28 h. ago Digested week: Magic Circle and life in the Vatican return to our psyche

Disappearances of a school and handbag of head of Homeland Security past the Secret Service remain unexplainedI did what a lot of people did on hearing news of the death of Pope Francis on Monday: I watched Conclave. The Oscar nominated movie, adapted from the Robert Harris novel, unpacks the process of electing a new pope and between Sunday and Monday, it enjoyed a 283% surge in streaming figures. I’d like to say it deepened my understanding of life in the Vatican, but the truth is it just made me wish we could have Ralph Fiennes for pope, while reminding me – I’m not alone in this – that we’ve seen quite enough of Stanley Tucci for the time being. Continue reading...

Politics

67 h. ago JD Vance asked what it’s like being one of the last people to see Pope alive: ‘I’ve thought a lot about that’

‘I was lucky that I got to shake his hand and tell him that I pray for him every day,’ said the vice president

Politics

3 d. ago Pete Hegseth has surrounded himself with people who ‘don’t have his interests at heart’ as Pentagon infighting escalates

‘A lot of people [are] trying to assert dominance in an area where it’s very hard to do without cutting somebody else’

Politics

6 d. ago ‘I butt heads with my family nearly every day’: Australians who have grown up in the family business

Three owners – from a gelato maker to a memorial mason – share what it’s like carrying on the family tradeFamily businesses account for about 70% of Australian businesses, which means a lot of people’s colleagues are also their flesh and blood. While there can be additional stress when working with your parents, siblings and children, there’s also the opportunity for collaboration, creative expression and tradition. Here, three business owners share the journey of joining the family trade and what they have learned in the process. Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago Final proof that party I once loved is hopelessly out of touch, writes PROFESSOR JO PHOENIX

I could see then that, on the issue of trans rights, my party had lost the plot. It had veered so wildly from what I felt was right - and frankly what the vast majority of the public feels is right.

Society

7 d. ago ‘Marriage feels like a hostage situation, and motherhood a curse’: Japanese author Sayaka Murata

The Convenience Store Woman author is renowned for challenging social norms in darkly weird near-future fiction. She discusses sex, feminism and her struggles to be an ‘ordinary earthling’“I have had relationships with humans, but I’ve also loved a lot of people in stories,” Sayaka Murata, the Japanese author of the bestseller Convenience Store Woman, confides a few minutes into our interview. “I’ve been told by my doctor not to talk about this too much, but ever since I was a child, I’ve had 30 or 40 imaginary friends who live on a different star or planet with whom I have shared love and sexual experiences.”It is 7pm in Tokyo, mid-morning in London. Sitting upright at a desk in an empty publisher’s office, the 45-year-old author – wearing a cream silk blouse and with a neatly curled bob – might be reading the news rather than discussing imaginary friends. For context, her latest novel to be translated into English, Vanishing World, depi...

Events

8 d. ago Stuck on repeat: NHL’s playoff format keeps delivering déjà vu matchups

From Kings v Oilers to Leafs v Bruins, the league’s divisional structure has turned once-thrilling postseason clashes into stale reruns. Is it time for a change?“It’s the stupidest thing ever.” This was Washington Capitals’ forward Daniel Winnik’s review in 2017 of the NHL’s still (somewhat) new playoff format. Three seasons earlier, along with realigning its divisions, the NHL had abandoned it’s previous, simple playoff arrangement. For 20 years, the top eight teams from each conference qualified for the playoffs, with the first-placed team playing the eighth-placed team, the second-placed team played the seventh, and so on. “I don’t know why it’s not one to eight,” Winnik said. “I don’t know why we got away from that.” A lot of people are still asking the same question.On Sunday, as the NHL locked in its first Western conference playoff matchup, confirming that the Dallas Stars will face the Colorado Avalanche, some fans took to online forums to both celebrate and lament. “Anybody...

