Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – Albania, Europe, World news
Title – People in Albania: share your thoughts on the recent ‘not for sale’ protests | Albania | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/guardian-community-team
Link – People in Albania: share your thoughts on the recent ‘not for sale’ protests | Albania | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-16T14:13:14.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/16/people-in-albania-share-your-thoughts-on-the-recent-not-for-sale-protests

For the last two weeks, Albanians have been protesting against a planned luxury resort backed by a company linked to Jared Kushner , the son-in-law of Donald Trump , near Vlora.

If it goes ahead, the development would occupy parts of an environmentally sensitive area which includes the uninhabited outcrop of Sazan and wetlands and coastal habitats in the surrounding marine national park – home to the Mediterranean monk seal and more than 200 bird species – including flamingos and Dalmatian pelicans, according to BirdLife International .

On Saturday, villagers from Rrjoll, located in an area of sandy beaches and pine forests in north-western Albania , protested against another development project , saying it was being built on their confiscated land.

We would like to hear from Albanians about what they think about the development project.

f you’re having trouble using the form click here . Read terms of service here and privacy policy here .

Keyword – UK news
Trefwoorden – Northern Ireland, Good Friday agreement, Democratic Unionist party (DUP), UK news, England, Rape and sexual assault
Title – ‘A sinful nature’: how Jeffrey Donaldson was unmasked as a sexual predator | Northern Ireland | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/lisaocarroll,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/rorycarroll
Link – ‘A sinful nature’: how Jeffrey Donaldson was unmasked as a sexual predator | Northern Ireland | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T13:32:15.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jun/22/incomprehensible-disbelief-after-jeffrey-donaldson-found-guilty-of-historical-sex-charges

W hile Joe Biden feted Jeffrey Donaldson at the White House during St Patrick’s Day celebrations in March 2024 a handful of detectives back home in Northern Ireland were quietly completing the countdown to his unmasking.

Weeks earlier Donaldson had steered the Democratic Unionist party ( DUP ) back to power-sharing at Stormont, a political feat that rebooted the Good Friday agreement and imbued a statesmanlike aura to his triumphant visit to Washington.

The Lagan Valley MP looked like an accountant and spoke in a passionless monotone – an antithesis to his fire-breathing predecessor Ian Paisley – yet he had brokered a deal with Downing Street over Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit status in the UK and convinced his party to accept it.

But days after his return from the US, on a damp, dark morning, the police swooped on his County Down home and everything Northern Ireland thought it knew about Donaldson imploded.

The Presbyterian family man who wore a fish badge on his lapel to signify his Christian faith was charged with 18 sexual offences – one count of rape plus multiple counts of indecent assault and gross indecency against two young victims – and his wife, Eleanor, was charged with aiding and abetting the abuse.

Two years later, the figure who stood convicted in the dock of courtroom one of Newry crown court appeared unchanged – immaculate suit, a bit jowly, no visible emotion – but was now a pariah.

Four weeks of evidence in the often sweltering chamber uncloaked a previously hidden Donaldson, 63, a predator who abused two girls over two decades while ascending the political ranks to prestige and power.

“It is just incomprehensible, that you have known someone for a lifetime and worked with for a lifetime and this happens,” said Reginald Empey, a unionist grandee who used to work closely with Donaldson. “You’re talking stuff which is off the charts here.”

Lord Empey said he got on well with Donaldson when he was a rising star in the Ulster Unionist party (UUP), before his defection to the DUP. “He was very highly regarded, ticked all the boxes, young, articulate, had a nice way with him. He wasn’t aggressive. He wasn’t a shouter.”

Regardless of the verdict, Donaldson was destroyed as a politician, said Empey. “Nobody can put Humpty Dumpty together again.”

The victims, complainant A and B, told the court that behind the media-savvy sheen – Donaldson projected reasonableness even when adopting hardline positions – lurked a manipulative man who abused them from 1985 to 2008.

Complainant A said she was of primary school age when Donaldson began to be “physical” with her and grope her chest. He used a light to look at her genitals and on another occasion kissed her and put his tongue in her mouth, she said. She recalled having nightmares about “men doing horrible things to children”.

Complainant B said the rape happened while she was of primary school age. “I remember being really still and all I could hear was his breath.” The memory of the assault endures, she told the court. “What happened that night will live with me for ever.”

Complainant B said she was of secondary school age during another incident – he lifted up her top and fondled her breasts – which she said was partly witnessed by his wife before she walked away.

She told police in her interview he “had this terrible breath” and was making a “panting sound”. “He never said anything, just always silence.”

Eleanor Donaldson told police, in an interview played in court, that it was a “massive shock” to see the pair alone in a room but that she had no evidence of wrongdoing. “I didn’t go in, I wasn’t in that room, I just stood in the open doorway.”

The trial judge, Paul Ramsey, judged the 60-year-old unfit to stand trial on mental health grounds so she faced a trial of facts, which tests the evidence but cannot result in a criminal conviction.

Donaldson was born into a middle class family in the shadow of the Mourne mountains in County Down, the oldest of five boys and three girls. The Troubles visited tragedy on the family – two cousins, who served in the security forces, were murdered in IRA attacks.

Donaldson won respect and authority in the UUP and later the DUP for his dogged persistence and tactical nous but he was an aloof figure with few close friendships.

There was almost something “smug” about Donaldson, one former colleague recalled. “He is very manipulative, very controlling and gives off an air that believes he is on a mission from God, someone with a direct instruction from above.” The former colleague could barely bring himself to discuss the abuse. “It disgusts me.”

In the 1990s Donaldson apologised to Complainant B during a meeting at a County Antrim Christian centre and in 2020 wrote a letter to Complainant A expressing regret for causing “hurt, pain and distress” and asking forgiveness for a “sinful nature”.

Under cross-examination Donaldson brazened it out and said those apologies referenced not abuse but unrelated matters and accused his accusers of making up the allegations . His barrister, Kieran Vaughan, questioned the complainants’ credibility and honesty. “We say the evidence shows that nothing happened.”

The jury of five women and seven men decided otherwise. Which means that from 1985, when Donaldson was first elected to a Northern Ireland assembly, the non-smoking, non-drinking, church-going politician began a dual life of secretly inflicting harm on innocents while giving polished public performances as a defender of conservative unionism.

Complainant A said that in her 20s she realised the abuse was not normal and became angry, an anger fuelled by the fact she had spent her life watching him in a public role “getting accolade after accolade”. For years she said nothing until eventually confiding in her husband.

“She was worried if she told me it would change my perspective on her,” the husband, who cannot be named to protect her anonymity, told the court. “She was scared. She told me she had never told anyone this. This was trauma she had for so many years, had boxed off, had tried to put on a smile and pretend that everything was OK.”

Donaldson’s prominence and clout intimidated them, said the husband. “We were both terrified.” The trial heard that Complainant B also kept her “memories locked away inside” and blamed herself for not speaking out in time to protect Complainant A.

Both women reached turning points in their lives which prompted them, in March 2024, to give statements about the Donaldsons to police. “Two voices are better than one,” said the prosecutor, Rosemary Walsh.

Donaldson’s reputation – garlanded with a knighthood – was at its zenith. His deal with Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government had ended a two-year DUP boycott of power-sharing over Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit status. Amid ceremonial pomp beneath Stormont’s ornate ceiling, Donaldson watched the assembly revive, and with it hope of political normality.

Instead, before dawn on 28 March, he and his wife awoke to the sound of police at their door. The couple were questioned at the serious crime suite at Antrim police station, charged and released on bail.

The case flabbergasted Northern Ireland. The DUP suspended Donaldson – who in any case resigned – and erased his name and image from the party’s website. In the July 2024 general election Donaldson did not contest his Lagan Valley seat, which he had held since 1997, and vanished from view.

