7 h. ago Traditional hobbies such as knitting thriving again with the help of 21st Century tech

Jack Whitehall's parent Hilary and Michael have been leading the way during a romantic date in which they carried out drawing challenges - with a twist

Politics

26 h. ago Brits embrace traditional hobbies again as classic pastimes make comeback

We are returning to gardening, knitting as well as coin collecting and bird watching as new study show traditional hobbies are thriving again thanks to 21st Century tech

Politics

34 h. ago Football’s greatest scorer with initials XG and most goals and assists with initials GA | The Knowledge

Plus: national teams with top-10 scorers in the 21st century, different kits in the same match (2) and a referee’s coin tossMail us with your questions and answers“Who is the most prolific player with the initials XG?” asks Oliver Forrest. “And who has the highest goals and assists of players with the initials GA?”There are only a handful of male* footballers with the initials XG – here is an exhaustive list. The diminutive journeyman Greek midfielder Xenofon Gittas scored 17 goals across his club career (plus three for Greece Under-21s) but cannot match the scoring exploits of Xhevdet Gela, who is our winner with 44 goals across all competitions including the Europa League with the Finnish sides MyPa and Lahti. Unusually, during a spell between 2019-2022 in which Gela was playing for Ekenäs in Finland, he was also the full-time manager of a fourth-tier side, Esbo, a club around 80km away. Gela returned to the manager’s role at Esbo in January this year, although not in a playing ca...

Sport

53 h. ago Soft Clubbers, Evergroovers and Rave Aunts: Your current nightlife subcultures in the 21st century

Learn some of the lingo modern-day clubbers are using ahead of your next night, or day, out in town

Society

4 d. ago Pope honors 21st century martyrs: Christians killed by Islamic militants, mafias, Amazon ranchers

Pope Leo XIV has honored hundreds of Christians who have been killed for their faith in the 21st century

Events

4 d. ago The Guardian view on the future of the EU: in search of a braver, bolder vision for a new era | Editorial

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, is right about the challenges Brussels faces. Far more ambition is required if they are to be metDelivering her state of the union address in Brussels last week, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, painted a grim but accurate picture of the challenges faced by Europe as the first quarter of the 21st century draws to a close. “A world of imperial ambitions and imperial wars,” she noted, is “a world in which dependencies are ruthlessly weaponised. And it is for all of these reasons that a new Europe must emerge.”Few would quibble with that analysis. As Ms von der Leyen spoke, the news that Nato aircraft had shot down Russian drones over Poland graphically underscored her point. In an era of great power rivalry in which the United States has become an unreliable ally, there is an emerging consensus that the European Union must be more robust in defending its own interests and cha...

Politics

6 d. ago ‘Best HBO series ever made' finally gets update on new season after six

One of the most critically acclaimed dramas of the 21st Century is finally moving forward with its next season

Culture

6 d. ago Canelo vs Crawford and the biggest fights of the 21st century

Terence Crawford is about to face Canelo Alvarez in the latest megafight to play out in the boxing ring

Politics

8 d. ago From wood engravings to Colin Firth: new exhibition depicts the stories of Jane Austen

Bath museum celebrates varied ways illustrators of author’s work and adapters of her novels have portrayed her characters through historyFor the 21st-century Jane Austen fan, the images of Colin Firth’s Mr Darcy in the beloved BBC series Pride of Prejudice or Anya Taylor-Joy’s big-screen portrayal of Emma may be the first to leap to mind.But an exhibition opening in Bath celebrates the varied ways illustrators of Austen’s work and adapters of her novels have depicted some of her most cherished characters. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago From woodcuts to Colin Firth: how Jane Austen’s stories have been pictured

Bath museum shows how author’s illustrators and adapters have portrayed her characters through historyFor the 21st-century Jane Austen fan, the images of Colin Firth’s Mr Darcy in the beloved BBC series Pride and Prejudice or Anya Taylor-Joy’s big-screen portrayal of Emma may be the first to leap to mind.But an exhibition opening in Bath celebrates the varied ways illustrators of Austen’s work and adapters of her novels have depicted some of her most cherished characters. Continue reading...

Politics

9 d. ago Macron played with fire by razing the political middle ground. Now France is burning | Jules Darmanin

He promised to break the mould, but with his hubristic disdain for left and right – and for voters – the president has entrenched instabilityIn his 2016 manifesto Revolution, the then-presidential candidate, Emmanuel Macron, accused France’s “fossilised political apparatus” of dangerously paving the way for Marine Le Pen’s rise to power. “The political class and the media are a band of sleepwalkers who refuse to see what is coming their way,” he wrote, “so we see the same faces and we hear the same speeches.” He pledged to throw away the old playbook and gather behind him “progressive reformers who believe that the destiny of France is to embrace modernity.”The fresh face of pro-EU liberalism swept to power the following year on a promise of radical change to bring France into the 21st century.Jules Darmanin is a French journalist Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago While Starmer struggles with a broken system in Westminster, real power keeps leaking elsewhere | Rafael Behr

Far from No 10, Nigel Farage has been amassing power in the sprawling, networked space where 21st-century politics happensSign up for our new weekly newsletter Matters of Opinion, where our columnists and writers will reflect on what they’ve been debating, thinking about, reading and moreWith a buzz of activity in parliament and mandatory back-to-school metaphors, a new political season opens in Westminster, but is that where politics really happens? Yes, in terms of people making policy and law in buildings that are world-famous for that purpose, the SW1 postcode is where it is at.But the heart of the machine beats with a weak pulse. The UK state is heavily centralised by the standards of most democracies, yet the people at the centre don’t feel powerful. Ministers can’t enforce bin collections in remote areas or call a halt to Middle East wars but they are made to feel answerable for all that is ill in the world, from hyperlocal to geopolitical.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist ...

