A new brand flogging face masks for four-year-olds is disturbing, but it’s worth asking why children are asking for these products in the first place As a newish mother, I am only too aware of the myriad ways we have failed our children. And then I came across a new skincare company aimed at four-year-olds. It’s early days for Rini, whose sole product is now a Korean-made hydrating facial mask. A healing ointment and daily barrier cream are allegedly in the works, too. If you were under any illusions as to the mask’s purpose, it is infused with vitamin B12 – which, according to various skincare sites, improves elasticity and skin texture – with a clear peel-on application process modelled online, Patrick Bateman-style, by a preschooler. On the one hand, I appreciate that children put all sorts on their faces – face paint, stickers, poo, toothpaste, kitchen cleaner, a sibling’s blood, and that’s just in this last week alone – and that their faces will occasionally need to be cleaned. And while it’s entirely plausible that some parents will be moved watching their child dip their delicate toes into the world of Korean beauty, I’m marginally more concerned by the strains of strep and croup doing the rounds at my two-year-old’s childcare (I am also worried about my six-year-old’s health, but if this company is anything to go by, he’s probably beyond help). Morwenna Ferrier is the Guardian’s fashion and lifestyle editor Continue reading...

With no Cummins and Hazlewood, Boland off the boil and Doggett on debut, the veteran quick notched a career-best seven for 58 to dominate the opening stanza in Perth When an Ashes series finally begins and the interminable prognosticating reaches its end, it is customary to discover anew that all of the talk is just talk. So it was for all of us who have offered opinions on the absence of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, and how losing two champion fast bowlers would drastically weaken the Australian side. Instead, it only gave space to their remaining colleague to dominate the first stanza of the Perth Test on his own. In barely a session, Mitchell Starc turned the Big Three into the Big One. Scott Boland was off the boil – it didn’t matter. Brendan Doggett was on debut, chipping in around the edges – it didn’t matter either. Starc has now notched a career best in consecutive innings: six for nine in Kingston back in July, followed by seven for 58 here. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Agency accessed private conversations of New York ‘courtwatch’ group that was observing public hearings The FBI spied on a private Signal group chat of immigrants’ rights activists who were organizing “courtwatch” efforts in New York City this spring, law enforcement records shared with the Guardian indicate. The FBI, the documents show, gained access to conversations in a “courtwatch” Signal group that helps coordinate volunteer activists who monitor public proceedings at three New York federal immigration courts. The US government has repeatedly been accused of violating immigrants’ due process rights at those courts. Continue reading...

AI-generated songs are topping Spotify charts. This isn’t about the ‘democratization’ of art – it’s about scale Making music is hard. Well, at least it used to be. I remember the old days, when you had to spend hours and hours honing skills, coming up with something clever or personal to say, then actually recording sounds that people would want to listen to. But that’s the past. In our sparkling future, a pre-teen can dump a bunch of words into a machine and out comes a catchy tune. In 2025, a robot can be a pop star. (Although Data from Star Trek did drop an album back in the 90s. How soon we all forget.) Three AI-generated songs recently topped Spotify’s “Viral 50” charts. One of the “creators” responsible for these songs, Broken Veteran, who squirted out a track about immigration policies, told the Guardian that AI is “just another tool for expression, particularly valuable for people like me who have something to say but lack traditional musical training”. It used to be that if you didn’t know how to do something, you wouldn’t do it. Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist Continue reading...

In India’s Mizoram state, people have an intricate system of harvesting and consuming the pungent and nutritious bugs Every few years when Udonga montana, a bamboo-feeding stink bug, erupts in massive swarms, the people of the Mizo community in northern India don’t reach for pesticides. Instead, they look for baskets. Locally, this small brown stink bug is called thangnang. Outsiders see them as an infestation but in the bamboo forests of Mizoram state this small brown bug has long been woven into the food culture. Continue reading...

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Online fashion retailer says action to cut discounts and deter ‘serial returners’ contributed to fall in sales Business live – latest updates Asos has turned to online stylists powered by artificial intelligence as it attempts to win back customers and reverse a fall in sales. The online fashion retailer said sales had fallen 12% in the year to 31 August, and City analysts predicted another year of declining sales ahead. Continue reading...

1st Test D1: England 172; Australia 123-9 Hosts close 49 behind after ball-dominated day in Perth The opening day of this Ashes series has set an absurdly high bar for what is to come. England played their supporters back at home, a collapse to 172 all out like waking up to a horse’s head in the bed, only for Ben Stokes and his stable of quicks to deliver a more telling statement of their own. If they did not know it before, Australia are now well aware that this is a very different England side to those of the past. The fast forward but fragile batting was a known quantity, granted. But it now comes with a pool of high-octane seamers who will test techniques and tickers in equal measure. Continue reading...

