David Squires’ extended universe: buy an exclusive cartoon

In this month’s limited-time print drop, we’re showcasing work by David Squires, whose cartoons offer a unique take on the world of football – including a brand new coloured cartoon created exclusively for this release. This limited numbered edition is available until 5 August

David Squires is an Australia-based cartoonist and illustrator best known for his weekly football cartoons in The Guardian in the UK and Australia. David has also had four books published and provides regular cartoons for L’Équipe magazine in France and 11Freunde in Germany. David is uncomfortable about referring to himself in the third person, but will make an exception for the purposes of this format.

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NatWest investors given £1.5bn weeks after full privatisation

Profits rise 4.4% at lender, which plans to distribute interim dividend of 9.5p a share on top of fresh £750m buyback

NatWest will give a further £1.5bn to shareholders only weeks after the UK government sold the final part of its stake in the once bailed-out bank.

The high street lender on Friday announced plans to distribute an interim dividend of 9.5p a share, worth a collective £768m, on top of a fresh £750m share buyback in the second half of the year.

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Continue ReadingNatWest investors given £1.5bn weeks after full privatisation

‘City of singles’: cosmopolitan prewar Paris’s ‘crazy years’ brought to life

Database of 8m handwritten census entries paints portrait of city that was hub for intellectuals, artists and young, single people

In 1926, James Joyce was working on his novel Finnegans Wake while living in a spacious apartment in the 7th arrondissement of Paris with his partner, Nora Barnacle, and their two adult children, Giorgio and Lucia.

Joyce’s neighbours in the elegant stone building at 2 Square de Robiac included a Syrian family whose three children had an English nanny called Jessie, Russian émigrés, an Egyptian industrialist, and the US writers William and Elizabeth Placida Mahl.

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Continue Reading‘City of singles’: cosmopolitan prewar Paris’s ‘crazy years’ brought to life

Football transfer rumours: Sesko or Aghehowa to replace Isak at Newcastle?

Today’s rumours are Swedish dominoes

If anyone spots Eddie Howe appearing to be rehearsing lines on the steps of St James’ Park over the next few days, there’s an obvious explanation. It was from said vantage point 30 years ago that another Newcastle manager, Kevin Keegan, had to explain to angry and bewildered fans why they had sold Andy Cole to Manchester United. The modern-day version, of course, is Howe having to talk his way out of why the club could be letting Alexander Isak go to Liverpool.

To be honest, it doesn’t seem a very Howe thing to do, although rumours suggest the current Magpies manager wouldn’t be averse. And, if Howe knows his history, he might benefit, just as Liverpool once did, from the Coutinho effect – flogging a player at peak value and rebuilding key parts of the squad with the hefty proceeds.

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Continue ReadingFootball transfer rumours: Sesko or Aghehowa to replace Isak at Newcastle?

Doctors of my generation support this strike – you don’t need a medical degree to see why | Michael Akadiri

Gen Z and millennial resident doctors are fearless in pursuing their true worth. Maybe if their older colleagues had been, we wouldn’t be in this situation

  • Michael Akadiri is an award-winning standup comedian and resident doctor

So there was no last-minute intervention by Wes Streeting and his team at Whitehall. Resident doctors in England (formerly known as junior doctors) are on the picket line from 7am today until 7am on 30 July, a full five-day walkout.

And I’ll be joining them, in solidarity. Though I’m a resident doctor by grade, I currently work for NHS England on a freelance (locum) basis, so I’ll be supporting my colleagues by electing not to work on the aforementioned days, despite the sauteed carrot of “enhanced strike rates”.

Michael Akadiri is an award-winning standup comedian and resident doctor

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Continue ReadingDoctors of my generation support this strike – you don’t need a medical degree to see why | Michael Akadiri