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Despite the absence of Equinox all may not be lost for his country’s passionate – and patient – fans at Longchamp For nearly 20 years, Japanese fans’ dreams of a first win for their country in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe have been turning to dust in the Bois de Boulogne on the first Sunday in October. Deep Impact, El Condor Pasa and Orfevre, twice, have all hit the woodwork, but untold billions of yen have left Japan in hope only to find their way into the coffers of the pari mutuel urbain , never to return. There was huge optimism a few months ago, when Equinox strolled home in the Sheema Classic in Dubai to establish himself as officially – and still – the world’s top-rated racehorse. But the possibility – indeed, likelihood – of testing ground always weighed heavily against a trip to Paris. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/9Zwby6c

Emma Hayes’s side remain the team to beat as Arsenal, United and City try to plot a way to derail them Football is littered with teams that write themselves into sport folklore – the dynasties who dominate and pave the way for others. On the women’s side, there is Vic Akers’ quadruple-winning Arsenal (2006-2007). The imperious Barcelona, who have won four straight league titles and two Women’s Champions League trophies. Then, of course, there is Emma Hayes’s dominant Chelsea. With four successive league titles (six in total), three consecutive FA Cups (five in total) and a couple of League Cups, Chelsea remain the team to beat and with the new Women’s Super League campaign starting on Sunday the question is whether anyone can topple them. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/zRLd1sf

Pret a Manger’s ‘posh’ cheese and pickle sandwich grabbed headlines for its £7.15 price tag, but it’s not all gloom It’s not often that a cheese and pickle sandwich turns heads, but this week Pret a Manger’s “posh” version grabbed headlines after a tweet decrying its £7.15 price tag went viral. Although that included VAT for eating in, the social media post shone a spotlight on the rising cost of lunch on the go, as the soaring cost of ingredients has been passed on to consumers. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/uUcDHhF

Clothes the designer wore as dance student given a chic glow-up on the catwalk Everyone knows what Victoria Beckham did before she became a fashion designer. But this season, she has a whole new backstory. “From when I was three years old up until I was in the Spice Girls, I wanted to be a ballet dancer,” she said at a preview of her latest collection in Paris. “One of the things that I find so special about dancers is that even if you are travelling on the tube, you can always spot a ballet dancer – just by her posture and the way she carries herself.” The Victoria Beckham show, held in an 18th-century Parisian townhouse that was once home to Karl Lagerfeld, was a grand affair. The coming together of two superstar families, the Beckhams and the Kardashians, saw the picturesque left bank streets gridlocked with SUVs and phone-wielding fans. The Beckhams – along with Anna Wintour and the chic, makeup-free Pamela Anderson who has become a folk hero of this Paris fashion week – were ...

Retiring chair of joint chiefs of staff Milley says ‘We take an oath to the constitution’ not ‘wannabe dictator’ in farewell ceremony Retiring as chair of the US joint chiefs of staff, the army general Mark Milley directed a parting shot at Donald Trump, the president he served but who he seemed to call a “wannabe dictator”. Speaking at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia, Milley said of the US armed forces: “We don’t take an oath to a country. We don’t take an oath to a tribe. We don’t take an oath to a religion. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/gdzfks8

Shadow ministers used ‘charitable status’ as shorthand for main goal of introducing tax changes Has Labour flip-flopped on stripping private schools in England of their charitable status? Senior party figures from Keir Starmer down have certainly been guilty of using loose language, conflating such a move with their plan to apply VAT to private school fees and other tax breaks. Starmer said in July last year: “When I say we are going to pay for kids to catch up at school, I also say it’ll be funded by removing private schools’ charitable status.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/lWiO19F

She starred alongside Stephen Graham in the high-octane chef film, and is back for the BBC’s adrenaline-fuelled new adaptation. Ahead of its release she talks racism, raves – and Matilda When it comes to tense, claustrophobic viewing, almost nothing matches Boiling Point. The Observer described the film – which follows a hectic London restaurant on the most catastrophic night of its existence – as “conjuring the raw experience of an inexorably accelerating panic attack.” Watching Stephen Graham battle debt and addiction as volatile head chef Andy – while his team try to contain his combustible personality long enough to finish serving customers – is an immersion in 94 minutes of brutal, jittery brilliance. No wonder another critic called it “the most stressful film of the year.” Apparently, though, it’s more fun to star in. “It’s exhilarating!” says Vinette Robinson, who plays sous chef Carly in the movie and its new four-part TV adaptation. “It’s exciting because so much of it is ...

Stomachs will churn once again in an attempt to rewind the clock for the fatigued franchise but there’s ultimately little of worth here It’s a strange existential feeling to be seated in front of a Saw film once again, a return not just to a franchise but an entire torture porn subgenre. As a screaming woman is forced to cut off her leg and suck out a litre of blood from her fresh wound in order to save her head from being sliced off by serrated wire, one might start wondering the hows and whys of what got us here. While financial greed is the obvious studio motivator (cheaply made horror still the most reliably profitable genre in Hollywood), it’s curious to ponder why we might want to endure another two hours of stomach-churning gore especially when served on such a musty old platter. The decision to kill the series big bad Jigsaw in Saw III was fitting given the franchise obsession with cattle-prod shock value but it also left the makers in a trap they then struggled to get out o...

Experts call for ‘bold’ solutions as report reveals high dropout rates of trainees during training or early in their careers The NHS has to train two GPs to produce one full-time family doctor because so many have started to work part-time, new research reveals. The finding helps explain why GP surgeries are still struggling to give patients appointments as quickly as they would like, despite growing numbers of doctors training to become a GP. One in eight nursing students in England do not complete their degrees. For every five students doing a nursing degree at university, the NHS only gets three full-time nurses. One in five newly qualified nurses working in hospitals or community settings quit within two years. The number of UK nurses joining the NHS fell by about a third in both 2020/21 and 2021/22 – “a new and worrying dynamic”. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/WrK2w1I

This documentary follows the feathered, bejewelled British women who staff the Parisian institution. Be warned: the reality is all a bit cheap and shoddy There are certain shows that make you think of the joy that must have lit up the producer’s face when news reached them of its premise. With Moulin Rouge: Yes We Can-Can!, I imagine an eager young thing bursting into the shiny office around which their boss is prowling discontentedly while chomping on a cigar, and crying breathlessly: “The Moulin Rouge … the dance troupe … they’re all Brits! And it’s run by a woman … called Janet! She’s from Yorkshire !” The prowling stops. The head turns. A smile spreads across the formerly furious face and the cigar is ground out in an ashtray made from a replica of Michael Grade’s skull. “It’s The Yorkshire Vet in Paris!” “It’s Our Yorkshire Farm in high heels!” “It’s All Creatures Great and Small with” – the voice drops to a whisper – “boobs”. How the faces of the production team must have falle...

