Fourteen years ago, Twitter was the fastest, funniest game on the web. Now I’ve been driven out by so-called ‘online activists’. The only answer is to unplug and try this instead

Ahead of Luigi Mangione’s sentencing, the Last Week Tonight host looked into the corporate healthcare behemoth that is UnitedHealth Group

New report shows key indicators of Earth’s health are ‘outside the safe operating space’ as climate disaster looms The planetary life support systems relied upon by humans have deteriorated to their worst levels ever recorded amid ongoing pollution and habitat destruction, according to a key yet grim annual update by scientists. Of the nine “planetary boundaries” that help determine whether life can flourish on Earth, seven are being breached at their highest ever levels of transgression, according to the latest planetary health check, a process that was established in 2009. Continue reading...

The country has one of the highest femicide rates in the world, and women are yet again being asked to remove themselves from public life to counter it, writes Nolethu Ndude, founder of We Mattah

Exclusive: Analysis ‘lays bare’ something midwives already know from their day-to-day work About 20,000 disclosures of domestic abuse are estimated to be made to maternity services in England every year, analysis has found. The figures are likely to be an underestimate of the true scale of disclosures, according to experts, highlighting the role maternity professionals play in identifying abuse. Continue reading...

US president has overseen an unprecedented restriction of access for major traditional news media since start of second term * US politics live – latest updates In his latest attack on the US constitution’s first amendment and the press, Donald Trump has announced that he is banning outlets CNN, MSNOW and Politico from the White House over their coverage. In a post on his Truth Social platform on Friday afternoon, the US president said he was expelling the news outlets over what he called their “constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!” and threatened that bans for others outlets could follow. Continue reading...

Exclusive: key White House loyalist orchestrating multi-agency effort condemned by critics as cruel and racist

Backing comes after Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor were threatened with having their citizenship revoked and accused of treason Film industry heavyweights across the globe have expressed solidarity with Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, the Oscar-winning Israeli directors of documentary NAZA, who have been threatened with having their citizenship revoked by Israel’s culture minister, who accused them of “treason against the state”. NAZA, which was produced by the Guardian, is named for an acronym euphemistically used by Israel’s intelligence service to indicate how many civilians it expects to die in an airstrike on Gaza. It includes interviews with 24 Israeli military or intelligence soldiers and officers who outlined the AI-powered targeting systems used to bombard Gaza, resulting in the mass killing of Palestinian civilians. Continue reading...

Billionaire Robert Kraft allegedly pressured Ed Sheeran to remove Macklemore—and all the other opening acts who dropped out in solidarity—from the tour.

Damaging budget report estimates cost will grow by $3bn per month and stockpiles of weapons could take five years to rebuild

Scientists say global heating was a destabilising factor in collapse of 200,000 sq metre glacier in August Climate breakdown probably weakened the glacier that collapsed causing catastrophic floods and killing hundreds of people in Nepal and Tibet last month, the first scientific study of the disaster has found. Researchers identified unusually warm conditions before the glacier’s collapse, which sent an avalanche of 110m cubic metres (3,885 cu ft) of snow and ice into the valley below. This triggered flash floods on an almost unprecedented scale, hitting communities downstream without warning. Continue reading...

Analysts warn of an acceleration in high-risk arms race with Russia and China in Earth’s orbit The US has deployed weapons in space, the US military has confirmed, in an extraordinary public announcement that analysts warn will accelerate a high-risk arms race with Russia and China in Earth’s orbit. US secretary of the air force, Troy Meink, announced that Washington had active “on-orbit” weapons, meaning they had been deployed and were currently circling the globe. Continue reading...

Three openers and live band for Sheeran’s tour depart after removal of Macklemore over ‘free Palestine’ comments All four supporting acts for upcoming dates of Ed Sheeran’s Loop tour have withdrawn in solidarity with fellow opening act Macklemore, as backlash grows to his removal from the tour over onstage comments in support of Palestine. Finneas, the singer who was scheduled to open for Sheeran on six South American dates in November, withdrew from the tour on Tuesday afternoon, hours after Sheeran posted his own lengthy statement to Instagram explaining pressure from venue owners to remove Macklemore for pro-Palestine comments made during two shows at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium. Continue reading...

Rapper, who was dropped from tour after his speech in support of Palestine, challenges Robert Kraft to do the same Macklemore has announced that he will donate the $1m salary he was paid as an opening act for Ed Sheeran’s Loop tour to organizations working with Palestinian people and relief in Gaza, after being dropped from the tour following backlash to his onstage comments in support of Palestine. The rapper also challenged Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots and prominent donor to Israel who refused to let Macklemore play at his Gillette Stadium outside Boston, to match his donation. Continue reading...

GAO report shows how use paid administrative leave rose by 435% from 2023 to 2025 and incurred a sixfold cost The US government paid federal workers $9.5bn not to work in 2025 as part of the Trump administration’s attempts to shrink the federal workforce. As part of efforts by the “department of government efficiency” (Doge), spearheaded by Elon Musk, federal agencies’ use of paid administrative leave rose 435% from 2023 to 2025 – costing six times what the government spent in 2023 – according to a new report released on Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent watchdog. Continue reading...

Cuts hit all 50 states and DC, with environment, health, nutrition and disaster relief making up the largest share

Congratulations on helping Larry Ellison's AI cloud boom. Now please pack your bags and go

Documents appear to show payments were made to the lawyer Alan M. Dershowitz to pursue “executive clemency and judicial reversal” for Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander.

Al Jazeera investigation reveals UK public money flowing to companies linked to Israeli settlements in occupied land.

Podcaster James English is one of many men with far-right ties to have been found guilty or accused of domestic violence In many ways, the case heard this week at Glasgow sheriff court was, unfortunately, not out of the ordinary. It was one of thousands of domestic violence trials to have passed through the Scottish courts since new legislation was introduced in 2019 to clamp down on a grimly persistent problem. A woman had testified that her former partner had waged a campaign of terror against her, and that she suffered abuse while she was pregnant with his child. The court heard that her partner had grabbed her by the throat, pinned her to a door, kicked her off a bed and sent her abusive texts, sometimes calling her a “fat slag” and a “little bitch”. Continue reading...

High blood levels of xylitol associated with higher risk of major cardiovascular events, in largest study of its kind A common sweetener used in products such as chewing gum, toothpaste, jam, yoghurts and ice cream worldwide has been linked to an increased risk of strokes, heart attacks and death. Xylitol is a sugar alcohol present in some natural foods in very low amounts. It is also added – often in amounts 1,000 times higher – to artificially sweeten foods, beverages and oral care products. Continue reading...

Brazil failed to prove compliance with EU rules on use of antibiotics in cattle and poultry farming The UK’s leading farming organisations and animal health experts have called for an urgent ban on imports of Brazilian meat, in light of concerns over the safety of imports. The National Farmers’ Union in England and its sister organisations in the devolved administrations wrote to the government on Friday warning that public health was at risk. Continue reading...

Governments knew what was coming. They failed to act because the political costs of taking on the corporate sector were too immense. Those corporations are now more powerful than ever

If you need an indication of how divorced the ‘mainstream’ media is from reality, consider this: the possibility of at least 4 billion deaths resulting from 3 degrees Celsius of global warming by 2050...

The UK isn’t a dispassionate arbiter of justice in prosecuting anti-genocide activists. It has been aggressively colluding in Israeli crimes. That huge conflict of interest is the elephant in the room

Experts say fires caused by wrongly discarded lithium batteries, such as those in vapes, are putting lives at risk Fires at recycling centres caused by wrongly discarded lithium batteries such as those found in vapes are occurring at the rate of more than 10 a week, according to new figures. Experts say the sheer volume of battery fires now occurring at waste facilities has reached a crisis that is putting lives at risk, costing £1bn a year and frustrating fire chiefs. Continue reading...

Just two other aides and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are known to have joined the president, as Secretaries of State and Treasury Marco Rubio and Scott Bessent, along with the press corps, remained on the decoy Air Force One flight out of Turkey

Senate Democrats call for investigation after DHS ‘lit taxpayer dollars on fire’

First responders, residents and environmental groups say military dropping flares to destroy forests and crops Firefighters and residents of south Lebanon have accused the Israeli military of lighting wildfires in the region, as forested areas burned down in blazes sparked by Israeli bombing. Environmental groups said the fires in recent weeks were part of a longstanding Israeli practice of targeting Lebanon’s natural environment. Continue reading...

It's never just one minority.

As Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and their peers have grown richer and more influential, Gil Durán argues they have all but abandoned democracy – and found the perfect government to enable them

Investigation by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty and Legal Agenda shows Israel deliberately attacked Amal Khalil and colleague Zeinab Faraj knowing they were civilians An Israeli strike that killed Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil and injured her colleague Zeinab Faraj in April was a war crime, three rights organisations said on Thursday. Investigations from Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International and Legal Agenda showed that Israel deliberately and directly attacked Khalil and Faraj, with apparent knowledge that they were civilians. The organisations called for the attacks to be investigated as war crimes, while HRW called for states to halt arm sales to Israel and put targeted sanctions on Israeli officials responsible for ongoing crimes. Continue reading...

The old Farage would have jumped at being our guest. The new one is less confident

We're doing a rain dance. You? While we wait for some sorely needed water, here is some news, not all of it cheerful. Including less than savoury details about Raise the Colours; celebrating Oxford Ci...

Party’s deputy leader accused of a possible failure to declare an interest, commissioner says ⁠on ​its website * UK politics live – latest updates Britain’s ⁠parliamentary ⁠standards watchdog is ​investigating ⁠Reform UK’s ⁠deputy ​leader, ‌Richard ‌Tice, over ‌a possible failure to declare ‌an interest, ​the commissioner said ⁠on ​its website ​on ​Monday. More details soon … Continue reading...

The 47th US president and his family have benefited more financially from the presidency than any of his predecessors.

Journalist’s son says his mother was examining leak from Electrogas, part owned by Yorgen Fenech who is on trial Daphne Caruana Galizia was investigating suspected corruption by the businessman Yorgen Fenech and members of Malta’s government when she was killed, a jury has heard. The heir to one of Malta’s biggest fortunes, Fenech is on trial for murder, accused of commissioning and paying for Caruana Galizia’s killing in a car bombing in October 2017. Continue reading...