European football: Inter start title defence with rout of promoted Monza

• Second-half Esposito and Bisseck goals seal 4-1 win

• Thauvin scores two as Lens put five past Auxerre

Inter kicked off their ⁠Serie A title defence with a 4-1 home win against ⁠Monza, ​after the promoted side recovered from conceding an early ⁠goal to go in level at the break before the ⁠champions turned on the style.

Hakan Calhanoglu ​put Inter ahead ‌in the ‌sixth minute, but the hosts were ‌far too complacent after taking the lead and Gustavo Varela equalised for the visitors just before the half-hour. Inter began the second half as ‌they had the first, with Piotr Zielinski scoring three minutes ​after the break, before Pio Esposito and Yann Bisseck wrapped up the win for Cristian Chivu’s side.

This story will be updated

Aston Villa upheaval is a risk but Emery can release v2.0 and reap rewards | Jonathan Wilson

After exodus of key players, youthful arrivals over the summer amount to a fresh beginning with plenty to get excited about

Last season was the greatest Aston Villa have enjoyed since they won the European Cup in 1982. They claimed their second European trophy by lifting the Europa League, but even without that would have secured Champions League qualification by finishing fourth in the Premier League.

Despite a miserable start during which they failed to win any of their first five league games, there was even a spell around Christmas when it looked as though Villa might be challengers for the title. The question after a season like that is always: where next?

This week on "Sunday Morning" (Aug. 23)

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

Kayode seals emphatic Brentford victory in wake-up call for sorry Spurs

Every new season opens with talk of a team winning the transfer window. It is not the same as winning on the pitch and Tottenham found out the hard way after being run out of west London by Brentford, whose dominance made a mockery of suggestions that Spurs are about to take off after casting off the shackles of Levynomics with a summer of relentless spending.

Spurs, whose outlay on new signings will soon surpass £300m, were battered, bruised and embarrassed long before the end. They failed to do the basics against superior opponents and can count themselves fortunate it finished only 3-0 to Brentford, who made light of their inferior resources by opening their second season under Keith Andrews with a dominant win.

‘I was rooting for Josh’: Pogacar wins Vuelta opening stage with Tarling third

• Pogacar edges out Ethan Hayter in Monaco time trial

• Josh Tarling third a week after death of brother Finlay

Tadej Pogacar stormed to victory in the individual time trial to claim the leader’s red jersey after the first stage of the Vuelta a España on Saturday.

The overwhelming favourite, aiming to complete a career Grand Tour treble, completed the 9.4km ride just 0.09 seconds faster than Britain’s Ethan Hayter.

Seventeen-year-old girl killed in sword attack at school in Sweden

Three other people wounded after 18-year-old man wielding sword assail students in Fagersta school

A 17-year-old girl has been killed after a teenager brandishing a sword attacked students at a school in Sweden, police have confirmed.

Three other people were wounded in the incident during classes in the central town of Fagersta on Friday afternoon, including two boys aged 12 and 17 who sustained minor injuries.

Infantino angers Concacaf nations by hijacking meeting in Caribbean

• Gianni Infantino used opportunity to lobby for support

• Fifa president was asked to stay away from CFU meeting

Gianni Infantino has risked alienating numerous Concacaf nations, whose support he is seeking in his re-election campaign, by hijacking a meeting of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) to announce Fifa-funded development projects for the region with millions of dollars that had been delayed for months.

Multiple sources attending the CFU meeting in the Dominican Republic said many of the Concacaf members were infuriated by Infantino’s behaviour, particularly as he had been asked to stay away by their president, Victor Montagliani.

Nancy Kassebaum Baker, former U.S. senator from Kansas, dies at 94

Former U.S. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker of Kansas was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate without following a spouse into office.

