Body of last missing hiker found after Grand Canyon flooding

Human remains found in the Grand Canyon this week have been identified as Timothy Allen Smith, the last person missing after deadly flash flooding in late August.

New lawsuit alleges Epstein possessed ‘child sexual abuse material of countless children’

Two women who filed the suit against the Epstein estate are seeking a court-ordered program to notify potential victims

Jeffrey Epstein’s estate is facing a new lawsuit filed by two women who allege that Epstein possessed child sexual abuse material (CSAM) of them. They want a judge to order that a program be set up to identify and notify all individuals whose “unlawful sexualized images” might have been in Epstein’s collection, and are also seeking monetary damages.

The complaint was filed this week in the US district court for the southern district of New York on behalf of two plaintiffs, who are anonymous in the filing but described as survivors of Epstein’s child sexual abuse material crimes. The lawsuit was filed against Epstein’s former lawyer Darren Indyke, and Epstein’s former accountant, Richard Kahn, who are being sued in their capacities as co-executors of Epstein’s estate. Attorneys for Indyke and Kahn, who have both said that they had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes during their employment, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the complaint on Wednesday.

Nicholas Brandram’s family deny he was ‘Putney pusher’ and say Met police pressure led to his death

Banker, 44, was arrested in connection with 2017 incident but family say ‘no credible evidence’ he was involved

The family of Nicholas Brandram have denied he was the so-called “Putney pusher” and said he “took his own life after months of immense pressure caused by a Metropolitan police investigation”.

Brandram, 44, was found unresponsive at a property in Chiswick, west London, believed to be his home, on Tuesday evening.

Flash floods slam southwest U.S.

Torrential rain slammed the southwestern U.S., causing flash flooding and other dangerous conditions. Kris Van Cleave reports.

Patrick Clancy's wife to appear on 60 Minutes

Ross Douthat's interview with Patrick Clancy and Dr. Rachel Danis airs Sunday on 60 Minutes.

Aaron Rai shrugs off early nerves to outshine playing partner Rory McIlroy

• US PGA champion shoots first-round 66 at Wentworth

• Ryan Fox and Patrick Reed also lay down early markers

What do you get for shooting 60 in a pro-am? Just ask Rory McIlroy. “Nothing,” said the Masters champion. “Besides a social media post I didn’t want.” McIlroy was laughing but the underlying sentiment was obvious; exceptional rounds are best saved for the real stuff.

News that McIlroy had taken only 60 shots around Wentworth’s West Course while in the company of celebrities was a hot topic for conversation going in to this PGA Championship. McIlroy shrugged off the score as something he produces fairly regularly. “It doesn’t mean anything,” he added. “My playing partners were happy, they won something.”

Human remains discovered in London parkland identified as missing woman Joanne Sheen

56-year-old man arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder after discovery of woman reported missing in 2020

A body found in an area of London shrubland that was party cleared of foliage by a wildfire in August is that of a woman who disappeared from Hampshire nearly seven years ago, police have said.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder after the remains were identified as Joanne Sheen. She was reported missing in February 2020, having last been seen the previous December.

Trump photo seems to reference Kennedy Center demolition amid legal battle over closure

President Donald Trump wants his name on the Kennedy Center. But a judge has ruled it cannot be placed there without authorization by Congress.

Democratic candidates hold narrow leads in Texas and Michigan US Senate races, new poll shows – live

James Talarico and Abdul El-Sayed are ahead – but by a razor-thin margin, according to a new poll from Emerson College and The Hill

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Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican congresswoman from South Florida, made a rare public break with President Trump in a new ad, pushing back against Trump’s hardline immigration policy.

“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far,” Salazar said, speaking directly into the camera.

Netflix content chief Bela Bajaria defines event strategy as streamer eyes more live sports

Bajaria said Netflix would be open to a package of international NFL games if one becomes available when the league renegotiates its media rights agreements.

GOP congresswoman says Trump immigration enforcement has "gone too far"

"The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed," said Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar.

‘I feel invisible’: over-50s reveal harsh realities of trying to get a job

Candidates describe feelings of rejection after submitting hundreds of applications but getting a handful of interviews

Hundreds of job applications, exhausting searches and relentless rejection – the experience of attempting to get back into the workforce after losing their jobs in their 50s and 60s has proved an ordeal for some Britons.

For some, those efforts prove fruitless and lead jobseekers to reluctantly take early retirement. Others may have to rely on benefits to pay the bills while they continue to job hunt.

All smiles in Strasbourg but uncertainty clouds Canada’s EU membership plan

Although Mark Carney welcomed offer to become bloc’s first associate member, no one seems to know what that means

• Europe live – latest updates

Mark Carney received a rapturous reception in the European parliament when he gave his speech on Thursday welcoming a proposal for Canada to become the EU’s first-ever associate member.

Politicians queued to shake his hand and take selfies. One described the speech as a historic moment. “Europe has extended a hand, and Canada has taken it,” said the German Green MEP Terry Reintke, who borrowed a Canadian ice hockey shirt for the occasion.

Analysis: How Trump could reignite the Fed independence fight after Warsh's rate hike

The Federal Reserve unanimously raised interest rates by a quarter point despite repeated calls from President Donald Trump for lower rates.

Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story review – it’s like Ryan Murphy’s new series was written by adolescent boys

The latest Monster instalment, about the 1892 Borden axe murders, is packed with periods and beheadings, and feels like it was made up as they went along

Okaaay – here’s what I think must have happened. Some time in the past year or two, Ryan Murphy discovered that women menstruate. Incredulous but enthralled, he rushed off to share the news with his soon equally incredulous and enthralled little friends. After confirming the basics they all looked at each other for a moment in silence as they contemplated this crazy, secret habit of the wimminz. And then Ryan said: “You guys? We have got to make a show about this!” The others nodded in fervent agreement and off they all ran.

The result is the utterly bonkers, blood-soaked, borderline-fetishistic fever dream that is The Lizzie Borden Story – the latest entry in Murphy’s popular anthology series Monster. This one is written by Ian Brennan and directed in the main by Max Winkler, the pairing responsible for the series’ previous offering, last year’s lamentable The Ed Gein Story. As, I presume, a gesture to the sex of this one’s subject, there is a female director for two of the Lizzie Borden episodes – Sarah Adina Smith – but it doesn’t really dent the vibe. Think: the gleeful disgust of a roomful of adolescent boys being taught about the female reproductive system in PSHE. It is now an eight-hour miniseries starring Rebecca Hall. We live in strange times.

Sweden’s PM resigns after centre-left bloc wins slim majority in election

Ulf Kristersson has stood down from his post, paving way for Social Democrats leader to form a government

Sweden’s centre-right prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has stood down, clearing the way for Magdalena Andersson, the Social Democrats leader, to attempt to form a government.

In a victory speech on Thursday, Andersson said the Swedish people had “voted for a new direction for our country, voted for unity and against division”.

Tips for healthy school lunches your kids will actually eat

Nora LeTorre, the CEO of Eat Real, joins "CBS Mornings" to share some tips for making your child's school lunches healthier.

1 in 3 Americans with health insurance have medical debt, survey finds

Nearly half of Americans with medical debt owe at least $2,000, forcing them to make tough choices, new research shows.

