Safety check calls after Irish teenager electrocuted taking shower in Greece

Alex McKee died when picking up showerhead in ‘outdoor and rudimentary’ bathroom on Kimolos

The death of an Irish teenager, electrocuted while taking a shower in a holiday home in Greece, has led to calls for tighter checks on appliances at tourist accommodation.

Alex McKee, 17, is said to have died instantly when picking up the showerhead in a bathroom described as “outdoor and rudimentary” on Kimolos.

Hawaii under a hurricane warning as Tropical Storm Lala takes aim

Tropical Storm Lala could bring heavy rain, high winds and dangerous surf and rip currents to the Hawaiian Islands as a hurricane this weekend, forecasters say.

Powerful earthquake kills dozens in eastern Indonesia

Quake struck Flores region early on Saturday, prompting thousands to seek higher ground for fear of a tsunami

A 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck eastern Indonesia has killed at least 40 people, causing widespread panic and collapsing buildings and homes in a region prone to deadly seismic events.

Authorities issued a tsunami warning, which has since been lifted, but there were at least 235 aftershocks, including one of magnitude 6.1. Indonesian authorities said that monitoring showed no significant sea level changes that could indicate a tsunami.

‘Once I started zooming in, I never stopped’: the mesmerising art of macro photography

Converts describe a demanding form of capturing nature very close up that has grown in popularity in last few years

• Vote here for your favourite invertebrate of the year

“I always just pray ‘please don’t fly away’,” says Dara Ojo. As a wildlife photographer, he can handle spending minutes, hours and sometimes days waiting for the shot, but insects are not always very cooperative.

Ojo is one of an increasing number of photographers turning their lenses towards something smaller: macro photography. This refers to photographing the natural world at an extremely close range, close enough to see the facets of a fly’s eye, or the geometry of a spider’s face.

Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon kill 11 in worst toll since June truce

Rescue services search for survivors and bodies after airstrikes hit homes in Ansar and Deir al-Zahrani

Eleven people have been killed, including three children, and 19 injured in two Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon, the worst toll since deals in June brought a lull in hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israeli warplanes bombed a home on the outskirts of the village of Ansar, killing seven people and flattening the building early on Saturday morning. Rescue services were working at the site to try to find survivors and locate bodies.

Multiple people injured in shooting at Virginia State University

School said shooting involved ‘multiple suspects’ as campus was locked down and police responded to scene

Multiple people were injured in a shooting at Virginia State University, police said on Saturday morning, with several suspects still at large.

The campus, about 20 miles (32km) south of Richmond, was on lockdown when police released initial details about the shooting.

5 people injured in shooting at Virginia State University

Five people were injured in the shooting involving multiple suspects. One person is currently listed in critical condition, the university said.

Missed out on tickets to see the Bayeux tapestry in London? A £1,000 hotel stay will get you in

British Museum’s £33 tickets sold out in a day but some slots have been reserved for guests at five-star One Aldwych

Those hoping to snare a glimpse of the Bayeux tapestry when it comes to the British Museum this September faced nine-hour online queues, with the £33 tickets sold out within a day.

But the monied guests of a five-star hotel in Covent Garden have not had to go to such arduous lengths to get a view of the nearly 1,000-year-old depiction of William the Conqueror’s victory over King Harold II of England at Hastings in 1066.

‘He had magnetism’: Lula returns to site of political origins to launch fourth-term campaign

Brazil’s president was union chief who led metalworkers’ strikes of 1979-80 that paved the way for return of democracy

Day after day, tens of thousands of metalworkers would cram on to the football pitch in São Paulo’s industrial suburbs to demand higher wages and, perhaps unwittingly, transform the destiny of Brazil.

“You weren’t just documenting a fact – you were documenting history,” said photographer Jesus Carlos, who immortalised the now legendary strikes of 1979 and 1980 with his 24mm lens.

Tributes paid to Jason Arday after former Cambridge professor’s death

Andy Burnham calls for reflection after ‘a tragedy on so many levels’ in comments echoed by London mayor Sadiq Khan

Andy Burnham has called the death of Jason Arday, who was found dead at his home in south London on Friday, a “tragedy on so many levels”.

Arday resigned as a professor at the University of Cambridge last week after allegations of plagiarism, which he denied. He was pronounced dead just after 3pm on Friday.

Met apologises for exposing 143 email addresses of Mohamed Al Fayed victims

London police force tells Telegraph incident was result of ‘human error’ and it is conducting an investigation

The Metropolitan police have apologised for accidentally exposing the email addresses of more than 140 victims of Mohamed Al Fayed.

In a group update about its investigation into the former Harrods owner, the force copied the email addresses of 143 victims of Fayed in a message that included about 12 other recipients, the Telegraph reported.

How to buy a ‘mega-dinghy’: the perilous new model of Channel crossing

Boats carrying hundreds of people are a clear and alarming trend. But where do such large vessels come from?

Providing a large dinghy for use in the choppy seas of western Europe was not a problem, as long as the order was for more than 20 vessels, they said. The sales manager at the Chinese company even had an online brochure for an undercover Guardian reporter, posing as a prospective client, to peruse.

They had a production capacity of 500 boats a month and, yes, it was possible to get even bigger ones for the right price. They could do a seven or even an eight-metre military-style dinghy for $1,678 (£1,238) a boat, without the engines, but that would be lacking CE certification, the mandatory mark that shows a product meets EU health and safety requirements.

