Quicksilver Amy Hunt flies to glorious golden double with 200m triumph

• Hunt adds longer sprint title to her 100m

• Dina Asher-Smith forced to settle for bronze

Two down. Two to go. Amy Hunt’s dream of winning a record four gold medals at a single European championships gathered further momentum with a bravura performance in front of a raucous Alexander Stadium crowd.

Hunt was given a huge cheer by the 20,082 in attendance, by far the biggest of the championships so far, when she was introduced in lane seven. But she had to work hard to get past her domestic rival Dina Asher-Smith, in lane eight.

Polls close in Clacton byelection where Nigel Farage faces slew of fringe candidates

Longest ballot in UK voting history features likes of Count Binface and Howling Laud Hope alongside Reform leader

Polls have closed in Clacton, where thousands of residents in the Essex seat voted in a ballot featuring Nigel Farage and a range of novelty and fringe candidates led by Count Binface.

The Reform UK leader resigned as the MP for Clacton at the start of July and forced a byelection in an attempt to address complaints over a deepening scandal about gifts he received.

Cisco shares slide 8% despite earnings beat and stronger-than-expected guidance

Cisco is showing booming demand for AI infrastructure, but its results weren't good enough to satisfy investors.

Apple's Tim Cook joined by Howard Lutnick in opening Houston manufacturing plant

As Tim Cook gets set to step down as Apple CEO, he's offering a glimpse into what he may be doing as chairman.

Pete Hegseth dismisses reports of deteriorating conditions on USS Abraham Lincoln

Defense secretary said conditions on aircraft carrier deployed in support of Iran war have been ‘completely misrepresented’

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, insisted a wave of reports describing deteriorating conditions and mental health struggles onboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln “completely misrepresented” the situation, pushing back against growing congressional pressure over the ship’s record-breaking, nearly nine-month deployment.

“We make sure every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment,” Hegseth told reporters during a visit to Panama, adding that “some deployments are longer than others” and praising sailors enduring “high seas” and “austere conditions with less port calls”.

Luigi Mangione in discussions about possible guilty plea, sources say

Luigi Mangione, accused in the 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is in discussions about a possible plea deal on federal charges, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.

Trade court upholds Trump's closure of 'de minimis' loophole

President Donald Trump in a Truth Social post celebrated the continued closure of the deminimis exemption as a "BIG WIN."

Jack Draper ‘in difficult place’ after defeat by Martín Landaluce at Cincinnati Open

• Former world No 4 slumps to 6-3, 7-5 first-round loss

• Draper still recovering from long-term arm injury

The minuscule amount of confidence and self-belief Jack Draper currently has to call upon in the most difficult period of his career was underscored in the very first game of his opening match in Cincinnati. Draper began his service game by shanking a forehand into the back fence, which he followed up with two double faults. He immediately fell down a break and never recovered.

A few fleeting positive moments followed, but this miserable start set the tone for another excruciating day for the former world No 4 as he could not escape the mental fatigue borne out of battling serious injury for 15 months and counting. Draper fell 6-3, 7-5 to Martín Landaluce, the world No 64.

Russian plot to kill Ukrainian American thwarted in Warsaw, says Polish PM

Donald Tusk says it is first time ‘someone on the order of Russia’ has sought to attack US citizen in Nato country

A Russian plan to kill a Ukrainian American citizen in Warsaw was thwarted by Poland before it could be carried out, the Polish prime minister has said.

Donald Tusk said it was the first time that “someone on the order of Russia” had sought to attack a US citizen on the territory of another Nato country.

Record-breaking heat takes mounting toll on the U.S. economy

Heat waves are dealing a financial blow to businesses and creating hazardous conditions for workers, according to climate experts.

Donald Trump empowers US private companies to conduct cyber-attacks

President signed memorandum giving private sector a role in fighting ‘transnational criminal organizations’

Donald Trump signed a memo on Wednesday that aims to give private companies the power to carry out offensive cyber-attacks against foreign criminal entities.

The president ⁠signed a ​national security presidential memorandum directing his administration to “leverage the capability and innovation of the private sector to help conduct these ⁠cyber operations under the direction, control and authority of the US government”, the White House said.

UConn women's coach Geno Auriemma says WNBA should shift focus away from transgender debate

Geno Auriemma said the WNBA should steer attention away from the transgender athlete debate and focus more on basketball.

Kennedy Center board votes again to renovate building and inscribe Trump’s name on it – report

The center has until next week to present plan to judge who had blocked earlier rehab and name change

• US politics live – latest updates

The board of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington is said to have voted once again to move forward with Donald Trump’s controversial plan to temporarily shutter the building for substantial renovations, as well as to inscribe the US president’s name on the facade of its building, despite a federal order for his name to be removed from the signage.

The board – mostly handpicked, staunch allies of the president – voted “to close the Kennedy Center’s main building, while keeping a newer addition to the campus, known as the Reach, open for limited programming and to operate as an active memorial to John F Kennedy”, according to the New York Times, which was first to report the results.

Baby in surrogate dispute now in custody of parents, lawyer says

The baby at the center of a surrogacy dispute was born in Texas Wednesday and has hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a rare heart defect.

Championship spending hits record levels and likely to go higher as playoffs expand

With a top-eight finish offering at least a playoff place, the temptation to spend big in pursuit of the Premier League will grow – but so will the risks

The Championship’s collective wage bill grew to a record £903m in 2024-25, according to Deloitte’s latest Annual Review of Football Finance. Clubs are paying players enormous sums in their pursuit of Premier League football. With the playoffs expanding this season, the number of owners willing to risk even more money in the hope of securing promotion is only likely to increase.

In isolation, the figure of £903m does not signify much. Compared to the Premier League’s £4.4bn salary outlay, it almost looks small. But England’s top division can afford that gargantuan commitment to wages whereas the second tier cannot. The 24 clubs in the Championship earned £942m, meaning salaries consumed 96% of revenue. If there was any surprise in their collective net debt being £1.4bn at the end of 2024-25, it was only that it had reduced from the £1.5bn it was a year earlier.

Kennedy Center Board votes again to shut main building down — and add Trump's name back

The board voted to close the Washington, D.C., arts complex's main campus for a $250 million renovation — three months after a federal judge temporarily blocked a similar closure.