American diplomats said Donald Trump was trying to achieve peace ‘with an incredible sense of momentum’ Bloomberg (£) is reporting that a number of European leaders – including UK’s Keir Starmer, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Friedrich Merz – are expected to join an urgent call with Ukraine’s Zelenskyy at noon European time to discuss the US-Russian proposal for ending the war. Separately, Reuters also confirmed that Merz pulled out from a planned event to clear his schedule and join the call. “I believe it is the task of the negotiating parties to define this.” “It will be Ukraine that decides what compromises it makes, just as Russia will have to make such decisions for its part.” Continue reading...

Chancellor is expected to increase duties bookies and casinos pay, ending months of speculation and lobbying Gambling companies don’t lose very often but nor are they usually playing a game of poker against the chancellor of the exchequer. At next week’s budget, Rachel Reeves is widely expected to announce an increase in the duties that bookies and casinos pay to the Treasury, ending months of speculation and frenzied lobbying designed to sway the government. Continue reading...

The crime writer on actor Frances Farmer’s life-changing story of survival, her favourite self help and discovering Agatha Christie’s alter ego My earliest reading memory I was six, and in the lounge in my first home in Manchester. I was sitting cross-legged on the grey carpet, in 1977, when I finished reading whichever of Enid Blyton’s brilliant Secret Seven mysteries contains the mind-blowing (genuinely, for a six-year-old) twist that “Emma Lane” turns out to be a road and not a person. My favourite book growing up Up to the age of 12, Blyton’s Secret Seven and Five Find-Outers mysteries; from 12 onwards, it was Agatha Christie. Growing up, I was certain that no other kind of story could ever hope to be as satisfying as the very best mystery story. Continue reading...

The sport is rooted in the culture of rugged individualism and has been slow to adopt modern techniques. That state of affairs is slowly changing Boosted by cultural phenomena like the hit series Yellowstone and Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter album and tour, rodeo and all things Western are enjoying a cultural resurgence. Attendance, broadcast and streaming viewership are at all time highs. So is the prize money, which is attracting more and more young athletes seeking a chance to make a name for themselves. But while rodeo is booming, athlete development remains antiquated. Continue reading...

Nearly 13m people are hoarding millions of dollars’ worth of the stylish 50 peso note, featuring Mexico’s cutest critter For most of her life, Gorda was just an axolotl who lived in a museum in Mexico City – that is, until she became the star of the country’s favourite banknote. The note, which features a depiction of Gorda as the model for Mexico’s iconic species of salamander, went into circulation in 2021, dazzling the judges of the International Bank Notes Society, who declared it the Note of the Year. Continue reading...

An utterly beguiling Taiwanese drama about a single mother, plus Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield and Ayo Edebiri star in a dark thriller about accusations of sexual assault on a college campus Shih-Ching Tsou is a regular collaborator of Sean Baker, the Oscar-winning director of Anora. He returns the compliment here by co-writing and editing her vibrant debut solo feature, where his interest in the least privileged members of society mingles fruitfully with her intimate focus on her Taiwanese homeland. Janel Tsai plays Shu-Fen, single mother to left-handed five-year-old I-Jing (a delightful Nina Ye) and stroppy young adult I-Ann (Shih-Yuan Ma). They arrive in Taipei to open a noodle stall but financial and relationship stresses threaten to unravel the family. An unforced, perceptive and utterly beguiling drama. Friday 28 November, Netflix Continue reading...

(Modern Love) The producer’s second album is a granular dissection of cumbia rebajada, forcing the listener to focus on the strangeness of every moment in her ambient soundworld Mexican-American producer Delia Beatriz, AKA Debit, has a talent for making historical sounds her own. Her 2022 breakthrough, The Long Count, featured woozy, ambient soundscapes made from electronically processed samples of ancient Maya flutes. On her latest record, Desaceleradas (Decelerated), Beatriz turns her attention to the 90s trend of cumbia rebajada. Slowing the Afro-Latin dance genre of cumbia to a sludgy tempo, cumbia rebajada is a dub-influenced take on a typically upbeat, party-driven sound. DJ Gabriel Dueñez popularised the style with his bootleg cassettes; two of his earliest releases now form the basis of Beatriz’s experiments. Landing somewhere between composer William Basinski’s Disintegration Loops and DJ Screw’s chopped’n’screwed production style, Desaceleradas slows the shaker-rattling, synth syncopations of cumbia rebajada into unrecognisable ambient territory. La Ronda y el Sonidero and Vinilos Trasnacionales contain hints of the signature cumbia shuffle and twanging synth melody, but Beatriz’s added tape hiss, reverb and melodic warping transform the style into an eerie, ethereal soundworld of nightmare fairground music and yearning drones. Continue reading...

