Commonwealth Games 2026: New Zealand beat England in netball semis; athletics and cycling updates – live

• Updates from Saturday’s live action around Glasgow

• Medal table | How ‘mop man’ Miller stole the show

Boxing The first hands will be thrown just after 11am in women’s 54kg final between Scarlett Savannah Delgado and Preeti Preeti. That’s the first of 14 finals day on the last day of boxing at this year’s Games.

Men’s 1500m T54 final Nathan Maguire powered to victory in the last lap, with Daniel Sidbury (England) taking silver and Sam Rizzo (Australia) the bronze.

I was so boxed. And then I felt like Moses – it just parted and I got through. I don’t know how it happened!

There was a little bit of panic. When I heard the bell (for the last lap) I thought, ‘Oh my god, I’m so stuck.’ I dropped them a lot more than I expected!

They call it 'a dream fulfilled' -- new homes designed for (and by) slum residents

It's a bold new experiment and it's already won a prize. Residents in a jam-packed slum, many of them living in one-room tin shacks, help design their apartments in a brand new building.

‘Worst we’ve known’: UK turns to imports as drought and heat hit vegetable crops

Growers in dismay after scorching weather and lack of rain affect yields, sending wholesale prices rocketing

Pubs, restaurants and supermarkets are having to buy lettuce and broccoli from Spain at what should be the height of UK growing season, as drought and extreme heat hit crops.

The wholesale price of tomatoes is up by more than 60%, iceberg lettuce by 90% and potatoes by more than 40% as a number of farmers struggle to grow in consistently high temperatures. Even those with irrigation systems and reservoirs on their farms say water is running low.

On the ground in the English seaside town rightwing influencers say is being ‘invaded’

Some in Dover say their town is being exploited by content creators and politicians, but others claim there is a genuine problem

If you believe rightwing influencers and politicians, Dover and the wider Kent coast has been the site of an “invasion” for years now. And, for an online audience of millions, they and their camera crews have been the vanguard in the nation’s defence.

Indeed, if you believe all you see on the algorithms of amateur Channel watchers, the shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, braved a hail of French gunfire as he took to the water in a fishing boat this week; an attempt by the French authorities, he suggested, to deter him in his mission of highlighting the small boats crisis.

The great British switch-off: how floating retreats, mobile-free pubs and sauna book groups are freeing people from their smartphones

Sick of doomscrolling? From venues with smartphone swear jars to cabins with absolutely no signal, here are the fun and freeing ways to ditch your device

There’s a ritual at the start of every event hosted by the Offline Project. Run by Pelé Zachariah, the activities vary – it could be a group walk, a collage‑making class or a supper club – but each one begins in the same way, *with an invitation to hand over your phone. Devices go in a lockbox. Once they’re all in, Zachariah closes the door and turns the key. “I don’t place them in for people, because it’s nice for them to physically put it in the box themselves, walk away, and think: for the next two or three hours, I’m fully present.”

He has been running these screen-free events in London since August 2025. First-timers can be apprehensive about being separated from their phone. “You can sense the vibe when they’re putting it away,” says Zachariah. “People have said to me, ‘I felt really weird’ or ‘I felt super uncomfortable for the first few minutes not having my phone on me.’ Then they’ll say, ‘I didn’t know how much I needed that.’”

In the battle of Elon Musk v the press, we can’t let truth be the loser | Jane Martinson

The trillionaire Tesla owner has called the editor of the Economist a ‘traitor to the west’ after a clash-filled interview. How should the media respond?

Elon Musk’s long interview with the editor of the Economist is as good a representation as any of the current clash between two worlds. In one corner, the editor of an 182-year-old news organisation which promotes economic liberalism and freedom. In the other, the world’s first trillionaire, who spreads misinformation to his hundreds of millions of followers on his own social media platform. The bout is a masterclass in the challenges journalists face in a new world of AI, fact avoidance and online aggression.

The flash points in Zanny Minton Beddoes’ conversation with Musk start with definitions. Musk says that the people Minton Beddoes calls “far-right” and “fringe” (she mentions Germany’s AfD party) are in fact just “normal people”. They clash over whether the speed of his cuts to USAID led to unnecessary deaths in developing countries – she believes his claim that it didn’t defies not only statistics but the evidence from her reporters on the ground. Asked if he is racist, he cites the fact he has four children with a woman who is “half Indian”. In an awkward exchange, when asked by Minton Beddoes whether he is anti-Muslim, Musk says he is against “people coming to a country with antithetical views … I’m against rape and murder.”

Jane Martinson is a Guardian columnist. She is a board member of the Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian Media Group. As the Marjorie Deane professor of financial journalism at City St George’s, University of London, she has a connection through a charitable foundation to Zanny Minton Beddoes, who is chair of trustees. She writes in a personal capacity

FDA weighs a new kind of flu shot based on technology RFK Jr. has questioned

The FDA is poised to render a decision on Moderna's mRNA-based flu shot, which could be the first of its kind to market. The decision is expected to reverberate throughout the biotech industry.

Spanish PM calls for urgent EU meeting after ‘selfish’ responses to Ceuta crisis

Pedro Sánchez hits out at ‘polarising and unlawful reaction’ over mass crossing into Spanish enclave in north Africa

• Europe live – latest updates

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has called for an urgent meeting of EU interior ministers after what he called some member states’ “selfish, polarising and unlawful reaction” to this week’s mass border crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, in north Africa.

More than 50,000 people crossed into the territory from Morocco on Thursday and Friday, with at least 67 people dying in the attempt. Some drowned, while others were crushed as they tried to cross a breakwater barrier.

Scores injured as earthquake hits near Naples in seismic swarm

At least 21 injured and more than 250 evacuated in strongest quake to hit southern Italian region in 40 years

At least 21 people have been injured after a 4.7-magnitude earthquake rocked a region near Naples, in southern Italy.

The quake, which occurred at 7.46pm on Friday night, caused power outages, disrupted public transport and damaged buildings and a pier in Campi Flegrei, the site of Europe’s largest volcanic crater.

Gianni Infantino ‘has lost Uefa’s confidence’ after Fifa chief scraps World Cup sell-off plan

• Infantino ditched proposals after widespread backlash

• Uefa adds: ‘We cannot keep going on with secret schemes’

Uefa has warned Gianni Infantino that his style of leadership cannot continue in demanding a thorough and fundamental review of Fifa’s governance.

In a strongly worded statement that referred to “secret schemes”, “shabby backroom deals” and “faceless individuals”, the Uefa leadership made clear it wants change at the top of Fifa, despite the world governing body’s overnight U-turn in abandoning Infantino’s plan to sell off stakes in the World Cup and other competitions.

