Extreme heat ‘is getting worse and whether we like it or not … there’s ultimately a limit to what we can actually physically cope with,’ scientist says
Human-caused global heating made the intense heatwave that affected much of Australia in early January five times more likely, new analysis suggests.
The heatwave earlier this month was the most severe since the 2019-20 black summer, with temperatures over 40C in Melbourne and Sydney, even hotter conditions in regional Victoria and New South Wales, and extreme heat also affecting Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania.
Researchers find with high confidence that security officials used Cellebrite to extract data from activists’ phones
Authorities in Jordan appear to be using an Israeli digital tool to extract information from the mobile phones of activists and protesters who have been critical of Israel and spoken out in support of Gaza, according to a new report by the Citizen Lab.
A multiyear investigation found with high confidence that Jordanian security authorities have been using forensic extraction tools made by Cellebrite against members of civil society, including two political activists, a student organizer, and a human rights defender, the researchers said.
From food stalls to revitalised downtowns, Venezuelans have shaped midwestern towns, but new US policy threatens their future
At a former Coca-Cola bottling plant in downtown Indianapolis, Venezuelans Juan Paredes Angulo and his mother, Andreina, five years ago delivered on a decades-long dream to open a food stall, sharing regional Venezuelan food with a part of America better used to Tex-Mex and Chinese takeout for international cuisine.
Hearing of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro’s capture by US forces in an overnight military raid earlier this month came as a complete shock.
Spiced rums are a hit but the traditional blends outshine them all
After Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica last October, rum lovers anxiously awaited news from the island’s six distilleries. Hampden Estate, in the parish of Trelawney to the north, was right in the hurricane’s path, and the furious winds deprived its historic buildings of their roofs and the palm trees of their fronds. Then came more alarming rumours: the dunder pits had overflowed.
Dunder pit? This is the one of the most distinctive features of traditional Jamaican rum, a style exemplified by Hampden, which has been in operation since 1753. You typically make rum by fermenting molasses and/or sugar cane juice into an alcoholic “wash”, then distil that into a potent liquor, but local distillers developed several strategies to oomph up the flavour. Dunder is the leftover liquid from the still, and it’s lobbed into the next fermentation for its funky notes, a bit like a sourdough starter. At Hampden, they also use muck, an outrageously smelly, semi-sentient soup containing countless billions of yeast bacteria, plus various bits of decomposing, well, stuff. I’m not sure what would happen if you fell in: possibly die, or perhaps be granted infinite powers, Obelix-style. Then there’s the fermentation process itself: most distilleries use generic industrial yeasts, which typically convert sugars to alcohol over a couple of days, but at Hampden they harness wild yeasts, which can take weeks. Incidentally, Andrew Hussey, Hampden’s owner, has reported that production is now safe, though the communities who live and work around the distillery remain badly affected.
Exclusive: sources say powerful figures in the regime secretly pledged US and Qatari officials they would welcome Maduro’s departure
Before the US military snatchedVenezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, earlier this month, Delcy Rodríguez and her powerful brother pledged to cooperate with the Trump administration once the strongman was gone, four sources involved at high levels with the discussions told the Guardian.
Rodríguez, who was sworn in on 5 January as acting president to replace Maduro, and her brother Jorge, the head of the national assembly, secretly assured US and Qatari officials through intermediaries ahead of time that they would welcome Maduro’s departure, according to the sources.
The Danish government has said Mark Rutte cannot negotiate on behalf of Denmark or Greenland over the future of the Arctic island, as the broad outlines of a deal apparently struck by the Nato secretary general and Donald Trump began to emerge.
The US president said after meeting Rutte on Wednesday the “framework of a future deal” had been found to settle the transatlantic dispute over Greenland following weeks of escalating tensions that risked the biggest breakdown in relations in decades.
Unprecedented times call for previously unthinkable conversations when it comes to the US-shaped problem
Could European countries really decide to boycott the World Cup this summer? It is an astonishing question to be asking in 2026 and an indictment of the bind in which, as Donald Trump sows confusion around a potential annexation of Greenland, the world’s most popular sport finds itself. But the idea is at least seeping into the mainstream and senior figures are asking what, in a worst case scenario, it would take for football to meet the moment.
Unprecedented times call for previously unthinkable conversations. As the Guardian reported this week, an anniversary party for the Hungarian FA on Monday became the forum for unofficial discussions among national association heads about how a unified approach to the US-shaped problem might take shape.
The follow-up to 2022’s Grammy-winning Harry’s House is a bit more esoterically named: Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. In an era when fans clinically investigate every aspect of pop stars’ lives, it was perhaps inevitable that Styles’s choice of punctuation would draw scrutiny.