Additional reporting by Lyndon Li

Mom-to-be had 2 signs of rare complication: "Everything kept getting worse"

Candice Davis' first pregnancy was going smoothly until she began feeling some nausea and pain one afternoon.

I drove Tesla FSD, Rivian Autonomy+ ‘hands-free’ driving systems. Here’s how they compare

Rivian is trying to catch up to Tesla's "hands-free" capabilities, but with additional safety guardrails that the Elon Musk company doesn't have.

Finlay Tarling’s NSN team withdraw from Volta a Portugal day after his death

• 19-year-old killed on Friday by collision with van

• ‘We will continue to hold Fin in our hearts’

Finlay Tarling’s NSN Development team withdrew from the Volta a Portugal on Saturday, the day after the death of the 19-year-old British rider in an accident during the race.

Tarling, the younger brother of the Ineos rider Josh, was reportedly involved in a head-on collision with a vehicle unconnected with the event that was travelling in the opposite direction.

Prichard Colón, boxer left with brain damage after 2015 fight, dies aged 33

• Puerto Rican suffered brain bleed in only defeat

• WBC blamed illegal blows to back of the head

• Colón had won his first 16 professional fights

The boxing world was in mourning Friday following the death of Puerto Rican fighter Prichard Colón at the age of 33, 11 years after he sustained brain damage in the only defeat of his professional career.

Colón’s death was confirmed in statements by the World Boxing Council and the World Boxing Organization late Thursday.

The promises the Taliban made to women, then broke – video explainer

Five years of Taliban rule has heavily discriminated against women, despite the group claiming it would protect their rights. Guardian journalist Annie Kelly looks back at the statements that Taliban leaders made in 2021 and the reality of women's lives in Afghanistan today

US navy veterans and military health experts express concern over USS Abraham Lincoln sailors

Prolonged deployment is coupled with reports of water shortages, plumbing issues and attempts to jump overboard

• Trump downplays concerns about sailors onboard USS Abraham Lincoln

US navy veterans and military health experts are expressing concerns about the strain on sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has spent nearly nine months at sea supporting US operations in the Middle East, amid reports of poor living conditions and worsening mental health among its crew.

The San Diego-based aircraft carrier left port on 21 November, originally bound for the Pacific, but was redirected to the Middle East as the US-Israel war with Iran began. It has now spent more than 250 consecutive days at sea without a significant port visit, with its deployment repeatedly extended.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt convinced me to give up on my fashion industry dreams

I was struggling to make ends meet as an unpaid intern when a sarcastic song from the hit comedy gave me the clarity to walk out

It was 3am in the summer of 2017, and I was lying in a triple bunk bed in a hostel in London, listening to the sounds of the 14 other people in my dormitory snoring. I had been working unpaid internships in the fashion industry in London for the past 18 months and living in £12-a-night hostels. When I couldn’t sleep, I would watch TV on my beaten-up phone to drown out the snores. I was watching Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, an absurdist comedy about a woman who moves to New York after 15 years imprisoned in a doomsday cult’s underground bunker.

Her relentless positivity often inspired me to keep going, but on that particular night, the opposite happened: Kimmy gave me the courage to give up.

Double jeopardy could spell end of state case after Luigi Mangione’s guilty plea

Defense argues New York cannot try Mangione over same act or offense as federal case – the killing of Brian Thompson

Luigi Mangione’s plea to federal stalking charges in UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s death has spurred questions about the fate of the separate Manhattan murder case against him, with experts saying New York’s double-jeopardy law could derail that trial.

Mangione pleaded guilty to one count of interstate stalking resulting in death, and one count of cyberstalking through use of interstate facilities resulting in death, in connection with the 4 December 2024 shooting outside a Midtown hotel. Both charges carry a potential maximum life sentence.

Are you tweaking on your partner? From secret boob jobs to Botox on the sly, people explain why they keep their cosmetic procedures hidden

Daniel’s boyfriend thinks his youthful complexion is down to fancy skincare, and Jessica’s nearest and dearest still don’t know she’s had a breast enhancement …

Jessica was at a spa with her friends of more than 20 years when she noticed one stare at her bikini, lock eyes with her and laugh, before asking: “Wait, have you …?” The game was up – eight months after she’d had a secret breast enhancement, she’d been rumbled. Fearing judgment from even her closest circle, she had only spoken to two people who’d had the procedure, for advice, and told a neighbour in case she was unwell after the surgery. “My family still don’t know – most people don’t,” the 42-year-old from London says, including her two children who live between her and her ex-husband. “I’m not alone; I’ve since learned winter is the most popular time for people to get things done, then they can just hide under jumpers while everything settles in, so no one notices.”

For years, celebrities have endured public speculation about their tweakments and surgeries – but as procedures become more commonplace, “civilian” patients are facing the same questions from family and friends. And many of them are choosing to go incognito; some surgeons estimate up to 70% of their clients aren’t telling others about their aesthetic procedures. But what are the practicalities of disguising everything from breast augmentation to filler to hair transplants from your closest circle? And why are so many people spending thousands of pounds to alter their appearance – only to hope that no one notices?

ICE detained a Venezuelan soccer pro. His case shows the immigration backlog crisis

Homero Calderón's detention by ICE spotlights the massive backlog in the U.S. immigration system.   

Hundreds of sea turtles are stranded in Cape Cod each year. An ‘amazing network’ has mobilized to help

Massachusetts beaches have become a ‘hotspot for mass stranding of sea turtles’, so an annual rescue effort has grown

Sea turtle #471 gasped audibly, as veterinarian Kathy Tuxbury palpated the surgical scar on the animal’s left flipper.

