The Guide #218: For gen Zers like me, YouTube isn’t an app or a website – it’s the backdrop to our waking lives

Barely a month goes by without more news of streaming sites overtaking traditional, terrestrial TV. Predominant among those sits YouTube, with more than 2.5 billion monthly viewers. For people my age – a sprightly 28 – and younger, YouTube is less of an app or website than our answer to radio: the ever-present background hum of modern life. While my mum might leave Radio 4 wittering or BBC News flickering in the corner as she potters about the house, I’ve got a video essay about Japan’s unique approach to urban planning playing on my phone

Stephen Colbert on Trump v Epstein files: ‘Fighting tooth and cankle’

Late-night hosts reacted to Donald Trump signing a bill to release the Epstein files while still trying to distract from them.Stephen Colbert celebrated the impending release of all files related to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. “After months of Trump fighting tooth and cankle to hold back the Republican party from doing the right thing, he just went ahead and gave up and signed the bill to release the Epstein files,” the Late Show host explained a day after Congress voted near unanimously to compel the justice department to make the files public within 30 days.“Even though Trump told Republicans to all vote for this, he was clearly furious that they did,” Colbert continued. Trump signed the bill after the White House issued a so-called photo lid, which shut down any on-camera opportunities

After 10 years talking to knights, squires and wizards, I understand why ren fairs are booming

“I dunno what to tell ya, mate,” a young knight once told me through his helm’s lifted visor. “Gettin’ shield bashed just feels good.”For the knaves among thee, a “shield bash” is what it sounds like: to bash, or be bashed, with a shield. It’s simple and to the point, like a mace to the face or an arrow to the knee. Witnessing a shield bash, you understand the “haha yesss” that the basher must feel upon bashing, just as you empathetically presume a long “oh noooooo” on behalf of the bashee

Seth Meyers on Epstein files: ‘It’s obvious why Trump fought so hard to stop this bill from passing’

Late-night hosts reacted to the congressional vote sending the bill to release all files related to late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein to the desk of his former friend Donald Trump.It was a tough Tuesday for Trump, who lost his months-long battle to stop the release of the Epstein files on Tuesday after Congress passed a bill forcing the justice department publish them. “So now Trump is doing a 180,” said Seth Meyers on Wednesday’s Late Night.“He says he’ll sign the bill that forces him to release the files he could’ve released on his own but wouldn’t, thus requiring a bill to force him to do the thing he didn’t want to do that he’ll now be forced to do because of the bill he was against that he will now sign.”“It’s obvious why Trump fought so hard to stop this bill from passing,” Meyers later added

My cultural awakening: I moved across the world after watching a Billy Connolly documentary

I was 23 and thought I had found my path in life. I’d always wanted to work with animals, and I had just landed a job as a vet nurse in Melbourne. I was still learning the ropes, but I imagined I would stay there for years, building a life around the work. Then, five months in, the vet called me into his office and told me it wasn’t working out. “It’s not you,” he said, “I just really hate training people

Jimmy Kimmel on Epstein files congressional vote: ‘Make no mistake – this isn’t over’

Late-night hosts celebrated the congressional votes to release the Epstein files and decried Donald Trump’s warm meeting with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.Tuesday was “a very big day” in Washington DC, said Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday evening, as both the House and Senate voted near unanimously to authorize the justice department to release investigative files related to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.“Ultimately even [speaker] Mike Johnson voted yes on releasing the files,” Kimmel noted, meaning that the bill now heads to the White House, where it will probably66 be signed by Trump.“The goal was to have the bill pass by such a large margin that Trump can’t put his little orange thumb on the scale and give it the old Cheeto veto,” he explained. “But make no mistake: this isn’t over

British Museum ends ‘deeply troubling’ sponsorship from Japanese tobacco firm

The British Museum has ended a controversial sponsorship deal with a Japanese tobacco firm after reports that the government had raised questions about the deal, which some critics said was “deeply troubling”.The Guardian understands that the museum’s board chose to not renew the 15-year partnership with Japan Tobacco International (JTI), which ended in September.The pressure group Culture Unstained submitted a freedom of information request earlier this year, which it says revealed correspondence sent in January in which the government raised questions about the details of the deal.The Times reports that the Department of Health and Social Care told the Department for Culture, Media and Sport that the deal could be a breach of the World Health Organization’s framework convention on tobacco control (FCTC).The framework bars states from advertising and promoting smoking products

Why don’t Conservatives get credit for culture funding? | Letter

Helen Marriage, a hugely respected cultural leader, writes that “there is no political party that will commit to the kind of investment needed to keep a living art and culture ecology alive” (Durham’s Lumiere festival was a beacon of hope and togetherness – we cannot let the lights go out on the rest of the arts, 11 November). But she also places the responsibility on all of us. She wants the culture sector to make a better case. But can it?As commissioner for culture in the last government, I remain surprised that large funding decisions directed at culture have been forgotten, devalued and ignored, perhaps because the sources were then from a Conservative government.During Covid, culture was the only economic sector to receive its own rapid, specially designed, comprehensive rescue package

Jon Stewart on Trump’s Epstein files flip-flop: ‘This dude is flailing’

Late-night hosts tore into the next chapter of Donald Trump’s never-ending Jeffrey Epstein scandal.Jon Stewart ripped into Trump on Monday evening after the president abruptly changed tack and called on House Republicans to authorize the justice department’s release of files related to Epstein, a convicted sex offender – files which Trump himself could order to be released.“If he had nothing to hide, he could have declassified and released these files himself at any time,” the Daily Show host explained. “How do I know this? A legal expert named Donald Jurisprudence Trump said so.”Stewart then played footage of Trump from 2022 in which he insisted that the president can declassify anything, at any time, just by saying so or “even by thinking about it”