In a reading rut? How to get back into reading for fun

In a world full of distractions, it can be difficult to form a habit that needs attention. Experts advise on getting out of the rut

Most of us read all day – texts, emails, menus, utility bills, social media captions and news stories. But fewer people are reading for fun.

According to a 2022 report from the National Endowment for the Arts, 48.5% of US adults said they had read at least one book that year, down from 52.7% five years earlier, and 54.6% 10 years earlier. In the UK, a 2024 report found that half of UK adults do not regularly read for pleasure.

Published: November 17, 2025, 5:00 pm

Jeffrey Epstein’s emails reveal a disdain for morality among the elite | Moira Donegan

Epstein paints Trump as someone he knew intimately. But the documents also reveal how many powerful men confided in him

Before he died, Jeffrey Epstein made it clear that Donald Trump “knew about the girls”.

Trump has denied any knowledge of or involvement in Epstein’s longstanding child sex-trafficking operation. But in newly released emails that members of Congress disclosed to the media amid the end of this fall’s government shutdown, the dead child sex trafficker and financier can be seen corresponding on many occasions about Donald Trump, his former close friend and associate, throughout the last few years of his life, as Trump’s rise to prominence in national politics beginning in 2015 drew renewed attention to his relationship with Epstein.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

Published: November 17, 2025, 2:00 pm

‘Making films is who I am’: Tom Cruise gets lifetime achievement Oscar

The Hollywood star – who had been nominated for multiple Oscars but never previously won – was honoured at the Academy’s annual Governors awards, along with Dolly Parton, Wynn Thomas and Debbie Allen

Tom Cruise finally received an Oscar on Sunday night in Los Angeles – though not for a specific acting role. The star of Top Gun, Jerry Maguire and the Mission: Impossible series was given an honorary Academy Award at the annual Governors awards, which are designed to reward lifetime achievement.

In a statement before the event, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) president Janet Yang cited “Cruise’s incredible commitment to our film-making community, to the theatrical experience, and to the stunts community has inspired us all”. Recalling his efforts to shoot the seventh Mission: Impossible in 2020, Yang added that Cruise “helped to usher the industry through a challenging time during the Covid-19 pandemic”.

Published: November 17, 2025, 2:14 pm

Undisciplined? Entitled? Lazy? Gen Z faces familiar flood of workplace criticism

A new generation of younger workers are being derided as delusional and unreliable, just as millennials were

Gen Z is undisciplined, apparently; entitled, some critics claim; and purportedly hates work. One viral column in the Wall Street Journal went so far as to suggest this entire generation was potentially “unemployable”.

As younger employees establishing themselves at work continue to face relentless criticism from the higher rungs of corporate America, those old enough to remember the arrival of the last generation could be forgiven for experiencing a sense of deja vu.

Published: November 17, 2025, 11:00 am

Trump is turning the US military into a political prop | Jan-Werner Müller

The military has been recast in a partisan, performative mold – all according to the president’s logic of impunity

Of all the reasons Americans have been losing sleep recently – hunger, canceled flights, Democrats betraying them – the most ominous has to do with an institution usually absent from discussions about the fate of our democracy: the military. No need to be starry-eyed about US imperialism and what has long been criticized as an ever-expanding “national security state”; one can still appreciate that it is a good thing if generals do not take sides in politics – just ask anyone from the many countries around the world where they do. But a pattern is becoming clear: Donald Trump is purging the higher ranks based on his prejudices and demands for loyalty; the military is being turned into a partisan instrument and a political prop; more dangerous still, the president is instilling the logic of impunity that has come to characterize his entire approach to governance.

Figures deemed too close to Trump critics, such as Gen Mark Milley, have seen promotions delayed or canceled; those targeted by far-right influencers might face professional backlash. Trump used Maga-fied soldiers as background to a Fort Bragg speech, violating longstanding norms against instrumentalizing state institutions for partisan purposes. Every violation becomes a test of who will be loyal: critics – the potentially disloyal – will identify themselves.

Published: November 17, 2025, 11:00 am

Déjà boo: Sam Darnold didn’t think he’d see ghosts on the field again. Then he faced the Rams

The Seahawks quarterback has looked like an MVP this season. But his old failings returned in Los Angeles on Sunday

The biggest game of Week 11 was undoubtedly the matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and the Seattle Seahawks. Both teams came in with 7-2 records, and were seemingly evenly matched on both sides of the ball, with dynamic offenses and stingy defenses. In the end, it was a defensive battle that the Rams won, 21-19, by the skin of their teeth.

Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold, who had played at a near-MVP level this season for the most part, did absolutely nothing to help his team – and plenty to hurt them. Darnold matched his career high with four interceptions, completing 29 of 44 passes for 279 yards, no touchdowns, those picks, and a passer rating of 45.5.

Published: November 17, 2025, 8:15 am

Trump is ‘panicking’ after failing ‘to kill our Jeffrey Epstein investigation’, says top Democrat, after president’s sudden pivot – live

Robert Garcia, ranking member of House oversight committee, says president has ‘realized he is about to lose this Epstein vote’ and calls for release of files

• Trump urges Republicans to vote for release of Epstein files in surprise U-turn

US Border Patrol officials said they had arrested 81 people over five hours in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday, the first day of the targeted operation.

The crackdown involving federal agents was only announced last week.

Mass deportation and strict enforcement of immigration laws have been a key part of Trump’s agenda since returning to office this year.

Published: November 17, 2025, 6:42 pm

UN to vote on Gaza stabilisation force plan that references Palestinian state

Netanyahu faces pressure from far-right ministers after Saudi insistence on ‘credible pathway’ to statehood

The UN security council is to vote on Monday on a US-drafted resolution to set up an international stabilisation force (ISF) in Gaza that includes a late and highly tentative addition on a future Palestinian state, added under pressure from Arab states.

A rival motion has meanwhile been tabled by Russia and China, setting up the possibility that both motions could be vetoed by one or more of the five permanent members of the security council.

Published: November 17, 2025, 2:39 pm

US judge finds evidence of ‘government misconduct’ in federal case against Comey

Judge ruled DoJ engaged in ‘profound investigative missteps’ on way to indicting the former FBI director

A US judge on Monday found evidence of “government misconduct” in how a prosecutor aligned with Donald Trump secured criminal charges against former FBI director James Comey and ordered that grand jury materials be turned over to Comey’s defense team.

Last week, prosecutors were ordered to produce a trove of materials from the investigation, with the court saying it was concerned that the US justice department’s position on Comey had been to “indict first and investigate later”.

Published: November 17, 2025, 5:32 pm

Poland railway blast was unprecedented act of sabotage, says Donald Tusk

Polish PM vows to ‘catch the perpetrators, regardless of who their backers are’ after blast on track used for deliveries to Ukraine

Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, has described an explosion along a section of railway line used for deliveries to Ukraine as an “unprecedented act of sabotage” that could have led to disaster.

It came as a statement from public prosecutors on Monday evening said an investigation had opened “regarding acts of sabotage of a terrorist nature […] committed on behalf of a foreign intelligence service against the Republic of Poland.”

Published: November 17, 2025, 5:31 pm

Child among six dead after atmospheric river storm drenches California

Lingering thunderstorms pose risk of mudslides in areas around Los Angeles recently ravaged by wildfires

A powerful atmospheric river weather system has mostly moved through California but not before causing at least six deaths and dousing much of the state.

Among the dead was a seven-year-old girl who was swept into the ocean by waves estimated up to 20ft at a state beach on Friday. The girl’s father, 39-year-old Yuji Hu, of Calgary, Alberta, was killed while trying to save his daughter.

Published: November 17, 2025, 5:20 pm

New international student enrollments in US plunge this year, data shows

Enrollment fell 17%, the largest drop in a decade aside from the pandemic, amid Trump’s immigration crackdown

The number of international students enrolling in US colleges and universities plunged this year as the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown on higher education began to bite, data released on Monday reveals.

New international student enrollment fell 17% in the current academic year, the largest drop in more than a decade aside from the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a fall snapshot published by the Institute of International Education (IIE).

Published: November 17, 2025, 6:12 pm

Jeff Bezos reportedly launches new AI startup with himself as CEO

Former Amazon CEO to co-head Project Prometheus with tech executive Vik Bajaj, according to the New York Times

After stepping down as Amazon’s CEO four years ago, Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder and former chief executive of the online shopping company, is going to be a CEO again. This time, Bezos has appointed himself co-CEO of an AI startup called Project Prometheus, the New York Times reported, citing anonymous sources.

The startup, which will focus on developing AI for engineering and manufacturing in various fields, has already received $6.2bn in funding – more than many companies are able to raise in their lifetimes. Leading the company alongside Bezos is his co-founder and co-CEO Vik Bajaj, a celebrity tech executive in his own right. Bajaj is a physicist and chemist best known for his work at Google’s moonshot factory, X, where he founded the health startup Verily.

Published: November 17, 2025, 4:47 pm

New blow for Louvre as structural problem forces gallery closure

Campana Gallery is temporarily shut due to weaknesses in beams supporting floor above

The Louvre has temporarily closed one of its galleries as a precaution after an audit revealed structural weaknesses in some of the beams in the building.

The Campana Gallery, which houses nine rooms dedicated to ancient Greek ceramics, will be shut while investigations are conducted into “certain beams supporting the floors of the second floor” above it, a statement issued on Monday said.

Published: November 17, 2025, 5:58 pm

David Zucker renews attack on new Naked Gun reboot starring Liam Neeson

The director has taken fresh aim at the new film, saying that producer Seth MacFarlane ‘totally missed’ the spoof-comedy style that defined the original Naked Gun franchise

Original Naked Gun director David Zucker has gone back on the attack over the recent reboot starring Liam Neeson, after appearing to soften his tone in the wake of its release.

In an interview with Woman’s World, Zucker said that Seth MacFarlane, producer on the new Naked Gun and previously director and co-writer of the Ted movies “totally missed” the spoof-comedy style that Zucker, along with collaborators Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams, made famous in Airplane! and the three original Naked Gun films.

Published: November 17, 2025, 1:52 pm

Eswatini confirms receiving over $5m from US to accept deportees

Trump administration struck largely secretive deals with at least five African countries to accept migrants

Eswatini has confirmed for the first time that it had received more than $5m from the United States to accept dozens of people expelled under Washington’s aggressive mass deportation drive.

The tiny southern African kingdom has taken in 15 men since Donald Trump’s administration struck largely secretive deals with at least five African countries to accept migrants under a third-country deportation programme fiercely criticised by rights groups.

Published: November 17, 2025, 5:47 pm

Charlotte, North Carolina reels as 81 people arrested in immigration raids

Thriving business districts in North Carolina city now at a ‘standstill’ after at least 81 were arrested over the weekend

Many communities in Charlotte, North Carolina, were reeling after federal Customs and Border Protection teams descended on the city at the weekend and arrested at least 81 people – while normally-thriving immigrant enclaves and business districts came to a standstill.

Federal agents were deployed in what the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), calls Operation Charlotte’s Web, sparking protests.

Published: November 17, 2025, 10:00 am

Supreme court to review Trump policy of limiting asylum claims at border

Trump administration’s claim it has authority to ‘meter’ applications may turn on definition of arriving in US

The US supreme court agreed on Monday to hear a defense by the Trump administration of the government’s authority to limit the processing of asylum claims at ports of entry along the US-Mexico border.

The court took up the administration’s appeal of a lower court’s determination that the “metering” policy, under which US immigration officials could stop asylum seekers at the border and decline to process their claims, violated federal law.

Published: November 17, 2025, 4:01 pm

US will label supposed Venezuelan drug cartel ‘headed by Maduro’ as terrorist organization

Experts believe decision is designed to pressure Venezuela’s leader into stepping down with threat of military force

• Is US preparing to attack Venezuela and how has Maduro regime responded?

The US has said it will designate a putative Venezuelan drug cartel allegedly led by Nicolás Maduro as a foreign terrorist organization, as the Trump administration sent more mixed messages over its crusade against Venezuela’s authoritarian leader.

The move to target the already proscribed group, the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns), was announced by Marco Rubio on Sunday. “Headed by the illegitimate Nicolás Maduro, the group has corrupted the institutions of government in Venezuela and is responsible for terrorist violence conducted by and with other designated FTOs as well as for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe,” the US secretary of state tweeted, generating excitement among hardline adversaries of Maduro who interpreted the announcement as proof Washington was preparing to intensify its push to force the South American dictator from power.

Published: November 17, 2025, 2:51 pm

White nationalist talking points and racial pseudoscience: welcome to Elon Musk’s Grokipedia

World’s richest person wanted to ‘purge’ propaganda from Wikipedia, so he created a compendium of racist disinformation

Entries in Elon Musk’s new online encyclopedia variously promote white nationalist talking points, praise neo-Nazis and other far-right figures, promote racist ideologies and white supremacist regimes, and attempt to revive concepts and approaches historically associated with scientific racism, a Guardian analysis has found.

The tech billionaire and Donald Trump ally recently launched xAI’s AI-generated Grokipedia with a promise that it would “purge out the propaganda” he claims infests Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that Musk has often attacked but that has long been a key feature of the internet.

Published: November 17, 2025, 12:00 pm

‘I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe’ – This is climate breakdown

As summer went on, the temperature climbed and climbed. Every day became harder. This is Neha’s story

Location Manesar, India

Disaster Indian heatwave, 2024

Neha is 25 years old and works for a large multinational company at a warehouse in Manesar, Haryana state, so she can send money back home to her family. In 2024, her working conditions worsened after a deadly heatwave spread across northern India. Climate breakdown is increasing the frequency and intensity of heatwaves in India by warming the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

Published: November 17, 2025, 12:00 pm

These rare whales had never been seen alive. Then a team in Mexico sighted two

The search for a ginkgo-toothed beaked whale had taken five years, when a thieving albatross nearly ruined it all

It was an early morning in June 2024 and along the coast of Baja California in Mexico, scientists on the Pacific Storm research vessel were finishing their coffee and preparing for a long day searching for some of the most elusive creatures on the planet. Suddenly a call came from the bridge: “Whales! Starboard side!”

For the next few hours, what looked like a couple of juvenile beaked whales kept surfacing and disappearing until finally Robert Pitman, a now-retired researcher at Oregon State University, fired a small arrow from a modified crossbow at the back of one of them.

Published: November 17, 2025, 10:00 am

‘Fights for our material survival’: documentary goes inside the battle for trans rights

In Heightened Scrutiny, the fight driving activist and lawyer Chase Strangio is backgrounded by a deep dive into how the media has helped to push an anti-trans agenda

Trans documentarian Sam Feder’s latest feature Heightened Scrutiny is a kind of two-for-one – an affecting portrait of one of the most important trans activists of our time, and a continuation of the media critique he established through earlier films, particularly his groundbreaking 2020 Netflix doc Disclosure. It’s a powerful look at the fight over civil rights for trans people, while also posing as a critical rebuttal to supposedly center-left media like the New York Times and the Atlantic, which have aided and abetted rightwing forces in setting off a moral panic against trans existence.

The film follows the ACLU attorney Chase Strangio as he prepares for oral arguments in the supreme court case US v Skirmetti. These arguments occurred on 4 December 2024, with the court ruling several months later in favor of Tennessee’s attorney general, Jonathan Skrmetti, and in effect allowing restrictions on the medical transition of trans minors in over 20 US states to remain in place. As with many other rulings in the Trump-era court, it was one that has been widely decried by legal analysts for shoddy reasoning and clear bias.

Published: November 17, 2025, 5:07 pm

‘I was born in a melting pot. Melting isn’t fun’: Jon M Chu on Wicked: For Good, Ariana Grande – and living the American dream

As his sequel to Wicked prepares to storm Christmas, the director talks about the dynamism of Grande and Cynthia Erivo – and why his Wizard of Oz riff is quite simply one of the greatest stories of our time

Let’s start with a quick recap on the first Wicked film. Its premise: what would the legend of Oz look like, told from the perspective of someone other than that cute but dozy blow-in, Dorothy? The wicked witch, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), is entirely green, and has therefore been ostracised since childhood. Glinda (Ariana Grande), the good witch, is everybody’s princess but, after a time, the two become best friends. I’ll skirt over how the Tin Man, the Lion and the Scarecrow come about, suffice to say that, in the film at least, their backstories make perfect and resonant sense (except for the Lion, but never mind). The Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) is not a good guy – but is he a bad guy? The morals swirl, in an expertly handled way.

