27 h. ago The Guardian view on Andrew’s downfall: Britain’s relationship with the royals needs a reset | Editorial

The former prince’s retirement from public life is welcome. Problems around royal secrecy and entitlement remain to be tackledPrince Andrew is no more. Henceforth the king’s younger brother will be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. With the Thursday night announcement, and the news that Mr Mountbatten Windsor will quit his 30-room home in Windsor, the monarch hopes to draw a line under the shame of the former prince’s friendship with the dead sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and alleged sexual assault of Virginia Giuffre when she was 17, which he has always denied.These “censures” – as Buckingham Palace termed them – were made necessary by Mr Mountbatten Windsor’s poor judgment and deceit, including the lie that he had broken off contact with Epstein in 2010. But the real damage was done by his grotesquely entitled behaviour and appalling choice of friends. It should not have taken the painful details in Ms Giuffre’s posthumous memoir, an extract of which was pub...

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27 h. ago The Guardian view on the atrocities in El Fasher: the responsibility for these horrors extends beyond Sudan’s borders | Editorial

The world said ‘never again’ after Darfur’s genocide. Yet it stood by as catastrophe loomedNo one can claim they did not know what would happen in El Fasher. An 18-month siege had already seen war crimes by the Rapid Support Forces, including the execution of civilians and sexual violence. Warnings of the massacres that would follow when the city in Darfur fell – as it did on Sunday – were widespread.The reality was an even darker hell, in the words of UN officials. The World Health Organization says that the RSF killed 460 people in one hospital. Satellite images appear to capture bloodstains on the ground. Footage showed fighters executing unarmed men. Other captives were taken for ransom. The UN says hundreds of civilians and unarmed fighters were raped or killed while trying to flee the city, with clear evidence of ethnically targeted violence. The horrors continue. Continue reading...

Events

29 h. ago The lost princesses: What will happen to Beatrice, Eugenie and Fergie amid Andrew's dramatic downfall?

As Prince Andrew is stripped of his royal title, Alice Cockerell delves into what this means for his two daughters and their mother

Politics

32 h. ago How Prince William 'played secret role' in Andrew's downfall and why Kate supports it

An expert has revealed that the Prince of Wales played a key role as his father, King Charles III, confirmed he would be stripping disgraced Andrew's titles.

Politics

43 h. ago Where did it all go wrong for Andrew? A timeline of his downfall as the former Duke of York is stripped of his Prince title

In a bombshell statement released tonight, the King said his younger brother (pictured) will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor - with immediate effect.

Politics

46 h. ago The public's damning verdict on Andrew's downfall: Question Time audience bursts into spontaneous APPLAUSE as news of his humiliation breaks

Andrew, who will formally be stripped of his prince title, is viewed unfavourably by a staggering 91 per cent of the population amid his involvement in the Virginia Giuffre scandal.

Events

46 h. ago Andrew's downfall in full as he goes from prince to common Mr Mountbatten Windsor

King Charles' brother, Prince Andrew, who will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, will be evicted from Windsor’s Royal Lodge and move to Norfolk's Sandringham estate

Politics

50 h. ago The Guardian view on Trump and China: stepping back from the brink, but not solving problems | Editorial

Though the US president’s meeting with Xi Jinping appears to have staved off a global trade war, this is far from a win for WashingtonThe diverging verdicts offered by the Chinese and American leaders after their talks in South Korea on Thursday reflected more than the chasms between their personal styles and political cultures. Donald Trump gushed about an “amazing” meeting, scoring it 12 out of 10; Xi Jinping reportedly noted that a consensus had been reached, with the two sides needing to finalise follow-up steps rapidly.Mr Trump’s usual trade approach – shout loudly and wave a big stick – faltered when Beijing raised its own bludgeon. No tribute of gold crowns or Nobel nomination pledges were on offer from Mr Xi. The US president blinked first – but, predictably, attempted to repackage the underwhelming result as a great success. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago The Guardian view on Argentina’s election: one step closer to becoming a Trumpian client state | Ediorial

A $40bn rescue may have helped Javier Milei scrape through midterms, but it leaves Argentina’s democracy and economy more dependent than ever on WashingtonArgentina’s rightwing president, Javier Milei, his party and its allies claimed victory this week in key congressional elections. But it was Donald Trump who emerged the biggest winner. A $40bn lifeline from the US president gave Mr Milei’s beleaguered government just enough credibility – and apparent firepower – to halt the Argentinian peso’s slide. Crucially, this helped to stabilise consumer prices in the final weeks of the campaign. The US rescue engendered a short-lived aura of competence that allowed Mr Milei to shift the blame for rising prices back to the opposition, despite his own role in accelerating inflation by devaluing the currency when he took office.Mr Milei’s wasn’t a decisive triumph. His rightwing coalition got 40% of the midterms vote thanks largely to a low turnout and a fragmented opposition. His “chainsaw” ...

