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China
Vladimir Putin arrives in Beijing for state visit hot on heels of Trump
Amy Hawkins
Tue 19 May 2026 17.27 CESTFirst published on Tue 19 May 2026 15.24 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/19/vladimir-putin-beijing-china-state-visit-xi-jinping-russia

Vladimir Putin has arrived in Beijing for a state visit, four days after Donald Trump left China.

The Russian leader’s visit to China – his 25th, according to Chinese state media – reflects Beijing’s growing confidence on the world stage as a centre of global diplomatic activity.

It also underscores the deep relationship between Putin and China’s leader, Xi Jinping . The two men have met more than 40 times, far outstripping Xi’s encounters with any western leaders.

William Yang, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, said: “Hosting two of the most powerful leaders in the world in a matter of days shows China’s growing confidence in its place and standing in the world.”

He said Xi “likely wants to remind Trump that Beijing has other solid and robust relationships that it can count on, so Washington can’t easily isolate or harm Beijing if it tries to”.

Putin’s visit comes as he is entering what may be the most difficult period of his long rule. His strongman image at home is beginning to fray as Russia has made little progress on the battlefield in Ukraine this year. Russia’s growing economic troubles are steadily increasing its dependence on China, turning what the Kremlin frames as a partnership of equals into a far more lopsided relationship.

The Russian leader published a video address to China on the eve of the visit. He said China-Russia relations had reached “an unprecedented level”, pointing to the countries’ soaring bilateral trade, the fact that settlements were conducted nearly entirely in roubles and yuan rather than the US dollar, and mutual visa-free policies for Chinese and Russian travellers.

China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on Tuesday: “The friendship between China and Russia will be further deepened and will be more deeply rooted in people’s hearts” by the strategic guidance from Xi and Putin.

This year marks 30 years since Beijing and Moscow signed a strategic partnership agreement and 25 years since they signed the “treaty of good-neighbourliness and friendly cooperation”.

Putin’s remarks about non-dollar-denominated transactions highlight the extent to which the two countries have been trying to build up their resilience against western sanctions, which rely on the dominance of the US dollar to be effective.

China does not comply with western sanctions on Russia and since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine has bought more than $367bn of Russian fossil fuels, according to data collected by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

Analysts will be watching to see if Putin and Xi agree any deals to further deepen energy cooperation. The most high-profile project under discussion is the Power of Siberia 2, a 1,600-mile (2,600km) natural gas pipeline that would add 50bn cubic metres of gas capacity to Russia’s flows to China. The pipeline would run through Mongolia and is viewed by the Kremlin as key to making up for lost European export markets.

An additional overland supply of energy from Russia would reduce China’s reliance on the strait of Hormuz, which has been crippled by the US’s war with Iran. But it could also make China overly dependent on Russia at a time when China wants to boost its energy self-sufficiency.

Putin has been a background figure in Xi’s delicate relationship with the US. As Xi gave Trump a rare tour of his private residence in Beijing last week, the Chinese leader said Putin was one of the few other foreign leaders to have been invited in to the Zhongnanhai compound, sometimes referred to as China’s Kremlin. “Good,” replied Trump.

China has also been hit by western sanctions as a result of the war in Ukraine. This month the Chinese embassy in the UK lodged “stern representations” about the fact that London had added two Chinese entities to its Russian sanctions list.

Western countries have criticised Beijing’s ongoing support for Russia through economic ties and the export of dual-use equipment with military applications.

Ukraine was not mentioned in detail in either the US or the Chinese summaries of the main bilateral meeting between Trump and Xi last week. But the FT later reported that, according to people familiar with the US assessment of the summit, Xi told Trump that Putin may end up regretting the war. China’s foreign ministry has rejected the reports.

If proven accurate, Xi’s comments probably reflect China’s growing awareness of Russia’s difficulties, both on the battlefield and at home. The war in Ukraine has largely ground into a stalemate, while Ukrainian long-range drone and missile strikes have inflicted significant damage on Russian energy infrastructure and military facilities.

On Tuesday, a Russian deputy from Siberia called for the “swift conclusion” of the war, warning that Russia’s economy would “not withstand a prolonged continuation of the special military operation” – a rare public acknowledgment of the strain the conflict is placing on the country.

Additional research by Yu-chen Li

Labour
John Healey says Labour infighting puts government’s credibility at risk
Dan Sabbagh
Tue 19 May 2026 20.22 CESTLast modified on Tue 19 May 2026 20.33 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/19/john-healey-says-labour-infighting-puts-governments-credibility-at-risk

John Healey has criticised Labour figures jockeying to become prime minister in a politicised speech in which he said the party’s “very credibility“ in government was at stake if the infighting deepened.

