prison.
On the podcast today: the race for fifth/sixth and Europa League football next season is still alive – Chelsea could still catch Spurs and only Manchester United winning the FA Cup would earn Newcastle a spot.
A mega egg in Paris, a hovering hotel in Machu Picchu, an hourglass tower in New York, a pleasure island in Baghdad … we reveal the architectural visions that were just too costly – or too weird
Did you know that, if things had gone differently, the Pompidou Centre could have been an egg? In the 1969 competition for the Paris art centre – ultimately won by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, with their inside-out symphony of pipework – a radical French architect called André Bruyère submitted a proposal for a gigantic ovoid tower. His bulbous building would have risen 100 metres above the city’s streets, clad in shimmering scales of alabaster, glass and concrete, its walls swelling out in a curvaceous riposte to the tyranny of the straight line.
“Time,” Bruyère declared, “instead of being linear, like the straight streets and vertical skyscrapers, will become oval, in tune with the egg.” His hallowed Oeuf would be held aloft on three chunky legs, while a monorail would pierce the facade and circle through the structure along a sinuous floating ribbon. The atrium was to take the form of an enclosed globe, like a yolk.
We would like to hear from Chelsea Women fans about how they feel about Emma Hayes’ tenure coming to an end. What did her time with the club mean to you?
A Guardian US investigation is reporting allegations of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behaviour by illusionist David Copperfield. Testimonies from two women, both of whom are portrayed by actors, describe their alleged experiences and the impact it had on their lives. Copperfield denies all of the allegations and has never been charged with criminal wrongdoing
It is the NHS’s worst treatment disaster – with 30,000 patients infected. Two survivors, Ade Goodyear and Andy Evans, explain why it took so long for it to be brought to light
Ade Goodyear was 15 when he was told he had contracted HIV. Like about 30,000 other NHS patients – including more than 300 children – who were given blood transfusions or commercial blood products before 2019, he was infected by contaminated blood. Some patients got HIV and hepatitis C from blood transfusions after childbirth or other medical procedures. Ade was infected with HIV at the medical centre of his school.
Pupils at his Treloar’s college, which had a specialist haemophilia unit, were among those given injections of a blood plasma product called factor VIII concentrate. Concerns had been raised a decade before by the World Health Organization because it was a commercial product that mixed plasma from tens of thousands of often high-risk donors. If one had an infection such as HIV, it could contaminate the whole batch.
It is taking fast fashion to ever faster and ever cheaper extremes, and making billions from it. Why is the whole world shopping at Shein? By Nicole Lipman
Benediktas Gylys admits he was surprised by the rowdy behavior that came from the exhibit connecting people in the two cities
The artist behind the controversial “Portal” art exhibit that visually linked New York and Dublin in real time, but was then closed due to rowdy and extreme behavior by the public using it, has admitted he was surprised by the reaction.
Benediktas Gylys also vowed to continue with his project, which has the aim of connecting people and communities all over the world and is hoped to reopen soon.
It was like I was trapped in a movie – with a hideous plot twist
I met Eric on a dating app in early 2018when I was living in New York. He was handsome, talkative and interesting. I was falling for him – but there was something he needed to know. In 2015, I’d been in love with a guy called Mike. On my 30th birthday, my parents threw me a party at their house. Everyone was having a great time until I heard my brother scream Mike’s name. As I ran towards the noise, I saw Mike on the ground by my parents’ pool.He’d slipped into the water and wasn’t breathing. I frantically tried to do CPR on him, but he remained unconscious.
At the hospital, I was told that Mike wouldn’t ever wake up. No one knows how he got hurt. He broke some bones in his back, and had a brain injury, but we don’t know how that happened.
Authorities confirm 46 cases and warn of weeks-long disruption as firms in Brixham hit by cancellations before school half-term
Cases of an illness caused by a microscopic parasite in a Devon harbour town could continue for a further two weeks, experts said, with businesses predicting thousands of pounds of losses as school half-term approaches.