The pre-trial hearings wrenched him back before the cameras. His wife, separated from him by a court security officer, looked the picture of defeat, gaunt and pale, staring up to the ceiling on occasion while Donaldson sat poker-faced, often arms folded, facing proceedings with the same grim determination he had brought to political battles .

The trial laid bare the history of abuse as well as a troubled marriage: it emerged that Donaldson had an affair with a woman in 2008 and that in 2020 his wife, suspecting another affair, had a listening device planted in his car. Eleanor told police that friends had advised her to “get off the Titanic before it sank”.

Donaldson’s wife was not present during the trial, leaving the former DUP leader a solitary figure in the dock. Flanked by custody officers, he remained impassive throughout.

In her summation, the prosecutor exhorted the jury to deliver justice to two victims whose pain and hurt remained visible. “The sexual abuse they suffered has consequences – consequences that cannot be ignored and brushed under the carpet any longer.”

In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood ( Napac ) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International

Keyword – Life and style
Trefwoorden – Life and style, Health & wellbeing, Guardian Careers, Relationships, Work & careers
Title – Chasing life goals is a recipe for disaster – so try these tiny experiments instead | Life and style | The Guardian
Author – Anne-Laure Le Cunff
Link – Chasing life goals is a recipe for disaster – so try these tiny experiments instead | Life and style | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T05:00:21.000Z
Category – Lifestyle
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jun/21/improve-career-health-relationships-experimental-mindset

E very January, millions of us sit down and write our goals for the year. By March, most of them have been abandoned. So we set new ones in spring, and when September rolls around, we do it again. New season, fresh start, same cycle – and plenty of beating ourselves up along the way. I lived this cycle for years. When I was working at Google as a digital health executive, I was a champion goal-setter with quarterly OKRs (objectives and key results) and a running list of personal goals I would review every week. On paper, it worked. I was successful by most external measures. But I had this persistent feeling that I was running just to stay in the same place, like the Red Queen in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass.

After retraining as a neuroscientist and studying how the brain learns, I started to understand why. Goals work brilliantly under very specific conditions. You want to buy a car that fits three kids and costs under £25,000? Set a goal, do the research, buy the car. The destination is known and the path is clear.

But most of the things we care about don’t work like that. Figuring out what kind of career makes you feel alive. Becoming the kind of parent you didn’t have a model for. Working out what “healthy” looks like for you. The destination keeps shifting as you grow.

That’s why chasing goals doesn’t work for life’s most important questions – career, relationships, health. It’s like locking in your answer before you have understood the question. And when we cling to a destination and try to push through the uncertainty, we set ourselves up for frustration and self-blame.

The experimental mindset

Scientists have a different relationship to uncertainty. They work with it. They wonder whether something will work, then design experiments to find out. Whatever the outcome, their only goal is to learn.

This is what I call the “experimental mindset”. It makes use of your brain’s natural ability to generate predictions about what will happen next, and to learn when those predictions turn out to be wrong. Most of us experience this as failure and try to avoid that feeling – so we stick to the plan, we double down.

The experimental mindset does the opposite. Instead of asking, “Am I there yet?”, you ask, “What can I learn?” This helps you to try new approaches, pay attention to what actually happens, and change direction when the evidence points somewhere new. The life you end up building is yours, not a copy-paste of someone else’s blueprint for success.

So what does this look like when you’re weighing up whether to leave a job, if a relationship has a future, or how to rebuild your social life after a big move? It all starts with designing a tiny experiment.

How to design a tiny experiment

All good experimentation begins with observation. Start by spending a bit of time observing your own life. I like to pretend I’m an anthropologist for 24 hours, taking field notes. What gives me energy? What drains it? Who are the people I love talking to? What are the ideas I can’t stop thinking about? Jot it all down on your phone or in a notebook.

Having coached thousands of people through this process, I can guarantee that you will spot areas of your life that are ripe for experimentation: routines you have been running on autopilot, such as checking your phone before you get out of bed, saying yes to every meeting invite, eating lunch at your desk because that’s what everyone does; commitments you have been accepting as part of the job, or part of the relationship; habits that are sabotaging your health. Those observations become the starting point for your first experiment.

The great news is you don’t need a lab. If you strip an experiment down to its most essential features, it is just two decisions: something to test and a trial period.

In effect, every experiment can be reduced to one line: “I will [action] for [duration].” That’s it. That’s your protocol. You’re not committing to a big goal. You’re running a tiny experiment.

Your career as a laboratory

We spend a huge part of our lives at work, and our career is deeply tied to our sense of identity, which makes it feel like a high-stakes area to experiment with. Add economic uncertainty to the mix and for most of us the instinct is: “I can’t afford to try things.”

But staying stuck in the wrong career is also costly: it costs us time, energy and the chance to figure out what we want. So rather than waiting until you feel ready to make a big change, try something small enough that it doesn’t feel like a risk:

“I will spend 30 minutes a day reading newsletters.”

“For a month, I will block out one afternoon a week for deep creative work.”

“I will have three coffee chats with people in jobs I’m curious about this quarter.”

None of these require overhauling your life, yet they can lead to unexpected opportunities. For instance, I committed to writing a weekly newsletter for 20 weeks. That experiment led to a consulting business and an online community of people interested in those ideas, which led to writing my first book. At no point did I set a goal to become an author, but that experiment opened doors I wouldn’t have known to look for.

Experimenting in relationships

We fall into patterns with the people closest to us – who calls whom, what you talk about, how you spend time together – and those patterns can calcify without anyone intentionally choosing them.

Applying an experimental mindset here is about noticing those defaults and testing whether something different might be better – for example, replacing one weekly catchup call with doing an activity together for six weeks, or contacting one person you’ve lost touch with each week for a month.

You won’t know which of these will help, but that’s the point. Each experiment teaches you something about what helps nurture the relationships that matter most to you and what doesn’t.

The same mindset works for romantic relationships. A friend of mine was single and, instead of setting the goal of finding a partner by the end of the year, he ran a series of experiments: trying singles events; asking friends for introductions; testing different apps. Framing each one as an experiment rather than a pass-or-fail audition gave him a chance to notice what he was drawn to. Instead of asking himself, “Was that person The One?”, he would reflect on what he had enjoyed and what he had learned about himself. It took the pressure off and helped him figure out what he really wanted, which turned out to be less about finding someone impressive and more about finding someone with whom he could talk honestly.

And you don’t have to experiment on your own. Parents can design experiments with their children, such as replacing screentime before bed with reading together for two weeks, or letting a teenager cook dinner once a month. Couples can test new date-night ideas; friends can commit to trying something new at the same time. In fact, some of the most rewarding experiments are the ones you run with someone else.

What does ‘healthy’ look like for you?

Wellness is the area most saturated with one-size-fits-all goals: 10,000 steps, eight glasses of water, lose X pounds by summer. And we either white-knuckle our way through them or feel like failures when we can’t stick to them.

And this is where the gap between generic advice and individual reality is often widest. What works for one person’s body, schedule and stress levels is completely different from what works for another’s. Yet we keep importing other people’s goals as if they were universal prescriptions.

The experimental mindset can help reframe your entire relationship to wellness: instead of adopting someone else’s definition of healthy and forcing yourself to comply, you run experiments to figure out what works for your body, your mind and your life.

Even something that looks like a straightforward goal, such as running a marathon, can benefit from an experimental approach. You don’t know how your body will respond to the training, what nutrition you need on long runs, or how to handle fatigue. The finish line might be fixed, but everything between here and there is experimentation.

