Former players Scholes and Butt critical before derby
‘If he wants to say something … he can come to my house’
Lisandro Martínez has criticised Paul Scholes for mocking him on a podcast but not directly to the Manchester United defender’s face, following Saturday’s 2-0 win over Manchester City at Old Trafford.
Scholes and Nicky Butt, another prominent former United player, were each scathing about the diminutive Martínez and his ability to mark Erling Haaland, when speaking on the Good, the Bad and the Ugly before the 198th derby.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Gary Oakley/EPA
© Photograph: Gary Oakley/EPA
© Photograph: Gary Oakley/EPA
Big tech treats our attention like a resource to be mercilessly extracted. The fightback begins here
In the last 15 years, a linked series of unprecedented technologies have changed the experience of personhood across most of the world. It is estimated that nearly 70% of the human population of the Earth currently possesses a smartphone, and these devices constitute about 95% of internet access-points on the planet. Globally, on average, people seem to spend close to half their waking hours looking at screens, and among young people in the rich world the number is a good deal higher than that.
History teaches that new technologies always make possible new forms of exploitation, and this basic fact has been spectacularly exemplified by the rise of society-scale digital platforms. It has been driven by a remarkable new way of extracting money from human beings: call it “human fracking”. Just as petroleum frackers pump high-pressure, high-volume detergents into the ground to force a little monetisable black gold to the surface, human frackers pump high-pressure, high-volume detergent into our faces (in the form of endless streams of addictive slop and maximally disruptive user-generated content), to force a slurry of human attention to the surface, where they can collect it, and take it to market.
Continue reading...
© Illustration: Elia Barbieri/The Guardian
© Illustration: Elia Barbieri/The Guardian
© Illustration: Elia Barbieri/The Guardian
Demonstrations against the Iraq war proved protest works. Now we must halt destruction before it more powerfully starts
In spring 2004, Gen Anthony Zinni uttered about Iraq the dreaded words in US politics: “I spent two years in Vietnam, and I’ve seen this movie before.” A year after George W Bush’s declaration of “mission accomplished” – when the war had hit its peak popularity at 74% – the invasion had descended into quagmire, marked by a raging insurgency, the Abu Ghraib torture scandal and US casualties nearing 1,000. For the first time, a majority of Americans judged the war a “mistake”. In this, they echoed what millions of Americans, predicting fiasco, had been saying since before its start.
By the summer of 2005, with Iraq exploding in civil war, public support further eroded. Vietnam comparisons abounded. Running against the war, Democrats had blowout wins in the 2006 midterms. The new Congress empaneled the bipartisan Iraq study group, which concluded that the war had to end. Its fate was sealed by the election of Barack Obama, who made good on his pledge to withdraw US troops (though US forces later returned to take on the Islamic State).
Jeremy Varon is the author of Our Grief Is Not a Cry for War: The Movement to Stop the War on Terror (University of Chicago Press, 2025)
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Shawn Baldwin/AP
© Photograph: Shawn Baldwin/AP
© Photograph: Shawn Baldwin/AP
Lila Dominguez was working on an article as agents came on to school grounds – their presence has jolted Minneapolis’s young people
When immigration enforcement agents came on to her Minneapolis high school’s grounds on 7 January, Lila Dominguez was in the school’s basement working on an article about an ICE agent shooting Renee Good earlier that day.
The high school junior was glued to her phone watching videos from outside the school.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Dave Decker/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Dave Decker/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Dave Decker/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
From the remnants of my great-grandparents’ Cuban home near the sugar plantation that is part of Unesco’s Slave Route programme – where they were once enslaved - to personal artefacts, each piece reconstructs an uncertain past
Gathering information on our origins that might help with constructing self-identities could be a beautiful endeavour.
Unfortunately, for millions of people worldwide, retracing a past filled with unfinished stories is like trying to nurture a tree whose roots have been severed.