Macklemore and Robert Kraft release dueling statements on humanitarian aid donations

Macklemore called for Robert Kraft to match his $1 million donation to Palestinian humanitarian aid relief organizations, while Kraft said he already matched a donation made by Ed Sheeran. The dueling statements came after Macklemore was dropped from Sheeran's tour for making pro-Palestinian comments onstage. Meg Oliver reports.

Trump photo shows him viewing "Kennedy Center demolished" document

In court documents filed Wednesday by Rep. Joyce Beatty, a witness said he saw a "forklift run into and hit the pillars" of the building.

I’m nearly 30, a virgin and feel lonely. The manosphere is trying to draw me in – where else can I seek assurance? | Leading questions

The manosphere says this type of suffering is targeted neglect, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. But your suffering gives you the ability to make your part of the world better.

• Read more Leading questions

I’m approaching 30 and I’m still a kissless virgin.

I’ve suffered with depression and anxiety since childhood and my family isn’t the most functional or supportive. I don’t really have friends either, as I find it hard to connect with others due to being bullied and feeling that I’m not worthwhile or wanted. I was also homeschooled from 14 and moved to a different part of the country at 15 and a few more times since then, so I feel quite rootless and alienated.

Planet’s atmosphere breaks record for water vapour levels increasing risk of extreme heat and rainfall

Global heating contributes to record, with a warmer atmosphere able to hold more water, scientists say

The planet’s atmosphere held more water vapour in August than any other month on record, further increasing the risk of extreme heat and rainfall around the world, according to Europe’s climate change service.

Climate scientists said global heating was a contributor to the record because a warmer atmosphere can hold more water, and the historic El Niño in the Pacific Ocean was also likely pushing water vapour levels up.

Video from LA news helicopter prior to crash could hold key to investigation

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash of an NBC news helicopter in Los Angeles.

Meta ordered to remove UK deepfakes as oversight board criticises ‘inadequate’ safeguards

Facebook told it was wrong in leaving up AI-generated videos of a Labour councillor and Muslim campaigner, amid calls to curb fakes

Meta’s “supreme court” has ordered the tech company to take down deepfake videos of a UK politician and a young Muslim woman from Facebook and do more to tackle AI-generated fake imagery.

A fake video showing a Labour party councillor in Scotland making inflammatory comments about refugees should not have been left up by Facebook, the board said. It also ruled that an AI-generated video of a Muslim campaign volunteer should have been removed after it falsely depicted her offering health advice while carrying out absurd exercises or eating junk food.

GM touts new V-8 engines in revived ‘truck wars’ with Ford, Ram amid lackluster EV sales

The large, gas-guzzling models continue to sell well in pickup trucks thanks to their ability to tow and haul heavy things.

A harvest ballgown and a West Bank raid: photos of the day – Thursday

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

Details emerge on Philadelphia house of horrors as missing woman's family wants answers

Family members are demanding answers about a Philadelphia woman who went missing in 2016 as officials conduct a monthslong search of the "house of horrors" where they believe she was last seen.

'Hostile act': Trump threatens EU with tariffs over Canada associate membership proposal

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said EU is opening the door for Canada to become the first associate member of the 27-member bloc.

Football Daily | Michael Carrick risks untimely spell in the ‘crisis’ box seat with Manchester United

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Following the conclusion of this weekend’s round of Premier League fixtures, football fans have what promises to be an exceptionally long, uninspiring and largely inconsequential international break to endure. In most parts of the world, various nations have nothing more exciting than friendlies scheduled. In Europe, it’s the return of the Nations League. A competition apparently conceived for no other reason than to allow Cristiano Ronaldo to spuriously claim he has won two major international trophies, this Uefa wheeze is about to kick off for the fifth time. Almost unique among tournaments that have enjoyed such longevity, its format remains fairly baffling to many of those who will actually be playing in it and all but the keenest students of the game. In truth, hardly anyone cares about the Nations League and quite literally nobody gives two hoots about its opening games.

I met Ludek Miklosko once. In fact, shaking my hand was one of the first things he had to endure after signing for West Ham in the summer of 1990. (The history books say he signed earlier, but he wasn’t officially unveiled until the summer.) I was working in the club shop at Upton Park (a cabin by the gates). He seemed baffled that now he was finally here and had escaped the communist regime, he was being introduced to a child as ‘our new goalkeeper’. He was very nice about it, though; I showed him the new kit, and he went on to meet the groundsman and have a look at the pitch. My lasting memory was of his truly massive hands. Lovely fella” – Jimmy O’Brien.

I was struck by the phrase that Madrid’s Carlos Espí ‘dug his side out of a hole’ (yesterday’s Football Daily). Surely, one cannot dig oneself out of a hole? Digging, by definition, takes you further into the ground. Unless the goal was to arrive in China, climbing out of a hole would be more appropriate” – Christopher D’Cruz.

Amalgamating the themes of yesterday’s three letters, Spurs fans can at least be hopeful about one thing. Since a player who spends much of the time rolling around knacked near the corner flag can’t be interfering with play, then at least none of their forward line will be caught offside much this year” – Jon Millard.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions. 

Alessandro Costacurta: ‘San Siro is an icon – it’s incredibly beautiful but it’s not functional’

Milan’s grand old home turns 100 this weekend, and while it will soon be torn down one of the greatest players to grace it reflects on the noise and power of a unique stadium

Alessandro Costacurta lasted 15 minutes of his first game at San Siro. He was, admittedly, not playing, but tagging along to watch his older brother’s favourite team.

“I grew up in the province of Varese, north of Milan,” he says. “So as a kid I was a Varese fan. It was my brother who supported Milan. The first time I went to San Siro, I was 12, my brother was 14. I think it was Milan-Bologna. But San Siro wasn’t covered back then, and suddenly this downpour started, so much rain. We were with our dad and after a quarter of an hour he just said: ‘No, that’s it, we’ve got to go.’ So that was the first time I saw San Siro.”

Baby found wrapped in 1910 newspaper was killed with twine, UK inquest concludes

‘Terrible thing’ happened to infant boy found under the floorboards at a house in Bishop Auckland, says coroner

A baby boy who was found with twine looped and knotted round his neck and wrapped in a 116-year-old newspaper was unlawfully killed, a coroner has concluded.

Crispin Oliver on Thursday said the child, known only as Baby Auckland, had been garotted by an unknown person.

Pentagon CTO says U.S. government shouldn't take stakes in AI giants, questions adding AI rules

President Donald Trump has angrily pushed back on the calls from industry and lawmakers for an AI slowdown or greater regulation.

My Year in Paris With Gertrude Stein by Deborah Levy audiobook review – gripping vision of a fearless writer

A fictional British author in Paris sets out to explore Stein through the lens of her own friendships, in this inventive, perfectly paced portrait

It is late 2024, and an unnamed British author living in Paris is trying to write an essay on Gertrude Stein, the modernist writer and art collector. The author has been distracted by her friend Eva’s cat, who is lost and whose name is “it” in lower case, which inevitably leads to confusion – has Eva lost her cat or her mind? (Her other friend, Fanny, has rechristened the cat Bob, to make talking about him easier.)

The Pennsylvania-born Stein was painted by Picasso, hung out with Hemingway and wrote strange, stream-of-consciousness prose long before James Joyce embarked on his masterwork Ulysses. Commercial success didn’t come until she was in her 60s with The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas, a biography of her partner and one of her more accessible books. Our narrator is an admirer of Stein’s work, yet she can be exasperated by it. “Sometimes, when I read her baffling and beguiling writing I want to smack it in the chops. [Stein] longed for her readers to find her, yet there was a part of her that could not bear to be found.”