⚽ Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend ⚽ Sign up for Football Daily | Follow on Bluesky | Mail Barry Not football: They’re still playing in the final session of the Ashes series opening day in Perth, where England’s seam bowlers have helped their team mount a stirring recovery following a depressingly chaotic and kamikaze first innings with bat in hand. The doyen of over-by-over reporting that is Rob Smyth has the latest from Western Australia, mate … Burnley v Chelsea (Sat 12.30pm GMT) Liverpool v Nottingham Forest (3pm) Bournemouth v West Ham (3pm) Wolves v Crystal Palace (3pm) Brighton v Brentford (3pm) Fulham v Sunderland (3pm) Newcastle v Man City (5.30pm) Leeds v Aston Villa (Sun 2pm) Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur (4.30pm) Man United v Everton (Mon 8pm) View the Premier League table Continue reading...

(Mass Appeal) The first release since the death of their founding member dwells on the afterlife, yet doesn’t forsake their perpetually sunny sound Cabin in the Sky, the tenth album by De La Soul – and first since the 2023 death of founding member Trugoy the Dove, AKA Dave Jolicoeur – is, loosely, a concept album about death and the afterlife. A spoken-word intro by actor Giancarlo Esposito primes you for something heavy, but you are instantly reminded, of course, that this is a De La Soul album: it seems practically impossible that their brand of lackadaisical, perpetually sunny plunderphonics could ever feel like a drag. The lush strings of Yuhdontstop introduce an album that’s always projected in full-saturation Technicolor: from the effervescent Natalie Cole sample on Will Be to Maseo’s jovial, avuncular ad-libs that open Cruel Summers Bring Fire Life!!, Cabin in the Sky feels warm and rich in vitamin D, a tonic for chillier months. For the most part, the afterlife theme seems to have been tacked on, likely after Trugoy’s death; the album still features his vocals, and most of the songs on the album fit squarely in De La Soul’s already established surrealist world. (Patty Cake, a minimalist highlight, reinterprets classic schoolyard chants, a conceit that somehow hasn’t already been done on a De La Soul record.) Even so, lasting more than 70 minutes, Cabin in the Sky can feel like a slog, with the end lacking the sprightliness of the album’s first half. An exception is the title track, on which Maseo and Pos pay tribute to Trugoy and others they’ve lost. It’s pensive and world-weary, but never loses its sense of magic. Continue reading...

Liz Kendall says ‘we are clear-eyed about our relationship with China and national security will always come first’ Good morning and welcome to Friday’s UK politics blog. National security “will always come first”, science secretary Liz Kendall said this morning amid reports the government could approve a new Chinese embassy in London. Kendall declined to comment directly on the reports, saying decisions on the embassy “will be taken through the proper process”. But she told Sky News: We are clear-eyed about our relationship with China and national security will always come first. That is absolutely non-negotiable. But where we can safely work with China, whether that’s on the economy or areas like research, that’s what we’ll do, because we want to get the best outcome for the British public. I don’t know about the prime minister’s diary plans for the new year, but what I do know is that he takes all of those issues extremely seriously. Ed Miliband promised to cut everyone’s energy bills by £300 but more and more experts are sounding the alarm that his plans will lock us into paying higher bills for decades. Despite gas prices falling, independent experts, energy suppliers and academics say it’s the extra costs of Ed’s net zero targets that are putting upward pressure on bills. Keir Starmer has defended his decision to travel to South Africa for the G20 summit days before the budget and despite the planned absence of Donald Trump. The prime minister arrived in South Africa on Friday morning for two days of summit discussions and bilateral talks on topics including sustainability and economic growth. Starmer has accused Nigel Farage of being “spineless” when it comes to tackling racism in his party after the Guardian revealed allegations he made xenophobic and antisemitic comments while he was at school. The prime minister said the Reform UK leader had “questions to answer” about the comments and chants alleged, which included songs about the Holocaust and accusations of bullying towards ethnic minority schoolboys. The UK’s response to Covid was “too little, too late”, a damning official report into the handling of the pandemic has concluded, saying the introduction of a lockdown even a week earlier than happened could have saved more than 20,000 lives. In a written parliamentary statement, Starmer addressed the failings identified in the report of the previous government. Rachel Reeves has been urged by 40 Labour MPs to drop plans to fund NHS buildings with private finance initiatives (PFI) that would saddle the health service with debt. The Labour MPs, including Cat Eccles, Clive Lewis and Rebecca Long-Bailey, pressed the chancellor to commit to investment in the NHS without the use of private capital and warned that a return to the New Labour era of private funding for public projects would be damaging for trust in the government. The Liberal Democrats are forcing a vote in parliament on creating a new customs union to put pressure on Labour MPs to take a more pro-EU stance. Ed Davey’s party is writing to all Labour MPs urging them to back a new bill in favour of a customs union with the EU, believing this is the best way to boost growth and raise revenue, rather than tax rises. Continue reading...

