Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Gavin Newsom finally went head to head on Fox News after months of trash talkThe American media billed it as a slugfest" and the Vendetta in Alpharetta". Ron DeSantis's campaign hyped it with a tale of the tape". In the era of politics as entertainment, everyone had an interest in turning a debate between two US state governors into something resembling fight night in Las Vegas.After all, it seems the Elon Musk v Mark Zuckerberg cage match is not going to happen, so Florida governor DeSantis v his California counterpart Gavin Newsom on Fox News in prime time on Thursday would just have to do. Continue reading...
Before a World Cup final defeat to the US in the 90s, Chinese women's soccer was a powerhouse. Now, the nation is plotting for greater success in the 2030sSporting history is littered with Sliding Doors moments, instances when future fortunes pivot on one swing of a bat, one toss of a ball or one swipe of a boot.So named for the 1998 movie in which alternate realities of Gwyneth Paltrow's lead character's life play out simultaneously, diverging at the point at which she did or didn't get on a tube train, the most consequential example of a Sliding Doors moment in the history of women's soccer came on 10 July 1999 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Continue reading...
Another health advocate has said the phenomenon is genuine - and take it from me, it is. But not in the way she's suggestingYou don't need a man to tell you man flu is real, although he still will. And now health advocates are agreeing with us: nutritionist Jenna Hope, author of the new book How to Stay Healthy, is perhaps the most recent to argue that men really do suffer more than women when they're ill. When we look at the evidence we find that the female immune system is actually stronger than the male immune system," she told the Times. Women have higher levels of progesterone and oestrogen, she says, which tend to support the immune system, while men have higher levels of testosterone, which suppresses immunity.But when we talk about man flu, are we really talking about an increased sensitivity to symptoms, or just a decreased ability to stop going on about them? The term man flu" has always suggested exaggeration, not least because the illness in question is almost never flu; it's usually just a cold.Tim Dowling is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
A former NFL star has attacked ESPN's coverage of allegations against the player as showing racial bias. But the reality of the matter is far from black and whiteNBA player suspected of improper relationship with minor" is the kind of headline that usually stops the press. But little about this curious case involving Josh Giddey has gone by the book. For a tipoff, it was the league itself - not one of its sleepless scoop hounds - that broke the news over last week's Thanksgiving holiday weekend that it was investigating allegations of an improper relationship between the Oklahoma City Thunder swingman and an underaged girl. In a social media post, a user said a girl who features prominently in photographs and videos with Giddey was as young as 15. Giddey turned 21 last month. I'm dating Josh!" she screams in one snippet. We don't have to talk about it!"But even as the league office appears to be treating the matter with utmost seriousness and local police are launching their own investigation too, the league-wide reaction has been oddly restrained - perhaps because Giddey has yet to miss a start as a result. Giddey barely addressed the matter when the news broke. I understand you guys want to know about it," he said last week, but right now, I just don't have anything to say." Thunder coach Mike Daigneault has been just as reluctant to comment on the allegations or pull Giddey - a leading scorer, rebounder and assist man - from the OKC lineup, filing it under personal matter". Continue reading...
This isn't some ghoulish competition, where any empathy shown to dead Israelis leaves less available for PalestiniansThere is no such thing as a perfect victim, but a million ways to be an imperfect one. She was drinking. Her skirt was too short. She went willingly back to the footballer's mansion, or up to Harvey Weinstein's hotel suite, so what did she think was going to happen? Maybe she was a teenage runaway, or a sex worker; he was a good boy, or a much-loved celebrity. There is a long list of reasons rapists get away with it, but it all too often starts with a jury's refusal to listen to a woman they have already decided for some stubborn reason not to like. Remember that, as we come to the distressing picture now emerging of alleged multiple rapes and sexual assaults by Hamas fighters amid the atrocities of 7 October.This week, the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, finally called for what he described as numerous accounts of sexual violence during the abhorrent acts of terror by Hamas" to be vigorously investigated".Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnistInformation and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.htmlDo 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. Continue reading...
