65 h. ago From Sidemen to MrBeast: how YouTube and its creator economy took over TV

Stars and their high-quality content enable streamers and others to pull in younger audiencesFrom MrBeast creating the world’s most expensive reality TV show and Jake Paul’s record-breaking clash with Mike Tyson to the British supergroup Sidemen’s Netflix deal, YouTube’s superstar creators are taking over mainstream television.Last month Netflix launched the second series of Inside, the Sidemen’s reality show that was a hit when the first run of episodes premiered on YouTube. Continue reading...

Politics

67 h. ago Sculptor hopes to create world’s biggest cricket wickets from giant firs

Andy Burgess is using vast Douglas Firs for his world record attempt.

Politics

6 d. ago Major European location set to become the world's largest 'wooden city'

A major new architecture project is set to create the 'world's largest wooden city'. It has been designed as a five-minute city.

Politics

8 d. ago Meet the man who has created an exact replica of a First World War trench that has been visited by thousands... after building one by his BACK GARDEN

Ninety per cent bored stiff, nine per cent frozen stiff and one per cent scared stiff. That was - historian Andy Robertshaw says - the experience of most soldiers in WWI.

Events

8 d. ago The big picture: Sally Mann captures girls on the cusp of womanhood

For her classic series At Twelve, the American photographer created a collective portrait of adolescent girls, including world-weary Olivia pictured in her yardYou can see a whole world – submerged, waiting, ready to burst forth – in the face of any adolescent girl. In Sally Mann’s At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women, she captures this special, unstable time of life. In this image, a plaited-haired girl sits in a chair, head in hand like a world-weary grownup. This is Olivia, “with that ruined prayer in her eyes”, as Mann describes her. In the background, a phalanx of dark trousers hangs from two washing lines that cut across the image and lead our gaze towards her grandmother, who dangles the now-empty plastic laundry basket over one shoulder.“This is just half the day’s laundry,” Mann tells us in a loose narrative that runs through a reissue of the well-known 1988 publication by the artist notorious for capturing girls on the threshold of womanhood with unnerving perspicacity. The...

Politics

8 d. ago There’s a place for audience participation, but ‘chicken jockey’ chaos takes it too far | Kate Maltby

Barrages of popcorn and even live poultry are featuring at screenings of A Minecraft Movie‘Chicken jockey!” If you know what this phrase means, you’re either a preteen boy or have accompanied one to a recent cinema screening of A Minecraft Movie.Warner Bros’ latest money-spinner is a movie adaptation of the Swedish game Minecraft, a prerequisite in the social lives of children between the age of eight and 12. The game enables children to explore and reconfigure a creative digital environment, accumulating resources in a world built from blocks. The movie enables children to explore and reconfigure the codes of basic decency in a cinema environment, testing the limits of any hapless usher left to supervise. Continue reading...

Events

8 d. ago Why resurrect the dire wolf when existing animals are facing extinction? | Martha Gill

It’s not as sensational as recreating long-dead species, but conserving modern-day fauna is far more pressingThe parable of the Mars mission: we’d rather spend trillions sending ourselves to a yet unlivable planet than look after the one we have. And swiftly on its heels, the parable of the dire wolf. We’d rather resurrect a 12,500-year-old species from the dead than save our existing wild animals. Of course we would. Recycling is boring; doing the very thing 90s science fiction movies warned us not to do is fun.We are not quite on the verge of bringing back ancient species. But last week the PR campaign for doing so began in earnest. Colossal Biosciences – a company known for trying to revive the dodo, the mammoth and the thylacine – has unveiled three large adorable white puppies, claiming it has created “the world’s first successfully de-extincted animal”: the dire wolf, made famous by Game of Thrones. It invited author George RR Martin to look; he duly burst into tears. Continue...

