Account of visit to Gaza by French professor describes Israeli military attacks on security personnel protecting convoys A historian who spent more than a month in Gaza at the turn of the year says he saw “utterly convincing” evidence that Israel supported looters who attacked aid convoys during the conflict. Jean-Pierre Filiu, a professor of Middle East studies at France’s prestigious Sciences Po university, entered Gaza in December where he was hosted by an international humanitarian organisation in the southern coastal zone of al-Mawasi. Continue reading...

The singer on going solo, bringing back George Michael, and why a dog made her rethink motherhood Born in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, Rebecca Lucy Taylor, 39, was in the duo Slow Club. After 10 years, she went solo as Self Esteem and received Mercury prize, NME and Brit nominations for her second album, 2021’s Prioritise Pleasure. This year, she won the Ivor Novello Visionary award and released a book and album, both called A Complicated Woman. In March, she stars in David Hare’s Teeth ’n’ Smiles at the Duke of York’s theatre, London. She lives in London with her partner. When were you happiest? Five to 10, when I was just playing out and I didn’t realise I was a girl. Before my boobs came in, basically. Continue reading...

Nathan Law says ‘moral obligation’ to Hongkongers should extend to anyone fleeing from political persecution An exiled leader of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong has said the UK government risks reneging on a commitment to people from its former colony in its shake-up of legal immigration routes. Nathan Law, a former Hong Kong politician who arrived in the UK in 2020 and has a bounty on his head, said that the government should reflect on its moral obligations when enacting its increase of the standard qualifying period for permanent residence to a decade. Continue reading...

Next nominee faces enormous task of leading a party that has been entirely re-oriented around Trump Donald Trump hasn’t stopped joking about running again for the White House in 2028, even as he acknowledges it is “pretty clear” he is constitutionally ineligible for a third term. Whether intended as a taunt or a threat, his musings are a reminder that, even barred from the ballot, Trump is likely to remain a central figure in the campaign to succeed him. The next Republican nominee faces the potentially enormous task of leading a party that has been entirely reoriented around Trump into a post-Trump era. Here’s a look at the Republicans best positioned for a White House run. Retiring Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem Health and Human Services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin Georgia governor Brian Kemp South Carolina senator Tim Scott Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley Utah governor Spencer Cox Continue reading...

A harrowing US podcast documents a community’s struggle against immigration raids – and warns us about herd mentality Earlier this year, the Trump administration reversed the convention that nobody would be snatched by immigration and customs enforcement, or ICE, by a school, church or hospital. Since then, teachers have reported classrooms a third empty, as parents are too scared to send their kids in – volunteers walk them there and back. In the Rogers Park area of Chicago, a group of citizens are organising to resist such immigration raids. Sometimes, it’s simple non-violent tactics, such as slowing officers down by walking in front of them. Last month, 50 people rushed to a church, where the congregation was trapped, having got word that there were ICE agents waiting outside. Maybe their most evocative tactic is whistles – coded blasts for when a convoy is suspected to be ICE agents, a different code when it’s confirmed. They have numerous accounts of undocumented migrants warned off driving right into a raid, which is galvanising, but they also see and hear dismaying things all the time: vehicles standing empty, one door open, not robbed, merely relieved of their drivers; landscape gardeners arrested off ladders. Earlier this month, the Protect Rogers Park group got 1,500 calls in a day. Continue reading...

Welsh government grants used to fund football club even though it is owned by wealthy movie stars Wrexham AFC has risen meteorically through the English football leagues thanks to the deep pockets of Hollywood movie star owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. Yet the club has also had £18m in help from other, unwitting backers: Welsh taxpayers. The club has received almost £18m in nonrepayable grants from the Welsh government via the local council, according to UK government state aid disclosures – far in excess of the direct aid listed for any other football club in Britain. Continue reading...

