Australia v England: hosts chasing 205 to win Ashes first Test on day two – live

Hosts closing on target after another wild day in Perth
Ashes top 100 players | Get The Spin newsletter | Mail Rob

43rd over: Australia 131-9 (Lyon 4, Doggett 6) And on it goes for Doggett. Another clunky drive, this time through mid on, gets him back for a second run. Fourth ball of the over he finally gets a reprieve, a single to cover. Atkinson bumps Lyon but the ball sails way over his head.

42nd over: Australia 128-9 (Lyon 4, Doggett 3) Lyon single first ball puts Doggett back on strike. Ohh, dropped catch! In at short leg, Pope under the mitre, and the ball reaches his fingertips but goes down rather than up. Mark Wood keeps peppering Doggett, who by the end of the over has faced every delivery so far today but two. The sixth ball he decides he’s had enough and aims a big drive, inside edges it, gets a run to fine leg, and keeps the strike.

Premier League buildup, Barcelona return to Camp Nou and more – matchday live

⚽ Latest news and previews as Premier League resumes
⚽ Fixtures | Tables | Check out the talk | Mail matchday live

Fantasy Football Corner! How are you doing in your fantasy league/s? I am 35th in our Guardian sports desk one (out of 38) and third (out of three) in my family one … I would blame it on the face that I haven’t changed my team in more than three gameweeks but I think I am just an incompetent football manager … something I did not need an app to tell me, but I digress.

Don’t make the same mistakes as me and get your teams in before the deadline. Here is our handy Premier League team news preview for the weekend.

‘The public has been lied to’: secretly made documentary insists that aliens exist

The Age of Disclosure is a new film featuring high-ranking government officials who claim proof of extraterrestrial life has been covered up

Director Dan Farah grew up with aliens. As a child of the 80s and 90s, pop culture was awash with extra-terrestrial sightings. “How can you be a kid watching movies like ET and Close Encounters, TV shows like The X Files, and not end up curious about whether or not we’re alone in the universe?” he said in an interview with the Guardian. “And whether or not the US government does, in fact, hold secrets from the public.”

Farah’s exposure to otherworldly beings in fiction kickstarted an interest that’s now morphed into a professional quest, and the subject of his documentary debut The Age of Disclosure. Here, Farah makes the case that the United States has been hiding, for decades, a font of information related to UAP (unidentified anomalous phenomena) – the acronym rebrand of the stigma-ridden UFO.

Tense calm in far north as Israel prepares to ‘finish the job’ against Hezbollah

On the border with Lebanon, communities have started to return and rebuild – even though some are in no hurry to return

Noam Erlich looks out over what was his beer garden. Beyond the disordered chairs and tables and the sign instructing neighbours and friends to “pay whatever you like”, the ridge falls away to fields, then a fence, then hills littered with the skeletal ruins of shattered Lebanese villages.

The 44-year-old brewer is standing in front of the house his grandfather built when the Manara kibbutz was founded in the 1940s in the very far north of Israel. The building was hit repeatedly by missiles fired by Hezbollah during the conflict, which ended a year ago, and will now almost certainly be demolished, along with most of the neighbouring houses.

New Caledonia activist says France is impeding travel home after prison release

Exclusive: Kanak leader Christian Tein, who was freed from prison in June, says France is ‘deliberately dragging out’ re-issue of his passport

A pro-independence leader from the French overseas territory of New Caledonia has accused the French government of “deliberately dragging out” his passport application, preventing him from flying home after his release from prison.

Christian Tein, an Indigenous Kanak leader, was arrested in New Caledonia in June 2024 over allegations that he had instigated the deadly pro-independence protests that had taken place on the island a month earlier.

‘I knew I was doing something I shouldn’t’: Karl Ove Knausgård on the fallout from My Struggle and the dark side of ambition

The Norwegian author on his autofictional epic, moving to London, and the psychopath at the heart of his new novel

Fifteen years ago, discussing the success of his six-volume autofictional work My Struggle on Norwegian radio, Karl Ove Knausgård said he felt as if he had “actually sold my soul to the devil”. My Struggle had become a runaway success in Norway – a success that would subsequently be repeated across the world – but the project provoked anger in some quarters for its portrayal of friends and family members. This was a work of art that came at a price. Hence, for its creator, its Faustian aspect.

That experience lies at the root of Knausgård’s latest novel, The School of Night, the fourth volume in his Morning Star sequence, in which his typical character studies and fine-grained attention to the minutiae of daily life are married to a compelling supernatural plot involving a mysterious star appearing in the sky and the dead returning to life. Volumes one and three, The Morning Star and The Third Realm, cycled between the same group of interconnected characters, while the second book, The Wolves of Eternity, moved back to the 1980s and told the story of a young Norwegian man and his discovery of a Russian half-sister. Only towards the end of its 800 pages did the novel intersect with the events of The Morning Star. The School of Night, perhaps frustratingly for some, again moves backwards instead of forwards, this time to 1985 London, and follows the art school career of a young Norwegian, Kristian Hadeland, who is pursuing his dream of fame as a photographer. Kristian, events reveal, is someone who will sacrifice anything, and anyone, to succeed. Charting Kristian’s rise and fall is an addictive and eerie reading experience.

11/21: CBS Evening News

Trump and Mamdani find common ground after trading barbs for months; Retired cop offers free mobile laundry service for homeless people

Beating Pumas could open pivotal chapter in England’s 2027 World Cup story

Defeat of Argentina in 2000 was important stepping stone for Clive Woodward’s side on way to winning ultimate prize

It is exactly 25 years since the most fraught pre-match buildup in the history of English international rugby union. In this same week in November 2000 a pay row led to the entire national side walking out on strike, prompting Clive Woodward to threaten that an alternative team of lower-league amateurs would be chosen if his players did not return to training by 11am the following morning.

After a tense standoff they duly did so, a grudging truce was agreed and the weekend game against Argentina went ahead with England winning 19-0. Three years later all but two of that matchday squad (the exceptions were David Flatman and Matt Perry) were lifting the Rugby World Cup in Australia. The moral of the “strike” story? The darkest hour can be the springboard to a spectacular golden dawn.