The turtle – lovingly renamed “Lucky” by the huge network of conservationists, interns and volunteers working to save its life – is one of the last patients of the year at the New England Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Hospital, waiting to be returned to the ocean.

The Fauci hearing was painful to watch. But we need answers on Covid-19’s origin| David Relman

Despite the recent hearings in Congress, we seem to be even further from the goal of understanding Covid-19’s origin’s than we have ever been

As a microbiologist and infectious disease clinician, it has been tough to watch the recent devolution of public discourse on Covid-19 origins. It has been especially difficult for me to read the comments of Anthony Fauci about the origins debate in his now-public diary. And it has been painful to watch the televised spectacle hosted by the US senator Rand Paul on 29 July involving a hostile interrogation of Fauci.

Despite many early pleas, including my own, for a dispassionate, objective assessment of what we know, don’t know and need to know about Covid-19 origins, we seem to be even further from this goal now than we have ever been – plagued by politicization, polarization and illogical thinking.

David Relman is a professor of medicine and microbiology at Stanford University. He was an inaugural member of the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity and president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America

5 exercises that can prevent (and relieve!) pregnancy pain 

Hemorrhoids, leg cramps, sciatica — oh my! Alongside the joy of pregnancy often comes a parade of physical discomfort. Alleviate and prevent common aches with these exercises.

Post-Brexit rights for British citizens are being undermined in Sweden

Apparent high level of removal orders suggests Sweden is rejecting ‘reasonable grounds’ for failing to apply to stay

Back in October 2020, the UK immigration minister stood up in parliament to reassure campaigners concerned about EU citizens who weren’t aware they had to ask the Home Office to stay in the country after Brexit.

Using an example of a child in foster care who might not know they were an EU citizen until they applied for their first job, the Conservative Kevin Foster said the UK would take “a generous approach as to what reasonable grounds [for failing to apply] were”.

‘Here we are 30 years later’: the Olympic team that transformed US basketball

The 1996 US women’s Olympic team enter the Hall of Fame on Saturday after giving momentum to the WNBA and re-launching an era of American dominance

For the US women’s basketball team, the 1996 Olympics weren’t just about winning gold in front of their home crowd.

It was about the future of women’s basketball in America. The US women were knocked out of the 1992 Olympics in the semi-finals by the Commonwealth of Independent States – a stunning and embarrassing defeat. Heading into the 1996 Games, which were held in Atlanta, turning around the program was a top priority not just for USA Basketball, but the NBA as well, which was looking to start a women’s league that would become the WNBA.

Will Poulter on challenging stereotypes in new opioid drama: ‘Shame on us for stigmatizing people’

The British actor delivers his strongest performance to date in indie film Union County as a person struggling with substance abuse trying to turn his life around

Every week, Annette Deao, a drug dependency counselor, sits in the county jail and offers incarcerated people in rural Ohio a chance at recovery. One bright day she meets Cody, a young man who shuffles towards the lectern and quietly says that he’s ready to give it a shot. “His self-respect is in the basement,” said Will Poulter, the British actor who plays the character. “He doesn’t like or accept himself enough to embark on helping himself.”

Directed by Adam Meeks, an Ohio native, Union County is a bruising yet poetic depiction of a real life drug recovery court in Bellefontaine, Ohio, where individuals join long-term treatment programs with daily sobriety testing. Though the film is led by Poulter and Noah Centineo as foster brothers taking steps to get clean, much of the supporting cast is made up of first-time actors who share their real – and often painful and non-linear – stories of recovery. The hybrid of narrative feature and documentary-esque elements combine in a deeply affecting watch that is anchored by Poulter’s natural-feeling approach to the role.

They fought for the U.S. in Afghanistan. Now they worry about losing their green cards

When the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan five years ago, thousands of Afghans who helped U.S. troops were brought here to rebuild their lives. But now, some fear the U.S. may want to send them back.

Australia on brink of historic defeat to Bangladesh as batting woes resurface

• First Test, day three: Australia 198 and 161-4; Bangladesh 426

• Cameron Green rides luck to remain unbeaten on 43 at stumps

Australia will have to dig themselves out of a huge hole without their best batsman Steve Smith after Bangladesh kept their foot on the hosts’ throat in pursuit of an upset Test win in Darwin.

Under-pressure all-rounder Cameron Green, who was bailed out by a stroke of luck, was looking composed on an unbeaten 43 at stumps on day three, along with wicketkeeper Alex Carey (19 no), as Australia reached 161 for 4 in their second innings.

Magnitude 7.7 earthquake strikes off Indonesia's coast, killing at least 38

A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia early Saturday, killing at least 38 people, collapsing buildings as well as causing panic in a region prone to deadly quakes.

Art Spiegelman: ‘The US needs a counter-revolution’

More than four decades after his Holocaust story Maus transformed the graphic novel genre, Art Spiegelman discusses Trump, the shadow of 9/11 and the rise of fascism in America

When the cartoonist Art Spiegelman began dating his future wife, Françoise Mouly, in the mid 70s, she would tell him not to worry about walking her home, because even the New York muggers didn’t bother venturing to where she lived in Soho. He moved in with her quite suddenly not long after, when his apartment in Greenwich Village burned down. His landlord, who lived on the ground floor, was a hoarder – once, when he came to collect Spiegelman’s rent, a cockroach crawled up from under his shirt collar – and eventually his accumulated junk caught alight.

