4th over: South Africa 21-0 (Wolvaardt 13, Brits 6) Neat and tidy from Smith. That Bell semi-drop not withstanding, the BBC report that – stats wise - England are the best fielding team in the competition.
3rd over: South Africa 19-0 (Wolvaardt 12, Brits 5) A half-chance not held. Brits flays Bell back back with fire, through the left hand of her follow through and down to the rope.
Without pricing reform, the UK will struggle to be a life sciences superpower, she warned. She told reporters:
We are great supporters of the life sciences industrial strategy in the UK. And I’ve been very consistent on our view that it’s key to execute against that in terms of the opportunity for clinical trials and the opportunity for having translational facilities, all of the work that can be done with the data, but it is absolutely key that we have a competitive, commercial environment that recognises the value of innovation.
Obviously we’re engaging, watching, contributing as we can. And, I would say: hopeful and ambitious.
What everyone is putting the energy into, hopefully resolving, is how we make sure this country creates the right commercial environment. And without that, I think it’s going to be very difficult to be able to be a leading life sciences superpower… and without that, we are not going to secure something else we all want, which is patient access to innovation. You have to remember that the cost of drugs as a share of the total cost of health care is less than 10% in this country.
We absolutely agree we should be working towards constructive reform in the US system that we want to have affordable, accessible drugs in a sustainable way.
We remain very cautious about the environment in the US, although we did reassert today, we expect to be at the top end of our current vaccines guidance, and that’s really because we’re seeing great momentum ex US, particularly in Europe this quarter.
Abhishek Sharma has lit up the T20 in Canberra but all good things must come to an end. After throwing his bat at anything and everything it is a tame dismissal as the 25-year-old chips to Tim David at mid-off. Abhishek mis-read a slower ball from Nathan Ellis but that was some clever bowling.
3rd over: India 26-0 (Abhishek 19, Gill 7) Shubman Gill is batting in his partner’s shadow but gets the runs flowing with a top edge over the keeper to the rope. Hazlewood did everything right by bowling back of a length but is unfortunate not to pick up a wicket. Abhishek ruins what was otherwise a tidy over with a glance off his hip over short fine leg for another boundary.
Exclusive: Inside a Russian bid to free Horațiu Potra, a mercenary held in Dubai accused of conspiring to ‘overthrow constitutional order’ in Romania
Russian figures close to the Kremlin are mounting a last-minute attempt to halt the extradition from Dubai of a Romanian-French mercenary wanted in Romania for plotting a coup, the Guardian can reveal.
Horațiu Potra, a shadowy former French Foreign Legionnaire, was arrested at Dubai airport on 24 September alongside his son and nephew as they prepared to board a flight to Moscow. Romanian investigators had accused the men of conspiring with Potra’s ally, the far-right politician Călin Georgescu, to “overthrow the constitutional order”.
The world of soccer throws up no shortage of questions on a regular basis. In today’s column, Graham Ruthven endeavors to answer three of them
Rory Delap was apparently ahead of his time. The spirit of Stoke City’s legendary ball flinger lives on with the long throw-in enjoying a renaissance in the Premier League this season. Indeed, statistics show that the number of long throw-ins per match has more than doubled from last season, pointing to a very real and meaningful trend.
Make Israel release Marwan Barghouti, the ‘Palestinian Mandela’. The future of peace in the region depends on it
Dear Donald Trump,
You still want that Nobel peace prize, right? You believe you deserve it, don’t you? Even as you send the world’s biggest warship towards Venezuela, promise to just “kill people that are bringing drugs into our country … they’re going to be, like dead”, and threaten further national guard invasions of Democratic-run cities here in the United States.
Mehdi Hasan is a broadcaster, author and a former host on MSNBC. He is also a Guardian US columnist and the editor-in-chief of Zeteo
Having bet the house on Hull KR hero Mikey Lewis being the problem that Australia could not solve, England coach Shaun Wane has retreated home to Wigan to ponder whether he should have stuck rather than twisted. Dropping Harry Smith for the Ashes opener, and favouring treble-winner Lewis to partner captain George Williams in the halves, was surprising but understandable. Lewis, the player of the match in the Super League Grand Final, was in the form of his life. But the Williams-Lewis combination struggled to open up Australia. If they fail again on Saturday in Liverpool, Wane’s dream of winning the Ashes will be over.
“Our last plays disappointed me most,” said Wane after the 26-6 defeat at Wembley. “They outkicked us.” It’s rare anyone outkicks Wigan player Smith. Lewis mixed up his kicks under the arch, but very little troubled Australia. The best attacking kick was a 40-20 from replacement hooker Jez Litten when England trailed by three scores. Even then, Williams fumbled close to the line and five seconds later Reece Walsh had got to the halfway line.
