Author: The Guardian

It resembles an enormous, malevolent robot from 1980s sci-fi but West Japan Railway’s new humanoid employee was designed with nothing more sinister than a spot of painting and gardening in mind.Starting this month, the large machine with enormous arms, a crude, disproportionately small Wall-E-like head and coke-bottle eyes mounted on a truck – which can drive on rails – will be put to use for maintenance work on the company’s network.Its operator sits in a cockpit on the truck, “seeing” through the robot’s eyes via cameras and operating its powerful limbs and hands remotely.With a vertical reach of 12 metres…

The election campaign is over and voters will decide who will lead the UK for the next five years, and British newspapers will be reporting on each party’s final campaign proposals, along with some suggestions of their own.”Starmer hails ‘new era of hope’ as Britain votes in historic election,” read Guardian’s front page. The newspaper’s headlines noted that Rishi Sunak’s closest allies had “admitted defeat” as final polls put Labor on course for an unprecedented victory.”On the final day of a heated six-week campaign, the Guardian understands Sunak has revealed to members of his inner circle that he fears losing…

Mark Cavendish broke new ground in the Tour de France, becoming the most prolific stage winner in the history of the French race, as he took a record-breaking 35th victory with a typically instinctive sprint finish in Saint-Vulbas.It may not have been as grand as the Champs Élysées, but when the moment came on the Avenue des Bergeries, in a suburban town better known for its boulodromes than for its sprint spectacles, the 39-year-old from the Isle of Man kept his date with destiny.“You have to go all in,” he said, “and we’ve done it. We worked out exactly what…

Matteo Berrettini reached his first Grand Slam final after a draw at Wimbledon 2021, and it felt like a big moment. Although Berrettini lost the decisive match to Novak Djokovic, he has established himself as one of Italy’s finest tennis players. Following the defeat, Berrettini traveled straight from Wimbledon to Wembley, where he spent the night and the following days celebrating his success with the Italian side that won Euro 2020.Three years later, Berrettini’s success is a distant memory, the result of injuries, bad luck and the brilliance of his brilliant opponents on Center Court. Jannik Sinner, who last month…

The world’s oldest known picture story is a cave painting almost 6,000 years older than the previous record holder, found about 10km away on the same island in Indonesia, an international team of archaeologists has said.The painting, believed to be at least 51,200 years old, was found at Leang Karampuang cave on the east Indonesian island of Sulawesi, researchers from Griffith University, Southern Cross University and the Indonesian National Research and Innovation Agency wrote in the journal Nature.Samples were collected in 2017, but weren’t dated until earlier this year.The previous record holder was a lifesize picture of a wild pig…

A Southern California jury convicted Samuel Woodward of murdering former high school classmate Blaze Bernstein in 2018, following a three-month trial that reunearthed a brutal case. The killings made international headlines because the killers were members of the neo-Nazi group Atomforce.Bernstein, a 19-year-old pre-med student at Penn State, disappeared on the night of Jan. 2, 2018, after meeting Woodward, who was 20 at the time. The pair, who attended Orange County High School for the Arts together, reconnected through the dating app Tinder. Bernstein’s body was found six days later, buried in an Orange County park. Woodward was the last…

A group of leading Democratic governors offered words of support for Joe Biden on Wednesday as pressure mounted on the president to leave the race.The governors, including Tim Walz of Minnesota, Wes Moore of Maryland, Gavin Newsom of California and Kathy Hochul of New York, held a closed-door meeting with Biden in Washington as he sought to reassure his party – and the public – that he is up to the job after a shaky debate performance.Biden met for more than an hour at the White House in person and virtually with more than 20 governors from his party. The…

Keir Starmer hailed a “new era of hope and opportunity” as millions prepare to vote in a general election that could bring the biggest change to British politics in a generation.The Labor leader said he was “ready for government” and his expected cabinet would “take immediate action” if he won Thursday’s election.With Rishi Sunak’s closest allies appearing to concede Tory defeat and final polls predicting an unprecedented Labor victory, Starmer said he hoped Britain was about to enter a new chapter.On the final day of the intense six-week campaign, the Guardian understands Sunak has revealed to members of his inner…

Keir Starmer has insisted the UK will not rejoin either the EU, the single market or the customs union within his lifetime, in his firmest pledge yet that Labour will not seek much closer relations with Europe for as long as he is prime minister.The Labour leader told reporters on Wednesday he did not think Britain would go back into any of the three blocs while he was alive, all but ruling out rejoining even if he wins a second term in office.In recent days, the Labour leader has begun talking more freely about what his party would do in…

For three and a half years, Joe Biden has been wrapped in a metaphorical ball of lint by an anxious White House staff eager to protect him from the worst.Worried about signs of aging and increasing verbal gaffes, they have kept press conferences and media interviews to a minimum.Meetings with MPs, which were frequent enough in his first year in office – despite coinciding with the Covid-19 pandemic – dropped by two-thirds by his third year.Public appearances are tightly restricted and controlled, and the president speaks primarily through automated prompts.Impromptu exchanges with reporters were deemed too risky, leading the 81-year-old…