Mubeen Blogs

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts Why do people become leftwing or rightwing? Is it nature or nurture? Jane Shaw, France Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com . Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/qxyf9Ow

Australia win by three wickets after being set 331 Captain Alyssa Healy sets tone with knock of 142 Australia completed a record women’s one-day international chase as Alyssa Healy’s commanding 142 powered the defending champions to a three-wicket win over India on Sunday. Set 331 for victory in the Women’s Cricket World Cup group-stage game, Australia reached their target with six balls to spare after Ellyse Perry guided her side home with an unbeaten 47 alongside Kim Garth. The victory, their third in four matches, lifted Australia to the top of the standings while hosts India are third after suffering a second straight defeat, having lost to South Africa earlier. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/pS8bWL7

President claims he found a way to pay troops and directed Pentagon chief to release funds on 15 October Donald Trump claimed on Saturday that he has found a way to pay US military troops despite the ongoing federal government shutdown, saying he has instructed his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth , to release funds. Posting on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote : “I am using my authority, as commander-in-chief, to direct our secretary of war, Pete Hegseth, to use all available funds to get our troops PAID on October 15.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/GM9YNDg

There is no grand PSR conspiracy against Unai Emery’s side. They should be challenging Newcastle or Tottenham for fifth Four wins in a row, seven games unbeaten and suddenly life does not seem so bad for Aston Villa. They are up into mid-table and if a 2-0 victory over Feyenoord in the Europa League will not quite live in the memory in the way last season’s games against Bayern Munich , Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain do, a return to Rotterdam at least evoked the glory days of 1982. It will be a while yet before the frustration at missing out on the Champions League fades, but there does now seem to be a gathering recognition that Villa have a decent chance of winning the Europa League, potentially adding Istanbul’s Besiktas Park to De Kuip as a venue where they have won a European trophy. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/GE5uYLM

The US president long refused to use his influence over the prime minister. Last month, that appeared to change After nearly nine months in office, Donald Trump seems to have had enough of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, undermining his ambition to establish himself as a global peacemaker. Over the past few weeks, the US president finally decided to use his leverage to force Netanyahu to accept a new ceasefire and stop two years of genocidal war in Gaza. On Thursday, Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, including an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners and a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from the territory. It’s unclear what guarantees the US gave to Hamas and Arab mediators to ensure that Netanyahu would not resume the war after the hostage-prisoner swap – if negotiations on later stages of the deal are stalled. That’s what happened earlier this year, when Netanyahu accepted a truce that took effect in J...

The Strangers writer-director Brian Bertino struggles to get scares out of this poorly paced and increasingly incoherent disappointment Every now and then, Hollywood comes across a hit that can’t be neatly replicated, a one-off success story that should be praised, noted and promptly left well alone. The Strangers wasn’t supposed to do all that much back in 2008, released almost two years after it was made on the cheap, pushed around the schedule like it was toxic waste. But it was a surprise summer sleeper, making almost 10 times its budget and quickly entering the horror iconography hall of fame, with its nightmarishly mismatched masked villains and the chillingly hollow “Because you were home” non-explanation. A tortured decade of stop-start attempts to make a follow-up finally resulted in 2018’s underwhelming remix The Strangers: Prey at Night , a sequel entirely devoid of the clammy tension that made the original so unbearably effective. That really should have been the last hur...

London film festival : Jan Komasa’s bracingly wicked tale follows a couple who plan to retrain an delinquent teen with a brutal regimen Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough headline an absurdist nightmare from Polish film-maker Jan Komasa, co-produced by Jerzy Skolimowski and Jeremy Thomas. It’s a movie that could have been made at any time in the past 50 years, with high-concept provocations and talking points that feel like something from the age of Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange or Ôshima’s Max Mon Amour, or even, indeed, Skolimowski’s The Shout. In present day England, Tommy (played by Anson Boon) is a teenage kid completely obnoxious and out of control: clubbing and bingeing booze and coke, evidently paid for with the monetisation income from hugely successful social media streams which show him racing stolen cars with his similarly odious mates. But Tommy’s online profile has caught the disapproving eye of Chris (Graham), a middle-aged road-safety campaigner and family values enth...