Politics

2 w. ago Impatience in Madrid as Pedro Sánchez puts Europe’s inaction on Gaza in the spotlight

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Spain’s prime minister admitted that the EU’s refusal to hold Israel to account amounts to failure. Plus, Russia’s ‘undeniable interference’Against the scale of civilian slaughter, famine and mounting evidence of war crimes in Gaza, Europe’s political leaders have been passive to the point of complicity, argue many human rights advocates and even former high-ranking EU officials.Now the Spanish prime minister has come close to acknowledging as much. In an interview with the Guardian, Pedro Sánchez characterised Europe’s refusal to act against the Israeli government as a moral and political failure that would damage its global credibility for years to come. Sánchez warned that Europe’s response to “one of the darkest episodes of the 21st century” has been “a failure, absolutely”. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Sánchez: Europe’s response to war in Gaza has been a ‘failure’

Spanish prime minister says double standards over Gaza and Ukraine threaten to undermine the west’s global standing‘You need solidarity and consistency’: Pedro Sánchez on the EU, Trump and fighting the far right Europe and the west’s double standards over the wars in Ukraine and Gaza threaten to undermine its global standing, the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has warned, describing the response to Israel’s assault on the Palestinian territory as one of the darkest episodes of international relations in the 21st century.In an interview with the Guardian before talks with UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, in London on Wednesday, the socialist leader also said the US under Donald Trump was trying to end the post-second world war, rules-based global order it had originally created. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Pedro Sánchez: Europe’s response to war in Gaza has been a failure

Spanish prime minister says double standards over Gaza and Ukraine threaten to undermine west’s global standing‘You need solidarity and consistency’: Pedro Sánchez on the EU, Trump and fighting the far right Europe and the west’s double standards over the wars in Ukraine and Gaza threaten to undermine its global standing, the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has warned, describing the response to Israel’s assault on the Palestinian territory as one of the darkest episodes of international relations in the 21st century.In an interview with the Guardian before talks with UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, in London on Wednesday, the socialist leader also said the US under Donald Trump was trying to end the post-second world war, rules-based global order it had originally created. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Paper and mobile train tickets to be replaced with GPS tracking in new travel trial

The pay-as-you-go system, which will involve passengers tapping in and tapping out on an app, will help bring rail ticketing ‘into the 21st Century’

Politics

3 w. ago Katrina: Come Hell and High Water review – Spike Lee gets straight to the defiant, joyous soul of New Orleans

The finale of the Oscar-winning director’s three-part documentary about the biggest tragedy in 21st-century Black American history is a must-watch. It’s a stirring look at the city’s refusal to lie downIt’s hard to quantify the significance of Hurricane Katrina: the combination of a historic natural disaster and cold systemic indifference towards its impoverished African American victims makes it perhaps the most significant event in 21st-century Black American history. It’s no surprise, then, that more than one major documentary series has been made to mark 20 years since wind, water and a whole lot of racism devastated New Orleans, or that leading cinematic auteurs of two consecutive generations, Spike Lee and Ryan Coogler, have each executive-produced their own.But watching Katrina: Come Hell and High Water, you do wish Lee and Coogler had got on the phone to check they weren’t doubling up too much. The new three-parter – the Lee one that arrives on Netflix to coincide with the w...

Politics

3 w. ago Austin Butler on Caught Stealing: ‘It felt more raw than Elvis or Dune – like I didn’t have this other skin’

He’s one of Young Hollywood’s most in-demand new stars. His director, Darren Aronofsky, has made some of the most provocative movies of the 21st century. The pair have collided for a darkly funny new thriller, and they tell Adam White all about it

Events

3 w. ago Thought our royals had it bad? Spare a thought for the King of Norway, whose grandson is facing vile sex claims that threaten to bring down their entire monarchy

To the world at large, King Harald of Norway is the perfect 21st century monarch. A figure of quiet dignity and modesty, loved by his people as an ordinary family man whose lifelong pastime is sailing.

Politics

3 w. ago Trump news at a glance: Jeffries says president ‘playing games’ with American lives as national guard to be sent to Chicago

House minority leader decries plan confirmed by Pentagon while Chicago mayor calls it ‘most flagrant violation of our constitution in the 21st century’ – key US politics stories from Sunday 24 AugustHakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader and New York Democratic congressman, said Donald Trump had “manufactured a crisis” to justify sending federalized national guard troops into Chicago next, over the heads of local leaders.Jeffries, appearing on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, accused the US president of “playing games with the lives of Americans” with his unprecedented domestic deployment of the military, which has escalated to include the arming of troops currently patrolling Washington DC – after sending troops into Los Angeles in June. Continue reading...

Politics