This wildly atmospheric tale of a party for dying people in a crumbling seaside hotel borrows tropes from cosy crime, but is truly chilling
Living is hard emotional work – until you try dying. Alongside the rage many terminally ill people feel against the dying of the light, there are the memories that return to flagellate the conscience: the failures of kindness, the misjudged words that can’t be unsaid, the feelings left catastrophically unexpressed. Crimes of the heart – and sometimes, worse.
The malaise of regret and the yearning for absolution vibrate through Andrew Michael Hurley’s latest work of fiction, a wildly atmospheric, deceptively simple tale that borrows tropes from cosy crime only to snare you into something deeper, darker and more chilling.
Kathryn Bigelow’s Netflix ‘what if?’ drama is the director’s most frustratingly assembled and visually flat film to date
Bestowed on an elite few, the mantle of Noted Film-maker can be both a crown and a burden. On the positive side, it can serve as protection: viewing an ennobled director’s films through this prism, auteurist critics can feel obliged to make excuses for even the worst among them. (The rationale is that a bad film by a Noted Film-maker is still better than the best efforts of a jobbing hack.) One disadvantage is that such honorifics can leave a creative patrolling a very narrow courtyard, searching only for material worthy of a Noted Film-maker; another is that the dismay when a project doesn’t spark is all the greater. A prominent test case has just reached Netflix in the Kathryn Bigelow-directed A House of Dynamite, a not-so-heavy-hitter that – if texts from cinephile pals this past weekend are anything to go by – seems nailed on for only one award this season: that for Gravest Disappointment.
To determine why the film has underwhelmed so, we must retrace its director’s steps. Bigelow earned her laurels with a run of expansive, limber genre pics: biker flick The Loveless, the rangy vamp saga Near Dark, cop thriller Blue Steel, the enduring Keanu/Swayze actioner Point Break. Clearer indication of her direction of travel came with 1995’s underheralded Strange Days, an electrifying future-now thriller, informed by the Rodney King case, which also doubled as a cautionary fable about the perils of abandoning reality to seek shelter in the virtual realm. (Bigelow proved more alert to this than her screenwriter/ex-husband James Cameron, currently prepping the release of Avatar 3.) Yet post-2001, with her reputation growing, Bigelow – like her homeland – was forced on the defensive. The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty broached America’s then-recent misadventures in the Middle East; Detroit, released in the summer of Charlottesville, entered into fractious conversation with the country’s long history of racism.
You can understand why a film-maker on this trajectory might be drawn towards Dynamite’s script – penned by Noah Oppenheim, the former NBC News chief who penned Netflix’s recent, De Niro-led series Zero Day – and why the streamer would enthusiastically stump for a nuclear-panic thriller after Oppenheimer’s Oscars sweep. (One pitch for the new film: what if Oppenheimer, but now?) Dynamite is at its strongest early on, describing in something like real time the 19 minutes in which a missile launched somewhere in the Pacific by unknown parties is spotted on the radars of a US army base in Alaska and flagged to the White House situation room, en route towards what everyone learns is its target: downtown Chicago. In this first section, Bigelow and Oppenheim briskly accelerate the stakes while engaging in an intriguing temporal brinkmanship: we’re set to wondering where this two-hour film can possibly go once the countdown clock reaches zero.
Netanyahu ordered strikes on Tuesday evening after firefight between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants
Israeli airstrikes on Gaza overnight killed at least 104 Palestinians, including children, in what appeared to be the gravest challenge yet to the increasingly fragile US-brokered ceasefire and the deadliest day since the truce began.
The strikes, one of the bloodiest attacks in the two-year war, killed at least 35 children and injured 200 people, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency. They took place hours after Donald Trump said nothing would jeopardise the ceasefire agreement he had helped broker.
In England, young children go from glitter clay and building dens to classrooms a Victorian would recognise – and that system is failing many of them
“Childhood doesn’t end the day you turn five,” Ruth Lue-Quee said to me on the phone as she shepherded her son to the playground this half term. “Playing is what children are born to do. It’s innate in them. It is how they learn.” The former deputy headteacher’s petition to make play-based pedagogy a core part of the key stage 1 (KS1) national curriculum in England has garnered almost the required 100,000 signatures for debate in parliament.
Observe any nursery or reception class and you’ll see what she means: kids roaming freely, modelling wet clay encrusted in glitter, playing pretend kitchen, banging on drums in the music cupboard. They’re interacting in an organic, self-guided way, moving around, using their imagination and following their own initiative. This is how the vast majority of early years pupils spend their time learning. Yet the moment a child finishes reception and begins year one, the English education system essentially dictates that playtime is over.
