Video appears to show Mao Zedong called a ‘dictator’ Dongpeng and Mengniu end deals with the player Kylian Mbappé has apologised after the Real Madrid forward was dropped by major Chinese brands for apparently joking about Mao Zedong in a video that has gone viral. There were also signs of broader repercussions, with the state-run Chinese digital newspaper The Paper reporting that public television was suspending broadcasts of matches from La Liga. The offending video shows Mbappé saying that the funniest internet meme he had seen involving him was of his face photoshopped on to that of “some guy – I think he’s a Chinese dictator”. This was an apparent reference to a meme of Mbappé superimposed on an image of Mao. Continue reading...

Thirteen years later, José Mourinho led Real Madrid into the Camp Nou as one team and them out again as another having secured the kind of late victory he loves and which opens up a whole new world. With just three minutes and the final reserves of energy remaining, a wonderful moment of skill from Jude Bellingham found Eduardo Camavinga and set them on one last run. Camavinga sprinted free, skilfully slipped Pau Cubarsí and pulled back for Kylian Mbappé to provide the finish, a little bit of history written. “The world that loves football will have stopped to watch this and they won’t have gone disappointed; this was two teams that played to win,” Mourinho said. It had been an intense, breathless ride, a proper battle, and it was his team who won it. Arriving right on time, Mbappé scored his second to make it 2-1, the Camp Nou falling quiet and their team given no time to react. They had drawn level after Mbappé’s opener, Raphinha scoring, but could not do it again. Continue reading...

Kenya’s Sheila Chepkirui wins second women’s title USA’s Jessica Jessica McClain finishes in second Sweden’s Andreas Almgren wins men’s race on debut Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya won the women’s race of the New York City Marathon on Sunday for the second time, while Sweden’s Andreas Almgren claimed the men’s title in his first ever race over the distance. Almgren was making his debut at 26.2 miles after a successful career running half marathons and the 10,000m. He pulled away from Yemaneberhan Crippa of Italy in the final mile to take the victory in two hours, six minutes and one second. Crippa finished 13 seconds behind. Kamohelo Mofolo of Lesotho was third, edging out defending champion Benson Kipruto. Continue reading...

Gone are the eight criteria to be a High Impact Player so clubs can spend their money on whomever they want – and the solution makes sense When Washington plays Chicago this Sunday in DC, “Rowdy Audi” will probably be full. It will also be full when the post-season starts, should they lock up their top-four position with a positive result on Decision Day. Equipped with an accessible stadium in a big city, a proud fanbase and a formidable roster rife with players qualifying for the High Impact Player (HIP) rule’s initial criteria (including Trinity Rodman, who gave the rule its moniker), the Spirit hold sway in the attendance charts. But starting next season, everyone on the Spirit will qualify for the “Rodman Rule”. So will every player in NWSL. Announced Friday, NWSL settled a grievance with the league’s Players Association, who argued that the initial criteria violated federal labor law. Continue reading...

The playwright’s daughter found Catch Me Who Can after her mother’s death. Now it has become a compelling audio drama with Toby Jones and Rita Tushingham Was Shelagh Delaney a one-hit wonder? Absolutely not. Aside from A Taste of Honey which, in the words of Dominic Dromgoole, “has a rock-solid heart and the gleam of the natural”, she wrote the screenplays for the films Charlie Bubbles and Dance With a Stranger, TV series including The House That Jack Built and several radio plays. But now a 30-minute piece, Catch Me Who Can, has come to light, been released as an audio drama and turns out to be a little gem. Its origins are fascinating. It deals with a teenage truant and was discovered by Delaney’s daughter, Charlotte, after her mother’s death in 2011. But why did it lay hidden for so long? According to Charlotte, who has adapted it for audio: “It imagines my last few hours on the lam having run away from home and school when I was 14 in 1978. I was gone for three days and two nights. I’d suggest it’s a racing certainty that the reason nothing has ever been heard of it is that it’s about me and my mum had rules about that kind of thing.” Continue reading...

An old idea springs anew as a chorus of influential voices predicts that AI may trigger crises of vast magnitude In a preface to his book Capitalism and Freedom, the American economist Milton Friedman famously observed that a crisis can propel once-fringe ideas into the political mainstream. “Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around,” he wrote. The job of intellectuals, thinktanks and economists, he argued, is to refine the quality of these ambient ideas, so that good ones are ready when disaster strikes. Continue reading...

