Language experts rounded up the year’s winners (losers?) in the US and UK – and provided the correct pronunciations At the Democratic national convention, Kamala Harris’s nieces explained how to pronounce Harris’s name. Chappell Roan gave fans a friendly “final warning” about the pronunciation of hers. And Zendaya settled the matter on video. All three helped to define 2024 – and spent the year hearing people get their names wrong: each appears on lists of the year’s most mispronounced words in the US and UK, produced by the language-learning website Babbel, which reminds us that they’re pronounced COM-a-la HAR-iss, CHAP-uhl ROHN and Zen-DAY-a. The Dutch Kooikerhondje (COY-ker-HUND-che), a breed of dog owned by the world’s best baseball player, Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ohtani’s dog won fans after “throwing” the first pitch at a game (he carried the ball from the pitcher’s mound to his crouching owner at home plate). Shein, the fast-fashion site – it’s SHE-in, not SHEEN or SHINE. The drug in the weight-loss medications Ozempic and Wegovy is semaglutide (sem-ah-GLOO-tide). Phryge, the mascot of the Paris Olympics and summer Paralympics, is pronounced FREE-je. It was a nod to the Phrygian cap, an emblematic accessory of the French revolutionaries. The flygskam (FLEEG-skam) – or flight-shame – movement is pushing people to cut down on flying to help the planet. Also in the word of professional sports: Joško Gvardiol (YOSH-ko GVAR-dee-ol) plays soccer (FOOT-ball) for Manchester City and Croatia. And the mispronunciation of the word espresso (es-PRESS-oh) as ex-PRESS-oh sparked outrage among some coffee fans. The word has been in the news thanks to the song by Sabrina Carpenter, who also made headlines for her relationship with Keoghan. Continue reading...

If the purpose of universities is to cultivate the mind, it is nearly impossible to deny that football, by degrading the brain, is antithetical to the process “It is clearly the duty of the colleges which have permitted these monstrous evils to grow up and become intense to purge themselves of such immoralities … Intercollegiate and interscholastic football ought to be prohibited until a reasonable game has been formulated.” Those were the words of Harvard University president Charles W Eliot in 1906, a year after three college players died playing football, part of a spate of deaths that led many universities to abandon the sport and President Roosevelt to call for safety reforms in the game he loved. Sadly, Eliot’s words resonate as if written today: on 29 November, Alabama A&M linebacker Medrick Burnett Jr died from a head injury he had suffered in a game the previous month. He was just twenty years old. Nathan Kalman-Lamb is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick. Derek Silva is Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminology at King’s University College at Western University. They are co-authors of The End of College Football: On the Human Cost of an All-American Game (UNC Press, November 2024) and co-hosts (with Johanna Mellis) of The End of Sport podcast. Continue reading...

The deal will create North Sea’s biggest independent producer Shell and Equinor will combine their UK North Sea offshore oil and gas assets to create a new company with 1,300 employees. Based in Aberdeen, the company will be the North Sea’s biggest independent producer is expected to produce more than 140,000 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) a day next year. Continue reading...

TV presenter denies fresh claims of incidents that Shannon Kyle alleges happened when she was working on his 2012 autobiography The ghostwriter of Gregg Wallace’s 2012 autobiography has claimed he sexually harassed her when she was working on the book. Shannon Kyle told BBC Newsnight that Wallace touched her thigh inappropriately while she was sitting in the passenger seat of his sports car and touched her bottom during an appearance at the Good Food Show. Continue reading...

Sports Direct owner says it has seen ‘weaker consumer confidence’ before and after the budget as it cuts profit expectations The high street retail giant Frasers said it had witnessed “weaker” confidence among shoppers leading up to and since the autumn budget, as the company reduced its profit forecasts for the year. It came as the Mike Ashley-founded firm revealed a slump in sales for the past half-year and lower profits. Continue reading...

Record-breaking box office of animated sequel shows how the first film became an unlikely smash hit on streaming If you want a quick explanation of why Moana 2 is on target to gross more than a billion dollars worldwide (it’s already made $400m in less than a week), you need only to look back to 2023, when the original Moana – a seven-year-old movie at the time – topped the list of the most-streamed movies in the United States. The only other pre-2020 movie in the top 10 was Disney stablemate Frozen, which made way more in theaters than the first Moana did. Moana also ranked fourth among all movies in 2022, second in both 2021 and 2020, and, well, that takes us to the beginning of its home service, Disney+, roughly five years ago. By these rough but seemingly undeniable metrics, it seems reasonable to claim that Moana, a movie that in 2016 was outgrossed by both its fellow Disney release Zootopia and its holiday-season rival Sing, is the most-watched family film of the 2020s. If Elsa from Frozen was hoping to hang on to that particular title, she may have to let it go. Continue reading...

Australia 102-5 beat India 100 by five wickets in women’s ODI in Brisbane Opener guides run chase after Megan Schutt takes five-wicket haul Megan Schutt’s ODI best and a bright Georgia Voll debut have sunk India to a 12-year low in a one-sided series opener in Brisbane. The visitors lost six for 11 and made just 100 after opting to bat first at Allan Border Field on Thursday afternoon, their lowest total in the 50-over format since 2012. A maiden five-wicket haul by Schutt (five for 19) powered the hosts, before debutant Voll’s unbeaten 46 off 42 balls ensured they reached the target inside 17 overs. Continue reading...

