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Setting up is a pain, packing up is even worse - while there are moments of exploration and relaxation to be found, you really have to earn themEven if you're sure you'd hate camping, I recommend you try it at least once. Because after camping, you'll notice aspects of every other holiday will have elements of luxury, from packing and unpacking to showering and sleeping.I can't remember my first camping trip. I grew up with a mother committed to ensuring her children saw as much of their home state as possible, even if this involved excessively long drives to the middle of nowhere. I was also a Brownie then a girl guide. I liked camping, I had friends who liked it, later I married a guy who liked it, and we had kids who did too.Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads Continue reading...

Lamar Jackson reclaimed his standing as the league's best player and bolstered his MVP case with 252 passing yards and two touchdown passes in 18 seconds as the Baltimore Ravens emerged victorious over the San Francisco 49ers 33-19 in a clash between the NFL's top teams Continue reading...

Even if nobody reads them, I'll always be drawn to the freedom blogs offer. I can ramble about any subject I chooseI started blogging in 2002. Prior to that, I'd operated a website for about six years, but what grabbed me about blogging was the speed and the responsiveness - the way blogs picked up on what other blogs posted, and responded almost in real time. I wanted to jump right into the midst of this crackling synergy between blogs. So I did.The blogging circuit I joined was only one corner of an ever-growing blogosphere. Even within music, my blog's primary focus, there was a whole other - and larger - network of MP3 blogs. Still, my particular neighbourhood was bustling all through the 2000s. Out of its fractious ferment emerged cult figures such as K-punk, aka Mark Fisher, one of the most widely read and revered leftwing thinkers of our time, and the prolific cultural critic and author Owen Hatherley. Then there were those like me, who fit a different archetype: already a professional writer but someone who relished the freedom of style and tone offered by blogging.Simon Reynolds is a music journalist and author Continue reading...

Brittany Watts's water broke prematurely and she miscarried at home; when she went to the hospital a nurse called the policeA grand jury is set to decide whether an Ohio woman who miscarried a nonviable fetus should face criminal consequences.Brittany Watts, who was reportedly turned into the police after her September miscarriage, has been charged with the fifth-degree felony of abuse of a corpse" in Trumbull county, Ohio. Her case has been held up as evidence of how easily pregnant people can find themselves in law enforcement's crosshairs - especially since the overturning of Roe v Wade and amid tightening abortion restrictions in the US. Continue reading...

I was impressed as his stories grew ever more inventive and responsive to our kids' demands. Then I learned his secretThe other night, from the hallway outside my second-grader's bedroom, I heard her ask my husband for a very specific bedtime story - so specific I could have sworn she was choosing prompts just to screw with him. She wanted one that was about mowing lawns in a place called Bananaland, and a festival, and monkeys, but make it funny".G'luck, I thought, as I started to tiptoe away, having completed my read-aloud portion from The Swiss Family Robinson, which we're making our way through together each night. Continue reading...

The court can only rescue Trump from the Colorado ruling by shredding originalism and textualism. Will it?Donald Trump's packing of the supreme court, to which he appointed three members, to create a reliable conservative majority, has been hailed by the right as his greatest achievement. The Wall Street Journal editorial page has stated that the most important prospect of a second Trump term would be his appointment of federal judges in their mold. But Trump's candidacy for that second term now poses an existential threat to the legitimacy of the court's conservative majority.The decision earlier this week by the Colorado supreme court disqualifying Trump from the state ballot strikes at more than Trump's eligibility. It cuts to the core of the ideological doctrines of originalism and textualism that underpin the conservative majority's entire jurisprudence. Originalism claims to divine the original intent of the country's founders and interprets the constitution along those lines. Using cherry-picked, false and bad-faith history, originalism has been the pure pretext for overturning Roe, dismantling commonsense gun regulations, ending environmental regulation, gutting consumer protection and voiding voting and civil rights. Continue reading...

With the baffling logic of a five-year-old, I concocted two versions of myself - and tried to stop anyone glimpsing the wrong oneAged five and a quarter, I was facing a conundrum. One term into my British school, where I knew everybody, I was moving thousands of miles across the world to the US, where I knew nobody. The school year was already well under way, which meant everyone would already have made friends with someone who wasn't the weird expat kid. My odds of fitting in were, to put it mildly, not great.And so I took action. When school started, I kept quiet as I furiously learned how to speak just like the American kids - to say flashlight" and trunk", buddon" instead of button, use round northwestern vowels, and uptalk. By the beginning of first grade, I sounded just like everyone else. Unfortunately, with the baffling logic of the under-10s, I had decided that my parents would feel betrayed if I lost my English accent. On top of that, we'd be moving home in a few years' time - if I sounded American, I'd be the odd one out all over again. So I landed on my genius plan: I'd be Yankee at school and English at home, and neither side would be any the wiser. Continue reading...