Christopher Harry on buying an SUV – cartoon

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Laura Loomer, Lindsey Graham and the deepening Iran crisis: what’s behind Trump’s reset with Zelenskyy?

The US administration has struck a warmer tone of late as Ukraine has shown its value as an ally in the Middle East

As leadership pairings go, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not a match made in heaven.

It is a far cry from the warm rapport and kindred spiritedness that defined Ronald Reagan’s relationship with Margaret Thatcher, or even the guarded pragmatic friendliness Reagan forged with Mikhail Gorbachev to effectively end the cold war.

A brief timeline of Iranian cyberattacks on the U.S.

Investigators are probing whether Iranian hackers are behind this week's malicious cyber activity against water systems in Minnesota. If they are found to be the culprits, it would not be the first time.

Lebanese who fled the Israeli invasion visit to see what's left

Residents of the ancient town of Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon have endured wars in the past, but the latest conflict with Israel is testing the limits of their endurance.

More than 25,000 children lose previous legal protections, as federal contract ends

Thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children are set to lose legal representation. The federal contract that pays for legal access expired Friday.

Death toll in Spain border crisis reaches 67 as tens of thousands cross back in to Morocco

The death toll in Spain's Ceuta border crisis with Morocco has climbed to 67. They included some who drowned and some who were killed in a stampede to cross a breakwater barrier.

Gregg Araki on sex, film and queer resistance: ‘All the terrible shit in the world is because of sexual repression’

As his 12th feature film, I Want Your Sex, hits theaters, the cult gay film-maker is as fired up as ever

Is straight sex the most perverse sex of all? Gregg Araki’s new film makes a convincing case. Titled I Want Your Sex, the movie is a deliriously fun and often hilarious study of desire, power and art that features bondage, full-frontal and a vagina made out of pink chewed-up bubble gum. “For me, it is a very queer story,” the director says, speaking the week of the film’s release in a video call from his Los Angeles home. “It’s a take on kink and alternate sexuality that goes right across the straight-queer spectrum.”

While it is not the first heterosexual movie by Gregg Araki – that honor goes to his 1995 acid trip of a road movie The Doom Generation – it features the new queer cinema pioneer’s starriest cast in years, perhaps in a sign that Hollywood at large has caught up to the cult director’s anarchic vision. Forty years into his career, we still want Araki’s sex: the film is set to reach the director’s biggest audience to date, opening to 700 US screens this week, a stunning figure for an independent film and a wider opening than recent films by indie veterans like Nicolas Winding Refn and Jim Jarmusch.

The Democrats have one last chance to halt the erosion of US democracy – and it’s less than 100 days away | Timothy Garton Ash

American democrats need a Hungarian-style landslide to overwhelm Trump’s attempts to rig November’s midterm elections

In these days of extreme weather events, it seems odd to say that the US needs a big landslide. But a landslide defeat for President Donald Trump in November’s midterm elections is exactly what is required if the country is to start reversing his deliberate and rapid erosion of its democracy.

The respected Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute at Gothenburg University argues that in 2025 the US saw one of the most rapid declines in liberal democracy on record. “Democracy in the USA,” says its Democracy Report 2026, “is now at its worst in 60 years.” As the imperial republic marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, the danger seen at the very beginning of its constitutional order by anti-federalists such as Patrick Henry – that of an overmighty president abusing his executive power in an attempt to become a new king – has come closer than ever before.

Fiona Allen: ‘The closest I’ve come to death? A trip in a black cab with John Worboys. I had a lucky escape’

The actor and comedian on her hatred of selfishness, her unhappy resting face, and why she dropped her agent

Born in Lancashire, Fiona Allen, 61, went to drama school in Salford. From 1999, she co-wrote and starred in the Emmy-winning and Bafta-nominated TV sketch show Smack the Pony. She had roles in Shameless, Skins, Waterloo Road and EastEnders, and her films include 24 Hour Party People, Fat Slags, Gladiatress and Finding Emily. In 2023, she took her show On the Run to the Edinburgh festival fringe and later toured the UK. This year, she performs White Lies at Edinburgh’s Gilded Balloon Teviot from 5 to 29 August. She is married with three children and lives in Berkshire.

What is your greatest fear?
My kids navigating the world as it is today – and daddy longlegs.

In the race for Senate in Michigan, multiple party fights are colliding for Democrats

As Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed vie for the Democratic nomination, voters are debating which way the party should go: establishment or insurgent; progressive or more moderate; new media or old.

Staff Sgt. Rampersad, 28, who always knew she wanted to serve, is laid to rest

Staff Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad is one of a handful of service members who've recently died in the conflict with Iran. Her family says she knew from a young age she wanted to serve in the military.

‘A towering piece of monoculture’: how The Odyssey discourse has dominated this summer

Christopher Nolan’s smash hit epic has continued to excite and enrage everyone from rightwingers to academics, an old-fashioned throwback to a uniting big-screen event

• Peter Bradshaw reviews The Odyssey

• The Odyssey: jaw-dropping action, dark magic and dolphin cameos – discuss with spoilers

• Go woke, get rich: why rightwing hate campaigns don’t affect the box office

If a high-profile academic is reviewing a movie for the London Review of Books, that movie in question must be making some kind of mark on some kind of culture. And if people are actually reading a movie review in the London Review of Books, and writing thinkpieces in disagreement or favor of said movie or its review, that movie may actually be a cultural phenomenon.

Normally, volume of discourse about a movie should not be mistaken for a sign that people are actually seeing it. Sometimes online factions just have a bored fixation not shared by the rest of the world. But Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has some major receipts at the box office, too: the movie has already outgrossed Oppenheimer, Nolan’s last movie, itself a shockingly popular movie for adults. Though The Odyssey’s audience skewed male in its first weekend, by its second its gender split was closer to 50/50, suggesting reach beyond the stereotypically male-driven action-adventures. It’s also reaching out to older moviegoers, an endangered demographic in a summer where under-25s have driven the success of Obsession and Backrooms. Three-quarters of The Odyssey’s audience has been over 25, while memes inspired by the movie (most popular: Matt Damon’s anguished face portraying Odysseus listening to the sirens’ song and Robert Pattinson’s slimy suitor demanding that “someone get these BEGGARS out of here!”) have indicated that younger people are paying attention too.

Knickers in a twist: why M&S selling crotchless panties isn’t as outrageous as it seems

Some have called it ‘S&M’, but partnership with Ann Summers is less a scandal than another step in a century of evolving underwear trends, experts say

The news that Marks & Spencer is selling Ann Summers crotchless knickers on their website has been greeted – as might be expected – with outrage online, being described as everything from “tawdry” to “S & M”.