Jordan double stuns South Africa as New Zealand clinch statement victory

• First Test: South Africa 16-33 New Zealand

• All Blacks score five tries against world champions

As first courses go, this was a delicious appetiser to a series that looks set to live up to its billing. First blood goes to New Zealand, who withstood a barrage of South Africa scrum pressure and demonstrated a slickness the double world champions could not live with, clinching a first win at Ellis Park since 2022.

It wasn’t a classic, but a statement victory by the All Blacks to which South Africa must respond in the coming weeks. By the end, South Africa had two men in the sin-bin and, given their status as the world’s leading side, this must go down as a disintegration. There will be a backlash – it is hard to remember a time when South Africa were so inaccurate with the ball in hand – but credit New Zealand for producing a masterclass at weathering the storm and taking their chances. It is 30 years since Sean Fitzpatrick led the All Blacks to a first series victory in South Africa, but the class of 2026 are off to a flying start.

As U.S.-Canada trade talks collapse, Carney says retaliatory tariffs will start Sept. 8

New 50% Trump administration tariffs on some Canadian exports went into place after the U.S. and Canada failed to reach a deal on Friday.

Canada says it will begin retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods after Labor Day

The U.S. and Canada have wrangled for decades over trade, and somehow, they still managed to remain friends, allies and trading partners.

Free speech group calls foul play at prosecutors using Comey novel in case against him

PEN America condemns lawyers using passage from thriller to bolster claim ex-FBI director intended to harm Trump

A leading US free-expression group has hit out at federal prosecutors’ use of a novel written by former FBI director James Comey in their case accusing him of threatening to kill Donald Trump.

“Citing a novel to save an indictment that is constitutionally dubious is a desperate Hail Mary and should be rejected,” said a statement posted on Friday by Mara Gassmann, legal director of PEN America, using a term for a last-second heave in American football.

Two police officers killed in North Yorkshire crash named as Matthew Blades and Tom Clough

Watchdog launches inquiry into collision in which seven people died involving police car and another vehicle

Two police officers who died in a car crash near Middlesbrough in the early hours of Saturday have been named.

Police constables Matthew Blades and Tom Clough were among seven people killed after their marked police car collided with a Volkswagen Passat travelling the wrong way along the A66 in North Yorkshire.

Badenoch says Reform defectors ‘some of the most dishonest people I have met’

Tory leader rules out coalition with Farage’s party and says ‘drama queens’ who left will not be welcomed back

Kemi Badenoch has called defectors who left for Reform “some of the most dishonest people” she has ever met, as she ruled out allowing “drama queens” to return to the party.

Speaking at the Edinburgh festival fringe, the Conservative party leader again ruled out any prospect of an election deal with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, insisting there would be no coalition between the parties.

Thousands of sex offenders in England and Wales could get libido-suppressing drugs

Exclusive: Voluntary use of sex drive-suppressing medication to expand to 20 prisons and expert says it could be rolled out widely by late 2028

• Chemical suppression: why the UK is exploring libido control drugs to treat sex offenders

Drugs that help control the libidos of people who have committed sexual offences could be rolled out for thousands of male prisoners in England and Wales from December 2028, an expert has said.

Prof Belinda Winder, who has evaluated the use of sex drive-suppressing medication in prisons, said about one in four sex offenders – equating to 3,750 current prisoners – would be considered for the treatment.

40,000 bottles of eye drops across the US recalled over issues with sterility of product

Prestige Brand Holdings has voluntarily recalled a batch of its Clear Eyes eye drops after FDA alert

Nearly 40,000 bottles of eye drops are being pulled from store shelves across the US over concerns about potential contamination, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Prestige Brand Holdings, based in Tarrytown, New York, has voluntarily recalled 39,060 bottles of Clear Eyes Maximum Itchy Eye Relief eye drops because of a “lack of assurance of sterility”, an FDA enforcement report states. The FDA classified the action as a Class II recall, defined on the agency’s website as a moderate-risk situation “in which use of or exposure to a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote”.