Rice wine enshrined as part of ‘cultural heritage of humanity’ Sake is perhaps more Japanese than the world-famous sushi. It’s brewed in centuries-old mountaintop warehouses, savoured in the country’s pub-like izakayas, poured during weddings and served slightly chilled for special toasts. Now, the smooth rice wine that plays a crucial role in Japan’s culinary traditions - and is a favoured tipple of celebrities such as Cate Blanchett – has been enshrined by Unesco, which has put it on its list of the “intangible cultural heritage of humanity”. Continue reading...

Watchdog greenlights deal to form UK’s biggest mobile network with 27m customers after demanding 5G upgrades Vodafone and Three have been given the green light to create the UK’s largest mobile phone operator after agreeing to invest heavily in upgrading the merged group’s network across the country. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the pair must commit to upgrading 5G coverage and offer short-term customer protections against price rises. Continue reading...

Health officials say they are prioritising people with the highest needs for ‘King Kong of weight-loss drugs’ Fewer than 10% of patients in England who are eligible for what has been dubbed the “King Kong of weight loss drugs” will initially be able to access it on the NHS after officials said they would prioritise people with the highest needs. The “difficult decision” to roll out Mounjaro slowly over 12 years was made “in order to protect other vital NHS services”, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) said. Continue reading...

Updates from the series opener at Allan Border Field Any thoughts? Get in touch with an email Australia has first blood! That wide ball from Schutt has indeed caught the toe of the bat and Smitri is out. It took a loooong time for the third umpire to make a call but the Australians were elated from the get-go and the noise was audible on TV screens. Sure enough, Smitri is gone, having gone to unleash one pf those gorgeous cut shots. But she got to it late and it caught the edge. 3rd over: India 5-0 (Punia 1, Smriti 4) Overpitched by Schutt and punched for FOUR by Smriti. Lovely shot there. She’s come to play has the elegant left-hander. This is Schutt’s 92nd ODI for Australia but Smriti is in her 89th and it hasn’t worried the 28-year old from Mumbai. Schutt beats her on the next one. Good comeback. There’s a loud snick on the fifth ball but umpire’s arm stays inert. The Australians like it A LOT and the batter seems to be strolling… Continue reading...

Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence has long been regarded as dangerous for her Syria contacts and stance on Ukraine In 2018, a Syrian dissident codenamed Caesar was set to testify before the House foreign affairs committee about the torture and summary executions that had become a signature of Bashar al-Assad’s brutal crackdown on opposition during Syria’s civil war. It was not Caesar’s first time in Washington: the ex-military photographer had smuggled out 55,000 photographs and other evidence of life in Assad’s brutal detention facilities years earlier, and had campaigned anonymously to convince US lawmakers to pass tough sanctions on Assad’s network as punishment for his reign of terror. Continue reading...

Nika Gvaramia among numerous other opposition members to be arrested on Wednesday as police raid homes and offices Georgian police have raided the offices of an opposition party and arrested its leader in an apparent attempt to quash a wave of mass protests triggered by the governing party’s decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union. Protesters on Wednesday night gathered for a seventh consecutive night of protests, facing off against riot police who have used water cannon and teargas to disperse them on previous nights. Protesters have thrown fireworks at police officers and built barricades on the Georgian capital’s central boulevard. Continue reading...

New liquefied natural gas projects could produce 10 gigatonnes of emissions by the end of the decade, close to the annual emissions of all coal plants A $200bn wave of new gas projects could lead to a “climate bomb” equivalent to releasing the annual emissions of all the world’s operating coal power plants, according to a report. Large banks have invested $213bn into plans to build terminals that export and import gas that is chilled and shipped on ocean tankers. But a report has warned that they could be more damaging than coal power. Continue reading...

Greens claim EPA no closer to determining cause of debris after beachgoers advised not to enter Silver beach at Kurnell until clean-up complete Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Mysterious green, grey and black balls have washed up on a beach in Kurnell, in Sydney’s south, with beachgoers warned to avoid the area. Authorities said the “ball-shaped debris” washed up along the eastern end of Silver beach on Tuesday. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...

Report highlights ‘shocking’ example of man left unable to swallow after waiting over two days mostly on a bed in a corridor without regular medication An elderly man was left unable to swallow after waiting over two days in A&E without being given regular medication, and died four weeks later. In a “shocking” case that has raised fresh concerns over the state of urgent NHS care, the 85-year-old was sent to a hospital emergency department after a routine appointment. Amid massive delays, his A&E wait went into a third day, with most of it spent on a bed in the corridor. Continue reading...

