An elephant at Berlin zoo used its trunk to interrupt flow of water from hose used by another elephant

If you get frustrated by the shower hog in your house you’re not alone: research suggests such behaviour might even irritate elephants.

Scientists say they have not only discovered an elephant with an astonishing ability to shower with a hose, but spotted another cutting off the flow of water – possibly in a deliberate act of sabotage.

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Kemi Badenoch’s election is evidence of strong meritocracy, say some activists and public figures, while others question her ideology

Kemi Badenoch’s election as Conservative party leader may have been somewhat eclipsed by the US election , but it nonetheless represents a political milestone . Her positioning as a “culture warrior” is, to some, proof not of a changing Conservative party but one with a new face for old instincts .

Here, the Guardian asks black and minority ethnic campaigners, as well as public and political figures, what it means for the Tories to have a black leader.

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This spicy Mexican coffee with a kick may soon be your new weekend brunchtime boost

Café de olla is a Mexican breakfast staple made from coffee brewed with spices, orange peel and piloncillo , or unrefined cane sugar. We mix it with tequila to make our espresso martinis for a great little pick-me-up.

Daniel Corrochio, Corrochio’s , London N16

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Have you got a burning question for the prolific actor, soon to appear in the much anticipated erotic thriller Babygirl? Now is your chance to ask

Is Nicole Kidman the hardest working person in Hollywood? It’s more than four decades since the Australian-American started acting, aged 16, yet she shows no sign of slowing down. As well as developing and producing projects through her own company, Blossom Films, Kidman has barely been off TV screens in recent months, starring in dramas such as Expats , The Perfect Couple , Lioness and A Family Affair . Next she takes the lead role in Halina Reijn’s much-anticipated erotic thriller Babygirl . Kidman picked up the best actress prize at the Venice Film Festival for her portrayal of a high-powered executive who has an affair with a much younger intern – and she is also attracting significant Oscar buzz.

Kidman always wanted to act. Born in Hawaii, she moved to Sydney aged four with her father, an author and clinical psychologist, and mother, a nursing instructor. The 1989 thriller Dead Calm was her breakthrough film. Over the years since then she has appeared in countless diverse roles, from Virginia Woolf in The Hours to Lucille Ball in Being The Ricardos .

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Chaser left to trot home alone after opponents withdrawn due to hard ground caused by ongoing dull, dry spell

A gentle gallop from the furlong pole to the winning line was enough to secure a prize of nearly £22,000 for the connections of Captain Teague at Exeter on Friday after the “Future Stars” Novice Chase, one of the main supporting events on the track’s biggest day of the year, was reduced to a walkover when two of the three declared runners were scratched due to unusually fast ground.

Dan Skelton’s Deafening Silence, a winner on the same card over hurdles 12 months ago, was the first horse to be pulled out of the contest, which was due to open a four-race broadcast on ITV4, after the same trainer’s five-year-old Jack Black was pulled up in the opening novice hurdle.

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Cash stops short of hoped-for ‘bazooka option’ with critics calling it ‘an accounting exercise’ unable to boost growth

China has announced 10tn yuan in debt support for local governments and other economic measures, but stopped short of the “bazooka” stimulus package that many analysts had expected.

The fiscal package included raising debt ceilings for local governments by 6tn yuan (£646bn) over three years, so they could replace hidden debt, which authorities said stood at 14.3tn yuan by the end of 2023.

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Sir Martyn Oliver tells school leaders there will be focus on inclusion in new-style inspection reports from next year

Schools should not turn away “difficult” pupils over fears they will harm their results, and face being evaluated on how inclusive they are towards local children, Ofsted’s chief inspector of schools has said.

Sir Martyn Oliver , the head of Ofsted, told England’s school leaders that there would be a focus on inclusion in the new report-card style inspection reports to be introduced next year.

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Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
Her famous friends and avant garde love life can threaten to overshadow her work, but some of it is amazing – although it almost gets lost in the gallery

A challenge for anyone confronting the art of the Bloomsbury Group is the way the magnetic chaos of their interpersonal drama can overpower the art. At Pallant House, the curators strike a tenuous balance between the two. Though Dora Carrington, who preferred to be known simply as Carrington, wasn’t part of Bloomsbury’s inner circle, she enthusiastically lived their ethos.

Bisexual and fond of nudity, she was infatuated with Lytton Strachey , who was gay. She lived in a menage a trois with Strachey and Ralph Partridge , and all three had regular affairs with people of various genders. She was an enchanting person, by all accounts – the sort of captivating personality it is impossible to forget. Although her life echoed the imbalanced love triangles of Vanessa Bell , Carrington was less able to flourish: her art was never appreciated and barely exhibited in her lifetime, and she had far less agency in her relationships.

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In the experience of Football Daily, hearing Mark Robins speak is an interaction with an entirely normal, grounded human being, an intelligent, plausible, honest man. In a world of bluster and buzzwords, Robins speaks sensibly, realistically. For Coventry City he was the shy Messiah, leading the club out of its darkest hours, taking them within minutes – inches even – of the promised land. Visit the Coventry City Building Society Stadium and encounter a kind of faded grandeur. The glory days were at Highfield Road. Its replacement, the Ricoh, as it was first known at the start of a torrid history that continues with Mike Ashley as landlord, is modern, glassy, a cashless society with a statue of Jimmy Hill at its entrance. Perhaps one day Robins will be afforded a bronze tribute as the man who took the floodlit dreams of a city trying to revive itself on his shoulders . Without him, the stadium’s sun-bleached sky-blue seats might now be entirely disused.

Chelsea were playing a team called ‘Noah’ last night and yet in its match report Big Website didn’t even have one single water/ark-related pun? The game’s gone …” – Noble Francis.

Ryan Lloyd shows a touching faith in Brazilian stadium security when he says the pig’s head must have been thrown by a Corintiano because away fans are banned from the derby ( yesterday’s Football Daily letters ). As someone who cowered in the Brook Road Stand watching Southampton at Griffin Park because I couldn’t get an away ticket and whose dad silently supported the Seagulls at Wembley in 1983, surrounded by Manchester United fans, I can assure you, not everyone is always who they seem at the football” – Ben Mimmack.

Seeking to resuscitate the flogged dead horse which is the ‘great headlines’ thread (Football Daily letters passim), I well remember a newspaper headline after the 1993 Milk Cup final, in which Arsenal beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 with a winner scored by Steve Morrow, whose arm was famously then broken when Tony Adams dropped him in the course of the post-match celebrations. One broadsheet ran with ‘Joy today but sorrow to Morrow’, and I couldn’t fathom why they blew the opportunity to go for ‘Joy today but sorrow to Morrow and Wednesday’” – Simon Skinner.

Re: great headlines. I realise the topic is getting a bit long in the tooth – and to be fair I don’t even know if this counts as a proper headline – but certainly as of 8pm on Thursday the Big Website main page was still claiming this to be ‘Breaking news’! Excellent work” – Scott Blair.

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