Lando Norris surges past Russell and Antonelli to snatch Dutch GP pole

• Norris outperforms Mercedes pair against the odds

• George Russell wins the sprint race convincingly

What a title fight Formula One would have on its hands if McLaren could make the final steps with their car. This was demonstrated to dramatic effect on Saturday as Lando Norris hurled his ride around Zandvoort to claim pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix. It was a prize secured against the odds and his own expectations, hours after he had bemoaned being in no position to fulfil his hopes of mounting a successful title defence.

The McLaren car is immensely quick through the fast corners, perhaps the class of the field, but is haemorrhaging time through the slow stuff, the package not quite complete, or suboptimal as Ron Dennis would have had it. Yet Norris managed to eke out its very best across the circuit to see off the Mercedes of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli into second and third place. The season’s dominant car was subdued by Norris in qualifying for the second race in succession, after he took pole in Hungary.

Carrick tells Manchester United to keep calm and carry on after Hull humbling

• Bruno Fernandes: ‘We gave too much of the ball to them’

• Sergej Jakirovic happy Hull proved critics wrong

Michael Carrick says he will not overreact, but has called for improvement after Manchester United started the season with a 2-0 defeat at Hull. United lost their opening game for the fourth time in the past seven years as Semi Ajayi and Nobel Mendy took advantage of poor defending from set-pieces.

The United head coach presented a professional exterior despite United’s performance not reaching the desired standard as they were deservedly beaten by Hull, who finished sixth in the Championship last season.

Indiana residents endure 11th day without power after storms topple power lines

33,124 residents still in the dark as utility company says it is working to restore power in north-west of state

Thousands of residents of north-west Indiana on Saturday were headed for their 11th day without electric power after storms swept through the state, toppling trees and power lines, earlier in August.

The powerless conditions have led to food lines, closed businesses, dead phones, no schools, spoiled food, dirty clothes, dry gas pumps and a multitude of other deleterious effects on life without energy.

Serena Williams, Carlos Alcaraz will play mixed doubles at the U.S. Open

Serena Williams will team up with Carlos Alcaraz to create a powerhouse mixed doubles pair in her return to the U.S. Open.

Canada vows ‘dollar for dollar’ response as US puts 50% tariffs on some goods

Collapse of trade talks could lead to job losses, but biggest impact on traditional allies is expected to be political

The trade row is the biggest rupture in recent relations between Washington and one of its closest allies and trading partners as Donald Trump’s bellicose foreign policy angered officials in Ottawa.

The two sides appeared close to a deal on Friday to lower tariffs on steel, aluminium and cars, but the deal was scuttled at the last minute. The two sides blamed each other for the collapse.

Supreme Court temporarily allows work on White House ballroom to continue

Chief Justice John Roberts issued a stay that will remain in place until the Supreme Court takes further action.

Nebraska school district asks police to stop using shock gloves on students

Omaha police agreed to stop carrying electric shock gloves in the halls of state’s largest public school district

Omaha police recently agreed to stop carrying gloves that can deliver electric shocks to students in the halls of Nebraska’s largest public school district.

The decision affecting most Omaha middle and high schools came after the Associated Press first revealed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s plan to give officers the “Gloves” – or “generated low output voltage emitters”. The devices have also been used in recent years by some jails.

We need to be honest about the Hundred: it feels as real as Ted Lasso | The Secret Cricket Coach

The shirts, the songs, the supporters, the rivalries. Somebody created the whole thing and it’s all disconnected from county cricket’s culture and history

I went to Old Trafford expecting to watch a game of cricket. Instead, I left thinking about history, identity and whether you can manufacture belonging. Walking through the concourses, I found myself surrounded by the faces of Lancashire’s greats. Farokh Engineer. Sir Clive Lloyd. Players whose stories are woven into the fabric of the ground. The Sir Clive Lloyd Stand is a reminder that this place has accumulated meaning over generations.

And then, almost everywhere else, Manchester Super Giants.

