Trump says U.S. to build a 'large Military presence' in Greenland as part of a security deal with it and Denmark

Greenland has maintained it is not for sale, and the European Union earlier this year united to rebuke Trump over his push to acquire the island.

Trump doubles down on banning CNN, MS Now and Politico from White House and warns more outlets could follow – live

President repeats longstanding grievances and familiar attacks on ‘fake news’ in latest effort to restrict press freedom

• Trump bans CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House

• Sign up for the US Breaking News email

Shapiro and Newsom aren’t the only governors making moves on AI lately.

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, announced at a news conference today plans for tighter rules on data center development in order to address transparency, energy use and environmental concerns. And Nevada’s governor, Joe Lombardo, a Republican, signed an executive order aimed at tackling similar issues.

Latvia’s president warns that Europe is not up to date with drone and aerial warfare in Ukraine

Edgars Rinkēvičs reveals that drone warfare in Ukraine is moving at ‘lightning speed’ and current efforts to prepare for an aerial war could be obsolete by next year

Latvia’s president has warned that Europe is not keeping up with developments of drone and aerial warfare in Ukraine and that most countries in Nato could not repulse an attack by Russian missiles if the conflict expands.

The remarks came during a Guardian interview in Washington DC in which Edgars Rinkēvičs said that the technological developments in drone warfare in Ukraine are moving at “lightning speed” and that current efforts to prepare for an aerial war could be obsolete by the middle of next year.

Harry Kane smashes record for fastest to 100 Bundesliga goals in 98th game

• Kane double helps Bayern Munich beat Union Berlin 7-0

• Dieter Müller’s record of 129 games had stood since 1977

Harry Kane smashed the 49-year-old record for the fastest player to score 100 Bundesliga goals in Bayern Munich’s 7-0 victory over Union Berlin, his 98th league game for the club.

Cologne’s Dieter Müller set the previous mark in 1977, but it took him 129 matches and, with the England captain scoring at better than a goal a game, a new record had been inevitable for some time. Since his arrival in 2023 Kane had been averaging a Bundesliga goal every 78.5 minutes and has now scored 152 in 154 appearances in all competitions, including 61 in 51 games last term.

This week on "Sunday Morning" (Sept. 20)

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

Trump signs Russia sanctions bill championed by Graham

The new law lets the president impose tariffs on the largest purchases of Russian oil and natural gas.

Men deported from US bound and beaten in Equatorial Guinea detention hotel, lawyers say

Group trapped at Hotel Bamy after US removal as rights groups sound alarm over poor conditions and violence

Two men that the Trump administration expelled to Equatorial Guinea were bound, fitted with bags over their heads, beaten and pushed down a flight of stairs, all in plain view of other US deportees, according to witnesses and human rights lawyers.

The men – one from Egypt and one from Eritrea – were then taken to a prison. About 30 detainees from the US remain trapped at a hotel in the outskirts of the coastal city of Malabo after being deported from the US. Detainees have said they believe the men were beaten for telling the press and human rights advocates about the poor conditions and violence inside the hotel, and that they are haunted by flashbacks and terrified they will be retaliated against next.

Trump says he's banning CNN, Politico and MS NOW from the White House

President Trump said Friday that he is banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, the latest move to target media outlets over their reporting.

Keely Hodgkinson shows off Catwoman style to steal Athlos London event

• Briton destroys 800m field in hooded black bodysuit

• Mill Hill event more like a rave than an athletics meeting

Athlos arrived in London promising that its all-female spin on athletics would provide a radical departure from the status quo. Long before Keely Hodgkinson stepped on to the track dressed in a hooded black bodysuit – part ninja assassin, part Catwoman – it had emphatically made its point.

Throughout the two-hour event, the bassline from the aptly named DJ Trauma carried enough force to make eardrums bleed. The stadium PA’s dial appeared to be permanently stuck on Spinal Tap’s 11. And those who successfully scanned a barcode were then shown dancing and waving on a giant screen.

Alaska's salmon-feasting bears face off in biggest Fat Bear Week ever

This year's single-elimination tournament will see 16 competitors face off, compared to 12 in past years. Officials report more cubs in Katmai National Park than they've seen in recent memory.

Brentford blitz Chelsea as Fábio Carvalho caps stunning second-half display

Those early-season thoughts that Chelsea might be the team best-placed to challenge Arsenal are beginning to look extremely over-optimistic. The two chaotic wins with which they began were always difficult to read: they might have been useful points picked up on the way to a more solid structure, or they might have represented evidence of significant problems. After three games without a win, and 12 goals conceded in five games this season, it’s beginning to look like the latter.

At the final whistle, Keith Andrews tipped his head back and roared at the sky, celebrating Brentford’s first home win over Chelsea since 1938. They remain unbeaten, coherent and disciplined, and moved up to third in the table. The comparison is impossible not to draw: as one side flail in an orgy of structured spending, their far less wealthy neighbours thrive with a clear plan and sense of direction. “It was a performance I felt was bubbling,” said Andrews. “I could see it in the players’ eyes over the last two days. They were very focused, very determined.”

AI cloud provider Nscale files to go public

Nscale is the latest artificial intelligence neocloud to turn to public markets.

Mortgage rates are nearing 7%. One house hunter says he's "despondent."

"It seems like we're trying to climb out of a hole somebody else is digging," said one frustrated house hunter as homeownership costs rise.

Trump says he is banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House

The president chalked the ban up to what he called unfavorable coverage, and he threatened that bans on other media companies could be coming.