The first film left us at the point of discovery that Oz, far from being a magic paradise, was actually built on foundations of discrimination, oppression, enslavement and mendacity – or, if you like things simple, fascism. The fact that the slave-caste is the animal kingdom rather than a human out-group doesn’t make this opulent fantasia feel any less pointedly topical. “Any timeless story feels timely,” director Jon M Chu says, “because it’s about the human condition. When people become too powerful, what happens to the powerless? That cycle, unfortunately, challenges us every few generations, and maybe this is our moment. We’re the adults in the room now.”

Published: November 17, 2025, 4:37 pm

The one change that worked: I had Sad and felt desperate – until a scientist gave me some priceless advice

Since I was a teenager I had struggled in winter, experiencing excessive tiredness and low mood. A specific instruction lifted the gloom

I’m pretty sure I must be half human, half plant – how else to explain why I need the light to thrive? During the brighter seasons I feel fine, but when winter comes and the light begins to fade, I start drooping.

I have struggled with seasonal affective disorder (Sad) since I was a teenager. The symptoms of Sad are similar to regular depression, with low moods and lethargy, and can be equally debilitating. Over the years I’ve experienced the full Sad spectrum, from moments of excessive tiredness and carb cravings (yes, those are official Sad symptoms), to a low point of breaking down crying on the kitchen floor after school because it was so cold, dark and bleak.

Published: November 17, 2025, 10:00 am

John Oliver on the mass defunding of US public media: ‘Just stupid’

The Last Week Tonight host delves into the many vital functions of US public media imperiled by congressional Republicans’ defunding plan

On the latest Last Week Tonight, John Oliver checked in on the “dire” state of public media in the US, where almost all public media falls under the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Until recently, the CPB distributed funding to more than 544 radio TV grantees representing more than 1,500 locally managed and operated stations nationwide, reaching more than 99% of the US population with free programming and services.

Oliver noted that US public media have been “truly innovative” in reaching underserved audiences – it was public TV that first invented closed captioning in the 1970s; stations around the country offer programming in Haitian Creole, Navajo, Vietnamese and many other languages. “But as you undoubtedly know, it is now facing a serious threat,” Oliver said, as Congress voted over the summer to eliminate $1.1bn allocated to fund public broadcasting for the next two years.

Published: November 17, 2025, 4:33 pm

Communal restaurant tables: 90% of gen Z like them – but why?

Boomers are nowhere near as keen, with only 60% up for bumping elbows with a stranger at a big table. What explains this generational divide?

Name: Communal tables.

Appearance: Long, awkward and back in fashion.

Published: November 17, 2025, 4:17 pm

Here in Sweden, the Vikings are back. And this time they’re searching for stability in a chaotic age | Siri Christiansen

I joined a ‘sacrifice’ ritual outside Stockholm – and found that the revival of Norse paganism reflects broader battles over identity and climate anxiety

“Hail Thor!” The priestess and her heathens, standing in a circle, raised their mead-filled horns. We were gathered in an unassuming spot in a pine forest outside Stockholm. This was our temple, and the large, mossy stone before us was our altar. I was relieved to see that the animal-based sacrificial offerings were long-dead and highly processed. A bearded man reached his tattooed arms into his backpack and raised a red, horseshoe-shaped sausage to the sky. A goth girl unboxed a plastic tub of hammer-shaped cookies. The priestess offered me a handful of flaxseeds to toss on the altar, which was overflowing with gifts, apples and bottles of homemade mead.

A dozen people had gathered for an autumn sacrifice to summon Thor, the hammer-wielding Norse god of harvests and storms. Many pleaded for him to bring rain, after a summer plagued with drought. Others asked for the strength to battle unemployment, or for the recovery of a sick mother. We all had our own reasons for being there. A middle-aged man, perspiring in his blue office shirt, seemed to be there to connect with his hippy-looking wife and teenage daughter.

Siri Christiansen is a Swedish investigative journalist based in Stockholm

Published: November 17, 2025, 5:00 am

My kids start sentences in one language and end in another. I hope school doesn’t shrink their joyous, noisy worlds | Shadi Khan Saif

Maybe there’s room for something gentler: letting children know they don’t need to change any part of themselves to belong

Most mornings in our house feel like a friendly little language carnival spinning through the kitchen. Before the kids even put on their shoes for school, they’ve already cycled through three languages – joking in Hindi, arguing in Pashto and sprinkling English on top like chocolate chips tossed over their cereal.

We don’t plan it or rehearse it: it just happens. Pashto is the language of feelings and family business like complaints, alliances, who stole whose pencil, who touched the remote. Hindi came to us through the back door: Bollywood songs and movies playing in the background, cousins in Karachi and the kind of street-style banter the kids pick up from YouTube faster than I can keep track of. And English, of course, is the language that binds the whole day together with school notices, breakfast negotiations, reminders about homework.

Published: November 17, 2025, 2:00 pm

Can SJP make wide-open handbags a trend? I hope not | Emma Beddington

Over the years, the actor has popularised everything from name necklaces to giant corsages. But, with all their dark secrets, women’s handbags should remain shut ...

Vogue aired a matter of public import last week, posing the question on all our lips: “Can Sarah Jessica Parker make the wide-open bag trend happen?” Pictures of the Fendi bag in question showed it shamelessly flaunting its purple sequinned lining for all the world to see. Apparently, it’s deliberate (the bag went down the catwalk like that, keep up) and part of a wider trend for gaping leather goods: “We saw similar styles at Loewe, Chanel and Louis Vuitton.”

So, can she? Vogue says it’s “chic and insouciant”, while conceding it’s also “polarising”. But if anyone can make an unlikely trend happen, it’s SJP. She – or at least her Carrie Bradshaw alter ego – has already popularised name necklaces, vast corsages, even vaster duvet coats and “satin Maison Margiela Tabi Monster bow pumps” (Vogue again) for WFH – I’m wearing mine now, obvs. The JW Anderson pigeon handbag she carried on And Just Like That sold out.

Published: November 17, 2025, 11:00 am

Do you feel lucky? Why acknowledging our own good fortune would make the world a better place | Julian Richer

I have been fortunate, and I know it. Now I’d like more successful people to admit that meritocracy is a myth

• Julian Richer is the founder of Richer Sounds and the Fairness Foundation

When you think about what has got you to where you are today, what pops into your head first? Perhaps hard work and determination, aided by a degree of talent? No doubt these have played an important role. But how much do you think that factors outside your control – what we might think of as luck – have influenced your path in life, for good or ill?

I believe that many of us – especially those who consider ourselves successful – underestimate the role that luck has played in our lives. And I’m not just talking about random life events, like winning the lottery, I’m thinking about luck in the broader sense of the circumstances into which each of us is born.

Julian Richer is a retail entrepreneur, author and philanthropist who founded Richer Sounds in 1978. He is the founder of the Fairness Foundation

Published: November 17, 2025, 10:00 am

The Guardian view on Germany under Merz: Europe’s powerhouse is still struggling | Editorial

Donald Trump’s trade wars and Chinese competition constitute formidable headwinds. But old economic orthodoxies are not the answer

Last March, following angst-ridden months as Europe came to terms with Donald Trump’s return to the White House, financial markets in Paris, Milan and Berlin were gripped by a surge of optimism. The cause was a historic deal brokered by Friedrich Merz, then Germany’s chancellor-elect, which loosened constitutional spending constraints in the EU’s powerhouse nation. Here at last, it was hoped, was the fiscal kickstart required to end a prolonged period of economic stagnation, and mitigate geopolitical headwinds blowing from the US and China.

Six months into Mr Merz’s premiership, the angst is back and there are the first murmurings of rebellion. The chancellor’s plan included “whatever it takes” levels of defence spending, designed to prepare Germany for a changed era in which the US was no longer a dependable ally, and a huge €500bn investment in infrastructure and the green transition. But last week, the chancellor’s team of economic advisers downgraded growth forecasts for 2026 to below 1%. And ahead of what would constitute a fourth year of near-flatlining, business confidence has slumped.