Israeli troops force families from homes amid settler terror campaign in West Bank

Former PM of Israel calls events ‘concerted and meticulous attempt at ethnic cleansing’ against Palestinians

Israeli troops have forced two Palestinian families to leave their besieged West Bank homes, the day after a top Israeli commander personally promised he would end a violent settler campaign to drive them out.

Israeli soldiers also took over eight other homes in Qusra early on Thursday, telling the village’s mayor, Abdul Azim Wadi, that the buildings were needed for a days-long operation to remove the settlers. They later relinquished six. Settlers still roam the village.

Top Forbes editor reportedly fired after receiving $6m from business associate

Randall Lane left his job last month after accepting money from founder of firm that does business with magazine

The top editor of Forbes left his job last month and was reportedly dismissed for accepting $6m from the founder of a firm that does business with the magazine.

The New York Times reported this week that Randall Lane was paid by RJ Shook, whose company, Shook Research, worked with Forbes since 2016 to publish rankings of wealth advisers. The payment was made after Shook sold a majority stake in the company to a private equity firm a year ago.

Oklahoma and Tennessee each execute one man in two of three US executions scheduled on same day

If Alabama execution proceeds, it will be first time in 15 years three judicial killings were carried out in US in one day

Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez has been put to death by the state of Oklahoma, in the first of three executions scheduled for Thursday in a rare triple procedure that underlines the renewed appetite in the US for state killings.

Just one hour later, Darrell Hines was put to death by the state of Tennessee.

New UN plastic treaty is going backwards, experts say

NGOs say agreement held back by tenuous human health commitments and lobbying from plastic industry

The latest version of the long overdue plastic treaty is even less ambitious than the previous one, according to experts.

A year after UN plastics treaty negotiations collapsed in Geneva in 2025, diplomats met informally in Nairobi between 30 June and 3 July, aiming to flesh out a new “no surprises” document.

Tropical storm forms near Hawaii, hurricane watch issued for the Big Island

Tropical Storm Lala could bring rain, high winds, and dangerous surf and rip currents to the Hawaiian Islands this weekend.

What is the MMR vaccine and how does Trump’s executive order affect parents and children?

President’s order calls for several changes to childhood vaccinations – and experts say it’ll lead to confusion

On Monday, Donald Trump signed an executive order pushing for revisions to how children in the US are vaccinated.

The executive order calls for several changes. These include fewer vaccinations overall and a recommendation that the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine be replaced with separate shots for each disease administered during separate medical visits. The latter direction is currently impossible to implement because no stand-alone shots for these diseases are licensed in the US.

Fossils show huge carbon emissions harm forests, not ‘green the planet’

Study of 56m-year-old leaves counters claims from Trump administration members of ‘benefits’ of fossil fuel pollution

Adding huge quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is set to cause the Earth’s forests to wither and die rather than flourish, according to a new study that counters erroneous claims that fossil fuel pollution will green the planet.

An analysis of fossilized leaf cells from a period known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (or PETM), which occurred about 56m years ago, has helped reconstruct how the world’s forests responded when planet-heating gases were previously being released at a rapid rate.

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.

Surrogate gives birth to baby at center of multistate legal battle

Surrogate McKenna West declined to get an abortion requested by the intended parents after the baby she was carrying was diagnosed with a severe but treatable heart defect.

Floodwaters submerge Midwest neighborhoods bracing for more severe storms

Muddy floodwaters seeped into the homes of Indiana and Ohio residents this week, as severe storms struck the Midwest. Now, some areas are bracing for even more rain.

The Guardian view on solar eclipses: moments of wonder that bring us together | Editorial

Wednesday’s eerie spectacle united crowds beneath the sky, continuing a human fascination that stretches from ancient myth to modern physics

“I’d describe it as a magical eeriness.” Lisa Redfern’s description to the Guardian conveys the combination of beauty and wrongness that accompanied Wednesday’s partial solar eclipse in Britain. Crowds across the country assembled as the sun’s power seemed to wane, twilight changed tone abruptly, the temperature fell and the familiar landscape took on an unnatural appearance. In a divided world, there is comfort in coming together in awe. Ms Redfern, speaking from Cornwall, was right that Britons “may not see another one. We have to make the most of these moments.” The country has to wait 55 years for another comparably deep partial eclipse.

To experience the true marvel of the eclipse, one had to be in the path of totality – which this week crossed over Greenland, Iceland and Spain. There the sun was completely obscured. Britain saw a partial version, with the moon covering part of the sun, with only a thin yellow crescent showing. Totality is another world of wonder: for a few minutes a black disc appears where the sun should be, surrounded by a fiery corona in a purplish firmament. It is 64 years before a total eclipse of the sun will be seen over Britain.

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.

BAE Systems to pay $36m penalty after 104 violations of US arms export rules

State department says it has reached administrative settlement with company’s US arm to resolve breaches

The UK defence company BAE Systems is to pay a $36m (£26.7m) civil penalty after breaching US arms exports regulations more than 100 times.

The US Department of State announced on Thursday that it had reached an administrative settlement with the US arm of BAE to resolve 104 violations of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

Mangione could plead guilty in federal case ahead of N.Y. murder trial

A surprise hearing this Friday in federal court has added to speculation that Luigi Mangione could enter a plea, which could derail a state murder trial.

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.

Democrats demand Trump reveal stock managers, explain suspicious trades

Warren and Garcia said they sought answers from Trump to inform their work on potential legislation to ban presidents from owning individual stocks.

Fake sex worker and accomplice jailed for fatally spiking men’s drinks

Adina Mihai and Madalin Dumitru from Essex jailed for 17 years for drugging four men to steal from them, two of whom died

A woman who posed as a sex worker and administered a deadly amount of sedative to two men has been jailed for 17 years, along with her accomplice.

Adina Mihai, 31, and her partner Madalin Dumitru, 30, who arranged for her to meet men at their homes, drugged their victims to steal from them.

Nicola Jennings on Nigel Farage, Count Binface and the Clacton byelection – cartoon

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Luigi Mangione expected to plead guilty in federal stalking case related to health insurance CEO killing: Report

Luigi Mangione is separately charged in New York state court with murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024.

Vladimir Putin's first visit to disputed Pacific islands draws Tokyo protest

The four southernmost islands of the chain also are claimed by Japan, which calls them the Northern Territories.