Host of celebrities to embody new assistants aimed at increasing young people’s interaction with AI Meta is to launch artificial intelligence chatbots embodied by celebrities including Snoop Dogg, Kendall Jenner and Naomi Osaka. Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement at the company’s annual Connect conference, where he spoke about new AI products at Facebook’s parent company. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/BUGPkox

It might have lost some sparkle since its 2014-15 peak, but the new Bake Off host’s irresistible charm has kicked things up a gear. The joyful vibes will engulf you As the nights draw in and the autumn leaves tumble from the trees, the chill of death is in the air. But one ray of sunshine still awaits us. Bake Off is back, bringing with it the best of British summertime in a bunting-lined tent. To be fully transparent, I am obsessed with baking. My sourdough starter has a name (Kenneth) and every children’s birthday cake I have baked could sit in the Louvre. To further complicate my relationship with the TV series, I spent a year at Prue Leith’s culinary school and failed my final exam because of my inability to make a puff pastry that would rise in 37-degree heat and over-salting a chicken ballotine. So, for me to come to every series and be charmed rather than triggered by the Bake Off challenges is a triumph for both my personal growth (37 degrees! Impossible!) and the show’s endu...

Former Cop26 president announces he will not stand in Reading West seat he has held since 2010 Alok Sharma has become the latest Conservative MP to announce he will step down at the next general election. The former Cop26 president, who has represented Reading West since 2010, said it had “not been an easy decision” and described being an MP as the “honour of [my] life”. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/lpx4z5T

With Tory conference looming and talk of delaying decision to autumn statement, the row could intensify further When news leaked that Rishi Sunak was planning to row back on net zero goals last week, it took Downing Street less than 24 hours to get the prime minister out in front of a podium to confirm the news and lay out his rationale. But for nearly a fortnight, the fate of HS2 has hung in the balance. Far from seizing the agenda after plans to pare back the high-speed rail project emerged, Sunak has been accused by Conservative MPs of vacillating. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/WNs5QHB

The gold-medal winner will run in Colchester after current Conservative incumbent is to stand down The Olympic gold-winning rower James Cracknell will stand as a Conservative candidate at the next general election. The rowing champion will run in Colchester, where the incumbent Conservative MP Will Quince is to stand down. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/M1DTVUf

A mighty cast including Katherine Kelly and Toby Jones tells the stories of the women murdered by Peter Sutcliffe. Finally, the focus is on the victims By the end of the first two of the seven episodes of ITV’s new drama about the Yorkshire Ripper made available for review, Peter Sutcliffe has barely been glimpsed. This alone marks it out from the herd of serial killer dramas, let alone documentaries, of which every streaming platform has a full quota. The general rule is that, however much the makers stress that their creation will centre the victims instead of the perpetrator of the crimes, they somehow all end up in thrall to precisely that person. Even when there really are intentions otherwise, the perpetrator inevitably becomes the dramatic focus and the narrative engine. The Long Shadow – so far, at least, which is already further than most – shatters the general rule. Written by George Kay (whose last outing was the very different, very fun Hijack starring Idris Elba ) and di...

The 78-year-old, the show’s oldest ever contestant, demonstrated advanced moves in the cha-cha-cha Whether you can do the splits is a favoured test of flexibility in the playground, but it’s generally assumed that most people over 40 can’t. So when 78-year-old Angela Rippon kicked her leg into a standing split on Saturday’s Strictly Come Dancing, she caused a stir among viewers. Rippon is the show’s oldest ever contestant, yet experts say her move is difficult for most younger people and highly unusual for someone her age, as the body stiffens with age, while balance and muscle strength decline. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Z3Pdue9

More than 6,000 ethnic Armenian refugees have left region following Azerbaijan victory Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh victory highlights limits of Russia’s power The day the shelling began, Genadi Hyusunts had just taken his four-day-old son home from the hospital. Within hours, he had to hustle his wife, the newborn child and his six other children to the shelter in his native Martakert, which sits in Nagorno-Karabakh on the frontline of a three-decade conflict with Azerbaijan. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3nDWgcZ

The Ethiopian smashed the women’s record in Berlin, reviving the debate about the role of hi-tech shoes in athletic performance They say shoes maketh the man. But did a pair of trainers make Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa a record-breaking runner? Her shattering of the women’s marathon world record by more than two minutes – while wearing a pair of Adidas’s new Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1s – has reignited the debate about the role of “super shoes” in athletic performance. Assefa has credited her performance to “hard work over the past year”. However, speaking before the event, she also described her Adizeros as “the lightest racing shoe I have ever worn”, and said: “The feeling of running in them is an incredible experience – like nothing I’ve felt before.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/oHBtrMb

Blues 14th in Premier League and failed to score in three games ‘Players, when they are young, need to learn and make mistakes’ Mauricio Pochettino told Chelsea to grow up after his young side continued their miserable start to the season by losing Malo Gusto to a red card and falling to a 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea, who lie 14th in the table despite spending £1bn on signings since last year’s takeover by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, looked short of nous as they lost at home for the second consecutive game . Gusto’s red card was avoidable and Pochettino was unhappy with Nicolas Jackson, who picked up his fifth booking of the season after trying to stop Villa from taking a free-kick. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Gdgyi81

Midfielder’s two assists were a sign of his effortless confidence, an attribute which could be crucial to Project Postecoglou Shortly before kick-off here, James Maddison announced on Sky Sports that this was a bad time to play Spurs. Arsenal, Maddison explained with a patient smile, would be regretting the timing of this north London derby , would in effect already be afraid, already losing that small but significant battle. So, like, that’s just the way it is. Even better, Maddison explained all this while sitting in a private box decorated with a bespoke Maddison mural featuring assorted Maddison mottos and Maddison logos plus a huge picture of his own dog. “Yeah, they said you can decorate it how you want,” he explained. “My question was, where’s the line …?” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/PIMh4iS

Pool B: Scotland 45-17 Tonga Scots’ quarter-final hopes still alive as Tonga pick up red card It could certainly be said that Scotland were dealt a bad hand when you consider the Pool B draw combined with its scheduling. But it’s all about controlling the controllables, so coaches say, and the possibility remains that Gregor Townsend’s men will play their unforgiving cards remarkably well. This sunny, satisfying victory against game opponents on the Côte D’Azur means another bonus-point win, against Romania in Lille next Saturday, will set up a decisive clash against Ireland in Paris on 7 October. On this sort of form Scotland will back themselves to have a strong chance, at the very least, of surviving the pool of death. To the considerable credit of all concerned they looked like a team who had two weeks of constructive warm-weather training in the tank after the opening loss against South Africa . Prompted by their uniquely gifted fly-half, Finn Russell, passes were fizzed arou...

