12 essentials every new birdwatcher should have
Steve Borthwick’s England squad have been compared to Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United side before this Saturday’s massive Six Nations fixture at home to France. Both teams have been having difficult seasons but inside the red rose camp there remains a firm belief that, given a little patience, the tide will eventually turn for them.
England’s attack coach, Richard Wigglesworth, also happens to be a United fan and sees similarities between the respective situations at Twickenham and Old Trafford. He thinks Amorim will eventually deliver success for United, currently 13th in the Premier League, and is also backing England, who have won just two of their past nine Tests, to turn the corner in the not-too-distant future.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Ben Brady/INPHO/REX/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Ben Brady/INPHO/REX/Shutterstock
© Illustration: Nicola Jennings/The Guardian
© Illustration: Nicola Jennings/The Guardian
Judge said no US court had endorsed Trump’s reading of the 14th amendment and her court ‘will not be the first’
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered a second temporary pause on Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship for anyone born in the US to someone in the country illegally.
US district judge Deborah Boardman said no court in the country had endorsed the Trump administration’s interpretation of the 14th amendment.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Eric Gay/AP
© Photograph: Eric Gay/AP
Takeover of USAid agency by Doge operatives seen as a pilot for a large-scale overhaul of the federal government
USAid security personnel were defending a secure room holding sensitive and classified data in a standoff with “department of government efficiency” employees when a message was said to come directly from Elon Musk: give the Doge kids whatever they want.
Since Donald Trump’s inauguration last month, a posse of cocksure young engineers answering to Musk have stormed through Washington DC, gaining access to government computer systems as part of what Senator Chuck Schumer has called “an unelected shadow government … conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government”.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Some civil servants determined to ‘stick it out’ as president and Elon Musk push for mass resignations: ‘We’re not even sure what is being offered is legal’
Amy*, a federal US government employee working for homeland security who was hired by the Joe Biden administration’s refugee programme, has not left her phone out of her sight since last Tuesday, when the Elon Musk-led push for mass voluntary redundancies of government workers began.
Since the US office of personnel management (OPM) sent nearly all of the federal government’s 3 million employees an email offering them deferred resignations and warning that, if they choose to stay, they may be laid off or reassigned, US career civil servants have been weighing their options.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images
© Photograph: Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images
New title holder becomes the spiritual leader of the world’s millions of Ismaili Muslims
Rahim Al-Hussaini, 53, has been named the new Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the world’s millions of Ismaili Muslims, after the death of his father, the Ismaeli community has announced.
The Aga Khan V, the 50th hereditary imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, was designated in his father’s will “in accordance with historical Shia Imami Ismaili Muslim tradition and practice”, the community said on its website.
His father, his Highness Prince Karim Al-Hussaini, the Aga Khan IV, known for his fabulous wealth and development work around the world, died on Tuesday in Lisbon, the seat of the Ismaili Imamat, at the age of 88.
The Aga Khan is considered by his followers to be a direct descendant of the prophet Muhammad and is treated as a head of state and accorded nearly divine status by the Ismaeli community, whose website says it numbers 12 to 15 million people.
© Photograph: Yoan Valat/EPA
© Photograph: Yoan Valat/EPA
The French government has faced ridicule for its new laundry edicts which include wearing a T-shirt five times before laundering it. But maybe it has a point?
Name: Laundry.
Age: As old as clothes.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Grace Cary/Getty Images
© Photograph: Grace Cary/Getty Images
Community is billed as the cure-all for isolation, ageing and even climate change. Are we prepared to put the work in?
In the year since I moved into my flat, I’ve received a few notes under the door.
Some were warm welcomes – most notably, a Swiftie-style friendship bracelet from my downstairs neighbour, who’d heard me (“very faintly!”) listening to the new album. Others were Christmas cards, or courtesy notes warning of forthcoming maintenance or outages.
Continue reading...© Illustration: Rita Liu/The Guardian
© Illustration: Rita Liu/The Guardian