Country diary: Wetland plants have prospered this year – and I love this understated beauty | Sarah Lambert

Ailsworth, Cambridgeshire: Trifid bur-marigold is struggling nationally, but thanks to a little ‘Goldilocks’ land management, it has the perfect conditions here

After a night of storms, the air feels freshly washed. I breathe in delicious scents of damp grass, earth, and sweet, winey blackberry from hedges weighed down with a bumper harvest. Once again, I’m drawn to the River Nene, a ribbon of blue and green that snakes lazily through the valley. I stand for a while on the bridge over Ailsworth weir, where water spills and chatters over bright green swathes of river water-crowfoot. For a moment its steady white noise overpowers the nearby A1.

The main river is slow and silent, yet its margins are bright with flowers: purple loosestrife, marsh woundwort, water mint, water forget-me-not and celery-leaved buttercup. Together they make a loose embroidery of mauve, blue and yellow among the green – quite the contrast from the scorched gold fields I’ve become used to. But the plant that catches my eye is trifid bur-marigold, with its understated, button-like golden flowers. Its name comes from its mostly three-part leaves and fruits that are tipped with barbed bristles, ready to hitch a lift on passing cattle, dogs, maybe an otter, or even humans.

Trump gave $45,000 to Natalie Harp and other White House aides as holiday gifts

The president’s substantial holiday gifts to four White House aides were made public via financial disclosures released by the administration

Donald Trump gave sizable holiday gifts to four White House aides, according to new financial disclosures released by the administration, including $45,000 to executive assistant Natalie Harp.

Communications adviser Margo Martin and deputy director of Oval Office operations Chamberlain Harris also received $45,000, while director of Oval Office operations Walt Nauta received a $20,000 gift.

‘Miserable and impossible’: food scarce in Kyiv as Russia targets supply chains

Supermarket shelves half-filled in Ukrainian capital as Moscow bombs warehouses supporting civilian life

Stocking up on cured sausages from the half-empty shelves in her local supermarket, Valentyna Sveshnikova is worried about money. The 68-year-old grandmother lives off her small pension and has already noticed the cost of several goods increase, including sausages. Russia wants “to make our life miserable and impossible. And they’re actually succeeding in it,” she says.

Russian strikes on food warehouses and logistics supply chains around several Ukrainian cities have left gaps on supermarket shelves and risk causing price increases.

‘Would they fight or hug?’ The Oasis comeback film’s makers on shooting fans, vicars, police – and the Gallaghers

The crowds wept and prayed, police used their song lyrics for briefings and a vicar gave a sermon about brotherly forgiveness. The directors of Don’t Look Back in Anger relive their wildest ride ever

On 4 July last year, Oasis were all set to start the first gig of their hugely anticipated comeback, 16 years since the band imploded after Liam Gallagher swung a guitar in the direction of brother Noel’s head backstage in Paris. However, just 20 minutes before showtime, there was no sign of the singer. Some 74,500 fans in Cardiff’s Principality Stadium were going crazy, while Noel was left impatiently pacing around the venue’s loading bay, presumably wondering if everything was about to fall apart again.

“Then the monitor I was watching all this on suddenly cut out,” says Will Lovelace, the director who was filming the comeback. “When it came back to life, suddenly Liam and Noel were there chatting. Then they walked out to this eruption.” Later, Noel is filmed expressing incredulity that his long-estranged younger sibling could “skip the final rehearsal, then just rock up, grab my hand, and I’m like, ‘What the fuck?’ And off he goes, sounding like he’s 30 years younger. And I’m like, ‘You absolute mad cunt.’”

Babies born to anaemic mothers have smaller brains, study finds

Key regions of the brain linked to movement, learning and emotions were affected and may lead to cognitive problems

Babies born to mothers with anaemia have smaller brains, particularly in key regions linked to movement, learning and the regulation of emotion, according to a study.

Researchers said the differences, first detected at the age of one, could lead to cognitive problems when children started school.

NYC officials release unseen post-9/11 air quality documents

New York City officials released thousands of previously unseen documents questioning the air quality at Ground Zero following the 9/11 attacks.

Hawaiian homes devastated by Hurricane Lowell

Hurricane Lowell lashed the Hawaiian islands with up to 2 feet of rain in some parts, 90-mph winds and monster waves. Carter Evans reports and Rob Marciano hs the forecast.

Iran says it hit American vessels, oil tankers in Hormuz in retaliation for U.S. strikes

The U.S. and Iran traded new attacks around the Strait of Hormuz, as President Donald Trump insists oil prices will drop fast once the Iran war ends.

New Hampshire Senate race set between Pappas and Sununu after projected primary wins

Rep. Chris Pappas defeated democratic socialist Karishma Manzur in the Democratic primary, while former Sen. John Sununu defeated Scott Brown in the GOP contest.

UK air traffic control breakdown strands hundreds of thousands of passengers

More than 1,000 flights cancelled with disruption continuing on Wednesday and airlines calling for overhaul after third incident in just over three years

• UK airport disruption: what are your rights?

Flight delays and cancellations were expected to continue into Wednesday at UK airports after another air traffic control failure kept planes grounded for hours, affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers.

At least 177 flights scheduled for Wednesday to and from UK airports had been cancelled, plane tracking site Flightradar24 said, “nearly all at London Heathrow”. More than 1,000 were cancelled by about 8pm on Tuesday.

Pilots tried to abort landing seconds before deadly Amazon cargo plane crash that killed five

The five people killed were employees of an aircraft cleaning company who were in a van struck by the plane after it overran the Miami airport runway

• At least five dead after Amazon cargo plane crashes at Miami airport

Officials in Florida on Tuesday said evidence collected from Saturday’s Amazon cargo plane crash at Miami international airport suggests the pilots considered aborting the flight’s landing before it crashed and killed five people on the ground.

At a press conference Tuesday evening, officials from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released data from the plane’s “black box” flight data recorder, which was recovered from the wreckage on Monday, indicating pilots initiated a “go-around”, or aborted landing, seconds before impact.

Reuters contributed reporting

Blanche d’Alpuget, writer and wife of Bob Hawke, dies aged 82

In her final statement, D’Alpuget said ‘our highest calling and greatest achievement is love’

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Blanche d’Alpuget, the Australian writer and widow of former prime minister Bob Hawke, has died at the age of 82.

