Tom Player speaks out about incident in which Victoria Bond died along with two Mexicans and two Germans A survivor of the blizzard that killed a British woman and four others in Chilean Patagonia has said that tourists were concerned about adverse weather conditions ahead of the trek, but were told by staff it was “normal” and they could proceed. Tom Player, a London-based composer, told the Guardian that during the brutal blizzard about 30 volunteers worked together in an attempt to try to rescue hikers. Continue reading...

UK academics say latest chemicals are ‘wake-up call’ and urge global action to stop weaponisation of neuroscience Sophisticated and deadly “brain weapons” that can attack or alter human consciousness, perception, memory or behaviour are no longer the stuff of science fiction, two British academics argue. Michael Crowley and Malcolm Dando, of Bradford University, are about to publish a book that they believe should be a wake-up call to the world. Continue reading...

Wyndham’s theatre, London Bryan Cranston, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Paapa Essiedu and Hayley Squires achieve theatrical alchemy in Ivo van Hove’s superb production In 2014 Ivo van Hove’s Young Vic staging of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge drew comparisons to monumental Greek drama. Lightning has struck twice with this magnificent, shuddering production of Miller’s 1946 play – it perfects the art of doing less for more effect and is performed at the same West End venue where its predecessor transferred. Van Hove, known for giving the classics his own stamp, steps back here, it seems, letting the cast (and what a cast this is) not just inhabit their parts but somehow become them as if by magic. They articulate the devastating truths in this play about the corruptions of the American dream and the toxic inheritance handed down from fathers to sons. How relevant these truths seem today: it is as if Miller were speaking directly about now. A line can be drawn from the play’s themes of selling faulty equipment to government and the unaccountability of corrupt capitalist patriarchs to Trumpian facts and delusions, Grenfell and the Covid-era PPE scandal. Continue reading...

Dozens of traditional boats made as part of a project to reconnect with culture and ‘start of conversation’ on ocean rights In October in Lifou island, a double-hulled canoe was pushed into the lagoon - a small act that marked a deeply symbolic moment. It was the first launch of a traditional canoe on Lifou in generations, an event that brought together the island’s three chiefly clans in a rare show of unity. Continue reading...

UK energy secretary says UN climate talks must find way to keep proposals alive despite significant resistance Supporters of a global phaseout of fossil fuels must find “creative” ways to keep the proposal alive, including making it voluntary rather than binding, the UK energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has said in the closing stages of the UN climate talks. As the Cop30 summit in Brazil carried on past the Friday night deadline, the prospect of countries agreeing on the need for a roadmap to a global “transition away from fossil fuels” looked increasingly dim. A first draft of the potential outcome text from the summit had contained the formulation, but in the updated draft text produced on Friday by the Brazilian presidency it had been excised. Continue reading...

Hannah Shirley, born in November 1973, was celebrated with Hungry Hungry Hippos-themed party The San Diego Humane Society’s Ramona Wildlife Center is feeling festive, and it has nothing to do with Thanksgiving, but instead a birthday celebration for a hippo that turns 52. Hannah Shirley, the world’s oldest known living pygmy hippopotamus, turned 52 years old on Thursday, and celebrated with a Hungry Hungry Hippos–themed party. Hannah was surrounded by guests as she played with different-colored balls and presents. Continue reading...

Manager optimistic he will be backed by board ‘Invest cleverly and we want to do it smart’ Thomas Frank has said Tottenham are not close to emulating Arsenal by spending £100m on one player. Spurs have experienced a period of change after September’s removal of Daniel Levy as chair and the decision by the Lewis family, who own the club, to put a new leadership team in place. Plans to expand the business are intended to lead to more sporting success, but it remains to be seen whether they can take the next step and challenge Arsenal for the Premier League title. Continue reading...

Manager laments club’s £3m fines for late second halves Burna Boy pre-show ‘made Champions League final late’ Pep Guardiola has lamented the Premier League’s strict rules that have led to Manchester City being fined more than £3m for 30 late second-half restarts in the past three seasons, jokingly bemoaning that Burna Boy did not suffer a similar fate after delaying the kick-off in the 2023 Champions League final. City play at Newcastle on Saturday evening, beginning a hectic schedule in which they will play twice a week until mid-January. They travelled to the north-east on Friday afternoon, leading to a change in routine at the Etihad Campus and an early pre-match press conference in order to comply with Premier League rules and avoid another punitive fee. Continue reading...