Democracy, birds and hangover cures – famous fans put their questions to the visionary author After the ­phenomenal global success, not to mention timeliness, of the TV adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale in 2017, Margaret Atwood has been regarded as “a combination of figurehead, prophet and saint”, the author writes in her new memoir Book of Lives. Over 600 pages this “memoir of sorts” ranges from her childhood growing up in the Canadian backwoods to her grief at the death of her partner of 48 years, the writer Graeme Gibson, in 2019, with many friendships, the occasional spat and more than 50 books (including Cat’s Eye, Alias Grace and the Booker prizewinning The Blind Assassin and The Testaments) in between. The author, who turned 86 last week, always likes to take the long view, often from a couple of centuries’ distance. As Rebecca Solnit notes below, she now has a long view of our times. Age and the freedom of being a writer (as she says, she can’t get sacked) make her fearless in speaking out. Continue reading...

News and discussion as we build up to the day’s action Premier League things | Get in touch Premier League: Matchday 13 … where has the time gone? Can Manchester City get their title tilt back on track? How bleak will Rob Edwards’s winter be at Wolves? And has Estêvão put himself in starting contention against Arsenal? Our writers ponder all these talking points and more in our 10 things to look out for this weekend. Continue reading...

More than 100 still missing on Sumatra island, where authorities to start cloud seeding to reduce rain, as Thailand sees one of worst floods in a decade The death toll from devastating floods and landslides in south-east Asia climbed past 350 on Saturday as clean-up and search and rescue operations got under way in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. Heavy monsoon rain overwhelmed swathes of the three countries this week, killing hundreds and leaving thousands stranded, many on rooftops awaiting rescue. Continue reading...

There have been many good points – challenging orthodoxies and Ben Stokes talking openly about male emotions – and even when it was bad, it was unignorable The Life Cycle of a Cult 1. The Big Idea. A charismatic leader or leaders propose a new and transcendent idea that promises a panacea for alienated and vulnerable people. So here we are then. They’re getting ready to storm the compound down in Brisbane. The gunships are circling. Smoke is rising from the out-houses. A lone figure, naked, shivering, the words HIGH RELEASE POINT smeared across his chest in chicken blood, has come staggering through the lines and is being led away under a blanket towards an inconclusive loan stint at Derbyshire. Continue reading...

Enzo Maresca’s young side face league leaders Arsenal on Sunday on a high but have moved on from the emotional swings of old The worst way for Chelsea to respond to their demolition of Barcelona would be to believe the hype. The problem is that emotions in football swing from one extreme to another, as the people running things at Stamford Bridge have quickly come to appreciate. They have faced plenty of ridicule for their alternative approach since buying the club from Roman Abramovich three years ago, so perhaps they are entitled to be a little sceptical now that Chelsea are being praised for their transfer strategy and talked up as potential title challengers before hosting Arsenal on Sunday. Continue reading...

Troubled times at Carrington as the club proud of producing the next generation of stars is in flux under fresh leadership The standards of Manchester United’s academy have “really slipped” in recent years, according to Sir Jim Ratcliffe. The club is renowned as one of the world’s best schools for young players, so the words of the man at the top of the football operation will have stung those trying to create the next generation of stars. The academy is in flux after Nick Cox, its long-time leader, left in September to become technical director at Everton. His replacement, Steve Torpey, joined from Brentford and is an ally of United’s director of football, Jason Wilcox. The pair worked together at Manchester City and the introduction of another former employee from there implies a literal blueprint is being followed. Continue reading...

Along the French Riviera with Sandi, following generations of artists, writers and freethinkers. Plus: Strictly tries to shrug off its troubles with a new, time-pressurised challenge. Here’s what to watch this evening 8.05pm, Channel 4 Lovely Sandi Toksvig is travelling along the French Riviera, following in the footsteps of artists, writers and freethinkers who made the glamorous holiday destination “the beating heart of intellectual life” in the 20th century. After the shock of the first train actually arriving on time in Marseille, Toksvig heads to Sanary-sur-Mer, where Brave New World author Aldous Huxley and German writers Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht spent time. Hollie Richardson Continue reading...