Most rappers venerate the single mothers who brought them up – but Eminem shockingly lambasted his. Yet even he couldn’t keep up the enmity for long Hip-hop has long been a culture that honours single mothers and their many sacrifices. “She was barely even grown and became my momma!” rapped a tearful Cee-Lo Green over a wounded piano on Goodie Mob’s criminally underrated 1995 song Guess Who. “I never knew my dad, so even when the times got bad / I was glad, because I had my momma.” On the powerful hood-gospel song, Dear Mama, 2Pac famously paid tribute to the persistence of his own family matriarch, the Black Panther political revolutionary Afeni Shakur. He rapped the empathetic line: “Even as a crack fiend, momma / You always was a Black queen.” It’s one of only a few rap songs selected for preservation at the National Recording Registry in the US Library of Congress. Continue reading...

Haul culture, fast fashion and warehouse shopping are not only a waste of hard-earned cash and resources but a titanic misuse of time One of the conventional pleasures of the American shopping experience has been buying more than you need while telling yourself you are being highly efficient. Beans in 12-packs; two, gallon-bottles of olive oil shackled at the collar bone; high-end electronics like the multipack Philips Sonicare electric toothbrushes I once bought for $300. $300! Where are those toothbrushes now? No idea. In the name of economy I did this for years, until all of a sudden I didn’t. Times change, our awareness as consumers grows and eventually, if we’re lucky, it starts to dawn on us that warehouse shopping not only turns our apartments into storerooms but that the experience enables more waste than efficiency. As epiphanies go, it’s up there with realising you don’t have to say yes when someone offers you their kids’ cast offs – a moment captured in Emily Mester’s sly and brilliant new book, American Bulk: Essays on Excess. Mester, who chronicles a childhood spent browsing the aisles at Costco in the suburban Midwest, looks not only at the rise of ever more disposable goods but at the relationship we as consumers have with them. Continue reading...

The Green party made history in the general election, winning four seats for the first time. But how much will it be able to achieve in parliament when facing the gravity of the climate crisis? The Guardian’s John Harris sits down with Carla Denyer, the Greens’ co-leader and MP for Bristol Central, to ask her what comes next for the party. Because of industrial action taking place by members of the National Union of Journalists at the Guardian and Observer this week, we are re-running an episode from earlier in the year. For more information please head to theguardian.com. We’ll be back with new episodes soon. Continue reading...

Pupils at King William’s college on the Isle of Man have been tormented by its annual general knowledge quiz since 1905. Can you rack up more than the average score of two? Editor’s note: the King William’s College quiz has appeared in the Guardian since 1951. The quiz is no longer sat formally; it is sent to the schoolchildren and their families to tackle over the Christmas holiday. So yes, you are allowed to Google – however, the questions are constructed to make that less than straightforward. Answers will appear on the Guardian website on 1 January 2025. Good luck! General knowledge paper, 2024-25, No 120, sat by the pupils of King William’s College, Isle of Man Continue reading...

Gangs charging €8,000 for illegal travel packages that avoid crossing Channel on small boats Hundreds of people have been detained in Northern Ireland trying to get into Great Britain by crossing the border from Ireland in anoperation aimed at cracking down on people smugglers. Criminal gangs are charging up to €8,000 for the illegal travel package they present as a safer route to crossing the Channel on small boats , say immigration officials. Continue reading...

Ian Sample speaks to colorectal surgeon and researcher James Kinross about the miraculous world of our gut microbiome, how modern life is impacting it, and what we can do to look after it Because of industrial action taking place by members of the National Union of Journalists at the Guardian and Observer this week, we are re-running an episode from earlier in the year. For more information please head to theguardian.com. We’ll be back with new episodes soon. This episode originally ran on Tuesday 23 January 2024 The trillions of microbes living on and inside the human body are an important part of who we are, from mediating all our interactions with the environment to determining our cancer risk and influencing who we fall for. Scientists are only just beginning to decipher the species of bugs we share our lives with and how they shape us. Continue reading...

Michel Barnier to present resignation to president after being ousted in record time by vote of no confidence The French prime minister, Michel Barnier, is expected to resign on Thursday, a day after his government became the first to be toppled by a no-confidence vote in more than 60 years and just three months after it took office – a record ouster. Barnier is due to present President Emmanuel Macron with his government’s resignation on Thursday morning. The president would address the nation on Thursday evening, the Elysée said. Continue reading...

Removing the president requires a parliamentary two-thirds majority, which the opposition lacks, and approval by a constitutional court that technically might not have enough judges South Korea’s opposition parties have initiated impeachment proceedings against the president, Yoon Suk Yeol, after his shock declaration of martial law on Tuesday night that was withdrawn within six hours after united opposition from parliament. The dramatic events, which saw military troops entering the National Assembly before martial law was repealed, marked the most serious challenge to South Korean democracy since the 1980s. Now, with public opinion firmly behind them, opposition lawmakers are moving swiftly towards an impeachment vote. Continue reading...

Largest cryptocurrency, prone to volatile market surges, lifts amid hopes of lighter regulation with Trump’s return Bitcoin has crossed $100,000 for the first time, scaling a fresh record high amid a euphoric rally sparked by Donald Trump’s election victory. The world’s largest and most valuable cryptocurrency – prone to volatile market surges and routs – has been lifted in recent weeks by hopes that the president-elect’s return to the White House will usher in a new era of lighter regulation and supportive policies. Continue reading...