Official US social media accounts posted about rise of ‘violent radical leftism’ after killing of Quentin Deranque in Lyon last week
The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, has said he will summon Charles Kushner, the US ambassador to France, over comments related to the killing of the French far-right activist Quentin Deranque.
Deranque was beaten to death in Lyon last week during a fight with alleged hard-left activists.
It’s tempting to dismiss the proliferation of labels as a fad, but there’s more to this phenomenon than a simple culture-war reading allows
My psychological research rarely makes good comedy material, but in a standup show in London recently, those two worlds collided. One of the jokes was about how everyone is getting diagnosed with ADHD these days – about the social media videos that encourage viewers to identify common human experiences, like daydreaming or talking a lot, as evidence of the condition. The audience laughed because everyone got it – they’ve all witnessed how common it seems to have become in the last few years. When something becomes this prevalent in society, and this mystifying, it’s no surprise it ends up as a punchline.
Part of my work as an academic involves trying to solve the puzzle of why so many more people, especially young people, are reporting symptoms of mental illness compared to even five or 10 years ago. (ADHD is a form of neurodivergence, rather than a mental illness, but both have seen an increase, so they are related questions.) Whenever I talk about this – to colleagues, school staff, parents – it doesn’t take long until someone brings up that judgment-laden, hot-button word: overdiagnosis.
Self-declared sleuths have inserted themselves into the search for Nancy Guthrie, compromising the investigation for views and clicks
On the 10th day of the search for Nancy Guthrie, reporters camped outside of the missing woman’s home noticed a strange man strut right up to the front door. It had been more than a week since the mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie had disappeared, and authorities had just announced they had a new lead from Ring footage of what looked like a “potential subject” attempting to tamper with the doorbell camera on the morning of her disappearance. So now who was this unknown person, clad in a gray top and black pants, carrying a large black bag and striding to the door?
They’re often compassionate good listeners who focus on their clients’ needs – so is it any wonder many patients find themselves with a crush? A writer, who is in exactly this position, talks to people on both sides of the couch
I was half-watching the latest series of the Netflix romcom Nobody Wants This when suddenly things got interesting. Spoiler alert: it had just been revealed that one of the characters (Morgan) was in a relationship with her newly ex-therapist (Dr Andy). While some of the characters freaked out, declaring the relationship very concerning, I felt a frisson of excitement. Because I, too, have harboured the desire to date my therapist.
As it turns out, this fantasy is neither unusual nor unexpected. “Psychoanalysis almost insists on transference,” explains psychotherapist Charlotte Fox Weber, using the term coined by Sigmund Freud, the founding father of psychoanalysis, in his 1895 work Studies on Hysteria. The basic premise is that the patient projects old feelings, attitudes, desires or fantasies on to their therapist. This can manifest in numerous ways – often at the same time – covering the whole gamut of emotions and relationships, from love to hate, maternal to erotic, and everything in between.
Weak connections known as ‘bridge ties’ cross the boundaries that normally structure our lives. We must restore this connective tissue
The first time a woman I’ll call Shoshana went toBrandi Carlile’s music festival, she arrived alone. She had just been through another unsuccessful round of IVF. During one of the songs, about motherhood, she began to cry in the middle of the crowd. Then two women she had never met stepped closer and wordlessly wrapped their arms around her until her breathing slowed.
“That’s when I realized,” Shoshana told me in an interview, “this place isn’t just about music.”
Eva M Meyersson Milgrom is a social scientist and professor emerita from Stanford University, where she was affiliated with the department of sociology, the Institute of Economic Policy, and the Graduate School of Business. She is working on a book on the importance of diversifying our social networks
I have made the leap from literary fiction to fantasy – for those who think it’s mere wish-fulfilment, here’s why we need that thing with the dragons
Fantasy doesn’t need defending. It is one of the great cultural forms at the moment, all-pervading, ubiquitous. Maybe even the dominant form of writing just now, in line with the bookseller’s joke that contemporary publishing divides into A: romantasy and B: everything else.