Politics

1 week ago Biggest Easter eggs in the world as world's largest Creme Egg size of a newborn horse is cracked

Iconic chocolate makers Cadbury's has made history by creating the world's largest Easter egg, and it's the fan-favourite Creme Egg complete with the gooey filling and design

Politics

1 week ago Keir and Rachel remain upbeat amid He Who Cannot Be Named | John Crace

Right now, Starmer and the rest of the world are being played by The DonaldUK politics live – latest updatesGlobal headwinds. If only. More like a quarter-witted, human tsunami. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves may still be unwilling to mention He Who Cannot Be Named. But this is no natural disaster. It’s one entirely created by the lunatic in the White House.World stock markets down by another 4% on Monday. A war zone. The chart looks like someone has been shot while holding the tracker. Buckle up for the Next Great Depression. Where the only winners are the traders betting on markets going still lower and the vultures trying to buy up bankrupt businesses. The one bright side? The UK is no longer top of the charts for the single most stupid decision made by a G7 country in the last 80 years. Drinks all round. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Keir and Rachel stay upbeat amid chaos caused by He Who Cannot Be Named | John Crace

Right now, Starmer and the rest of the world are being played by The DonaldUK politics live – latest updatesGlobal headwinds. If only. More like a quarter-witted, human tsunami. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves may still be unwilling to mention He Who Cannot Be Named. But this is no natural disaster. It’s one entirely created by the lunatic in the White House.World stock markets down by another 4% on Monday. A war zone. The chart looks like someone has been shot while holding the tracker. Buckle up for the next Great Depression, where the only winners are the traders betting on markets going still lower and the vultures trying to buy up bankrupt businesses. The one bright side? The UK is no longer top of the charts for the single most stupid decision made by a G7 country in the last 80 years. Drinks all round. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Birmingham chocolatiers claim to have cracked world’s largest Creme Egg

The creation from Cadbury World weighs 45kg and stands at 3ft tall.

Politics

2 w. ago Forgotten fashions: rediscovered slides show off everyday flair from the Fifties and beyond

The latest book from artist Lee Shulman, who has created the world’s largest private collection of amateur colour transparencies, has an often startling sartorial focusIt started with an impulsive eBay purchase. When Lee Shulman received the box of vintage slides he had bought from an anonymous seller, the British visual artist and film-maker could not believe the treasure he had accidentally uncovered. Beyond the impeccable quality of each image, taken in the 1950s by unnamed photographers, these were glimpses at everyday moments from everyday lives long since lost. Birthdays, family gatherings, holidays, parties, graduations – once cherished memories lovingly captured but now forgotten.Bought in 2017, that box was the catalyst for what Shulman refers to as a “complete obsession”. More than 1m slides, 14 publications and a dozen international exhibitions later, The Anonymous Project has grown into a global endeavour and the 51-year-old’s life’s work. This ever-expanding archive of ...

Culture

2 w. ago Space probe to map carbon content of world’s remotest tropical forests

Revolutionary scanner to be fired into Earth orbit this month to measure effects of deforestationScientists are about to take part in a revolutionary mission aimed at creating detailed 3D maps of the world’s remotest, densest and darkest tropical forests – from outer space. The feat will be achieved using a special radar scanner that has been fitted to a probe, named Biomass, that will be fired into the Earth’s orbit later this month.For the next five years, the 1.25-tonne spacecraft will sweep over the tropical rainforests of Africa, Asia and South America and peer through their dense 40m-high ­canopies to study the vegetation that lies beneath. The data collected by Biomass will then be used to create unique 3D maps of forests normally hidden from human sight. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago ‘The anger became bigger than shame’: the writer whose memoir of child abuse has taken France by storm

As Neige Sinno’s critically acclaimed memoir about being sexually abused by her stepfather is published in English, she reveals how writing her story has helped set her freeWhen it came out in France, Neige Sinno’s heart-stopping Sad Tiger, which pieces together in fragments the lifelong impact of the sexual abuse of a girl in the French Alps by her mountain guide stepfather, blew the literary world apart. Its experimental form of creative nonfiction – a memoir that ditches linear narrative, yet races along like a thriller – was hailed as groundbreaking, the book an instant classic. It sold hundreds of thousands of copies, won a swathe of prizes and became one of the most borrowed books in libraries across France when it was published in 2023. The Nobel prize-winning French author Annie Ernaux was so impressed that she made a public appearance in conversation with Sinno, saying: “Reading Sad Tiger is like descending into an abyss with your eyes open. It forces you to see, ...