Simon Case says voters will look elsewhere if chancellor cannot find solutions to tax, spending and debt problems Voters will look elsewhere if Rachel Reeves does not use next week’s pivotal budget to show that “centre-ground” politicians can fix the UK’s entrenched economic problems, the former head of the civil service, Simon Case, has said. Case told the Guardian that at the time of last year’s general election, when he was still cabinet secretary, he believed Labour would be forced to break its manifesto promise to not raise taxes because of the state of the public finances. Continue reading...

Mountbatten-Windsor ‘continues to hide’, US lawmakers say, after deadline they set to receive response passes Two Democratic lawmakers involved in the US congressional investigation into the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein on Friday condemned Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s “silence” in response to their request that he sit for a deposition. Robert Garcia, the ranking member of the House oversight committee, and Suhas Subramanyam, a member of the panel, were among the Democrats who earlier this month sent the former British prince a letter seeking his cooperation in their inquiry into Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. Continue reading...

US health secretary said he told agency to update website to claim the fact vaccines do not cause autism is not evidence based Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, said in an interview with the New York Times that he personally instructed the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to change its longstanding position that vaccines do not cause autism. Countering decades of science showing vaccines to be safe, the US public health agency’s website was changed to say: “The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.” Continue reading...

The 52-episode Christian podcast was announced with a number of actors involved yet many claim they had no idea about it The Fox News announcement of a new podcast series on Jesus Christ has turned into a bizarre holiday tale in Hollywood, as several actors attached to massive, 52-episode project claim their recordings date back 15 years and are being released without their prior knowledge. The new audiobook titled The Life of Jesus Christ Podcast, announced on Wednesday as part of a splashy rollout for the network’s new Christian vertical called Fox Faith, purports to guide listeners “through the life, teachings, and miracles of Jesus Christ”, with each episode introduced by Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt. Continue reading...

Coach’s assistant in tough time at Feyenoord sees parallels with issues his former boss needs to deal with at Anfield Just over five weeks after Arne Slot’s Feyenoord had lost a tight Conference League final by a goal to Roma in 2022, they suffered a 7-0 home defeat by Copenhagen in their first pre-season friendly. Some of the Dutch club’s internationals were on holiday, seven of their starters from the final would leave that summer and Copenhagen were well ahead in preparations, but even so, the scoreline was bruising. It felt as if Slot had to start all over again. “I can remember it like yesterday,” says Marino Pusic, Slot’s assistant at Feyenoord and earlier at AZ. “The score could have been even higher – that says enough.” Copenhagen’s then coach, Jess Thorup, described it as more akin to “a training session than an actual friendly match”. Two weeks later a stronger Feyenoord side lost 4-0 to the Belgian club Union Saint-Gilloise. Then came home defeats by Lyon and Osasuna. Continue reading...

Officials say the move is ‘long overdue’ and meant to close decades of safety gaps in vehicle crash testing The transportation department has unveiled a first crash test dummy in the US modeled specifically on female anatomy, a move officials say is meant to close decades of safety gaps in vehicle testing. Sean Duffy, the US transportation secretary, unveiled the THOR-05F, an advanced female design for a crash-test dummy with upgraded technical specifications. According to the transportation department, the dummy will be incorporated into federal vehicle crash testing once a final rule is published. Continue reading...

Mohamed says decision to leave was after ‘many false allegations and smears’ against him and others A second MP within a week has quit Your Party in acrimonious circumstances, throwing yet more doubt on the viability of the leftwing group co-led by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. In a statement on X, Iqbal Mohamed, who was elected as the independent MP for Dewsbury and Batley last year, said his decision to leave was after “many false allegations and smears” against him and others, which he did not explain. Continue reading...

President of talks urges ministers and high-ranking officials to find common ground as conference nears its end Cop30 live – latest updates Climate crisis talks look likely to stretch well into the weekend in Brazil, with countries still far apart on the crucial issues of phasing out fossil fuels and cutting carbon. The Cop30 president, André Corrêa do Lago, urged ministers and high-ranking officials from more than 190 countries to find common ground: “We need to preserve this regime [of the Paris climate agreement] with the spirit of cooperation, not in the spirit of who is going to win or is willing to lose’” he said. “Because we know if we don’t strengthen this, everyone will lose.” Continue reading...

A fire at Cop30 in Brazil, Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, Russian missiles hit Ukraine and a giraffe on the move in Kenya: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists Continue reading...

US president presses Kyiv to accept plan that would mean giving up territory to Russia Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine faces one of the most difficult moments in its history, as Donald Trump demanded Kyiv accepts within days a US-backed “peace plan” that would force it to give up territory to Russia and to make other painful concessions. Trump confirmed on Friday morning that next Thursday – Thanksgiving in the US – would be an “acceptable” deadline for Zelenskyy to sign the deal, which European and Ukrainian officials have warned amounts to a “capitulation”. Continue reading...