Cryptocurrency exchange has begun to allow withdrawals after theft believed to have come from North Korea Investors have pulled $3.6bn (£2.7bn) in funds from the cryptocurrency exchange Binance as it recovers from a record hack in which billions were stolen from customer accounts. The platform was hit by a $6.3bn theft on Thursday, which has since been described as the biggest heist in history. Experts identified North Korea as the probable culprit. Continue reading...

With a sound inspired by the San Francisco tech boom, the hyperpop musician is entering the big leagues, and has a slot on Charli xcx’s tour. First she needs to get over her own shyness – not to mention a fear of love songs The life of a rising pop star: One day, you’re performing your own song with Charli xcx, her dancers emulating your choreography, an arena’s worth of fans screaming along. The next, you’re on a surgery table, with a healthcare professional yanking four superfluous teeth out of your mouth. Even pop stars need emergency dental work sometimes. It’s all par for the course for April Grey, the San Francisco-born, Chicago-based musician who records as Underscores. Her 2026 has been, plainly, wild: her third album, U, released in March, was met with acclaim and attracted a small army of new fans. Many of the shows on her tour in support of U, earlier this year, were upgraded due to demand, and one expects the bump she’ll get from her current run supporting Charli xcx’s Music, Fashion, Film tour will push her into even bigger rooms. It’s a blow-up befitting the level of ambition Grey put into U, which is a taut, compulsively listenable pop record that sounds like a mid-2000s Now That’s What I Call Music! compilation as recreated by Aphex Twin. “As I was making it, it felt like a very big swing for the fences,” she says. “I wanted it to be big.” Continue reading...

For decades the idea of eugenics has been taboo. Now it is returning in a new commercial guise For a very long time, I dreamed of being cured. I was born in 1981. I learned to walk early enough, but I stumbled and fell more easily than other children. My parents began to worry that something was wrong, that my muscles were weaker than they should be. Eventually, at the age of three, I was diagnosed with a form of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). In the 1980s, the precise mechanics were not yet understood, but the condition was known to be hereditary, probably linked to a recessive gene. It was also known to be progressive. As I aged, my muscles would not keep pace. At eight, I began to use a wheelchair for longer distances. By the time I was 18, I rarely walked outdoors any more. It is hard to be young and to know that you are growing weaker rather than stronger. I had all the same aspirations that my nondisabled friends did, but I lived in fear of the future in a way they did not. I spent a lot of time thinking about what my life would have been like if I didn’t have SMA. The images in my head were of something like a double: myself, only rid of this one deficit, imprecisely defined, but encoded somewhere in my body. Continue reading...

Every deal in the NWSL, WSL, Liga F, Frauen-Bundesliga, Première Ligue and Serie A Femminile as well as a club-by-club guide Men’s transfer window interactive guide Continue reading...

Wikipedia’s 68m articles have been consulted trillions of times. Not bad for a website that has barely changed since it was founded 20 years ago A few years ago, I was struck by the tension between how Wikipedia was used, and how it was talked about. Everyone was on it all the time, and yet its reputation had stalled at “don’t trust it”, because it was the “free encyclopedia that anyone can edit”. Clearly people were trusting it, so much so it had become part of the fabric of everyday life since it was founded by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger in 2001. But despite the fact it now has been consulted trillions of times by billions of people (English Wikipedia alone is 5.2bn words long), it inspires an odd lack of curiosity. Even people donating to Wikipedia might say the money was “for the factcheckers”, though there aren’t any – not paid ones, anyway. Meanwhile, the internet in the social media era had begun to feel like a much uglier place, and some digital nostalgia was setting in: here was this holdover that had somehow survived; a website that functions – and even looks – much the same as it did 20 years ago. Continue reading...

Inspired by the legendary Milan sides of his youth, the manager gave his side a lift with a tactical victory over Inter Ruben Amorim had waited a lifetime for his first Milan derby. As a kid growing up in Lisbon, he supported two football teams. There was the local one, Benfica, whose games he attended so early in life that his father has recalled changing nappies in the stands of the old Estádio da Luz. And the other one that captivated him from overseas. “I remember watching tapes of that Milan team with [Paolo] Maldini, [Franco] Baresi, [Ruud] Gullit, [Frank] Rijkaard, [Dejan] Savicevic,” Amorim told Portuguese newspaper Expresso back in 2017. “My childhood dreams were to play for Benfica and Milan. I’ve fulfilled one. Now I suppose I’ll have to become a coach for the other!” Continue reading...

