7 h. ago Israel's settler movement takes victory lap as a sparse outpost becomes a settlement within a month

Israeli settlers are celebrating the inauguration of a new settlement in the West Bank on land where Israel and the U.S. once hoped to build a hospital for Palestinian children

Politics

7 h. ago Palestinian refugees’ West Bank football pitch saved after Uefa president lobbies Israel

Ceferin, as well as Fifa, intervened with the Israeli FAAida facility was set to be removed by security forcesA football pitch used by refugees in the occupied West Bank has been saved from demolition after an intervention by the president of Uefa, Aleksander Ceferin.A decision to stop plans to remove the pitch in the Aida refugee camp outside Bethlehem was taken by Israeli security forces on Tuesday after an international campaign for its preservation. Continue reading...

Politics

32 h. ago Donald Trump needs helpers for his appalling neocolonialist project. What else is this ‘board of peace’? | Owen Jones

Blair, Putin, Erdoğan, Orbán: the names of those invited to serve say it all. And it's about so much more than GazaThe fate of the Palestinian people offers a warning about the future of humanity. When I recently visited the West Bank, Palestinians kept impressing the same point on me: Israel has turned their land into a laboratory. The technology of oppression that it has deployed – including in its genocide in Gaza – ranges from hi-tech surveillance to military drones and AI on the battlefield. These technologies have been exported to oppressive states across the world. And it doesn’t stop there.This brings us to Donald Trump’s “board of peace”, now set to rule Gaza. In the sleepy Oxfordshire village of Sutton Courtenay, where George Orwell lies buried, the ground itself ought to be shaking. This isn’t peace. It’s naked neocolonialism.Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Politics

43 h. ago ‘I was bullied in school for being different. At 16, I hit a crashing point’: the awkward kid who became the world’s strongest man

As a boy, Tom Stoltman was diagnosed with autism and bullied at school. When he became depressed in his teens, his older brother, a bodybuilder, suggested a trip to the gymTom Stoltman was a skinny kid: 90kg, 6ft 8in, with glasses and sticking‑out teeth. Diagnosed with autism as a young child, he felt he didn’t fit in. “I was really shy,” he says. “I got bullied in school for being different.” Back then, the boy from Invergordon didn’t like what he saw in the mirror. He lived in baggy hoodies. “Hood up. That was my comfort.” He loved football but “I used to look at people on the pitch and think, ‘He’s tinier than me, but he’s pushing me off the ball.’”By 16 he’d hit a “crashing point”. He went from football-obsessed to playing Xbox all day. He’d skip meals in favour of sweets. “Sometimes it was four or five, six bags.” Continue reading...

Events

51 h. ago Senegal win AFCON after football's most dramatic final: Morocco star misses late penalty that sparked walk

Senegal have won the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) with their 1-0 defeat of hosts Morocco after a dramatic final which saw head coach Pape Thiaw direct his players off the pitch in protest.

Sport

52 h. ago AFCON final descends into CHAOS as Senegal boss calls his team off the pitch after controversial late penalty is awarded to Morocco by VAR

Senegal head coach Pape Thiaw directed his players off the pitch and back onto the bench in apparent protest over a late penalty awarded to Morocco in the dying minutes of the AFCON final. 

Events

61 h. ago AFCON final stadium cost £200m and sparked outrage after four tournament games

A stadium selected to host the Africa Cup of Nations final proved to be controversial during the tournament as Senegal and Morocco prepare to battle for the trophy this weekend

Economics

65 h. ago AFCON final stadium cost £200m to build and caused outrage after just four games

A stadium chosen to host the Africa Cup of Nations final proved to be controversial

Economics

4 d. ago Palestinian committee set to govern Gaza under US supervision meets in Cairo

The Palestinian committee set to govern Gaza under U.S. supervision has met for the first time in Cairo and pledged to get to work quickly

Politics

4 d. ago A floating football pitch and a train evacuation: photos of the day – Friday

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world Continue reading...

Culture

6 d. ago ‘The settlers brought the violence’: the ethnic cleansing of a West Bank village

Ras ‘Ein al ‘Auja is a small community of about 135 families – and the only one remaining in this part of the Jordan valleyFive decades in the south Jordan valley were ending in a day, and Mahmoud Eshaq struggled to hold back his tears. The 55-year-old had not cried since he was a boy, but as he dismantled the family home and prepared to flee the village where his whole life had played out, he was overwhelmed by grief.While Eshaq’s children loaded mattresses, a fridge, sacks of flour and suitcases of clothes into a truck, masked soldiers escorted a teenage Israeli shepherd down the main village road, where he posed for photos on his donkey, flashing a V sign. Continue reading...

Events

7 d. ago FIFA urged to intervene as Israel prepares to demolish West Bank football field

The Israeli military often orders Palestinians to carry out demolitions themselves

Politics

9 d. ago Settler violence in the Jordan Valley expels Palestinians from one of the few towns left standing

Families from one of the few remaining Palestinian Bedouin villages in the dusty corridor between Ramallah and Jericho packed up and prepared to flee their homes Sunday, saying harassment by Jewish settlers living in unauthorized outposts nearby had grown unbearable

Events

9 d. ago Gareth Bale vs Gerwyn Price vs Mark Williams – How much Welsh sporting icons are really worth

Money is a big part of sport with many Welsh stars raking in the millions for their respective talents on the football pitch, oche and snooker table

Politics

1 week ago Video shows masked, armed men beating a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank

Dozens of masked men armed with sticks attacked a plant nursery and beat a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank

Events

1 week ago Lionel Messi reveals his VERY 'weird' favourite alcoholic drink

He's arguably the greatest player to ever set foot on a football pitch, an attacker who has - quite literally - won it all, but just how does Lionel Messi unwind?

Politics

2 w. ago Greta Thunberg came to stay – and my kid may have inadvertently helped her get arrested | Arwa Mahdawi

The activist had held a sign written with my daughter’s crayon. Try explaining that to a four-year-oldIt was 6am. London. A few days before Christmas. My four-year-old is singing at the top of her lungs and charging around my parents’ house on a hunt for the perfect crayon. There is nothing particularly unusual about this scene except for the fact that the crayon in question was for Greta Thunberg. The world’s most well-known activist needed a writing tool and my daughter, O, was on the case. (Remember this crayon: it’s going to be important later on.)O, I should note, had absolutely no idea who Greta was. We’re not longtime chums or anything like that. Rather Greta was in London to support the Palestine Action-linked hunger strikers. She needed somewhere to stay and my dad, who is a Palestinian refugee, and appreciative of anyone speaking up about the place where he was born but can’t return to live in, keeps an open house for activists who need a bed or a meal. When the visit had ...

Events

2 w. ago Multiple matches postponed after freezing conditions take hold across the UK

The widespread cold snap has resulted in 15 EFL matches being postponed in total

Politics

2 w. ago £130 for pitch view room at League One football club...but bosses insist curtains must be closed during the match!

Darren Dowling, 29, and his friend David Handling, 35, travelled to Blackpool excited to watch the League One side's derby match against Bolton Wanderers.

Economics

2 w. ago Palestinians watch as Israeli bulldozers claw down their West Bank homes

Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank watched as Israeli military bulldozers pulled down their homes as part of Israel’s nearly year-long incursion into northern refugee camps

Politics