The dereliction of Boris Johnson and his allies is daily being laid bare. The key is to remember what they did and hold them to accountIn so many ways, the Covid inquiry feels as if it is going very badly for the Tories. Seemingly every session in the plain, low-ceilinged, rather severe room next to Paddington station in London confirms more of our worst suspicions from the time of the pandemic about the Conservatives' performance in government. That Boris Johnson, many of his ministers and some of his most senior advisers were disastrously unsuited to dealing with one of the most lethal crises Britain has ever faced is becoming ever clearer, question by question, document by document.The lead counsel for the inquiry, Hugo Keith KC, sometimes uses phrases such as failings in the heart of the government" when he is questioning ministers and ex-ministers - and even more ominously for them, when he is summarising or making observations about their answers. It's hard to see at this stage how the inquiry's report, the first part of which is currently scheduled for publication early next summer, can be anything other than damning. And Johnson and Rishi Sunak - or Dr Death", as one of the government's most senior scientific advisers called him during the pandemic - haven't even been interrogated by the inquiry yet. Johnson is scheduled to appear next week, with Sunak expected soon afterwards.Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
A lasting legacy of racism, oppression and colonialism is laid bare at a powerful exhibition in Cambridge. Confronting it can help us build a more equitable worldGone and forgotten until it comes around again next October, Black History Month is challenging for those who argue that a people's history should not be confined to a mere four weeks. Genuine comprehension of history fosters an appreciation for the crucial principles of equality, diversity and inclusivity. All are pivotal in cultivating peace within our societies, and their absence manifests in racism. But racism isn't limited to a specific month.Racism encompasses prejudice, discrimination or antagonism directed against others based on their racial or ethnic affiliation, typically targeting minorities or marginalised groups. It stems from the belief in distinct characteristics, abilities or qualities attributed to different races, often to establish a hierarchy of inferiority or superiority. Continue reading...
I asked ChatGPT to improve my latest novel and lost no sleep over the results. But I do worry about diverse voices being crowded outThis summer two worlds - literature and technology - collided. News stories began appearing about authors suing OpenAI and Meta for using their works to train their large language models without consent, without credit and without compensation". I read them with increasing curiosity, and then I found a review of a novella, Death of an Author, which was 95% machine-generated". I put down my quill and stared out of the window, wondering if my tried and tested productivity hacks of taking the dog for a walk or soaking in a hot tub were no longer going to cut it in this frightening new world.Be brave, I told myself. Experiment with these new technologies or prepare to be replaced by a monkey with an iPhone and a writing app. I lay on my bed and opened up Laika, one of the free creative writing tools I'd read about. Perhaps my latest novel, Love Marriage, could have been vastly improved with this genius tool. I pasted in the first paragraph: In the Ghorami household sex was never mentioned. If the television was on and a kissing-with-tongues scene threatened the chaste and cardamom-scented home, it was swiftly terminated by a flick of the black box. When Yasmin began her first period, her mother had slipped her a pack of Kotex Maxi pads and murmured instructions not to touch the Qur'an ..."This is an edited extract from Monica Ali's 2023 PEN HG Wells lecture, hosted by English PEN in partnership with New Writing North. The full version of this piece is published in PEN Transmissions, English PEN's literary magazineMonica Ali is a novelist, whose latest book is Love Marriage Continue reading...
When I interviewed him last year, the late Pogues legend was truculent, moody, wilfully silent - and immensely likable. I will forever cherish our strange meetingShane MacGowan and I sat in near silence for two hours last year. We were at his home, just outside Dublin. I'd been warned by his wife, the writer Victoria Mary Clarke, that he was depressed and anxious, not really in the mood to talk. But nothing could prepare me for this. He scoffed at my questions or snorted with contempt. He looked at Victoria despairingly when I asked about his mix of Englishness and Irishness. God, these questions are fucking ..." He decided the sentence wasn't even worth finishing. I tried to talk about his most famous song, Fairytale of New York. It pisses me off when people always talk about it," he said in that famous mumbled slur. I asked if people were right to refer to him as a genius. Probably, yeah," he said. What made you a genius? God! Fucking ridiculous question!" He had a point.Sometimes he just laughed, like a snore. Chhhhhhhhhhhhhh." Throughout, he slurped his gin and tonic noisily from an oversized glass. Schhhhhhlrrrrp. Continue reading...
Republican and Democrat to take to the stage in Alpharetta, Georgia, for debate moderated by Sean HannityNewsom has called out DeSantis' lagging poll numbers.You're trying to find migrants to play political games to get some news attention so you can out-Trump Trump, and by the way, how's that going for you, Ron? You're down 41 points in your own home state." Continue reading...
