My passionate love affair with Scotland’s largest island

On the surface, little appears to have changed in the 30 years that bestselling author Peter May has been visiting the Isle of Lewis. But tourism has had a big impact – from Sunday opening hours to a deep water port for cruise ships

There was a joke doing the rounds when I was first visiting the Outer Hebrides more than three decades ago. On the flight to Stornoway, halfway across the Minch, the pilot makes an announcement: “We will shortly be arriving on the Isle of Lewis. Don’t forget to turn your watches back two … hundred years.”

And there was, indeed, as you arrived on the islands for the first time, a sense of stepping back in time – to a place and a culture that had changed little in perhaps centuries. Continue reading...


https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2024/sep/12/my-love-affair-with-isle-of-lewis-scotland-biggest-island?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Japan in clear blue waters but South Korea jeered in World Cup qualifying

Stark contrast between Asia’s big guns as Son’s side stall while Samurai Blue revel in 7-0 and 5-0 wins

It may be overly simplistic to say that South Korea are Asia’s Manchester United while Japan are the continent’s equivalent of Manchester City but there is more to it than the red and blue shirts. The first two games of the third – and decisive – round of World Cup qualification have reinforced the feeling that while the Koreans rely on their star players delivering in the big moments, the Samurai Blue are a well-oiled winning machine.

Son Heung-min certainly shone in a much-needed 3-1 win in Oman on Tuesday, scoring one and making the other two in this Group B fixture. Wolves’ Hwang Hee-chanclaimed the first as Lee Kang-in of Paris Saint-Germain pulled the strings. With Bayern Munich’s Kim Min-jae the rock in defence, there is a star-studded spine that even some of those teams ranked higher than Korea’s 23 would welcome. Continue reading...


https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/sep/11/japan-south-korea-world-cup-asia-qualifying?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

MPs renew call for review of ‘unjustifiably vague’ joint enterprise law

Early day motion expresses alarm at data showing black people are disproportionately prosecuted under legislation

MPs are making a fresh attempt to change the law on joint enterprise, which allows for individuals in England and Wales to be convicted of crimes they did not physically carry out if they are deemed to have encouraged or assisted the perpetrator.

An early day motion (EDM), a way for MPs to indicate opinion, was published on Tuesday night calling on the government to request a Law Commission review of joint enterprise “with a view to narrowing the scope of current legislation and providing a fairer framework for prosecution and sentencing”. Continue reading...


https://www.theguardian.com/law/article/2024/sep/11/mps-call-for-review-joint-enterprise-law?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Girl, 14, arrested after fatal house fire in Leicester

Girl arrested on suspicion of arson over fire at property where one person was found dead on Tuesday morning

A 14-year-old girl has been arrested on suspicion of arson after a fatal house fire.

Police were called to a property in Bedale Drive, Leicester, shortly after 4am on Tuesday, where a person was found dead inside. Continue reading...


https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/sep/11/girl-14-arrested-after-fatal-house-fire-in-leicester?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The Spin | Why finding a vintage cricket jersey is like unearthing lost treasure

Football and rugby fans just don’t know their luck, avoiding the ‘constant challenge’ of easily satisfying an obsession

There is a lot that’s wrong with cricket at the moment. The longest and oldest format is in a painful death spiral. Franchise leagues are cannibalising the game as the entire ecosystem teeters on collapse. James Vince’s cover drive is still not a regular feature of the England national side.

But if I held all the power and could change only one thing about the sport I love it would be this: I’d make it easier – much easier – to purchase vintage cricket shirts.

This is an extract from the Guardian’s weekly cricket email, The Spin. To subscribe, just visit this page and follow the instructions. Continue reading...


https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/sep/11/the-spin-vintage-cricket-jerseys-treasure?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

‘The hike of a lifetime’ – a circuit of the Écrins national park in France

The Tour des Écrins in the Hautes-Alpes is one of Europe’s finest long-distance walks, and offers a chance to reflect on how best to live alongside nature

I first learned about the Écrins national park in relation to a specific nature reserve within it. The réserve intégrale du Lauvitel was established in 1995 to “monitor the natural dynamics of ecosystems” with all human influence removed. This so-called wilderness area was one of the first of its kind in Europe.

A video showed an ecologist rowing across a dazzling, teal-hued lake surrounded by pine-strewn peaks. I was immediately fascinated. Admittedly, a forbidden zone taps into plenty of childhood adventure fantasies, but it’s also a bold statutory move a world apart from our more modest environmental experiments in the UK. Yet fortress conservation begs difficult questions: are humans a part of nature, or apart from it? Continue reading...


https://www.theguardian.com/travel/article/2024/sep/11/the-hike-of-a-lifetime-a-circuit-of-the-ecrins-national-park-in-france?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Does the Minecraft movie really look that bad? Only a 10-year-old can tell us

Reactions to the trailer have ranged from ‘awful’ to ‘horrendous’. But what does its target audience think?

Nothing makes you feel older than watching someone two generations younger than you play Minecraft – except, perhaps, watching someone two generations younger watching someone else play Minecraft on YouTube. (What are they doing? Why are they always so over-excited?) This might all seem a bit 2011: gen A have generally moved on to watching YouTubers play Fortnite, Roblox and Elden Ring with their minds instead. But there are still millions of people, most of them kids, playing every month, and there’s powerful nostalgia for this blocky virtual-Lego game among the gen Z young adults who grew up with it. A Minecraft movie was inevitable.

This film has been on the cards since 2012, originally with Ryan Reynolds’ Wrexham FC mate Rob McElhenney on to direct, and Steve Carell to star. Various botched attempts, Covid, and the pesky actors’ strike, meant that filming didn’t start (in Auckland, New Zealand) until early 2024. A Minecraft Movie, out April 2025, is directed by Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess, and stars Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Emma Myers, Jennifer Coolidge, Jermaine Clement and Matt Berry. From the trailer released this week, it’s even more bonkers than you would imagine. Continue reading...


https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/sep/10/minecraft-movie-really-look-that-bad?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger