Search takes place amid intensifying focus on separate allegations of influence peddling as problems worsen for prime minister Pedro Sanchez Spanish police entered the ruling Socialist Party’s headquarters in Madrid on a judicial order to gather information on a possible illegal financing scheme, several news Spanish news outlets reported. A spokesperson for the Guardia Civil force told Reuters officers had entered the premises but did not disclose any further details since the proceedings are secret. Continue reading...

The company’s data editor trawls through billions of queries to deliver a portrait of the world’s preoccupations As anyone who has procreated this century knows, childrearing involves daily rounds of online searching. The most common parenting-related queries feature in What We Ask Google, a valiant attempt by the search giant’s data editor Simon Rogers to create a “surprisingly hopeful picture of humankind” (that’s the subtitle) from searches performed over the past two decades. “Why do babies get hiccups?” we ask. “When do babies teethe?” “Why do toddlers bite?” “How do you know if your child has ADHD?” “How to tell kids about divorce?” Since 2006, engineers have used Google Trends to make sense of common (and anonymised) queries like these, going back as far as 2004, when phones were dumb and less than half of UK households had internet access. Rogers, a British former Guardian journalist based in California, views the results as a kind of social mirror. Continue reading...

Calaminarian grassland is a rare habitat where plants thrive in soils contaminated by heavy metals. But should these toxic meadows be protected or allowed to fade away? At first, the small purple flowers are hard to spot in the weak May sunshine. Slowly the drifts of delicate mountain pansies, along with the white rosettes of alpine pennycress, begin to jump out, scattered across an area little bigger than a football pitch, on the banks of the River Allen in Northumberland. This is a pocket of calaminarian grassland, an increasingly rare habitat where specialist plants called metallophytes have adapted to live in soils deeply contaminated by heavy metals, the legacy of more than 1,000 years of lead mining. Continue reading...

Dong Guangping has tried to escape on several previous occasions after been jailed for his activism in China A Chinese dissident has washed up on the shores of South Korea after attempting to flee China in a rubber boat. Dong Guangping, 68, is in custody in South Korea, having been detained by the coastguard on Monday evening. He is thought to have travelled more than 30 hours by sea to reach the shores of China’s democratic neighbour. Continue reading...

Madrid’s third club thrive on underdog mentality and still play in the daring style of former coach Andoni Iraola “Rayo Vallecano is love, humility, toil,” says Óscar Trejo, the captain who handed in the armband in solidarity with workers at the club. The striker Sergio Camello calls them “the last team from another time, special for what they fight for and what they fight against”. And, Álvaro García agrees, this could be the best, unlikeliest story ever told: the winger, 5ft 5in and lightning like the bolt across their shirt, Rayo’s all-time top scorer on 36 first division goals, has lived relegation and promotion but nothing like this. None of them have. “We’ve transformed from Rayito [little Rayo], to el puto Rayo [Rayo fucking Vallecano],” says Óscar Valentín, the midfielder leading them out in Leipzig. “People always saw us as the small club that couldn’t.” Continue reading...

Exclusive: Nursing and Midwifery Council admits it did not carry out checks on professionals who broke the law Nurses and midwives who should have been banned from treating patients have practised over the last 12 years because of “potentially dangerous” failings by a medical regulator. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has admitted that its “completely and utterly unacceptable” mistakes meant it failed to protect the public from about 15 professionals whom it should have banned from ever working in healthcare in the UK because they had broken the law. Continue reading...

The old settlement will not politely bow out for its replacement – which is why progressives must take action on these three fronts Very often, I find, science fiction names what politics struggles to. In James SA Corey’s series of novels the Expanse, the violent dystopian streets of Baltimore are given a name for what happens when the old order breaks down faster than people can describe it: the Churn. It is the brutal reorganisation of power, when familiar rules collapse and those who survive are the ones who read the signs early. Britain is in one now. In fact, two churns are happening at once. Clive Lewis is the Labour MP for Norwich South Clive Lewis will be speaking about these issues and more with Andy Burnham at Change Now! Mobilising the Progressive Majority Continue reading...

The co-hosts are likely to put pragmatism above style under Javier Aguirre in a home atmosphere that can be both an inspiration and a burden This article is part of the Guardian’s 2026 World Cup Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 48 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from three countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 11 June. Continue reading...

Plus: biggest points deficit before a shock, worst-performing managers that helped win a title and keepers on corners Mail us with your all of your questions and answers “Which club has had the fewest sponsor logos adorn their shirts?” asks Bob Krag. “My guess is Arsenal, who have only had four (JVC, Dreamcast/Sega, O2 and Emirates). Even Barcelona, who eschewed shirt sponsorship for many years, have had more.” Let’s start with a club who supplied Barcelona with the supernatural talents of Romário and Ronaldo in the 1990s. “PSV Eindhoven have had only three sponsors: Philips (from 1982, when shirt sponsorship was allowed in the Netherlands, to 2016), EnergieDirect (2016-2019) and Brainport Eindhoven (2019-),” writes Stephan Wijnen. Continue reading...