With 100 days to go until Milan Cortina, Team GB’s chef de mission for the next Winter Games hopes speaking out about her own experiences can help other athletes succeed
When Eve Muirhead led the Great Britain women’s curlers to Winter Olympic gold in 2022, the Guardian hailed her as the “Iron Lady” because she appeared indestructible.
It didn’t matter that she had failed initially to qualify for the Games. Or that she had Covid before the last-ditch tournament that finally secured their place. Or that Team GB’s women lost four of their opening eight matches in Beijing – and were 4-0 down against Sweden in the semi-finals. Somehow she always found a way.
The southern hemisphere big guns have touched down in Europe for the Quilter Nations Series and there is much to look forward to over the next five weekends
“My beleaguered Tranmere played Barnet a couple of weeks ago,” begins James. “I was amazed that this was the first ever meeting between two clubs who have spent so much time in the Football League. It made me wonder: what is the most surprising or eye-catching fixture in English club football that has never been played?”
We were surprised to hear that Middlesbrough’s 1-1 draw with Wrexham on Saturday was the first ever league match between those two sides, though they have met in both domestic cup competitions.
222 seasons Everton (127) v Rochdale (95), West Brom (127) v Rochdale (95)
218 Everton (127) v Hartlepool United (91)
217 Manchester United (123) v Gillingham (94), Manchester City (123) v Exeter City (94)
216 Arsenal (122) v Southend United (94), Arsenal (122) v Exeter (94)
213 Liverpool (122) v Hartlepool (91)
206 Manchester United (123) v Mansfield Town (83)
205 Everton (127) v Torquay United (78)
204 Manchester United (123) v Darlington (81)
203 Newcastle United (122) v Darlington (81), Sunderland (125) v Torquay(7 8)
201 Manchester United (123) v Torquay (78)
200 Arsenal (122) v Torquay (78), Aston Villa (127) v Newport (73), Liverpool (122) v Torquay
3 days: Bill Lambton, Scunthorpe, April 1959
4 days: Dave Bassett, Crystal Palace, May 1984
7 days: Tim Ward, Exeter City, March 1953
Kevin Cullis, Swansea City, February 1996
8 days: Billy McKinlay, Watford, Sept-Oct 2014
9 days: Martin Ling, Cambridge, Jul-Aug 2009
The board of directors of Raith Rovers FC announces that we have parted company with manager Gary Locke and assistant manager Darren Jackson, with immediate effect.
Raith Rovers FC announces that we have this evening parted company with manager John Hughes and assistant manager Kevin McBride
2nd ODI: New Zealand, 177-5, bt England, 175, by five wkts
Daryl Mitchell hits 56no while Jofra Archer fires on return
Half-centuries from Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell carried New Zealand to a second one-sided victory against an England side still searching for a winning formula in the 50-over format. This loss added another track to their rotten recent record: a ninth consecutive away defeat in ODIs and a 10th in 11 games on their travels in the last 12 months, while also ensuring a sixth series defeat in their last seven attempts.
Against a New Zealand side without their premium fast bowler, Matt Henry, who was diagnosed with a calf injury on the morning of the match, England were dismissed for just 175, leaving 14 overs unused and presenting their opponents with not so much a challenge as a stroll. After again losing the toss the tourists’ top-order again misfired, with Jamie Overton coming in at No 8 to top-score with 42.
An African staging of Brian Friel’s Translations resonates deeply as the country distances itself from France
On a humid evening in Dakar, an Irish jig echoes through the country’s air-conditioned national theatre. The breathy, woody sound of the west African Fula flute brings a different cadence to the traditional tune. Actors dance across the stage, their peasant costumes stitched from African fabrics.
The dialogue is in French, the playwright is Irish and the players are Senegalese. Set in 1833, Brian Friel’s Translations– one of Ireland’s most celebrated modern plays – follows British soldiers sent to rural Donegal to translate Gaelic placenames into English.
The Oscar winner’s turn as a no-nonsense private investigator is a role model for women everywhere. She really shines alongside Ruth Wilson in this pacy, twisty thriller based on Mick Herron’s debut novel
I always forget how good Emma Thompson is. That is partly because she tends to work in film rather than television and I last made it to the cinema in the mid-90s. It is also partly because she is always so … how can I put this? … so Emma Thompson in all her interviews and award speeches that I can’t envisage her putting herself away enough for Proper Acting.