The Jason Arday affair must not spell the end for diversity. Here’s how – and why – we should defend it | Joseph Harker

The scandal has given succour to the same old rightwing attacks on D&I, but companies that do it properly raise standards rather than lowering them

This has not been a good fortnight for the concept of diversity and inclusion. The fallout from the Jason Arday affair has been an all-out attack, by the rightwing media and political classes, on institutional efforts to reduce inequality.

Arday was the Black academic who, in a fanfare of publicity, had been appointed a professor at Cambridge University in 2023. At the time, British institutions were still struggling to address the widespread issues of systemic racism thrown up by the murder of George Floyd three years earlier.

Joseph Harker is the Guardian’s senior editor, diversity and development

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.

Tesla paid Elon Musk 2.5m times more as CEO than its average worker in 2025

Tech billionaire’s $158.3bn deal an outlier in report showing widening gap of CEO to worker pay at top companies

Elon Musk received over 2.5m times as much compensation at Tesla as the company’s average worker, according to a new report on the growing gap between top corporate executives and their workers.

Musk’s $158.3bn pay deal was an outlier but came as the gap between CEO and worker pay continued to grow. Excluding Musk, last year the average ratio of CEO to worker pay for the top S&P 500 companies was 312 to 1, up from a 285:1 ratio in 2024. With Musk, the average pay ratio was 5,387:1, according to the executive pay watch report released this week by the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the US.

DOJ leaves in place ruling that deregulates silencers, shotguns

A Texas judge earlier this month issued a ruling that deregulated silencers, shotguns and certain rifles.

Celta Vigo’s La Liga opener postponed due to fungal outbreak on pitch

• Fungal outbreak damages surface at Estadio de Balaidos

• Turf for Osasuna match left ‘unfit for football’

Celta Vigo’s ⁠season-opening La Liga match against Osasuna has been postponed after ⁠a fungal outbreak ⁠affected ​the pitch at Estadio de Balaidos, the Spanish club ⁠said on Thursday.

Celta had been due to host Osasuna on Sunday, ⁠but the fixture was postponed with ​the decision ‌agreed by both ‌clubs and the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) ‌following a technical inspection by La Liga.

Trump-linked oil venture delays Greenland drilling plans after government warning

Greenland Energy Co. and joint venture partner 80 Mile have delayed planned oil drilling in Greenland until winter 2027.

Ukrainian cathedrals, Gaza’s archives, Iranian squares – modern war is systematically erasing human history | Simon Jenkins

It is not enough now for war to kill, it must eradicate a people’s cherished and precious heritage too

Wars may not take summer holidays, but they do sometimes see exhaustion. As drones race back and forth across Ukraine and the strait of Hormuz, a grim stalemate seems to have invaded the earth beneath. Aerial bombardment knows limited resistance and even less victory or defeat. Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Iran and their allies seem able to defy diplomacy and drop bombs on each other for ever.

At which point the outside world can merely count some of the costs. Vladimir Putin’s known desire to eliminate Ukraine’s historical identity has led to its cultural devastation. Two weeks ago Unesco reported the destruction or dereliction of 545 of its historic buildings, including 156 religious sites and 43 museums. The attempted eradication of what Putin himself claims to be an intrinsic part of Russia’s own history is sickening.

Simon Jenkins 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.

Carrick rules out £100m signing for Manchester United as Rashford rejoins squad

• United unable to financially compete with rivals

• Rashford back after Barcelona loan but could leave

Michael Carrick has stated that Manchester United will not make a £100m signing this summer due to their finances, with the manager also insisting that Marcus Rashford “is our player” despite the forward and club preferring him to depart.

In the current window United have invested a total of £85m on Youri Tielemans and Andrey Santos but have never spent £100m on a single transfer.

UK records hottest day of year as fifth summer heatwave reaches peak

Kew Gardens in London hits 38.1C and 40C-plus recorded in parts of Europe with continent trapped under heat dome

• Europe heatwave – latest updates

The UK has recorded its hottest day of the year so far with a provisional temperature of 38.1C in southern England as Europe sweltered under a major heat dome.

As temperatures on the continent surpassed 40C at the peak of the summer’s fifth heatwave, the thermometer at Kew Gardens in west London on Thursday surpassed the previous high of 38C on 28 June, the Met Office said.

The mindblowing invertebrates you have never heard of – video

Each year the Guardian runs a competition to find the invertebrate of the year. To find out more about the 2026 nominees, science editor Ian Sample hears from climate reporter Petra Stock, environment reporter Oliver Milman and Science Weekly co-host Madeleine Finlay. They each nominate an incredible invertebrate that you might never have heard of, and argue why their choice should come top. Vote for your favourite now and the winner will be unveiled on 17 August

Football Daily | Brian Madjo and the tendency to lump expectations on young shoulders

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Aston Villa supporters could have been forgiven for approaching the new season with feelings of great anxiety, nagging angst and face-twitching trepidation. Youri Tielemans has gone: such an elegant player with an eye [and nose? – Football Daily Ed] for the spectacular. Morgan Rogers has also departed: so energetic and skilful, always carrying that goal threat. And goodbye to Lucas Digne. But Villa fans who have been keeping their eye trained behind the curtain may not have been quite so concerned. Earlier this month, their 17-year-old striker Brian Madjo – 6ft4in, body of iron ore – was cleared by the court of arbitration for sport to play competitive fixtures for the club. Born in London but already capped for Luxembourg, Villa and Fifa were in diagreed over whether Madjo, signed from Metz in January for £10m, qualified as a home purchase or an international transfer. If it was the latter, as a minor, he wouldn’t have been eligible until turning 18 next January. While waiting for the verdict, Madjo banged in four goals in pre-season friendlies, against Walsall, Real Sociedad and Indonesia All Stars, and upon finally being cleared for the big boys, could have scored as many again in 45 minutes against the best team in the world, Paris Saint-Germain.

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

By sky and sea, Ukraine's drone strikes challenge Russia's grip on Crimea

Russia maintained an iron grip on Crimea since seizing it from Ukraine in 2014. Many Russian civilians go there to enjoy the beaches. But now Ukraine is hitting Crimea hard, upending daily life.