The defence secretary, a Keir Starmer loyalist, said the party had turned in on itself since the May elections in what appeared to be direct criticism of Andy Burnham, Wes Streeting and even the junior defence minister Al Carns.

Arguing that “these are serious times”, Healey – who was also a minister under Gordon Brown – said Labour had to demonstrate how it would meet the moment while Russia continued to attack Ukraine and “crisis after crisis” hit British families’ incomes.

“We must not throw away so lightly the power we were given,” he said, contrasting his personal style with those hoping to oust the beleaguered Starmer as prime minister.

“Politics to me is not about the individual. I don’t much care about photo opportunities or PR firms. People will not forgive us if they think we’re more concerned about ourselves than we are about them,” he said at a speech to the Good Growth Foundation.

“Right now, the very credibility of Labour in government is at stake,” he said. “We must get serious. It’s not about us, not about the insiders of politics, it’s about the interests of the country.”

He did not mention others by name, but it was clear whom he was referring to. Allies said his speech was intended to be “a hard message” to the party, which should be seeking to get on with government.

Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, who is standing for the newly vacant seat of Makerfield , has been pictured jogging at least twice since he indicated he wanted to return to Westminster and run to be prime minister.

Streeting resigned as health secretary last week in the hope of sparking a leadership contest, complaining that “where we need vision, we have a vacuum”. His initial bid stalled as it became clear he had little prospect of winning a contest.

Carns, a former special forces soldier, has claimed thousands of pounds of parliamentary expenses to produce promotional videos, including one showing him doing pull-ups at a fire station in competition with a firefighter.

Healey said defence spending had grown under Labour and would rise to 3.5% of GDP by 2035. The Ministry of Defence “estimates this means over half a million Brits will work for a defence firm in a decade’s time”, he said.

Future military spending would need to work “once for national security and once for British industry,” he said, setting a new guideline and arguing that defence jobs were skilled, unionised and offered an average salary of £57,000.

Despite the pledge, however, no date was announced for the publication of the long delayed defence investment plan, which has been the subject of a financial battle with the Treasury. Covering all critical military programmes, it remains up to £18bn overspent.

Healey promised the plan was coming soon, but said it had to be properly budgeted for. “Countries that cannot pay their way, cannot defend themselves,” he said, justifying the need to boost economic growth to pay for new arms.

He also sought to distinguish Labour’s approach from its nearest political rivals. He accused Reform of being supported by “pro-Russian cronies and crypto billionaires”, the latter a reference to Christopher Harborne, who donated £5m to Nigel Farage before he stood at the general election.

At the same time, he accused the Greens, who made sweeping gains from Labour in inner London in the local elections of wanting “to shut down the defence industry”.

Brexit
Delusional, desperate and mostly called David, Brexiters gather to lament the Great Betrayal
John Crace
Tue 19 May 2026 18.59 CESTLast modified on Tue 19 May 2026 22.23 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/19/delusional-desperate-and-mostly-called-david-brexiters-gather-to-lament-the-great-betratal

T hose we haven’t loved. It’s been nearly a decade since the Brexit referendum and the main architects seem to have gone quiet. Boris Johnson has retreated into his own world having been rejected by the real one. Still wondering why David Cameron hadn’t left him detailed instructions of what to do if the UK left the EU. Nigel Farage is happy to talk about almost anything but Brexit. And where his money comes from and how it’s spent. The man who can’t be bought but used to do Cameos at £80 a pop for Hugh Janus can’t even admit the Boriswave was a direct result of Brexit.

But there are still a few believers. At least 120 of them. These were the men and women of the Freedom Association who had gathered in Westminster for their Brexit Unleashed conference. The weirdos. The misfits. The losers. The mostly elderly desperados who cling to the certainty they were right all along. Untroubled by all the evidence to the contrary. Unaware that many of their arguments contradict one another. That all that they want to be true cannot all be true. Entwined with one another in a death spiral. This church hall was a place where hope came to die.

The proceedings were opened by David Campbell Bannerman, former MEP and lifelong Brexiter. A man clinging to reality by a gossamer thread. He began by praising the UK for having had the integrity to leave the EU, despite knowing there would be some pain and cost as a result. So that’s what it was. I can’t remember anyone on the leave side talking about pain at the time. Rather it was that everything was going to be great. There was no downside. David Davis had always said the Brexit deal would be the easiest ever. Wrapped up in 24 hours.

Two minutes in and we got the first Brexit betrayal. A theme that was to be repeated every two minutes for the next six hours. Brexit had been a wonderful thing that had been undermined by a political class who had never believed in it. Even the ones who had believed in it, hadn’t believed in it in the right kind of way. “Brexit has not failed,” said Delusional Dave. It wasn’t a catastrophic failure. It was just a failure that had been a catastrophe. We were still waiting for the One True Brexit. And he was the Once and Future King.