Women’s Super League: Lauren Hemp hits double as Manchester City see off lively Liverpool

Manchester City continued their winning start to the new Women’s Super League season but the defending champions needed a 90th-minute own goal from Grace Fisk to help them edge past an ever-improving Liverpool side after an entertaining game in which Lauren Hemp scored twice.

Fisk inadvertently turned Grace Clinton’s dangerous cross into her own net to put City 3-2 up and then – with Liverpool searching for an equaliser and committing players forward deep in stoppage time – Hemp added another on the counterattack to make it 4-2 and widen the margin of victory, but that slightly masked how well the visitors had played.

Feds plan to transfer hundreds of pre-trial detainees in private prison dispute

The U.S. Marshals Service is preparing to transfer some Georgia detainees to another private facility 200 miles away.

Trump administration sued over threat to deploy federal law enforcement at voting sites

Civil rights groups say plan will make people ‘afraid to vote’ and violates the Voting Rights Act

• US politics live – latest updates

A coalition of civil rights groups filed a lawsuit against Trump administration officials on Friday, seeking to stop them from threatening to deploy federal law enforcement officers to polling stations in the US midterm elections.

The suit, led by the NAACP, alleges that by threatening to deploy law enforcement to survey elections and initiating new voter roll oversight, the Trump administration has violated a section of the Voting Rights Act which prohibits voter intimidation.

Elon Musk talks up AI safety while fighting regulation in wild week of strange alliances

In the past week, Musk has agreed with the CEOs of Anthropic and OpenAI, while getting contradicted by President Trump and Nvidia's Jensen Huang.

When Trump and Xi meet they will discuss AI. 'Track Two' talks are already buzzing

An informal network of dialogues at think tanks and universities is bringing together experts from the U.S. and China to talk about the shared perils of AI — and possible paths forward.

Syrian regime planned American journalist's kidnapping for weeks

New reporting finds the abduction of journalist Austin Tice was planned by the Syrian government for weeks.

Increased ICE enforcement in 2025 hurt local employment, analysis finds

Employment fell last year in U.S. cities where ICE arrests surged, according to the Brookings Institution.

Why Europe has been absent from the great AI safety debate

Though Europe has measures that address how consumers might encounter AI, technology will impact them if the worst scenarios bear

Europe’s dilemma over AI was rendered in stark terms this week. The head of the continent’s central bank, Christine Lagarde, said Europeans have two options: shun the technology and lose out on growth; or embrace it and become dependent on tools developed by the US and China.

The great debate over AI safety that has erupted in recent days threatens to make the choice moot. If the worst scenarios come to bear – and experts have differing views on this – then the technology will impact the continent regardless.

California Gov. Newsom issues executive order to rein in AI 'before it's too late'

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other 2028 Democratic presidential hopefuls have called for a more aggressive approach to addressing AI fears.

Fed staff should have known Silicon Valley Bank was vulnerable, new report finds

Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman said a new report indicates the central bank's staff missed signs ahead of Silicon Valley Bank's 2023 failure.

Three words from Kevin Warsh have Wall Street wondering how far the Fed will go with rate hikes

The chairman both explained this week's decision to raise interest rates, and raised vexing questions about what comes next

The week around the world in 20 pictures

Russian strikes in Kyiv, a female militia march in Tehran, protests in Pristina and Alfie Hewett at the US Open – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Trent Alexander-Arnold recalled by England but with a warning from Thomas Tuchel

• Real Madrid player must help improve defensive solidity

• Scott, Hall, Lewis-Skelly and Calvert-Lewin selected

Thomas Tuchel has told Trent Alexander-Arnold he must bring defensive solidity to the England squad after giving him a surprise recall for the upcoming Nations League matches.

The head coach has selected the Real Madrid right-back only once before – for the games against Andorra and Senegal in June last year. Tuchel made headlines when he did so by urging Alexander-Arnold to focus on the defensive side of his game or risk a slip that could undermine the team’s World Cup campaign.

SpaceX scores another $950 million from NASA for 3 more crewed flights to ISS

SpaceX is getting an extension to an existing contract that will allow three additional crewed Dragon flights to the International Space Station.

FAA says Trump arch will not interfere with D.C. airport flight path

The Federal Aviation Administration approved President Trump's plans for a triumphal arch across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.

Earl Spencer doubles down on claims about ‘monstrous’ call with Charles after Diana’s death

Buckingham Palace has rebutted claim by Charles Spencer, Diana’s brother, that then prince told him ‘we’ll forget her soon enough’

Earl Spencer has doubled down on his bombshell claim that King Charles said of Diana, Princess of Wales, “rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough” days after her death, saying he is telling the truth.

The alleged comments, revealed in Charles Spencer’s memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which is being serialised in the Daily Mail, prompted Buckingham Palace to issue an extraordinary statement suggesting Diana’s brother had misremembered events, saying “the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise”.

JPMorgan, Citigroup CEOs attending Trump's state dinner for China's Xi: Sources

Dimon and Fraser join OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia chief Jensen Huang and others who are reportedly planning to attend the Trump-Xi state dinner.

Uefa and Concacaf ask Gianni Infantino to give Fifa’s billions to its member associations

• Payout of at least $10m to each association proposed

• Leaders want plan to be considered by Fifa Council

The presidents of Uefa and Concacaf have written to Gianni Infantino requesting that Fifa release money from its $6bn (£4.5bn) reserves to its member associations, stating that the plan to fund them via the doomed Fifa Forward Enterprise scheme was unnecessary given the cash pile it is sitting on.

