A year after devastating Trump loss, have the Democrats begun to find their way back?

Party was shell-shocked after 2024 defeat but Tuesday night’s coast-to-coast romp signals brighter times ahead

It has been a year of soul-searching, hand-wringing, and self-flagellation for Democrats after a ballot-box rejection so thorough that some had come to believe that the party had lost not only the White House and Congress but the culture itself.

Shell-shocked, Democrats entered Donald Trump’s second term in a political stupor – unsure of who they were or what they stood for. Their base had lost faith in its aging leadership class, and their brand, in Democrats’ own words, had become “toxic”: a party increasingly confined to coastal states, big cities and college towns. And even there, warning signs were flashing.

Published: November 8, 2025, 12:00 pm

Everton v Fulham, West Ham v Burnley, and more: football clockwatch – live

⚽ Updates from 3pm GMT kick-offs across the leagues
⚽ Live scores | Edwards in talks with Wolves | Mail Barry

Premier League: A deflected shot from Mathys Tel has levelled proceedings at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with just six minutes of normal time remaining. Follow the action with Tim De Lisle …

West Ham: Areola, Wan-Bissaka, Kilman, Todibo, Diouf, Fernandes, Potts, Lucas Paqueta, Bowen, Wilson, Summerville.

Published: November 8, 2025, 3:53 pm

Blind date: ‘The most awkward moment? Trying to get the lighting right for our cute little selfie’

Will, 33, a government officer (left), meets Fred, 29, a business analyst

What were you hoping for?
To have a fun Saturday night with someone kind and easygoing.

Published: November 8, 2025, 6:00 am

Zohran Mamdani has upended US politics. Now he should take on Fifa | Jules Boykoff

New York’s mayor-elect has taken on powerful institutions. With the World Cup taking place in his city, he should challenge Fifa next

After winning the election for mayor of New York City, an exuberant Zohran Mamdani took to the stage at his victory speech and said, “If there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power.” He was alluding to Donald Trump, but the sentiment also applies to Fifa, the world’s governing body for soccer.

In September, Mamdani’s team kicked off a “Game Over Greed” campaign targeting Fifa’s use of dynamic pricing for 2026 men’s World Cup tickets, calling it an “affront to the game.” His petition demanded that Fifa cease its rapacious dynamic pricing scheme, place a price cap on tickets that are resold on Fifa’s ticketing platform, and reserve a tranche of tickets for local residents. Mamdani, a longtime Arsenal fan, told the Guardian’s Football Weekly podcast, “I have long been quite troubled by how the supposed stewards of the game have opted for profit time and time again at the expense of the people that love this game.”

Published: November 8, 2025, 1:14 pm

Joy Reid on her ouster from MSNBC: ‘In this moment, not being a part of corporate media is a gift’

After the ex-host of the ReidOut was forced out in February, she launched her own streaming show on YouTube

Joy Reid hosted the 7pm hour on MSNBC for nearly five years, providing a daily dose of progressive energy and verve that led into the network’s primetime programming. Then, in late February, Reid was suddenly forced out, and her show, The ReidOut, was cancelled as part of a broader programming shakeup at the network. Reid has since launched her own streaming show, The Joy Reid Show, and has a few things to say about the mainstream media she was once part of.

Now that it’s been eight months since you were abruptly fired by MSNBC, how do you view your departure?

Published: November 8, 2025, 12:00 pm

Trespasses: ​Gillian Anderson steals every scene in this miraculous TV heartbreaker

Lola Petticrew and Tom Cullen’s chemistry in this tale of secret passion during the Troubles will floor you. But it is Anderson as a sour, ragey alcoholic who truly mesmerises

It’s cliché to compare a love story to Romeo and Juliet. It’s like saying a detective reminds you of Sherlock Holmes. Yet it’s hard to avoid, watching Channel 4’s drama set in 1970s Northern Ireland. Trespasses follows Cushla Laverty, a 24-year-old Catholic teacher who falls for a swashbuckling Protestant, Michael Agnew. They begin seeing each other secretly, around Michael’s high profile establishment job: he’s an outspoken barrister, who campaigns for justice on behalf of young Catholic boys caught up in police bullying. This puts him, and those close to him, at risk of violent reprisal from both sides. Puts your commute into perspective, eh?

There’s much to admire. The show’s vintage palette for one, dripping with melancholy browns and orange. Was it perpetually autumn in the 70s? Michael and Cushla, played by Tom Cullen and Lola Petticrew from Say Nothing, have chemistry. And then there’s Gillian Anderson, who plays Cushla’s widowed mother, Gina. She steals so many scenes I wonder if she’s been hanging around the Louvre.

Published: November 8, 2025, 7:00 am

Democrats just won back Latinos who voted for Trump. Will they be convinced to stick around?

Though Latino voters gave sweeping support to Democrats in Tuesday’s elections, they’re not a permanent coalition

Latino voters delivered sweeping support to Democratic candidates across multiple states in Tuesday’s off-year elections, reversing what many Republicans had come to believe was a lasting political realignment after Donald Trump’s historic gains with the community in the 2024 election .

The rapid reversal represents one of the most volatile electoral swings in recent memory and threatens to upend Republican redistricting strategies that banked on sustained support from Latinos, the fastest-growing voting bloc in the country. It also suggests that Trump’s appeal to Latino voters was highly personal rather than an embrace of the Republican party itself – a miscalculation that could reshape the landscape heading into the 2026 midterms.

Published: November 8, 2025, 3:00 pm

Israel’s underground jail, where Palestinians are held without charge and never see daylight

Exclusive: Detainees at Rakefet include nurse deprived of natural light since January, and teenager held for nine months

Israel is holding dozens of Palestinians from Gaza isolated in an underground jail where they never see daylight, are deprived of adequate food and barred from receiving news of their families or the outside world.

The detainees have included at least two civilians held for months without charge or trial: a nurse detained in his scrubs, and a young food seller, according to lawyers from the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) who represent both men.

Published: November 8, 2025, 12:24 pm

BBC ‘100% fake news’, says Donald Trump’s press secretary

Comments by Karoline Leavitt follow allegations that Panorama documentary misled viewers with its editing of a Trump speech

Donald Trump’s press secretary has described the BBC as “100% fake news” and a “propaganda machine” in an outspoken interview that comes after allegations of bias at the broadcaster.

Karoline Leavitt, a senior White House official in the Trump administration, said watching BBC bulletins while on trips to the UK “ruins” her day, saying taxpayers were being “forced to foot the bill for a leftist propaganda machine”.

Published: November 8, 2025, 12:19 pm

Maha movement helps to kill bill seeking US food-safety rollbacks

Public health advocates praise rewrite of legislation backed by big-food influence operation AFIT

A bipartisan group of public health advocates have defeated a proposal to kill state food safety laws that was pushed by what some critics have called a “faux Maha” big-food influence operation.

The industry-funded group, called Americans for Ingredient Transparency (AFIT), suggests it is part of a grassroots Make America Healthy Again (Maha) movement, but opponents say it is waging a campaign on behalf of big food companies that Maha figures typically criticizes – ConAgra, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Hormel, and Nestlé among other food giants.

Published: November 8, 2025, 1:00 pm

Russian missile attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities kill at least four

Volodymr Zelenskyy calls for more sanctions on Moscow after 45 missiles and 450 drones launched at Ukraine

Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles at Ukraine overnight, killing at least four people and damaging energy infrastructure in three separate regions, according to Ukrainian officials.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Russia had launched more than 450 drones and 45 missiles, most of which were shot down.

Published: November 8, 2025, 2:19 pm

World’s longest-married couple reveals key to a lasting relationship: ‘We love each other’

Eleanor Gittens, 107, and Lyle Gittens, 108, of Miami met at a basketball game in 1941 and have been married for 83 years

A Miami husband and wife who recently attained the title of world’s longest-married couple say they managed that feat just by loving one another.

