83 m. ago Sadia Kabeya: ‘Meeting others in rugby who look like me brought me out of my shell – I can be myself now’

England’s World Cup winner on fitting in, developing a special scrum cap and that ‘wow’ Red Roses triumph at TwickenhamWhen the final whistle blew, relief washed over Sadia Kabeya. In front of a record crowd, she hugged her England teammate Lucy Packer and only then realised that the Red Roses had won the Rugby World Cup. The final against Canada had been so “gruelling”, Kabeya found it hard to believe they were world champions until she heard that sound. “It was amazing,” Kabeya says. “The full-time whistle was a lot of relief, a chance to breathe out and then: ‘Wow, we’ve done it.’”England’s triumph capped a dominant three years, a 33-game winning run, but the off-field impact is what Kabeya remembers most. In particular, getting off the team bus to be greeted by thousands of supporters and the roar from the 81,885-strong Twickenham crowd after the anthems. Continue reading...

Politics

1 hour ago ‘Legacies condensed to AI slop’: OpenAI Sora videos of the dead raise alarm with legal experts

The video app can produce realistic deepfakes of Marx shopping and MLK Jr trolling. Some say using ‘historical figures’ is the company’s way of testing the legal watersLast night I was flicking through a dating app. One guy stood out: “Henry VIII, 34, King of England, nonmonogamy”. Next thing I know, I am at a candlelit bar sharing a martini with the biggest serial dater of the 16th century.But the night is not over. Next, I am DJing back-to-back with Diana, Princess of Wales. “The crowd’s ready for the drop,” she shouts in my ear, holding a headphone to her tiara. Finally, Karl Marx is explaining why he can’t resist 60% off, as we wait in the cold to get first dibs on Black Friday sales. Continue reading...

Events

2 h. ago Bank of England’s top economist calls for ‘more cautious’ interest rate cuts

Huw Pill, chief economist at the Bank, said in a speech in London that he ‘would expect further cuts’ in the coming year.

Economics

3 h. ago Most athletes have chosen to ‘shut up and dribble’ over Gaza | Nathan Kalman

Only a handful of North American athletes have spoken out against Israel’s assault on Gaza, a silence shaped by fear, sponsorship and the policing of speech“I will not just shut up and dribble I get to sit up here and talk about what’s really important.” So proclaimed LeBron James in 2018 when confronted with the question of whether athletes have the right to speak about the political and social justice questions of their time.Yet since 7 October 2023, elite athletes in North America have had startlingly little to say about what most human rights groups in the world, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and the United Nations have characterized as Israel’s genocide in Gaza (a situation currently in flux due to a mutually agreed upon ceasefire and prisoner exchange).Nathan Kalman-Lamb is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick. Derek Silva is Professor of Sociology and Criminology at King’s University College at Western University. They are ...

Politics

4 h. ago Brian O'Driscoll speech hijacked by crowd amid shouts of 'shame on you'

The former rugby player was speaking at an event held in Dublin on Thursday

Politics

4 h. ago Cooper Flagg can’t escape the ghost of the Great White Hope | Lee Escobedo

From Jack Johnson to Larry Bird, American sport has grappled with the racial myth of the Great White Hope. Now the Mavericks’ new phenom, 18-year-old Cooper Flagg, inherits the mantle – whether he wants it or notEvery time Jack Johnson’s big Black fists smashed into a white fighter’s face, he wasn’t just breaking the bones of his opponents, but the spirit of White America. Blow after blow after blow. Out of this shame, a mythos was born. One after another, white fighters propped up like scarecrows. One after another, collapsing. As cultural critic Gerald Early has argued, Johnson’s fights became less about sport and more about the drama of race in America, with every knockout symbolizing a direct challenge to white supremacy. For the next 100 years, across multiple sports, whites have tried to find the next champion to return them to glory. This myth-making even inspired Howard Sackler’s Pulitzer-winning play The Great White Hope.In basketball, figures like Jerry West and “Pistol” P...

Events

4 h. ago Sebastian Rochford: Finding Ways review | John Fordham's jazz album of the month

(Edition)Rochford showcases his signature alchemic touch, featuring seven electric guitarists in a fusion of improv, reggae and romantic popWhen Aberdeen-raised drummer and composer Sebastian Rochford’s star rose around the millennium, he quickly made an impact with his precocious and inclusive awareness of 1950-1960s Monk-and-Miles jazz grooves, rock, funk, global music and more. From 2002, Rochford’s unique sax-led quintet Polar Bear began earning nominations for Mercury, Mobo and Urban Music prizes, as well as the kind of fame rare in instrumental jazz. He also played key roles with Acoustic Ladyland, Basquiat Strings, Fulborn Teversham, Sons of Kemet, and as a sideman with Damon Albarn, Brian Eno and Adele.Finding Ways follows 2023’s A Short Diary (a duo album in partnership with pianist Kit Downes) in dealing with the death in 2019 of Rochford’s beloved poet father Gerard. The title of Finding Ways is no accident: this sharply contrasting record features edgy, metal sounds from...