The BBC is under threat like never before. This is how to save it | Pat Younge

A moment of peril demands a new approach – on everything from funding to the BBC charter

• Pat Younge is the chair of the British Broadcasting Challenge

We have not been here before. The BBC is used to coming under pressure from political parties, well-funded pressure groups and powerful newspaper publishers. But the threat of a lawsuit from the US president is unprecedented.

This latest furore is dangerous because it comes at a time when democracy faces an information crisis. The foundations of informed democratic debate are under attack across the globe from a combination of AI-generated deepfakes, hostile state propaganda and algorithms that amplify divisions through social media. We have already seen how Elon Musk, the wealthiest man on the planet, is prepared to use his own social media platform, X, to interfere in the affairs of other countries and exert a chilling influence on democracies.

Pat Younge is the chair of the British Broadcasting Challenge, whose recommendations are contained in the report Renewing The BBC

‘Who’s screenshotting our messages?’: how a WhatsApp saga spiralled into two parents’ wrongful arrest

When Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levine posted complaints about their local primary school, they never expected six uniformed police officers to turn up at their door

Before it catapulted a small school community in London’s commuter belt into the centre of a global news story, the year-four class WhatsApp group at Cowley Hill school in Borehamwood was unremarkable – a place of snide comments, reminders about non-uniform day and flustered messages about being late for the school run.

“It was mum gossip, you know?” said one member, Sarah. “A bit juicy, but it wasn’t anything nasty.”

Can a wildlife paradise on a Colombian island survive the arrival of a military base?

It took 40 years to turn Gorgona into a biodiversity haven and model marine protected area. Now a new coastguard station has sparked fears of militarisation and ecological ruin

For more than 15 years, Luis Fernando Sánchez Caicedo had dedicated himself to human rights in Colombia, supporting young people and advocacting for Afro-descendant and campesino – small farmer – communities in the Pacific region. A prominent local leader and adviser to the area’s administration in Nariño, he was also a longtime collaborator with the Institute for Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz), working to promote dialogue in a country torn apart by decades of war.

That all ended in September when the boat carrying him and the mayor of Mosquera, Karen Lizeth Pineda, was fired on, reportedly by the Colombian navy. Sánchez was killed and the mayor’s bodyguard was seriously injured in the attack.

Which country is the fourth most successful in Olympic swimming? The Saturday quiz

From pop stars in space to non-primates with fingerprints, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 Whose last words in 1963 were “Nobody’s gonna shoot at me”?
2 What symbol originated as a ligature of the letters e and t?
3 What is the largest artificial prehistoric mound in Europe?
4 Which marsupial is the only non-primate with fingerprints?
5 Which pop star went into space in April?
6 The old Hotel Moskva appears on bottles of what spirit?
7 In what decade was divorce legalised in Ireland?
8 Which landlocked country is the fourth most successful in Olympic swimming?
What links:
9 Harry Bailey; Joss Merlyn; Abbey Potterson; Mistress Quickly; the Thénardiers?
10 Spanish, 1701-14; Austrian, 1740-48; Roy family, 2018-23?
11 Main belt; trojans; near-Earth?
12 Dominica; Guatemala; Kiribati; Papua New Guinea; Uganda?
13 45th state; largest city in Nebraska; Au; queen of the Roman gods; Excalibur?
14 SET India; Cocomelon; T-Series; MrBeast?
15 Basket V; hand and net VII; base IX; foot XI?

Two UK clinical trials to assess impact of puberty blockers in young people

Multi-year studies announced after Cass review found ‘insufficient evidence’ about effects on children with gender dysphoria

Two studies to investigate the impact of puberty blockers in young people with gender incongruence have been announced by researchers in the UK after an expert view said gender medicine was “built on shaky foundations”.

Puberty blockers were originally used to treat early onset puberty in children but have also been used off-label in children with gender dysphoria or incongruence.

‘So unchanged it is almost otherworldly’: the oasis town of Skoura, Morocco

For the explorer and author, the desert outpost, irrigated by water from the Atlas mountains, is the perfect place to decompress

The first thing I notice when I walk into the oasis is the temperature drop. Then, I hear the birdsong and the rustling of the palm trees. The harsh sun dims and there’s water and the smell of damp earth. It’s easy to understand why desert travellers yearned to reach these havens and why they have become synonymous with peace. I’m an explorer who’s walked through many oases with loaded camels, crossing Morocco and the Sahara on foot, but Skoura, a four-hour drive from Marrakech, is a place I visit to decompress.

You may be imagining some kind of cartoon mirage oasis – a sole date palm shimmering above the endless sands. In fact, Skoura has a population of around 3,000 people living in a small town on the edge of the palms with 10 sq miles (25 sq km) of agricultural land. Many visitors to Morocco start in Fez or Marrakech and stop off in Aït Benhaddou, then go down to the Sahara towns of Zagora or Merzouga. Skoura, less than an hour from Ouarzazate, is an ideal stop-off point for a couple of days, or you could combine it with a Marrakech city break. The bus from Marrakech (CTM or Supratours) takes six hours, or you can hire a car (or car with driver) from Marrakech or Fez.

Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world

A year-long investigation reveals how mothers lost children after being radicalised by uplifting podcast tales of births without midwives or doctors

As Esau Lopez was asphyxiated for the first 17 minutes of his life on Earth, the atmosphere in the room remained serene, even ecstatic. Acoustic music crooned from a speaker in a modest two-bedroom apartment in a suburb of Pennsylvania. “You are a queen,” murmured one of three friends in the room.

Only Esau’s mother, Gabrielle Lopez, felt something was wrong. She was pushing hard, but her son would not be born. “Can you help [him] out?” she asked, as Esau crowned. “Baby is coming,” the friend replied. Four minutes later, Lopez asked again, “Can you grab [him]?” Another friend murmured, “Baby is safe.” Six minutes passed. Again, Lopez asked, “Can you grab [him]?”

