How the photographer captured this split image of sardine fishermen taken from above Freelance photographer Ahmad Mansour was visiting Al Max, a fishing neighbourhood in Alexandria, Egypt, when he took this image on his mobile phone. Mansour was there with friends, documenting the area and the fishermen who resided there. “The sun was bright and it was very loud; the water was running strongly and the men were shouting,” Mansour says. “I climbed a small building to reach this vantage point above the men with the sardines. I love the top view angle; I’d been inspired by another image that was split that way and it suited the colours to balance them like this, too.” Continue reading...

David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros Discovery, promised ‘everyone’ would win by combining the storied Hollywood studios with his reality TV giant. Instead, many lost It’s less than five years since David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros Discovery, negotiated what looked like the deal of his career. Now as Netflix plans a landscape-changing takeover of Warner Bros, he’s in the middle of an even bigger one. Zaslav, or Zaz, is a hard-charging, well-connected executive who cut his teeth inside NBC, and ascended into New York’s media elite as he transformed Discovery Inc from a nature- and science-focused cable broadcaster into a reality TV giant. Continue reading...

The persecution of brown people and mass deportations will not create the white country of far-right fantasy As Donald Trump deteriorates and his grasp on power fades, he has been lashing out furiously at female journalists and ethnic groups, most recently Somali Americans. His insults land because of their animosity and his power, not their accuracy. Likewise, his administration’s attacks on immigrants are sloppy and driven by lies. It’s strikingly clear that the target is not individuals with criminal records. It’s anyone and everyone guilty of being brown. Native Americans with tribal identification cards, US citizens, people doing crucial work from construction to nursing, military veterans, college students, people sleeping in their own beds, small children: all kinds of residents of this country are under attack. “ICE raids are cruel, inhumane, and do nothing to serve public safety,” declares Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor-elect. Masked thugs smashing car windows and dragging parents away from their babies, terrorizing whole swathes of the population, and interfering with the ability of schools and businesses to function does the opposite. The rounds of targeted hatred by Trump and his minions – for people from Haiti during the 2024 campaign, for people from Venezuela this spring and summer, and most recently for people from Somalia – rely on defamatory lies and insults, because the facts about these groups don’t support the hate. Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. She is the author of Orwell’s Roses and co-editor with Thelma Young Lutunatabua of the climate anthology Continue reading...

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⚽ Premier League updates from the 12.30pm GMT kick-off ⚽ Live scores | Table | Villans on the rise again | Mail Barry Good day everybody wherever you might be and here’s hoping you’ve all recovered from the surreal, stilted, extremely long, unintentionally funny and occasionally downright unpleasant experience that was last night’s World Cup draw. Having been tasked with liveblogging that particular fever dream, it’s nice to be back in action for something a little more straightforward and less weird – an actual football match between the top two teams in the Premier League form table: Aston Villa and Arsenal. The top team in the actual Premier League table, Arsenal can increase the gap to their nearest rivals to eight points with a win in today’s early kick-off but will have to beat an Aston Villa side who have won eight of their last nine top flight matches to do so. Mikel Arteta’s side chalked up a fairly routine 2-0 win against Brentford last time out. Continue reading...

⚽ WSL updates from the 12pm GMT kick-off in London ⚽ Scores | Table | Get Moving the Goalposts | Mail Emillia The WSL is back! After the final international break of the calendar year, the WSL returns with a bang as Arsenal play host to Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium. The Gunners will be hoping to close the gap on their title rivals this afternoon with a much-needed win. Meanwhile, Liverpool are seeking their first league victory of the campaign. Renée Slegers will be boosted by the return of both Leah Williamson and captain Kim Little. However, Chloe Kelly and first-choice goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar are unavailable due to injury. Continue reading...

⚽ Reaction to the draw and pre-match news ⚽ Fixtures | Tables | Read Football Daily | Mail us Kári Tulinius has messaged in to say: “Given that eight out of twelve third-place teams will get to the knockout stage, four points should be enough to get through. Given the potential disparity in quality between France, Senegal and Norway on the one hand, and one of Bolivia, Suriname and Iraq on the other, it’s not unlikely we’ll get a group where the third place team has four points and a positive goal difference. It could be the Group of Everybody Lives. The era of group stage drama may be over.” Continue reading...

