Commonwealth Games 2026: Ramsay-Peaty in men’s 50m breaststroke final on day four – live

• Live updates from Monday’s action around Glasgow

• Latest medal table | Day four: in pictures | Mail Daniel

It’s time for Martin Belam to steer things for the next couple of hours.

Athletics: England’s Sam Bennett has made it to the final of the men’s 110m hurdles on his Commonwealth Games debut, having put together the best time in the heats: 13.20 (wind +2.1). Bennett claimed gold at the UK Championships in June with a time of 13.41.

Industrial chicken farming accelerating spread of diarrhoea bacteria, study finds

Intensive nature of modern chicken farming creates ideal conditions for campylobacter, allowing bacteria to evolve

Industrial chicken farming is accelerating the spread of the world’s most common bacterial cause of diarrhoea, scientists have found.

The study found a dramatic increase in the exchange of campylobacter strains between wild birds and chickens as farming has intensified, creating the ideal conditions for the bacteria to mix, spread and acquire new traits. There has also been a rise in antimicrobial resistance traits in circulating strains, raising concerns that serious illness in people will be more difficult to treat.

Savannah Guthrie asks alleged kidnappers to "do the right thing" in new video

In her Instagram post,​ the "Today" show host said her family had "done our part" and would "never stop looking for" their 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie​, who has been missing since February​.

The biggest weather risk for homeowners? It's no longer hurricanes.

Severe "convective" storms account for roughly a third of global natural disaster economic losses, a new study finds.

Trump backs 'fantastic' Warsh while calling for lower rates and citing 'bad intentions' of other Fed officials

President Trump Monday voiced support for Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh while insisting that the U.S. should have the lowest interest rates in the world.

Mitch McConnell still not cleared to resume Senate duties, office says

Kentucky senator has been absent and not seen in public since mid-June after he was hospitalized due to a fall

• US politics live – latest updates

US senator Mitch McConnell is still not cleared to return to work, his office confirmed on Monday, six weeks after he was hospitalized after a fall at his home.

An update released alongside a new photograph of the Republican lawmaker – one of the highest-profile figures in Congress, as a former Senate majority leader – said he was undergoing “intense physical therapy” and is “working hard” to get back to his duties.

U.S. and Iran pause fighting, Trump dismisses concerns of dwindling stockpiles

A temporary pause to the U.S.-Iran conflict appeared to hold on Monday, after negotiations over a lasting peace faced fresh hurdles over the weekend.

Amazon seeks federal approval to launch 5,105 satellites for direct-to-device network

The proposed network will partly rely on assets from Globalstar, which Amazon announced plans to acquire in April for roughly $11.6 billion.

Comey asks judge to dismiss Trump 'seashells' case citing lack of 'true threat'

Ex-FBI Director James Comey is charged with threatening to kill President Donald Trump by posting an Instagram photo of seashells forming the message "8647."

The Guardian view on Europe’s wildfires: politics must catch up with the new reality | Editorial

At a time when the quickening pace of global heating has never been clearer, climate policies are being deprioritised

A new and ominous word has entered the vocabulary of firefighters struggling to cope with the vast wildfire sweeping through south-west France. A pyrocumulonimbus is a fire-generated thunderstorm that can whip up winds in unpredictable ways, making the containment of a blaze and assessment of its likely course far more difficult. A known phenomenon in North America and Australia, firefighters believe France is suffering its first in the Bordeaux region, as the country endures the consequences of the third major heatwave of the summer and prepares for a fourth.

The dire statistics of the ongoing fires in France and Spain tell a story of deepening devastation and human misery. A far greater expanse of French land has already been burnt this year, compared with the 30,000 hectares during the whole of 2025, while 220,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in the Gironde. In Spain, the environment ministry has calculated that over 170,000 hectares have been affected, compared with 29,000 last year. Over 100,000 people have been forced to flee.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

The Guardian view on ancient DNA: a female shaman exposes our flawed assumptions about the past | Editorial

Thanks to new technology we are are acquiring insights into earlier times, and realising how little we truly know

Archaeologists believe the Upton Lovell Shaman, who lived in what is now Wiltshire 4,000 years ago, was an important religious leader and metalworker because of the artefacts and tools buried with the body. Until very recently it was also believed, on considerably slimmer evidence, that this shaman was a man: it was simply assumed that someone of such status must be male, and the view was barely questioned over the years. Now ancient DNA analysis performed at the Francis Crick Institute has revealed that the body, held by the Wiltshire Museum, is in fact a woman.

That should cause a stir in bronze-age studies. But it is also yet another example of how many of our assumptions about human history have been upended by the rise of ancient DNA analysis over the past two decades. Others include the revelation that there were (frequent) liaisons between humans and Neanderthals just 50,000 years ago, a reconstruction suggesting that the first modern Britons had “dark to black” skin, and the closing of longstanding mysteries such as what really killed two members of Italy’s powerful Medici family in the 16th century (probably malaria, not murder as was often believed). Every time we widen our keyhole view of the past even slightly, we are confronted by how many of our seemingly grounded assumptions are, in fact, wrong.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Ronnie Le Drew, puppeteer behind Zippy and David Bowie’s goblins, dies aged 78

Canadian-born British operator, president of the British Puppet Guild, died after a ‘short illness’

Ronnie Le Drew, best known for operating the puppet Zippy on the classic children’s television programme Rainbow, has died aged 78 after a short illness. The news was confirmed by the British Puppet Guild, of which Le Drew was president.

The Canadian-born British puppeteer was also known for working on 1986’s Labyrinth alongside David Bowie as well as 1986’s Little Shop of Horrors and various Muppet movies including in 1992’s The Muppet Christmas Carol. He worked on various iterations of Sooty, alongside Harry and Matthew Corbett, usually as Sweep, Sooty’s sidekick.

JetBlue overhauls fare options, from basic first to flexible economy. Here's what to know

JetBlue is doing away with its "Core" product and putting economy tickets under a new name.

Sen. McConnell still not cleared to go back to work as he recovers from fall, doctors say

McConnell's office shared a written statement from the senator apologizing for being unable to attend an annual Kentucky picnic and a physician's assessment.

Ben Jennings on southern Europe’s wildfires – cartoon

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Carly Simon reveals Parkinson's diagnosis: "Learning how to live with it"

Carly Simon, the singer known for 1970s hits like "You're So Vain," announced she has Parkinson's disease and also was treated for basal cell carcinoma.

New York school district halts plan to use humanoid robot amid backlash

Salamanca City Central says it is pausing project with Realbotix as it addresses concerns including data privacy

A New York school district has walked back plans to introduce a humanoid robot at its high school after the proposal sparked backlash from educators and community members.