Sampa Tembo’s genre-hopping third album meets the moment with charisma and cheek In 2019, as Sampa the Great, Sampa Tembo became the first woman to win an Australian Recording Industry Association award for hip-hop or rap; she’s also the first (and only) person to win the Australian music prize twice. But she’s said consistently over the past decade that, while her music career began in Australia – when she was based here between 2013 and 2019 – she is still Zambian-born, Botswana-raised. Having returned to Africa to live and record, she told the Guardian in 2022: “I was constantly being called Australian. I felt that I really had to defend Zambia and Zambian music and culture. The fact I was raised in Botswana and heard this music as I was being raised there fell to the wayside.” Continue reading...

Great hardware let down by software flaws on these pricey machines that combine ChromeOS with Android Google’s attempt to create a new type of laptop to compete with Windows and macOS machines is finally here, combining the best of ChromeOS and Android into the new Googlebook. With advanced links to Android phones and the best of Google built in, can these Googlebooks really compete with a MacBook Air or Surface Laptop? I took two for a spin to find out. For years, Chromebooks have been the boss of budget laptops, but Googlebooks take a different, far more premium approach. Made by a range of traditional PC makers, including Acer, Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo, they start at £999 (€1,099/$899/A$2,299) – a far cry from the £160 Chromebooks. Continue reading...

The England captain spoke movingly on a night of deserving winners and unintentional hilarity in London Well, there’s something new. Football: now available in new, genuinely heartwarming flavour. There was a lovely moment at London’s Palladium theatre on Monday, with the clock creeping towards 11pm at the end of a startlingly shrill and bloated evening of never‑ending awards and never-ending award‑related excitement. Continue reading...

Biggest Apple smartwatch gets better health tracking and new readiness tools with a battery and chip boost in preparation for controversial audio AI As the Ultra enters its fourth year as Apple’s biggest and beefiest smartwatch it gets the best kind of spec upgrade – longer battery life – while waiting for something potentially more transformative. That’s because several of the key features announced as part of Apple’s new smartwatch lineup for 2026 have yet to be enabled, awaiting updates towards the end of this year. That leaves the £749 (€899/$799/A$1,349) Apple Watch Ultra 4 the top dog, but basically the same as last year’s model. Case size: 49 x 44mm Case thickness: 12mm Weight: 63g Processor: S11 Storage: 64GB Operating system: watchOS 27 Water resistance: 100 metres (10ATM) Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3, wifi 4, 5G RedCap/4G, UWB Sensors: HR, ECG, spO2, temp, depth, dual-band GPS, compass, altimeter Continue reading...

Barbican, London The British composer’s ‘i have discovered the secret of death’ was beguiling and compelling, the centrepiece of a programme that saw Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra firing on all cylinders Stage resets between musical works are a standard feature of orchestral concerts: pianos are moved around, additional players file on or off. But I’ve never before seen a tea kettle brought on and placed ceremoniously at the front of the stage, as occurred ahead of the world premiere of Hannah Kendall’s LSO commission I have discovered the secret of death. But then Kendall’s music is vibrantly unconventional, often incorporating noise-makers from beyond classical music’s usual lineup. Her latest work was exceptionally engaging, the beguiling textures of its opening – scratches and whistles, jingles and nervous twitches of piano tremolo – periodically interrupted by violent slam-dunks of timpani, double bass pizzicato, low brass. Later there were music boxes (a hallmark of Kendall’s scoring) and the narrow whine of woodwind reeds detached from instruments. Continue reading...

