Author: The Guardian

They say money can’t buy you love, but it can certainly buy you one hell of a pre-wedding. The world’s one percenters are currently nursing their hangovers after three ostentatious days in India spent celebrating the upcoming nuptials of Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Asia’s richest man.The event, which reportedly cost $120m, was an ode to excess: there was a nine-page dress code, a private concert by Rihanna, and a feast which even Nero might have thought a little over the top.Akash Ambani, Priscilla Chan, Mark Zuckerberg and Mukesh Ambani on Saturday. Photograph: APTwenty-one chefs prepared “75 types of…

Bab Hutta is a neighborhood in Jerusalem’s Old City, located just outside the gates of the Temple Mount (al-Haram al-Sharif), the world’s most controversial religious site.Normally, the area is one of the most beautiful sites for Ramadan celebrations in the city, filled with strings of festive lights and lanterns that take about 30 volunteers several weeks to set up. This year, there are no decorations and the narrow passages in the Muslim Quarter are quiet. About half of the usually bustling souvenir shops and restaurants were closed; on some streets there were more Israeli border police than civilians.The holy month…

A sub-zero plunge in the nude was never part of my plan. When a ragtag group of friends gathered me up with their exhilarated shouts, planning to jump into a hole drilled through sea ice in 2011, I had only agreed to come along and watch. I would not partake.I hadn’t gone to Antarctica to take risks. If anything, I’d flown to the bottom of the world to do the opposite, to play it safe after a pair of sexual assaults in my early 20s. I was the third generation in my family to work at McMurdo Station on Ross…

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who has made inflammatory remarks and said he would abolish abortion rights, has won the Republican nomination for governor of the state.Robinson, North Carolina’s first black lieutenant governor, will face Democratic state Attorney General Josh Stein in a close race in November. Robinson and Stein are trying to succeed Democratic incumbent Gov. Roy Cooper, who is term-limited.With Republicans already in control of North Carolina’s Legislature, Robinson’s victory would give them three consecutive victories and unilateral control over policymaking in the key battleground state.Issues such as abortion rights will be at risk. Robinson said last…

“What are you excited to see tonight?” the model and TV presenter Ashley Graham asked Hugh Grant on the red carpet of last year’s Oscars. “To see?” Grant replied, his voice a splice of scorn and disbelief, as if she’d just said something so stupid that he needed to give her the benefit of the doubt and check that she had really said it. Graham became flustered, and her next question was even baggier. Did he have his hopes up for anyone? “No one in particular.”The conversation disintegrated fast. “What are you wearing tonight?” “Just my suit,” he overenunciated, to…

Joe Biden and Donald Trump are expected to win easily on Super Tuesday. In early results, Biden won Iowa via mail-in ballots, and after polls closed in Vermont, Virginia, North Carolina, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Tennessee won. Trump also won Republican primaries in North Carolina, Maine, Oklahoma and Virginia.The United States has not experienced such a competitive primary season since political primaries began dominating the nominating process in the 1970s. Neither the current president nor the former president has been nominated by their respective parties, but both could be nominated within the next two weeks.Biden wins big, but there are…

Sixteen states and one territory will choose their presidential candidate in contests known as Super Tuesday, when more than a third of delegates will be assigned to determine the Republican presidential nominee. Past results and opinion polls suggest that, by Tuesday night, Donald Trump will have in effect wrapped up the Republican nomination against Nikki Haley, his sole remaining challenger, far before July’s Republican national convention in Milwaukee.On the Democratic side, President Joe Biden has swept aside token challenges by Congressman Dean Phillips of Minnesota and the self-help author Marianne Williamson and is cruising to the nomination. The lopsided contests…

nitrogenIt finally — and inevitably — happened Saturday night at the start of the third quarter in Toronto. Maple Leafs tough guy Ryan Reaves goes up against burly rookie Matt Rempe of the New York Rangers in center ice. Lempey, a 6-foot-7, 240-pound center, has one goal and one assist in his first seven games in the NHL. He also had 37 penalty minutes, five more than he actually played on the ice. He’s what most people call an “enforcer” — a role that has more or less been phased out of the NHL in recent years. That’s not to…

Episode two of the new season of Drive to Survive begins with an at-home scene of Father Christmas visiting Red Bull team principal Christian Horner’s house. It’s a charming vignette for the Netflix show – literally just Horner, his wife, Geri Halliwell, his two young children and a TV crew with at least two cameras so they can get both wide and cutaway shots. Those childhood opportunities to be part of father’s content farm are so precious, and Santa begins by asking the children: “Has Dad been good this year?” No, would now seem to be the answer.Not to break…

timeThese weeks, the art of choice has something to do with psychology. Put the stats aside and think about the players your opponents least like to face. How can you make your team feel more optimistic and less troubled by negative emotions? And, will your own fans feel extra excited when they see the roster?So let’s huddle close together and consider what’s next for beleaguered England ahead of the penultimate weekend of the Six Nations. Their final two games are against Ireland and France and even considering France’s problems, it’s time for a change to the atmospheric music at Twickenham.…