Pentagon CTO says U.S. government shouldn't take stakes in tech 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.

Maye Musk says son Elon "just wants to do good" but steps "on a lot of toes"

Maye Musk has described her son Elon as a genius even as a child, and said his efforts have led to insults and unfair treatment from the public.

Coast Guard, FBI boarded Texas-bound oil tanker to investigate cyberattack

The U.S. has so far not attributed the potential breach to a specific actor, but Iranian state media amplified the story in the weeks following the attack.

Amazon raises starting pay to $20 an hour and adds Whole Foods perks

Amazon said it is increasing its minimum pay for operations workers by $1 an hour and adding grocery discounts for all U.S. employees.

Trump 2.0 has cut or frozen $177bn in grants across every state, analysis finds

Cuts hit all 50 states and DC, with environment, health, nutrition and disaster relief making up the largest share

The Trump administration has cut or frozen up to $177bn in federal grants since the president took office for his second term, according to a tracking tool released Wednesday by a pro-democracy non-profit and a group of researchers and scientists.

The cuts affected all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with health, nutrition, the environment and disaster relief making up the largest share of cuts, the States United Democracy Center and Grant Witness organization found.

Threats intensify against Israeli directors of Gaza documentary NAZA

Rights groups express support for directors of Guardian-produced film facing threats from Israeli ministers and far-right activists

• ‘They know the house they are bombing is full of children’: NAZA’s directors on their devastating film about Israeli intelligence

Threats by the Israeli military, government ministers and far-right activists have intensified against the Oscar-winning Israeli directors of NAZA, a documentary about the country’s mass killing of civilians in Gaza, as 43 local human rights organisations expressed their support for the pair.

NAZA, which was produced by the Guardian, is named for an acronym used euphemistically by Israel’s intelligence service to indicate how many civilians it expects to die in an airstrike on Gaza. The film builds on revelations first published by the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine, the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call and the Guardian between 2023 and 2025.

Kim Kardashian gets €1 in damages for being victim of Paris armed robbery

Kardashian received the compensation she requested, lawyers said, after eight people were found guilty last year for their role in the robbery

A Paris court has awarded €1 to Kim Kardashian for having been the victim of an armed robbery in the French capital in 2016, the amount of compensation she had asked for, according to a lawyer involved in the case.

The court last year found eight people guilty for their roles in what Kardashian described as “the most terrifying experience of my life”. She and the stylist Simone Harouche, who was present during the robbery, expressed gratitude to the French justice system in a joint statement.

Burnham says budget will be ‘challenging’ and denies he is just ‘tax and spend socialist’ – UK politics live

PM responds to criticism from former Bank of England chief economist

Wes Streeting, the defence secretary, has posted this on social media ahead of Andy Burnham’s meeting with the Nato secretary general Mark Rutte later.

Today I am reminded of the words of my Labour predecessor Denis Healey:

“Once we cut defence expenditure to the extent where our security is imperilled, we have no houses, we have no hospitals, we have no schools. We have a heap of cinders.”

[Britain] is leading, along with Nato allies, the push back against Russia’s dangerous and reckless campaign against us.

Collectively we will continue to strengthen our ability to deter and defend all allies, against any threat. Nato will not be intimidated by Russia’s campaign of hostile actions. Russia wants to stop us helping Ukraine – but their actions will only lead us to do more for Ukraine. Russia’s actions are a sign of weakness, and a symptom of Putin’s failure in Ukraine.

To stay transatlantic, Nato is becoming more European. A Nato with Europe, and Canada, spending more, producing more, and doing more for their security. This is the idea of Nato 3.0.

Building for the future. A stronger Europe, in a stronger Nato.

Scientists create mice with part-human brains

Researchers hope to shed light on conditions such as schizophrenia, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, intellectual disability and rare forms of dementia

Researchers have created mice with half-human brains in an effort to understand and develop new treatments for disorders such as schizophrenia, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, intellectual disability and rare forms of dementia.

The scientists transplanted lab-grown human brain cells into animals that were engineered to be born without a cortex or hippocampus. This made space for the human tissue to grow inside the rodents’ skulls.

I have faced abuse, assaults and death threats because I’m an MP. It’s making politics a no-go zone | Dawn Butler

A new report highlights the dangers experienced by those who seek to serve the public. People are being deterred and your democracy is suffering

There is a rising tide of abuse in our politics and I feel it every day. This week, the Electoral Commission warned that harassment and intimidation are changing how candidates campaign, what they feel able to do and whether they stand again. This is a threat to our democracy – and we cannot ignore it.

The figures are stark. Commission research into the May 2026 local and mayoral elections in England found that 55% of candidates said harassment or intimidation was a problem, up from 47% in 2025. Women, ethnic minority candidates and those with disabilities were most likely to encounter abuse. The experience was so unpleasant that a third considered not standing again.

Dawn Butler is Labour MP for Brent East

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

The secret of Mozart’s genius unlocked – has a teenager succeeded where generations of musicologists have failed?

US student Linus Chen-Plotkin has analysed music by four canonical composers looking for patterns. Turns out Mozart’s music moves in the least predictable way

It’s a question that has taxed musical thinkers for centuries: just what is it about one composer’s music that makes it more distinctive than anyone else’s? Entire disciplines of academic thought, of music analysis and historical musicology, as well as the formation of classical music’s canon of “great” composers, have been given over to this single idea: can it be proved that Mozart, say, was measurably “better” than other composers?

Our instinctive feeling about the sensual magic of Mozart’s music is part of the equation, but accounting for precisely how his pieces can sustain a lifetime of listening, why their pleasures never seem to pall and are still capable of seeming to surprise us even when we know them inside out: that’s the million-dollar musicological question.

Fed rate hike expected on Wednesday. See what it means for your money.

The Federal Reserve is likely to raise borrowing costs on Wednesday, and more hikes could be in store, according to economists.

‘We are prey’: discovery of seven women’s bodies fuels anger over femicide in South Africa

String of female murder victims found near Johannesburg’s international airport, including five in the past week

The discovery of the bodies of eight women around Johannesburg’s international airport, including five in the past week, has prompted an outpouring of fear, grief and anger over a lack of progress in tackling femicide.

When Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo did not return after going for a run on 9 September, her eight-year-old daughter alerted relatives, who contacted police. The 38-year-old’s body was found on Saturday and identified by relatives on Monday. The news of her disappearance had gone viral.