Aleksander Ceferin and Victor Montagliani proposed a payout of at least $10m to each of Fifa’s 211 member associations (MAs), initially as a one-off during the 2027-2030 commercial cycle. They called for an independent review of Fifa’s financial position and said their own study “raises an important question as to whether the proposed transaction was necessary to deliver greater resources to the MAs”.

Survivors recount panic and struggle to breathe in Nigerian prison cell where 37 died

Police fire teargas as protests break out in city of Minna after deaths of suspected illegal goldminers, many of whom were children

Survivors from a prison cell in Nigeria where 37 suspected illegal goldminers died while in the custody of a paramilitary group this week have recounted their panic and struggle for breath, as police on Friday fired teargas at people protesting against the deaths and imposed an overnight curfew in the city of Minna.

The victims – many of whom were children – were found dead on Thursday in the cells of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), which had raided suspected illegal gold mines and ⁠locked up dozens of miners in the city, the state capital of the mineral-rich state of Niger.

This Israeli election could be the country’s last – this week I saw that for myself | Jonathan Freedland

Spend time on the ground and you see how high the stakes are for next month’s contest – for Israelis and Palestinians alike

Candidates always say it, but this time it’s true. When Israel goes to the polls on 27 October, it really will be the most important election in the country’s history – and not just for Israelis. I saw that for myself this last week, in a visit that served as a sharp reminder of both what is at stake – and the role of those watching from afar.

More than one voter I spoke to voiced the fear that, if the coalition headed by Benjamin Netanyahu is returned to power next month, 27 October will not merely be Israel’s most important election: it will be its last. They were not referring to the absence of democracy in the occupied territory of the West Bank – which we’ll come to – but rather to Israel’s internationally recognised, pre-1967 borders: what you might call Israel-proper. There, the last four years have seen a sustained assault on the machinery of liberal democracy by the most rightwing government since Israel’s establishment in 1948 – a committed, focused attempt to remove the checks and restraints on its own power, installing instead a kind of elective dictatorship.

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.

The best books to read in September: new paperbacks from Margaret Atwood, Kiran Desai and Richard Holmes

Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some great new paperbacks, from an epic multigenerational saga by a Booker winner to a biography of an iconic Victorian poet

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Auto industry urges Trump to bar Chinese automakers in U.S. ahead of Xi visit

Leaders of six major auto trade groups joined to sign a letter to the president.

Brazil’s Lula announces higher welfare payments and free weight-loss jabs ahead of election

Critics say moves from leftwing incumbent president are electorally motivated two weeks before Brazil’s elections

Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has announced a 15% increase in the country’s main cash-transfer programme for poor families, as well as free weight-loss jabs, prompting criticism from opponents who say the moves are electorally motivated just two weeks before the presidential election.

On 4 October, the leftwing incumbent will face the far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of the former president Jair Bolsonaro, who has been gaining ground in recent weeks.

Use of AI backfires on an expert witness at trial: "They have biases"

The use of artificial intelligence in the courtroom is drawing fresh attention after an expert witness in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit used ChatGPT to help create his report.

Martin Rowson on King Charles, Earl Spencer and a row over Diana’s memory – cartoon

Continue reading...

Anthropic and OpenAI need truly independent safety evaluators, experts say in public letter

A coalition of over 100 AI experts are urging independence and transparency from Anthropic, OpenAI and other foundation model labs to conduct evaluations.

‘In almost every French game, there’s theatre’: Dean Richards on bringing joie de vivre back to English rugby

Doncaster Knights’ new director of rugby is passionate about the Champ, who Steve Borthwick should pick from overseas and getting players to have a bit of fun

Turn up at Castle Park in Doncaster this week and, bang on cue, a pony and trap is being driven in stately fashion down the nearby main road. There is, some might argue, a similarly retro feel about the Knights’ latest choice of director of rugby. It is now 40 years since Dean Richards barged his way into the public consciousness with two tries on his Test debut against Ireland at Twickenham but, at 63, he is still very much up for a challenge.

As with vinyl records and fine wine, old-school rugby nous never goes entirely out of vogue. That, at least, is the rationale behind Richards’ return to the upper rungs of the English club ladder, commencing with a 740-mile round trip to Cornish Pirates on the opening weekend of the 2026-27 Champ season. “If it’s ingrained in you and you love the sport, then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t continue in some capacity,” he says softly, gazing out of the window at his latest field of dreams.

Sensitive UK police data vulnerable to ‘compromise’ by US government and foreign actors

Exclusive: Official UK security assessment found Microsoft cloud platform storing files was at potential risk from hostile hackers

Vast troves of highly sensitive police data are lying on Microsoft cloud platforms which an official UK security assessment deemed to be vulnerable to “compromise” by foreign actors and the US government, a Guardian investigation can reveal.

The files include criminal records, victim statements, internal emails and sensitive information held by more than 40 police forces across the UK.

We wanted to let Max Dowman bloom in the shadows but he has become hard to ignore | Barney Ronay

This most modern and well-honed of footballers will not be able to escape the spotlight in an age of constant scrutiny but looks equipped to handle it

The poet Jorge Luis Borges wrote a famous short story about a society that had become so good at making maps, so obsessed with capturing every detail, that its rulers decided the only way to do the job right was to make a lifesize map of its entire empire, which could then be laid out across the actual land from coast to coast. Imagine a map of Britain the exact same size as Britain, showing every branch of Greggs, every nail bar, every vape shop in perfect detail. Only then can we really see what Britain looks like, by standing on a fake Britain laid over the top of actual Britain.