“We love each other,” Eleanor Gittens, 107, said to LongeviQuest when the website specializing on people who are in their second century of life asked what was the secret to her 83 years of marriage to her husband, Lyle.

Published: November 8, 2025, 10:00 am

Near Ohio air force base, food pantries and businesses grapple with effects of shutdown

As tens of thousands of military personnel work without pay and others are furloughed, a local pantry sees its numbers increasing as restaurants are losing customers

When Jane Doorley and her husband Bill arrived at the Fairborn Fish Food Pantry they help run on 28 October, they couldn’t get into the parking lot, such was the number of cars belonging to people seeking food.

“Our numbers are way up. Last Friday was really bad too,” says Jane. “Around 250 families, including 300 children, come to the pantry every day it’s open.”

Published: November 8, 2025, 3:00 pm

The LA Dodgers won the World Series but for Latino fans, it’s complicated

The fact that Latino stars were at the forefront of the victory over the Toronto Blue Jays sits alongside the club’s near silence on the immigration raids roiling the city

For Natalia Molina, a lifelong fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers and a third-generation Mexican American, the crowning moment of baseball’s World Series didn’t come in last Saturday’s nail-biting finale, when her team performed one death-defying escape act after another before prevailing in extra innings over the Toronto Blue Jays.

It came a game earlier, when two of the team’s second-tier players, Kike Hernández, who is from Puerto Rico, and Miguel Rojas, from Venezuela, pulled off a thrilling, game-winning sequence that simultaneously upended the many negative stereotypes Donald Trump has been touting about Latinos since he first ran for president a decade ago.

Published: November 8, 2025, 11:00 am

Businesses worldwide brace for extra Trump tariffs on steel imports

Commerce department expected to add about 700 more items with steel content to levy list at request of US firms

Businesses around the world are steeling themselves for another round of Donald Trump’s tariffs, this time on goods ranging from bicycles to baking trays, as US industry embraces a call for more products to tax on import.

Small, medium and large American companies have asked the US Department of Commerce to add about 700 more items to an August list of 407 products already facing extra tariffs because of their steel content, which hit items such as Ikea tables with metal nuts and bolts and German combine harvesters.

Published: November 8, 2025, 2:00 pm

Trump news at a glance: supreme court blocks full Snap food aid payments following White House request

The high court’s order came after a federal appeals court denied the administration’s request to block an order to distribute November’s full monthly food stamp benefits – key US politics stories from 7 November 2025

On Friday, moments after a federal appeals court ruled the Trump administration needs to fully fund Snap food aid payments, the White House turned to the supreme court in a further attempt to block the order.

Within hours, the top US court issued an emergency order temporarily blocking full Snap food aid payments, which nearly 42 million people rely on to put food on the table.

Published: November 8, 2025, 2:05 am

Trump claims foreign-owned meatpackers driving up US beef prices

President asks justice department to open an investigation but provides no proof to support his allegations

Donald Trump on Friday accused foreign-owned meat packers of driving up the price of beef in the US and asked the Department of Justice to open an investigation.

The Republican president announced the move on social media days after his party suffered losses in key elections in which the winning Democratic candidates focused relentlessly on the public’s concerns about the cost of living.

Published: November 7, 2025, 10:25 pm

Trump says US will boycott G20 summit in South Africa, citing treatment of white farmers

Administration has long accused South Africa of allowing white Afrikaner farmers to be persecuted and attacked

Donald Trump said Friday that no US government officials would be attending the Group of 20 summit this year in South Africa, citing the country’s treatment of white farmers.

The US president had already announced he would not attend the annual summit for heads of state from the globe’s leading and emerging economies. JD Vance had been scheduled to attend in Trump’s place, but a person familiar with Vance’s plans who was granted anonymity to talk about his schedule said Vance would no longer travel there for the summit.

Published: November 7, 2025, 10:57 pm

Supreme court considering taking up case challenging legality of same-sex marriage

Court could revisit issue in case brought by county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples

The US supreme court on Friday is considering taking up a case that could challenge the legality of same-sex marriage across the country.

Hours after ruling that Donald Trump’s administration can block transgender and non-binary people from selecting passport sex markers that align with their gender identity, the justices are holding their first conference on the Davis v Ermold case. While their deliberations are typically kept private, the court may announce whether it will take the case as early as Monday.

Published: November 7, 2025, 3:37 pm

Elon Musk makes himself far-right fixture after White House departure

The Tesla CEO once hinted he was done with politics – but he’s been leaning further into the international far right

When the far-right activist Tommy Robinson emerged from a London courtroom this week after a judge cleared him of a terrorism charge, he gave thanks to the man he said had bankrolled his defense.

“Elon Musk, I’m forever grateful. If you didn’t step in and fund my legal fight I’d probably be in jail,” Robinson said. “Thank you, Elon.”

Published: November 8, 2025, 12:00 pm

‘For the women who gave birth in the dark’: a portrait of motherhood in Gaza

Diana Shams wrote a book because ‘no one explains how to carry your baby through fire, hunger and fear – and still sing to her at bedtime’

She used to worry about screen time. She used to fret over sugar. She used to dwell on what cartoon character might be the right one to put on her son’s next birthday cake.

“I thought being a mother meant sleepless nights, picky eaters, school runs, messy rooms and too much laundry,” writes the author Diana Shams. “I used to think motherhood was hard.”

Published: November 8, 2025, 2:00 pm

Lula’s balancing act: Cop30 Amazon summit juggles climate and social priorities

Brazil’s president welcomes world leaders while navigating divided government, promising action on deforestation and emissions

• How could the Tropical Forest Forever Facility tackle deforestation?

Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has welcomed world leaders to Belém for the first climate summit in the Amazon, where conservationists hope he can be a champion for the rainforest and its people.

But with a divided administration, a hostile Congress and 20th-century developmentalist instincts, this global figurehead of the centre left has a balancing act to perform in advocating protection of nature and a reduction of emissions.

Published: November 8, 2025, 2:00 pm

‘We could be winning or losing – it doesn’t matter as long as we’re together’: the friendships forged on football terraces

It starts with singing, banter or enthusiastic goal celebrations – and leads to so much more. Six groups of fan friends share how they met

Like so many football fans, I have my own routines and rituals with which I tie together the home games of a league season. Last year, one such routine involved the older gentleman in the seat to my right. I’d nod hello and, above the strains of pre-match music, ask him what he thought of Norwich’s chances – 23 times I asked, and 23 times he replied along the lines of: “We’ll probably get thumped” or “I don’t see where our goals are coming from.” A shred of contempt would be spared for the referee. Always, the referee was known to him and, always, I’d be forewarned that this or that referee was an “arsehole”, a “wanker”, or – once – “an arsehole and a wanker”.

This neighbour of mine was a retired engineer, a Norfolk boy, and a follower of both first team and academy, home and away. He was just one of thousands with a season ticket at the back of Carrow Road’s lower Barclay stand: a Saturday afternoon companion, a stranger at the start of the last season who became a little less strange as the matches went by. I was able to glean, for example, that after decades of loyal (if pessimistic) fandom, he would soon be moving to Yorkshire with his partner, unable to ignore his dreams of the Dales. He had already decided that he wouldn’t be renewing his season ticket. My first year in this part of the ground was his last.