But it could be this is just the latest evolution in what the UK’s biggest underwear retailer has available for the smalls drawer. In recent years, the store has sold vastly different options through its own products, ranging from full-brief knickers to thongs, period knickers and those that can be used by women who wear stomas. The introduction of other brands in clothing came five years ago, with underwear included. Ann Summers – which is selling bras and chemises as well as knickers on the M&S website – lines up alongside lingerie brands including Pour Moi and Calvin Klein.

​What makes a good comic novel? Andrew Sean Greer on the joy of funny writing

The Pulitzer-winning author of Less and Villa Coco explores the art of writing humour – plus 10 of the best novels to make you laugh

In March 2020, when the mayor of San Francisco instructed all citizens to remain in their houses due to a pandemic, the first thing I did was order all the books of Agatha Christie. I was not alone; I think many of us immersed ourselves in reliable narratives to drown out the chaos. It did not matter if it ended in marriage or murder; the reliability was what mattered. Later when I realised I would need to hole up for some time, my reading shifted to a different kind of novel. And because, like Christie, our world has an endless supply of new terrors, it is the comic novel that still fills my reading hours.

Nobody knows what a comic novel is. And once you start discussing it, all the fun runs out. EB White compared it to dissecting a frog (you’re left with innards and a dead frog) but I would compare it to turning all the lights on at a party: everyone looks terrible and you’ve ruined the party. Most would agree, of course, that Wodehouse wrote comic novels, but I turn to books hardly anybody would classify that way – Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, for instance – that yet seem to me to be a hoot. I think they are books that decide something is funny, as Jerry Seinfeld once defined comedy. In Moby-Dick, it’s a coin nailed to a masthead. In Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire, it’s the worst best poem you’ve ever read. And yet we feel we’re getting at something the most solemn narratives aim for: an understanding of the human condition, of grief, of love, of death. All the big stuff. The comic novels I love are books that could just as easily have been tragedies. It is simply that the author has decided it’s funny.

Have you ever switched allegiance as a football fan? You are not alone | Luke McLaughlin

If professional athletes can represent more than one country, let alone multiple clubs, why shouldn’t fans change teams?

“I was fanatically pro-German when the Germans were here to protect us against the Americans, and now that Americans are here to protect us against the Germans, I am fanatically pro-American … you and your country will have no more loyal partisan in Italy than me – but only as long as you remain in Italy.”

This passage from Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 – as an old Italian man explains the logic behind his fickle wartime expedience to a naive American soldier – plays with the question of what constitutes true strength. Universally perceived as weak, Italy are in fact the strongest nation in the second world war, according to the old man. And that, sort of, explains my feelings on football fandom.

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.

No apologies, no freebies: the man who makes Andy Burnham’s jackets on how to weather a storm

Private White VC’s James Eden says PM should not be criticised for wearing a high-quality British-made brand

It has not yet been two weeks since James Eden, the founder of the Manchester men’s clothier Private White VC, saw one of his best-known customers move in to No 10 Downing Street.

In any sane world the man who makes the prime minister’s jackets would be popping open the champagne. His garments have been seen by millions of people and described by journalists all over the world writing about Burnham’s buttoned-down style.

Marketing stunt or ‘extraordinary’ transfer? Ravenna fans ride wave of the Ronaldinho Effect

Brazil legend’s decision to play in Serie C at 46 has divided fans – but the man who arranged the deal has high hopes

On a scorching summer afternoon in Ravenna, a city far better known for its fifth-century Byzantine mosaics and Dante’s tomb than for footballing glory, eyes are peeled in the historic centre for one of world football’s most recognisable figures – a man who featured in the World Cup final half-time show alongside Madonna and Ronaldo: Ronaldo de Assis Moreira, better known as Ronaldinho.

“We haven’t seen him yet,” four Ravenna supporters sitting at a cafe say with dry irony as they flip through La Gazzetta dello Sport, Italy’s famous pink sports daily. They are undeniably sceptical, viewing the signing as a purely commercial operation, yet deep down they still harbour the dream of seeing the 2005 Ballon d’Or and 2002 World Cup winner wear their yellow and red shirt.

Key talks up Fleming England reset and an imaginary future for Test team

Managing director of men’s cricket wants a team that consistently win while preparing future captains and coaches

After a chaotic and miserable eight months, in which England’s Test team lost the Ashes in Australia, a home series against New Zealand, a captain, a coach, their once rampant self-confidence and a fair amount of respect, the appointment of Stephen Fleming gives them a chance to pivot towards a future that suddenly looks beguilingly bright, if mainly because for now it exists only in the imagination.

On Friday, Rob Key, the managing director of men’s cricket since April 2022, refused to admit to making any mistakes in that time. But as he explained the process behind Fleming’s recruitment, he occasionally and inadvertently damned himself. When he spoke about creating an environment designed to hone “all these players with so much potential who need refinement”, he said: “A lot of it’s about, can we bring someone in who can get this team to do the basics bloody well?” It probably didn’t need to take four years to realise such a person might be useful.

Building for 131°F: Europe races to protect its infrastructure from a ‘quiet catastrophe’

A summer of weather extremes and severe infrastructure stress has prompted companies and policymakers across Europe to respond.

Alley Cats: Ricky Gervais is back with a boorish, sweary comedy – and I didn’t laugh once

Animated cats banter tediously in a show that’s determined to shock, but which leaves you checking your watch to see how long is left. It’s lazy, dated and far too pleased with itself

According to multiverse theory, there are parallel realities in which news of a new Ricky Gervais project instils a feeling other than dread. But we don’t live in them. Having seen his new series, Alley Cats (Netflix, from Friday 7 August), a boorish banter-vehicle in which animated cats shoot the breeze like a bunch of pub bores, I’m not sure what there is to report – other than the fact that I didn’t laugh once. Considering what a fan I once was, I find this remarkable. What happened?

Woke happened, is what his diehard fans would say. Gervais has paid the price of a shifting Overton window on jokes about dwarves and disabled people and trans people. You can’t say anything any more, they lament, while defending a wealthy, highly platformed man who proves the opposite. They’re not wrong, though – politics plays a part. While writing this, I stepped outside to say hello to a queer friend who was, naturally, buying a bicycle in the street. I asked her what she made of Ricky Gervais.

The tangled financial web at the heart of Reform UK

Nigel Farage’s £5m gift, the Cottrell family’s links and donations, and Richard Tice’s business dealings form part of an increasingly clear nexus of relationships

It has been three months since the Guardian revealed that Nigel Farage had accepted a £5m gift from Christopher Harborne, a billionaire donor to Reform UK.