DRC’s fast-growing Ebola outbreak spreads to sixth province

Man dies in Bas-Uele after travelling from Haut-Uele, as head of WHO says outbreak on track to be deadliest ever

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has spread to a sixth province, officials have said, a day after the head of the World Health Organization said the outbreak was on track to surpass the deadliest in history, which killed at least 11,000 people more than a decade ago.

The current outbreak has killed more than 2,100 people out of more than 4,500 cases, according to the latest government figures released on Tuesday. At the same point in the 2014-16 outbreak in west Africa, the previous most deadly outbreak, 755 cases had been recorded, according to WHO data.

The Lakers have become a poker chip for some of the most powerful men in America

One of the most famous teams in the world is about to change hands for the second time in less than a year for more than $12bn. Will anyone push back?

One of the most brutal lessons we must learn as fans is that the team we shed blood, sweat and tears for is seen by those who own it as just one of many assets. That gap has never felt as wide as it does this week. On Wednesday, ESPN reported that the Los Angeles Lakers are set to change hands, for the second time in 10 months, for $12.5bn, a sum that would be a record for any North American sports team. (The deal must be approved by the NBA’s board of governors before it can go through.) The buyers aren’t diehards who saved up every penny like the good Dr Jerry Buss in the 1970s. Those days are gone. If and when the deal is approved, the new owners will be venture capitalist Josh Kushner and his business partner, Bob Iger. Kushner is the younger brother of Jared Kushner, the titleless Wormtongue to Donald Trump’s Saruman. Iger used to run Disney. These men have connections across the political world and influence in every corner of the American empire. A franchise woven into a city’s identity should never become an asset vastly wealthy people move around like a chip around a poker table. But that is exactly what the Lakers are about to become. The way the deal came together should terrify anyone who still thinks sports belong to the fans.

Mark Walter took control of the team from the Buss family last October at a valuation of roughly $10bn. Now he is set to cash out around $2bn richer. That’s not how this is supposed to work. The old guard, like Buss, used to guard their NBA teams like heirlooms and pass them down. Walter is set to flip the team after less than a year.

‘It was fun to get pushed around’: Andrew Rannells on ‘razzle dazzle’, kissing co-stars and being a better friend to Lena Dunham

The star of Girls and The Book of Mormon talks about coming out, turning a showmance into a romance, and going toe to toe with the West Wing’s Allison Janney in new film Miss You Love You

Imagine a cute, young, gay Jim Carrey with a withering line in put-downs: that is Andrew Rannells. Or rather, it was, back when he starred in Lena Dunham’s HBO series Girls as Elijah, the formerly closeted ex of her character, Hannah. Dunham had seen Rannells playing Elder Price, the zealous missionary spreading the good word in the original 2011 Broadway production of the bad-taste musical The Book of Mormon, for which he received a Tony nomination. Girls, in turn, spread the good word about him. To this day, fans still shout “Your dad is gay!” at him in the street, a call-back to the moment when Elijah tartly advises Hannah that she might want to fine-tune her gaydar.

It is an older, gentler, salt-and-pepper-bearded Rannells who stars in the comedy-drama Miss You, Love You. He plays Jamie, a personal assistant arriving in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to shepherd the spiky and recently widowed Diane (Allison Janney) through the initial weeks after her husband’s death from Parkinson’s. As it dawns on them that Diane’s son – Jamie’s employer – may not make it to his stepfather’s funeral, these strangers navigate their way through the grey area of their flung-together friendship.

Reese's Halloween pumpkins hit shelves unchanged after lawsuit victory

Hershey said the Halloween-shaped candy, which had sparked a lawsuit over the product's lack of detail, will return in its familiar oval shape.

Bugging devices: the astounding ways insects are talking and listening all around us

From spiders tuning their silken listening tools, to the beetle’s heady perfume, hundreds of conversations are happening in languages we don’t understand

• It’s invertebrate of the year – vote for your favourite

All around us, every day, hundreds of conversations are taking place in languages we don’t understand, or even, in most cases, notice. Birdsong is one you would probably recognise, and you may have heard of honeybee “waggle dances”. But what about the spider tuning their web to listen for prey, or a waft of arousing perfumes emitted by a passing beetle? At any moment you may be walking right through a whole critical dialogue – and have absolutely no idea.

To delve into the world of invertebrate communication about food gathering, coordinating nest building, defending a territory, attracting a mate, and babycare is to realise just how smart and sophisticated they are. Spiders, for example, can “hear” vibrations on the silken strands of their web using sensors on their legs. With their legs and body weight, the spiders will adjust the silk strings, as we would a guitar string, to change its pitch, pulling, loosening or reconnecting strands to adjust how it sounds. In fine-tuning the silk they can know just who is walking on it – a possible mate to woo, a fly for feasting on or maybe a larger bug on the lookout for prey.

French ambassador to CAR investigated over claims he hosted dozens of women

Disciplinary proceedings under way after security concerns raised over reported visits to official residence

France has opened disciplinary proceedings against its ambassador to Central African Republic over allegations of misconduct, after claims he brought dozens of women into his official residence, raising potential security concerns.

The investigation comes as Paris seeks to rebuild relations with CAR after their sharp deterioration in recent years amid Russia’s expanding influence in the former French colony.

Are teens on e-motorbikes the ‘new Hells Angels’? Not so fast, boomers

Experts say better regulation is needed but that bad press about ‘motorized menaces’ puts the wider ebike revolution at risk

Beware, Americans: there’s a battery-powered threat cruising down beach paths, rolling up hiking trails and zipping along the streets of our cities.

By now, you’ve probably seen footage on social media of teens racing along streets, popping wheelies and weaving around car traffic with reckless abandon. The Los Angeles Times recently dubbed them the “new Hells Angels”. Other news outlets have referred to them as “motorized menaces” terrorizing communities. Sounds scary.

Universality by Natasha Brown audiobook review – a sparkling multi-voiced satire

A magazine article about stolen gold sparks a culture war between a cast of politically polarised characters

A stinging dissection of wealth, class and the media, Natasha Brown’s satire begins with a man named Jake gazing at a gold bar he has found at a farm in West Yorkshire. Outside, an illegal rave is taking place which will end in three hospitalisations and property damage. Pondering what to do with the ingot that he has just used to bludgeon a stranger, Jake decides to do a runner.