This feels like a quintessential New York story, but then much of Spiegelman’s life does, or at least fits with the kind of stories we like to tell ourselves about the city. The Soho apartment Spiegelman and Mouly have lived in for five decades is worth millions now and is surrounded by high-end designers; his studio, down the road, is above a branch of Tiffany’s. “It’s just kind of an embarrassment, I mean Tiffany’s is not my class,” says Spiegelman, who refers to these flash new arrivals, dismissively, as “very fancy airport mall stores”.

First Australian death of little penguin with H5 bird flu confirmed on Phillip Island

Authorities confirm first Australian death of species found with virus near where it attracts crowds to a ‘penguin parade’

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Australia’s first case of the deadly H5 bird flu in a little penguin has been confirmed on Victoria’s Phillip Island, only days after the state government announced it would begin vaccinating the species.

Confirmation of the virus in the little penguin will spark a race to vaccinate thousands of birds, with the government announcing on Saturday it would begin the rollout on Monday.

It’s the SUV tyranny: where have all the normal family cars gone? | Coco Khan

They rule the roads and, in their wake, even old-style saloons have been supersized. It’s an illusion of consumer choice

Recently, while traipsing from showroom to showroom in search of a used car for my growing clan, the iconic line from Christopher Nolan’s seminal Batman movie The Dark Knight came to mind: “You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” And by villain, of course, I mean an SUV driver.

Because, if you haven’t shopped for a secondhand family car recently, I’ll save you the shock: wherever you look, it’s SUVs.

Farewell Cristian Romero, you actually always were ‘that type of player’ | Max Rushden

You can’t help but feel the Argentinian with a penchant for red cards has arrived at his spiritual home with his move to Diego Simeone’s Atlético Madrid

“He’s not that kind of player” is perhaps the greatest of the co-commentators’ meaningless banalities. Used shortly after a “nice guy” has scythed someone in half about a day after the ball has gone, it is by definition nonsense because if you have scythed someone in half about a day after the ball has gone, then you are indeed that kind of player.

But I don’t recall ever hearing anyone saying “the thing is Clive/Brian, he is that kind of player”. I haven’t analysed every foul in Premier League history to tell if you those kinds of challenges are carried out by players all of us would consider to be “that kind of player” as opposed to the opposite – but the list of players with the most red cards suggests a pattern – Richard Dunne, Duncan Ferguson, Patrick Vieira with eight reds, Lee Cattermole and Roy Keane on seven, Vinnie Jones, Joey Barton and Alan Smith (obviously not that one) among those on six.

20 of the best cabins, campsites and hotels in Europe’s mountains, lakes and forests

From a 500-year-old inn in the Italian Dolomites to a log cabin in Finland’s lake district, these boltholes offer a tranquil and restorative getaway

Why can’t penguins fly and why don’t buses have seatbelts? The kids’ quiz

Five multiple-choice questions – set by children – to test your knowledge, and a chance to submit your own junior brainteasers for future quizzes

• ​Submit a question

Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun, a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book, as well as her new title, Everything Under the Sun: All Around the World.

Westminster council threatens Charing Cross soup kitchen with closure

Conservative authority says site is not safe for vulnerable people charity serves or general public

Westminster council is making it “impossible” for soup kitchens to operate by complaining about the “crowds of vulnerable people” who turn up to be fed, a charity has said.

Steven Stuart, who founded Friends of Essex & London Homeless (FOELH) with his wife, Cheryl, a decade ago, said constant complaints from the council could force the soup kitchen to shut down.

‘Their Strength Through Joy conversation is killing me’: Samuel Beckett’s German diaries

Published for the first time this month, the Irish writer’s record of his months in pre-war Germany is a fascinating insight into his understanding of, and unease with, Nazism

War was not yet on the immediate horizon when Samuel Beckett visited the German city of Hamburg in October 1936, but after watching the apoplexy that Adolf Hitler’s braying induced in ordinary Germans, the Irish playwright was certain that peace could not last. “They’ll need to fight soon (or burst),” he noted in his diary on 6 October.

The six notebooks that Beckett compiled during his six-month journey across Germany between late September 1936 and April 1937, published for the first time by German publisher Suhrkamp on 20 August this year, put paid to a commonly held view of the author of Waiting for Godot as a poet of pure pessimism, interested in despair and stasis but unconcerned by real-life politics.

The 20-year search for a vanishing custard-and-chocolate coloured moth

Yorkshire common was thought to be the only known site of dark bordered beauty moths in England – until now

• Vote here for your favourite invertebrate of the year

Dave Wainwright first surveyed Wallington in Northumberland for a rare custard-and-chocolate coloured moth in 2004. He parked two miles from the site, hauled a moth trap across, and was bitten by a million flies.

He did not find a single dark bordered beauty that night. The ground was heavily grazed by sheep, and the creeping willow the caterpillars depend on was “quite well plucked”.

Meera Sodha’s recipe for black rice salad with tomatoes, tamarind and green beans | Meera Sodha recipes

Change up your seasonal salads with an easy-to-prep dish that centres on slow-cooked rice and a lively Asian dressing

Here’s a recipe straight out of the low-effort, high-reward school of cooking, in which you chop the vegetables and nuts, boil the rice and beans, throw over a dressing … and it’s done! It was written in the middle of a heatwave, when cooking felt impossible, but I couldn’t look at another watermelon and feta salad. The trade-off is that this dish relies heavily on a couple of key ingredients: sambal oelek (which gives the salad its sparkle) and black rice, which, unlike other types of rice in a salad, never tastes worthy.