Borges was writing in the 1940s, at a time when people were fascinated by the mechanised future, with its new forms of measuring out the world: the wireless, the 30mph motorcar, the rise of Big Tape Measure. And to be fair, the mega-map is a pretty accurate vision of our own fully networked present, a place where you can snoop around a village in Mozambique from your laptop in Egham, where no one ever stops committing acts of minute self-surveillance, even if they think they’re just searching “What is beetroot?” on the internet.

Anthony Page obituary

Stage and screen director behind landmark productions of Samuel Beckett, John Osborne and Edward Albee

Anthony Page, who has died aged 90, was one of a group of talented and individual – sometimes wilful – directors who helped establish the English Stage Company at the Royal Court in London at the end of the 1950s and the early 60s.

The company, led by George Devine and Tony Richardson, became the seedbed of modern playwriting, notably John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger (1956) in a repertoire that embraced Beckett, Brecht, Ionesco, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams, as well as the native voices of Arnold Wesker, Ann Jellicoe, John Arden and NF Simpson.

The Guardian view on NAZA’s persecuted directors: journalism is not treason | Editorial

Politicians who threaten filmmakers rather than investigate alleged military crimes expose not strength but a leadership frightened of the evidence

Across Israel, politicians, military leaders and much of the media are trying to discredit a documentary that almost none of them have seen. Produced by the Guardian, NAZA examines the AI-powered targeting systems used by the Israel Defense Forces to bombard Gaza after Hamas’s brutal 7 October 2023 attacks. Named after the Israeli military acronym euphemistically used for “collateral damage”, NAZA features interviews with 24 anonymous insiders who reflect on their role in the death-dealing. Israeli leaders have branded the film a “blood libel” and “fiction”. Its Oscar-winning directors, Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham, face being stripped of their citizenship for treason.

This is absurd. NAZA shows how bureaucratic distance and routine can turn extreme violence into ordinary work. More than 73,000 Palestinians, including more than 20,000 children, have been killed in the campaign by Israel’s military. A democracy that values life would at least investigate the film’s claims. Instead Israel’s government, which says it is committed to democratic accountability, is attacking journalists.

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.

What expensive sulfur means for your dinner table

Oil supplies are falling, sulfur prices are threatening food costs, and we measure Lego against Hollywood

Twins conjoined at the head are separated in 25-hour surgery

The twins were born in Ethiopia with a rare condition that left them joined at the head. Doctors spent a year planning a separation surgery.

AI safety debate meets reality at Dreamforce as business leaders say last year's models are enough

At Salesforce's annual mega-conference in San Francisco, attendees said they get enough value from older AI models.

Polanski request to postpone Greens’ conference to focus on byelection refused by party

Exclusive: Leader understood to have wanted to concentrate on Holborn and St Pancras campaign in London but executive committee voted against plan

Zack Polanski requested that the Greens’ ruling executive committee postpone the party’s imminent annual conference so they could focus on the Holborn and St Pancras byelection but was refused.

While party officials say the formal request came from staffers worried about diluting resources by staging a conference a week before Polanski tries to win Keir Starmer’s former Commons seat, the Guardian understands the party leader wanted this to happen.

Duncan Sheik, singer and composer of Spring Awakening, dies at 56

The musician, who went from 90s alt-pop hits to Tony-winning Broadway success, died from cardiac arrest

Duncan Sheik, the singer-songwriter behind the 90s alt-pop touchstone Barely Breathing and the composer of the Tony-winning musical Spring Awakening, died on Thursday at a Manhattan hospital. He was 56.

His death, from heart failure that led to cardiac arrest, was confirmed to the New York Times by his mother Suzanne Sheik.

Wendy's franchisee files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as burger chain struggles

One of Wendy's biggest U.S. franchisees, Meritage Hospitality Group, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Will even one of the U.N.'s 17 'sustainable development goals' be met by 2030?

The 17 goals agreed upon by world leaders are incredibly ambitious. Are we even close to achieving any of them? If we don't, is the project a failure?

Holdout juror in Lindsay Clancy trial says he "didn't have any doubts"

Michael Desronvil, the lone holdout juror in the high-profile Lindsay Clancy murder trial, said he "didn't have any doubts" during deliberations.

Kylian Mbappé leaves Nike after 20 years to sign boot deal with Swiss brand On

• France captain also becomes a shareholder in company

• ‘We have a shared dream, and this is only the beginning’

Kylian Mbappé has ended a 20-year association with Nike to sign a boot deal with the Swiss challenger company On.

The sports and leisure brand, which has previously focused on running and tennis, is planning a major move into football next year and has also appointed Thierry Henry as its football director.

Lone holdout juror in Lindsay Clancy murder trial speaks out

Michael P Desronvil was sole juror to vote guilty, resulting in deadlocked jury and judge declaring a mistrial

• Ron DeSantis offers ‘asylum’ to holdout juror in Lindsay Clancy trial

The lone holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial is speaking out, saying that he “didn’t have any doubts” during the jury’s deliberations of the case which ended in a mistrial.

“I didn’t have any doubts. As I tried to explain different possible theories during deliberation, I kept getting cut off as if I had doubts based on the evidence present,” the 48-year-old male juror, Michael P Desronvil, said in a statement to NewsNation on Thursday.

Flight chaos for hundreds of thousands was caused in ‘millisecond’ by software error

Error first occurred at 10am but major incident was not declared until 12.30pm, says report

A software defect in part of the UK’s air traffic control system corrupted flight data “in the space of a millisecond”, leading to a six-hour outage and mass airline cancellations and delays across the UK last week, National Air Traffic Services has said.