Bro boost: women say their LinkedIn traffic increases if they pretend to be men

Collective experiment found switching profile to ‘male’ and ‘bro-coding’ text led to big increase in reach, though site denies favouring posts by men

Do your LinkedIn followers consider you a “thought leader”? Do hordes of commenters applaud your tips on how to “scale” your startup? Do recruiters slide into your DMs to “explore potential synergies”?

If not, it could be because you’re not a man.

The Premier League players who have drifted from view this season

A number of big-money signings, promising talents and club legends are struggling to make their mark

By WhoScored

A £50m signing from Manchester City, Raheem Sterling was once a declaration of ambition by Chelsea but he is now lost in the £1.4bn of talent that has arrived since. It is easy to forget that Sterling was the first of 50 signings under the club’s owners.

Bird flu: first ever death from rare H5N5 strain is recorded in US

Washington state resident’s backyard flock of domestic poultry had been exposed to wild birds, health officials said

A person in the US is believed to be the first human to die from a rare strain of bird flu, but state health officials said on Friday the risk to the public is low.

The person in Washington state, an older adult with underlying health conditions, was being treated for a bird flu strain called H5N5 after becoming seemingly the first known human infected by the strain, according to a statement from the Washington State Department of Health.

This article was amended on 22 November 2025 after the AP corrected its copy to remove a reference to the person’s gender, which has not been released by health officials

Trump says he's terminating legal protections for Somali migrants in Minnesota

President Donald Trump said Friday night that he's "immediately" terminating temporary legal protections for Somali migrants living in Minnesota. The state has the nation's largest Somali community.

Figure AI sued by whistleblower who warned that startup's robots could 'fracture a human skull'

A former engineer for Figure AI filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming he was unlawfully terminated after warning executives about product safety.

Six great reads: the world’s scariest CEO, gen Z in the workplace, and a lost great console

Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the past seven days

‘America is British’. Heaven is ‘a socialist state’. David Attenborough is ‘anti-human’ – the startling theories of Reform MP Danny Kruger

He was a Conservative party big-hitter who wrote speeches for David Cameron and worked with Boris Johnson before he suddenly jumped ship. He talks family, flags and why Nigel Farage is ‘top dog’

What I struggle to understand, I say to Danny Kruger in his office at Reform UK HQ, is why a serious Conservative, with a glittering future like yours, would defect to a party led by Nigel Farage? Indeed, the defection of Kruger, a heavy-weight on the Conservative right who served on the front bench and been tipped as a possible future leader, was seen as a major coup for Reform, catching commentators off-guard. Unlike previous deserters – Andrea Jenkyns, Jake Berry, Nadine Dorries – he was a sitting MP in a safe Tory seat. Plus, he was untarnished by the boisterous excesses of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.

But we’ve been around the houses a few times on this. He’s talked about his philosophy (Burkean), his Christianity (evangelical), thrown out words like “family”, “community”, “nation”. He’s asserted (confusingly) that the Tories are “over” but “not dead”, that politics is mostly “gut feeling … mostly vibes – isn’t it?” Now, after a pause, Kruger sits back and fixes me with a blue-eyed grin: “Humans are pack animals,” he says. “You need to know who top dog is, otherwise the other dogs fight each other. That’s what we get in Tory and Labour. Because there’s a weakness at the top.”

A make-or-break budget: inside the Treasury before Labour’s crucial day

From the outside, the run-up to Rachel Reeves’s announcement has looked chaotic, and many see the future of the chancellor and PM in the balance

Every budget could be described, to a greater or lesser extent, as a high-stakes moment. Things can easily go badly wrong, as Gordon Brown discovered when he abolished the 10p tax rate in 2007, or George Osborne when his 2012 ‘omnishambles’ budget fell apart over pasties, and especially Kwasi Kwarteng, whose disastrous mini-budget of 2022 sent the Conservatives spiralling towards electoral defeat.

Rachel Reeves appears to have come perilously close to the turmoil of previous budgets, and that’s before she has even delivered it.

Meera Sodha’s vegan recipe for gochujang and tofu ragu with gnocchi and pickled cucumber | The new vegan

A comforting and filling mix of Korean and Italian flavours and textures that’s ideal for weeknight dinner

• Share your questions for Meera Sodha, Tim Dowling and Stuart Heritage for a special Guardian Live event on Wednesday 26 November.

I am a ragu-fancier and akheema fanatic. Unlike with most foods, however, it doesn’t do to rationalise this love for ragu, because it is a mash of things chopped up so small that they all lose their texture. This might sound a bit woo-woo, but the joy of ragu comes from feeling your way through it, from the chopping and standing with your thoughts, to stirring a bubbling pot and the smell creeping under the door. A ragu isn’t just a ragu, it’s a coming-together of good things: thoughts, feelings, ingredients, time and effort.

Join Meera Sodha at a special event celebrating the best of Guardian culture on Wednesday 26 November, hosted by Nish Kumar and alongside writers Stuart Heritage and Tim Dowling, with Georgina Lawton hosting You Be The Judge live. Live in London or via livestream, book tickets here.

Tim Dowling: my wife has always wanted to kick me out of book club. Now’s her chance

We have difffering views on my contribution to our book club: I see myself as its beating heart; my wife says I’m an interloper

For the first time in the history of book club, I can’t make it to book club. The scheduling conflict arises late in the day, which is galling because I’ve already read the book, and I can’t very well unread it.

“You won’t be missed,” my wife says.

Cheque mate – trying to prove who you are to your own bank: the Edith Pritchett cartoon

Continue reading...

From The Death of Bunny Munro to Wicked: For Good: the week in rave reviews

Matt Smith is the ultimate bad dad in a Nick Cave novel adaptation, and the Oz prequel musical reaches the end of the road. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

Lando Norris claims F1 Las Vegas GP pole in wet as Oscar Piastri slips to fifth

• Title race leader first in qualifying ahead of Verstappen

• Hamilton woes continue with last-place finish for Ferrari

Lando Norris claimed pole position for McLaren at the Las Vegas Grand Prix with a superb lap in treacherous wet conditions on the street circuit in Nevada, and with it moved one step closer to winning his first Formula One world championship.