Published: November 8, 2025, 6:00 am

‘I had a year to write it from scratch’: the 2025 Booker finalists on the stories behind their novels

A newspaper report about a missing girl, the memory of a midwinter emergency … Susan Choi, Andrew Miller, David Szalay and others on what inspired their shortlisted books

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

Published: November 8, 2025, 9:00 am

Six great reads: France’s greatest quizzer, rise of the ‘porno-trolls’ and McCartney on the farm

Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days

Published: November 8, 2025, 6:00 am

All Her Fault review – Sarah Snook’s terrifying thriller is an absolute pleasure to watch

This extraordinarily tight child kidnap drama knits all its threads together brilliantly – and the mighty Snook of Succession fame shines as a mother whose son is missing

Look, I am a mother, a neurotic and – if one of my HRT patches sloughs off without me noticing – very quickly a clinical paranoiac. But even if that were not true, this latest tale of a playdate gone unthinkably wrong would have me firmly in its grip. All Her Fault, an adaptation of bestselling thriller writer Andrea Mara’s 2021 book of the same name, braids a number of popular TV trends together, interrogating White Lotus-style the phenomenon of middle-class US affluence and the protections it offers and corruptions it encourages, a missing child narrative and an examination of the penalty women pay for motherhood. It is rare that all these things are held in balance, without at least one element becoming preachy or the thriller part becoming baggy or preposterous, but All Her Fault manages it brilliantly.

We are plunged straight into the thick of things as wealthy wealth manager Marissa Irvine (Succession’s mighty Sarah Snook) arrives to pick up her five-year-old son Milo from a playdate at the home of another school mum, Jenny (Dakota Fanning). But when she reaches the supposed address, the woman who answers the door is not Jenny, has never heard of her, or Jenny’s nanny Carrie (Sophia Lillis) who was in charge of the playdate, or Milo. It soon becomes clear that no one has seen Milo since Carrie picked him up from school. He’s gone, his online tracker found smashed to bits in the school car park, and he stays gone even after the time a ransom demand would usually have been received.

Published: November 7, 2025, 10:00 pm

My cultural awakening: The Big Lebowski inspired me to embrace unemployment

The Dude’s relaxed attitude towards the pressures of life helped me realise it was better to be jobless than stuck in one I hated

Quitting your job in your 30s with no solid plan is generally considered poor decision-making. Doing it because you watched The Big Lebowski is probably even worse. But as I faced up to what would be my eighth year in an IT role, I watched Jeff Bridges meandering his way through the chaos of life in a dressing gown. And I found myself thinking: maybe the Dude had it figured out.

For most of my working life, my identity has been strongly bolstered by work: doing well career-wise felt like evidence of my utility and respectability (despite the fact no one ever really understood what my job was anyway). And, like most millennials, I’d felt exceptionally lucky to eventually get a grad job out of university at all, especially one that paid more than a “living wage”. On top of that, as a second generation immigrant, I’d been repeatedly told from a young age that being jobless is a terrible state of affairs.

Published: November 8, 2025, 7:00 am

A rats to riches story: Larry the Downing Street cat finds place in TV spotlight

Popularity of Britain’s top mouser – ‘the guy to meet in No 10’ – to feature in documentary series

He’s on his sixth prime minister, has watched presidents and princes walk through the black door of No 10, and will soon become the longest continuous resident of Downing Street since Pitt the Younger.

The landscape of British politics has changed a lot in the past 15 years, but Larry the cat has remained a reassuring constant. Now his enduring popularity – the like of which some of his temporary owners would kill for – is to feature in a new Channel 4 documentary series exploring Britain’s love of cats. For his fans, the spotlight has been a long time coming.

Published: November 8, 2025, 7:00 am

Zohran Mamdani’s win shows the power of mobilizing non-voters | Ben Davis

Mamdani reshaped the electorate, bringing hundreds of thousands of non-voters out to the polls, from young people to left-behind immigrant communities

One of the main media takeaways from the 2024 election was the much-discussed “vibe shift”. That is, a resurgence of cultural conservatism and a backlash to the shifting cultural attitudes on race, LGBTQ+ rights, immigration and the “wokeness” of the Obama and first Trump eras. The conservatives were in control not only of the White House, but, more importantly to them, the culture. Corporations, media outlets, and even Democratic politicians who had sought to portray a tolerant, inclusive image rushed to match this new vibe.

Of course, the evidence for this shift was scant. Trump had won the election without a popular vote majority, and a closer look at the results showed a more conventional explanation: voters, rather than yearning for the days before there were interracial couples in television commercials or demanding a military crackdown on their cities, thought that they were working too hard for too little and maybe Trump would change it. They wanted lower prices, higher wages and a feeling of security. A year into Republican government and its top-down imposition of a new vibe, perhaps the reaction shows there finally is a vibe shift. Just not the one they planned on.

Ben Davis works in political data in Washington DC. He worked on the data team for the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign and is an active member of the Democratic Socialists of America

Published: November 8, 2025, 11:00 am

Everybody panic – the workplace has become too ‘feminized’! | Arwa Mahdawi

This week, Mexico’s president was groped in public. But a New York Times podcast is fretting about excessive wokeness

Lean in (to misogyny), ladies!

Are you a woman? Do you want to rapidly raise your profile and get booked on the speaking circuit? Are you good at mental gymnastics?

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

Published: November 8, 2025, 2:00 pm

The president is groped in broad daylight, and Mexican women cry: MeToo, MeToo, MeToo | Mona Eltahawy

After Claudia Sheinbaum was assaulted this week, her opponents claimed she staged it. From their own experiences, the women I met know she didn’t have to

“Machismo in Mexico is so fucked up not even the president is safe,” said Caterina Camastra, a professor and feminist, when I talked to her in Morelia, a city west of the Mexican capital this week. Succinct and to the point, it is a sentiment shared by many women in Mexico after watching the now viral video of a drunk man groping the country’s first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, as she walked from the National Palace to the education ministry on Monday. Sheinbaum, who has pressed charges against the man, said much the same at her daily press briefing on Wednesday: “If they do this to the president, what happens to all the other women in the country?”

Sheinbaum’s unprecedented position has made this a teaching moment in a country where women have long complained that sexual harassment and assault on streets and public transport were too often normalised and not taken seriously. The leftist Sheinbaum’s political opponents on the right have done just that by claiming her sexual assault was staged to distract from the assassination of a local mayor, Carlos Manzo, an outspoken critic of organised crime who had called on the government to do more to protect him and others. Most women here, on the other hand, know that sexual violence does not have to be set up – half of them have experienced it at some point in their lives.

Mona Eltahawy writes the Feminist Giant newsletter. She is the author of The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls and Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution

Published: November 8, 2025, 6:00 am

I wish we could ignore Bill Gates on the climate crisis. But he’s a billionaire, so we can’t | George Monbiot

Money talks – and his essay denouncing ‘near-term emissions goals’ at Cop30 mostly argues the case for letting the ultra-rich off the hook

Let’s begin with the fundamental problem: Bill Gates is a politics denier. Though he came to it late, he now accepts the realities of climate science. But he lives in flat, embarrassing denial about political realities. His latest essay on climate, published last week, treats the issue as if it existed in a political vacuum. He writes as if there were no such thing as political power, and no such thing as billionaires.

His main contention is that funds are very limited, so the delegates at this month’s climate summit in Brazil should direct money away from “near-term emissions goals” towards climate “adaptation” and spending on poverty and disease.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

Published: November 8, 2025, 8:00 am

Where is the Gaza ‘peace process’ really going? | Ahmad Ibsais

Israel turns the violence up and down at will, maintaining full dominion over Gaza and the West Bank, then calls each pause a generous ‘ceasefire’

If you started attending one funeral a day beginning 1 January 2025, you would finish in the year 3887. That is how long it would take to mourn every life lost in Gaza. By then, your grandchildren’s great¹⁰ grandchildren would be dust, and still you would be burying Palestinian bodies from a “war” Israel insists was about self-defense. Even then, this number does not tell you about the thousands of ways these bodies were burned, torn, crushed and made anything but whole.