But ministers said the Nats report into the incident still left questions unanswered, saying they needed “to urgently understand why this issue was not discovered and fixed before it caused chaos”.

Senator urges Trump to press Xi on Chinese info Iran may be using to target troops

Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin urged President Trump to make this issue a "centerpiece of your talks with President Xi."

AI security experts say they used Claude to hack ChatGPT

Cybersecurity researchers said they were able to use Anthropic's Claude AI platfom to penetrate ChatGPT in "less than 72 hours."

Singapore is paying people to read books – can it fix the reading crisis?

A government scheme is giving citizens cash for spending time with a good book. We ask behavioural scientists, along with The Anxious Generation author and psychologist Jonathan Haidt, whether it’ll help make the habit stick

Could the solution to the reading crisis lie in paying people to put down their phones and pick up a book? That’s what one government, at least, is resorting to: this month, Singapore launched a scheme promising actual cash to citizens as a reward for logging reading time on a government website.

It’s unlikely to make you megabucks – you have to rack up 50 reading sessions of at least 15 minutes to earn one Singapore dollar (£0.59), with only one logged session allowed per day. But behavioural scientists and psychologists told the Guardian such a scheme could still help boost a habit in precipitous decline.

Reform donor Ben Delo loaned £350k to academic later found to have engaged in online bullying

Judge said Nina Power and her friend’s social media posts had ‘the whiff of threat and antisemitism’

Reform UK’s new mega-donor Ben Delo gave a £350,000 loan to a conservative writer fighting a legal case in which a judge later found she had engaged in online bullying and regrettable conduct with a “whiff of threat and antisemitism”.

Nina Power and her friend, the writer Daniel DC Miller, brought the legal action for defamation against the performance artist Luke Turner, who they had accused of falsely calling them antisemitic. At the same time, Turner brought a counter-claim against the pair accusing them of harassment.

Pentagon releases UFO files with documents on secretive military program

The Pentagon on Friday released a new group of files about unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP or UFOs, including a batch of documents regarding a mysterious military program studying aerospace threats.

Facing 10 years in prison, ex-budget official flees U.S. by boat and plane

Kosta Diamantis is now a fugitive in Greece after fleeing the U.S. by boat and plane ahead of his sentencing for corruption, his lawyer and prosecutors said.

Michigan synagogue reopens 6 months after terror attack

Temple Israel, a Detroit-area synagogue, has spent the last six months rebuilding after a terror attack destroyed parts of the building.

Phaedra Ensemble: The Music of Meredith Monk review – fleeting rough edges amid polished beauty

Kings Place, London
Works by the not-quite-minimalist composer’s included her Realm Variations and quartet Stringsongs in a compelling concert

There’s no one quite like Meredith Monk. So often grouped with her lionised contemporaries Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Terry Riley and La Monte Young, she is 83 to their 90-odd years and sports long plaited hair as reliably as Reich wears a baseball cap. Yet she refuses the label “minimalism” for her music, and composition is just one element of a creative life that also takes in singing, choreography, film-making and drawing.

Monk was not present at this performance marking the launch of Phaedra Ensemble’s new album of her music, though she did loom briefly over the audience on video, professing “it’s a dream of mine for this music to be recorded and played”. (Compare that to the fortunes of Glass’s works.) But she had been closely involved, having invited the group to record some of her music after hearing them play.

Trump’s authoritarian mindset can’t handle dissent from his appointees

Defiance from the supreme court and the Federal Reserve chair in one week ... how ever will the US president cope?

“It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business,” Michael Corleone tells his brother, Sonny, in The Godfather. But for Donald Trump, it’s always personal. And he leaves this week feeling betrayed.

First, the US supreme court rejected his effort to restrict mail-in ballots ahead of the midterm elections. “These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court,” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform. “They are merely a shell of their original selves.”

Swedish teenager jailed for attempted murder, rape and assault committed online, with victims in Germany and Australia

Eighteen-year-old known as Chai was active in networks notorious for their sadistic exploitation of young people

A Swedish teenager known as Chai has been sentenced to more than 10 years in jail for attempted murder, rape and aggravated assault – crimes committed via the internet, including against a teenage girl in Australia.

The district court found that Chai, 18, was active in online networks notorious for their sadistic extortion of young and vulnerable people, coercing them to create sexually explicit material or engage in acts of violence – and for the youth of those involved.

In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978. In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and Childline on 0800 1111. In the US, call or text Mental Health America at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.

Tech billionaires trying to live for ever? That’s a waste of time, says physicist

Exclusive: Prof Jim Al-Khalili says he will offer solution to ‘arrow of time’ problem in Royal Institution lectures

Tech billionaires attempting to live for ever are, quite literally, wasting their time, a leading physicist has said.

While some normal people are turning to unregulated peptide injections, cold plunges and supplements in an effort to defy ageing, the ultra-rich are aiming for immortality with even more drastic interventions: the tech chief executive Bryan Johnson has even tried injecting plasma from his 17-year-old son – although he later said he saw no benefit from it.

Diana book sparks royal row between King Charles and Earl Spencer - The Latest

Buckingham Palace has issued a rare, and strong, rebuttal to claims made in Earl Spencer’s memoir Swan Song. The book claims that King Charles told Spencer days after Diana’s death and during a heated row over funeral arrangements: ‘Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough.’ Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s senior national news editor, Aaron Sharp

Warren Buffett steps down as chair of Berkshire Hathaway after over 50 years

‘Father Time always wins,’ Buffett, 96, says as his son, Howard, steps in as the $1tn conglomerate’s new chair

Warren Buffett is stepping down as chair of Berkshire Hathaway, the company that he took from a faltering textile manufacturer into a $1tn conglomerate over the course of 60 years.

Buffett’s son, Howard, 71, will take over as chair. Buffett, 96, cited his age as the main reason behind the transition, noting that he has a one-year-old great-grandchild who is “moving a bit faster than I am these days”.

Record fuel prices across EU prompt calls for bloc-wide windfall tax on firms

German minister says companies are ‘exploiting situation’ in Middle East, as sky-high prices become major domestic issue for leaders

European governments have discussed imposing a bloc-wide windfall tax on energy companies, as near-record fuel and gas prices pile pressure on leaders desperate to contain mounting public discontent and the challenge of the far right.

With elections due next year in eight EU countries including France, Italy, Spain and Poland, leaders are scrambling to head off the potential fallout from what analysts have warned could be one of the continent’s biggest energy shocks in decades.

Quentin Bell and Olivia Sterling review – two artists with a magic touch

Charleston, Lewes
Bell’s strange and charming ceramics celebrate a life dedicated to creativity, while next door Sterling’s bawdier, weirder paintings form a critique of race and power

Quentin Bell was not a great artist, but that didn’t stop him. He saw the world as a magical place. The ceramicist (son of the Bloomsbury group’s Vanessa Bell; biographer of his aunt Virginia Woolf) spent his life lost in a world of magic, myth, newts in ponds, levitating women and knights on horseback. He died in 1996, leaving behind decades of pots, plates, figurines and drawings filled with wonder and amazement.

It all started when Bell was nine years old. Taken to a magic show by some relatives, he saw a jaw-dropping spectacle: a beautiful woman seeming to float in the air. It stayed with him throughout his life.

Woman found guilty in death of reporter covering Super Bowl in New Orleans

Danette Colbert​ was also convicted of racketeering following the death of Telemundo's Adan Manzano, who had been visiting New Orleans to cover the Super Bowl in 2025.

195,000 heated blankets recalled after dozens of burn injuries

The manufacturer has received hundreds of reports of blankets "smoking, melting or burning" due to overheating, according to a recall notice.

Michigan synagogue Temple Israel reopens after attempted terror attack

A man drove into Detroit's Temple Israel synagogue with a car full of explosives in March, investigators say. The only person he killed in the attempted terror attack was himself. Now, the synagogue is finally reopening, just in time for the Jewish high holidays.

BBC cash reserves hit lowest level in a decade after big single-year spend

Exclusive: Reserves at public service arm drop 66% as broadcaster undertakes large cuts in effort to save £500m

The BBC has spent hundreds of millions of pounds of its cash reserves in a single year, increasing concerns at the corporation over the perilous state of its finances.

Cash reserves at the BBC’s public service arm slumped by 66% in the last financial year, from £369m in 2025 to just £125m, according to analysis by the Guardian. This is the lowest figure in the last decade of accounts.

Rep. Chip Roy doesn't want to regulate AI, but says Congress should have an oversight role

In an appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box," Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said he supports congressional hearings on AI, but wasn't keen on additional regulations.

Yemen’s anti-Houthi forces launch inquest into sudden military collapse

Rout raises questions about coordination and morale as some politicians claim billions of dollars were offered to persuade forces to abandon position

A bitter inquest is under way among Yemen’s anti-Houthi forces as to how what was being billed as a decisive assault on Sana’a, the Houthi-controlled capital, suddenly collapsed into a military rout.

More than 15 brigades were defeated as the country’s entire west coast fell into Houthi hands. Efforts are now being made to reorganise the anti-Houthi forces representing the UN-recognised Yemeni government in order to capture the Kahbob mountains, a strategic point from which to restrict Houthi forces moving closer to the crucial Bab al-Mandab strait.

F-16 pilot's narrow escape before fiery plane crash

A military F-16 fighter jet slammed into a field in Michigan on Thursday. Luckily, the pilot managed to eject just seconds before impact.

Talk less, listen more and six other top tips on giving good advice

Are you someone who thinks they have all the answers? Is your experience relevant here? Experts on the questions to ask yourself before giving advice

“Often, when people approach you for advice, they just want to talk about how they feel,” says Annalisa Barbieri, advice columnist for the Guardian for almost 20 years. For example, you might vent to a friend about your awful boss, and if they’re shocked it could confirm you’re being treated badly. “I also think people can have a lot of shame when things aren’t working out, and we like to share shame because it’s a hot potato of a feeling.” In other words, not every situation warrants advice. Sometimes, the person just wants to gauge a reaction or to share.

More missing women linked to "house of horrors" in Philadelphia. Here's what we know.

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

The U.S. says China's AI progress is down to 'distillation.' But is it that clear cut?

The U.S. administration and Anthropic have accused China's AI companies of 'distillation', but a growing cohort of voices are questioning the impact.

Naomi Campbell DJing and young Buddhist nuns: photos of the day – Friday

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

Private jets pollute up to 14 times as much as commercial planes and are undertaxed in US, report says

Number of private jets has surged in recent years, but they do not pay commensurate portion of fees to FAA operations

A new report has put a spotlight on the rapid expansion of private jet travel in the US, revealing that owners are not paying their fair share of aviation tax despite the average owner’s wealth being $190m and private jets being up to 14 times more polluting than commercial flights.

The Institute for Policy Studies’ new report, High Flyers 2026, examines the growing use of private aircraft, the public infrastructure supporting them and the tax policies benefiting private jet owners.

