Tara theatre, London A young, gay Indian man learns steps to Britishness from a phantom vision of the Tory politician, but the result is less sinister a satire than it should be Remember Theresa May and her 2016 “citizen” speech (“If you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere”) at the height of her suspicious policies on immigration? Well, here she is back in her former pomp as home secretary, appearing as a spectre that looms over Vivek Nityananda’s political satire about Nikhil (Taraash Mehrotra), a young, gay Indian researching cancer in Britain who becomes desperate to earn indefinite leave to remain and prove himself the “good” immigrant. Continue reading...

Guilty plea by far-right activist lays bare plans for bombings, school shootings and Santas handing out poisoned candies Michail Chkhikvishvili, a self-described cult leader who called himself “Commander Butcher”, did not look like a Hollywood vision of a contemporary terrorist, despite the bizarre, almost made-for-TV extremist actions he planned, such as having people dressed as Santa Claus hand out poison candies on the streets of New York. Chkhikvishvili appeared in a Brooklyn court last week as one might find an office IT tech: close-cropped hair and black-rimmed glasses, attentive, clear-spoken and cooperative as he was questioned about his understanding of a plea that could see him imprisoned for up to 18 years at his March sentencing. Continue reading...

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world Continue reading...

One derby goal tends to be enough for a place in Steel City folklore, so Tyrese Campbell is more than assured of his entry to the pantheon after scoring twice in Sheffield United’s 3-0 win at Hillsborough, 12 months on from his similar match-winning effort in the fixture at Bramall Lane. Chris Wilder’s side remain in the Championship bottom three but this was a bright spot in what has otherwise been a bleak campaign. Tom Cannon’s injury-time third gave the scoreline the sheen the Blades’ performance probably warranted, and meant the result was the first three-goal away victory in the fixtures’ 131-year league history. Continue reading...

Trump’s wrecking-ball approach to America has a precedent: the Maga evangelical perversion of Jesus’s message of radical love to one of hate and aggression Trumpism’s most revealing and defining moments – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating – came earlier this autumn. In the course of a few weeks, the US president started showing everyone his plans for a gilded ballroom twice the size of the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the East Wing to build it. Then, after nationwide protests against his rule, he posted on social media an AI video of himself wearing a crown and piloting a fighter jet labeled “King Trump”, which proceeded to bomb American cities and Americans with a graphically vivid load of human poop. He has done things 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of deaths from his cuts to USAID is 600,000 and rising, and this week a study predicted his fossil fuel policies would kill another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional. No other president would have dared – really, no other president would have imagined – unilaterally destroying large sections of the White House in order to erect a Versailles-style party room, with the active collaboration of some of the richest Americans, almost all of whom have business with the government. And no one – not Richard Nixon, not Andrew Jackson, not Warren Harding, not anyone – would have imagined boasting about defecating on the American citizenry. Even the worst American leaders were willing to maintain the notion that they represented all the people; Trump has managed to turn America’s idea of itself entirely upside down. And he has done it with the active consent of an entire political party. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, when asked about the poop video, for once did not bother lying that he had not seen it. Instead he said: “The president uses social media to make the point. You can argue he’s probably the most effective person who’s ever used social media.” Continue reading...

I was doing a good job of staying upright and dignified, until a surge of people rushed towards me Read more in the kindness of strangers series I was 19 and thought I was invincible. I’d just broken up with my boyfriend and to boost my ego, I decided to put on a skirt that was probably a bit too short and a pair of heels that were definitely too high. The stiletto heel was about 13cm tall – crazy! – but oh, how I loved those shoes. I really shouldn’t have been wearing those shoes on public transport, especially not on a train. I remember how difficult it was to walk across the platform and how worried I was that I was going to go hurtling on to the tracks. I was already regretting my life choices at this point, but I successfully managed to totter my way off the train at Oxford station and start walking down what were then very steep stairs, holding on to the handrail for dear life with every step. Continue reading...

Unable to reunite with their families in Gaza due to the closed border, Palestinian workers have spent two years in a refugee camp at Nablus stadium Inside a dim locker room at the Nablus municipal stadium, in the occupied West Bank, the television rarely goes dark, streaming day and night the relentless news from Gaza. Gathered in front of it are a group of men from Khan Younis. For more than two years, they have lived in this stadium converted into a refugee camp, their lives suspended between exile and the war they watched on a screen. They are mostly construction workers who were in Israel on the morning of 7 October 2023 when Hamas launched its attack. As Israel rounded up Palestinians from Gaza, they fled to the West Bank, where they remain – cut off from wives and children living in makeshift tents inside the strip. With very few exceptions, civilians are not currently allowed in or out of Gaza. Continue reading...

