5 h. ago Macmillan coffee morning is happening soon – these are the best board games to play

Forget Trivial Pursuit – our pick of the best board games will elevate your next get-together

Politics

7 h. ago Bruce Willis' wife shares dementia caused marriage tension after revealing they live in separate homes

He withdrew from Hollywood in 2022 after being diagnosed with the brain condition aphasia, which causes the patient's language abilities to deteriorate.

Society

8 h. ago Voices: Cracking down on transphobic hate speech doesn’t make the UK a police state

Graham Linehan's arrest for allegedly suggesting that people assault trans women is not an assault on free speech, writes Marc Burrows. The scandal is that we live in a society where some people think the language he reportedly used is acceptable

Events

8 h. ago Forget Tomb Raider and Uncharted, there’s a new generation of games about archaeology – sort of

In this week’s newsletter: an archaeologist and gamer on why we love to walk around finding objects in-game and in real lifeThe game I’m most looking forward to right now is Big Walk, the latest title from House House, creators of the brilliant Untitled Goose Game. A cooperative multiplayer adventure where players are let loose to explore an open world, I’m interested to see what emergent gameplay comes out of it. Could Big Walk allow for a kind of community archaeology with friends? I certainly hope so.When games use environmental storytelling in their design – from the positioning of objects to audio recordings or graffiti – they invite players to role play as archaeologists. Game designer Ben Esposito infamously joked back in 2016 that environmental storytelling is the “art of placing skulls near a toilet” – which might have been a jab at the tropes of games like the Fallout series, but his quip demonstrates how archaeological gaming narratives can be. After all, the incongruity ...

Politics

9 h. ago Woman gobsmacked after spotting 'rare' creatures on walk she'll 'never forget'

The woman had ventured out for a walk near a popular cycle trail when she spotted the creature wandering nearby - but it wasn't alone as four others were also seen lurking

Politics

11 h. ago 'I worked with Kate Middleton for years and will never forget one gesture she made'

EXCLUSIVE: King Charles’ former royal butler reminisced about his most memorable moments at Highgrove House, which included hosting an intimate meal for Prince William and Kate Middleton

Politics

12 h. ago Jimmy Kimmel skewers JD Vance over reaction to Trump’s death rumors

‘Donald Trump will never die. Forget it. He’s like Dracula,’ Kimmel joked on his talk show

Politics

12 h. ago Harry Brook backs Sonny Baker to bounce back from brutal England debut

The talented young seamer endured a first England outing to forget in a heavy defeat to South Africa at Leeds

Politics

12 h. ago The Spin | ‘They’re like time machines’: the endless magic of cricket scorecards

What may look like an impenetrable column of unexplained figures can reveal plenty of eccentric talesThere’s a scene in The Matrix when Cypher, the sardonic turncoat played by Joe Pantoliano, sits with Keanu Reeves’s Neo in front of a bank of monitors. To Neo’s eyes it’s an endless waterfall of meaningless green code. To Cypher, and to those who have learned the language, it’s not numbers and symbols but living images: “I don’t even see the code,” he says. “All I see is blonde, brunette, redhead ”A cricket scorecard works in exactly the same way. To the uninitiated, it’s an impenetrable column of initials, abbreviations and unexplained figures. But for those who know, these sheets of names and numbers are alive with incident; the shape of an innings, the rhythm of a bowling spell, the hidden drama of a partnership. Continue reading...

Politics

16 h. ago Young and in love: an intimate look at Los Angeles – in pictures

Paul Jasmin, who died in May, helped define the visual language of LA and its youthful dreamers – as these sensual, glowing portraits prove Continue reading...

Politics

21 h. ago Forget oil and cook the 'best bacon ever' using chef's simple method

A chef has shared his simple hack for cooking the "best bacon you'll ever have" - and it doesn't require any oil. The method has gone viral on TikTok with users dubbing it "life-changing"

Politics

30 h. ago Football Daily | Are Strasbourg a sister club to Chelsea or just their storage facility?

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!Strasbourg, official seat of the European parliament, the jewel of the Alsace region on the west bank of the Rhine. Important historically, geographically and politically. One of the city’s most famous sons, Arsène Wenger, as a boy, was so embedded that his first language was Low Alemannic German, not French. To use a word Wenger brought to the English football vernacular – footballistically – Strasbourg was never too much of a hub. The club reformed after liquidation as recently as 2011, having won just one French title back in 1979 when Wenger was a fringe player already embedded in coaching. In defence was the future France coach Raymond Domenech, the keen astrologist in charge when a very Gallic bust-up ravaged Les Bleus at the 2010 World Cup.We’re all captivated by the journey of Wrexham. It’s been amazing for Welsh football and hopefully now in a number of years we’ll see young players coming through There isn’t similarities t...

Sport

37 h. ago Tainted love: how Ukrainians are ridding themselves of Russian

Putin’s invasion has seen Ukrainian book lovers recoil from Russian literary dominance, by a range of meansOne day this summer, the Ukrainian artist Stanislav Turina took two of his books to his garden near Kyiv. One was a volume of poems by Alexander Pushkin.But Turina – a voracious reader, never without a couple of books in his backpack – had no plans to pick it up again. Continue reading...

Politics

51 h. ago Bloke caught on CCTV breaking into water park with son claims 'I wanted to give him birthday he wouldn't forget'

The dad was a staff member at the water park in the city of Khabarovsk in Russia - his bosses gave a surprising verdict on his unathorised entrance after viewing the footage

Events

59 h. ago Beloved BBC sitcom slapped with 'offensive and discriminatory' language warnings in broadcaster's latest woke streaming crackdown

The comedy has aired on BBC One for almost twenty years, making it the second longest-running British sitcom.

Events

60 h. ago King & Conqueror viewers ‘disappointed’ by BBC historical drama’s modern language

James Norton and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau fight the Battle of Hastings in new historical series

Events

3 d. ago The Guardian view on GCSE resits: admitting the problem is just the first step | Editorial

The low pass rate in compulsory retakes is one of many challenges in 16-19 educationFor years, rigid rules and a shocking failure rate in compulsory GCSE retakes have been one of the exam system’s dirty secrets. At last this dire situation is getting some of the attention it deserves. This year, nearly a quarter of all maths and English language entries in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were for students aged 17 or older on a repeat attempt – with just one in six of those retaking maths managing to pass.By calling this a crisis, Jill Duffy, who heads the OCR exam board, has thrown a spotlight on the problem. But admitting that there is an issue with resits, as officials are now doing, is only the first step. There are differing views about what ought to happen next. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Five open up about their 'stressful and intense' tour rehearsals as they prepare to perform for the first time in 25 years: 'There's going to be a lot of bad language, ripped clothing and panic!'

Sean, Ritchie, Scott, Abz and J are set to kick off their tour in October - in what will be their first performance since disbanding in 2001.

Politics

3 d. ago The real curse of Strictly: As women turn their back on the show in its 'worst lineup ever', a drugs probe is launched and an ex

For BBC bosses it may be full steam ahead for Strictly's return next month, but for viewers, it will be hard to forget these dramas that have dominated the headlines...

Events

3 d. ago The rule the Queen broke during Princess Diana's funeral, according to body language expert

On the day of Princess Diana's funeral on September 6, 1997, while standing with her family, the Queen broke the cardinal royal rule.

Politics