Designed to mirror the stock market, they are an easy and cheap way to save. Here’s how to start investing in themTracker funds have been around for about half a century, providing investors with access to a range of assets without them having to make difficult and risky decisions.Built to follow the fortunes of a given financial market index, trackers do not need management teams, which means they generally come with low charges. If you have a workplace pension, you probably already invested in one without realising it. If you want to start investing, you are likely to be directed towards a tracker fund. Continue reading...

29 Jun 2026 06:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

These traditional restaurants are the culinary backbone of this gastronomic capital, but finding the real deal means tackling offal – and red wine – for breakfastI first went to a bouchon as a 20-year-old Erasmus student. I’d accidentally ended up spending a semester of my year abroad in the Auvergne countryside, which meant every weekend I’d thumb a ride to the nearest big city – Lyon. I didn’t know much about Lyon, except that it was famous for its food – in particular the hearty fare served up at these traditional restaurants with their red gingham tablecloths and chalkboard menus. So when I found myself eating stringy, overpriced beef muscle that cost more than my night at a hostel, I wondered what the hype was about.But after nearly five years living in the city, I’ve now learned how to avoid the tourist traps (which largely line Vieux Lyon between souvenir shops selling fridge magnets and sweet shops). Historically, most bouchons weren’t in Lyon’s old town anyway, writes Yves Rouèche in Histoire(s) De La Gastronomie Lyonnaise, but in the neighbourhoods of Vaise, Croix-Rousse and La Guillotière, the gateways to the city in the Renaissance period where merchants and travellers stopped for the night. Continue reading...

28 Jun 2026 06:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Aiden is an unforgettable young caregiver in Walthamstow, east London, who has been looking after his mum for over half his life. Every few weeks, Aiden and other young carers get a rare night off thanks to tenacious council worker Satvinder, who fights to improve the recognition of young carers in her borough. This film joins them as they reclaim a few hours of their teenage lives back.Is Mum OK? is released during Carers Week in the UK, a campaign that celebrates unpaid carers across the country and calls for better recognition and support for them. There are more than one million young carers in the UK – with an average age of 12 – which is the equivalent of two kids in every school class. Continue reading...

09 Jun 2026 09:31 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

For most teenagers, the last day of school is about summer, freedom and new beginnings. At a military school in western Ukraine, it marks the end of years spent living, studying and training together – and, for many, the first step towards a career in the armed forces at a time of warThe school in western Ukraine is home to about 400 cadets from across the country. On paper, it resembles any other high school, where students study mathematics, physics, English and history before taking the same national exams as their peers. But the daily life for these cadets is different.As cadets wait to march out for the graduation parade, one straightens her classmate’s collar Continue reading...

29 Jun 2026 06:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

In 1993, she squeezed a $333m settlement from a Californian energy company in a scandal over contaminated water. Three decades later, she has a new target in her sights – and it’s globalWhen Erin Brockovich woke to find 30 emails from people from the same town, she realised something was going on. People email Brockovich all the time because of what happened in 1993, when she was instrumental in suing Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) on behalf of residents of the town of Hinkley, California, whose groundwater had been contaminated. The case resulted in a settlement of $333m – then the largest ever payout for a direct-action lawsuit. When she was immortalised by Julia Roberts in the 2000 film Erin Brockovich, she became the hero we didn’t know we needed, a modern day Joan of Arc. She had won against PG&E with no formal legal training.The emails she received a few weeks ago were about datacentres. In April, she put a callout on her website asking for anyone with concerns about one near them to get in touch. Within a month, 3,862 people had replied. Tech companies have needed datacentres to power their technology “for ever”, she says, but the new ones being built to power AI? “This feels like Hinkley on steroids.” Continue reading...

29 Jun 2026 04:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

As tens of thousands are freed, female survivors are increasingly reporting gender-based violence in the compounds, previously thought to hold mainly menLate one evening in October 2023, Sarah* felt labour pains starting. It was 11pm, but at the cyberscam compound inside Laos’ Golden Triangle, workers were logging on for a long night shift, scamming Americans online.Every night, workers sat at their computers until the early hours, building fake profiles of glamorous, jet-setting women on Facebook and Instagram. Sarah trawled the web to find older men to target with messages, where she fawned over their jobs, asked how their day had been and exchanged photos of luxury travel and beach trips. Each conversation she had was meticulously designed to follow a multi-day script, and monitored by bosses who walked up and down the long rows of desks. Continue reading...

29 Jun 2026 04:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Tell us about your favourite family day trip – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays breakSchool’s (almost) out … and with a long summer stretching ahead, we want you to share fun activities that will help others fill the family diary. We’d love to hear about your favourite summer days out and adventures in the UK. Perhaps it’s a trip to an outdoor sculpture park or gallery, a great picnic spot by a river, a small theme park or coastal hike to a quiet cove.The best tip of the week, chosen by Tom Hall of Lonely Planet wins a £200 voucher to stay at a Coolstays property – the company has more than 3,000 worldwide. The best tips will appear in the Guardian Travel section and website. Continue reading...

29 Jun 2026 13:14 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN