57 m. ago Geoff Dyer: ‘I don’t go to books for comfort; I have a memory foam pillow for that’

The author on Marxist revelations, returning to Don DeLillo and reading all of Elizabeth TaylorMy earliest reading memory Beatrix Potter when I was having my tonsils out. No point saying how much I loved her books because everyone does, but Roberto Calasso makes a brilliant point in The Celestial Hunter by pairing “two great moments in the Victorian age” when Darwin “linked human beings to primates” and Potter “distributed human behaviour among a certain number of small domestic and rural animals”.My favourite book growing up The Guns of Navarone. My first Alistair MacLean, the first of about 20 before I grew out of him at the age of 15. They were thrilling and addictive and it was possible, while reading, to visualise every scene so clearly (helped in part by the scene-enacting photos on the covers of the Fontana editions). Continue reading...

Politics

58 m. ago Bible's plague of locusts explained as scientists discover horrifying truth

Tel Aviv University researchers may have solved an age-old mystery recorded in the Bible - the reason behind locusts forming devastating swarms that have been destroying crops and causing famines since ancient times

Politics

58 m. ago Pheobe Bishop search finds 'human remains' as cops arrest her housemates over murder

Police have announced that 'human remains' have been found during the search for missing teenager Pheobe Bishop, who went missing last month, who her housemates arrested over murder

Events

70 m. ago Pheobe Bishop UPDATES: Human remains found in search for missing teenage girl

Police searching for missing teenager Pheobe Bishop have found a body - it comes hours after her two roommates faced court on murder charges

Events

89 m. ago Missing Steve McFadden at Soap Awards explained by EastEnders co

Adam Woodyatt was on hand to collect his EastEnders co-star Steve McFadden's much-deserved win at the British Soap Awards after the Phil Mitchell actor was missing

Events

1 hour ago Human rights laws need 'tightening,' says Cabinet minister amid Tory move to quit ECHR to cut immigration

Environment Secretary Steve Reed’s comments came as the head of the Council of Europe, whose role includes promoting human rights, argued the ECHR needed to be ‘adapted’ for the modern world

Politics

2 h. ago ‘He threatened my career’: 22 actors who didn’t get along with their directors

Adam White lists just some of the times actors and directors couldn’t stand each other

Events

2 h. ago Three giant ‘doomsday fish’ wash up in one week, but harbinger of calamity a damp squib, say experts

After one oarfish was found in Tasmania, two were discovered in New Zealand, but there is no evidence of link between sightings and natural disaster, say scientistsBad luck comes in threes, according to the saying. And this week three ethereal oarfish, nicknamed “the doomsday fish”, have washed up on the shores of Australia and New Zealand.Two headless specimens were found near Dunedin and Christchurch on New Zealand’s South Island, following the discovery of an oarfish on Tasmania’s west coast on Monday.Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter Continue reading...

Politics

2 h. ago Fears new coronavirus found in China 'one step away' from infecting humans

A team of researchers from Washington State University fear the newly-discovered HKU5-CoV-2 coronavirus found in China could mutate enough to cause a pandemic

Science

2 h. ago Chess: Carlsen targets last classical hurrah at Stavanger after defeat against Gukesh

The world No 1 can still win the event in Norway but he says: ‘It’s a long time since I enjoyed a classical tournament’Magnus Carlsen’s shock loss to Gukesh Dommaraju was the world No 1’s first classical defeat by a classical world champion since he lost to Vishy Anand 15 years ago at the 2010 London Classic. It spoilt what should have been a winning position for him at Stavanger, where he was poised to break clear of the field. There are now suggestions that this will be Carlsen’s farewell appearance in classical. He told Take Take Take: “It’s a long time since I enjoyed a classical tournament.”Meanwhile, though, Carlsen could go out on a high on Friday afternoon when he and Gukesh fight for first prize in the final round at Stavanger (4pm start), with Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana also still in contention. Continue reading...

Events

3 h. ago Foraged mushrooms, fatal doses and food binges: the week Erin Patterson told her story to triple murder trial

Accused told court the moment she realised she could be blamed for harming her in-laws came before they even diedAustralia news live: latest politics updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastIn Erin Patterson’s telling, the moment she realised she could be blamed for harming her in-laws came before they even died.According to evidence Patterson gave at her triple-murder trial this week, she was in a Monash hospital room alone with her estranged husband, Simon, after their two children had left to buy food from a vending machine, when he asked her: “Is that how you poisoned my parents, using that dehydrator?”Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...

Events

4 h. ago Noblewoman may have ordered brazen murder of priest outside St Paul’s in 1337

Historian mapping medieval murders has evidence John Ford’s stabbing was revenge hit by impenitent ex-loverAlmost 700 years ago, in a busy London street in the shadow of St Paul’s Cathedral, a priest called John Ford was brazenly stabbed to death in a crime notable both for its public nature and its ferocity.It was early evening, just after vespers on 4 May 1337, and the street in Westcheap would have been bustling with passersby. In full view of them all, one man sliced Ford’s throat with an anelace, a foot-long dagger, while two others used long knives to stab him in the belly. Was someone trying to make a very public example of the victim? Continue reading...