Bruno Fernandes’s star quality: only this saved Manchester United from a fourth consecutive defeat as their patchy early season form continued. In this slump United have been shapeless, directionless, injury-plagued and forgetful of how to win. Not since Erik ten Hag’s misfiring unit reversed a 2-0 deficit to overcome Nottingham Forest 3-2 in late August have three points been theirs. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Itavg89

Full-back and Henry Arundell on the wing show the side can be unpredictable and all the better for it in World Cup rout of Chile After stinking out the Rugby World Cup in their opening two matches, this England performance was like sweet perfume. Conservatism gave way to unpredictability. Straightjacket rigidity to pace and unexpected delights. And while it was only Chile, officially the worst team at this World Cup, this punchy 71-0 demolition offered a glimpse of a potentially different – and more intriguing – path for Steve Borthwick’s side at this tournament. The questions over the coming fortnight will surely centre on whether England’s coach will stick or twist, roll the dice or play it safe. But the fact they are being asked at all tells you something about this 11-try victory – and how well Henry Arundell and Marcus Smith grabbed their chance to make their case. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/kyGpZc1

2nd ODI: England, 334-8, beat Ireland, 286, by 48 runs Jacks hits 94 and Hain 89 in impressive debuts Figures of three for 66 may not leap off the page but for George Scrimshaw, one of four debutants in an England side that swept aside Ireland after a Will Jacks special, that wickets column was manna from heaven. Presented with his cap before play by Dominic Cork, the last Derbyshire cricketer to represent England back in 2002, the wiry 25-year-old looked as if he wanted the ground to swallow him amid a harrowing start to his first bowl in one-day international cricket. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/LMWDK3x

Crushed-up chocolate sandwich biscuits provide the foundations for what might just be the ultimate creamy fridge cake Bourbon biscuits provide a really good foundation when crushed and layered in a dessert. One of the great parts of preparing a chocolate mud pie is its adaptability to suit the dish at your disposal: you can make it in a round pie dish or large deep bowl; I even tried this in a rectangular pie dish and it worked well. I particularly like this dessert for gatherings, where it can be casually placed on the table and generously served with a large spoon. It requires minimal effort but delivers maximum flavour. Don’t hesitate to generously season with salt – it works! Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/ZzFEmxj

While one Times headline read like an obituary, the Sun focused on a new job rather than an ending You don’t get to the top of one of Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspapers without knowing on which side your bread is buttered. And senior editors at News UK certainly weren’t taking any risks when the ruthless media mogul announced he was stepping down as chair of Fox and News Corp. The Times ran a laudatory spread in Friday’s paper and articles online, calling Murdoch a “trailblazer hailed for reshaping media”. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/mFg2ZLW

Legal firm had said Real World Portal encouraged misogyny and there was evidence to suggest it is an illegal pyramid scheme Apple has withdrawn an app created by Andrew Tate after accusations that it encouraged misogyny and could be an illegal pyramid scheme. Tate created the app, Real World Portal, after the closure of his “Hustler’s University”, which was an online academy for his fans, promising to assist them in making thousands of pounds while helping Tate’s videos on social media, which have been described as misogynistic, to go viral. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/ldYHZk2

Sabato de Sarno hits reset after florid years under Alessandro Michele, with minimalist precision recalling his time at Prada The Gucci catwalk show was not just a new season, it was a factory reset. This was a turn-it-off-and-on-again moment for a brand that had stopped working. With a 15-minute showcase of crisp silhouettes and elegant accessories, seven years of Alessandro Michele ’s exuberant camp were wiped clean. The first look was a long black coat, plain except for Gucci signature red-and-green stripes glimpsed on the back vent mid-stride. Some loafers had a chunky flatform sole, but lots were the classic slim-profile loafer seen in business class airport lounges all over the world but which hasn’t had a catwalk outing for a while. Kitten heels with sparkling chain-back slingbacks made for polished, grownup party shoes. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/8NvJ7A1

Ukrainian president thanks Canada for financial support and says ‘stay with us to our victory’ Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged Canada to stay with Ukraine to victory as he went to the Canadian Parliament seeking to bolster support from western allies for Ukraine ’s war against the Russian invasion. “Moscow must lose once and for all. And it will lose,” Zelenskiy said during his address in parliament on Friday. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/UOtslxm

From Sarah Bernstein’s absurdist novel to Jonathan Escoffery’s astonishingly assured debut, this year’s novels offered a full range of lived experience and made for an exciting shortlist • Just one British writer makes the Booker prize shortlist Any conversation about what reflects the best of world literature necessarily becomes a referendum on what literature can and should do. As chair of judges for this year’s Booker prize, I think it’s safe to say the conversations between my fellow judges and I were never dull. Adjoa Andoh , Mary-Jean Chan, James Shapiro and Robert Webb and I spoke for hours to decide on our shortlist, always going overtime. What, we asked ourselves, made a book great? Was it extraordinary prose? An uncanny vision? Was it even something definable or some more ineffable quality? The debates were often enthralling: sometimes intimate, sometimes contentious, never short of brilliant. We brought to the task a range of tastes and disciplines, which no doubt shaped ...

The media tycoon wreaked untold havoc on American democracy and beyond In a chilling scene at the end of James Graham’s play Ink, Rupert Murdoch – having made his indelible mark on British media and society – slows his frenetic pace to ponder the future. He’s thinking, he says almost dreamily, of a venture across the pond – yes, perhaps something in television news. Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/xG0CmJB

Organized crime groups have about 175,000 members and authors say the best way to reduce violence is to cut membership Organised crime groups in Mexico have about 175,000 members – making them the fifth-biggest employer in the country, according to new research published in the journal Science. Using a decade of data on homicides, missing persons and incarcerations, as well as information about interactions between rival factions, the paper published on Thursday mathematically modeled overall cartel membership, and how levels of violence would respond to a range of policies. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/I2p9xKU

Boiling Point director Philip Barantini brings more clammy tension to a tale of a young man who becomes the target of a witch-hunt after a London bombing For all of the breathless acclaim directed at Chicago-set kitchen drama The Bear, it was Philip Barantini’s Dalston-set equivalent Boiling Point from a year before that truly captured the heat and horror of working in a restaurant. Filmed in one continuous take, it was both technical triumph and masterclass in high-wire suspense, fumbling perhaps in its final overblown moments, but involving enough that by the end, you felt as exhausted as a pot washer ending a busy shift. Before Barantini’s much-anticipated sequel series comes to the BBC later this year, he’s crafted a thriller of much higher stakes, an almost unbearably tense film about the terror of being subjected to a social media witch-hunt. Accused is a smartphone spin on the age-old wrongly accused subgenre and takes place over just one day as a Londoner’s mundane life desc...

