Beans, beans, the magical fruit: how healthy are they really?

Research shows beans are good for the body and for the planet. Here’s what to know about getting more in your diet

Beans are affordable, accessible and versatile – delicious in dense salads and creamy sauces alike.

They grow worldwide and are good for the planet, enriching the soil they sprout from with nitrogen while emitting fewer greenhouse gases and requiring significantly less land and water per gram of protein than any animal source. Thanks to enormous diversity, more than 400 varieties are used in culinary contexts, some of which are gorgeous to boot.

Published: November 6, 2025, 5:00 pm

Zohran Mamdani is filling disillusioned Americans with hope and inspiration | Osita Nwanevu

Whatever he manages to accomplish as mayor, much of potentially national significance can be learned from his candidacy alone

The thing that should surprise us most about Zohran Mamdani’s election win is that it wasn’t a surprise. Well before the result was called on Tuesday night, weeks of reliable surveys had already suggested his victory in New York City’s mayoral race, by a nine-point margin over former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, would be a foregone conclusion ⁠– an extraordinary finish for a man unknown to the vast majority of New Yorkers when he launched his run just over a year ago. The campaign that followed was one of the greatest in American history.

True as it may be that both Cuomo and incumbent mayor Eric Adams were deeply flawed candidates marred by scandal, it was by no means inevitable that Mamdani would be the leading candidate against them. ⁠As recently as February, Mamdani was polling at 1% in the Democratic primary, well behind a slew of challengers with more name recognition, more experience and deeper roots in city politics. They were defeated by an ever-growing army of volunteers ⁠– 90,000 by the summer ⁠– led substantially by organizers from the Democratic Socialists of America. Early in the campaign, it was a given to many commentators that an openly leftist campaign for the mayorship of the world’s financial capital would face impossible headwinds. In Tuesday night’s victory speech, Mamdani opened with a quote from Eugene Debs. Per exit polling from CNN, nearly one in four New Yorkers who went to the polls described themselves as socialists.

Published: November 6, 2025, 11:00 am

Snap cuts are leaving one in eight Americans hungry. Here’s how you can help

The government shutdown has led to food stamps expiring. People are jumping into action to support their neighbors

As the US government shutdown continues, nearly 42 million people face a threat to their food supply. Funding for the Snap program – commonly known as food stamps – expired on Saturday, leaving recipients’ fate uncertain. “It comes down to paying for my medications and my bills or buying food for myself and for my animals,” a Missouri veteran told the Guardian. A California resident described being “housebound because I need a couple of spinal cord surgeries so this is really gonna hurt me because I cannot work, and thereby earn money to put food on the table”.

Last week, a judge blocked the Trump administration from suspending benefits entirely. But on Monday, the administration said it would provide those enrolled in the program with only half of what they usually receive. Now, food banks are struggling under the weight of “unprecedented demand”, said Linda Nageotte, president and chief operating officer of Feeding America, a network of food banks across the US. “One in eight people in our country right now don’t have enough to eat, and if you’re one of the seven who does, it’s time for you to activate.”

Published: November 6, 2025, 5:55 pm

‘I’m so not scary. But my features can be’: Fiona Shaw on Austen, Andor and Harry Potter

The actor answers your questions about slipping swearwords into Disney shows, breakfast with Terrence Malick and lunch with Richard Griffiths

Your funeral speech in Andor was a huge highlight of a show surprisingly packed with anti-fascist sentiment (we all know that when you said “Fight the Empire!” you really wanted to use a different f-word there). Did you know at the time just how apt the whole show would be in the US political climate? notanauthority
I did say a different word in my speech, and the writer hoped that Disney were OK with it, so we kept the strong f-word right to the end. And then I think some executive buckled, so it became “fight the Empire”. It was filmed after the first Trump incumbency, when there was another president, so it wasn’t overtly connected to the America that is now.

When I performed that speech, I was filmed by about 200 cameras so they could make a hologram. I was alone in a huge studio, no director or crew in the room with me. There was a “God” mic – somebody spoke to me remotely saying, “We’ll do that again”. It was quite scary.

Published: November 6, 2025, 1:00 pm

Trump is weaponizing the welfare state to attack healthcare | Moira Donegan

The proposed withholding of Medicaid and Medicare to restrict gender-affirming care follows the same logic as attacks on abortion care

In United States v Skrmetti, a supreme court decision issued this summer, the rightwing justices made it legal for states to ban gender-affirming care for trans minors, in a ruling whose reasoning strained logic, claiming that state laws banning the treatment did not discriminate on the basis of sex. The ruling upheld laws in 27 states, all of them passed since 2021, which banned the treatment outright; according to the Human Rights Campaign, about 40% of trans minors live in states where treatment for them is against the law. Now, the Trump administration seems to be looking to cut off access to care for the other 60% of those kids.

In a proposed rule leaked to NPR, the administration plans to ban gender-affirming care for minors from being covered by Medicaid or by the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or Chip. In a second, more sweeping proposed rule, the Trump administration looks to ban hospitals, clinics and providers from receiving any Medicaid or Medicare reimbursements at all if their practice provides transition-related pediatric care.

Published: November 6, 2025, 3:00 pm

Is Kim Kardashian’s legal drama All’s Fair really the worst TV show of all time?

Ryan Murphy’s glossy, star-packed new show has received some of the most shocking reviews we’ve seen for a long time, including many zero-star takes

• Giving a review zero stars sets a dreadful precedent. But here are the one-star shockers I’d downgrade – Peter Bradshaw

If you get a secret thrill from reading bad reviews, this week has basically been your Christmas. This is when the embargo dropped for Ryan Murphy’s new Kim Kardashian-starring Hulu legal drama All’s Fair, and hoo boy. Lucy Mangan’s zero-star extravaganza was a classic of the form, starting with the line “I did not know it was still possible to make television this bad,” and only getting more despairing from there.

But then something incredible happened. More All’s Fair reviews started popping up, and they were just as scathing. Every last one of them, without exception, absolutely hated it. In his zero-star review, the Times’s Ben Dowell observed that the show felt like it had been written “by a toddler who couldn’t write ‘bum’ on a wall”. USA Today’s Kelly Lawler wrote: “It’s so stilted, artificial and awkward not even a glass of wine and leftover Halloween candy can make it remotely enjoyable to view.” The Wrap said: “One wonders if Murphy is engaged in some sort of social experiment to see if he can get away with making the most transparently terrible show on Disney’s dime.” In his one-star review (comparatively a rave), the Telegraph’s Ed Power called the show a “disaster zone of soapy plotting and reeking dialogue”.

Published: November 6, 2025, 10:02 am

New York, LA and Chicago airports among 40 facing air traffic reductions

US government shutdown blamed for cuts from Friday, two weeks before busy Thanksgiving holiday travel period

• US politics live – latest updates

• List of US airports cutting flights on Friday due to federal government shutdown

New York, Los Angeles and Chicago airports are among 40 that will see reductions in flights from Friday as a result of the government shutdown, according to a list distributed to the airlines.

The Associated Press published the list after airline regulators identified “high-volume markets” where air traffic will be reduced on Friday, a move that would force airlines to cancel thousands of flights and create a cascade of scheduling issues and delays at some of the nation’s largest airports.

This article was amended on 6 November 2025. A previous version said the US government was in its 35th day of shutdown. The correct current number is 37 days.

Published: November 6, 2025, 4:13 pm

Revealed: Qatar-linked intelligence operation targeted ICC prosecutor’s alleged victim

Exclusive: Woman who accused Karim Khan of misconduct was subject of covert operation involving two British private intelligence firms

The woman who has accused the prosecutor of the international criminal court of sexual abuse has been targeted by private intelligence firms as part of a covert operation said to have taken place on behalf of Qatar.

The Guardian can reveal details of the intrusive operation, which has obtained sensitive information about the woman, who works at the ICC, and her family members.

Published: November 6, 2025, 7:03 pm

How Nancy Pelosi became the Democrat Trump hated most

The former House speaker, who recently announced her retirement, has had a contentious relationship with the president

• US politics live – latest updates

Nancy Pelosi arrived in Congress in 1987 aiming to spur a reluctant Washington into taking action against the Aids epidemic that was then ravaging the gay community in her home town, San Francisco.

Nearly four decades later, she will exit the House of Representatives after a historic career in which she has made her influence felt nationwide. A Democrat who was the first woman ever to serve as speaker of the House, her fingerprints are on landmark legislation passed during Barack Obama’s and Joe Biden’s presidencies that affect millions of Americans and today remain among the most contentious topics in the Capitol.

Published: November 6, 2025, 7:51 pm

US stock market values tumble amid reports of high layoffs and hiring freezes

The S&P 500 index fell 1% as the government shutdown left investors ‘groping around in the dark’ for up-to-date data

Fears that the US economy is slowing, with firms shedding jobs and imposing hiring freezes, sent Wall Street tumbling on Thursday.