Next up was another David. There would turn out to be more Davids than there were women at this conference. Apologies to any readers called David. This wasn’t your namesakes’ finest hour. Step forward Lord Frost. AKA Frosty the No Man. The Brexit negotiator who admitted that the deal he had negotiated had been shit. The man who loved free speech so much he had been an enthusiastic supporter of Viktor Orbán. How are the mighty fallen.

Frosty’s memory isn’t all that it once was. Now he wanted everyone to hold hands and remember that the Brexit deal was the best that had ever been done. The audience needed no second invitation. They were as desperate as he was.

“We need to revive the excitement of the day after the referendum,” he said. Clearly Frosty hadn’t been at the press conference Vote Leave had given on the morning after. Boris and Michael Gove had finally turned up 30 minutes late looking like death warmed up. It was as though they had spent the night tripping on acid and had come down to find they had murdered a friend. Ghosts of their former selves. They had no idea what they had just done. No idea what they were going to do. Both were entirely monosyllabic.

Inevitably it was not long before Frosty also moved on to the Great Betrayal. We were in dangerous territory. Keir Starmer, Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham were all minutes away from getting the UK to rejoin the EU. They had somehow sweet-talked the country into believing Brexit had been a disaster. This was deranged. The idea that the most unpopular prime minister in history had brainwashed the whole country. That people were incapable of reaching the conclusion that the Brexit they had been sold was one of fantasy and lies.

David Two was not finished. People had voted for Brexit because they no longer wanted to be governed by unelected politicians. This was a record level of delusion; Frosty appeared not to realise he was an unelected member of the House of Lords. Yet another addition to the upper chamber as a reward for failure. He ended by admitting that Northern Ireland was still not working properly. For that he put the blame firmly at the door of the EU. For not giving us what we wanted. No one could have expected that the EU wouldn’t give us everything we demanded.

There was just time for a hereditary peer to say how miffed he was at being silenced in the Lords – as with Frosty, accountability is only for the little people: sometimes this sketch writes itself – before we got get another David. David Three turned out to be former Tory minister turned Reform shill David Jones. Someone who is forgettable even round his own breakfast table.

It was hard to know quite what he wanted to say as the entire hall lapsed into a coma not long after he told everyone they needed to be more enthusiastic about Brexit. David Three has the unique gift of being even duller in real life than in your imagination. Mind you, Claire Fox – yet another unelected member of the Lords – declared this was the best Brexit speech she had ever heard. Kudos to her for having stayed awake.

Then the piece de resistance. A rant from John Redwood. Yes, you’ve guessed it, he too is in the Lords. What is it with all these Brexiters that they have no self-awareness? Or are they all just obsessed with their own self-importance and status? Redwood declared that all the economists were wrong. They had got their tables upside down. Far from costing us 4% in the fall of GDP, Brexit had actually been a net benefit. And if we all just encouraged people to buy diesel cars we’d be even richer still.

“Throw off the shackles, Britain can be great again,” he trilled. Streeting and Burnham had been gripped with a delusion. Remainers were part of a religious cult. They had no idea how difficult and expensive it would be to rejoin the EU. Had no idea of what a good deal we had had while we were in the EU. The Thatcher rebate. Other benefits we would never get back. It kind of makes you think Redwood must secretly wonder why we had ever left.

Late-night TV roundup
Jon Stewart on Trump’s visit with Xi: ‘All you came back with was his Instagram?’

Tue 19 May 2026 16.45 CESTLast modified on Tue 19 May 2026 17.33 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/may/19/jon-stewart-trump-china-visit

Late-night hosts covered Donald Trump ’s recent trip to China and how he headed straight back to a social media posting binge as soon as he returned.

Jon Stewart

On The Daily Show, Jon Stewart said that “nobody is tougher on China than Donald J Trump” before showing a montage of clips in which the president criticised both the country and its leader, Xi Jinping.

He said he would be “like a bull in a china shop” on his visit but the president opted to kill them with kindness instead, with Stewart then showing him fawn over Xi. “Sometimes you get more flies with honey, so what did you get?” he asked.

He played a clip where Trump was asked this very question and his response was a relationship. “So nothing?” Stewart said. “You got nothing!”

He then joked: “All you came back with was his Instagram?”

Trump has claimed that Xi called America the “hottest country” in the world right now. Stewart expressed skepticism, saying “that quote sounds really a lot like you”.

As students across the country graduate, he wondered if “maybe it’s time to stop being exasperated by this” and asked what those heading into the working world could learn from his rise.