Abusers coercing or duping women to post explicit OnlyFans content, UK court cases reveal

Separate criminal convictions come as domestic violence charities warn of tech-facilitated abuse and coercion

Two men have been convicted this week in separate criminal cases that revealed they had posted explicit content on OnlyFans without the full consent of the women whose images were uploaded.

In the first case, Alexander Tang, 37, took and uploaded 47 intimate images and four videos of a woman to OnlyFans without her consent, and was paid money for the material he posted to the website.

Man leaves young son on Mount Fuji before ascending Japan’s highest peak

Boy, seven, had complained of feeling tired so father left him with snacks and a soft drink and continued his climb

A man who abandoned his seven-year-old son on Mount Fuji in Japan after the boy complained of feeling tired while on a family hike has been reprimanded by local police.

A worker on Japan’s highest mountain discovered the child sitting alone on a bench near the sixth station of the Fujinomiya trail at an altitude of more than 2,000 metres (6,500 feet) on Thursday.

Natasha Cloud condemns ‘weak’ men throwing sex toys on to court at WNBA games

• Several young men arrested over incidents at games

• Trend emerged last season during games

• Cryptocurrency group has claimed responsibility

Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud has spoken out after the return of a trend that involves sex toys being thrown on to the court during WNBA games.

Arena staff removed the objects from the court during the Sky’s win over the Golden State Valkyries on Friday night. Players stayed on court during the incident. A suspect was detained during a similar incident on Thursday during the Atlanta Dream’s win over the Los Angeles Sparks.

It’s a miracle: Natalie Harp has turned Republicans into feminists | Arwa Mahdawi

A Democrat’s remarks have resulted in impassioned defenses of the Trump aide. The right has discovered misogyny

Jon Ossoff is quite the miracle worker. Perhaps the Democratic senator can’t turn water into wine, but he has managed to turn whining conservatives into impassioned feminists.

During a rally last Sunday, the Georgia senator delivered a takedown of Donald Trump, which included a reference to his aide Natalie Harp. “He doesn’t want to do the job,” Ossoff said of the president. “He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.”

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

Diamonds for sale: lab-grown gem auctions are all over TikTok right now, but some aren’t happy about it

Streamed auctions offer a cheap way to buy the precious gems, but experts warn that quality is not guaranteed

The first time Andrea Greenhill came across a livestream auction for lab-grown diamonds while scrolling on TikTok, she was stunned. While the diamond engagement ring her husband proposed with years ago had cost thousands of dollars, these loose lab-grown diamonds were selling in seconds at a fraction of the price.

“I have two rings that are both natural diamonds and cost a fortune,” she said. I saw the prices they were going for in the auctions, and I was like, “This is insanity.’”

Inside Coca-Cola’s secretive innovation labs: How the beverage giant wants to automate dirty soda and refreshers

From McDonald's to Wendy's, longtime Coke customers have been expanding their beverage offerings to boost their profit margins.

Opinion: Mr. Rogers keeps finding a new neighborhood

MLB catcher Jake Rogers probably didn't know if he was coming or going the last several weeks: he's been a Detroit Tiger, a Baltimore Oriole, a Boston Red Sox, and now he's a Chicago White Sox.

As Flock battles public scrutiny, other police surveillance companies see an opening

Dozens of cities have canceled their contracts with Flock. Some are switching to other companies, but privacy experts say they're no better than Flock.

Supreme Court allows Trump to continue White House ballroom construction for now

President Donald Trump had the White House's East Wing demolished in 2025 to make way for his controversial planned ballroom.

Thomasina Miers’ recipes for spiced lamb-stuffed aubergine with aleppo chilli butter, and berry ripple ice-cream

A meaty, Middle Eastern style stuffed vegetable feast finished off with an ice-cold berry dessert

There’s something delightfully retro about stuffed vegetables. They take me back to Delia Smith’s iconic Summer Collection cookbook, which blew my tiny mind when it came out in my early teens. Too sheltered to know about the e rage that had inspired Delia, I delved into my mother’s vegetable crisper with reverence, stuffing courgettes, tomatoes and aubergines with a zeal that had escaped me at school. How could the roasting, reducing and condensing of ingredients create such explosions of flavour? I was hooked. I have recently been returning to this technique with glee, a simple solution for turning seasonal vegetables into feasts.