Matt Fitzpatrick casts doubt on Dubai title defence over fears of ongoing conflict

• World No 4 may snub World Tour Championship

• ‘I’m not comfortable playing in the Middle East’

Matt Fitzpatrick, the world No 4, has admitted to reservations over appearing at the DP World Tour’s end of season events in Abu Dhabi and Dubai because of the conflict in the Middle East. The Englishman, who is due to defend the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, has accused the Tour of being “very vague” over plans to retain or move the tournaments. In Fitzpatrick’s mind, it is a “no brainer” to play elsewhere but believes his sentiment will not feature strongly in the thoughts of the Tour’s hierarchy.

Fitzpatrick even suggested Formula One is reconsidering staging the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December after races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were called off this year due to the Iran war, though it remains on the calendar.

The dominance of AI is not inevitable. We can choose to change things for the better | Nick Evershed

Countries have come together before to make international agreements in the face of existential threats

With many technological developments, from algorithm-driven social media to AI, many people assume there’s a degree of inevitability to their widespread adoption in society.

The argument goes something like this: once the ideas and means to produce the tech are known, then it is inevitable that its usage will spread and we’ll essentially be stuck with it. So therefore we need to accept this and adjust our lives to live with the tech and use it (or at least tolerate it).

‘Godfather of AI’ says tech regulation is nearing Covid-style pivot moment

Safety crisis makes it more likely that governments will be spurred into action, says Yoshua Bengio

Concerns over AI safety are reaching a point where governments realise they must act to protect the public, similarly to in the Covid pandemic, according to one of the “godfathers” of the technology.

Yoshua Bengio said recent events, including a “swarm” of OpenAI agents hacking a startup and tech insider warnings of an existential threat, were cutting through – making government action more likely.

Mice with human brain cells offer a tool to study disease. Ethicists ask: What's next?

Neuroscientists have made a major advance in modeling the human brain in mice, offering a new way to study conditions like cerebral palsy. Ethicists ask if it changes how these mice should be treated.

US officials decide against backing Saudi Arabia in Yemen after meeting Houthi leaders

Armed group appears to reach agreement with Trump administration over safety of Red Sea shipping

Officials from the US met Houthi leaders over the weekend at the country’s embassy in Muscat, Oman, it has been confirmed, leading to the US decision not to intervene to help Saudi Arabia drive back a Houthi advance inside Yemen.

The Houthis reassured the US that the ceasefire agreement between the two sides struck in 2025 still held and the movement had no intention of attacking US shipping in the Red Sea. Only Saudi-linked shipping was regarded as a target owing to its blockade of Yemen, the Houthis confirmed.

Union claims victory as ministers agree to fully fund pay rise for teachers in England

National Education Union welcomes news that schools will not have to partly fund increase from their own budgets

The UK’s biggest education union is claiming a significant victory after the government bowed to pressure and agreed to fully fund a forthcoming pay increase for teachers in England in a sudden U-turn.

Members of the National Education Union (NEU) were due to vote in a ballot for strike action next month over the government’s recent pay offer which provided for a 3.5% increase from this month, with an additional 3% from next September.

Canada invited to become EU’s first ‘associate member’ as Trump trade war intensifies

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc wants to open the door for Canada to become its first associate member, signaling a major deepening of ties.

Kendra Scott says joining "Shark Tank" is "a natural fit"

Designer Kendra Scott, who started her billion-dollar jewelry empire with $500, sits down with "CBS Mornings" to talk about joining "Shark Tank" full time.

Football Daily | Madrid endure an awkward night after T-shirt trouble and Elche scare

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Anxious to sample some traditional Spanish culture while taking in a La Liga match years ago, Football Daily and some friends decamped to Gran Alicant. As we prepared to leave a quaint bodega (the Dick Turpin), where we’d been sampling the local hooch (Guinness), to travel to the nearby stadium, an elderly local resident with an unmistakable mackem accent informed us that the Elche home game to which we were heading was not being played until the following evening. It had fallen victim to Spanish TV’s infuriating habit of rescheduling random top-flight matches with little or no notice or consideration for Johnny-come-latelys who might have travelled from afar to watch them. We never did get to see Elche play in the flesh but did get to watch the current La Liga basement-dwellers give José Mourinho an almighty fright on TV on Tuesday night, as they went this close to snatching a point from Real Madrid.

I almost wish I was a West Ham fan. As an eternally suffering Spurs supporter, I find myself looking enviously towards the London Stadium these days. The Hammers are top of the table, banging in goal after goal (already 20 more than Spurs’ tally in the league). They score even when they lose and seem to have bought a proper No 9. My Spurs, meanwhile, continue the tradition of the last two years in style, sitting comfortably in 17th with 1,047 wingers on contract, and getting knocked out of one of the competitions they could ‘conceivably’ have won, the only competition they seem to be able to score goals in as well. In hindsight, West Ham made the right choice to go down. Hammers fans, you are welcome!” – Yannick Woudstra (and no others).

Hugh Fordham’s idea [Tuesday’s Football Daily letters] has some merit. But it reminded me of a pithy comment by Bill Nicholson. ‘Do you think he was interfering with play?’, he was asked. Nicholson responded: “If he’s not interfering with play, what’s he doing on the pitch?!’” – Harry McDonald.

In support of Hugh Fordham’s suggestion, I remember discussing the idea of interfering with play while on a training course for referees back in the 1960s. We were told that unless someone was ‘lying injured near the corner flag’ any player should be treated as being involved in play. Not a lot of room for subjectivity in those days. And obviously no thought of stopping play for the hypothetical injured player!” – Trevor Field.

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

Mike Rogers speaks out after skipping Michigan Senate debate

The Republican says the event was a town hall he never committed to and was never on his schedule. He also faulted the moderator, saying you can't hold a "two-on-one event in a TV studio."

‘Very authoritarian, very brutal’: three decades after the UK’s anti-rave crackdown, why is France doing the same?

With tear gas, grenades and a new law, French authorities are targeting unlicensed music gatherings. Those in the rave scene explore the parallels with the UK in the 90s

When Spiral Tribe fled England in 1992, they left behind an indelible mark on rave history. The itinerant sound system collective are best known for their involvement with Castlemorton Common festival, an unlicensed free party drawing more than 30,000 people and lasting nearly a week. After a drawn-out and notoriously expensive trial for public order offences, Spiral Tribe were acquitted of all charges. They decided to drive their repurposed military caravans out of the UK and never look back.

Their documented history often stops there. But little known is the fact that they then kicked off “the biggest illegal underground movement that Europe had ever seen”, says Spiral Tribe associate Sebastian Vaughan, AKA electronic musician 69db.

House votes to limit Trump's power to strike Iran for 3rd time

The previous votes have failed to stop President Trump from waging war with Iran.

