Who is driving the populist insurgency? It’s not grumpy pensioners or vulnerable teenagers – it’s my generation
If in doubt, we used to talk about the weather. Or if not that, then why the trains were late again, or how sweet someone’s baby was: the kind of routine bland nothings you exchange with strangers on the street. But something about the way we speak in public is changing.
A few days ago I was in Aldi, making the usual small talk at the checkout. When the cashier said she was exhausted from working extra shifts to make some money for Christmas, the man behind me chipped in that it would be worse once “she takes all our money” (in case Rachel Reeves was wondering, her budget pitch-rolling is definitely cutting through). Routine enough, if he hadn’t gone on to add that she and the rest of the government needed taking out, and that there were plenty of ex-military men around who should know what to do, before continuing in more graphic fashion until the queue fell quiet and feet began shuffling. But the strangest thing was that he said it all quite calmly, as if political assassination was just another acceptable subject for casual conversation with strangers, such as football or how long the roadworks have gone on. It wasn’t until later that it clicked: this was a Facebook conversation come to life. He was saying out loud, and in public, the kind of thing people say casually all the time on the internet, apparently without recognising that in the real world it’s still shocking – at least for now.
Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist
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© Illustration: Sébastien Thibault/The Guardian
© Illustration: Sébastien Thibault/The Guardian
© Illustration: Sébastien Thibault/The Guardian
Exclusive: British government adopted ‘least ambitious’ option months before RSF’s massacres in El Fasher
Britain rejected atrocity prevention plans for Sudan despite intelligence warnings that the city of El Fasher would fall amid a wave of ethnic cleansing and possible genocide, according to a report seen by the Guardian.
Government officials turned down the plans six months into the 18-month siege of El Fasher in favour of the “least ambitious” option of four presented.
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© Photograph: Mohammed Abaker/AP
© Photograph: Mohammed Abaker/AP
© Photograph: Mohammed Abaker/AP
Chinese manufacturers are using the electric transition to seize market share, with the UK as their gateway
When Tesla wanted to catch the eye of British buyers, it put its cars and bright signage at a dealership in west London’s prominent Hogarth roundabout. Exposure to half a million drivers every day helped the US carmaker to become the dominant electric vehicle seller in the UK. Yet drivers passing by that site now see something different: twin Chinese brands Omoda and Jaecoo, both owned by the state-controlled manufacturer Chery.
Chinese cars are on a roll across Europe – they outsold Korean rivals in western Europe for the first time in September. That success is highly reliant on the UK. Of the half a million Chinese cars sold in western Europe between January and September, 30% were bought by Britons, according to Matthias Schmidt, a Berlin-based automotive analyst.
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© Photograph: Richard Bord/Getty Images
© Photograph: Richard Bord/Getty Images
© Photograph: Richard Bord/Getty Images
© Mark Harris
Duke of Sussex wears hat at baseball game against Toronto Blue Jays
Meghan cheers on US team after being born and raised in Los Angeles
The Duke of Sussex has apologised to Canada after he and his wife, Meghan, were photographed wearing Los Angeles Dodgers caps while attending a World Series game against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Harry joked to Canadian broadcaster CTV that he wore the Dodgers merchandise “under duress” during game four of the series, saying it felt like “the polite thing to do” after being invited to the dugout by the team’s owner.
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© Photograph: Joe Scarnici/MLB Photos/Getty Images
© Photograph: Joe Scarnici/MLB Photos/Getty Images
© Photograph: Joe Scarnici/MLB Photos/Getty Images
The main thing you need to know about ‘six seven’ is that you do not in fact need to know what it means
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© Illustration: First Dog on the Moon/The Guardian
© Illustration: First Dog on the Moon/The Guardian
© Illustration: First Dog on the Moon/The Guardian
Hungary’s prime minister also seeking an exemption on US sanctions on Russian oil after Trump’s Kremlin frustrations
Viktor Orbán will visit the White House on Friday as Hungary’s far-right prime minister tries to broker another summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin that Orbán’s advisers claim could help end the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Orbán, who has proposed hosting the summit in Budapest, will also seek an exemption from US sanctions against Russian energy in what will be a major test of Trump’s tougher line on the Kremlin after he accused Putin of slow-rolling negotiations to end the conflict.
