President Xi Jinping will make a state visit to North Korea next week, state media reported Friday, a move that signals Beijing’s intent to shore up relations with its isolated neighbor amid broader geopolitical realignments. Xi will visit Pyongyang from June 8 to 9 at the invitation of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to a spokesperson for the International Department of the Central Com...
President Xi Jinping will make a state visit to North Korea next week, state media reported Friday, a move that signals Beijing’s intent to shore up relations with its isolated neighbor amid broader geopolitical realignments. Xi will visit Pyongyang from June 8 to 9 at the invitation of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to a spokesperson for the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, as reported by the official Xinhua News Agency.
Councils are sending vulnerable kids to homes run by money-grabbing cowboys and private-equity vultures Bring your suitcase, your bin liner, your dumpy bag. They’re handing out money faster than you can stuff it in a sack. All you need do is join the market in what may now be England’s most lucrative commodity. A commodity with arms and legs, hearts and brains, thoughts and feelings. Children. Two...
Councils are sending vulnerable kids to homes run by money-grabbing cowboys and private-equity vultures Bring your suitcase, your bin liner, your dumpy bag. They’re handing out money faster than you can stuff it in a sack. All you need do is join the market in what may now be England’s most lucrative commodity. A commodity with arms and legs, hearts and brains, thoughts and feelings. Children. Two years ago I stumbled into this issue after discovering that children in care who were being helped by a local charity I’m involved with were suddenly being whisked away, terminating the amazing progress they had been making, breaking their relationships, their sense of home, stability and security. When I began exploring why this was happening, I could scarcely believe what I was seeing: a highly lucrative trade in highly vulnerable young people. Children in “care” were being exchanged between private equity companies for £100,000 apiece. That figure is now wrong. Today they are worth far more. George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
The movie adaptation of Gary Owen’s acclaimed play Iphigenia in Splott, Effi o Blaenau, is released this month. Here, its director and crew explain why they relocated the film to a post-industrial mining town – and refused to make it in English The one-woman play Iphigenia in Splott was first performed in 2015. Eleven years on, Gary Owen’s reworking of Greek tragedy, transplanted to working-class ...
The movie adaptation of Gary Owen’s acclaimed play Iphigenia in Splott, Effi o Blaenau, is released this month. Here, its director and crew explain why they relocated the film to a post-industrial mining town – and refused to make it in English The one-woman play Iphigenia in Splott was first performed in 2015. Eleven years on, Gary Owen’s reworking of Greek tragedy, transplanted to working-class Splott in Cardiff, has earned its place as a modern classic. It reimagines the mythological heroine Iphigenia as Effie, a young woman filling her days drinking vodka out of a mug in her dressing gown. The play is about poverty and social inequality, closures and cuts, services scraped to the bone by austerity. Its most recent five-star Guardian review in 2022 advised: “Everyone should see this.” One person who did was Leisa Gwenllian, a final-year drama student from north Wales. “I was on the front row with my mate,” says Gwenllian, 24, drinking mint tea in a London hotel. “I can remember thinking: wow! A Welsh woman with a strong Cardiff accent on the stage at the Lyric [in Hammersmith, London], that’s what it’s all about.” At the Oxford School of Drama, Gwenllian was mainly studying the classics alongside people with different accents and backgrounds from her own. “To see yourself on stage is really powerful.” Continue reading...
Inside New York’s notorious jail complex, nearly 2,000 incarcerated people watched Game 1 of the NBA finals, arguing calls, roasting celebrity fans and sharing in a rare citywide moment It’s nearly half past eight on Wednesday evening and approximately 30 men in tan uniforms drift into the common area of a housing unit deep inside the George R Vierno Center, an 850-bed jail and one of eight active...
Inside New York’s notorious jail complex, nearly 2,000 incarcerated people watched Game 1 of the NBA finals, arguing calls, roasting celebrity fans and sharing in a rare citywide moment It’s nearly half past eight on Wednesday evening and approximately 30 men in tan uniforms drift into the common area of a housing unit deep inside the George R Vierno Center, an 850-bed jail and one of eight active facilities on New York’s Rikers Island. Some hover around a folding table piled to the edges with snacks. Others make their way into the smaller rooms on the perimeter of the two-floor communal space and drag plastic chairs closer to the flat-screen televisions mounted inside. The excited chatter and nervous energy bubbles as a familiar refrain cuts through the din. Knicks in four. Pictured above: An exterior view of the Rikers Island jail complex on 3 June 2026. Pictured below: The bridge connecting Rikers Island to Queens crosses a sprawling employee parking lot before reaching the jail complex, which houses the vast majority of people held in New York City’s custody. All photographs by Lauren Caulk. Continue reading...
Women coaches routinely overlooked, undermined and denied opportunities despite qualifications, say experts Women are being shut out of careers in sport by entrenched sexism, discrimination and workplace bullying, MPs have been told. Female coaches are routinely overlooked, undermined and denied opportunities despite their qualifications, experts told a parliamentary select committee on Thursday. ...
Women coaches routinely overlooked, undermined and denied opportunities despite qualifications, say experts Women are being shut out of careers in sport by entrenched sexism, discrimination and workplace bullying, MPs have been told. Female coaches are routinely overlooked, undermined and denied opportunities despite their qualifications, experts told a parliamentary select committee on Thursday. Continue reading...
Migrant insects have been seen in large numbers along east coast thanks to heatwave and benign southerly winds If you’ve spotted a pale orange butterfly dashing at frenetic pace through streets, fields or gardens, you’ve noticed the new migrants that will add colour to the summer in record-breaking numbers. What is expected to be the largest arrival of painted lady butterflies in Britain for 17 ye...
Migrant insects have been seen in large numbers along east coast thanks to heatwave and benign southerly winds If you’ve spotted a pale orange butterfly dashing at frenetic pace through streets, fields or gardens, you’ve noticed the new migrants that will add colour to the summer in record-breaking numbers. What is expected to be the largest arrival of painted lady butterflies in Britain for 17 years is under way after heatwaves and favourable winds ushered thousands if not millions of the insects northwards. Continue reading...
Cross-border finance is becoming more complex, not less. Businesses operating across jurisdictions are dealing with tighter regulation and more pressure to demonstrate transparency across markets, raising the bar for the international financial centres they use. This shift helps explain why global benchmarking is gaining more attention. Labuan International Business and Financial Centre (Labuan IB...
Cross-border finance is becoming more complex, not less. Businesses operating across jurisdictions are dealing with tighter regulation and more pressure to demonstrate transparency across markets, raising the bar for the international financial centres they use. This shift helps explain why global benchmarking is gaining more attention. Labuan International Business and Financial Centre (Labuan IBFC) entered the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) in 2025, debuting at 60th out of 120, and has...