The S&P 500 index of leading firms was down 1% as investors also highlighted concerns about the potential for a slump in the value of businesses that have benefited from huge investments in artificial intelligence. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 1.5%.

Published: November 6, 2025, 6:35 pm

Israel carries out wave of airstrikes on southern Lebanon

Three towns attacked despite truce with Hezbollah in what Israeli military says was effort to prevent group rearming

The Israeli military has carried out a wave of airstrikes in southern Lebanon in what it described as an attempt to prevent Hezbollah rearming.

Israeli warplanes struck the towns of Kfar Dounine, Tayr Debba and Zawtar al-Sharqiya on Thursday, about an hour after issuing evacuation warnings to residents. No deaths had been reported at the time of publishing.

Published: November 6, 2025, 7:19 pm

Virginia school teacher shot by six-year-old student awarded $10m in damages

Abigail Zwerner alleged assistant principal ignored reports that a firearm was on school property

A Virginia schoolteacher who was shot by her six-year-old student in 2023 has been awarded $10m in damages by a jury, concluding a negligence lawsuit she brought against a school administrator.

Abigail Zwerner alleged that an assistant principal at the Newport News elementary school, where she used to teach, ignored multiple reports that a gun was on school property and probably in the possession of the boy who shot her in January 2023.

Published: November 6, 2025, 8:16 pm

ICE plans to open call center to help law enforcement locate unaccompanied minors

Facility, slated to open in March in Nashville, will use ‘data-enabled technology’ to track down migrant children

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to open a new call center to help law enforcement agencies track down unaccompanied migrant children.

According to a homeland security department Request for Information (RFI) notice released this week, ICE stated there is an “immediate need to establish and maintain” a call center equipped with “data-enabled technology”.

Published: November 6, 2025, 8:34 pm

Man who threw sandwich at US federal agent found not guilty of assault

Former justice department employee’s lawyers argued it was a ‘harmless gesture’ during an act of protest

A former Department of Justice employee who threw a sandwich at a federal agent during Donald Trump’s law enforcement surge in Washington DC was found not guilty of assault by a DC jury on Thursday in the latest legal rebuke of the federal intervention.

Sean Charles Dunn, a former justice department paralegal, became a symbol of the resistance to Trump’s occupation in the nation’s capital when video of him, clad in a pink polo shirt and shorts, throwing a sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent, wearing a bulletproof vest, went viral.

Published: November 6, 2025, 7:45 pm

Famed Florentine diamond surfaces in Canada after century-long disappearance

Empress Zita brought stone to Canada as Nazis took over Europe in 1940s and it remained in bank vault ever since

At the height of the Battle of Britain, when the UK government needed a secret location to store 186,332 gold bars, it turned to Canada.

Shipped across the Atlantic and stored beneath a hastily constructed vault in Montreal, Operation Fish became known both for the vast amounts of gold involved – and the immense secrecy that followed.

Published: November 6, 2025, 6:52 pm

Trump claims his tariffs are matter of ‘national security’ after supreme court appears skeptical – live

President defends tariffs as nation’s ‘difference between going bankrupt and thriving’ and says court ruling against them would be ‘somewhat catastrophic’

It’s now day 37 of the ongoing government shutdown, the longest on record, with both parties continuing to blame the other for the lapse in funding.

For his part, Donald Trump has turned his attention to the filibuster – the procedural mechanism that requires 60 votes in the Senate to end debate on a piece of legislation and bring it to the floor for a vote. He’s hammered home his wishes on Truth Social, and in front of lawmakers at a White House breakfast on Tuesday.

Published: November 6, 2025, 8:56 pm

Trump announces plan to cut cost of weight loss drugs and expand access

Injectable versions of GLP-1s from Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk will see reduced prices and broader coverage

Donald Trump announced a plan on Thursday to reduce the costs of some weight loss drugs for certain patients and expand access to them for people on public health insurance.

The agreement will make oral versions of GLP-1s, which aren’t yet to market but are expected to be approved in the coming months, available at $150 per month for starting doses.

Published: November 6, 2025, 6:53 pm

Heritage Foundation leader apologizes for backing Tucker Carlson’s interview with white nationalist

Kevin Roberts, whose group pushed Project 2025, had defended ex-Fox News host’s talk with Nick Fuentes

The leader of the conservative thinktank behind Project 2025 apologized for supporting a white nationalist amid turmoil on the right over the mainstreaming of extremist ideology, but is resisting calls to resign.

Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, previously defended the former Fox host Tucker Carlson for having Hitler fan Nick Fuentes on his podcast without pushing back on his white supremacist views.

Published: November 6, 2025, 3:40 pm

It’s affordability, stupid: Republicans pay price for Trump’s forgotten promise

Trump looks increasingly out of touch and his disapproval rating is at an all-time high – which partly explains Tuesday’s election results

• US politics live – latest updates

Perhaps the most revealing postmortem on Republicans’ election night meltdown came from the vice-president, JD Vance.

After a night that saw Democratic governors elected in New Jersey and Virginia after focusing on the rising cost of living, and a New York mayoral campaign victory built on housing access, Vance showed a particular kind of remorse.

Published: November 6, 2025, 1:25 pm

How Mamdani built an ‘unstoppable force’ that won over New York

The mayor-elect built the greatest field operation by any political campaign in the city’s history – by getting New Yorkers to talk to eachother. Can Democrats learn from his success?

A week before Zohran Mamdani astounded the world by his out-of-nowhere, odds-defying, convention-shattering victory in the New York City mayoral election, members of his vast army of youthful volunteers were amply aware of what was at stake.

A group of 16 had assembled in the Bohemian Hispanic neighborhood of Bushwick in Brooklyn for one last push to heave the Democratic candidate over the line.

Published: November 6, 2025, 11:00 am

Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani’s supposedly radical policies as ‘normal’

Critics of New York City’s mayor-elect have said his pledges of free bus service and universal childcare are unrealistic, but in Europe it’s a given

After New York City’s race for mayor catapulted Zohran Mamdani from state assembly member into one of the world’s most prominent progressive voices, intense debate swirled over the ideas at the heart of his campaign.

His critics and opponents painted pledges such as free bus service, universal childcare and rent freezes as unworkable, unrealistic and exorbitantly expensive.

Published: November 6, 2025, 3:17 pm

Pressure on Republicans after California map vote gives Democrats critical win

Focus shifts to other states where Trump is pushing for redrawn districts as parties race to seize midterm advantage

California voters overwhelmingly approved a redistricting referendum on Tuesday, a critical win for Democrats as they attempt to counter efforts by Donald Trump and allies to redraw congressional districts in their favor ahead of next year’s midterm elections. Now, the focus will shift to other states, where Trump is pressuring Republican-led legislatures to redraw their districts. Democrats are racing to do the same in an all-out sprint to rejigger district lines ahead of next year’s midterms.

California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, and fellow Democrats placed the measure on the ballot this summer after Texas Republicans passed a map that would add anywhere from three to five Republican seats in Congress. The new California map neuters that effort by adding the same number of Democratic seats.

Published: November 6, 2025, 2:00 pm

US military buildup off Venezuela coast stirs echoes of 1989 Panama invasion

Some see anti-Noriega operation as model for deposing Maduro but others say war of bluff and intimidation is more likely option

Michael Durant watched through night-vision goggles as two 2,000-pound laser-guided bombs slammed on to the Panamanian airbase while he hovered off the country’s south coast in a Black Hawk helicopter.

“A gigantic flash, followed by a boom … [like] the largest lightning strike you’ve ever seen in your life,” the retired US army pilot recalled of the opening salvo of the Battle of Rio Hato Airfield in December 1989.

Published: November 6, 2025, 11:21 am

Gifts for the entrepreneur in your life

From CEOs to designers, 25 entrepreneurs told us the best type of gifts for these visionary and creative folks

• Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things

Everyone knows someone who’s self-employed. Whether it’s the stylist who cuts your hair, the passionate home cook now slinging the world’s best grilled cheese from the food truck down the street, or the former HR pro turned consultant, entrepreneurs come in all stripes.

What can you give these visionary and creative folks when the holidays roll around? I’ve been self-employed since 2018 as a writer and a business owner, and I’ve discovered that the right gift can both lift your spirits, and make work easier and more fun all year round. To gather gift ideas for every type of entrepreneur, I went to the source and spoke to 25 of them, from CEOs to designers. Here’s what they told me, plus a few of my own favorites.