D’Alpuget was an acclaimed writer, whose work includes the highly regarded biography of Hawke that won the New South Wales premier’s award.

Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv books in 1,000 Patriots as UK and EU open up missile aid

Germany ‘urgently’ sending PAC-2 interceptors from its stockpile and urges other countries to do the same. What we know on day 1,659

US says Iranian tankers ‘destroyed’ after missile attacks on American warship

Tit-for-tat violence surges again in region, with tankers struck by the US in the Gulf of Oman, and reprisal attacks by Iran on a US base in Jordan

The US military on Tuesday said it “destroyed” multiple Iranian tankers, after Iran attempted to strike a US navy warship with ballistic missiles, as violence once again surged across the region, pushing the price of oil close to $100 a barrel.

American forces struck the tankers in the Gulf of Oman and near Iran’s Kharg Island, US central command (Centcom) said in a statement, adding that American forces “directed the crews to abandon ship before the vessels were struck”.

Last Seen review – this gripping Apple TV thriller is one of the standout shows of the year

Patrick Brammall and Maxine Peake star in this superbly acted and absolutely riveting drama about a father who thinks his missing daughter may still be alive after a mysterious phone call

Last Seen is a classic, twisty thriller with a killer premise: a grieving father, whose young daughter went missing years ago and is now presumed dead, one day receives a phone call that he is convinced is from her. Hats off to director Christian Schwochow for delivering such a muscular, propulsive experience: I felt deeply invested from the start and by the third episode I was totally hooked. Getting between me and the screen would have been like trying to take a steak away from a dog.

Ian (Patrick Brammall, fresh from the very different Colin from Accounts) is a former cop who now works for Australia’s 000 emergency phone service (the equivalent of the US’s 911 or the UK’s 999). His daughter Maggie disappeared 11 years ago. Ian is now six months sober and separated from his ex-wife (Jessica Wren). He eats alone, at home, with an unopened vodka bottle on the table in front of him, as if to say to himself: “I could, but I won’t.” He blames himself for the past and cannot move on.

New Hampshire picks Pappas and Sununu in primary for key open Senate seat

Incumbent Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., will retire when her term ends in January.

Lindsay Clancy's lawyer asks Trump to pardon her, despite it being a state case

Lindsay Clancy's lawyer spoke with CBS News Boston on Tuesday, explaining why he'd asked President Trump to somehow pardon her, as she is still under state indictment for killing her three children. Shanelle Kaul reports.

Lindsay Clancy juror speaks after mistrial: "There was so much doubt"

A woman who served as a juror in Lindsay Clancy's high-profile Massachusetts murder trial provided a look at deliberations, saying there was too much doubt for her to reach a guilty verdict.

Tiafoe stages epic comeback to break Michelsen’s heart in US Open classic

• No 11 seed rallies for 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (6) win

• Tiafoe into third US Open semi-final in five years

• American will play Alcaraz or Shelton in last four

At the end of more than four and a half hours of escalating drama inside the world’s biggest tennis stadium, a devastated Alex Michelsen fell into Frances Tiafoe’s arms just outside the tramlines, sobbing uncontrollably. Tiafoe took his younger countryman in an embrace and held him there for 23 seconds, the victor consoling the vanquished in the aftermath of an extraordinary comeback that had carried him, somehow, into the US Open semi-finals.

Only a couple of hours earlier, the 28-year-old Tiafoe had been two sets down and two points from elimination in the third set, with Michelsen within touching distance of the biggest victory of his young career. Instead, Tiafoe roared back from the brink to win a quarter-final that will be long remembered in New York, outlasting Michelsen 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (6) on Tuesday afternoon to reach the last four at Flushing Meadows for the third time in five years. Now he will face either Carlos Alcaraz or Ben Shelton on Friday for a place in his first grand slam final.

Singapore boosts PM’s salary by $1m amid major pay rise for ministers

The affluent city-state has justified high-end salaries for its political leaders, arguing they attract talent and ensure good governance

Singapore’s prime minister has been given a $1m pay rise as the affluent city-state announced a dramatic one-off salary boost for government ministers.

The pay increases add more than 60% to what are already the world’s highest ministerial salaries.

Federal judge backs Missouri's new House map after Supreme Court rebuffs case

A federal judge ruled that Missouri should use a new congressional map that favors Republicans for now, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court left in place a ruling from the state's highest court directing Missouri to use an older map.

Lowell lashes Hawaii, knocking out power to thousands as flood risk continues

Fierce winds downed trees and caused widespread power outages on the island of Kauai, home to 73,000 residents.

16 years after winning "Australia's Got Talent," dad becomes musical sensation for babies

The comeback career of Lenny Pearce is pretty much a dream come true for musicians. His boy band won "Australia's Got Talent" in 2010, but after a while, the attention faded. Now, he's become a worldwide hit for babies and toddlers who play remixed nursery rhymes at home. Tony Dokoupil has the story.

Canada imposes tariffs on U.S. dairy, steel, aluminum and appliances

Canadian tariffs took effect on about $20 billion worth of U.S. goods on Tuesday. It marked the latest escalation in a trade war with no clear end in sight. Nancy Cordes has more details.

4 found dead after Miami family's small plane goes missing off Bahamas

A small plane carrying four family members flying back home to Florida went missing off the Bahamas, the U.S. Coast Guard and authorities in the Bahamas said.

Bodies of Miami family found after plane went missing off the Bahamas, authorities say

Four bodies were found after a small plane went missing near the Bahamas. Skyler Henry reports on this and the deadly Amazon cargo jet crash.

Three people die at Burning Man this year, tripling average number of deaths

Rise in fatalities comes amid news reports that the average age of Burning Man attendees is increasing

Three men over 50 died at Burning Man this year, tripling the average number of deaths in connection with the annual festival that brings tens of thousands of people to build a temporary utopian community in the brutal conditions of the Nevada desert.

The increase in fatalities comes as news reports have highlighted that the average age of Burning Man attendees is increasing, with fewer participants in their 20s, and more in their 40s and 50s.

Remains found 49 years ago in North Carolina identified as teen runaway

Skeletal remains found in North Carolina in 1977 have been identified as those of Cindy Marcell Blizzard, a 15-year-old girl who ran away from her home in Monkton, Maryland, investigators said.