This was not the first story in our continuing investigation. But it has proved the most significant, and the consequences of the disclosure are still being played out.

​The Guide #254: Artist anonymity ​i​s a radical act in ​our cultural obsess​ion with visibility

In this week’s newsletter: ​H​idden creators ​reveal how invisibility can be a shield and spotlight in an era of relentless self‑exposure

• Don’t get The Guide delivered to your inbox? Sign up here

In 1985, an anonymous group of women disguised in gorilla masks burst on to the art scene in New York. At night, the Guerrilla Girls, as they named themselves, fly-posted around the city: funny, eye-catching posters highlighting gender and racial biases in museums and galleries. (“Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?” read one now-famous poster.) “Of course, we were afraid that if we blew the whistle on some of [the art world’s] most powerful people, we could kiss off our art careers,” a founding member explained in an interview for their 1995 book. “But mainly, we wanted the focus to be on the issues, not on our personalities or our own work.”

The collective is still active; 55 members have come and gone over the years. When giving interviews, they use pseudonyms borrowed from dead women artists: Frida Kahlo, Lee Krasner, Käthe Kollwitz. Only a handful of their true identities have been revealed over the years, mostly after their deaths or due to lawsuits. But this week, a Guerrilla Girl made headlines when she chose to unmask herself on her own terms. “I’d had a pact with another Girl that whoever died first, the survivor would bring her out,” said the 83-year-old artist Joyce Kozloff (codename: Liubov Popova). “But I suddenly realised that if I were dead, I couldn’t tell the story my way.”

‘I felt sick that he was near my mum’: a top amputation surgeon had his own legs removed due to a fetish. Were his patients safe?

Neil Hopper was celebrated for continuing to do his job despite the loss of his lower limbs. But what the people he was treating didn’t know was that his injuries were self-inflicted. Now they and their families are asking questions

• Warning: this story contains graphic descriptions of bodily mutilation that some readers may find upsetting

Of all the things that happened in the fraught days after 72-year-old Liz Spooner had her leg amputated at the Royal Cornwall hospital in Truro in 2022, one memory remains vivid in the mind of her daughter, Faye Harrison. Liz’s surgery had taken much longer than anticipated, Faye remembers, and, delirious after the anaesthetic and morphine, Liz had begun to refuse food and medication. That’s when Faye was ushered into a side room with a consultant surgeon.

“He was smiley. He came across as quite charming and caring,” Faye recalls. He ran through a long list of the medications Liz was taking, and began explaining why she needed them. “I remember looking down – you look down at the floor a lot when you have these kinds of conversations – and I noticed he’d got metal sticks coming out of his trouser legs.” Faye blinks in disbelief at the memory. “I thought, blimey, he’s operated on my mum, but he’s also an amputee.”

The final hit: Is Glasgow’s 25-year gruesome gangland feud finally over?

The double murder of two Scots in the Costa del Sol may have ended the war between the Lyons and the Daniels – but the crimes haven’t gone away

It was a warm evening in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol last year when two Scottish men met a violent end.

The punters of Monaghans seafront bar had barely finished watching the Champions League final on 31 May when a car pulled up outside. A masked gunman emerged and headed to the table of 46-year-old Eddie Lyons Jr, shooting him at point-blank range. The assassin turned the gun on Lyons’ friend, the bar’s owner Ross Monaghan, 43, but it jammed.

Meera Sodha’s vegetarian recipe for oyster mushroom burgers with five-spice cabbage | Meera Sodha recipes

These roasted oyster mushrooms are meaty, savoury and chewy, made even more satisfying in a south-east Asian-style dressing

Not every plant makes a great burger filling. You might think pulses or potatoes for heft, but the lack of texture and propensity to mush can be unsatisfying. This is where mushrooms excel; they trade in satisfaction. Roasting them brings out their natural umami and removes water content, leaving them chewy, caramelised and occasionally crisp. They can also make friends with the most unlikely of ingredients, like they have here with peanut butter, soy, agave and sesame.

Noma restaurant prepares to reopen under new leadership after abuse allegations

World-class venue puts renewed focus on staff wellbeing under new head chef after René Redzepi stepped down and apologised for his behaviour

The Copenhagen restaurant Noma – often ranked among the world’s best – is preparing to reopen next week under new leadership for the first time since its star chef and co-founder, René Redzepi, stepped down amid accusations of physical and psychological abuse.

The new executive head chef, Pablo Soto, who has worked at the restaurant for nearly a decade, said while it remained “the same Noma” there had been some significant changes. Along with a new, evolving monthly menu to replace its previous seasonal one, he said there was now a heightened focus on enabling employees to live full lives.

‘We stared into an abyss’: the men and women battling France’s megafire

Exhausted firefighters, foresters and volunteers wage ‘war of attrition’ against blaze that forced 200,000 people from their homes

By noon it is time for a break. The temperature is about 35C, the smell of ash, cinders and burnt wood hang acrid in the air. At tables laid out in the shrinking shade on the desiccated grass and sand outside the sports centre in Le Porge, 200 men and a handful of women have gathered. Firefighters, soldiers, police, gendarmes, officials, first aid teams, foresters and volunteers sit elbow to elbow, plates of sausages, steak and potatoes in front of them.

The village was evacuated just over 14 hours after the “megafire” – as it has become known in France – broke out 6km away last week. The blaze has consumed 42,000 hectares (104,000 acres) of mainly forestland west of Bordeaux. Though finally contained, there are outbreaks every day, pushing to the limit emergency services and the hundreds of amateurs who have come to their aid.

‘Who could have done this?’ Mystery over Briton found dead in a suitcase in Athens

Greek police throw entire homicide division at trying to explain fate of 38-year-old Elisabeth-Jane Ross

Two worlds separated by sheets of corrugated iron: one, a tree-lined road, bordered by a park and the home of Greece’s oldest sports club; the other a wasteland of derelict buildings and graffiti-covered walls in what was once a car park.

It is here, on the wrong side of the divide, in Kypseli, a neighbourhood in central Athens, that the body of Elisabeth-Jane Ross was found, inside a suitcase last month.

ECB official warns climate crisis poses growing threat to ‘core financial stability’

Exclusive: As wildfires rage, Frank Elderson says more work needed to assess risk from collapse of ecosystem services

A senior policymaker at the European Central Bank has said the climate emergency and the breakdown of nature poses a dramatically growing risk to the global economy.

Frank Elderson, a member of the ECB’s executive board, said the eurozone lender of last resort was stepping up its monitoring of the financial risks linked to the destruction of “ecosystem services”, which are nature-related processes or assets that support human activity.

Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv missile attack kills at least nine as Zelenskyy seeks attack role for Starlink

Donald Trump retreats further from commitment to let Ukraine manufacture its own Patriot missiles. What we know on day 1,620

Kyiv was once again under attack by ballistic missiles early on Saturday with at least nine people killed, according to emergency services. “Fires and destruction occurred in five districts of the capital,” the state emergency service posted, adding that another 23 people were wounded in the attack. It came as Donald Trump retreated further from a promise to let Ukraine manufacture its own Patriot air defence interceptors, which it desperately needs to shoot down Russian missiles. More than a ‌dozen explosions reverberated through Kyiv, and residents were warned to stay in shelters.

In Kyiv’s Darnytsky district, the attacks damaged multiple buildings and vehicles, with authorities reporting seven people killed and 14 wounded in the area. Two people were killed and eight others were wounded in Solomiansky district, where strikes damaged a five-storey residential building. “Everything was smashed, the windows, everything,” 75-year-old resident Kateryna Kravchenko told AFP of her apartment. “I can barely stand. I don’t know how I’m going to get through all this.” The emergency service said on Saturday morning that 105 people in Kyiv had been rescued from impacted areas.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday urged Trump and other US officials to help Ukraine gain permission from Elon Musk to use satellite internet service Starlink for guiding strikes inside Russia. Zelenskyy made the request directly to Trump during an Oval Office meeting this week, according to one person familiar with the matter. He also reportedly told lawmakers later on Capitol Hill that he wanted Starlink’s help. Trump did not commit to Zelenskyy’s request. Musk allows Starlink use within Ukraine, including Russian-occupied areas, but restricts it inside Russia.

During a cabinet meeting at Camp David, Trump told reporters that handing over the underlying Patriot technology was “a hard thing” to do. Ukraine’s Zelensky had met Trump earlier this week and said Trump had agreed to license the production of Patriot missiles to Ukraine. Asked whether he was ready to grant Kyiv a licence to build Patriots domestically – something he had suggested at a Nato summit in Turkey just this month – Trump said: “We have not agreed to that. We’re talking about it, but it’s a hard thing to give away that kind of technology.” Giving away the weapons carried its own risks, he added: “People that you give that technology [to], they can some day turn on you. You know that is possible.”

Several thousand Ukrainians rallied in central Kyiv on Friday, angry about Zelenskyy’s decision to ⁠oust the defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov. Fedorov is ​widely credited with driving military innovation during Ukraine’s war with Russia. But having taken charge of the wartime ministry in January, he was dismissed in a surprise government reshuffle ⁠in mid-July. Since then, Ukrainians have been gathering next to the presidential office, pushing for Fedorov to be reinstated as he refused to accept another government post.

Russia’s main grain lobby group warned on Friday that Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian ships and ports could shut down grain exports via the Black Sea, pushing up ⁠prices and causing hunger in ⁠Africa and the Middle East. Russia, the ​world’s largest wheat exporter, and Ukraine, also a large agricultural exporter, have been attacking each other’s facilities and vessels in the Black Sea area in recent weeks, driving wheat prices higher. The disruption to shipping in the Black Sea ⁠caused by Ukrainian attacks “poses a direct threat to global food security”, Russia’s Union of Grain Exporters and Producers told Reuters.

Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian online retailer Wildberries amount to “acts ⁠of terrorism” against civilians, affecting millions of people in Russia and other countries, the company’s founder ⁠and CEO, Tatyana ⁠Kim, ​complained on Friday. Ukraine has attacked more than a dozen Wildberries sites since 18 July in ⁠a bid to disrupt the operations of the company, a vendor to the Russian war effort and linchpin of Russia’s consumer economy.

Singapore bans Massive Attack for showing Palestinian flag, breaching ban on foreign emblems

Two members given ‘stern warnings’ after concert and barred from returning, with band also excluded from performing in Singapore again, say authorities

British trip-hop band Massive Attack has been barred from performing in Singapore after an investigation found two members unfurled a Palestinian flag during a concert, police said.

Singapore, known for its tough laws on public speech and assembly, bans the open display of all foreign flags, national emblems or banners without a permit.

‘Just the tip of the iceberg’: how a Bali run club reignited tourist tensions on holiday island

Accusations Indonesians were being excluded deepened a sense of frustration held by some residents on the island

When Annisa Rahmadani posted online about being rejected from a social running club in Bali, she expected a few sympathetic comments. Instead, her story went viral, prompted national politicians to weigh in, immigration authorities to intervene and ultimately, the club’s Dutch organisers barred from Indonesia.

“I had no idea it would get that big,” said the 34-year-old university lecturer from the Indonesian city of Bandung. “But it seems it was just the tip of the iceberg.”

FIFA scraps its World Cup investment plan after backlash

FIFA is shelving a controversial plan that would have allowed for billions of dollars in private commercial investment in the World Cup after the proposal was met with fierce opposition from its member nations.

Gianni Infantino, Fifa and the week that rocked the football world

Ultimately doomed plan for sale of commercial rights to World Cup caused chaos with Uefa, AFC and Concacaf leading the opposition

• Infantino confirms plans have been scrapped

It has been a week that has rocked football. The news caught everyone by surprise. When reports first emerged on Tuesday afternoon that Fifa, world football’s governing body, was to launch a vehicle to control the commercial rights to the World Cup, and would sell a stake of this company to investors, even members of the central decision-making body, the Fifa Council, hadn’t known about it. But it was equally the case that the story – first broken by the Times – caught Gianni Infantino, the Fifa president, unawares. Fifa were rushed into announcing a plan they had wanted to keep under wraps for longer, and in the full glare of global media interest.

Bessent ‘to-do’ list shows proposal for US to buy $5bn-$10bn of Japanese yen

Treasury secretary’s notepad, photographed by Reuters on Friday morning, prompts questions over US plans

During a cabinet meeting at Camp David on Friday, the US treasury secretary Scott Bessent carelessly revealed plans for the US to buy $5bn-$10bn ⁠in Japanese yen in a scribbled “to do” list left visible to a Reuters photographer.

The image, taken over Bessent’s shoulder during a portion of the meeting open to journalists, showed a Camp David notepad with the underscored words “To Do” followed by “Buy Japanese Yen (JPY) $5-10 bil”.

A timeline of Nancy Guthrie's disappearance as search stretches on

Savannah Guthrie's mom, Nancy Guthrie, was reported missing Feb. 1.

After a stranger gifts a boy with autism a piano, he dazzles the world: "He's Mozart level"

Back in 2023, a stranger gifted a boy with autism a piano after seeing his story on the local news. Now, the stranger is more like family, and the boy is dazzling the world with his music. Steve Hartman goes "On the Road" revisiting Jude's story.

