
After months of rows between factions with ‘fundamentally differing visions’, results of leadership election are at hand
An increasingly bloody battle for the soul of the leftwing Your Party set up by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana will come to a conclusion on Thursday, when the results of its leadership election will be announced.
After almost eight months of public spats, rows over money, accusations of sexism and rifts over policy and direction, Your Party is hoping to turn a page on the manifold misfortunes that have beset it since its launch last year.
Continue reading...British-Yemeni designer Kazna Asker paused her presentation at sunset to share iftar with the models, staff and guests
For the first time in its history, Ramadan and the act of fast-breaking have been officially incorporated into a London fashion week show, according to the British Fashion Council.
On Monday evening, 29-year-old British-Yemeni designer Kazna Asker deliberately paused her presentation at sunset to share iftar with the models, who were also fasting, as were the interns and many of the staff.
Continue reading...PMQs was going reasonably well for Tory leader until she began to find her own argument too worthy and started hurling insults instead
We hear a lot about the Keminaissance these days. Not least from Kemi herself. She is amazing, the best thing to have happened to the Tories since … Liz Truss. We are fantastically lucky to have her in our lives. She is a miracle worker. All that’s required is a bit of gratitude for her magnificence. We are not worthy.
There’s just one problem. There’s really no evidence to support this analysis. The Tories were in the high 20s in the polls when Badenoch took over as Tory leader and they now bump along consistently around 17. Which is where they have been for the duration of The Great Kemi Revival (TM). The Tories are a mere footnote in the Gorton and Denton byelection. If there is a rebirth of the Tories as a serious political party, no one seems to have told the rest of the country.
Continue reading...The sex offender could exploit these masters of the universe because, despite their privilege, they still felt short-changed by life
One of the things that has been frequently puzzled over as the effluent of the Epstein story flows on, is how a college dropout who thought it was cool to do typos managed to persuade the world’s most powerful into his lair. What, precisely, was the nature of his “genius”? Was it blackmail? Was it the social pyramid scheme of using one big name to reel in another? Nothing has come close to explaining it until, with the latest crop of details from the Epstein files, something has become suddenly clear: that it wasn’t the trafficked girls and women who Jeffrey Epstein groomed. The man’s real talent, if we want to call it that, was in the grooming of his cohort of associates.
This isn’t to say, of course, that the men and occasional woman who threw in their lot with a man we must straight-facedly refer to as “the dead paedophile” weren’t culpable. Nonetheless, if you study the huge amount of Epstein-related material, from the New York Times’s deep dive into his finances to the vast cache of correspondence contained in the files, a picture emerges of a man who did the kind of number on his peers that you would more commonly see directed at victims. While multiple survivor testimonies indicate that Epstein regarded the girls and women he trafficked as of such low consequence he didn’t even need to bother to groom them – per Virginia Giuffre’s account, Epstein raped her the first time they met – all of his resources, via a variety of tactics, went into capturing the allegiances of powerful men.
Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Continue reading...Whether it’s beans or machines, grinders or pods, the Filter’s coffee expert Sasha Muller answered readers’ questions
• The best coffee machines, tested
Want to know how to make a barista-style brew at home or maybe where to buy the best coffee beans – or even which espresso machine is best? The Filter’s coffee expert, Sasha Muller, has been answering your questions.
Sasha has tested coffee machines, cafetieres, espresso machines and more for the Filter. You asked him about pretty much everything – from which decafs actually taste nice to the best grinders to use – and whether it’s possible to be too much of a coffee nerd.
Bean to cup coffee machines with dual hoppers do tend to cost a hefty premium, but one slightly more affordable option is the De’Longhi Rivelia. I do mean slightly, though – the most basic model which uses a manual steam wand is currently £575, and the fully automatic version I’ve tested in recent months is £675. It’s a great machine that justifies the premium over cheaper models – both in terms of its coffee brewing, which is superb, and its design. The masterstroke here is that the Rivelia comes with two plastic swappable bean hoppers which twist and lock into place. You do still end up with some beans left in the mouth of the grinder when you swap them over, but the Rivelia’s touchscreen gives you the option to purge the beans, or brew one last caffeinated (or decaffeinated) cup. And if only two types of beans isn’t enough then you can buy replaceable bean hoppers for £18 a pop.
It really depends what kind of coffee you like – and how you’re brewing it – but sadly I’ve struggled to find any real bargains. I’ve tried a bunch of the cheapest beans from the likes of Aldi and Lidl in recent months in the interests of science (and saving cash), and they’ve mostly been fine – but none of them have really hit the spot. It’s definitely worth looking out for time-limited deals on supermarket own brand beans and ground coffees – they can be surprisingly decent – but you’re partly at the mercy of how long the bags have been sitting on the shelves. With no roast dates on these coffees, they could be months old and past their best. It’s impossible to tell.
One of my guilty penny-pinching options is a big 1kg bag of Lavazza Rossa beans or similar. These occasionally come up on a deal for around £10 to £12, and although they’re by no means a refined pick – the experience is akin to someone smearing burnt toast and intensely bitter chocolate all over your taste buds – they make a mean Italian-style espresso and similarly potent cappuccino.
Continue reading...The late actor’s writing was overshadowed by roles in blockbusters. Now, Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu is giving his play about grief the audience it deserves
• Don’t get The Long Wave delivered to your inbox? Sign up here
Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. Last week I went to watch the play Deep Azure, written by the late actor Chadwick Boseman, at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, part of the Globe theatre in London. It’s a show full of verve, poetry powered by hip-hop, Jacobean verse and beautifully choreographed movement. I spoke to Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu, the play’s director, about the importance of reviving Black work and the responsibility of not only honouring Boseman’s memory but also showcasing the full spectrum of the Black experience globally.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Police meet Lindsay Hoyle to explain error after Hoyle shared tip that Mandelson planned to flee UK
The Metropolitan police has apologised to the Commons speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, for accidentally revealing he was the source of a tipoff that Peter Mandelson supposedly planned to flee the UK, prompting officers to arrest the former ambassador.
In yet another twist to the saga of Mandelson’s departure from his post and the Met’s investigation into allegations he fed secret government information to Jeffrey Epstein, Hoyle told MPs on Wednesday that he passed the information to police.
Continue reading...Shabana Mahmood given green light to take case to court of appeal with ban to remain in place pending outcome
The home secretary has been granted permission to challenge the high court’s ruling that the decision to ban Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws was unlawful.
An order issued by the high court on Wednesday said Shabana Mahmood could take the case to the court of appeal and that the ban would remain in place pending the outcome of the fresh hearing.
Continue reading...Rare clash off island’s coast comes amid oil embargo and heightened tensions between two countries
The Cuban Interior Ministry has said that border guards killed four gunmen and wounded six more on a speedboat bearing a Florida registration off Cayo Falcones in Cuba’s Villa Clara province.
The rare clash off Cuba’s coast, which took place on Tuesday, comes at a moment of heightened tensions between the United States and Cuba during an oil embargo that has led to an energy and humanitarian crisis on the island.
Continue reading...But officials say Hamish Falconer misspoke in saying UK ‘pausing for discussions with our American counterparts’
Moves to pave the way for the handover of the Chagos Islands have been paused, a minister has told MPs, amid continuing discussions with the US over the controversial deal.
The comments by Hamish Falconer, a Foreign Office minister and former diplomat, were swiftly played down by government sources who said he had misspoken. But opposition parties said they appeared to describe the reality of the UK’s position as the deal comes under increasing pressure from Donald Trump.
Continue reading...