The story of the stolen gold is told by a journalist, Hannah, in a magazine article named A Fool’s Gold, replicated in full here, which she claims exposes “the fraying fabric of British society, worn thin by late capitalism’s relentless abrasion”. Her piece, which goes viral, features Richard Spencer, an arrogant, philandering banker and the owner of the farm, whose reputation is left in tatters; a contrarian rightwing newspaper columnist named Miriam Leonard, known as Lenny; and a group of radical anarchist squatters who call themselves The Universalists.

Imelda Staunton: ‘Umbridge’s giggle needed to be short and sharp. So I just did a boom, boom’

The actor answers your questions on working with her dog, becoming a dame, Harry Potter, and making televisual history in The Singing Detective

You and Bill Nighy were comrades in Pride, but play estranged spouses in & Sons. Was it more fun marching alongside him or giving him a piece of your mind? MrSOBaldrick
It’s fun doing anything with Bill Nighy!

I once saw you at RHS Garden Wisley. Are you a keen gardener? What’s your favourite plant? HeyJudithB
Yes, I am a gardener. We love doing the garden. My favourite plant – this week – is the rose Munstead Wood, which has an incredible scent, and a deep, dark raspberry colour. It’s a rose we might be in danger of losing because of climate change. Roses need water, so I think we’re going to have to change our planting.

Robert Gilman was on "death's door" before Russia freed him, advocate says

Robert Gilman, a U.S. Marine veteran, was imprisoned in Russia for over four years and now faces a long road to recovery, says a hostage crisis expert who advocated for Gilman's release.

Behind the rise of teen takeovers and how some cities are cracking down

A growing number of U.S. cities are trying to crack down on so-called teen takeovers, when large groups of young people gather in a public place, often in response to online invites. Some of the events have ended with violence and arrests. Mark Strassmann shows how some cities are responding.

Surrogate gives birth to baby with heart condition despite intended parents seeking abortion

In Texas, a legal battle is intensifying after a surrogate gave birth to a baby with a severe heart condition. The intended parents in California had wanted to terminate the pregnancy after learning of the diagnosis, but the surrogate refused. Jason Allen reports.

Is your career "rusting out"? Here's what that means, and how to spot it.

Many employees feel their employers don't value them and that they're not contributing as much as they could, a workplace poll finds.

Italian businessman admits organising bomb attack ‘to boost friend’s security’

Valter Lavitola has confessed to masterminding bombing at home of investigative reporter Sigfrido Ranucci

An Italian businessman has admitted to masterminding a bomb attack at the home of Sigfrido Ranucci, a prominent investigative journalist, claiming it was intended to boost his security protection.

Valter Lavitola, who was friends with Ranucci, the host of Report, an investigative programme aired by the state broadcaster, Rai, made the confession to investigators after his arrest earlier this week in connection with the case, the businessman’s lawyer, Sergio Cola, told the Italian media.

Taiwan briefly slows its mobile internet to text-only speed as part of defense drill

The drills come amid rising tensions with China, which frequently sends military planes and ships towards Taiwan.

Wholesale prices were flat in July, below expectations for 0.2% increase

The producer price index was expected to increase by 0.2% in July, according to the Dow Jones consensus.

‘At any moment I might fade out’: archives reveal fearless era of land speed record breakers

Unseen material gives insight into how death-defying attempts by drivers made impact on public imagination

With the Bonneville salt flats in Utah echoing to the sound of a new land speed record achieved by a British team, the timing could not be more apposite. The historical legacy of the challenge of pushing the envelope of pace is being dusted down and made public in the form of an extraordinary archive from more than a century of record-breaking machines and their singularly driven pilots.

On Tuesday, JCB’s Hydromax car took the hydrogen-powered International Automobile Federation (FIA) land speed record, reaching 406.320mph at Bonneville.

Agent 64: Spies Never Die review – licence to kill time like the 90s never ended

PC; Replicant D6
This GoldenEye 007-styled retro shooter is an agreeable set of straightahead shooting missions that hark back to a simpler time, with simpler controls

With 007 First Light, 2026 has already given us the best James Bond game in more than three decades, since the release of Rare’s N64 classic GoldenEye 007. But what about those players whose loyalties lie not with the super-spy himself but the particulars of that 90s interpretation of his adventures?

Enter Agent 64: Spies Never Die. Made almost entirely by a single developer (who goes by the very cloak-and-dagger alias Replicant D6), its production values couldn’t be much further from the blockbuster First Light. There’s no voice acting, with all dialogue instead delivered via subtitles, while each location on your globe-trotting adventure is depicted by a repeating texture wallpapered over scenery so blocky you can count the individual polygons.

‘Absolutely unacceptable’: Japan condemns visit by Vladimir Putin to disputed Kuril Islands

Japanese PM says islands seized by Soviets late in second world war are part of her country under international law

The Japanese government has reacted angrily to Vladimir Putin’s first visit to the disputed Kuril Islands, which are claimed by both Tokyo and Moscow.

Japan’s foreign minister, Toshimitsu Motegi, summoned the Russian ambassador Nikolay Nozdrev, while the prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, called Putin’s actions “absolutely unacceptable”.

Single winning ticket sold for $1.04 billion Powerball jackpot

A single ticket sold in Illinois won the biggest Powerball jackpot of the year, $1.04 billion, in Wednesday night's drawing, the game says.

Single ticket sold in Illinois wins $1 billion Powerball jackpot

Only one Powerball ticket, sold in western Illinois, matched all six numbers from Wednesday's $1 billion drawing. Tom Hanson reports.

Wisconsin, Michigan primaries expose limits of polls and prediction markets

It's the second time in just over a week that polls and prediction markets' odds were off, following a miss in the Democratic U.S. senate primary in Michigan.

60 cats rescued from abandoned boat anchored off Washington state

Police in Tacoma, Washington, say they have rescued 60 cats and kittens from an abandoned sailboat that was found anchored off a city beach last week.

2 soldiers killed in Apache helicopter crash in Texas

The U.S. Army is investigating after an Apache helicopter crashed Wednesday in central Texas, killing both crew members on board and sparking a wildfire. Army officials say the helicopter was on a training flight when it crashed. Charlie D'Agata reports.

First responders use boats to rescue people from flooded homes, cars in Midwest

Extreme flooding in parts of Indiana reached car roofs and sent water rushing into homes, leading to first responders using boats to rescue people who were trapped. Meg Oliver reports on the damage.

Wildfires, a giant Castro and a wave of 500,000 dahlias: photos of the day – Thursday

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

AOC’s public egg-freezing shouldn’t feel radical. But in today’s US, it does | Moira Donegan

The congresswoman’s decision is an assertion of women’s freedom and dignity at a time when our status is rapidly eroding

“Don’t be weird about this,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive star and rumored 2028 presidential contender, said on her live video broadcast as she raised her shirt to angle the syringe into her abdomen. Then, with resignation, “even though I know all of you will be.”

The New York Democrat is 36 years old, and this week she revealed that she is beginning the process of freezing her eggs during Congress’s August recess. In the video, Ocasio-Cortez said that she was seeking to destigmatize the realities of women’s lives as they navigate the conflicting demands of professional aspiration and family building; she explained to viewers the process of the hormonal injections she was administering to herself, showing them the drugs and injector she was using arrayed on a paper towel, beside a disinfecting towelette. The procedure, Ocasio-Cortez explained, was not covered by her insurance, and she would be paying “100% out of pocket”. She had been saving to afford it for some time. “This is a choice that I am making to feel more in control of my life,” she said, going on to assert her hope that transparency about such questions will destigmatize women’s reproductive lives and promote their dignity.

Berries with a hint of tarmac – what do we mean when we call a wine ‘fruity’?

Bananas, peaches, strawberries – anything but ‘grapes’. What do all those volatile organic compounds really mean for your summer sipping?

“Strawberries, cherries and an angel’s kiss in spring,” sang Nancy Sinatra. “My summer wine is really made from all these things …” Overlook the angel’s kiss and, if you’re a wine drinker, you might recognise some of those fruity tasting notes – strawberries and cherries, indeed, but also citrus, orchard, other stone fruits and the whole berry family. In fact, it’s common to liken a wine to almost any fruit – except grapes.

A wine can have notes of almost anything – pencil shavings, tennis balls, cat pee – but fruit is the most obvious (clearly, wine is made from fruit) and universally recognised. If I told you I was getting, say, green apple and lime zest from a riesling, you would probably have a good sense of what that meant, and what you might be able to expect on tasting it yourself. If I described a petroleum aroma, that might sound a bit cryptic and much less appealing, unless you were familiar with this tasting note commonly found in riesling. In other words, a wine’s fruit profile is often leveraged as a marketing tool. What better example of this than the “strawberries and cream” of Provence rosé? It’s a tasting note that underpins our collective sense that rosé is a summer drop, perfect for sun-drenched days filled with watching tennis, ocean views and seasonal produce.

Billion-streamers, Beyoncé and heart-bruising beauty: Frank Ocean’s 20 best songs – ranked!

It’s a decade since the Los Angeles musician released the seminal album Blonde. To lessen the pain of his hiatus, we count down the best of an artist who redefined R&B

Frank Ocean’s pre-fame demos are hard to find – there’s a fan-made, 64-track compilation called The Lonny Breaux Collection floating around – but worth checking out, as evinced by this brief but potent piano ballad. Sweet but heartsore, it packs an emotional punch; it would have been a highlight of the mixtape Nostalgia, Ultra, had it made the cut.

Mark Zuckerberg says the future of AI is for everyone. But who owns it? | Raffi Krikorian

It’s a nice sentiment, but all AI users should ask three questions about their preferred choice of AI platform

On Monday, Mark Zuckerberg published a 6,500-word essay, The Future Is for Everyone. The essay came with something even rarer: a new Meta open-weight model. An open-weight AI model is the kind of AI with which you download the entire thing, and it works on your own computer (with or without the internet) and nobody can switch it off except for you. Almost every mainstream AI tool you use, whether it be Gemini, ChatGPT or Claude, is one you rent access to. Meta’s is one that you can download and actually own. I downloaded it before I finished the essay. So can you.

This major move by the world’s largest tech heavyweight comes amid a summer heavy with AI news, full of nations at war. Washington against Beijing; tech founder against tech founder. But beneath those conflicts is a deeper contest between two kinds of power: a government that can order technology offline in an instant, and a company that can simply close your account. Neither is necessarily villainous. But the rest of us are not merely the audience in this fight; we are the prize. And the terms are already being written: intelligence on lease, a future we pay for but never quite own.

Escaping the ​heat​ and rediscovering the ​joy of ​cooking

Parts of the UK are roasting but some of us are glad to turn the oven on. Bring on the​ ​curries and pasta pies

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I don’t wish to boast, but I’m typing this with a jumper on. Not because my flat has air-conditioning, but because it doesn’t – and the relentless heat of south-east England was having a seriously detrimental effect on my productivity and the health of my elderly dog (NB: the two are not mutually exclusive). So, with a second novel to write, I decided to rent a studio as far north, and as far west, as I could reasonably drive in a day. And, so far, I have no regrets. Driving through North Yorkshire, I had to put on a sweatshirt – the weather in the Pennines gave my car the first good wash it’s had in months – and now, in Scotland, the dog and I feast on hot porridge in the mornings. I’d genuinely forgotten what it’s like to be cold – and what it’s like to cook for pleasure.

This newsletter isn’t just for those parts of the country enjoying, rather than suffering, the sunshine; yesterday it was raining and tonight the temperatures will drop to almost single digits. It’s also for anyone, wherever you are, who’s eaten enough cool, crunchy salads and chilled soups to last a lifetime, or at least until next summer. (You’re not alone: last month, Waitrose reported a spike in sales of cottage pie and robust South African red wine.)

Inflation eased slightly in July. And, ICE plans to give officers electric shock gloves

Inflation cooled a bit last month, according to a new report from the Labor Department. And, ICE plans to equip its officers with electric shock gloves.

The drug lenacapavir is a mighty weapon against HIV. Its rollout gets mixed reviews

It's a twice-a-year injection that is remarkably effective in preventing an HIV infection. Distribution is starting. But questions are being raised about getting it to the areas that need it most.

