Le Journal

Major disturbance in the Earth’s magnetic field may make northern lights visible far more south than usualThe aurora could be visible across Canada and much of the northern tier of US states on Monday night, and possibly even further south, following a major disturbance in the Earth’s magnetic field, a forecast shows.The forecast, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s space weather prediction center, comes amid intense geomagnetic and solar radiation storms, said Shawn Dahl, service coordinator at the center. Continue reading...

Move comes as peers prepare to vote on an amendment to a bill that would enact a ban within a year of the bill passingMinisters have launched a consultation into whether to ban under-16s from using social media as part of a package of measures designed to curb mobile phone use among young people.Liz Kendall, the technology secretary, announced the consultation on Monday as the government responds to mounting pressure for stricter curbs on social media use for younger teenagers. On Monday afternoon, Esther Ghey, the mother of the murdered teenager Brianna Ghey, became the latest high profile figure to add her name to those in support of a ban. Continue reading...

Manager has ‘been feeling the trust’ from club hierarchySpurs hampered by injury crisis before visit of DortmundThomas Frank has insisted the Tottenham hierarchy are standing with him in the face of the storm gripping the club.The manager’s job is in the balance, his situation precarious after the home defeat against West Ham on Saturday. The Spurs support were so incensed by the result and the continuation of the team’s terrible Premier League form – they have won twice in their past 13 league matches – that they demanded Frank be “sacked in the morning”. Continue reading...

Chief classical music critic of the Guardian admired for writing without fear or favourAndrew Clements, who has died aged 75 after a period of ill health, was for more than three decades the Guardian’s chief classical music critic. His style was a model of critical integrity – authoritative and intelligent, sometimes enthusiastic and sometimes slightly grumpy, dry-humoured yet never showy.Music may say things that words cannot express, but he mastered the rare art of putting music into words, always using language with precision; reading him, you knew what a performance had sounded like. Best known for championing new music with tireless devotion, Andrew had much wider musical interests than many realised. Continue reading...

Carnival drums provided the backdrop to surprise victory over league leaders that was not just down to luck“There was a little magic in the atmosphere,” Pellegrino Matarazzo said. Real Sociedad’s new coach could feel it; he could hear it too, the sound of drums beating on every street of the city he has embraced and into the stadium that has embraced him back already. When he and his players arrived at Anoeta on Sunday evening, they entered through a guard of honour, a band of soldiers and chefs lined up in the rain, hammering out the club anthem and hoping. By the time they departed around midnight, following 35,346 supporters out into San Sebastián, it had actually happened. La Real had beaten Barcelona 2-1. Celebrations, his captain Mikel Oyarzabal said, had come a day early.This week is tamborrada, the San Sebastián festival where, at midnight on 20 January, the city flag is raised and marching bands parade through its streets in Napoleonic uniforms and cooks’ costumes grasping sticks, batons and giant cutlery, routes mapped out in loving detail and special supplements. Initially it was a popular pastiche of a military procession, a prelude to carnival, practice runs echoing round in the days before, kids go first, adults next. An expression of civic pride, they sing of “spreading joy,” being “always happy,” and God knows they were happy now. What better way to begin it all than this? What better way to become one of them? Continue reading...