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Times of Israel - World News

2026-08-01 02:11:23 (2 weeks ago)

Boy George defends pro-Israel song, says critics ignore Israelis’ suffering

British pop star says his Nova festival tribute is 'pro peace,' rejects claims he lacks compassion for Palestinians after stepping down from West End role amid backlash

The post Boy George defends pro-Israel song, says critics ignore Israelis’ suffering appeared first on The Times of Israel.

France 24 - World News

2026-08-01 02:09:11 (2 weeks ago)

US drops Reflecting Pool case, admits damage due to botched renovation

The US Justice Department on Friday dropped its case against a former Olympian accused of damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, saying the hurried renovations ordered by President Donald Trump had been botched.

BBC News - Science & Environment

2026-08-01 02:07:05 (2 weeks ago)

Should you take the plunge? How to tell how clean the sea is

From beach ratings to apps and flags, we take a look at how swimmers can check water quality.

The Guardian - World News

2026-08-01 02:00:46 (2 weeks ago)

Exploring Rabat, Morocco – this year’s Unesco World Book Capital

Rabat is a gorgeous seaside city with great food and culture, but for book lovers there’s an added incentive to go this year

The first book I read willingly was Bridget Jones’s Diary. I was 19. Up to that point, I hadn’t been much of a reader. I’d been more into football, or Baywatch, or Robin Budd in the year above – anything really. Given the choice between reading a book and staring at a wall, I would have plumped for the latter.

After finishing my A-levels, I worked in a barbecue restaurant in Portsmouth – which is where I found Bridget Jones. The book was lying around in the staffroom. I picked it up and read a few pages, and then a few more, and then a few more. It felt exciting. Like I’d met someone. Like I was suddenly in a relationship. Over the next few days, I remember cancelling nights out so I could go to bed and read. My mum thought I was depressed.

The Guardian - World News

2026-08-01 02:00:45 (2 weeks ago)

‘A symbol of resistance’: the fight to save treehouse built on no man’s land next to Berlin Wall

Supporters fear structure could be torn down as safety hazard and want it to become memorial to postwar foreign labourers in honour of its Turkish creator

Sometimes the currents of history converge in a single spot. In Berlin, one of the most intriguing of those places is a small traffic island with a lovingly tended garden and a ramshackle two-storey structure called the Treehouse at the Wall.

In 1983, Osman Kalin, a Turkish “guest worker”, was looking in his corner of the city cleaved by the Berlin Wall for a patch of earth in which to plant his onions, garlic and cucumbers. Virtually on his doorstep in the Kreuzberg district was a slice of no man’s land next to the concrete barrier and barbed wire. Although it sat in West Berlin, cold war logic meant the lot officially belonged to the communist East.

The Guardian - World News

2026-08-01 02:00:45 (2 weeks ago)

Alley Cats: Ricky Gervais is back with a boorish, sweary comedy – and I didn’t laugh once

Animated cats banter tediously in a show that’s determined to shock, but which leaves you checking your watch to see how long is left. It’s lazy, dated and far too pleased with itself

According to multiverse theory, there are parallel realities in which news of a new Ricky Gervais project instils a feeling other than dread. But we don’t live in them. Having seen his new series, Alley Cats (Netflix, from Friday 7 August), a boorish banter-vehicle in which animated cats shoot the breeze like a bunch of pub bores, I’m not sure what there is to report – other than the fact that I didn’t laugh once. Considering what a fan I once was, I find this remarkable. What happened?

Woke happened, is what his diehard fans would say. Gervais has paid the price of a shifting Overton window on jokes about dwarves and disabled people and trans people. You can’t say anything any more, they lament, while defending a wealthy, highly platformed man who proves the opposite. They’re not wrong, though – politics plays a part. While writing this, I stepped outside to say hello to a queer friend who was, naturally, buying a bicycle in the street. I asked her what she made of Ricky Gervais.

The Guardian - World News

2026-08-01 02:00:45 (2 weeks ago)

Turn failing water firms into not-for-profit cooperatives, MPs and mayors tell PM

Labour politicians say mutualised model puts public in control without adding debt to government’s balance sheet

MPs and mayors close to Andy Burnham have told the prime minister there is a “third way” tlauo gain more control of failing companies, as the row over whether or not to nationalise Thames Water rumbles on.