Total of 25 people shot in early morning Pretoria attack, with victims including 12-year-old boy and 16-year-old girl Gunmen have stormed into a hostel in South Africa’s capital and killed at least 11 people, including a three-year-old child, police said. “I can confirm that a total of 25 people were shot,” police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said of the early morning attack in Pretoria. She said 14 others had been hospitalised. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Research prompts warning that authorities rely on companies to carry out basic functions The scale of the reliance of London councils on private consultancy and outsourcing firms is laid bare in a report that shows the local authorities paid them more than half a billion pounds last year. The report by the Autonomy Institute and the CADA Network has prompted warnings that councils have a “sustained reliance” on such companies to carry out basic functions. Continue reading...

Banks and specialist lenders will not pay tax on compensation payouts, sidestepping 2015 rule Ministers are being urged to close a loophole that will allow UK banks and specialist lenders to avoid paying £2bn in tax on their payouts to motor finance scandal victims. Under the current law, any operation that is not a bank can deduct compensation payments from their profits before calculating their corporation tax, reducing their bill. Continue reading...

The Green party leader on his ‘floordrobe’, doomscrolling, and getting arrested on Waterloo Bridge Born David Paulden in Greater Manchester, Zack Polanski, 43, changed his name at 18 to reflect his Jewish heritage. He studied acting at Aberystwyth University and worked in community theatre and as a hypnotherapist. In 2017, he joined the Greens. He was elected deputy leader in 2022 and leader in September. He lives in London with his partner. When were you happiest? Last summer with my boyfriend Richie. We had no plans – it was just wonderful. Continue reading...

Some say it’s overdiagnosis, others say it’s greater recognition. But it’s clear we must think about how our society is impacting human development Gabor Maté is the author of The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture Does the rise in diagnoses of ADHD mean that normal feelings are being “over-pathologised”? The UK’s health secretary, Wes Streeting, seems to suspect so. He is said to be so concerned about a sharp rise in the number of people claiming sickness benefits that he has ordered a clinical review of the diagnosis of mental health conditions, and autism and ADHD. I was diagnosed with ADHD (ADD, as it was then most often called) decades ago, in my early 50s. As I wrote in my book on the subject, Scattered Minds, it “seemed to explain many of my behaviour patterns, thought processes, childish emotional reactions, my workaholism and other addictive tendencies, the sudden eruptions of bad temper and complete irrationality, the conflicts in my marriage and my Jekyll and Hyde ways of relating to my children … It also explained my propensity to bump into doorways, hit my head on shelves, drop objects, and brush close to people before I notice they are there.” Gabor Maté is an international public speaker and retired physician. His most recent book is The Myth of Normal: Illness, Health and Healing in a Toxic Culture Continue reading...

Film-maker Marshall Curry pulls back the curtain on the beloved institution in a revealing and celebratory new film When young film-makers ask Marshall Curry what makes a documentary idea, he tells them: “There are some stories that make great New Yorker articles, but they’re not movies.” It was only a matter of time before the director found himself testing his own wisdom with The New Yorker at 100, a new Netflix film about the magazine. “Somebody said to me that trying to make a 90-minute movie about the New Yorker was like trying to make a 90-minute movie about America. Ken Burns does that with one war.” The film pulls back the curtain on the mystical media shop. Curry and his crew spent a year rummaging through the archives, listening in on production meetings, shadowing famous bylines – none more venerated in the industry than editor David Remnick, the magazine’s abiding leader. Curry had hoped to make a meal out of staffers pushing to meet the February 2025 publishing date, the magazine’s centennial anniversary issue, but the scenes he found didn’t quite approximate anything from the boiler room-centered dramas of film fiction or even The September Issue doc on Anna Wintour’s clannish Vogue operation. “I wanted to see people running around each other and saying, ‘We’ve got to get this thing done before the deadline!’” Curry says. “But they don’t do that.” Continue reading...