Slugfest' moderated by Sean Hannity saw the Democrat and Republican speaking over each other in heated shadow campaign'Ron DeSantis, a hard-right contender for the Republican presidential nomination, took the stage in Georgia on Thursday for a debate one eager website dubbed The Vendetta in Alpharetta."But the Florida governor's opponent was not Donald Trump, the former president and clear primary frontrunner, or any other Republican contender. His opponent was Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California,who is not seeking his party's nomination next year, given Joe Biden's grip on the White House. Continue reading...
In a preliminary injunction on Thursday, Judge Donald Molloy said first-of-its-kind ban violates free speech rights of usersA US judge has blocked Montana's first-of-its kind state ban on the use of short-video sharing app TikTok from taking effect on 1 January, saying it violated the free speech rights of users.In a preliminary injunction on Thursday, US district judge Donald Molloy said the law oversteps state power and infringes on the constitutional rights of users". Continue reading...
Friend was not at home when woman allegedly forced herself inside home of Michael Latt, 33, and fired semi-automatic handgunA high-profile entertainment marketing consultant was targeted by a woman who had been stalking one of his friends before she fatally shot him after forcing her way inside his Los Angeles home, prosecutors said Thursday.Michael Latt, 33, had worked on projects with filmmakers including Ryan Coogler and Ava DuVernay, as well as the rap artist Common. He was pronounced dead on Monday in the hospital. Continue reading...
I'm doing what I can to keep this man's legacy from being a master politician,' says woman who wrote viral copypastaOn 31 October, I received an emoji-filled text that screamed: THOT-O-WEEN is upon us." While taking a break from Turkey Day baking last week, I got another wishing me a HAPPY SPANXGIVING". Such is the horny holiday copypasta text.It's practically a Gen Z and millennial tradition. These texts resemble the chain emails that were popular at the dawn of the digital inbox: send this generic spooky story to 15 people, or you'll be dead by midnight. But they've been revamped for our chaotic times, filled with horny emojis, sexual innuendos, and lots of curse words. Continue reading...
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, held a press conference in Tel Aviv after meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials. Blinken said the immediate focus of his visit is to try to extend the pause in fighting in Gaza and enable more hostages to be freed. The US also urged the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to protect civilians in Gaza. Israel has one of the most sophisticated militaries in the world, it is capable of neutralising the threat while minimising harm to innocent men, women and children,' Blinken said
by John Bartlett in Santiago, Uki Goñi in Buenos Air on (#6GSNZ)
US statesman's encouragement of Pinochet's coup in Chile and his backing for Argentina's military dictatorship left lasting stainHenry Kissinger's death has brought out some bitter epitaphs from Latin America where the legacy of US intervention helped saddle the region with some of the most brutal military regimes of the 20th century.Nowhere has been the reaction been more damning than in Chile, where Kissinger was instrumental in the 1973 coup that led to the death of a democratically elected socialist president, Salvador Allende and the installation of a dictator, Gen Augusto Pinochet, and his military junta. Continue reading...
by Maanvi Singh in Oakland, California on (#6GSKH)
Governor has been busy campaigning over the last few months, but his approval rating sank to an all-time low and his constituents are growing increasingly skepticalGavin Newsom won't be on the ballot in 2024, though lately, he's been acting a lot like he is.In the lead-up to his prime-time debate on Thursday with Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, Newsom, 56, has been busy campaigning over the last few months. He has travelled to several red states, where he also paid for billboards and television advertisements. He has challenged not just DeSantis, but a number of Republican governors including Greg Abbott of Texas. He launched a Campaign for Democracy'' political action committee. He met with Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel and Xi Jinping in China. Continue reading...
British-born journalist's program had gained reputation for hard-hitting interviewsThe cable TV channel MSNBC and its sister network NBC's Peacock streaming service is cancelling the weekend news show The Mehdi Hasan Show, with its eponymous outspoken host, people familiar with the decision have told the news website Semafor.The host and journalist Mehdi Hasan will instead become an on-camera analyst and guest host, the outlet reported on Thursday. The Peacock original show will be replaced by an additional hour of Ayman, the news program hosted by Ayman Mohyeldin. Continue reading...
Phillip Dean Hancock killed by lethal injection after Republican governor declines to commute sentence despite recommendationOklahoma executed a man on Thursday who claimed he acted in self-defense when he shot and killed two men in Oklahoma City in 2001.Phillip Dean Hancock, 59, received a three-drug lethal injection at the Oklahoma state penitentiary and was declared dead at 11.29am. His execution went forward once the Republican governor, Kevin Stitt, declined to commute his sentence, despite a clemency recommendation from the state's pardon and parole board. Continue reading...