UK not a serious player in global race for green growth, says Greenpeace, while Oxfam says move is ‘betrayal’ Rishi Sunak announces U-turn on key green targets Scientists and environmental groups have expressed anger and dismay at the U-turn on net zero expected by the prime minister. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/csP1avr

This Indian American monster movie has interesting touches of cultural specificity but it’s a mostly familiar formula There’s a swirl of the old and the new in the hokey pre-Halloween horror It Lives Inside, a balance that could have benefited from a lot more of the latter – because when the first-time director Bishal Dutta does try to add freshness to the familiarity of formula, he manages to carve his film its own place within two overstuffed subgenres, flashes of intrigue as he veers between schlocky curse and even schlockier monster movie. A wide-releasing horror film centered on an Indian American teenager already gives the film a certain distinction. Dutta, also acting as writer, tries to thread themes of assimilation and identity through a predictable procession of mostly ineffective jump scares and slightly more effective set pieces, the film working better when it’s trying to chill rather than shock. Never Have I Ever and Missing’s Megan Suri plays Samidha, or Sam as she pr...

Net zero rollback could be a disaster for business confidence, with cars policy looking particularly perverse One can understand why Rishi Sunak sees political opportunity in watering down a few climate policies. Previous soundbites about “the economic opportunity of the 21st century” may be correct in the round, but voters have also noticed that heat pumps are expensive and that the path to net zero by 2050 involves costs as well as opportunities. A strategy that claims, in effect, that net zero can be delivered more gently is not absurd for a party that is miles behind in the polls. The problem, though, is the one highlighted by the furious reaction from some carmakers, in particular, to Sunak’s flip-flop. Any realistic route to net zero involves winning, and keeping, the broad confidence of businesses that will be overhauling the infrastructure. At one level, hitting the 2050 target requires an enormous public-private effort to rewire the entire economy. The whole point of setti...

A new book about the rise of Emily Weiss’s billion-dollar beauty company that wanted to be your friend, for better and for worse In the spring of 2019, I sometimes found myself transfixed by the corner of Canal and Lafayette streets in Soho, either marveling at a line of people or in it. This was the New York headquarters of Glossier, the makeup brand of the millennial pink zeitgeist. Founded by Emily Weiss in 2014 with just four products, Glossier was – and, to an extent, still is – the purveyor of minimalist makeup in the 2010s: crisp sans serif advertising, direct-to-consumer delivery (in distinctive pink bubble packaging), a model of goddess-like, preternatural dewiness. I wasn’t a devotee of the brand so much as a lurker entranced by its omnipresence; by way of word of mouth and online buzz, their Milky Jelly Cleanser and Lash Slick mascara found their way into my makeup bag. Their Boy Brow gel, which promised the full, fluffy arches of the era, was more than one friend’s staple...

Can we really be surprised when rich and powerful men are accused of sexual abuse? There’s nothing new but the details about what the Times journalists uncovered about Russell Brand in their investigative report published this weekend. We’ve been through this so many times, the story finally uncovered of a rich or powerful or celebrated man being accused of sexual abuse for years or decades. Russell Brand says all of his relationships were absolutely always consensual. That’s the first piece of the familiar story – that they got away with it for years because one of the forms inequality takes is inequality of voice –the voice with which you say what’s happened, the voice that’s listened to and believed and respected, the voice that determines what happens. Rebecca Solnit’s most recent books are Orwell’s Roses and the climate anthology Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility, co-edited with Thelma Young Lutunatabua Continue reading... from The Guardia...

One in three online daters have been ditched by emoji. But what are the symbols that spell out ‘It’s not you, it’s me’? Name: Emoji dumping. Age: No more than 15. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/BzY8dIy

The impassioned story of a London group providing young people with alternatives to gang culture is emotionally and visually compelling Made over several years and much of it filmed, by necessity, with handheld cameras, this impassioned documentary is about BikeStormz , the collective bicycle rides organised at first as protest against knife violence. The prime mover is activist Mac Ferrari-Guy who understood from his own experience how devastating gang violence was to his community in London. At the same time, BikeStormz’s aim was also to provide kids, gang members and potential gang members with a constructive, communal activity that everyone could take part in, especially since the bike rides were at first through the City of London, the one part of the metropolis no gangs had dibs on. Before long, the riders started popping wheelies and showing off acrobatic skills – which looked awesome but unfortunately had local residents and the police up in arms over the safety of other roa...

The band’s co-founder – whose new book examines the emergence of post-punk in Thatcher’s Britain – on reconciling with Robert Smith and the real meaning of the dark music subculture It’s a long time since Lol Tolhurst last played drums or keyboards for the Cure, the band he co-founded in the late 1970s with his schoolfriend Robert Smith. But occasionally he still finds himself striving to explain what the songs of those early years were all about. In Margaret Thatcher’s Britain, early Cure classics such as Seventeen Seconds and A Strange Day sounded a note of existential angst in teenage bedrooms across the land. The lyrics to A Forest , released in 1979, communicate the general vibe: “The girl was never there/ It’s always the same/ I’m running towards nothing/ Again and again and again and again…” Sadly, the cathartic power of such virtuoso melancholy has not always been obvious to everyone. “In conversations I’ve had all around the world,” Tolhurst says, “the thing that’s irked me ...

Actor best known for playing the suave Dr Dick Stuart-Clark in the ITV Doctor comedy series Geoffrey Davies, who has died aged 84, was a familiar face on television playing the upper-crust, silver-tongued Dr Dick Stuart-Clark in a string of ITV medical sitcoms based on Richard Gordon’ s Doctor books. The actor, whose character has nurses swooning over him, was described by a critic as “blond with good-natured blue eyes and the sort of indolent good looks that suggest cricket matches and tea on the lawn”. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/CJ8bo6P

Pool C: Australia 15-22 Fiji Fiji’s first win over Wallabies since 1954 Australia will likely need to beat Wales to make it through to the quarter-finals after going down 22-15 to Fiji, who now have a far easier route to the last eight through Georgia and Portugal. It wasn’t just Fiji’s first win against Australia in the World Cup, but their first of any sort at all since they beat them by two in a game at the SCG way back in 1954. Australia hadn’t lost to them in 18 Tests since. The most surprising thing about this one was that Fiji looked so comfortable for such long stretches of the game. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/pa4Dt7d

The anniversary of Abramovich’s first fully tooled up side shows how the club are going backwards despite millions spent It was twenty years ago today. Or close enough, at least, to make for a startling sense of circularity. As Chelsea travel to Bournemouth on Sunday in search of their first away win since March (also, by coincidence, at Bournemouth) there might just be a spare moment in the day to celebrate an overlooked anniversary, two decades on from the most violently transformative summer in the modern history of English football. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/91UlKzB

Pool C: Wales 28-8 Portugal Dewi Lake, Jac Morgan and Taulupe Faletau also scored tries On paper, at least, this World Cup could not have started any better for Wales. Two pool games, two bonus-point wins and no suspensions to complicate the equation before next Sunday’s pivotal encounter against Australia. Warren Gatland would have definitely settled for that healthy statistical return before the squad’s arrival in France. It also made for a slightly less frantic finish than last week’s humdinger with Fiji, tries from Louis Rees-Zammit, Dewi Lake, Jac Morgan and, belatedly, ultimately easing their side home. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/7WqhtY6