U.S. probing if Iran was behind cyberattack on water systems in 7 states

Malicious cyber activity affected technology at water systems in at least seven states this week, including Minnesota, leading authorities to dig into whether Iranian actors are behind the attack, CBS News has learned.

DOJ to dismiss Reflecting Pool vandalism charges, citing "botched installation"

Federal prosecutors moved to dismiss an indictment charging U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn with ripping the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, saying the damage was caused by "botched installation and not vandalism."

DOJ drops case against former Olympian accused of damaging Reflecting Pool

The U.S. government dismissed the felony indictment against David Hearn, the former Olympian accused of damaging the Reflecting Pool of the National Mall.

Trump blames Minnesota cyber attacks on its governor, not Iran

President Trump took his Cabinet meeting on the road to Camp David on Friday, where he downplayed cyberattacks on Minnesota water systems that U.S. officials suspect were linked to Iran. Nancy Cordes reports.

Extended heat wave risks lives, increases fire danger and drought

The heat that baked the South earlier this week moved west under a so-called heat dome. More than 70 million people are under alert for life-threatening heat conditions. Jason Allen reports from Oklahoma City.

Nancy Guthrie ransom notes are released, including message saying she died

One of the notes threatened to kill Nancy Guthrie if a multimillion-dollar ransom wasn't paid in a week. The second, a few days later, says, "She is buried in nature now."

Both ransom notes in Nancy Guthrie case released by police

For the first time, the Pima County Sheriff's Office released a pair of emails allegedly sent by Nancy Guthrie's kidnapper, who said she had died shortly after she had been abducted. Tom Hanson reports.

U.S, Israel planning harshest attacks yet on energy-related sites in Iran, sources say

The U.S. and Israel are planning the most significant strikes yet on Iran's energy infrastructure, multiple sources say. President Trump has threatened this multiple times in recent months. Margaret Brennan has more details.

Pilot ejects from F-35B jet crash near San Diego marine base, officials say

Unidentified pilot of F-35B fighter jet receives treatment for non-life-threatening injuries after crash near Miramar

An F-35B fighter jet crashed near a US Marine Corps base in San Diego on Friday morning, sparking a small fire that first responders doused.

The pilot, who has not been publicly identified, sustained non-life-threatening injuries, according to a statement from the Marine Corps Miramar air base. “The pilot ejected, was transported to a local medical facility in stable condition for evaluation and treatment of non-life-threatening injuries,” the Marine Corps said in an updated statement.

7/31: CBS Evening News

Sources say the U.S. and Israel are planning major attacks on Iran; the Pima County Sheriff's Office reveals Nancy Guthrie ransom notes.

Nearly 1 in 4 Americans want CEOs to "stop being greedy," survey finds

New poll explores what people wish corporate leaders understood about economic life in the U.S. today.

Trump appeals order that slammed his IRS lawsuit and referred his lawyer to bar

Trump had sued the IRS for $10 billion over the leak of his tax information by an agency contractor.

Lawyer for Rep. Miller's ex-wife files for restraining order amid abuse claims

The ex-wife of GOP Rep. Max Miller asked a court to issue a restraining order blocking Miller from contacting her lawyer, as the Ohio congressman faces allegations of abuse — which he denies.

Brother of slain cartel leader "El Mencho" pleads guilty to U.S. drug charges

Antonio Oseguera Cervantes worked for cartels with his brother Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, the drug lord known as "El Mencho​," according to federal prosecutors.

7/31: The Takeout with Major Garrett

President Trump holds Cabinet meeting at Camp David; 7 states report cyberattack on water systems.

FIFA tests the limits of private equity in sports with World Cup subsidiary sale

UEFA and Concacaf's rejection of FIFA's plan to sell a 20% stake in the World Cup's commercial operations highlights uneasiness with private equity in sports.

New York sues Kalshi, alleging it enables illegal gambling

A growing number of U.S. states are seeking to crack down on prediction markets, but face pushback from federal regulators.

Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft added nearly $1.5 trillion in combined value this week

Amazon, Microsoft and Google added hundreds of billions of dollars to their market caps, while Apple and Meta saw their market valuations fall.

Dwindling cash and soaring memory costs: Tech's AI buildout has ballooning price tag

Amazon, Alphabet and Tesla all reported negative cash flow in the latest quarter, while Meta's cash generation plummeted by 91%.

F-35 fighter jet crashes near San Diego Marine Corps base, sparking fire

An aerial photo shows a smoking F-35 fighter jet next to scorched vegetation in a field at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

Analysis: Markets heard a dovish Kevin Warsh. The Fed chairman's own words suggest a rate hike

Investors saw Warsh’s press conference as dovish, but a closer reading of the Fed chair's prepared remarks suggests he may be close to raising interest rates.

GM to launch proprietary in-vehicle AI system later this year

General Motors plans to launch a proprietary in-vehicle artificial intelligence system that's better tailored for its customers later this year.

Families sue Meta, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube over deaths of 4 teens

The families of four children who died by suicide allege that using social media led to depression, anxiety and other mental health problems.

India’s monsoon rains in danger as UN chief warns planet is ‘on fire’

António Guterres says strengthening El Niño will help push the world’s climate crisis into ‘uncharted territory’

India’s monsoon is in danger and hotter, drier conditions are forecast across much of the world as a stronger El Niño weather system is taking hold, weather experts have warned.

António Guterres, the UN secretary general, said the strengthening El Niño was “adding fuel to a planet already on fire” and pushing the world into “uncharted territory”.

3 states would face Colorado River water cuts under federal plan

Arizona, California, and Nevada would take less water from the Colorado River under a federal proposal to stave off a crisis in the river.

Washington Post’s opinion editor resigns after just one year in role

Adam O’Neal did not give reason for his departure at end of August in another major shakeup at US publication

The Washington Post had realized a state of relative calm in the five months since the paper was turned upside down in February, when nearly half the newsroom was laid off and its unpopular publisher, Will Lewis, abruptly resigned.

But on Friday, staffers were shocked to find out that Adam O’Neal, a millennial hired last year to lead its opinion section, was already leaving.

Netflix sued for allegedly losing unreleased Nicolas Cage movie

A lawsuit alleges that a drive storing a $45 million spy film starring Nicolas Cage was "stolen right off a Netflix desk."

Tour de France Femmes under pressure to reroute Ventoux stage amid wildfire risk

• Authorities want stage altered if risk is ‘extreme’

• 2025 champion Ferrand-Prévot faces sterner challenge

The Tour de France Femmes is facing pressure to reroute part of its key stage to the summit of Mont Ventoux next Friday because of the wildfires threat in Provence.