Tourists and locals in Madrid, Paris, London, Dublin and Berlin share their experiences of the unseasonable May temperatures In recent days across parts of Europe, temperatures have soared, heat records have been broken and spring has felt more like the height of summer. Météo France, the French national weather service, has attributed this to a “heat dome”, with warmth held in place by a high-pressure weather front that has produced temperatures more than 10C above what used to be usual for this time of year. Human-caused climate breakdown is supercharging extreme weather around the world, driving deadly extremes that can strike at abnormal times in unusual places and claim lives. Continue reading...

The film-maker talks about her homeland’s ‘racism, paternalism and infantilisation’ towards Indigenous people and her award-winning documentary about a community leader’s murder In one scene from Landmarks, the new documentary by the Argentinian film-maker Lucrecia Martel, a tour guide shows children a painting on the ceiling of a Catholic church depicting how “Indigenous attempted to break into the city”. “See how these angels fought to keep the Indigenous out, and they sent these beams to scare them away,” says the guide. The following scene shows Indigenous people from the region – including a child baptised in that very church – watching footage of the tour on a mobile phone. One of them said: “Listening to him [the guide], you realise how convinced he is that even God wants to erase us for good.” Continue reading...

Average gas and electricity bill to jump to £1,862 a year from July until end of September, in part because of Iran war Households will face the steepest rise in energy charges in four years this summer after months of soaring market prices caused the government’s energy price cap for Great Britain to climb by 13%. Under the cap the average gas and electricity bill will increase to the equivalent of £1,862 a year from July until the end of September to take account of the rise in global energy market prices caused by the war on Iran. Continue reading...

The author of When I Hit You returns with a pithy, savagely funny tale of online shaming and the Indian manosphere We can all agree that the internet today, especially two particular platforms owned by the world’s greatest megalomaniacs, is a hellscape. But if you think X and Facebook are purgatories of friendless trolls endlessly posting hate and bullying women, each other and minorities under the guise of free speech, wait till you experience the Indian version of that netherworld, as captured by novelist and poet Meena Kandasamy. Take the worst algorithms in the world, add a billion-and-a-half people, mix in a far-right government with advanced internet skills and bring on the “burning ghats of Indian politics” that include caste and misogyny as well as roiling ethnic and religious antagonisms, and the western version of X begins to look like a children’s playground. This is the world that Amy Chaturvedi, a posh student activist-communist living in London, wakes up to one day when the internet is set ablaze by a deepfake sex tape. It’s her face, but it’s not her. Don’t get her wrong, Amy is sexually unapologetic and proudly experimental; she has done plenty of transgressive things, she just didn’t do that one video. But try telling that to the Indian manosphere or, in fact, Amy’s mother. “The main aggressors are a disparate bunch of Nazi-loving, Islamophobic vegetarian dicks with profile pictures that are either the Joker or V for Vendetta,” Kandasamy writes. “If these trolls are to be believed, I am a leading member of the tukde-tukde gang of academics who want to balkanise India. I am on Pakistani payroll. I am funded by George Soros.” She nails the weaselly character of the Indian internet troll, exposing all their shameful secrets – their failures with women, their desire to be followed by Prime Minister Modi (it’s a real thing, look it up), their fear of Muslims, and their rage. Kandasamy’s sharp humour provides much-needed relief from the anger of the internet and I found myself laughing many times at her wicked, tart observations. Continue reading...

The Hong Kong action master’s deliriously violent 1990 epic fuses gangland thriller, war movie and tragic melodrama into a spectacular vision of greed and moral collapse The title of this 1990 John Woo extravaganza might lead the uninitiated to expect a chillingly focused, targeted assassination. Actually, there are innumerable bullets and innumerable heads in this over-the-top gonzo spectacle. It is a crime thriller, a wartime action film set in Vietnam, but it offers something other than the usual Hollywood perspective; it is a parable of greed comparable to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and even a kind of romantic melodrama. There is, however, one key bullet in a head, a literal bullet lodged in the skull of someone who achieves a macabre zombie-like semi-survival, the bullet being symbolic of the way violence takes root in the brain, dehumanising its victim. The final “boardroom” scene disclosing this image is toweringly mad and strange. Yet in this movie, as in so many other Woo films, we can see how the director counterintuitively uses sad music – harmonica, woodwind – over grisly, brutal action sequences, as if what he wants us to register is not the violence or the shock but just how poignantly futile and pathetic it all is. Continue reading...

Prisons inspectorate finds almost 100 children each year are remanded to custody only to be bailed or moved Children are witnessing extreme violence including stabbings while being unnecessarily held in custody awaiting trial or sentencing, the England and Wales watchdog has found. Despite professional expectations they would be managed safely in the community, a report by HM Inspectorate of Prisons has concluded that almost 100 children each year are remanded to custody only to be bailed or moved to local authority accommodation less than two weeks later. Continue reading...