Tax cuts and cheaper fruit among Labour and National party plans to address rising cost of living pressures as people once comfortable are swept into crisis Read all our coverage of the 2023 New Zealand election A weekly treat of takeaway dinner became fortnightly, then monthly. Trips to the movies were cut. So were dentist appointments – and salads. Over the past six months, Anum Najif, 35, has found every supermarket visit “more difficult than the one before”. Power bills are “shocking”. Rent, she adds, “is that kind of topic where I really don’t know what to do or how to manage it any more”. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/WYprEsU

Diplomatic and media blitz for Labour leader will include appearances on Sunday morning political shows Keir Starmer has arrived in Canada to set out his doctrine for tackling international threats at a gathering of world leaders, the latest step in the Labour leader’s move to flesh out policy in politically turbulent areas such as immigration. Amid continued efforts by Starmer and his team to push back against the “ nonsense ” that closer cooperation with the EU would involve the UK having to accept 100,000 asylum-seekers a year, the Labour leader was in Montreal for the Global Progress Action Summit of centre-left politicians. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/a2UBo8q

Was she a feminist icon? Or incapable of having political opinions that differed from her Nazi lover? This documentary can’t make up its mind – but it definitely thinks she made lovely clothes Were it not for the Nazi collaboration, it would be hard not to warm to the woman who declared “How I loathe passion! What an abomination” and hoped she had “helped kill off” eccentricity, even before you got to the talent that would see her rise from impoverished, brutalised, motherless child raised by nuns to global icon who built a business empire and changed how women dress for ever. Coco Chanel Unbuttoned, a film-length documentary about the life of the designer, concentrates as you might expect rather more on the fashion side of things than the involvement of Gabrielle (as she was born) with the Germans in wartime Paris. Facilitated by commentary from various experts in fashion generally and Chanel specifically – biographers, former assistants, friends and models – the film works through ...

Ellis, one of 18 Trump associates charged in Georgia election subversion case, says she ‘simply can’t support him’ again Jenna Ellis – the Donald Trump lawyer who like the former president faces criminal charges regarding attempted election subversion in his defeat by Joe Biden in 2020 – says she will not vote for him in the future because he is a “malignant narcissist” who cannot admit mistakes. “I simply can’t support him for elected office again,” Ellis said. “Why I have chosen to distance is because of that frankly malignant narcissistic tendency to simply say that he’s never done anything wrong.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3PKJvOy

Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick are both impressive in an uneasy Australia-set film toying with genre expectations but tension dissipates in the finale The hoary sub-genre that is “attractive American tourists find something nefarious on their travels” is given a vigorous polish in thoughtful thriller The Royal Hotel, a film light on exploitation and heavy on interrogation. It’s an intriguing follow-up for writer-director Kitty Green, whose last film The Assistant was a simple yet stinging drama about a young woman, played by Julia Garner, working, and cleaning up, for a predatory Weinstein-like figure. Green’s approach to the subject was defter than most, an unusual way into a story most of us already knew far too much about, and there’s a similar sensitivity here for the most part, grounding a potentially schlocky situation. Garner returns as Hanna, joined by Glass Onion’s Jessica Henwick as Liv, two women running out of money on their travels in Australia, forced to take whatever...

Lambeth council says measures will include new security, a crowd management system and a command centre The O2 Academy Brixton will reopen after its owners agreed to meet 77 “extensive and robust” safety measures in response to a fatal crush at the venue in December. Academy Music Group (AMG) temporarily lost its licence to run the south London venue after two people died during a gig by the Afrobeats star Asake. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/PSXhuFa

In fascinating new documentary Mr Jimmy, the intricate and obsessive performances of Akio Sakurai showcase an unusual and ultimately moving talent A Japanese salesman becomes obsessed with memorizing and recreating every flared trouser and fast-fingered movement of virtuoso Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. Eventually he reaches his fifties and leaves behind his job, country, and family in order to pursue his passion in Los Angeles, where his beloved icon played a few unforgettable nights in the late 60s. One could be forgiven for assuming that a documentary about Akio Sakurai would be a portrait of rock and roll cosplay at its most campy and madcap. Instead, Peter Michael Dowd’s film is a moving tribute to the purity and meticulousness of its subject’s quixotic quest. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/iIHW0t1

Greater Manchester police becomes latest entity to fall victim to this kind of hack The Greater Manchester police force has become the latest entity to fall victim to a now well-established form of cyberattack: the ransomware hack. GMP said on Thursday a third-party supplier holding information on its employees had been breached. It is understood that data potentially exposed in the hack included the details of officers’ name badges such as ranks, photos and serial numbers. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/P4ZJz3u

I was shocked to find a book for children whose parents are in prison. But I’m glad someone had the compassion to write it I was at a primary school in the east Midlands last week. It was all but deserted, with most of the kids in makeshift classrooms nearby. Dodgy concrete, you see. This place was ahead of the game, having found the stuff earlier in the year and, thanks to brilliant work by the head and her staff, was ticking along nicely. I handled a chunk of the dreaded Raac. It was light as a pumice stone and seemed somehow even less structurally sound than the Aero bar it’s supposed to resemble. At least the bubbles in an Aero are even; these were a ropey-looking hotch-potch. Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/QXkHB8S

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This heartfelt documentary follows Luke Davies as he goes on a fascinating journey of heritage, family and love – and inadvertently takes his mum to the place he was conceived With a title like that, Stranger in My Family carries the whiff of an airport-bookshop thriller, or a true-crime podcast, or one of those Harlan Coben-type Netflix series stuffed with vaguely recognisable faces who make terrible decisions at every turn. Surprisingly, it turns out not to be any of those things, but rather an emotionally intelligent and affecting one-off documentary about identity and belonging. Luke Davies is a 30-year-old man who grew up in Rochdale, thinking that his parents were his biological parents, and that he was white – until he did a DNA test to trace his heritage, and found far more questions than he did answers. Luke is clearly close to his mum and dad, Liz and Gary, both of whom appear throughout this film. Their son is a credit to them, and whenever they sit down to chat with him,...

Years before You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) made him a star and LGBTQ+ hero, Sylvester’s music was very different. His pianist recalls their astonishing sessions together in San Francisco On Fridays and Saturdays after midnight in the early 1970s, in a movie theatre in San Francisco’s Little Italy, a 22-year-old would walk on its stage and sing. Wearing high platform shoes, glamorous vintage clothes and accessories, and a glittering turban or pompadour wig, he performed the torch songs and blues of early-to-mid 20th-century America, music far away from the futuristic sounds that would later make him famous. Eight years before his hi-NRG anthem You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) became a global disco hit – and a landmark moment for LGBTQ+ artists in pop – Sylvester’s musical career began at the Palace Theatre in North Beach, San Francisco, accompanied by his pianist friend Peter Mintun. Mintun taped their intimate rehearsals, and this month underground label Dark Entries have released the...

