67 m. ago Developing countries ‘need more debt relief’ to fund education and health

Research warns poorer governments prioritising debt payments over essential development spendingDeveloping countries need a fresh round of debt relief, to prevent money urgently needed for health and education being diverted to creditors, according to a major new report commissioned by the late Pope Francis.The Jubilee report, produced by a panel of experts chaired by Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, argues for debt restructuring, along the lines of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative (HIPC). Continue reading...

Economics

67 m. ago Arson, sex shops, livestreamed funerals: Wednesday’s Karly Hartzman on the wild stories in her southern gothic rock

Wednesday’s picaresque yarns have resulted in the alt-rock album of the year. At home in North Carolina, their leader explains why she likes things ‘a little bit scary’ – and what’s next after her split from bandmate MJ LendermanTo step into Karly Hartzman’s home is to see the contents of her brain shaken out. There is a fireplace mantel covered in dolls and figurines; a wooden rack filled with cassette tapes; an old doll’s house filled to the brim with fabric scraps; a few overflowing bookshelves. As the 28-year-old leader of the indie-rock band Wednesday greets me at the door, she realises a few new additions have just landed through the letterbox, some books about the history of hardcore and punk: she has been listening to both a lot and is eager to educate herself.Hartzman is a collector by nature, a habit that is also at the heart of her songwriting. Equally inspired by the southern rockers Drive-By Truckers and the shoegaze greats Swirlies, Wednesday’s sound combines heartfelt...

Politics

67 m. ago ‘Normal’ Cole Palmer assumes control of Chelsea’s attack from No 10

Modest 23-year-old still does not understand the fuss around him as he prepares to face Flamengo in the Club World CupCole Palmer sees himself as a normal kid. Strangers watch him with something close to fascination, though. What’s going on beneath the chilled exterior? The shrugging demeanour adds to the mystique. Kids copy the Chelsea attacker’s “cold” celebration. Interviewers walk away amused but bemused after spending time with him. What’s the story with those answers? Why are they all so short and sweet?The Philadelphia sun is beating down when Palmer mooches over for a quick chat at Subaru Park, where Chelsea are training before facing Flamengo in their second game at the Club World Cup on Friday. So, Cole, can you tell us why you walked out wearing a mask when the team plane landed in the US last week? Are you ill? Enzo Maresca, your manager, thinks you were playing a trick on everyone. Continue reading...

Events

68 m. ago 'I worried for her physical safety but the online world put her most in danger'

Adele Zeynep Walton's sister, Aimee, was one of 88 alleged deaths caused by Canadian national poison parcels. In her new book Logging Off, Walton calls for greater online safety to protect others

Politics

69 m. ago Homebuilders Berkeley Group announce ‘Rob the Builder’ as new executive chair to lead 10

Group reported pre-tax profits of more than £500m

Society

71 m. ago High street hit as retail sales slump in month after "awful April" bill hikes

Food stores saw a particularly big fall with volumes down by 5%

Economics

1 hour ago Brit woman missing after going for 'quick boat ride' as major search launched

According to local reports, friends of the unnamed 39-year-old British woman claimed that she failed to return the 15-foot motor boat she had hired yesterday evening as scheduled

Events

2 h. ago Map reveals London’s hottest and coolest boroughs as as temperatures hit 32C

Map reveals London’s hottest and coolest boroughs as as temperatures hit 32C  London Evening Standard

Events

3 h. ago I hope this is the last piece I ever have to write about assisted dying | Polly Toynbee

Today’s vote is on a knife edge. MPs must take their chance to drive forward personal freedoms – and add to Labour’s legacyMPs, read this horror before you vote today. Here’s how some people are slowly dying, right now, in mortal agony untreatable by the best palliative care: “Some will retch at the stench of their own body rotting. Some will vomit their own faeces. Some will suffocate, slowly, inexorably, over several days.” An average of 17 people a day are dying these bad deaths, according to 2019 figures, as reported by palliative care professionals who see it happen.The Inescapable Truth, a report from Dignity in Dying, revealed what is usually kept hidden from us: the shocking last months for the unluckiest. It could happen to you or me. The assisted dying bill’s final Commons vote today is no abstract debate about slippery slopes or what God wants: to do nothing is to inflict torture on many.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnistIn the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contact...