But it might need explaining a little bit, for those who don’t get its pleasures; who still see it as wish-fulfilment, or as a low form that literary fiction gets to look down upon or direct a puzzled tolerance towards. As a writer of literary fiction who has borrowed and rejoiced in fantasy tropes for years, and has now himself written an out-and-out fantasy, I’m beyond embarrassment. I’ve been reading and loving fantasy all my life, and for me its best creators stand comfortably alongside the greats of any genre. And yet, I’m still encountering a faint sense that there is something to be accounted for in writing fantasy. That I ought to have reasons for wanting to do that thing with the dragons, no matter how culturally pervasive it is.
Friedrich Merz to meet Xi Jinping in Beijing as China overtakes US as country’s leading export destination
China has overtaken the US as Germany’s top trading partner, figures have shown, as the chancellor, Friedrich Merz, prepares for his first visit to Beijing since taking office.
Merz will head to China on Tuesday and will be welcomed with military honours on Wednesday in Beijing by the prime minister, Li Qiang, before later meeting the president, Xi Jinping, for talks over dinner, his spokesperson Sebastian Hille said.
Defence minister rebuffs US president’s claim that Arctic islanders are ‘not being taken care of’
Greenland does not need medical assistance from other countries, Denmark has said, after Donald Trump said he was sending a hospital ship to the autonomous Danish territory that he wants to acquire.
“The Greenlandic population receives the healthcare it needs. They receive it either in Greenland, or, if they require specialised treatment, they receive it in Denmark. So it’s not as if there’s a need for a special healthcare initiative in Greenland,” the country’s defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, told the Danish broadcaster DR on Sunday.
We’re heading over to Livigno shortly for the women’s halfpipe. Team GB’s Zoe Atkin qualified first but there is plenty of competition, not least from China’s Eileen Gu.
Some big news coming out of the 50km women’s cross-country skiing, with Frida Karlsson pulling out. The Swede was the gold meal favourite having won the skiathlon and the 10km intervals, as well as a silver in 4x7.5km relay.
Liam Rosenior has revealed that one of his Chelsea stars marked the wrong Burnley player in added time yesterday, resulting in Zian Flemming’s equaliser.
The Chelsea head coach said: “An assignment was missed. An assignment, a marking assignment wasn’t done. Flemming, we know, is their best header of the ball.
The government plans to halve the attainment gap in England between the poorest pupils and their more affluent peers
Searches are expected to continue today at Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s previous home – Royal Lodge, in Windsor – as calls grow for a probe into the former prince’s links with Jeffrey Epstein.
Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s police and crime correspondent, Vikram Dodd, about what could be next for Andrew here:
If the government bring forward this bill with the support of the King then we will back it. We have to be realistic. Andrew is the eighth in line to the throne, so there’s no chance of him becoming our monarch.
And so parliament really should be focused on things that are of more importance to the public, whether that’s the economy, crime, the health service, immigration. But if the bill does come before parliament, then we’ll support it.
Hundreds of thousands of visitors expected for month-long display of 13th-century saint’s remains
Saint Francis of Assisi’s skeleton is going on full public display from Sunday for the first time, in a move that is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Inside a nitrogen-filled case with the Latin inscription “Corpus Sancti Francisci” (the body of Saint Francis), the remains are being shown in the Italian hillside town’s Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi.
From opposing apartheid in South Africa to supporting Palestinian rights, the US civil rights leader left his mark across the globe
When Jesse Jackson called for the Democratic party platform to include Palestinian statehood, the pushback was fierce. “While we had strong support from delegates at the convention, there was still a fear factor that the issue couldn’t be discussed,” recalls James Zogby, who was deputy manager of Jackson’s presidential campaign. “I was told by the [nominee Michael] Dukakis negotiators, if you even say the P-word, you’ll destroy the Democratic party.”