New novels from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Ian McEwan, plus the return of Slow Horses and Margaret Atwood looks back … Guardian critics pick the must-read titles of 2025 Guardian fiction editor Justine Jordan picks the best of the year, from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dream Count to Thomas Pynchon’s return, David Szalay’s Booker winner and a remarkable collection of short stories. Continue reading...

Power blackouts, public chaos and loss of communication with space were all thrown at troops in seven days Russia and China were barely mentioned, but they were the threats in everyone’s minds in Tallinn this week, where Nato hosted its largest ever cyber war game. The goal of the war game, conducted 130 miles from the Russian border in Estonia, was to test the alliance’s readiness for a rolling enemy assault on civilian and military digital infrastructure. Continue reading...

Zaghari-Ratcliffe made clothes for her daughter while waiting for her eventual release. Now, the idea of creativity as a form of resistance is the theme of a new collaboration between London’s Imperial War Museum and the fabric department of Liberty. When Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe returned home to London after six years of arbitrary detention in Iran, she brought back with her a small patchwork cushion. Pieced together from scrap material and made with the single sewing machine available in the prison, it was the product of a communal craft circle. “It’s something very, very precious to me,” she said. So precious, in fact, that she has worked on a new collaboration between London’s Imperial War Museum (IWM) and the fabric department of Liberty, creating three new prints that explore experience as a prisoner. Continue reading...

Clashes between rival factions are the culmination of a long-running feud involving claims of racism It should have been a night for Crystal Palace supporters to savour. About 1,500 officially made the trip to Strasbourg for their second away match of the Conference League group stage last week, although plenty more had gathered in the pretty Alsatian city famous for its expansive Christmas market. Yet while most were enjoying being part of Palace’s first European campaign after May’s FA Cup win, “a tiny majority” – as the club’s statement the following day described them – had different ideas. Footage of bottles and chairs being thrown as two rival groups of supporters of the same club clashed before the game in one of the city’s squares went viral on X. “Palace fans fighting each other in Strasbourg,” read the message, not surprisingly sparking widespread confusion. Continue reading...

The match between Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios opens up a direct channel between the BBC of old and a world of toxic internet hatred It’s always best to take a sceptical view of the constant flow of BBC-bashing newspaper stories, which are often simply bogus outrage expressed for commercial gain. Even the war-on-woke, cod-ideological stuff – Clive Myrie INSISTS hamsters can breastfeed human robots – the bits that make you want to smear your face with greengage jam and weep for England, our England, with its meadows, its shadows, its curates made entirely from beef. Even these come from a hard, transactional place. Basically, it’s the licence fee. The BBC is free at the point of delivery, but paid for by a national levy. The BBC is also a direct commercial competitor to every other form of legacy media, all of which are trying to find ways to survive and recoup revenue. Continue reading...

In 2020 Steve Thompson revealed he could not remember winning the Rugby World Cup and since then his case and others have been caught up in a warren of legal argument The Royal Courts of Justice are a warren. They were built piecemeal over 125 years of intermittent construction, wings were added, blocks were expanded and then joined by a web of twisting staircases and long corridors. You navigate your way to whichever corner of it you have business in by checking the tiny print on the long daily case lists that are posted in the lobby early each morning, when the building always seems to be full of people hurrying in the other direction. For the last three years, three separate sets of legal action about brain damage in sport have been slowly making their way through here, lost in the hallways. One is in football, one is in rugby union, one is in rugby league. The same small firm, Rylands Garth, is behind all three. Sometimes these hearings take place in the modern rooms of the east block, where the carpet is peeling and the roofs are gap-toothed with missing panels, and sometimes they take place in the cold old stone rooms off the great hall, which are wood-cladded, and contain rows and rows of heavy leather-bound books. Progress is slow. Events often go unreported. Continue reading...

Pupils from schools with differing demographics meet and play under charity scheme set up after city’s 2001 riots Donate to the Guardian Charity Appeal 2025 here Communities are our defence against hatred. Now, more than ever, we must invest in hope On a bright wintry morning, Bradford’s majestic 19th-century city hall is alive with children’s laughter, chatter and songs. Sixty girls and boys are playing games and dancing in the banqueting suite, they’re making art in the civic reception room and amid the grandeur of the council chamber, where key decisions about the future of their city are made, they are sharing their hopes and dreams. “I want to be a doctor,” says one pupil from the tiered benches where the city’s councillors sit. “I want to be a doctor and a teacher,” says another. “I want to be a pilot and a neurosurgeon,” says a third. The children are also asked about their hopes for Bradford. “That we have our own snow leopard,” was one rather magnificent recent response. Continue reading...

The Reform leader is exploiting growing resentment towards migrants and hosting a sold-out event - something unimaginable just a few years ago Dani Garavelli is a freelance journalist and columnist for the Herald Almost 13 years ago, at a press briefing to launch Ukip’s first Scottish byelection campaign, Nigel Farage was run out of Edinburgh by jeering protesters. Back then, Ukip’s support was running at nearly 25% in the English local elections, and less than 1% in Scotland. On Saturday, Farage will venture back across the border to host a sold-out Reform UK campaign event in Falkirk, a town which has recently seen angry demonstrations outside a hotel hosting asylum seekers. Dani Garavelli is a freelance journalist and columnist for the Herald Continue reading...

Forget heels, flats are back – with a glam new look. From velvet mary janes to sequined ballerinas, here are our top picks for a blister-free festive season Mariah is on loop in the supermarket and your local cafe is doing gingerbread lattes. It’s officially the silly season. High street windows are filled with ideas for party dressing. There are sequin dresses and strokable velvet suiting, but look down and you’ll spot something a little more unusual. Gone are the customary towering heels. In their place? Sensible flats. Now, if you are someone who genuinely loves wearing high heels, fine, no judgement, you keep doing you. But if you are someone who feels they should wear heels, rather than actually likes to, then good news – that way of thinking is very much over. Continue reading...

The actor, who starred as a Marxist academic in the acclaimed 2006 play at the Royal Court, remembers an astonishing writer of ideas and elegance By the time I was cast in Rock’n’Roll in 2006 I had been following Tom for years. I saw Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead when it came to London in 1967 with the wonderful Graham Crowden as the Player King. It was a big sensation. The Real Thing was a great play and Arcadia was extraordinary. Rock’n’Roll was w at the Royal Court in London by Trevor Nunn and starred Rufus Sewell as Jan, a Czech student who returns to Prague in 1968. I played Max, a Marxist academic. It was a fascinating experience, because there were two plays there: the play about Sappho, the Ancient Greek poet, and the play about the Soviet takeover in Czechoslovakia. Continue reading...

The desperate search for economic growth is pushing the party to confront the issue that dare not speak its name For much of the last week, Keir Starmer’s government has been suggesting that a closer relationship with Europe will be a more prominent part of his agenda in the future. But it was a little-noted personnel change that might prove the most telling shift: Nick Thomas Symonds, the minister in charge of EU negotiations, was promoted to full cabinet rank. Continue reading...

In the snowy mountains of Grövelsjön, visitors can get a rare glimpse into a little-known traditional way of life – and sleep in a tipi under the stars On the summit of a snow-covered hill, two men sit on a patch of lichen, their backs against their snowmobiles. They are wearing thick padded clothing and hats with ear covers. One is scanning the valley with binoculars, the other is checking their drone. “We’ve got a speaker on it to play various calls. Thermal imaging helps. The dogs do the rest.” The younger of the two men, Elvjin, pours out tots of strong coffee for everyone. “The main job at this time of year is to keep the herd up here where we can see them,” he says. “When they start calving, the danger from bears, wolverines and eagles increases. We need to see them.” If I had a mental picture of reindeer herding before arriving here in the mountains of western Sweden, it certainly did not involve drones and thermal imaging. But that is the aim of this trip: to see an authentic and little-known European way of life, which for centuries suffered repression and abuse, only to be swiftly cannibalised into tourist-trap Santa experiences – all sleigh bells and traditional embroidery. Continue reading...