Updates from the second T20 in Kandy, 1.30pm GMT start Sign up for the Spin newsletter | Mail Tanya Hello! Welcome back to Sri Lanka, where we’ve reached the business end of the tour – T20 preparation for the World Cup. England won the first one, a damp and drawn out affair -perked up by three wickets for Adil Rashid and a hat-trick for Sam Curran at the end. Since then we’ve had another mea culpa from Harry Brook – this time admitting he had teammates out with the him the night of his altercation with a bouncer. Why they didn’t just get it all out in the open at the same time, beats me. Continue reading...
Leicester Square theatre, London The veteran standup deconstructs the science of laughter before scrolling back to his youth and a 1970s brought pungently back to life ‘We’re here, folks, to laugh”, and “See? We’re laughing!” There’s a lot of this reflexive shtick at the start of Stephen K Amos’s touring show: lots of thinking aloud about laughter, and reminding us that’s what we’re here to do. One routine asks whether and why animals laugh, and another – all amygdala this and endorphins that – considers what laughter does to our brains. Yet another drolly explores the Venn diagram that unites the laugh, the orgasm and the sneeze. This all bespeaks a certain confidence from the veteran that his 75-minute offering will keep the laughter flowing. And it does, if not in the most adventurous way. Later in the show he tells us that Now We’re Talking! is a departure for him; “I wanted to be more honest.” But the show is notable not for the novelty of its thinking, or any sense that we’re being granted intimacies. Its hallmark is convivial, consensual good fun, in which Amos ventures orthodox opinions and relatable observations about a-changin’ times, social media and dumbed-down modernity. Continue reading...
It was hard to communicate with my mother or father, until reading a book out loud led to a discovery The novelist Ian McEwan has advocated for the extension of assisted dying to people with dementia, commenting on the deeply distressing experience of his own mother: “By the time my mother was well advanced and could not recognise anyone, she was dead. She was alive and dead all at once. It was a terrible thing. And the burden on those closest is also part of the radioactive damage of it all.” My mother, Pamela, a journalist, died of vascular dementia 10 years ago. My father, the football journalist and novelist Brian Glanville, died of Parkinson’s last year after living with the illness for five years. He also had a milder form of dementia. “Radioactive damage” is certainly a vivid description of the impact of caring for someone living with a degenerative illness, but the perception that someone in the last stages of dementia may be “dead” feels wrong when I think of my parents. How are you to know what is happening in someone else’s brain? Continue reading...
In Trump’s first term, activists focused on lobbying and voting. Now tactics are shifting to nonviolent civil disobedience On 24 January, Alex Pretti was killed by federal agents while he was helping another civilian in Minneapolis who had been knocked to the ground – just weeks after an ICE agent killed Renee Good. In response to this second killing of a Minnesotan, demonstrations spread across the United States to protest the Trump administration and its ultra-violent immigration enforcement tactics. Minneapolis has been in a state of sustained protest. Its general strike on 23 January mobilized tens of thousands of Minnesotans to participate in an economic blackout and march in the streets. Solidarity protests, strikes and marches also took place across the country, including the Free America Walkout, which involved more than 900 local actions across all 50 states on the anniversary of Donald Trump’s second inauguration. Continue reading...
From building resilience to boosting artistic creativity, there are unexpected benefits to being rebuffed Rejection hurts. Whether in a professional, social or romantic setting, there is a particularly painful sting to the discovery that one has been judged undesirable in some way. If you have ever experienced proper rejection – and that would be most of us – it may stand out in your mind for a long time, like a boulder lodged in the landscape of memory. And it can hurt literally. The late anthropologist Helen Fisher, who studied human behaviour in the context of romantic love, showed that rejection and physical injury have much in common. In 2010 she led a study of people who had been recently rejected romantically. Functional MRI scans of their brains revealed that areas associated with distress and physical pain were more active. The passage of time did seem to reduce the pain response for Fisher’s participants, but for some people rejection can resonate for months or years. This overlap in the brain’s response to what we think of as physical and mental pain isn’t limited to romance. Social psychologist Naomi Eisenberger scanned the brains of people who were socially excluded from a ballgame in an experiment. Her results showed that “social pain is analogous in its neurocognitive function to physical pain, alerting us when we have sustained injury to our social connections”. Continue reading...
Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation could also force ultra-rich to pay global wealth tax Fossil fuel companies could be forced to pay some of the price of their damage to the climate, and the ultra-rich subjected to a global wealth tax, if new tax rules are agreed under the UN. Negotiations on a planned global tax treaty will resume at the UN headquarters in New York on Monday, with dozens of countries supporting stronger rules that would make polluters pay for the impact of their activities. Continue reading...
There are lots of guidebooks for parents of young children – but what happens when your offspring hit adulthood? A psychotherapist shares her guiding principles for raising grownups When one of my daughters turned 18, our relationship hit a crisis so painful it lasted longer than I knew how to bear. I was a psychotherapist, trained in child and adult development, yet I was utterly flummoxed. Decades have passed since then, but when I recently spoke to her about that time, a flood of distress washed through me as if it were yesterday. This is how my daughter, now a mother herself, put it when I asked her to describe that era: Continue reading...
Exclusive: Thousands of pounds unlocked to fund more diversity initiatives in diocese of capital What is Project Spire and why is it dividing the church? Church of England clergy will be encouraged to promote antiracism in sermons as senior figures unlock thousands of pounds in funding to promote diversity initiatives in London. Church Commissioners, the body that manages C of E assets, is funding the Diocese of London, which covers more than 400 parishes and 18 boroughs north of the River Thames, to boost inclusion work as part of the three-year Racial Justice Priority (RJP) project. Continue reading...
As the 20th book in his Diary of a Wimpy Kid series is published, the author shows no signs of slowing down – scripting films, opening a bookshop and making plans to rebuild his hometown Watching Jeff Kinney sign books is akin to watching an elaborate piece of performance art. Backstage at a theatre in Chester, where the author is continuing his UK tour, three folding tables heave under the weight of thousands of copies. Kinney wheels round the table on a swivel chair, signing as he goes. He is a picture of total focus. Today Kinney is signing copies of Partypooper, the 20th book in his blockbuster Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Every copy bears the phrase “Over 300 million books sold”. To put that into perspective, Kinney has sold more books than Led Zeppelin have sold albums. If you’ve had – or been – a child of reading age at any point over the last couple of decades, Kinney is a rock star. And nowhere is that clearer than at his sold-out event later that evening, as he is custard-pied while a crowd of 800 children and parents scream with excitement. Continue reading...
Their views differ on the Green party leader, but did the fellow Irish women agree on how to police demonstrations? Ruth, 30, London Occupation Consultancy Continue reading...
Skip the predictable and the perishable this year: from a double-cup flask to a table tennis set, we’ve handpicked gifts they’ll love long after the big day • The best flower delivery for every budget Valentine’s Day: love it or love to hate it, there’s no denying it can feel manufactured to make you spend your hard-earned cash on cheap stuffed toys, out-of-season red roses and unimaginative chocolates. But with the right gift, it can be a great opportunity to show your partner how much you care, and how well you truly know them. To help you avoid tat that won’t last – or will get shoved to the back of a cupboard – we’ve rounded up 38 thoughtful ideas to last well beyond 14 February. From a massage candle and toys to spice up your sex life to a bakery guide and a two-person flask for your next adventure, our cliche-free guide will help you find a gift that’s original, personal and will definitely get you in their good books. Continue reading...
