Author: The Guardian

Why do we wear underwear – and when did we start doing so? Kathy Thomas, Isle of WightSend new questions to nq@theguardian.com.Readers replyBecause fig leaves begin to wilt after a few days. UKClimberUnderwear is an ancient garment meant to protect our most sensitive and vulnerable parts. Can you imagine the Romans in battle without an undergarment to protect them from the abrasions of their armour, or from weaponry? For women, it’s slightly different. It’s to protect our bits, but it’s also a sanitary product. Today, underwear is practical for most people, but it has turned into a fashion statement. There’s…

Former NFL player Travis Clayton was selected by the Buffalo Bills in the 2024 NFL Draft. The Englishman’s selection sees him join former Wales star Louis Rees-Zammit in the American football ranks.Clayton, 23, was drafted in the seventh round with the 221st overall pick, even though he had never played a competitive game in the sport.The 6-foot-7 athlete, who played eighth grade rugby for his hometown club Basingstoke in County 2 Hampshire, was selected as an offensive lineman by the NFL’s International Player Pathway program.In a social media post, Clayton thanked UK fans for supporting his journey.He said: “Just want…

I have always been prone to homesickness. As a child, I didn’t really enjoy holidays, I dreaded going away on school trips and I hated sleepovers. At the beginning of 2021, when I first started thinking about the history of nostalgia, and in the midst of the pandemic, I moved across the Atlantic from London to Montreal, Canada, for work. Far from home and away from my family and friends, I felt a kind of grief whenever I thought about the life I’d left behind. There was so much to love about my new life but I felt anxious, worrying…

key eventsShow only key eventsPlease enable JavaScript to use this featureThe game starts at 12.30 in Bristolwestern part of the country Best performance today.Here’s what Miles Hammond had to say last night.”It was a good day for us, we played well and put ourselves in a good position and are happy with that. Hopefully the weather won’t affect it too much tomorrow [ahem] We can get back out there and extend our lead.”Initially, it worked well but there’s that extra bounce in the pitch which means you can hit more balls and score more freely. Graeme (Van Buren) came out…

Ireland plans to return asylum seekers to the UK under new emergency laws, in an effort to stem arrivals through Northern Ireland.The taoiseach, Simon Harris, wants the proposals brought to cabinet next week amid concern that Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda plan was rerouting asylum seekers from the UK.Harris has asked the justice minister, Helen McEntee, to bring proposals to cabinet next week to allow the return of inadmissible international protection applicants to the UK.The moves follows a claim by Sunak that the Conservative party’s deterrence was working, and after it emerged that 80% of recent asylum seekers to Ireland came via…

GAint Thomas is about to start the first Giro d’Italia of 2024 determined to avenge the painful tears he suffered when losing to Primoz Roglic in a dramatic final time trial a year ago. “This is a difficult and challenging time, but for me it’s not that I had a bad day or did anything seriously wrong,” he said.”Roglic had a flyer and he deserved to win it. It’s not that I lost – he won. That’s difficult. You lead the Giro at half the distance and then fall behind by 15 seconds on the last day: this It was…

“We’re going to have to disconnect you,” says the man at my bedside. Since I was hospitalised a fortnight ago, this man and his team have been trying to save my colon, a 5ft-long tangle of ulcers and inflammation. The speed and scale of my colon’s fury has fascinated doctors. I imagine them in their morning meetings, poring over my colonoscopy with the mystification usually reserved for the Voynich manuscript. But time is up. Unless they “disconnect” me, my bowel will perforate and I will die.Disconnection, explains the doctor, involves whipping the whole colon out – here he mimes pulling…

ALast month, WADA celebrated its 25th anniversary in Lausanne with a clever montage highlighting how it has changed sport for the better. Before the history lessons and promises, there were images of Muhammad Ali defying Parkinson’s disease to light the Olympic flame and Pele lifting the World Cup. “Today’s World Anti-Doping Agency is a more representative, more accountable and more transparent organization,” explains its Director General Olivier Niggli, “one that truly values ​​athletes in what we do. The heart of it all.Not everyone in the room bought the bill – one source thought it was too PR-focused, and when International…

A senior coroner has condemned the “inhumane” and “indefensible” treatment of a man who killed himself 17 years into an indefinite prison sentence. Tom Osborne, the senior coroner for Milton Keynes, said Scott Rider had given up all hope of release before he took his own life at HMP Woodhill in June 2022.He had been serving an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence after being convicted of grievous bodily harm in 2005. The sentence had a minimum term of 23 months but no end date.Days before he died, Rider told a prison worker that he had lost hope he would…

On Monday, Pedro Sánchez, the great and unpredictable survivor of Spanish politics and a leader who has bested so many rivals, critics and rivals, will reveal whether he intends to stay on as prime minister.The announcement came five days after the Socialist prime minister shocked Spain. Publish four pages of thoughts He said on social media that an ongoing “campaign of harassment and bullying” against him and his wife by his political and media opponents had led him to cancel public duties for the remainder of the week while he reflected on his future.A few hours ago, a Madrid court…