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Executive Summary of the Podcast EpisodeThe Guardian’s latest podcast follows hunters who argue that shooting big game can help preserve Africa’s wildlife, sparking a nuanced discussion on conservation strategies.Episode Focus and How to Access ItListen or read: Read the text version hereSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/longreadpodRelated Publication Highlighted in the EpisodeThe episode references Adapted from The Savage Landscape: How We Made the Wilderness by Cal Flyn, published by William Collins on 7 May. The book can be ordered via guardianbookshop.com.Visual Context ProvidedPhotograph: ReutersWhy This Conversation MattersThe podcast adds to ongoing debates about the role of regulated hunting in wildlife management, offering perspectives from those directly involved in the practice.Looking AheadFuture episodes and related reporting are expected to continue exploring the complex balance between hunting, conservation funding, and ecosystem health across Africa.

The Rise of Secondhand Shopping Once the preserve of jumble sales and charity shops, “preloved” fashion and homewares are now leading style and shopping trends in the UK. After the rapid growth of online retail, Britain is now witnessing “the normalisation of secondhand”, according to Adam Jay, the chief executive of Vinted’s main marketplace arm. Vinted's Expansion Beyond Fashion The UK is at the forefront of an international revolution, jostling for position with France to be Vinted’s biggest market, and is also one of its fastest growing markets, as the online marketplace moves beyond just selling clothes and into everything from smartphones and books to rugs. The Data Analysis Vinted was valued at €8bn (£7bn) in April when it sold €880m in shares. Sales through the site hit €10.8bn last year. Vinted generated €1.1bn in revenue, with net profits of €62m in 2025. Sales in Britain rose 47% last year. The Impact Analysis Vinted, Shein and Temu are all growing for “fundamentally the same reason”, which is “because it’s cheap and easy. Our main competitor is new [products].” Vinted shoppers save an average 72% on the price of buying an equivalent new item. The Prediction “I see a deep and sustained change in how people buy and how people think about things that they own,” says Jay. “We want people to be thinking about how they can give every item as long as possible life. Don’t allow things to sit in the back of the cupboard for years and years untouched. Get them to someone who’s going to love them, wear them, use them.”

The Guardian is launching a feature aimed at exposing the hidden financial habits that often plague modern relationships. The publication is seeking couples who maintain a "financial veil" over their spending habits—whether it is a recurring Pret subscription or an addiction to online shopping—to participate in a unique transparency experiment. The Guardian's Financial Transparency Experiment This initiative invites participants to record and share their money diaries in the presence of a journalist, offering anonymity to encourage honesty. The goal is to move beyond abstract statistics and capture the raw reality of how money is managed—or hidden—within intimate partnerships. Target Audience: Couples with undisclosed spending habits. Methodology: Recorded money diaries with journalist oversight. Privacy: Responses can be anonymous or published with consent. The Psychology Behind the Secret Ledger The call for stories highlights a pervasive issue: financial infidelity. Many individuals feel a sense of shame or a desire for autonomy regarding their spending, leading them to conceal purchases from their partners. This feature aims to analyze the root causes of this secrecy, ranging from a lack of trust to differing financial philosophies. Why Open Books Are Becoming the New Norm As financial literacy becomes a priority, the stigma around joint accounts and shared spending is fading. This feature underscores a broader shift where financial transparency is increasingly viewed as a cornerstone of a healthy, long-term relationship rather than a sign of distrust. What This Feature Could Reveal About Modern Couples By collecting these diaries, the Guardian is poised to uncover trends in how couples negotiate money. The data collected will likely reveal that while spending habits differ, the desire for financial honesty is a universal goal, paving the way for more open conversations in the future.