‘The man’s a psychopath when it comes to hedgerows’: Derek vs Derek, the unexpectedly heartwarming doc about farmers at war

One Devon farmer, called Derek, is committed to rewilding his land. His neighbour, also a Derek, tends cattle and crops. What happened when a film-maker decided to follow the bickering pair?

Derek Gow and Derek Banbury should hate each other. Gow is an outspoken rewilder widely credited with bringing back the beaver in England. As he returns his Devon sheep farm to wild nature, he is also breeding storks, wildcats, red-backed shrikes, glowworms and even adders to return to the countryside. Over the hedge, Banbury, his neighbour, is proud to be an intensive farmer, producing milk and beef cattle behind tightly clipped hedges.

“It’s like he’s just gone mad,” says Banbury of Gow at the start of Derek vs Derek, an illuminating and unexpectedly funny new documentary that follows the pair over three years. “And the madness is now crossing the road on to my land.”

Cocktail of the week: Buster’s stout punch recipe – The Prince Bar| The good mixer

A velvety, Guinness-based, punch-style pick-me-up

Punch isn’t just for summer parties, and this Caribbean-inflected one, featuring rum, brandy, stout, lemon and nutmeg, will warm the cockles of a crowd on any autumn evening. It’s named after Prince Buster, the Jamaican ska legend and inspiration for our bar’s name.

Will Hawes, co-founder, The Prince Bar, London EC1

‘Eating is my superpower’: Nigella turns up the heat on Bake Off

The domestic goddess is about to be let loose in the Bake Off tent. Nigella Lawson and Paul Hollywood spill the beans about bonding over dirty martinis, ‘Professor Precision’ – and why they call themselves the Salty Gang

Like the Cleopatra of cake, new Great British Bake Off judge Nigella Lawson reclines on a chaise longue throughout our interview, gently fanning herself. Fellow judge Paul Hollywood chuckles from a nearby armchair. “She’d sit like this between takes in the tent,” he says indulgently. “Reading a book and sipping a coffee while someone fed her grapes.” “Peeled grapes,” specifies Lawson with a grin.

After Prue Leith stepped down from soggy bottom-spotting duties in January – on the unarguable basis that “I’m 86, for goodness sake!” – there was widespread jubilation when Lawson was announced as her replacement. The arrival of the domestic goddess has created serious buzz around Bake Off’s upcoming series. A contest that was at risk of growing stale has become essential viewing again, thanks to the velvet-voiced, spatula-licking doyenne of culinary TV.

Patrick Clancy's wife: "I don't understand how the story's been so twisted"

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

OpenAI ‘ethically hacked’ with help of Anthropic’s Claude chatbot

US cybersecurity researchers who conducted hack say ‘scope of what we could theoretically access was huge’

Cybersecurity researchers have hacked into OpenAI with the help of Anthropic’s Claude chatbot, in the latest example of security issues at the company.

A team at a US-based startup compromised a number of OpenAI employees’ ChatGPT accounts, starting a process that enabled them to access their target’s software cache – and potentially more.

Earl Spencer SLATES the king. Charles DESTROYS Spencer. If only Diana were here to click on it | Marina Hyde

It’s a battle for hearts and minds – and TikTok, and the ’Gram. Just as it should be. #royalbeef

Reading the extracts from Earl Spencer’s book about his sister Diana, and the king’s two-footed takedown of it, it’s hard to escape the idea that Spencer and the Windsors are just elite content creators now. This entire thing is basically indistinguishable from a blockbuster influencer war, and I honestly won’t be happy till the king puts out a shade TikTok of him driving round the Sandringham estate in sunglasses captioned: “Threatening to release the receipts but never actually releasing the receipts … kinda chic.” Soundtrack: Mariah Carey’s Obsessed.

Meanwhile, perhaps trying to disguise his full descent into the algorithm mines, Charles Spencer has started talking like one of those adverts for twee porcelain plates that you used to see in magazine supplements. You know the kind of thing – “these three little kittens are waiting to steal your heart”. Here is the earl on his Diana book, which he has called Swan Song: “At heart, this is a brother’s simple tribute to an extraordinary sister.” Mmm. And simply bound, very simply, into paginated form as a precious, simple keepsake that also functions as one of Penguin Random House’s lead titles for autumn and the run-in to Christmas. Favourite charming tribute from today’s serialisation in the Mail? Probably the bit when Diana drags Spencer for lunch in the London restaurant San Lorenzo to announce: “My husband is in love with his valet”. Nkay.

Zack Snyder is angling to make another Batman movie. Stranger things have happened

Two Batman projects are already in the making at DC Studios, but Snyder has set his sights on the classic Frank Miller graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns

There cannot be too many film-makers who have spent quite so long being told that their version of a superhero universe is over, as Zack Snyder has. His Batman is gone, his Superman has been dismantled and the studio that once handed him the keys to DC is now run by James Gunn and Peter Safran, two men whose first order of business was to build something completely different. And yet here he is, determined not to give up, telling anyone who will listen about his proposal to bring the classic Frank Miller graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns to multiplexes.

In an interview with Variety to promote his forthcoming film The Last Photograph, Snyder returned to an idea he has been talking about for years: adapting Miller’s famously grim 1986 vision of an ageing Batman coming out of retirement in a dystopian Gotham. “The reason why it’s The Dark Knight Returns, if anyone would ever let me do it outside of the DC Universe since it’s a novel that just happens to have superheroes in it, is if I could do Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, those two books next to each other, to me, represent the complete cycle of the superhero comic book medium,” the film-maker said.