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© Photograph: Balint Szentgallay/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Balint Szentgallay/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Balint Szentgallay/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
A pilot scheme where students eat nutritious breakfasts using donated surplus food builds on the ‘folkhem’ welfare model to boost health and sustainability
Students at Mariebergsskolan, a secondary school in Karlstad, Sweden, make their way to the canteen to grab a juice shot. This morning’s options include ginger and lemon, apple, golden milk, lemon and mint, or strawberry and orange. There’s also the choice of overnight oats with caramelised milk.
It’s just after 9am and the space is usually empty, but thanks to a project launched in 2018 by Vinnova, Sweden’s national innovation agency, students are starting their day with a boost from the energy bar. All the ingredients are donated by local supermarkets which are giving away surplus fruit and vegetables to minimise food waste.
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© Photograph: Reimphoto/Getty Images
© Photograph: Reimphoto/Getty Images
© Photograph: Reimphoto/Getty Images
It takes some chutzpah to make television like this. Better Call Saul star Rhea Seehorn is the only US citizen immune from an alien virus that makes everyone in the world supremely happy – and it’s a bleak, blackly comic watch
Even with the name of Vince Gilligan attached as creator, Pluribus – neatly styled Plur1bus on screen, to further evoke the unofficial motto of the US “E pluribus unum” (“Out of many, one”) – looks at first like a bit of light relief. The man who has spent the past two decades immersed in the harrowing world of Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and El Camino, you reckon, has probably earned it.
Perhaps he is returning to his X Files roots with this tale of an alien virus that sweeps the globe, turning everyone happy and content, literally uniting minds (everyone’s thoughts, knowledge and memories are available to all – people no longer refer to themselves but as “this individual” when they speak) and causing them only to be kind to each other. Peace in our time! But what, kids, are we going to do about Carol (Rhea Seehorn)? She’s a middle-aged, bestselling writer of romantic fantasy novels, fantastically rich, adored by hundreds of thousands of fans – and as furiously miserable as only a misanthrope can be in such conditions. And Carol appears to be the only person in America immune to the virus. Hilarity must surely ensue!
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© Photograph: Apple
© Photograph: Apple
© Photograph: Apple
‘Tonight or never,’ the men helping me said. ‘Meet us in the alley. Eight-thirty’
In 1965, I was 19 and living in East Berlin. West Berlin was glamorous. They had everything: shoes, cars, food. But we had almost nothing. When bananas were imported once or twice a year, the queues stretched further than I had ever seen.
My brother and I were desperate to get out. We’d hang around the checkpoints, hoping to befriend a West Berliner. Occasionally, they took pity and sent us packages. But escaping was rare – and expensive. Most who managed it had paid thousands of marks.
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© Photograph: Mark Chilvers
© Photograph: Mark Chilvers
© Photograph: Mark Chilvers
With a towering new album about female saints in 13 languages, she’s pop’s boldest star – and one of its most controversial. She revisits her spiritual breakthroughs, and explains why we need forgiveness instead of cancel culture
Rosalía Vila Tobella is just as bored as you are of pop music functioning as gossip column fodder, with lyrics full of hints of rivalries and betrayal. “I’m tiring of seeing people referencing celebrities, and celebrities referencing other celebrities,” she says. “I’m really much more excited about saints.”
The 33-year-old Catalan musician and producer’s monumental fourth album, Lux, draws on the lives of dozens of female saints, inspired by “feminine mysticism, spirituality” and how lives of murder, materialism and rebellion could light the way to canonisation. Rosalía reels them off. Her gothic, operatic new single Berghain borrows from the 12th-century German abbess Hildegard of Bingen (cited like Madonna these days by experimental female musicians). “She had these visions that would pierce her brain. There’s also Vimala, who wrote poetry but was a prostitute, and she ended up becoming a saint because she was one of the first women who wrote in the Therīgāthā,” an ancient Buddhist poem collection written by nuns.
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© Photograph: Noah P Dillon
© Photograph: Noah P Dillon
© Photograph: Noah P Dillon
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