Whether you are training for a marathon or just trying to sleep better, the approach is the same: rather than following a formulaic plan with borrowed goals, you design your own:

“I will exercise in the morning instead of the evening for two weeks.”

“I will go to bed at the same time every night for 10 days.”

“I will cut out processed food for a month.”

Each iteration will give you real data about your own body rather than following someone else’s rules. Over time, those experiments will add up to a definition of “healthy” that’s built around you.

Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World by Anne-Laure Le Cunff is published by Profile at £10.99 . To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply . Delivery charges may apply

Keyword – Games
Trefwoorden – Games, Culture
Title – From pwned to kiting – an A to Z of the gaming terms you need to know | Games | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/robin-craig
Link – From pwned to kiting – an A to Z of the gaming terms you need to know | Games | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T11:00:29.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/games/2026/jun/21/from-pwned-to-kiting-an-a-to-z-of-the-gaming-terms-you-need-to-know

T wenty years ago, video games were seen as a niche hobby dominated by hardcore enthusiasts, tucked away in obscure online forums and gaming meet-ups. Back then, the idea that governments would use footage from Call of Duty and gaming terms such as “killstreaks” as war propaganda would have been absurd. Then the 2010s happened: nerd culture popularised, previously online-only spaces began to meld with the real world, and gaming went mainstream.

Now, gaming references have entered common parlance – at the end of 2024, video game terms including “cheat code” and “cutscene” were even added to the Oxford English Dictionary – and they increasingly crop up in politics, too. Earlier this year, the official White House X account posted footage of military strikes on Iran interspersed with footage from the video game Grand Theft Auto. Six days later, another video was posted , this time interspersing military footage with clips from Nintendo’s 2006 game Wii Sports. Video game references aren’t reserved for the political right, either: in February 2026, Democrat representative of New York Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quipped , “Why does this guy always talk like a World of Warcraft npc [non-player character]?” in response to a post on X by Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff.

To help navigate this new world of gaming references and gaming-inspired “ slopaganda ”, we have compiled a guide to gaming terms, from phrases that are already widespread to those on the verge of cutting through.

A

Any% A method of beating a game by any means possible, including using glitches or other techniques to skip boss battles, cutscenes, and even entire levels. Any%ers often celebrate “breaking” the game through code exploits to gain a speed advantage. For a real world example, see Elon Musk’s approach to the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) .

B

Boosting Paying for someone else to do the hard work for you by, for example, levelling up your character, especially in online games. Generally viewed as cheating and against the ethos of gaming, it is also something that Elon Musk has admitted to doing for his characters in Path of Exile 2 and Diablo 4.

Buff An enhancement made to a character, item or ability that increases its power or effectiveness. The equivalent of having two pints at a bar to buff your confidence before speaking to someone you fancy.

Bullet sponge An enemy character that takes an absurd amount of damage before they are defeated. Also, derogatory military slang for a person whom nobody wants to be around because they always attract enemy fire. See also: “tanks”.

Button mashing Repeatedly pressing a random selection of buttons on a controller, usually as an act of sheer panic and desperation by inexperienced players trying to win difficult fights.

C

Camping A tactic, usually deployed in games involving shooting and combat, of staying in the same spot for long periods because of its strategic advantage. Often used to snipe other players from afar, which can quickly become very annoying and lead to accusations of trolling or “griefing” (see below).

Cheesing Using tactics that are not technically cheating, but are treading a fine line . Cheesing is effectively taking the easy way out and avoiding the intended challenge set by developers. Tactics include exploiting glitches and loopholes, spamming the same move again and again before an enemy can react, or making yourself overpowered (see “OP” below). One example of cheesing was in Crash Bandicoot: Warped (1998), where players could avoid taking any damage during a colosseum-themed boss fight by standing in a safe-spot corner. In the game’s 2017 remake, standing in that corner resulted in the player being pelted by blocks of cheese as a punishment.

Class A character’s role or occupation (such as warrior, samurai or bandit), often chosen early in the game. Most classes fall into the categories of offence, defence and support, and each class has its own strengths and weaknesses that requires players to adapt their playing style.

D

DLC “Downloadable content”, an extra part of a game that players can pay to download, often including new levels, outfits, items or weapons.

DPS “Damage per second”, a way of calculating how effective an in-game attack or weapon is by measuring how much it damages an enemy in one second.

E

Easter eggs One of the oldest video game terms, an Easter egg is a message, reference or feature hidden in a game. It originates from Steve Wright, a software developer at Atari in 1980, who compared a hidden room in the video game Adventure to an Easter egg hunt (the hidden room contained the signature of Warren Robinett, a coder who, in his own words , was “pissed” that he hadn’t received any credit for being the game’s creator).

Emotes Short gestures players can make their characters perform to show emotions, such as waving, laughing or crying. Popular in online games such as Fortnite and World of Warcraft, where emoting is often used to rile or mock other players.

F

Farming Performing an action in a game repeatedly to gather resources such as items or experience, much like going to work every day to accumulate money, but for fun and in your free time. See also: “grinding”.

G

Gank Similar to “jumping” someone in real life, this is a gaming strategy to ambush weaker players by sneaking up on them, usually in a group.

GG Short for “good game”, used during online games as a way to show sportsmanship at the end of a match. Can be extended to GG WP (“good game, well played”) or, if a player wants to brag about defeating a particularly weak opponent, GG ez (“good game, easy”).

Glitch A bug or malfunction in a game that causes unintended consequences. One of the most infamous is the “ Corrupted Blood incident” in World of Warcraft , where a glitch meant that a blood curse spread rapidly between players, eventually spreading so widely that developers had to reset the game. The incident was later used by scientists to study the spread of infectious diseases .

God mode To be omnisciently powerful and invincible within the world of the game, sometimes achieved using hacks or code exploits. During Doge’s overhaul of US government agencies, one senior leader at USAID declared to the Atlantic : “Doge has achieved God mode.”

Griefing To grief someone, or to be a “griefer”, is to wind other players up deliberately by being annoying, disruptive and generally infuriating. Often achieved through killing other players without reason, stealing items, or refusing to engage in team activities. See also: “trolls”.

Grinding Similar to “farming”: a repeated action or task undertaken to gather a resource or level up.

H

HP “Hit points” or “health points”, used to measure the health of a character or how much damage an attack does. Increasingly used in meme culture to joke about real-life damage or embarrassment, such as seeing someone fall over and quipping: “minus 10 HP”.

I

In Minecraft A phrase adopted by far-right sites such as 4chan, often added semi-ironically to the end of threats in an attempt to avoid legal repercussions (for example: “I’m going to punch him … in Minecraft”). It backfired in 2023 when a man was arrested for making death threats against a Florida sheriff on 4chan’s politics board, despite ending his threats with “in Minecraft”.

K

KDR “Kill/death ratio”, a measure used to compare the number of kills a player achieves with the number of times they die, usually to determine skill and competence in online multiplayer games.

Killstreak A continuous series of kills made by a player without being killed themselves (literally a “streak” of kills). This year, the White House was criticised for using a killstreak animation from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in a video featuring real footage from the war in Iran.

Kiting The tactic of hitting an enemy from range while keeping enough distance to avoid harm, often leading them around like a kite on a string.

L

Loot Items players collect as a reward for killing enemies or completing tasks. In recent years, controversial “loot boxes” have gained popularity in games including Genshin Impact and League of Legends, allowing players to exchange real money for randomised virtual items (sometimes also known as “gacha games”, named after Japanese Gashapon , vending machines that dispense capsule toys).

M

-maxxing Prioritising one skill or attribute over all others. Originates from “min-maxing”, a technique of creating the best possible character by maximising desirable traits and minimising undesirable ones. It has now entered mainstream vocabulary with the advent of looksmaxxing and Chinamaxxing .

