If anyone knows how to weather a whitewash, it’s the merry band of England fans marking their 30th anniversary at their spiritual home
Courage, soldier. Ben Stokes’s England team may be heading into the third Ashes Test already 2-0 down, but not everyone in English cricket is fazed. There is one group tailor-made for this scenario, a crack(pot) unit who can lay claim to be the ultimate doomsday preppers. Have your dreams been shattered? Are you crushed beneath the weight of unmet expectation? Then it’s time to join the Barmy Army, son.
Already their advance guard are moving in on Adelaide, the city where they officially formed 30 years ago. England’s most famous – and per capita noisiest – travelling fans will be hoping for an anniversary win-against-the-odds, like the one they witnessed on that 1994-95 tour. And whatever happens on the pitch, off it the parties will be long and loud.
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© Photograph: Bradley Kanaris/CA/Cricket Australia/Getty Images
© Photograph: Bradley Kanaris/CA/Cricket Australia/Getty Images
© Photograph: Bradley Kanaris/CA/Cricket Australia/Getty Images
Have you been following the big stories in cricket, football, motor racing, darts, climbing, athletics and the NFL?
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© Composite: Getty, Rex Features
© Composite: Getty, Rex Features
© Composite: Getty, Rex Features
This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world
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© Photograph: Zoos Victoria/SWNS
© Photograph: Zoos Victoria/SWNS
© Photograph: Zoos Victoria/SWNS
Norway’s world No 1, 35, lost 0.5-1.5 to the US veteran Levon Aronian, 43, in Cape Town but was already sure of overall victory and a prize of around $500k
Norway’s world No 1, Magnus Carlsen, was shocked by a 0.5-1.5 loss to the US veteran Levon Aronian in Thursday’s final of the Freestyle Grand Slam Tour in Cape Town, but still finished the overall winner of the five-event Tour.
Freestyle chess is also known as Fischer Random and Chess 960. Pieces start randomly placed on the two back rows, thus drastically limiting opening preparation. Its 2025 season, with a Tour financed mainly by a $12m investment from the venture firm Left Lane Capital, has featured tournaments in Weissenhaus, Karlsruhe, Paris and Las Vegas before the final in South Africa.
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© Photograph: Stev Bonhage
© Photograph: Stev Bonhage
© Photograph: Stev Bonhage
An exuberant, inspiring memoir from the New Yorker writer and author of The Orchid Thief
In 2017, 10 years after Susan Orlean profiled Caltech-trained physicist turned professional origami artist Robert Lang for the New Yorker, she attended the OrigamiUSA convention to take Lang’s workshop on folding a “Taiwan goldfish”. I was with her, a radio producer trying to capture the sounds of paper creasing as Orlean attempted to keep pace with the “Da Vinci of origami”, wincing when her goldfish’s fins didn’t exactly flutter in hydrodynamic splendour.
It was Orlean in her element: an adventurous student, inquisitive and exacting, fully alive to the mischief inherent to reporting – and primed to extract some higher truth. “When we first met you said something to me I’ve never forgotten,” Orlean told Lang. “That paper has a memory – that once you fold it, you can never entirely remove the fold.” Was that, she wondered, an insight about life, too?
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© Photograph: Gilbert Flores/WWD/Getty Images
© Photograph: Gilbert Flores/WWD/Getty Images
© Photograph: Gilbert Flores/WWD/Getty Images
In this week’s newsletter: The government’s bid to speed up nuclear construction could usher in sweeping deregulation, with experts warning of profound consequences for nature
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When UK prime minister Keir Starmer announced last week that he was “implementing the Fingleton review”, you can forgive the pulse of most Britons for failing to quicken.
But behind the uninspiring statement lies potentially the biggest deregulation for decades, posing peril for endangered species, if wildlife experts are to be believed, and a likely huge row with the EU.
2025 ‘virtually certain’ to be second- or third-hottest year on record, EU data shows
Just 0.001% hold three times the wealth of the poorest half of humanity, report finds
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© Photograph: EDF/PA
© Photograph: EDF/PA
© Photograph: EDF/PA
From Essex to Istanbul, and from a soul music bar to a dramatic mountain pass, our tipsters share their personal travel highlights of the year
Moments after stepping off the bus, I wanted to text my friend: “What have I done to you, why did you tell me to come here?” As I weaved my way through coach-party day trippers, my initial suspicions dissipated. I came to swim, but Piran offered so much more. Venetian squares provided a delicately ornate backdrop, while cobbled passageways housed bustling seafood restaurants, serving the day’s catch. The majestic Adriatic was made manageable by concrete diving platforms, fit for all ages. Naša Pekarna stocked delightfully crisp and filling böreks, and the bar/cafe Pri Starcu – owned by Patrik Ipavec, a former Slovenia international footballer – married warm hospitality with ice-cold beer and delicious early evening refreshments.
Alex
© Photograph: Eduardo Fonseca Arraes/Getty Images
© Photograph: Eduardo Fonseca Arraes/Getty Images
© Photograph: Eduardo Fonseca Arraes/Getty Images
Not long ago, artists such as Lil Nas X and Olly Alexander were ruling pop. But success has stalled as acts face industry obstacles and rising homophobia. What now?
At the turn of the decade, gay male and non-binary pop stars seemed poised to take pop music by storm. Lil Nas X broke out with Old Town Road – which blew up on TikTok, sold about 18.5m copies and remains tied with Shaboozey’s A Bar Song (Tipsy) and Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You as the longest-running No 1 single in US history – and artists such as Sam Smith, Troye Sivan and Olly Alexander from Years & Years were all singing about gay love and sex.
But the initial promise has stalled. Lil Nas X’s attempts to build on his smash debut album have fizzled, and he is publicly dealing with mental health issues. In October, Khalid released his first album since being outed by his ex last year but only sold 10,000 copies in the first week in the US. A previous album, 2019’s Free Spirit, sold some 200,000 copies in the first week and led to him briefly dethroning Ariana Grande as the most listened to artist on Spotify.
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© Composite: Guardian Design; Invision/AP; Richie Talboy; Getty Images; Reuters
© Composite: Guardian Design; Invision/AP; Richie Talboy; Getty Images; Reuters
© Composite: Guardian Design; Invision/AP; Richie Talboy; Getty Images; Reuters
Home secretary to order special investigation amid concern inadequate checks during hiring spree may pose criminal risk
The home secretary is to order an independent special inquiry into whether the Metropolitan police allowed hundreds of recruits to join without proper vetting amid fears they may pose a criminal risk.
The Guardian has learned that the inquiry will be carried out by the policing inspectorate, with concerns centred on 300 new officers hired between 2016 and 2023.
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© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
Cousins, Pitts Sr combine for three TDs
Falcons erase 14-point fourth-quarter deficit
Gonzalez wins it with 43-yard field goal
Kirk Cousins threw three touchdown passes to Kyle Pitts Sr, and Zane Gonzalez kicked a 43-yard field goal as time expired to complete the Atlanta Falcons’ rally for a 29-28 victory victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday night.
Facing a third-and-28 on the Falcons’ final drive, Cousins completed passes of 14 yards to Pitts and 20 yards on fourth-and-14 to David Sills V to set up Gonzalez.
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© Photograph: Chris O’Meara/AP
© Photograph: Chris O’Meara/AP
© Photograph: Chris O’Meara/AP
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