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.

Have you been following the big stories in cricket, football, motor racing, darts, climbing, athletics and the NFL?

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

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.

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?

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

• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up here

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

‘Even the animals seem confused’: a retreating Kashmir glacier is creating an entire new world in its wake

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

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.

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.

• 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.

He’ll soon be going back on the hunt for bent coppers – but not before a wild revenge tale of divorcees going rogue. The star talks feeling inferior to Meera Syal, his life in the US and why he’s thrilled to be typecast

While we embark on the inhumanly long wait for the new season of Line of Duty, which starts shooting in January, you’ll see Martin Compston – the show’s hero and true north – a number of times. Twice as you’ve never seen him before, and once, in Red Eye, in the form that you’ve come to know and love him: brisk and taciturn, brave and speedy, the man you’d trust to save the world while the dopes all around him can’t even see it needs saving.

But first, The Revenge Club, in which he is a revelation. The setting is a support group for divorcees, a ragtag gang united by nothing but the fact that they’ve been summarily dismissed by their spouses. “There’s no other reason for these characters to be in each other’s lives,” Compston says from his home in Las Vegas (more on that later – much more). “They’re all desperate and lonely and in dire need of companionship. They’re all, in their own ways, broken, which makes for this explosive mix.”

Plummeting birth rates mean that without attracting immigration, many countries are sliding towards collapse

I know what “civilisational erasure” looks like: I’ve seen the graph. The European Commission published it in March. It’s a chart of total fertility rate: the average number of children born per woman. After a minor bump over the past 20 years, the EU rate appears to be declining once more, and now stands at 1.38. The UK’s is 1.44. A population’s replacement rate is 2.1. You may or may not see this as a disaster, but the maths doesn’t care what you think. We are gliding, as if by gravitational force, towards the ground.

Civilisational erasure is the term the Trump administration used in its new national security strategy, published last week. It claimed that immigration, among other factors, will result in the destruction of European civilisation. In reality, without immigration there will be no Europe, no civilisation and no one left to argue about it.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

Levels during boarding and taxiing were far above those defined as high by the World Health Organization

A study has revealed the concentrations of ultrafine particles breathed in by airline passengers.

A team of French researchers, including those from Université Paris Cité, built a pack of instruments that was flown alongside passengers from Paris Charles de Gaulle to European destinations. The machinery was placed on an empty seat in the front rows or in the galley.

Mismatched or holey socks won’t cut it if your host asks you to leave your footwear at the door this party season

Court heard Alicia Kemp, 25, from Redditch, Worcestershire was over the blood alcohol limit when she drove into Thanh Phan, 51, in Perth

A British backpacker has been sentenced to four years in prison after a fatal collision with a father-of-two while riding an electric scooter in Australia.

Alicia Kemp, 25, from Redditch, Worcestershire, appeared at Perth district court in Western Australia on Friday where she was sentenced after pleading guilty to dangerous driving causing death while under the influence of alcohol.

For her directorial debut, Winslet assembled a cast including Toni Collette, Timothy Spall, Johnny Flynn and Andrea Riseborough to tell a story inspired by her own family’s bereavement. The actors talk mourning, immortality and hospital vending machines

In 2017, Sally Bridges-Winslet died of cancer. She was 71. It was, her youngest daughter said, “like the north star just dropped out of the sky”.

It would have been even worse, says Kate Winslet today, had the family not pulled together. “I do have tremendous amounts of peace and acceptance around what happened because of how we were able to make it for her.”

A passenger having a mental health episode was heading for the emergency exit. He lunged for the door handle, screaming

I write thrillers: mostly ­historical mysteries. In September 2024, I was returning from a ­literary festival in Italy, where I had been talking about my ­latest book. It was a Ryanair flight, and as we came in to land at London Stansted, I heard people behind me shouting. I looked back to see some of them were standing up. A moment later a big man – I would guess he was 6ft 4in, and powerfully built – burst through them. He headed towards an emergency exit and lunged for the door handle, screaming. Behind him, a smaller guy was clambering over the tops of the seats, shouting: “It’s not terrorism. It’s not terrorism. Mental health!”

While exit doors can’t be opened when a plane is at full altitude because the air pressure inside is too great, levels dip during descent, and it is possible to open them. I feared that if he opened the exit, the plane would be hard to control and we might hit the ground about 300mph faster than we were meant to.

Exclusive: John Fingleton says regulators need to change their attitude to risk to end the country’s economic stagnation

Overbearing health and safety rules are stopping Britain building new infrastructure, according to the economist whom Keir Starmer has cited as an inspiration for his growth strategy.

John Fingleton, who recently wrote a report for government on how to encourage developers to build new nuclear power plants, told the Guardian regulators needed to change their attitude to risk if the country was to end its long economic stagnation.

Proposals to change US citizenship rules leaves dual citizens like me caught in the crossfire. If push comes to shove, I know where my loyalty lies

I love many things about the land of my birth but Donald Trump’s America has become an unwelcoming country of deep divisions and waning trust

I’m in the US right now, but if I didn’t have family here (and a US passport), I wouldn’t be. My teenagers and I flew over the week of Thanksgiving from Australia, preparing ourselves for long lines and extra questions at customs. It took less than five minutes in the US citizens’ line.

With the news this week of the Trump administration planning to implement new invasive requirements for travellers from 42 countries, including Australia, that would require five years of social media history for visas, I would simply not travel here on another passport. There are plenty of places which welcome visitors without trawling their political opinions and family history.

An all-new Croft adventure, Tomb Raider Catalyst, will be released in 2027 – and a remake of the action heroine’s first adventure arrives next year

After a long break for Lara Croft, a couple of fresh Tomb Raider adventures are on their way. They will be the first new games in the series since 2018, and both will be published by Amazon.

Announced at the Game Awards in LA, Tomb Raider Catalyst stars the “charismatic, self-assured, formidable Lara Croft” from the original 1990s games, says game director Will Kerslake. It’s set in the markets, mountains, and naturally the ancient buildings of northern India, where Lara is racing with other treasure hunters to track down potentially cataclysmic artefacts. It will be out in 2027.

Conflict monitors say the junta has increased airstrikes year-on-year since the start of Myanmar’s civil war

Dozens have been killed in a military strike on a hospital in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, according to an aid worker, a rebel group, a witness and local media reports, as the junta wages a withering offensive ahead of elections beginning this month.

“The situation is very terrible,” said on-site aid worker Wai Hun Aung. “As for now, we can confirm there are 31 deaths and we think there will be more deaths. Also there are 68 wounded and will be more and more.”

Scientists say bears in southern Greenland differ genetically to those in the north, suggesting they could adjust

Changes in polar bear DNA that could help the animals adapt to warmer climates have been detected by researchers, in a study thought to be the first time a statistically significant link has been found between rising temperatures and changing DNA in a wild mammal species.

Climate breakdown is threatening the survival of polar bears. Two-thirds of them are expected to have disappeared by 2050 as their icy habitat melts and the weather becomes hotter.

Move follows a disagreement with the largest grouping in parliament, with elections to be held within 45-60 days

Thailand’s prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, announced on Thursday that he is “returning power to the people”, moving to dissolve parliament and clear the way for elections earlier than previously anticipated.

Government spokesperson Siripong Angkasakulkiat said the move followed a disagreement with the largest grouping in parliament, the opposition People’s party. “This happened because we can’t go forward in parliament,” he told Reuters.