MMORPG “Massively multiplayer online role playing game”, a game in which players interact with an enormous number of other players in an online fantasy world. A notable example is EVE Online, a sci-fi MMORPG, which, in 2014, saw a battle with 7,548 participants .

Modding Fan-created modifications that change elements of a game’s appearance or add new features. A personal favourite is a Skyrim mod that turns the game’s dragons into Thomas the Tank Engine characters .

N

Nerf To weaken or water down a weapon, character or ability (“I don’t want to play as Riven any more, she’s been nerfed!”), originating from the Nerf brand of toy guns that fire harmless soft foam weapons.

Noob Gaming slang that took hold in the 00s, short for “newbie” and sometimes spelt “n00b”, it is a derogatory word for a clueless and hopeless beginner.

NPC “Non-player character”, a video game character not controlled by the player. Increasingly used as slang for people who are predictable, robotic or lacking interiority, and sometimes tied to the philosophical idea that we live in a simulation .

O

OP “Overpowered”, referring to a character, item or ability that is ridiculously strong and makes winning easy. The spiritual opposite of “nerfed”.

P

Pwned A misspelling of the word “owned”, meaning a humiliating defeat (for example, “You died so easily! Pwned!”). It emerged in the early 00s as part of “leetspeak”, an online slang dialect heavily associated with hackers and coders. A notable example of the word escaping video games is the website “ Have I Been Pwned ”, established by a Microsoft developer to check whether your email has been compromised in security breaches.

R

Ragequit To suddenly stop playing a game out of anger and frustration, usually because you are repeatedly losing. In 2017, Vanity Fair accused Steve Bannon of threatening to ragequit the White House.

RPG “Role playing game”, typically a game with a heavy storytelling element in which players assume the roles of characters, make decisions for them and follow a narrative path.

S

Side quest A mission or activity that isn’t part of the game’s main story and is usually optional to complete. Sometimes used in more general slang to refer to the whimsical activities and adventures of day-to-day life, such as taking a sewing class or getting a tarot reading .

Skins Different designs and outfits that can be applied to characters to customise their appearance, such as “Peely”, a Fortnite skin that gives characters a banana costume.

Smurfing When a highly skilled player in an online game creates a new account to disguise their skill level and play against lower-ranked players. Originating from top Warcraft 2 players Geoff “Shlonglor” Frazier and Greg “Warp” Boyko, who disguised themselves under the usernames PapaSmurf and Smurfette to play against novice players.

Speedrunning A popular spectator sport that involves completing a game as fast as possible, sometimes using loopholes or glitches (see “Any%”). The term has recently broken into common parlance through “Scientology speedruns”, a 2026 social media trend in which participants film themselves running as far into Scientology buildings as possible before being stopped. One video racked up 90m views .

T

Tanks Also known as a meat shield or bullet sponge, a tank is a class of character designed to withstand large amounts of damage, akin to military tanks. See also: “bullet sponge”. Trolls Similar to griefers, players who don’t take the game seriously and annoy other players for fun, including by being purposefully offensive – for example, by posting slurs in the in-game chat.

Turtling A strategy where players build heavy defensive fortifications and force their opponents to make risky moves to break through, akin to building a defensive turtle shell.

X

XP “Experience points”, similar to HP, are a unit of measurement used to quantify a player’s skills and progress. Typically, the more XP one has, the stronger they are. Can also be used in real life, such as when video game streamer Sykkuno said: “ My XP bar is low ” in reference to dating inexperience.

Keyword – Politics
Trefwoorden – Politics, UK news, Keir Starmer, Economics, Business, John Major, Margaret Thatcher, David Cameron, Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Theresa May, Boris Johnson
Title – The ungovernable country? Why Britain keeps losing prime ministers | Politics | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/tomclark
Link – The ungovernable country? Why Britain keeps losing prime ministers | Politics | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T13:47:06.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/17/the-ungovernable-country-why-britain-keeps-losing-prime-ministers

T hey were times in which prime ministers seemed to be on their way out as soon as they’d arrived. The big strategic decisions the country faced were ducked or postponed. The public finances repeatedly wobbled, yet efforts to rationalise the tax system faltered in the face of vested interests, including farmers. Reforms to social security were trumpeted before being diluted. The whole business of politics was animated by rancour and rivalry, rather than practical action. All the while, populists waited in the wings.

This is not a sneak peak into a future history book about today’s Britain, but a description of the French fourth republic, which staggered after a difficult birth in 1946 until 1958, when the exhausted regime ceded the authority to create a new order to Gen Charles de Gaulle, effectively putting itself out of its misery.

Keir Starmer did not go so gently, raging against the dying of the light until Andy Burnham’s victory in Makerfield forced him to accept the inevitable. Overseas precedents for our political tumult are all there is, because British history can’t provide them. There has “never been a period like the present,” said Anthony Seldon, author of The Impossible Office?, which charts the 300-year story of the premiership.

Yes, there was a decade in each of the 18th (1760-1770) and 19th (1827-1837) centuries where we burned through prime ministers at a similar rate. But the six – and soon likely seven – PMs since 2016 rank as “unique” once we factor in the wider churn at the top. There have also been eight chancellors and nine foreign secretaries – before any post-Starmer reshuffle.

Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak, Starmer, and now, almost certainly, Burnham: cast your mind over the list and the first thought is not of anything solid actually happening, just the simple fact of the frenzy. That is not a coincidence.

Gus O’Donnell, the former cabinet secretary, has seen three transitions “at close hand”: Thatcher to Major, Blair to Brown and Brown to Cameron. In the “access talks” with the leader of the opposition before the 2010 election, David Cameron briefed him on the changes he would be asking for in Whitehall.

Then, O’Donnell said: “He asked me: ‘And what can I give you?’ I told him: ministers who stay in the same job for as long as possible, so they’ve got some sort of chance to get on top of their brief.”

O’Donnell sounded world-weary as he recollected trying to sustain strategies for big issues through games of ministerial musical chairs. Pensions is one field that cries out for a long-term approach: individuals are meant to plan, save and accrue rights over the course of a lifetime. Whereas, O’Donnell recalls, at one stage there were “nine pension ministers over the course of five years”.

An obvious but underdiscussed consequence of changing prime minister is that a huge proportion of other ministers will automatically change too. Any new PM will, naturally, want to shape their own cabinet, and no politician with the guile to reach the top of the greasy pole will be blind to the opportunities of using the junior ranks of government to reward loyalists and keep tricky customers under control.

And at the helm of the resulting team of novices will be an inexperienced leader – counselled by a new kitchen cabinet of advisers, mostly new to the workings of the centre of British power. As Cath Haddon of the Institute for Government thinktank acknowledges, there comes a point where personally ineffective PMs have to go. But she also worries about rendering the individual in the office ineffective by denying “the time needed to learn, govern and see projects through”. As “the conversion rate from prime ministers under pressure to prime ministers out the door” increases, she sees the second part of that equation becoming “underpriced”.

The evasions embodied in Labour’s one-word manifesto title, Change, have unravelled but lessons have not been learned. The demand from all sides through this leadership crisis is: “faster and less incremental change”.

Excitable lobby reporters, and indeed the passionate party activists who get the final say on who becomes prime minister these days, sometimes forget that big speeches do not in themselves alter much. Effective reforms become reality only after the drawing up of credible blueprints, the use of consultations to reaffirm principles and adjust for practicalities, the rewriting of laws, the securing and effective marshalling of resources.

“You need to do the work,” says Haddon. “And that inevitably takes time.”

