It is a very Northern Ireland paradox: one of the most outspoken critics of the rioters who have been hurling petrol bombs at police Land Rovers is the hip-hop trio that rose to global fame literally atop a smoking police Land Rover. Kneecap stormed the Sundance film festival this year when its members rode into … Read more
Britain was the fastest-growing economy in the G7 in the first half of this year. The unemployment rate is coming down and so is wage inflation. As Jim Callaghan never quite said as he arrived back in the country during the winter of discontent: Crisis? What Crisis? Last week’s release of key economic indicators were … Read more
Illustration: Samuel Kerr/The Guardian It was the first week of July. News of the presidential election had been mired, for eight days, in alarming assessments of Joe Biden and that shambolic debate. The president had started but not finished sentences, slurred words and at points stood with his mouth slightly agape while his opponent, Donald … Read more
Halfway down the garden, in the middle of the thick yew hedge, a wild plum tree is heavy with fruit, each one hanging like a bauble on a Christmas tree. The tree was never intentionally planted and is probably the result of my habit of throwing plum stones into the garden. The first I knew … Read more
Alain Delon, the celebrated actor who starred in a string of classics such as Plein Soleil, Le Samouraï and Rocco and His Brothers, has died aged 88, his children have told French media. “Alain Fabien, Anouchka, Anthony, as well as [his dog] Loubo, are deeply saddened to announce the passing of their father. He passed … Read more
Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams on Tour (BBC One) | iPlayer Daddy Issues (BBC Three/BBC One) | iPlayerBad Monkey (Apple TV+)Emily in Paris (Netflix) Freddie Flintoff has charisma to burn, and it’s the good kind. No “big character” overkill. His style is decent, straightforward; add a soupçon of dry Lancashire humour (“I was going to … Read more
Actor, producer and campaigner Rakie Ayola, 56, was born in Cardiff to a Sierra Leonean mother and a Nigerian father. She trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. She won a Bafta for the BBC drama Anthony and a Bafta Cymru for The Pact, but is perhaps best known as nurse Kyla … Read more
At the stroke of midnight on 15 August 2024, as India ushered in its 78th year of independence, tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Kolkata to protest the alleged rape and murder of a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, and to ‘reclaim the night’. … Read more
Just over four years ago, an insurrectionist mob found each other online, descended on Washington, stormed the Capitol and threatened the vice-president with a noose. But that was the good old days. We’re living in a different reality now. One in which the billionaires have been unchained. Because back in the golden days of 2020, … Read more
The picture of a pair of masked men in south London this month making off with a ladder and a satellite dish, newly decorated by Banksy, made one thing clear: people want Banksy’s art and believe it is extremely valuable. The culprits in Peckham Rye were photographed and filmed in action, so took a big … Read more