36 h. ago On a sunny day, my ex came to the hair salon where I worked – and shot me at close range

Rachel Williams says domestic violence is a ‘national emergency’. After she survived her ex’s final attack, her traumatised teenage son took his own life, and she began campaigning to end the terrible cycle of abuseIt was a sunny Friday in August when Rachel Williams arrived at the hair salon where she worked in Newport, Wales. As she was shuffling clients around, she remembers “looking at the shop door or window and thinking something was obscuring the sunlight”. She quickly recognised her ex-husband Darren’s 6ft 7in frame, and instinctively ran towards him as he pulled a sawn-off shotgun out of his black duffel bag.She fought him for the gun and was soon on the floor beside a woman in her 90s called Connie, who was shouting: “Go on, get out of here, get out of here.” (“She was in the war, so made of steel.”) Rachel tried to pull a table across herself for protection but Darren kicked it away. Instead, she rolled into the foetal position, pulling her knees up under her chin. “He st...

Politics

5 d. ago ‘How is this possible?’: a new film looks inside the appalling abuses of the Alabama prison system

In the year’s most shocking documentary The Alabama Solution, prisoners share astonishing footage in a plea for helpWhen film-makers Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman visited Alabama’s Easterling prison in 2019, they found a deceptively pleasant scene. Like Alabama’s 13 other prisons, Easterling largely prohibits media access, but allowed the documentarians to film its annual volunteer-run barbecue, a sunny day in which incarcerated men, most of them Black, ate fresh roasts to live music and sermons. On camera, men danced and smiled. But off camera, many more told a different story – horrific beatings, unreported stabbings, unimaginable violence swept under the rug and appalling conditions that “ain’t fit for human society”. Cries for help emerged from inside the sweltering, filthy dorms. When Jarecki approached the voices, a prison official shut down filming, claiming that it was unsafe for him to speak to the men without a police chaperone.“It was very clear that there were are...

Events

6 d. ago Winter is coming: England’s cricketers fly out for long tour that will decide Ashes and World Cup

Four decades ago Mike Gatting lamented 30-game schedule and while improvements were made, players will be weary of gruelling season aheadA meteorologist would say that England’s winter will start this year at midnight on 1 December; an astronomer would point a few weeks later to the 21st, perhaps even the moment at precisely 3.03pm when the northern hemisphere is tilted furthest away from the sun, the least sun-kissed moment of its least sunny day. But a cricket fan might go a little earlier, perhaps as soon as next Saturday at about 7.15am. Leaves might still be clinging to trees as yet unbothered by frost, but that is when the national side is scheduled to play its first fixture of a hectic touring schedule, and by the time it all ends the Ashes will have been decided, a World Cup will have been won, and it will be spring.For the players involved in all formats, these moments will bring a combination of excitement and perhaps also a bit of dread. The T20 squad departed for New Zea...

Politics

6 d. ago California man accused of threatening to kill conservative influencer Benny Johnson by strangling him with a US flag

The threats allegedly made against podcaster Benny Johnson were made days after his close friend, TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk, was shot and killed

Events

2 w. ago 'Salon quality' £18 hair dryer on Amazon that is 'as good as expensive brands'

Save 46 percent on a popular hair dryer compared much pricier brands.

Economics

3 w. ago ‘Monochrome is a way of finding poetry in everyday life’: Mélissa David’s best phone picture

Strangers passing by an image of a girl holding balloons gave the French photographer an opportunity to play with shadowsThe public square in front of Paris’s city hall was undergoing construction work when Mélissa David took this photograph as she passed by en route to an appointment. She had taken her camera along in the hope of taking some pictures, but when she realised she had forgotten to charge the batteries, she used her phone instead.“It seemed like an ordinary sunny day in Paris, the city full of busy people,” the French photographer recalls. “There were these big panels with images printed on them installed in front of the city hall to shield some of the building work. The light was beautiful, and I wanted to capture the strong shadows of these strangers passing by around the girl with the balloons.” Continue reading...

Politics