The UK state is dumping its responsibilities on our doorsteps, while green-lighting policies that lead us closer to crisis

Would you mind fixing the NHS? And while you’re at it, could you please build an anti-missile system in your garden? Then regulate the banks, replace the water mains, tax the very rich and use the proceeds to rebuild our schools. Well, come on people: what are you waiting for?

I exaggerate, but this isn’t very far from the approach taken by the government’s Prepare campaign. Crucial functions, way beyond the scope of individual action, are dumped on our doorsteps while those in power fail to act. As a result, our national resilience is arguably lower than at any time since the second world war. At the Labour conference last week, Andy Burnham promised “a Britain where people feel the country has got their back again”. To make good on that pledge, he will have to change almost everything.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

Continue reading...

Responding to a Guardian report that revealed thousands of tonnes of fuel was transported to Russia, Seoul said it was investigating the cases

South Korea will take legal action if it finds that shipments of fuel from its ports to Russia broke domestic law, the government has said, responding to a Guardian report on the trade.

The government, in a statement issued by the foreign and trade ministries and the customs service, said that it is “checking additional information concerning the loading cases reported by the Guardian” and “if the verification establishes that our laws and regulations have been violated, it plans to act in accordance with the law”.

Continue reading...

Four native species selected after consultation, but which one adorns which note is yet to be decided

Bees, barn owls, puffins and hedgehogs have been picked to feature on the next generation of banknotes, the Bank of England has announced.

The quartet of creatures were selected after a large-scale consultation settled on wild animals as the theme, with members of the public then asked to pick their favourites out of 18 options divided into three categories.

Continue reading...

Berlin’s allies are right to be wary of a sudden surge in German military spending that shuns cooperation with them

When the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, visited the White House earlier this year for a high-stakes meeting with Donald Trump, he invited a Washington-based German researcher little known outside expert circles to a private dinner.

Liana Fix had caught his eye with a forthright essay in the journal Foreign Affairs warning of the perils of Germany becoming “Europe’s next hegemon”, whose military dominance may come to scare its neighbours and divide Europe once again. That concern might seem far-fetched after three decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall, during which a peace-loving reunited Germany let its armed forces wither and rust, prided itself on being a “civil power” and preached a gospel of military restraint.

Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre

Continue reading...

It used to be quite normal to pop next door for a coffee or invite friends over for dinner. But not any more. What’s behind this change – and just how damaging is it?

‘I really loved hosting at home years ago, before I had kids, when my house wasn’t filled with toys and I had lots of time to plan and shop,” says Rehanna, 41, from Birmingham. Now, if she’s catching up with friends, she would rather go out. “I can’t host and cook at the same time, so if I have people over it will usually be a cold buffet I have made earlier. There are so many really nice restaurants where I live that I’d prefer to go out and try something new than make an old favourite at home.”

Personally, I’d never say no to a cold buffet – but Rehanna’s story is not unusual. In the US, the number of people who regularly host friends or family fell from 42% in 1975 to 12% in 2026 – a 70% drop over the last 50 years. In the UK, the numbers are not much better: last year, a poll of 2,000 adults found that more than four in 10 British people avoid hosting at home due to the clean-up it requires. And while chef Nigella Lawson is back on TV screens demonstrating her culinary prowess on The Great British Bake Off, it wasn’t long ago that the self-proclaimed domestic goddess revealed even she had “got out of the habit” of hosting formal dinner parties.

Continue reading...

Peeing in the sink he shared with Derek Jacobi, making a badger video with Brian May, climbing Everest with Alan Hinkes … as the great actor blasts into his 90s, stars celebrate his ‘loudness and madness’

Emma Thompson

Continue reading...

Operation on 19-year-old who had no sperm after chemotherapy offers hope of preserving children’s fertility after cancer treatment

Surgeons have performed the first testicular tissue transplant on a teenager in the UK, offering hope that boys left infertile by chemotherapy could one day have biological children.

The 19-year-old had his tissue removed and frozen three years ago before undergoing treatment for a serious blood disorder. He said he was “incredibly grateful” to the medical team behind the pioneering procedure, which represents a potential breakthrough for male fertility preservation.

Continue reading...

After his mother died, Otto became convinced he’d been wronged by the forensic investigators – and that one of them was a fraud. The truth was even stranger

On a balmy, quiet evening in June 2020, Otto’s elderly mother, Doria, was fading in her Munich apartment. As she lay with her eyes closed, her pale face, framed by her white hair, was calm.

Otto, masked, gloved and draped in a sterile apron, dozed in a chair beside her. Otto, who sometimes goes by the name Rainer, and whose last name is only known as “Z” because of Germany’s strict privacy laws, was a doctor who had cared for his mother for years, ever since she had suffered a stroke and moved in with him. He described the course of that night to me. He woke to the sound of her short breath and tried to sit her upright. Her eyes were shut, and her lips pursed. She stopped breathing. Otto reached for his phone to call for help, but then Doria opened her eyes and stared into his. She smiled, drew one last deep breath, shut her eyes again, and lay still.

Continue reading...