Our bumper end-of-year quiz features 60 questions from a year of World Cups, quotes, champions and controversy Continue reading...

Kateryna, Sofia and Julia showed me how empathy underpins their society. Small acts of care are what solidarity is made of

By laying waste to the in-form 49ers on Christmas night, the mighty Ravens emerged as the NFL's best team with Lamar Jackson reclaiming his standing as the league's top playerDon't be fooled that the margin of victory was just 14 points. By annihilating the San Francisco 49ers on the road on Christmas night, the Baltimore Ravens emerged as the best team in the NFL, and their quarterback, Lamar Jackson, reclaimed his standing as the league's best player.Monday's bold step forward by the swashbuckling Ravens (12-3), who have won nine of their last 10 games and now have the NFL's best record, may come as a bit of a surprise to folks who have paid more attention this season to the Chiefs, Eagles, Cowboys and 49ers. Continue reading...

The west's equivocation on Gaza exposes a global order facing mutiny over its domination of the international discourseRichard Haass, the distinguished global analyst, once wrote: Consistency in foreign policy is a luxury policymakers cannot always afford."But, equally, glaring national hypocrisy can come with a high price tag, in terms of lost credibility, damaged global prestige and diminished self-respect. Continue reading...

It's an annual tradition

Editorial board publishes opinion piece in response to hard-right Republican governor's latest immigration crackdownA stinging Christmas opinion issued by the editorial board of the Houston Chronicle newspaper asks Texas's hard-right Republican leader: How would governor Greg Abbott treat Mary and Joseph at the border?"The leading media outlet in the Democratic-voting city published an editorial article on Christmas Eve and posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Christmas Day protesting at the red state's latest crackdown on people seeking refuge by crossing the US-Mexico border without authorization. Continue reading...

Centrists are taking on progressives in upcoming House races, as some say they're losing sight of the big pictureA looming clash between the centre and left of the Democratic party could unseat members of the the Squad" of progressives and hand a gift to Donald Trump's Republicans in the 2024 elections.The war in Gaza has divided Democrats like no other issue and is likely to play a key role in party primaries that decide which candidates run for the House of Representatives. Continue reading...

Pennsylvanians largely downplayed his vow to be dictator' on day one of new term, while others are soured on 45th presidentFrom the farm where he retired in the Pennsylvania countryside, Roger Williams has been keeping up with the latest news about his preferred presidential candidate, Donald Trump - including the comments he has made about wanting to be a dictator for one day".For one day - don't get it twisted," Williams, 67, replied when asked about the comment that amplified fears that Trump, if successful in his campaign to return to the White House in next year's election, would take steps to dismantle US democratic institutions. Continue reading...

Twixmas, Chrimbo limbo or, in Norway, romjul (space Christmas): call it what you will, I'll be mainly chillingMaybe it starts the moment you hear Wham!'s Last Christmas in the shops, or perhaps it's the day you put up your tree. For me, Christmas starts in earnest on Boxing Day. Specifically, around the time when I'm digging through a fridge stuffed with leftovers to make myself a lunch plate, which I'll eat in front of the TV - me under a blanket, the plate balanced on my chest - with a box of Cadbury's Roses within easy reach.This is the true spirit of Christmas: that shapeless week of After Eights, tawny port and old films - the only time of year when we can legitimately forget what day it is. Continue reading...

The trains and buses that once connected my childhood hometown to the larger US have long since disappearedAll my holiday memories begin with the bleating of an alarm and being ripped from restorative sleep into confused panic - who's dead? What's on fire? - until I remember and silence the source of the sound. I'm bleary and weary, double-checking the bags I packed the night before. The holidays would officially begin a long way away from the warmth of plastic lights on a plastic tree - my mother's victory after decades of fighting against the mess of a dying tree only she would clean up after - the ruckus of other people's children, and a buffet of poorly made casseroles.Journeys in and out of my home state of Kansas always started this way, because getting in and out of Kansas - whose public transportation system is at this point almost entirely nonexistent - is onerous. While passenger rail and then intercity buses used to link up even the smaller towns with the larger cities and out to the rest of the nation, what we are left with is one major airport in the neighboring state of Missouri, one Amtrak train that lumbers through Kansas in the dead of night, a couple buses that may or may not actually be running that day as scheduled, and long stretches of interstate highways.Jessa Crispin is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

