HeraldLoop
The Guardian

The Guardian — page 34

2106 articlestheguardian.com ↗

Coverage, page 34

page 34 of 106

Richard Tice rallies to the defence of Reform’s crypto ‘patriots’ | John Crace

You can’t buy Dicky’s level of stupidity though it could be argued that Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo just have Never in the field of British politics has so much been given to so many by so few. You’d have thought Nigel Farage would have wanted to explain Reform’s sudden windfall from Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo himself. To bask in the glory of the donations from two down-to-earth, anti-establishment crypto billionaires. Men who know what it’s like to graft, who know the meaning of an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. There again, Nige is keen not to appear as a one-man band these days and he could do with some downtime to enjoy his own £5m handout. And besides, he’s got a police investigation into Reform party funding to worry about. Even so, it wasn’t the best of looks to send Richard Tice out on to the morning media round. Dicky may have his talents, but he keeps them well concealed. His main talent is the unfortunate ability to make Honest Bob Jenrick sound trustworthy. But he does always leave you guessing. Is he being wilfully stupid or is he naturally that half witted? Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•John Crace14 Sept

Bolsonaro 2.0: Brazil braces for the return of the far right

With Lula mired in scandal, Flávio Bolsonaro is firing up his base in the bellwether state of Minas Gerais – starting at the scene of his father’s stabbing A giant banner of Brazil’s incarcerated former president Jair Bolsonaro fluttered in the morning breeze as his eldest son, Flávio, touched down at an airfield on the fringe of a city that will soon help decide the future of one of the biggest democracies on earth. “Brazil is rudderless. Brazil has no president and Brazil needs a president – and that president is Flávio Bolsonaro,” the far-right senator declared as he waded into the flock of supporters who had gathered to welcome him to Juiz de Fora, one of the largest cities in the battleground state of Minas Gerais. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Tom Phillips in Juiz de Fora14 Sept

Why has university become such a scam? | Zoe Williams

Graduates are leaving with an average debt of £53,000 – while entry-level jobs plummet. It’s time for politicians to stop burying their heads in the sand It wasn’t in relation to university that I first came across the organisation Rethink Repayment, which campaigns for a fairer settlement on student debt. I was looking into the astronomical numbers of young people who still live with their parents. It’s now more than a third of young men and more than a fifth of young women, statistics which get even crunchier when you realise that “young” describes anyone under 35. There were various reasons – some had gone home after a health crisis, some really liked their parents, some were battling unemployment, but the single unifying theme was student debt. Those on incomes too low to start repaying couldn’t make rent; those in the lower repayment bracket (an annual income of £25,000 or thereabouts, depending on your loan plan) still couldn’t make rent, because they were spending 9% of their income repaying. And those on more than £50,000 were keeping less than 50p in every pound they earn because of their marginal tax rate. It’s always been sold to students when they take on this debt that it won’t count against their mortgage raising capacity, which technically it won’t – but any affordability check by a mortgage company or letting agent will factor in the monthly repayments. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Zoe Williams14 Sept

Ex-CIA director John Brennan subpoenaed in Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ investigation

Subpoena is among a flurry issued in recent weeks as part of DoJ inquiry into alleged conspiracy against Trump The former CIA director John Brennan has been subpoenaed to testify next month before a Florida grand jury as part of a Department of Justice investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against Donald Trump, one of his lawyers said Monday. Ken Wainstein, an attorney for Brennan, disclosed in a court filing that prosecutors last Thursday presented him with a subpoena for Brennan to appear before a grand jury in Fort Pierce, Florida, on 15 October. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Associated Press14 Sept

Texas Democrat Jasmine Crockett under fire for honoring Chris Brown at concert

Congresswoman awarded the convicted abuser and musician a congressional record recognition in Arlington Democratic US representative Jasmine Crockett is under fire for honoring musician Chris Brown, a convicted abuser, with an official recognition at a Texas concert over the weekend. Crockett, a Texas congresswoman, awarded Brown and R&B musician Usher a congressional record recognition at a performance in Arlington, Texas, on Saturday. Appearing alongside Texas state representative Venton Jones, Crockett said she was there to “honor” Brown and Usher. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Rachel Leingang14 Sept