“Maybe the advice that we’ve been giving them all along about honesty and hard work and all that other gay shit is completely wrong!” he said.

He added: “Maybe we should all be students of Donald Trump University, which obviously you can’t be because it’s a fraud and got shut down, but metaphorically.”

Stewart played a montage of Trump and his weird handshakes with leaders, saying that one should “set the terms of the battle in the interview”, joking: “I will take your fucking hand!”

He added that “your prospective employer must know you are the captain now”.

He also played footage of Trump saying bizarre things about himself, adding: “I cannot stress this enough, make your answer cocky and super fucking weird.”

Jimmy Kimmel

On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the host said that Trump was visiting China to see “all the factories where his America First merchandise is made”.

He said that during their initial meet, Trump told Xi “how much he loves Panda Express” before playing the strange footage of children excitedly greeting him. “I think they told them he was SpongeBob,” he said.

Kimmel remarked that “he’s so embarrassing on these trips” and also scoffed at his claim that Xi allegedly called America the hottest country right now. “You should give him all our farmland for that,” he said.

On his return, Trump bragged about a new putdown for the opposition, calling Democrats the Dumb-ocrats. “I can’t believe it only took you 11 years to come up with that one,” Kimmel said.

Trump also poked fun at James Talarico, who is faring well in the Texas Senate race. He decided to take aim at his veganism yet kept mispronouncing the word. “Vegan, it rhymes with Reagan,” Kimmel said.

He also went back to “posting crazy things” online such as an AI-doctored photo of himself walking with a handcuffed extraterrestrial, which led to the Republican senator Mike Lee reposting saying he didn’t understand what it meant but he supported it.

“It means the guy with the nuclear codes is out of his goddamn mind,” Kimmel said.

Trump also shared an image of himself with text claiming he was ageing in reverse. “Wearing diapers does not mean you’re ageing in reverse,” he said.

Another post from the White House had him mocked up as the new James Bond, to which Kimmel joked he would “grab ’em by the Octopussy” before saying that “007 is his approval rating right now”.

Trump also returned to the golf course, with the president having played the game on 111 of his first 484 days in office. “Do you know how hard it is to be a doctor and Jesus at the same time?” he said.

Canada
Orcas could be casualty in Carney’s push for pipeline, environmental groups fear
Leyland Cecco
Tue 19 May 2026 13.00 CESTLast modified on Tue 19 May 2026 22.23 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/19/canada-orcas-oil-pipeline-mark-carney

Environmental groups in Canada fear endangered orcas could become a casualty of Mark Carney’s push for a new oil pipeline, as the rush to develop fossil fuel infrastructure collides with laws meant to protect threatened species.

The decades-long tragedy of the critically endangered southern resident orcas has become emblematic of an ecosystem in crisis. But fishermen, whale-watching companies and the marine transport industry have long feuded over who bears the most blame.

The southern resident orcas can only survive on a diet of chinook salmon, a species that itself is in steep decline. While there were more than 200 orcas at the beginning of the 20th century, nowadays only about 70 swim the waters between British Columbia and Washington state.

Environmental groups have raised the alarm over increased ship traffic along the south-west coast of British Columbia – the result of a busy Trans Mountain oil pipeline that terminates near Vancouver and a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal further north.

On Friday, Carney announced plans for a new oil pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific coast, with construction expected to begin by fall of 2027.

And a new policy discussion paper has raised fears that in pursuit of the project, the federal government might bypass legal protections for the orca.

The document, titled Getting Major Projects Built in Canada , called the process for building mines, ports, airports, pipelines “slow, expensive, and confusing”, and suggested a number of changes to existing rules to fix this issue.

But one part of the paper, which proposes exempting major projects from the “jeopardy test for species at risk” has caught the eye of environmental advocates.

Part of Canada’s endangered species legislation forces regulators to ask whether a project would jeopardize the survival or recovery of a protected species.

“In practical terms, this provision is intended to prevent projects from pushing endangered species into extinction. Weakening this safeguard has direct implications for southern resident killer whales and their protection under [the Species at Risk Act],” said Misty MacDuffee, a biologist at Raincoast Conservation Foundation. “As the federal government has acknowledged in its imminent threat determination, these whales face extinction under the existing conditions.”

The proposed changes are open to public comment until 9 June.

The development, first reported by the Toronto Star , prompted the federal government to respond that the reporting “could not be further from the truth”.

The transport minister, Steven MacKinnon, pointed to recent investments by his government to protect at-risk whale populations, including C$91.3m to address other threats to the southern resident orca population. The government is also changing the laws around how much distance ships must give the whales, raising it from 200 metres to 1,000 metres to minimize physical and acoustic disturbance from vessel traffic.