The film Apollo 13 taught me how to survive heartbreak

After my engagement ended, I found myself repeatedly watching a movie about three astronauts trapped in a damaged spacecraft. It helped me see that sometimes the mere act of getting home is the success

‘Failure is not an option” has always been my family’s catchphrase; it’s flight director Gene Kranz’s famous line in the film Apollo 13. When I tell people it’s our family motto, they often joke, “That’s healthy.” But it isn’t about being the best. It’s about refusing to stop being.

I’ve loved Apollo 13 since I was a child. To me, Ron Howard’s 1995 adaptation of one of humanity’s greatest rescue missions is the perfect film to watch when you feel you might implode – because they got home. It is a film about a successful failure. When the Nasa director warns: “This could be the worst disaster Nasa’s ever experienced,” Kranz replies: “I believe this is going to be our finest hour.” Every time I watch that scene, I start crying.

The faces behind the feeds: Gen Z’s private lives and public posts – in pictures

For the first digital natives, there are two places to express yourself: in the comfort of your own room and online. Photographer Niccolò Rastrelli set out to find out how the identities compare

Social media arrived just as I, a younger millennial, was on the brink of teenhood. My friends and I signed up for accounts on Facebook, Myspace and Twitter, as well as less remembered sites such as the now defunct Bebo. We didn’t know what we were doing; no one did. We posted indiscreet messages and photos on public feeds that we wouldn’t want any future employer – or really anyone, for that matter – to see. Then gradually we, and our parents and their parents, too, learned what it means to live with that world-changing phenomenon that we term social media. We started to find different ways to adapt, a process that is ongoing.

But what is the experience like for gen Z, the first generation of “digital natives”, for whom the language of the internet is a mother tongue? That is the question that led the Italian photographer Niccolò Rastrelli to embark on the project IRL (the online acronym, of course, for a phrase denoting our offline existences: in real life).

Former world boxing champion, 38, shot dead outside home in South Africa

Zolani Tete was arriving at his house in Eastern Cape when two men in balaclavas got out of a car and shot him

The former boxing world champion Zolani “Last Born” Tete was shot dead outside his home in South Africa on Friday amid rampant violence in the country, which has one of the world’s highest murder rates.

The 38-year-old athlete was arriving at his house in the Mdantsane township, Eastern Cape province, when two men in balaclavas got out of a car and shot him. He was declared dead at the scene. A 27-year-old woman with Tete was also shot multiple times and taken to hospital.

The Uplift: The Shatners

William Sahtner and his daughter Melanie Shatner-Gretsch open up about their individual cancer battles that led to a strengthened bond between them. Plus, more heartwarming news

Chinese robot runs 100m sprint quicker than Usain Bolt’s world record

• Lightning the humanoid ⁠robot clocks 9.32sec in Beijing

• Quicker than ​9.58sec men’s world record set 17 years ago

A ⁠robot named Lightning ⁠has run ​the 100m in 9.32 seconds, ⁠beating the human world ⁠record, China’s ​state broadcaster ‌has reported.

The humanoid, developed by the Chinese smartphone manufacturer Honor, ‌reached a peak speed of 14.5 metres per second during ‌a test event for ​the second World Humanoid Robot Games, which ⁠began on Saturday. The ​performance surpassed ​the ​9.58sec men’s ​100m world record ​set ​by Usain Bolt 17 years ago at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin.

ICE agent jailed on allegations of breaking into ex-girlfriend’s apartment

Thomas Bailey, 58, faces charge of unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling near Covington, Louisiana

A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer was jailed on Friday on allegations of breaking into a woman’s apartment.