Sweden’s political parties launch coalition talks as both blocs try to secure power

Centre-left bloc led by Social Democrats has narrow lead with 95% of vote counted, but faces internal policy battle Sweden’s political parties have launched coalition negotiations as the Social Democrats leader Magdalena Andersson started the long and difficult process of trying to form a new government. Full results from Sunday’s election are not expected until after overseas votes are counted on Wednesday, but with 95% of the votes counted, the Social Democrats and the centre-left bloc had a narrow but growing lead of 176 seats to the right-leaning parties’ 173. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Miranda Bryant Nordic correspondent14 Sept

British man accused of drugging and raping wife over two decades admits 60 offences

Man, who cannot be named to protect anonymity of his victim, admits scores of criminal offences A man has pleaded guilty to drugging and sexually assaulting his wife over a period of 20 years as he admitted 60 criminal offences. The man, who cannot be named in order to protect the anonymity of his victim, is in his 60s and before his arrest lived in Stockport, Greater Manchester. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Josh Halliday and Hannah Al-Othman14 Sept

British man accused of drugging and raping wife over two decades admits all offences

Man, who cannot be named to protect anonymity of his victim, admits 60 criminal offences A man has pleaded guilty to drugging and sexually assaulting his wife over a period of 20 years as he admitted 60 criminal offences. The man, who cannot be named in order to protect the anonymity of his victim, is in his 60s and before his arrest lived in Stockport, Greater Manchester. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Josh Halliday and Hannah Al-Othman14 Sept

Government moves to nationalise Speciality Steel UK to protect 1,300 jobs

Firm, once part of Sanjeev Gupta’s empire, fell into administration last year but has failed to find buyer Business news – live updates One of Britain’s steelworks is to come into public ownership after the government said it would take over Yorkshire-based Speciality Steel UK (SSUK). Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, said officials would “work towards” acquiring the company to protect the jobs of its 1,300 workers in Rotherham, Stocksbridge and Brinsworth in South Yorkshire and Wednesbury in the West Midlands. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Alex Daniel14 Sept

Keeping women out of prison must be the focus | Letters

Readers respond to an editorial on overcrowded jails and plans to convert parts of the women’s prison estate for use by men Your editorial ( The Guardian view on the prisons crisis: moving men into women’s jails is not the answer, 10 September ) is right to argue that the prison capacity crisis cannot be solved through a series of short-term fixes. Victims need confidence that the government has a credible long-term strategy for the criminal justice system, not another piecemeal intervention designed to buy time. I share your concern about the pressures facing probation services. There are also legitimate questions about the impact on policing, but we cannot discuss the prisons crisis without confronting the crisis in our courts. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Guardian Staff14 Sept

Severe mental illness and the risk of violence | Letters

A new willingness to acknowledge the risk that some people with severe mental illnesses may become violent is welcomed by Prof John F Morgan Your report of Sarah Hughes’s acknowledgment that mental health organisations have sometimes “softened the truth” about the relationship between serious mental illness and violence marks an important change in the public debate ( Mental health groups have ‘failed to acknowledge’ risk of violence, says Mind chief, 5 September ). There is some historical irony here. Mind grew from the National Association for Mental Health, an organisation in which psychiatrists and other mental health professionals played an important part. From the 1970s onwards, Mind increasingly defined itself as an independent campaigning organisation and, at times, a vigorous critic of psychiatric practice and authority. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Guardian Staff14 Sept

‘Very weak. Very bad’: how Rodri’s verdict exposed woeful Valencia’s crisis | Sid Lowe