The comments came as the UK Health Security Agency confirmed that cases of cryptosporidium infection in the Brixham area had more than doubled from 22 to 46, with more than 100 others reporting symptoms of the disease.
Fossil-fuel dependent country hopes to provide bridge between wealthy global north and poor south at November gathering
Oil is inescapable in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The smell of it greets the visitor on arrival and from the shores of the Caspian Sea on which the city is built the tankers are eternally visible. Flares from refineries near the centre light up the night sky, and you do not have to travel far to see fields of “nodding donkeys”, small piston pump oil wells about 6 metres (20ft) tall, that look almost festive in their bright red and green livery.
It will be an interesting setting for the gathering of the 29th UN climate conference of the parties, which will take place at the Olympic Stadium in November.
I thought this would finally be the year – but no. Oh well, I can’t find my way from my house anyway
Nice weather is here! The sun is out and the papers and the internet are filling with their annual offers of help. This is my year, at last – I can feel it! The Summer Style Dilemmas Solved are finally going to work for me! I peruse them eagerly, as I have done for the last 30 years and more, hope undimmed in my increasingly mottled and scraggy breast. But no – no, my hopes are quickly dashed. One again, this year, it seems that my Summer Style Dilemmas can only be solved by losing half my body weight and/or going back in time and making sure one of my parents mates with a gazelle instead.
Photographer Dougie Wallace has been looking at the impact of the decriminalisation of cannabis in Thailand, from Khaosan Road to the beach resorts, such as Krabi and Phuket, that attract tourists
The decriminalisation of cannabis in Thailand in June 2022 has led to an explosion in marijuana shops across the country – especially in its tourist areas. It is sold at trendy dispensaries in Bangkok, at beachside bars across resort islands and even on river cruises. On bustling streets, green leaf logos glow in neon above shop fronts, and small stalls, set up with rows of glass jars, dot the pavement.
French police shot dead a man armed with a knife and an iron bar who set fire to a synagogue in the Normandy city of Rouen on Friday.
The interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, travelling to visit the fire-damaged synagogue, said France was “deeply affected” by what he called an antisemitic act. He said the government was “extremely determined to continue to fully protect Jewish people in France, wherever they are, and Jews should practice their religion without fear”.
Her inquiry appearance has been long awaited. So far, no official has been held accountable for the ruining of so many lives
Strange to think the northern lights have been glimpsed in public more frequently over the past few years than the former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells. I didn’t see the northern lights last week, but I will see Vennells close up next week, when – at very, very long last – she presents herself before the public inquiry into the Horizon scandal.
Polite notice: if your attention has drifted slightly after the fireworks sparked by ITV’s sensational drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office earlier this year, next week is the time to return with laser-like focus to this story. Post Office is once again box office – and remember, NOT ONE PERSON has yet been held accountable for what happened. Alan Bates has just rejected his second “derisory” offer of government compensation.
Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
I met my ex in our last year of high school. After a year of university we married when we were only 18. The first 10 years were rocky, with many family crises that put stress on our relationship, and at one point I left my husband. We reunited within a few months and changed our attitudes and goals. From then on I vowed to accept and find the good. We were married for 25 years, through his many infidelities and my anxieties. We didn’t have any childrenbecause he didn’t want to be a father. Finally, there was a mistress he wouldn’t set aside, and after three years I gave him an ultimatum, as gently as I could. He chose her, and divorced me. Some of the most painful words I have ever heard were:“You are a wonderful wife, beautiful and brilliant, but I don’t want you. And you deserve better than this.”
I remarried 13 years later and for 23 years have been wife to a fine man. But he is emotionally distant, while I am emotionally overflowing. I relive my first husband’s betrayal in my dreams nearly every night. In my nightmares, I am frightened when he appears and feel under his control. I wake up full of fear.
Popularity of traditional holiday memento hit by smartphones, ‘rude rock’ and rising price of stamps
A trip to the British seaside may not always have been something to write home about, but these days you might struggle even if you wanted to.
At the Little Gems gift shop in Blackpool town centre, all the usual seaside wares are on display – beach towels, plastic buckets and spades, sticks of rock – but one item is notably missing.