Published: November 6, 2025, 8:15 pm

Giving a review zero stars sets a dreadful precedent. But here are the one-star shockers I’d downgrade | Peter Bradshaw

A singularly horrendous TV show has crashed the star-rating review economy. But if zero stars is the new benchmark for critical rage, three films deserve the big 0

Kim Kardashian’s world-historically horrendous TV show All’s Fair has detonated a firestorm of critical horror which, as well as everything else, may have undermined the currency of the star-rating review economy. My colleague Lucy Mangan gave Kardashian’s show an all-but-unprecedented zero stars and zero stars are in fact very rare on this paper.

Yet perhaps in the post-Kardashian world they will become more commonplace. I actually have the distinction of giving the first zero star review in the Guardian’s history — for Cuba Gooding’s terrible comedy Boat Trip back in 2002. But it’s weird. There have been worse films than that which didn’t get zeroed. Not many. But some.

Published: November 6, 2025, 4:47 pm

A voice that still carries: Aimee Mann’s greatest songs – ranked!

Thirty years on from the release of her acclaimed album I’m With Stupid, we count down the sucker-punching best tracks by the US singer-songwriter

Aimee Mann has had hits and acclaim from critics and her peers, but the sense that she’s slightly undervalued still clings. A song as deceptive as Build That Wall might explain why: on the surface it seems straightforward and easy-on-the-ear, but beneath its mellow, mellifluous surface lurk stinging lyrics and real emotional force.

Published: November 6, 2025, 3:00 pm

Death by Lightning review – absolutely nobody plays losers like Matthew Macfadyen

The Succession actor is utterly brilliant in every moment of this punchy historical miniseries. His portrayal of the crank who killed the US president in 1881 takes his mastery to the next level

‘My name,” says Charles Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen), the anti-hero of punchy four-part historical miniseries Death by Lightning, “will be known one day all across this country!” Guiteau was, until now, wrong. He tried to insert himself into history by assassinating the US president, James Garfield, in 1881 – but Garfield was only four months into his tenure, so all Guiteau did by shooting him was turn them both into difficult pub quiz answers.

Death by Lightning pays careful tribute to Garfield, a quietly extraordinary statesman, but its focus is Guiteau and, if this show is a hit, he might finally get his wish. If so, it’ll be because Charles Guiteau has become a byword for the sort of pitiable crank that Matthew Macfadyen plays better than anyone else on television.

Published: November 6, 2025, 8:01 am

Mamdani’s mayoral race was marred by unhinged Islamophobia. It’s not going away soon | Arwa Mahdawi

The racist abuse that Zohran Mamdani is still facing proves how normalized bigotry is. We need to keep calling it out

Pack your bags and flee, infidels: New York City has fallen to a cabal of socialist jihadists. With Zohran Mamdani to become the city’s first Muslim mayor, many are celebrating the democratic socialist’s historic win. Billionaires, Islamophobes and Republicans, however, are in the throes of hysteria. But what’s new? The New York mayoral race has been marred by bigotry so unhinged it’s almost impossible to parody.

Far-right activist and unofficial Trump adviser Laura Loomer posted on X, for example, that “there will be another 9/11 in NYC” under Mamdani. New York City councilmember Vickie Paladino called the 34-year-old a “known jihadist terrorist”. Actor Debra Messing, meanwhile, has been having a Mamdani-induced meltdown on Instagram, posting story after story about how the puppy-eyed politician is a threat to civilization. She recently posted: “In Judaism and Christianity, we are commanded to speak the truth. In Islam, they are commanded to lie if it means spreading Islam … Now, take a look at Mamdani … He’s revealing their goal: mass conversion.”

Published: November 6, 2025, 5:22 pm

Zohran Mamdani shows how Democrats can defeat authoritarians like Trump | Isabella Weber

Democrats have two choices: fight to make life affordable again for ordinary people or watch voters embrace authoritarians

“My friends, the world is changing,” Zohran Mamdani told supporters in the run-up to the New York City mayoral election. “It’s not a question of whether that change will come. It’s a question of who will change it.” Today, Mamdani becomes one of those people.

People are so fed up with the status quo that they opt for anything but continuity. But Democrats and most democratic parties worldwide have shied away from offering real alternatives. This has pushed voters into the arms of the extreme right, even fascist forces. Mamdani set out to break their monopoly over visions for a different future – and won a resounding and historic victory. The last time this many voters turned out to vote for a mayor in New York City was in 1969.

Isabella Weber is an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and author of a forthcoming book on antifascist economics

Published: November 6, 2025, 11:00 am

The food stamp fight signals an era of unprecedented cruelty in America | Katrina vanden Heuvel

US leaders have long shown some responsibility to help poor people meet basic nutritional needs. That era appears over

In October, millions rallied across America to remind Donald Trump that this nation obeys no kings. Last week, however, a scene worthy of Versailles unfolded: While Trump built his $300m ballroom, the US prepared to face widespread hunger.

With Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) funding scheduled to run dry due to the government shutdown, the Trump administration not only refused to prevent the crisis – it fought in court to deprive 42 million Snap recipients of their grocery money. Thankfully, a federal judge ruled against the government and ordered that Snap payments proceed. On Monday, the administration said it would fund just half of recipients’ typical benefits. And 2.4 million people soon risk losing their benefits nonetheless, as the $186bn Snap cuts in Trump’s benighted budget bill begin taking effect.

Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of the Nation, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a contributor to the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times

Published: November 6, 2025, 1:00 pm

The era of fine speeches and good intentions is over. Brazil’s Cop30 will be about action | Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

This is our message to world leaders: make this the ‘Cop of truth’, before people lose faith

• Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is the president of Brazil

Today, in the Brazilian Amazon, the Belém summit opens ahead of the 30th United Nations climate change conference (Cop30). I have convened world leaders in the days leading up to the conference so that we can all commit to acting with the urgency the climate crisis demands.

If we fail to move beyond speeches into real action, our societies will lose faith – not only in the Cops, but in multilateralism and international politics more broadly. That is why I have summoned leaders to the Amazon: to make this the “Cop of truth”, the moment we demonstrate the seriousness of our shared commitment to the planet.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is the president of Brazil

Published: November 6, 2025, 5:00 am

The Guardian’s view on Gaza’s future: the ceasefire brought relief, but the world must not look away now | Editorial

Palestinians are being born amid the rubble. They need not only immediate relief but long-term justice

What future is there for Palestinians in Gaza? The announcement of the ceasefire brought profound relief, shaded by an equally deep sense of trepidation. Almost a month later, the picture looks bleaker. The Israeli offensive abated, Hamas has returned the surviving hostages and the remains of some of those who have died, and Israel has released some Palestinian detainees and the remains of others.

But more than 200 Palestinians, including children, have reportedly died in strikes that Israel says are in response to Hamas attacks. Thousands of bodies are still believed to be trapped beneath the ruins ­– debris which, it is estimated, would take a fleet of more than a hundred lorries seven years to shift. Aid is flowing again, but remains wholly inadequate, with NGOs warning that Israel’s new registration system is obstructing delivery. Israeli demolitions continue in the half of Gaza that its forces still hold. Unicef warned this week that the education system – in so far as it survives after two years of war and the destruction of more than 90% of school and university buildings – is on the brink of collapse. New babies are born literally in the rubble, to mothers who have neither homes nor working hospitals.

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 6, 2025, 6:53 pm

Dallas Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland dies at age of 24

• Police say player appeared to have taken his own life

• Kneeland had scored first career touchdown on Monday

The Dallas Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland has died at the age of 24, the team announced on Thursday.

“It is with extreme sadness that the Dallas Cowboys share that Marshawn Kneeland tragically passed away this morning. Marshawn was a beloved teammate and member of our organization. Our thoughts and prayers regarding Marshawn are with his girlfriend Catalina and his family,” the team said in a statement.

Published: November 6, 2025, 3:20 pm

Europa League: Aston Villa v Maccabi Tel Aviv, Rangers v Roma, and more – live

⚽ Midtylland sink Celtic, Gibbs-White miss costs Forest
⚽ Live scores | Read today’s Football Daily | Mail Michael

Some more updates from outside Villa Park, courtesy of PA Media.

Around 200 protesters including members of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign gathered near a children’s playpark adjacent to Villa Park’s Trinity Road stand. Palestinian flags and banners calling for a boycott of Israel had also been placed on the ground beside Trinity Road amid pro-Gaza chants.

Police officers briefly formed a cordon to prevent a surge of protesters after an Israeli flag was reportedly waved by a passer-by. Witnesses said the woman was ushered into a side street and spoken to by police before leaving the area.