The World Cup winner’s off-the-cuff assessment was brutally honest. Within days their manager and CEO were gone, but the problems run much deeper Kiat Lim wanted to see Valencia play so badly, so that is what he did. It was week four in La Liga, 6 September, and for the first time since he was given the presidency 18 months earlier, the owner’s 33-year-old son was going to watch his team play a competitive game. He was going to do it from the inside, too, so he took a flight to Spain, landing at Manises in a black mask and cap, a van to the hotel, then the team bus to Mestalla. He looked through the window as they rolled along Avenida Suecia, a huge, noisy crowd waiting, but when he got off and headed through the iron gate with its ornate club badge, he saw that this was no welcome. Above him as he went in were giant portraits of Mario Kempes, Antonio Puchades, Juan Sol, Gaizka Mendieta, David Villa and Santiago Cañizares, footballers from a better time; around him were yellow banners and whistles for the footballers there now. Inside, Lim saw the game start with the lower south stand empty as fans stayed away until the 19th minute, the sound of the protest drifting in from the street. They were out there still when, sitting alongside Joan Laporta, he saw Lamine Yamal score the sixth-minute opener then get a second. And although that, also from Lamine Yamal, was ruled out, he eventually saw Barcelona get four more, presiding over a 5-0 defeat. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Sid Lowe14 Sept

Top civil servant sacked by Starmer received record £860,000 payout

Special approval needed for amount that surpassed what Chris Wormald was ‘contractually entitled to’ The former head of the civil service Chris Wormald received a record payout of almost £860,000 when he was forced out of the top job in Whitehall by Keir Starmer. Cabinet Office accounts have revealed that the former cabinet secretary, who was sacked earlier this year , was paid £859,496 upon departure. The figure is an unprecedented amount, which required civil servants to seek a special direction from ministers to approve it because it was “greater than what Sir Chris Wormald would be contractually entitled to”. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Jessica Elgot Deputy political editor14 Sept

If looks could kill, I’d be in real trouble | Brief letters

Default facial expressions | Coffee thermometer | Quitting Britain | Nominative determinism delights Adrian Chiles is lucky that his face is merely “miserable” ( I’ve spent my whole life looking miserable. It’s time for a change, 9 September ). On the advice of my estimable wife, when I introduce myself to new colleagues I alert them to the fact that if I look as though I want to kill them, it’s my default expression and I am merely thinking, not judging. Trevor Lawson Haddenham, Buckinghamshire • Since Oxford University, no less, tells us that it is now vital to know the temperature of hot drinks ( Drinking very hot drinks could triple risk of oesophageal cancer, study finds, 9 September ), I look forward to the delivery of my NHS coffee thermometer – and the award of next year’s Ig Nobel prizes. Anne Archer Oban, Argyll and Bute Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Guardian Staff14 Sept

‘A double entendre in every crevice’: what, beyond near-naked tennis, is Sydney Sweeney’s game?

With her new, semi-nude advert for sports site Novig, the actor cements her reputation as the anti-woke poster girl. But is it real – or just provocation with a soft porn gaze? Bear with me here, but I’m beginning to suspect Sydney Sweeney is a very fine actor. It’s a skill she has been recognised for in the past, of course, winning nominations for Emmys for Euphoria and The White Lotus, but I mean it in a deeper sense, related to her work in advertising rather than drama – can she do more than play a role? Can she make you feel what she’s feeling? In her “controversial” new ad for the sports prediction site Novig (the scare quotes are because, when you’re begging for controversy this hard, you shouldn’t just be handed it on a plate), she adopts the garb of various sports. Her face, body, aspect, gait and mien are all carefully configured to amp up the erotic overtones to the maximum degree, and yet the feeling that beams out of each image is: “This is really going to piss people off, and I couldn’t be more delighted.” Her expression is so speechful that you cannot help but share in some of her hellion joy. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Zoe Williams14 Sept

Andoni Iraola says Liverpool took ‘a step backwards’ in draw against Fulham

Head coach insists forwards need to improve pressing Changes up front likely for Carabao Cup tie against Spurs Andoni Iraola has shifted the focus on to Liverpool’s forwards for the team’s uninspiring display against Fulham, insisting they need to give more to make his system work. The head coach admitted his team took “a step backwards” with their goalless draw on Saturday. His central midfield pairing of Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai struggled to contain their Fulham counterparts, winning two of five duels and one of nine duels respectively. But Iraola believes the problems started further forward with the pressing of Liverpool’s expensively assembled attack. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Andy Hunter14 Sept