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7 hours ago | 
theguardian.com | William Christou
In 2006, Ahmed al-Sharaa was sitting in a US prison in Iraq, then an al-Qaida fighter waging jihad against what he viewed as an American occupation of the Middle East. Nearly two decades later, on Wednesday, he posed for a photo with the US president Donald Trump in Riyadh after discussing normalising ties with Israel and granting US access to Syrian oil.
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18 hours ago | 
theguardian.com | Ian Sample
She walked into the world on high-heeled mules, but as Barbie’s many careers gathered pace, her feet became more planted on the ground, researchers say. A rare analysis of nearly 3,000 Barbies released over 65 years found that high-heeled incarnations gradually made way for flat-shoed forms, as workplace rules relaxed and career doors opened for the PVC doll.
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19 hours ago | 
theguardian.com | Ian Sample
Doctors in the US have become the first to treat a baby with a customised gene-editing therapy after diagnosing the child with a severe genetic disorder that kills about half of those affected in early infancy. International researchers have hailed the feat as a medical milestone, saying it demonstrated the potential for treating an array of devastating genetic diseases by rewriting faulty DNA soon after affected children are born.
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20 hours ago | 
theguardian.com | Joseph Gedeon
The restaurant Kid Rock’s was among several others in Nashville owned by the conservative restaurateur and Donald Trump supporter Steve Smith where undocumented kitchen staff were asked to go home to avoid rumored immigration raids this weekend.
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21 hours ago | 
theguardian.com | Petra Stock
When echidna mothers nurse their young, known as puggles, the microbiome of their pouch changes to protect their babies in their first weeks of life, new research has found. These first few weeks are critical for puggles. At this early developmental stage, they are tiny – roughly the size of a 5-cent coin – and vulnerable. “They can’t see and they don’t have a functional immune system,” said Isabella Wilson, lead author of the study published in FEMS Microbiology Ecology.
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23 hours ago | 
theguardian.com | Ryan Baxter |Rachel Salvidge |Ali Assaf |Josh Toussaint-Strauss |Leana Hosea
Pfas are a group of thousands of chemicals that are used for their non-stick and water-resistant properties. They are often refered to as 'forever chemicals' because they can take thousands of years to break down. Pfas are being found in so many everyday items that it's starting to feel like they are everywhere - non-stick frying pans, waterproof mascaras, stain-resistant clothing, packaging for takeaway food items. Pfas are even in our food, our drinking water and in the rain.
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1 day ago | 
theguardian.com | Ben Fisher
Jamie Vardy is expected to call time on his Leicester career after his 500th appearance for the club this weekend. Vardy, regarded by many as Leicester’s greatest ever player, has spent 13 years at the club and is poised to make his final appearance for themat home to Ipswich on Sunday and then not feature in their final Premier League match, at Bournemouth.
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1 day ago | 
theguardian.com | Ajit Niranjan
Europe dismantled 542 river-blocking dams, weirs, culverts and sluices in 2024, a report has found, helping a record number of waterways resume their natural course. The number of removals grew 11% from the year before, according to an annual report from Dam Removal Europe. It found 23 countries had removed a river barrier last year, four of which – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic and Turkey – did so for the first time.
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1 day ago | 
theguardian.com | Joseph Gedeon
The US supreme court will hear arguments on Thursday in a dispute that could significantly expand presidential power despite ostensibly focusing on Donald Trump’s contentious executive order ending birthright citizenship. The trio of cases before the court stem from the president’s January executive order that would deny US citizenship to babies born on American soil if their parents aren’t citizens or permanent residents.
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1 day ago | 
theguardian.com | Hollie Richardson |Graeme Virtue |Phil Harrison |Ellen Jones
Marie Antoinette9pm, BBC TwoThe second season of this period drama continues to deliver palace gossip, backstabbing, political scheming, a rumbling revolt … and magnificent costumes. It’s spring 1784 and the “affair of the necklace” scandal is being hatched to try to bring down Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI. Meanwhile, people are using the queen’s melancholy against her and the court is putting on a comic play – with serious consequences.