Published: November 6, 2025, 8:53 pm

Champions League review: Bayern shine, Cypriot history and Rooney v Van Dijk

This week’s action saw Vincent Kompany’s men roll on, surprise results and a brilliant performance from a Liverpool defender

• Vincent Kompany’s Bayern Munich. They rule supreme in Germany and are on a 16-match winning streak. Beating the defending champions, Paris Saint-Germain, on Tuesday was further proof of Bayern’s credentials. Luís Diaz, whose combativeness is sorely missed by Liverpool, scored two, but he took the aggression too far when his challenge on Achraf Hakimi led to a first-half red card. That meant the second half became a test of defensive credentials that Bayern passed. “I also want us to enjoy it when we have to defend,” said Kompany. He was by no means his club’s first-choice as coach in the summer of 2024 – relegation from the Premier League with Burnley had damaged his reputation. But in Bavaria, the noise from the boardroom has been quelled – for now – by the brilliance of his team’s play.

Published: November 6, 2025, 1:44 pm

‘The goal is to win all the final races’: Norris raises bar before São Paulo GP

• McLaren driver leads overall standings by one point

• Piastri and Verstappen still in hunt with four races to go

Lando Norris has acknowledged that he needs to be at the very top of his game to try to secure his first world championship, as the British driver heads into this weekend’s São Paulo Grand Prix with a narrow one-point lead over his McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri.

Norris had trailed Piastri by 34 points after the Dutch GP but with a series of strong results including a dominant win from pole to flag at the last round in Mexico, Norris has edged ahead in the title race for the first time since the Saudi Arabian GP in April.

Published: November 6, 2025, 7:53 pm

Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra returns from game in Denver to find home engulfed in flames

• More than 20 units responded to fire at coach’s home

• No injuries reported as fire crews contain flame

The home of Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was heavily damaged on Thursday morning by a massive fire, officials have said. There were no immediate reports of any injuries and Spoelstra was not home when the fire started.

Miami-Dade County fire officials said the blaze was reported around 4.30am. Spoelstra and the Heat played in Denver on Wednesday night and their charter flight back to Miami did not land until 5.11am.

Published: November 6, 2025, 2:42 pm

WTA Finals tennis: Jessica Pegula beats Jasmine Paolini, Aryna Sabalenka v Coco Gauff – as it happened

Jessica Pegula hammered Jasmine Paolini before Aryna Sabalenka dismissed Coco Gauff, the two winners moving on to the semi-finals

Paolini nets to go down 0-15 but soon makes 30-15, and a backhand swiped wide gives her game point. And though a decent return incites her to go wide, a decent first serve serve secures the hold. “It’s always good to get the first game under your belt,” revelates Tim Henman.

Ready … play.

Published: November 6, 2025, 5:40 pm

Gio Reyna returns to USMNT squad as Pulisic and McKennie miss out

The Borussia Mönchengladbach midfielder returns to the national team for the first time since March as injuries and recoveries rule out regulars

Gio Reyna and Joe Scally will make their US men’s national team returns in the upcoming international window, while Christian Pulisic is among several regulars set to miss out. But while the Milan midfielder has just recovered from an injury suffered during his most recent time with the national team, Weston McKennie’s absence is a bit more surprising.

Reyna and Scally, both of Borussia Mönchengladbach, are among a 25-player squad named by manager Mauricio Pochettino for two friendlies: against Paraguay on 15 November at Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania, and against Uruguay at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida on 18 November.

Published: November 6, 2025, 4:02 pm

We love football because of moments like Van de Ven’s goal, not the Fifa Peace Prize | Max Rushden

Gianni Infantino has a new idea, and like most of his ideas it’s not one many are going to like, except maybe Donald Trump

A perfectly friendly-looking American guy, sharp suit, early 50s is wandering around Miami. He tells me that in the past 10 years the city has turned into a “magnet for dreamers, doers and visionaries, a launchpad where ideas take flight, where connections spark movements, where legacies are born”.

I nod sagely, pretending to know what that means before clicking the X in the top right of the YouTube tab. The man in question is in fact the mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, encouraging me and other leaders of industry to pay lots of money to attend the America Business Forum. The website tells me “America Business Forum comes to the United States for the first time” – which begs the question where they’ve held it previously. I’m no chief executive, I don’t keep a diary, but I’d have put America right up there as a location to hold a forum on American business.

Published: November 6, 2025, 12:13 pm

‘What is rugby?’: New film Brothers on Three documents the game at West Point

With unprecedented access to one of the top US college programs, director Sean Mullin uncovers raw stories of love and loss

At the United States Military Academy at West Point, rugby has the best winning record of any men’s sports program. Brothers on Three, a new documentary about the team out this week, begins with scenes of wild joy from Houston, Texas in 2022, when the Black Knights beat St Mary’s, from California, to win their first US college title.

And yet director Sean Mullin’s film is shot through with loss.

Published: November 6, 2025, 9:00 am

Missing 1.5C climate target is a moral failure, UN chief tells Cop30 summit

UN secretary general António Guterres urges opening session in Brazil to bring about a ‘paradigm shift’

• Triple-whammy of hottest ever years risks ‘irreversible damage’, says UN

The failure to limit global heating to 1.5C is a “moral failure and deadly negligence”, the UN secretary general has said at the opening session of the Cop30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belém.

António Guterres said even a temporary overshoot would have “dramatic consequences. It could push ecosystems past catastrophic tipping points, expose billions to unliveable conditions and amplify threats to peace and security.”

Published: November 6, 2025, 6:58 pm

Sudanese militia group accused of war crimes agrees to a ceasefire

International mediators broker three-month halt to civil war as further evidence emerges of mass civilian killings

A Sudanese paramilitary group accused of killing thousands of unarmed civilians in an ethnically motivated massacre has agreed to a truce.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which is facing mounting criticism over apparent war crimes committed by its fighters in the city of El Fasher last month, said it had agreed to a “humanitarian ceasefire” put forward by the quad countries of the US, Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Published: November 6, 2025, 6:38 pm

US House panel requests interview with Andrew in Jeffrey Epstein investigation

Robert Garcia, top Democrat on House oversight panel, makes formal request in letter published Thursday

• US politics live – latest updates

A US congressional panel investigating pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has written to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, formerly Britain’s Prince Andrew, to ask that he submit to questioning as part of its investigation into Epstein’s criminal operations.

In a letter published on Thursday, California congressman Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House oversight committee, requested that King Charles III’s younger brother help with its inquiry.

Published: November 6, 2025, 4:47 pm

Shirley Valentine actor Pauline Collins dies aged 85

Family pays tribute to actor who was a ‘bright, sparky, witty presence on stage and screen’

• Pauline Collins – a life in pictures

The Shirley Valentine actor Pauline Collins has died aged 85, her family has announced.

She died peacefully, surrounded by her family, in her care home in Highgate, north London, having had Parkinson’s disease for several years, they said.

Published: November 6, 2025, 7:46 pm

Canada pushes on with ‘complete depopulation’ plan to cull 400 ostriches

Country’s top court declines to block controversial cull of hundreds of birds amid fears of an avian flu outbreak

Canada’s food inspection agency says it plans to begin a “complete depopulation” of hundreds of ostriches at a farm after the country’s top court declined to block the controversial cull.

On Thursday, the supreme court said it would not take up a case that has catalyzed a fierce protest by the farm owners and protesters – as well as senior figures in the Trump administration, who have decried the public health effort as government overreach.

Published: November 6, 2025, 7:57 pm

Peloton recalls more than 800,000 US exercise bikes over faulty seat post

Shares fall as users urged to stop using bikes immediately and warned assembly poses risk of falls and injuries

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission said on Thursday that Peloton Interactive was recalling about 833,000 units of its Original Bike+ Model PL02 after reports that the seat post assembly could break during use, posing a risk of falls and injuries.

The consumer safety regulator said the fitness products maker had received three reports of the seat post breaking and detaching during use, including two incidents that resulted in injuries from falls.

Published: November 6, 2025, 7:53 pm

Judge to order federal agents in Chicago to restrict force against protesters and media

Judge says agents’ practices amid immigration crackdown violate constitutional rights of protesters and journalists

A judge said on Thursday she will order federal agents in Chicago to restrict using force against peaceful protesters and media, saying current practices violate their constitutional rights.

The preliminary injunction came in response to a lawsuit alleging federal agents have used excessive force in their immigration crackdown in the Chicago area.

Published: November 6, 2025, 6:25 pm

New York Post’s anti-Mamdani front page is a hit – with his supporters

Wednesday’s ‘On your Marx, get set, Zo!’ edition of the New York Post is a hot property – with one copy selling for $355

The New York Post’s “On your Marx, get set, Zo!” front page published just hours after democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s win in the New York mayor’s race is proving a viral hit, with one vendor on eBay selling a print copy for $355 soon after it was listed for auction.

The Post’s 5 November front page, with “The Red Apple” headline featuring Mamdani holding up a Soviet-style hammer and sickle, is also being sold by the newspaper as a $75 metal print. Ironically – given the rightwing Rupert Murdoch-owned publication’s staunch opposition to the mayor-elect, it’s proving a hit with Mamdani supporters.