TV reporter and pilot who died in Los Angeles helicopter crash were covering a story

NBC4 colleagues Eliana Moreno and George Marciniw were working to report on a collision between a bus and an SUV

More details are emerging after a local news helicopter crashed in a Los Angeles neighborhood on Tuesday evening, killing two people on board and one person on the ground.

Eliana Moreno, an aerial photojournalist, and pilot George Marciniw were identified as two of the victims.

Previously unseen drawings by Moomins author Tove Jansson to go on show in London

Exclusive: Exhibition focussing on Finnish writer and artist’s illustrations will include original art from her first Moomins book

The Moomin books about lovable trolls with hippopotamus snouts who live in harmony with nature are a global publishing phenomenon, having sold up to 30m copies since the Finnish artist and writer Tove Jansson wrote and illustrated them between 1945 and 1977.

Now previously unseen drawings of her eccentric characters will be among more than 100 exhibits in a major exhibition that is being staged in London 25 years after her death.

Smile at Last review – photo-love-story style parable of a teen abandoned at a tough Soviet youth facility

With handheld camerawork, this unsentimental rite of passage film follows Mari, who tries to escape from a residential home in Estonia

This intriguing 1985 film from Estonia uses nonprofessionals and handheld camerawork, which brings faces looming up to the screen. It is directed by Leida Laius and Arvo Iho and based on the YA novel Stepmother by Estonian author Silvia Rannamaa. The Estonian title Naerata Ometi is translated here as Smile at Last; perhaps it should be Give Us a Smile as it is what a boorish, bullying guy tells a shy, unhappy young woman.

It is at one level a kind of coming-of-age story, but entirely without that genre’s usual, sentimental sense of something finally learned or gained from an emotional rite of passage – something finally to smile about, in fact. Actually, it is more of a mysterious parable, couched in the language of soap opera or photo-love story, depicting the Soviet state and its gruesome pretension to be caring or nurturing.

Amazon to launch Ring ‘neighbourhood watch’ app in UK amid US privacy fears

Doorbell firm aims to replace WhatsApp or Facebook groups with platform where people can post about safety or lost pets

Amazon’s doorbell camera maker Ring is to launch its Neighbours community app in the UK in an attempt to supplant neighbourhood WhatsApp or Facebook groups.

The service is intended as a modern equivalent of a community message board, where neighbours can post about safety, community matters or lost pets.

Small but mighty! Remembering the GameCube, Nintendo’s purple bundle of joy

The first console I ever bought, it was hyped as a threat to the PlayStation, then mocked as a flop. But now, as it marks its 25th anniversary, it’s looked back on with misty-eyed reverence

This week marks the 25th anniversary of the Nintendo GameCube, the first console I ever bought with my own money. I vividly remember getting on the bus after school with a year’s worth of savings safely zipped into the pocket of my bag and going to a branch of Currys, where I dumped a bunch of notes, coins and vouchers on the counter to collect my pre-order. (It turned out that some of the vouchers from the previous Christmas had expired, but the guy at the checkout clearly felt so sorry for me that he redeemed them anyway. If you’re out there, Currys guy: thank you for taking pity on a desperate 13-year-old.)

If it hadn’t been for the ill-fated Wii U console, whose failure to take off in 2012 resulted in the first unprofitable periods in Nintendo’s game-making history, the GameCube would be remembered as the company’s biggest flop aside from the infamous Virtual Boy, from 1995. Released in Japan this week in 2001 (and in May 2002 in Europe), this surprisingly powerful purple cube sold less than the Xbox and the PlayStation 2. With its squat, colourful form and unusual controller, arranged around a big traffic-light-green A button and small analogue sticks designed for small hands, it had a hint of Fisher-Price about it.

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.

European Union invites Canada to become first ever ‘associate member’

Commission president says EU must ‘urgently reimagine our partnerships’ as she makes unprecedented offer

Canada has been invited to become the first “associate member” of the EU by the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen.

In an unprecedented offer, von der Leyen said on Wednesday that the EU and Canada “see the world with the same eyes” through shared democratic values and common approaches to many big issues, from AI to climate breakdown, the Ukraine war and geopolitics.

How are rising prices affecting you? NPR wants to know

Inflation, gasoline prices and the cost of living are top of mind in the election season. How are higher costs shaping the way you live? NPR wants to hear.

Kosovo’s former president jailed for 25 years over war crimes

Hashim Thaçi, 58, was convicted by The Hague for crimes committed while he was senior commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army

Hashim Thaçi, the former president of Kosovo, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison by a tribunal in The Hague for war crimes, including dozens of murders, committed during his time as a senior commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army during the country’s war for independence from Serbia in the late 1990s.

The European-backed Kosovo Specialist Chambers, convicted Thaci, 58, and three other former senior commanders of 96 murders, and counts of torture, cruel treatment and arbitrary detention directed at political opponents and civilians.

Board votes to close Kennedy Center immediately for renovations, source says

Earlier Tuesday, a federal judge again blocked the board from adding President Trump's name to the facade of the building.

Russia seizes Ukrainian POWs, then it demands favors from their relatives

Russia is believed to be holding thousands of Ukrainian POWs. Russia is also tormenting the families of these prisoners by contacting their relatives on social media and demanding they help Russia.

Fishers protest and when doves cry in singing contest: photos of the day – Wednesday

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

Why are two college football teams playing at Wembley on Saturday?

Kansas are taking on Arizona State in the Union Jack Classic, with 60,000 and noisy fans expected at Wembley

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Tropical Smoothie Cafe is getting a makeover as it prepares for its 'next 3,000' locations

Tropical Smoothie Cafe unveiled new branding as it grows rapidly under the ownership of private equity firm Blackstone.

Battle of Chile director Patricio Guzmán dies aged 85

Passionate documentary maker won international acclaim for unsparing but poetic films exploring the impact of the Pinochet regime in Chile

Patricio Guzmán, the film-maker who chronicled Chile’s bloody 1970s political strife and its subsequent social and political turmoil in films such as The Battle of Chile and Nostalgia for the Light, has died aged 85. According to Chilean news outlet Emol, Guzmán died on Tuesday in Paris after a cardiorespiratory arrest.

Guzmán’s chief preoccupation throughout his career was the carnage unleashed by Augusto Pinochet’s coup in 1973 against Salvador Allende, Chile’s elected president. He later told the Guardian: “I’m a film-maker who was very marked by the ways of the dictator. It has remained with me for ever. I cannot leave it behind.” However, he resisted the idea that he was an activist, political film-maker, adding: “I’m not a sociologist. Neither am I a politician. I make films that are metaphorical and poetic; I interpret reality through my own personal way of looking.”