Thomas Bailey, 58, faces a charge of unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling after his arrest by the sheriff’s office of St Tammany parish, Louisiana, the agency said in a statement.

Lindsay Clancy trial: everything that happened this week in court

Outcome of trial of a Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three children may come down to witness testimony

The trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three children in January 2023, will likely head to the jury next week to decide if she is guilty of murder or was suffering from postpartum psychosis and should not be held criminally responsible.

The outcome may come down to expert witness testimony – and there have been many – but the trial will be remembered for the spotlight it put on maternal health care in the United States. Defense lawyer Kevin Reddington has said that, in addition to postpartum psychosis, Clancy also had bipolar disorder and was overmedicated.

‘It was dark and deserted. I was drawn by the light’: Christine Rodgers’ best phone picture

A man at a bank counter in a border town in northern India, tension in the air: how could any photographer resist?

Over the last decade, Lancashire-born, London-based Christine Rodgers has trekked in Bhutan, Nepal and the Indian states and regions of Uttarakhand, Ladakh and Sikkim. “I’ve developed something of a passion for the Himalayas,” she says. “I love being in the mountains; not climbing, but walking and camping at altitude, in sight of the wonderful range of peaks.”

Rodgers used to rely on her Olympus camera to take photographs on her trips, but has since switched predominantly to using her phone. “I love the immediacy,” she notes. “I did miss having a viewfinder at first, but I now feel completely at home with the screen.”

Lionel Messi fined for slapping opposition player in MLS game

• Incident happened when Inter Miami met Philadelphia Union

• Argentinian lashed out at Quinn Sullivan in 2-2 draw

Lionel Messi has been fined for slapping an opponent during a Major League Soccer game. The 39-year-old Inter Miami forward lashed out at Quinn Sullivan of Philadelphia Union during their match on Wednesday, catching the midfielder around the back of the head.

The Argentinian appeared to be angry Sullivan had elbowed him after he had played the ball, with the referee intervening before the situation could escalate. The match at Subaru Park finished 2-2.

Four blokes and a zebra crossing: the banality and beauty of the Beatles’ Abbey Road cover

Much-copied and parodied picture captures dynamic between the individuals and the band with eerie perfection

It’s not really the four blokes on the zebra crossing who make the cover of the Beatles’ Abbey Road memorable, but the street behind them. Vanishing towards a perfect blue sky, with summer trees veiling in bright green what might otherwise be dour brick houses, it could be a hyperreal vista painted by David Hockney. The black and white stripes of the crossing and the white line down the middle of the receding north London road are fresh and crisp, enhancing the clarity of this psychedelic daydream.

Of course the four blokes do play a part. The Beatles were so transcendently famous by the time Iain Macmillan took this picture on 8 August 1969 that seeing them do something as ordinary as cross the road becomes a magical mystery.

Ebola frontline workers missing wages as outbreak spreads ‘exponentially’

People fighting to contain rapidly growing outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo describe the obstacles and dangers they face

Every day, Sophie Mwadawa Kabundo goes to her job as a nurse at an Ebola treatment centre in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, afraid she will contract the virus and pass it to her family and friends.

“More and more confirmed cases are being admitted here … Some of our colleagues have died,” said Kabundo. “We fear that, despite our vigilance, workplace accidents may occur and put us in ever greater danger … We go to sleep already worrying about the days ahead, as patients continue to pour in.”

Nigel Havers: ‘My biggest disappointment? Not playing James Bond’

The actor on mucking out pigs as a teenager, an apology to his first wife and what makes him cry all the time

Born in London, Nigel Havers, 74, was Bafta-nominated for his 1981 role in Chariots of Fire. His other films include A Passage to India and Empire of the Sun. On television he has appeared in Don’t Wait Up, The Charmer, Coronation Street, The Gentlemen and, most recently, Golden Boys. He has starred in West End plays and panto, and is touring his show, Talking B*ll*cks. He is married, has a daughter and lives in London.