(BLKIIBLK/Frontiers) Tuneful yet overlong, Dave Mustaine and co’s final album is a recap of Megadeth’s strengths, flaws and familiar grudges
There are long goodbyes, and then there is Megadeth’s retirement from the music industry. A final album and tour by the thrash metal pioneers was announced last August, with an AI-assisted video and a written statement that offered some classic grandstanding on the part of frontman and sole original member Dave Mustaine. Never a man to hide his light under a bushel, he equated Megadeth’s decision to quit with a global catastrophe (“some say this is the end of times”) and suggested that the US band “changed the world”.
Their decision to quit makes sense, given the state of Mustaine’s health. Having conquered throat cancer and radial neuropathy, he’s now suffering from arthritis and something called Dupuytren’s contracture – a thickening of tissue under the skin that causes the fingers to bend, commonly known as the suitably metal-sounding Viking disease – both of which impede his ability to play guitar. The call to end the band was made during the recording of their self-titled 17th studio album. But then three months later Mustaine announced that the farewell dates announced were only the beginning. The tour is scheduled to last “easily … three to five years”. So there seems every chance that Megadeth will still be bidding the world adieu in the next decade.
Quake Brutalist Jam began as a celebration of old-fashioned shooter level design, but its latest version is one step away from being a game in its own right
A lone concrete spire stands in a shallow bowl of rock, sheltering a rusted trapdoor from the elements. Standing on the trapdoor causes it to yawn open like iron jaws, dropping you through a vertical shaft into a subterranean museum. Here, dozens of doors line the walls of three vaulted grey galleries, each leading to a pocket dimension of dizzying virtual architecture and fierce gladiatorial combat.
Welcome to Quake Brutalist Jam, the hottest community event for lovers of id Software’s classic first-person shooter from 1996. First run in 2022, the Jam started out as a celebration of old-school 3D level design, where veteran game developers, aspiring level designers and enthusiast modders gather to construct new maps and missions themed around the austere minimalism of brutalist architecture.
Climate concerns raised over redevelopment of 1960s Brutalist estate in south-east London
A legal challenge has been launched in an effort to halt the demolition of a 1960s Brutalist estate in south-east London that featured in Stanley Kubrick’s dystopian film A Clockwork Orange.
The challenge against Bexley council and Peabody housing association, which will be carrying out the redevelopment, has been launched by the Lesnes estate resident Adam Turk.
Singing legend heralds ‘new tools in service of expression’, on compilation that also features an Art Garfunkel song using AI-generated piano backing
Liza Minnelli has released her first new music in 13 years, adding vocals to an AI-created dance track.
The track, Kids, Wait Til You Hear This – also the title of her upcoming memoir – is an unexpected foray into deep house for the 79-year-old Minnelli, who adds a handful of spoken declarations to the pumping backing.
The removal of sulphur from shipping fuels caused ‘a lot of extra sunlight’ to get through atmosphere and hit reef in 2022
Steps to clean up the shipping industry by removing sulphur from fuels intensified a major coral bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef by allowing more of the sun’s energy to hit the oceanic wonder, according to a new study.
Sulphur pollution can cause respiratory problems for humans and cause acid rain, but it also has a shading effect and can make clouds brighter, providing more shade to areas underneath.
As the band prepares to tour, economists say pent-up global demand could reshape how concerts boost city economies
Move over, Taylor Swift. Her Eras tour was the highest grossing in history, sparking an estimated $5bn in direct consumer spending across the US. But now another musical phenomenon is preparing to sweep through North America – and economists expect it will generate tens of billions of dollars in economic activity along the way.
K-pop sensation BTS will embark this year on their largest tour yet, spanning 34 regions across five continents, ending a hiatus due to mandatory military service that lasted almost four years.
Majority of 213-strong House caucus expected to reject funding bill but party has no plans to enforce whip
Congressional Democrats are expected to overwhelmingly reject a bill to fund ICE, the agency spearheading Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, amid mounting outrage over its heavy-handed and violent tactics in Minnesota and elsewhere.
Party leaders told a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill on Wednesday that they would vote against the homeland security funding bill, citing insufficient provisions to rein in Immigration Customs and Enforcement, more widely known by its acronym.
I thought my articles and radio shows made an impact on people. A notice in the staffroom suggested otherwise
I recently spent a day at a secondary school in Birmingham. I agreed to do it because I like being in Birmingham and I like going to schools, and also because the teacher asked nicely. It was only the day before that I read the invitation properly and saw, to my horror, that I was leading what they call a Deep Learning Day. What could they learn from me? Moreover, what could they learn deeply from me?