Family blames Texas' "merciless" abortion ban for woman's death, sues Paxton, others

The family of 37-year-old Tierra Walker filed a lawsuit against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and others, saying she was denied an abortion that could have saved her life.

At least 3 dead after news chopper crashes while covering bus accident, officials say

At least three people are dead, including a local NBC journalist, after a news helicopter crashed while covering a fatal bus accident in Los Angeles. Carter Evans reports.

Woman's family sues Texas AG Ken Paxton over death allegedly caused by "merciless" abortion ban

A woman's family is suing Texas over the state's "merciless" abortion ban, arguing that her preeclampsia death could have been prevented if she'd had the procedure. Jericka Duncan reports.

Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: pair a little skirt with a chunky jumper for the perfect balancing act

Let your legs enjoy the last of the summer’s breeze while a thick top or jacket keeps away the autumn chill

This is the most enjoyable time of the year to get dressed because clothes can just be clothes. They don’t have to function as a personal air-conditioning and sweat-disguising system, as they did for the summer, nor do they need to double as a portable central heating unit yet. Your outfit does not need to “take you from day to night” until party season starts, and it doesn’t have to jigsaw itself into a hand-luggage-sized capsule wardrobe until next summer. There is little in the way of functional heavy lifting, so you get to just wear nice clothes.

And this benign early part of autumn is more fun to dress for than the equivalent weather in spring, because we still have a bit of summer swagger. The summer habit of wearing shorts and halter tops and even swimwear has gotten us a little loose, a little more laid-back about flashing a bit of skin here or there. It is about more than bare flesh, though. There is something about summer that flexes the flashy dresser in everyone – whether that’s fancy dress for a festival, or just the way that putting on a pair of sunglasses brings out your inner movie star.

Bonnie Greer, writer and cultural commentator, dies aged 77

The British-American novelist and playwright who regularly appeared on current affairs shows will be remembered for her ‘warmth, humour and generosity’, says her husband

The British-American novelist, playwright and commentator Bonnie Greer has died aged 77.

In a statement, her husband David Hutchins said that she died on Tuesday evening following a brief illness.

German state leaders rally behind Friedrich Merz amid doubts over his future

Chancellor cancels plan to speak at the UN as far-right AfD target further gains in elections this weekend

• Europe live – latest updates

Powerful German state leaders from Friedrich Merz’s party have rallied behind him as speculation builds that his days in office may be numbered.

The chancellor’s hold on power has looked increasingly shaky since a bombshell regional election result earlier this month in which the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party routed his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party in Saxony-Anhalt.

US to bar some South Africans over claims of anti-white discrimination

Announcement of visa restrictions follows Trump’s false claims of ‘white genocide’ taking place in South Africa

The US has announced visa restrictions on some South Africans as Donald Trump’s administration continues to claim that South Africa’s government racially discriminates against white minority Afrikaners.

The announcement did not specify individuals who were barred from the US. Trump has spent his second term falsely claiming there is a “white genocide” in South Africa and railing against its affirmative action policies.

Never-before-seen photos reveal damage to U.S. military assets in Middle East

Photos sent to CBS News by active service members are revealing the extent of damage to U.S. military assets in the Middle East targeted by Iranian strikes. The visuals come on the heels of a Pentagon report estimating the war has cost more than $33 billion. Jonah Kaplan reports.

Africa is bigger than we’ve been led to believe – what next?

A new map of the world rescales the size of Africa and calls into question our perception of land, power and influence

This month, the UN passed a resolution, brought to the assembly by Togo, to phase out the traditional Mercator map of the globe and replace it with another that shows the real scale of territories. That’s right – when it comes to size, the map of the world we have all grown up with is not accurate. The main loser of land on the Mercator map is Africa, and the new “Equal Earth” map reflects its true proportions. I spoke to our west Africa correspondent Eromo Egbejule about his extensive reporting on the map changes, and why people feel so strongly about it.

Seeing the new map transposed over the old might make you feel oddly disoriented. Logically, there is absolutely no immediate tangible impact on one’s life that comes out of knowing that the entire top part of the northern hemisphere is so much smaller than you were led to believe. And yet, there is still something agitating about it, like you’ve been the subject of a lifelong trick, or at least a breach of trust.

Microplastics in soil pose global threat by acting like ‘Trojan horse’ to deliver toxins

Exclusive: Plastic surfaces form hotspots with an increase of antibiotic-resistant genes, study finds

Microplastics act like a “Trojan horse” delivering pollutants, pesticides and bacteria through the soil, a five-year multinational research project has found.

The EU-funded project, which has so far resulted in 22 peer-reviewed studies, found microplastics in the soil of all 227 agricultural fields it tested across 11 European countries. The researchers said this poses a global threat, with healthy soils essential for life on Earth.

How to turn excess olive brine into a lipsmacking salad dressing – recipe

The liquid from a jar of olives is naturally chock-full of savoury flavour, so why should it go to waste? It’s perfect for sprucing up a salad

Olive brine is a simple byproduct that has so much flavour, and it elevates a classic salade nicoise dressing while keeping things colourful, elegant and relatively simple.

Mortgage demand from homebuyers drops 19% from a year ago, as interest rates surge abruptly higher

Mortgage rates have surged to the highest level since the start of 2025, causing a major pullback in mortgage demand.

Mets fans celebrate home run against own team as returning hero Alonso goes yard

• Slugger ties game in ninth with 414ft shot

• Reaction irks Mets pitcher Sean Manaea

• Alonso’s departure annoyed many Mets fans

Pete Alonso launched his 300th career home run Tuesday night, a tying shot in the ninth inning against his former team, and Coby Mayo’s inside-the-park homer in the 11th sent the Baltimore Orioles to a 7-5 victory at Citi Field.

“There’s a lot of history here with me,” Alonso said after receiving a beer shower from his Baltimore teammates. “It doesn’t matter where and when, I just want to help the team win. I’m just really, really happy for us to come back the way we did.”

At least 20 killed after Israeli-hit building in Gaza City collapses

Rescue workers say search for dozens of people hampered by lack of heavy machinery

A building housing about 100 displaced Palestinian families has collapsed in Gaza City, killing at least 20 people, as rescuers search the rubble for dozens of people believed to be trapped, including children.

A rescue team from Gaza’s civil defence said they had recovered the bodies of five children among the victims, while 25 injured people were taken to hospital. Medical sources said rescuers could hear the voices of people trapped beneath the rubble as they tried to reach them.

Charlie Kirk's family blames Utah officials for failing to prevent his murder

The university has faced harsh criticism for a lack of key safety measures on the day of the shooting.