The threat of removal can cause almost as much distraction and disruption as the fact of it. Damian Green was a close ally of Theresa May when the June 2017 election saw her lose her majority, raising questions about her survival that hung over her final two years in office.

“Theresa was clearly in trouble then – it became much more difficult to do anything long term,” Green recalls. During the early months of her premiership she had projected interest in big social challenges, and approached difficult subjects, such as domestic violence, that too many others had foregone. But now the order of the day was survival, which was bound up with one and only one issue. Suddenly, her singular and defining job was to “get a Brexit deal”.

To give her half a chance with this, May and Jeremy Heywood, then the cabinet secretary, made an extraordinary move. They shuffled Green from the Department for Work and Pensions to the made-up job of first secretary of state , in effect deputy prime minister, and handed him control of nearly everything else.

“I was in charge of all cabinet committees doing domestic policy, at one point 28, to take the load off Theresa’s shoulders,” said Green.

A loyalist, Green drove through the worthwhile if lower-profile priorities of his boss, such as restrictions on modern slavery. But no deputy has the profile or patronage that the PM can deploy to break logjams, and progress on bigger challenges including social care, a personal passion of Green, ground to a halt.

Today’s bouts of regicide mania were foreshadowed 30 years ago. John Major lasted longer than May: six and a half years. But within two, sterling had collapsed on Black Wednesday.

Thereafter, the battle for survival was constant and often uncertain. A former civil servant, Jill Rutter, did a spell in his No 10 policy unit. That’s the outfit tasked with doing the serious thinking about how to make prime ministerial ambitions concrete, but circumstances weren’t conducive.

After Major was forced to resort to a confidence vote on one step in the Maastricht process, Rutter recalled the unit’s director, Sarah Hogg, assembled the politically appointed half of her team and explained that if things went wrong they’d be imminently out of a job.

“No 10 felt very embattled, super suspicious with enemies at every corner. Often, the only concern was getting back on track,” said Rutter. Smart solutions are harder to hit on when you’re “walking on eggshells all the time”.

Causes like peace in Northern Ireland, in which Major developed a very personal stake, were advanced. But the PM really “can’t be and really shouldn’t need to be directly on top of everything,” said Rutter. Most of the time, it should be enough for “No 10 to know things on their behalf”, and steer the broader machine in line with their wishes.

The possibilities for such “good delegation”, Rutter added, can break down either because the instincts of the PM are too uncertain for staffers to be confident about what they would want, or because other ministers come to regard themselves as working for a temporary boss, go their own way and cease to keep Downing Street in the loop. The Starmer administration was dogged by the first problem from the off. Then the second set in.

Starmer was not wrong to warn there will be financial consequences from all the chaos. As economist Paul Johnson said: “The sad truth is we are in hock to the bond markets … We are already paying many billions more in debt interest than we would be if markets were charging us the same as they are charging other countries. And it is notable that the premium really began at that moment of maximum instability – the Truss premiership”.

Starmer’s problem, however, is that he has ceased to be a credible answer to the chaos. Just like May’s early promise of “strong and stable leadership,” his vow to “end the chaos” has become a sour joke.

So what it is about 2020s Britain that has, after a long period post-Major in which leadership crises were the exception rather than the norm, rendered the premiership an impossible office? Could it be the same sort of thing that has made the country, for example, sink untold billions into building a national high-speed rail network only to pare it back to the point where it connects Birmingham to London?

We are also a society that frets about public debt, yet shrinks from putting an end date on the arbitrary and unaffordable pensions triple lock. We have an economy that groans under an incoherent tax code, but can’t or won’t simplify it. Even modest moves towards big wealth paying a little are followed by retreats like we saw on the (misleadingly labelled) “family farm tax”. Nearly all politicians have now said they’d like to spend far more on defence, but almost none can explain where they’d find the money.

The obvious explanation for the paralysis on underlying substance and the uncontrolled political froth on the top is economic. Stagnation since the financial crisis has, undoubtedly, made the arithmetic of public policy harsher. But many earlier generations have regarded the economic plight of the country as exceptional.

The inflation of the 1970s is one case, the unemployment of the 80s another. Indeed, the author and historian Anthony Seldon points out that when the elderly Winston Churchill returned to power in the growing and fully employed economy of 1951, the newspapers screamed that ration books, balance of payments woes and the need to fund the Korean war made for the most overwhelming “prime ministerial in-tray” in history.

Yet back then, politics was remarkably stable. In that year’s election, a record 97% of the votes were split fairly evenly between the Labour party of Clement Attlee, whose leadership spanned 20 years, and the Tories of Churchill, who was at their helm for a 15-year stretch.

What’s changed, I think, is that the simple class divide of postwar society has been replaced by a variety of deep, overlaying cleavages: cultural divides like Brexit, values divides such as Gaza, and generational divides between older homeowners and younger tenants.

The historian Sudhir Hazareesingh tells me that the real roots of the French fourth republic’s woes were similar – too many separate schisms were drawn through politics at once, with polarised attitudes to the cold war, the constitution, the colonies and the social role of the church all segmenting the electorate in different ways.

Today, with all the enmities electrified by social media, summoning and then holding together a coalition together takes a blend of political talents. Boris Johnson’s levelling up agenda was one attempt, but he abjectly lacked the application to see it through.

The great lack with Starmer has been in understanding and imagination. He settled on a view of public opinion as irredeemably reactionary, and sought to impress it with cultural conservatism, instead of emphasising the economic radicalism that could have appealed across the cultural divide. He made the contemptuous bet that the people who should have provided his own base had nowhere else to go, however much he provoked them. Now he is finished, and gnawing doubts are setting in about whether anyone can assemble a governing coalition based on anything other than chauvinism.

That, however, is too dark a conclusion. Margaret MacMillan, a historian who studies leadership, said the “need is to appeal to people’s better natures”, and level with the public about the need for effort, perhaps sacrifice, and above all time to get great things done. She sees Mark Carney doing at least some of this in her native Canada, and notes his popularity is holding up well.

Back in France, once the fourth republic yielded to the fifth, Gaullist rule proved imperious and sometimes blinkered – but effective. A way was found through a lot of problems that had looked intractable. Bitter conflicts lingered and occasionally exploded but now, instead of simply drifting, problems were gripped.

The political frenzy slowed dramatically, and the French earned their reputation for getting roads, bridges, railway lines and other infrastructure built. The key to unlocking the far-sighted policies the country needs is not taking the politics out of everything, but doing politics properly. Andy Burnham should take that lesson to heart.

Tom Clark is a contributing editor at Prospect magazine

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – World Cup 2026, World Cup, Sport, Football, Côte d’Ivoire football team, Senegal football team, Morocco football team, Tunisia football team, Cape Verde
Title – African teams have a point to prove at this World Cup. How are they faring? | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jonathanwilson
Link – African teams have a point to prove at this World Cup. How are they faring? | World Cup 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T14:40:55.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/22/africa-is-out-to-prove-a-point-at-this-world-cup

O n Monday evening local time at New York New Jersey Stadium, Senegal will face Norway in a game that is not only crucial in terms of who qualifies from Group I, but will go a long way in determining how African performance at this World Cup is viewed. This is not entirely fair – nobody can seriously doubt that Senegal are an extremely adept side, and it may be that the court of arbitration for sport decides that they are indeed the reigning African champions – but there is a sense that Africa could do with a big performance.