From Sudanese refugees risking death to enter Poland to Latvians honouring fallen Russian soldiers, this is a fascinating, and upsetting, look at existing alongside the invaders of Ukraine It is a folly to judge a book by its cover and, by the same logic, to dismiss a two-part documentary based on its title. Still, Living Next Door to Putin seems particularly egregious, evoking a wacky sitcom akin to the notoriously shortlived 1990 comedy Heil Honey I’m Home! , in which a Jewish couple find themselves living next door to Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. Instead of being a highly problematic farce, Living Next Door to Putin is an insightful, delicately handled portrait of eastern Europe’s anxieties and the ramifications of existing on the potential frontline of Vladimir Putin’s westward expansion. While Ukraine is engulfed in warfare not seen in Europe since the second world war, the journalist Katya Adler spends this two‑parter looking at the practical and existential impact this has on...

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The brand’s creative director shot to international fame for creating the Princess of Wales’s wedding dress Sarah Burton, the creative director of Alexander McQueen who designed the Princess of Wales’s wedding dress is leaving the fashion house after more than two decades. In a statement released on Monday, Kering, the brand’s parent company, announced that its show on the 30 September during Paris Fashion Week will be Burton’s last. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/bA31RWr

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George Ford’s drop goals and a solid defensive display against Argentina needs to be the start of a red rose renaissance It is amazing the difference one decent result can make. On the train south from Paris on Saturday, the carriages had been packed with pessimistic England fans bracing for more trouble and strife. Suddenly every single one of them is cheerfully contemplating potential quarter-final opponents and daring to believe a rousing red‑rose renaissance is materialising beneath a clear blue Mediterranean sky. Let’s just say that was not the universal mood in the immediate aftermath of Tom Curry’s red card when every white-shirted supporter will have had a familiar sinking feeling. World Cups can be shaped fundamentally by the tiniest of misjudgments and here, apparently, was another classic case study. What all concerned, including Argentina, underestimated was England’s resolution and desire to stand up and fight rather than bow to the supposedly inevitable. Continue readi...

2nd ODI: England, 226-7, bt New Zealand, 147, by 79 runs T20 specialist hits 95 to press case for World Cup squad England were 55 for five, a fourth consecutive defeat against New Zealand on the cards, World Cup prep looking a little bit all over the shop. And then came Liam Livingstone. The T20 star searching for 50-over success found joy as an inbetweener, hitting an unbeaten 95 in a 34-overs-a-side contest as England won the second one-day international at the Ageas Bowl by 79 runs. Livingstone’s innings headlined a total of 226 for seven after steady mizzle in Southampton delayed the start and forced a shortened contest, not ideal as both sides looked to cram in another ODI lesson before the major show next month. Two days on from his hundred in Cardiff, Daryl Mitchell and his heavenly straight drive briefly threatened for New Zealand but England’s attack squeezed from the other end and levelled the series 1-1. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/g41Xksp

Fly-half stayed cool under pressure to conserve his forwards’ energy while Kevin Sinfield’s defensive preparation paid off George Ford’s masterclass at fly-half against Argentina is going to give Steve Borthwick a selection headache when Owen Farrell comes back from suspension, because his 27-point haul was the best performance I’ve seen from him for either club or country. It’s a nice headache to have and beating Argentina gives Borthwick the breathing space to nail down his selection at fly-half during the rest of the pool stage but it is a decision to be made nonetheless. Part of the reason is that Manu Tuilagi and Joe Marchant were so effective together in the centres and as England have been craving cohesion in midfield, I wouldn’t be tinkering with that part of the team. Manu may not have seen the ball as much as he’d have liked but he brings that focal point and defensively he was excellent. And Marchant is your engine in midfield, with great work-rate and an ability to make ...

The British PM did eventually meet his counterpart at the Delhi summit – but after a day’s wait, and without an impressive photo op Read more: Sunak tells G20: UK will resist ‘hair shirt’ policies on net zero pledge When Rishi Sunak finally got to meet his Indian counterpart , Narendra Modi, on Saturday, it was not entirely what the British prime minister had hoped for. India and the UK are respectively the fifth and sixth biggest economies in the world, and the two countries’ leaders had been scheduled to meet a day earlier, at Modi’s grand residence in New Delhi. But diplomacy can be brutal and Sunak found himself, if not exactly snubbed, certainly shunted down the pecking order. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/atYBM2K

England 27-10 Argentina Controversial red card for Tom Curry after only three minutes Beneath the beautiful curved roof of this wonderful arena, a 14-man England finally gave their long-suffering supporters something to cherish. The Rugby World Cup in France is only a couple of days old but it will take something extra special in the weeks ahead to eclipse this effort in terms of backs-to-the-wall resilience and good old-fashioned bulldog spirit. England also had George Ford, who in terms of shaping a Test match enjoyed the most satisfying big game of his career. The Sale fly-half was world junior player of the year in his youth but here, on the ultimate stage, he surpassed that achievement by scoring all his side’s points in a kicking performance even Jonny Wilkinson would have found hard to match. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/TBQYOSK

Gauff and Sabalenka meet for title at Flushing Meadows Send Bryan a tweet at @BryanAGraham or email him Gauff and Sabalenka have emerged from the tunnel to ear-splitting roars from a capacity crowd beneath the roof of the world’s biggest tennis stadium. They meet at the net for the coin toss. Gauff calls heads. It’s heads and she elects to serve. They’re going through their warm-ups right now and we’ll be under way in the next three minutes. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/8fUzRbI

Exclusive: Rick Haythornthwaite was paid £200,000 a year by Saudi company, PetroSaudi, involved in 1MDB scandal Read more: The NatWest boss, the missing Malaysian millions and the damning email The new chairman of NatWest is facing scrutiny over his former role with international oil group PetroSaudi, which is embroiled in one of the world’s biggest financial scandals. City veteran and former MasterCard boss Rick Haythornthwaite worked for PetroSaudi International (UK) Ltd, the oil group’s British arm, for eight years, earning £200,000 a year. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/18pnu59

Leo Brent Bozell IV convicted on charges that he invaded Senate floor to try to disrupt certification of Biden’s victory The son of a prominent conservative activist has been convicted of charges that he stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, bashed in a window, chased a police officer, invaded the Senate floor and helped a mob disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. Leo Brent Bozell IV, 44, of Palmyra, Pennsylvania, was found guilty on Friday of 10 charges, including five felony offenses, after a trial decided by a federal judge, according to the federal justice department. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/1BtGTAK

Wildlife enthusiasts watching live feed from remote national park spot hiker in distress and alert authorities to rescue him They logged on hoping to see brown bears gorging on salmon, fattening themselves up for their winter hibernation. Instead, what the wildlife enthusiasts viewing one of Alaska ’s most remote national park webcams saw was a disheveled and weather-beaten hiker shuffling into view, mouthing the words “help me” into the lens. The episode captured by a camera at the Katmai national park sparked a chain of events that ended with the safe recovery of the unknown hiker by search and rescue teams, according to rangers. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/hKURFL7

Australia 35-15 Georgia Ben Donaldson scores 25 points for Wallabies Well, it’ll do for now. Australia are off and running at this World Cup, with their first win under Eddie Jones and further vital signs of progress. It was a little ragged in the second half, and Georgia missed numerous opportunities to make them extremely uncomfortable in the closing stages. But there was enough on display here in a sparkling first half-hour to suggest that Jones’s ideas are beginning to take, that the world’s ninth-ranked team can be more than mere makeweights at this tournament. This is a young side, with new pages to write and new stars waiting to hatch. Mark Nawaqanitawase showed why he is being tipped for a big breakthrough at this tournament. The pack held firm against the strong Georgian scrum. The set piece was decent enough. But the star of the show, fittingly, was a Jones gamble: Ben Donaldson, the fly-half picked at full-back to bolster a fragile kicking game, and coming away with 25 ...

Football’s paradox: the game is ever more team-oriented on a tactical level while many fans are now obsessed by individuals The journalist in the seat next to mine at Portugal’s 6-1 win over Switzerland at the World Cup – French, late 20s – had been shooting some video content outside and arrived just after half-time. Portugal were already 3-0 up and, with Gonçalo Ramos replacing Cristiano Ronaldo in the starting lineup, playing by far their best football of the tournament. The reporter was devastated. He wanted to see Ronaldo. That Portugal had improved without their star player was of no concern to him. When Ronaldo came on after 74 minutes, he couldn’t have been more excited if he had been a teenager watching The Beatles at the Cavern Club in 1963. He gasped, he howled, he trembled with a frankly disturbing intensity. Ronaldo did almost nothing, but when he put the ball in the net from an offside position and indulged the crowd with a slightly half-hearted “ Siiiiuuuu! ” celebra...

Prime minister says example set by schools will not necessarily have to be followed by other public buildings Rishi Sunak has defended his government’s decision to shut down schools because of problems with crumbling concrete, as he aims to use this weekend’s G20 summit in New Delhi to draw a line under another bruising week in office. The prime minister told reporters on the trip to India that his education secretary, Gillian Keegan, had done the right thing in ordering 147 schools to shut buildings made with aerated concrete, after officials became concerned about structural defects. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/0ztxu53

To my defence ministers friends around the world, I say: thank you for the military support, but heed this advice How long is 671 days? In the context of modern history, it is perhaps the equivalent of a few seconds. But for me, it accounts for a period of time during which more has happened to Ukraine than many countries go through in a century. It is also the number of days that I served as my country’s minister of defence. I took up the position on 4 November 2021, when Ukraine had been facing Russian hybrid warfare for eight years. Within 112 days, the Kremlin had begun full-scale warfare – unknown to Europe since the second world war. Ukraine became the first state in the world forced to wage war against an aggressor in five domains at once: land, air, water, and the informational and cyber environments. Oleksii Reznikov was Ukraine’s minister of defence from 2021-23 Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 30...

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Schools in Kumamoto have purchased two mechanical assistants to help children regain confidence in dealing with teachers and classmates A city in Japan is tackling a rise in truancy with the help of a robot assistant that officials hope will encourage absentee children to attend classes remotely and eventually coax them back to school. Two robots equipped with microphones, speakers and cameras are expected to appear in classrooms in November in Kumamoto, south-west Japan, according to the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/A25qJdH

Moscow targets cities with missiles as US secretary of state Antony Blinken makes surprise visit to Kyiv Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates A Russian strike has hit a crowded market in the Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka, killing at least 17 people, as the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken , was in Kyiv for an unannounced visit, his first for a year to the Ukrainian capital. Ukrainian officials said a further 32 people were wounded in the attack, one of Russia’s deadliest attacks in months, 12 miles (19km) from the frontlines in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Rj10MmS

The players to watch, the teams to back and how to tell a ruck from a scrum as the tournament kicks off in France Is it already time for another World Cup? The men’s Rugby World Cup is indeed upon us, four years after the last one, and the William Webb Ellis trophy is the prize. Rugby is people with big muscles and tight shorts smashing into each other, right? You’re thinking of rugby league, the 13-a-side version. Rugby union is a far more nuanced contest of skill, strength and tactical cunning. And people with big muscles smashing into each other, but 15-a-side. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/ZNESsJm

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The de facto ban on building onshore wind sites has been lifted, but experts say they remain at the whims of ‘quixotic decisions by local councils’ Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/27rK1SV

On the Lazzaretto Vecchio, the small island home of Venice film festival’s Immersive section, I donned an XR headset and boldly went where most festivalgoers don’t Traditional cinema hogs the limelight at the Venice film festival but there’s an array of wilder delights just behind the main site. Hang a right past the PalaBiennale theatre and a boat whisks you across to the Lazzaretto Vecchio, the small island home of the event’s Venice Immersive section. It’s a two-minute ride but it feels like light years away. Venice’s self-styled “Immersion Island” is dedicated to showcasing emergent technologies – and by definition emergent storytelling. There are 28 XR (extended reality) productions in the main competition, together with 24 “world gallery” tours hosted by VRChat, and these run the gamut from interactive movies through 360-degree videos to the sort of imposing standalone installations you’d otherwise find in a modish art gallery. The medium is nascent and even the language aroun...

The chipmaker’s price tag was once touted as $70bn, then $64bn, but is now expected to be between $50bn and $55bn Those still mourning the decision by Arm, the Cambridge-based chip designer, to shun London’s sleepy stock market in favour of a listing on Nasdaq can take solace. It turns out that US investors, contrary to caricature, aren’t so tech-obsessed that they’ll pay top dollar unthinkingly. They also fret about fuddy-duddy fundamentals such as growth rates, price-to-earnings ratios and the political risks that come with not controlling your important Chinese operation. Thus expectations for Arm’s flotation in New York have come rattling back. Once upon a time – actually only about a month ago – outsiders’ rough guesses for Arm’s price tag was $70bn on the grounds that the company is a proven pioneer and the artificial intelligence revolution lies ahead. Last month, $64bn was the implied valuation in a transaction whereby owner Softbank bought in the 25% stake it did not alread...