I still remember that narrow ribbon of earth winding down from my grandfather’s house towards the old Triunvirato plantation – the same fields where an enslaved woman called Carlota, who led an uprising in 1843, raised her voice against chains. In the silence of that road, it feels like a place that has been frozen in time
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Jorge Luis Álvarez Pupo
© Photograph: Jorge Luis Álvarez Pupo
© Photograph: Jorge Luis Álvarez Pupo
Multiple survivors claim Epstein dangled admission to top universities to ensnare them in his sexual abuse network
A New York City artist who said Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell shopped her around to men is among the survivors claiming that Epstein used the lure of a university education to ensnare her in their sexual abuse network.
Rina Oh was a 21-year-old art student when she was introduced to Epstein in 2000 by Lisa Phillips, a model and Epstein survivor who has since emerged as a powerful voice in the survivors’ network pressuring for full accountability in the long-running money, sex and power scandal.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Patrick McMullan/Getty Images
© Photograph: Patrick McMullan/Getty Images
© Photograph: Patrick McMullan/Getty Images
As survivors face pressure to sell their land in Altadena, a historic Black community, experts say we’re witnessing ‘climate gentrification’
Ellen Williams’ left hand played with her long dark hair as her right hand guided the steering wheel, her phone resting face-down in her lap. Born and raised in Altadena, an unincorporated area in Los Angeles county, she didn’t need to look at a map as she drove to where her home of 22 years burned down.
We passed empty lots with gaping holes where foundations once stood. The banging of hammers rang through the neighborhood and wood frames rose from the dirt, the smell of fresh lumber in the air. Perched on street corners were signs declaring: “Altadena is not for sale.”
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Stella Kalinina/The Guardian
© Photograph: Stella Kalinina/The Guardian
© Photograph: Stella Kalinina/The Guardian
One is a Reform voter who supports Tommy Robinson and thinks Muslims want to take over. The other works with immigrants and knows they’re not here to steal jobs or get benefits. Can they make it through a meal together?
Amrit, 32, Birmingham
Occupation Immigration solicitor
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Andrew Fox/The Guardian
© Photograph: Andrew Fox/The Guardian
© Photograph: Andrew Fox/The Guardian
Mid-level and senior officials uncomfortable with award
Fifa says it still ‘strongly’ supports the peace prize
There is a growing sense of embarrassment among mid-level and senior officials within Fifa over the awarding of its peace prize to Donald Trump. The US president was handed the award at the World Cup draw in Washington DC in December with the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, telling Trump: “We want to see hope, we want to see unity, we want to see a future. This is what we want to see from a leader and you definitely deserve the first Fifa Peace Prize.”
Since then, the US has launched airstrikes across Venezuela and captured the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, and flown them to the US, where he was put in jail. Maduro appeared in court on 5 January, pleading not guilty to drugs, weapons and “narco-terrorism” charges. Trump has also threatened to invade Greenland because he said the US needs the territory “very badly”.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Chris Carlson/AP
© Photograph: Chris Carlson/AP
© Photograph: Chris Carlson/AP
Ten years ago, Eugene Teo was obsessed with lifting weights. But, gradually, he realised his extreme mindset was making him unhappy. So he changed his outlook
Eugene Teo, 34, began lifting weights at the age of 13, looking for validation. “I was short, skinny and I thought it would give me confidence,” he says. “Bodybuilding for me was the ultimate expression of that.”
Now living on the Gold Coast in Australia, with his partner and daughter, the fitness coach spent from age 16 to 24 training and competing. At times, he lifted weights for up to four hours a day, aiming to get as muscular and lean as possible. The ideal he was chasing? “If you grab your eyelid and feel that skin,” he says, “that’s the skin thinness you want on your bum and abs.”
Continue reading...
© Photograph: David Kelly/The Guardian
© Photograph: David Kelly/The Guardian
© Photograph: David Kelly/The Guardian
From Lily Allen to Raven Leilani’s Luster, a new generation is re-writing the script around love and cheating, argues the author of The Ten Year Affair
O n the first track of Lily Allen’s breakup album West End Girl, we hear a long phone call that leads to a marriage’s unravelling. Allen listens, confused then hurt, for almost two minutes as a presumed husband on the other end asks to open up the relationship. Fans made the obvious connection to Allen’s own marriage to David Harbour, the cop from Stranger Things (who is perhaps equally well known for his tasteful Brooklyn townhouse). The two dabbled in polyamory, goes the tabloid story, only to have Harbour break the rules and hurt Allen in the end.
