Author: The Guardian

Kenyan distance runner Hellen Obiri is the favorite to compete in this month’s Olympics. That’s not only down to her talent, which she previously won two silver medals and won at the Boston Marathon in April, but also her shoes.In Paris, Obiri will be wearing the Cloudboom Strike LS. This innovative design is made by Swiss sneaker brand On using what they call LightSpray technology and has just been released during the Olympics.To produce each pair of shoes, a robotic arm holds a foot-shaped last while spraying thermoplastic polyurethane in a continuous line that coalesces into a rubberized textile shoe.…

Mina Smallman, the mother of two women murdered in a London park, has forgiven their killer but not the two Metropolitan police officers who took and shared photos of their bodies, she said.Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman were reported missing on 6 June 2020, the day before friends discovered their bodies in a park in Wembley, north London, after organising their own search party.Bibaa Henry (L) and Nicole Smallman. Photograph: Metropolitan police/ReutersPolice officers Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis were ordered to guard the scene. While there they took photos, some showing the bodies, and shared them in two WhatsApp groups,…

Democrats were in apparent gridlock on Saturday, a week after the party took stunning action to oust the president in favor of a candidate many hoped for while a recalcitrant Joe Biden continued to endure A high-profile call to end his re-election campaign.In the weeks since his poor performance in the debate with Trump, the 81-year-old Biden has tried to fend off calls to step down as the top candidate amid concerns about his age and mental acuity. No more qualified for this job. But a series of interviews, press conferences and speeches did little to calm tensions within the…

The United States of Cat LadiesHere’s a fun little fact for you. Did you know that, despite all evidence to the contrary, the US is run by “childless cat ladies”? Forget the statistic that, up until fairly recently, there were more men called John running big companies than women. Forget the fact, while there may be a record number of women in government at the moment, they still make up just over a quarter of members of Congress. Forget the tiny little detail that the US has never had a female president. It is very clear that it’s actually the…

The England and Wales Cricket Board is pushing ahead with proposals to change the Hundred format to the Twenty20 format, but plans to retain the name of the competition. this observer It is understood there is a possibility of a return to the traditional six-ball round when the next TV rights cycle begins in 2029, but the Top 100 title and branding will remain.The ECB announced plans to adopt a new shorter format in 2018, with each 100-ball innings divided into groups of five or 10 balls instead of one round, but as it prepares to sell stakes in eight…

A US congressman has said he decided to join calls for Joe Biden to exit the presidential race after he claimed the 81-year-old appeared not to recognise him at a recent event.Seth Moulton, a Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, was one of the first Democrats to call for Biden to drop out of the race shortly after his disastrous debate performance last month. On Friday, Moulton ramped up his efforts to oust the president from the 2024 ticket in a damning op-ed for the Boston Globe.Moulton said he met Biden in a small group for the 80th anniversary of D-day in…

World Snooker has announced that six-time world champion Ray Reardon has passed away at the age of 91. The Welshman, who dominated the sport in the 1970s, died on Friday night after being diagnosed with cancer.”Ray was one of the best players Wales has ever produced and the best snooker player ever,” said former world champion Mark Williams. “He was one of the reasons so many of us started playing. He put the sport of snooker right up there with Alex Higgins, Jimmy White and Steve Davis. Everyone who plays the game now owes them a debt A lot because…

Zandra Rhodes in 1976 and 2024.Zandra Rhodes in 1976 and 2024. Later photograph: Pål Hansen. Styling: Andie Redman. Hair: Linus Johansson. Makeup: Dominic Skinner. Archive image: Robyn BeecheBorn in Chatham, Kent in 1940, Zandra Rhodes is a fashion and textile designer and founder of the Fashion and Textile Museum in London. Known for her bold, outlandish use of colours and prints, she has dressed royalty and pop culture’s most famous, from Princess Diana to Debbie Harry. Rhodes has appeared in Absolutely Fabulous, and won a Daytime Emmy award for costume design in 1979. Her memoir, Iconic, has just been published.Makeup artists…

The Wallabies, led by Joe Schmidt, maintained their hard-earned unbeaten record with a 40-29 victory over Georgia in Sydney. The 12th-placed Georgians pulled within two points of the home side early in the second half before the Wallabies kick off later on Saturday at Allianz Stadium, which could give the team Surprise.Schmidt made 10 changes to the side that beat Wales 36-28 in Melbourne last Saturday, with some taking advantage of their chances and others not. New halfback Ben Donaldson doesn’t look like the answer to Australia’s organizational woes, with his kicking and decision-making often poor.The Wallabies back-row of Fraser…

There are about 150 species of slimy molluscs in the UK and while not all of them have a taste for plants, the wet weather conditions in spring and summer has led to slugs causing havoc in gardens, balconies and fields across Britain.Social media has been inundated with people complaining about the amount of slugs cropping up in their green spaces, and desperate for tips on how to get rid of them.“They have been something else this year,” one user comments underneath a video where she pans across a small patch of grass ridden with slugs. “They’re horrible and they’ve…