After Deontay Wilder's dire defeat by Joseph Parker, Anthony Joshua will have to navigate a different path to redemptionAnthony Joshua should have fought Deontay Wilder six years ago this month. In December 2017 Joshua held the IBF and WBA versions of the world heavyweight title and, after a remarkable victory over Wladimir Klitschko eight months earlier, his record was a flawless 19-0. He was 27 years old and at the peak of his profession. Wilder, with his 38-0 record including 37 victories by stoppage, was the WBC heavyweight champion and the most imposing knockout merchant on the planet.There was considerable risk in a unification fight, for both men, but they were in their physical and psychological prime as heavyweight champions and they would almost certainly have produced a riveting contest. Of course promotional rivalries, sanctioning body shenanigans and the rampant egos of boxing's powerbrokers meant that the fight never happened. It was only this month that contracts were apparently signed by both Joshua and Wilder for them to meet in March 2024 in Riyadh. Those delayed plans have now been consigned to the fight game's overflowing dump of ruined dreams. Continue reading...

During the pandemic, I was shocked that older people in Britain were regarded as being disposable. We need their wisdom

After winning their first division title since 1993, the Lions will now try to accomplish something they have done only once in the past 66 years: winning a postseason gameIt wasn't a winner-takes-all game on Sunday, but the Detroit Lions had to approach it as if it was. Yes, they would have remained in the driver's seat to win the NFC North even with a Christmas Eve loss to the Minnesota Vikings, but these Lions knew that there was no upside in letting Minnesota stay alive in the division race for another week.The Vikings, to their credit, did not make it easy for the Lions. Minnesota briefly took a 21-17 lead early in the third quarter before Detroit quarterback Jared Goff found Amon-Ra St Brown for a touchdown that put them up front. On the point after attempt, however, the Vikings managed to successfully block Michael Badgely's kick for an extra point. Continue reading...

My mother travelled Moldova to save recipes in danger of dying out - and captured the tale of our rich and turbulent pastWhen my country finally makes it into the EU, it will be one of the smallest members of the club - and one whose national identity is strong, shaped by the upheavals of its history. A former Soviet republic, Moldova has been independent since 1991, but we are still living in Russia's menacing shadow, especially since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.To figure out where Moldova's national resilience resides, you could do worse than sit down over Christmas with a bowl of hearty red borscht with pork belly and sauerkraut (in the north) or sparrow fricassee (a specialty of the south) and a plate of domc (festive brioche with walnut) or plachie (rice pudding) for dessert. Continue reading...

Police say the victim was likely targeted' in the attack at the Paddock mall in Ocala, about 80 miles north-west of OrlandoA man has died in a shooting at a shopping mall in central Florida two days before Christmas in which the victim was apparently targeted" for the attack, police said.Ocala police chief Mike Balken told reporters on Saturday evening that the man was killed after he was shot multiple times in a common area at Paddock Mall in Ocala, located about 80 miles north-west of Orlando. A woman was shot in the leg, police said. Continue reading...

Bill would have expanded opportunity for people who have pleaded guilty to crimes to challenge convictionsThe New York governor, Kathy Hochul, vetoed a bill days before Christmas that would have made it easier for people who have pleaded guilty to crimes to challenge their convictions, a measure that was favored by criminal justice reformers but fiercely opposed by prosecutors.The Democrat said the bill's sweeping expansion of eligibility for post-conviction relief" would upend the judicial system and create an unjustifiable risk of flooding the courts with frivolous claims", in a veto letter released on Saturday. Continue reading...

Lawyers argue Trump cannot be prosecuted for actions taken while serving as president in latest battle with special counselDonald Trump has asked an appeals court in Washington DC to throw out charges that he sought to subvert the 2020 election, in the latest of a series of high-stakes legal maneuvers between the former president's lawyers and the US department of justice.In a filing late on Saturday lawyers for Trump argued to the DC circuit court of appeals that he is legally cloaked from liability for actions he took while serving as president. Continue reading...