Politics

3 d. ago Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie 'must weigh up how to stay visible' after Andrew downfall

With Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie reportedly struggling with the aftermath of their parent’s recent scandals in connection to Jeffrey Epstein, they are trying to find the perfect balance of showing up for the Firm, while retreating from public life elsewhere

Politics

4 d. ago The Guardian view on state failure: Britain’s crisis is not just one of investment, but also of upkeep | Editorial

Fixing prisons, hospitals and local councils means rejecting austerity’s logic and recognising that state spending builds competence, not wasteThe fiasco over the accidental release of Hadush Kebatu, who was serving a sentence for sexual assault and due to be deported from HMP Chelmsford, is a symptom of a wider problem. What ails the British state is that it has built, and is building, what it cannot seem to maintain.A decade of attrition has hollowed out public services to the extent that they struggle to function coherently or plan beyond the next crisis. Under the Tories, state spending grew by just over 1% a year – well below the long-run trend of 2.6% per year. This hides the fact that Britain’s fiscal story since 2010 has been an emphasis on capital spending that sends ministers reaching for hard hats, but doesn’t keep the lights on. However, investment without maintenance is just decay.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you wo...

Events

4 d. ago The Guardian view on press freedom in Italy: at a low ebb on Giorgia Meloni’s watch | Editorial

The professional environment for journalists taking on powerful interests is worsening in a polarised climateThe so-called anni di piombo (years of lead) remain a dark memory for Italians of a certain age. The semi-normalisation of political terrorism and mafia hits in the 1970s and 80s blighted civic life, and that brutal past continues to haunt the present. Forty-five years after the fact, a retired police officer has just been arrested in relation to the mafia killing in 1980 of Piersanti Mattarella, the then president of Sicily.Unsurprisingly, given that history, the blowing up of a car belonging to one of Italy’s most famous investigative journalists has prompted an urgent and angst-ridden debate. Sigfrido Ranucci, who hosts a prime-time show on Rai, Italy’s state broadcaster, is known for presenting hard-hitting investigations into political corruption and organised crime. Earlier this month, a powerful bomb almost destroyed his black Mercedes, which was parked ...

Politics

5 d. ago The Guardian view on global aid cuts: a malaria resurgence could be the canary in the coalmine | Editorial

The consequences of Donald Trump’s decision to scrap USAID, and other countries’ decisions to reduce funding, are playing out in deadly fashionMalaria is a pandemic disease that hits the voiceless hardest: most of those who fall ill and die are small children and pregnant women in Africa. It is the leading infectious killer of the continent, responsible for nearly 600,000 deaths a year. Cases are rising and there is an urgent need for more funding, yet western donor countries are instead cutting back on aid. We still hear brave talk about eliminating malaria. But an expert report now warns of a potential resurgence that could add almost a million more deaths to the annual toll by the end of the decade.Most of the money to fight the mosquito-borne disease – 59% – comes through the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Its executive director, Peter Sands, said last week at the World Health Summit in Berlin that of the three killers, the one that kept him awake...

Politics

6 d. ago The Guardian view on electronic implants: a new way of seeing, not of being | Editorial

Electronic implants are helping people to see again. Their promise is profound, but so are the risks. Progress must be guided by ethics and accessibilityIn medical terms, the eye is not the window to the soul, but to the mind. The retina and the optic nerve are outgrowths of neural tissue, and the remarkable success of electronic implants in restoring sight shows how far brain-computer interfaces have come. These have not delivered a sci-fi vision of augmented humans with incredible new powers but, perhaps more happily, significant progress has been made, restoring ability and agency to those who have suffered injury or disease.People with age-related macular degeneration face a fading world. The disease, affecting about 600,000 people in the UK, causes progressive loss of central vision. There is no cure, but new trials offer something else: a new way of seeing. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago The Guardian view on a bumper crop of horror: scary times call for even scarier films | Editorial

A new wave of socially engaged movies is storming the box office and changing how we think about the genreIt should surprise no one to learn that 2025 is being hailed as a golden year for horror films. All horror movies are a reflection of their time, and ours are pretty scary.Tech dystopianism means that Frankenstein’s monster has become a byword for AI, while Bram Stoker’s Dracula has always drawn on a dark strain of English xenophobia. So it is no coincidence that these 19th-century gothic villains, stars of the earliest horror films in the 1920s and 30s, are back in cinemas with new adaptations from directors Guillermo del Toro and Luc Besson. Maggie Gyllenhaal is bringing out another Frankenstein, The Bride!, next year.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Events

8 d. ago The lost princesses: What will happen to Beatrice and Eugenie amid Andrew's dramatic downfall?