Politics

5 h. ago Schoolboy, 15, cried 'I'm dying' after being stabbed 11 times outside pub as girl knifed

A man ran into a pub and shouted 'two kids have been stabbed outside' after a 15-year-old boy was knifed 11 times - the teenager's girlfriend, aged 14, was also stabbed in the chest during the incident

Events

7 h. ago Big Brother star reveals what fans don't see on camera including eviction night detail

EXCLUSIVE: Big Brother legend Nicola McLean has lifted the lid of what happens on eviction nights and confirms if the housemates can hear the crowd of fans outside

Politics

12 h. ago MARK ALMOND: Will Gen Z heroine Diana's Swan Lake protest spark a new Russian revolution that topples Putin?

Seeing a crowd of young people protesting against the war in Ukraine in the heart of St Petersburg on Wednesday will have sent an unfamiliar chill down Vladimir Putin 's spine.

Politics

14 h. ago Trump touts slavery icon as Vance whitewashes racist texts. These guys aren’t saying quiet part out loud — they’re shouting

No one asked the president about Robert E. Lee, it just rolled off his tongue, and his No. 2 used whataboutism to take a pass on denouncing blatantly racist statements. It’s not a good look for the Republican Party, writes John Bowden

Politics

19 h. ago Church of Norway says sorry to LGBTQ+ people for ‘shame, great harm and pain’

Presiding bishop Olav Fykse Tveit says discrimination and harassment should ‘never have happened’Against a backdrop of red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway apologised for the discrimination and harm it had inflicted.“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, said on Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why I apologise today.” Continue reading...

Politics

20 h. ago Mother, 34, who died along with her newborn baby after opting for home birth against medical advice shouted 'I am a warrior!' as she struggled to deliver her daughter

Jennifer Cahill, 34, an international export manager, had made it clear she wanted a completely 'physiological' birth for baby Agnes Lily, with no drugs and minimal outside interference.

Events

21 h. ago ‘We want to use this as a launchpad’: can A24 also conquer the world of theater?

Cultish indie studio behind hits such as Moonlight, Uncut Gems and Materialists has taken over a New York theatre for $10mOn a recent Saturday night in downtown Manhattan, a sold-out crowd at the Cherry Lane Theatre delighted in one of the most bizarre sights in recent New York stage memory: comedian Natalie Palamides, dressed as if in split screen – her left side bedecked in Y2K girl signifiers (butterfly clips, low-rise jeans), her right in bro clothes (cargo pants, flannel) – barreling across the stage and tangling with herself. In her one-woman show Weer, the Los Angeles-based clown plays two halves of a toxic relationship over three late-90s years, flipping between perspectives with the velocity of a spinning top.The show is difficult to describe and perhaps more difficult to market, as well as gloriously unhinged and riotously funny – a bold gambit for a performer, as well as for the new Cherry Lane, the West Village staple recently renovated and reopened by A24. The film dist...

Politics

22 h. ago Even from India, Shane Lowry can't resist final dig at USA Ryder Cup crowd

The Irishman took the opening-round lead at the first DP World India Championship playing alongside fellow Europe stars, and couldn't help have a pop at the Ryder Cup's controversial New York crowd

Politics

22 h. ago Rebekah Campbell killer shouts 'little tramp' as he's jailed for life for murder

Michael Ormandy, 34, was jailed for life for the murder of 32-year-old Rebekah Campbell at her flat in Huyton, Merseyside - he shouted insults in court as he was sent down

Events

24 h. ago Evil killer shouts 'little rat' and 'little tramp' as he's jailed for life for murdering ex

Evil Michael Ormandy burst into Rebekah Campbell's flat wearing a bulletproof vest and knifed her 27 times in a brutal attack before threatening her relatives when he was found guilty of her murder

Events

24 h. ago Murderer shouts 'little tramp' and 'little rat' as he's jailed for life for killing girlfriend

Michael Ormandy, 34, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Rebekah Campbell

Events

25 h. ago Katie Price reveals the reason she hasn't reported the British celebrity she claims raped her to the police after stunning crowd with emotional on

The glamour model, 47, stunned a crowd of fans when she named the British TV star during her An Evening with Katie Price And Kerry Katona tour on Tuesday night.

Events

26 h. ago Pope Leo urges world leaders to end ‘historic offence’ of hunger

Pontiff condemns use of hunger as a weapon of war during visit to UN Food and Agriculture Organization in RomePope Leo has made an urgent appeal to global leaders to end world hunger, saying in a speech to a UN agency that allowing millions to go without food each day represented “an ethical derailment”.In a visit to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) headquarters in Rome, the pontiff also condemned the use of hunger as a weapon of war, without naming specific conflicts or countries. Continue reading...

Politics