The title race leader beat the Red Bull of Max Verstappen into second, but with his closest championship rival – his teammate Oscar Piastri – only in fifth, Norris has the opportunity to further extend his advantage at the top of the standings.

Marjorie Taylor Greene to resign from Congress in January amid fallout with Trump

Decision by Georgia Republican and leading Maga figure to give up House seat comes after dramatic break with Trump, lately over the Epstein files bill

• Reaction: Trump calls resignation ‘great news for the country’

• From staunch Trump ally to ‘traitor’: key takeaways of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s career

Marjorie Taylor Greene announced on Friday evening she will be resigning from office effective 5 January 2026, in the wake of souring relations with President Donald Trump, mostly recently over a vote to force the release of files related to the late Jeffrey Epstein.

In a four-page statement, the Georgia congresswoman said the legislative branch had been “sidelined” and accused Republican leaders of refusing to advance conservative priorities such as border security or “America First” policies.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene will resign after fallout with Trump

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene supported a bill compelling the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files by the DOJ, putting her on the bad side of President Trump.

Sycamore Gap tree saplings to be planted across UK

National Trust begins planting the 49 ‘trees of hope’ so the illegally felled tree can live on in a positive way

Saplings from the felled Sycamore Gap tree are to be planted across the UK, including at a pit disaster site, a town still healing from the Troubles and a place which became an international symbol of peace, protest and feminism.

The National Trust said planting of 49 saplings, known as “trees of hope”, would begin on Saturday. It is hoped that the sycamore will live on in a positive, inspirational way.

‘They decided to kill us with cold’: Ukrainians struggle against Russian assault on power network

Chernihiv residents say they are without power for 14 hours a day as they gather in ‘invincibility points’ to charge up and warm up

Valentyna Ivanivna showed off her new head torch. It was a present from her grandson, she said. Most evenings she wears it while doing household chores: cooking dinner, washing up and stacking plates. “It’s impossible to plan anything without power. You can’t even invite people round for a cup of tea because the kettle won’t work. It’s stressful and exhausting for everyone,” she explained.

Ivanivna lives in Chernihiv, an ancient Ukrainian city known for its early medieval cathedrals. The border with Belarus and Russia is a short drive away, across a landscape of pine forests, villages with geese and the occasional wandering moose. In 2022, Russian troops invaded and occupied most of the oblast. They bombed and laid siege to Chernihiv, pulling out after six weeks and rolling north.

Control of HIV, TB and malaria at risk after global health fund donations fall

Leading past donors including France, Japan and European Commission fail to contribute at pledging summit

Control of the deadly infectious diseases HIV, tuberculosis and malaria “hangs in the balance” after a shortfall in donations to a leading global health fund, advocates have warned.

Only $11.3bn of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria’s $18bn (£14bn) targeted budget for 2026 to 2028 has been confirmed so far.

Celebrity crib sheet: Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are back on the red carpet – here are seven things you need to know

As Wicked: For Good premieres in the UK, find out just how close its costars are, why so many of the cast are vegan and the truth about Grande’s move away from pop

It doesn’t matter if you’ve never seen the musical, have no interest in the film or are left cold by red carpets: Wicked season is here again, and you will be made to pay attention. After last year’s chaotic press tour for the first instalment, giving rise to some of 2025’s biggest and most bizarre pop culture moments, all eyes are now on the rollout of the sequel Wicked: For Good and the theatre-kid capers of its stars, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. Here’s what you need to know.

1. They are still ‘holding space’ for one another …
Last year’s Wicked press tour was an infamous love-in for Grande and Erivo. Such was the intensity of their connection and mutual affection, both were frequently moved to tears in interviews. The enduring image was of Erivo stroking Grande’s index finger in response to a journalist’s unintelligible remark about people “holding space” with the song Defying Gravity. Grande poked fun at her and Erivo’s histrionics, declaring them “insufferable” and “the most annoying” – but their bond still appears unbreakable. At the New York premiere of Wicked: For Good on Monday, Erivo declined to give interviews to preserve her voice. Grande was reported to also be skipping press “in solidarity”, but couldn’t help plugging her costar’s forthcoming projects “as Erivo looked on smiling”, as CNN described the scene. Asked what they were feeling, ahead of the film’s final instalment, Grande spoke for them both: “overwhelming gratitude”. Late on Thursday, she tested positive for Covid.

Trump says he is ending deportation protections for Somalis in Minnesota

President Trump on Friday said he is ending deportation protections for Somali immigrants in Minnesota.

Ukraine war briefing: defeating Russia an ‘illusion’, says Putin, as he welcomes Trump deal

Russia’s president says US-led plan ‘could form the basis of a final peace settlement’, bolstering concerns in Europe about one-sided nature of US-brokered deal. What we know on day 1,368

• See all our Russia-Ukraine war coverage

4 people wounded in shooting at North Carolina Christmas tree lighting

Four people were shot at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Concord, North Carolina, officials said.

Democratic senator clashes with Ric Grenell over Kennedy Center operations

Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Kennedy Center president Ric Grenell are clashing over the Kennedy Center's spending and operations.

Washington resident dies from rare strain of bird flu, health officials say

The man, an older adult with underlying health conditions, was being treated for a type of bird flu called H5N5.

11/17: CBS Evening News

Behind Trump's reversal on releasing Epstein files; Judge accuses DOJ of "disturbing pattern" of missteps in Comey case.

Stepbrother eyed in teen's cruise ship death may be called to testify, attorney says

A 16-year-old who is being eyed for possible involvement in the death of his stepsister on a Carnival cruise ship may be called to testify in person about the incident, an attorney said.

Supreme Court blocks order that found Texas congressional map is likely racially biased

The U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that found Texas' 2026 congressional redistricting plan pushed by President Trump likely discriminates on the basis of race.

After break with Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene will resign

Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, an "America First" conservative who has clashed with President Trump and her party, said Friday she would resign from Congress Jan. 5, 2026.

Retired officer turns from fighting crime to doing free laundry for the homeless

Using his own money and donations, Wade Milyard does dozens of loads of laundry a week for people in need.