“We would not take any actions that would undermine these important strategies and substantial investments. Our approach to assessments isn’t about cutting corners, but improving coordination, efficiency, and long-term planning resulting in faster decisions, without weakening oversight or standards,” he wrote in a statement.

But critics says that while the government has made key promises to protect whales, they also appear to be looking for a carve-out by exempting projects of national interest from stringent reviews where endangered species might be affected.

After the new pipeline deal was confirmed, environmental groups swiftly condemned the agreement.

“Recovery [of the orca population] requires improvements in habitat quality, including reductions in underwater noise and disturbance. Weakening the protective provisions of [endangered species laws] to enable projects that worsen these conditions would push southern residents closer to extinction,” said MacDuffee.

Environmental law charity Ecojustice said the move “jeopardiz[ed]” Canada’s ability to protect whale habitats.

“No project that threatens the extinction of iconic southern resident killer whales and puts communities’ health at risk could be ‘nation building’. Increasing tanker traffic in the already busy Salish Sea ups the risk of small and large oil spills and will also increase ocean noise – pushing the critically endangered southern resident killer whales further towards extinction. Expanding the Trans Mountain pipeline has overwhelmed the modest noise reductions put in place to protect whales from pre-pipeline expansion levels of shipping noise,” director Margot Venton said in a statement.

“Experts have been unable to find a way to offset the noise from increasing tanker traffic. These whales cannot handle any more tankers in their habitat.” In the past, threatened or endangered species have delayed construction of major projects. When the government was trying to build the TransMountain pipeline, a rare species of humming bird temporarily halted work.

But the effectiveness of Canada’s species at risk laws has also been called into question, especially when the requirements clash with lucrative industries.

Successive environment ministers have declined to designate chinook salmon as a species at risk – largely over the implications such a decision would have for the fishing industry.

Nature Canada, one of the country’s oldest conservations groups, said it was calling on supporters to urgently contact lawmakers to vote against any fast-tracked legislation, warning it could lead to zones of “environmental lawlessness”.

“The effort to redefine environmental responsibility as mere ‘red tape’ is dangerously short-sighted,” Akaash Maharaj, director of policy at Nature Canada, said in a statement. “Nature is not an impediment to economic development; environmental assessment is the ‘credit check’ before we write the loan. It is due diligence, fiduciary responsibility, and the only way to build prosperity that endures.”

Information
What is the ‘Deeply read’ list?

Wed 28 Feb 2024 10.45 CETLast modified on Wed 28 Feb 2024 14.26 CET
News
https://www.theguardian.com/info/2024/feb/28/what-is-the-deeply-read-list

For many years at the Guardian we have been looking at how long our readers spend with our journalism. While the number of clicks on an article can help us understand the possible importance or popularity of an article on a given topic, it’s just as important for us to get a sense of the quality of a piece and the time readers spend with it can help us gauge that.

Along with many other sites, the Guardian has for a long time shown readers the pieces other people are clicking on in the form of a “Most viewed” list. But these lists often don’t include wonderful journalism on topics more off the beaten track. The “Deeply read” list uses attention time to surface a wider range of journalism that other readers are spending more time with. It appears on our regionalised home pages and reflects the interests of the region’s audience.

Not all of these pieces are long. To power the list we created a metric that looks at the attention time from readers compared with the length of the piece. This means that the list is diverse in terms of topic, length and format.

We hope you enjoy the increased variety and depth of the pieces you find here.

Houseplants
Houseplant hacks: can a potato help cuttings to grow?
Gynelle Leon
Tue 19 May 2026 11.00 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/may/19/houseplant-hacks-can-a-potato-help-cuttings-to-grow

The problem Taking cuttings is one of the most satisfying things you can do as a plant owner, but most people lack confidence. Stems sit in water for weeks doing nothing, or collapse in soil before roots appear. So when a hack promises to speed things up using nothing more than a raw potato, news travels fast.

The hack The potato is supposed to keep the cutting hydrated and release nutrients as it breaks down, giving the stem everything it needs to form roots before it has to fend for itself. Some videos claim that potatoes contain salicylic acid, which encourages rooting.

The method Take a fresh stem cutting from a healthy plant, making sure it has at least one node, and trim the lower leaves. Take a raw potato and use a skewer or pencil to make a hole the same width as the stem. Push the cutting firmly into the potato so it sits snugly upright, then plant the whole thing – potato included – into a pot of soil. Water lightly and place in bright, indirect light.

The test I tried this with a rose cutting and a pothos. The pothos produced a small amount of root growth, and the rose cutting collapsed before anything useful happened.