His dashing lead role in Jilly Cooper’s bonkbuster didn’t hurt the actor’s pin-up status, but now, he protests, he’s 43 – and a dad Aidan Turner has a tactical beard. For the last two decades or so, the actor has found himself in roles that have made him a smouldering pin-up. Audiences really love to look at him. You can buy mugs that say, “Today I don’t feel like doing anything … except Aidan Turner.” There are entire Reddit forums dedicated to sharing photographs of him looking hot. He knows this about himself, just like he knows that people want to ask him about it. “I do get asked these questions,” he says, a little wearily. “I do get the, you know, word ‘smoulder’ or ‘sexy’, and all that kind of shit.” So right now, he has a full beard, in the hope that he will not be accused of, for example, smouldering. “I thought it wouldn’t happen so much with the beard,” he sighs. “I thought I could get away with it. I was going for ‘dad’.” The job of actors is to sell a story as well as they possibly can, and over the years plenty of the stories that Turner has sold have involved romance and sex. He appeared in Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the National Theatre in London this summer, and even the New Yorker noted how much he smoulders. In some ways, Turner is one of those male performers who is, well, a little bit objectified. The fact that he is a good actor, and also known for being sexy, places him in a peculiar bind. If he doesn’t gamely play along, if he points out that he’s getting a bit tired of it actually, then he risks being seen as a killjoy. Sure, there are worse burdens to bear, but at times the star of Poldark and Rivals finds himself in a curious position. Continue reading...

Rapper Pos of the hip hop greats favours Barry White for the bedroom and sobs to Stevie Wonder, but which cheese-rock hit does he love on the sly? The first song I fell in love with My father could sing really well – he was in a choir and had this coolness. He would walk around singing Love and Happiness by Al Green and, because he looked so much like him on the cover, I actually thought he was Al Green. The first single I bought Underlove by Melba Moore from Abraham & Straus, this department store in Long Island that had a mini record store inside. I later realised it was produced by Kashif, and I would fall in love with everything he produced. Continue reading...

You Can See Everything, a documentary about the disgraced biotech company founder Elizabeth Holmes, has enjoyed a record-breaking opening in the US. It is a testament to how fascinated we remain by the convicted fraudster, but what is behind the enduring appeal? US technology editor Blake Montgomery tells Madeleine Finlay why Holmes continues to fascinate us, and reflects on whether the Theranos scandal has had a permanent impact on Silicon Valley Continue reading...

The expansive project has hype and money behind it – but how do you avoid it falling into the disappointment trap so many films end up stumbling into? If the history of failed Hollywood fantasy projects over the past 20 years has taught us anything, it is that transporting audiences to another world is only half the battle: you also have to give them a reason to spend several hours there. The Golden Compass diluted Philip Pullman’s theological bite, Warcraft thought that just explaining its world would make us care about it, and The Dark Tower compressed Stephen King’s sprawling mythology so ruthlessly that it scarcely left room for a story. All these films at one point had fans of the original source material quivering with anticipation at the prospect of seeing their beloved worlds on the big screen; all ended up disappointing. Which brings us to the forthcoming Alex Garland adaptation of the hugely popular high fantasy video game, Elden Ring. If there was ever a cinematic test of the phrase “too big to fail”, it is surely this. Elden Ring has sold more than 30m copies and is widely regarded as one of the greatest video games ever made. George RR Martin himself wrote the foundational mythology of warring demigods that underpins its gorgeous fantasy hellscape. And Garland as writer-director seems almost impossibly perfect: as the creative behind Dredd, Ex Machina and Annihilation, he has both the taste for beautiful nightmares and the geek credentials to deliver something extraordinary. Continue reading...

Upgraded, cheaper AirPods have noise cancelling, sound and controls to rival many plugged-in buds but without tips Apple’s latest AirPods set a new standard for open-fit buds with upgraded noise cancelling that now rivals many plugged-in designs of the same price. The AirPods 5 have the same design the popular AirPods 4 offering an option for those that do not like silicone ear tips used by most noise cancelling earbuds. They come in two versions, with or without a wireless charging case and swipe controls, costing from £119 (€149/$129/A$219) – £10 cheaper than the launch price of their predecessors. Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3, SBC, AAC, H2 chip Battery life: four or five hours with ANC (22 hours with case) Water resistance: IP57 (up to 1 metre for 30 minutes) Earbud dimensions: 30.2 x 18.3 x 18.1mm Earbud weight: 4.3g each Charging case dimensions: 46.2 x 50.1 x 21.2mm Charging case weight: 32.3g/34.7g Case charging: USB-C or wireless (Qi or Watch) Continue reading...