Tim Dowling: who is the secret admirer leaving gifts for the dog?

Soft toys and furry things keep appearing in the garden. I wouldn’t rule out the fox at this point

After weeks without rain, the garden has turned a uniform beige. Whole shrubs have perished in the unrelenting heat, their crisp brown leaves disintegrating in the breeze. In the middle of the scorched lawn lies the prone body of a large dead bird.

On closer inspection, it appears to be a stuffed toy fashioned into the form of a limp duck carcass. When I open the back door for a closer look, the dog steps out between my legs, picks up the bird and carries it inside. It was clearly made with dogs in mind.

The Great Stink of 2026? Hot, dry summer leaves London holding its nose

Experts say putrid stench shows overhaul of sewers is needed – like the one prompted by the Great Stink of 1858

London was “reeking with ineffable and intolerable horrors” after weeks of temperatures exceeding 30C and minimal rainfall. This was Disraeli’s description of the Great Stink of 1858, but something similarly disgusting has been happening this summer.

Once again, an exceptionally hot and dry spell has exposed the putrid stench of untreated human waste.

When did all the best summer activities become unacceptable? The Becky Barnicoat cartoon

Continue reading...

Blind date: ‘I got the impression he liked me well enough, but who knows?’

Andrew, 75, a retired graphic designer, meets Gilli, 64, a counsellor

What were you hoping for?
An exciting evening in a great restaurant with a lovely lady I might be able to start a relationship with.

Russia's economy has defied the skeptics. Cracks are getting harder to hide

Russia's wartime economy is under growing strain as its budget deficit widens and analysts warn pressure could intensify next year.

‘In the heatwaves, it’s crucial’: the fight to save France’s rural swimming pools

Ageing facilities offering daily refuge face funding threat as record temperatures parch the countryside

Suzy Bernard took a breath and jumped into the deep end of her village swimming pool with a splash.

“There’s a wonderful feeling of wellbeing in the water,” said the former hospital healthcare assistant, who recently learned to swim aged 75 and was now gliding along with her daughter and grandson.

South Korea’s Lee urges talks with North Korea about finally ending Korean war

Lee wants to end 1950-53 war, which has never had a peace treaty, but says talks should include curbing North Korea’s nuclear capabilities

South Korean president Lee ⁠Jae Myung called on Saturday for talks with North Korea to pursue peaceful coexistence, saying ⁠Seoul would seek ⁠safeguards ​to prevent conflict and noting the need to replace the peninsula’s armistice with a “peace regime“.

In a ⁠speech marking the anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule, Lee said the two Koreas ⁠should hold a sit-down for coexistence.

Luigi Mangione pleads guilty in federal case, admits to shooting Brian Thompson

Luigi Mangione entered a guilty plea in his federal case at a court appearance in Manhattan Friday morning.

The Greatest Showman musical to come alive on the West End stage in 2027

Disney production ran in Bristol earlier this year and its stars Oliver Tompsett and Samantha Barks will resume their roles at Theatre Royal Drury Lane

The Greatest Showman, the 2017 Hugh Jackman film with a chart-topping soundtrack, is to be staged in the West End next spring. After a sellout eight-week run at Bristol Hippodrome earlier this year, the Disney musical will arrive at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, currently home to Disney’s Hercules.

Its Bristol stars, Oliver Tompsett and Samantha Barks, will resume their respective roles as circus entrepreneur PT Barnum and his wife, Charity. Barks previously starred at Drury Lane as Elsa in Disney’s stage version of Frozen. Also returning from the Bristol production are Ben Joyce (as Barnum’s associate Phillip Carlyle), Vajèn van den Bosch (as opera singer Jenny Lind, known as the “Swedish nightingale”) and Malinda Parris (as the “bearded lady” Lettie Lutz).

Video shows moment fighter jet crashed into mountain in Washington state

A new video shows the moment a fighter jet crashed into a mountain in Washington State in June. The pilot survived. Mark Strassmann has the details.

Air traffic controller saves day when 2 jets with same call number converge

An air traffic controller's quick thinking helped avert a dangerous situation when two jets, one landing in Phoenix and the other simultaneously taking off, shared the same flight number and radio frequency.

American Airlines flies two jets with same flight number simultaneously in dangerous mistake

Two American Airlines jets were found to briefly share the same flight number and radio frequency in what could have turned into a major problem for the airline. Kris Van Cleave has more.

8/14: The Takeout with Major Garrett

Luigi Mangione pleads guilty to federal charges in UnitedHealthcare CEO murder; new aircraft carrier on way to replace USS Lincoln.

Fears for missing Sydney teen who hasn’t been seen since leaving for hike on Wednesday

Fresh search teams to scour Nattai national park for Lily Hooper, 18, who failed to return home from a bushwalk

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The search for an 18-year-old bushwalker missing in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales since Wednesday is continuing, with fresh teams arriving at the Nattai national park on Saturday morning.

Lily Hooper left her home in Sydney’s south-west about 8am on 12 August, after telling family she was going for a hike in the national park, north-west of Mittagong.

Why freshmen at one high school give their mothers a goodbye kiss on their first day

For the last 26 years at Bishop Kelley High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the seniors surround the cars of the incoming freshmen and don't let them out until they do one specific thing: give their mothers a goodbye kiss.

Here's the humiliating initiation ritual freshmen must go through at this Oklahoma high school

Steve Hartman goes on the road to uncover an embarrassing initiation ritual for freshmen at an Oklahoma high school.

