5 d. ago How Jac Morgan became a Lions captaincy contender even in a team that loses every week

In June, as the sun shone in Port Talbot and Aberavon's players gathered for the first time ahead of the new season, a surprising face appeared at the team meeting.

Politics

6 d. ago Annie & the Caldwells: Can’t Lose My (Soul) review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(Luaka Bop)Forty years into their career, this family band deliver their debut – and it’s a life-affirming album full of spontaneity and seemingly telepathic harmonisingThe saga of Annie & the Caldwells’ debut album is lengthy and convoluted. The record probably wouldn’t have existed at all had crate-digging record collectors not chanced upon Waiting for the Trumpet to Sound, a 1974 single by gospel group the Staples Jr Singers, released on a Mississippi label so obscure that only one copy has ever been sold on Discogs. It came to the attention of Greg Belson, a British-born, LA-based soul DJ, who has carved out a niche playing recherché dancefloor-friendly gospel (if you want to hear the Lord’s praises being sung amid the sweatily hedonistic environs of Glastonbury’s gay club NYC Downlow, then he’s your go-to guy). He included its B-side on a 2019 compilation, The Time for Peace is Now: Gospel Music About Us.The song’s author, Annie Caldwell, has recalled receiving “a call from...

Politics

6 d. ago The moment Kim Kardashian lost HUGE diamond while attending $600m wedding of couple she'd never even met

Kim Kardashian somehow managed to lose a massive diamond at an incredibly lavish wedding on this week's episode of The Kardashians.

Politics

3 w. ago Musk says all federal employees must answer email about what they did last week — or lose their jobs

The emails require federal employees to respond by 11:59 p.m. Monday, according to reports

Society

3 w. ago Trump is the world’s greatest showman – and the weakest strongman it has ever seen | Jonathan Freedland

His capitulation to Putin over Ukraine reveals a pattern. He’s the patsy: giving everything away, getting little in returnHe parades as a strongman, but in fact he’s weak, weak, weak. In the face of America’s adversaries Donald Trump is, as he might put it, a patsy, a sucker, a pushover. He folds like a pack of cards. He’s a human doormat. A loser.Just consider the gifts he has handed Vladimir Putin this week. He has brought Russia in from the diplomatic cold after three years of ostracism following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, whose anniversary is nearly upon us. Sergei Lavrov, Putin’s foreign minister, was meant to be persona non grata; he remains under international sanctions. Nevertheless, this week in Riyadh he met Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, in so-called peace talks.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Gordon Ramsay loses £2,000 in a week after guests steal 500 cat figures from new restaurant

Celebrity chef is having his own kitchen nightmare at new London eatery

Economics

4 w. ago EastEnders loses out to rival soap as 40th anniversary week episodes air

EastEnders has been pipped to the post as the best British soap of all time, according to Betway, as the show is in full swing with its 40th anniversary episodes.

Politics