The Guardian

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‘Endless war’: inside an Israeli kibbutz near Lebanon’s volatile border

Residents describe the constant disruption of life under fire and whether military action should wind down

It is a day after Israel killed more than 300 in a ceasefire-defying attack in Lebanon, and five miles from the border, at kibbutz Cabri in northern Israel, the quiet of the early Thursday evening has been disrupted.

Three times, as the Guardian tries to leave, air raid sirens sound, and twice Iron Dome interceptors are launched. The last of the rockets fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon is sufficiently close that the Moria family and their visitors head promptly to a reinforced safe room, shutting a heavy metal door behind them. The family dog is there too, knowing the drill.

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Record number of homes in Great Britain turn to green energy as fuel prices soar

Iran war drives demand for solar panels, heat pumps and EVs, with energy bills expected to rise 18% from July

British households are turning to green home energy upgrades in record numbers to try to keep bills down as the Iran crisis sends global oil and gas prices soaring, data from leading energy suppliers suggests.

Figures show demand for solar panels, electric vehicles and heat pumps in Great Britain has leapt since the war began on 28 February, as households brace for a sharp increase in monthly payments when the next energy price cap takes effect in the summer.

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For Trump and Hegseth, the Iran war is a game | Judith Levine

Amid death, threats, obliterated buildings and wasted money, the administration’s remarks have been head-spinning to witness

Trump threatened to commit genocide and Iran came to the table. A little threat – plus the deaths of thousands of Iranians and 13 Americans, the obliteration of schools, homes, hospitals and mosques, the waste of $40bn by the US and losses to the Gulf nations of as much as $200bn – is all it took. Ergo: threatening genocide works.

That, anyway, is what the “secretary of war”, Pete Hegseth, strongly suggested in a press briefing on Wednesday, the day after the president vowed to wipe Iran’s “whole civilization” off the map and then a few hours later announced a ceasefire, obviating the need to wipe Iran’s civilization off the map, at least for two weeks.

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Native Americans were gambling with dice 6,000 years earlier than anyone else, study says

Archaeological record suggests hunter gatherers were playing games of chance at the end of the last ice age

Native American hunter gatherers were using dice for gaming and gambling more than 6,000 years before the practice appeared anywhere else, a new study argues.

It says dice were being made and used on the western great plains of North America at the end of the last ice age, more than 12,000 years ago.

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‘Abhorrent’: the inside story of the Polymarket gamblers betting millions on war

A Guardian investigation reveals how the prediction market can shape news – and how it rules on ‘the truth’

“Horekunden” was rapidly losing patience.

His frustration was with the Institute for the Study of War, a US thinktank which produces a daily map of the frontline in Ukraine.

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A ‘weird dream’ of an arts festival began 10 years ago in the California desert – can it survive its growing popularity?

The Bombay Beach Biennale started as an intimate event and has grown dramatically – but some question whether it sustain its DIY atmosphere

It is hard to imagine a stranger place for a large outdoor art festival than Bombay Beach – a tiny, visibly impoverished California desert town over 150 miles east of Los Angeles and 235ft below sea level. The heat is scorching even in March, and the smell of decay wafts over from the nearby Salton Sea; a dying inland lake created by an irrigation engineering disaster over 100 years ago.

But the Bombay Beach Biennale is not your ordinary art festival.

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From Isis recruit to influencer: ‘People think: you’re that evil girl who ran away’

As a young mother, Tareena Shakil fled with her toddler from the UK to Syria and joined Islamic State. Now she’s giving dating advice on TikTok. How did she get here?

If you met Tareena Shakil today, you would have no idea that the person in front of you had served time in prison for terrorism offences and holds the dubious distinction of being the first British woman convicted of joining Islamic State. Now 36, Shakil is glamorous, heavily made-up with long, tousled hair. When we meet at a plush hotel in Birmingham, she wears a sharply tailored dress, waist cinched in with a wide leather belt, and carries a Louis Vuitton handbag. She is bubbly and warm, with a disarmingly open demeanour. In short, this isn’t what springs to mind when you hear the words “terrorism conviction”.

What Shakil actually looks like is an influencer – which is fitting, because that’s what she is trying to be. She has gained most traction on TikTok, where her profile has about 50,000 followers. She gives relationship advice, usually sitting in her car and talking straight to camera. Her content is a mix of humour (“Muslim men who go to the gym while fasting – brother, the world needs more people like you”) and advice about the dating game (“Men are natural born hunters … they love the chase” in one video; “When they block you, it’s a punishment because they know it’s going to hurt you” in another). In among this are videos that hint at something darker (“If your partner hits you, you must leave, it doesn’t matter how much they cry or say they’ll never do it again”). She never directly references her own complicated past but, she tells me: “There’s an element of my own experience in most of the videos I make.”

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De Woutertje Pieterse Prijs gaat naar het raadselachtige ‘Atman!’ van Bart Moeyaert en Mark Janssen

De Woutertje Pieterse Prijs voor het beste kinderboek is toegekend aan schrijver Bart Moeyaert en illustrator Mark Janssen voor hun boek ‘Atman!’. De jury roemde „de kracht van de mondelinge vertelling, de muziek in de taal, het zingen van woorden en beelden”.

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Niet alle verdachten kunstroof Assen sloten deal met justitie

DEN HAAG (ANP) - Bernard Z. (35), een van de verdachten die komende week terechtstaat voor de kunstroof in het Drents Museum in Assen in januari vorig jaar, heeft geen deal gesloten met justitie. Zijn advocaat bevestigt zaterdag een bericht hierover van RTL Nieuws.

"Hij ontkent in het museum te zijn geweest en heeft de roof niet gepleegd", aldus advocaat Simcha Plas. "En dus is er in onze zaak geen deal."

Begin deze maand werd bekend dat de gouden helm van Cotofenesti en twee van de drie gestolen armbanden terecht waren. Justitie meldde toen dat er afspraken zijn gemaakt met de verdediging en dat een van de voorwaarden de teruggave was van de gestolen kunstschatten.

Onderdeel van dit soort procesafspraken is vaak dat het Openbaar Ministerie een lagere straf eist. Een nadere toelichting op de afspraken volgt tijdens de behandeling van de zaak. Die start dinsdag in de rechtbank in Assen. Naast Z. staan dan ook nog twee andere verdachten terecht.


Bloomberg: drie grote olietankers varen door Straat van Hormuz

TEHERAN (ANP/BLOOMBERG) - Twee grote Chinese schepen geladen met ruwe olie lijken de Straat van Hormuz te passeren, schrijft persbureau Bloomberg. Enkele uren eerder is een Grieks schip door de belangrijke zeestraat gevaren. Dit zou een aanzienlijke toename betekenen van het olietransport, enkele dagen nadat een staakt-het-vuren tussen de Verenigde Staten en Iran was aangekondigd.

Als alle drie de schepen zaterdag door de Straat van Hormuz gaan, zou dit de drukste dag zijn voor de uitvoer van olie via Hormuz sinds de oorlog ervoor zorgde dat het verkeer door de zeestraat begin maart vrijwel tot stilstand kwam. Door de Straat van Hormuz gaat normaal gesproken een vijfde van de wereldwijde olie. De sluiting door Iran heeft de brandstofprijzen flink doen stijgen.

Sinds het twee weken durende bestand woensdag inging, is de scheepvaart door de zeestraat nog nauwelijks echt hervat. Donderdag voer de eerste niet-Iraanse olietanker sinds het staakt-het-vuren door de Straat van Hormuz.