SEC threatens to run LSU out of the league

The SEC amended its legal complaint on Tuesday, asserting its right to "decide whether to terminate Louisiana State University," rather than tolerate a "forced association" with a league member that has shown a "lack of institutional control." Mark Strassmann has more details.

Patrick Clancy's lawyer threatens conspiracy theorists with legal action

Patrick Clancy, Lindsay Clancy's ex-husband, issued a scathing statement to conspiracy theorists who have been claiming he was involved in the deaths of the couple's children - "There will be consequences."

9/8: CBS Evening News

Four family members were killed in a small plane crash; Hawaiian homes were devastated by Hurricane Lowell.

California confirms rare sighting of gray wolf in Mendocino national forest

Officials say sighting a sign species – driven to extinction in state before reintroduction in 2011 – expanding its range

A gray wolf has recently been seen in California’s Mendocino national forest for the first time since the species returned to the state 15 years ago, state wildlife officials confirmed.

Officials in Lake county, which is about two hours north of San Francisco, said last week the California department of fish and wildlife (CDFW) had received reports of sightings in the forest in late August. The agency verified the presence of a wolf in the far north end of the county, county supervisor Brad Rasmussen said in a statement on social media.

Why some key GOP candidates are skipping Trump-backed midterm convention

President Trump and top GOP leaders are gathering in Dallas for a midterm convention, though some Republicans in competitive races are opting to skip it and campaign in their home districts or states.

Two more people arrested over ‘mountain of illegal waste’ dumped in Oxfordshire

A total of six people apprehended as clean-up of rubbish stacked 10 metres high cost about £6m

Two men have been arrested after fly-tippers dumped a “mountain of illegal waste”, stacked 10 metres high, in Oxfordshire.

Hundreds of tonnes of rubbish appeared in a field between the River Cherwell and the A34 near Kidlington in November last year. The waste tip was so large that removing it could cost more than the local council’s annual budget, the area’s MP said.

LIV Golf files for bankruptcy protection as it looks to ‘begin the next chapter’

• Saudi investors stopped backing LIV this year

• Rahm, DeChambeau and Smith among the creditors

LIV Golf, the breakaway tour that spent billions of dollars luring top players away from the PGA and triggered bitter divisions within the sport, has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US.

The filing at a New Jersey court indicates LIV, which abruptly lost its deep-pocketed Saudi investors earlier this year, intends to restructure and return in a new form.

LIV Golf files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

As part of the proposed bankruptcy deal, the upstart golf venture is expected to be majority owned by its players.

Trump administration expresses 'profound concern' over Ford's ties to China

In a letter to Ford CEO Jim Farley, U.S. DOT Secretary Sean Duffy questioned the automaker's strategic trajectory involving Chinese companies.

Bombardier caught in the crossfire of escalating U.S.-Canada feud

President Trump threatened to ban Bombardier sales in the U.S. as Canada's retaliatory tariffs take effect. Here's what to know about the aircraft maker.

OpenAI claims to have solved maths problem that stumped humans for decades

Company behind ChatGPT says 10,000 of its AI systems cracked the Navier-Stokes problem in 88 hours

OpenAI claims to have solved a major mathematics problem that has stumped humans for nearly a century after spending millions of dollars on the artificial intelligence-led endeavour.

The company behind ChatGPT said it had cracked the Navier-Stokes problem, one of seven Millennium Prize Problems published by the Clay Mathematics Institute to highlight some of the biggest unsolved puzzles in the field.

TSA program will allow some people to go through security without a ticket

The Transportation Security Administration has launched a new program at 13 airports, allowing eligible TSA PreCheck members without plane tickets to pass through security and enter the gates.

Real Madrid somehow cling on to beat Inter on José Mourinho’s big night

Sometimes football is silly, sometimes it doesn’t make much sense, and sometimes it’s fun for it. On a night when there were 37 shots and the goalkeepers shared 13 occasionally absurd saves between them, José Mourinho’s current side beat his former team Inter on his Champions League return to Real Madrid. Just don’t ask exactly how. Except perhaps to cite Thibaut Courtois, whose astonishing 89th-minute stop from Henrikh Mkhitaryan explained much and allowed them, just, to hold on to the first-half lead they had been given by goals from Kylian Mbappé and Fede Valverde.

By Mbappé, Valverde, and Inter themselves, that is. You might be tempted to say the Italians had shot themselves in the foot, only if they tried Courtois would probably save that too. “If he wasn’t voted man of the match tonight, he never will be,” Mourinho said. It took 77 minutes for him to be beaten, Carlos Augusto’s goal giving this match a frantic last 15 minutes and Inter hope of justice, but it didn’t happen again. So a game that could have had any scoreline – “5-1 to us, 6-6, I don’t want to say they could have won,” Mourinho suggested – actually ended 2-1. Madrid’s manager called it “mad, and not a madness I like.”

Haaland double gives Manchester City ideal Champions League start in Porto

Enzo Maresca admitted a liking for the “boom-boom” of house music in the buildup to this match, then enjoyed the sweet notes of victory having overseen a gritty performance from his Manchester City side in incessant rain.

City had lost six of their past nine away games in the competition, and been beaten in the 2021 Champions League final at this venue, so to beat Porto and claim three points is a fillip for the manager’s nascent project.

9/8: The Takeout with Major Garrett

Retaliatory Canadian tariffs on U.S. goods take effect; Republicans gather in Dallas for midterm convention.

Apple event expected to debut foldable iPhone and new CEO John Ternus

Apple's Sept. 9 tech showcase is set to feature new CEO John Ternus unveiling its first foldable iPhone and the iPhone 18.

New report shows the economic toll of ICE raids

A new study shows the steep economic cost of 2025's ICE raids in Chicago. Fear kept many immigrants home, draining the area of more than $1.26 billion in lost retail, restaurant, and sales-tax revenue.

N.H. voters choose nominees for open Senate seat, and more races to watch today

Both Democrats and Republicans are targeting the Senate seat that will be vacated by Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who is not running for reelection.

Operator of plane in Miami crash had prior safety complaints by former employees

The Amazon Prime Air Boeing 767 cargo plane that crashed off a Miami runway​ on Sunday, killing five people, was operated by a North Carolina company that has been accused by past employees of violating safety regulations, legal documents reveal.