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 17, 2025, 6:47 pm

Warriors’ Draymond Green confronts fan over Angel Reese taunts during game

• Fan apparently mocked player over shooting

• Forward has history of arguing with fans

Golden State forward Draymond Green went nearly chest-to-chest with a fan during the Warriors’ road victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday night.

The fan, who identified himself as Sam Green, 35, of New Orleans, was wearing a black polo with a Pelicans logo. He stood and cheered after Green had been called for a shooting foul while guarding Pelicans forward Herb Jones.

Published: November 17, 2025, 3:36 am

Ireland’s big moment is what World Cup qualifying is all about

Troy Parrott’s last-gasp goal and DR Congo’s triumph proved once again why the best soccer is almost never about the soccer

• Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

Last Thursday, Irish football was in a bleak place. They had two games remaining in World Cup qualifying and apparently no hope of making it to North America next summer. Another campaign had collapsed in predictable ways: they couldn’t score, they made bafflingly simple errors, too few of their players play for elite sides and those that do seemed unable to reproduce club form for their country.

Their one possible star, Evan Ferguson, had not been energised by a move to Roma – quite the reverse – and although there was vague talk of a new contract for their manager, the amiable Icelandic dentist Heimir Hallgrímsson, everybody thought he would be off after the game in Hungary and was vaguely dreading another Football Association of Ireland recruitment saga, which would inevitably take months, throw up a series of implausible names and result in the job being given to Hallgrímsson’s assistant, John O’Shea.

Published: November 17, 2025, 3:40 pm

Nigeria left to blame ‘voodoo’ after dramatic playoff defeat by DR Congo

DR Congo won a tense penalty shootout 4-3, leading Éric Chelle, the Nigeria manager, to allege ‘maraboutage’

Thirty-one years ago Nigeria burst on to the global stage in a golden summer at the 1994 World Cup in the US, impressing with a do-or-die attitude that helped them top their group and come within two minutes of reaching the quarter-finals by beating Italy. But the Super Eagles will not be returning to North American soil for next summer’s tournament – and they are not blaming their shooting boots.

After a fraught and dramatic continental playoff final on Sunday, where Nigeria were eliminated by DR Congo on penalties, the Super Eagles manager, Éric Chelle, said that his team had been defeated by “voodoo”.

Published: November 17, 2025, 3:57 pm

Anthony Joshua will ‘break internet over Jake Paul’s face’ as fight is confirmed

• Fight will be live on Netflix on 19 December

• YouTuber to face former heavyweight world champion

Anthony Joshua and Jake Paul will face each other in a heavyweight fight in Miami on 19 December, it has been confirmed.

Rumours of the fight between Paul, a YouTuber-turned-boxer, and Joshua, the British former heavyweight champion of the world, had been trailed earlier this month and Paul’s company, Most Valuable Promotions, confirmed the news on Monday. The fight will be shown live on Netflix.

Published: November 17, 2025, 1:46 pm

NFL roundup: Allen stars in Bills’ wild win; Brissett breaks completions record

• Aaron Rodgers injured in Steelers win

• Rams squeeze past Seahawks in NFC West battle

• Shedeur Sanders makes NFL debut in Browns loss

Josh Allen has become the first NFL player to have two games with three touchdowns passing and three rushing. He achieved the feat as he led the Buffalo Bills (7-3) to victory over Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-4). Allen’s last TD was a rugged nine-yard run with 2:35 left that put the game away. The Bills benched struggling receiver Keon Coleman in a bid to spark their passing game, and each of Allen’s three touchdown passes went for 25 yards or more. He finished 19 of 30 for 317 yards, and the Bills overcame his two first-half interceptions. The game featured nine lead changes.

Published: November 17, 2025, 12:38 am

Bellingham must cut the nonsense if he wants to take centre stage under Tuchel | Jacob Steinberg

His talent is not in question but England’s brightest young star still lacks the maturity his national manager demands

If Jude Bellingham is to force his way back into England’s best team then he would be wise to cut out the nonsense. His reaction when he saw that his number was about to come up after an evening of inconsistency in Tirana was not good enough.

It was a challenge to Thomas Tuchel’s authority and was hardly a clever look given that it added to the sense that this is a player who is yet to realise that his immediate international future hinges on embracing the collective.

Published: November 16, 2025, 9:34 pm

Former Browns star Bernie Kosar to receive liver transplant after suffering internal bleeding

• Operation had been delayed due to infection

• Former QB has cirrhosis and Parkinson’s disease

Bernie Kosar is scheduled to receive a liver transplant on Monday morning. The former University of Miami and Cleveland Browns star quarterback shared the news in a social media post on Sunday night.

“Thank you all for the thoughts, prayers, and support – it truly means the world to me,” Kosar said in the post from his hospital bed.

Published: November 17, 2025, 12:55 pm

‘It touched us from the start’: Palestine savour historic night in Bilbao | Sid Lowe

More than 50,000 fans cheered on Ihab Abu Jazar’s team with the coach and players ‘shocked’ by the outpouring of support during their visit

“We are more than a national team, we represent a story of pain but also hope,” Ihab Abu Jazar said, “and we are not alone.” At 8.26pm on Saturday the Palestine coach, whose father was killed in the Israel-Gaza war and whose siblings now live in tents in Khan Younis, emerged from the tunnel and took his place by the bench at San Mamés, Bilbao. Dressed in black, a keffiyeh over his shoulders, he watched 11 men in red, “a team of refugees playing for Palestinians all over the world”, and listened to 51,396 people applaud them, chanting for their freedom.

“We don’t play just to win; we play to exist,” he had said in the days before Palestine played their first game in Europe, an occasion that turned out to be bigger than even he had imagined: “The most important day in my life”, a “historic” night that “all the words in the world can’t explain”. They didn’t win – they were a goal down within four minutes and lost 3-0 against the Basque national team – but they competed, and it wasn’t about that. In fact, when Zaid Qunbar looked like he might equalise after 12 minutes the whole of this vast stadium cheered him on, roaring the opposition striker running towards their goal.

Published: November 17, 2025, 8:00 am

Far-right group with links to neo-Nazi leader offers online military training

Experts say Observations Group’s connections to the Base and Rinaldo Nazzaro present ‘urgent danger’

In the underworld of accelerationist neo-Nazis, where talk of attacks against western governments are commonplace, the spread of illegal weapons manuals and tradecraft on drone warfare are proliferating. Experts say, in some cases, that classes are being taught online with the input of leadership from proscribed terrorist groups with links to Russian intelligence.

Authorities have been warning, on both sides of the Atlantic, about the accessibility of drone technologies and military veterans on the far right with the knowhow to use them, presenting a grave national security threat.

Published: November 17, 2025, 12:00 pm

Cop30: calls for new urgency to talks as studies show global warming may reach 2.5C – latest updates

As the summit goes into its second week, complex issues remain with anxiety growing over conference outcomes

Colombia will host a first international conference on the phase out of fossil fuels in April next year, according to advocates of more ambitious action to eliminate the main source of the gases that are heating the planet.

The South American country, which has demonstrated strong climate leadership in recent years, is among a group of 17 nations that have joined the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative which held a press conference on its plans at Cop30 on Monday.

Published: November 17, 2025, 6:28 pm

Two long-lost organ pieces by JS Bach performed for first time in 300 years

Archive director in Germany says ‘missing piece of puzzle’ now in place to verify authorship after decades of research

Two long-lost organ pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach have been performed in Germany, roughly 320 years after the composer wrote them as a teenage music teacher.

Entitled Chaconne in D minor BWV 1178 and Chaconne in G minor BWV 1179, the pieces were added to the official catalogue of Bach’s works on Monday and played in public for the first time in three centuries inside Leipzig’s St Thomas Church, where Bach is buried.

Published: November 17, 2025, 6:03 pm

Ousted Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina sentenced to death for crimes against humanity

Hasina sentenced in absentia by court in Dhaka over deadly crackdown on student-led uprising last year

Bangladesh’s deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina has been sentenced to death in absentia by a court in Dhaka for crimes against humanity over a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year.