Midwest flooding grows as Indiana sees over a foot of rain with river reaching record level

Nine states from Nebraska to Virginia are under flood watches as heavy rains rock large swaths of the country. Ian Lee reports.

Trump family-backed crypto firm World Liberty gets conditional bank charter approval

The OCC conditionally approved World Liberty Trust Co.’s national trust bank charter. That would allow the Trump family-backed firm to issue stablecoins.

FBI: Violent crime plummeted in 2025, murder rate hit 20-year low

The White House is touting a historic drop in violent crime as the FBI releases the latest data from its annual Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

USS Washington aircraft carrier heads to Middle East to replace USS Lincoln

The USS George Washington aircraft carrier departed Vietnam last week and is headed to the Middle East to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln, according to a U.S. official.

He Had It Coming review – this messy crime-comedy has all the subtlety of a mallet to the crotch

It’s sporadically very funny, but the tone of this blackly comic murder-mystery is all over the place. It wants to tackle big issues, but seems afraid of its own politics

‘But I can’t get an F,” wails Elise (Lydia West) in the first episode of the Australian campus comedy He Had It Coming, shoulders slumping like soufflés as her tutor peers pityingly at her terrible paintings. “I’m here on a scholarship? I’m here to be an artist?!” Alas, poor Elise. No amount of wounded upspeak can disguise the fact that she is an aspiring artist in much the same way a bag of flour is an aspiring pastry. Her “work”, bless it, consists of daubing clothes on to impressionist nudes – a “protest”, apparently, against the patriarchy and its preoccupation with “ancient bush”. Unctuous Professor Phoenix (Harry Greenwood) is unimpressed. “Hmm,” he sighs, pouting affectedly at Elise’s “feminist reimagining” of Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe; the picnic’s enigmatic nude now sporting a pair of jeans and oversized novelty spectacles. Mon Dieu! The problem, explains Phoenix, slowly, is a lack of ambition. Feminist art isn’t for amateurs. “Be radical,” he smirks, as Elise quietly broils with rage. “Don’t settle for mediocrity.”

The nerve! “These men are holding us back,” she roars later at new pal Barbara (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), a prickly fashion influencer who is being slut-shamed by the campus jocks for having tipsily humped a stranger’s thigh at a party. “Yes,” agrees Barbara. “Let’s go vandalise something!” And so to the quadrant, where, in the dead of night, a mallet is applied to the genitals of the statue of the university’s hopelessly male namesake.

He Had It Coming aired on BBC Three and is available on iPlayer in the UK and on Stan in Australia

This week on "Sunday Morning" (Aug. 16)

A look at the features for this week's broadcast of the Emmy-winning program, hosted by Jane Pauley.

8/14: CBS Evening News

Latest on Luigi Mangione guilty plea; Trump denies USS Lincoln concerns.

Army temporarily grounds Apache helicopter training flights after deadly crash

The U.S. Army said Friday it is temporarily halting Apache helicopter training flights after two soldiers were killed earlier this week​ in a crash near Fort Hood, Texas.

Nvidia discloses $21 billion stake in SpaceX at end of second quarter

Nvidia's stake in SpaceX, which came through an investment in xAI, was worth about $21 billion at the end of the second quarter.

BBC seeks to subpoena Trump children and son-in-law over defamation lawsuit

Network wants to serve Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr after president sues over January 6 documentary

The BBC is trying to subpoena Donald Trump’s children as it builds its defense against the president’s defamation lawsuit centered on a documentary on the January 6 insurrection.

In a motion filed on Friday, the BBC sought authorization to serve Trump’s two eldest children, Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law Jared Kushner, with subpoenas for testimony and their records on the events of 6 January 2021.

Ontario free to axe Toronto bike lanes, region’s top court rules

Win is significant for region’s premier, Doug Ford, who blames protected zones for city’s traffic ills

The Ontario government is now free to rip out Toronto’s bike lanes on its busiest streets after the region’s top court ruled in favour of the province on Friday, overturning a lower court’s decision that decreed removal would violate constitutional rights.

The win is significant for Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, and his government, who have long railed against Toronto’s bike lanes, blaming the protected zones for the city’s traffic ills.

Justice Department expands military's power to detain migrants near border

The Justice Department issued a legal opinion giving the U.S. military broader powers to detain migrants near certain areas along the southern border.

Why does everything feel meh? We're in the era of joyless decadence – Stateside with Kai and Carter

We should, in theory, be happy. Thanks to our phones, we can do practically anything – listen to our favorite bands' entire discographies, have extravagant meals delivered to our door, travel the world through an endless scroll. So why do so many of these experiences feel so joyless? Why do so many of us feel so empty all the time? Hosts Kai Wright and Carter Sherman wrestle with these questions with academics Michèle Mendelssohn and Charlie Tyson, who argue that we are living in an era of decadence without pleasure. While decadence always arises in times of extreme inequality, they say that tools like AI and GLP-1s reveal how we've lost our ability to truly enjoy things – and, ironically, reclaiming decadence may help us finally have fun.

• Michèle Mendelssohn and Charlie Tyson’s Guardian essay: Why does everything feel joyless? Welcome to the age of decadence without pleasure

Hormuz chaos highlights risks for other global trade chokepoints

The war in Iran has underscored how disruptions to a key shipping route thousands of miles away can have a material impact on American consumers.

FDA upgrades egg recall linked to salmonella to highest risk level

U.S. food regulators say 1.6 million cartons of recalled eggs can "cause serious adverse health consequences or death."

