Net migration has benefits but has done nothing to address downward trend in per capita GDP Imagine that during the election campaign Rishi Sunak announced that by 2038 he expected migration to boost the population by 3.7m more than the current number of people living in Wales. What would your response be? Its a question worth asking because such an increase is precisely what has been seen since David Cameron pledged in 2010 to reduce net immigration to the tens of thousands annually. In the cu

Species once view as a threat are undergoing a horticultural reassessment and being hailed for their resilience and beauty across the UK Weeds are undergoing a cultural makeover. Historically vilified as a threat in a nation of impeccable lawns, they are finally being embraced by gardeners, from front gardens to the Chelsea flower show. The conservation charity Plantlife, which runs the annual No Mow May campaign encouraging gardeners to leave their lawns to grow for a month, said 46% of more th

The Greens have their sights set on Britains most pro-migrant constituency, where people once rioted over a new Tesco Is this the one seat Labour is set to lose on election night not to an imploded Conservative party, but rather to the Greens? It would be easy, but ultimately facile, to write off Bristol Central as an outlier. It is a trendy, bohemian enclave of the south-west, where locals once rioted over the opening of a new Tesco, and which polling suggests is the most pro-migrant constitue

George Frandsens Poozeum in Arizona features nearly 10,000 coprolites fossilized feces originating in Earths distant past Insights into the diets, behaviors and environment of ancient creatures that are available in their fossilized droppings motivated one US man to not only amass the worlds largest collection of such specimens but also to quit his corporate career and open a so-called Poozeum, as he recounts in a new interview . In remarks published on Friday, George Frandsen who has held th

Muayad Alayans drama of a bereaved 12-year-old and her ghostly new friend creates atmosphere but is slow and stilted After the death of her mother, 12-year-old Rebecca (Miley Locke) and her father (Johnny Harris) move from the UK to Jerusalem to live in a grand house that her fathers family own. But a new start fails to lift Rebecca from the grief that consumes her. Then she meets Rasha (Sheherazade Farrell), a young Palestinian girl who has a mysterious connection to the history of the house in

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning , Jonathan Wilson , Archie Rhind-Tutt and Jonathan Fadugba for the final pod of the domestic season Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts , Soundcloud , Audioboom , Mixcloud , Acast and Stitcher , and join the conversation on Facebook , Twitter and email . On the podcast today; Real Madrid are outplayed for large parts of the game as Borussia Dortmund miss chance after chance in the first half but none of that matters does it? Because Real Madrid always

Ukrainian president says Beijing is supporting efforts by Moscow to warn leaders off attending Swiss meeting Volodomyr Zelenskiy has accused China of discouraging other countries from attending a peace summit in Switzerland later this month that is aimed at bringing peace to war-ravaged Ukraine. Speaking at Asias biggest security conference, the Shangri-La Dialogue, in Singapore, the Ukrainian president sought to rally support among Asia-Pacific nations, urging them to attend the Swiss meeting.

Shami Chakrabarti comments on Abbotts position amid reports party offered deals to MPs who stand down UK politics live latest updates Diane Abbott is still considering her future after being given the backing to stand as a Labour MP, her close friend Shami Chakrabarti has said, amid reports that Labour have offered peerages to MPs in order to stand down. The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, denied that such an offer had been made, telling Sky News on Sunday: Its not the way the system work

Forward joining on free transfer after PSG contract expires Mbapp confirmation to follow record 15th European Cup win Real Madrid intend to announce the signing of Kylian Mbapp on a free transfer early this week. The France striker confirmed last month he was leaving Paris Saint-Germain after seven years, and his mother, Fayza Lamari, has admitted he will be going where everybody knows, but there has not been a formal announcement of his destination. Madrid wanted to wait until their season was

Ophir Falk says there are a lot of details to be worked out over plan announced by US president on Friday See all our Israel-Gaza war coverage Israels military offensive in the Gaza strip has killed at least 36,439 Palestinians and wounded 82,627 since 7 October, the Palestinian health ministry said on Sunday. There have been 60 Palestinians killed and 220 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry statement added. Continue reading...

Live theatre, Newcastle Stewart Pringles new play set in Northumberland in 1553 has the bones of something great, but at present teeters on parody Newcastles Live theatre is 51 this year. Under its latest artistic director and CEO, Jack McNamara, it continues to pursue a mission: to produce new writing that is rooted in the region and unafraid to confront the most pressing issues of our time. The issues explored in Stewart Pringles well-intentioned new play, The Bounds , are succinctly expressed

A group of young delinquents are steered on a different path in RJ Daniel Hannas tirelessly formulaic take on a true story Another factually based sports drama celebrating yawn inspirational mentorship, gutsy tenacity and physical endurance, Hard Miles hauls its tired-out premise up approximately 750 miles of winding, mountainous roads in search of a foregone conclusion. Matthew Modine stars as Greg Townsend, a keen cyclist and a dedicated, long-serving officer at a young offender institution

Utilita Arena, Sheffield Its an unashamed nostalgia fest, but what could feel business-like morphs into something more considered, with strings, singalongs and even a dedication to brother Noel I havent got any fucking new ones for you, so its going to have to be an old one, all right? proclaims Liam Gallagher at one point tonight, during a set that feels like a time capsule of 1994. Performing Oasiss classic debut Definitely Maybe in full, the backdrop of the stage replicates the albums cover,

In mirror world, Trump is martyr and Biden is autocrat, as calls for violence erupt on internet after ex-presidents conviction The posts are ominous. Pick a side, or YOU are next, wrote conservative talkshow host Dan Bongino on the Truth Social media platform in the aftermath of former president Donald Trumps 34 felony convictions. Continue reading...

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington documents former presidents threats against perceived political opponents A major study of Donald Trumps social media posts has revealed the scale of the former US presidents ambitions to target Joe Biden, judges and other perceived political enemies if he returns to power. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew), a watchdog organisation, analysed more than 13,000 messages published by Trump on his Truth Social platform and

Koreas bestselling and relentlessly upbeat guide to getting old Some people age well. Alan Bennett, for instance, has gradually but inexorably ascended to national treasure status. Others age badly. Take Rudy Giuliani, whose meltdown on live television acouple of years ago took on an unedifyingly literal form, as hair dye trickled down his face. Still others dont age at all. Arnold Schwarzenegger still looks like, in the words of Clive James, a brown condom full of walnuts. More generally, agein

Straddling the underground and the mainstream, the pop star long felt like an outsider. She talks about finding her crowd, her blunt new album, and the more complicated aspects of female friendship You used to get one shot in the music business: the wrong marketing, the wrong song and youd never be heard from again. This was not the case for Charlotte Aitchison, better known as Charli XCX, who posted tracks on Myspace so long ago she invited comparisons to Kate Nash. Still just 31, and living be

The big beasts of Londons Elizabeth line and Kings Cross redevelopment loom large, but newly announced regional contenders for this years prize should include a classy Cambridge dining hall, an all-timber office block and a wheelchair-friendly rural retreat The longlist for this years Stirling prize consists of two very big projects achievements of generational significance whose impact will endure for lifetimes and, as in other years, a more variegated array of hard-to-compare designs, large

A rundown block of flats is terrorised by a very hungry arachnid in Kiah Roache-Turners taut shocker The latest addition to the well-populated sub-genre of spider-horror (see also Eight Legged Freaks , Arachnophobia , Possum and a whole host of skittering, venomous B-movies), Sting is an effectively grisly Australian production that sees the pet spider of a lonely little girl wreak havoc in a down-at-heel apartment block. Alyla Browne, most recently seen as the young Furiosa, is terrific as spik

Meditation, foraging, surfing, swimming, yoga and more find your own space at one of these wonderfully restorative destinations Immerse yourself in the lush hills, heather-capped mountains and river valleys of the Bannau Brycheiniog national park (formerly known as the Brecon Beacons) with a three-night retreat that combines natures restorative powers with yoga. Located on a historic country estate, accommodation is in comfortable converted farm buildings including the old grain silo, ideal fo

Heavy rain that trapped people in their homes and reportedly caused a train derailment is forecast to continue A volunteer firefighter died during a rescue operation during heavy rain and flooding in the south of Germany, local police said on Sunday. The 42-year-old died after his rescue ship capsized near Pfaffenhofen in Bavaria. Continue reading...

With elections affecting half the worlds population this year, campaigners offer their views on the chances of real change This year elections are taking place across the globe, covering almost half of the worlds population. It is also likely to be, yet again, the hottest year recorded as the climate crisis intensifies. The Guardian asked young climate activists around the world what they want from the elections and whether politics is working in the fight to halt global heating. Continue readin

Labour leader says levels have got to come down but declines to specify a figure or timeline Sign up for our Election Edition newsletter Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has said Keir Starmer wants to act as the puppet master within all of the Labour party through his parachuting of candidates last minute to Wales. He told Sky Newss Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips programme that his party would support a no-confidence motion in Welsh first minister Vaughan Gething next week. Plaid Cymru e

The brightest of flavours to capture the exciting essence of early summer There is a deep bowl of cream cheese in the fridge. Pale green and freckled with grated cucumber and salty little cornichons, it is the very essence of early summer. It rests, waiting for a batch of nigella-speckled flatbreads to come from the stove. The dough for the flatbreads takes 10 minutes to make, an hour to prove, and 10 minutes to bake. Most of the work is done by the dough rather than the cook. The dough wont mee

World No 158 level with Minjee Lee and Andrea Lee at top Meechai had dream she had forgotten to sign her scorecard Wichanee Meechai has a share of the three-way lead at the US Womens Open, and every reason to feel out of place at the top of a crowded leaderboard. The 31-year-old from Thailand, currently ranked 158th in the world, is tied at five-under-par through three rounds with the two-times major winner Minjee Lee of Australia, and the world No 17 and Stanford alum Andrea Lee. Continue readi

A decision from Unesco on giving the peat-rich Flow Country the same standing as the Great Barrier Reef is just weeks away It is a land of mire, mist and midges that could soon be awarded a special status among the planets wild habitats. In a few weeks, Unesco is set to announce its decision on an application to allow the Flow Country in north Scotland to become a world heritage site. Such a designation is only given to places of special cultural, historical or scientific significance and would

Training to be a champion swimmer, Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell spent her teenage years locked in a punishing world of long hours, body scrutiny, racism and bullying. So can the rewards of elite sport ever justify the sacrifices? Theres a version of her story that Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell has learned to tell. One thats abridged, and feels safe to share; blurred round the edges. What I do for work today, she begins, requires a lot of public speaking. Im used, therefore, to telling a light v

National service? Abolishing university places? This absurd flurry of announcements is to make it seem, once Sunak has gone, that they did everything they could The Tories are full of ideas at the moment. Theyve announced three major new policies in the past week. It feels like someone asked Rishi Sunak, What would you do if you were prime minister?, and he got really into answering. Then he must have remembered that, weirdly, he is prime minister. And the accurate answer would be: Not much othe

Norwich Theatre Royal; Sadlers Well, London Marc Brews recreation, choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, of the crash that left him paraplegic is an exhilarating riposte to fate. And a slightly dated classic still looks the part Marc Brew was just beginning his career as a ballet dancer when a head-on car accident left him paraplegic at the age of 20. That is the starting point for an astonishing, moving collaboration between him and the choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui that creates an almost

Guided walks around Holmes Chapel take in the bakery where the singer used to work and a viaduct featured in a One Direction documentary In recent years, the ticket office at Holmes Chapel station in Cheshire has become something of a shrine to the villages most famous former resident. A lifesize cardboard cutout of the music megastar Harry Styles stands at one side of the small building, while at the other, fans crowd round to sign a guestbook filled with messages to the star. Continue reading.