Politics

9 d. ago Max Verstappen responds to Red Bull F1 exit speculation: ‘A lot of people are talking’

The four-time world champion has been linked with a move to Mercedes and Aston Martin

Politics

9 d. ago How RFK Jr’s mixed messages on vaccines are impacting scientific research – podcast

As a measles outbreak expands across the US, comments by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr have come under scrutiny. Kennedy has said that the best way to prevent measles is to get vaccinated – but he has also caused alarm among paediatricians, vaccine experts and lawmakers by promoting vitamin A and nutrition as treatments for measles and questioning the safety testing of the MMR vaccine. He also recently announced a US-led scientific effort to establish the cause of what he terms the ‘autism epidemic’, with some experts concerned that this study will support the widely discredited association between autism and vaccines. US health reporter Jessica Glenza tells Ian Sample, the Guardian’s science editor, how these mixed messages are already impacting scientific research.RFK Jr says his response to measles outbreak should be ‘model for the world’RFK Jr contradicts experts by linking autism rise to ‘environmental toxins’ Continue reading...

Science

1 week ago Peter Andre takes action as role in Jamaican gangster movie sparks fierce backlash

The trailer for new movie Jafaican has been released and it's safe to say that people have a lot to say about Peter Andre's latest role and the singer's attempt at a Jamaican accent

Events

1 week ago 'Remarkable' teenager died after fatal motorbike crash, inquest hears

Patrick Sawicki's mum described the 18-year-old as an "amazing friend to a lot of people"

Events

1 week ago The Balcony Movie review – funny/sad film that offers a view into strangers’ lives

Pawel Lozinski’s documentary collects conversations with passers-by he talks to from the window of his Warsaw flatPolish film-maker Pawel Lozinski has curated this amusing, cumulatively melancholy documentary which he has shot from the first-floor balcony in his flat in the Saska Kępa district of Warsaw. Over a number of years, and with a microphone discreetly attached to the chainlink fence at street level, he simply calls down to people going past and asks them to stop and talk about something, anything.There are a lot of dog-walkers and people with babies; most people smile or grimace politely and say they are not special enough to be featured in a film. A priest says he can’t talk because he is carrying the Holy Sacrament. Others obligingly talk: one woman sings a rather beautiful song, a man talks about being homeless, having just got out of prison. People confide their sadness at the loss of a loved one, though one woman sheepishly confesses her profound happiness that her abu...

Culture

1 week ago Severance’s John Turturro on fans getting ‘intimate’ tattoos of him: ‘I don’t want to look at that’

“A lot of people have tattoos of me on intimate parts of their body and they sometimes want to show them to me.”

Politics

3 w. ago Where is our Tiananmen square ‘Tank Man’ who can stand up to Trump? | Corey Robin

The reason we don’t see that person is because we’re asking the wrong questionEveryone’s waiting for that one person to stand up to Donald Trump. Not just that one person. There are a lot of such people. You can read about them in every newspaper. But that one person with real power who’s willing to risk something costly in defiance. That one university president who’ll say, fuck you and your money. That one Democrat who’ll say, fuck you and your threat to my re-election or that of my party. Everyone’s looking for our Tank Man, staring down a column of tanks, all by himself, in Tiananmen Square.Why don’t we see that person? Where is our Tank Man? (And, no, I don’t think Cory Booker doing a marathon-length filibuster counts.)When you’re thinking of becoming a hero, you feel like a slob. You feel, do you really have a right to do that?Corey Robin is the author of The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump and a contributing editor at Jacobin. This piece origi...

Politics

3 w. ago Jessie J reveals how string of heartbreaking health woes 'kept her balanced'

The 37-year-old singer was at Advertising Week Europe in London on Wednesday when she discussed her health woes, which included a heart disease, a stroke and a miscarriage

Politics

3 w. ago PETER HITCHENS: Britain's police forces are a pathetic failure and a dark menace to our society. This is my plan to finally fix the problem

We pay these people, and we pay them a lot, as your council tax bill will tell you if you look. So why do they treat us as a nuisance and worse?

Events

3 w. ago Jessie J opens up on health issues as she says 'I've lost a lot of people'

The Price Tag singer, 37, has battled with ill health throughout her life

Politics

3 w. ago Jessie J says health troubles kept her ‘balanced’ ahead of new music launch

The Price Tag singer, 37, has battled with ill health throughout her life.

Events

3 w. ago Who is Alexander Dugin? ‘Putin’s brain’ who just endorsed Donald Trump

The ultra-nationalist says Trump’s America has a lot more in common with Putin’s Russia than most people think

Politics

3 w. ago What to see in Scotland in 2025: The 25 “Best sights for tourists” according to Scotsman readers

Scotland is on a lot of people’s bucket lists and if that includes you then these are the incredible Scottish locations you have to check out - as recommended by our Scotsman readers.

Politics