Fed expected to raise interest rates. And, board votes to close Kennedy Center

The Fed is expected to raise interest rates today for the first time in three years. And, the Kennedy Center board voted yesterday to close the historic center.

Burnham and Trump expected to meet for first time next week as PM steps up presence on world stage

Andy Burnham will attend UN general assembly, where he is expected to try to drum up more support for Ukraine

• UK politics live – latest updates

Andy Burnham is expected to meet Donald Trump for the first time in person at the UN general assembly next week in New York.

Last month the Guardian reported British officials had stepped up their preparations for a face-to-face meeting between Burnham and Trump after the prime minister said he hoped to attend the assembly of world leaders.

Allowing AI firms to collude to ‘pace the frontier’ is a dangerous proposition

Tech CEOs banding together is an old ruse recycled from corporate America to get a pass from antitrust laws

Anthropic’s Dario Amodei is not the first corporate CEO to suggest that excessive competition is driving the world to some socially undesirable outcome.

The safety breach disclosed by OpenAI after a swarm of its agents coordinated to breach their supposedly secure sandbox, get on the Internet and hack AI platform Hugging Face, warrants urgent action. It demonstrated the ease with which the technology can evade human control and gave concrete form to the existential fears about what it could do to humanity if not securely leashed.

Watching Cavan Sullivan, excitement is tempered by memories of hypetrains past

The 16-year-old Union star isn’t the first wunderkind to be feted by the American soccersphere

The trouble with trying not to hype up Cavan Sullivan is that he keeps on doing cool stuff. Like this past weekend, when he scampers along on a Philadelphia Union breakaway, loses his man by stopping so suddenly it’s as if he’s pulled a ripcord, back-heels the cutback behind his standing leg, watches it slowly kiss off the far post and in, and celebrated the goal by bowing and doffing an imaginary top hat to the crowd.

Like when he doubles the score by setting up an attack and finishing it himself with a left-footed lash through the goalkeeper’s legs form an acute angle. Like when he fashions yet another goal by holding up the play and then suddenly springs a teammate up the right flank.

The best life hack I've ever heard? Monetise what you're bad at | Polly Hudson

Phil Heckels has turned his awful pet portraits into a full-time job. As a blueprint for success, embracing your lack of talent has obvious appeal

What do you get if you cross a complete lack of artistic talent with making lemonade out of life’s lemons? Phil Heckels, that’s what – or, rather, who. The former estate agent from West Sussex has turned being bad at drawing animals into a full-time job after posting a hilariously terrible portrait of his dog on social media. Friends started asking him to do awful pictures of their pets, word spread, and he’s now received more than 100,000 requests. His rules are that he only sees the photos immediately before he picks up his pen, he never restarts a drawing, and he doesn’t spend longer than 10 minutes on a creation. He also refuses to charge for his artworks – suggesting charity donations instead – but makes money through merchandise and books.

“I do get criticism sometimes that the portraits are getting too good,” Heckels said recently. “But people have been saying that since about my 12th portrait. You never have to wait too long for a real stinker to appear, though.”

How Olympian Aly Raisman learned to advocate for her own health

In the latest episode of "Healthful," Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman discusses what she's learned about speaking up for herself and taking care of her body.

The play that changed my life: ‘Grime was ostracised but the Royal Court saw it as an art form – and made me a better MC’

Poet in da Corner by Debris Stevenson revealed that acting in a theatre can have a lot in common with MCing in a club

By 2018 I was in my third or fourth year professionally as a grime MC and producer. I was 27 and didn’t have any aspirations in theatre. But Debris Stevenson, a good friend of mine, asked me to help her write one of the first drafts of a song in her play Poet in da Corner. I did that and then she invited me to a table reading session at the Royal Court to read the part of SS Vyper [a pirate radio DJ].

The theatre’s artistic director, Vicky Featherstone, said: “You read it so well you may as well be in the play!” I thought she was joking, but the next week I was in rehearsal.

for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, with music by Jammz, is at the Yard theatre, London, until 17 October

As told to Lindesay Irvine

EU's Ursula von der Leyen says she wants Canada to become an associate member

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday proposed making Canada the European Union's first associate member, a striking overture as U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs drive Ottawa closer to Europe.

‘If you’re building Frankenstein, stop’: JD Vance dismisses calls for AI regulation

US vice-president’s comments come as former Anthropic researcher revisits recent claim AI could destroy humanity

The US vice-president has dismissed calls for global regulation of AI safety risks, telling companies creating the most advanced models: “If you’re building Frankenstein, stop.”

In remarks addressed towards Dario Amodei, the co-founder of Anthropic who has called on Washington DC to coordinate control of AI systems, including with China, JD Vance said: “If you’re gonna create Frankenstein, don’t come to the government and say we need regulation.”

A trusted seal made websites look legit. The weight-loss drug they sold wasn't.

Selling retatrutide commercially is prohibited by federal law. Yet, companies have promoted the drug on social media, thanks in part to being certified by LegitScript.

Your mission, Tom Cruise, is to improve at interviews. And please keep sending the cakes

He risks his life for entertainment, but getting an anecdote out of him is a trickier matter. Happily, Cruise is no stranger to knuckling down and pulling off the impossible

By now, we’ve grown used to watching Tom Cruise excel at everything he does. Running in films? The best. Risking his life in action scenes so preposterously dangerous that audiences need to have their sphincters manually unclenched with a crowbar? Absolutely, none better. Singlehandedly ensuring that theatrical exhibition didn’t go extinct after Covid? The man deserves all the praise in the world for that.

But nobody is perfect. Live long enough and a few flaws will worm their way to the surface. This is as true for Tom Cruise as it is for anyone else. And while I realise that this might do me out of a cake this Christmas, the following really needs to be said: Tom Cruise isn’t very good at interviews.

Will AI really destroy humanity? Pioneers who created the tech weigh in

AI pioneers and "godfathers" have weighed in on Anthropic and OpenAI researcher concerns over existential safety risks around the technology.

Why is the White House being so weird about Natalie Harp again? | Arwa Mahdawi

The president’s assistant travelled with him to Ireland – which really shouldn’t be much of a story. But his comms team seems determined to make it one

Passport, money, emotional support human: Donald Trump had all the travel essentials on his recent trip to Ireland. The president flew into Dublin on Saturday morning to play golf, meet the country’s leaders and make provocative comments about unification. Melania didn’t accompany her husband on the trip (“Uh, she sends her regards,” Trump said), but his devoted aide Natalie Harp was obviously at his side.

