We are in dangerous territory as courts encourage jurors to discern untruth from body language. In fact, the words are far more revealing Imagine you are a juror on a murder trial. A married couple have been found shot dead. The defendant, a man known to them, denies the charge. You’ve heard the prosecution’s evidence and you’ve heard his testimony. But you and your fellow jurors are unsure if you...
We are in dangerous territory as courts encourage jurors to discern untruth from body language. In fact, the words are far more revealing Imagine you are a juror on a murder trial. A married couple have been found shot dead. The defendant, a man known to them, denies the charge. You’ve heard the prosecution’s evidence and you’ve heard his testimony. But you and your fellow jurors are unsure if you should believe his protestations of innocence. At the hotel in the evening, another juror makes a novel suggestion: contact the spirits of the dead couple to find out if the defendant is lying. In agreement, you all sit around a crudely constructed Ouija board and call upon the spirits of the dead couple to ask: “Who killed you?” The board spells out the name of the defendant. The next day, you return a guilty verdict to the court. Sounds too absurd to be true? Well, in 1994 an English jury did consult a Ouija board (a retrial was ordered, and the defendant was found guilty again). But it is no less absurd than a jury being directed by the courts to use an assessment of body language to make a judgment. Judicial directions in Scotland advise jurors that they can “look at the content of witnesses’ evidence, [and] their body language in giving it”. Similarly, in England and Wales, jurors are instructed not to take so many notes during a trial that they are “unable to observe the manner/demeanour of the witnesses as they give their evidence”. It appears that the UK’s judicial system is no different from most of the population in assuming there is a clear association between body language or demeanour and deception – while being ignorant of the fact that looking at these to determine an individual’s honesty is not trustworthy. Kirsty King is a lecturer in communication at UCL. She is the author of The Language of Lies Continue reading...
Lionel Scaloni’s strong, confident squad are no longer reliant on Messi as they target back-to-back World Cup titles This article is part of the Guardian’s 2026 World Cup Experts’ Network , a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 48 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from three countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 1...
Lionel Scaloni’s strong, confident squad are no longer reliant on Messi as they target back-to-back World Cup titles This article is part of the Guardian’s 2026 World Cup Experts’ Network , a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 48 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from three countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 11 June. Continue reading...
The 2022 football tournament cost me my freedom for three years. This year, I’ve lost my passport, safety and perhaps more What I saw in a town called Al-Shahaniyah on the outskirts of Doha, the capital of Qatar, seven years ago broke every rule and human right in the book. Desperate, hard-working people were on strike for not receiving their salaries for two, four or six months. Salaries that rar...
The 2022 football tournament cost me my freedom for three years. This year, I’ve lost my passport, safety and perhaps more What I saw in a town called Al-Shahaniyah on the outskirts of Doha, the capital of Qatar, seven years ago broke every rule and human right in the book. Desperate, hard-working people were on strike for not receiving their salaries for two, four or six months. Salaries that rarely exceeded $300 (£220) a month, in one of the richest countries in the world at the time. They had no food, no drinking water and no money to survive on or send back home to their families. But what made the situation worse was that they were building something for each and every one of us: not a mansion, a private home, or a road in the middle of nowhere. They were building World Cup stadiums for Messi and Ronaldo to play in, and for me and you to enjoy the show. Continue reading...
Record numbers linked to warming waters is mixed news for fishers, with shellfish catches down but octopus catches booming Record numbers of octopuses found off the south-west coast of England last year have now spread as far as Scotland and Wales and are transforming the fishing industry and the marine ecosystem, according to a study. The surge in sightings of one of the world’s most intelligent ...
Record numbers linked to warming waters is mixed news for fishers, with shellfish catches down but octopus catches booming Record numbers of octopuses found off the south-west coast of England last year have now spread as far as Scotland and Wales and are transforming the fishing industry and the marine ecosystem, according to a study. The surge in sightings of one of the world’s most intelligent invertebrates was first recorded in 2025 off the south coast of Devon and Cornwall. Continue reading...
A year after government pledge to regulate sector, ECB criticises ‘lack of visible progress’ and ‘no clear plan’ The UK government has been accused of dragging its feet over plans for the mandatory regulation of bailiffs amid concerns about harmful practices in an industry that collects more than £1bn a year from indebted Britons. A year on from an announcement by the Ministry of Justice that it w...
A year after government pledge to regulate sector, ECB criticises ‘lack of visible progress’ and ‘no clear plan’ The UK government has been accused of dragging its feet over plans for the mandatory regulation of bailiffs amid concerns about harmful practices in an industry that collects more than £1bn a year from indebted Britons. A year on from an announcement by the Ministry of Justice that it would legislate to make independent regulation of bailiffs mandatory, the body that now oversees the industry, the Enforcement Conduct Board (ECB), criticised the lack of “visible progress”. Continue reading...