Kenya's foreign trader crackdown sparks fear among migrant communities

Kenya's president orders a crackdown on foreigners running small businesses, amid accusations of xenophobia.

Company review – Casey Affleck entertains us with creepy campfire tales

Venice film festival: Affleck’s third film as a director is a diverting gothic anthology about mysterious strangers, murder and – pointedly – wronged men

Gather ye ’round the glowing screen for a Casey Affleck campfire tale. It contains superstitions and murder and human oddities of all stripes. An old hermit in his shack. Something nasty in the woodshed. If you like the first tale, fill your boots, settle back, because here comes another and another; each sparked by the embers of its neighbour and playing out with the same deliberately theatrical panache. Affleck’s picture roams and rambles like a creepy cracker-barrel Jackanory.

Actually there is much to relish in Company, Affleck’s third film as a director, even if many of its elements feel like off-the-peg eccentricities; a little too laundered and self-consciously strange. It begins in tried and tested fashion with the arrival of a mysterious stranger on a dark winter’s night. The stranger takes a seat and spins a tale, at which point December 1975 melts into 1953, then 1903, before finally the film crosses the ocean to Europe at the tail end of the plague. Nick Nolte is a hermit pining for his lost daughter, while Ben Mendelsohn plays a mean, mordant farmer who reaches for his handgun too readily. Both men, one suspects, are destined for a bloody end.

Meta pushes into personal AI agents as company faces public reckoning over privacy and safety

Meta unveiled its Muse personal agent app that comes in a free tier or a monthly subscription costing $20 or $100 depending on usage.

UK accuses Israeli ‘terrorists’ of ethnic cleansing in West Bank with government backing

Ed Miliband announces sanctions on trade with settlements as PM says in the Guardian it is time to act

• I believe in a two-state solution in the Middle East. That’s why we’re taking action to keep that hope alive | Andy Burnham

Settler terrorists supported by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government are committing ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, Ed Miliband has said, in the UK’s starkest condemnation since the foundation of the Israeli state.

Andy Burnham, the prime minister, said he would “not stand by” as horrific suffering continued, writing in the Guardian that for too long the UK had been hesitant to act, “fearful of being accused of being anti-Israel”.

An import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories and a new ban for arms licences and other exports that “materially contribute to the occupation”.

A comprehensive sanctions regime against providing services such as construction or financing for Israeli settlements and a ban on advertising them in the UK.

Personal sanctions against key individuals accused of promoting settler violence.

A new ban for arms licences and other exports that “materially contribute to the occupation”.

I believe in a two-state solution in the Middle East. That’s why we’re taking action to keep that hope alive | Andy Burnham

Our sanctions aren’t about the Israeli people, but about the unacceptable policies of the Israeli government, and the suffering they cause Palestinians

In a difficult and dangerous world, a decade on from Brexit, there is a risk that Britain loses the confidence to lead and stand up for its values. I’m not prepared to let that happen. It is more important than ever that Britain stands for something.

We have called for years for a two-state solution in the Middle East, but we must recognise that those words are meaningless unless we back them up with action.

Andy Burnham is prime minister of the United Kingdom

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.

England seek calm end to chaotic Test summer against penitent Pakistan

Late-night drinking incidents and a post-Bazball reboot have given the hosts plenty to think about, while the tourists have their own problems to sort out

There are some chilly white-ball games still to come this month and with it the sight of Kevin Pietersen back in England training kit for the first time in 12 years. KP is down with the kids these days, 6/7 memes and the like, and starts a new life as the “specialist mentor” to Harry Brook’s young thrusters.

But the final Test of the summer that starts at Edgbaston on Wednesday does feel like an end of sorts, or at least one last push before a breather for the side that has undergone the more significant recalibration. And that is before we get on to Pakistan and a tour that has descended into a bonfire of players and a phone-snatching investigation into “discipline and conduct”.

First-half treble powers Aston Villa to Champions League win at Club Brugge

Aston Villa were 3-1 up after 43 minutes but were made to sweat for their first win of the season, emerging victorious from an entertaining Champions League opener with Club Brugge. John McGinn, who struck the only goal when Villa belatedly got their season up and running last September against Bologna, opened the scoring before Emi Buendía and a first goal for Nicolas Jackson in claret and blue appeared to put Villa out of sight at half-time.

The Belgian side have become familiar foes since Villa returned to the big time, the glitziest club competition of them all; a freakish Tyrone Mings handball gifted the hosts a penalty, and subsequently victory, in 2024-25 and on this occasion Aaron Wan-Bissaka conceded a second-half penalty to plunge a seesawing contest back into the balance.

Ikea wins right to launch legal action against Belgian far-right party

EU’s highest court allows Swedish furniture firm to begin proceedings after Vlaams Belang used its trademarks in immigration campaign

Ikea has won the right to take legal action against a Belgian far-right political party that parodied the Swedish flatpack furniture firm’s branding in its anti-immigration campaign.

In a ruling on Tuesday, Europe’s highest court said that Ikea had the right to oppose the use of its trademarks and distinctive graphics by Vlaams Belang, a rightwing Eurosceptic political party that advocates for an independent Flemish state.

Dangerous Hurricane Lowell passing just west of Hawaii

Hurricane Lowell was skirting western Hawaii, bringing damaging winds, heavy rain and punishing waves, the National Hurricane Center said.

South Park changes name to South America in response to Trump changes

Satirical program’s new title is ‘inspired by bravery and patriotism’ of Apple and Google, who capitulated to Trump’s requests to change Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America’

In light of Donald Trump’s attempts to rename a gulf, lakes and even states after “America”, South Park, the animated satirical program that has long skewered those in power, has announced an official name change. For its 29th season, the Comedy Central series will be known as “South America”.

“Inspired by the bravery and patriotism of Apple and Google, we are changing the name of South Park to SOUTH AMERICA,” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker said in a statement. “We especially want to thank our parent company Paramount – a Skydance Capitulation.” The show’s parent company, Paramount Skydance, owned by Trump ally David Ellison, is poised to become one of the biggest media conglomerates in the US after the Trump administration approved its $111bn merger with Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), drawing much creative industry backlash.

