15 h. ago Irish city has been named among 'best in the world' for its stunning food

Food is more than just a necessity - it's a cultural language that can bring people together. These are the best capital cities in the world for foodies

Politics

17 h. ago Balomania review – those magnificent Brazilians and their flying balloons

Documentary follows the baloeiros, who illegally build and release huge decorated balloons in cities, from where they can travel hundreds of milesAn intriguing film set in Brazil, first shown last year at the CPH:DOX documentary festival in Copenhagen, in which expatriate Danish film-maker Sissel Morell Dargis takes a look at a unique grassroots cultural phenomenon: the baloeiros, the ballooners. These are groups of young men, as secretive and loyal to each other as Freemasons, who (illegally) build and release huge decorated balloons in cities, from where they can travel hundreds of miles. Why? As kind of graffiti, or a community self-expression, or situationist artform, or just a subversive gesture of pure joie de vivre that does not need or admit of any explanation.The baloeiros are harassed by the police, on the ostensible grounds that they are part of gang culture, and the authorities encourage local people to inform on those they suspect of building and transporting a balloon....

Politics

40 h. ago ‘We feel the pain but there is also joy’: the healing power of diasporic connection

The Legacies of Enslavement programme aims to atone for the Guardian’s past while highlighting the lasting impact of transatlantic slaveryIllustrations by Ngadi SmartSalvador, Bahia, Brazil. In capoeira – an art form whose origins were carried across the Black Atlantic by enslaved people, but which developed and grew into a cultural form of resistance in Brazil – we sometimes wish each other axé (pronounced “ah-shay”). In doing so, we would be bestowing on our interlocutor life force, vitality or just positive energy in the capoeira roda (circle where capoeira is played) or in life.The term is also used in Candomblé and Umbanda, syncretic afro-Brazilian religions with African roots. For me it also symbolises the ability to harness ancestral knowledge and energy to enrich the jogo (game of capoeira), embodying and paying tribute to those who kept the art form alive. Continue reading...

Politics

68 h. ago Work and money worry young people more than culture wars or climate, UK poll finds

Class, education and gender found to influence difference in views but anxiety about finances was a common themeYoung people are more worried about their finances, work pressures and job insecurity than social media, the climate crisis and culture war debates, research shows.The polling also challenges the simplistic characterisation of generational conflict, revealing that differences within gen Z, whether around class, education or gender, are often more pronounced than the differences between generations. Continue reading...

Economics

5 d. ago ‘What the hell is this stuff?’: French people on the culture shock of flossing

While preventative care has not traditionally been a priority in France, US dentistry is ‘very focused’ on itThere are many established, regularly parodied cultural differences between France and the US: style, portion sizes, attitudes towards picking up after your dog.But there’s another – possibly bloodier – contrast: flossing. Continue reading...

Events

6 d. ago Careless People review: Facebook whistleblower’s book serves up one bombshell after another

Sarah Wynn-Williams’ tell-all memoir is a nightmare for Mark Zuckerberg – and a joy for the rest of us

Events

2 w. ago People believe Harry Potter supports same political party as them, study finds

The survey also found the public are also more likely to believe Darth Vader would vote for their own political rival.

Politics

2 w. ago I moved to the sauna capital of the US. Could I take the heat?

A thriving sauna culture is growing in frosty Minnesota as people warm to the health benefits and sense of communityHow much do you spend on health and wellness a month?First there was the sauna, which I loved. A small building with a stove inside to make you sweat seemed perfect for the middle of winter, when the priority was getting warm. I felt my sinuses clear from the sauna heat, and that alone is enough of a health benefit for me – I have a toddler, so I basically have permanent congestion thanks to winter daycare germs.Then came the hard part. After the saunas heated to about 180F (80C), walking outside was a relief. But I had to amp myself up to descend a step ladder into the ice, and I was pretty sure I would hate it. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago How to recognise toxic productivity, and what to do about it

It’s affecting more and more people due to hustle culture and social media pressures

Events

3 w. ago We already knew that Andrew Tate and monsters like him are toxic and twisted

Tate and the toxic culture he represents are low-hanging fruit for the people who would have you believe it is only social media acting as a petri-dish for hate against women.

Events

3 w. ago Emma Heming Willis: People can learn from death of Gene Hackman and wife

It comes after Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead at their home in New Mexico on February 26.

Events

3 w. ago Maximum points: what is the most influential video game ever?

As Bafta launches a survey asking the public to nominate the most influential game of all time, we asked people from across games and culture for their picksAhead of the 21st Bafta games awards this April, the institution is running a public survey asking people to nominate the most influential video game of all time. As the survey points out, this is an open-ended question: early, groundbreaking titles such as Space Invaders and Pong regularly crop up as answers because they helped write the rules of the form, but on a personal level, the right game at the right time can be exceptionally influential, too. For players, it’s often the games that made us feel differently about what games could do that feel the most influential. For a game designer, a film director, a writer or a musician, one particular game might inspire a whole creative era.Inspired by Bafta’s survey, we asked people from across games and culture for their most influential game – and not one name cropped up twice. C...

Politics

3 w. ago In search of the South Pacific fugitive who crowned himself king

Noah Musingku made a fortune with a Ponzi scheme and then retreated to a remote armed compound in the jungle, where he still commands the loyalty of his Bougainville subjectsOne autumn morning, I boarded a plane from Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, to Buka, the capital of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. A collection of islands and atolls the size of Puerto Rico, Bougainville is located 600 miles east of Moresby, across the Solomon Sea. Its southern shore is just three miles from the politically independent Solomon Islands, and its people share a culture, linguistic links and dark skin tone with their Solomon neighbours. But thanks mostly to European colonisers, who drew the borders, Bougainville is the farthest-flung province of Papua New Guinea, whose lighter-toned inhabitants Bougainvilleans often call “redskins”, betraying a sense of otherness in their own country that partly explains why I am writing about them here.I say partly because if not for the islan...

Politics