A new cap on bus fares in the Highlands and islands makes exploring this stunning archipelago in Scotland a breeze The views are remarkable. From one window, gorse-gold hills roll west towards mountains patched with snow. On the other side, fields of new spring lambs slope down to a silver sea. Elsewhere, the bus crosses wide estuaries and cascading burns. There are thatched crofts, rocky bays and birch woods starred with anemones. One of the most remarkable things about this scenic 111-mile, 3½-hour trip on bus X99 is that it costs just £2. Until March 2026, a single from Inverness to Scrabster on Scotland’s north coast was £28. Now, thanks to a new bus fare cap in Orkney, Highland and Moray, no journey in the area costs more than £2. The bus is timed to coincide with the Northlink Ferry to Stromness, Orkney’s second biggest town, and I’m heading there to explore by bus. Continue reading...

Cape Town schoolkids heading home and rules for maintaining a long-distance relationship feature in photos exploring the theme of unknown futures Continue reading...

Barnardo’s says survey shows online abuse and harassment becoming ‘part of background noise of growing up’ Nearly one in five girls in the UK receive persistent, unwanted images online, according to a poll by the charity Barnardo’s, which warned that online misogyny was becoming an everyday part of childhood. Its survey of 4,000 young people found that a quarter of girls had been called degrading names online, while one in seven 13- to 15-year-olds had been asked to send a nude photo. Continue reading...

Dekiln to scale up its low-carbon technology with Johnson Tiles, in boost for struggling British ceramics industry A Manchester-based startup that makes ceramic-like tiles from waste without needing an energy-hungry kiln has teamed up with one of the UK’s biggest tile suppliers to launch a pilot project to scale up the technology. Dekiln, run by the biomaterials engineer Aled Roberts, is joining forces with Johnson Tiles to set up a trial manufacturing site in Stoke-on-Trent, the historic home of British ceramics. Continue reading...

I started kickboxing 20 years ago in a bid to be like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but thought I could never manage all the punching and jumping. It turns out I could handle much more than I thought At 14, I decided to learn a martial art. I told my parents it was to defend myself on the mean streets of Congleton – a market town in Cheshire largely devoid of danger – when, in truth, it was because I wanted to be like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I joined a kickboxing club, and what could have been a passing phase became a thrice-weekly commitment spanning four years. I was a model student, picking up a different coloured belt every few months to mark my progression through the grades. I grew strong and flexible, swapping puppy fat for muscle. I routinely fought men without fear and found a confidence in my body I have never experienced before or since. Continue reading...

People have celebrated Eid al-Adha, or the Festival of Sacrifice, at mosques and train stations, in the middle of the road and on the edge of the sea. This is the second major holiday in Islam, with approximately 2 billion pilgrims worldwide offering prayers as a sign of devotion, adherence and unity Continue reading...

The presenter visits the controversial Cecot jail. Plus: Anne discovers the true cost of babysitting in Amandaland. Here’s what to watch this evening 9pm, Channel 5 If you can get over the idea of Alan Partridge being let loose in one of El Salvador’s most controversial prisons, Richard Madeley’s visit to the notorious Cecot is a genuinely chilling experience. He finds thousands of men silently sitting on stacked beds in cells that are lit 24 hours a day. When he asks about conditions, he is told to leave. But after learning more about the nation’s gang history, and how Trump has made use of the prison, Madeley returns … Hollie Richardson Continue reading...

Tearing up planning and using protest laws to criminalise local people – this isn’t how to build the broad consent needed We will not persuade. We will not explain. We will not listen. We know best and we will force you to comply. This, I’m sorry to say, is how the government’s climate policy works. Or rather, how it doesn’t. Because nothing could be better calculated to alienate the people you need to reach than climate authoritarianism. Three astonishing things are happening simultaneously. One is the government’s utterly baffling failure to communicate with us on this existential issue. Where are the public information videos? Where are the televised emergency briefings on climate breakdown, like the emergency briefings on Covid-19? George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir accuses opponents of fearmongering amid warnings over misinformation and AI Iceland’s foreign minister has said she fears her country faces a “Brexit moment” in its looming EU referendum amid warnings over misinformation, foreign interference and AI. With just over three months to go until Iceland votes on whether or not to continue accession talks with the EU, developments are being closely watched by Washington, Moscow and Brussels. Continue reading...

Banish all memories of those limp, soggy vegetarian lasagnes of old: these spins on a true classic are simple and seasonal The words “vegetable lasagne” can strike fear into anyone who’s ever endured a soggy rendition with limp veg, bland tomato sauce and watery bechamel. Many of us still shudder at the memory of early attempts to veggie-fy traditional comfort foods that did a disservice to both the diner and the ingredients. But it doesn’t have to be that way. These recipes show how vegetarian lasagne can be elevated into a true classic, with seasonal variations that right those past wrongs and let great ingredients shine. As the dishes in Feast’s pages prove week after week, we’ve come a long way when it comes to creative meat-free cooking, and baked pasta can pair beautifully with vegetables in every season. Continue reading...