Trump-Mamdani meeting marked by surprising moments of praise

President Trump and NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani have hurled attacks at each other for months — but on Friday, they seemed to hit it off.

Supreme Court halts ruling that tossed out Texas' House maps — for now

Texas asked the Supreme Court on Friday to halt a court order that threw out the state's redrawn House maps in time for next month's candidate filing deadline — arguing the new maps were driven by politics, not race.

Trump praises Mamdani after White House meeting: "I want him to do a great job"

President Trump and incoming New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said they looked forward to working together in a remarkable scene at the White House.

Kids who got trapped in elevator reunite with firefighters who rescued them

What should have been a quick trip down to the lobby of an Atlanta apartment building turned into an hourslong ordeal for two cousins, ages 13 and 11. Skyler Henry reports they had a chance to thank the first responders who came to their rescue.

Survivor of Chilean blizzard that killed Briton says staff told trekkers they could proceed

Tom Player speaks out about incident in which Victoria Bond died along with two Mexicans and two Germans

A survivor of the blizzard that killed a British woman and four others in Chilean Patagonia has said that tourists were concerned about adverse weather conditions ahead of the trek, but were told by staff it was “normal” and they could proceed.

Tom Player, a London-based composer, told the Guardian that during the brutal blizzard about 30 volunteers worked together in an attempt to try to rescue hikers.

Florida teen may have been strangled on cruise ship, source says

Anna Kepner, the 18-year-old found dead on a Carnival cruise ship, was possibly strangled during an altercation, and the suspect may have been using alcohol, according to a law enforcement source. Cristian Benavides has the latest.

Officer found not guilty in shooting of pregnant mom

In a silent courtroom, an Ohio jury found police officer Connor Grubb not guilty in the shooting death of 21-year-old Ta'Kiya Young. Meg Oliver has the story.

North Dakota's high court restores state abortion ban

The state's Supreme Court couldn't muster the required majority to uphold a judge's ruling that struck down the state's ban last year.

What to expect for Thanksgiving travel as flyers flock to airports

It may not be their intention, but millions of people left their homes, headed for a spot in the record books, for most Americans traveling for Thanksgiving. Kris Van Cleave reports the big holiday getaway is underway.

I ❤ NY: Queens recognises Queens as Trump gives Mamdani warm reception

No fists, no fire – the president and the mayor-elect met in Washington, and things went bewilderingly, bizarrely well

The armies of lefty America and of Maga were assembled ready to watch their champions do battle. After all, Donald Trump had called Zohran Mamdani a “100% Communist Lunatic” and “total nut job.” The incoming democratic socialist New York mayor in turn had called the Republican US president a “despot” and “fascist”.

But anyone expecting to see fists fly and shirts torn in the Oval Office was in for a disappointment. Trump, 79, and 34-year-old Mamdani actually got on rather well. In fact beautifully, bewilderingly, bizarrely well. Instead of Batman v Superman, this was Toy Story besties Woody and Buzz Lightyear.

Mind-altering ‘brain weapons’ no longer only science fiction, say researchers

UK academics say latest chemicals are ‘wake-up call’ and urge global action to stop weaponisation of neuroscience

Sophisticated and deadly “brain weapons” that can attack or alter human consciousness, perception, memory or behaviour are no longer the stuff of science fiction, two British academics argue.

Michael Crowley and Malcolm Dando, of Bradford University, are about to publish a book that they believe should be a wake-up call to the world.

Trump and Mamdani form an unlikely alliance at White House meeting

‘We agreed a lot more than I would have thought,’ the US president said of his first face-to-face meeting with the New York mayor-elect

• US politics live – latest updates

Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor-elect, walked out of their meeting on Friday afternoon with an unlikely alliance, agreeing to work together on housing, food prices and cost-of-living concerns that have defined both their political appeals to working-class voters.

“We agreed a lot more than I would have thought,” Trump said in the Oval Office, sometimes jumping in to shield Mamdani from aggressive questioning from the press.

Nigeria reels after 215 children taken in second mass school abduction in a week

Twelve teachers also kidnapped from Catholic school amid threats from Trump to intervene over ‘Christian genocide’

Unknown gunmen have abducted 215 schoolchildren and 12 teachers from a Catholic school in central Nigeria, the second mass abduction in the country in a week.

The latest kidnapping, in Papiri community in Niger state, came against the backdrop of Donald Trump’s threat to intervene militarily to end a “Christian genocide”, which the Nigerian government has denied is happening.

Zelenskyy says Ukraine has impossible choice as Trump pushes plan to end war

US president demands that Kyiv accepts plan that would mean giving up territory to Russia

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine faces one of the most difficult moments in its history, after Donald Trump demanded Kyiv accepts within days a US-backed “peace plan” that would force it to give up territory to Russia and make other painful concessions.

Trump confirmed on Friday morning that next Thursday – Thanksgiving in the US – would be an “acceptable” deadline for Zelenskyy to sign the deal, which European and Ukrainian officials have said amounts to a “capitulation”.

Coast Guard scrambles to clarify its guidance on nooses, swastikas, hate symbols

A Coast Guard personnel directive updated language identifying symbols of racial or religious hatred, setting off a political firestorm this week.

Comey seeks to dismiss charges over alleged "fundamental errors" before grand jury

Comey's lawyers said in a filing that errors in the grand jury process "reflect the reckless and ill-conceived nature of this prosecution."

Group of Epstein abuse survivors say they have received death threats

In a signed statement, 28 victims say they are bracing for blame for their abuse and threats of harm

A group of survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse have warned they have received death threats and are worried about an escalation as they wait for the release of the files related to the late paedophile financier.

In a statement titled “What we’re bracing for”, the women said they had received threats of harm and asked police to investigate and protect them.

Watch full video of the Trump-Mamdani meeting

In a surprising shift of tone, the two were positive and often complimentary, with President Trump saying NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani "can do some things that I think are gonna be really great."