A three-judge bench of the country’s international crimes tribunal convicted Hasina of crimes including incitement, orders to kill and inaction to prevent atrocities as she oversaw a crackdown on anti-government protesters last year.

Published: November 17, 2025, 3:42 pm

Incredible story of Irish labourer buried alive in coffin for 61 days told in new documentary

Mick Meaney made global headlines when he beat world record in 1968, but returned to Ireland penniless

They were known as burial artists – people who had themselves buried alive in macabre feats of endurance – and Mick Meaney resolved to be the best there ever was.

It was 1968 and the Irish labourer had barely a pound to his name but he believed that if he stayed underground in a coffin longer than anyone else the world would remember his name.

Published: November 17, 2025, 2:10 pm

‘There is so much corruption’: hundreds of thousands protest in Manila over missing flood funds

Huge rally organised by megachurch whose members vote in a bloc could spell trouble for Philippine president

From a skyscraper in downtown Manila, a sea of white spreads out below, covering the vast green lawns of Rizal Park and expanding down arterial roads and sidestreets. It is formed of more than half a million people, clad in matching white T-shirts, the slogan “transparency for a better democracy” emblazoned on their chests.

An estimated 650,000 of them have flooded the centre of Manila to protest, amid fury over a spiralling corruption scandal in which billions of dollars in flood mitigation funds have evaporated. Organised by the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC), a powerful sect in the Philippines, the three-day rally has shut down schools, roads and offices. Many of those protesting have camped out all night on the park’s lawns, sleeping in tents or beneath tarpaulins and umbrellas. Families have journeyed from across the country to set up camp, some equipped with portable stoves and rice cookers, others pushing elderly family members in wheelchairs, many of them bearing placards saying “expose the deeds”.

Published: November 17, 2025, 1:03 pm

‘Damned if we do but completely stuffed if we don’t’: heatwaves will worsen longer net zero is delayed

A new study suggests heatwaves will not revert back towards preindustrial conditions for at least 1,000 years after emissions target reached

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Heatwaves will become hotter, longer and more frequent the later net zero emissions is reached globally, new research suggests.

Scientists at the ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather and Australia’s national science agency, the CSIRO, simulated how heatwaves would respond over the next 1,000 years, examining the differences for each five-year delay in reaching net zero between 2030 and 2060.

Published: November 17, 2025, 8:00 am

France’s birds start to show signs of recovery after bee-harming pesticide ban

Analysis shows small hike in populations of insect-eating species after 2018 ruling, but full recovery may take decades

Insect-eating bird populations in France appear to be making a tentative recovery after a ban on bee-harming pesticides, according to the first study to examine how wildlife is returning in Europe.

Neonicotinoids are the world’s most common class of insecticides, widely used in agriculture and for flea control in pets. By 2022, four years after the European Union banned neonicotinoid use in fields, researchers observed that France’s population of insect-eating birds had increased by 2%-3%. These included blackbirds, blackcaps and chaffinches, which feed on insects as adults and as chicks.

Published: November 17, 2025, 5:00 am

Have courage to create fossil fuel phaseout roadmap at Cop30, Brazilian minister urges

Marina Silva says contentious plan would be ‘ethical answer’ to climate crisis but does not commit Brazil to it

Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva, has urged all countries to have the courage to address the need for a fossil fuel phaseout, calling the drawing up of a roadmap for it an “ethical” response to the climate crisis.

She emphasised, however, that the process would be voluntary for those governments that wished to participate, and “self-determined”.

Published: November 16, 2025, 7:14 pm

US attacks another alleged drug boat in Pacific, killing three, as Trump signals possible talks with Maduro

Strike comes as navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier arrives in Caribbean Sea and president says US may open talks with Venezuelan leader

The United States conducted another attack on an alleged drug trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific on Saturday, killing three people aboard, the Pentagon said on Sunday.

“Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics,” the US Southern Command announced in a post on social media.

Published: November 17, 2025, 2:59 am

Trump’s investigation into Epstein ties to political foes may be ‘smokescreen’, Republican says

Thomas Massie says move could be Trump’s ‘last-ditch effort’ to keep Epstein files from becoming public

The Republican congressman Thomas Massie challenged Donald Trump on Sunday over whether the US president is making a “last-ditch effort” to keep the full files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein from becoming public by ordering a fresh investigation.

Massie and Democratic congressman Ro Khanna, the two US representatives leading the bipartisan push to make all the files held by the government public both raised fresh concerns about the latest actions by the White House.

Published: November 16, 2025, 9:20 pm

Dozens reportedly arrested in Charlotte, North Carolina, amid immigration crackdown

Trump administration has made Democratic-led city its latest target despite fierce objections from local leaders

A top border patrol commander touted dozens of arrests in North Carolina’s largest city on Sunday as Charlotte residents reported a surge of encounters with federal immigration agents near churches and apartment complexes.

The Trump administration has made the Democratic-led city of about 950,000 people its latest target for an immigration enforcement crackdown it says will combat crime, despite fierce objections from local leaders and the fact that crime rates in the city are steadily declining.

Published: November 16, 2025, 8:13 pm

Trans air force members sue Trump administration over denied pension

Complaint slams government’s actions as ‘unlawful and invalid’ after air force revoked early retirement benefits

A group of 17 transgender US air force members has sued the Trump administration for denying them early retirement pensions and benefits.

The complaint, submitted in federal court, describes the government’s move against them as “unlawful and invalid”.

Published: November 16, 2025, 7:37 pm

Man who grabbed Ariana Grande at Wicked: For Good premiere sentenced to nine days in jail

Johnson Wen, who jumped over a barricade at Universal Studios Singapore and rushed at the Wicked star, has been convicted of being a public nuisance

The man who grabbed Ariana Grande at a red-carpet premiere for Wicked: For Good in Singapore has been jailed for nine days.

According to BBC News, Australian national Johnson Wen was convicted of being a public nuisance. Wen, 26, has a history of disrupting public events and rushing concert stages.

Published: November 17, 2025, 2:46 pm

Paul McCartney joins music industry protest against AI with silent track

Former Beatle and artists including Sam Fender, Kate Bush and Hans Zimmer record silent LP Is This What We Want

At two minutes 45 seconds it’s about the same length as With a Little Help From My Friends. But Paul McCartney’s first new recording in five years lacks the sing-along tune and jaunty guitar chops because there’s barely anything there.

The former Beatle, arguably Britain’s greatest living songwriter, is releasing a track of an almost completely silent recording studio as part of a music industry protest against copyright theft by artificial intelligence companies.

Published: November 17, 2025, 7:00 am

AI firms must be clear on risks or repeat tobacco’s mistakes, says Anthropic chief

Artificial intelligence will become smarter than ‘most or all humans in most or all ways’, says Dario Amodei

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Artificial intelligence companies must be transparent about the risks posed by their products or be in danger of repeating the mistakes of tobacco and opioid firms, according to the chief executive of the AI startup Anthropic.

Dario Amodei, who runs the US company behind the Claude chatbot, said he believed AI would become smarter than “most or all humans in most or all ways” and urged his peers to “call it as you see it”.

Published: November 17, 2025, 11:35 am

‘His role is to recruit’: the Sheffield-based propagandist for Sudan’s RSF militia

Abdalmonim Alrabea has appeared in hundreds of videos in which he expresses support for paramilitary group accused of committing genocide

A British citizen based in Sheffield appeared in a TikTok live broadcast laughing along while a notorious fighter from Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces group boasted about participating in mass killings in the city of El Fasher.

The video, broadcast on 27 October, is just one of hundreds posted to social media in which 44-year-old Abdalmonim Alrabea expresses support for the RSF and the ethnically targeted atrocities it has committed in Sudan’s western Darfur region.

Published: November 17, 2025, 9:13 am

The flop that finally flew: why did it take 40 years for Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along to soar?

Its 1981 New York premiere was a disaster but this told-in-reverse musical became a Tony award-winning hit with Daniel Radcliffe. The film version is a tear-jerking joy

I have made enough mistakes as a critic to feel mildly chuffed when a verdict is vindicated. In 1981 I wrote excitedly about a new Stephen Sondheim musical, Merrily We Roll Along, that I had seen in preview in New York; reviled by reviewers and shunned by the public, it then closed two weeks after opening. In 2023-24 the very same musical ran for a year on Broadway, won four Tony awards and was hailed by the critics. Fortunately a live performance of that Maria Friedman production was filmed and I would urge you to catch it when it’s released in cinemas next month.