Google DeepMind's Shift in Labor Relations Google DeepMind, the artificial intelligence arm of Google, has agreed to enter formal talks with UK tech workers that could lead to trade union representation. This move comes amid growing staff concerns about the use of its AI by the US and Israeli governments' defence and intelligence. The Concerns Driving Unionization Hundreds of workers have signed petitions raising concerns about the application of the technology, with concern rising since the company's 2025 decision to drop a promise not to allow its technologies to be used in harmful weapons or surveillance that violated international norms. The Impact of AI on Labor Rights The move comes as Google is facing a court challenge from a DeepMind AI researcher of Palestinian heritage who alleges he was wrongfully dismissed after protesting against its work for the Israeli government. Israeli officials have credited Google's cloud computing with enabling 'phenomenal things [to] happen in combat' during the Gaza conflict. The Path Forward Google DeepMind declined to voluntarily recognise the unions for collective bargaining purposes, but said in a staff email on Wednesday that talks at Acas 'may lead to a formal ballot in a few months' time, giving all eligible employees the opportunity to vote on whether they want to be represented by the unions.' The Future of AI Development and Labor Relations A CWU source said: 'It's a concession that they need to address some of the serious issues on the shop floor. There's clearly a groundswell of opinion about the contracts they are expected to serve, for example the relationship with drone technology and the Israeli government and the relationship with the US military. This is definitely a step forward and they are not just shutting this off.'

The Lead Bitter Christmas, the latest film from Pedro Almodóvar, is a complex and personal movie that explores themes of grief, loss, and artistic betrayal. The film, which screened at the Cannes film festival, is a double-layered creation that blurs the lines between reality and fiction. Almodóvar's Film Within a Film With 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. Exploring Themes of Grief and Loss 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 Film's Complex Structure The film features a complex structure, with a story within a story. 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 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. The Impact of Artistic Betrayal 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. The Future of Almodóvar's Filmography 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.

The Lead: A Disappointing Return to FormHirokazu Kore-eda's latest film "Sheep in the Box" has premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to largely negative reviews, with critics describing it as a "bafflingly unsatisfying and unconvincing muddle of ideas and moods." The film, which explores the concept of AI humanoid robot children replacing deceased children, represents a significant departure for the acclaimed director, whose previous works have been celebrated for their emotional depth and nuanced storytelling.The Film: A Futuristic Tale of Grief and Technology"Sheep in the Box" follows Otone (Haruka Ayasi), an architect, and her husband Kensuke (Daigo Yamamoto), a carpenter, who are offered a promotional free offer by a company called REbirth: an ultra-hi-tech humanoid robot replica of their deceased seven-year-old son Kakeru. The robot is designed to have the physical form, speech patterns, and memories of the original child, based on videos, photos, and other research materials provided by the grieving parents.The film presents several intriguing concepts: the robot being taken to the scene of the hit-and-run that killed the original Kakeru in hopes of recovering details about the culprit; the robot serving as a confessor for Kensuke to admit his guilt about his son's death; and a subplot involving other abandoned robot children planning a "replicant revolt." However, these ideas remain largely undeveloped, leaving audiences with more questions than answers.Critical Reception: A Missed OpportunityThe review from The Guardian is particularly scathing, noting that the film "isn't as interesting as films on similar themes including Kogonada's After Yang and Benjamin Cleary's Swan Song." The critic specifically faults Kore-eda's "quietist, un-emphasised style" for being unsuitable to the material, suggesting that the director's typically subtle approach doesn't work with the ambitious sci-fi concepts presented.One of the primary criticisms is the film's tonal inconsistency, attempting to be both a sci-fi dystopia and a relatable story about parental grief, with these two elements ultimately undermining each other. The performances are also noted as problematic, with the robot child being "unpersuasively performed in a returning keynote of bland serenity," while the human parents react with bizarre matter-of-factness to what should be an emotionally charged situation.Impact on Kore-eda's Legacy and AI CinemaThis film represents a significant departure for Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose previous works like "Shoplifters" and "Like Father, Like Son" have been celebrated for their emotional authenticity and humanistic approach. The negative reception of "Sheep in the Box" raises questions about whether the director can successfully transition into more genre-oriented territory while maintaining his signature style.In the broader context of AI cinema, the film joins a growing conversation about artificial intelligence and humanity in film, alongside works like Spike Jonze's "Her" and Alex Garland's "Ex Machina." However, where those films have been praised for their thoughtful exploration of AI ethics and human connection, "Sheep in the Box" appears to have missed the mark, failing to deliver either compelling drama or meaningful commentary on its central themes.Future Outlook: A Setback in an Otherwise Distinguished CareerWhile "Sheep in the Box" may represent a misstep for Kore-eda, it's unlikely to significantly impact the director's otherwise distinguished career. The filmmaker has previously demonstrated remarkable range and depth, and this ambitious if flawed experiment may ultimately be viewed as an interesting if unsuccessful detour rather than a definitive statement on his abilities.For audiences interested in exploring AI and humanity in cinema, the film serves as a cautionary tale about the challenges of blending emotional storytelling with complex technological concepts. As the conversation around AI continues to evolve in both society and art, "Sheep in the Box" may be remembered more for what it attempted than for what it ultimately achieved.