Beck: ‘What does a devil’s haircut look like? Anything with a lot of architecture and wild flights of fancy’

The genre-fluid singer answers your questions on being funky v lonesome, his infamous MTV interview with Thurston Moore and why he said yes to performing with a chain-smoking alcoholic robot

• Read Alexis Petridis’s 5* review of new album Ride Lonesome

You’ve been performing since the late 80s. What keeps you going? AmongstTheWaves
It’s a good question. I don’t really know any other life. I’ve spent a lot of my time trying to create a body of work, and out of that, maybe there’s a few songs at the end that are not bad. So I just keep going down into the mine, trying to come back with a couple of things worth keeping. It’s a lot of digging. If I had to stop and get a job painting houses or something, I would still make songs just for myself, because that’s how it started.

You tend to alternate between styles from album to album. What do you feel is closer to your intrinsic self, funky Beck or lonesome Beck? Mazzini
Probably lonesome. But the other side of things gets me out of my shell, stops me from being a little too ponderous, which I’m apt to do. The other side of what I do – Loser or Odelay – was more of a fluke. At the time that was what people liked. Now it’s kind of reversed – they prefer the more introspective, quiet songs, and stuff that’s a little more genreless. I don’t have any songs that they play at weddings, like Uptown Funk. I remember telling Mark Ronson, “Hey, you made a wedding song.” He was like, “Yeah, finally.” That’s a very elite category of song.

Greetings from Beijing, where baozi are worth the wait in line

The popular fluffy steamed buns are filled with pork, vegetables, tofu — and in one trendy Beijing shop, chocolate and red beans.

‘Amazing community’: how people are making new friends and connections as adults

As concern about loneliness and social isolation grows, we spoke to people who have joined groups and set up activities

Amid growing concern about loneliness and social isolation, new research from the Institute for Public Policy Research found the number of young people in England with no close friends has risen fivefold since 2014, with one in 20 now reporting having none at all.

Making new friends as an adult is not always easy. We spoke to people who have taken deliberate steps to make new connections about what worked for them.

Opus13: Mendelssohn and Grieg album review – an assured and distinctive debut

Opus13
(Alpha Classics)
The young quartet – winners of the Wigmore Hall String Quartet competition – continue to impress in a recording pairing Mendelssohn and Grieg

You would expect good things from Opus13 – current BBC New Generation Artists, and winners at last year’s Wigmore Hall and Bordeaux string quartet competitions – and this assured, distinctive debut lives up to that. The quartet formed in Oslo in 2014 as teenagers, naming themselves after the first piece they played together, and it’s with that work, Mendelssohn’s Op 13 No 2, that they lead off. The brief, soulful introduction breaks into a tense, runaway allegro in which the occasional violin swoop only increases the feeling of urgency. Mendelssohn’s debt to Beethoven in this work is clear, and Opus13 play the slow movement with an intense warmth that make it seem to belong beside that composer’s great adagios.

The Mendelssohn is nicely paired with Grieg’s Quartet No 1, a work full of insistent repetition beautifully handled here so as to create momentum rather than sap it. The folksy style hinted at in the second movement blossoms in the third, which gets a touch of Nordic fiddle, exuberant yet elegant. As encore there’s more Grieg, a characterful version of Solveig’s Song. The arrangement is credited not to a single person but to the entire group equally – which comes as no surprise at all.

Bonnie Greer obituary

Writer and critic who became known for her sharp, composed appearances on TV shows such as Late Review and Question Time

The writing and broadcasting of Bonnie Greer, who has died aged 77, were driven by divided perspectives. Her technical experience across an unusual range of genres – drama, fiction, biography, memoir, documentary – informed her work as a wry and lively critic, especially on the late-night BBC2 cultural programmes Late Review and Newsnight Review from the 1990s onwards.

And, having spent the first half of her life in the US and the second in the UK, she was also perfectly positioned – in an era when British writers, movie-makers and artists were making much work about and for America – to adjudicate on such creative duality, as well as the escalating Americanisation of British politics. Another asset was her connections: reviewing a David Mamet play or a Madonna album, she had worked with the former in Chicago theatre and met the latter as a young music wannabe in a Manhattan apartment share.

IS member sentenced to 20 years in prison for role in 2021 Kabul airport bombing

Mohammad Sharifullah, 28, was convicted of aiding the terrorist group that took credit for the suicide bombing

An Islamic State group member was sentenced on Wednesday to 20 years in prison for aiding the terrorist organization that took credit for a suicide bombing that killed 13 US service members and about 160 Afghans at the Kabul airport five years ago during the US military’s chaotic withdrawal from the country.

A federal jury in Virginia had convicted Mohammad Sharifullah in April of providing material support to the IS affiliate known as Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP). But jurors could not agree whether he bore some responsibility for the airport bombing on 26 August 2021.

House cutting week short before adjourning until after midterms

House Speaker Mike Johnson canceled votes in the chamber that were planned for Thursday ahead of a six-week recess.

Carlos Espí gives Real Madrid hope in the face of Barcelona’s La Liga storm | Sid Lowe

With Barcelona racking up seven-goal thrillers, Real Madrid could not afford a collapse. Enter the forward quietly turning into José Mourinho’s ultimate secret weapon

José Mourinho called and Carlos Espí came to his side. It was late, it was noisy and it was almost over – the match and maybe even something more – when Real Madrid’s coach took the forward who is also his flatmate to one side on Tuesday night. Standing close, Mourinho had a message to deliver; he also had a piece of paper. Small, folded, half-hidden in his hand, it was not big enough for much more than a single word, shown almost surreptitiously, the request written on it, like what he had whispered in Espí’s ear, left to your imagination. Put ball in goal, perhaps. Or: Help. So he did.

Madrid needed him to, which they should not have. Two goals up inside half an hour at Elche on Tuesday night, they could have added a third or a fourth, maybe even a fifth, before half-time. But, thinking it was as done as it really should have been, their minds perhaps on Sunday’s derby at Atlético too, they had stopped again, drifting. Vinícius Júnior had gone, Arda Guler had gone, Aurélien Tchouaméni might as well have done, barely able to move any more, and now, somehow, the game was going. Goals from Abiel Osorio in the 71st minute and Fer Niño in the 83rd had made it 2-2.

Ireland to boycott Eurovision again over Israeli participation and ongoing Gaza deaths

Ireland joins Netherlands in refusing to take part in 2027 song contest, in second consecutive year of protests

Ireland is to boycott Eurovision for the second year running over the “appalling” ongoing killing in Gaza, the national broadcaster has said.

Ireland was one of five countries, along with Iceland, Netherlands, Spain, and Slovenia, that refused to take part in the competition this year in protest against Israel’s participation.

Iran school bombing: grounds to believe US was behind atrocity, UN finds

Fact-finding mission says military strikes on school and sports facility in ⁠February constitute war ⁠crimes

A UN fact-finding mission has determined there are reasonable grounds to believe the US was behind military strikes on a school and a sports facility in Iran in ⁠February that killed 120 children, and that these constituted war ⁠crimes.

