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He was one of the NFL’s most feared runners. Now Larry Johnson fears what football did to his brain
Once among the NFL’s most punishing running backs, Larry Johnson opens up about memory loss, intrusive thoughts and his fears over football’s lasting toll In his heyday, Larry Johnson was the NFL tailback you’d least want to line up against, the steamroller in pads who had defensive players and coaches questioning their life choices on every down. But since Johnson walked away from pro football in 2011, after seven seasons in the league and an All-Pro run with the Kansas City Chiefs, he’s the one doing the soul-searching, grappling with the toll all that gridiron glory has taken on his brain. Johnson, who still cuts a fit and formidable figure at age 46, can scarcely recall his glittering career, much less its highlights. “I go up to maybe 2006, 2007,” he tells me. “Anything before or three years after, I really don’t remember.” Continue reading...
Florid language and long silences: five things we learned from week three of Russell Brand’s rape trial
The former comedian and his wife gave evidence in the case in which he denies all charges against him Russell Brand’s trial at Southwark crown court began with widespread media coverage on 12 October. The former comedian and presenter faces three charges of rape, three of sexual assault and one of attempted indecent assault against six women, in allegations spanning 10 years from 1999. He denies all the charges. Here are five things we learned in the third week of his trial. Continue reading...
‘The last fortress’: historic Athens cafe closes as countercultural area gentrifies
Mouria coffeehouse unable to renew lease in Exarchia, known for leftwing solidarity, resistance and radicalism It has been the hangout of writers, artists, poets and politicians, doctors and lawyers, radicals and revolutionaries for as long as anyone can remember. And for 44 years, Christos Vanas, the proprietor of Mouria, has let them all in. Every day at 7am, the taciturn former waiter has been the first man to step inside the historic cafe in Exarchia, the heart of leftwing Athens . It is a ritual he has kept punctiliously, opening up the famous gathering place before he himself has had his first coffee. Continue reading...
Why politicians chasing economic growth is a lie | Radical Thinking with Aditya Chakrabortty
What if someone told you the truth about the economy? For years, governments have tried spending more, spending less, cutting red tape, Brexit, levelling up – and still failed to increase growth per person in the UK. So what’s the lesson from the great British fairytale? On the latest episode of Radical Thinking with Aditya Chakrabortty, the rebel economists Karel Williams and Sukhdev Johal explain why they believe praying for growth is a fool’s dream – and why it won’t improve your life You can watch previous episodes of Radical Thinking here Aditya’s suggested reading list for this episode: As we say in the podcast, I’ve championed the work of Karel and Sukhdev and their colleagues for many years in the Guardian, and some of my columns are a good introduction to their approach. In our conversation we look at what life after growth looks like for towns and suburbs, and what it should look like. This report from south Wales in 2016 examines the present-day reality. For a broader analysis of how the UK has become highly unequal and increasingly stagnant, try this . As part of the Foundational Economy Collective, Karel and Sukhdev put a lot of their analysis into freely available working papers. That circumvents the leisureliness and expense of academic publishing and gets their arguments in front of a wider public. A good example is this one on the cost of living crisis . More recently, they’ve focused on the broken water system of England and Wales in a book called Murky Water: Challenging an Unsustainable System . Continue reading...
Nigel’s ‘chiselled cheekbones’ make the news – Reform’s the Reformer, digested by John Crace
Editor, agony uncle, crossword compiler – he even interviews himself. Our sketchwriter finds there’s no end to Farage’s talents Welcome to your new super, soaraway Reformer . The paper that aims to take you back to the 1950s with all the stories that the mainstream media don’t want you to read. Free to all patriots. And those who happen to have found a copy on the floor of the bus. Continue reading...
Budget 2026: how to beat the new savings tax rates
John Healey’s budget offered a ‘sting in the tail’ for savers by raising tax rates but there are ways to ease the pain Savers were both winners and losers in Wednesday’s budget . In his first outing as chancellor, John Healey dropped a plan to cut the cash Isa limit for under-65s but surprised everyone with an extra tax charge on savings and property income. His predecessor, Rachel Reeves, had already announced a plan to increase the income tax rates for savers and landlords that was due to take effect in April 2027. But Healey went further, adding an additional two percentage points to each of the rates. Jason Hollands, managing director at wealth manager Evelyn Partners, describes the higher rates as a “sting in the tail” for savers. Continue reading...
Avanti West Coast paid out £20m in ‘delay repay’ passenger refunds this summer
Intercity train operator’s compensation bill likely to top £70m this financial year amid rise in claims across network Avanti West Coast paid out more than £20m to passengers in just three months this summer in refunds for disrupted journeys on Britain’s main intercity rail network. The intercity operator paid out almost as much in a four-week period to 25 July – £9.3m – as its annual profits for each of the past two years. It repaid a further £12.2m in the subsequent eight weeks. Continue reading...