On May 18, 2026, a gun attack at the Islamic Center of San Diego left three community members dead, including security guard Amin Abdullah, longtime staffer Mansour Kaziha, and neighbor Nader Awad who rushed to help. The incident, investigated as a hate crime, has sparked an outpouring of grief and a renewed debate on protecting places of worship.Victims’ Backgrounds and RolesMansour Kaziha (78) – a Syrian‑born employee who helped build the mosque in the 1980s, ran its gift shop, and prepared meals for Ramadan. He was described by the board chairman as “a cornerstone, a pillar of this masjid.”Nader Awad (57) – a resident across the street who attended daily prayers and, when he heard gunfire, ran into the mosque to assist, even diverting other congregants.Amin Abdullah (51) – the mosque’s security guard, a father of eight, who greeted visitors with “as‑salamu alaikum.” Police chief Scott Wahl called his actions “heroic” and credited him with preventing a larger tragedy.Key Facts and Numbers from the AttackThree victims were killed; two teenage attackers also died from self‑inflicted gunshot wounds.The attack occurred during daylight hours on a Monday, shortly after police were alerted to one attacker’s possible suicidal intent.Social media accounts show Amin Abdullah had roughly 1,800 followers, underscoring his community visibility.Community and Law‑Enforcement ResponseThe mosque’s imam, Taha Hassane, referred to the victims as “martyrs and heroes.” Families held vigils, and local officials classified the incident as a hate crime, prompting calls for stronger security protocols at religious institutions nationwide.Future Outlook for Mosque Security in the U.S.Law‑makers and faith‑based groups are now urging increased funding for security training, surveillance upgrades, and rapid‑response coordination with police. The tragedy underscores the need for proactive measures to protect vulnerable communities and may shape future legislation on hate‑crime prevention.