The school strike, which killed 156 civilians including 120 children, involved a US Tomahawk missile that collapsed the roof of the Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school, which the UN said was “clearly identifiable”, in Minab, Hormozgan province, on 28 February.

Attorneys for Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs drop music mogul, alleging unpaid legal bills

The musician is serving a 50-month federal prison term for prostitution-related offenses

Attorneys representing rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs say they are no longer acting for the disgraced star in a dispute over months of unpaid legal bills.

The musician, who is serving a 50-month federal prison term for prostitution-related offenses, has become increasingly belligerent in recent months, causing “a total breakdown in cooperation and communication” with New York law firm Sher Tremonte, one of its partners Michael Tremonte said in a court filing.

Robert Kraft, once the NFL’s good guy, is just another billionaire silencing Macklemore | Howard Bryant

The Patriots owner’s decision to ban the rapper from performing at the team’s stadium brings back memories of the blackballing of Colin Kaepernick

Six years ago, in the middle of a “racial reckoning” that never was, a White House that had begun out of control reached its chaotic apex. Federal officials were sweeping citizens off American streets in unmarked vehicles, surrounding the Lincoln Memorial with armed guards and rolling military vehicles through residential neighborhoods in a fascist reaction to protests against the murder of George Floyd. It was at this point that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, realizing it had all gone too far, appeared on a Zoom and admitted his league was “wrong” for not listening to its players when they had protested against police brutality.

The implication was clear: more than any other sports league, the NFL was harshest in its reaction to the protests that began with Trayvon Martin in 2012 and continued with Ferguson, Baltimore and Colin Kaepernick. By blackballing Kaepernick, sitting by while broadcast partners refused to air the national anthem to undermine the protests, and, most embarrassingly, Goodell’s draconian announcement that teams would be subject to fines if players showed dissent, the NFL had proven itself to act in the most un-American of ways.

Howard Bryant is the author of 11 books, including Full Dissidence: Notes from an Uneven Playing Field, and Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America. He also writes on Substack

Coast Guard's cyber command chief says "we need to take action" after tanker hack

The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating a cyberattack on a large South Korean-managed oil tanker headed for Galveston, Texas, last month. Nicole Sganga reports.

Open AI and the million-dollar maths problem - video

In early September, OpenAI announced it had solved a major mathematics problem that has stumped humans for nearly a century. The news left mathematicians reeling, and many expressed concern over what will be left for humans as AI becomes ever more adept at unravelling complex problems. Now 25 recipients of the Fields medal – often called the Nobel prize for maths – have signed an open letter expressing their fears of a ‘severe misalignment’ between AI companies and their field. To find out how AI is likely to upend maths – and how mathematicians might respond – Ian Sample speaks to Colva Roney-Dougal, professor of pure mathematics at the University of St Andrews

Trump says the US doesn’t need Canada. But it’s the source of key minerals for the military | Vince Beiser

Trump himself has acknowledged the US need for Canadian aluminum – and has largely exempted metals from new tariffs

As trade talks with Canada shambled toward collapse in late August, Donald Trump brayed on Truth Social: “WE DON’T NEED CANADA, THEY NEED US!” But in fact, Canada, like China, has something the US needs badly: critical metals that undergird modern military technology.

Canada is the United States’s biggest foreign source of minerals, supplying about $47bin worth each year. Sixty percent of all the aluminum the US uses each year, for instance, comes from Canada, where mighty, remote rivers provide smelting plants vast quantities of cheap, low-carbon electricity. The US military uses the lightweight metal for everything from shell casings to ship hulls and aircraft fuselage. The Pentagon’s cutting-edge F-35 fighter jet’s airframe is about 40% aluminum. “This country desperately needs aluminum,” Trump complained last month. “We get it all from Canada for the most part, and we need it badly.”

After nitrogen execution blocked, Alabama inmate to die by lethal injection

Alabama is set to execute a man with a chemical injection, months after a judge blocked the state from putting him to death with nitrogen gas.

Carney says Canada will decide its own partnerships after Trump calls EU proposal ‘laughable’

U.S. President Donald Trump had described the prospect of Canada becoming the first associate member of the EU as "laughable."

U.N.-backed experts cite possible U.S. war crimes in Iran, including a school attack

Human rights experts commissioned by the U.N. say they have found "reasonable grounds" to believe the U.S. committed war crimes in Iran, including a strike on a school in the southern city of Minab.

Watching NAZA was like peering through a window – and seeing the machinery of killing in Gaza | Mahmoud Mushtaha

For so long I wondered why I survived while family and friends were killed. Now I know the only difference between life and death may have been an AI algorithm

The lights go down, and for a moment I forget I’m watching a screen. It fills with a rooftop in Tel Aviv at night, black and grey. The camera pans down. Through windows, we see people watching screens of their own – couples holding each other close, following the news, eating food. They appear absorbed in their own worlds, and why wouldn’t they be?

That’s the thing I can’t get past as a Palestinian journalist from Gaza, watching this apparent tranquillity: this must be it – this must be what safety actually looks like. Just an evening uninterrupted, with no military aircraft flying overhead or drones buzzing incessantly. Meanwhile, men and women on the rooftop above them calmly talk about how they decided how many Palestinian civilians would die on any given night.

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.

Former student of suspended Reform official ‘reopens case’ against University of Cambridge

Cambridge previously paid £5,000 compensation after an investigation partially upheld allegations against Dr James Orr

A former student of James Orr who was found to have been bullied by the suspended senior Reform UK figure is reopening a case against the University of Cambridge, after apparent discrepancies emerged over the university’s handling of the incident.

The former student alleges that the academic’s claim not to have been disciplined contradicts assurances they say they received from the institution.

Canada’s Carney embraces EU associate membership proposal

After Trump describes the tie-up as ‘laughable’, PM says majority of Canadians support closer ties with bloc

Mark Carney has welcomed the goal of Canada becoming the EU’s first associate member, calling for “deep cooperation” between Europe and his country to secure their sovereignty, after Donald Trump derided the idea as “laughable”.

In an address to the European parliament in Strasbourg, the Canadian prime minister said polling showed that an overwhelming majority of Canadians supported much closer ties with Europe. “Canada welcomes this idea,” he said, referring to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s pitch that Canada should become the EU’s first associate member.

Bank of England holds interest rates at 3.75% but warns war could force future rises

Central bank announces surprise plan to sell billions of pounds in government bonds back to the Treasury

• Burnham’s talk of ‘breathing space’ at odds with reality of future rate rises

• The Bank is shaking up its bond sales – why does it matter?

• Business live – latest updates

The Bank of England has kept interest rates on hold as it warned a continuation of the bitter fighting in the Middle East could force it to raise borrowing costs amid mounting fears over inflation.

It also announced a surprise plan to sell billions of pounds in UK government bonds back to the Treasury to avoid fuelling turbulence in the gilt market, a decision that could have consequences for the public finances before next month’s budget.