One line from Ridley Scott’s classic movie was the shove I needed to walk out on my husband after years of his controlling behaviour It was 1991, I was in my early 40s, living in the south of England and trapped in a marriage that had long since curdled into something quietly suffocating. My husband had become controlling, first with money, then with almost everything else: what I wore, who I saw, what I said. It crept up so slowly that I didn’t quite realise what was happening. We had met as students in the early 1970s, both from working-class, northern families and feeling slightly out of place at a university full of public school accents. We shared politics, music and a sense of being outsiders together. For years, life felt full of promise. When our first child arrived, I gave up my local government job to stay at home. That’s when the balance between us shifted. Continue reading...

From Charon, Styx and Nix to Dr Fink and Bobby Z, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz 1 Which famous portrait is claimed to be of Magdalena van Ruijven from Delft? 2 Charon, Styx and Nix are satellites of which body in the solar system? 3 What type of passport was abolished in 1996? 4 Which Commonwealth capital was built by the Knights of St John? 5 Which African-born influencer is the most followed person on TikTok? 6 Whose Book of Household Management was a Victorian bestseller? 7 Which Devon racecourse is the southernmost in Britain? 8 Whose backing band included Wendy & Lisa, Dr Fink and Bobby Z? What links: 9 Derwent; Dove; Etherow; Goyt; Wye? 10 Luton Town; Oldham Athletic; Preston North End; QPR? 11 Crucifixion; assassination of Abraham Lincoln; signing of Belfast agreement? 12 Ani Mikheeva; Bella Baxter; Evelyn Quan Wang; Tammy Faye Bakker? 13 Lift; drag; thrust; weight? 14 Singer Marc Almond; comedian Thomas Derbyshire; chemist John Farrow? 15 Golden (English); stone (German); royal (French and Spanish)? Continue reading...

It may not be as glamorous as Monaco, but it was on the raceway where a seven-year-old Norris first caught the eye of motor sport trainers Monaco, Las Vegas, Singapore. The list of pitstops on Lando Norris’ road to the top of Formula One is like a luxury travel agent’s catalogue. So when I was asked to trace the young man’s journey ahead of a weekend in which he could become the first British champion driver since Lewis Hamilton, my hopes were high. Continue reading...

Survey data suggests more and more girls can’t imagine getting married, while their male counterparts are keener. That disparity holds a clue According to recent data, marriages in England and Wales are down by nearly 9% after a post-pandemic spike, while civil partnerships have risen by almost the same percentage. This downward trend is also reflected in the US. The Vatican has piped up in defence of the institution, releasing a 40-page doctrinal note, Una Caro (One Flesh): In Praise of Monogamy: Doctrinal Note on the Value of Marriage as an Exclusive Union and Mutual Belonging. Sworn celibates would not be my personal first port of call when seeking relationship advice, but to each their own – exclusively and indissolubly, if the Catholic church is to be believed. Among the younger crowd, gendered expectations about marriage are changing, at least according to a survey by the University of Michigan, which found that only 61% of high-school girls want to be married one day, compared to 74% of the boys. Perhaps this is behind the burgeoning genre of opinion pieces in which a rightwing man complains that women don’t want to date him. Often enough, he is an avowed libertarian, leaving it a mystery why he does not simply accept the workings of the free market. Naoise Dolan is an Irish writer and the author of Exciting Times and The Happy Couple Continue reading...

Dawn Butler leads calls for humanitarian visas and fee waivers for vulnerable relatives of UK nationals affected by storm British MPs have joined campaigners calling for more aid and humanitarian visas for Jamaicans to enter the UK after Hurricane Melissa demolished parts of the country, plunging hundreds of thousands of people into a humanitarian crisis. The UK has pledged £7.5m emergency funds to Jamaica and other islands affected by the hurricane, but many argue that the country has a moral obligation to do more for former Caribbean colonies. Continue reading...

This Eryri refuge for hillwalkers and climbers has been reborn, breathing new life into the once-struggling mountain village of Llanberis Pete’s Eats, the famous climbers’ cafe in the heart of Eryri (Snowdonia), reopened this summer after almost three years of being shuttered. The newly minted version is a swish affair, with a copper-topped bar, distressed wood panels, local craft beers, tacos and a handsome crew of young locals in branded T-shirts. A lot of money has clearly been spent on the refurb, and it seems to be at the forefront of a new wave of developments in the historic village of Llanberis. When Pete Norton and his wife Victoria opened a cafe here in 1978, they envisioned a refuge for climbers, hillwalkers and anyone else who was hungry after a day out on the hills of Eryri. Rain-lashed visitors stumbling in from a long hike could look forward to pint mugs of tea poured from a metal teapot the size of a rhino’s skull, huge plates of steaming chilli and vegetable curry on brown rice, an all-day breakfast or mountainous chip butties. Continue reading...