Jackson’s effort did not succeed at the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. But 10 Democratic state parties had already passed resolutions in favour of Palestinian self-determination. And as the decades rolled by, more and more progressives came to share Jackson’s stance. Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute, reflects: “He was way ahead of the base. Even the activists who supported Palestinians did not have the same depth of understanding.”
Jesús Armas’s joy at being released has been tempered by reality that the march towards democracy will be slow
Jesús Armas was asleep inside Venezuela’s most infamous political prison at the start of January when a thunderous explosion and a blackout announced the start of a new era.
The activist remembers roars of excitement rippling through the jail’s cells as befuddled guards scurried around “like something really big was happening”. Prisoners began to belt out Venezuela’s national anthem, a stirring battle cry against tyranny: “Glory to the brave people! … Down with the chains! … Death to oppression!”
What happens when you’re sporting signs of your devotion long after your idol has fallen from grace? Meet the fans whose tattoos have become embarrassing – even problematic
On 20 February 2012, Coté Arias met Morrissey at a fan meet-up in Santiago, Chile. The former Smiths frontman signed her forearm in spiky capitalised lettering, which Coté later had traced permanently on to her skin with ink. Her years-long plan for the tattoo, which had started with her founding Morrissey’s Chilean fanclub, had worked. “Morrissey had such an impact on me growing up,” she says. “I struggled with shyness and lacked confidence for much of my life, and his lyrics helped me feel seen while transitioning into adulthood.”
Parliament is steeped in history, but too many parts of the estate are dangerous and squalid. The promised upgrade can’t come a minute too soon
Kemi Badenoch, mid-TV interview with Robert Peston at the House of Commons recently, was embarrassingly upstaged by a mouse. Just another day in a parliament building not fit for purpose.
Last week, a critical meeting between the prime minister and his more than 400 MPs plus assorted peers (who total another 800) happened in a room only big enough to accommodate 170. Consider that the Commons chamber itself seats only 430 of the total 650 MPs. That same day, exhibition boards went up around parliament explaining the “restoration and renewal” options for the Palace of Westminster.They are expected to be voted on as early as March.
Rupa Huq is Labour MP for Ealing Central and Acton
Rising temperatures are forcing some ski resorts to close, while leaving others at greater risk of extreme weather
Avalanches kill about 100 people in Europe each year, with vast masses of ice, snow and rock regularly crashing down on hikers and skiers who have been caught unawares.
The structure of the snow, angle of the slope and variation of the weather can dictate whether a gentle disturbance – like a gust of wind or the glide of a snowboard – can trigger a deadly shift in the mountain.
The Blur bassist loves his Britpop rivals, weeps over Radiohead’s Creep and finds Chitty Chitty Bang Bang sexy. But which Beatles hit did he get sick of?
The first song I fell in love with
I remember standing up in year 3 and doing the routine to The Trail of the Lonesome Pine by Laurel and Hardy and the Avalon Boys. I really wanted it for Christmas – it went to No 2 in 1975 – and Father Christmas managed to get it in my stocking.
The first single I bought
I was on a canal boat holiday with the Scouts and Come on Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners was all over the radio, so I went down on my bike to buy it from Wilco in Bradpole Road in Bournemouth.
After a slow start, when the hosts began to pick up medals in the second week the public’s imagination was captured
With the atmosphere in Rome subdued as the Winter Olympics unfolded across northern Italy, travelling to the Games was not on Amity Neumeister’s radar.
That was until the event entered its second week and, inspired by images of the Dolomites on TV, Italy racking up the medals and friends in Milan describing an energetic vibe, Neumeister, originally from the US, decided she wanted to join the action. “It was a late-night, last-minute crazy decision, completely unplanned,” she said. “I hadn’t even considered going before, but it felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the Games and celebrate people coming together from around the world.”
Will Paul Thomas Anderson’s ICE age conspiracy thriller sweep the board, or will Sinners and Hamnet share some glory? Our critic places his bets Full list of Bafta 2026 nominations
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