The Salamanca City Central school district announced on 24 July in a social media post that its pilot project with Toronto-based tech company Realbotix had been put on hold “while we work through enhanced student data privacy agreements with the New York State Education Department and continue engaging with our community and stakeholders”.

Trump warns of return to ‘strong military action’ if Iran diplomacy fails

Washington and Tehran issue conflicting messages over the status of talks to end Middle East crisis

Donald Trump has once again warned that the US will return to “strong military action” against Iran if diplomatic efforts do not bring a rapid resolution to the crisis in the Middle East.

“We are in very deep talks with Iran. If they don’t work out, we will go back to very strong military action,” the US president told Axios on Monday. Asked for how long he would allow the talks to proceed, he answered: “Not much time. Either it goes fast or not at all.”

Off-duty police officer detains man who attacked three women with knives in Paris

Two women severely wounded before bystanders intervened in incident near Porte de Clichy

A man attacked three women with knives in Paris before bystanders pinned him to the ground and an off-duty police officer detained him, the French interior ⁠minister, Laurent Nuñez, has said.

The man attacked the three women, aged 19, 24 and 36, with ⁠two kitchen knives, severely wounding two of them, near Porte de Clichy on Monday, Nuñez said.

The 'cockroach' in the machine: How Gen Z is rattling South Asia's elites

South Asia's leaders have long boasted about their demographic dividend. But the region's young people are turning it into a political reckoning.

France and Spain race to contain huge wildfires before fresh heatwave begins

Coming days are ‘absolutely critical’ for firefighters before temperatures rise again this week, officials say

Firefighters in France and Spain are racing to bring huge wildfires under control before another heatwave this week that will complicate efforts to tame the flames.

Spain’s interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said Monday and Tuesday were “absolutely crucial days” before temperatures rise again from Wednesday.

I work in a hospital – and didn’t know I was having a heart attack. Here’s what more women should know

Women and men exhibit different heart attack symptoms. Knowing these lesser-known factors can help save your life

A few months ago at work, when I rose from my seat and walked a few steps, something felt off. There was a strange pressure in my chest and rib cage, but I ignored it, took my water bottle from the kitchen and returned to my desk.

The next day it happened again. There was no pain and my breathing was fine. But whenever I stood up and took a few steps, the odd squeezing would return. I work at a hospital as a neurosurgery coordinator, and the wall was lined with posters about stroke and heart distress signs. I barely glanced at the pictures, having memorized them years ago.

Elevated high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, or hs-CRP, score: the level of these proteins increases with inflammation, and a high level can indicate blood vessels in the heart are narrowing (cardiovascular disease).

Lipoprotein(a) elevation: a genetic test for inherited LDL (“bad”) cholesterol; high levels significantly increase risk of heart attack via plaque buildup in arteries.

Apolipoprotein B elevation: measures the amount of Apo B, which carries substances in your blood that make the plaque.

Coronary artery calcium score (high CAC): a high score probably means a large amount of plaque is present in arteries and the risk of a future heart attack is high.

Ask your primary care doctor what kinds of cardiac testing are available to you. If bloodwork is suggested first, do it. If you have a family history of heart attacks and want to check your arteries now, discuss proteins and inflammation markers. You may need to consult a specialist for these steps.

Provide as much information as possible, even if you don’t think it’s related to your current problem. It could make a difference in someone deciding on a scan or sending you to the ER. The more details you provide, the better someone can assist. For instance, if you have a stomach ache that hasn’t gone away in three days, disclose it.

Keep asking about next steps. You are entitled to an answer and it’s the doctor’s job to help you find it. If your inquiries are not being taken seriously, book an appointment elsewhere. Do not give up or wait it out. Persistence can help you identify serious risks.

Julie Charnet is a healthcare worker and writer in Philadelphia

David Jonsson: the London rising star handpicked to be the new Black Panther

Jonsson has come a long way from east London’s Docklands, winning accolades on stage and screen

Few characters carry the cultural weight of Black Panther. Since 2018, the Wakandan king has become a global symbol of Black excellence, credited with reshaping expectations of representation on screen.

The first film grossed more than $1.3bn (£1bn) worldwide, won three Oscars and became the first superhero movie nominated for best picture.

Pinochet-era soldier jailed for killing folk singer Víctor Jara 53 years ago

Nelson Haase Mazzei was sentenced for murdering Jara in 2023, but fled from authorities in Chile

More than 50 years after the murder of the Chilean folk singer Víctor Jara, the last man wanted in connection with his death has been tracked down and brought to justice.

Nelson Haase Mazzei, a retired colonel, fled from authorities in 2023 after he and six other retired soldiers were sentenced in absentia for murdering Jara and another man.

Families in London temporary housing told they cannot use in-built air conditioning

Exclusive: Two children taken to hospital during heatwaves after residents told units in glass-fronted block ‘not offered as amenity’

Homeless families placed in temporary accommodation in London were told they could not use the in-built air conditioning as it had “not been offered as an amenity” for them, leading to two children being hospitalised during recent heatwaves.

Other families placed in Britannia Point in Colliers Wood, south-west London, also experienced such stifling conditions that young children became ill. The company managing some of the tenancies involved told the Guardian households in temporary accommodation had now been told they could use the air conditioning.

Shots fired near US consulate in Canada for second time in four months

No one was injured and no suspects have been identified in connection to shooting near Toronto compound, police say

Shots were fired near the US consulate in Toronto early on Monday but no one was injured in the second shooting near the diplomatic compound in four months.

“Officers heard a firearm being discharged in the area,” and “a white sedan was seen fleeing the scene”, Toronto police said on X.

Comey asks judge to drop case over seashells Instagram post

Former FBI Director James Comey argued that criminal charges stemming from an Instagram post should be dropped because his speech is protected by the First Amendment.

‘It felt like being in a disaster movie’: uncertainty after evacuation from France’s Gironde wildfire

Residents describe their fear as they were forced to leave their homes because of the ‘extremely intense’ blaze

Sitting in their suburban apartment in Mérignac on the outskirts of Bordeaux, Krishma, an interpreter, and her husband, Nassir, first felt a sense of dread when a strange black cloud turned the sky dark in the middle of the day. Then a bitter burning smell filled the air outside.

“The sky changed colour. It seemed like a cloud but it was smoke covering the sun – it wasn’t a natural phenomenon. It didn’t seem real,” said Nassir, an English literature graduate from Kabul who has been living in France for seven years. “We couldn’t breathe easily, you could feel it in your lungs.”