​In this week’s newsletter: The turn-of-the-2000s produced a frenzy of cultural crystal-ball gazing​. Two decades on​ those bold forecasts reveal as much about us as they do about the era itself • Don’t get The Guide delivered to your inbox? Sign up here I love revisiting articles from around the turn of the millennium, a fascinatingly febrile period when everyone – but journalists especially – briefly lost the run of themselves. It seems strange now to think that the ticking over of a clock from 23:59 to 00:00 would prompt such big feelings, of excitement, terror, of end-of-days abandon, but it really did (I can remember feeling them myself as a teenager, especially the end-of-days-abandon bit.) Of course, some of that feeling came from the ticking over of the clock itself: the fears over the Y2K bug might seem quite silly today, but its potential ramifications – planes falling out of the sky, power grids failing, entire life savings being deleted in a stroke – would have sent anyone a bit loopy. There’s a very good podcast, Surviving Y2K, about some of the people who responded particularly drastically to the bug’s threat, including a bloke who planned to sit out the apocalypse by farming and eating hamsters. Continue reading...

Few sights are as cheering as the tiny Dane scurrying down a continental alleyway, like a Womble chased out of a boulangerie. This Côte d’Azur travelogue is marvellous fun A tiny figure is beckoning to us from across a blazing stretch of beach. We approach, tentatively. Who is this squinting gesticulator? Closer inspection reveals a hat (sensible) and a suitcase (brown). The heart leaps. Could it be Paddington? Close. It’s Sandi Toksvig. “And this,” she says, as the camera swoops over her shoulder to reveal a gasp-inducing sweep of Mediterranean coastline, “is my Great Riviera Rail Trip”. A montage of coming attractions sets out our guide’s stall. Here is Toksvig eating bouillabaisse in a bib; Toksvig bobbing, seal-like, in an infinity pool; Toksvig pounding up a set of steps, her fringe bouncing like a blond trampette in the breeze. The idea? “I want to explore the region’s rich past and vibrant present,” she says. “A simple rail trip of just over one hundred miles” allows her to take in the artists, writers and “freethinkers” who helped transform the Riviera from a fluttering ribbon of snoozy fishing villages into “one of the world’s dream destinations”. So, it’s all aboard the Toksvig express for the first of a four-part choo-choo along the Côte d’Azur. Continue reading...

From Isas to salary sacrifice and inheritance to property tax, here’s how to best navigate the chancellor’s changes Your questions about your finances answered ‘Struggling to pay the bills’: Britons under pressure react to budget Video: tax, pensions and energy bills: how the budget could affect you After much anticipation, the chancellor delivered her second budget this week, unveiling a series of changes that could affect how you spend and save your money. Here are some suggestions to consider what might lessen the impact on your finances. Continue reading...

The PM becomes the first Australian leader to celebrate a wedding while in office with a private ceremony followed by a reception at his official residence, the Lodge Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has married his partner, Jodie Haydon, in Canberra, making him the first Australian leader to tie the knot in office. The ceremony took place on Saturday afternoon at Albanese’s official residence, the Lodge, witnessed by a small group of close family and friends, including Albanese’s son, Nathan, and Haydon’s parents, Bill and Pauline. Continue reading...

Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the past seven days Continue reading...

Exclusive: Rail regulator pulls Avanti service from timetable from mid-December but it is needed for staff travel The good news for rail travel between Manchester and London is that a morning train will continue to link England’s biggest cities in under two hours. The bad news: passengers will no longer be able to get onboard. The rail regulator has axed one of Britain’s fastest and most lucrative intercity services, the 7am Avanti West Coast from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston, as part of a timetable shake-up that will take effect in mid-December. Continue reading...