Published: November 6, 2025, 4:07 pm

Amazon lakes hit ‘unbearable’ hot-tub temperatures amid mass die-offs of pink river dolphins – study

Droughts and heatwaves causing water in some areas to reach 41C, killing fish and endangered dolphins, say researchers

Amazonian lakes are being transformed into simmering basins hotter than spa baths as severe heatwaves and drought grip the region, research shows.

The temperature of one lake exceeded 40C (104F) as water levels plummeted under intense sunlight and cloudless skies. The extreme heat triggered mass die-offs among endangered Amazon river dolphins and fish, which cannot survive in such high temperatures.

Published: November 6, 2025, 7:00 pm

How could Tropical Forest Forever fund proposed at Cop30 tackle deforestation?

Scheme aims to raise $125bn to invest in bonds, with returns used to reward tropical countries for conservation

As a battle-scarred veteran of the war against nature, Garo Batmanian has spent 45 years trying to defend the Amazon rainforest. For most of that time, the resistance he leads has been outfunded and outgunned by those who profit from destruction. The most Batmanian felt he could achieve was to slow the advance of the chainsaws and tractors.

But the director-general of Brazil’s forest service feels there could be a chance at the Cop30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, next week, not just of an even fight, but perhaps a victory. There is one condition: world governments must rally behind an initiative being launched by the host nation – the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF).

Published: November 6, 2025, 3:21 pm

‘We need help’: devastated Jamaican communities still await aid after Hurricane Melissa

Ravaged communities near Montego Bay recount what last week’s category 5 storm took from them

• ‘New reality’: Hurricane Melissa strength multiplied by climate crisis, study says

• ‘How do you rebuild all this?’ Black River residents assess damage after Hurricane Melissa

Sitting outside her house in muddy slippers amid the ruins left by category 5 Hurricane Melissa that ravaged parts of Jamaica last week, Narva Maxwell Taylor recounted how she and her family had to fight for their lives when the storm sent flood waters surging through their home.

“We have to give God thanks we are alive. We could be dead. But everything is gone. I don’t have anything left now,” Taylor, a resident of Catherine Hall, Montego Bay, said.

Published: November 6, 2025, 2:11 pm

Triple-whammy of hottest ever years risks ‘irreversible damage’, says UN

Experts say 2023, 2024 and 2025 the three hottest years in 176 years of records, with 1.5C Paris agreement target now ‘virtually impossible’

• Missing 1.5C climate target is a moral failure, UN chief tells Cop30 summit

A triple-whammy of hottest years ever recorded threatens “irreversible damage”, the UN has warned as the world’s nations prepare to meet at the Cop30 climate summit in Brazil.

This year is on course to be the second or third hottest ever, in records that stretch back 176 years, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said. It means 2023, 2024 and 2025 will be the three hottest on record, demonstrating that the world is now deep into the climate crisis.

Published: November 6, 2025, 2:00 pm

Scientists criticize ‘straw man’ arguments in Bill Gates climate memo

Tech billionaire relying on ‘false binary’ with call to focus less on emissions and more on aid for poor, experts say

A new memo on the climate crisis from Bill Gates relies on “straw man” arguments about the threat to humanity and “false dichotomies” between spending on climate or aid for the poor, some climate scientists say.

Published last week, the tech billionaire’s 17-page missive called for a “strategic pivot” away from focusing on slashing emissions and towards preventing poverty and suffering. It was quickly picked up by some on the right, including Donald Trump, who hailed it as a much-needed backpedaling on climate efforts.

Published: November 6, 2025, 1:00 pm

What Tuesday’s elections mean for the future of abortion rights

Democrats’ commanding victories have breathed new life for supporters of the reproductive health fight

Supporters of abortion rights have spent much of the last year trying to fight Donald Trump’s attempts to undermine access to the procedure. Now, Democrats’ commanding victories in the 2025 elections have breathed new life into the fight.

Democrats Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill’s respective gubernatorial victories in Virginia and New Jersey will shield abortion rights in two states that have become havens for people fleeing abortion bans. In Pennsylvania, voters decided to retain three liberal supreme court justices, maintaining Democratic control of a bench that could decide the future of abortion rights in the deeply purple state.

Published: November 6, 2025, 12:00 pm

US ends deportation protection for South Sudanese nationals

South Sudanese people with temporary protected status now have 60 days to leave

The US is ending temporary deportation protection for South Sudanese nationals, which for more than a decade allowed people from the east African country to stay in the US after escaping conflict.

In a notice published on Wednesday, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said conditions in South Sudan no longer met the statutory requirements for temporary protected status. The agency said South Sudanese nationals with status through the programme had 60 days to leave the US or face deportation.

Published: November 6, 2025, 11:12 am

Trump’s new gold Oval Office sign draws mockery and anger

Written in cursive gold script, new sign was affixed beside office’s door while shutdown jeopardizes Snap program

A new sign was spotted adorning the White House this week, prompting backlash from lawmakers who have noted that Donald Trump is quite literally gilding the White House during a government shutdown.

Trump has been remaking the White House in his own image with the recent dramatic demolition of the East Wing and active construction of a new ballroom, doing so with plenty of gold. Written in cursive gold script, a sign identifying the Oval Office is now affixed beside the office’s door.

Published: November 6, 2025, 1:46 am

Third Michigan man arrested over alleged Halloween terror plot

Ayob Nasser, 19, accused of participating in planning of potential attack on LGBTQ+ bars in suburban Detroit

Investigators say a third Michigan man is now facing charges in a plot to stage a terror attack on Halloween. He traveled to an amusement park in the midwest to scout the location, they said.

Ayob Nasser, 19, was arrested on Wednesday. He is accused of participating in the planning of a possible attack on LGBTQ+ bars in suburban Detroit that was inspired by the Islamic State, federal authorities have said.

Published: November 6, 2025, 1:17 am

Mexican women outraged by public sexual assault on their president

‘Humiliating’ groping of Claudia Sheinbaum by drunken man prompts widespread condemnation

The groping of Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum by a drunken man has sparked outrage among women, many of whom saw their own fears and experiences reflected in her plight.

“If the president suffered assault with that level of protection and those guards it means that all of us women can be assaulted at any moment,” said Patricia Reyes, a 20-year-old student.

Published: November 6, 2025, 1:05 pm

Unesco adopts global standards on ‘wild west’ field of neurotechnology

UN body’s recommendations driven by AI advances and proliferation of consumer-oriented neurotech devices

It is the latest move in a growing international effort to put guardrails around a burgeoning frontier – technologies that harness data from the brain and nervous system.

Unesco has adopted a set of global standards on the ethics of neurotechnology, a field that has been described as “a bit of a wild west”.

Published: November 6, 2025, 4:00 pm

Bolivia’s ex-president who oversaw bloody crackdown on protesters freed from prison

Release follows supreme court ruling that overturned Jeanine Áñez’s conviction for allegedly staging coup to seize power

The former interim president who oversaw a bloody crackdown on protesters in Bolivia has been freed from prison after almost five years, following a supreme court ruling that overturned her conviction for allegedly staging a coup to seize power.

Jeanine Áñez, 58, left the Miraflores women’s orientation centre in La Paz on Thursday, saying that “the monster had to go” for her to walk free – a reference to the end of nearly two decades of rule by the leftwing Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas) party.

Published: November 6, 2025, 6:12 pm

Ukraine faces ‘forever war’ unless Europe steps up pressure on Russia, says ex-Nato chief

Anders Fogh Rasmussen calls for air shield on Nato territory and deployment of European protection force for Ukraine

Ukraine is facing a “forever war” and a slow erosion of territory unless Europe dramatically increases pressure on Russia, including by deploying troops and establishing a missile and drone shield on Nato territory to protect Ukraine from Russian attacks on its infrastructure, a former Nato secretary general has said.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who held the Nato post from 2009 to 2014 and was the prime minister of Denmark from 2001 to 2009, said in an interview with the Guardian that if countries such as Poland agreed to host such air defences, Russia would understand that an attack on them would be an attack on the whole of the Nato alliance.

Published: November 6, 2025, 11:00 am

High and low: the spontaneous joy and drama of New York City – in pictures

Street photographer Daniel Arnold searches out the candid human moments of NYC, capturing a complex city alive with characters and contradictions

Published: November 6, 2025, 7:00 am

‘Sinners was a blast’: Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram, the blues prodigy serving up electrifying riffs in the year’s biggest film

He was mentored by Buddy Guy as a teen and played for Michelle Obama in the White House. Now, the 26-year-old Mississippi guitar hero is bringing the blues back into the spotlight – and taking it to the top of the box office

Founded in 1848, Clarksdale, Mississippi, soon earned the title “the Golden Buckle on the Cotton Belt”, a place where enslaved Africans and their descendants picked cotton by the tonne. But mechanisation in the 1960s changed things. Today, the small city’s median household income is $35,210, with 40% of the populace living below the poverty line. And 80% of Clarksdale’s 14,400 residents are African American. Just another left-behind town in the poorest state in the Union? This is how Clarksdale appears to many outsiders.

Or it did until one of the biggest movies of 2025 opened with the words: “Clarksdale, Mississippi – October 16, 1932”. Why was Ryan Coogler’s Sinners set in Clarksdale? Because this forgotten settlement is also a blues mecca. The crossroads where Robert Johnson supposedly “sold his soul to the devil” is here. Bessie Smith, shattered after a car crash on Highway 61, drew her last breath in Clarksdale. WC Handy, Muddy Waters, Robert Nighthawk, Junior Parker, Ike Turner and Sam Cooke are just a handful of the celebrated blues and R&B musicians who were either born or based themselves in Clarksdale at some point across the 20th century. Now, after decades of neglect, Clarksdale is using its musical heritage to re-establish its place on the map – and one of the city’s native sons, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, is bringing the blues back to the centre of American culture.

Published: November 6, 2025, 8:00 am

The Choral review – Ralph Fiennes leads the choir in impressively unsentimental Alan Bennett fable

Genteel manners of first world war story about repressed passion delivered with surprising sexual candour

Alan Bennett’s new film, directed by Nicholas Hytner, is a quiet and consistent pleasure: an unsentimental but deeply felt drama which subcontracts actual passion to the music of Elgar and leaves us with a heartbeat of wit, poignancy and common sense. Music itself mysteriously exalts and redeems the community, and I mean it as the highest possible praise when I say that The Choral reminds me of Victoria Wood’s musical That Day We Sang, about the recording of Purcell’s Nymphs and Shepherds by Manchester Children’s Choir.

The film is about men in a fictional Yorkshire town during the first world war who are variously too old or too young to fight, and the women who have to deal with the menfolk’s repressed emotions and their own. The place is upended by the arrival of Dr Guthrie (Ralph Fiennes) who is to be the choirmaster, directing the music society’s annual production; he scandalises some with the fact that he once lived in Germany and has a scholar’s love of that country’s literature and music – as well as the fact that he is a bachelor who had a close friendship with another young man now serving overseas.

Published: November 6, 2025, 11:00 am

Alex vs ARod: the baseball legend turned ‘recovering narcissist’ tells all

A surprisingly revealing and honest new docuseries looks back at the fallen star’s career in sport with eye-opening frankness

Alex Rodriguez is no mere ballplayer. He’s a chip off baseball’s Mount Olympus, the 18-year-old top draft pick who appeared all but destined to take his place alongside Babe Ruth, Ted Williams and other immortals of the game when he broke into the majors in 1994. And while Rodriguez distinguished himself as a Willie Mays-grade offensive demon and one of the best infielders who ever lived, he played under the stress of the game’s richest contract (infamously, he signed for a record $252m in the year 2000) and under the harsh glare of the New York media spotlight after joining the Yankees in 2004; to meet the pressure, he turned to performance-enhancing drugs – a cardinal sin in the sport – and was ultimately banished from baseball’s hallowed pantheon.

Worse, Rodriguez lied about doping after getting caught twice (the first time before there was an explicit major league policy against PEDs), shattering trust with baseball fans who eventually came to see him as a classic narcissist – albeit one who has been linked to Madonna and JLo and was alleged to have a painting of himself as a centaur hanging over his bed. (He can deny that, but not the Details magazine photo of him kissing his mirror image.) Sadly, Rodriguez’s present-day reinvention at age 50 into a Bloomberg TV thought leader and part-owner of the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves has done little to sway an American public that still feels badly burnt by him.

Published: November 5, 2025, 4:00 pm

Hatchie: Liquorice review – dizzying dreampop with welcome flashes of depravity

Eschewing the fairyfloss hooks of her earlier work, the Australian’s third album is both more mature and less immediately palatable

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Almost all of Hatchie’s music could slot frictionlessly into a coming-of-age film. Her songs, mostly, are misty-eyed ruminations on puppy love and its ensuing devastation; they yearn for a redamancy that feels both fated and vexingly out of reach. You can imagine Harriette Pilbeam’s mille-feuille harmonies soundtracking a high school prom dappled with a disco ball’s refractive glimmer, or picture her fleecy guitars over a montage of light teenage debauchery. These are tracks prefabbed for telegraphing big feelings; everyone knows the outsize melodrama of a first, second or 20th crush.

Liquorice, the title of Pilbeam’s potent third album, winks at her 2018 breakout EP, Sugar and Spice. That formative work was a candy blast of dreampop, emphasis on pop – indebted as much to Carly Rae Jepsen as Cocteau Twins, whose co-founder Robin Guthrie ended up providing a remix of Pilbeam’s single Sure. Liquorice, meanwhile, is more mature and less immediately palatable, eschewing the fairyfloss hooks of Pilbeam’s earlier work.

Published: November 6, 2025, 2:00 pm

Danny Brown: Stardust review – hyperpop-rap powered up with post-rehab positivity

(Warp)
The Detroit rapper feared his music would get dull after he went sober, but no-one could be bored by this guest-stuffed, chaotically swaggering new album

When Danny Brown spoke to the Guardian in 2023, he was promoting the near simultaneous release of two albums, his own Quaranta and Scaring the Hoes, a collaboration with Jpegmafia that commenced with perhaps the year’s most diverting opening lyric: “First – fuck off, Elon Musk.” Both albums had been recorded in what sounded like desperate circumstances.

Brown had long played on his image as a drug-guzzling maniac, too crazed to be contained by any of hip-hop’s standard generic boundaries: posing for photographs with his hair wildly backcombed, his missing teeth on full display, his tongue out and his fingers in devil’s horns, telling interviewers “I’m just waiting to die – everything after this point is, like, whatever”; referring to his songs as “trauma dumps” and calling them things like Adderall Admiral, White Lines, Dope Fiend Rental, Need Another Drink and Die Like a Rockstar. By the time he made Quaranta and Scaring the Hoes, however, he was in serious trouble: “blackout drunk” when recording the latter, “in pain all the time, throwing up and shit” during the making of the former. By the time of the interview, he’d been to rehab and got sober: ostensibly a happy ending, but Brown struck a note of caution. “I’ve seen so many artists get sober,” he said. “And their music sucks.”

Published: November 6, 2025, 12:00 pm

‘A shot of adrenaline’: readers pass on 90s club classics to new generations

With the latest John Lewis Christmas ad sparking nostalgia, readers share which 90s hits are worth partying to

In the new John Lewis Christmas ad, a young son gifts his dad a vinyl copy of the track Where Love Lives by Alison Limerick, which transports the father to the dancefloor of his youth. Powerful stuff.

Of course, that record wouldn’t be everyone’s choice, so we asked readers to tell us which 90s club tracks they would pass on to the next generation. Here are some of them.

Published: November 5, 2025, 7:00 am

Beasts of the Sea by Iida Turpeinen review – a hypnotic tale of the sea cow’s extinction

This hit debut from Finland is intensely readable, but could have delved more deeply into the links between human progress and environmental destruction

In November 1741 Georg Wilhelm Steller, “theologian, naturalist, and curious man”, was shipwrecked on an island between Alaska and Russia. There he found, floating in the shallow waters, a vast sirenian, Hydrodamalis gigas, nine feet long and soon to be known as Steller’s sea cow. Having made it through the winter, largely by eating the sea cows, the following August Steller and the remaining survivors of the Great Northern Expedition left the island. Within 30 years, Steller’s sea cow was hunted to extinction.

Having described these events, Finnish author Iida Turpeinen’s debut novel goes on to describe the lives of other historical figures, each of whom are touched in some way by the sea cow, now reduced to bones. There is Hampus Furuhjelm, governor of Alaska, in search of a complete skeleton, and his sister Constance, who finds peace and intellectual autonomy among her taxidermy collection. Later, there’s Hilda Olson, a scientific illustrator, and John Grönvall, specialist in the reconstruction of birds’ eggs, who is tasked with preparing a sea cow’s relics for exhibition.

Published: November 6, 2025, 7:00 am

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling audiobook review – an all-star outing

Cush Jumbo, Hugh Laurie and Matthew Macfadyen bring extra twinkle to Rowling’s magical tale

It has become tradition for Audible to bring out the big guns in the run-up to Christmas and deliver star-studded adaptations of well-known novels; the last few years have brought terrific productions of Dickens’s Oliver Twist, Bleak House and David Copperfield.