The New York fabulist faces expulsion but the fault for his rise lies with Trump, McCarthy, McConnell and the supreme courtIt seems churlish for any member of the party of Donald Trump to single out George Santos for punishment as a liar, fraudster and fabulist. The 23 federal charges against the first-term member of Congress pale beside the Republican frontrunner's 91 felony counts and civil suits over fraud and E Jean Carroll's defamation claim, based on her allegation of rape. Republicans' faux horror at the discovery of Santos's extravagant spending of campaign funds on Botox, casino chips and OnlyFans porn belies their previous blithe tolerance of the red-dressed, gay-pride, Brazilian drag queen in their midst. Santos thrived as the symbol of the cultural contradictions of Republicanism. Did his sophisticated taste for accessories from Hermes and Ferragamo finally do him in with his anti-globalist colleagues?The facts of Santos's false identity were pried apart gradually, beginning before he was even sworn in. Slowly, his crimes were revealed. Expose after expose - yet nothing happened. So long as Santos voted as a reliable Republican (100% Heritage Action rating), he was shielded from ritual rounds of queer bashing, much less expulsion. The narrow Republican majority in the House of Representatives required every able-bodied member who could hold up an arm. Santos was straight as a party liner. Continue reading...
No matter who 72-year-old Gerry picks on this week's finale, the spin-off has injected new life into the US's flagship dating showStrange as it may sound, one of the hottest shows on TV this fall has been ... an old dating series now catering, for once, to senior citizens. That would be The Golden Bachelor, a new spin-off of America's pre-eminent dating series in which a 72-year-old widow searches for love among a cohort of age-appropriate women aged 60-75. The show has delivered the franchise's highest ratings in years - its September premiere reached a combined 13.9 million viewers and set a streaming record as ABC's most-watched episode of an unscripted series ever on Hulu. And it's not just appealing to the golden demographic; the series scored the franchise's best ratings for the 18-49 demographic since a 2021 episode of Bachelor in Paradise, which adheres to the much more standard format of hot young singles commingling in hot exotic locales.Anecdotally, The Golden Bachelor has transcended the generally siloed island of Bachelor Nation - no show has been mentioned to me more this fall, or with more surprise and delight. I'm generally dating show agnostic, and yet found myself charmed by the older midwesterner Gerry Turner and his suitors, all openly looking for companionship after love, loss and many former eras. Regardless of who Turner chooses on this week's two-hour season finale - 64-year-old Leslie Fhima, a former national aerobics champion, or 70-year-old Theresa Nist, who also lost a longtime beloved spouse - the Golden Bachelor has undoubtedly reinvigorated America's pre-eminent dating franchise. Continue reading...
The logjam created by MLS's newly bloated playoff format and European qualifying has made things complicated for players like Philadelphia Union and Hungary midfielder Daniel GazdagThe 28th season of Major League Soccer has taken a league famed for its frequent changes and Americanized innovations and shifted the format once more.With the inaugural Leagues Cup stuck into the middle of a long, arduous season, MLS's 29 teams entered the postseason already considerably fatigued. Upon arrival, they'd find an expanded playoff format allowing nearly two-thirds of the league's teams into a postseason race that started with drawn-out best-of-three series. Victors in that round were then treated to an international break - further beleaguering their star talent - before the conference semi-finals arrived this past weekend. Continue reading...
Leaders of China, France, Russia and Italy pay tribute amid critical statements over his record in Latin America and CambodiaOn the subject of Taiwan - and see below for our China correspondent Amy Hawkins' reminder of the incredible fact that in 1979 Kissinger was a key figure in the US severing ties with Taiwan, and switching its formal recognition to the government in Beijing - some people there praised his death as good news".Bless him for being Chinese in his next life," one said. Continue reading...
Edited video clips, which some say are misleading, show comments made by public at city council debate justifying Hamas as armed resistance'Prominent Democratic party leaders in California, as well as pro-Israel Jewish groups in the Bay Area, have condemned expressions of support for Hamas and conspiracy theories questioning the 7 October attacks aired at a heated Oakland city council debate on Monday.The California congress member Adam Schiff said it was shocking to hear people downplay, deny or even seek to justify" the horrific attacks, rapes, killings and kidnappings" carried out by Hamas. Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, also posted on social media that Hamas was a terrorist organization that must be called out for what they are: evil". Continue reading...
Santos appeared to launch a veiled threat against House members who voted against his expulsion, saying it would 'haunt them'.He also launched a tirade against New York Democratic representative Jamaal Bowman, who was charged last month with setting off a false fire alarm in a House office building before a vote on a government funding bill. Bowman pleaded guilty and agreed to pay a fine of $1,000 (792).The Republican speaker of the US House, Mike Johnson, said the chamber would vote on whether to expel George Santos on Thursday for embellishing his resume and allegedly breaking federal law
Former US secretary of state visited Peru dressing room before eyebrow-raising 1978 defeat and claimed to have devised tactics that were forerunner of catenaccioIt was the final game of the second group phase. Earlier in the day, Brazil had beaten Poland 3-1, which meant Argentina had to beat Peru by four goals to make it to the 1978 World Cup final. Before kick-off, the Peru team were visited in their dressing room by Jorge Videla, the leader of the military junta that had seized power in Argentina in 1976, and Henry Kissinger, who had been the US secretary of state until the previous January. This, Peru's players felt, was deeply odd.Kissinger, who died on Wednesday, loved football and often attended games. In 1976, for instance, after flying to Britain to discuss the crisis in Rhodesia, he went to Blundell Park for Grimsby's win over Gillingham with the foreign secretary, Tony Crosland, a passionate Grimsby fan. Continue reading...
Demonstrators say they are using event as educational moment for our fellow New Yorkers'Hundreds gathered around Manhattan on Wednesday night, outside iconic locales like the Rockefeller Center, in support of the people of Palestine amid a truce between Israel and Hamas.Outside the News Corp Building, there was an interfaith protest organized by Within Our Lifetime, a Palestinian-led community organization. A few blocks away, at Rockefeller Center, a starkly different scene was playing out: the 90th tree lighting ceremony where scores of people gather each year to witness the illumination of the 80-foot-tall Norway spruce. Continue reading...
He may have overseen the 20th century, but the champion of US power was also a symbol of its dangerous neo-imperialismAll political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure." So said Enoch Powell - yet to this famous aphorism, Henry Kissinger, cold war strategist, US secretary of state, counsellor to 12 American presidents and alleged war criminal - who has died aged 100 - is a notable exception.The man who invented shuttle diplomacy, promoted the concept of hard-eyed realpolitik and pursued fleeting mirages of detente between hostile superpowers paradoxically lived a life of multiple professional failures that ended happily, marked by generally high international regard.Simon Tisdall is a foreign affairs commentator. He has been a foreign leader writer, foreign editor and US editor for the GuardianDo 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.
Right wing criticizes US president for appearing to support a ceasefire, while others see move as a potential to stop the bloodshedJoe Biden is facing criticism after a social media post sowed confusion over his stance on the Israel-Hamas war, with some viewing it as evidence that he is bowing to domestic pressure for a ceasefire.Hamas unleashed a terrorist attack because they fear nothing more than Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in peace," the US president's X account said on Tuesday. To continue down the path of terror, violence, killing, and war is to give Hamas what they seek. We can't do that." Continue reading...
For more than a decade, people have been saying that the era of US dominance is coming to an end. But in reality there are still no other global players to rival itIn recent years, the idea that the United States is an empire in decline has gained considerable support, some of it from quarters that until very recently would have denied it was ever an empire at all. The New York Times, for instance, has run columns that describe a remarkably benign" American empire that is in retreat", or even at risk of decline and fall.Yet the shadow American power still casts over the rest of the world is unmistakable. The US has military superiority over all other countries, control of the world's oceans via critical sea lanes, garrisons on every continent, a network of alliances that covers much of the industrial world, the ability to render individuals to secret prisons in countries from Cuba to Thailand, preponderant influence over the global financial system, about 30% of the world's wealth and a continental economy not dependent on international trade. Continue reading...
UK footwear firm's shares plunge as American turnaround proves more challenging than expected'Dr Martens has issued its fourth profit warning this year as a tough consumer environment in the US continues to affect sales of its sturdy boots.The Northamptonshire-based footwear brand said sales fell 5% to 396m in the six months to 30 September and pre-tax profits dived 55% to 26m. While this was better than City analysts had expected, the company said the outlook for the following six months had worsened because of a slower than hoped for recovery in its US business. Continue reading...