Labour’s changes to the student loan system have turned frustration into full-blown fury, which its opponents are likely to reap at the ballot box Student loans: ‘My debt rose £20,000 to £77,000 even though I’m paying’ “It is not right that people who don’t go to university are having to bear all the cost for others to do so,” Rachel Reeves remarked this week, amid the increasingly angry row about student loans. But if something is “not right” here, it’s the complex and confusing loan system, and the debt burden borne by some recent graduates of English and Welsh universities. Somewhere along the way, that seems to have morphed into graduates meeting almost all of the cost themselves – a quiet abandonment of the idea that having an educated workforce might have wider social and economic benefits. Continue reading...
Alcaraz defeats Djokovic 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 Spaniard is youngest male to win career grand slam See live reaction with Daniel Harris Carlos Alcaraz has defeated Novak Djokovic to win the Australian Open men’s singles title, becoming the youngest male player to win a career grand slam. The 22-year-old Spaniard has won seven major tournaments: two each at Wimbledon, the French Open and the US Open, now one at Melbourne Park. Alcaraz’s four-set victory – 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 – makes it nine consecutive men’s grand slam events won by either him or his Italian rival Jannik Sinner: the most recent victor apart from them was Djokovic, who won the US Open in September 2023. By beating the 10-times Australian Open champion, the world No 1 Alcaraz consolidates his place atop the ATP men’s singles rankings ahead of Sinner in second. He is the ninth male player to win all four grand slam events. Continue reading...
Hope Mill theatre, Manchester Amy Gavin’s production amps up the dangerous dance of desire and violence between these troubled ex-spouses but loses the delicate balance between comedy and malice Noël Coward’s 1930 play, revived by Her Productions just a couple of months before another production comes to the Royal Exchange across town, is famous for its balance of comedy and malice. At its centre are acrimoniously divorced couple Amanda and Elyot, who bump into each other while honeymooning with their new spouses. Soon the fierce love that first brought them together has rekindled and they abscond together, initiating a dangerous dance of desire and violence. Both the play and director Amy Gavin’s production are at their best when trembling on the knife-edge between carnality and cruelty. After a gratingly broad first act introduces us to the protagonists and their insipid new partners, things settle when we arrive in Amanda and Elyot’s Parisian bolthole and get drawn into their tumultuous relationship. Here there’s a sense of how quickly love can sour into contempt, as the pair alternately sizzle and spar, a slap never far from a kiss. Gavin’s intervention of projecting recorded images from the couple’s stormy marriage on the surface behind them unnecessarily hammers home what we can already see playing out. Continue reading...
Networks created after police killed George Floyd were reactivated to challenge Trump’s mass deportation policy Cory never expected he’d spend hours each day driving around after immigration agents, videotaping their moves. The south Minneapolis resident is “not the type of person to do this”, he said. The dangers of what he’s doing, even after the killings of two observers, largely stay out of his mind when he’s watching Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents – even when he’s gotten hit with pepper spray. In quieter moments, it occurs to him that agents likely know where he lives. Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old whom agents killed while he was filming them, “100% could have been me”, Cory said. Continue reading...
App endured a major outage and user backlash over perceived censorship. Now it’s facing an inquiry by the California governor and an ascendant competitor A little more than one week ago, TikTok stepped on to US shores as a naturalized citizen. Ever since, the video app has been fighting for its life. TikTok’s calamitous emigration began on 22 January when its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, finalized a deal to sell the app to a group of US investors, among them the business software giant Oracle. The app’s time under Chinese ownership had been marked by a meteoric ascent to more than a billion users, which left incumbents such as Instagram looking like the next Myspace. But TikTok’s short new life in the US has been less than auspicious. Continue reading...
Stevenson seals title in fourth weight class with win Britain’s Benn enters ring, sparks buzz as future foe Shakur Stevenson described his dominant victory over Teófimo López as the product of discipline, preparation and years of studying his opponent, after producing what many observers viewed as the finest performance of his career at Madison Square Garden. The unbeaten American outboxed López over 12 rounds to become a four-division world champion, a moment Stevenson said validated his long-held belief that he belonged among boxing’s elite. Continue reading...