Voters could abandon centrist parties if budget fails, warns former cabinet secretary

Simon Case says voters will look elsewhere if chancellor cannot find solutions to tax, spending and debt problems

Voters will look elsewhere if Rachel Reeves does not use next week’s pivotal budget to show that “centre-ground” politicians can fix the UK’s entrenched economic problems, the former head of the civil service, Simon Case, has said.

Case told the Guardian that at the time of last year’s general election, when he was still cabinet secretary, he believed Labour would be forced to break its manifesto promise to not raise taxes because of the state of the public finances.

Trump praises NYC Mayor-elect Mamdani after White House meeting, shrugs off being called 'fascist'

The meeting with Trump was requested by Mamdani, whose victory over ex-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in NYC's mayoral race put him at the center of U.S. politics.

Driver says eagle dropped cat through car's windshield on highway

Bald eagles are predatory birds that can stand up to 3 feet tall and have a wingspan stretching more than 8 feet.

This week on "Sunday Morning" (Nov. 23): The Food Issue

Jane Pauley hosts our annual "Eat, Drink & Be Merry" holiday broadcast exploring all things epicurean! Check out our menu...

These fans have sung their way to the National Women's Soccer League finals

The Washington Spirit takes on Gotham FC on Saturday in San Jose, Calif.

New female crash test dummy could be used in federal safety testing

The new dummy, known as THOR-05F, contains female-specific proportions, according​ to the Transportation Department.

Robert F Kennedy Jr instructed CDC to change stance on vaccines and autism

US health secretary said he told agency to update website to claim the fact vaccines do not cause autism is not evidence based

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, said in an interview with the New York Times that he personally instructed the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to change its longstanding position that vaccines do not cause autism.

Countering decades of science showing vaccines to be safe, the US public health agency’s website was changed to say: “The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.”

Kristen Bell and Brian Cox among actors shocked they’re attached to Fox News podcast

The 52-episode Christian podcast was announced with a number of actors involved yet many claim they had no idea about it

The Fox News announcement of a new podcast series on Jesus Christ has turned into a bizarre holiday tale in Hollywood, as several actors attached to massive, 52-episode project claim their recordings date back 15 years and are being released without their prior knowledge.

The new audiobook titled The Life of Jesus Christ Podcast, announced on Wednesday as part of a splashy rollout for the network’s new Christian vertical called Fox Faith, purports to guide listeners “through the life, teachings, and miracles of Jesus Christ”, with each episode introduced by Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt.

Oil prices and energy stocks fall on Trump’s new Ukraine peace plan

Oil prices and energy stocks fell sharply on Friday morning as the U.S. pushed for a Russia-Ukraine peace deal.

Here's what experts say is behind bitcoin's $800 billion drop

Bitcoin has erased all of its 2025 gains and is on track for its worst monthly performance since 2022. Here's what experts say about the decline.

‘He keeps a clear head’: how Slot’s last slump offers blueprint for Liverpool revival

Coach’s assistant in tough time at Feyenoord sees parallels with issues his former boss needs to deal with at Anfield

Just over five weeks after Arne Slot’s Feyenoord had lost a tight Conference League final by a goal to Roma in 2022, they suffered a 7-0 home defeat by Copenhagen in their first pre-season friendly. Some of the Dutch club’s internationals were on holiday, seven of their starters from the final would leave that summer and Copenhagen were well ahead in preparations, but even so, the scoreline was bruising. It felt as if Slot had to start all over again.

“I can remember it like yesterday,” says Marino Pusic, Slot’s assistant at Feyenoord and earlier at AZ. “The score could have been even higher – that says enough.” Copenhagen’s then coach, Jess Thorup, described it as more akin to “a training session than an actual friendly match”. Two weeks later a stronger Feyenoord side lost 4-0 to the Belgian club Union Saint-Gilloise. Then came home defeats by Lyon and Osasuna.

Air traffic controllers, technicians with perfect attendance in shutdown to get $10,000 bonuses, FAA says

Close to 800 air traffic controllers and technicians with perfect attendance will get $10,000 bonuses, the FAA said.

One Fed official may have saved market from another rout. Why John Williams' remarks matter so much

With his position comes membership in the Fed's leadership troika, a group that also includes Chair Jerome Powell and Vice Chair Philip Jefferson.

The female crash test dummy has been a long time coming — but she isn't here yet

After years of limbo, the U.S. government has given the green light to a crash test dummy based on the female body. But will it be used right away? Not so fast.

Putin says U.S. plan for Ukraine could form the basis for a final peace settlement

The plan includes many of Russian President Vladimir Putin's demands. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that his country is at "truly one of the most difficult moments in our history."

Cop30 delegates ‘far apart’ on phasing out fossil fuels and cutting carbon

President of talks urges ministers and high-ranking officials to find common ground as conference nears its end

• Cop30 live – latest updates

Climate crisis talks look likely to stretch well into the weekend in Brazil, with countries still far apart on the crucial issues of phasing out fossil fuels and cutting carbon.

The Cop30 president, André Corrêa do Lago, urged ministers and high-ranking officials from more than 190 countries to find common ground: “We need to preserve this regime [of the Paris climate agreement] with the spirit of cooperation, not in the spirit of who is going to win or is willing to lose’” he said. “Because we know if we don’t strengthen this, everyone will lose.”

South Africa hosts G20 as tensions with U.S. flare amid boycott

The U.S. boycotts South Africa's G20 summit, sparking a diplomatic spat and throwing the global gathering into turmoil.

The week around the world in 20 pictures

A fire at Cop30 in Brazil, Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, Russian missiles hit Ukraine and a giraffe on the move in Kenya: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Netflix’s Selena doc sensitively focuses on her incredible life over her tragic death

The 23-year-old ‘Queen of Tejano music’ was murdered just as her music was set to cross over and revealing new film Selena y Los Dinos: A Family’s Legacy finds new ways to celebrate her

The tragic circumstances surrounding Selena Quintanilla’s death are well documented. In 1995, while on the verge of US pop crossover success, the 23-year-old Queen of Tejano Music was murdered by one of her employees, Yolanda Saldívar.