50 Years of Punk review – rock’n’roll rebels fondly recall the filth and fury a half-century on

Glen Matlock, Viv Albertine and Rat Scabies revisit the music, clothes and disgusting spitting in a likable documentary marking half a century of British punk

As the majority of them ease into their eighth decade, the overlords of British punk rock get yet another celebratory runout, gently reheating material that has become familiar over the years but never loses its appeal. A subculture that passed almost immediately from tabloid-triggering menace to picture-postcard caricature, punk may have passed into legend as a joyless and even squalid diversion in music and fashion history, but its surviving spokespeople recall their participation in it all with no little enthusiasm, even if they’ve clearly said it a thousand times already. No doubt it is the gen alphas among us who will benefit most; you’d expect their jaws to drop and eyes to roll at some of the stuff deemed perfectly acceptable in the late 1970s: women’s-breasts T-shirts, amateurish pancake makeup, and all that disgusting spitting. (“I didn’t mind it going in my mouth,” says the Damned’s Captain Sensible at one point, out-disgusting everyone.)

There’s a good spread of voices on offer; at least one member of most of the era’s big acts puts in an appearance with Glen Matlock (the Sex Pistols), Rat Scabies (the Damned), Terry Chimes (the Clash), Steve Severin (Siouxsie and the Banshees), and Hugh Cornwell (the Stranglers) leading the way. (The latter, though affable enough, is easily the least impressed as to punk’s actual achievements, which is a valuable corrective.) The original punk wave had little space for women (despite the sense that blows were being struck for equality) and that’s the case in the film as well: Gaye Advert (the Adverts) and Viv Albertine (the Slits) get a bit of time on camera though inevitably get a bit lost in it all. Due recognition, however, is paid to designer Vivienne Westwood as punk’s true founding spirit; Sex, the King’s Road boutique she ran with Malcolm McLaren, was a crucible of the British punk scene. Don Boyd, who produced the Pistols’ movie The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle along with the late Jeremy Thomas, says she “was punk and is punk … it came from her”.

British people understand the climate crisis threat. Today I’m empowering them to tackle it | Andy Burnham

With nearly £30m of funding, I’m giving communities power over local energy. They know the gravity of global heating, and they want to be part of the solution

• Andy Burnham: UK must fully commit to reaching net zero by 2050

On the day I became prime minister, I pledged to bring power to every postcode. Today, we begin to make good on that promise in the most literal sense. With nearly £30m of funding for People’s Power projects, communities across every nation of the UK will soon have the chance to build and control their own clean energy supply.

This investment means villages, towns and cities can harness the natural resources around them with solar panels on libraries, publicly owned windfarms, hydro schemes in their rivers, or whatever else works for them. The purpose is to put money back in people’s pockets while giving them a direct role in tackling the climate crisis.

Andy Burnham is prime minister of the United Kingdom

‘It bloody works’: why the world’s oldest cheddar-maker uses a ‘milk-source’ heat pump

Barber’s Farmhouse Cheesemakers can draw enough heat from cows’ fresh milk to bring water close to the boil, slashing carbon emissions

In many ways, the world’s oldest cheddar-maker hews to tradition. Since 1833, Barber’s Farmhouse Cheesemakers has operated from the rolling green pastures of south-west England, milking grass-fed cows and fermenting the milk with microbial starters passed down for generations. That heritage has led to award-winning cheese, now popular across continents.

But when it comes to reducing its planet-warming emissions, Barber’s is on the cutting edge. In 2024, the company began to use new ultra-efficient heat pumps from the UK startup Arkaya Energy. The devices quickly cool milk to keep it fresh, and simultaneously heat water used in milking operations, replacing conventional chillers and electric-resistance heaters.

Human harps, massive bananas and dogging: the 20 best Busby Berkeley dance routines – ranked!

To mark 50 years since the director and choreographer’s death, we count down his best fantastical, kaleidoscopic numbers, from erotic silhouettes to sinister tap dancers

So you thought Cats (2019) was tacky? Wait until you see Ruby Keeler (AKA Mrs Al Jolson) gambolling around as a fluffy white feline, being wooed by an ogling tomcat, or chasing Billy Barty, a child actor with dwarfism, costumed as a mouse.

Patrick Clancy says he still talks to his kids "all the time"

This Sunday on 60 Minutes, Patrick Clancy talks about his grief, his memories of his children, and the baseless conspiracy theories that flooded social media since his ex-wife's murder trial.

‘You can’t be shy’: Joe Marchant on French lessons, England ambitions and his new famous father-in-law

Centre is back in the Prem with Sale after three years in Paris where he says he learned a lot more than the language and is ready to play for England again

Joe Marchant admits he has been a disappointment. Significant developments over the summer gave rise to lofty expectations among his new Sale Sharks teammates but the 30-year-old centre knows he has not lived up to them. “When we’re playing here, people expect me to be good,” he says. “Why would it make me good in any way? I’m not the best.”

Marchant is, of course, referring to his football skills rather than the rugby ones and the added expectation to perform in a pre-training kick-about after former Newcastle and England captain Alan Shearer became his father-in-law over the summer. In every other department, Marchant has done nothing but impress in his new surroundings.

Dear Ed Sheeran, fence-sitting is so last century: musicians can no longer opt out of politics | Zoe Williams

It’s all very 2026: with a stadium owner on one side and angry support acts on the other, the cornered star will have to pick a side

Ed Sheeran, seeking to stay out of politics, has become, in this moment, the most political artist in the world. And in trying to leave himself room to manoeuvre, he has backed himself into a corner. Since the rapper Macklemore was dropped as a support act on Sheeran’s Loop tour on Monday, every other opening act has pulled out. Finneas O’Connell kept it brief on Tuesday: “Artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed. I stand with Palestine and its people.” Aaron Rowe was already out, saying: “I cannot stand by and allow billionaires to use their position of power to silence … rightful voices.”

Beoga, Sheeran’s actual backing band, then pulled out, along with the Danish band Lukas Graham, who probably made the mildest statement, managing to not even mention any countries: “We should be able to speak about war, about civilians being killed, about children who deserve to grow up. Wherever they live. Whatever flag flies over them.”

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

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Beabadoobee: Pylon review – voice of a generation’s surprisingly relatable rampage through rock star rage

(Dirty Hit)
The Filipino-British songwriter’s fourth album sprinkles 90s alt fuzz with disarmingly sweet melodies and an impressive host of guests including Paramore’s Hayley Williams and Turnstile’s Brendan Yates

Last month, the Guardian published a feature about the demise of the monoculture. It suggested that streaming services, personalised algorithms and the declining influence of radio and television meant we now live in a world where stardom isn’t as universal as it once was. It used Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s single Rein Me In as an example: here was a song that spent a record-breaking 23 weeks at No 1 yet hadn’t attained anything like the ubiquity you would once have expected: to judge by social media, plenty of people seemed to have never knowingly heard it.

If you were looking to advance this theory, you might alight on the career of Beatrice Laus, the 26-year-old British-Filipino singer-songwriter better known as Beabadoobee. To a certain cohort, primarily female and in their late teens and early 20s, she is not just a huge star, but a genuinely iconic figure. The latter is an over-used adjective in 2026, but if social media abounds with tutorials advising female fans how to copy your style and imitate your makeup – if you can be personally held partly responsible for the 2021 outbreak of adolescent girls drawing fake freckles on their faces in imitation of your own – then it probably fits, whether it discomfits Laus or not. The lyrics of Satellite, the closing track on her fourth album Pylon, suggests it does: “I give the generation a new infatuation,” she sings. “If only I knew how to cope with the times.”