Chelsea Wolfe: The Dark review – existential reflection goes from whisper to gothic scream

(Loma Vista)
The genre-blending Californian artist casts off past toxic influences with a powerful set of tender, brooding and emotionally charged songs that wouldn’t feel out of place as festival anthems

When Chelsea Wolfe was interviewed by the Guardian in 2015 about her fourth album, Abyss, she revealed that her music had been informed by the bouts of sleep paralysis she’d suffered from since childhood. The condition – a transitional state between being awake and asleep – affects sufferers in different ways. Some wake up feeling paralysed, others see ghosts or demonic figures. For the California-born singer-songwriter, it meant “waking up, and you can move your body and your eyes are open, but there are figures and people from your dreams still present in your room”.

No surprise, then, that her music – a blend of drone, alt, folk, industrial and doom metal – had ended up so spookily unsettling. She appeared on album covers with pupil-less eyes, spoke in interviews about “following the path of witchcraft” and even covered Norwegian black metal act and convicted arsonist/murderer Burzum. She did have a sense of humour about it all, however, telling one interviewer, with a chuckle: “It’s not party music.” Since then, though, much has changed. Wolfe left Los Angeles for the mountains above the city – where she’s finally been able to enjoy a good night’s sleep. Sobriety since 2021 has also brought what she calls “a new clarity”. Both developments inform The Dark.

‘We bring the craic’: how spice bags became an Irish-Chinese takeaway hit

Restaurant critic and award-winning author Jimi Famurewa travels through London, Belfast and Birmingham getting messy with the fusion treat of spicy chicken, chips and curry sauce. Should you dip or pour? What’s it like with a Filipino flavour? And with a Michelin-style glow-up?

Primary voters send mixed signals about what they want from the Democratic Party

Primary results this month in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin paint a muddled picture of just how far to the left Democratic voters want their candidates to be come this fall's midterm elections.

In pictures: Europe's best solar eclipse since 1999

A total solar eclipse crossed Iceland and Spain on Aug. 12, while much of Europe saw a partial eclipse and businesses benefited from demand.

Ukraine attacks Russian grain export terminals in Black Sea, prompting warning about food markets

Ukraine has launched a heavy drone assault on warships and major Russian grain export terminals in the Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk.

Lost jobs, inequality, rogue agents: why are we accepting oligarchs’ AI agenda? | Robert Reich

The dangers of AI become clearer every day. Why are we still acting as if we have no choice about our future?

Rather than producing jobs, the US economy actually lost 23,000 jobs in July, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released on Friday. In addition, May and June’s job numbers were revised downward, showing a combined 103,000 fewer jobs than previously reported.

As if this weren’t bad enough, wage growth has also slowed. Average hourly earnings rose by just 0.1% from June.

‘Everyone is scared’: flood-hit Porto Alegre braces for another El Niño

Two years after southern Brazil’s worst climate disaster ravaged the city, and with poor areas still recovering, many fear official neglect has left them exposed once again

In the backstreets of Porto Alegre, a state capital in southern Brazil, you can still see signs of the devastating flood that swept through the city two years ago: scattered debris, waterlogged homes and destroyed businesses.

In May 2024, flooding killed 183 people in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and displaced more than 600,000. The neighbourhood of Sarandi was one of the hardest-hit parts of Porto Alegre, with water levels reaching up to 5 metres above normal, completely submerging many of its streets.

Taylor Swift has put her love story out there – so it’s not fair she won’t let us see her wedding dress | Polly Hudson

How a bride decides to look on the big day tells us a lot about that person. But the singer is leaving us hanging

Having hope in your heart is all well and good, but you also need to know when to give up. At a certain point it’s time to accept cold, hard reality: we’re never going to see pictures of Taylor Swift in her wedding dress, are we?

There are many reasons this matters, and the first, admittedly, is plain old nosiness, with a side order of entitlement. We’ve spent years absorbing – some unintentionally, by osmosis – the details of Swift’s relationships, following her journey to happily ever after every step of the way, including the photos she released of the engagement moment. Obviously she is allowed to keep her wedding private, but being denied a glimpse of the dress feels – insert foot stamp here – unfair. More than that, it’s like a romcom ending before the final embrace, the protagonist still en route to the airport they have yet to run through. For somebody who is essentially a storyteller, this tale is uncharacteristically incomplete, unsatisfying. It’s not like Swift to leave us hanging.

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U.S. ambassador calls settler siege of Palestinian homes a 'horrific act of terror'

The U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee condemned the actions of Jewish settlers who are besieging the home of an American Palestinian family in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

We’re going to party like it’s 1629… the masques, the music and the mayhem of Banqueting House

What music soundtracked 17th-century England? Ahead of a DJ set in Banqueting House, Georgia Mann looks at the wild, the experimental, the melancholic – and why a theorbo caused a security alert

King Charles is on the throne, there’s anxiety around the power-brokers of Whitehall, and an age of deep political division and conspiracy obsession is under way.

That’s right, I’m referring to the middle years of the 17th century, a period I’m immersed in as I’m putting together a Jacobean-Carolean Classical DJ set, where the beats are to be dropped beneath one of the UK’s most awesome works of art: the Rubens painted ceiling at the Banqueting House in Whitehall.

‘I feel like I’m at war’: are we losing the battle against machine-made music?

Despite outcry from musicians, AI slop is creeping into the charts as record labels scramble to adapt to a new normal where hits can be made at the click of a button

This year, the battle for song of the summer has been eclipsed by a much more complicated – some would even say disturbing – debate. That’s because we find ourselves asking not “What’s the song of the summer?” but rather “Is the song of the summer even real?”

Among the top contenders for the title is Fenix Flexin’s Rubberz, a single released in June that has ascended to No 58 on the Billboard Hot 100 and racked up more than 35m Spotify streams. It’s not the sort of fare Fenix usually cooks up. The artist is known for his trap music as part of the rap duo Shoreline Mafia, but Rubberz is a mildly noirish, 80s-inspired synth-pop track featuring a voice nothing like his. The song has drawn comparisons to Morrissey, but it more closely resembles Men at Work’s Down Under, or a Weird Al Yankovic parody of Men at Work. It’s pretty awful. But more importantly, it has an uncanny quality to it. It sounds off.

What end-of-life experts know about living well: love your wrinkles, celebrate birthdays and don’t obsess over work

How can our understanding of mortality shape the way we live? Palliative care doctors and death doulas share the lessons they have learned

We will all face death one day, but our attitude towards this is individual. How can our understanding of mortality shape our approach to life? Here, palliative care doctors and death doulas share what they know about the end – and how it informs the way they live.