Selena’s life story has already been told in multiple ways, including through a movie, a musical and a podcast series. However, the touching Netflix documentary Selena y Los Dinos: A Family’s Legacy is the most empathetic and personal look at her life and career to date. Working alongside Selena’s family, who generously opened their archive of rare photos and home videos and sat for extensive interviews, director Isabel Castro uses intimate recollections and vivid primary sources to trace the artist’s ascent.

The Guardian view on authentic casting in Wicked: finally a true celebration of difference | Editorial

The wider TV and film industries have a long way to go in including disabled actors and creators, and leaving stereotypes behind

While the entertainment industry has been at pains to address issues of diversity in race, gender and sexuality, disability remains shockingly underrepresented. It’s not just that disabled actors are discounted for many roles. As actors and activists have pointed out, “blacking up” might have become taboo, but “cripping up” is still a shoo-in for awards. In almost 100 years, only three disabled actors have won an Oscar, compared to 25 able-bodied actors who have won for playing disabled characters.

The arrival this weekend of Wicked: For Good, the second part of a prequel story to The Wizard of Oz, has put the importance of authentic casting in the spotlight once more. The story of green-skinned witch Elphaba, and the prejudice she faces, Wicked is a celebration of difference. Yet since the hit musical opened in 2003, only able-bodied actors had played the part of Nessarose, Elphaba’s disabled sister. Last year, Marissa Bode became the first wheelchair-using actor to take the role, in part one of the film adaptation. The child Nessa is also played by a wheelchair user. The movies give the character greater agency and complexity, amending a scene that suggested she needs to be “fixed”.

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.

Transportation Department wants fliers to dress up. Will it work?

The agency's "Golden Age of Travel" campaign aims to restore civility to air travel. Experts say they have doubts.

Nigel Farage urged to root out Reform links to Russia after jailing of Nathan Gill

Party’s former leader in Wales admitted taking payments to make statements in favour of Russia

Nigel Farage is facing calls to investigate and root out links between Reform UK and Russia after one of his party’s former senior politicians was jailed for 10 years for accepting bribes from a pro-Kremlin agent.

Keir Starmer said Farage had questions to answer about how this happened in his party. Nathan Gill, a former leader of Reform UK in Wales, admitted taking payments to make statements in favour of Russia.

Amazon cut more than 1,800 engineers in record layoffs, despite saying it needs to innovate faster

Nearly 40% of the roughly 4,700 positions Amazon eliminated across Washington, New York, New Jersey and California were engineering jobs.

Vote for competent leaders, not entertainers – that’s what I wish the Covid report could say | Devi Sridhar

To prevent a future pandemic we’d need agile leadership, smart decision-making, humility and trustworthiness. How does one build those into a political system?

It feels as though a collective amnesia has set in around Covid-19. We all just want to move forward and pretend it didn’t happen. But, as the saying goes, those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

On 20 April 2020 I tweeted, “At what point will the British public realise what has happened over the past 9 weeks?” On Thursday, the Covid inquiry published its module 2 report on the political response to the pandemic. The answer finally to my tweet, more than five years later.

Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh

Fit Forever: Wellness for midlife and beyond
On Wednesday 28 January 2026, join Annie Kelly, Devi Sridhar, Joel Snape and Mariella Frostrup, as they discuss how to enjoy longer and healthier lives, with expert advice and practical tips.
Book tickets here or at guardian.live

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.

Fed won't get key inflation data before next rate decision as BLS cancels October CPI release

The BLS said it was canceling the release of the October CPI, leaving the Fed without a key piece of inflation data before it next decides on interest rates.

Eli Lilly hits $1 trillion market value, a first for a health-care company

The pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly's stock has been riding the skyrocketing demand for its weight loss injection Zepbound and diabetes treatment Mounjaro.

A new Miss Universe is crowned, weeks after she left a pageant event in protest

This year's Miss Universe competition, held in Bangkok, was marred by a series of dramatic incidents, from a contestant's livestreamed walkout to a now former judge's allegations of rigging.

Rachel Reeves is studiously ignoring the cause of Britain’s woes: the Brexit-shaped hole in its roof | Jonathan Freedland

The autumn budget will mop up some damage, but the true source of the economic crisis is clear. The government should now fix it – don’t hold your breath

Imagine a family stuck in a house that constantly floods. The carpets are soaked, the walls damp. It’s always cold, no matter how much they turn up the heating.

The family try everything. They promise to replace the sodden carpets and find new, innovative ways to warm the house. Someone with a laptop wonders if AI might be the answer. But no one ever looks upwards and says: maybe we should just repair the giant hole in the roof.

The Guide #218: For gen Zers like me, YouTube isn’t an app or a website – it’s the backdrop to our waking lives

In this week’s newsletter: When the video-sharing site launched in 2005, there were fears it would replace terrestrial television. It didn’t just replace it – it invented entirely new forms of content. ASMR, anyone?

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Barely a month goes by without more news of streaming sites overtaking traditional, terrestrial TV. Predominant among those sits YouTube, with more than 2.5 billion monthly viewers. For people my age – a sprightly 28 – and younger, YouTube is less of an app or website than our answer to radio: the ever-present background hum of modern life. While my mum might leave Radio 4 wittering or BBC News flickering in the corner as she potters about the house, I’ve got a video essay about Japan’s unique approach to urban planning playing on my phone. That’s not to say I never watch more traditional TV (although 99% of the time I’m accessing it through some other kind of subscription streaming app), but when I get home after a long day and the thought of ploughing through another hour of grim prestige fare feels too demanding, I’m probably watching YouTube. Which means it’s very unlikely that I’m watching the same thing as you.

When Google paid $1.65bn for the platform in 2006, (just 18 months after it launched) the price seemed astronomical. Critics questioned whether that valuation could be justified for any video platform. The logic was simple – unless YouTube could replace television, it would never be worth it. Nearly two decades on, that framing undersells what actually happened. YouTube didn’t just replace television – it invented entirely new forms of content: vodcasts, vlogs, video essays, reaction videos, ASMR and its heinous cousin mukbang. The platform absorbed new trends and formats at lightning speed, building what became an alternative “online mainstream”. Before podcasters, TikTokers, Substackers and even influencers, there were YouTubers.