The women’s Tour, which begins in Lausanne on Saturday, is expected to keep the famous climb to the top of the “Giant of Provence”, but the current routing of the stage through the Ventoux’s foothills could be affected.

The week around the world in 20 pictures

Wildfires in Europe, Russian missile strikes in Lviv, a tornado in Wisconsin and Spencer Tunick in Spain – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

As Warsh’s Fed faces pressure to act on inflation, these indicators show it’s at its lowest in years

Trimmed mean measures are painting a different picture than the headline numbers.

Mahershala Ali on Marvel’s collapsed Blade reboot: ‘If they wanted to do it, we would’ve done it’

Two-time Oscar winner was to take on role of vampire-hunting antihero but said project is no longer happening

The two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali has confirmed that his Blade reboot is no longer going forward.

The star of Moonlight and Green Book had been attached to play Marvel’s vampire-hunting antihero in 2019. The role had originally been played by Wesley Snipes in three films between 1998 and 2004.

The Guardian view on England’s centralised state: Andy Burnham must unbundle it | Editorial

Devolution should finance transport, skills and industry, not become a rightwing contest to promise the largest tax giveaway

That England is among the rich world’s most centralised countries underpins Andy Burnham’s critique of the economic history of the past 40 years. Only post-communist Europe deindustrialised as rapidly as Yorkshire and the Midlands did in the 1980s. Centralisation did not close every factory or pit, but left regions without the powers, finance or institutions to cushion the shock or build a resilient, replacement economy. Hence Mr Burnham’s radical and welcome plan to unbundle English government.

There are three facets to his devolution programme. The first are the detailed and concrete proposals contained in a cabinet paper Mr Burnham released on Friday. This appears to be a blueprint to create a decentralised state organised around mayors as the key regional economic actors, while jointly governed pan-regional agencies could emerge, say for transport, energy, investment and industrial systems, that cross mayoral boundaries. Regions without mayors will get a chance to have one – or limit themselves to weaker powers.

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.

Tony Romo on leave from CBS Sports after arrest

Romo was arrested in Wisconsin last week, accused of operating a vehicle while intoxicated.

Glen Hansard obituary

Oscar-winning singer, songwriter, actor and founder of the Dublin rock band the Frames

Glen Hansard, who has died aged 56 in a motorcycle accident, was one of Dublin’s musical heroes – a one-time busker who became an Oscar-winning international star, successful both as a singer-songwriter and as an actor.

He had already built up a local reputation busking regularly on Grafton Street, Dublin, when he decided to form a band, the Frames, along with other musicians he had befriended on the streets.

Ariana Grande: Petal review – calm, controlled anger at exes, fans and the media

(Republic)
Casting herself as a flower trampled underfoot, the superstar’s eighth album swaps the ​glitz of her Wicked years ​f​or dark blooms of haunted electronics

‘Tell me who’s to blame?” Ariana Grande asks, exasperated, on the title track of her eighth album, Petal. “Is it the people or myself?” As bleary, fuzzed-up drums threaten to drown her out, this shadowy carousel-ride of a song cycles through more questions than answers. Does her success only make her need more of it? Can her new record of No 1 singles stave off heartbreak? Does Grande’s life shape her music, or does her music shape her life?

Moody and muted, Petal is a riposte to the glitz and sparkle of the pop star’s Oscar-nominated turn in Wicked and the theatre kid energy of her last album, 2024’s Eternal Sunshine. She describes this record as one of “unfiltered rage”, and there’s plenty Grande could be angry about: just this week she filed a lawsuit against hackers who allegedly stole and sold numerous unreleased songs.

Canelo Álvarez prepares for his return to the boxing ring

Boxer Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez spoke exclusively to "CBS Mornings" about his return to the ring, building his career and his future in the sport.

Amazon hikes 2026 capex to $220 billion due to higher memory costs

AWS sales expanded 37% year over year, which trounced analysts' expectations for 31% growth.

U.S. investigates potential Iran link to water system cyberattacks

Investigators are examining whether Iran was involved with a series of cyberattacks on water systems in Minnesota and other states. Nicole Sganga reports.

Amazon says it got $600 million in Trump tariff refunds and will pass return along to some customers

The company previously hadn't disclosed whether it would recoup tariff costs after the Supreme Court ruled many of President Donald Trump's levies were illegal.

Iran strikes tankers under US escort in Hormuz strait as Trump gathers cabinet to discuss war

Energy prices have soared again since fighting between US and Iran resumed two weeks ago as conflict spreads across Middle East

Iran has said it struck two tankers trying to pass through the strait of Hormuz under the escort of the US military as Donald Trump gathered his cabinet to discuss the stalling war and rising prices as midterm elections in the US loom.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Friday that the “non-compliant oil tankers … were struck and brought to a halt, while four other oil tankers quickly changed course and returned to their previous positions”. The military body said the ships had tried to pass through the strait via an “undeclared route” and under US aerial escort.

Fed officials who voted to hike rates say action is needed now against inflation

Kashkari and Hammack joined Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan in dissenting against holding the Fed's key overnight borrowing rate steady.

OCTROT heated blankets and throws recalled after fires and injuries

Chinese-made electric bedding poses "risk of serious injury or death," according to U.S. product safety regulators.

Here comes the alt-bride: wedding gowns enter a more experimental era

Celebrities including Charli xcx and Gabbriette and avant-garde brands honour tradition while also rejecting it

If a wedding day brings to mind a bride dressed in a big white dress, the styles coming down the aisle in the near future may strike you as a little different. Whether it is through celebrity references, or new brands, wedding gowns are entering a more experimental era.

For Charli xcx’s marriage to the 1975 drummer George Daniel last year, the bride wore a minidress and sunglasses.

Cocktail of the week: the Culpeper’s papa doble – recipe | The good mixer

Cherry pops and citrus zings in this twist on a Hemingway special

A bright, citrus-forward riff on the classic Hemingway special, with cherry depth and a clean white rum base.

Daniel Emson, bar manager, The Culpeper, London E1

Alien erotica, football coaching and making Meryl Streep cry: Ted Lasso’s new star Tanya Reynolds opens up

She lit up screens as Sex Education’s steamy sci-fi writer, wowed Streep in the West End and now she’s starring in the return of TV’s feelgood footie hit. The star talks about pretending to be sporty – and why she’s a total cheese string

By the time its third season came to an end in 2023, Ted Lasso was a Big Deal. The cosy comedy about an indefatigably positive American football coach gee-whizzing his way into the hearts of a London football team had won 13 Emmys and racked up more than 25bn minutes of viewing.

Contributing exactly zero minutes to this staggering stat was Tanya Reynolds, who joins the series in its fourth season as Ted’s assistant coach, Alice.