The verdict Potatoes do contain salicylic acid, but research suggests it actually suppresses root formation. A clean cut, fresh water and good light still remain the most reliable route to propagation, no vegetables required.

Cannes film festival
Bitter Christmas review – grief, loss and artistic betrayal in Almodóvar’s film within a film
Peter Bradshaw
Tue 19 May 2026 20.52 CESTLast modified on Tue 19 May 2026 20.53 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/may/19/bitter-christmas-review-almodovar-cannes-film-festival

W ith its rich, warm, summery colours, nothing could surely be less bitter or less Christmassy than this film. It’s the latest from Cannes competition regular Pedro Almodóvar , partly set during Christmas; the female lead actually complains about the yuletide traffic at one stage. But there’s no tinsel or sleigh bells or shopping for presents. Like Die Hard, it eludes classification. It is another – which is to say, yet another – double-layered creation by Almodóvar, a kind of movie auto-metafiction of the sort that he has virtually invented, a life-v-art dialectical process that he is evidently unable to do without.

Like the recent Pain and Glory , Bitter Christmas is a candidly personal movie, circling around ideas like grief, loss, the vampirism of art and the betrayal involved in basing fictional characters on real people. Perhaps by emphasising this last point, Almodóvar is pre-empting or cauterising a crisis in his own life, showing us a gay male artist’s perspective on the question of whether women are not being given enough credit as the wellspring for inspiration or indeed as artists themselves. The result is a complex, slightly muddled, almost surreally modernist noir-melodrama or open-ended telenovela of the sort he habitually offers. Almodóvar always alchemises the real-unreal duality into something watchable, although perhaps he is going over old ground. Bitter Christmas, incidentally, features what for arthouse movies is becoming mandatory, the haughty anti-Netflix gag, even though the film does feel like streaming TV in some ways.

In the mid-2000s, an era of fliptop phones, Elsa (Bárbara Lennie) is a struggling indie film-maker now reduced to shooting TV ads; her younger boyfriend Bonifacio (Patrick Criado) is a firefighter and part-time lapdancer whom she met at a club on a hen night when she went backstage to offer him the lead in her upcoming underpants commercial. Elsa, and maybe Almodóvar himself, are unmoved by the fact that this would be tricky behaviour if the gender roles were reversed. Elsa has friends who are plagued with problems: Patricia (Victoria Luengo) has to deal with a young son while her husband is away on business trips where he is cheating on her, and Natalia (played by Milena Smit, from Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers ) is profoundly depressed by the loss of her young son. And Elsa herself is depressed, struggling with a new autobiographical script and stricken with psychosomatic migraines and panic attacks after the death of her mother. Having fallen out with Patricia, Elsa shares a holiday villa in Lanzarote with Natalia where her artistic vision and relationship with the absent Bonifacio comes to a crisis.

But all this is being imagined in the present day by a grey-haired film director called Raúl (Leonardo Sbaraglia), who is working on an autobiographical script of his own called Bitter Christmas; Elsa would appear to be a version of him while his boyfriend Santi (Quim Gutiérrez) is clearly the model for Bonifacio. But the entire action of the film seems to be projected from the complex relationship with his friend and producing partner Mónica (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón), who is leaving him at a difficult time for a three-month sabbatical to be with her friend Elena whose son is desperately ill. Mónica is furious with Raúl for effectively fictionalising this last situation in his script, an eruption of rage which feels almost dreamlike in its unreality. Almodóvar’s iconic repertory regular Rossy de Palma makes an appearance as Elsa’s other friend Gabriela. And all this head-spinning complexity is anchored, as so often in Almodóvar’s work, by a passionate musical moment: Mexican singer Chavela Vargas performs a folk song about the Medea-like figure of La Llorona, or The Weeping Woman .

What we are perhaps leading to is an epiphany of truth for Raúl as artist and friend. Elsa is not based on him; he, Raúl, is not the centre of things. In fact, Elsa is his friend and ally Mónica, whom he has been taking for granted. That is the real parallel and it is Mónica’s feelings and Mónica’s identity who should be the central inspiration of his script and indeed the central point of his life right now. This is the enlightenment which he arguably approaches when he continues his script past the “The End” of the first draft, as Elsa appears to be coming to terms with her mother’s parting.

But as so often in the past with Almodóvar, there is something unfinished in the film, an open-endedness which is partly frustrating, partly intriguing: a response to the open-endedness and unknowability of life itself, perhaps. I confess that, for me, this movie doesn’t have the impact of his comparably modernist Parallel Mothers, but Almodóvar’s sensual, playful, melancholy films are always food for thought and feeling.

Bitter Christmas screened at the Cannes film festival .

