© Illustration by Alvaro Dominguez/The New York Times
Project will make the famously confusing London landmark easier to navigate and more accessible
“Everything leaks,” says Philippa Simpson, the director of buildings and renewal at the Barbican, who is standing outside the venue’s lakeside area and inspecting the tired-looking tiles beneath her feet.
Water seeps through the cracks into the building below and serves as a reminder of the job facing Simpson and the team who are overhauling the 43-year-old landmark.
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© Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian
© Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian
© Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian
We know from recent hacks, and even the Snowden revelations, how vulnerable information gathered is to theft and misuse
One thing to remember about the modern world is that nothing online is ever secure. M&S and Jaguar taught us that. Edward Snowden taught us that. Every week, it seems, some giant corporation sees its system collapse at the touch of a button in an attic.
The government this week opened a consultation on its plan for nationwide facial recognition and surveillance. You would need only put your face outdoors and walk down the street and authorities will know and record it. Of course we will be assured that all will be kept secure. It will not. Cash or conspiracy will find it out and it will leak.
Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist
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© Photograph: gorodenkoff/Getty Images
© Photograph: gorodenkoff/Getty Images
© Photograph: gorodenkoff/Getty Images
Putin, on visit to India, says Russia is ready to continue to provide uninterrupted fuel supplies to the country
A Kremlin aide has said Russia is encouraged by negotiations with the US over the Ukraine war and is ready for more talks, according to Reuters.
Russia and the United States were making progress in talks over a deal on Ukraine and Moscow was ready to continue working with the current US team, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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© Photograph: Alexander Kazakov/Reuters
© Photograph: Alexander Kazakov/Reuters
© Photograph: Alexander Kazakov/Reuters
Starmer hails child poverty strategy as a ‘moral mission’ which will include measures to help with childcare and getting families out of temporary housing
Too many families are still “struggling without the basics – a secure home, warm meals, and the support they need to make ends meet”, Starmer said in the statement announcing the full plan.
“I will not stand by and watch that happen, because the cost of doing nothing is too high for children, for families, and for Britain.
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© Photograph: Ian West/PA
© Photograph: Ian West/PA
© Photograph: Ian West/PA
⚽ All the latest updates heading into the weekend’s action
⚽ Premier League: 10 things to look out for | Email David
You’ll see the current crop of World Cup mascots at the top of the page. I’ll also list them below in case it changes. Anyways, this is a nice graphic. Personal favourites and the ones that have resonated are Willie (England 1966), Juanito (Mexico 1970), Naranjito (Spain 1982) and Ciao (Italy 1990).
The trio for 2026…
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© Photograph: Michael Regan/FIFA/Getty Images
© Photograph: Michael Regan/FIFA/Getty Images
© Photograph: Michael Regan/FIFA/Getty Images
UN reports that prices of dairy products, meat, sugar and vegetable oils fell in November
In a separate cereal supply and demand report, the FAO raised its global cereal production forecast for 2025 to a record 3.003 billion metric tons.
That’s up from 2.990 billion tons projected last month, mainly due to increased estimates for wheat output.
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© Photograph: Pascal Rossignol/Reuters
© Photograph: Pascal Rossignol/Reuters
© Photograph: Pascal Rossignol/Reuters
(Brawl)
The violinist sets out on her darkest exploration of yuletide yet, giving a murky and melancholy twist on familiar Christmas standards
Traditional music finds its popular, cosy home in the carol, despite the uncanniness that surrounds the nativity story, and the fraying thread back to the past that each winter brings. A veteran explorer of the season (in 2020’s sparkling Winter Rituals EP with cellist Kate Ellis, and 2022’s starker New Christmas Rituals, with amplified fiddle-playing from André Bosman), Laura Cannell sets out on her best and darkest journey yet here, exploring the time of year when, as she writes on the liner notes, “joy and heartache try to exist together”.