Storm warnings for Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane as cold front ‘packs a punch’
BoM predicts hail, damaging winds and possible flash flooding across Victoria, NSW and parts of Queensland into Sunday Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Storm warnings are in place for multiple capital cities across Australia’s east and south-east as a severe weather front sweeps across the country. Heavy rain, winds and thunderstorms are forecast to hit Melbourne and eastern Victoria throughout Saturday afternoon as a cold front meets warm, humid air. Continue reading...
As Trump fans the flames of a world on fire, can diplomacy take back control?
Amid the chaos, havoc and war caused by a capricious and amoral US president, countries are waking up to the dangers of being excluded and abused by America Never has there been a time when the world has been more interconnected than now. What happens in the secretive inner councils in Tehran, the mountains of south-west Yemen, the steppe of the Donbas, the still bloody wasteland that is Gaza and even the elegant boulevards of Paris and Milan have a common thread. One cannot understand one set of conflicts without weaving them into another, and it is this very interdependence that is making each problem so contagious, layered and difficult to resolve, leaving the world to live as if trapped inside a pressure cooker on the brink of an explosion. Continue reading...
When you’re traduced, abused and gaslighted – believe me, Black History Month matters | Hugh Muir
There is always debate about the concept’s necessity and efficacy. But with nativists in their pomp, it’s good to focus on who we are and why What forces shaped four generations of Black Britons? | The panel Pity Black History Month UK , assailed on all sides. Those on the right seek to end the celebration on the basis that it amounts to special treatment for a group that doesn’t deserve it. History should be colour-blind: society should not differentiate, they say. We are not racist, we just want fairness. But often, they are – and they really don’t. On the other side of the argument are the progressives, notably minority progressives, who say the idea of a month to consider Black history is demeaning because it should already have a year-round place in our teaching and consciousness. There is a further view that any beneficial effect the month once had has been diluted by unimaginative repetition and commercially motivated virtue signalling. Players taking the knee in the Premier League? Been there, done that: yawn! Hugh Muir is executive editor, Opinion Continue reading...
Eight in 10 homes in London’s poshest postcodes now sell below asking price, Coutts finds
Sellers in areas such as Belgravia and Mayfair face hundreds of thousands of pounds in losses as property prices fall Eight out of 10 properties in London’s most exclusive neighbourhoods – such as Mayfair, Belgravia and Knightsbridge – now sell below asking price, according to research by Coutts, which provides private banking services to wealthy clients. Property prices in “prime central London”, which covers the city’s most expensive postcodes, have dropped 5% in the third quarter of 2026, as the slowdown in the UK’s property market hits its wealthiest residents. Continue reading...
‘Reparations now’: King and Burnham face protests at Antigua Commonwealth summit
Activists see meeting as opportunity to demand UK confront role in transatlantic enslavement “The royal family enslaved us! Apologise now! Reparatory justice now!” King Charles and the UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, will be greeted with messages as they travel through Antigua’s capital, St John’s, to attend meetings at the Commonwealth leaders’ summit next week. On billboards, placards and T-shirts, in letters and at a candlelight vigil for the thousands of Africans trafficked to Antigua and Barbuda during the transatlantic slave trade, the message from the Caribbean will be pervasive: slavery reparations is not an issue they “are going to be able to dodge”. Continue reading...
Massive Attack, Bob Marley, bell hooks and grime: the forces that shaped four generations of Black Britons | The panel
For Black History Month, figures from the arts, culture and sport reveal the people and ideas that made them who they are today When you’re traduced, abused and gaslighted – believe me, Black History Month matters | Hugh Muir Continue reading...
Is time up for backyard fireworks? UK ministers weigh partial ban over noise concerns
Consultation follows growing calls from campaigners, vets and National Farmers’ Union for tighter regulation As the nights draw in, the season of sparklers begins, with Diwali, Bonfire Night and New Year’s Eve among the occasions typically celebrated with fireworks. But if campaigners get their way, this could be the last blast for bangers in the back yard. In January concerns about the noise and availability of fireworks were aired in a parliamentary debate , with two petitions clocking up more than 180,000 signatures each, while earlier this month the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade closed a consultation on proposals including making louder fireworks only available to professional users. Continue reading...
Riot police deployed to Poland’s constitutional court after judge suspended
President Karol Nawrocki seen struggling to gain entry to court building in Warsaw amid long-running row over the court’s legitimacy Riot police were locked in a tense standoff with protesters outside Poland’s constitutional court on Friday night after its top judge was suspended in the latest escalation in a decade-long dispute over the court’s legal status. The clashes followed a controversial decision by a group of government-appointed judges to suspend the court’s contested president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and his deputy, Bartłomiej Sochański, amid disagreements over the bench’s legitimacy. Continue reading...