Big screen folder with slick software and advanced AI is just like a regular Android when closed Google’s latest folding phone sticks with its tried and tested design of a traditional phone shape when closed and almost square when open, in the face of new competition from Apple’s squat iPhone fold. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold is Google’s fourth-generation folder and is still one of the only models with a full water and dust resistance rating similar to standard slab phones. It costs from £1,799 (€1,999/$1,899/A$2,799), which is £50 (€100/$100/A$100) more than last year as the pressure of RAMageddon continues to push up prices. Continue reading...

AI is increasingly getting good at doing some tasks, but it can never replace human workers’ judgment Autonomous cars, which may be the safest we have built, keep getting easily avoidable parking tickets. While Waymos crash far less often than human drivers over tens of millions of miles, they’re still terrible at performing basic tasks – keeping out of disabled parking spots and tow-away zones, or steering clear of a church garage during Sunday service, according to the Wall Street Journal. That is the state of AI today: impressively capable at something complex, yet embarrassingly clumsy at something easy. And it has implications for what work will remain human and what will be automated by AI. Madhu Shashanka is co-founder, chief scientist and chief technology officer at Concentric AI, a data security software company Continue reading...

Diego Gómez’s wondergoal in a five-star demolition is just the latest in an impressive run of results for the south coast team Sign up for our free newsletter here For two or three years now, it’s been standard to nod approvingly at how well-run Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth are, and to move on. What else is there to say? It’s true, of course – these are sides who have made the most of relatively limited resources. But there’s also an underlying assumption in the designation: that these are clubs who have no higher aspiration, that their limit is earning praise for upper mid-table finishes. This season, perhaps, offers an opportunity to change that. Other than Arsenal, every major club is undergoing significant transition. Manchester City may have started the season with seven straight wins, but there’s every chance the punishment for their multiple breaches of Premier League regulations takes them out of the race for the top five. In that context, why shouldn’t one of those efficient smaller sides qualify for the Champions League? Continue reading...

The Frenchman, who has been named the best male footballer in the world by the Guardian, has benefitted from PSG’s focus on the team rather than individuals What makes a good player great, and a great player the best? This question has been occupying me since 2014, when the Guardian first asked me to contribute to its inaugural Next Generation feature. My job was to look for a France-based talent born in 1997 who could go on to have a stellar career. After a great deal of research, I narrowed it down from my shortlist of five by asking questions not about the players’ football ability, but about other attributes: resilience, adaptability, decision-making, creativity, work ethic, response to feedback and willingness to learn. Qualities we cannot see, and are harder to measure. Continue reading...

From ‘the new Toni Kroos’ to the US’ next big hope, Cavan Sullivan, we select some of the most talented players born in 2009. Check the progress of our classes of 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 … back to 2014. Here’s our Premier League class of 2026 Continue reading...

Ana Ts’uyeb’s poetic film celebrates the resilience of Indigenous women while exploring the possibility of a different future Shot in her home village of Naranjatic Alto in the Mexican highlands, Ana Ts’uyeb’s documentary debut is a stirring ode to the courageous women of the Indigenous Tzotzil community. The film centres on three important figures in her life: her mother, Margarita; her aunt, Juana; and her sister-in-law, Faustina. Each is from a different generation, yet they have all suffered at the hands of patriarchal violence. The patterns of systemic abuse and disenfranchisement are startlingly similar. All three women recall past opportunities to advance their education, hopes and dreams that were squashed by fathers and other male relatives. Also rampant are physical and psychological abuse. There’s a sobering matter-of-fact tone to their reminiscence; their unfortunate experiences appear to be a common reality endured by many Tzotzil women. Continue reading...

Experts say symptoms such as dark circles under the eyes, grey skin, cracked lips and hair loss can be a warning sign – but there are other factors too TikTok is rife with influencers warning of “ferritin face”, a term they use to describe the pallor, dark circles, dry skin, and hair loss claimed to indicate low iron stores. But is this based on fact or fiction, and when is it time to head to the GP? Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: As platforms chase s ubscribers, podcasts are losing their off‑screen charm , leaving listeners to wonder whether the intimacy of audio can survive the studio lights • Don’t get The Guide delivered to your inbox? Sign up here This has been the year that podcasting properly, unapologetically “pivoted to video”. Yes, it’s been a progression that has been in the making for quite a while, arguably ever since Joe Rogan first trained a webcam at himself and whichever guest he was smoking weed with in his studio back in 2009 – but in 2026 the medium’s transformation from purely aural to audio/visual (often with more of an emphasis on the visual) is truly complete. In January, Netflix started broadcasting video versions of popular podcasts from The Ringer, iHeartMedia, Barstool and more, as well as continuing to make video pods of their own. That landgrab was a slightly desperate response to YouTube’s phenomenal success with visualised pods; after becoming the preferred podcast platform for most Americans in 2024, it managed the same feat in the UK in 2026, overtaking Spotify. No wonder, then, that Spotify has – as part of a wider push to get people sticking to its platform for pods – continued to bolster viewing capabilities for its own pods too. Continue reading...