Former secretary of state under Richard Nixon became one of the most prominent and controversial figures of US foreign policy in the 20th century. Plus, what's happening on the first day of Cop28
Parents of three hostages met with officials on Wednesday to pressure Biden administration to push for Americans' releaseIn the disorienting aftermath of Hamas's 7 October assault on Israel, Ruby and Hagit Chen desperately sought news of their son, 19-year-old Itay Chen, a dual American-Israeli citizen who had been on active duty for the Israeli military.Then came an early morning knock on the door of their home in Netanya, a city north of Tel Aviv. Continue reading...
As mainstream politics has shifted to the right, once-fringe parties are gaining support - and moving closer to governmentThe turning point in Geert Wilders' path to Dutch electoral triumph (if not power) is now thought to have been the decision by the leader of the conservative VVD party to open the door to Wilders' party as a coalition partner. It was at this moment that many voters calculated that they might as well vote for Wilders as for the VVD.More and more rightwing leaders across western Europe are making the same decision to accommodate the far right in coalition as a way of keeping their own parties in power. The fact that this tactic completely backfired for the VVD's Dilan Yeilgoz, (her party ended up in third place) contains an important lesson that extends beyond the Netherlands.Cas Mudde is the Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF professor in the school of public and international affairs at the University of GeorgiaDo 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. Continue reading...
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tells Ryan Grim life in Congress completely transformed' after Democratic leader stepped downIn a call to congratulate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on her momentous 2018 primary win over Joe Crowley, a Democratic grandee from New York, Nancy Pelosi told the young socialist from the Bronx: We already have too many old white men here in Congress."The quip from the then Democratic minority leader, who went on to be House speaker until January this year, seemed to indicate strong affinity for the younger woman. Continue reading...
When it comes to the NBA's best ever practitioners in the bitter science of verbal sparring, these 10 players stand above the restIn the NBA, there is a skill paramount to winning that isn't often taught in camps or clinics. Some are born with it and while they can hone the attribute over time, it is not always evident from afar like speed or springy legs. It's the timeless art of trash talking and in basketball, a sport likened to one played in underwear, where there are no helmets and open space comes at a premium, verbal sparring is frequent.But who is the best? Who has the most potent style? Who could jaw with such prowess that it helped gain their teams an advantage even before the sneakers are laced? Indeed, whose tongues provide the best weapons? Let's dig in. Continue reading...
With the regular season past its halfway point, we pick out a few figures around the league and assess the likelihood of there being change in the airShould Prescott's seat feel warm? No. Does it? Absolutely. It's drifted under the radar, but Prescott has been the NFL's best quarterback since week six. He leads the league in QBR and EPA/play since the debacle that was the 42-10 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in week five. And if you extrapolate that performance out over the full season, he would still be in second. Continue reading...
Success at Cop28 and in the future lies in equipping a new generation to lead the transition to a greener planet. Countries such as Kenya have already laid the groundworkThe faces of young climate activists have become familiar in reports of UN climate talks. Their frustration and anxiety are understandable. We are off-track in achieving global climate goals, and their generation faces a crisis it did not create.But what often goes unnoticed in climate discussions is the proactive work of dynamic young people in low- and middle-income countries. From the Kenyan Youth Biodiversity Network engaging in national policy discussions to social entrepreneurs in the Philippines creating green business opportunities, young people are taking matters into their own hands by actively educating their communities and seeking green opportunities. Continue reading...
Far from freeing the UK from continental insecurities, Brexit has made some of them worse. Isolationism won't help: the only hope is to work with our neighboursOnce again, a spectre is haunting Europe. Yet the spectre is not communism, as Karl Marx wrongly predicted nearly 200 years ago. Far from it. The spectre today consists of multiple new drivers of national and regional insecurity. Together they threaten Europe's - and Britain's - long postwar years of general democratic stability and intermittent economic optimism. And Europe does not yet know what to do about it.Last week's success for Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom in the Netherlands' general election is the latest of these many shocks. The vote for Wilders' anti-migrant, anti-Islamic and Eurosceptic campaign has sent a jolt through all of Europe. It is too simplistic to call it part of a general shift to the right, partly because that may encourage simplistic responses. The far right has always been a problem in each country, and will continue to be so. But the increased vote for Wilders is also a sign of something altogether larger.Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
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