The latest report on the pandemic shows that grave failings were not limited to Boris Johnson. The government needs to prepare for the next crisis All four of the UK’s governments are criticised in the latest report from the public inquiry into the coronavirus pandemic of 2020-22. The Northern Ireland Executive’s response is judged to have been marred by political divisions. In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon did not involve cabinet colleagues enough in decision-making (though she is also described as serious and diligent). In Wales, Mark Drakeford’s government mirrored some of the errors made in London, particularly when it delayed the introduction of new restrictions in the autumn of 2020. But rightly, given its responsibilities, size and resources, as well as its record, the UK administration led by Boris Johnson comes in for the biggest share of blame. Some of Heather Hallett’s findings regarding the political governance of the crisis are already familiar. Nothing in this report will damage the former prime minister’s reputation as much as what is already known about lockdown-breaking social gatherings in 2020 – or the fact that he misled parliament about them. Continue reading...

The wider TV and film industries have a long way to go in including disabled actors and creators, and leaving stereotypes behind While the entertainment industry has been at pains to address issues of diversity in race, gender and sexuality, disability remains shockingly underrepresented. It’s not just that disabled actors are discounted for many roles. As actors and activists have pointed out, “blacking up” might have become taboo, but “cripping up” is still a shoo-in for awards. In almost 100 years, only three disabled actors have won an Oscar, compared to 25 able-bodied actors who have won for playing disabled characters. The arrival this weekend of Wicked: For Good, the second part of a prequel story to The Wizard of Oz, has put the importance of authentic casting in the spotlight once more. The story of green-skinned witch Elphaba, and the prejudice she faces, Wicked is a celebration of difference. Yet since the hit musical opened in 2003, only able-bodied actors had played the part of Nessarose, Elphaba’s disabled sister. Last year, Marissa Bode became the first wheelchair-using actor to take the role, in part one of the film adaptation. The child Nessa is also played by a wheelchair user. The movies give the character greater agency and complexity, amending a scene that suggested she needs to be “fixed”. Continue reading...

Party’s former leader in Wales admitted taking payments to make statements in favour of Russia Nigel Farage is facing calls to investigate and root out links between Reform UK and Russia after one of its former senior politicians was jailed for 10 years for accepting bribes from a pro-Kremlin agent. Keir Starmer said Farage had questions to answer about how this happened in his party. Nathan Gill, a former leader of Reform UK in Wales, admitted taking payments to make statements in favour of Russia. Continue reading...

To prevent a future pandemic we’d need agile leadership, smart decision-making, humility and trustworthiness. How does one build those into a political system? It feels as though a collective amnesia has set in around Covid-19. We all just want to move forward and pretend it didn’t happen. But, as the saying goes, those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. On 20 April 2020 I tweeted, “At what point will the British public realise what has happened over the past 9 weeks?” On Thursday, the Covid inquiry published its module 2 report on the political response to the pandemic. The answer finally to my tweet, more than five years later. Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh Fit Forever: Wellness for midlife and beyond On Wednesday 28 January 2026, join Annie Kelly, Devi Sridhar, Joel Snape and Mariella Frostrup, as they discuss how to enjoy longer and healthier lives, with expert advice and practical tips. Book tickets here or at guardian.live Continue reading...

Shumeet Banerji was away during crucial discussions that led to resignation of director general and BBC News chief A member of the BBC’s board has resigned after stating he was cut out of the discussions that led up to the shock resignation of its director general, Tim Davie. Shumeet Banerji, a tech industry executive, was away in the crucial days before the departure of Davie and the head of BBC News, Deborah Turness. Continue reading...

Judge sentences Martin Suter to minimum of 27 years for stabbing Ann Blackwood to death in 2023 A man has been jailed for life with a minimum of 27 years for murdering his ex-wife at their son’s grave on their late child’s birthday. Martin Suter, 68, was rebuked by the judge and his former brother-in-law for “pitilessly extinguishing” the life of Ann Blackwood, 71. Continue reading...

As little as a decade ago it would have been unthinkable that an American institution such as Disney would have chosen to hitch its wagon to F1 The remarkable nature of the transformation in Formula One’s fortunes in the United States could not have been better illustrated than by the incongruous sight of Mickey Mouse and an assortment of his Disney pals leading a gang of enthusiastic fans on a walk down the pit lane at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. F1 successfully hosting a race in Sin City and the US now boasting three sellout meetings is testament to the sport’s burgeoning prosperity. For all of the somewhat surreal edge of seeing Donald Duck and Goofy outside garages, the fact Disney has chosen F1 as a partner is indicative of the sea change the sport has brought about in a market it has long coveted. Continue reading...