63 h. ago ‘The most stressful TV experience on record’: Alex Honnold and the rise of potential death as live entertainment

Witnessing the free climber’s ascent of the Taipei 101 without ropes on Skyscraper Live was an astonishing experience. But beneath panicked viewers’ sweaty palms, there was a queasy truth about the future of televisionWell, have your balls descended back out of your body yet? Netflix’s Skyscraper Live has been and gone, and it may well qualify as the single most stressful viewing experience on record. Alex Honnold’s unassisted ascent of the 508 metre Taipei 101 was an absolutely extraordinary achievement. Whether or not it represents the future of television, though, is a completely different matter.Honnold’s work is already well-known. As the star of Free Solo – a feature documentary once again so nerve-racking that the only way to comfortably enjoy it was under the influence of industrial sphincter relaxants – he has long been the poster boy of people climbing up stuff without ropes. Continue reading...

Events

4 d. ago Trump reveals his new secret weapon nicknamed 'The Discombobulator' used to take down America's enemies: 'I'm not allowed to talk about it'

The debilitating device was used earlier this month in Venezuela to capture Nicolás Maduro on drug trafficking charges. Trump first made mention of it earlier this week.

Politics

5 d. ago New York school violated civil rights law by changing name from ‘Thunderbirds’ to ‘T

Federal education officials say a New York school district is “erasing its Native American heritage” and violating civil rights law by changing its team name from the “Thunderbirds” to the “T-Birds.”

Politics

6 d. ago ICE live updates: School official calls on agents to release body cam from 5

Five-year-old Liam Ramos and his father were taken by ICE agents near Minneapolis this week, local school officials have said

Politics

6 d. ago Europe must heed Mark Carney – and embrace a painful emancipation from the US | Paul Taylor

Trump’s tariff retreat should lull nobody into dropping their guard. The EU must join forces with Canada, Japan and other like-minded countriesEU leaders would do well to meditate on the seminal lesson that the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, delivered at this year’s World Economic Forum.In an incisive analysis of the new age of predatory great powers, where might is increasingly asserted as right, Carney not only accurately defined the coarsening of international relations as “a rupture, not a transition”. He also outlined how liberal democratic “middle powers” such as Canada – but also European countries – must build coalitions to counter coercion and defend as much as possible of the principles of territorial integrity, the rule of law, free trade, climate action and human rights. He spelled out a hedging strategy that Canada is already pursuing, diversifying its trade and supply chains and even opening its market to Chinese electric vehicles to counter Donald Trump’s tarif...

Politics

7 d. ago Trump reveals details of secret 'sonic weapon' used in Venezuela raid: 'Nobody else has it'

Trump bragged that 'nobody else' has the sonic weapon capable of causing soldiers to vomit blood.

Politics

7 d. ago WRU bosses questioned LIVE: MPs grill governing body on crisis

WRU chief executive Abi Tierney and chair Richard Collier-Keywood face questioning by the Welsh Affairs Committee as fans' representatives also give evidence

Events

7 d. ago Trump claims a secret ‘sonic weapon’ was used in Venezuela raid: ‘Nobody else has it’

The sonic weapon allegedly left soldiers bleeding from the nose and vomiting blood, as they struggled to stand

Politics

8 d. ago VARs will intervene on second yellows and corners after football law changes

Players to have eight seconds to take goal-kicksIfab focused on limiting disruption of playFootball’s law-making body has backed plans to extend the use of the video assistant referee system, allowing it to intervene on second yellow cards and the awarding of corners, provided the process “does not slow the flow of play”.With the speed of the game in mind, the International Football Association Board (Ifab) also expanded the “countdown principle”, where goalkeepers have eight seconds to release the ball from their hands, to include the taking of goal-kicks and throw-ins. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago As Trump menaces Greenland, this much is clear: the free world needs a new plan – and inspired leadership | Gordon Brown

The idea that the liberal rules-based order can survive his presidency now seems complacent. This is a historic moment – and a time to actA European-wide chorus of resistance, led this morning by Keir Starmer, has greeted Donald Trump’s plan to take over Greenland, by force if necessary, and to start a tariff war if any country stands in his way. Have no doubt, this is a moment: if pursued as a non-negotiable demand, Trump’s plan ends any lingering hope that the liberal rules-based order can stumble on through his remaining time in office. The real question now is whether the 2020s will be defined by the complete collapse of the order’s already crumbling pillars and the atrocities accompanying it, or whether an international coalition of the willing can come together to build a new global framework in its place.For, in quick succession, the US has abandoned its longstanding championing of the rule of law, human rights, democracy and the territorial integrity of nation states. Gone i...