For those who live far from home, feeling a mix of grief and gratitude is not as contradictory as it may seem The modern mind is a column where experts discuss mental health issues they are seeing in their work “I don’t have the words to describe it properly, I just feel I’m in the wrong place and I don’t want to be here.” For the past few years, *Suzanne has travelled each year halfway around the world to visit family and close friends in her birth country. While the farewells are always hard, Suzanne usually settles back home after a few weeks, staying connected with video calls and regular messaging even when time differences made it difficult. Continue reading...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions. This week, the knotty issue of home boundaries, and what the saying was intended to mean They say “good fences make good neighbours”, presumably meaning that the stronger the boundary between you and people you need to deal with, the more robust the relationship. Is this really true? Jamila, via email Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com. Continue reading...

Weeks before the Manchester cheating story broke, I published a murder mystery novel with almost the same plot. It’s no coincidence You probably saw the recent story about a publican who grew suspicious of a team that won his pub quiz every week. He and his staff set about trying to discover exactly how they were cheating. Do you fancy testing your knowledge and recall of topical news? Before you read the next paragraph, for one point name the pub, and for two points name the suburb of Manchester where it’s located. Although I have never set foot in The Barking Dog, or Urmston, as soon as this story broke, my inbox was full of friends and strangers forwarding the link and expressing their amazement – not only because it’s a classic hero’s quest in which good wins against evil, but also because it’s a strange case of life imitating art. This autumn, I published The Killer Question, a crime fiction novel with a plot almost identical to this, albeit with a murder mystery woven in, which admittedly the Urmston case lacks. Continue reading...

It is said to be harder to make friends as you age. But I found that a mix of apps and other tools, as well as a happy attitude, led to a world of potential new pals Tonight, Rachel, Elvira and I will meet for dinner. A year ago, none of us knew the others existed. Six months ago Rachel and Elvira were strangers until I introduced them. But now, here we are, something as close to firm friends as is possible after such a short time. If you’ve ever consumed any media, you would be forgiven for thinking that life after 35 is a burning wasteland of unimaginable horrors: the beginnings of incessant back pain, an interest in dishwasher loading, the discovery that you’re ineligible for entire industries billed as “a young person’s game”, and, apparently, an inability to make friends. Continue reading...

TV personality wants homeowners and businesses to shun ‘dishonest’ firms Arconic, Kingspan and Celotex Grenfell United and the TV architect George Clarke are calling on businesses and homeowners to take a “moral decision” and boycott the companies criticised in the Grenfell inquiry for “systematic dishonesty”. Clarke, best known for his series George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces, said he had made the decision not to use products from Arconic, Kingspan and Celotex, three companies that were heavily criticised in the findings of the Grenfell inquiry published last year and who have continued to deny wrongdoing. Continue reading...

Losing the first Test to Australia by eight wickets after being 105 ahead with one man out could derail the entire tour Stuart Broad was a highly meme-able cricketer and it turns out that talent now extends into commentary. As Joe Root chopped Mitchell Starc on to his stumps during England’s subsidence on Saturday afternoon, Broad summed up the mood of a nation without uttering so much as a word. In a clip that has since gone viral, Broad is in the Channel 7 box with his eyes shut, arms folded, letting out an exasperated sigh; the kind of internal “FFS” triggered by a toddler doing the very thing they were just warned against. Watching from the far end as two teammates fall to expansive drives on a bouncy, nippy surface, only to attempt a repeat against Mitchell Star, is a bit like pulling on the cat’s tail. Root did it anyway. Continue reading...

Artworks to go on display in January at Bethlem Museum of the Mind, in the world’s oldest psychiatric hospital From images of empty community rooms and a colourful canvas crammed with caricatures to a baby linked by an umbilical-like cord to a seated stranger, artworks on the subject of mental health are to go on display in an exhibition that examines social bonds against the backdrop of today’s polarised times. Artists have long drawn on their own experiences of mental ill health. Staged at the Bethlem Museum of the Mind, in the world’s oldest psychiatric hospital, in south-east London, Kindred will explore the power of communities to make people feel comforted as well as isolated. Continue reading...