The 29th season of “South America” will premiere on 16 September, and stream globally on Paramount+.

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to allow use of citizenship database

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene in a lawsuit over the use of a controversial data system to review state voter rolls.

Glastonbury tickets break £400 for first time as on-sale date is announced

Tickets set to cost £408 at return for Somerset festival after a fallow year, a jump from £378.50 in 2025

After a fallow year in 2026, Glastonbury festival fans can start to get excited – and nervous – about tickets for 2027’s event going on sale.

The price breaks £400 for the first time, at £408 including a £5 booking fee, a rise from the 2025 cost of £378.50. The usual scramble to acquire them – with all the attendant frantic spreadsheets and WhatsApp groups – will begin at 9am on Sunday 4 October.

Goldman Sachs warns oil prices could hit $120 as U.S. fuel costs surge

Higher gas and diesel prices have cost Americans an additional $100 billion since the Iran war began, according to a Brown University tracker.

Commons breathes a sigh of relief as UK finally takes a moral stance of Israeli settlements | John Crace

Opposition to Miliband’s announcement of sanctions rings hollow – helped by fewer than 10 Tory backbenchers turning up to debate

Nobody can say they weren’t warned. The Andy Burnham government might have looked like Continuity Keir with more positive vibes for the first six weeks or so, but on Tuesday a new line was drawn. When Burnham said he felt Labour had not done enough on Palestine and Gaza, he had meant it. His decision to impose trade sanctions on illegal settlements in the West Bank was to be his first break with the past.

Some opponents chose to get their retaliation in early, before Ed Miliband had even stood up to make the announcement in the Commons on Tuesday. Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador, declared on Sunday that Ed was guilty of “hating Jews”. Which rather implied he thought Ed hated himself.

U.S. sanctions Iranian airlines in aim to tighten economic squeeze as war spreads, oil rises

The latest U.S. action under "Operation Economic Outcast" targets all Iranian airlines that were not already facing sanctions.

Ella Baron on the UK’s ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements – cartoon

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The Guardian view on Britain’s new Middle East policy: an unlawful occupation must carry a price | Editorial

Ed Miliband has delivered Britain’s toughest indictment of Israeli conduct in Palestinian lands - and rightly says this has economic consequences

Rarely in recent years has the Commons felt like the cockpit of history. On Tuesday it did. The foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, placed Britain at the head of a 12-country coalition considering economic restrictions on Israel’s illegal settlements, with the UK, France and Canada committing to national trade bans.

The move comes after escalating numbers of attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian villages in the West Bank. International opinion seemed to shift decisively after Israel gave the go-ahead for 1,200 homes in the E1 settlement that would cleave the West Bank into two – using illegal settlements to bury Palestinian statehood for good. Mr Miliband added that evidence of war crimes in Gaza was mounting, making the overdue case for Britain to recast its economic and military relationship with Israel.

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.

Solheim Cup vice-captain denies Charley Hull’s late arrival due to ‘drinks’

• Teetotal Hull teed off alone in practice

• Briton in Women’s Open controversy in August

Charley Hull has, unsurprisingly, been involved in a colourful start to Solheim Cup week. After arriving late for her Tuesday practice tee time in the Netherlands, an online clip of her joking about the reason prompted a cascade of online speculation and ended with members of the European team hierarchy forcibly denying any overindulgence on the teetotal Hull’s behalf on Monday night.

In an unusual scene, Hull, who is crucial to Europe’s quest to reclaim the Solheim Cup from the US this week, drove off alone at Bernardus Golf and caught up with her teammates after arriving on the 1st tee minutes behind them. In a clip that gained traction, Hull appeared to jokingly blame “drinks” from the night before. The English golfer did, however, seem to point towards her caddie at the time.

Lonnie Bunch, Smithsonian leader, to retire amid Trump criticism

Historian Lonnie Bunch will leave his position as secretary of the Smithsonian at the end of the year, he announced Tuesday.

Witness says pilot in Amazon crash was shaking afterward: "My career is over"

Abraham Altamar was on the phone with his wife when he briefly spoke with one of the pilots of the Amazon cargo plane that overran a runway in Miami.

Bunker review – Cruz and Bardem just can’t dig Florian Zeller’s shallow thriller out of a hole

Venice film festival: An architect (Javier Bardem) alienates his book editor wife (Penélope Cruz) when he agrees to build a luxurious bunker for a tech billionaire

Even the formidable pairing of Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem can’t save this new movie from writer-director Florian Zeller – his first created directly for the screen, and not adapted from his own stage original. It’s shallow and unsatisfying, a drama without the intimate, authentic passion of his previous movies like The Father (2021) or The Son (2022).

Bunker has nothing that interesting or original to say about its metaphorically showcased theme of alienation and inequality; the central relationship is left unexplored in favour of so-so home-invasion suspense styling – although one extended marital-argument scene showed what might have been achieved if their relationship was the film’s point – and the violent finale ending is outrageously glib, silly and unconvincing. An off-camera paramedic or doctor actually has to be heard explaining in a brief sentence afterwards what is supposed to have happened. Very lame.

The rise of hairy young women: ‘I know people who dye their armpit hair, so it stands out more’

When Phoebe Bridgers appeared at Venice international film festival with unshaven legs this weekend, it shouldn’t have made headlines – but did. What do young women make of the current expectations around depilation?

In 2026, female body hair feels as if it should be the least of anyone’s concerns. But although we may think we’ve come a long way since Julia Roberts’ unshaven underarm caused a furore at the 1999 London premiere of Notting Hill, depilation remains a staple of many women’s grooming routines – and when singer turned actor Phoebe Bridgers made her Venice film festival debut last weekend, her unshaven legs still made headlines.

Even so, her au naturel look may signal that attitudes are changing – particularly among younger generations. Vogue decreed that “rather than undermining the femininity of the look, unapologetic hair sharpened it”, and pictures of the 32-year-old’s hair-covered calves were generally praised by fans. But what do other gen Z and millennial women make of the decision to ditch the razor?

Andrew Garfield takes on Sam Altman in creepy first teaser for Artificial

Luca Guadagnino-directed film will be released by Neon after being dropped by Amazon amid OpenAI partnership

• Big tech goes to Hollywood: is Silicon Valley ready for a silver-screen reckoning?