Oil prices tumble, stock set to rise amid pause in U.S.-Iran fighting

Crude prices dropped as the U.S. Ambassador to the UN said suspension of attacks is aimed at finding a diplomatic solution.

Chelsea explore surprise move to sign Danny Welbeck from Brighton

• Veteran scored 13 goals in 37 league games last season

• Interest signals shift in Stamford Bridge transfer strategy

Chelsea are understood to be in talks over a move to sign Danny Welbeck from Brighton.

Welbeck is a surprise candidate to bolster Xabi Alonso’s forward line after scoring 13 goals in 37 Premier League match last season, and there is optimism at Stamford Bridge that a deal can be concluded with Brighton understood to be willing to allow the 35-year-old striker, who has a year remaining on his contract, to leave for the right price.

Fauci expressed disillusionment with ‘rambling, crazy’ Trump in journal

Former top US health official wrote about challenging interactions with publicity-fixated Trump during Covid

Diary entries released by a Republican senator in an attempt to damage Anthony Fauci also show the former top US government science adviser’s growing disillusionment with Donald Trump in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, branding the president “rambling”, “crazy”, “desperate”, “bumbling”, “incompetent”, “an idiot”, “a true embarrassment”, “totally nuts” and “truly an obnoxious adolescent”.

From the earliest days of the crisis six years ago, Fauci noted in his journal challenging interactions with the publicity-fixated Trump. On 27 February 2020, amid the first stirrings of public alarm, he wrote of a surprise late-night call, in which the US president “wanted to chat about the coronavirus situation in general”.

UNC football GM Michael Lombardi placed on administrative leave

Michael Lombardi joined Bill Belichick in making the NFL-to-college move when North Carolina hired the former New England Patriots coach in 2024.

Labour overtakes Reform in voter poll for first time since March 2025

Labour up four points to 28% while Reform falls to 24% as Andy Burnham apparently wins favour for cost of living focus

Labour has overtaken Reform UK in a voter intention poll for the first time in more than a year as Andy Burnham benefits from the momentum built in his first week as prime minister.

Reform and its leader, Nigel Farage, have had weeks of negative headlines concerning undeclared gifts and donations, an adviser who is a convicted fraudster and a byelection that has descended into farce.

Scorched ground and a melting glacier: Monday’s photos of the day

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

When it comes to predicting the future, why are TV writers better than politicians? | Zoe Williams

From BBC drama The Rapture on the climate crisis to Apple’s Criminal Record on the rise of the far right, culture often sees what politics fails to

In the BBC’s new apocalypse drama, The Rapture, the UK is engulfed in a terrifying heatwave. I watched a preview of the programme in May, while preparing to interview the lead actor Ruth Madeley. I thought at the time: “This will be much more frightening when it chimes with the real life weather, bad luck for them that it’s not coming out for a couple of months.” But, by the time of meeting Madeley the following month, we were already in the middle of a heatwave that would lead to the highest ever recorded June temperature in the UK. The whole encounter made the show feel even more prophetic. She was in a central London hotel, air-conditioned inside, but all the door handles and surrounding street furniture – benches segmented by metal arm rests, to make life just that little bit harder for homeless people – had got way too hot. It was like playing The Floor is Lava, except instead of “floor”, “everything”. It surely can’t hit the screens at a more apposite time than this, I thought, failing to predict that by late July we’d be in heatwave number three, and France would be on fire.

The Daily Mail’s reviewer was upset that Christianity was portrayed “as a bastion of anti-science nutjobs and fundamentalists” in the show, wondering rhetorically whether the BBC would ever create such a drama about a “Muslim imam”. Peculiar thing to get upset about, I thought, since the religion is really more of a symptom of, or even a garnish to, the central atmosphere of engulfing heat. It’s like complaining that cats get a bad rap in the 1974 film The Towering Inferno (yes, there is a cat in it).

Son of Kansas City Chiefs assistant Eric Bieniemy charged in shooting of his mother

• Virginia authorities arrest 27-year-old Elijah Bieniemy

• Mia Bieniemy is stable after multiple gunshot wounds

• Kansas City OC was at team camp in Missouri on Sunday

The son of Chiefs assistant coach Eric Bieniemy has been arrested and charged with the shooting of his mother, Mia Bieniemy, the wife of the Kansas City offensive coordinator, authorities in Virginia said Monday.

The Loudon county sheriff’s office said deputies responded late Sunday to a shooting in Ashburn, Virginia, where the couple still had a home from Bieniemy’s time with the Washington Commanders. They found the 57-year-old Mia Bieniemy with multiple gunshot wounds, and she was transported to a hospital where she was in stable condition Monday

John Oliver on Trump’s crypto dealings: ‘Flagrantly corrupt and compromised’

The Last Week Tonight host focused on the ‘shady shit’ the US president has been involved in with regards to crypto

John Oliver took aim at Donald Trump and his family’s various crypto schemes on his return to Last Week Tonight, calling it all “corrupt and compromised”.

The host joked that Trump looked as if he was “slowly turning into Mrs Doubtfire” before moving on to the night’s major theme, calling him “the first crypto president”.

Plas Johnson obituary

Celebrated saxophonist in demand for session work and film soundtracks who was famous for his stylistic and technical versatility

As a first-call session musician in the Hollywood studios, the saxophonist Plas Johnson needed to be able to cope with anything the occasion might require. One day in 1963, during a session to record Henry Mancini’s music for the detective comedy The Pink Panther, directed by Blake Edwards and starring David Niven and Peter Sellers, Johnson was asked to apply his distinctive tone on the tenor saxophone to a stealthy melody suggestive of some sort of nocturnal prowling. Released as a single after the film had become a hit, the tune reached the US Top 10.

“I had a specific saxophone player in mind,” Mancini wrote in his autobiography. “I nearly always pre-cast my players and write for them and around them, and Plas had the sound and the style I wanted.”

Roster dating – is having five partners really the key to finding love?

It used be called playing the field, but now young people are claiming dating multiple people at once is intentional and growth-enhancing

Name: Roster dating.

Age: The term seems to be about a decade old; the practice is much older.

California man rescued alive after 30 days stranded at sea with broken mast

Kai Sato used PVC pipes and kayak paddles to try to repair his boat, and a plastic bag to collect condensation to drink

A California man was rescued alive drifting in his sailboat off Hawaii after spending 30 days stranded at sea.

Kai Sato, 39, set sail from California’s Catalina Islands on 7 June hoping to complete his first solo sail across the Pacific Ocean, he told Hawaii News Now. But his journeytook a disastrous turn when his mast snapped, and the phone he was using for navigation died.