The Derry Girls star and his mother, Jackie, on an unfortunate vomiting incident, struggling at school and ‘bare bottom’ scenes Born in Reigate in 1992, the actor Dylan Llewellyn graduated from Rada in 2011. He began his career with roles in Hollyoaks and Call the Midwife, but is best known for playing James Maguire in the Channel 4 comedy Derry Girls and Jack in its sitcom Big Boys. He competes in the latest series of Celebrity Race Across the World with his mother, Jackie, on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading...

Minute-by-minute updates on the 2pm (GMT) kick-off Any comments? You can email Billy Ollie Watkins has never scored against Leeds in 12 appearances (including 11 starts) against them for Villa and Brentford across the Premier League and Championship. His involvement at next summer’s World Cup looks in doubt after he was left out of Thomas Tuchel’s latest England squad. He’s only got one goal in 16 games for Villa this season in all competitions. Continue reading...

Standoff between China and EU over supply of chips for car industry underlines value of sector requiring huge financial investment Keir Starmer has announced a critical minerals and rare earths strategy to build resilience against China, which has a stranglehold on supplies of materials including magnets critical to everything from car doors to fridges. “For too long, Britain has been dependent on a handful of overseas suppliers, leaving our economy and national security exposed to global shocks,” the prime minister said. Continue reading...

Held back by Covid and then phased out by AI, Britain’s so-called Neets are desperately seeking a secure future. Who will offer them hope? Another week, another set of sobering economic numbers. Last Thursday, the Office for National Statistics published its latest quarterly estimate of the number of 16- to 24-year-olds who are so-called Neets – people not in education, employment or training. As usual, experts have warned that figures extracted from the UK’s flawed labour force survey should be taken with a pinch of salt. But there was still universal agreement about the huge issues the figures highlighted, and the hundreds of thousands of young people, 946,000, if the stats are to be believed, who are living on the UK’s social and economic edge. The government has announced its latest review of all this, led by the New Labour veteran Alan Milburn, who will apparently focus on the relevance of disability and mental health. This week, moreover, Rachel Reeves is reportedly going to make the predicament of Neets one of the big themes of her budget. As ever, mood music is being provided by parts of the media that tend to specialise in the kind of condescension and generational loathing recently crystallised by a Daily Mail headline that might easily have been coughed out by ChatGPT: “Sicknote youths to dodge clampdown: Pledge to stop benefits for the workshy won’t include those with anxiety”. John Harris is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Vineyard owners say sales slump, Trump tariffs and worst harvest in 70 years have put producers in danger of closure French winemakers are often accused of viewing the glass as half empty. Dire warnings about the state of the sector – one of the three pillars of the country’s economy – are a hardy perennial blamed on everything from geopolitics to a drop in the number of drinkers. Before a crisis meeting with the agriculture minister on Monday, vineyard owners say an unprecedented series of setbacks, including some of the worst harvests in 70 years, has left many of them on their last legs. Continue reading...

Which versions of this much-loved and widely adapted rich vegetarian curry will be distilled into the perfect take? This luxuriantly rich, vegetarian curry – a cousin of butter chicken, which is thought to have been created in the postwar kitchens of Delhi’s Moti Mahal, though by whom is the subject of hot dispute – is, according to chef Vivek Singh, “the most famous and widely interpreted dish in India”. His fellow chef Sanjeev Kapoor describes it as “one of the bestselling dishes in restaurants” there, but here in the UK, though it’s no doubt widely enjoyed, it seems to fly somewhat under the radar on menus, where even the chicken original plays second fiddle to our beloved chicken tikka masala. If you haven’t yet fallen for the crowdpleasing charms of fresh cheese in a mild tomato sauce, consider this a strong suggestion to give it a whirl. Paneer makhni (makhni being the Hindi word for butter, hence also dal makhni), tastes incredibly fancy, but it’s relatively simple and quick to make. Just add bread and a vegetable side to turn it into a full feast. Continue reading...

They come into their own around Thanksgiving in the US, used alongside savoury dishes, as well as in desserts. Now is the time to try them with sweet potatoes, in a strawberry mousse, or even with soup The connection between marsh mallow the herbaceous perennial, also known as althaea officinalis, and marshmallow the puffy cylindrical sweet, is historic. In the 19th century, the sap of the plant was still a key ingredient of its confectionary namesake, along with sugar and egg whites. But that connection has long been severed: the modern industrial marshmallow is derived from a mixture of sugar, water and gelatine. Its main ingredient is air. But there’s a lot you can do with the humble marshmallow – here are 17 examples. Continue reading...

