2 d. ago Looking for a job? Who you know probably matters more than what you know | Zoe Williams

Forget polishing your CV – you’re better off working on your connections. That’s the depressing reality when every vacancy attracts thousands of applications, all written by AIIt’s only when you meet a couple of people who have just landed a job that you realise how long it’s been since you heard of that happening. I was chatting to two nearly-graduates last week, who both had something to go on to, and fair play, they were chemists, and I’ve never met one of those before. It’s possible they always saunter into work.The story you hear far more often from graduates is that it’s a wasteland – that every new post has 2,000 applications, all identical because they’re AI-generated anyway, and it’s an AI bot that reads the damn things, so it wouldn’t be able to tell a personal touch even if there was one. Applying for work is like throwing your hat into a ring that’s on fire: your chances of success are mythically small and your hat – or, if you prefer, your self-esteem – will be destroye...

Politics

1 week ago JD Vance’s old tweets show why the ‘Epstein client list’ is becoming such a problem for Trump

Trumpworld is trying to put out the flames JD Vance was happy to fan before it was his job to be the authority on the matter, writes John Bowden

Politics

1 week ago Sabrina Carpenter may be ‘highly sexualised’ – but that’s not what is most provocative about her | Zoe Williams

The superstar singer is being used in an argument about sex, pornography, the male gaze, female desire and blond hair that has been going on since before her grandmother was born. Meanwhile, her autonomy is overlookedThere are some hot takes on feminism that it’s better to bow out of when this isn’t your first rodeo. The reveal of Sabrina Carpenter’s album cover, which landed last month, was such an event. The photograph shows Carpenter on her hands and knees, with her hair being pulled by (presumably, as you couldn’t see his face) a man. The Daily Mail reported that “over-sexed Sabrina Carpenter” had been “roasted by fans” for her “highly sexualised and provocative album art”.Could we prove that she wasn’t being criticised by people who hated her already, while her fans understood something different from “sexualisation” and were not provoked? Never mind. When you are in the business of slating young women, the onus isn’t upon you to explain what the problem is, or whether it’s you...

Politics

2 w. ago Bored mums in clothes shops of the world unite! Together we could be unstoppable | Zoe Williams

We lock eyes while shepherding unruly, ungrateful teens in and out of changing rooms but don’t speak a word. This needs to changeIf there is a solidarity on Earth tighter than “bored middle-aged mothers in a clothes shop”, I don’t know what it is. Whether in Primark, Urban Outfitters or H&M, the crowd is always the same: some teens are in gangs and they are having a fine old time; others, sometimes in sibling pairs, are with their mum, presumably because they have yet to find a way to detach her from her credit card. It’s like that bit in an action movie where you need a guy’s fingerprint to open a vault, so you cut off his arm, except, regrettably, in this case, they have to take the entire body.Some of us are too hot; others are too embarrassing to be believed and have been told that multiple times between each clothes rack. But the main thing we have in common is that we are all incredibly bored. It’s one of those things about youth that I don’t miss at all, along with p...

Politics

3 w. ago You're using plasters WRONG! First aid myth is triggering nasty infections, doctor warns

Dr Zoe Williams, an NHS GP working in London and resident doctor for ITV 's This Morning, warned of the 'biggest mistake' that people make when it comes to wearing plasters.

Events

3 w. ago ITV This Morning's Dr Zoe Williams says people using plasters wrong

The resident GP has also cleared up whether you are supposed to pick scabs

Politics

3 w. ago Some people can wear white clothes. I am very much not one of them | Zoe Williams

My talent for attracting coffee stains and mud splatters brings misery to my friends – especially the ones who lend me their pristine white shirtsI have a friend who curates her wardrobe pretty carefully – there’s nothing in it she doesn’t wear – and consequently she gives, sells or lends me a lot of things, and her taste is nonpareil so I never say no. Maybe one item in 10 is white, which unleashes dismay: she has to watch while I stain a pair of cream jeans she has kept pristine for five years, as fast as you can say, “Ooh, what’s this delicious salad dressing?”Once, I splashed mud all the way up the back of a skirt she’d given me while she was cycling behind me, saying, “We’ve really got to get you some mudguards if you want to wear white.” Once, I got Tabasco sauce on her white bra, which was fine because who would see it? And yet, not fine, because how do you get sauce on your bra? Once, I spilled espresso down a white shirt, and that ain’t never coming out – but it actually wa...

Politics