House Democratic leader gets in fiery clash as he defends ACA tax credit extension plan

The fight over the ACA tax credits was at the center of the 43-day shutdown, which ended last week without a clear solution on health care.

What Trump and Mamdani have said about each other ahead of White House meeting

President Trump has called Zohran Mamdani "my little communist mayor," while Mamdani has vowed to "Trump-proof" New York City.

Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield obituary

Charismatic Stone Roses and Primal Scream musician acclaimed for some of the most memorable bass lines in indie music

The Stone Roses’ eponymous debut album, released in May 1989, became a benchmark British record by blending anthemic, 1960s-evoking melodies and chiming guitar work with what Rolling Stone’s David Fricke described as “the blown-mind drive of British rave culture”. While John Squire took care of the band’s Byrds-like jangling guitar, it was Mani, who has died aged 63, who played the powerful, hard-edged bass lines that put the rocket fuel into tracks such as She Bangs the Drums and This Is the One. The first sound you hear on the disc is his bass emerging, both tantalisingly and menacingly, through the sonic fog at the start of I Wanna Be Adored.

It was a mixture that helped redefine the band’s home city of Manchester as “Madchester”, a place that had magically become “baggydelic”, through a club-indie crossover scene that emerged out of venues such as the Hacienda and included the similarly genre-straddling Happy Mondays.

Brandy and Monica review – 90s R&B heavyweights bring star-studded reunion to New York

Barclays Center, Brooklyn

The Boy Is Mine pair were joined by guests such as Kelly Rowland, Fat Joe, Ciara and Tyrese for a sometimes strange, sometimes soaring throwback night

Supposedly feuding for over 25 years might be bad karma, but it’s great for ticket sales. Of course, Brandy and Monica aren’t actually fighting, they just did such a good job of pretending to hate each other on their 1998 duet The Boy Is Mine that the world has been convinced of it ever since. The R&B legends have taken pains to point out that their relationship is harmonious in multiple interviews leading up to this 32-date co-headline tour, even making fun of the drama in a recent Dunkin advert that featured them fighting over a frappe.

Happily, Brandy and Monica’s sisterhood also means they’re playing their biggest venues in decades. After emerging on stage from a vintage elevator wearing sunglasses and scowling expressions, the duo launches into a kind of sing-and-dance-off, trading places and performing a trio of classics apiece as the other watches with disdain. It’s a knowing nod to their purported rivalry that begins to take on the feeling of a variety segment, which isn’t helped by the trimming of songs like What About Us? and Like This and Like That to 90 seconds apiece. Even so, their camaraderie shines through as Brandy quickly breaks character to sway and sing along to Monica’s Don’t Take It Personal (Just One Of Dem Days), a showcase for her slightly raspy, soulful vocals during which she winds her hips and aims gun fingers at the audience.

Not just for Paddington: is the humble duffel coat having a fashion moment?

Worn by everyone from Tyler, the Creator to Cole Palmer and Joe Wilkinson, duffels are back in demand

It’s the coat most associated with a beloved children’s character, so it makes sense that the duffel is a familiar sight in playgrounds across the country. But this year it is also – once again – quietly enjoying a moment on grownups.

In the Christmas advert for Waitrose, comedian Joe Wilkinson wears a duffel coat while in the supermarket with Keira Knightley. Footballer Cole Palmer wore one in 2024’s Burberry campaign, subtitled “It’s Always Burberry Weather”, and Tyler, the Creator wears a short one in the recent video for Darling, I.

Can vaping help wean people off cigarettes? Anti-smoking advocates are sharply split

Many think it's a dangerous ploy by the tobacco industry. But some say, with millions of deaths each year attributed to smoking cigarettes, it's the lesser of two evils.

Is Avatar’s main villain about to become a good guy? All the signs are pointing that way

Will Quaritch, the square-jawed representative of military-industrial destruction befriend the Na’vi in James Cameron’s forthcoming Avatar: Fire and Ash? And if so, what other unlikely character about-turns should we be prepared for?

It’s almost possible to feel a little sorry for Colonel Miles Quaritch, the main villain of Avatar. Imagine: first you’re sent light years from Earth to hang out with 14ft blue space hippies, then you’re suddenly dead. Then you’re resurrected as one of the 14ft blue space hippies. And now, according to James Cameron, you might just be starting to realise that the giant tree-hugging freaks you’ve spent two films trying to erase are your kind of people after all.

Speaking to Empire in an interview last week, Cameron revealed that the Quaritch we will meet in the forthcoming Avatar: Fire and Ash (although still played by Stephen Lang) is no longer the same person we first saw stomping through the rainforest in the original 2009 film. Yes, he’s a “recombinant” – a lab-grown Na’vi reboot of a man carved out of granite and patriotism – but he’s also going through a full-blown existential wobble after discovering in the last instalment that he has a human son, Spider. “Quaritch is undergoing an identity crisis,” said Cameron. “His interest in the biological son of his biological precursor form is all about trying to define, ‘Am I a completely new person? Am I bound by the rules and the behaviours of the person whose memories and personality I was imprinted with?’ It’s a true existential dilemma for him in the philosophical sense.”

Sports quiz of the week: Ashes sledging, Arsenal v Spurs and a young world No 1

Have you been following the big stories in football, rugby, tennis, cricket, basketball, darts and other mystery sports?

‘The sword swung so close to her head!’ What it’s like to commit one of TV’s most unforgivable murders

From Claire Foy’s Anne Boleyn in Wolf Hall to Adriana in The Sopranos, we meet the actors who had to bump off TV legends … and then face the wrath of the public

Talk about being a pantomime villain. It’s unpopular enough playing the antagonist who murders a long-running TV character. When your victim is a fan favourite, though, you risk being vilified even more. So what’s it like being the ultimate baddy and breaking viewers’ hearts? Do they get booed in the street or trolled online? We asked five actors who killed off beloved characters – from Spooks to The Sopranos, Wolf Hall to Westeros – about their experiences …