The first teaser trailer of Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial has been released.

After being dropped by Amazon MGM Studios in June, the biopic of the OpenAI tech executive Sam Altman will be released in the US on 25 December by Neon after it premieres at the New York film festival this October.

Harry Kane and Alessia Russo among nominees for this year’s Ballon d’Or

• Bellingham, Rice and Alex Greenwood also nominated

• Ceremony to move from Paris to London for 2026 awards

Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice have been nominated for this year’s men’s Ballon d’Or with Alessia Russo and Alex Greenwood nominated for the women’s award.

The 30 men’s and 30 women’s nominees were revealed by France Football magazine on Tuesday, with the winners to be announced at a ceremony in London on 26 October. Ousmane Dembélé, who won the men’s award last year, has been nominated again, as has his France teammate Kylian Mbappé, who made history when he overtook Lionel Messi for all-time World Cup goals (22) at this summer’s tournament.

Police overlooked tip-off day before far-right agitators blocked Dover roads

Details passed to Kent police after people heard in pub boasting about going to Dover to ‘attack Muslims’

Police were told the night before far-right agitators blocked roads into Dover that those involved had converged on a village 18 miles away and planned to use it as a launchpad, it has emerged.

People in Preston-next-Wingham told of how hundreds of men had started to arrive in the village of just over 920 residents on Friday afternoon and in effect “took over” the village.

Mr T: I Pity the Fool review – a rare chance with an electrifying star … and they blew it

The former A-Team legend tells his extraordinary story with endless charisma, but this show is so rushed that they even misspell his name. No wonder he isn’t happy with it

Here’s a question: when was the last time you had as good a time as when you were watching The A-Team as a child? I know.

Many of the best moments of the wholly unexpected documentary Mr T: I Pity the Fool recall his legendary turn as the soldiers of fortunes’ genius engineer, pugilist and instant fan favourite (not that we used the phrase then) BA Baracus. According to Mr T, the show was built around him; when you see now how well it plays to his talents and charisma – a proper tough guy, but shot through with warmth and humour, giving a perfectly outsize performance and never overplaying his hand – it makes a lot of sense, however much it would annoy George “Hannibal” Peppard to hear it.

Practical Magic 2 review – Bullock and Kidman return for odd sequel that still casts a spell

A nostalgia-bait return to the witchy 90s comedy is as strange and messy as the first but there are warm seasonal pleasures to be had

Much has changed in the universe, cosmic and otherwise, since the Owens witches last graced the big screen with their practical magic of sleeping draughts, midnight margaritas and generational love curses. For one, movies like the 1998 cult-ish classic Practical Magic – a compellingly bizarre mashup of genres, aspirational 90s fashion and sisterly affection starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman in their movie-star primes as lovelorn sorceresses in Puritan-lite Massachusetts – largely stopped reaching theaters. For another, nostalgia cycles only intensified and tightened, our algorithms clogged with unsolicited sequels and dupes for Bullock’s impeccable vintage 90s Levi’s.

Which makes Practical Magic 2, reuniting both Kidman and Bullock, and Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest as their lovingly eccentric aunts, somewhat of an anomaly, at once a seeming inevitability and, as a matrilineal romance comedy (though decidedly not a romcom) starring two 60-year-old women, an oddity. There’s no circumventing nostalgia bait, but Practical Magic remains so idiosyncratic in tone and, well, kookiness, that a sequel somewhat appeals.

Vuelta a España: Matthew Brennan follows Van Aert’s lead to complete four-timer

• Briton powers to victory in sprint finish on stage 16

• Mas remains in red jersey as race enters final week

Matthew Brennan enhanced his status as the standout sprinter at the Vuelta a España by winning a fourth stage on his Grand Tour debut.

The 21-year-old British rider was delivered to the front of the bunch with 100 metres left by an ideal leadout from Wout van Aert, his star teammate at Visma-Lease a Bike who had already won two stages at this race.

British family of man abducted by Saudi Arabia speak out over nine-year ordeal

Mira Lozi says quiet diplomacy has failed to free Rami Naimi who was first seized in Dubai in 2017

A British woman has spoken out for the first time about the alleged abduction, torture and coercion of her husband at the hands of Saudi authorities, after nine years of “failed” quiet diplomacy.

The businessman Rami Naimi was first abducted in Dubai in 2017 on his return from a trip to Australia with his father. After being tortured, he was released the following year.

A constipated baby and a kid that looks like Boris Johnson: why would anyone bother stealing a Renoir?

The chocolate boxiest of all the impressionists has long had his haters – even Manet thought he was rubbish. Little surprise then that the thieves ditched two works on the way out

Stealing from the Louvre you can understand. I mean, who wouldn’t want a Géricault or Leonardo to hang in the downstairs loo? Same for the Musée d’Orsay too, even the Pompidou – they’re French museums absolutely rammed full of stunning art, all just begging to be audaciously heisted. But the Renoir Museum? It’s hard to see why anyone would bother.

As French art fans reel at the news that two Renoir paintings were stolen from the Cagnes-sur-Mer museum that bears his name this week, the rest of the art world has been saying really? Him? Renoir? He’s … awful. It’s like doing a heist of flares in the era of skinny jeans.

Mass polygraphs at the Pentagon show Hegseth’s weakness | Margaret Sullivan

The more defense secretary Pete Hegseth tries to flex his manly strength, the wimpier he looks

The more the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, tries to flex his manly strength, the wimpier he looks.

The former Fox News host has attempted to seize control of what the public is allowed to know, but bad news keeps creeping out from the Pentagon.

Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist

Here’s where rental demand is heading and what it means for future home sales

As U.S. rent prices rise, more tenants are relocating to cheaper markets, according to a new report by Zillow.

Gladys the giant pumpkin: is this the biggest fruit in the world?

At one stage, on its way to becoming a smashing success, this plucky pumpkin was packing on 40lb a day

Name: Gladys.

Age: Gladys was germinated on 19 April and pollinated on 30 June.

AstraZeneca's COPD drug scores two late-stage trial wins as full data boosts blockbuster hopes

The full data reinforces hopes that the drug could be a breakthrough COPD treatment and reach AstraZeneca's peak annual sales forecast of more than $5 billion.