Dior
Anderson juices up the vibes for Dior with spotlight on Hollywood
Jess Cartner-Morley
Thu 14 May 2026 11.13 CESTLast modified on Thu 14 May 2026 19.20 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2026/may/14/anderson-designer-dior-hollywood-los-angeles

L ike Christian Dior, the founder of the house he now leads, fashion designer Jonathan Anderson’s ambition is to be not just a Parisian couturier but a Hollywood power player. “We think of Dior as this romantic character, but he was also a very savvy businessman,” said Anderson before a blockbuster catwalk show in Los Angeles . Stage Fright, the Hitchcock caper-noir for which Dior dressed Marlene Dietrich, was the show’s origin story. “There is all this amazing correspondence between Dior, Dietrich and Hitchcock, which shows how he navigated the money that it cost to make that film. I think we underestimate how much negotiation Dior did with studio executives. He was very smart in that way.”

Anderson, 41, who was born in Northern Ireland but since being appointed to Dior splits his time between London and Paris, has his own Hollywood side hustle as the costume designer for Luca Guadagnino’s films, and is set on reinvigorating Dior’s relationship with the film industry.

The catwalk snaked through a boxfresh $724m (£535m) brutalist LA landmark, the concrete and glass David Geffen Galleries at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). The scene setting was somewhere between an all-American gas station and a Hollywood back lot. Vintage Cadillacs and glowing Edward Hopper street lamps dotted the catwalk. Al Pacino wore shades in the front row as the Californian sunset glowed pink behind tall palms.

Star of the show was the bar jacket, a Dior classic, given a Hollywood makeover and moonlighting as a curving white tuxedo. There were fluffy boudoir mules in soft rose pink, and silk scarves wound tight around the throat. That Californian classic, the blue jean, was dramatically dishevelled with rips lashed with glittering silver threads. Anderson’s brief at Dior is to add cultural relevance and eye-catching edge, but without sacrificing the scale and reach of the luxury giant. To juice up the vibes, without sacrificing the bottom line. Box office glamour came with a few plot twists: pastel cocktail dresses were paired with quirky jewelled snail clutch bags.

Anderson hinted that the decision to stage a show in LA was the launch of a new strategy to deepen Dior’s involvement in cinema. “This is part of a bigger picture that will unfold throughout the year, from films that I will do costumes for, or franchises that we will do costume for … it’s a starting point of how the bridge between fashion, commerce, and film could be reimagined,” he said.

Men’s shirts were a collaboration with the artist Ed Ruscha. “Ed is LA. He’s such a style icon, and so charismatic,” said Anderson. Words and numbers printed across the shirts nodded to the gas station iconography of Ruscha’s paintings, while headpieces spelling out “Dior” and “Star”, by milliner Philip Treacy (“a fellow Irishman”, Anderson pointed out) echoed Ruscha’s use of typography.

The show follows a Chanel near-takeover of Biarritz a fortnight ago. May’s “Cruise” shows, according to Rose Coffey, senior foresight analyst at The Future Laboratory “evolved from escapist collections designed for ultra wealthy clients who travel between climates, into a form of experiential marketing …

“Fashion no longer moves in the clearly defined seasonal rhythms it once did, and the traditional boundaries of spring/summer and autumn/winter are not as culturally dominant. Cruise is an opportunity for brands to keep themselves top of mind in the cultural conversation. They are about visibility and storytelling and entertainment.” Many of this year’s Cruise shows are taking place in the US, with Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Hermes following Dior in the coming weeks. This reflects luxury’s focus on the US market, where demand is currently stronger than in Europe and China. High net worth potential clients, who place a high value on invitations to brand events, make up a significant portion of the audience at Cruise shows.

The lavish aesthetic of Cruise season also chimes with the flashy tone set by the current White House. “The elephant in the room is the Trump presidency, which is an influence in the sense that America dominates global media right now, so brands want to be there,” said Coffey.

For sale: one cute baby gibbon – mother probably killed by poachers

Mon 18 May 2026 12.00 CESTLast modified on Mon 18 May 2026 16.52 CEST
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/18/baby-gibbon-animals-poaching-thailand-illegal-pet-trade-aoe

I t is a cool morning in Thailand’s hilly north, and a wildlife officer sits on the veranda of Omkoi wildlife sanctuary’s office. On her lap is a wide-eyed infant primate dressed in baby clothes. Not unlike a human baby, he kicks and waves excitedly. Most of his dark skin is covered in dense white fur, except for his face and the palms of his hands.

“We call him Chokdee,” the officer says. “It means ‘good luck’.”