Prime minister says Reform UK leader has ‘questions to answer’ about alleged comments at school which included songs about Holocaust Keir Starmer has accused Nigel Farage of being “spineless” when it comes to tackling racism in his party after the Guardian revealed allegations he made xenophobic and antisemitic comments while he was at school. The prime minister said the Reform UK leader had “questions to answer” about the comments and chants alleged, which included songs about the Holocaust and accusations of bullying towards ethnic minority schoolboys. Continue reading...

Climate sceptics tell us that more people die of extreme cold than extreme heat. What’s the truth? I began by trying to discover whether or not a widespread belief was true. In doing so, I tripped across something even bigger: an index of the world’s indifference. I already knew that by burning fossil fuels, gorging on meat and dairy, and failing to make even simple changes, the rich world imposes a massive burden of disaster, displacement and death on people whose responsibility for the climate crisis is minimal. What I’ve now stumbled into is the vast black hole of our ignorance about these impacts. What I wanted to discover was whether it’s true that nine times as many of the world’s people die of cold than of heat. The figure is often used by people who want to delay climate action: if we do nothing, some maintain, fewer will die. Of course, they gloss over all the other impacts of climate breakdown: the storms, floods, droughts, fires, crop failures, disease and sea level rise. But is this claim, at least, correct? George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The four semi-finalists, led by Wei Yi, will battle for three 2026 Candidates places – none of them has reached this stage before The $2m World Cup in Goa will be remembered as an event where established stars were humbled and knocked out by supposedly lesser lights. At 26, China’s Wei Yi is the oldest in Friday’s semi-finals. He was once a prodigy, renowned for his brilliant attacking style and the youngest to surpass an elite 2700 rating, but then opted to take a six-year break from chess to study economics and management, which he says he does not regret. He made a statement return in 2024, winning the “chess Wimbledon” at Wijk aan Zee, and the 2026 Candidates is his main target. Continue reading...

Ed Davey’s party believes the move is the best way to ‘turbocharge’ economy, rather than tax rises The Liberal Democrats are forcing a vote in parliament on creating a new customs union to put pressure on Labour MPs to take a more pro-EU stance. Ed Davey’s party is writing to all Labour MPs urging them to back a new bill in favour of a customs union with the EU, believing this is the best way to boost growth and raise revenue, rather than tax rises. Continue reading...

Irish indie acts used to be ignored, even on Irish radio. But songs confronting the Troubles, poverty and oppression are now going global – and changing how Ireland sees itself On a hot Saturday afternoon at Glastonbury, while many are nursing halfway-point hangovers, the Dublin garage punk quartet Sprints whip up a jubilant mosh pit with their charged tune Descartes, Irish tricolour flags bobbing above them. As summer speeds on, at Japan’s Fuji rock festival, new songs from Galway indie act NewDad enrapture the crowd. Travy, a Nigerian-born and Tallaght-raised rapper, crafts a mixtape inflected with his Dublin lilt, the follow-up to the first Irish rap album to top the Irish charts. Efé transcends Dublin bedroom pop to get signed by US label Fader, and on Later … With Jools Holland, George Houston performs the haunting Lilith – a tribute to political protest singers everywhere – in a distinctive Donegal accent. From Melbourne to Mexico City, concertgoers continue to scream to that opening loop on strings of Fontaines DC’s Starburster, and CMAT’s viral “woke macarena” dance to her hit single Take a Sexy Picture of Me plays out in festival pits and on TikTok. You might have heard about Kneecap, too. Continue reading...

Brommapojkarna will have a close eye on Arsenal’s clash with Spurs as their talent factory continues to thrive “We’re building Swedish youth.” The sign adorning the main stand at Brommapojkarna is simple, authoritative and accurate. Beneath it, in the lashing rain, the men’s side are training. But while their top-tier status is important, that is far from the primary focus. Twenty-four hours before the men’s game, BP’s 5,000-capacity Grimsta IP stadium hosted a celebration of the under-19s, who secured a first national title since 2008. Youth development is at the heart of the club and on Sunday the fruits of Vällingby, a suburb in west Stockholm, will be consumed 1,100 miles away in north London. Continue reading...

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