Burnham is said to be concerned about the increase in government debt that Treasury projections show could be a result of nationalising water companies.

The Guardian - World News

2026-08-01 02:00:45 (2 weeks ago)

Which South American country has baseball as its national sport? The Saturday quiz

From a corned beef sandwich and a harmonica to Zener cards, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 Which mountain range is home to the world’s second-highest peak?
2 Which pioneer of conceptualism retired from art to play chess?
3 Who is the only Jesuit to become pope?
4 Which ancient shark grew to around 18 metres long?
5 Baseball is the national sport of which South American country?
6 Which global news organisation is based in Qatar?
7 In the aftermath of a scandal, who changed her family’s name to Holland?
8 Zener cards are used to test for what ability?
What links:
9 Banjul; Nassau; San Salvador?
10 Evert (5); Jaeger; Mandlíková; Graf; Garrison?
11 Corned beef sandwich; golf balls; harmonica; postal covers?
12 Altar Stone; Aubrey Holes; Heel Stone; Slaughter Stone; Station Stones?
13 Squiggly, Glasgow; Mathematical, Cambridge; Winking Eye, Newcastle?
14 Nimue and Viviane; Florence Nightingale; Elaine of Astolat for Tennyson; Bennett’s Mary Shepherd?
15 1; 4; 3; 11; 15; 13; 17; 43?

The Guardian - World News

2026-08-01 02:00:45 (2 weeks ago)

Who invented ‘rock, paper, scissors’ and are friends electric? The kids’ quiz

Five multiple-choice questions – set by children – to test your knowledge, and a chance to submit your own junior brainteasers for future quizzes

• ​Submit a question

Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun, a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book, as well as her new title, Everything Under the Sun: All Around the World.

The Guardian - World News

2026-08-01 02:00:44 (2 weeks ago)

The tangled financial web at the heart of Reform UK

Nigel Farage’s £5m gift, the Cottrell family’s links and donations, and Richard Tice’s business dealings form part of an increasingly clear nexus of relationships

It has been three months since the Guardian revealed that Nigel Farage had accepted a £5m gift from Christopher Harborne, a billionaire donor to Reform UK.

This was not the first story in our continuing investigation. But it has proved the most significant, and the consequences of the disclosure are still being played out.

The Guardian - World News

2026-08-01 02:00:44 (2 weeks ago)

​The Guide #254: Artist anonymity ​i​s a radical act in ​our cultural obsess​ion with visibility

In this week’s newsletter: ​H​idden creators ​reveal how invisibility can be a shield and spotlight in an era of relentless self‑exposure

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In 1985, an anonymous group of women disguised in gorilla masks burst on to the art scene in New York. At night, the Guerrilla Girls, as they named themselves, fly-posted around the city: funny, eye-catching posters highlighting gender and racial biases in museums and galleries. (“Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?” read one now-famous poster.) “Of course, we were afraid that if we blew the whistle on some of [the art world’s] most powerful people, we could kiss off our art careers,” a founding member explained in an interview for their 1995 book. “But mainly, we wanted the focus to be on the issues, not on our personalities or our own work.”

The collective is still active; 55 members have come and gone over the years. When giving interviews, they use pseudonyms borrowed from dead women artists: Frida Kahlo, Lee Krasner, Käthe Kollwitz. Only a handful of their true identities have been revealed over the years, mostly after their deaths or due to lawsuits. But this week, a Guerrilla Girl made headlines when she chose to unmask herself on her own terms. “I’d had a pact with another Girl that whoever died first, the survivor would bring her out,” said the 83-year-old artist Joyce Kozloff (codename: Liubov Popova). “But I suddenly realised that if I were dead, I couldn’t tell the story my way.”

New York Times - World News

2026-08-01 01:59:04 (2 weeks ago)

Did 75,000 Students Cheat on a College-Entrance Exam in Mexico?

The country’s largest public university is requiring all students who passed its entrance exam to take a new test after experts found evidence of widespread cheating, including with A.I.