The Tech Download: Anduril CEO Brian Schimpf talks AI in warfare and manufacturing push

CNBC's Arjun Kharpal sits down on The Tech Download podcast with the defense company chief.

‘A universal human story’: Clean Start’s thought-provoking tidying sim tells immigrant’s tale

Playing as recent arrival Lena, your challenges include learning a new language and uncovering family secrets – its developer hopes it will spread ‘a little more compassion’

The cosy house-sorting sim has become a much-loved staple of the PC indie scene. Titles such as Unpacking, A Little to the Left and Momento charm players with their detailed interiors and quiet narratives of lives lived and shared within the same four walls. For Clean Start, Polish developer Serious Sim has taken a different approach – here you play as domestic cleaner, Lena, an immigrant who has arrived in an unspecified western country with little knowledge of the local language, and a family to support back home.

From here, you’re tasked with cleaning a series of houses and apartments, polishing tables, tidying shelves and scrubbing muddy pawprints from kitchen floors. It seems you’re able to rearrange the rooms, giving them a personal feel, which is after all one of the most pleasing elements of the genre. You can also, we are reassured, pet the dog.

What we’re reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in July

Max Porter, Daisy Johnson, Avni Doshi and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments

I recently read Gaining Ground by Joan Barfoot. It’s one of the best novels I’ve ever read about what it means to live with others, or decide not to; what we owe the people we love, the natural world, and ourselves. I also really enjoyed Robert Frost, by Robert Frost and Stacy Skolnik. It’s not that Robert Frost; it’s an itinerant young American Robert Frost who jots down his thoughts and observations on homelessness, food, value, music, drugs, the philosophical wastelands of contemporary life, and Stacy Skolnik has turned them into these delightful, oddly profound, poems. Also, coming soon, End Times Fascism by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor. Everyone should read it. It tells us exactly what’s going on.

The best recent poetry – review roundup

Small Birds Singing by Matthew Welton; The Channel by Jana Prikryl; Stepmother by Helen Mort; Drunken Driving by Martina Evans

Small Birds Singing by Matthew Welton (Carcanet, £12.99)
Written in unrhymed couplets that shrink and grow across the page like a concertina going through its scales, Welton’s poems focus attention on the city through the seasons: weeds through concrete, wasps emerging from the gaps between bricks, frozen towels on a clothesline, the shadows of jackdaws on a lawn. His gaze is neutral, and it often falls on that which we’d normally turn away from, things slightly out of place, or that disturb our sense of propriety: “more cardboard in the recycling bin / than the recycling bin can contain”. This is a poetry of things, like the poetry of Francis Ponge, but as Welton says: “no thinginess without thought”. Welton’s thoughts – though whether they are his or whether they emerge from his surroundings or from the act of writing itself, it is impossible to say – are couched in deliciously riddling couplets: “it is not the habit of patterns / to emphasise the pattern of habits”. He reminds us forcefully that poetry is all around us and within us, that anything can go in a poem: a sandwich, a desiccated lump of duck shit, the pile of junk left outside a house during a refurbishment. Poems can mirror our world in all its messiness, and in doing so let us see it a little bit better.

The Channel by Jana Prikryl (Faber, £12.99
The casual violence of King Lear, the greed, the bureaucracy, and the indifference to human life, make the play particularly resonant to contemporary audiences. In her fourth collection, Prikryl channels the voice of Cordelia to think back through her own family story of displacement from the Czech Republic. Shakespeare’s Lear becomes “a document of fact / of things that happened and keep happening”, enabling Prikryl to explore her own separation from friends and family and her experiences of migration, where home is nowhere. In Dover Calais a ferry trip to France is meshed with the story of Cordelia’s exile, morphing into an account of a ferry disaster which in turn cuts to a scene where refugees make for shore in small boats: “Waves / unreal, and driving rain, the two-year-old / left face-down on a beach nine years ago / came up for me”. Like the scissored-off hospital undershirt in In the Mould, Prikryl’s language cuts off, ending abruptly: “or was the famous sweetness / of grandmother a bluff / which through and through was too”. This rewiring of the sentence creates dazzling leaps of thought, jumping from refugee camps to Shakespeare’s Fool battling with a tsunami of text messages to dissident window cleaners out of the novels of Milan Kundera to tender moments shared with her father. It’s a bold “stepping out of form” that turns its back on the neatness of the lyric, and by doing so creates a new poetic language which, like the language of Calvino in Invisible Cities, is able to connect everything to everything.

Iran targets strategic U.S. assets in Kuwait, Bahrain after Egypt drone attack

Iran's army said it launched attacks on strategic U.S. assets and military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain.

‘If a space is cared for, everything improves’: Meet four gardeners transforming their urban communities

From improving biodiversity to managing antisocial behaviour, the benefits of greening towns and cities are massive. These names are leading the charge…

The importance of green space in Britain’s increasingly urban landscape – from city parks to community gardens and allotments – is unequivocal. Public Health England reports that regular exposure to green space reduces stress and improves wellbeing and physical fitness, while the Natural History Museum has highlighted its value in cooling city infrastructure and reducing pollution. Functional cities depend on functional greenery, yet the upkeep of these vital environments remains precarious. With parks and green spaces classified as non-statutory services, local authorities continue to slash their funding, relying increasingly on volunteer groups to maintain them.

A leading voice advocating for change is John Little of Care Not Capital, a community interest company offering free training for gardeners working in the public sphere so that they can have a greater influence on the spaces they maintain and those who govern them. “Green spaces are not sustainable unless you have someone looking after them,” says Little. “Yet in the public realm, the investment is often about infrastructure – overly designed landscapes and extravagant architecture – and rarely the ongoing care.” Investment in skilled gardeners, he argues, leads to positive outcomes far beyond good horticultural upkeep, from biodiversity increase and climate crisis mitigation to better community engagement and reduced antisocial behaviour.

The dead doctor and a dicey diet: how a ban made a hero of Egypt’s rogue medic

Diaa al-Awadi claimed insulin was a fraud, smoking was safe and chemotherapy useless. But despite losing his medical licence and dying at early age, his reach continues to grow

It had been a struggle with conventional treatments. For Fatima Adel, a 50-year-old author living in Cairo’s upmarket Sheikh Zayed neighbourhood, the misdiagnoses and medical errors she had experienced had began to erode her confidence in doctors.

But when the videos of Diaa al-Awadi began circulating – an Egyptian doctor who spoke plainly, invoked the Qur’an, and told his audience that their bodies could heal themselves if they changed their diet – Adel, like tens of thousands of other Egyptians, listened.

Week in wildlife: snub-nosed monkeys, amorous cobras and a milk-snatching fox

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world