And yet here we are, watching world leaders gather in Egypt for a “peace summit” last month where the only people absent were Palestinians. The banner read “Peace 2025”, while Palestine’s representatives were barred from the room.

Ahmad Ibsais is a first generation Palestinian American, law student and poet who writes the newsletter State of Siege

Published: November 8, 2025, 11:00 am

The Guardian view on worsening extreme weather: the injustice of the climate crisis grows ever clearer | Editorial

The increasing ferocity and frequency of tropical storms imposes an unbearable burden on countries including Jamaica

The geographically uneven risks from increasingly extreme and dangerous weather grow ever starker. As Jamaica and other Caribbean countries clear up after Hurricane Melissa, and Typhoon Kalmaegi heads west after killing nearly 200 people in the Philippines and Vietnam, the case for more international support to countries facing the most destructive impacts from global heating has never been stronger.

Last week’s five-day rainfall in Jamaica was made twice as likely by higher temperatures, according to initial findings from climate attribution studies. The current death toll across the Caribbean is at least 75. The economic and social costs are hard to quantify in a region that is still recovering from 2024’s Hurricane Beryl. Crucial infrastructure has been destroyed before the loans used to build it have even been paid off. Andrew Holness, Jamaica’s prime minister, estimates that the damage there is roughly equivalent to one-third of the country’s gross domestic product.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Published: November 7, 2025, 6:30 pm

Tottenham Hotspur 2-2 Manchester United: Premier League – as it happened

Matthijs de Ligt struck deep into stoppage time to rescue Manchester United a 2-2 draw after a dramatic finale at Tottenham

Members of the armed forces bring out wreaths and lay them on the centre circle. The crowd falls silent as a trumpeter plays The Last Post, filling the stadium with its mournful dignity.

The players are out there and the TNT director is zooming in on Micky van de Ven, understandably after his wonder goal. He has six goals this season, more than any United player.

Published: November 8, 2025, 3:00 pm

São Paulo Grand Prix: Norris boosts title bid with sprint win after Piastri crash – live

• Qualifying to follow later on Saturday after sprint

• F1’s three-way title fight echoes battles of yesteryear

Lando Norris won the sprint race for the São Paulo Grand Prix and with it extended his lead over his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, whose championship ambitions took another blow after he crashed out with an unforced error in Brazil. Max Verstappen also dropped points to Norris after he could manage only fourth for Red Bull.

Kimi Antonelli and George Russell were in second and third for Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton took seventh from 11th on the grid for Ferrari, with his teammate Charles Leclerc in fifth.

Published: November 8, 2025, 3:22 pm

Can anyone challenge the Sinner-Alcaraz supremacy? ATP Finals will reveal all

The two top players are so far ahead of the opposition – every time they have both competed at an event this year, one of them has won it

Days before the grand finale of the ATP season in Turin, the Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner show had already begun. Although the two rivals are locked in battle to determine the year-end No 1 ranking, rumours swirled early on Friday morning that they were scheduled to train together. Sure enough, that afternoon they entered the stadium court side-by-side and they were greeted by deafening roars from a significant crowd.

The practice set that followed garnered as much attention as many matches this year. Thousands of viewers tuned in to watch the live stream, then highlights were swiftly available afterwards. The scores from practice sets usually do not leave the practice court, but on this occasion the tennis world quickly learned that Sinner had finished the day with a 6-3 win. They commemorated the moment with a selfie that instantly spread like wildfire across social media.

Published: November 8, 2025, 8:00 am

Trump pardons ex-Mets star Darryl Strawberry over past tax and drug conviction

• Trump grants full pardon to New York Mets great

• Strawberry hit 335 HRs and was eight-time All-Star

• US president cites faith, sobriety, ministry work

Donald Trump has pardoned former New York Mets great Darryl Strawberry on past tax evasion and drug charges, citing the 1983 National League Rookie of the Year’s post-career embrace of his Christian faith and longtime sobriety.

Strawberry was an outfielder and eight-time All-Star, including seven with the Mets from 1983 through 1990. He hit 335 homers and had 1,000 RBIs and 221 stolen bases in 17 seasons.

Published: November 7, 2025, 8:33 pm

Fall and redemption of Becker and Wiggins shows sporting glory does not deliver purpose or meaning | Cath Bishop

Books by former champions demonstrate powerfully that we should not accept abuse and suffering as ‘the price of winning’. Sport must do more

Viewed through one end of the lens, the two new autobiographies from the sporting legends Boris Becker and Bradley Wiggins might seem like classic tales of the downfalls of two deeply flawed heroes who then claw their way back to redemption. But viewed through the other end of the lens, we see troubling portrayals of an extremely inhumane and, at times, unsafe world of sport where talent is no saving grace, in fact it’s more of a liability.

There are striking similarities between the stories of two different characters, sports, countries and generations. Both went bankrupt. Both made bad choices and admit their agency in their own demise. Both hit rock bottom and found themselves stripped bare of all dignity, be it in a prison cell or snorting cocaine in a toilet. Becker was convicted by a British court on four counts out of 24 and ended up in prison, surrounded by drug addicts. Wiggins writes that he was abused by his youth cycling coach and after sport became hooked on cocaine on a path that he himself admits could easily have ended behind bars. Both were massively failed by trusted adults around them in positions of authority.

Published: November 8, 2025, 8:00 am

F1’s three-way title fight echoes the glorious battles of yesteryear

Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen battle for the title, just as Juan Manuel Fangio, Nino Farina and Luigi Fagioli did 75 years ago

With no little pleasing symmetry, 75 years on from a three-way fight for the inaugural Formula One title, the championship is entering its decisive phase once more with three protagonists in the running and the promise of an enthralling denouement of the kind that has graced some of the sport’s greatest seasons.

Heading into this weekend’s São Paulo Grand Prix, McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen all remain in the hunt. Norris leads Piastri by one point, with the defending champion, Verstappen, 36 points back, after a late-season resurgence.

Published: November 7, 2025, 8:39 pm

Silence over Sudan: why do Manchester City’s owners get away with so much?

Two midweek matches in England had a backdrop of war and geopolitics, but only one drew large protests

How would you feel if the owner of the football club you support was implicated, even as those implications are repeatedly denied, in famine, ethnic cleansing and the deaths of 1,500 men, women and children?

Compare this with the more familiar list of bad things football club owners do, the real sack‑the‑board stuff. Failure to buy a striker. Inadequate Showing Of Ambition. The hiring and/or firing of David Moyes. Mike Ashley was pretty annoying. He had shops full of quilted coats hung really high up close to the ceiling.

Published: November 8, 2025, 8:00 am

Fox Sports drops Mark Sanchez permanently and hires Drew Brees as NFL analyst

• Fox drops Sanchez as felony case proceeds

• Brees joins Adam Amin through 2026 season

• Sanchez pleads not guilty to battery charge

Fox Sports has severed ties with game analyst Mark Sanchez as he faces criminal charges, multiple outlets reported Friday.

“We can confirm that Mark Sanchez is no longer with the network,” a Fox spokesperson told the Athletic. “There will be no further comment at this time.“

Published: November 7, 2025, 7:12 pm

‘Huge victory’ in Portland as judge’s final order bars Trump from sending national guard

Karin Immergut said earlier she ‘found no credible evidence’ that protests in Oregon city were out of control

A federal judge in Oregon on Friday blocked Donald Trump from deploying national guard troops to Portland, ruling there was no evidence of widespread violence to justify federal intervention.

The US district court judge, Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, delivered her final order in the case on Friday. She found that protests near Portland’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility were “predominately peaceful, with only isolated and sporadic instances of relatively low-level violence”.

Published: November 8, 2025, 2:35 am

Tanzania police arrest opposition party official after deadly election protests

Chadema party says deputy secretary general arrested and calls election of incumbent president fraudulent

Tanzanian authorities have detained a senior official from the main opposition party, Chadema, amid a spate of arrests in connection to deadly protests during elections last week.

More than 1,000 people were killed by security forces during the demonstrations, according to Chadema and human rights bodies. The Tanzanian government has said these figures were exaggerated but did not give its own figures.

Published: November 8, 2025, 3:17 pm

US supreme court issues emergency order blocking full Snap food aid payments

High court’s order comes after appeals court rejected Trump administration’s request to block November benefits

The supreme court has issued an emergency order temporarily blocking full Snap food aid payments.

The high court’s order came after the Trump administration asked a federal appeals court on Friday to block a judge’s order that it distribute November’s full monthly food stamp benefits amid a US federal government shutdown.

Published: November 8, 2025, 2:50 am

Guyana in turmoil after opposition leader arrested and faces US extradition

Azruddin Mohamed had emerged as a surprise contender in the presidential election and claims political persecution

Guyana has been thrown into political turmoil following the arrest and possible extradition to the United States of the country’s main opposition leader just two months after he emerged as the surprise contender in the presidential election that kept incumbent Irfaan Ali in power.

Azruddin Mohamed, 38, and his father, Nazar Mohamed, 73, two of Guyana’s wealthiest figures thanks to their gold mining empire, were arrested on 31 October in the capital, Georgetown, in response to a formal extradition request from the US government.

Published: November 8, 2025, 1:00 pm

Carney survives two confidence votes on budget, quashing fears of winter election

Minority government benefitted from opposition members voting across the aisle, paving way for billions in spending

Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney’s minority government has survived two confidence votes on its budget, quashing fears – for now – of a winter federal election.

The Liberals managed to pass the second of three votes on the plan on Friday, paving the way for tens of billions in new spending.

Published: November 8, 2025, 11:00 am

UK to announce plans to emulate stringent Danish immigration system

Shabana Mahmood’s proposals draw scorn from some Labour MPs, while others want government to go further

• Why does the UK want to copy Denmark?

Shabana Mahmood is to announce changes to the UK’s immigration rules modelled on the Danish system, largely seen as among the most stringent in Europe, the Guardian understands.

Last month, the home secretary dispatched officials to Denmark to study its border control and asylum policies. Denmark’s tighter rules on family reunions and restricting some refugees to a temporary stay are among the policies being looked at.

Published: November 8, 2025, 1:55 pm

ICE facing fierce backlash after video apparently shows unconscious man clutching child during arrest

Footage shows commotion inside vehicle in Massachusetts as desperate woman in passenger seat tries to awaken man

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is facing fierce questions after a video that appeared to show a man falling unconscious during an arrest while clutching a small child went viral, and officials accused the man of faking a medical emergency to stop the arrest of his wife.

The footage, obtained by the Boston Globe, shows a frantic commotion inside a vehicle in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, on Thursday. A desperate woman in the passenger seat tries to awaken the man in the driver’s seat, with a crying child in the middle. People can be heard shouting: “He’s having a seizure.” An officer can be seen trying to pull the passengers from the vehicle, while a Fitchburg police officer orders the crowd to “back up” repeatedly.

Published: November 8, 2025, 12:03 am

Indiana woman who was at wrong home address to clean fatally shot by resident

Officers found Maria Florinda Rios Perez De Velasquez dead after she accidentally went to a wrong property

Authorities in Indiana are considering whether to charge a homeowner who they say shot and killed a woman after she mistakenly went to the wrong address where she thought she was turning up to clean a property.

Police officers found Maria Florinda Rios Perez De Velasquez, 32, dead just before 7am Wednesday on the front porch of a home in Whitestown, an Indianapolis suburb of about 10,000 people.

Published: November 7, 2025, 11:10 pm

UPS and FedEx ground all MD-11 planes after deadly Louisville crash

UPS cites ‘abundance of caution’ and manufacturer’s recommendation after 14 died when wing caught fire and engine fell off

The freight companies UPS and FedEx have grounded their fleets of MD-11 aircraft days after a cargo plane crash that killed 14 people in Kentucky.

The grounded MD-11s are the same type of plane involved in Tuesday’s crash at a UPS facility in Louisville. They were originally built by McDonnell Douglas until it was taken over by Boeing.

Published: November 8, 2025, 2:06 pm

The premier, the poet and the fight to save an extraordinary Australian frog

As amphibian enthusiasts get ready to hop into FrogID Week, hope persists that one of Australia’s most bizarre creatures may survive

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

It’s a story almost too preposterous to believe, starring a group of young uni students, an infamous state premier, a legendary Australian poet and an extinct frog which gave birth by vomiting its young – all at the dawn of the Australian conservation movement.

Yet the tale of the southern gastric-brooding frog, which once inhabited the rainforest streams of the Conondale and Blackall ranges in south-east Queensland, continues to perplex and inspire a new generation of citizen scientists as they hop into FrogID Week.

Published: November 8, 2025, 8:35 am

Residents of Alaska’s storm-battered Native towns consider moving to higher ground

Damage from Typhoon Halong underscored the vulnerability of villages in western Alaska to climate crisis

Darrel John watched the final evacuees depart his village on the western coast of Alaska in helicopters and small planes and walked home, avoiding the debris piled on the boardwalks over the swampy land.

He is one of seven residents who chose to remain in Kwigillingok after the remnants of Typhoon Halong devastated the village last month, uprooting homes and floating many of them miles away, some with residents inside. One person was killed and two remain missing.

Published: November 7, 2025, 5:21 pm

How thousands of fossil fuel lobbyists got access to UN climate talks – and then kept drilling

Exclusive: Research shows oil, gas and coal firms’ unprecedented access to Cop26-29, blocking urgent climate action

More than 5,000 fossil fuel lobbyists were given access to the UN climate summits over the past four years, a period marked by a rise in catastrophic extreme weather, inadequate climate action and record oil and gas expansion, new research reveals.

Lobbyists representing the interests of the oil, gas and coal industries – which are mostly responsible for climate breakdown – have been allowed to participate in the annual climate negotiations where states are meant to come in good faith and commit to ambitious policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Published: November 7, 2025, 12:00 pm

Over 100 US leaders to attend Cop30 climate summit as Trump stays away

Dozens of US state and local leaders will be at talks in Brazil with president’s team expected to send no representatives

The Trump administration appears to be sitting out this month’s United Nations climate talks known as Cop30, telling the Guardian it will not deploy any high-level representatives to the negotiations.

But dozens of US subnational leaders attend to promote their climate efforts.

Published: November 7, 2025, 11:00 am

Washington National Opera may move out of Kennedy Center due to Trump ‘takeover’

Ticket sales at about 40% unsold compared with before president made himself chair of US performing arts center

The Washington National Opera (WNO) is considering moving out of the Kennedy Center, the company’s home since the US’s national performing arts center opened in 1971.

The possibility has been forced on the company as a result of the “takeover” of the center by Donald Trump, according to WNO’s artistic director, Francesca Zambello. The president declared himself chair of the institution in February, sacking and replacing its board and leadership.

Published: November 8, 2025, 2:16 pm

Students and faculty at over 100 US universities protest against Trump’s attacks

Student, national and local groups across US organized day of action to condemn Trump’s assault on academic freedom

Students, faculty and staff at more than 100 campuses across the US rallied against the Trump administration’s assault on higher education on Friday – the first in a planned series of nationwide, coordinated protests that organizers hope will culminate in large-scale students’ and workers’ strikes next May Day and a nationwide general strike in May 2028.