Sophie, Standing There by Meg Mason review – a witty story of infatuation set in the literary world

A sad, heartbroken woman becomes obsessed with a famous writer in a continuously humorous and touching story from the Sorrow and Bliss author

The protagonist of Meg Mason’s new book, the follow-up to the 2020 tragicomedy Sorrow and Bliss, is an invisible woman. She might well be standing there but you won’t notice her. She’s a techie at literary festivals – the person who shuffles up to a famous writer a few minutes before their event and apologetically slides a microphone cable down their shirt while they’re making small talk with the chair or accepting a bottle of room-temperature mineral water from an anxious publicist.

No man is a hero to his valet, and no writer is a hero to the technical staff lurking in the wings of a venue. Mason’s opening pages present a teasing but not quite libellous series of cameos of real writers: George Saunders deciding at an inconsiderately late stage to insist on swapping his headset for a lapel mic; Ann Patchett being frosty with a fan; Mick Herron accidentally stepping on someone’s foot and not apologising.

The real love story behind Colin from Accounts: ‘I wouldn’t want to write with anyone else’

As the show takes its final bow, Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer reflect on ‘having a ball’ playing exes while being married with kids, ignoring notes from US TV executives and having ‘big old cries’ at the end

It began, as all great romances do, with a nipple flash. When Colin from Accounts, the little comedy that could, started airing back in 2022, the world fell in love – hard and fast. It was a surprisingly prickly Australian show about Ashley, a student doctor (Harriet Dyer), and Gordon, an older, brewery owner (Patrick Brammall), who fall in love after she pops a boob at him, he hits a dog with his car, and they jointly land an astronomical vet bill and a new pet.

The show shared its name with its furriest star – full name: “Colin from accounts payable, who is working on the big merger” – and it was as charming as the title suggested, winning fans across Hollywood and the world. That Brammall and Dyer were actually a couple, now married with two kids and a dog (no wheels), just made everyone love the show even more.

The patient who loves buying lettuce for his daughter-in-law – and what his case teaches us about shared decision-making in medicine | Ranjana Srivastava

Doctors should recommend treatment accompanied by conversations about the pros and cons for the individuals who are in front of them

Weeks before major surgery, a patient cancels his appointment with our geriatric oncology service, declaring it unnecessary. An astute nurse convinces him otherwise.

In his mid-80s, the patient has been diagnosed with an early cancer. The surgeon advises that surgery would be the only cure but, noting the lack of urgency, sends him to see me. I can see why. The proposed procedure is long and complicated; in elderly people, even temporary setbacks can result in long-term effects.

‘I would be ashamed to have written any part of this’: Odyssey translator Emily Wilson attacks Nolan blockbuster

Wilson, whose work on Homer’s epic was praised by Nolan, said his film was grandiose and superficial with ‘nothing convincing to say’

• Peter Bradshaw reviews The Odyssey
• ‘At times I felt I’d bitten off more than I could chew’: Christopher Nolan interviewed
• What Nolan’s Odyssey changed, invented – and left out

Emily Wilson, the classicist whose 2017 translation of Homer’s Odyssey was cited by Christopher Nolan in early publicity for his hugely successful adaptation of the poem, has roundly criticised the film, saying “it has nothing convincing to say” and that it “lacks psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth”.

In a scathing essay for the London Review of Books, Wilson writes: “I had hoped that Nolan’s affinity with these Homeric themes might push him to new creative heights, and enable him to conjure more believable characters. But The Odyssey features his usual combination of grandiosity and superficiality … the film’s vision is too confused, its characters too underdeveloped, to deliver what it half-promises in terms of big ideas – although it is very good at conveying big bangs and big giants.”

Coca-Cola resumes Fairlife milk production after ransomware attack

Coca-Cola restarts production of Fairlife brand milk after a ransomware attack forced it to halt operations at several factories.

‘I knew what he had done to those boys’: murderer to stay in jail after journalist’s fight for justice

Gibraltar-based Ros Astengo inspired four men to report sexual assaults carried out by Allan Grimson in 1990s

Ros Astengo, a journalist based in Gibraltar who usually focuses on politics and social issues, had qualms when she began investigating the case of the suspected serial killer Allan Grimson as he neared release from prison after serving more than 20 years.

She worried that she might reopen the scars of survivors of Grimson – but also that she could be putting herself in the “crosshairs” of a dangerous man who had sexually assaulted and battered two young men to death in the late 1990s when he was a Royal Navy petty officer.

‘You say genocide, I say war’: Boy George releases pro-Israel song, We Will Dance Again

Culture Club singer sings ‘I stand with the Jews / I don’t feel brave, I just need to behave like a human’, in song defending Israel’s response to Hamas attack

Boy George has released a new song entitled We Will Dance Again, which voices support for Israel’s military action in Palestine.

Posted on X and Instagram with the Hebrew title עוד נרקוד alongside its English translation, the song features a pop-reggae backing. The opening lyrics are: “You say genocide, I say war / When you’re attacked, that’s what the army’s for / Does it get ugly? You bet it does / When I know you wanna kill every last one of us.”

Europe wildfire in pictures: Gigantic fire cloud engulfing France, Spain regions

A rare wildfire spreading across France's Bordeaux region and has spread to Western Madrid is fire cloud that can generate its own thunderstorms.

Cracker Barrel CEO who oversaw controversial logo redesign to step down

Masino will be replaced on Aug. 10 by David Deno, most recently the CEO of Bloomin' Brands.

Tariffs are Trump’s favorite plaything – and his justifications are absurd | Steven Greenhouse

The president is using forced labor as a pretext to slap tariffs on countries around the world

With the midterm elections less than four months away, it’s a precarious time for Donald Trump and Republicans: Trump’s war against Iran is going badly, his approval ratings are in the toilet, gas prices are soaring and pushing up inflation, and nation after nation is furious about Trump’s insults, bullying and ugly American unilateralism.

So amid all this mess, what does Trump do? He turns to his favorite economic plaything: tariffs. On Monday, Trump signed orders to slap a 50% tariff on many Canadian goods, and four days later, he imposed across-the-board 10% or 12.5% tariffs on goods from more than 80 countries. Trump was no doubt thumping his chest, while millions of people overseas were dumping on him for yet another unnecessary, hostile act.

Gunther von Hagens, creator of Body Worlds and plastination, dies aged 81

Controversial anatomist’s body ‘will definitely be plastinated’ in line with his wishes, a spokesperson said

Gunther von Hagens, who developed a technique for permanently preserving human bodies in rigid states and toured the world with his controversial Body Worlds exhibition, has moved closer to fulfilling a long-held wish to be sliced up and displayed in a museum after dying aged 81.