Now attention has turned to younger listeners with a new, full-cast recording of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first of the Potter books in which the orphaned Harry, consigned to sleep in a cupboard in his aunt and uncle’s house, learns he is a wizard and is to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The Good Wife’s Cush Jumbo is our narrator, steering the story alongside a cast including Hugh Laurie as venerable wizard-in-chief Albus Dumbledore; Michelle Gomez as Professor McGonagall; Riz Ahmed as Professor Snape; Mark Addy as Hagrid; Matthew Macfadyen as Lord Voldemort; and newcomers Frankie Treadaway, Max Lester and Arabella Stanton as young wizards Harry, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.

Published: November 5, 2025, 3:26 pm

‘I’m never surprised when I read about a woman murdering a man’: Helen Garner on her Baillie Gifford prize-winning diaries

Her first book outraged Australian critics – but now she’s scooped the UK’s top nonfiction prize. She talks about female anger, becoming cool at 82 – and why winning made her feel like a stunned mullet

When Helen Garner was announced as the winner of the Baillie Gifford prize for nonfiction in London on Tuesday night, the 82-year-old Australian author was 16,000km away in Melbourne, watching the ceremony on a live stream at home on what was for her Wednesday morning. When the big moment came, she heard “the winner is …” and then the feed froze. “We were going, ‘Oh God!’ Running around. We didn’t know what to do. The timing was like something in a comedy.” Congratulations immediately rushed in, which is how she knew she’d won the £50,000 (A$100,000) prize for How to End a Story, an 800-page collection of her astoundingly frank diaries, kept between 1978 and 1998.

Garner is still grappling with her win when we speak a few hours later. “I’m a stunned mullet,” she says, sitting in her study, wrapped in a lilac shawl and with glasses on a cord around her neck. “I didn’t think I had a chance.” She has absolutely no idea what she said in her thank you speech: “I think I’m in shock.”

Published: November 5, 2025, 1:16 pm

Other People’s Fun by Harriet Lane review – darkly comic tale of envy and revenge in the Insta age

The worlds of the haves and the have-nots clash, in a toxic friendship between two women brought together by a school reunion

Of all the seven deadly sins, envy is the last to be commodified. You can understand why – unlike lust, anger or even sloth, it’s not something to admit to. In his Allegory with Venus and Cupid, Bronzino depicted envy as an ugly green hag, clutching her head and howling impotently; now Instagram has allowed anyone online to gain access to images of the lifestyles of those richer, prettier and luckier than ourselves.

Ruth, the narrator of Harriet Lane’s third novel, Other People’s Fun, is corroded by it. Alone, her marriage over, her daughter grown and her freelance work as dull as it is low paid, she is that most dangerous of characters: an overlooked middle-aged woman with nothing to lose. When she bumps into beautiful, stupid and entitled Sookie at a school reunion, she reconnects with her teenage self “and all her violent desires”. Having flown under the radar as a pupil, noticed by Sookie only because she lent her her essays, she has perfect recall of her own petty humiliations, now amplified by the fact that she can stalk her contemporaries’ “best lives” on social media, while almost none of them remember her.

Published: November 5, 2025, 9:00 am

Fortnite’s The Simpsons season is a worthy tribute to one of the most celebrated shows of all time

Crammed with cameos, this recreation of Springfield in Fortnite’s evolving virtual playground is a delight for long-time fans of the show. Shame it’s not here for long

After years of collaborations with Disney on Marvel and Star Wars, it’s finally happened: The Simpsons have arrived in Fortnite. Whereas most of these crossovers comprise themed skins and emotes, this is a complete takeover, with an entire stylised map based on Springfield to explore. It’s a smart way of introducing American TV’s longest-running sitcom to a younger audience – especially with news of a second movie on the way – but for millennials, this is the culmination of a year-long campaign to catch our attention, if previous collabs with Power Rangers, Scream and Mortal Kombat are anything to go by.

Though this could have been a quick ploy for those who grew up on a diet of afterschool BBC Two repeats to open their wallets, it’s no lazy cash-in. The familiar sights of Springfield you’d expect are here: there’s the Simpsons home on Evergreen Terrace, the sloping lawns of Burns Manor, and a town square with Moe’s Tavern and a statue of Jebediah Springfield, detachable head and all. Towards the edge of the map is the nuclear power plant, pumping cartoon steam into the sky, featuring meltdowns that you can avert by tapping a control console to the tune of “eeny, meeny, miny, moe”. Cletus’s farm and a Slurp factory (the game’s spin on Duff – no beer on tap here) sit on the corners of the island, and every match starts with a charming recreation of the show’s intro, complete with parting clouds, title card and iconic theme song, before you thank Otto as you leave the battle bus and descend on to the map.

Published: November 6, 2025, 10:40 am

The Simpsons has a​ long, weird ​love ​affair with ​video ​games

The Fortnite tie-in is only the latest in a longstanding relationship between The Simpsons and video games, showing how the hit sitcom has survived as a cultural icon

And so Fortnite has done it again. Over the past five years, developer Epic Games maintained the relevance and awareness of its ageing online shooter by churning out pop culture collaborations, from Marvel to John Wick to Sabrina Carpenter. For limited periods, players get to take part in the game as their favourite movie characters and music artists, an arrangement that provides refreshed audience numbers for the game – and a tidy revenue stream for the brands.

Now it’s the turn of The Simpsons. This month, the Fortnite island has become a miniature Springfield, complete with popular characters and well-known locations. If you want to play as Homer and shoot up Moe’s Tavern, you can. If you want to take Bart to Kwik-E-Mart for a squishee, go ahead. Everywhere you look there’s a fun little Simpsons Easter egg, from the fact that the Battlebus (which delivers players on to the island) is now driven by Otto to the presence of Duffman, Seymour Skinner’s steamed hams and drooling aliens.

Published: November 5, 2025, 3:00 pm

A PowerWash Simulator sequel is exactly what we need right now

It may look like an unnecessary sequel, but even as someone who played the original cleaning game for a record-setting 24 hours straight, I’m hooked all over again

Does the world really need another PowerWash Simulator game? No, some will say. Probably people who have never played the original and don’t understand the appeal, but like to tilt their head with a mixture of bemusement and condescension and say: “So what do you do in the game? Just wash things?”

(It feels unfair that other pastimes don’t have to justify themselves like this. No one ever says, “Wait, you just run around the park in a circle for five kilometres?” Or, “So you just kick the ball with your foot?”)

Published: November 5, 2025, 10:00 am

Share your zero-star cultural disasters

The Guardian has only ever published 18 zero-star reviews. Now’s the chance to share yours …

A zero-star review is very rare. The Guardian has only published 18, which we listed following Lucy Mangan’s zero-star review of Kim Kardashian’s new Disney+ divorce drama All’s Fair.

There’s lots of great culture out there, but sometimes you can be left bitterly disappointed, so we’d like to hear about your worst ever cultural experiences. What’s the most unforgivable TV show, film, play or gig that you have ever seen and would award zero stars to? Now’s your chance to spill.

Published: November 6, 2025, 5:13 pm

Seth Meyers on Mamdani’s win: ‘The kind of energy Democrats have been desperately seeking for years’

Late-night hosts discussed Democrats’ wave of election wins, from governorships to New York City’s mayor

Late-night hosts reacted to Democrats’ slate of wins across the country and Zohran Mamdani’s historic victory in the New York City mayoral race.

Published: November 6, 2025, 4:13 pm

Michael: first trailer unveiled for controversial Michael Jackson biopic

Star will be played by the real-life singer’s nephew Jaafar Jackson in a film that will ‘humanise but not sanitise’ him

The first trailer for the Michael Jackson biopic has landed online after reports of a troubled production.

Filming on Michael had been completed in May 2024 and the film had originally been scheduled for release in April 2025, a date that was then pushed to October, but reshoots were needed in the June, pushing it once again, to April 2026.

Published: November 6, 2025, 2:54 pm

Jennifer Lawrence says she didn’t need an intimacy coordinator on new film as co-star Robert Pattinson is ‘not pervy’

Speaking as their film Die My Love is released, the actor joined a number of other famous names questioning the value of the new roles

Jennifer Lawrence has become the latest star to express scepticism over the necessity of intimacy coordinators, saying she declined their services while working on new film Die My Love, because she felt “safe” with her co-star.

Intimacy coordinators were introduced as a result of the #MeToo movement to try to ensure the safety and comfort of actors when shooting scenes involving sex and nudity. Yet actors including Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston and Sean Bean have pushed back against the profession, with some suggesting they interrupt their creativity.

Published: November 6, 2025, 2:05 pm

I seem to put out a strong ‘new-best-friend’ vibe, then I back off. Should I dial it down?

Sometimes we feel threatened by bids for closeness, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. It can help to consider if you’re being true to yourself

• Read more Leading questions

When I was 17, I was quiet, an observer on the fringes. That was often mistaken for being wise. Now 70 (and, by the way, gay), I am chatty and opinionated with a tendency to talk over others in conversation. I have come by the changes honestly, so I don’t whip myself over it because I am enjoying expressing myself. But I do wonder if this is a normal progression, the loss of filters with ageing, or if I am simply losing my sociability – going off the rails in some way.