US artist known as Model 500 and as one half of the duo Cybotron had huge influence on dance music worldwide Juan Atkins, one of the pioneers of Detroit techno and a huge influence on dance music more widely, has died aged 64. His agency, Greensmith Artists, confirmed the news to the dance music website Resident Advisor, saying Atkins had been found unresponsive in a hotel room in Mexico City prior to a performance there, and was pronounced dead after being taken to hospital. Continue reading...

You Can See Everything, a documentary about the disgraced health tech company founder Elizabeth Holmes, has enjoyed a record-breaking opening in the US. It is a testament to how fascinated we remain by the convicted fraudster, but what is behind the enduring appeal? US technology editor Blake Montgomery tells Madeleine Finlay why Holmes continues to fascinate us, and reflects on whether the Theranos scandal has had a permanent impact on Silicon Valley Clip: You Can See Everything, A24 ‘You can’t make this stuff up’: why we remain fascinated by Elizabeth Holmes Continue reading...

Anthropic, the creator of Claude, filed to go public on the US stock market on 26 October. The company's filing statement contains a 92-page risk factor document in which it acknowledges the dangers that AI poses to society and human beings, and factors that could negatively affect Anthropic's business. Johana Bhuiyan, senior tech reporter for the Guardian, breaks down the document and explains why Anthropic's IPO could be a real test for the AI boom Anthropic files for potentially record-breaking stock market valuation in key test for AI industry Continue reading...

Apple’s cheapest desktop computer is no longer a bargain but its newest, fastest chip makes it a pocket powerhouse Apple’s latest Mac mini brings real speed and power for far more than everyday tasks in a practically pocketable form you can fit almost anywhere. The impressive new desktop machine is the first to receive an update to Apple’s latest M6 chip while remaining smaller than a headphones box. It is the cheapest computer Apple sells with an M-series chip, but like every other memory-containing piece of electronics, it has been hit by RAMageddon, driving up the starting price to £899 (€1,049/$899/A$1,449) from the £599 or equivalent of its M4 predecessor. Continue reading...

Australian workers expect the government to act to protect them from AI harms. There is a clear reform solution at hand Get our new political email, free app or daily news podcast Australia’s major political parties are edging towards rare consensus. Labor and the Coalition increasingly want to take a major bet on artificial intelligence. Yet, just as the parties are coming together, the Australian community is running the other way. Last year, only 30% of Australians believed the benefits of AI outweighed the risks. In 2026, community trust in AI appears to be falling even further. Continue reading...

Perimenopause has become a hot topic, with celebrities sharing their experiences and doctors offering tips and advice online. But despite the benefits of growing awareness, a rising number of women are now encountering misinformation about treatments such as HRT. Madeleine Finlay hears from Dr Paula Briggs, a consultant in sexual and reproductive health, about why experts have raised the alarm. Science correspondent Nicola Davis gives the facts on symptoms, tests and treatments Read Nicola’s article about perimenopause misinformation here Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

Oxford study shows Manx shearwaters get lost when their body clocks get out of sync Seabirds returning from foraging trips can be thrown hundreds of miles off course by a form of jet lag that arises when their body clocks get out of sync with local time, researchers say. Tracking data from Manx shearwaters on the west coast of the UK revealed that when the birds returned home to their colonies after trips over the Atlantic, their rapid eastward flights disrupted their sense of time and navigation. Continue reading...