The Uruguayan striker will reunite with his former Barcelona teammates in Miami. But at 37, how much does he have left to offer?Inter Miami have added another superstar to the fold. The announcement of Inter Miami's latest signing means Lionel Messi will link up with yet another former Barcelona teammate at DRV PNK Stadium next season. Joining fellow former Camp Nou heroes Messi, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, Luis Suarez has agreed a one-year deal with the MLS side, with the option of a further year.But by the time Messi and Suarez take to the field for Inter Miami, it will have been almost four years since they last played together. Suarez, who turns 37 in January, has played for three clubs in that time, in three countries. As he has battled the inevitable effects of ageing, how different a player is the version of Suarez set for a Miami reunion with Messi? Continue reading...

Curry v Joki! Tatum v LeBron! Luka v KD! The biggest day of the NBA regular season tips off on Monday with a full slate of blockbuster matchupsIt's that time of year again. When people gather around the Christmas tree to exchange gifts and then gather around the big-screen television to watch the NBA's annual slate of games. This year, as in the past, hoops heads are treated to a handful of excellent matchups. So, here below, we wanted to dive into those contests to offer some perspective and some predictions. Continue reading...

Backlash to Channel 4's alternative Christmas message is part of alarming rise in anti-Jewish hate since Hamas attacks on IsraelLast week it was announced that Stephen Fry would be delivering this year's alternative Christmas message on Channel 4.What refreshing news. After all, it was only in 2008 that the Holocaust-denying, Jew-hating president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was given the platform. Continue reading...

Another year and another birthday ticked off the chart, but how do you know if you have crossed the elusive line into maturity?If you're reading this, I have suddenly aged. It's my birthday on Christmas Eve. The split-flap display clacks obscenely over, to a once-unthinkable number. The knees ready themselves to explode. The howling between the ears picks up. Have you ever had a moment where you felt suddenly old? My most recent was during my daily diatribe against e-scooters and e-bikes. Can't stand 'em, flying down footpaths, headlights full bore like the cycloptic offspring of a Gorgon and Thomas the Tank Engine. In between prayers not to be mown down, I thought: Doesn't anybody pedal any more?" This spontaneous thought haunts me. But that wasn't the worst.I heard myself describing an emerging grime artist as a young fella the other week. But that wasn't it either. Nor the memory of staring out of a window and announcing, It's really coming down now," prompting a friend present - greater in years than me - to mockingly describe me as an old head on old shoulders". Continue reading...

Boxing's union with the Saudi government represents the sport's latest step away from a self-sustaining business modelOn Saturday, Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority (GEA) took the next step toward achieving dominance over boxing's heavyweight division as part of a campaign to burnish The Kingdom's image and engender tourism through what has become known as sportswashing".An eight-fight card featuring Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder in separate bouts was contested in Riyadh. The GEA under the direction of His Excellency Turki Alalshikh was its primary architect. The event was styled Day of Reckoning" - a term laden with symbolism in both Islam and Christianity. Continue reading...

After a tired and desperate 2023 with our baby, finally my family found the deep bliss of sleep

The ECJ Super League ruling lays bare how demand for market competition is a weapon wielded by those in powerNadine Dorries or Jacob Rees-Mogg? Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk? Uefa or the European Super League? Yes, sometimes life seems like a succession of Hobson's choices.Last week the European court of justice (ECJ) ruled that Uefa, which oversees European football, and the game's global body, Fifa, acted unlawfully in threatening sanctions against players and clubs that joined the European Super League (ESL) in 2021. In April of that year, 12 of Europe's biggest clubs announced the creation of the ESL, a lucrative new competition to rival Uefa's Champions League, promising clubs even more riches but also freedom from the possibilities of relegation, thereby making those riches permanent. Continue reading...

With the right safeguards in place, the police's use of AI can make us safer without violating our privacyPrivacy campaigners have long considered the UK an outlier among democracies for its stance on facial recognition technology, since we allow the police to regularly deploy it in public spaces. Further concerns were raised last week when it emerged that the new criminal justice bill could allow the police to use the technology to run a search on millions of driving licence holders.Campaigners have argued that the bill puts all UK drivers on a permanent police lineup". A day later the Times reported on the growing call by the government for the police to adopt the technology nationwide. Continue reading...

Three officers were first to be tried under five-year-old Washington law, which removes need to prove officer acted with actual maliceA Washington state law aimed at improving police accountability is under scrutiny after three Tacoma officers were acquitted in the 2020 death of Manuel Ellis, a Black man who was shocked, beaten and restrained facedown on a sidewalk as he pleaded for breath.The measure approved by voters in 2018 was designed to make it easier to prosecute police accused of wrongfully using deadly force. Initiative 940, referred to as I-940, removed a requirement that prosecutors prove an officer acted with actual malice in order to bring a case - a requirement no other state had - and established that an independent investigation should be conducted after use of force results in death or great bodily harm, among other things. Continue reading...

