Exclusive: Underdrawing suggests attempt to debunk myth that former wife of Henry VIII had sixth finger
Anne Boleyn’s Hever “Rose” portrait is one of history’s most iconic faces, with her “B” pendant, her French hood, her dark eyes and a red rose in her right hand. Now a secret that has remained hidden for nearly 500 years has been discovered beneath the layers of paint.
Scientific analysis of the painting at Hever Castle, her childhood home in Kent, has uncovered evidence that an Elizabethan artist sought to create a “visual rebuttal” to claims that Henry VIII’s ill-fated wife was a witch with a sixth finger on her right hand.
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© Photograph: Supplied
© Photograph: Supplied
© Photograph: Supplied
Enrol in the school of wok and get sizzling with a simple stir-fry and a classic hotch-potch noodle dish. Follow the ‘wok clock’ and both are ready in about half an hour
Stir-frying, as its name suggests, is the technique of frying while continuously stirring or circulating heat, and it is the heat that’s all-important. Stir-frying is all about wok hei, or ‘wok’s air’ in English, which you can think of as the ‘height of fire’, or the level of heat. It’s said that Chinese cooks have good wok hei if they have a true understanding of the heat of their wok and how to handle it in all situations, and a stir-fry’s success is based on the quality of the cook’s wok hei.
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© Photograph: Rita Platts/The Guardian. Food styling: Hanna Miller. Prop styling: Florence Blair. Food styling assistant: Isobel Clarke.
© Photograph: Rita Platts/The Guardian. Food styling: Hanna Miller. Prop styling: Florence Blair. Food styling assistant: Isobel Clarke.
© Photograph: Rita Platts/The Guardian. Food styling: Hanna Miller. Prop styling: Florence Blair. Food styling assistant: Isobel Clarke.
The president and his supporters joining forces to decide what audiences read and see seems straight from a fascism playbook
Two events, juxtaposed, tell us a great deal about what is rapidly taking shape in the US. In one, Melania Trump releases a glossy documentary, Melania, an account of her return to the White House. Amazon outbid others to secure the rights to the documentary, spending $75m (£54m) in total, and ticket sales so far suggest that this was, shall we say, not a purely commercial venture.
In the other, the Washington Post is set to cut up to 200 jobs early this month, including the majority of its foreign staff and a sizeable chunk of its newsroom. Both Melania and the Washington Post are backed by Jeff Bezos. His two decisions, to invest in state propaganda and divest from the fourth estate that supposedly holds power to account, reveal much about how capital and authoritarianism join forces to decide what audiences read and see.
Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist
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© Illustration: Matt Kenyon/The Guardian
© Illustration: Matt Kenyon/The Guardian
© Illustration: Matt Kenyon/The Guardian
A bit like Reddit for artificial intelligence, Moltbook allows AI agents – bots built by humans – to post and interact with each other. People are allowed as observers only
On social media, people often accuse each other of being bots, but what happens when an entire social network is designed for AI agents to use?
Moltbook is a site where the AI agents – bots built by humans – can post and interact with each other. It is designed to look like Reddit, with subreddits on different topics and upvoting. On 2 February the platform stated it had more than 1.5m AI agents signed up to the service. Humans are allowed, but only as observers.
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© Photograph: Westend61/Getty Images
© Photograph: Westend61/Getty Images
© Photograph: Westend61/Getty Images
Woman, 22, thought to have suffered a cardiac arrest after being dragged along the snow and suspended mid-air
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An Australian woman has died after a ski lift accident in a Japanese resort after her backpack got caught and she was left hanging mid-air.
The 22-year-old snowboarder sustained critical injuries at the Tsugaike ski resort in Otari near Nagano on Friday.
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© Photograph: Whitcombe-Japan/Alamy
© Photograph: Whitcombe-Japan/Alamy
© Photograph: Whitcombe-Japan/Alamy
From the comfiest sleep hoodie to one of the fanciest face masks, reviewers share what actually helps them hit the hay
The best sleep masks in the US: I spent six weeks testing 24 masks, and these are my favorites
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Getting a good night’s sleep is a personal struggle for many of us. Here at The Filter US, we noticed that a lot of you are interested in all things sleep. From our coverage of the best sleep masks to these Coop adjustable pillows, many readers are obsessing about the best products to help them get some shuteye.
To help fuel this not-so-drowsy enthusiasm, we asked a bunch of our contributing writers about the products they rely on to get some rest. What we got were some personal insights into some of the sleep hangups we all face, and some fantastic tools to help, including comfy pillows, white noise machines (sound machines), earbuds, face masks, and more. There’s even a Snuggie-like wearable blanket on the list.
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© Photograph: 10’000 Hours/Getty Images
© Photograph: 10’000 Hours/Getty Images
© Photograph: 10’000 Hours/Getty Images
Every second, 11m bits of information enter our brains, which then efficiently prioritise them. We need to learn to work with the process, rather than against it
It’s believed that we have about 50,000 thoughts a day: big, small, urgent, banal – “Did I leave the oven on?”. And those are just the ones that register. Subconsciously, we’re constantly sifting through a barrage of stimuli: background noise, clutter on our desks, the mere presence of our phones.
Every second, 11m bits of information enter our brains. Just 0.0004% is perceived by our conscious minds, showing just how hard our brains are working to parse what’s sufficiently relevant to bring to our attention.
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© Composite: Guardian Design; Jacob Wackerhausen/Getty Images
© Composite: Guardian Design; Jacob Wackerhausen/Getty Images
© Composite: Guardian Design; Jacob Wackerhausen/Getty Images
Report covering 23 conflicts over last 18 months concludes more than 100,000 civilians have been killed as war crimes rage out of control
An authoritative survey of 23 armed conflicts over the last 18 months has concluded that international law seeking to limit the effects of war is at breaking point, with more than 100,000 civilians killed, while torture and rape are committed with near impunity.
The extensive study by the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights describes the deaths of 18,592 children in Gaza, growing civilian casualties in Ukraine and an “epidemic” of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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© Photograph: Marwan Ali/AP
© Photograph: Marwan Ali/AP
© Photograph: Marwan Ali/AP
Thousands who fled the advance of M23 rebels now face the threat of disease and shortages in Burundi’s overcrowded refugee camps
It must have been an eerie sight when 35-year-old Diudonné Muka looked over his shoulder and saw a trail of people stretching as far as the eye could see. The line ebbed and flowed deep into the surrounding forest, a river of multicoloured clothing cutting through the green.
He saw countless women balancing trays of goods on their heads, babies on their backs, tightly wrapped in kikwembe cloth. Men and children carried whatever they could: chairs, rugs, blankets and sacks of food; anything that might still be useful.
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© Photograph: Reuters
© Photograph: Reuters
© Photograph: Reuters
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