Solid battery life, snappy performance and quality software make for a great smaller phone with a killer camera Google’s latest Pro phone is out to prove it has the best camera on a smartphone while embracing customisation, allowing you to change the look and feel of your photos far beyond simple filters even if that means making them technically worse. The Pixel 11 Pro packs the best of Google’s hardware and software into a still-pocketable and easy to handle frame, instantly making it a contender for best smaller phone of the year. Screen: 6.3in 120Hz QHD+ OLED (495ppi) Processor: Google Tensor G6 RAM: 12 or 16GB Storage: 256, 512GB or 1TB Operating system: Android 17 Camera: 50MP + 48MP UW + 48MP 5x tele; 42MP selfie Connectivity: 5G, eSIM, wifi 7, UWB, NFC, Bluetooth 6, Thread and GNSS Water resistance: IP68 (1.5m for 30 minutes) Dimensions: 152.7 x 71.9 x 8.4mm Weight: 204g Continue reading...

U-turn follows apology from Sky Sports pundit Carragher had been critical of club expectations Aston Villa have dropped their threat of legal action against Jamie Carragher following an apology from the Sky Sports pundit. Villa announced on Friday that they would be taking legal action against Carragher for “unacceptable insults about the club and its fans” on the Stick to Football podcast. The former Liverpool defender had told Villa supporters to “shut the fuck up” after being criticised for suggesting Unai Emery should consider taking the Manchester United job if Michael Carrick is sacked. Continue reading...

The Canadian prime minister’s reckoning with Trumpism in Davos clashes with his attacks on environmental, Indigenous and labour rights The Canadian prime minister is a hero around the world for his Davos speech that reckoned with a reconfiguration of power in the shadow of Donald Trump. But at home, Mark Carney is mirroring the US president by radically centralizing power within his office and cabinet and taking a hatchet to dozens of laws protecting environmental, Indigenous and labour rights, all in order to enact his economic agenda. Shiri Pasternak is an associate professor in criminology at Toronto Metropolitan University and a member of the Infrastructure Beyond Extractivism research team, a collaboration between critical scholars and Indigenous land defenders across North America Continue reading...

Perimenopause has become a hot topic, with celebrities sharing their experiences and doctors offering tips and advice online. But despite the benefits of growing awareness, a rising number of women are now encountering misinformation about treatments such as HRT. Madeleine Finlay hears from Dr Paula Briggs, a consultant in sexual and reproductive health, about why experts have raised the alarm. Science correspondent Nicola Davis gives the facts on symptoms, tests and treatments Continue reading...

As one of the world’s leading forensic anthropologists, Dame Sue Black has acted as an expert witness in a myriad of high-profile criminal cases. Her work has taken her from the lab to active war zones and the aftermath of natural disasters to identify victims’ bodies. Speaking to Ian Sample, the professor explains why standing up in front of a judge and jury has been one of the more terrifying parts of her career, the reputational risk of presenting evidence in court and what the future of forensic science could look like Order An Expert Witness from the Guardian bookshop Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

The maximalist, heart over head adaptation of the romantic tragedy made stars of its leads and became an English teacher’s most trusted weapon for Bard-averse students Romeo + Juliet is not the most renowned or beloved of Shakespeare’s plays, but it is perhaps the most foundational. The 16th-century tragedy, a story of love-addled teenagers and white-hot resentment, is often an English student’s first introduction to the bard’s oeuvre – more accessible and relatable to teens, with its plaintive lust and histrionic mood swings, than the more austere machinations in, say, Macbeth, Hamlet or Othello. And if Romeo + Juliet is the young person’s entry to Elizabethan English, perhaps no version of it is more worthy of the term “gateway drug” than Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film version, which reimagined Verona’s family feud as a tropical gang war and launched an army of teenage crushes with the faces of Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. The maximalist interpretation of Shakespeare’s most lovelorn work, released 30 years ago this week (!), retains Elizabethan verse but announces its divergence from rigid classicism from the jump. Our scene is set in fair Verona beach by a news anchor via TV set, relaying the woe of two star-cross’d lovers before clips of civil strife. Fresh off his breakout success in 1992’s Strictly Ballroom, the Australian director boldly mapped the medieval story on to 90s tabloid fixations – grainy footage of violence in the streets, magazine headlines of capos and criminals, helicopter views of car chases and riots that recalled the media circus around the OJ Simpson chase two years prior. It is a movie that could have only been made in the 90s; Luhrmann’s vision of two warring families as rival gangs, replete with their own economic operations and marked territory, tapped into the era’s preoccupation with gangland as a source of transportive art, from movies to hip-hop, and as a conservative fixation for ideas on intrinsic criminality. Continue…