No region benefited as much from the expansion of the World Cup as Africa. In Qatar in 2022, five of the 32 slots (16% of the field) went to the Confederation of African Football (Caf). Of the 48 slots this time around, nine went automatically to Caf, and they secured a 10th when DR Congo beat Jamaica in an interconfederational playoff in March. Caf had lobbied for years for more representation, arguing it was unfair that it had only five slots for its 54 members, while Conmebol, the South American confederation, had four plus a playoff for 10 members (21% of the field). The response was that Conmebol sides had won the World Cup nine times, while Caf sides had only made the quarter-finals on three occasions. By the end of the last World Cup, Conmebol were up to 10 victories and Caf had its first semi-finalist.

Caf’s logic was always that more sides at the finals would give them more of an opportunity to demonstrate quality, that African contenders would be less likely to be undermined by an unfortunate spate of injuries, a badly timed run of form or ill luck. To justify Caf’s extra slots, it really needs a minimum of five of its sides to make it to the last 32. How has that worked out?

Let’s start with the bad. Tunisia have been dreadful, undermined by shambolic leadership. They sacked manager Sabri Lamouchi after a 5-1 defeat to Sweden and then lost 4-0 to Japan under Hervé Renard, their seventh coach since qualifying began. South Africa, meanwhile, bafflingly adopted a back five for the opening game, tried to play in an unfamiliar style and were well-beaten by Mexico. A late penalty brought a fortuitous draw against Czechia and they could still make it through to the last 32 if they beat South Korea in their final group game. South Africa’s passivity, though, is not just damaging; it feels betrayal of the progressive football that had previously characterised them under Hugo Broos.

Algeria’s defensive shortcomings, exposed by Nigeria in the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final, were shown up again by Argentina in a 3-0 loss. If your defence can’t handle Akor Adams, there’s very little chance of it handling Lionel Messi. Monday’s game against Jordan represents a vital chance to restore stability and confidence.

There have also been positives. For Morocco and Côte d’Ivoire, there is a sense of what might have been. Both took the lead against a former World Cup winner and neither team finished the job. Morocco were all over Brazil before the first-half hydration break and really should have scored more than the one they did. The 1-0 win over Scotland was similar in the sense that it should have been by more.

Côte d’Ivoire matched Germany for an hour and led in an engaging, high-quality game. They may have sat deep and attacked on the counter through Amad Diallo and, especially, Yan Diomande, but this wasn’t an underdog going into the bunker and simply looking to survive. It was a proper game between two well-matched sides, but Germany had greater strength in depth and won it with two goals from the substitute Deniz Undav.

Senegal may reflect similarly after their game against France. There was no shame in their 3-1 defeat, but having held the 2018 world champions comfortably in the first half, they faded in the final quarter. That pattern of African sides fading late is uncomfortably familiar, and may speak to a lack of strength in depth compared to the best sides in the world. Or perhaps it’s due to tactical shortcomings, a mental block or perhaps even a lack of belief that the European and South American elite can be beaten.

Ghana bucked the trend with their late win over Panama. They did not play especially well, but in grim unyielding resistance they were very clearly a Carlos Queiroz side. Queiroz’s former side Egypt, meanwhile, having failed to hold a lead against Belgium, overwhelmed New Zealand in the second half and now sit atop Group G.

Other sides have lesser ambitions. The two African minnows, Cape Verde and DR Congo, have both performed creditably. The latter went behind early to Portugal, responded well, equalised and held their highly fancied opponents relatively easily. The question is whether they can repeat that level of performance against Colombia and Uzbekistan. Cape Verde, having held Spain, then drew a thriller against Uruguay.

Which leaves us where? Egypt, Morocco and Côte d’Ivoire should go through. Ghana have a very good chance, Cape Verde and DR Congo have more of a chance than anybody thought likely, Algeria have to get a result on Monday, Senegal may find themselves undone by a cruel draw, South Africa still have an outside opportunity and Tunisia are done.

The total to advance will probably end up at around the five or six needed in the knockouts to justify the increase in representation. The next step is to start converting those leads against big sides into wins.

This is an extract from Soccer Desk: World Cup edition, a newsletter from the Guardian US that will run regularly during the tournament. Subscribe for free here.

Keyword – Music
Trefwoorden – Music, Culture, Disco, Pop and rock
Title – ‘Beyoncé’s Crazy in Love makes you move your body’: Gloria Gaynor’s honest playlist | Music | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/rich-pelley
Link – ‘Beyoncé’s Crazy in Love makes you move your body’: Gloria Gaynor’s honest playlist | Music | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T08:00:25.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jun/21/gloria-gaynor-honest-playlist-marvin-gaye-beyonce

The first song I fell in love with I grew up in Newark, New Jersey, with five brothers and one sister, so there was always music in the house. I remember my mom singing Willow Weep for Me when I was five or six. There was something about the sadness in it that really moved me.

The first single I bought I heard Why Do Fools Fall in Love by Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers on the radio and bought it from a local record store. I was singing in the hallway of our building when a neighbour leaned over and asked: “Gloria, was that you singing?” She thought it was the radio. That was the moment I decided I was going to be a singer.

The song I do at karaoke I’ve only done karaoke once – about 20 years ago, for my birthday. Someone dared me to get up and sing I Will Survive as if I were drunk. I thought: if you’re going to do it, you might as well commit. So I did – and I nailed it.

The song I inexplicably know every lyric to Every Little Bit Hurts by Alicia Keys. I sympathised with the unrequited love in the lyrics, having suffered the same feeling as a young girl.

The best song to play at a party Crazy in Love by Beyoncé featuring Jay-Z, because it’s a fun song that makes you want to move your body the moment it comes on.

The song I can no longer listen to Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel by Tavares, because my ex-husband used to sing it to me. Now I can’t listen to it without it reminding me of him.

The best song to have sex to Let’s Get It On by Marvin Gaye because it’s got a sexy groove, the right tempo, and the words have the right vibe.

The song that changed my life Never Can Say Goodbye was my first major hit, and it changed everything. Suddenly there were more shows, bigger audiences and opportunities to travel the world. It took me from being someone with a dream to someone who was living it.

The song that gets me up in the morning Great Is Thy Faithfulness. It’s a traditional gospel song, but I love the version by Carrie Underwood.

The song that makes me cry Amazing Grace: my version opens my last album. Every time I sing it, it touches something deep in my spirit. It reminds me of how God’s grace has carried me through my life.

The song I want played at my funeral A song I wrote called I Want to See You. It’s about reunion – about seeing your loved ones again in heaven. That’s the message I’d want to leave behind.

Gloria Gaynor headlines Boogietown in Walton-on-Thames, on 11 July.

Keyword – Music
Trefwoorden – Music, Culture, Music industry, Pop and rock
Title – Clive Davis predicted music’s biggest stars like no one else | Music | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/alexispetridis
Link – Clive Davis predicted music’s biggest stars like no one else | Music | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T19:56:58.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jun/22/clive-davis-appreciation

C live Davis always claimed that his life in the music business was really kickstarted when he chose to attend the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival: it was there he saw Janis Joplin and her band Big Brother and the Holding Company, and immediately bought their contract for $200,000, the first really high-profile signing of his career. But Davis was an unlikely fit at the most high-profile event of the Summer of Love: he was a Harvard-educated lawyer who had been “shocked” when a restructuring of Columbia Records saw him promoted from general counsel to the company’s president. He was sharp enough to spot which way the pop cultural wind was blowing – “a revolution in culture and philosophy”, he later recalled, “the Haight-Ashbury scene, with love peace and flowers” – but he was no one’s idea of a hippie. Amid a sea of paisley, batik, love beads and bells David turned up to the festival clad in “khaki pants and a tennis sweater”.