Whenever I go to schools, I always come away feeling that I’ve learned a lot more from the experience than any students have learned from me. This visit was no different. I came away enriched, but also completely knackered. I’m in awe of the stamina not only of teachers, but also of students. I mean, a whole day of learning, deep or otherwise, is exhausting. Whichever side of it you’re on, it’s a lot.
A notice on the staffroom wall jumped out at me. Apologies to any teachers reading this, for whom the following might well be a hoary old maxim they’re tired of seeing. It went as follows: Learners remember 10% of what they read; 20% of what they hear; 30% of what they see; 50% of what they see and hear; 70% of what they discuss with others; 80% of personal experience; 90% of what they teach someone else.
This all sounds about right to me, dispiriting as it is for someone who earns a crust writing things for people to read, and talking about things on the radio, only to find out that 90% of the former and 80% of the latter aren’t recalled at all. That’s a lot of wasted ink and keyboard taps and airtime. Disappointing. Disappointing too, for someone who used to present a lot of television, to read that what you see and hear at the same time scores rather better. Though I don’t much miss working on television, I do occasionally feel the need to tell myself that radio and writing are nobler arts which linger longer than television in the minds of the audience. Hmm. Not according to this they don’t.
The high scorers here are fascinating too. They rather explain the power of the modern echo chamber. If 70% of what you discuss with like-minded people sticks, as well as 80% of your personal experience – what’s become known, without irony, as “your truth” – you can see how your truth becomes the truth. And then there’s the strikingly high 90% recall you have of the point of view – valid or otherwise – that you’ve so diligently inflicted on others. Bit negative all this, I appreciate, but there you go. Every day’s a school day.
• Adrian Chiles is a writer, broadcaster and a Guardian columnist
The South Asian nation is among the world’s most populous and is mad for football, but qualifying for the World Cup is a big ask
There’s a simple change of scenery, and then there’s John Herdman’s latest coaching move.
The 50-year-old has taken quite a jump from Canada, a huge country where soccer is not the biggest sport, to Indonesia, a huge country where it definitely is. If he can repeat his 2022 heroics for 2030, he will be a hero to a nation of 280 million people who are just desperate to return to the global stage. Canada had a gap of 36 years between their first and second World Cup appearances. If the new coach in Jakarta is successful next time, then what will be a 92-year wait would come to an end.
The topic has not been well studied, but researchers from the University of Wisconsin suggest that, at temperatures above -10C, the pressure of a foot causes a thin layer of snow to melt, producing a crunching sound as it compresses. Closer to zero, the sliding of grains becomes a squelch as the snow approaches the condition of slush, but as the temperature approaches -10C the snow becomes progressively crunchier.
Danish prime minister MetteFrederiksen has issued a statement reacting to the vague agreement apparently reached after talks between Donald Trump and Mark Rutte last night.
Frederiksen says it is “good and natural” that Arctic security was discussed between the US president and the Nato secretary general here in Davos last night.
“I have been informed that this has not been the case.”
Brazilian endured hard times in the Swedish fifth tier after his father’s death but has found a home in the Championship
Seven years ago Léo Scienza’s life broke into a thousand small pieces. On his 20th birthday his father died and the young footballer locked himself in his room for two months, having lost the will to live. “You know when everything is bad and nothing makes sense any more?” the Southampton midfielder says. “My life had no meaning any more.
“Look, everyone has a dark side and I’m not the best person to talk about depression or what depression is. In fact, I only understood it later. My father died on my birthday – that will always be marked in my life. After he died I just wanted to stay in my dark room doing nothing. I didn’t want to see anyone, I didn’t want to talk to anyone.”
One of the Broncos, Rams, Seahawks and Patriots will claim the championship in a few weeks. Here are the factors that will help decide the result
A month ago, the Rams looked like a near-complete team. Special teams aside, they had answers everywhere. Coaching. Quarterback. Playmakers. A defense that could steal a game if necessary. They’re still a formidable opponent, but cracks have started to emerge.
Described by one researcher as looking ‘already dead’, the enigmatic creatures are one of the least understood species on the planet
It looks more like a worn sock than a fearsome predator. It moves slower than an escalator. By most accounts, it is a clumsy and near-sightless relic drifting in the twilight waters of the Arctic, lazily searching for food scraps.
But the Greenland shark, an animal one researcher (lovingly) said, “looks like it’s already dead”, is also one of the least understood, biologically enigmatic species on the planet.
Connexion
