Amid economic sanctions and ongoing conflict, a new initiative is returning Iran’s artists to the international spotlight

When the call came early one morning, Tehran resident Elham Issari knew it must be urgent. The voice on the line was offering something precious. “Miss Elham,” he said excitedly, “I have a single tube of white paint! It’s overpriced and I know it’s overpriced but, if you want it, you have to buy it right now because there’s this other guy in this other city who wants it and you have to tell me within the next five minutes.”

The tube of white paint would have cost Issari 5m tomans (about $36), she recalls. “I was like, I don’t think so, because that’s overpriced, and the next thing you know is it’s 4am and I’m on YouTube watching how to make lead white in your backyard without getting lead poisoning.”

Continue reading...

Experts peel back the evidence to see whether any of the health claims about vitamin patches stick – or whether it’s the placebo effect at work

• Read more in the Antiviral series

Feeling fatigued and listless? Searching for an energy boost? Want to improve your mood and motivation? The solution may be, according to a proliferation of online articles and wellness TikToks, not to seek medical advice, but to whack on a vitamin patch.

Wearers purport to feel more focused or energised when adorned with the patches, some of which look like transparent squares, and others which are cuter and more colourful, resembling stickers or temporary tattoos.

Continue reading...

After years of sprawling ‘forever’ games, players are rediscovering the pleasures of more focused experiences. Could a new wave of independent arcades bring back the social side of gaming?

• Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here

There’s an important semi-nostalgic movement happening in games, and I’m excited about where it’s heading. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself here.

Over the last five years, major publishers, obsessed with the success of “forever games” such as Fortnite, Minecraft and Roblox, have been throwing hundreds of millions of dollars into their own sprawling, endlessly updating, battle-pass-infested mega franchises – each designed to take all our time and money. The result has been astounding failures such as Concord, Mindseye and Tales of the Shire. Even the good games – Crimson Desert, Path of Exile 2, Blood of the Dawnwalker – are so bloated they have become the unyielding masters of our precious few hours of free time.

Continue reading...

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!

As ringing endorsements from the punditocracy go, not being quite as terrible as they were against Spurs was just about the best Manchester United could hope for after Atlético saw out a fairly routine 2-0 Bigger Cup win in Madrid on Tuesday night. In the opening minute, though, United were every bit as terrible and more as they had been on Saturday, as they allowed their hosts to steal an early march when Pablo Barrios’s shot beat Senne Lammens, only for the ball to squeeze under Leny Yoro, wipe its feet and trundle over the line. For the benefit of our reader who can’t be bothered with Bigger Cup until the knockout stages, United went on to create chances they didn’t take, Atlético had a goal ruled out by VAR for handball, both sides hit the woodwork and the game more or less ended as any kind of meaningful contest when Yoro was shown a rough red card. When your luck’s out, your luck’s out, and Ademola Lookman made sure of things for Atlético with a follow-up strike after Lammens saved from Jonathan David.

While it was great to see the mighty Sky Blues featured in yesterday’s Football Daily, as usual I have to take issue with your statement about the club being ‘forced to live as tenants in their own city’ and ‘having to go cap-in-hand to neighbouring villages, looking for sofas on which to crash’. It was the club’s owners’ choice not to buy the stadium at a fair price when the opportunity was offered, just as it was their choice to go on a rent strike and move to Northampton/Birmingham, in the hope this would bankrupt the stadium’s owners (one of whom was a well-respected local charity) and let them get it for a knock-down price. Thankfully the council stood firm against these bully-boy tactics, and Sisu were eventually sent packing to be replaced by King Doug, and the rest is history. But please, let’s not perpetuate the myth of the club being ‘exiled’ from their home city” – Tim Russell.

I for one, cannot wait to see what your finest minds come up with to replace the long-running Football Daily stalwart, Quote of the Day. Because surely, yesterday’s barely believable, absolute humdinger from Craig Levein will never be topped and so, it should be allowed to go out on a high” – Andrew Parker.

I don’t have anything particularly funny or insightful to contribute, but I wonder if someone has a count of how many awards Football Daily has given out and how many times Noble Francis has won them. Who are the most successful winners? The FD community should know. As a major daily across the pond says in its motto, ‘democracy dies in darkness’ – Dimitris Stergiopoulos.

Re: Memory Lane (yesterday’s Football Daily, full email edition). Wow, that really is a mascot to scare the kids into submission. I think the only scarier thing I’ve seen is whatever the Jags have running around their pitch on matchday” – Ingo Herzke.

Continue reading...

Ola Källenius says it will ‘weaken the industry on both sides’ ahead of act intended to counter non-EU competition

Locking the UK out of the EU’s flagship industrial “Made in Europe” legislation would amount to a “deliberate choice” by EU leaders to “hurt” the car industry across the bloc, the head of Mercedes-Benz has said.

Speaking in his capacity as president of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), Ola Källenius said such a move would “weaken the industry on both sides”.

Continue reading...

Are you a single woman? We’re interested in hearing about your relationship to sex

When the trailer for Wicker came out in July, it caused a frenzy. The film, which is coming out this month, stars Olivia Colman as a woman who commissions a basket-woven husband, played by Alexander Skarsgard.

Responses to the trailer were unbridled. The idea of a single woman taking control of her sex life - no matter how fantastically - struck a nerve.

Continue reading...

Een grote bedreiging voor de veiligheid en samenhang van Europa komt volgens Ed Kronenburg van binnenuit: een mogelijke verkiezing van Marine Le Pen tot president van Frankrijk. Als zij wint, heeft Poetin er een medestander bij in de EU, met alle gevolgen van dien.

De politie heeft nog eens drie aanhoudingen verricht in het onderzoek naar het dodelijke schietincident tijdens de Nijmeegse Vierdaagse. Bij de schietpartij kwam eerder dit jaar de Rotterdamse Jahfairel (18) om het leven. De nieuwe verdachten zijn een 18-jarige man uit Zwaag, een minderjarige jongen uit Hoorn en een 19-jarige man uit Avenhorn.