It was an image he would often recall for comic effect – “ I was the costumed freak surrounded by everyone with flowers in their hair” – but there was something rather telling about it too: Davis’s skill as what used to be called a record man lay in his ability to balance the progressive with the traditional. He turned one wing of Columbia into something of a home for artists associated with the burgeoning counterculture, swiftly signing Santana, Blood Sweat and Tears, the Electric Flag and the wonderful psychedelic soul band the Chambers Brothers. But he never lost sight of the other side of the company, which dealt lucratively in soundtracks and easy listening and was home to Barbra Streisand and Tony Bennett: at one juncture, he found himself simultaneously attempting to renegotiate the contracts of Bob Dylan and Andy Williams. When he founded Arista Records in 1974, he did exactly the same thing: it was a label that provided a home for both Patti Smith and Barry Manilow.

That Davis never seemed particularly in thrall to one style or genre of music might have been attributable to his background. Before taking the job at Columbia, he claimed he had “zero” interest in the music industry, and wasn’t even a particularly big fan of music: “I listened in a very ordinary way,” he recalled, “like anyone would listen to the radio. I never collected records, or wanted to be the fly on the wall in a studio.” You can see how that enabled him to flit between genres with ease – he was as happy to sign Earth Wind and Fire as he was Aerosmith or Bruce Springsteen – or to take risks when others might have demurred. When Miles Davis protested that his records weren’t selling in the quantities he would have liked, Davis boldly suggested he move out of traditional jazz venues and play as a support act for rock bands, one of the key factors in the crossover success of 1969’s Bitches’ Brew. But more mysterious was his seemingly unfailing ear for a song, his innate understanding of what would grab the public’s mass imagination.

It was Davis who spotted a minor 1971 UK hit by Scott English called Brandy and took it to Manilow (retitled Mandy, it became his first No 1); Davis who heard something in the work of a minor songwriting duo called Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff and signed their nascent label, Philadelphia International Records, to a distribution deal; Davis who found Saving All My Love for You and I Wanna Dance With Somebody for his most celebrated signing of the 80s, Whitney Houston; David who re-signed Santana in the late 90s with the proviso that he be allowed to pick half the songs on his next album (Supernatural went on to sell 30m copies); Davis who worked out that what the American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson needed was a song a little tougher and hipper than the usual TV talent show winner’s fare, and spotted it in Since U Been Gone, a Max Martin/Lukasz Goswald track that had already been rejected by Pink and Hillary Duff. He seemed to know instinctively when to meddle in an artist’s career – he told Bruce Springsteen he needed to move around more onstage if he didn’t want to be saddled with the “new Dylan” tag that Davis considered a kiss of death – and when to sit back and leave them alone: rebuffed when he tried to sign the Grateful Dead in the early 70s, he simply bided his time while they attempted to set up their own label, completely independent from the rest of the music industry, then signed them when the venture came to grief, as Davis had predicted it would.

He certainly made mistakes, among them turning down Meat Loaf’s 43m-selling Bat Out of Hell on the grounds that it was “too theatrical” and its author didn’t look like a star. But his successes were so stellar and varied that it seems churlish to dwell on his failures. Moreover, he demonstrated an astonishing ability to pick himself up and carry on after what appeared to be career-derailing disasters. Arista was founded after he was fired by Columbia, who alleged financial irregularities that David hotly disputed. Ousted by Arista in 2000, he set up his own label J, which proved extraordinarily successful in the early 00s, the home of Christina Aguilera and Avril Lavigne, Alicia Keys and Kesha, Maroon 5 and Leona Lewis: still keeping one eye on the middle-of-the-road, J also reinvigorated Rod Stewart’s career by encouraging him to record albums of Great American Songbook standards.

It was, by any measure, an extraordinary career, so varied that it was almost impossible to make sense of. Confronted with the man who provided a connection between Barry Manilow and Iggy Pop or Bruce Springsteen and Whitney Houston, interviewers were given to wondering, what did the array of artists with whom Davis worked have in common? Clive Davis had a snappy answer preprepared: “They’re all,” he was wont to say, “headliners.”

Keyword – Culture
Trefwoorden – Culture, Pop and rock, Music, Indie
Title – ‘Guys would think I was a girl then get aggressive when they found out my name was Brian’: how Placebo made Nancy Boy | Culture | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/davesimpson
Link – ‘Guys would think I was a girl then get aggressive when they found out my name was Brian’: how Placebo made Nancy Boy | Culture | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-22T14:17:45.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/jun/22/how-placebo-made-nancy-boy

Brian Molko , singer, songwriter

Nancy Boy was about reclaiming the homophobic insults that were hurled at me every time I went out because I had long hair and wore eyeliner and nail polish. I’d walk into a bar and people would react vociferously, or guys would think I was a girl then get really aggressive when they found out my name was Brian. I thought I could regain some power by writing a celebration of debauchery that was so brazenly sexual it would piss off the people who insulted me even more.

Also, [Suede singer] Brett Anderson had recently told NME he was a “bisexual man who’d never had a homosexual experience”, which I thought was bollocks. I thought he was being a sexual tourist. We know each other now and he’s a fantastic person – back then we all said cheeky things for effect – but part of my motivation was to write a song about a bisexual man who has had a bisexual experience.

I was living on income support in Deptford, London, when I came up with the chorus, but I thought the chords were too catchy or mainstream. I wasn’t sure if I liked them, but when I played them round at Stefan’s – he lived with his parents – he said: “Man, that’s such a hook.” In the rehearsal room it became this distorted punk thing.

The words almost wrote themselves. I was trying to tell a story of a wild night out, so started: “Alcoholic kind of mood, lose my clothes, lose my lube.” It was the kind of night we’d have on rare occasions but it certainly wasn’t our lives yet. “Had some help from insect ways” is a reference to Spanish Fly or any substance that made you horny – you could buy GHB in shops then. The line: “Eyeholes in a paper bag, greatest lay I’ve ever had” was also reclaiming an insult, because at school people would point at girls and say: “I wouldn’t fuck her with a paper bag on her head.” I was a very green songwriter and they’re not my best lyrics.

When we recorded Nancy Boy for our debut album it just didn’t have our live energy. So we re-recorded it with Phil Vinall. Phil enabled us to turn up the distortion. When we performed it on Top of the Pops there were 43 complaints because people couldn’t work out what gender I was. This song changed everything for us and had a purpose: it made people who felt like outsiders feel less lonely, and they became our audience.

Stefan Olsdal , bass, songwriter

In 1994, when we wrote Nancy Boy, I was in an illegal relationship, because I was 19 and the age of consent was still 21 for gay men. That was probably in the ether for Nancy Boy, then when I heard Brian’s chords I was hooked. I was interested in the idea of wrapping dark, subversive or explicitly sexual lyrics in something quite melodic.

We made a demo in Deptford, hiring the studio between midnight and 6am because it was cheaper, and the tape somehow found its way on to David Bowie’s tour bus. We ended up supporting him before we’d even made our debut album. Then when the first proper recording of Nancy Boy wasn’t right we tried overdubbing fast drums to bring some energy, but it didn’t have a punch. By the time we recorded it again we had more live experience and were so pissed off about the first version that the energy went into the well-known one.

I still don’t know how it got on the radio, but maybe the play on words helped us get away with it. There are no expletives in Nancy Boy and I certainly don’t remember us saying: “We can’t sing this – we’ll be in trouble!” When we started touring, we got the shit kicked out of us in Middlesbrough, and in the conservative southern States of the US supporting Weezer we were pelted with coins, but mostly we were embraced. The song’s success brought us a lot of freedom. As human beings discovering who they were in the public eye, it gave us a lot of confidence, and artistically we realised we could push at boundaries and didn’t have to pander to any expectations. Nancy Boy is a snapshot of a moment, but 30 years later it’s very much a part of who we are.

Placebo Re:created is out now. The band’s 30th anniversary tour reaches the UK in November.