The Evolution of the Romantic Comedy ProtagonistIt's a long-running romcom trope that the couples we're supposed to root for are often hiding lies that threaten the chances of any happy relationship blossoming. From classics such as The Shop Around the Corner to modern blockbusters such as How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, the genre thrives whenever it presents the audience with the most alarming red flags it conceals from its characters, raising the stakes by seeing if sparks can still fly when an ulterior motive behind each meet-cute is hidden in plain sight.The Sociopath Archetype in Contemporary RomcomsIn the romantic comedies we've seen so far this year, this trope has not only been revived but pushed far beyond its breaking point, cementing a new romcom archetype: the unlucky-in-love sociopath. This week's new release Finding Emily is the starkest example to date, introducing psychology student Emily (Angourie Rice), whose desperation to find a good case study for her dissertation essay on the self-destructive nature of love leads her to concoct a machiavellian scheme to paint university student Owen (Spike Fearn) as an obsessive stalker.Owen is a kind-hearted employee of her university's student union bar, only meeting Emily after his search to find a different Emily he danced with the previous night leads him in the wrong direction. After she sees him plant posters around the campus, Rice's Emily decides to help him as fuel for coursework she should have handed in already, faking his signature on consent forms, secretly recording their every conversation, and insisting he make grand public gestures that paint him in a bad light. With this being a romantic comedy, certain tropes must be adhered to and feelings gradually form between the two, but the initial lie has cast such a destructive shadow over Owen's life that it doesn't feel triumphant for the audience when he realises it was more than just a friend who betrayed him.Red Flags and Deception in Recent RomcomsLast month, audiences were treated to another romcom sociopath in Halle Bailey's Anna Montgomery, the heroine of the frothy You, Me & Tuscany. A house-sitter who lives vicariously through her clients and imagines their lives as her own, we're introduced to her getting fired after getting caught wearing clothes that don't belong to her – which yes, does include underwear. After a one-night stand with a handsome Italian man, she saves photos of his glamorous Tuscan villa and flies to Europe to squat there, justifying her presence to his family by pretending she is his new fiancee. It's red flag after red flag in a haphazard scheme to maintain a life of luxury on someone else's dime, and the fact she successfully wins over another new interest during this ruse is less shocking than the Italian family forgiving her because they found her that charming.This trope of a relationship built on a lie was very deliberately weaponised in Kristoffer Borgli's hit black comedy The Drama, which juxtaposes one mundane white lie – Charlie (Robert Pattinson) pretending to have read a book he sees Emma (Zendaya) reading so he could talk to her – with her choice to conceal from him the worst thing she's ever done. The genius of The Drama isn't just that Emma is far less of a sociopath than many of those judging her for her teenage planning of a crime she didn't go through with, but that it exposes why modern romantic comedies are making their love interests far more extreme. These are characters who likely would have swiped left on each other if they didn't meet in the real world due to lack of immediate shared interests, with Charlie's planned wedding speech notably lacking any specificity about his wife-to-be.The Digital Dating Disconnect in Modern RomanceThe concept of a real-life meet-cute is growing increasingly alien in a world where more relationships are beginning online, and many reports point towards gen Z opting out of the dating market altogether. The revival of romcoms aimed at millennial and gen-Z audiences coincides with a need to reflect this sea change in how young people approach relationships, which is why we're starting to see an influx of stories that feel more like cautionary tales than traditional examples of the genre. We're still a world away from a horror movie subversion of the meet-cute such as the thriller Fresh, where Daisy Edgar-Jones unwittingly locked eyes with cannibal Sebastian Stan in a grocery store, but film-makers in both genres seem keenly aware that the digital world provides barriers to dating nightmares like these. Neither can function as well if you get to know somebody first and block them before any carnage can ensue.There are, of course, plenty of horror stories about online dating to be told; there's a cottage industry of true crime documentaries such as The Tinder Swindler which revel in the horrors that could be inflicted upon you if you swipe right. The modern romcom remains stubbornly offline in comparison, largely because the love interests it presents wouldn't be reflected well in a dating app bio. In a world where the most viral social posts about dating are from young people outlining their specific "icks" in potential partners, most of this new crop of romcom couples wouldn't sustain a Bumble conversation if they had a better handle on each other's personalities.The Future of Romantic StorytellingWith younger people remaining cynical about love and romcoms struggling to justify classic tropes in an online-driven dating world, these won't be the last films in a wave that feels more harrowing than idealistic. As our dating lives become increasingly filtered through digital interfaces, the romantic comedy genre may need to evolve further to maintain relevance, potentially exploring how relationships can form authentically in a world where first impressions are increasingly curated and deception is just a swipe away.

The Birth of Wales’ First Menopausal Punk CollectiveWhen a community‑outreach worker named Jude Price launched the “Nana Punk” workshops at the Cab in Newport, a group of older women answered the call and formed the NaNaz. Formed last year, the six‑piece band blends classic punk energy with topics that most mainstream acts avoid: unaffordable care‑home fees, male attitudes toward older women, recycling frustrations and the everyday reality of menopause.Age, Experience and the Numbers Behind the NaNazMembers: six women, ages ranging from 50 to 62.First single: “60 Lies,” supporting the WASPI pension‑inequality campaign.Media reach: featured on the homepage of guitar.com and in an Age Cymru poster campaign.Venue pedigree: regular gigs at the Cab, a venue that also hosts acts like Murderburgers and Pizzatramp.Why Older Women’s Punk Matters for Culture and PolicyThe NaNaz challenge two entrenched narratives: that punk is a young‑man’s genre and that older women are invisible in public debate. By singing about pensions and menopause, they give a voice to issues that affect a growing demographic in the UK, potentially influencing public opinion and policy discussions around age‑related social security reforms.Future of Age‑Inclusive Punk and Its Potential Ripple EffectsWith growing media attention and a grassroots fan base, the NaNaz could inspire similar projects across the UK, encouraging community centres to host “senior‑punk” workshops. Their success may also prompt cultural institutions to book more age‑diverse line‑ups, reshaping the live‑music landscape to be more inclusive of older performers.