You’ll know Harp: the 35-year-old assistant was headline news last month after Democratic senator Jon Ossoff quipped that Trump didn’t want to do his job; he just wanted to “build his ballroom and travel with Natalie”. That comment would have been quickly forgotten were it not for the Trump administration’s unhinged response (sample: “Jon Jackoff has to be the biggest cuck loser in politics”), which sparked a media frenzy. There was suddenly a spotlight on Harp, who is nicknamed the “human printer” because she trails the president with a portable printer, ready to hand him hard copies of flattering coverage. She appears to be disturbingly obsessed with her boss and he seems to appreciate the attention: it was recently revealed that Trump gave her (and two other female aides) a cash gift of $45,000 (£33,000) for a nice holiday.

Whisper of the Heart review – Studio Ghibli deep cut is pep talk on how to live the artistic life

Hayao Miyazaki-scripted 90s teen romance sees an aspiring writer drawn to a potential soulmate thanks to library books and a curmudgeonly cat

While 2013’s The Wind Rises and 2023’s The Boy and the Heron saw Hayao Miyazaki break his wizard’s staff, artistically speaking, this lesser-known Studio Ghibli cut from 1995, based on his screenplay, shows he was dwelling on creative responsibilities from early on. Featuring a typical Ghibli protagonist on the brink of adulthood – aspiring schoolkid writer Shizuku (voiced by Yōko Honna) – this teen romance doubles up as an earnest pep talk on how to commit to the artistic life. It’s not quite as sophisticated, though, in its understanding of the interplay between imagination and reality as Miyazaki’s later masterpieces.

It also features highly inventive use of that 2010s soundtrack favourite: John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads. Shizuku shows off her fledgling penmanship for a school performance of the song devising hilarious Japanese lyrics that satirise Tokyo’s “concrete roads”. But while her writing shows promise, her love life remains in the fantasy realm. Mainlining library books, she realises that the same name, Seiji Amasawa, keeps appearing on the lists of previous borrowers. It feels like fate is pointing her towards a soulmate – especially when a curmudgeonly cat leads her “like in a story” to an intriguing curio shop near the library.

‘It’s payback time’: the WNBA-leading Lynx are on the hunt for title redemption

Ten seasons ago, Minnesota entered the playoffs with a chip on their shoulders and won a championship. Can they channel the same energy this year?

Williams Arena (now known as The Barn) in Minneapolis was packed to capacity on 4 October 2017, when Cheryl Reeve sent Sylvia Fowles into Game 5 of the WNBA finals and watched her take off. Reeve, chasing her fourth championship after losing out in 2016, had learned her lesson the previous year, when she put Fowles back into a finals game too late.

Fowles answered the call. She racked up 17 points and broke her own WNBA rebounds record with 20. Her effort was matched by that of Maya Moore, with 18 points and 10 rebounds; Lindsay Whalen, who had 17 points and eight assists; and Seimone Augustus, who added another 14 points, six assists and six rebounds. The Lynx showed out, clinching the franchise’s fourth title, with Fowles named finals MVP.

Senators question Trump's picks for top health positions, including surgeon general

On Wednesday, the Senate committee on health holds a confirmation hearing for three top health officials, including surgeon general. Dr. Nicole Saphier is President Trump's third attempt to nominate a surgeon general.

Why Coventry, Tottenham and Aston Villa should not panic about their slow starts

Coventry have no points, Spurs have no goals and Villa have dipped again. But what does a bad start really mean?

By Opta Analyst

That optimism we feel at the start of a new season can be intoxicating. Whatever happened last season, there has been a whole summer to correct things. New signings, possibly a new manager, and new possibilities. What could go wrong? Oh, everything. Terrific. We’re only in mid-September, but that early optimism has melted away and been replaced by anxiety for some fans.

Coventry had every reason to look forward to the season, their first in the Premier League since 2001. They were coming off the back of a title-winning campaign in the Championship and were riding the crest of a wave. Now, though, they have fallen off their surfboard and are frantically trying to keep their heads above water as the ferocity of the top flight becomes increasingly apparent.

Kosovo's ex-President Thaci convicted of war crimes, sentenced to 25 years in prison

A European Union-backed court convicted former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci of war crimes committed during his country's war for independence from Serbia and sentenced him to 25 years in prison.

Revealed: the UK towns with the fewest jobs for young people

Rotherham has 46 online vacancies for every 1,000 young people but there are 288 in Cotswold district council area

Young people in Rotherham face a local jobs market with the fewest suitable opportunities in Britain, according to a report that warns stark regional divisions are fuelling a crisis in youth work.

As ministers push to combat rising youth unemployment, the analysis from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) showed young people faced a tougher challenge in some parts of the country to find work than in others.

The Spin | Robots bowling the perfect doosra are some way off but AI is already reshaping cricket

Artificial intelligence is not replacing the player, coach or analyst, but it is certainly allowing them to do more

Daniel Kokotajlo, a former researcher at OpenAI, warned last week that it was possible we would end up “creating a new species that ends up ruling the world”. Once the initial shock wore off, and I’d considered what this could mean for my young children and the future of the planet, another thought popped into my head: will this new species be able to swing an old cricket ball or navigate a seaming green top?

It sounds frivolous. It is frivolous. But the question is not quite as ridiculous as it first appears.

David Bowie: The Shel Talmy Recordings review – these unheard 60s tunes are actually pretty flimsy

(Parlophone)
On this new compilation of his mid-60s Davie Jones years, Bowie can’t distinguish himself from the era’s other bands – and ends up hedging his bets

In 1973, David Bowie released Pin Ups, a loving if slightly over-wrought collection of covers from the mid-60s: the moment when the previous driving forces of British pop, Merseybeat and the blues revival started giving way to something noticeably weirder, noisier and more expansive. In an accompanying promotional interview, he waxed lyrical about his memories of seeing the Pretty Things, the Who, the Creation and the nascent Pink Floyd “with dear old Syd” in impeccable mod lingo (“up the Windmill or the Elephant, get blocked, bust over to Richmond”) but tactfully neglected to mention that he was more than an amphetamine-fuelled fan: he’d wanted to be a participant, and had recorded a handful of mid-60s singles inspired by his idols.

That elision shows what a strained relationship Bowie had with his pre-fame material. For most of his career, he simply tried to ignore it, although it doggedly refused to go away: his former labels kept re-releasing it, usually in sleeves that attempted to fool the buyer that it was current. Then, in his 50s, he seemed to reconsider, revisiting his 60s oeuvre on Toy, a 2001 album that was rejected by his then-label EMI – a baffling decision, if you buy the posthumous rewriting of Bowie’s history that insists his Glastonbury performance in 2000 utterly reinvigorated his career and made him as revered as he was in his peak years.