Keyword – Environment
Trefwoorden – El Niño southern oscillation, Climate crisis, Extreme weather, Extreme heat, Drought, Famine, Environment
Title – El Niño is back with a vengeance – and fears of ‘Godzilla’ strength may be the least of our worries | El Niño southern oscillation | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/ajit-niranjan
Link – El Niño is back with a vengeance – and fears of ‘Godzilla’ strength may be the least of our worries | El Niño southern oscillation | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-21T13:00:33.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/21/el-nino-fears-godzilla-strength-hunger-famine

A dugna Woyessa was a little boy the first time drought tore his country apart. As harvests failed in rain-starved regions of Ethiopia in the early 1970s, and his school turned a classroom into a grain store for farmers to send aid, he had no idea that scientists were beginning to connect the force parching its fields with cyclical shifts in trade winds that had long supercharged violent weather from South America to Australia.

The now notorious El Niño – Spanish for “little boy” – was named by fishers in the Pacific in the 1800s, but it was not until the 1970s that scientists understood its global nature and began to piece together the historical impact of the natural weather pattern characterised by hot years and brutal extremes.

The 1972-73 El Niño warmed Peruvian waters to levels that collapsed the world’s largest anchovy fishery – prompting scientists to conduct the first forecast of its state the following year – and brought harsh drought to south Asia, the Sahel and parts of east Africa ahead of an oil crisis that deepened global hunger. In Ethiopia, protests against the emperor’s handling of the famine helped a military coup that ushered in a communist dictatorship.

“El Niño is one of the most challenging climate phenomena,” said Woyessa, who grew up to become an epidemiologist at the Ethiopian Public Health Institute and has studied its effects on malaria epidemics . “Nutrition is everything for your capacity to withstand the challenges of its negative impacts on human health.”

All too often, though, nutrition is what El Niño takes away from those who most need it. Woyessa was in high school when a stronger El Niño hit a decade later in 1982-83, forcing some of his classmates to travel 150km to help with harvests on state farms. By his first year of university, further crop failures and civil war had escalated widespread hunger into an even more ruinous famine, which drew global attention through the Live Aid concert. Woyessa and his fellow students took turns helping people in shelters near their college. “We had two breads in the morning, and we were supposed to share our breakfast.”

Scientists are quick to caution that climatic shifts are only one factor among many when a society collapses, but at the extreme end of the spectrum, El Niño can spell apocalyptic suffering. In the worst El Niño years in the 19th century, the death toll from famines in India, China and Brazil stretched into the tens of millions. There is some evidence to suggest it set the scene for the French Revolution in the 18th century with erratic weather that ruined harvests, and it helped the Spanish conquer the Inca empire in the 16th century with rains that nourished the desert vegetation that sustained their march. Looser theories suggest it brought down ancient civilisations from Egypt to China.

This year, El Niño is back – and scientists fear it will resemble a young man more than a little boy. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US said El Niño conditions had formed in the Pacific last week and carried a 63% chance of being “very strong” by the peak near the end of the year. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology followed on Tuesday, warning it would worsen the extreme heat and wildfires that engulf the country each year.

Some scientists have informally dubbed it a “super” or “Godzilla” El Niño based on the expected size of the temperature anomaly, which will push global heat higher at a time when extreme weather events such as Europe’s recent heatwaves and slew of storms are pushing the boundaries of what societies can handle. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) used more measured language when it warned us to prepare for its return earlier this month, arguing a wide spread in model results made it too early to call its strength.

But even if it falls short of doom-laden predictions, it will be arriving amid unprecedented conditions that will make its effects more complex. Scientists say next year is almost certain to be the hottest on record, while a host of economic factors have left vulnerable countries more exposed. “My worry is not for the El Niño alone,” said Sonali McDermid, a climate scientist at New York University who shares the WMO’s caution about its intensity. “I’m worried about the confluence of multiple stressors happening at the same time.”

About half of the world’s 68 poorest countries are experiencing debt distress or at high risk of it, the International Monetary Fund warned in March, and the Iran war has since led to high energy prices and restricted fertiliser supplies that have weakened buffers against weather shocks. This month, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network projected 115-125 million people would need urgent food assistance by December, with risks of famine in Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia. The gutting of US overseas aid and the shrinking of European development budgets means less support may come when crises hit.

On Thursday, the threat posed by El Niño prompted the UN’s World Food Programme and its Food and Agriculture Organization to issue their first joint appeal for funds to avert a crisis before it happens. Citing research that shows every $1 spent in “anticipatory action” saves $7 in humanitarian relief costs, the agencies said they were $167m short of the $202m needed to help 8.8 million people with drought-resistant seeds, flood defences, water storage systems and cash transfers.

The good news, if there is some, is that El Niño is not expected to lead to worse outcomes for crops at a global scale, as gains in some regions typically offset losses in others, but the losers will include those least able to cope. Many of the African and Asian countries most exposed have also been hit hard by fertiliser shocks, and have some of the highest levels of food import dependence and debt stress, said Anne Jellema, the executive director of 350.org, a climate campaign group. “That means El Niño removes the last domestic lifeline for people who can’t access markets, increasingly can’t get humanitarian aid, and can’t move around freely.”

Shockwaves are also set to be felt in the rich world as El Niño brings stronger heatwaves and wider spread of some vector-borne diseases. Its arrival “persistently” slows improvements in mortality even in wealthy countries such as the US, Australia, Japan and South Korea, according to a study published in January in Nature Climate Change.

To some degree, the damage done by El Niño has in recent decades been checked by a level of predictability – but it provides a taste of the cascading horrors that climate scientists warn will destabilise societies as the planet heats up.

Deepened by geopolitical tensions, high energy and fertiliser prices and fragile supply chains, El Niño-related shocks may be “increasing the likelihood of compound and non-linear systemic impacts”, a study by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre warned on Monday, with knock-on effects that run the gamut of economic sectors connected to the natural world.

“A plausible transmission pathway would run from droughts, floods and heat stress affecting agricultural production, labour productivity, water availability, hydropower generation and transport systems, to higher food and energy prices, inflationary pressure, fiscal stress and weaker borrower repayment capacity,” the authors wrote.

Can such calamities be avoided next year? El Niño does not have to be “a recipe for disaster”, according to the WMO, which said its forecasts are more a call to action before hazards escalate into crises. Its secretary general, Celeste Saulo, urged the world to intensify efforts to build multi-hazard early warning systems, as only 128 countries report that they have such systems in place.

Climate campaigners, meanwhile, have called for the cancellation of global south debt and the funding of social protections through windfall taxes on excess profits of oil and gas companies, rather than funding fossil fuels. “There’s a lot of research showing that targeted social protection is way more effective than subsidising fossil fuels and fertilisers because it goes to the people who need it most,” said Jellema.

António Guterres, who ends his terms as UN secretary general at the end of this year, has been making similarly desperate calls to global leaders for years – pleading with them to break the addiction to fossil fuels that has driven the overheating of the planet and the degradation of the natural world. The world has warmed by about 1.3C since the Industrial Revolution, and temperatures are rising so fast that the worst El Niño years of the recent past – such as 1997-98 – are far less hot than current years in which the system shifts to La Niña, its cooler counterpart.

For Woyessa, the rise in temperatures and loss of forests had disrupted rainfall patterns even around the village he grew up in. The river he used to swim in as a boy has been reduced to a small stream and the rainfall that previous generations used to rely on for planting crops has grown erratic. When he used to phone his late father, he added, asking about rain was a typical way to start a conversation.

“The main concern is the shifting of the rainy season,” he said. “The onset is totally changed compared with my childhood.”