The reshuffle, thought to have been deftly managed by Sue Gray, made a shadow cabinet heavy with stalwarts from the Blair-Brown era When Keir Starmer put the final touches to his shadow cabinet reshuffle over the summer recess, his thoughts were not just on who would help propel Labour into government at the next election, but who could run the country if they are successful. His top team now includes three MPs who served in the last Labour cabinet – Ed Miliband, Yvette Cooper and Hilary Benn – at least four who were ministers under Tony Blair or Gordon Brown and three, including self-proclaimed Blairites Peter Kyle and Liz Kendall, who were special advisers. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/yzeLp6Z

Red Bull principal hails ‘golden moment’ of 10th straight win Mercedes’ Toto Wolff claims record is ‘completely irrelevant’ Red Bull’s team principal, Christian Horner, celebrated Max Verstappen’s record-breaking 10th consecutive win at the Italian Grand Prix by declaring that he believes his driver is currently unbeatable. Verstappen’s victory for Red Bull at Monza sealed the record after a run of dominant performances this season. It has given him an all-but-unassailable lead in the world championship which the 25-year-old Dutchman could close out as early as the Japanese Grand Prix, with six races remaining. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/qEfMBge

Met police confirm arrest over incident at Selhurst Park Wolves allege home fan aimed abuse at unnamed player The Metropolitan police has confirmed an arrest was made after Wolves alleged one of their players was subjected to “discriminatory abuse” during Sunday’s game at Crystal Palace. A police statement said: “On Sunday 3 September, a man aged in his 60s was arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence after allegedly racially abusing a player during [the] Crystal Palace v Wolves match at Selhurst Park.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/D6B7hF9

President says war against Russia requires a new approach as he dismisses Oleksii Reznikov in favour of Rustem Umerov Volodymyr Zelenskiy has announced that he intends to dismiss the defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, from his post and will ask parliament this week to replace him with Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s main privatisation fund. The announcement, made in the Ukrainian president’s nightly video address to the nation, sets the stage for the biggest shake-up of Ukraine’s defence establishment since the war was launched by Russia in February 2022. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/VQuDyek

Jumbo-Visma’s Kooij backs up early-season results Van Aert steals early march on probable rival Tom Pidcock If the Tour of Britain needed a statement of intent from Jumbo-Visma on stage one into Manchester, this could hardly have been bettered: victory for the Dutch team’s sprinter Olav Kooij with the team’s hopeful for the overall title, Wout van Aert, firmly ensconced on his wheel. With no time bonuses deducted at the finishes or intermediate sprints, countback on stage placings could be critical if riders end up level on time next Sunday in Caerphilly and second place means that Van Aert has stolen an early march on his probable rival Tom Pidcock. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/muMAdQ0

New Al-Ittihad bid expected before Saudi transfer window ends Szoboszlai says Salah told the dressing room ‘he wants to stay’ Jürgen Klopp has insisted Liverpool’s stance on Mohamed Salah will not change regardless of any fresh bids from Al-Ittihad in the final days of the Saudi transfer window. Liverpool rejected a £150m offer for the 31-year-old last Thursday and the Saudi Pro League side, one of four clubs backed by the country’s Public Investment Fund, are expected to try again before their transfer deadline on Thursday. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3d5RNac

World No 1 wins 6-2, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to reach fourth round Jack Draper advances after beating Michael Mmoh in four sets Charged with the task of facing the best tennis player in the world on the largest stage in the sport, Dan Evans did all that he could. He irritated Carlos Alcaraz with his wicked, searing slice, he attacked ceaselessly with his forehand and he swept forward to the net. For all his variety and positive intentions, though, he could only momentarily slow Alcaraz down. Forced to a fourth set, the top seed and defending champion responded to Evans’s challenge on Arthur Ashe Stadium by elevating his own level and moving into the fourth round of the US Open with a strong 6-2, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/w8srpDg

On a Buffy the Vampire Slayer online fan forum, Roz Bellamy and Rachel annoyed the moderators with their quick-fire repartee. When they met, it felt like a real-life Willow and Tara Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email Willow and Tara were one of the first lesbian couples to kiss on mainstream TV. Willow met Tara at a university Wicca group and fell for her, which precipitated Willow’s realisation about her sexuality. The depiction of their relationship on Buffy the Vampire Slayer helped me, then 18 years old, start coming to terms with my own queer identity. When I joined the Buffy online forum, the show had just killed off Tara. Fans were in a state of crisis. Most of the message-board members were furious and devastated over Tara’s death. I was, too, but soon I was distracted by other feelings. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/QA94RXl

Senior civil servant says ‘many alerts’ crossed education secretary’s desk, but UK government was more concerned with saving money A senior civil service whistleblower has told the Observer that Tory ministers and their political advisers were “dangerously complacent” about crumbling school buildings constructed with aerated concrete , and that they were more concerned with saving money than improving safety. The source, who worked in the private office of Nadhim Zahawi, the then education secretary, saw regular alerts crossing his desk. He said ministers and special advisers were “trying to get away with spending as little as they could” and hoping to “make do” rather than treating the problem with the urgency it required. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/s5V2fnx

Prime minister drops further in opinion polls after populist policies on migrants backfire Rishi Sunak’s approval ratings have failed to improve over the summer political break – despite several weeks of Tory policy blitzes intended to win back voters. The latest Opinium survey for the Observer shows the Conservative have failed to shift the dial in Sunak’s favour, with the prime minister dropping two points in the past two weeks to a net score of -25% (24% approve, 49% disapprove). Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/1mjLhO0

Temperatures could reach 30C for first time since early July, according to Met Office The great British summer could finally be upon us next week with temperatures possibly reaching 30C for the first time since early July, forecasters have suggested. The Met Office meteorologist Jonathan Vautrey said 29C was “certainly possible and we may also climb towards 30C” by midweek in the first week of meteorological autumn as many schools open after the summer break. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/delu150

Three goals for Evan Ferguson – and three straight league defeats for Eddie Howe. While the 18-year-old gave further evidence of his remarkable talent, his ability has never really been in doubt, perhaps since he made his debut at 14 for Bohemians but certainly since he scored against Arsenal and Everton in successive games around the turn of the year. More significant may be this run of poor form for Howe. For the first time, we will see how the Saudi project responds to disappointment. Howe, understandably, remains popular among fans and the work he did last season to drive Newcastle into the top four should not be downplayed or quickly forgotten. There is no sense of immediate pressure but for the first time at Newcastle, tactical questions are beginning to be asked. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/RrXpVau

Aké’s header was awarded at 1-1 despite Akanji being offside ‘Everyone that has played football knows to disallow that goal’ An unhappy Marco Silva criticised the VAR official, Tony Harrington, by claiming that anyone who has played football would be “100% sure” to disallow Manchester City’s controversial second goal in Fulham’s 5-1 defeat at the champions . Erling Haaland, who scored a second-half hat-trick, admitted he would be “fuming” in the Cottagers’ place. Nathan Aké’s header came with the score level in added-time of the first-half at Etihad Stadium. It beat Manuel Akanji who leaped over the ball from an offside position and appeared to be infringement of goalkeeper Bernd Leno’s line of vision. Yet Harrington confirmed that he ruled Akanji was not impeding Leno, and had also judged the Swiss not to have touched the ball. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/aVtFlcB