“It is with deep sadness that the family and the Institute for Plastination announce the passing of Dr Gunther von Hagens, inventor of plastination and creator of the Body Worlds exhibitions,” the German anatomist’s institute said in a statement on Monday.

Manchester City hope Rodri will sign new deal as Real Madrid weigh up offer

• Real Madrid interested after World Cup performance

• Midfielder’s contract at City expires in June 2027

Manchester City are hopeful that Rodri will sign a new contract, but the club are braced for a bid from Real Madrid for the midfielder as well as moves from other suitors.

Rodri’s terms expire next June and he has failed to sign City’s new deal, which has been on the table for a while. The club are in talks with the 30-year-old and are optimistic these will prove successful.

Woman charged with murdering her 3 children goes on trial

A Massachusetts woman goes on trial Monday, charged with murdering her three children. Lindsay Clancy has pleaded not guilty. Her attorneys say she had severe postpartum mental health issues and her doctor's treatment only made them worse. CBS News legal analyst Caroline Polisi has more on the case.

‘There’s so much magic!’: how we made Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

‘The ripple of energy and anticipation from the audience was almost visual. It was like opening a new Star Wars film – I didn’t hear a phone go off once’

My initial response when I was asked if I was interested in the role was confusion – I felt a bit long in the tooth to play a teenager. I had read the first Harry Potter book and seen a few of the movies, but was just past the right age when it was all kicking off. I didn’t know that there was the coda in the final book that places the action 19 years later, and that’s where the play would be picking up from.

1.6 million cartons of eggs are recalled over potential salmonella contamination

The recall affects white-shell and cage-free eggs sold under multiple grocery brands in six states. No illnesses have been reported.

GOP targeted progressive dark money. That could boomerang on Trump.

The Trump-linked group Freedom 250 staged America's birthday with tens of millions that it is not required to disclose.

What's known about the North Carolina mom who went missing in Grenada

Authorities are searching for a mom from North Carolina who disappeared during a Caribbean vacation. Elizabeth Waddell was last seen Wednesday on the beach in Grenada's capital city. She didn't return to the home she was sharing with a friend. Cristian Benavides reports.

Americans are eating less produce amid cyclospora outbreak, CBS News poll finds

Amid the outbreak of cyclospora, a CBS News poll finds 40% of Americans say they are buying or eating less produce. Nearly half of those polled say they have little or no confidence in the FDA to deal with the outbreak. Carter Evans reports.

German officials call for tighter extremism laws after Berlin Pride attack

Alternative für Deutschland, topping polls ahead of state elections, accuses government of failing to tackle Islamist radicalism

German officials have called for a tightening of laws for known extremists after a deadly attack in Berlin on one of Europe’s biggest Pride parades, as the far right seeks to mobilise outraged voters before three key state elections.

The anti-migration, anti-Islam Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), the top party in national opinion polls, accused the government of failing to tackle Islamist radicalism on German soil, while the conservative chancellor, Friedrich Merz, pledged to act with “prudence but also determination” to address security gaps.

Remains found by kayakers identified as woman missing since 1985

Human remains found in a Florida canal two years ago have been identified as those of a woman who vanished in 1985, police said.

Why Trump's new tariff blitz is very different this time around

President Trump on Friday launched a fresh round of tariffs targeting 60 trading partners, including the European Union, China and the U.K.

Three people killed and one suspect at large in Bite of Seattle food festival shooting

Four people, including a toddler, were wounded in the violence and one suspect was arrested, authorities say

Three people were killed and four others – including a toddler – were wounded in a shooting on Sunday evening during a food festival at an events complex near the Space Needle in Seattle, a city fire department spokesperson said.

One suspect was arrested in the aftermath of the deadly violence, and a search for a second suspect continued into Monday, according to authorities. Neither suspect was identified, and no description on the one who remained on the loose was immediately available.

The AP contributed reporting

ICE plans to target Haitians as their Temporary Protected Status is ending

ICE plans to ramp up operations targeting Haitian immigrants as soon as this week, sources inside the agency say. A Supreme Court ruling takes effect Monday, paving the way for more than 300,000 Haitians to lose their legal protections under temporary protected status. Camilo Montoya-Galvez reports.

Search for second suspect in Seattle food festival shooting

Two people opened fire in a crowded area at a food festival in Seattle on Sunday, police say. Three people were killed and four others were injured. Police are still looking for a second suspect.

Untouchable and a world apart: cycling world reacts to Pogacar’s fifth Tour win

• Slovene has quickly drawn level with the greats

• Paul Seixas acknowledges Pogacar’s dominance

Tadej Pogacar woke up in Paris on Monday as the fastest and the youngest cyclist to win five Tours de France. The 27-year-old Slovene took his fifth overall victory on the Champs Élysées on Sunday evening in a thrilling final stage won by Mathieu van der Poel.

Pogacar is level with Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Induráin and he is expected to continue racing in pursuit of a record-breaking sixth win.

‘It reminded me of James Bond’: Guardian readers on The Odyssey

The Odyssey is the summer’s biggest film: an adaptation of an almost 3,000 year old poem that everyone is talking about. So what was our readers’ verdict?

As expected from Christopher Nolan, The Odyssey is an immense technical achievement: vast in scale, beautifully shot and carried by an absorbing soundscape, particularly impressive on the Imax screen. I did enjoy it, but it did not resonate with me emotionally as some of Nolan’s other films have. For a film reaching for something deep and mythic, I’m not sure it felt quite as profound as it wanted to be. I also wasn’t wholly convinced by the casting. There were so many big names that at times I found myself seeing the actors more than the characters. Matt Damon, especially in the island scenes, reminded me of his early Bourne performances when the character had lost his memory. Charlize Theron felt underused, Jon Bernthal seemed to bring his familiar swagger, and Tom Holland did not fully convince me in the more conflicted moments. Samantha Morton, however, was excellent, as she always is. Samiul Kamal-Uddin, 49, London, UK

Rienzi review – Wagner’s early opera makes its Bayreuth debut as a frenzied contemporary election drama

Bayreuth festival theatre, Bayreuth
Alexandra Szemerédy and Magdolna Parditka’s production swaps 14th-century Rome for an abstract near future in an over-busy staging . Jennifer Holloway’s Adriano is a standout in a strong cast

It was Adolf Hitler’s favourite opera – and thus vital to a historical chapter that Germany’s Bayreuth festival long preferred to avoid. But Rienzi has finally arrived at Wagner’s symbolic HQ, opening the 150th anniversary season as an exception to the festival’s rigid canon of his 10 “mature” works.