I say “the very same musical” but that is not strictly accurate. Based on a 1934 play by George S Kaufman and Moss Hart, it is still the same story, told in reverse chronological order, of dissolving relationships: a success-worshipping composer and movie producer, Franklin Shepard, looks back over his life and sees how time has eroded both his creative partnership with a dramatist, Charley, and their mutual friendship with a novelist, Mary.

Published: November 17, 2025, 3:29 pm

High art: the museum that is only accessible via an eight-hour hike

The Frattini Bivouac is part of a Bergamo gallery’s experiment to ‘think like a mountain’. But in the thin air of the Italian alps, curatorial ideas are challenged in more ways than one

At 2,300 metres above sea level, Italy’s newest – and most remote – cultural outpost is visible long before it becomes reachable. A red shard on a ridge, it looks first like a warning sign, and then something more comforting: a shelter pitched into the wind.

The structure stands on a high ridge in the municipality of Valbondione, along the Alta Via delle Orobie, exposed to avalanches and sudden weather shifts. I saw it from above, after taking off from the Rifugio Fratelli Longo, near the village of Carona – a small mountain municipality a little over an hour’s drive from GAMeC, Bergamo’s Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea – the closest access point I was given for the site visit.

Published: November 17, 2025, 9:23 am

‘A blast of gritty, unvarnished relief’: why Breaking Glass is my feelgood movie

The latest in our ongoing series of writers highlighting their most rewatched comfort movies is a trip back to 1980s London and the predatory music industry

I used to watch Breaking Glass when I worked a very corporate job in the City. With its vision of London at the end of punk and the beginning of the Winter of Discontent, the film provided me a blast of gritty, unvarnished relief in the light of endless training courses and encouraged groupthink.

Released in September 1980, it was disliked by critics (Q magazine memorably quipped: “Breaking Glass? More like Breaking Wind … ”) but through today’s eyes feels relevant again.

Published: November 17, 2025, 10:00 am

Rule Breakers review – rousingly feelgood real life story of Afghan girls’ robotics team

This story of emancipated young women escaping draconian social strictures brims with enthusiasm and features a cameo from Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Based on a true story, Bill Guttentag’s rousing drama attests to the resilience of women who dare to dream despite draconian social strictures. The film follows Roya Mahboob (Nikohl Boosheri), a trailblazing coach and businesswoman in Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) who assembles a robotics team of Afghan girls for international competitions. The young dreamers hail from different walks of life but they all share the same zest for engineering. They face the same dangers too; in a country where women are not encouraged or even allowed to pursue higher levels of education, their quest for medals sees opposition from their own families as well as public scorn from conservatives.

Rule Breakers is at its most thrilling during the competition sequences, which splice together real-life documentary footage of the events with fictional re-enactments. (There’s even an appearance from Phoebe Waller-Bridge as a host.) A breathless enthusiasm thrums through the film, as the camera swirls around the young competitors, all energised by their love for science. These spaces are portrayed as a haven that encourages camaraderie rather than competitiveness, and in a world divided by military conflicts and war, they offer a utopiian vision of international collaboration and solidarity.

Published: November 17, 2025, 7:00 am

‘It’s important that we tell our own stories’: how the Wicked movies are helping disability representation on screen

Marissa Bode is the first disabled actor to play Nessarose, a key character in the stage turned film franchise – but has had to respond to online abuse

Disabled actor Marissa Bode, who plays the prominent role of Nessarose Thropp in the hit film musical Wicked and its forthcoming sequel Wicked: For Good, has called for improved representation for disabled performers in the entertainment industry – and specifically an end to what activists call “cripping up” – casting non-disabled actors in disabled character roles.

“I really hope my casting sets precedent,” says Bode, adding: “It’s just navigating a world and a system that we have just not been acknowledged in as we should be.” A recent study by the Rudderman Family Foundation found that only 21% of disabled characters on US TV between 2016 and 2023 were played by disabled actors.

Published: November 16, 2025, 8:02 pm

Michael Jackson is moonwalking back, but after the Springsteen flop is the pop biopic still relevant?

Jackson’s songs are back on charts and biopic trailer racked up 116m views in 24 hours, yet there is a certain hesitation

Michael Jackson’s voodoo classic Thriller was high on Billboard’s Hot 100 in the week of 15 November, handing the 16-years-gone King of Pop a record for having a Top 10 hit across six different decades. Simultaneously, Jackson also broke records for receiving 116m views in 24 hours for the trailer of a new biopic, Michael, set for release in April.

Millions of fans may be excited and primed for a Jackson biopic. For comparison, the trailer beat out Taylor Swift’s Eras tour preview and it will join a procession of recent music biopics about Bruce Springsteen, Amy Winehouse, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley and Elton John. The most successful of all – the Freddie Mercury and Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody – took in nearly a billion dollars at the box office.

Published: November 16, 2025, 6:00 am

‘I once said there’s no way I’ll still be playing Baggy Trousers at 30’: Suggs’s honest playlist

Prince Buster’s Al Capone changed the Madness singer’s life and Aretha Franklin is his go-to at karaoke, but what song makes him cry?

The first song I fell in love with
Judy Teen by Cockney Rebel. I’d seen Steve Harley on Top of the Pops and liked his look, with the mascara and bowler hat, like Alex from A Clockwork Orange. One day, me and my mates decided to cycle to Salisbury Plain. I had a transistor radio tied to the handlebars and Judy Teen came on. Unfortunately, the batteries ran out when we got to Swiss Cottage [in north London] … and my legs ran out at the same time!

The first single I bought
The Wall Street Shuffle by 10cc, from Woolworths in Camden Town. Later on, we used to pinch records, but I paid my dues for a while.

Published: November 16, 2025, 9:00 am

Not OK? Booker winner Flesh ignites debate about state of masculinity

Toxic male behaviour of David Szalay’s protagonist reflects real-world concerns about a ‘crisis of masculinity’

In the immediate aftermath of David Szalay’s book Flesh winning the Booker prize, one feature of the novel stood out: how often the protagonist utters the word “OK”.

The 500 times István grunts out the response is part of a sparse prose style through which the British-Hungarian Szalay gives the reader few insights into the inner workings of a man whose fortunes rise and fall.

Flesh by David Szalay (Vintage Publishing, £18.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

Published: November 17, 2025, 5:00 am

Memoirs, myths and Midnight’s Children: Salman Rushdie’s 10 best books – ranked!

As the author publishes a new story collection, we rate the work that made his name – from his dazzling Booker winner to an account of the 2022 attack that nearly killed him

“It makes me want to hide behind the furniture,” Rushdie now says of his debut. It’s a science fiction story, more or less, but also indicative of the sort of writer Rushdie would become: garrulous, playful, energetic. The tale of an immortal Indian who travels to a mysterious island, it’s messy but charming, and the sense of writing as performance is already here. (Rushdie’s first choice of career was acting, and he honed his skill in snappy lines when working in an advertising agency.) Not a great book, but one that shows a great writer finding his voice, and a fascinating beginning to a stellar career.

Published: November 17, 2025, 12:00 pm

Poem of the week: Now winter nights … by Thomas Campion

A song to the consolations of winter is delivered with the grace and precision typical of this intellectually ambitious poet

Now Winter Nights …

Now winter nights enlarge
The number of their hours;
And clouds their storms discharge
Upon the airy towers.
Let now the chimneys blaze
And cups o’erflow with wine,
Let well-tuned words amaze
With harmony divine.
Now yellow waxen lights
Shall wait on honey love
While youthful revels, masques and courtly sights,
Sleep’s leaden spells remove.

Published: November 17, 2025, 10:00 am

Borderline Fiction by Derek Owusu review – life with borderline personality disorder

A student navigates troubled relationships at age 19 and 25, as he comes to terms with mental health difficulties

“The best way to make sense of life,” Derek Owusu believes, “is to write about it.” His semi-autobiographical debut, That Reminds Me, was an attempt to understand how he came to be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder: a condition marked, among other things, by intense emotions, self-destructive impulses, fear of abandonment, black-and-white thinking, and an unstable sense of self. The novel, written in an elliptical and densely poetic style, offered an illuminating, if harrowing, account of alienation, addiction and self-harm, through the story of K, an alter ego whose early childhood, like Owusu’s, was spent in foster care. It won Owusu the Desmond Elliott prize in 2020, and announced him as an idiosyncratic talent; in 2023, he was named one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists.

Owusu now turns again to the subject of BPD, this time exploring the complexities and contradictions of living with the condition. His narrator, Marcus, is 25 when the book opens. An English literature student of Ghanaian heritage, he is at a speed dating event when he meets San. San is strikingly beautiful, and she grabs his attention right away: “So, yes, I was in love again, losing balance, stumbling towards an earlier phase of my life.”

Published: November 17, 2025, 9:00 am

‘So weird, but cute’: Bridget Jones immortalised as London welcomes statue of Britain’s favourite singleton

Helen Fielding and Renée Zellweger gather in Leicester Square as a new bronze marks 30 years of the diary-writing everywoman who redefined the romcom heroine

Bridget Jones, Britain’s best-loved and most hapless romcom heroine, stands in a creased miniskirt and gaping cardie in the centre of London, clutching her diary and a pen. Alcohol units: 0, cigarettes: 0, calories: 0, weight: 31 stone – and, according to the actor Sally Phillips, “no intention of losing any of it”.

Phillips was in Leicester Square on Monday morning to unveil a life-size bronze of the comedy character, alongside Helen Fielding – who first cooked her up in a newspaper column 30 years ago, and whose novels have now been translated into more than 40 languages – and Renée Zellweger, star of the four Bridget Jones films (with a combined box office of $900m (£683m)).

Published: November 17, 2025, 6:18 pm

Chess review – messy Broadway revival wastes catchy Abba songs

Imperial Theatre, New York

A 1980s concept album, from Tim Rice and Abba members Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, is brought back to the stage with uneven results

According to plenty of cinephiles, the best strategy for remaking movies is to choose material that wasn’t executed to its full potential in the original version – better to remake something with room to improve, in other words, than a stone-cold classic. Broadway is less clearcut. Plenty of revivals have revitalized and repopularized old shows, but tinkering with a familiar yet not precisely classic show like Chess can prove a lot trickier.

On one hand, for most theatergoers, a revival of Chess won’t compete with fond memories of a long-running hit – at least not a stage one. Chess began life as a concept-album collaboration between lyricist Tim Rice and Abba members Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, telling the story of a fictional cold war chess match between champions of the US and the Soviet Union. It spawned hit singles including One Night in Bangkok; the eventual West End stage production ran a respectable three years. A heavily revised American production, featuring far more dialogue than the mostly-sung-through original, opened and quickly closed on Broadway in 1988. Other versions have since premiered in Australia and Sweden.

Published: November 17, 2025, 2:41 pm

‘People still blame me for their perforated eardrums’: how we made the Tango ads

‘Gil Scott-Heron did the closing voiceover. He was giggling away, saying, “You English guys are crazy!”’

My creative partner Al Young and I had been on the dole for 18 months when we landed our dream jobs at Howell Henry ad agency. We had to prove ourselves fast. Tango’s brief was basically to get talked about. They told us: “We want Coca-Cola to be afraid of this little British brand.” The campaign was based around the hit of real fruit. We decided to escalate that concept, making the hit a physical thing.

Published: November 17, 2025, 3:10 pm

‘Two more broomsticks please!’ Was James Blades the greatest percussionist ever?

He played china mugs, bells, rattles and car horns for everyone from Alfred Hitchcock to Benjamin Britten – and once got Laurence Olivier to bang a broomstick. We go behind the scenes of a Radio 3 celebration

Saturday night and the Britten Studio at Snape Maltings is filling up with 300 chattering punters. We are about to record a show that will go out “as live” on BBC Radio 3. This is a one-shot wonder: for one night only, in this drama-documentary, we are exploring the work of percussionist James Blades. Our setup neatly combines the most stressful elements of a live show, plus the key aspect of audience participation which we have – obviously – no proper chance to rehearse. Nerves are fraying. How did it get to this? And who is James Blades anyway?

Born in 1901, Blades was one of the great percussionists of the 20th century, whose life spanned the century itself – he died in May 1999. His blazing talent combined with a startling capacity for hard work took him to the top of his profession and later made him a mentor to music stars as varied as rock drummer Carl Palmer, percussionist Evelyn Glennie and a young Simon Rattle.

Published: November 17, 2025, 6:00 am

The 10 best shower curtains, including plastic-free options

From 100% cotton to recycled EVA plastic options, we subjected 10 shower curtains to a perpetually foggy apartment bathroom to find the best

• The best bath towels in the US, from fluffy to quick drying – tested

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Shower curtains are one of those everyday items that probably affect your day more than you realize. After all, you probably confront your shower curtain every morning, when you’re both naked and sleepy. It can be a welcoming gateway to your own personal spa, or a mildewed portal to hell.

If you’re dealing with the latter, it may be time for a new one, but shopping for one can be more complicated than it should be. Clear plastic or drapery-like fabric? Do you need a liner? Is that overwhelming plastic stench bad for me?

I tested the fabric models without liners, taking a 10-minute shower and not being careful about how splashy I was being. The next morning, I inspected for dampness and recorded the results.

I cleaned each one according to manufacturers’ directions, whether that was machine-washing and drying it, or just spraying it down.

Published: November 16, 2025, 8:15 pm

Are you stuck in ordinary - but devastating - narcissism? There is a way out

Meaningful therapy offers a path past our worst impulses. We should be fighting for it to be available for everyone

When I picture what a good life means to me, I feel a tension in my chest. I see my daughter and my husband and I feel the profound fulfilment of being exactly where I need to be, tightened by the terror that life is so fragile and I cannot protect them from that reality. Then a memory: lying on my analyst’s couch and describing a feeling of hollowness inside that I felt deeply ashamed of, and her listening and thinking and understanding – and my noticing that while I felt horror and repulsion, she didn’t seem to. Next: different walks around different parks with different friends, each with the same feeling of being warmed from the inside out; also, bumping into neighbours at the playground and feeling a part of my community. I remember powerful moments with my patients, who have felt understood, by me and within themselves. And I think of the moving messages from readers who have got in touch, sharing precious stories from their lives.

People often think that psychoanalysis and its NHS-friendly grandchild, psychodynamic psychotherapy, are all about looking inwards. And it’s true – good therapy should give us the time and space, the frame and the containment, to look inside and listen to ourselves.

Published: November 17, 2025, 11:00 am

Celebrity crib sheet: Sydney Sweeney is everywhere – here are nine things you need to know about her

A jeans ad made her notorious. Then she got cosy with Taylor Swift’s arch-nemesis. Time to get up to speed before the actor/model next hits the headlines …

Spare a thought for Sydney Sweeney! Yes, she is young, beautiful, rich and talented, but she has also been getting it from all sides this week. Her passion project has bombed at the box office; she is still paying for a jeans advertisement she did four months ago, and being called on to address charges of having joked about eugenics; and fellow members of the Hollywood elite are breaking ranks to express their disdain (in one case, with a vomiting emoji). And, as she found out this week, she can’t even enjoy a kiss with her controversial new boyfriend without being snapped by the callous paparazzi!

Here’s what you need to know when Sweeney’s name next crops up – which, if current trends continue, will be soon.

Published: November 16, 2025, 8:00 am

‘I try not to get him started on politics!’: power couples on rows, rules and who really does the housework

As fewer people tie the knot, four well-known married couples share their secrets, from film director Bruce Robinson and artist Sophie Windham to writers Roxane Gay and Debbie Millman

Bruce Robinson – best known as the writer and director of Withnail and I – met artist Sophie Windham at an Italian restaurant in London in 1982. He proposed three days later. They have been married for 42 years and still live and work side by side in the Welsh borders. They have two grownup children, Lily and Willoughby.