Elon Musk told ex-girlfriend he needed ‘a legion of children before the civil war’

Ashley St Clair was speaking at the Venice film premiere of Alex Gibney’s documentary Musk, where she warned of his dangerous influence

• Musk review – epic study of the world’s richest and most banal man

Elon Musk is sowing “deliberate division” via his social media platform X that will be catastrophic unless regulated, the mother of one of the 14 confirmed children fathered by the world’s richest man has warned.

In Musk, a new documentary by veteran film-maker Alex Gibney, former Maga influencer Ashley St Clair says Musk told her in a text message he wanted to have a child with her because he needed to have “a legion of children before the civil war”.

Time to reflect and gentle giraffes – readers’ best photographs

Click here to submit a picture for publication in these online galleries and/or on the Guardian letters page

Organised crime driving illicit cigarette factory boom ‘in almost every EU state’

Bloc losing €13bn in revenue with one in 10 cigarettes illegal, watchdog reports

• Europe live – latest updates

The illegal trade in tobacco is booming in the EU, according to a report by the bloc’s financial watchdog, with almost one in 10 cigarettes produced illicitly or smuggled, causing an estimated €13bn loss in tax revenue each year.

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) said in a report on Tuesday that the trade had “changed significantly” in recent years as smuggling, while still “a problem”, was overtaken by illicit manufacturing, which has increased dramatically in the bloc.

Trump’s call to rename New Mexico ‘New America’ is a distraction tactic, Democrats say

Amid unpopular Iran war and persistent inflation, governor says state has had its name since before US existed

Democrats have hit back against Donald Trump’s suggestion that the state of New Mexico should be renamed “New America”, accusing the US president of trying to distract from his war on Iran and rising prices.

The administration moved to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” hours after Trump’s return to office in January 2025. In August, as trade tensions escalated between the US and Canada, it moved to do the same with Lake Ontario, moving to rename it as “Lake America”.

Data center development turns some landowners into millionaires

Most Americans say they're opposed to data centers. But a lucky few have gotten rich selling their land to data center developers.

America: the gulf, the lake and now the state – what’s next on Trump’s huge renaming spree? | Marina Hyde

Farewell, New Mexico. The war isn’t going well and nowhere on Earth is safe from the US president’s favourite displacement activity

Busy times for crayon-wielding US president Donald Trump, Earth’s most tireless freelance cartographer, who at the weekend celebrated the US labouring under the highest diesel prices in its history while his “two-week” Iran war edges into its seventh month with a social media spree in which he pushed renaming New Mexico as New America.

In some ways, it was a surprise to see Trump go for merely rebranding a state at this point, given that it was only so recently that he declared: “If you think about it, we have a gulf, and we have a lake. Now all we need is an ocean.” This is believed to be a reference to the Gulf of America, formerly – and indeed currently, in every meaningful sense – the Gulf of Mexico. It was also a nod to Lake America, as precisely no one calls Lake Ontario despite Trump supposedly retitling it by executive order last month, in another fit of pique over his trade war with Canada. Candidates for this heavily trailed American Ocean clearly include the Pacific and the Atlantic – though why the other oceans should be locationally ineligible increasingly feels unclear. At this rate, geography exams in the US are also about to get a whole lot easier.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

What a Time to be Alive! by Marina Hyde (Guardian Faber Publishing, £20). To support the Guardian, order your signed copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

State handouts, 10,000 lasers – and Trump’s election: six things we learned from the Elon Musk film

Alex Gibney’s marathon documentary delivers numerous eye-raising insights into the broligarch’s business deals, early idealism and apocalyptic appetite for fathering children

Veteran documentarian Alex Gibney’s film about the richest broligarch on the planet has been one of the most eagerly anticipated films at the Venice film festival this year. The Oscar-winning 72-year-old, who has in previous films taken on the US military, the Catholic church, Vladimir Putin and Scientology, has been investigating the tech tycoon’s ascent and speaking to people in his orbit since late 2022, before his Maga turn and Trump 2.0.

The result clocks in at just under four hours and presents a comprehensive answer to how on earth one man managed to amass so much money and political influence. It is shocking less for any individual new pieces of information Gibney has unearthed than for its totality. Here are six things the film tells us:

Australian social media users to be offered choice to opt out of algorithms

A government statement said on Tuesday social media platforms would be required to send a notification to new and existing users offering them a choice over their default feed.

Trump’s approval rating is plummeting – as his fortune grows and grows | Arwa Mahdawi

The US president says criticising his soaring investment portfolio is ‘very unfair’. Tell that to the millions of Americans struggling with the cost of living

If I had a dollar for every time Donald Trump said something inane, I would be a very rich woman. But even with an income that steady, I could never hope to be as flush as the president. A Forbes calculation from March puts his net worth at about $6.5bn – and it’s growing rapidly. Trump made $2.2bn in 2025 via business interests that ranged from selling cryptocurrency and Trump Bibles to offering early access to his (often market-moving) Truth Social posts.

To be fair, Trump isn’t making all this money just so he can buy golf clubs and gold toilets. No, he’s amassing these billions for the good of the little people; it’s altruism, not avarice! “I do this for our Country, not myself,” the president wrote on Truth Social on Sunday night alongside an AI-generated picture of him trading Intel stock. “I’ve made Hundreds of Billions of Dollars on Stocks, and many other type Holdings, for the U.S.A., not myself, and all I do is get criticized by the Radical Left Dumocrats. Very unfair, but what can you do!”

U.K. accuses Israeli settlers of 'ethnic cleansing' in West Bank and bans their goods

France, Canada and other countries joined the U.K. in banning goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Israel said it would close the British Consulate among other measures.

Whatever happened to the Taliban threat: 'We will flog the women'?

In 2024, the ruling Taliban pledged to use flogging as well as stoning to punish people for not following certain of their precepts — committing adultery, running secret schools for girls. Have they followed through?

Anti-AfD protests sweep Germany as far right closes in on two more states

Alarm that Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania may fall next after party’s Saxony-Anhalt election victory

• ‘It breaks my heart’: victory sparks dismay

• Europe live – latest updates

Thousands of Germans have staged protests against the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) after the party’s watershed victory in a state election, warning it posed a danger in two more polls this month.