Luigi Mangione pleads guilty in federal case related to UnitedHealthcare CEO killing

Mangione's lawyers argue his federal plea bars his prosecution for murder in state court for Brian Thompson's slaying due to New York's double jeopardy law

‘Devastating’: bulldozers plough through Big Bend national park as Trump’s border work pushes ahead

Heavy machinery seen operating in famous Santa Elena Canyon amid outcry over new wall infrastructure in beloved Texas park

Bulldozers have begun plowing up ground at the mouth of Big Bend national park’s famed Santa Elena Canyon as part of the Trump administration’s multibillion-dollar “smart wall” expansion on the US-Mexico border, according to new footage taken by activists who have been monitoring the site.

Tensions have run high since the Trump administration announced plans to erect new border security infrastructure in the roughly 500-mile Big Bend region of south-west Texas, which includes the Lone Star State’s largest and most-visited national park.

Trump asks Supreme Court to let White House ballroom construction continue

President Donald Trump tore down the White House East Wing to make way for the ballroom project.

Can taking weight-loss drugs help you get hired? Yes, if you're a woman.

Going on GLP-1 drugs significantly boosted unemployed women's chances of finding a job, according to a Harvard economist.

Feds charge woman for allegedly vandalizing World War II Memorial in D.C.

The top federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., said a woman has been arrested and faces two felony charges related to vandalism of the World War II Memorial.

How double jeopardy could come into play after Mangione guilty plea

Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty to two federal counts on Friday. His state trial is currently scheduled to begin on Sept. 8.

How to get a refund for Trump tariffs struck down by Supreme Court

The U.S. has refunded more than $100 billion in illegal tariffs to businesses, and some of that money is going to consumers — here's what to know.

Madonna will not be playing Glastonbury in 2027, Emily Eavis says

Festival organiser says she has booked next year’s headliners but would not say if Taylor Swift is among them

Madonna will not be performing at next year’s Glastonbury, the festival’s organiser, Emily Eavis, has said.

The singer, who has the most top 10 singles in UK chart history of any female artist, has never featured at Britain’s biggest music festival.

How Americans deceive ourselves about slavery

Clint Smith's How the Word Is Passed explores how slavery is — and isn't — taught. And Above Ground includes poems to his children about what their ancestors endured and escaped. He spoke with Fresh Air in 2021 and 2023.

Walmart tomato soup kits recalled over Listeria risk, FDA says

The 14oz soup kits were distributed at Walmart stores in 29 states between June 30 and July 7, according to the FDA.

The week around the world in 20 pictures

Wildfires rage in Europe and the US, an earthquake rocks Colombia, Russian strikes in Ukraine and a solar eclipse – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Europe’s top clubs threatened Club World Cup boycott before Fifa plan collapsed

• Ultimatum issued hours before plan was scrapped

• European Football Clubs demanded Infantino back down

Europe’s leading clubs threatened not to participate in future Club World Cups unless Gianni Infantino withdrew his Fifa Forward Enterprise scheme, issuing their ultimatum hours before the plan was scrapped.

In a letter to the Fifa secretary general, Mattias Grafström, the influential European Football Clubs (EFC) group warned that its cooperation with future tournaments would hinge on Infantino backing down. It said the threat would hold unless a joint venture between EFC and Fifa – a framework for which has already been agreed – is completed before television rights can be sold for the 2028 Women’s Club World Cup.

Cerebras stock plunges 14% after second earnings report following IPO

Cerebras Systems reported better-than-expected second-quarter revenue and raised its full-year guidance.

‘It’s due to climate’: the people of Stourbridge on the town’s wildfires

Thursday has been described by residents as ‘horrendous’, ‘distressing’ and ‘one of the scariest days of my life’

People in Stourbridge have described the fires that devastated more than a dozen homes as “horrendous” and “distressing”, with one describing blazes that surpassed the height of residential houses.

Multiple fires spread across the West Midlands on Thursday as temperatures reached record highs of 38.1C in the UK, during the country’s fifth consecutive heatwave.

The Guardian view on Nigel Farage: Clacton cannot acquit him | Editorial

Reform won a contrived byelection, but scrutiny continues – while the party increasingly attacks the watchdogs and journalists asking awkward questions

Nigel Farage didn’t attend the count of the byelection he forced upon Clacton. Instead, Reform UK’s leader celebrated his win with supporters at a “Farage Fest”, filmed by a friendly TV channel. For a politician who claims to speak for the people, it was telling that at his triumph he preferred an audience of believers.

Mr Farage won because his toughest opponent on the campaign trail was a comedian in a jumpsuit with a bin on his head. That Count Binface nevertheless won 27% of the vote captured the absurdity of a contest the main parties had boycotted as a Faragist stunt. Reform UK’s leader wanted to turn scrutiny of his finances – notably an investigation into whether he failed to report a £5m gift from an overseas crypto billionaire – into a “fight” with the “establishment”. But the result determined who represents the Essex seat, not whether he broke parliamentary or electoral rules.

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

The Guardian view on booming poetry sales: Homer, meet the Instapoets | Editorial

In an unexpected twist, a Hollywood epic has contributed to Britain’s best-ever half-year in poetry sales

In a short story called Career Move, published in the New Yorker in 1992, Martin Amis imagined a world in which screenwriters wrote for little magazines and earned a pittance while poets were global superstars. Amis’s story, a wonderfully ironic inversion of the time-honoured norm, was surprisingly prescient: the film and TV industries have been struggling, with screenwriters facing contracting outlets for their creations, whereas poets are now big business.