Rienzi’s problems are unavoidable. Since the complete handwritten score was given to Hitler and subsequently disappeared, no authentic version of Wagner’s longest opera exists. Aesthetically, Rienzi shares the vast scale of French grand opera but sounds broadly Italian. Flashes of chromatic ambition hint at a Wagnerian language to come. Yet there are endless repetitions and the sense of an epic both overcompressed and underpowered.

Boss of startup hacked by rogue OpenAI agent urges ‘radical transparency’ in investigation

Artificial intelligence firm should provide $100m for cyber defences, says Hugging Face CEO

The boss of the startup hacked by an OpenAI agent has called for the investigation into the incident to show “radical transparency”.

Clément Delangue, the chief executive of Hugging Face, said the “unprecedented” attack on his business required a similar response.

Haex – a wilder, weirder open-world adventure

The debut from Scandinavian outfit Dead Astronauts promises shooting, survival, and, in a shake-up to the genre, seeds that terraform its pristine world right before your eyes

The wilds of the sub-Arctic north: towering pine trees, flashes of psychedelic-yellow lichen, and a sun that never wholly sets during the summer months. This land is gorgeous, yes, but also unforgiving, yet in Haex (pronounced “hex”) you have an unusual tool at your disposal to make it a little more hospitable: a cube that fits snugly in the palm of your hand out of which grows a plant. You plant this so-called Seed in the earth and – voilà – the world around you transforms: new vegetation and topography but also narrative threads to follow, and, naturally, enemies. Wield these small-but-mighty kernels of change at your own peril.

“Your adventure and your world is player-shaped,” says Haex’s creative director Tobias Nyman. He explains that everyone starts a campaign with a unique, procedurally generated world. Each Seed then contains further procedural data that causes it to terraform before your eyes. “You change the world as you go,” he says. “It becomes even more unique.”

Georgina Hayden’s quick and easy recipe for grilled peach, halloumi and dukkah salad | Quick and easy

Sweetness and spice abound in this refreshing summer salad

When the weather is glorious, I have very little desire to do any “proper cooking”. Turning the grill on for about 15 minutes is the maximum amount of heat I want to subject my home to, which is why, in the summer months, I eat this sort of salad on repeat: stone fruit with golden slices of halloumi is my favourite pairing. Add a little freshness with some sweetness and spice, and it is a glorious thing. You could even spoon it on to slices of toasted ciabatta for an open sandwich or elegant crostini.

3 dead in mass shooting in Seattle. And, U.S. and Iran pause fighting

A mass shooting at a Seattle festival has left three people dead. And, the U.S. and Iran have been exchanging diplomatic messages after nearly tw weeks of intense fighting.

Nvidia, SpaceX, Microsoft launch AI safety initiative as OpenAI cyberattack fallout continues

Microsoft, SpaceX, Palantir, alongside dozens of other tech companies from the U.S. and Europe, have joined the Open Secure AI Alliance.

3 killed, 4 wounded in shooting near Seattle's Space Needle, officials say

Three people were killed and four others wounded in a shooting during a food festival at the Seattle Center near the Space Needle, police said. A suspect was in custody and another was being sought, they said.

‘Our country is the mission’: more than 100 ex-Nasa astronauts launch new voting campaign

Astronauts for America liken effort to instill trust and faith back in constitution’s principles and democratic institutions to ‘making a course correction’

Orbiting 250 miles above the US in the international space station, astronaut Cady Coleman did not look down and see red or blue states, sanctuary cities or communities occupied by thousands of federal immigration enforcement agents in camouflage uniforms and automatic weapons.

What she saw was a single land, from Pacific to Atlantic, no borders or partitions, just a united America, and a population valuing its equality while convinced that what brought them together was far greater than anything that divided them.

Why are Democrats so quiet about the Tate brothers? | Moira Donegan

The party’s silence shows how broadly male supremacist thinking has seeped into the conventional wisdom of political strategists

It’s not exactly strange that elements of the Magaverse have embraced Andrew Tate. What’s strange is that the Democrats do not seem interested in holding the Trump movement to account for it.

Andrew Tate, the misogynist influencer who is accused by numerous women around the world and now by British prosecutors of rape and strangulation, as well as assault, sex trafficking, possession of child abuse images and extreme pornography, and various other forms of gender violence and exploitation, was arrested in Miami last week, along with Tristan, his brother and sidekick. Or I should say, they were rearrested: the men were previously charged in Romania, where they were under house arrest until, following some conveniently timed diplomatic moves from the Trump administration, they were allowed to leave the country and resettled in the US. When asked if the Trump administration had secured their release from Romania back then, the Tates’ lawyer said: “Do the math. These guys are on the plane.” Now, finally, they are awaiting extradition to the UK, where they are dual citizens.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

He was shot at by ICE, then wrongfully accused. His nightmare had only just begun

After masked agents fired on his truck, Francisco Longoria was ambushed, charged and jailed – only for the case against him to fall apart. Now he and his family are seeking justice, and says the harrowing experience is part of a troubling pattern

It was just after 8am on 16 August and Francisco Longoria, who runs a party supply business, was driving his truck down a suburban southern California street to deliver a jumper for a water slide. But this ordinary Saturday morning turned into a nightmare when, suddenly, three unmarked vehicles stopped his truck and four masked men jumped out.

Longoria, who had brought his son Jonathan Longoria and son-in-law Daniel Rascon with him, wondered if they were being abducted.

Video appears to show person kicking sea lion: "Disgusting act"

The video appears to show a person throwing kicks at the sea lion at La Jolla Cove as at least one other person can be heard laughing in the background.

France continues to fight devastating wildfires, while progress is made in Spain

In southern France, a wildfire in the region of Gironde is still active, while two major fires in central Spain are finally coming under control, ahead of the fourth heat wave of the summer.

Charli xcx portrait added to National Portrait Gallery collection

Pop star is celebrated as ‘one of the defining cultural figures of her generation’ by gallery, which acquires Brat-era portrait by Harley Weir

A portrait of Charli xcx has been added to the National Portrait Gallery’s collection, in the week that she hopes for a No 1 chart position for her new album Music, Fashion, Film.

The photograph by Harley Weir was taken in 2023 and became one of the key images associated with Charli’s Brat era: the 2024 album that became a pop cultural phenomenon for its candour and debauchery.

Alarm at NHS patient records being put under control of US private equity firm

Doctors and MPs urge more scrutiny of £300m deal for company behind system used by most GPs in England

A US private equity firm will take control of NHS patient records in a deal experts say should “ring alarm bells” amid concerns sensitive health data is increasingly being handed to private companies.