The day of action was organized under the banner of Students Rise Up, a network of students including both local groups and national organizations such as Sunrise Movement and Campus Climate Network. Students were joined by faculty and educational workers’ unions like the American Association of University Professors and Higher Education Labor United.

Published: November 7, 2025, 8:05 pm

James D Watson, who co-discovered DNA’s twisted-ladder structure, dies aged 97

Nobel prize winner shaped medicine, crimefighting and genealogy, but later years marred by racist remarks

James Dewey Watson, whose co-discovery of the twisted-ladder structure of DNA in 1953 helped light the long fuse on a revolution in medicine, crimefighting, genealogy and ethics, has died, according to his former research lab. He was 97.

The breakthrough – made when the brash, Chicago-born Watson was just 24 – turned him into a hallowed figure in the world of science for decades. But near the end of his life, he faced condemnation and professional censure for offensive remarks, including saying Black people were less intelligent than white people.

Published: November 7, 2025, 9:04 pm

Cornell University settles with Trump administration to restore $250m in funds

Upstate New York institution is the fifth university under government investigation to bow to White House demands

Cornell University announced a settlement with the Trump administration on Friday, becoming the fifth university under investigation by the US government to do so.

The agreement will see more than $250m in federal research funding restored. In exchange, the university will share admissions data with the government, pay $30m and invest $30m more in research programs benefiting farmers – a reflection of the university’s longstanding record of agricultural research. Cornell also agreed to continue to “evaluate the campus climate”, particularly for Jewish students, and use the Trump administration’s interpretation of civil rights laws, which views diversity initiatives as unlawful race-based discrimination, in training materials.

Published: November 7, 2025, 7:20 pm

Taiwan vice-president presses case at EU parliament for joint efforts to counter China

China angered by the address, criticising Europe for allowing ‘separatist activities’ to be carried out in parliament building

Taiwan’s vice-president, Bi-Khim Hsiao, urged the EU to boost security and trade ties with the self-governing island and support its democracy in the face of growing threats by China in a rare address to a group of international lawmakers in Brussels.

“Peace in the Taiwan Strait is essential to global stability and economic continuity, and international opposition against unilateral changes to the status quo by force cannot be overstated,” Hsiao told lawmakers assembled for a China-focused conference in the European parliament building.

Published: November 8, 2025, 5:07 am

US and China seek to project power with huge and expensive aircraft carriers

China launches £5.4bn ship capable of carrying 60 aircraft that Beijing values as much for maintaining its global influence as for its use in warfare

In port, the 80,000-tonne Fujian aircraft carrier would be impossible to miss. More than 300 metres long and capable of carrying about 60 aircraft, the £5.4bn super-vessel places China second among the world’s navies, with three aircraft carriers, though still a long way behind the global leader, the US, which has 11.

Yet for all the great power projection of the new warship, nearly 5,000 miles away from its home port another conflict appears to suggest size may not matter. In the Black Sea, Ukraine achieved an extraordinary military success by inflicting a “functional defeat” on Russia’s naval fleet using swarms of skilfully targeted sea drones.

Published: November 8, 2025, 5:00 am

How The Celebrity Traitors reversed TV’s most troubling trend

Fandom memes, influencers and TikTok deal helped secure industry’s holy grail: gen Z loyalty

There are not many plaudits left for The Celebrity Traitors, which has delivered tension, crowd-pleasing ineptitude and the most famous fart in television history.

Yet for all the show’s achievements, one in particular – a feat that TV executives across the globe have been desperate to deliver – may stand out as the most impressive: it has got gen Z watching live TV.

Published: November 8, 2025, 6:00 am

Pluribus review – the audacity of the Breaking Bad creator’s new TV show is incredible

It takes some chutzpah to make television like this. Better Call Saul star Rhea Seehorn is the only US citizen immune from an alien virus that makes everyone in the world supremely happy – and it’s a bleak, blackly comic watch

Even with the name of Vince Gilligan attached as creator, Pluribus – neatly styled Plur1bus on screen, to evoke further the unofficial motto of the US “E pluribus unum” (“Out of many, one”) – looks at first like a bit of light relief. The man who has spent the past two decades immersed in the harrowing world of Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and El Camino, you reckon, has probably earned it.

Perhaps he is returning to his X Files roots with this tale of an alien virus that sweeps the globe, turning everyone happy and content, literally uniting minds (everyone’s thoughts, knowledge and memories are available to all – people no longer refer to themselves but as “this individual” when they speak) and causing them only to be kind to each other. Peace in our time! But what, kids, are we going to do about Carol (Rhea Seehorn)? She’s a middle-aged, bestselling writer of romantic fantasy novels, fantastically rich, adored by hundreds of thousands of fans – and as furiously miserable as only a misanthrope can be in such conditions. And Carol appears to be the only person in America immune to the virus. Hilarity must surely ensue!

Published: November 7, 2025, 5:00 am

‘Why don’t you believe Palestinians?’: the Israeli comedian putting the conflict on stage

In documentary Coexistence, My Ass!, Noam Shuster Eliassi uses humor and honesty to turn a one-woman show into something politically radical

In the late 2010s, Noam Shuster Eliassi was working at the United Nations, the latest step in a lifelong effort to build peace between Israelis and Palestinians, when she had an epiphany. In Ukraine, a Jewish comedian named Volodymyr Zelenskyy had made the improbable leap from sitcom about accidentally becoming president to actually becoming president. Perhaps, if she were to take her political career seriously, she should start writing jokes.

It worked. As an Israeli Jew fluent in Hebrew, Arabic and English, Shuster Eliassi could nimbly weave between different audiences, and what started as short comedic videos on social media soon became an invitation from Harvard to develop a full-on stand-up routine skewering the idea of coexistence as it’s often used in the Israeli-Palestinian context. The show would riff on her upbringing in one of the only joint Israeli-Palestinian communities in the country, threading a fine needle with self-deprecating humor and an activist’s edge. The aim, she told the Guardian, was to “unpack” the idea of coexistence, “and say, like, ‘this is how I grew up, there are so many funny kumbayah moments, and I propose something else.’”

Published: November 7, 2025, 10:01 am

In Your Dreams review – Netflix dreams up solid sub-Pixar adventure

Echoes of Inside Out and Coco in streamer’s engaging enough caper about a brother and sister journeying through their dreams

Once upon a time, Pixar had the kind of winning streak that most companies could only dream of. The studio didn’t just maintain a robust production line that won over both critics and crowds, they also managed to change our concept of what animation could achieve as an art form. Radically expansive visuals were matched with surprising, weighty ideas, conjuring the kind of magic that had been largely absent from Disney’s output in the years prior.

While many blamed the ensuing fade on Covid, in truth it had already started before then. Like the rest of the industry, the company had become overly reliant on sequels, with the four years before 2020 seeing one original versus four follow-ups and as cinemas shuttered, their latest offering, Onward, was middling enough to suggest that even superfans should be concerned about the future. It’s been a case of ongoing underwhelm ever since, a low point reached by this year’s Elio, a patchworked mess that had the lowest opening ever for a Pixar film (their only bright spot Inside Out 2 has left their upcoming slate looking predictably sequel-heavy).

Published: November 7, 2025, 2:00 pm

Grammy awards 2026: Kendrick Lamar leads nominations with nine nods

Rapper receives nominations in all top categories while Lady Gaga, Bad Bunny, Sabrina Carpenter and Leon Thomas are also major nominees

• Grammys 2026: the nominations in all the major categories

The Grammys’ love continues for Kendrick Lamar. The rapper, who took home the most trophies at the 2025 music awards with five, leads the nominees for the 2026 awards.

Lamar is up for nine awards, including album of the year (for his most recent, GNX), best rap album, record of the year and song of the year. He faces competition for the night’s top award – album of the year – from Bad Bunny, Justin Bieber, Sabrina Carpenter, Lady Gaga, Leon Thomas, Tyler, the Creator and Clipse, Pusha T & Malice.

Published: November 7, 2025, 5:53 pm

‘It’s impossible not to have contradictions in a contradictory world’: Catalan pop visionary Rosalía on critics, crisis and being ‘hot for God’

With a towering new album about female saints in 13 languages, she’s pop’s boldest star – and one of its most controversial. She revisits her spiritual breakthroughs, and explains why we need forgiveness instead of cancel culture

Rosalía Vila Tobella is just as bored as you are of pop music functioning as gossip column fodder, with lyrics full of hints of rivalries and betrayal. “I’m tiring of seeing people referencing celebrities, and celebrities referencing other celebrities,” she says. “I’m really much more excited about saints.”

The 33-year-old Catalan musician and producer’s monumental fourth album, Lux, draws on the lives of dozens of female saints, inspired by “feminine mysticism, spirituality” and how lives of murder, materialism and rebellion could light the way to canonisation. Rosalía reels them off. Her gothic, operatic new single Berghain borrows from the 12th-century German abbess Hildegard of Bingen (cited like Madonna these days by experimental female musicians). “She had these visions that would pierce her brain. There’s also Vimala, who wrote poetry but was a prostitute, and she ended up becoming a saint because she was one of the first women who wrote in the Therīgāthā,” an ancient Buddhist poem collection written by nuns.

Published: November 7, 2025, 5:00 am

‘I was the only out queer guy in rock’: Faith No More’s Roddy Bottum

The keyboard player on his heroin overdose, how Kurt Cobain wanted to be gay and why his memoir will ruin his Christian relatives’ Thanksgiving dinner

When Roddy Bottum began work on his remarkable autobiography The Royal We, the Faith No More keyboard-player knew exactly the book he didn’t want to write. “The kind that has pictures in the middle,” he says, via video-call from Oxnard, California, where he’s completing a new album by his group Imperial Teen. “I’m not a big fan of rock memoirs – they’re the most predictable, name-droppy, sub-literature experiences.”

The Royal We certainly isn’t name-droppy – Bottum doesn’t even use the surnames of his bandmates. And while he outlines the group’s origins and early development, this takes a back seat to his “youth escapades” in San Francisco, “before the internet, before that city got ruined”. Much of the focus is on his sexual awakening, and how the related secrecy and shame have affected his life. “I was having sex with men when I was very young, 13 or 14,” he says. “It was such a taboo, and that set the tone of my life.” In the memoir, episodes involving his cruising public toilets and parks as a teenager are recounted unflinchingly and unapologetically. “I had sex with older men in bushes,” he writes. “Shamefully at first, proudly later. Fuck off.”

Published: November 7, 2025, 1:13 pm

‘Erin Patterson remains mysterious to me’: Helen Garner, Sarah Krasnostein and Chloe Hooper on the mushroom murders

Three of Australia’s most acclaimed writers have teamed up to write The Mushroom Tapes, about the weeks they spent at the triple-murder trial, picking apart lies, media ethics and evil

“None of us wants to write about this. And none of us wants to not write about it.”

The profound inner conflict of the three narrators begins on page two of The Mushroom Tapes and never quite resolves, lingering as an ethical tension that colours almost every page.

Published: November 7, 2025, 2:00 pm

In Love With Love by Ella Risbridger review – a sexy celebration of romantic fiction

From Pride and Prejudice to Fifty Shades, a writer’s paean to the literature of desire

Eva Ibbotson, a doyenne of 1980s romantic fiction, once said self-deprecatingly that her books were aimed at “old ladies and people with flu”. To which Ella Risbridger, who is in her early 30s, sniffle-free and a devotee of Ibbotson’s “sexy and sweet” novels, has this cracking comeback: “If love is the most important thing, and to me it was and is, I want books that think that too.”

From here Risbridger plunges into what she charmingly calls “a field guide to delight”. Jane Eyre rubs shoulders with Ice Planet Barbarians (the bright blue aliens who inhabit the ice planet turn out to be sexy in a Mr Rochester kind of way). Pride and Prejudice makes its inevitable appearance, flanked by its many modern iterations, including the ones with dragons. Mills & Boon novels of every stripe are accorded the kind of sustained attention more usually given to Proust, while Judith Butler’s theories of gender are buttressed by a deft analysis of Rupert Campbell-Black, caddish hero of the Rutshire chronicles by the late, great Jilly Cooper.

Published: November 7, 2025, 7:00 am

Guitar Hero at 20 – how a plastic axe bridged the gap between rock generations

Guitar Hero’s controllers let anyone become a star in their own living room – and made the bands featured in the game household names again

It is 20 years since Guitar Hero was launched in North America, and with it, the tools for the everyday gamer to become a rock star. Not literally of course, but try telling that to someone who has nailed Free Bird’s four-minute guitar solo in front of a packed living-room audience.

Developed by Harmonix, published by RedOctane and inspired by Konami’s GuitarFreaks, Guitar Hero gave players a guitar-shaped controller with which to match coloured notes scrolling down the screen in time with a song. Each riff or sequence corresponded to specific notes, creating the feel of a genuine performance.

Published: November 8, 2025, 10:00 am

Lee Tamahori, director of Once Were Warriors and James Bond movie Die Another Day, dies aged 75

New Zealand film-maker became a Hollywood fixture in the 90s and 00s, including making Pierce Brosnan’s last 007 movie, before returning to his home country

Lee Tamahori, the New Zealand director of Once Were Warriors and Die Another Day, has died aged 75.

In a statement to Radio New Zealand, Tamahori’s family said he had Parkinson’s and died “peacefully at home”.

Published: November 7, 2025, 5:44 pm

‘At long last we can begin’: first five minutes of Stranger Things 5 revealed

Ahead of the hit show’s final chapter, Netflix has unexpectedly dropped a clip of the opening episode – and a surprise flashback will send chills up spines

The fifth and final series of Netflix’s supernatural smash hit Stranger Things is set to be one of the biggest shows of the year. The first part airs on 27 November, but a clip of the chilling opening five minutes has been shared online.

The episode, The Crawl, takes fans back to the start of the series in 1983, after the disappearance of Will Byers (Noah Schnapp).

Published: November 7, 2025, 1:01 pm

As his debut film Once Were Warriors showed, Lee Tamahori was a director of guts and flair

Tamahori was the outstanding director of Along Came a Spider and Die Another Day – but his first film was his greatest work

In 1994, the New Zealand film-maker Lee Tamahori made one of the biggest debuts of the decade, firing on all six cylinders with his gut-wrenching social-realist melodrama Once Were Warriors. The Hekes are a working-class Maori family in South Auckland: Temuera Morrison is the boozing, brawling, bragging alpha-male welfare claimant Jake, who comes home from drinking in the pub with his pathetic sycophant mates to terrorise and assault his wife Beth, played by Rena Owen, and their five children. He is entirely indifferent to the fate of his two elder sons who have drifted into gangland culture and crime, as well as his sensitive daughter Grace, who has talent as a writer. One son gets gang tattoos; the other is taken to a juvenile reformatory where he is at least tutored in the ways of Maori culture – the haka and the taiaha warrior spear – and learns dignity and self-respect. But back at Jake’s chaotic house, Grace is raped by Jake’s grotesque friend “Uncle Bully”; disaster follows, and Beth passionately confronts the wretched Jake: “Our people once were warriors, but unlike you, Jake, they were people with mana, pride; people with spirit …”

Tamahori let rip with all this emotional violence, and landed sledgehammer punches with the pub scenes, the home scenes and the gang ritual initiation scenes, handling them with confidence and verve. He created a gutsy, heartfelt picture with a very 90s streak of brash and trash. It was a hit with audiences and critics, and – for good or ill – deeply impressed industry executives in Hollywood who could see how Tamahori could bring this energy and flair to mainstream genre material.