Fifty billion trees by 2030: how Ethiopia is recruiting citizens across the country to plant, plant, plant

After losing much of its forests in recent decades, the country’s people have led the way in planting saplings across the country as part of the government’s Green Legacy Initiative

When Halima Kedir first began planting trees, she was met with scepticism and even mockery. “My neighbours discouraged me,” she recalls, sitting on a wooden chair in her garden, which is lush with the trees and fruits she has planted – banana, olive and grevillea among them.

“They thought I was striving for nothing, but with time, many are realising that trees can be part of the solution to our problems as a way to fight climate change and food insecurity,” she says.

Feeling overwhelmed by the AI doom loop? Here’s the essential reading list to make sense of it all

It’s a chaotic time in an industry that’s reshaping our lives – Guardian reporters and experts recommend the books that help explain how we got here, and where we’re heading

Have you been feeling trapped in an endless cycle of artificial intelligence hype and panic? You’re not alone.

It’s a chaotic time to make sense of the industry that’s reshaping our lives, whether or not we like it. Last week, another AI company employee publicly resigned, warning the technology “could kill us all by the end of the decade”. Despite these dire warnings, AI companies have seen “otherworldly” surges in revenue and driven the US stock markets to new highs as they continue to push AI tools into everything from public school classrooms to law enforcement agencies, as well as rushing to put up new datacenters across the country.

The Fed raises interest rates. And, EU proposes Canada become an 'associate member'

The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates for the first time in years. And, the European Union has proposed that Canada become its first-ever "associate member."

Ross Fire 100% contained after more than 3 weeks

The wildfire, which has torn through Palo Pinto and Jack counties, forced evacuations, closed roads and disrupted schools.

Laura Kaminski relishing trophy hunt at Brann after Crystal Palace ‘crash course’

Former Palace head coach has won a cup final in Norway and says chance to challenge for league title was a pull

“When it’s a good day, it’s absolutely stunning, so we’ll take that,” Laura Kaminski says with a laugh about the rainy west coast of Norway. The English former promotion-winning Crystal Palace coach is referring to Bergen, the place she now calls home, whose football club, Brann, she has taken to her heart since her appointment in January.

She could easily be speaking about the job itself. After Brann failed to qualify for the Women’s Champions League owing to a 4-0 second-leg defeat by Austria Vienna, they secured a cup final success against Aalesund, handing Kaminski a first major trophy on the continent. Her team are four points clear at the top of the league with seven games remaining.

Jürgen Klopp wants his Germany team to reclaim national pride from ‘the wrong people’

• Comments follow far-right election win in Saxony-Anhalt

• ‘I’d like to reclaim the flag for myself and for us,’ he says

Jürgen Klopp has said Germany’s football team can help ensure “national pride is not entrusted to the wrong people” after a recent far-right AfD election victory.

In a Frankfurt press conference announcing his first Germany squad, the former Liverpool manager referenced a recent state election win by the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party.

2 adults and child found dead after flooding inundates New Mexico

Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren thanked first responders for working through the night in difficult and dangerous conditions as they searched for the people.

King Charles to press Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic leaders on AI safety at summit

Charles will convene senior tech leaders today as the debate around the risks involved in AI development ramps up.

De Gaulle: Liberté review – biopic of conquering French war hero reaches his imperial era

A shrewd performance by Simon Abkarian leads this blockbuster account of the wartime leader’s career as he ascends to political dominance

The massive and commercially triumphant two-part movie about General Charles de Gaulle comes to end with this second half, which does not, as I half expected it might, go into the complex area of De Gaulle’s postwar career and the issue of French Algeria. Maybe another movie, a part three, can cover this. Liberté takes us from De Gaulle’s growing international celebrity, or indeed notoriety, as the exiled keeper of the Free French flame, the king over the water, in which role his authority is still, however, contested and undermined. It includes the triumph of the D-Day landings and the liberation of France, in the course of which De Gaulle (Simon Abkarian) brings off the miracle of persuading the Americans, in the form of President Roosevelt (Campbell Scott), to back him when they had originally intended to treat postwar France as hardly more than a glorified US dependency, like postwar Japan.

De Gaulle’s stormy bromance with Winston Churchill (who is wonderfully played by Simon Russell Beale), continues from the first half, and the film genuinely has something new to say about Churchill’s Francophilia. It shows us De Gaulle’s foxy cunning, appearing to accept joint status in the provisional French government with General Henri Giraud (Thierry Lhermitte), his rival in the Allied leaders’ affections – and then deftly ousting him. But as in Résistance, the first part, it is in the African theatre of conflict that a new French hero arises; that is General Leclerc (Niels Schneider) whose maverick daring and improvisational brilliance is inspired by De Gaulle. Montgomery, incidentally, is shrewdly played by Pip Torrens, and I was wondering until the last moment if there would be a gamey cameo for Rommel, perhaps played by Lars Eidinger. But no. Germans are apparently not allowed in this mythic retelling.

‘We live with a big burden’: US sexual abuse survivor hopes priest’s death brings closure

Keith Townsend says he hopes death of Ronald Paquin in prison helps victims and families to ‘keep pressing forward’

A survivor of childhood sexual abuse by a defrocked Boston Catholic priest who was portrayed admitting to molesting minors in the Oscar-winning Hollywood film Spotlight says he hopes the clergyman’s recent death in prison helps victims of his crimes and their families “keep pressing forward every single day”.

“We live with a big burden in our hearts and on our backs,” Keith Townsend said on Wednesday while reflecting on the criminal charges which he successfully pursued against Ronald Paquin, who was imprisoned in 2019 and died in custody at age 83 on 11 September. “And my hope is that people can find closure and move on.”

Trump’s love of fossil fuels is about more than money | Moira Donegan

The US decision to remove limits on coal and gas plant emissions is rooted in a perception of manliness in these industries

You can impress a certain kind of person at a party by reciting the fact that there are more yoga instructors in the US than there are coalminers. In fact, the disparity is greater than this catchy phrasing suggests: there are actually more yoga instructors in the US than there are people employed in the entirety of the coalmining industry, miners and otherwise. It’s not even especially close: about 38,000 people in the US work in coal, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, compared to about 100,000 yoga instructors who are registered with the Yoga Alliance, an industry group.

If you looked only at the numbers, you might think a politician would be incentivized to talk about the interests of the yoga industry, about the dignity that yoga jobs give to American families, or about the need to foster growth in the yoga industry, more than they talk about these things for coal; after all, yoga, not coal, is putting food on the table in more American households. But no politician would ever talk about the interests of yoga teachers, or wax poetic about their role in the American dream, the way they do with coal miners; if they did, they’d be laughed out of the room. And we all know why: yoga is thought of as decadent, cosmopolitan and feminine, while coal mining is imagined as hardscrabble, honorable and masculine.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

Pressure on global chokepoints drives Asia's increased use of Arctic Trade Routes

Asian nations began pilot voyages over a decade ago to find routes to Europe and the Middle East that were faster and less vulnerable to chokepoints. The ongoing war has added impetus to those efforts.

There are more trucks on U.S. highways. But the government is inspecting them less.

A CBS News investigation finds that more than 600 people have died in crashes since 2024 with trucks operated by companies that had never been subjected to a roadside safety inspection.

Sky’s the limit! Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater – in pictures

The always revelatory dance company is at Sadler’s Wells in London this month with two programmes, celebrating their legacy and presenting ‘heavenly’ new works

Why reshaping memories may hold the key to raising self-esteem

In a new book, psychologist Marisa Franco explains why it's good to feel good about yourself — and shares a helpful memory technique that we've turned into a printable worksheet.