The Norwegian government has given a permit to a mining company to release waste into Førde fjord despite a 17-year battle by campaigners and a supreme court ruling against it

Shortly after the Norwegian stock market closed on 17 June 2026, a few dozen local people from the small west coast town of Vevring crowded around a laptop in a school. Surrounded by children’s drawings and windows looking out over Førde fjord, they listened as news arrived from Oslo. Norway’s supreme court had ruled against its government: a permit to release mining waste directly into the fjord two miles upstream was illegal, the court said.

The moment marked the end of a 17-year fight, one of Norway’s most protracted environmental battles in living memory. In Oslo, Ingvild Fonn Asmervik, the project leader for Naturvernforbundet (Friends of the Earth Norway), compared the joy she felt to giving birth to her child. For Anne-Line Thingnes Førsund, a third-generation fisher living on the banks of the fjord in Vevring and a volunteer for the charity’s local branch, it was more of a relief. Like a mountain lifting off her shoulders, she said.

Continue reading...

De redding van de ozonlaag was ooit een klinkend succes, waarbij kennis leidde tot actie. Maar zoiets is nu niet meer vanzelfsprekend. Want waartoe leidt de kennis over het klimaat?

NEW YORK (ANP/AFP) - El Niño wordt de komende tijd nog krachtiger voordat het in december zijn hoogtepunt bereikt. Dat hebben de Verenigde Naties gemeld. De VN waarschuwen dat het verschijnsel mogelijk een van de sterkste is sinds in elk geval 1950.

Het weerfenomeen zorgt naar verwachting voor hogere temperaturen op een groot deel van de aarde, aldus het weer- en klimaatagentschap van de VN. De gevolgen komen boven op de effecten van de door de mens veroorzaakte klimaatverandering.

"Het zorgt er waarschijnlijk voor dat het op een groot deel van de wereld warmer wordt dan normaal en dat regenpatronen verschuiven. Daardoor neemt in verschillende regio's het risico op droogte en overstromingen toe", aldus de World Meteorological Organization (WMO), de klimaatorganisatie van de VN.

El Niño verwarmt het zeeoppervlak in het centrale en oostelijke deel van de Stille Oceaan bij de evenaar. Dat leidt wereldwijd tot veranderingen in wind, luchtdruk en neerslagpatronen.

SAN ANTONIO (ANP/AFP) - President Donald Trump is tijdens een bijeenkomst in Texas herhaaldelijk onderbroken door demonstranten. Volgens Amerikaanse media werden zo'n twaalf mensen afgevoerd. Een van hen werd fysiek aangevallen door een oudere Trump-aanhanger toen hij de arena probeerde te verlaten.

Trump stapte even weg bij de microfoon nadat een demonstrant leek te proberen het podium te benaderen. "Hij gaat terug naar huis, naar mama", zei de president nadat de man was weggehaald. "Maar wat hij niet weet, is dat zijn moeder op Trump heeft gestemd."

De 80-jarige Republikein deed de ordeverstoorders af als "betaalde demonstranten". De menigte scandeerde steeds "U-S-A!" en joelde de demonstranten uit.

Verkiezingscampagne

Trump heeft de afgelopen weken door het hele land bijeenkomsten gehouden in de stijl van een verkiezingscampagne, om kwetsbare kandidaten bij de tussentijdse verkiezingen van november te steunen.

Zijn partij dreigt de meerderheid in beide huizen van het Congres kwijt te raken. Dat zou kunnen betekenen dat hij opnieuw verantwoording moet afleggen aan een tak van het Amerikaanse bestuur die zijn macht moet controleren.

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

where to find me in the afterlife is a densely interconnected collection (or carrier bag) of personal writing, digital ephemera, and quotations, loosely themed after an archaeological dig site. Created by @jordantyranny.bsky.social, it's the kind of thing the web was made for.

There's a lot to dig into (ha ha), and full disclaimer I've only barely scratched the surface myself. The "tools" and "intro/tours" (scroll down past the map a bit) are a good starting point. The accompanying thread on Bluesky is a fun rabbit hole as well.

De warme periode met in de middag temperaturen van tenminste 20 graden is even voorbij.

Leo IJdo uit Brielle heeft een bijzondere onderscheiding gekregen voor het redden van zijn buurvrouw uit haar brandende huis. Hij haalde haar via een dakraam naar buiten toen ze door rook en vlammen niet meer naar beneden kon. Woensdag kreeg hij daarvoor de bronzen Erepenning voor Menslievend Hulpbetoon van burgemeester Scheepers.

Leo IJdo uit Brielle heeft een bijzondere onderscheiding gekregen voor het redden van zijn buurvrouw uit haar brandende huis. Hij haalde haar via een dakraam naar buiten toen ze door rook en vlammen niet meer naar beneden kon. Woensdag kreeg hij daarvoor de bronzen Erepenning voor Menslievend Hulpbetoon van burgemeester Scheepers.

banzainetsurfer has added a photo to the pool:

Oyama Shrine (尾山神社, Oyama Jinja) is dedicated to Maeda Toshiie, the first lord of the powerful, local Maeda Clan. The shrine was constructed in 1599 by Toshiie's successor, Maeda Toshinaga on Mount Utatsu. It was later moved to its present location.
Oyama Shrine is known for its unusual gate, which was designed by a Dutch architect, using elements of European and Asian religious themes.
On the shrine grounds stands a statue of Lord Toshiie. There is also a nice strolling garden with ponds and bridges, designed to resemble harps and lutes.
Source: www.japan-guide.com/e/e4203.html