Events

2 w. ago De Bruyne’s exit creates Club World Cup uncertainty and Postecoglou the ‘lone voice’ on VAR: football – live

Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekendRead Football Daily | And email Luke with your thoughtsAn email: “On the subject of Ange Postecoglou,” writes Peter Wilkinson. “I’m not a Spurs fan so I don’t have a dog in the race but it amuses me that while fans give players and managers absolute pelters, as soon as they get a bit back the fans start clutching their pearls saying it’s a disgrace. If you can’t take it, don’t give it out.”A fair point well made, Peter. Ange is due to face the press shortly in an appointment he’s probably looking forward to with as much relish as a trip to the dentist for root canal surgery. It could get spiky, mate. Continue reading...

Society

2 w. ago The Guardian view on Trump’s tariffs: a monstrous and momentous act of folly | Editorial

The US president has expelled his own country from the rules-based global trade system that America itself createdFor the world’s already embattled trading system, it is as though an asteroid has crashed into the planet, devastating everyone and everything that previously existed there. But there is this important difference. If an asteroid struck the Earth, the impact would at least have been caused by ungovernable cosmic forces. The assault on world trade, by contrast, is a completely deliberate act of choice, taken by one man and one nation.Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on every country in the world is a monstrous and momentous act of folly. Unilateral and unjustified, it was expressed on Wednesday in indefensible language in which Mr Trump described US allies as “cheaters” and “scavengers” who “looted”, “raped” and “pillaged” the US. Many of the calculations on which Mr Trump doled out his punishments are perverse, not least the exclusion of Russia from the cond...

Politics

2 w. ago Stocks tumble on Wall Street as Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs send shockwaves through global markets – business live

Ursula von der Leyen says tariffs a ‘major blow’ to world economy, as US dollar falls to six month low after US President Trump’s ‘liberation day’Full report: Trump announces sweeping new tariffsAnalysis: Trump’s tariffs likely to raise prices and cause chaosWhat are tariffs and why do they matter?The new US tariffs “will only create losers” with US consumers particularly hard hit, the German Automotive Industry Association (VDA), has said in a statement, calling on the EU “to act together and with the necessary force, while continuing to signal its willingness to negotiate.”The body, which represents the powerful German auto industry, said the tariffs markedthe United States’ departure from the rules-based global trade order – and thus a departure from the foundation for global value creation and corresponding growth and prosperity in many regions of the world.This is not America first; this is America alone. Continue reading...

Economics

2 w. ago US dollar ‘at risk of confidence crisis’ as Trump tariffs rattle global markets – business live

Ursula von der Leyen says tariffs a ‘major blow’ to world economy, as US dollar falls to six month low after US President Trump’s ‘liberation day’Full report: Trump announces sweeping new tariffsAnalysis: Trump’s tariffs likely to raise prices and cause chaosWhat are tariffs and why do they matter?The new US tariffs “will only create losers” with US consumers particularly hard hit, the German Automotive Industry Association (VDA), has said in a statement, calling on the EU “to act together and with the necessary force, while continuing to signal its willingness to negotiate.”The body, which represents the powerful German auto industry, said the tariffs markedthe United States’ departure from the rules-based global trade order – and thus a departure from the foundation for global value creation and corresponding growth and prosperity in many regions of the world.This is not America first; this is America alone. Continue reading...

Economics

2 w. ago Furious EU condemns Trump's 'major blow to the world economy', accuses US of creating 'chaos' and threatens counter

Responding to the sweeping tariffs, including 20 percent on EU exports to the US, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said there will 'will be dire for millions of people around the globe.'

Events

2 w. ago EU threatens countermeasures and Asian markets plunge after Trump tariff announcement – business live

Ursula von der Leyen says tariffs a ‘major blow’ to world economy after US President Trump targets allies on what he dubbed ‘liberation day’Full report: Trump announces sweeping new tariffs, upending decades of US trade policyAnalysis: Trump’s wall of tariffs is likely to raise prices and cause chaos for businessThe new US tariffs “will only create losers” with US consumers particularly hard hit, the German Automotive Industry Association (VDA), has said in a statement, calling on the EU “to act together and with the necessary force, while continuing to signal its willingness to negotiate.”The body, which represents the powerful German auto industry, said the tariffs markedthe United States’ departure from the rules-based global trade order – and thus a departure from the foundation for global value creation and corresponding growth and prosperity in many regions of the world.This is not America first; this is America alone. Continue reading...

Economics