Shortage of specialist doctors means ‘service is in crisis’ according to chair of Royal College of Pathologists Bereaved parents are enduring “harrowing” delays of more than a year to find out why their child died because the NHS has too few specialist doctors to perform postmortems. The shortage of paediatric and perinatal pathologists is revealed in a report by the Royal College of Pathologists published on Sunday. It warns that the situation is “dire”, services in some parts of the UK have “totally collapsed” and families are paying the price. 37% of consultant posts in the UK are lying vacant the UK has just 52 paediatric and perinatal consultants but 13 are due to retire in the next five years just 3% of consultants think current staffing levels are enough to sustain their service only 13 resident doctors are in training to become consultants in the specialty Continue reading...

Various venues, Huddersfield World and UK premieres launched the opening concerts of this compelling gala of new sounds, mixing precise ensemble play with electronic tracks and unlikely percussion sound effects To the uninitiated, November may not seem the ideal time for a trip to Huddersfield. I arrived to find the Pennines under a thick blanket of cloud and the temperature hovering around zero. So it’s just as well that music is a largely indoor pursuit: since 1978, autumn here has meant the annual influx of big names in experimental and avant garde music for the Huddersfield Contemporary Music festival. Once a draw for postwar heavyweights including Karlheinz Stockhausen, Olivier Messiaen and John Cage, the HCMF remains the UK’s largest international festival dedicated to new music, with more than 30 world and UK premieres on this year’s programme. The opening night featured three. In Huddersfield Town Hall, London-based Explore Ensemble sat in a pool of spotlights, the magnificent Victorian space made intimate. A new version of Canon Mensurabilis by Lithuanian composer Rytis Mažulis saw repetitive shimmers of microtonal dissonance interrupted by sparse octaves and fifths. The performance’s astonishing precision blurred the line between acoustic sound and an electronic track that gradually took over. Bryn Harrison’s The Spectre … Is Always Already a Figure of That Which is to Come worked a still more persuasive magic. Opening with what sounded like a creaking seesaw scored for chamber ensemble, shards of acoustic material were followed by ghostly echoes on a prerecorded electronic track. There were beautiful details – rough shivers of violin tremolo, flutters of bass clarinet, pedal-washed piano circling – but the work’s ultimate payoff came in its longer arc. The feedback loop gradually reversed so that the musicians responded to their electronic counterparts – the process of haunting complete and utterly compelling. Continue reading...

The UK could’ve been a true tech leader – but it has cheerfully submitted to US dominance in a way that may cost it dear Two and a half centuries ago, the American colonies launched a violent protest against British rule, triggered by parliament’s imposition of a monopoly on the sale of tea and the antics of a vainglorious king. Today, the tables have turned: it is Great Britain that finds itself at the mercy of major US tech firms – so huge and dominant that they constitute monopolies in their fields – as well as the whims of an erratic president. Yet, to the outside observer, Britain seems curiously at ease with this arrangement – at times even eager to subsidise its own economic dependence. Britain is hardly alone in submitting to the power of American firms, but it offers a clear case study in why nations need to develop a coordinated response to the rise of these hegemonic companies. The current age of American tech monopoly began in the 2000s, when the UK, like many other countries, became almost entirely dependent on a small number of US platforms – Google, Facebook, Amazon and a handful of others. It was a time of optimism about the internet as a democratising force, characterised by the belief that these platforms would make everyone rich. The dream of the 1990s – naive but appealing – was that anyone with a hobby or talent could go online and make a living from it. Continue reading...

Coach asks fans to keep faith despite two-day defeat ‘We’ll head to Brisbane with high expectations’ Brendon McCullum has called on England fans rocked by the team’s calamitous two-day defeat by Australia in the first Ashes Test to “keep the faith”, insisting the team’s only chance of turning the series around was to double down on their methods. “You’ve got to block out the doubts and the insecurities that can creep in,” said the head coach, “because if that does happen then you literally have no chance.” The speed at which the game unravelled has left the team with some unexpected time off – though a few of those who were not required at Perth Stadium spent their Sunday playing for the Lions against an Australia XI at Lilac Hill – with management now deciding whether the best preparation for the second Test, which starts in Brisbane on 4 December, will involve sending some squad members to play in the Lions’ next fixture, a day-nighter against a Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra, or taking the entire group away for some team bonding. “We’ve got to work out whether that extra cricket is the key, or making sure that camaraderie is tight and morale doesn’t drop,” McCullum said. “We’ve just got to work out what the pros and cons of all that are.” Continue reading...