Events

3 h. ago Buy here now: Oasis to open series of merch stores before reunion gigs

Exclusive: first store opens in Spinningfields, Manchester, two weeks before band’s first gig in 16 years in CardiffWill the truce between the Gallagher brothers hold out? Will the most-hyped reunion in British rock history actually come off? And will fans be able to bag themselves an official Oasis tea towel?The answer to that final question, at least, has arrived. The first Oasis merchandise store will open in Manchester on Friday, two weeks before the band perform their first gig in 16 years at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. Continue reading...

Politics

3 h. ago ‘I don’t want my brother to just be a number’: How Netflix’s powerful Grenfell film sheds new light on the tragedy

As Netflix releases a powerful new documentary about the blaze that took 72 lives at Grenfell Tower in 2017, Hannah J Davies speaks to a man who lost a close relative in the fire, as well as the film’s director and a journalist who’s spent years reporting on the failures that led to the catastrophe

Politics

3 h. ago Searing heat this week made ‘100 times more likely’ by climate change – study

Temperatures had been forecast to hit 32C across the south east on Saturday and had already reached that level on Thursday in London.

Society

3 h. ago Food rations are halved in one of Africa's largest refugee camps after US aid cuts

More than 300,000 refugees in the Kakuma camp in remote Kenya have had their food rations cut in half

Events

3 h. ago 10 years after Europe's migration crisis, the fallout reverberates in Greece and beyond

Amena Namjoyan arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos as part of a migration crisis that would rock the European Union

Events

4 h. ago Fear and shock in Iran: ‘I’m constantly afraid a missile might hit my home’

Anahita, a Tehran resident in her 30s, tells of fleeing the city, surging inflation and her hopes for regime changeMiddle East crisis – live updatesThe greatest impact of this war is fear and anxiety. We don’t know whether this situation will last for weeks, months or even years. Our lives have been thrown off routine, I spend most of my time just reading the news. I’m constantly afraid that a missile might hit my home, my city or the homes of my relatives and friends in other places.I get the news from X and Instagram because we don’t have any reliable news networks and broadcasts that are not censored by the regime. We follow the updates through videos shared by people from different parts of the country on social media. The internet in Iran has become very slow and it was completely down yesterday [Wednesday]. Continue reading...

Events

4 h. ago ‘You’d never make Slumdog today’: Danny Boyle on risks, regrets and returning to the undead

In 28 Years Later, zombies maraud over a Britain broken by more than Brexit. Its director discusses cultural baggage, catastrophising – and why his kids’ generation is an ‘upgrade’The UK is a wasteland in Danny Boyle’s new film. Towns lie in ruins, trains rot on the rails and the EU has severed all ties with the place. Some residents are stuck in the past and congregate under the tattered flag of St George. The others flail shirtless through the open countryside, raging about nothing, occasionally stopping to eat worms. You wouldn’t want to live in the land that Boyle and the writer Alex Garland show us. Teasingly, on some level, the film suggests that we do.Boyle and Garland first prowled zombie Britain with their 2002 hit 28 Days Later. It was an electrifying piece of speculative fiction, a guerilla-style thriller about an unimaginable world. Since then we’ve had Brexit and Covid, and the looming threat of martial law in the US The story’s extravagant flights of fancy don’t feel s...

Events

4 h. ago Elon Musk savages White House 'snake' behind sinister move that led to First Buddy's fall out with Trump

Sergio Gor, who feuded with Musk during his time atf DOGE and reportedly killed Musk's preferred nominee for NASA administrator, is accused of not being vetted before taking the job.

Politics

4 h. ago Scots killer driver 'on the run' after breaking bail conditions

A devastated dad has spoken out after the drink-driver who killed his daughter in a Maserati supercar reportedly fled and is now wanted by police.

Events

6 h. ago Girl, 7, diagnosed with rare cancer dies in missile strike while in Israel for treatment

The family of seven-year-old Nastya Buryk were staying in Bat Yam in Israel while she underwent cancer treatment when their appartment block was hit by a missile

Events

7 h. ago Two iconic Strictly Come Dancing judges will appear on Celebrity Gogglebox 

Two iconic Strictly Come Dancing judges are set to appear on Celebrity Gogglebox.

Events