Bleary-eyed in pyjamas in a new film, Jacinda Ardern’s pleas for compassion are hard to ignore. But in real crises, the fallibility of politicians can be terrifying
The camera catches Jacinda Ardern in her pyjamas, bleary-eyed with exhaustion. It follows her wiping crumbs off the worktops, breastfeeding, trying to take a phone call while simultaneously retrieving something her curious toddler has picked up off her desk. They are scenes many frazzled, distracted working parents will recognise, except that at the time she was the prime minister of New Zealand and these home movies – shot on her husband’s phone, originally for family consumption – have since been turned into a documentary premiering in British cinemas this December.
Prime Minister, the movie, is the latest step in Ardern’s campaign for politicians to be allowed to reclaim their humanity, which broadly means the public accepting that they are grappling with the same private pressures as the rest of us (and no doubt similarly making a hash of it at times). It was the message of her recent memoir, A Different Kind of Power, and in some ways of her time in office, made only more urgent lately by the avalanche of violent threats and abuse heaped on anyone in public life – as if by getting elected they had become instantly dehumanised.
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© Photograph: Magnolia Pictures/Everett/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Magnolia Pictures/Everett/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Magnolia Pictures/Everett/Shutterstock
The Alicante region is renowned for its rice and seafood dishes. Less well known is that its restaurant scene has a wealth of talented female chefs, a rarity in Spain
I’m on a quest in buzzy, beachy Alicante on the Costa Blanca to investigate the rice dishes the Valencian province is famed for, as well as explore the vast palm grove of nearby Elche. I start with a pilgrimage to a restaurant featured in my book on tapas, Andaluz, a mere 25 years ago. Mesón de Labradores in the pedestrianised old town is now engulfed by Italian eateries (so more pizza and pasta than paella) but it remains a comforting outpost of tradition and honest food.
Here I catch up with Timothy Denny, a British chef who relocated to Spain, gained an alicantina girlfriend and became a master of dishes from the region. Over a fideuá de mariscos (seafood noodles, €20), we chew over local gastronomy. “For me, Alicante epitomises the Mediterranean – for rice, seafood and artichokes,” he says. “But there are curiosities, too, like pavo borracho.” Tim explains that so-called “drunken turkeys” are cooked in vast amounts of cognac plus a shot of red wine and eventually emerge as a hefty stew, perfect in winter.
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© Photograph: Joan Dana/Getty Images
© Photograph: Joan Dana/Getty Images
© Photograph: Joan Dana/Getty Images
They wear Victorian dresses and make daring moves riding side-saddle. Photographer Constance Jaeggi on how she documented an all-female Mexican tradition
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© Photograph: Constance Jaeggi
© Photograph: Constance Jaeggi
© Photograph: Constance Jaeggi
Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson are increasingly espousing Christian ‘values’, and a wealthy US legal group is becoming influential – this could have dire consequences
Earlier this year, not long after Tommy Robinson embraced evangelical Christianity while in prison, the then Conservative MP Danny Kruger spoke in parliament about the need for a restoration of Britain through the “recovery of a Christian politics”. Less than two months later, Kruger joined Reform, and shortly after that, James Orr, a vociferously conservative theologian who has been described as JD Vance’s “English philosopher king”, was appointed as one of Reform’s senior advisers. The party’s leader, Nigel Farage, now frequently invokes the need for a return to “Judeo-Christian” values.
The British right is increasingly invoking the Christian tradition: the question is what it hopes to gain from doing so.
Lamorna Ash is the author of Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever: A New Generation’s Search for Religion
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© Photograph: SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
© Photograph: SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
© Photograph: SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
Exclusive: NHS websites pointed women to factsheet featuring podcast by ‘dangerous’ influencers linked to baby deaths
• Full story: How the FBS is linked to baby deaths around the world
The NHS has been directing pregnant women to a website that connected them to the Free Birth Society, an organisation that has been linked to baby deaths around the world after promoting labour without medical support.
A number of NHS trusts are directing women who are contemplating a “free birth” to a charity website that until Monday referred to FBS podcasts as a source of “empowering stories” that can help British women “preparing for their own birth”.
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© Illustration: Laurie Avon/The Guardian
© Illustration: Laurie Avon/The Guardian
© Illustration: Laurie Avon/The Guardian
Ultimatums sent to publications appear to intensify as Nigel Farage’s party rises in polls
“It was Trumpian,” said Mark Mansfield, editor and CEO of Nation.Cymru, a small English-language Welsh news service. “It has perhaps given us a flavour of how a Reform UK government would behave towards the media.”
Mansfield is referring to what he described as an attempt by a figure at Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party to “bully” his publication, but he believes a wider lesson might be learned.
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© Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
© Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
© Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
A comforting bowl of soupy curry noodles that’s ready in well under an hour
As in many Japanese families, we had curry regularly when I was growing up. It was the standard Japanese curry of potatoes, onion, carrot and pork, usually thickened with S&B Golden Curry blocks. It made a weekly appearance in our house, and now I regularly make it for my own family, too. However, my kids are a little fussy: one likes it with tonkatsu on top and the other doesn’t want any meat at all. So I now make curry with no meat in it, and more vegetables, which means that I have to make only one version (and whoever wants to add tonkatsu can do so!).
This recipe is an edited extract from The Japanese Pantry, by Emiko Davies, published by Smith Street Books at £30.
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© Photograph: Matthew Hague/The Guardian. Food and prop styling: Florence Blair. Food assistant: Emma Cantlay.
© Photograph: Matthew Hague/The Guardian. Food and prop styling: Florence Blair. Food assistant: Emma Cantlay.
© Photograph: Matthew Hague/The Guardian. Food and prop styling: Florence Blair. Food assistant: Emma Cantlay.
Project aims to unlock memories and sensations for participants while creating nine-track CD, recorded at Glyndebourne
On a stage once presided over by Luciano Pavarotti, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Renée Fleming, people living with dementia are recording songs of their own composition.
With the microphones of Glyndebourne opera house capturing every note, their voices rise and intertwine. Not echoing old, familiar tunes but shaping entirely new pieces expressing their feelings, hopes and fears – emotions that, when the music stops, their brains can no longer convey in mere words.
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© Photograph: Mairi Thomas
© Photograph: Mairi Thomas
© Photograph: Mairi Thomas
Defensive end died this month at age of 24
Player’s car reached speeds of more than 145 mph
Body and dash cam footage from law enforcement officials have charted the events leading up to the death of Dallas Cowboys player Marshawn Kneeland earlier this month.
The 24-year-old was found dead in the early morning hours of 6 November hours after being pursued by officers who had attempted a traffic stop in suburban Dallas. Police say Kneeland took his own life.
In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
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© Photograph: Scott Kinser/CSM/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Scott Kinser/CSM/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Scott Kinser/CSM/Shutterstock
Thick plumes of ash tracked drifting over Yemen and Oman before spreading across Pakistan and into northern India
© AP
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