D.C. airspace is complicated. Experts say Trump's arch would add one more risk

The Trump administration wants to build its 250-foot arch near one of the country's busiest runways. The FAA will determine whether that poses a hazard. But independent experts already have concerns.

Spermageddon, ‘greedy jobs’ and abject fear: why birth rates are plummeting – and why it matters

The author of Generation Maybe, Camilla Cavendish, explains the many reasons people are having fewer children, from dating apps to unaffordable housing and the climate crisis

Generation Maybe is the most tactful possible title for Camilla Cavendish’s bracing new book – because the trend she’s describing is anything but a “maybe”. “The wave of childlessness that is sweeping the globe is extraordinary,” she writes. It’s in the UK, where the fertility rate hit 1.39 children per woman in 2025, the lowest on record. It’s across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, visible in so many measures – nearly half of Canadian women surveyed in their 40s said they’d had fewer children than they would have liked. But it’s also a global story. “The UAE, Chile and Tamil Nadu in India have even lower birthrates than Germany,” Cavendish writes. “China is growing old before it gets rich, and Russia has maintained its population size purely by annexing Crimea and parts of Ukraine.” In fact, when it comes to falling populations, “only the Black Death in the 14th century is comparable to what is happening now”.

When I meet her in central London, Cavendish is tailored, self-possessed, you might even say poised, but very open – she never gives an opinion without asking yours, she talks very freely about her family and she is upfront about what she sees as her faults. Now 58, she started her career at McKinsey, the mega-management consultancy, having done PPE at Oxford at the same time as David Cameron, for whom she worked as policy director when he was in government and to whom she remains intensely loyal (every time his name comes up, we have a fight).

‘Very messy eaters’: scientists solve the mystery of when black holes ‘burp’

The astronomical bodies fire off powerful jets in two distinct phases in their feeding cycle, researchers discover

Scientists have solved the mystery of when black holes “burp” – when the astronomical bodies launch jets after feeding on stars, blasting material enormous distances in space.

Black holes are objects so densely compact that beyond a certain point their gravity is too strong for light and matter to escape. This boundary of no return is known as the event horizon – the point at which escaping would require something to travel faster than the speed of light.

A Sikh truck driver is stabbed amid a rise in anti-South Asian rhetoric

The driver said he was shaken by a violent encounter at a rest stop, which he described as unprovoked.

Millionaires are everywhere in the U.S., new book says

Getting rich in the U.S. is still possible, but the most common path to wealth doesn't involve working for other people, according to a new book.

‘We left everything behind’: 125,000 people displaced as war reignites in Yemen

Fierce fighting has forced people to abandon their homes, leaving everything behind to seek shelter in refugee camps

• The rapid Houthi advance in Yemen: why it matters and what’s at stake

Abandoning their homes and cramming into cars, Yemeni families have fled in their thousands from a lightning advance along the Red Sea coastal plains and up the rugged hills towards the mountaintop city of Taiz as the war returned in dramatic form this month.

“We fled a large, comfortable home, and here we are struggling to find a plastic sheet and wooden poles,” said one of the displaced, Asma Taleb, a woman in her 50s who fled her home last week with her two sons and five grandchildren.

‘It’s beautiful when it’s clean’: the Argentine neighbourhood saving a contaminated river

Sewage, dog carcasses and industrial waste clog Argentina’s second most-polluted river. Meet the activists cleaning it up

Twenty-three years ago, María Monges looked around her flooded neighbourhood and knew something had to be done.

Founded in 1998 in Buenos Aires province’s San Martín district, the community of Costa Esperanza sits on the banks of the Reconquista, Argentina’s second most-polluted river and owes its name to the fictional location of a hit Argentine youth telenovela of the time, Verano del 98. But the real place is very different from the idyllic coastal city where the protagonists of Argentina’s answer to Dawson’s Creek met their first loves or sang around bonfires.

Bad Apples review – Saoirse Ronan’s suffering teacher best thing about school horror-satire

Ronan plays a teacher who finds a way to deal with a disruptive pupil in Jonatan Etzler’s implausible film, but it’s not shocking or funny enough

Here is a strange, heavy-handed and unpersuasive black comedy which owes what success it has to the star-power of its lead, Saoirse Ronan, who is incapable of giving an uninteresting performance. Director Jonatan Etzler has adapted it with co-screenwriter Jess O’Kane from a Swedish novel by Rasmus Lindgren called De Oönskade, or The Unwanted, and is a film that asks you to overlook its plot-holes and implausibilities on the grounds that it is a satire – but a satire saying what, exactly?

The scene is a primary school in the English West Country where Maria (Ronan) is a hardworking, idealistic teacher – but her class is hopelessly disrupted by a violent boy, Danny (Eddie Waller), obnoxious and out of control. He seriously injures another pupil, the nerdy teacher’s-pet Pauline (Nia Brown) whom Maria privately considers a bit annoying. After a chaotic visit to Danny’s home, Maria winds up causing the boy to lose consciousness with an accidental chokehold, and in a panic smuggles him back to her house where she imprisons him in her basement. And then, slowly but surely, the rest of the class, freed from Danny’s hateful presence, blossom and Maria gets a glowing Ofsted report. She looks and feels on top of the world. But what is to be done about her shameful secret?

The New Dark Ages by James Marriott review – a grandiose but superficial defence of reading

What is it that makes books so magical? The Times columnist somehow forgets to tell us in this lofty polemic

While other kids watched cartoons, Times columnist James Marriott would spend his school holidays in bed with piles of books – “a mammoth effort of attention, perhaps the greatest I ever made” – under the spell of his father, a teacher who inculcated in him a literary zeal “not exactly common in the north of England in the early 2000s”.

Twenty-five years on, Marriott fears smartphones have all but killed reading for everyone. He had to get rid of his own – “George Eliot is no match” – and now, watching the rest of us scroll, he worries not only that we will lose the ability to appreciate Middlemarch, but that we risk falling prey to tyrants and anti-vaxxers forging “a world very different to the one we have known … mystical, tribal and autocratic”.

South Park – I mean, South America – is back, with no Donald Trump in sight (yet)

After adopting the president’s fondness for renaming things ‘America’, the season 29 premiere sees Trey Parker and Matt Stone use e-bikes to critique the ruination of the US

South Park has been renamed South America. That was the main news ahead of Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s animated series returning for its 29th season, which seemed like it could be a one-off promotional gag – or another Trump-related storyline after last year’s scorching imitation of the US president’s “renaming” of the Gulf of Mexico and more recently Lake Ontario.

It turns out that neither is exactly the case, at least not so far. The season premiere doesn’t see the South Park sign scribbled over by the president’s dumb-guy sharpie pen. But it’s not just a passing sight gag, either. The six-episode season opens with the renaming already a fait accompli, not even commented on.

You be the judge: should my brother have told me the money I lent him was for his holiday?

Ayaan thought she was lending money for something essential. Ahmed says the lender doesn’t get to dictate what it’s spent on. You decide who is on the money

• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

I thought I was lending Ahmed money for something vital, not a trip to Greece

Reddit co-founder says tech industry has been 'tone deaf' in explaining AI: 'Misinformation flying around'

Alexis Ohanian said AI risks are more mundane than the "Terminator and Skynet" scenarios some fear.