But of course she can – and does as the private investigator Zoë Boehm, a woman of flint and diamond, in the new eight-part thriller Down Cemetery Road, Morwenna Banks’ adaptation of Mick Herron’s debut novel of the same name. Herron has since become known for Slow Horses, the series about the busted spies in Slough House pushing paper under the world-wearied eye of Jackson Lamb, ever hoping to get back in the game. Gary Oldman, who plays Lamb, has become a sort of niche national treasure for his portrayal of the beleaguered antihero whom we like to think lives in all of us. I hope the same happens with Thompson/Boehm, because both are magnificent. Boehm is a role model for ladies everywhere, but especially those hampered by a lack of innate cynicism or by a people-pleasing nature (or early training). Look at Boehm and learn. Observe the barren wasteland in which she stands, the field of fucks she has left to give. “I don’t drink prosecco and I don’t bond emotionally,” she tells a new client and one of the show’s many delights is that this remains almost entirely true.
From cultural appropriation to gender, Smith nails the politics of creativity. But on actual politics, she is less assured
Accepting a literary prize in Ohio last year, the novelist Zadie Smith described “feeling somewhat alienated from myself, experiencing myself as a posthumous entity”. Smith is only 50, but there is indeed something of the afterlife about the material gathered in her new book, which bundles various odds and ends from the past nine years: speeches, opinion pieces, criticism and eulogies for departed literary heroes – Philip Roth, Martin Amis, Hilary Mantel.
In Some Notes on Mediated Time – one of three completely new essays in the collection – Smith recalls how the “dreamy, slo-mo world” of her 1980s childhood gave way, within a generation, to the “anxious, permanent now” of social media. If you lived through that transition, you don’t have to be very old to feel ancient. When this estrangement is compounded by the ordinary anxieties of ageing, cultural commentary becomes inflected with self-pity. Smith’s identification with the protagonist of Todd Field’s Tár, a once revered conductor who finds herself shunned by the younger cohort, takes on existential proportions: “Our backs hurt, the kids don’t like Bach any more – and the seas are rising!”
The Seeeu Europe photo month is under way – in Tokyo! It features shots by European image-makers displayed in public, from cafes to construction sites across the capital
A new generation of chefs and distillers are showcasing the Hebridean island’s outstanding produce and creating jobs for fellow islanders
With its dramatic, rugged mountain skyline, winding roads and ever-changing weather, the Isle of Skye has long appealed to lovers of the wild. Over the last decade, however, the largest island in the Inner Hebrides has been drawing visitors for other reasons – its dynamic food and drink scene. Leading the way are young Sgitheanach (people from Skye) with a global outlook but a commitment to local, sustainable ingredients. It’s also the result of an engaged community keen to create good, year-round jobs that keep young people on the island.
Calum Montgomery is Skye born and bred, and he’s passionate about showcasing the island’s larder on his menus at Edinbane Lodge. “If someone is coming to Skye I want them to appreciate the landscape, but also the quality of our produce,” he says. “Our mussels, lobster, scallops and crab are second to none.” Montgomery is mindful of the past: “It means everything to me to use the same produce as my ancestors. My grandpa was a lobster fisherman and we’re enjoying shellfish from the same stretch of water, with the same respect for ingredients.”
Gripping documentary follows Jens Stoltenberg through his final year as Nato chief – balancing diplomacy, egos and all-out war with unnerving calm
Jens Stoltenberg is the Norwegian politician and international diplomat whose destiny it was to be secretary general of Nato in the second most fraught period of its postwar history (if we accept that the Cuban missile crisis is in pole position). He was in charge from 2014 to 2024 and this documentary, with remarkable access, shows us his final 12 months – day-by-day, moment-by-moment – after Joe Biden had persuaded him in 2023, when his tenure was technically at an end, to stay on for another year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Perhaps, until that moment, Stoltenberg had been happy to assume that for all the meetings and stress, the secretary-generalship was an agreeable prestigious technocratic position without any real danger. But now he was faced with the possibility of executing Nato’s raison d’être. Ukraine can’t be admitted to Nato because that would mean war on Putin. But how about Nato giving money and weapons to Ukraine for attacks on Russian soil? Wouldn’t Russia see that the same way?
She was five when I first took her to a junior parkrun and I was amazed at her attitude and ability. After a lifetime of seeing exercise as punishment, I could suddenly appreciate it
As a teenager, I was very much a “don’t put me down for cardio” girl. At school I would volunteer to be the goalkeeper as it required the least amount of movement. When it came to sports day, if I couldn’t blag a sicknote, I’d reluctantly sign up for long jump, since the long-jump pit was tucked away behind the bike shed and drew no crowds. The idea of running on the track in front of the whole school felt like a nightmare brought to life.
Unlike lots of my male friends who played football or rugby for fun, I only saw exercise as punishment. Diet culture in the 90s dictated that thinness – and subsequent “goodness” – was a simple case of calories in versus calories out. Exercise was a gruelling way to stay slim and nothing more. I knew nothing of the feelgood effects of exercise, since I only ever experienced feeling as if I was going to pass out.
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