Demonstrators at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate held a peaceful pro-democracy rally denouncing the anti-immigrant, pro-Russian AfD, which has called for mass deportations of asylum seekers and a rollback of state support for renewable energy and public broadcasting.

Back to school in Haiti and Nepal’s missing people: photos of the day – Tuesday

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

Monty Don is quitting Gardeners’ World – and you’re right to be devastated about it

Handsome, charming and vulnerable, the host made horticulture TV hotter than ever. What a huge hole he will leave

After 23 years at the helm, Monty Don has announced that he is leaving Gardeners’ World at the end of the series. All said, you are right to be distraught about it.

Gardeners’ World is a show with a long history – it was commissioned by David Attenborough as a way to showcase the potential of colour television – but Don arguably did the show better than anyone. Under his watch, the show and the host managed to mesh perfectly. He became it and it became him.

Musk review – epic study of the world’s richest and most banal man

Venice film festival: Alex Gibney interviews former colleagues, wives, the trillionaire’s father and a CG avatar in this absorbing documentary

‘Elon is a nuke.” The speaker is Ashley St Clair, a former conservative Maga influencer and one of Elon Musk’s former girlfriends-slash-baby mommas.

She is a fascinating expert witness in Alex Gibney’s four-hour epic study of the world’s richest and dullest man: the overgrown brattish South-African-born trillionaire plutocrat, ersatz visionary and Trump courtier who owns Tesla cars, SpaceX rocket ships, Starlink satellites on which nation states’ military capabilities are increasingly reliant, X (formerly Twitter) which shapes the collective “incel” id of billions and GrokAI whose vast server farms daily guzzle oceans of precious water.

Trump says he's made 'Hundreds of Billions of Dollars on Stocks' for the U.S., in stream of AI posts

U.S. President Donald Trump posted a stream of AI-generated images and a series of sweeping and unverified claims on Truth Social on Sunday

Why bother deseeding tomatoes? | Kitchen aide

It all depends on the variety of tomato and the dish you’re making, says our panel of experts

Why do recipes often say to deseed tomatoes? Isn’t that where the flavour is, especially since the seeds don’t make much difference to a sauce’s texture?
Catriona, by email
“It all depends on the variety of tomato,” says the Guardian’s Rachel Roddy, “because some are much seedier than others. Sicilian varieties that require little watering, for example, have loads of little bitter seeds, which do need flicking or sieving out.” If, however, Catriona had some vesuvio tomatoes destined for a salad, Jay Patel, co-owner of Italian restaurant Legare in London, wouldn’t bother: “Those are generally pretty meaty and don’t have many seeds, so I’d just slice and dress them generously with olive oil and salt, and you’ll have something pretty special.” And that’s the crux of the matter: as well as the type of tomato, the answer hinges on what you’re planning to do with them, too. “If you’re making a salad with watery winter tomatoes, say, there’s a purpose for those seeds,” Patel adds, “because they provide a lovely pop as well as acidity.”

The most common deseeding scenario is for pasta sauces, but even that comes with a caveat, Patel says: “If I’m going for a slow-cooked sauce, it’s tinned chopped tomatoes, seeds and all. But if I’m after a lighter, fresher tomato sauce, I’ll quickly blanch, peel and deseed fresh tomatoes myself.” Nick Molyviatis of Zylia in London, meanwhile, scoops out the seeds with a teaspoon or he grates his tomatoes instead – “the skin acts as a protector, a glove” – while Roddy’s “best defence against seeds” is a food mill: “Seeds don’t contain flavour as such, but the fleshy gel around them does, which is why a food mill is great,” she explains. “It presses the flavour from that and the skin, while at the same time separating them from the sauce base.”

Got a culinary dilemma? Email [email protected]

‘Cantona’s a Kwengletarian!’ Inside the maximalist, magical mentality of rising London Irish rapper Kibo

The masterful ​Harrow MC behind the year’s funniest, most inventive UK rap debut explains how his parents sparked his ravenous outlook – and why he’s wrestling his peers

A few Guinnesses into an interview in his local Irish boozer, and 26-year-old Harrow rapper Kibo is cooking. We’re talking football. As a kid, he preferred playing Fifa Street – where ordinary players backflip off walls to score incomprehensible bicycle kicks – to regular realistic Fifa. “If I’m gonna play a video game, I want to do some shit I can’t do in real life,” he says. He’s drawn to similarly miraculous footballers: Balotelli, Drogba in his Chelsea days, Ronaldinho and his dad’s favourite, Eric Cantona: “Oh God, with his collar popped, looking like Kanye West?” Kibo then recites Cantona’s 2019 Uefa president’s award speech – a mash-up of King Lear and philosophical musings on war and science – to near perfection.

Magic is at the heart of Kwengletarianism, “the idea of being in a place that’s very grey, and trying to find a prismatic iridescence in it”, that underpins Kibo’s sensational album Kwengletaria: Ragamyff. (Cantona? “He’s a Kwengletarian to the nth degree.”) During his long rise through London’s rap scene, canonised by co-signs from Skepta, JME and Dave, Kibo has become a rare MC from Harrow, the town that produced Kate Nash and Jai Paul but no rappers of note. “It’s awesome,” he says of its lack of rap tradition, “a complete blank slate” to be as imaginative as he wants. Kwengletaria finds the myth in the mundane: on the track Bakerloo Dragon, a normal tube journey becomes a cruising broken-beat roller aboard a fire-spitting Bakerloo line train. I tell him my train to Harrow was one of these flame-graffitied dragons. “But did you get any sparks?” he asks enthusiastically. “You get sparks after Stonebridge Park!”

How meteorologists recreated weather that helped decide second world war

Experts helped guide weather scenes in Pressure – a film depicting dramatic buildup to 1944’s D-day landings

Dressed in a Royal Air Force uniform and sporting a trim moustache, Andrew Scott looks slightly queasy – as well he might. Behind him is a huge map of the Channel, and in front of him is Brendan Fraser, looming with a request: “I need a forecast,” he says.

Starring in the film Pressure, based on a true story, Scott plays the meteorologist Gp Capt James Stagg – the man who must tell Gen Eisenhower – played by Fraser – whether conditions will be suitable for the D-day landings scheduled to take place on 5 June 1944. But a large storm is approaching the Normandy coast.