These swing voters in Nevada say they are not dismissing socialist candidates

In online focus groups, 10 of 12 Biden-to-Trump voters said they wouldn't automatically think negatively of a politician who identifies with socialism.

Stop the bites! How to survive another summer of mosquitoes, midges and horseflies

Dress like a zebra, wash your feet, keep off the beer: insect experts explain what works and what doesn’t – and why some of us get bitten more than others

It’s a good time to be a mosquito or other blood-sucking insect. In the UK and beyond, they are enjoying the summer heat, and there are lots of humans outdoors, some wearing very little, like an all-you-can-eat walking buffet. Some of the humans are drinking beer, which apparently makes them even more irresistible to mosquitoes. Many of us are warm and sweaty, which is all the better for the blood-suckers seeking us out.

Insect populations are changing because of the warming climate and there are organisations keeping an eye on invasive species, especially mosquitoes, which can be vectors for diseases such as dengue and malaria (globally, more than 600,000 people a year die from malaria). The UK “will have a threat from mosquito-borne diseases as time goes on,” says James Logan, professor of medical entomology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and CEO of Dot, an “odour intelligence” company. “The biggest threats are arboviruses [viruses transmitted by arthropods, especially insects and ticks], such as dengue. We have mosquitoes throughout [mainland] Europe now that can transmit dengue. We also know that we do get those mosquitoes coming across to the UK, but they don’t seem to be breeding here successfully and surviving over the winter.” But, he warns, with milder winters and warmer summers, it is only a matter of time.

Nuclear power plants are being shut down as Europe’s drought becomes an energy crisis

Heat and drought are curbing nuclear output across Europe, with Romania starting the process of disconnecting its sole working reactor from the power grid.

The End of Tom Six review – Human Centipede director delivers one last freaky flick

Now living with multiple sclerosis, Six rants about the masturbation film distributors won’t touch and the money mystery behind his horror hit

Fifteen years ago, Dutch film-maker Tom Six succeeded where almost everybody fails – particularly in the world of horror. He actually shocked people. No self-respecting sophisticate admits to being shocked, of course, and no horror connoisseur will admit to being really and truly horrified. But Six really did freak audiences out with his extreme exploitation nightmare The Human Centipede, the first of a trilogy. It was a grenade in the faces of prim conformists, and also those badass horror fans who thought they’d seen it all.

The “human centipede” of the title is created by a sadistic surgeon who imprisons three young people in a basement and sews them together mouth-to-anus as a vivisectional experiment. Six himself had been a director on the original Dutch TV show Big Brother that started the global franchise, and it was easy to see how his movie masterwork was intended as a satire on consumerist voyeurism and cruelty. Or maybe it just sprang from the same dark creative place that gave birth to the TV phenomenon of the age.

You be the judge: should my girlfriend stop annotating her books?

Julie makes notes in the margin as she’s reading, but Charlie says she’s ruining books he may want to read. Should they get on the same page? You decide
• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

It breaks my immersion in the stories – like when someone says ‘This next bit is so good’

‘I wanted to capture the range of British culture at the time’: the photographer who documented late nights on the 90s London tube

In the 1990s, Mark McEvoy took portraits of punks, partiers and late-night lovers on the underground. His images show city life before smartphones – when people still had to rush to make the final train

Mark McEvoy’s tube photographs, taken in London Underground carriages at around 11pm on Friday and Saturday nights from 1992 to 1995, capture moments that may seem superficially frivolous, but might be the most significant of our lives. These are the golden hours of the end of the week, where friendships are found and sealed; gabbled conversation rolls along with the sway of the carriages; and new lovers meet up en route for an encounter that may turn out to be a fleeting one-off, or in fact the beginnings of a lifelong companionship.

All are swept along in the scramble to hop onboard the last tube – a panic that ended when all-night services began on some lines 10 years ago this month. The night tube arrived when my time of going out all weekend was fading, and gave me a slight feeling of missing out. Looking at photos of other people’s social lives can make one feel like that too; at the same time, it’s not hard to see ourselves in these tired, happy and thoughtful faces.

Hellcat review – woman imprisoned in camper van in nasty survival horror

A woman wakes up in a trailer as it speeds along in this effective and icky thriller, though you do end up wondering when you (and she) will ever get out

This survival thriller-horror starts in “what would you do?” mode, as a young woman wakes up in the back of a moving camper van with some sort of hideous wound on her arm. Well, what would you do? Lena (Dakota Gorman) approaches things fairly logically, first checking out her surroundings: under other circumstances the trailer would be quite charming, if slightly kitschy – floral curtains, varnished wooden panels, a “World’s Greatest Dad” mug and family photographs. Closer inspection reveals less homely details: conspiracy magazines and lurid novels, which in the presumed abduction scenario in which Lena finds herself, are hardly reassuring.

When a disembodied voice begins to communicate with her, telling her that she has an hour to get to hospital before the veiny trails progressing from the wound on her arm reach her heart, she asks reasonable questions, which are met with cryptic replies and evasive half answers. The voice is emanating from the head of a taxidermised coyote type of beastie mounted on the wall, and it’s pretty clear this is the voice of the driver and apparent kidnapper. Naturally, the full situation is a little more layered than it initially seems.

‘Living proof damaged landscapes can recover’: exploring a vast restored forest in southern Sweden

Söderåsen national park is one of Europe’s largest protected broadleaf woods, offering wild swimming, spectacular hiking trails and an inspiring story of regeneration

From the bus window, the ridge looks like a giant slumbering beast stretched deep green across the flat farmland. “It feels alive,” I say to the woman beside me. “Yes,” she answers. “It is where you would run for safety, don’t you think?”

I am in southern Sweden to explore Söderåsen national park, established in 2001 to protect more than 1,600 hectares (4,000 acres) of the larger Söderåsen ridgeline. Shaped over millennia by immense geological collisions, fractures, volcanic eruptions and ice ages, today it is one of northern Europe’s largest continuous protected broadleaf forests, and only 90 minutes by car from Copenhagen or, in my case, two hours by public transport.

Sailors, shadows and a dog in a dress: heroes of the street – in pictures

From dazzling shifts in perspective to astounding tricks using shade, reflections and rain, these winning images from the Pure Street Photography awards all capture ‘marvellous moments of fleeting serendipity’