Eric’s libido always outstripped Bea’s, but with the perimenopause she experienced a surge of desire. Is Eric fully onboard with their new ménage à trois? • How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously When I kissed him in front of Eric during a meet-up in a bar, the chemistry was pretty electric Continue reading...
Nigel Farage’s party was on the charge in Wales – but after the seismic Caerphilly byelection, progressives now believe they can come out on top in May The night after Plaid Cymru decisively beat Reform UK in the Caerphilly byelection last autumn, spraypaint reading “Now u can fuck off home” appeared on the shutters of the rightwing party’s offices on Cardiff Street. It was quickly cleaned off, but stickers bearing Welsh nationalist and anti-fascist slogans have popped up in its place, either scratched off or covered with duct tape. Reform is still there: the lights are on, and a shop owner next door said people go in and out every day, although no one answered the door when the Guardian rang the bell. Continue reading...
Approximately 20,000 Palestinians expected to leave territory for urgent medical care abroad Preparations to reopen Gaza’s main border crossing into Rafah began on Sunday though it was uncertain if any Palestinians would pass through it before the day’s end, officials have said. Before the war, the Rafah border crossing with Egypt was the only direct exit point for most Palestinians in Gaza to reach the outside world as well as a key entry point for aid. It has been largely shut since May 2024. Continue reading...
As apps and gadgets capitalise on loss of stigma, consumers are advised to look for evidence-based solutions For any bodily function you want to measure these days there is a gadget – a wristband for step-counting, a watch to track your heart rate or a ring for measuring sleep. Now the march of wearable tech is coming to the aid of what some say is a long underserved market: menopausal women. Continue reading...
Voters to choose president and 57 members of congress, with current president’s hardline pick Laura Fernández expected to win first round Costa Rica heads to the polls on Sunday in an election dominated by increasing insecurity and warnings of an authoritarian turn in a country long seen as a model of liberal democracy in the region. Crime is a big concern for many voters as criminal groups battle to control lucrative cocaine trafficking routes to Europe and the US, casting a shadow on the Central American country famous for its wildlife tourism. Continue reading...
Three decades after having his Grammy rescinded as part of the notorious duo, he is a nominee once more, for the audiobook of his unflinching memoir. ‘I had to tell my story,’ he says It may not be the most auspicious way to start an interview, but I have to ask: Fab, is it you reading your audiobook? Please confirm you aren’t just a pretty face hired to front it? Fabrice Maxime Sylvain Morvan considers my question, then laughs. I’m teasing: it definitely is Morvan narrating You Know It’s True: The Real Story of Milli Vanilli. But as the recording of his book has been nominated for best audiobook, narration and storytelling recording at the 2026 Grammy awards – and Milli Vanilli are the only winners to have had their Grammy (given in 1990 for best new artist) rescinded, due to the revelation that the duo didn’t sing on their records – I do need confirmation. Continue reading...
The party is trying to shift conversation after the NEC blocked Andy Burnham from fighting the seat Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics. The Labour party has accused the Green party leader Zack Polanski of being cowardly for not standing in the Gorton and Denton byelection on 26 February. In an interview with The Observer, the Labour party’s chair, Anna Turley, said the fact Salford-born Polanski did not stand showed the Greens lacked “confidence” to do so. Continue reading...
⚽ All the latest pre-match news and analysis ⚽ Fixtures | Tables | Mail Tom with your thoughts Good morning and welcome to Sunday’s matchday live. Decent day in the Barclays yesterday wasn’t it? Goals aplenty. Let’s hope for more of the same today. We’ll be building up to four fixtures in the Premier League, five in the WSL and a Women’s Champions Cup double-header at Emirates Stadium, where Arsenal will be going for the inaugural title in the final. Before we get to that, let’s have a quick look back at yesterday’s headlines… Continue reading...