Claudia Sheinbaum is the presidential frontrunner, with 20,000 other posts up for grabs in the countrys biggest election ever She is poised to become Mexicos first female president. Can she escape Amlos shadow? Mexican voters go to the polls on Sunday in an election that seems certain to deliver the countrys first female president and may also give her party enough power in congress to change the constitution and rewire the democracy of Latin Americas second-largest economy. Frontrunner Claudia

The art gallery boss on the role of museums today, the politics of sponsorship and how Cornelia Parker influenced her decision-making Maria Balshaw, 54, has been the director of Tate since 2017, the first woman to hold the position. She grew up in Northampton, and after university worked as an academic. In 2002, she switched careers, as the director of Creative Partnerships, a government programme that aimed to develop creativity in young people by bringing schools and artists together. In 2006,

Somehow she managed to order the pay-per-view fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk I got the notification while cutting strawberries for my two-year-old daughter. It said that 25 had been taken from my Amazon account for TVOD. This suggested the purchase of some TV On Demand programming, albeit a very expensive unit of same. I immediately presumed my wife had made the purchase via our shared account, but since this was 11am and she was visiting a friend in Berlin, it suggested her trip ha

Labours leadership neednt struggle to define the ideology; its in its very constitution Socialism is whataLabour government does, pronounced Herbert Morrison, one of the titans of the Clement Attlee administration in the 1940s. It wasnt a very good answer then to the perennial doctrinal disputes about what constitutes socialism that have haunted the party since its foundation in 1900 and it works no better in 2024. So what is this socialism that Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves, Wes Streeting, Darre

Updates from the fourth round on day eight in Paris Get in touch: email Daniel with your thoughts Salut tout le monde et bienvenue Roland-Garros 2-24 jour huit! And what a jour it should be! We begin on Lenglen with Olga Danilovic a qualifier in terrific form, having seen away Marta Trevisan, Danielle Collins and Donna Vekic against Marketa Vondrousova, the 21 runner-up and reigning Wimbledon champion. Not bad. Continue reading...

Ed Daveys party is seeking to win over disillusioned Conservative voters in the Surrey Heath seat of outgoing minister Michael Gove Shortly after Rishi Sunak got drenched in a downpour in Downing Street to call a surprise general election , a missive was sent out to party supporters in a key Surrey constituency to rally support. Campaigners were urged to safeguard the future of the leafy Surrey Heath seat in the commuter belt and be fully dedicated to making sure Michael Gove is re-elected. Cont

A compelling debut novel set on an all-female commune in rural Kent explores how cults ensnare vulnerable people Amy Twiggs striking debut offers a new twist on the cult narrative. Rather than focusing on a charismatic male leader, Spoilt Creatures (the title comes from a letter Vita Sackville-West wrote to Virginia Woolf) is about one womans sway over a feminist commune buried in the Kent countryside. Its 2008. Iris is 32 years old, adrift, her life depressingly dependable and ordinary. After h

In an extract from his new memoir, Under a Rock, the musician reflects on the practical problems of fame in the late 70s: crowds, cocaine and getting caught with it Im a fan of chaos: Chris Stein talks to Tim Lewis We were really big stars now and it was very weird. Im a very optimistic person and through this all, I always perhaps egomaniacally assumed that everything we did would be successful. At the same time the pressures were immense and for me getting stoned definitely buffered me from a

Men not originally sexually attracted to children sometimes seek more extreme content, research shows Think of a man viewing images or footage of child sexual abuse online, and what comes to mind? Id bet that for most of us this horrible thought experiment conjures up a Jimmy Savile-style monster sitting in front of the computer screen. But new research from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a child sexual abuse prevention charity, highlights how this paradigm does not by itself account for the sca