The Bookseller reported recently that poetry sales were at a historic high. Part of the increase can be attributed to Christopher Nolan’s film The Odyssey, which has made Homer hot: editions of The Odyssey and its prequel, The Iliad, have garnered almost £1m in book sales in the UK this year. (As well as valiantly trying to keep the ailing film industry afloat, Nolan has also created a craze for epic poetry.) But Nolan’s film does not solely account for the boom in poetry sales. Even without the Homer run, sales of poetry texts and anthologies were still up by 7.2% from what was historically already a very high base.

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.

Trump’s spying on left-wing groups recalls J Edgar Hoover’s Cointelpro | Ken Roth

The FBI from the 1950s to the 1970s tried to infiltrate and discredit leftist organizations. Trump seems to be repeating that sordid practice

It is bad enough that the Trump administration blocked a federal criminal investigation when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent killed Renee Good as she was turning her car away from him in Minneapolis the past January. Just before the shooting, Good and her partner had been observing and protesting against ICE officers.

Instead, it turns out the administration has been investigating progressive and even mainstream groups that have been involved in protests against Donald Trump’s sweeping deportations, according to newly released government documents.

Hundreds arrested on suspicion of arson in France as wildfires rage across Europe

One person killed and hundreds evacuated in Croatia as blazes also hit Germany, Greece and Spain

Almost 500 people have been arrested on suspicion of starting wildfires in France since the start of the summer, authorities have said, as firefighters in half a dozen European countries tackle ferocious blazes amid a record-breaking heatwave.

A fire engulfed ⁠homes in a Croatian holiday resort on Friday, killing one person, injuring 40 and forcing 1,200 to evacuate, officials said, as the EU warned that pockets of “very extreme” wildfire conditions stretched across the continent.

As speed cameras spread to more states, so does the backlash from drivers

Millions of drivers across the country are encountering speed cameras for the first time, or will soon. Some don't like it, but advocates say there's clear evidence that cameras make roads safer.

Group including Jeff Bezos buys minority stake in Liverpool FC, with option to become controlling owner

The group that includes Jeff Bezos has an option to become the majority shareholder within the next year.

Is there a summer COVID-19 surge this year? Yep, it's ramping up again

Just like all previous summers since the pandemic began, COVID-19 cases are ticking up again, even while other health threats make more headlines.

Canadian plasma clinics pause collections after deaths of two donors

Grifols, which runs private chain of clinics, to temporarily stop taking donations after new government investigation

A chain of private plasma donation clinics in Canada has said it is pausing collections after the deaths of two donors and a new government investigation into potential unsafe practices.

Grifols, a Spanish healthcare company which runs 17 clinics in Canada and is the country’s only private clinic for plasma donation, said it informed Health Canada of its decision to temporarily pause collections on Wednesday.

Martin Rowson on Nigel Farage and the Clacton byelection – cartoon

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Mangione pleads guilty in federal court, leaving fate of state trial uncertain

Mangione has pleaded guilty to stalking charges in connection with the death of Brian Thompson, a health care executive. A separate judge will decide the future of Mangione's state trial.

Donald Trump can’t beat Iran and Nigel Farage can only beat a bin. When it counts, these populists are just losers | Jonathan Freedland

The pattern in the US and Britain is clear. They serve up stunt after stunt to mask incompetence and the betrayal of all those who trusted them

It’s a shame Nigel Farage ducked the announcement of his victory in the Clacton byelection, which confirmed his return as MP for the seat he had needlessly resigned from just a few weeks earlier. You’d have thought he would have loved it. It was the culmination of a stunt, an exercise in politics as performance. It was a display animated by – and seeking to inflame – grievance, a million miles away from the hard, grinding work of tackling the problems that underlie those grievances. It was an attempt to deflect scrutiny, distract attention and evade responsibility. It was, in other words, everything nationalist populists like him excel at. Indeed, the only thing.

Reform UK said Farage stayed away because Essex police had warned of a “credible threat” to his security, a claim swiftly denied by Essex police. (Add a flexible approach to the truth to that list of nationalist populists’ talents.) Still, it was a slightly odd claim to make. Recall Farage’s favoured explanation – there are others – for the undeclared £5m gift he received from the Thailand-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne, which prompted the very parliamentary investigation that so riled the Reform leader he felt compelled to quit his seat and seek a preemptive not guilty verdict from the people of Clacton: namely, that he needed the money to pay for private, enhanced security. It seems £5m was not quite enough to ensure the lucky recipient would be safe standing next to a man dressed as a bin.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

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.

Iceberg, romaine, kale: which salad greens are healthiest?

If you’re trying to meet your daily serving of 2.5 cups of vegetables, you might have some questions

If you want to eat lettuce, that no longer just means iceberg. In our bountiful age, there are many options: romaine, red-leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, beet greens, bok choy, bitter radicchio, every developmental stage of arugula.

Sometimes, it’s simply up to preference. But if you’re trying to meet your daily serving of 2.5 cups of vegetables – or you’re rethinking your salad choices amid the US cyclospora outbreak, you might have some questions about which greens to go with.

Housing investors say this is their worst market in at least 3 years

Mortgage rates hit a recent low at the end of February but rose sharply at the start of the war with Iran. They are now at their highest level in over a year. 

See how much renters pay for a 2-bedroom home in 50 U.S. cities

Nearly half of renters spend more than 30% of their income on housing. Here's what it costs to rent a two-bedroom home in 50 U.S. cities.