Politics

9 d. ago Starmer ‘wants to get balance right’ on Hillsborough Law after amendment pulled

Ministers are now speaking to campaigners and bereaved families to try to agree on how to move forward.

Politics

9 d. ago What ICE is doing on US streets looks terrifying, but don’t forget: it could happen anywhere | Nesrine Malik

This shocking moment is the outcome of a political, institutional and media environment that is not far off Britain’sThere is not much that can still shock about Donald Trump’s second administration. But the killing of Renee Good earlier this month by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, as well as the regular, often violent confrontations that ICE stages on US streets, show so much that is unravelling in plain sight. The rule of law, the freedom to protest, and even the right to walk or drive in the streets safely without being assaulted by the state, seems to exist no longer in the towns and cities where ICE has made its presence felt. The most disturbing aspect of all this is how quickly it has happened. But for a government agency such as ICE to become the powerful paramilitary force that it is, several factors need to be in play first. Only one of them is Donald Trump.ICE may look as if it came out of nowhere, but the sort of authoritarianism that results in th...

Events

1 week ago Has a Nazi theorist’s vision of a world divided into 'great spaces' found a new advocate in Trump? | Brendan Simms

Carl Schmitt wanted empires that dominated the small countries in their orbits. But the US president’s chaotic actions are not that strategicIt is axiomatic to many of his critics that the US president, Donald Trump, is a fascist. Indeed, some have seen echoes of the work of the Nazis’ “crown jurist” and political theorist, Carl Schmitt, in the Trump administration’s domestic policies, particularly his doctrine of “the exception”, which can be used to suspend certain constitutional rights. After a tumultuous few weeks in geopolitics, his work is being discussed for its contemporary relevance again.In the wake of the release of the new US National Security Strategy in 2025, its raid on Venezuela, the president’s rhetoric on Greenland, Panama, Colombia, Mexico and Cuba, and his apparent indulgence towards Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the question now being asked is whether Trump is also an advocate of aspects of Schmitt’s concept of “great space”.Brendan Simms is director of the Centre fo...

Politics

2 w. ago Gaza war leads to 41% fall in births prompting allegations of reproductive violence

Israel’s war in Gaza has caused high numbers of maternal and neonatal deaths, say two reportsIsrael’s war in Gaza has led to a 41% fall in births in the territory, and high numbers of maternal deaths, miscarriages, newborn mortality and premature births, two reports into the impact of the conflict on pregnant women, babies and maternity care reveal.Two reports by Physicians for Human Rights, in collaboration with the Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, and Physicians for Human Rights–Israel document how the war has led to high figures for maternal and neonatal mortality and forced births in dangerous conditions and systematically dismantled health services – consequences of “a deliberate intention of preventing births among Palestinians, meeting the legal criteria of the Genocide Convention,” researchers said. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago DoJ deemed it ‘unnecessary’ to conclude whether seizing Maduro violated law, memo reveals

Memo on US military raid to capture Venezuela’s president effectively argued that presidents can blow through UN charterUS politics live – latest updatesThe Trump administration received approval from the justice department to use the military to seize Nicolás Maduro even as it declined to address whether the operation would violate international law, according to its legal memo released on Tuesday.The dark-of-night raid to capture Venezuela’s president has raised a host of legal issues concerning the president’s power to start an armed conflict without congressional approval and possible breaches of international law. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago DoJ deemed it ‘unnecessary’ to conclude whether seizing Maduro violated international law, memo reveals

Memo on US military raid to capture Venezuela’s president effectively argued that presidents can blow through UN charterUS politics live – latest updatesThe Trump administration received approval from the justice department to use the military to seize Nicolás Maduro even as it declined to address whether the operation would violate international law, according to its legal memo released on Tuesday.The dark-of-night raid to capture Venezuela’s president has raised a host of legal issues concerning the US president’s power to start an armed conflict without congressional approval and possible breaches of international law. Continue reading...

Society

2 w. ago Even the DOJ’s expert in police shootings not being allowed to participate in Minneapolis ICE investigation

The Civil Rights Division is typically involved in probing fatal shootings by a law enforcement officer

Events

2 w. ago Trump says civil rights were 'very bad' for white people as he flips sacred law on its head

Trump argued the Civil Rights Act of 1964 resulted in discrimination against white men.

Politics

2 w. ago Paternity leave: What are the new parental rules as dads to get more rights?

The changes form part of the government’s Employment Rights Bill which became law last year

Politics

2 w. ago Iran protests live: Relatives of demonstrators killed by the regime trawl through body bags as new footage shows mothers begging loved ones' corpses to 'get up'

Iran's Supreme Leader has warned Donald Trump he 'will be overthrown' as footage from inside the country shows the regime is continuing to crack down on nationwide protests. 

Events