Chokdee is a lar gibbon ( Hylobates lar ), and in some ways he is lucky. He was a newborn when local people contacted wildlife services, saying they had found him alone in their village.

“I believe someone removed this gibbon from its original habitat,” says Karin Hirankailas, who heads the sanctuary. Chokdee somehow escaped his captors, but for him to have been captured in the first place, his mother was probably killed.

Gibbons – small arboreal apes native to the rainforests of south-east Asia – are one of the world’s most threatened primate families, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). One of the 20 species is classified as vulnerable on the IUCN red list , while all of the rest are endangered and at risk of extinction, and five are critically endangered.

Alongside habitat loss, the main threat to gibbon populations is poaching for the illegal trade in exotic pets, for which there is growing demand. Analysis by the conservation organisation Traffic shows that the number of trafficked gibbons seized by authorities reached an all-time high in 2025, with Thailand among the most affected countries.

Poachers tend to target infants, which are seen as being “cuter” but are also easier to capture, smuggle and domesticate. “About 70% of gibbons in the trade are under two years old,” says Susan Cheyne, vice-chair of the IUCN’s small apes section.

The illegal pet trade increasingly takes place online; in Indonesia alone, more than 800 infant gibbons were advertised for sale on Facebook between 2015 and 2019.

But the impact on wild populations far exceeds the number of infants traded. Cheyne’s research suggests that, on average, each individual captured results in the death of three or four other gibbons, with devastating effects on families and populations.

Part of the reason lies in gibbons’ unique traits and behaviours, how they shape their interactions with hunters and their capacity to recover from attacks. Gibbons are particularly vulnerable to the pet trade, says Cheyne, “biologically and ecologically”.

Chanpen Saralamba, a biologist at Mahidol University in Bangkok, has spent more than two decades studying gibbon families in Thailand’s Khao Yai national park. One way researchers – and poachers – track gibbons is by following their loud singing duets, which can be heard from up to 2km away.

“Their duet calls help to maintain the pair bond between male and female and also to announce their territory,” says Chanpen.

Unlike most primates, gibbons are monogamous – often remaining with the same mate for life. They live in small, tightly bonded family groups made up of a pair and their offspring, which may stay with their parents for 10 years. Females and males are fiercely territorial and protective of their group.

While following gibbon families, Chanpen has observed males deliberately distracting researchers as the rest of the family moves away. “The adult male seemed to come close to us, taking the opposite direction to the female,” only to flee once the female was far enough away, she says.

“It’s kind of anecdotal but I never knew about this behaviour in other primates,” says Chanpen.

Gibbons evolved these behaviours to defend their territory and to protect their young – they are skilled brachiators (swinging from one hold to another by the arms) and can move rapidly through the jungle canopy to evade predators. But against poachers armed with guns, speed offers less protection.

Gibbons remain attached to their mothers for their first two years, so taking an infant requires killing the mother, and possibly other members of the family if they act defensively or get in the way. Hunters sometimes target other family members opportunistically, says Chanpen, to sell their body parts for traditional “medicine”.

The killing of a mother typically causes the rest of the gibbon family to break down. “The juveniles won’t have family or territory to live in,” says Chanpen.

While data on this is limited, Cheyne says the impact on the surviving members of the family “is likely to be death”.

For every infant that is successfully sold in the pet trade, others will die in transit. “Imagine how it would affect a human baby to be torn from its mum before weaning,” says Cheyne.

At Salawin national park headquarters, near the border with Myanmar, a gloved officer carefully removes the rigid corpse of an adult male gibbon from inside a plastic bag and places it on a table.

Though the body has been frozen, a pungent smell fills the room. It was seized from poachers just days before, says the officer, alongside several other carcasses of birds and squirrels, probably destined for the wild meat or traditional “medicine” markets.

The hunting of adult males can also have far-reaching effects. When a pair-bonded male is lost, the female may struggle to find another mate. Even if she does, the new male will be unlikely to accept her infants.

Gibbons’ reproductive rates are slow, with gaps of at least two years between births. In areas where hunting occurs, this can be too slow to make up for losses.

At the sanctuary in Omkoi, Chokdee has fallen asleep under a blanket, thumb in mouth. It is doubtful he can be returned to the wild, says Karin, the sanctuary’s director.

Rehabilitating orphaned gibbons is difficult and rarely successful. In cases such as Chokdee’s, where a gibbon is separated from its mother at a young age, it may be nearly impossible to teach it to live in the wild again.

Conservationists warn that without stronger action against poaching, prospects for gibbon conservation are bleak. The traits that define gibbons – strong family bonds, territorial behaviour and high investment in raising young – evolved to help them survive. Faced with the brutality of the illegal trade, those same traits can make them more vulnerable.

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