While I like being friendly to all and enjoy the company of women especially, I recognise how easily they can be hurt. I seem to put out a strong “new-best-friend” vibe but then sometimes, when they step close, I feel crowded and back off. The flip-flop clearly offends, and I don’t want to be doing that, but I frame it as being true to myself. Is this a destructive habit and, if so, should I dial down the friendliness?

Eleanor says: How responsible are we for the ways other people see us?

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Published: November 6, 2025, 2:00 pm

‘I look deranged, but my baby looks happy!’ Nine writers on their favourite photo booth picture

This year marks a century since the birth of the photo booth, and friends and families are still squeezing into them for fun and unflattering snaps - capturing the highs, lows and loves of their lives

I didn’t find early motherhood easy. It wasn’t my daughter’s fault – she was, mercifully, a wonderful and cheerful baby – but I underestimated what a huge shift it would be at an already stressful time. When I was pregnant, we moved to a new town, to a wreck of a house we planned to do up. My mum, who was ill, moved in with us, and then I was the carer of a newborn and a dying parent – at the two extremes of life, but sharing many of the same needs, and often at the same time.

Published: November 6, 2025, 5:00 am

Need a page-turner or gift? Book recs from our e-reader tester

Plus: a guide to better sleep, slow cookers and plane essentials

• This piece was originally published in the Filter US newsletter on buying fewer, better things. Sign up here to get early access to it

Each week, we cut through the noise to bring you smart, practical recommendations on how to live better – from what is worth buying to the tools, habits and ideas that actually last.

Raise your hand if fall inspires fantasies of cozying up by the fire with a good book. Now raise your hand if you have a fireplace and space for a home library. Because e-readers are often more practical, I just spent more than a month testing six e-readers to find one that didn’t make me miss turning paper pages, and I think I found a model most people will love.

Published: November 6, 2025, 3:49 pm

Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: introducing the twinset 2.0 – where practicality meets panache

I’m so glad the twinset is back – because the only thing better than wearing one jumper is wearing two

I love jumpers. Jumpers are my happy place. I know we are supposed to call them sweaters or knits because it sounds more posh, sorry, elevated, but my heart belongs to good old jumpers.

So I am thrilled that the twinset is back, because the only thing better than wearing a jumper is wearing two. But, as you may have noticed from the photo, the twinset no longer looks quite how you remember it. Traditionally, a twinset is a crew-neck jumper, long or short sleeved, with a matching cardigan. It looks as though it probably smells of lavender sachets and as if its wearer might drop into a curtsey at any moment.

Published: November 5, 2025, 2:00 pm

When company’s coming, these simple, cosy ideas hit the spot

Autumn may be the most social season of all, and these elevated but not exhausting ideas make every get-together a small celebration

The golden light lingers a little longer now, and somehow the evenings are full again. Autumn feels like the true social season of the year: the guest bedroom (for which we have an informal booking system) is full through to the end of the year, and suddenly every weekend and many weekday evenings are wrapped around company. Even if it’s just dinner at home for house guests, the rhythm has changed.

When it’s just us for dinner, anything goes – it is very relaxed and informal, and the emphasis is on ease of execution and speed of service. For a dinner party, meanwhile, we go all out: trips to the butcher and speciality deli, and as much time in the kitchen as is needed. But cooking for, and indeed with, house guests falls somewhere delightfully in between: cosy and welcoming, elevated but not exhausting. The kind of food that says: you’re here, you matter, let’s linger.

Published: November 6, 2025, 1:00 pm

You be the judge: should my best friend stop calling me by a nickname?

Priscilla knows that when Chioma calls her ‘Pris’ she means no harm – but finds it very annoying. You get to name the offending party
• Take part in the Guardian’s You be the judge live event
• Get a disagreement settled or become a YBTJ juror

I hate being called Prissy – my cousins used to call me that when I was a kid and I’d get upset

Her nickname was born out of love. I feel hurt she’s framing it as if I’ve been disrespecting her

Published: November 6, 2025, 8:00 am

Calabria comes alive with song and dance: how a new generation is revitalising southern Italy’s quiet villages

The small communes of Lago and Conflenti are putting themselves back on the map with a series of community-run music and food festivals

On the lamp-lit steps of a sombre gothic church, a young woman stands before a microphone. Beside her, a man plucks a slow melody from his guitar. Arrayed on chairs and cobblestones in front of them, a large crowd sits in an expectant silence. From a nearby balcony, laundry sways in the sultry Calabrian breeze.

The guitar quickens, and the woman issues a string of tremulous notes with all the solemnity of a muezzin. She clutches a hand drum, beating out a rhythm that draws the crowd to its feet. As people surge forward, stamping and whirling around the square, the singing intensifies and the drum’s relentless thud deepens. The festival of Sustarìa has begun.

Published: November 6, 2025, 7:00 am

A moment that changed me: I thought I was a lesbian. David Bowie made me realise the truth

When I went to the Bowie exhibition at the V&A, I hoped that by losing myself in his gender experimentation I might, in turn, stumble across a clue to my own identity ...

In 2011, a couple of years before the David Bowie Is exhibition opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, I came out as a lesbian. Up until that point I had been exclusively dating men, one of whom I married. Two years later, I was in my early 40s, a newly separated mother of four children, living in the US. I had started to question my gender identity, as well as my sexual orientation, and was looking for some answers.

I was born in England in the early 1970s – before the advent of the internet. As a teenager, my friends and I didn’t have Reddit or YouTube to turn to when we had questions about sex; instead, we turned to pop stars, and in the 80s everyone was messing with gender. Annie Lennox wore boys’ clothes, Boy George wore girls’ clothes, and pop groups such as Erasure and Bronski Beat had members who were out and proud.

Published: November 5, 2025, 6:55 am

When is a tariff not a tax? When I say so, Trump tells supreme court

The fate of the US president’s signature, globe-rattling economic policy is in the hands of a court he shaped

Donald Trump faced arguably the biggest test so far of his contentious use of executive power at the US supreme court on Wednesday. The stakes could not be higher – “literally, LIFE OR DEATH” for the US, at least according to the president.

Trump’s signature, globe-rattling economic policy, his sweeping tariffs regime, was in the dock – specifically, the legal mechanism his administration has used to enforce it. And the man dispatched to defend the White House put forward a somewhat puzzling argument.

Published: November 6, 2025, 9:00 am

As Japan experiences a surge in bear attacks, survivors share grisly stories of blood, bites and broken bones

A record 13 people have died in bear attacks in Japan this year – with experts blaming food shortages as the animals venture further into residential areas

Loud conversations, whistles and, when all else fails, a plastic bottle are among the precautions authorities in Japan are urging people to take to counter a surge in bear attacks.

It was a bell that Billy Halloran had to hand during a confrontation in the foothills of Myoko, northern Japan, last month. The 32-year-old New Zealander was settling into an 8km run when he spotted two Asiatic black bears about 30 metres ahead.

Published: November 6, 2025, 5:45 am

We published explosive stories about the president of El Salvador. Now we can’t go home

Days before we ran interviews with gang leaders describing their alleged ties to Nayib Bukele’s government, we left the country to avoid arrest. We fear our exile will never end

• This story, republished with permission, was originally run by El Faro English

We figured we would spend only a few days out of the country. We figured that within a week of publishing, some other matter would distract the Salvadoran government. We would weigh the risks of returning and would then go back. We left with carry-on bags: no one was carrying more than 10 pairs of underwear.

We had invented a routine for these situations, which had worked out fine so many times before: “preventive departure”. One of us, for the first time, mentioned that the government would make us pay dearly. But we kept repeating “preventive departure”. We kept repeating it a week later, two weeks later, a month after we could not return.

Published: November 6, 2025, 5:00 am

Share your favourite photo booth picture

This year marks 100 years since the birth of the photo booth. We would like to see your favourite pictures

This year marks 100 years since the birth of the photo booth. Guardian writers have shared their favourite photo booth pictures – now we’d like to see yours. You can share your photos, old and new, and the stories behind them, below.

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Published: November 6, 2025, 12:15 pm

Share your views on the New York mayoral election results

We’d like to hear what people make of Zohran Mamdani’s win of the New York City mayoral election

Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani was elected on Tuesday as the 111th mayor of New York City, defeating the former governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa and making history as the city’s first Muslim mayor.

We’d like to hear what people make of Mamdani’s win, and what New Yorkers’ hopes are for their city.

Published: November 5, 2025, 9:50 am

Lights on the Ganges and a hippo’s first swim: photos of the day – Thursday

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

Published: November 6, 2025, 1:55 pm