Raheem Sterling’s bleak tale a reminder of absurd path young footballers face | Jonathan Liew

Winger was one of the first big-money academy transfers, part of a child labour market that has barely been questioned

“What’s your name?”

“Raheem.”

Driving that’s too fast, too dangerous and utterly lawless: why do we tolerate this petro-masculinity? | George Monbiot

In towns and in the countryside, I see SUVs and pickup trucks driven without care or conscience. It’s the Magafication of transport

Where is lawbreaking not just visible, but designed to be seen? Where is antisocial behaviour worn as a badge of honour? Where is pleasure gained directly from causing distress? And where is reckless endangerment often ignored by the police or treated with the mildest of punishments? The answer is on the roads.

Last month, three men in the West Midlands were convicted of street racing. Two were driving at over 80mph in a 40mph zone. The third clocked over 90mph in a 30mph zone. The West Midlands has long been blighted by organised racing, sometimes involving 200 cars or more and hundreds of spectators. The result is a long catalogue of deaths and life-changing injuries, including some caused when racers have left the road and ploughed into onlookers or pedestrians. And there are plenty more accidents where the police have little idea whether racing is to blame, for as soon as they happen, the drivers disperse.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

Rachel Roddy’s recipe for rice, aubergine and mozzarella bake | A kitchen in Rome

A 1950s cookbook classic – eat it hot and stringy or firm and flavoursome

Yesterday’s lunch and this week’s recipe is thanks to my friend, the designer Jake Tilson, who gave me a pristine 1977 edition of The Talisman Italian Cook Book. With a cover of red, white and green stripes cover that makes me think as much of seaside rock as Italy’s national colours, the edition was part of the 24th printing of the US translation of Il Talismano della Felicità (The Talisman of Happiness), by Ada Boni. First published in 1950, the abridged translation was sold as a complete guide to Italian cookery, covering all notable dishes. Well, on the cover at least; inside, the introduction is more realistic, warning the reader that, “to criticise the writer [Boni] or translator [Mrs Matilde La Rosa] for failing to include certain dishes is useless”, because no living man or woman can be acquainted with all the variety of dishes of a such variegated country.

The introduction, by a man called Mario A Pei, goes on to explain that the variety of dishes mirrors the wide dialectical array in Italy at the time (1950); its diversity of speech, customs, costumes, psychology and general world outlook. In the next sentence, he notes that this variety was undoubtedly a very bad thing from the standpoint of national unity and progress (the professor and polyglot was an ardent supporter of European fascism and uniting humans under one language). Not that you would guess that from his following sentence: “Variety is the spice of life.” I regretted reading his introduction, and also telling an Italian friend, who said, laughing: “You don’t know the half of it”, in reference to my romanticism about the original Talismano, which may be great, but also (in her opinion) endorses a Stepford Wives fantasy of womanhood; a journey with Boni as patient guide.

Putin braces for election stress test as Russians ‘feel the pain’ of struggling economy

Russia’s upcoming election is expected to cement United Russia’s dominance, but voter turnout and its margin of victory could offer clues to public discontent.

‘Like a Disney movie’: Three wild dog brothers make Africa’s longest journey

As three siblings came of age and had to leave their pack, scientists tracked the dogs’ perilous 2,500-mile odyssey to find their own territory

It sounds like a Disney movie: three wild dogs, all brothers, on an epic journey to find a home of their own after their family tells them to leave. They dodge cars and hunters in search of a new life, navigating bushmeat snares and the hostility of a human-dominated landscape until they find a new haven on the African savannah.

But this is exactly what happened in Zambia last year, when three endangered African wild dogs made the longest-ever recorded single journey of any mammal from the continent. The brothers travelled more than 2,500 miles (4,100km) over eight months in their “dispersal” – when a young dog comes of age and must establish new territory to find a mate and start a family of their own.

Faster! Louder! Brighter! How the attention economy overwhelmed children’s TV

Does your child’s favourite show give them a chance to reflect, or does it move too quickly for its lessons to sink in?

• A version of this piece was originally published on Aeon as The bombarding of childhood

I am at the airport gate waiting to depart, watching passengers hurry past with rolling suitcases and paper cups of coffee. A small boy sits very still beside his mother. He holds an iPad close to his chest, almost in a cramp, clutching the screen as if it might otherwise run away. I hear loud clapping hands and squeaking children’s voices. I lean over and see a cartoon character in green snatch a toy from another character in pink. The pink character begins to cry, tears splashing like sprinkles from its enormous eyes. The green character shouts sorry. Instantly, the tears stop and a wide smile replaces them before I have blinked. And, before I have even worked out whether the characters are speaking English or Arabic (as the mother does to the boy), the scene has changed and the two characters are rowing a boat with a random song in the background. The boy’s eyes dart on the screen from right to left, centre, down. His body is still but his attention is being hurried from cue to cue.

This is the problem I have come to think of as the pace of children’s media.

Can fish and chip shops survive? ‘We made more money by closing than staying open’

Soaring fish prices, labour costs and changing tastes all spell bad news for Britain’s chippies. Is this the end for the seaside staple – or will a few innovators succeed in keeping them alive?

One day in 2007, Darren Sudlow drove past the old stationmaster’s house at Padgate station, in Cheshire, noticed it was empty and decided to lease it. “He just fell in love with the place,” says his son, Kieran, who was 11 at the time. “He said he always wanted a fish and chip shop, for some reason.” Despite having worked as a joiner up to that point, Darren made a go of it, and the Plaice Station, as he named it, was a success from day one. “He worked like mad to get it open and then realised that the hard work hadn’t even started, and he had a queue out the door,” says the younger Sudlow.

The family lived nearby. Kieran Sudlow, who is now 30, worked at the Plaice Station as a boy, peeling potatoes, washing dishes after school, then cooking at the range when he was 16. He went on to become a chef, working in Australia for a few years, then returning to help out at the chippy part-time when needed. Business had always been pretty good. They won local awards and had a loyal customer base. But one day in March, Kieran remembers, his father came in and told him: “‘I think the fish and chip shop’s going to go.’ He said, ‘It’s not making money. I can’t see it carrying on.’”

Mark Walter and Todd Boehly selling stakes in Chelsea Football Club to Clearlake Capital

Two of Walter's insurance companies faces federal criminal and civil investigations into the accounting of roughly $21 billion in financial transactions.

5 missing women are linked to Olney home in Philadelphia. Here's what we know.

Inside the home, owned by Eugene Horsch and connected to his father, R.C. Horsch, authorities have found a trove of digital images, a so-called laboratory of chemicals and a small marijuana grow operation.

‘Harrowing reading’: what the inquiry into NZ fugitive father Tom Phillips revealed

Inquiry uncovered missed opportunities and failures by New Zealand police and government agencies that may have avoided four-year hunt

A major public inquiry into the disappearance of fugitive father Tom Phillips, who hid in New Zealand’s wilderness for nearly four years with his three children, has found authorities played down the harms he inflicted on his children, and did not do enough to protect them.

Taking his children, of whom he did not have legal custody, Phillips disappeared into the rugged North Island wilderness in 2021. That disappearance was preempted by an earlier, shorter stint where Phillips went bush with his son and two daughters, aged five, seven and eight at the time.