Rescuers were concerned about the man drowning, but were able to extricate him by using micro-explosives to break apart rocksA California man who became trapped on the side of a cliff for days was finally rescued by first responders after a daring, nearly 24-hour rescue effort.Rescue crews finally freed the man on Friday morning after he had been trapped in a hole for days near the side of the Sunset Cliffs in San Diego, California, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. Continue reading...

Festive tunes may be ringing out but Russians will pay more for their traditional feast and only pop stars loyal to Putin are on TVDown at my local Moscow supermarket, western Christmas carols and songs are playing on a loop. This year Ding Dong Merrily on High and All I Want for Christmas Is You sound curiously out of place. That's because from morning till night Russian TV channels have been telling the public that the west is out to destroy their country, that leaders in the west (not in the Kremlin) are to blame for the war in Ukraine, and that Russian values are more spiritual" than western ones.At least they still like our music. As I push my trolley down the bread aisle, Abba's Happy New Year strikes up, sung in Russian. In Russia it's new year, rather than Orthodox Christmas (7 January), that is the main national holiday. Continue reading...

Former South Carolina governor still trails the ex-president, but has made strides in polling ahead of the New Hampshire primaryThe former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley has pulled within four percentage points of frontrunner Donald Trump in New Hampshire's 2024 Republican presidential primary, a contest which could prove closer than expected for the ex-president, according to a new poll.In an American Research Group Inc poll released on Thursday which had asked voters whom they preferred in the New Hampshire primary scheduled for 23 January, Haley earned 29% support to Trump's 33%. That meant the gap between Haley and Trump was within the survey's 4% margin of error after the former president had long held dominating polling leads in the race for the 2024 Republican White House nomination. Continue reading...

Kelsey Hatcher, 32, delivered healthy daughters after 20 hours of labor, one day apart - giving each twin a separate birthdayAn Alabama mother with a rare double uterus has delivered a set of twins, the hospital treating her announced on Friday.In what doctors are calling a one-in-a-million" pregnancy, 32-year-old Kelsey Hatcher delivered a set of twin daughters, one of whom was in each womb, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) hospital. Continue reading...

Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips says he's running to ensure that we do not torpedo the entire country' by re-electing TrumpDemocratic congressman Dean Phillips, who is challenging incumbent president Joe Biden, will keep running his long-shot bid for the White House through the summer after he's had more time to introduce himself to voters across the US.Phillips initially planned to run in a few states for his party's presidential nomination, focusing especially on the crucial early-voting state of New Hampshire, which was seen as a trial balloon for his candidacy. But now, Phillips told the Guardian in an interview, he is aiming for a much longer campaign. Continue reading...

Republican presidential candidate is catching up to Trump in the polls as business heavyweights have flocked to herDonald Trump is ending 2023 on quite the low. On Tuesday a Colorado supreme court ruling barred the former president from the state's presidential ballot, which drove him predictably bonkers. Then, to add insult to injury, he got some bad news from New Hampshire: Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and the woman Trump appointed to be his ambassador to the United Nations, is catching up to him in the polls. A new Saint Anselm College survey shows Haley with 30% support among likely Republican primary voters in the state, 14 points less than Trump. Continue reading...

Robin Vos, the state assembly speaker, worked hard to consolidate GOP power by all means, only to find himself under attack from his own partyIn early December, a rightwing Wisconsin organization called HOT Government sent out a breathless email: Mike Lindell, the pillow salesman turned election conspiracy theorist and staunch Donald Trump ally, had nominated an important Wisconsin politician for a dubious award.The prize would go to the person who exemplifies leadership in BEING AN OBSTACLE TO STOPPING ELECTION CRIME", the email declared. Continue reading...

A little imagination and confidence in the kitchen can turn remnants into treasures - just try my dregs of the peanut butter' salad dressingLeftover roast potatoes? There's no such thing!" exclaimed people on social media when I shared a suggestion for using up surplus spuds. Not in my house - they just get eaten!"This sentiment is common whenever I propose ideas for ingredients considered delicious" or a treat: wine, hot cross buns, Easter eggs, clotted cream. One person's trash is another person's treasure and all that - but the way we handle leftovers has to change.Elly Curshen is an author, columnist and content creator Continue reading...