The investment firm TPG has bought Optum UK, the healthcare technology business behind the electronic patient record system used by most GP practices in England, in a deal worth about $400m (£300m).

Bill Oddie, naturalist and broadcaster, dies aged 85

Coming to fame in The Goodies, Oddie was later known for his wildlife expertise and presented BBC Springwatch

• Bill Oddie: the comedy legend tragically undervalued by the BBC

• Bill Oddie – a life in pictures

The writer, comedian and conservationist Bill Oddie has died aged 85. Having come to prominence with the comedy group The Goodies, Oddie later established himself as an authority on wildlife, presenting television series including the BBC’s Springwatch and Autumnwatch.

Oddie’s agent paid tribute to his “intelligence and wit”. In a statement, David Foster said: “It is with deep sadness that I announce the passing of Bill Oddie, the country’s best-loved birder. Bill was a multitalented celebrity – wildlife presenter, broadcaster, comedian, writer, songwriter, musician and conservationist. Yet it was never fame that he valued.

McLaren’s team principal hails ‘great trajectory’ of Lando Norris after win

• ‘He’s more in control of his emotions,’ says Andrea Stella

• World champion won his first race of season in Hungary

Lando Norris is at the peak of his powers after his win at the Hungarian Grand Prix demonstrated the world champion has a stronger psychological approach to driving, according to the McLaren team principal, Andrea Stella.

Norris took his team’s first win of the season on Sunday with a commanding drive at the Hungaroring after Mercedes dominance for much of the campaign. The Briton has always maintained his team would come back into contention and duly did so, beating the Red Bull of Max Verstappen into second and the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli into third.

The Phantom Pain of Rojava review – Kurdish veterans of the war against IS tell story of courage and survival

Maryam Ebrahimi’s documentary about a home for survivors of the war in northern Syria is tender, gentle and incredibly moving

Speaking over footage filmed at the funeral of a female army commander, documentary-maker Maryam Ebrahimi notes that it’s the first time she has seen women carrying a coffin in the Middle East. As they move through crowd of mourners, she adds: “Their sisterhood amazes me.” Ebrahimi is talking about the women of Rojava, the Kurdish-led autonomous socialist region in northern Syria. At the cemetery, the women dig the soil with their bare hands; it is a tradition in Rojava, a final act of solidarity with their fallen sister.

Ebrahimi’s tender, gentle film is about a home for injured army veterans in Rojava; most are survivors of the war against Islamic State (IS). The house is mixed genders; one of the men living there is Fadakhar, who has had both his legs amputated and is haunted at night by phantom itches and pains. Mostly, though, Ebrahimi’s gaze is drawn to the female veterans, who made headlines a decade ago for their courage on the battlefield. We learn that women started leaving their villages to fight IS in 2011 – though in truth a little more background about the history of Kurdish all-female battalions might have been helpful.

Joyce Carol Oates thinks the 90s TV adaptation of The Odyssey is the best. I beg to differ | Stuart Heritage

The Hallmark Channel’s ropey version of The Odyssey is going viral for its star-studded cast. Christopher Nolan’s film only looks better by comparison

Christopher Nolan’s version of The Odyssey is far from the first committed to screen. As early as 1911, Italian director Guiseppe de Liguoro made a silent version entitled L’Odissea. Readers of a certain age may remember watching the futuristic animated series Ulysses 31 throughout the 1980s. O Brother, Where Art Thou? is based on The Odyssey. So too, if you squint as hard as you can and discount the Goofy Goober song, is the first SpongeBob SquarePants movie.

However, the pre-Nolan adaptation that has the biggest legacy is arguably Andrei Konchalovsky’s two-part version, made in 1997 for the Hallmark Channel. This is the adaptation that has been doing the rounds in recent days, clipped up on social media (the full version is highly discoverable on YouTube) and catching the eye of Joyce Carol Oates, who spent much of Thursday night tweeting very enthusiastically about it.

The pet I’ll never forget: Morris the staffie – the shameless thief who stole an entire roast chicken

Abandoned at the age of two, he pinched everything from birthday cake to raw potatoes. Beneath the comic greed was a much-loved companion who kept us laughing for 12 years

We adopted Morris after he’d been abandoned in a park at the age of two. The shelter named him Kai but it didn’t suit him. An old soul (read: curmudgeon) who tried to pull us into old-school boozers, and who demanded routine and treated walks as a favour to us, Morris was perfect.

Incorrigibly lazy and happiest on the sofa, preferably on top of us, his only real motivation was food. Perhaps he knew hunger in that park, and vowed never to meet it again. Among the countless petty thefts from unattended plates were some truly audacious schemes. There was the sandwich stolen right out of a stranger’s hand. The birthday cake polished off, tinfoil and all, before its intended recipient tasted a single bite. The multiple raw baking potatoes eaten, this last crime caught on video or we’d never have believed it.

From Ukraine and Sudan to Gaza: why have hospitals become a target of war?

International law states only military sites can be targeted during conflicts, but this is routinely being ignored

Twice every day, Liubov Martynenko leaves the underground maternity ward where she works in Kherson and travels by ambulance to collect meals from another hospital in the Ukrainian city’s “red zone”, close to the Dnipro River and the Russian forces on the other side.

On 4 June , just before midday, the vehicle entered the grounds of Luchansky city clinical hospital as usual, but Martynenko, who also works as a midwife, heard a strange sound in the air. “It’s flying!” the driver screamed, as she realised there was a drone nearby.

Ford wants more customers to customize vehicles to boost profits as it eyes 'Nike shoe drop' moments

Ford is expanding its accessory and parts business in an effort to boost profits and better tap into the $53 billion U.S. automotive aftermarket industry.

Cocoa prices are easing. So why is chocolate still so expensive?

Chocolate firms look to win shoppers back with premium products and social media trends after poor weather conditions, tariffs, and the Iran war hit sales.

Here’s why India’s cockroach protests were such a success – and why the Mamdani effect means more to come | Mukul Kesavan

The young leaders are eloquent and organised – and now they know what victory looks like. That could be a huge headache for Narendra Modi

The rebellion in India of the young, led by the Cockroach Janta party (CJP), unfolded against a backdrop of large, abstract, geometrical structures – arcs, planes, hemispheres – that together make up an observatory called Jantar Mantar, built in the early 18th century to refine almanacs and tell time. Jantar Mantar has been a byword for political protest for decades: it marks the space that the Delhi police assigns to the politically disgruntled so they can vent in a contained way. But it had never before hosted a political insurgency that started from scratch and forced the Indian state to back down in less than eight weeks.