America’s military-industrial complex took center stage at AI Expo for National Competitiveness, where a fire-breathing panel set the tone
On 7 and 8 May in Washington DC, the city’s biggest convention hall welcomed America’s military-industrial complex, its top technology companies and its most outspoken justifiers of war crimes. Of course, that’s not how they would describe it.
It was the inaugural “AI Expo for National Competitiveness”, hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project – better known as the “techno-economic” thinktank created by the former Google CEO and current billionaire Eric Schmidt. The conference’s lead sponsor was Palantir, a software company co-founded by Peter Thiel that’s best known for inspiring 2019 protests against its work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) at the height of Trump’s family separation policy. Currently, Palantir is supplying some of its AI products to the Israel Defense Forces.
A 1C increase in global temperature leads to a 12% decline in world gross domestic product, researchers have found
The economic damage wrought by climate change is six times worse than previously thought, with global heating set to shrink wealth at a rate consistent with the level of financial losses of a continuing permanent war, research has found.
A 1C increase in global temperature leads to a 12% decline in world gross domestic product (GDP), the researchers found, a far higher estimate than that of previous analyses. The world has already warmed by more than 1C (1.8F) since pre-industrial times and many climate scientists predict a 3C (5.4F) rise will occur by the end of this century due to the ongoing burning of fossil fuels, a scenario that the new working paper, yet to be peer-reviewed, states will come with an enormous economic cost.
Rebecca Joynes, 30, convicted of engaging in sexual activity with minors while in a position of trust
A teacher has been found guilty of having sex with two schoolboys.
Rebecca Joynes, 30, groomed the teenagers from the age of 15, Manchester crown court heard, and was on bail for sexual activity with the first child, boy A, when she began having sex with the second, boy B, by whom she went on to become pregnant. Neither teenager must be identified.
Finance chief gives evidence on Paula Vennells and says company looked like ‘corporate bullies’ in how it dealt with branch operators
The former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells did not believe there had been miscarriages of justice, the Horizon inquiry has heard, as the current finance boss said the company looked like “corporate bullies” in the way it dealt with branch operators.
Alisdair Cameron, the Post Office chief financial officer who joined the board in 2015, told the inquiry on Friday that Vennells had been “clear in her conviction” that nothing had gone wrong with Horizon.
It’s game on for a pair of presidential debates between two unpopularcandidatesmost Americans wish weren’t running for the nation’s highest office.
In a ratatat social media exchange on Wednesday, Joe Biden and Donald Trump agreed to participate in two debates on 27 June, hosted by CNN, and on 10 September, hosted by ABC.
San Pedro Sula is rated ‘dangerous’ as effects of forest fires, El Niño and the climate crisis cause a spike in respiratory illnesses
The air quality in San Pedro Sula, the second-largest city in Honduras, as been classified as the most polluted on the American continent due to forest fires and weather conditions aggravated by El Niño and the climate crisis.
IQAir, a Swiss air-quality organisation that draws data from more than 30,000 monitoring stations around the world, said on Thursday that air quality in the city of about 1 million people has reached “dangerous” levels.
A peer is set to be suspended from House of Lords bars for 12 months after he was found to have bullied and harassed two people while drunk.
Kulveer Ranger has resigned the government whip after the House of Lords conduct committee also recommended that he be suspended from the house for three weeks.
Scientist discovers a cast of recurring characters using burrows in the aftermath of bushfire, after sifting through more than 700,000 images
First came a picture of an inquisitive red-necked wallaby, then an image of a bare-nosed wombat, followed by a couple of shots of the wombat’s burrow with nothing else in the frame.
By the time research scientist Grant Linley had looked through a further 746,670 images, he had seen 48 different species visiting the 28 wombat burrows that he had trained his cameras on.
The internet and its associated digital industry are estimated to produce about the same emissions annually as aviation. But we barely think about pollution while snapping 16 duplicate photos of our pets, which are immediately uploaded to the cloud.
Login