Published: November 16, 2025, 6:00 am

This is how we do it: ‘I do get jealous and question whether I’m cut out for non-monogamy’

Maya worried about entering into an open relationship with Ollie, but being honest with each other has deepened their relationship

• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

If I know that Ollie’s on a date, I find it difficult sitting around, not knowing what to do with myself

Published: November 16, 2025, 11:00 am

My friend only ever wants to talk about herself. Should I cut her off? | Ask Annalisa Barbieri

A face-to-face conversation telling her how her behaviour affects you would give you peace, even if she ignores you

I have been friends with a woman for more than 20 years, who has overcome many challenges, which I admire. However, she’s constantly blindsided by people. Her husband left her, and it was a huge shock. A lot of her friends disappeared at that point as they were only interested in her husband. This surprised her. She made more effort to be my friend, and must have realised more clearly what friendship was.

Over the years since, quite a few of her friends have disappeared and she isn’t sure why. Her last employer turned on her, even though she was an excellent employee, and she left without knowing what had changed.

Published: November 16, 2025, 6:00 am

Dining across the divide: ‘We both came out thinking Zack Polanski is a breath of fresh air’

They both liked the Greens’ Zack Polanski and disliked the tech oligarchs. But could they find common cause over the power of the unions?

Andrew, 70, near Nottingham

Occupation Retired acupuncturist and herbalist

Published: November 16, 2025, 12:00 pm

Is it true that … you burn more fat by working out on an empty stomach?

There are modest benefits to exercising on an empty stomach, but it’s more important to burn more energy than you’re consuming

‘There’s an element of truth to that,” says Javier Gonzalez, a professor of nutrition and metabolism at the University of Bath. “When we exercise, we’re always burning a mix of fuels – mainly carbohydrates and fat. If you’ve fasted overnight, you’ll generally burn a bit more fat and less carbohydrate than if you’d eaten breakfast, especially one high in carbs.” But that doesn’t mean fasted workouts are better for weight loss.

“We can only store a small amount of carbohydrate as glycogen in our muscles and liver. Any extra energy – from carbs, fat or protein – eventually gets stored as body fat. So to lose fat, you need to be in an energy deficit: burning more energy than you consume. If you’re not, it doesn’t matter whether you’re fasted or fed – your body balances things out over time,” says Gonzalez.

Published: November 17, 2025, 8:00 am

Everything I wish I’d known before I decided to freeze my eggs at 36

More and more people are turning to egg freezing to increase their chances of becoming a parent. Here’s what you need to know if you’re considering it – from the hidden costs to the chances of success

When I first told my mother I was freezing my eggs, she asked: “So my grandchildren are going to be stored next to some Häagen-Dazs?” (Very funny, Mum.) I’m one of an increasing number of women in the UK who have chosen to put their eggs on ice in order to preserve their fertility, although this does – as discussed later – have clear limitations.

According to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the UK’s regulator for the fertility industry, there was a 170% increase in the number of egg freezing cycles between 2019 and 2023. The technology has been around since the 80s, but became more accessible in the 00s with vitrification, a flash-freezing technique. Now, celebrities such as Florence Pugh and Michaela Coel openly discuss their experiences of it, and companies such as Meta, Spotify and Goldman Sachs subsidise the procedure for employees.

Published: November 16, 2025, 12:00 pm

Dermatologists criticise ‘dystopian’ skincare products aimed at children

Marketing or celebrity-led treatments for toddlers and upwards described as ‘ridiculous’ and lacking in skin benefit

Dermatologists have criticised an actor’s new skincare brand, calling it “dystopian” for creating face masks for four-year-olds, warning that the beauty industry is now expanding its reach from teenagers to toddlers.

It comes as a growing number of brands are moving into the children’s, teenage and young adult skincare market. In October, the first skincare brand developed for under-14s, Ever-eden, launched in the US. Superdrug has just created a range for those aged between 13 and 28.

Published: November 16, 2025, 12:33 pm

Georgina Hayden’s quick and easy recipe for roast hake with caper anchovy butter | Quick and easy

Tender hake in a punchy flavoured butter makes for a quick midweek supper or a knockout dinner-party show-off, and all in half an hour

I love this one-tray dinner; it feels elegant but easy, and worthy of both a midweek meal and if you are entertaining. The punchy anchovy and garlic butter does all the hard work, and gives the impression of more effort than was actually exerted. But what to serve it with, I hear you ask? Well, it wouldn’t be out of place with creamy mashed potato, buttery polenta or a salad. Just make sure to baste the fish halfway through cooking, to get all the flavour and juices back into it.

The Guardian aims to publish recipes for sustainable fish. Check ratings in your region: UK; Australia; US.

Published: November 17, 2025, 1:00 pm

Life as a food delivery worker: ‘Sometimes men open the door naked’

To earn a living as a delivery rider, some work 10-12 hour days, contending with low pay, exhaustion, accidents, injuries and harassment. Is this a new form of modern slavery?

“I earn more cleaning toilets than I do from being a Deliveroo rider,” says Marina, a Brazilian woman who juggles two jobs to support her 12- and 18-year-old daughters.

It’s a “bullshit, horrible job”, says Adam, from Sudan, who combines riding for Deliveroo with studying for a law degree. “On a good day I can earn £50 or £60, although it’s really hard doing deliveries using a pedal bike.”

Published: November 16, 2025, 5:00 am

The kindness of strangers: a woman cleaned up my toddler’s vomit – and paid for the paper towel

I was sleep deprived and completely overwhelmed when she stepped in and took charge

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

As a twin mum the work is constant. It is double the love and double the laughs, but also double the illness. Of course, my twins would never get sick at the same time. As one recovered, the other would start showing symptoms.

One day, when my girls were three, one had a vomiting bug. She hadn’t thrown up for 24 hours so I took my chance to do a quick run to the chemist to stock up on supplies. My husband worked away during the week, so I had to manage on my own. I was exhausted, carrying the sick kid in my arms, while walking the healthy one along next to me as quickly as I could.

Published: November 16, 2025, 2:00 pm

Do good fences really make good neighbours?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

They say “good fences make good neighbours”, presumably meaning that the stronger the boundary between you and people you need to deal with, the more robust the relationship. Is this really true? Jamila, via email

Post your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday.

Published: November 16, 2025, 2:00 pm

The banality of evil: how Epstein’s powerful friends normalised him

Long after his conviction for sexual offences, businessmen, academics, journalists, politicians and royals sought his ear

He got by with a little help from his friends. From British royalty to White House alumni, from a Silicon Valley investor to a leftwing academic, connections and influence were the ultimate currency for Jeffrey Epstein.

Yet none appeared to challenge Epstein over his horrific crimes. If silence is complicity, the casual disdain of the elite circles he moved in spoke volumes.

Published: November 16, 2025, 2:00 pm

The last frontier of empathy: why we still struggle to see ourselves as animals | Megan Mayhew Bergman

Champions of exceptionalism say humans hold a unique moral status. Yet there’s only one species recklessly destroying the planet it needs to survive

At first light in Massachusetts bay, a North Atlantic right whale threads the shallows with her calf tucked into her slipstream. She surfaces, and the V-shaped breath – two brief feathers of vapor – vanishes in the cold air.

The calf is roughly three months old, about the length of a small truck, still learning the rhythm: rise, breathe, tuck back into mother’s wake. They are doing what every mammal mother and baby do: moving toward food and a safer place.

Published: November 16, 2025, 2:00 pm

Scrutiny grows over LA fire origins after bombshell report: ‘Our Pearl Harbor moment’

Reports that fire crews were ordered to leave original site of blaze prompt tough questions for city and LAFD leaders

Concerns over a small brush fire that reignited days later into the mammoth Palisades fire – the most destructive in Los Angeles history – have grown in recent weeks amid reports that firefighters were ordered to leave the original site of the smaller blaze despite their concerns the ground was still smoldering.

Now, questions remain about how leaders at the Los Angeles fire department responded to a fire that leveled entire communities, and who within the agency knew about concerns the fire could still pose a threat. A former LA city councilor says the aftermath and recovery effort should serve as a Pearl Harbor moment for the city, which should never again be in a position with flames encroaching on all sides.

Published: November 16, 2025, 12:00 pm

Cop30 protests, a Tokyo sunset and a blindfolded giraffe: photos of the day – Monday

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

Published: November 17, 2025, 3:01 pm