Saudi Arabia calls an attempted Mecca attack a 'red line' as Houthis deny they did it

Saudi Arabia accused Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels overnight of trying to attack Islam's holiest city, prompting condemnation from countries in the region but no sign of military support.

‘Pacing’ won’t eliminate the risk of AI doom. Here’s what could | David Krueger

The stark reality is this: we don’t know how to maintain control of these systems. But there are actions we can take

With Jacob Coxon’s resignation from Anthropic, we have reached the AI risk tipping point. Millions of people are finally coming to understand what experts have known for years: AI companies have been gambling with all of our lives, and the odds are not good.

In response, the Anthropic CEO, Dario Amodei, has introduced a proposal for “pacing the frontier”, endorsed by Sam Altman and Elon Musk. Can we breathe a sigh of relief? Are we about to step back from the edge of extinction?

Amodei envisions a slowdown of one to two years, resulting in “profound progress” on technical safety measures. But that’s not what humanity needs right now. What we need is a plan in which we’re confident AI isn’t going to kill us, and this isn’t it.

Iranian security forces coordinated killing, torture and sexual abuse of protesters, says Amnesty

Leaked documents and testimony reveal extent of regime’s crackdown in 2022 and how it paved the way for more brutal killings of protesters this year

Iranian security forces “coordinated” the killing, torture and sexual abuse of hundreds of people who took part in the women-led nationwide protests in September 2022, according to leaked state documents and interviews.

Tens of thousands of people, including children, took to the streets of towns and cities across Iran after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, after her arrest by the “morality” police for allegedly not complying with the country’s hijab regulations.

As campaign season gears up, AI-generated ads are everywhere

Data suggests many candidates are embracing AI this year to boost their image and portray their opponents unfavorably. But whether it will turn out voters remains unclear.

The Fed is expected to raise interest rates for the first time in 3 years

The Fed is widely expected to raise its benchmark interest rate to combat stubborn inflation. That could make it more expensive to borrow money to buy a car or carry a balance on a credit card.

Georgia execution delayed for hearing under new law that may reduce sentence

A Georgia judge has put an execution on hold to allow time for a hearing on whether the sentence should be reduced under a new state law that lets victims of abuse have their sentences reconsidered.

Safe Spaces by Tice Cin review – a kaleidoscopic vision of precarity, music and grief

Part spoken-word poem, part journalistic meditation, this is an inventive, tender novel of a songwriter’s journey through love and loss in London

Tice Cin’s philosophical and poetic new novel about a young Turkish-Cypriot songwriter and music producer extends the preoccupations of her prizewinning debut, 2021’s Keeping the House. This intimately told sophomore novel, again a story of friendship, precarity and community, is at once an elegy, a spoken-word poem and a journalistic meditation, repeatedly asking readers: “So, are you listening?”

For our unnamed narrator, “hurts come in different shapes each time”: from the childhood scars of her father’s abandonment, to sexism in the creative scene and the difficulties of navigating short-lived flatshares on universal credit (“If you don’t know about being money dry, if you don’t know loss – you don’t get it. If you know, you know”). Her journey of personal discovery is mapped on to the contemporary travails of London’s wider working-class inner-city diaspora communities as she calculates her life by doorways, “walking past each one” without a roadmap for her personal and professional goals.

The Cycle of Love review – a 6,000-mile bike ride caps a real life Swedish-Indian romance

One Oscar-winning director, one horoscope-prompted meet-cute and a continent-crossing cyclist – is this the start of documentaries that make you happy-cry?

Here is a story that on the face of it seems so wildly unlikely it can only be true. Indeed, the very concept of a romantic documentary sounds almost oxymoronic, an indication of how much nonfiction films have become synonymous with grim histories full of suffering and injustice. Let’s hope this sweet work, directed by Orlando von Einsiedel (who’s made his share of hardcore, suffering-intensive docs including Oscar-winning short The White Helmets) launches a new trend in nonfiction film-making for stuff that makes you happy-cry.

The basic meet-cute happened in 1975, when PK (played by Chirag Lobo in the film’s extensive re-enactments) met Lotta (Mina Dale) in Delhi. He was a poor street artist, a Dalit, the lowest possible caste, once called Untouchables. The real PK Mahanandia appears on screen to explain how he had left his rural village for Delhi in order to get away from all that caste hierarchy. When he met Lotta he pretty much knew he’d met the woman of his dreams because he’d been carrying a horoscope his father had commissioned for him when he was a baby that prophesised he’d fall in love with a woman whose family owned a jungle. Lotta, a backpacker from Sweden, hailed from a clan back home that owned a forest, so that was good enough for PK to believe he’d met his fate. After a chaste holiday romance bloomed between these two crazy kids, she went back to Sweden and he decided to bicycle the 6,000 miles all the way there from India to prove his love.

The other side of Croatia: ‘a landscape that could out-Tuscany Tuscany’

Weekenders from Zagreb head to the rolling green Samobor Hills for nature, vineyards, delicious local food and Habsburg-era architecture

‘You’re going to Samobor? You must try kremšnita,” my Dubrovnik friends told me before I set off on my trip north. “But I’ve already had kremšnita in Zagreb,” I told them. They do it better in Samobor, they insisted. I wasn’t about to get embroiled in a battle of the cream cakes in a region where Croatians, Slovenes and Austrians all like to celebrate their own versions of this decadently thick, fat custard slice topped with puff pastry and icing sugar. But I was more than willing – happy, even – to follow everyone’s suggestions to try kremšnita in Hotel Livadić’s Kavana Livadić, in Samobor’s main King Tomislav Square, a mere half-hour drive west of Zagreb.

It lived up to the hype – delicately rich, creamy and with a light touch. After spending a few weeks in sun-bleached Venetian Dalmatia, amid the scrubby, limestone Dinaric Alps, I had swapped empires and was firmly in Habsburg Croatia. Here, in Zagreb County’s prettiest town, handsome baroque houses in pastel shades of buttery yellow, apricot and pistachio, festooned with stucco, line narrow King Tomislav Square, whose umbrella-shaded cafe terraces were filled with Croatians getting their morning fix of coffee and chatter.

‘Who do they dream of becoming?’ Teenage girls in America – in pictures

As a child from a small Belgian farming town, Eva Verbeeck could only imagine what it was like growing up as an American teen. Then she began photographing them

A moment that changed me: I felt hugely self conscious about my skin - until I had a revelation

For years, my vitiligo controlled my life, and I was constantly trying to disguise it. But one day, I realised I could take a very different and extremely liberating approach

The microphone felt heavier than I expected. As I stood on stage at a London comedy club last December, I looked out at a room full of strangers sitting quietly, waiting for me to make them laugh. It felt nerve-racking and surreal. I had spent years hiding my vitiligo, hoping people wouldn’t notice it. Now I was about to joke about it in my set.