A new flavour from Lakrids is so good it must be shared Many years ago, deep in Bermondsey, which is south of Londons Thames, I had a boyfriend who supported Leeds United. Because I had no UK team (my team was Juventus thanks to Dino Zoff , the greatest goal keeper of all time), I adopted his team and even had a scarf. Little did I know that I would find myself in Leeds and all its glory so frequently in the future. For me, as a young woman, Leeds was just somewhere up north. My life revolved ar

Spike Island, Bristol; Tate Britain, London Illness, racism and mortality are indelibly fused on film, with X-rays and his own body in a superb survey of work by the late British artist Donald Rodney. Elsewhere, carnival is outshone by church Years ago, I saw a work by the British-Jamaican artist Donald Rodney that I have never forgotten. It was a house of dark shadows on a wall, configured out of hospital X-rays. In front of it sat a faceless figure, not much more than tattered clothes held u

Hancock Prospecting says billionaire did not initially approach National Portrait Gallery offering portrait of herself, saying gallery first approached her Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails , free app or daily news podcast Mining magnate Gina Rinehart has said the National Portrait Gallery asked her to sit for a portrait at least six years ago and has denied initially approaching the gallery to offer a portrait. A Senate estimates he

As we know more about our bodies, from wearable tech to data feedback, so our health anxiety increases. So is it better not to know? One thing led to another and then I was topless on a couch and then a cardiologist, his nose wrinkled, was explaining that everything was fine, except my heart was a bit weird? I cant remember the exact words, but they amounted, I think, to slightly more than eccentric, far less than bizarre. Though he was investigating something else entirely, hed noticed that ava

The partys primary ambition is to be once again the third largest force at Westminster Sir Ed Davey doesnt mind acting the silly stunt. If its Tuesday, hes on Windermere to demonstrate his absence of flair for paddleboarding by falling in multiple times. If its Wednesday, hes mounting a bike to do a wobbly wheelie as he hurtles down a steep hill in Wales . If its Thursday, hes careening down a waterslide in Somerset. Have you got a wetsuit? is the informal motto of Yellow Hammer1, his campaign b

A cricket pitch grown in Adelaide has been shipped 11,000 miles via Florida to a newly built stadium in New York state Time will tell whether this World Cup, plus the addition of Twenty20 cricket to the 2028 Olympics lineup in Los Angeles, will help the sport take root in the US, but already there is an extraordinary story to tell. One of a different kind of seeding and growth, and of a sport that has literally made the earth move, across two continents and 11,000 miles, to make this event happe

The Conservatives are trying to bribe them without asking what they actually want One week done, five to go. Hang in there, people. What have we learned? That the Conservatives plan to spray around lots of policies. Fair enough talking about a zany new idea for the future avoids a conversation about the past (stagnant wages plus ubiquitous potholes mean the public has largely made up its mind about the Conservatives). These arent random announcements theyre aimed at older, 2019 Tory voters now

The veteran leftwinger is not like other candidates, and the row over her did not arise as a result of party purges, Labours leader tells his biographer on the campaign trail In an overheating hall on the banks of the Clyde, Keir Starmer leaps out of his seat into an even warmer embrace and whispers into the ear of Lorna Downie, an apprentice welder who has just delivered her first ever public speech. Although she was feeling really nervous before, I told her shed absolutely knocked it out of th

Charity founded in 1984 highlights that work still needs to be done to eradicate inequality between the sexes in sport In what year were women allowed to compete in an Olympic marathon for the first time? The answer, 1984, may not only come as quite a shock but may help explain why a gamechanging charity was formed that spring. As Women in Sport marks its 40th birthday, its chief executive, Stephanie Hilborne, is eager to celebrate the real progress over the past four decades while also emphasis

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Warm-up matches against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iceland offer Gareth Southgate the chance to ponder his selection Englands defence picks itself if everyone is fit: Kyle Walker at right-back, John Stones and Harry Maguire at centre-back, Luke Shaw on the left. It is the tried and trusted formula and Gareth Southgate will be desperate to have it available after being forced into unsuccessful experiments without his favoured quartet during the March friendlies against Brazil and Belgium. Continu