Luigi Mangione’s lawyers file to dismiss state charges, citing double jeopardy law
Mangione pleaded guilty in August in federal case in the killing of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson Luigi Mangione’s lawyers filed paperwork on Friday once again pushing for dismissal of his state-level case in the killing of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson following his federal guilty plea. Mangione pleaded guilty on 14 August to federal charges in Thompson’s grisly death outside a Manhattan hotel on 4 December 2024. The shocking plea came less than a month before his state murder and weapons trial, which had been scheduled for 8 September. Continue reading...
The cursed cruise: how the dream of never-ending luxury at sea became a nightmare
The MV Odyssey was billed as the ultimate escape from Donald Trump. Instead, the oil shock caused by his war has left passengers unceremoniously dumped in Cambodia The idea was a never-ending retirement at sea, a continuous voyage around the globe. The promise to the passengers of the MV Odyssey cruise ship – many approaching the autumn of their lives – was that on the open seas they could cut loose from the troubles of the world. But the world had other ideas. The end came in an announcement as stark as it was brief: they had seven hours to get off. They were going no further than Cambodia. Continue reading...
Albanese looks for reset on world stage as ‘spot fires burn’ domestically and likely interest rate hike looms
The prime minister will speak with King Charles and others at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Antigua and Barbuda Get our daily political email , free app or daily news podcast As “summit season” begins, reaffirming ties with fellow leaders on the world stage could be a circuit breaker for Anthony Albanese amid domestic and economic woes, analysts have said. But a likely interest rate hike triggered by higher-than-expected inflation while the prime minister is overseas will make his job – and the treasurer’s – even harder. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s Politics, really newsletter here Continue reading...
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy praises US over $2.1bn Patriot missile deal but warns it could take years
The Ukrainian president called the US decision strong, but added that delivery of 500 Patriot PAC-3 missiles could take years The US has approved the sale of 500 Patriot PAC-3 missiles to Ukraine for an estimated $2.1bn, but Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned deliveries could take years and stockpiles were needed now to counter Russian ballistic missile attacks. “The proposed sale will improve Ukraine’s capability to meet current and future threats by improving its integrated air and missile defense capabilities,” the US state department said in a statement on Friday. Continue reading...
Federal judge bars DoJ from threatening election workers to stop processing ballots
Order says local officials can’t be forced to separate or stop counting ballots that the government deems to be disputed A federal judge has barred the justice department from threatening or coercing election workers to stop processing ballots. The order issued late Friday also bars the justice department from demanding local election officials segregate or not count ballots that the federal government deems may have been cast by ineligible voters. Continue reading...
US cancels G20 ‘family photo’ after Australia, UK and others refuse to appear with Russia
Marco Rubio pulls plug on traditional photo op at meeting of foreign ministers after about one-third of countries threaten boycott The traditional “family photo” to open the G20 foreign minister’s meeting has been abruptly cancelled in the US after a host of nations – including Australia and the UK – refused to appear beside Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, pulled the plug after several European officials, the UK and Australia made it known they would boycott or walk out of the snapshot that often kicks off such international gatherings. Continue reading...
A top-secret spy mission, a decades-old scandal – and the Austin Powers-esque saga to lift the lid
Rex Patrick’s latest transparency fight is over what he calls ‘most open secret in the history of Australian spying’ – maybe even the world Get our daily political email , free app or daily news podcast A campaign to uncover any documents relating to whether Australian spies bugged Timor-Leste to gain the upper hand in sensitive oil and gas negotiations will be a little less secret after a critical win by the former senator Rex Patrick. The politician turned transparency advocate is trying to finally lift the lid on the top-secret mission in 2004 that became a public scandal years later after an ex-spy and a former attorney general attempted to mount a case in The Hague . Continue reading...
Retired Michigan teacher released from Russian prison believed he would never be freed
Stephen Hubbard said that only when he was being taken from Moscow to St Petersburg did he believe he was ‘going somewhere’ In his first comments since recently being released from a Russian prison, a retired Michigan teacher said he only believed he would be freed when he got new clothes. Stephen Hubbard, 74, remarked on Friday that he had heard many times previously that he would be released – but never really trusted what he was told, adopting a philosophy of “seeing is believing” and “actions speak louder than words”. Continue reading...
Democratic lawmakers demand ICE data on detainee miscarriages
ICE failed to record data on miscarriages suffered by immigrants in its custody between October 2025 and June 2026 US lawmakers are urgently demanding that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) disclose how many pregnant immigrants have experienced miscarriages, stillbirths and pregnancy-related hospitalizations while in the its custody, after the agency admitted it lost count last year. US representatives sent the request following a recent Guardian investigation revealing that the Trump administration is detaining a record number of pregnant women and teens, and at the same has lost track of how many suffered miscarriages. Continue reading...