Named after the line in Good King Wenceslas before the cruel frosts arrive, Brightly Shone the Moon begins at the organ – a nod to Cannell’s childhood Christmases in the Methodist chapels and churches of Norfolk. Cannell’s fiddle then quivers around the 16th-century folk melody of O Christmas Tree/O Tannenbaum, as if the carol is swirling in a snowglobe, trying to settle in memory. All Ye Faithful follows, full of murky repetitions of the pre-chorus passages, where choirs usually sing “come let us adore him”. But here, love feels stuck, rooting around like an animal in the ground, a sonic reminder of how smothering and strenuous the winter can be for many.
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© Photograph: Andi Sapey
© Photograph: Andi Sapey
© Photograph: Andi Sapey
Steaming service now in exclusive talks over deal that would change film and TV landscape
Warner Bros Discovery has entered exclusive talks to sell its streaming and Hollywood studio business to Netflix, a move that would dramatically change the established film and TV landscape.
Netflix is in competition with Paramount Skydance and Comcast, which owns assets including Universal Studios and Sky, to buy the owner of the Hollywood studio Warner Bros, HBO and the HBO Max streaming service.
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© Photograph: Home Box Office/PA
© Photograph: Home Box Office/PA
© Photograph: Home Box Office/PA
From tackling child poverty to being honest about Brexit, the party seems to have recognised the growing electoral threat to its left
What does it take for a small child not to recognise their own name? I’ve been thinking about that for days, since reading the Local Government Association’s recent report on a growing crisis in early childhood. We’ve known for a while about children starting school still in nappies, or speaking in Americanisms absorbed from hours stuck in front of YouTube, or even struggling to sit upright because they’ve spent too long slumped over an iPad to develop core muscles. So sadly, it’s not surprising to read of early-years workers telling the LGA they see more and more pre-schoolers who can barely speak, play with others or contain their rage when things don’t go their way. But it was the practitioner who noted that some children “don’t seem to respond to their name” who got to me. You have to wonder how often that child hears a loving adult trying to get their attention. Too often, another practitioner said, “children are not spoken to at home, but offered screens all day” – at mealtimes, out shopping, or in the car – with parents seemingly scared of provoking tantrums if they take the phone away.
The report describes a complex puzzle with multiple causes: poverty, and the parental exhaustion that comes of a hardscrabble life; growing up in a pandemic; changes in early-years provision; and way too much screen time. It can’t be solved by money alone, but certainly won’t be solved without it. So a two-pronged strategy of lifting the two-child limit on children’s welfare payments – as Rachel Reeves did last week – and intervening early where toddlers aren’t meeting their milestones makes sense. The Best Start family hubs rolling out gradually nationwide will, we learned this week, get Send (special educational needs and disabilities) co-ordinators, focusing particularly on speech and language. They’ll promote the upcoming National Year of Reading to wean kids off screens and on to books, and more generally attempt, on a shoestring, to mimic the support that their predecessor programme Sure Start once offered parents. There’s not enough funding – there never is – but there are the beginnings of joined-up thinking, accepting that tackling problems in nursery rather than in primary school is easier, cheaper and kinder on everyone involved.
Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist
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© Photograph: James Hamer/DfE
© Photograph: James Hamer/DfE
© Photograph: James Hamer/DfE
The Portuguese credits his loyalty to his trusty Casio watch for helping the head coach lift the Lisbon club after Ruben Amorim’s messy exit
If there is a stoppage in what is sure to be a supercharged Dérbi de Lisboa on Friday, the Sporting head coach, Rui Borges, will likely look down to check the watch he considers a lucky charm.
The black Casio – bought for €20 while still playing for his hometown club Mirandela in north-east Portugal, 150km inland from Porto – is a symbol of his superstitious nature and one he has maintained on his journey from the obscurity of being an amateur coach to making a mark on the biggest stage in club football.
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© Photograph: José Sena Goulão/EPA
© Photograph: José Sena Goulão/EPA
© Photograph: José Sena Goulão/EPA
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