As Prince Andrew’s fate remains fiercely debated by the public, and pressure mounts to revoke his royal title, Alice Cockerell delves into what this means for his two daughters

Politics

9 d. ago The Guardian view on Conservative immigration policy: the threat of mass expulsions is abhorrent | Editorial

Tory plans to revoke indefinite leave to remain in pursuit of greater ‘cultural coherence’ resemble the most extreme ambitions of far-right fringe partiesIt is too early to declare Sir Keir Starmer’s “one in, one out” migration deal with France a failure, but nor can the government claim that it is working as intended. This week, the Guardian revealed that one of the first people deported under the treaty had found his way back to the UK via a small boat. On the same day, Home Office data revealed that the number of people who had made the journey so far this year – 36,886 – had surpassed the total for 2024. The usual partisan recriminations followed. Opposition parties accuse Labour of failing to grip the problem; ministers say they are burdened by a long legacy of Conservative mismanagement. Both things can be true.For all its deficiencies, Sir Keir’s deal with France recognises two facts that his Tory and Reform UK opponents cannot accept. First, engagement with EU states is...

Events

1 week ago The Guardian view on the cloud crash: an outage that showed who really runs the internet | Editorial

A failure at Amazon’s server centre paralysed global services for 15 hours. It was not just a glitch but a stark reminder of our digital dependency and fragilityAn outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Monday disrupted apps and websites around the world, affecting more than 2,000 companies and leaving millions of users unable to access services like Snapchat, Roblox, Signal, Duolingo and even Amazon’s own operations. Removing the tech from our tech-dependent existence led to workers being sent home and exams delayed. The crash, which lasted 15 hours, underlined how deeply our digital lives depend on a small number of cloud providers – and how vulnerable many everyday systems are to a single failure.If data is the new oil, then cloud computing is the pipeline, the refinery, the tanker fleet and, increasingly, the pump too. The big three – AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud – account for 60% of global cloud computing. They own the networks and cables that move data across the worl...

Events

1 week ago The Guardian view on Sarkozy’s first day in prison: no citizen is above the law | Editorial

Attempts by the former French president and his supporters to discredit the legal process by which he was sentenced have been irresponsible and unjustifiedAs he was transported to La Santé prison in Paris on Tuesday, Nicolas Sarkozy posted a message brimming with defiance on X, writing “It’s not a former president of the republic who is being jailed this morning, it’s an innocent man”. A court of appeal will eventually give its view on the veracity of the second clause of that statement. But unfortunately for Mr Sarkozy, the drama and significance of his fall cannot simply be wished away.President of France between 2007 and 2012, Mr Sarkozy was found guilty of criminal conspiracy to obtain illicit campaign funds from the regime of the late Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi. Handed a five‑year sentence, he has become the first former leader of an EU country to go behind bars, and the first French leader since the disgraced head of Vichy France, Philippe Pétain...

Events

1 week ago The Guardian view on the price of a prince: what Virginia Giuffre’s story says about palace accountability | Editorial

The Jeffrey Epstein scandal has exposed a constitutional blind spot: royal privilege remains beyond democratic scrutiny. MPs must be able to question powerThe tragic story of Virginia Giuffre raises the question of who governs when royal privilege and public outrage collide. As a vulnerable teenager she was drawn into a world of sexual exploitation by the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Ms Giuffre alleged that Epstein trafficked her and that she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew on three occasions, including when she was 17. He has denied all the claims. Despite previously insisting he had no memory of meeting her, the prince reportedly paid £12m to settle her civil case in 2022. The money was said to have come from his mother, the late queen – who, just six weeks later, was photographed walking beside him at her husband’s memorial service.With a posthumous memoir, Ms Giuffre has brought the issue back into the spotlight. In his calamitous 2019 Newsnight interview,...

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