Published: November 7, 2025, 7:43 pm

Tim Dowling: life on the road was so much simpler than being at home

On tour with the band there were no snapping tortoises, no dog kerfuffles and certainly no peeping scaffolders

It is early morning, the low sun is glinting off wet tarmac. I’m in a coffee shop next to a petrol station, across the car park from the Travelodge where I spent the night, somewhere just north of Brighton. The middle leg of the band’s autumn tour is complete, and I’m on my way home. But first I want coffee.

“Can I take a name?” says the woman behind the counter.

Published: November 8, 2025, 6:00 am

‘There is bounty almost everywhere’: why you’ll always find me in the flea market on my travels

Forget sightseeing, secondhand shopping is now a major draw for tourists. A seasoned bargain-hunter shares her tips on picking up the best vintage finds when travelling abroad

Marburg, Germany. It’s a fairytale city, not only because of the hilltop castle that overlooks its cobbled streets and half-timbered houses, but also because this is where the Grimm brothers once lived and studied, starting the collection of folklore stories that would eventually become their famous anthology of fairytales. Throughout the city, sculptures – some perched in improbable places – pay homage to this past, forming a mile-long route known as the Grimm Path. It’s very much like a treasure hunt.

But on my visit to Marburg, I had a different type of treasure hunt in mind and, once done with enchanted mirrors and kissy-lipped frogs, headed straight for the SecondHand by DRK (Deutsches Rotes Kreuz – the German Red Cross) to scout for pre-owned items.

Published: November 8, 2025, 7:00 am

Feed them, love them and play them drum’n’bass: vets’ tips for keeping pets happy and healthy

Dogs and cats aren’t always good at communicating to their humans what they want or need. Here, experts reveal 15 ways to make sure your furry friends are at their best

Half of UK adults own a pet, with 28% opting for a dog and 24% a cat, according to vet charity PDSA. How can we ensure these animals are in good health? From feeding to fireworks, vets share their advice on how to keep our canine and feline friends healthy and happy.

Published: November 7, 2025, 5:00 pm

I’m a food writer with a binge-eating disorder, and I’m learning to reject shame

My job and my disordered eating have long fed each other. Talking publicly about my experience helps lift the veil of secrecy surrounding it

Nothing in my life sparks greater joy and deeper shame than food. Publicly, I live and love to eat. As a food writer my livelihood depends on it. But privately, I live with a binge-eating disorder, and it can feel like what I’m devouring is actually devouring me.

My family is Italian, and their love language is food, so food is also the portal to all my memories, good and bad. Nonna’s lasagne at Easter, her zeppole at Christmas, were the best of times. The worst: foil trays piled with fried food at funerals, the liquorice allsorts I ate – and now hate – after my infant brother choked and paramedics rushed him to hospital. Emotional eating has always been so normal for me.

Published: November 7, 2025, 11:00 pm

Lipstick, manicures ... and fascism: the ugliness behind the $450bn beauty industry

In their new book The House of Beauty, beauty writer Arabelle Sicardi examines the good, the bad and the ugly of the lucrative industry

The very first sentence of Arabelle Sicardi’s book, The House of Beauty, reads: “When I tell you that beauty is a monster, I need you to know it is my favorite kind.”

Sicardi, who splits their time between New York City and Los Angeles, has a love/hate relationship with the beauty industry. A writer and consultant working in beauty and tech, their projects include a beauty newsletter, a creative collective called Perfumed Pages and a non-profit arts project called the Museum of Nails Foundation. In their new book, they examine the impact of the $450bn beauty industry – the pretty and the very ugly.

Published: November 7, 2025, 5:45 pm

‘A sign of who I am, right here on my hands’: meet the artists behind the new-school henna boom

The traditional artform of henna – applying intricate and floral designs to the hands and body in natural inks – is seeing vivid new life as a means of progressive social and political expression, led by a wave of young designers and artists

The night before Eid, plastic chairs line the pavements of busy British high streets from London to Bradford. Women sit elbow-to-elbow beneath shopfronts, hands outstretched as artists swirl cones of henna into intricate curls. For £5, you can walk away with both palms blooming. Once confined to weddings and living rooms, this centuries-old ritual has spilled out into public spaces – and today, it’s being reimagined entirely.

In recent years, henna has travelled from family homes to the red carpet – from actor Michaela Coel’s Sudanese motifs at the Toronto film festival to Katseye singer Lara Raj’s henna decor at the 2025 Video Music awards. Younger generations are using it as art, political expression and cultural affirmation. Online, the appetite is increasing – UK searches for henna reportedly rose by nearly 5,000% last year; and, on social media, creators share everything from faux freckles made with henna to five-minute floral design tutorials, showing how the dye has adapted to modern beauty culture.

Published: November 7, 2025, 6:00 am

From nursery to empty nest – interiors hacks for every stage of life

Invest in the right pieces in your first house (clue – it’s not a sofa), let teens have some say and make spare rooms work harder when the kids move out … interiors experts share their tips for every age

Published: November 7, 2025, 3:00 pm

‘Fabulous 50s dresses and even a kilt’: readers’ favourite vintage shops and markets in Europe

Our tipsters rummage through thrift stores and markets from Budapest to Bologna

• Tell us about a lesser known corner of Italy or a winter stay in the UK – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

W Armstrong in Edinburgh is a true institution. There are several locations, but the Grassmarket spot is a treasure trove. Frequented by locals, students and tourists alike, there is a price point for all. Whether I’ve been on the hunt for vintage cashmere, denim, fabulous 1950s dresses, garb for a fancy dress party or even a kilt, this store has sorted me out. It is always a favourite for when friends visit the city, and whether you are looking to buy or not, it is worth a visit just to see its eclectic collection.
Amy

Published: November 7, 2025, 7:00 am

‘We’re sick of the OnlyFans model’: Stella Barey’s porn site lets gen Z sex workers have a life

The 28-year-old’s platform, Hidden, offers a Tumblr-like sensibility in an industry roiled by slop and lets adult content creators earn without burning out

Stella Barey has an hour for lunch. At 1.30pm, she loads her banged-up Tacoma with her three Belgian malinois and drives to a secret Los Angeles hiking trail. There, she gulps down a tapioca pudding and laces up her sneakers. After checking over her shoulder for foot traffic, she pulls down her brown sweatpants and jiggles her bare ass for the camera. Then come the undies. Her coiffed landing strip hovers above the rocks as a rush of urine floods the trail. Every mile she walks, she films another video: a flash, a moon, a finger up the ass.

When Barey decided in 2020 to pursue porn full-time, she did not imagine that at 28 she would spend more time hunched over a desk – not in the fun way – making flow charts, scheduling Zoom calls, and sending pitch decks. “I’m at my happiest when I’m making a video like putting a strawberry in my butt and pushing it out,” she says. “Now I’m on calls all day and I have tech neck.” Known online as the “Anal Princess”, with large, blinking Shelley Duvall eyes and an American Girl doll pout, she will try anything once – even the title “tech founder”.

Published: November 7, 2025, 12:00 pm

Love & War: From frontlines to family life. Pulitzer-winning conflict photographer Lynsey Addario on the five stories that defined her career

Iraq 2003-2004

Published: November 7, 2025, 7:00 am

The week around the world in 20 pictures

Typhoon Kalmaegi, hunger in Gaza, displacement in Sudan, and Zohran Mamdani in New York: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Published: November 7, 2025, 6:23 pm