Events

5 h. ago ‘She lived without fear’: daughter of Chechen activist publishes book she vowed to pen after mother’s murder

Lana Estemirova promised to tell story of her mother, a renowned human rights activist. This month it is publishedLana Estemirova was 15 in 2009, when her mother, the renowned Chechen human rights activist Natalia Estemirova, was kidnapped and murdered. Bundled into a car as she walked to the bus stop on her way to work, she was driven out of town and then shot five times in the chest and head.The killing was widely seen as retribution for Estemirova’s fearless investigations of extrajudicial murders, kidnappings and human rights abuses in Chechnya, first by Russian soldiers and then by forces loyal to the Kremlin-appointed warlord, Ramzan Kadyrov. Nobody was ever prosecuted for the crime. Continue reading...

Events

7 h. ago Australia mushroom trial live: Erin Patterson did not tell anyone about realisation foraged mushrooms may have been in lunch meal, court hears

Victorian woman, 50, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and one of attempted murder after a fatal beef wellington lunch in Leongatha in 2023. Follow livePatterson denies telling ex-partner she had important medical news she wanted advice onRogers says Simon gave evidence that on 16 July 2023 – two weeks prior to the lunch – Patterson approached him after a church service and said she had some important medical news she wanted advice on and how to break it to the children. Continue reading...

Events

7 h. ago My sister is unhappy with her life but does nothing to change it. What can I do? | Leading questions

Is your sister saving up her complaints just for you, advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith asks. Perhaps your listening is exactly the help she needsRead more Leading questionsI love my sister dearly. However, we could not be more different. I approach things head on: if something is a problem, I start working on it. She, on the other hand, is very passive. For the last 10 years three issues have been bothering her – her weight, her marriage and her dissatisfaction with her job. But she does nothing about any of them.I tried to help her in many different ways: direct advice – she gets offended and feels judged. Then I tried “tiptoeing” around her. For each suggestion, she always has an excuse why it won’t work. Additionally, she often has a victim complex, as if things are just happening to her and that she has no personal agency. Continue reading...

Politics

8 h. ago I suspect there's something poisonous about money. That’s why I’m embracing a gift economy | Kelley Swain

A slow and gentle lifestyle is possible; it’s just not sold to us, so it is harder to listen out forGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailI’ve heard from a very wise friend that something she hadn’t previously considered, which she read in my “tiny house” article, was that the housing market requires most people to be in debt. It’s been a strangely positive experience to come to the concept of “economics” through living my life as a poet, novelist and medical journalist, because it allows me to critique things that might otherwise go unnoticed. Another very wise friend told me that her husband went to university to study economics, was told on day one that the entire model is built on a concept of infinite growth, and he quit to become a gardener. No wonder we’re friends.The first book of economics I read was The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer. The point of this beautifully written, small book (a long essay, really) is that different concepts of “economies” exist – we need...

Economics

9 h. ago Mahmoud Khalil details psychological pain and reputational harm in new legal filings: ‘Efforts to erase my humanity’

Columbia student responds to ‘attacks’ from administration as federal judge considers his release from detention.

Science

9 h. ago Beyoncé review – a hugely enjoyable concert that adds a ferocious potency to Cowboy Carter

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, LondonThe big hits might be truncated to make way for her latest, country-inflected album – but seen live, these songs sound like a powerful act of protestIt clearly hasn’t escaped Beyoncé’s notice that the meteorological omens auger ill for the first UK show of her Cowboy Carter tour. The weathermen are predicting a thunderstorm, the Tottenham Hotspur ground is noticeably lacking a roof, and she’s no sooner arrived onstage than she’s suggesting that the prospect of rain “ain’t gonna stop the party”.The thunderstorm never comes, but a cynic might suggest the glowering skies, and a sudden downpour – through which the singer will be required to fly on a giant neon-lit horseshoe – act as a kind of metaphor for the fortunes of the Cowboy Carter tour. It’s thus far attracted the usual laudatory reviews – such is the blanket critical acclaim for everything Beyoncé does, you rather get the feeling that were she spotted using a public convenience, there would be a...

Politics

10 h. ago Medieval cold case is SOLVED: Vengeful noblewoman had her priest lover murdered after 'betrayal' that forced her to do Game of Thrones

Records traced by an expert criminologist suggest the murder of John Forde in 1337 was orchestrated by her lover, noblewoman Ela Fitzpayne in revenge for his alleged betrayal.

Events

10 h. ago Kemi's human rights exodus: Badenoch to say she's ready to quit the ECHR in order to take back control of Britain's borders

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch will say today that she is 'increasingly of the view we need to leave' the Strasbourg Court to prevent activist judges frustrating attempts to deal with the migrant crisis.

Politics