I was three years old when I developed my first patch of vitiligo on the back of my hand, which later spread to my arms, legs, face and other parts of my body. By the time I was six years old, 70% of me was covered. I was too young to understand what was happening.

Fresh evidence of C of E’s role in enslavement uncovered as church wrestles with reparations debate

Register of British Slave Traders shows clergymen financed company that trafficked enslaved Africans on hundreds of voyages

Nearly 250 years after the abolitionist Ottobah Cugoano made the Christian case for reparative justice, the archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, visited the Ghanaian shore where he was enslaved as a boy.

After witnessing the dungeons beneath the chapel at Cape Coast Castle, once run by the Royal African Company (RAC), Mullally recommitted the Church of England to its “journey of repentance” for its role in slavery.

Squid ink tomato pasta and honey and fig semifreddo: Chris Leach’s Italian recipes for the end of summer

Cooking at this time of year is all about low-effort, maximum-impact options. This savoury dish comes together quickly but looks striking, while the dessert showcases figs at their most flavoursome

The secret to late-summer/early autumn cooking is to keep things relatively low-effort, not least to assuage those back-to-work/school blues. And that rule applies across the board, whether you’re making a midweek meal, entertaining or serving up a long, slow Sunday lunch. The sauce for this pasta dish, for example, comes together while the pasta is cooking, while the semifreddo pudding makes the most of ripe figs when they are at their absolute best.

Nvidia's Huang diverges with CEOs of Anthropic, OpenAI on AI safety at Dreamforce

Comments from the two tech leaders landed days after Anthropic's Dario Amodei published an essay urging the AI industry to slow the pace of model development.

The girl with a will to live: the love, hope and pain of raising Elsie – my one in 163 million daughter

She was born with an ultra-rare genetic disorder. After my decades working in film PR, I now face the biggest campaign of all: the fight for her life

My daughter Elsie has beautiful curls – blond like a little Botticelli cherub’s, hair that someone dark like me could only ever dream of. She laughs a lot, has a cheeky sense of humour and soaks in all the sounds around her – rustling leaves, the sea, a dog barking, children playing around a pool, me impersonating the alarm clock every morning, me impersonating monkeys. Indeed, me impersonating any animal.

Sound is important for Elsie because she has a visual impairment and, while we know she has some peripheral vision, is legally classed as blind. As a result, she uses her tongue to check her environment. When she’s excited it sticks out, tasting the air around her, licking anyone close, sensing space. And when she likes the taste of something she keeps her tongue out until you give her more. This is how we know she likes lollies.

Slow Horses season six review – it gets harder to enjoy Gary Oldman’s spy thriller every year

The show’s creator has gone, it’s been retooled as a conventional thriller and it feels like it’s starting to run out of ideas – even if it’s as slick and confident as ever

This is a new Slow Horses: season six is the first not to be guided by Will Smith, a writer whose previous work on The Thick of It and Veep explained why this espionage saga had an unusually sharp comic tongue. The absence of Smith’s drollery is discernible in a more straight-faced new story, but the bigger problem is one of a creative work naturally eroding over time. Slow Horses is now old.

It’s always been a difficult, delicate proposition. The staff of Slough House, a purgatorial spin-off of MI5 where misfits and screw-ups are given boring work when it would make more sense to just fire them, regularly outstrip supposedly elite spies despite being shambling losers. Leading the field agents is River Cartwright (Jack Lowden), who has the good looks of a spy hero and some of the skills, but is also a brittle, luckless and rather whiny wretch, who regularly has to be saved from ignominious death. The jokes have helped us suspend our disbelief that River and the rest haven’t yet been riddled with bullets, and the relocation of traditional spy thrills to decaying urban settings is still a tonic, but enjoying this conjuring trick gets harder every year.

‘We weren’t shy. We were queers in leather!’ Sunil Gupta on his momentous photographs of gay life

From Delhi to New York, from the street to the bath house, he has captured clandestine moments, risked his freedom – and even referenced Romantic painters. Ahead of a major show, the photographer relives his landmark shots

‘I’ve been very promiscuous,” Sunil Gupta says, reflecting on his experiments with photography since the 1970s. Gupta, who was born in India, brought up in Canada and moved to the UK in 1978 after two years studying in New York, has documented and described queer lives for five decades. In his work, he’s quietly tried to find new ways of seeing, exploring the potential of photography to blur fiction and reality, public space and intimate, clandestine moments. His work explores the ways we love and relate to one another, set against the ever-shifting tides of politics and society.

He photographs with love – but it hasn’t been without risk. An exhibition in India was once shut down by the government, and in his early days in the UK, when he was working with fellow photographer Tessa Boffin, he recalls curators “physically shrinking away when we walked in the room – two queers in leather were too much for them! But we were quite aggressively upfront with our sexualities, we weren’t shy about it.”

The women saving Borneo: battling fire, patriarchy and super El Niño on Indonesia’s peatland frontlines

Fire threatens Kalimantan’s rainforests. On the peatland frontlines, a group of local mothers is defending their community. Words and Photography: Garry Lotulung

Irma puts on her heavy rubber boots as she prepares for a volunteer firefighting shift in her village of Sungai Putri, on the Indonesian side of Borneo island.

Dressed in full safety gear she heads into fire zones on her motorbike, the air thick with toxic smoke.

House to vote on bill to rein in AI data center utility costs

The bipartisan legislation would create a regulatory framework states could adopt to prevent data center-related energy costs from being passed on to consumers.

New photos show widespread damage at U.S. positions caused by Iranian attacks

The images were sent to CBS News by active service members under condition of anonymity.

In Washington, unlikely bedfellows like Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon talk about making AI "humans first"

As AI CEOs call for a slowdown, President Trump wants acceleration. But the issue is gaining bipartisan momentum.

Trump admin. will comply with mail ballot ruling by Supreme Court, Blanche says

The Supreme Court on Monday blocked the Postal Service from enforcing new mail voting rules ahead of the midterm elections.

Ed Sheeran's supporting acts pull out of tour after Macklemore was dropped

Aaron Rowe, Beoga, Lukas Graham and Finneas all released statements Tuesday on Instagram saying they were withdrawing from Ed Sheeran's tour.

Musk urges top AI labs, Chinese companies to test each other's models amid calls for slowdown

Elon Musk called for the leading AI labs to peer review each others' models before they're released to the public as a way to evaluate their safety.