Judge says Trump can't demolish Kennedy Center. And, lawsuits target voter intimidation

A federal judge ruled yesterday that President Trump cannot tear down the Kennedy Center without a 30-day notice. And, recent lawsuits seek to keep armed federal officers away from polling sites.

Children’s and teens roundup – the best new picture books and novels

A tiger’s tale; the young Henry VIII; a fantasy follow‑up from Katherine Rundell; small-town secrets; ghosts galore and more

Once Upon a Tiger by Sarah Massini, S&S, £14.99
Tiger is irate to find three cheeky human cubs climbing on his back – but when they refuse to be scared off, he becomes increasingly attached to them. A sweet, classic-feeling picture book fable, heightened by tender, expressive illustrations.

Mama’s Wedding by Circle Yuen, Lantana, £12.99
Mama is getting married, but Ruby has mixed emotions – how will Daddy Albert feel on the day? A gorgeous, nuanced picture book about blended families and new milestones.

Add to playlist: the euphoric ‘Bollywood electronic’ of the Twins and the week’s best new tracks

Omar and Jamal Ikram, 21-year-old brothers, are making lo-fi glitchy dance-pop with the melodic sensibilities of Bollywood music

From Aldershot, Hampshire
Recommended if you like 2hollis, the Hellp, Jai Paul
Up next New single Wish U out now

You, like me, may be growing tired of the 2020s’ so-called “indie sleaze” revival, which has so far yielded a few good parties and not that much good music. But the music of the Twins – Aldershot-born brothers Omar and Jamal Ikram – is made of sturdier stuff. The 21-year-olds are progenitors of a sound they call “Bollywood electronic” – a strain of loud, lo-fi, ultra-glitchy dance-pop that sounds like 2hollis if his songs were heavy with screwy samples of south Asian pop. Their debut album, last year’s Turmeric, captures the still-potent appeal of Jai Paul’s classic Str8 Outta Mumbai – which fused the lackadaisical sheen of 2010s electronic pop with the shining rhythmic and melodic sensibilities of Bollywood music – and, as is de rigueur for the contemporary era, makes it bolshie and frenetic, taking in the euphoric aggression of early Skrillex and unnerving noise of Aphex Twin.

Turmeric was a minor hit, thanks in part to Fuckersby, a collaboration with on-the-rise British rapper Fakemink, as well as the Twins’ monthly NTS show, also called Turmeric, which turns one this month. (Its combination of classic British pop stars such as Lily Allen, Punjabi artists such as Sukshinder Shinda, and contemporary electronic acts the Hellp and Sophia Stel gives it the feeling of a late-night pirate radio station totally out of time and place.) The duo’s follow-up EP There&Back, released in May, polishes up the Twins’ sound a little, but not that much – if anything, their collaborations with Rada and Varg2TM on There&Back are even louder and wilder than anything on Turmeric. The duo’s future plans aren’t clear, but their mission is: “We don’t want brown kids to feel like they have to fit into anything,” Jamal said in an interview. “People are always gonna try to label what you’re doing, but you don’t have to move like that.” Shaad D’Souza

Ms. Rachel has entered her album era, and she is so happy about it

Ms. Rachel has conquered YouTube, Netflix and the toy aisle. Now she's making an album, with real instruments, big feelings and her littlest listeners in mind.

Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway chairman

Warren Buffett is stepping down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway after serving in the role for more than 50 years. His son, Howard, will become Berkshire Hathaway's new chairman

South Africa 'feels like a prison' for women amid spate of femicides

South Africa has some of the highest rates of violence against women in the world, and a spate of killings of nine women in the same area in recent weeks has led to renewed outrage.

Australian man accused of murdering Thai teenager and putting body in suitcase pleads not guilty

Simon Peter Carman appeared in a Pattaya court on Friday charged with killing Tunchanok Donhomla

An Australian man accused of murdering a Thai teenager and putting her body in a suitcase pleaded not guilty on Friday in a hearing in the seaside resort city of Pattaya, a court official said.

Simon Peter Carman, 45, was arrested in June after 17-year-old Tunchanok Donhomla was reported missing in Pattaya City, about 150km south-east of Bangkok. A suitcase containing her body was found shortly after.

Robert Kraft’s attempts to silence Macklemore have backfired spectacularly | Arwa Mahdawi

The billionaire’s attempted crackdown on Ed Sheeran’s tour only amplified pro-Palestinian statements. It’s been a joy to watch

A few weeks ago, the worst thing you could say about Ed Sheeran was that his music was a bit bland. A Guardian music writer once compared it to “aural wallpaper”. Which was a little bit rude to wallpaper: there are some very interesting designs out there!

I don’t need to tell you what people are saying about Sheeran now, do I? The pop star has been in the news for days after he apparently crumbled when billionaire Robert Kraft demanded Macklemore be pulled from his tour because of the rapper’s pro-Palestine advocacy.

Anthropic and OpenAI hunt for smaller data center deals, sources tell CNBC, in race to deploy AI capacity

Anthropic and OpenAI have announced a flurry of AI infrastructure deals over the past year as demand booms.

‘I spend a bagful of money and don’t fill a bag’: the energy crisis hits Bangladesh

The country has been left in the dark as it endures power cuts caused by the Iran war and reliance on gas imports

At 1am, Halder’s alarm goes off and the 34-year-old Bangladeshi bank employee rises and heads to her kitchen. She is up at this time not for work but to cook for her family. An energy crisis paralysing the capital, Dhaka, a city of almost 40 million people, means this has become the only time when the piped gas supply is strong enough to allow cooking.

The city now operates in darkness, as people try to continue their lives with power even in public areas shut off early in the evening to preserve energy.