The album is good – pretty and catchy, with an appealing edge of anger. But public reaction went beyond appreciation for the work. The breakup became the object of gruesome rubbernecking. It was a juicy story about one of the oldest topics: infidelity, betrayal, an affair.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Enda Bowe/BBC/Element Pictures
© Photograph: Enda Bowe/BBC/Element Pictures
© Photograph: Enda Bowe/BBC/Element Pictures
Manager’s comments after loss have angered hierarchy
Paddy McCarthy would likely take over as caretaker
Crystal Palace are considering whether to sack Oliver Glasner after he accused the club’s board of abandoning him and the rest of his squad by selling captain Marc Guéhi to Manchester City 24 hours before they were due to face Sunderland.
Glasner’s outburst following the 2-1 defeat, when the Austrian also admitted he doesn’t care if he sees out his contract until the end of the season having already confirmed he will leave Selhurst Park, is understood to have dismayed Palace’s chair, Steve Parish. He is said to be weighing up if there is any other option than parting company with the manager who led Palace to their first major trophy when they won the FA Cup only eight months ago, with a decision expected on Sunday after Glasner went public over his dissatisfaction in two extraordinary press conferences.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: MI News/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
© Photograph: MI News/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
© Photograph: MI News/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Elissa Slotkin, under investigation over Pentagon video, says president using ‘well-worn playbook’ to silence debate
Donald Trump is borrowing a strategy from authoritarian regimes to intimidate potential critics and discourage them from speaking out, according to a senator under investigation by his administration.
Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat from Michigan, faces questioning after she organised and appeared in a video with other Democrats imploring military service members to refuse “illegal orders”. Fellow senator Mark Kelly and three Democrats from the House of Representatives are also being investigated.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images
© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images
© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images
Beth’s liberated and open-minded attitude to sex has helped Alex reignite his passion after his former wife came out as a lesbian
• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously
We’re always letting our hands wander under restaurant tables, or on the escalator in the Tube
Continue reading...
© Illustration: Ryan Gillett/The Guardian
© Illustration: Ryan Gillett/The Guardian
© Illustration: Ryan Gillett/The Guardian
Korey LaVergne, 37, jailed Friday evening on three counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile, according to officials
Authorities in south-west Louisiana recently arrested a Roman Catholic priest on accusations of behaving indecently with a child, igniting a new scandal in the diocese where the US church’s reckoning with clergy abuse began – an institution that just disclosed it could lose up to $162m over pending litigation.
Korey LaVergne was jailed Friday evening on three counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile, according to Acadia parish sheriff KP Gibson, whose agency arrested the priest. LaVergne had presided over mass at St Edward church in Richard – where the Lafayette diocese had assigned him as pastor – hours before he was booked into the Acadia lockup.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP
© Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP
© Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP
At the start of the first festive shift, the other bartender and I silently pulled our crackers and grimly donned paper hats. Yet it worked a treat and taught me the value of making your own fun
I was an employee and a customer at this pub as a teenager in the early 1990s. This was one of four or five pubs clustered around the high street in the town where I grew up in Somerset. We gravitated towards the Blue Ball as teenagers, not because they served underage drinkers. They didn’t. And we could only afford to drink lime and soda anyway. No, we loved this place because it had (drumroll) two bars. So we were not only cool enough to go down the pub (never “to the pub”, strictly “down the pub” or, better still, “down the Blue”), but we even had our own bar.
Continue reading...
© Composite: Guardian Design; Courtesy of Viv Groskop
© Composite: Guardian Design; Courtesy of Viv Groskop
© Composite: Guardian Design; Courtesy of Viv Groskop
Connexion