When its founder, Abhijeet Dipke, brought the CJP to Jantar Mantar, it was a social media hashtag with 20 million followers. While he was studying in Boston, Dipke took the remarks of chief justice Surya Kant, who is accused of referring to the swathes of unemployed young people and activists as “parasites” and “cockroaches”, and turned them into a here-we-come meme. When he brought the CJP home to Delhi on 6 June to make it real, people were intrigued. Given the mostly dismal fate of civil society movements during prime minister Narendra Modi’s time in office, no one anticipated the David and Goliath contest that came to a head last Saturday.

‘The plane movie I’ll watch anytime’: why Up in the Air is my feelgood movie

The latest in our series of writers’ most pleasurable comfort films is a journey through US airports with George Clooney

Airports have always been my happy place. From shiny citadels jutting out of the desert to shoddier European hubs located 120 miles outside the city they’re designated to serve; I love them all. With so many stories to be told, all those connections and people colliding, it’s a first-class seat to life itself. Which should go some way to explaining why I hold such a deep admiration for 2009’s comedy-drama Up in the Air.

Directed by Jason Reitman and based on the book of the same name by Walter Kirn, it stars an Oscar-nominated George Clooney as Ryan Bingham, a US corporate downsizer who spends 322 days a year flying state to state doing the job cowardly employers prefer to outsource, leaving him with “43 miserable days at home”. That is until graduate Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) enters the firm with a cost-saving idea of firing people by video call, and hits the road with her older colleague, who is suddenly forced to grapple with the future of his own industry while re-evaluating his nomadic lifestyle.

Glitched into empty space: why video games are obsessed with the Backrooms

The horror movie sensation of 2026 has its roots in gaming’s discovery of ‘noclip’ – and the hidden virtual realms that could be opened up inside games. Developers explain how everyone got lost in these liminal spaces

It starts on 4chan, in a May 2019 thread entitled “unsettling images”. The first post was a photo showing an empty room with the now iconic yellow wallpaper, no natural lighting and a kind of inexplicable jutting half-wall. Shortly afterwards, another user (there are no usernames on 4chan, just identifying numbers) responded with 78 words of text that would essentially lay out the blueprint for a future $262m A24 movie sensation.

“If you’re not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you’ll end up in the Backrooms,” the post begins. For the uninitiated, “noclip” refers to a game mode in which collision with solid objects is disabled, allowing players to move freely through walls and floors. Think of Chiwetel Ejiofor’s character in the film, finding a permeable wall in the basement of his furniture store and passing through to the world on the other side.

Cyclospora boosts fears that deadlier foodborne outbreaks are ahead

Food safety experts say cuts to the public health system hobbled the response — and that the next outbreak could be much worse.

In Memphis, an 'anti-crime' task force quietly turned into an ICE crackdown

The influx of federal agents into the city last fall led to widespread immigration arrests – a majority without criminal convictions. President Trump has said he wants to replicate it elsewhere.

Baltimore will turn 911 into more than just an emergency number

Baltimore is rethinking what it means to call 911, and who responds. Callers who don't need police will get help finding social services and healthcare before they actually fall into crisis.

Fifa president Gianni Infantino accuses critics of spreading hate at World Cup

• Infantino claims critics of World Cup ‘missed it all’

• He again defends Balogun affair and treatment of Iran

The Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, has launched an extraordinary attack at critics of the World Cup, accusing them of spreading hate and false narratives, while defending the tournament as a success that celebrated unity, safety and inclusion.

In a 15-part message published on Monday on Instagram, Infantino claimed detractors had overlooked the joy and togetherness experienced by millions of people around the world who witnessed the tournament, won by Spain and staged in the US, Canada and Mexico.

Finland’s radical answer to renewable energy’s biggest headache: The world’s largest sand battery

A small Finnish town has turned to the world's largest commercial sand battery to tackle a major hurdle in the energy transition: intermittency.

Morning news brief

Three people were killed in a shooting at a Seattle food festival Sunday, U.S and Iran pause airstrikes, with less than 100 days left until Election Day, a look at how the midterms are shaping up.

What If We Got AI Right? by Eleanor Drage review – avoiding apocalypse

The academic’s ambitious guide to the ethics of tech falls short of its promise to provide meaningful answers

The AI ethicist Eleanor Drage believes that to thrive alongside artificial intelligence, humans need to recognise AI’s “humanity”. She means that while we often speak of AI as though it were some mystical, formless thing, it is the product of hours of human labour, in silicon and quartz mines, microchip factories and data labelling centres. If citizens want to wrest power from the tech companies that are building AI, it helps to understand clearly what they are selling us. This also means seeing through the marketing and hype: “the cloud”, that nebulous, distant place where your photos are stored, is just someone else’s computer; an AI “hallucination” is a system error or data labelling mistake; intelligence is a very broad – and potentially misleading – term.

The story in Silicon Valley is that AI will either save us, ushering in a new era of prosperity and human longevity, or it will wipe us all out. Drage argues, convincingly, that big tech cannot possibly deliver on its utopian promises while it continues to chase profit and power above all else, and while it serves the interests of a narrow few. Meanwhile, the cultural obsession with the AI-induced apocalypse conveniently redirects attention from the practical conversations we could be having about how to make AI safer – by ensuring citizens have more power over how their information is used, and how AI models are trained and regulated, for example. Tech titans’ apocalyptic visions also create the false impression that AI safety is more important than climate change, geopolitical tensions and inequality, three problems that are already causing a huge amount of suffering and that, if addressed, would reduce many AI-linked risks too.

Is it true that … sit-ups are the best exercise for abs?

The classic gym routine doesn’t isolate your stomach muscles as much as you might think, but here are five that will

If someone in a film or TV show wants a six-pack, chances are they’ll drop to the floor and start doing sit-ups. According to Dr Lee Brown, senior lecturer in strength and conditioning at the University of East London, that’s more Hollywood than science.

“It’s embedded in the archaic practices of boxing coaches and therefore everyone seems to follow it,” he says. “But they’re far from the best exercise for training your core.”

In search of Valencia’s ‘white gold’: my hunt for the perfect horchatería

Horchata, the revered creamy drink made from tiger nuts, is still served in grand Valencian parlours – always accompanied by sugar-glazed pastries

It was a glimpse of an old couple sharing a tender moment in the bustling horchatería that drew me into one of Valencia’s most storied culinary traditions. As he sipped his milky horchata de chufa and a white crescent moon appeared on his coiffed moustache, they shared a soft laugh and she dabbed it away from his upper lip.

“There’s no fixed time to drink horchata,” the lady said. “As long we have at least one every day.”