What is your greatest fear?
Every actor has the same fear – ie, you’re never going to work again.

‘It brings me joy’: how young people are making CDs cool again

Compact discs are back, with searches for players up 96% at John Lewis and popular models sold out online

With more than 800 million people subscribing to a music streaming service, wireless speakers have become a familiar sight in homes. But expect to get reacquainted with a different object to play music soon: the CD player, once consigned to obsolescence, is back.

John Lewis report that searches for CD players are up 96% since July, possibly owing to students heading to university and buying the systems for their rooms. The £79 Crosley Voyager, and the £129 Pure Classic C-D6 are both sold out online, with the Voyager scheduled to return in October. Portable CD players are also popular.

Stand By Me at 40: Rob Reiner’s seminal coming-of-age saga remains a bittersweet triumph

The late director’s sensitive and detailed adaptation of Stephen King’s novella has an authenticity that so many imitators could never replicate

Coming-of-age metaphors don’t get any blunter than a group of preteen boys following a set of railroad tracks to a classmate’s dead body, a sobering testament to the fragility of life and a sign that their own futures are not guaranteed. The Stephen King novella that would become Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me is simply called The Body, and there’s no doubt that commercial considerations factored into naming the film after the song that blankets the soundtrack. Yet the enduring magic of Reiner’s film lies in the tension between this bleak journey and the nostalgia and warmth that keeps complicating our feelings about it. Between those two poles is a bittersweet tone that perfectly suits the material, the rare example of an adaptation that benefits from softened edges.

Though Reiner kicked off his career on a legendary heater that opened with This is Spinal Tap and would go on to include The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally … and A Few Good Men, Stand By Me was just his third feature and an early showcase of his versatility. His deft comic touch is not only essential in maintaining tonal balance, but important in suggesting what these four wayward boys mean to each other. Between the loose talk about Annette Funicello’s expanding bust on The Mickey Mouse Club and a Wurlitzer soundtrack of novelty singles like Lollipop and Yakety Yak, it can be easy to forget the anger, pain and dread that’s always simmering close to the surface. They laugh to keep from crying and occasionally don’t succeed.

Hook, hold, harvest and hide: Meta’s alleged strategy laid out in first week of landmark trial

In trial that opened on Tuesday, California and 28 other states accused the company of designing addictive sites and violating laws protecting children’s privacy

Meta’s business can be boiled down to four words that begin with the letter H: hook, hold, harvest, hide, according to a lawyer who is prosecuting the world’s largest social media company.

The owner of Facebook and Instagram “hooks” in users, “holds” them on its platforms for as long as possible, “harvests” their data and then “hides” the truth from the public, she argued.

From Booker-listed Marlon James to a memoir by Michael Douglas – the biggest books this autumn

Midlife meditations from Barbara Kingsolver; musical portraits by Jonathan Coe and Yiyun Li; plus memoirs from Dustin Hoffman and Judi Dench – all among the coming season’s highlights

The Disappearers by Marlon James
Hamish Hamilton, 3 September
After a detour into mythic fantasy, the author of the Booker-winning A Brief History of Seven Killings returns to Jamaica. This account of a brutal homophobic attack on a group of gay actors in 1980s Kingston has already been longlisted for this year’s prize.

Why am I called The Black Farmer? Because there are so few of us in Britain. I’d like that to change | Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones

Running a farm is tough – TV’s Clarkson’s Farm shows that – but I know many minorities would love the chance. And we would all benefit

Who’d be a farmer? Clarkson’s Farm on Amazon is great entertainment but it also gives some indication of the stresses and challenges behind the farm gate. Would anyone who lacked the significant alternative income that Clarkson is lucky to have want that? Well, actually, yes.

I’m an entrepreneur who owns a farm, as opposed to hands-on running the small one I bought 25 years ago, but as I look around the industry, I’m struck by a significant fact: the very reason I can be known as the Black Farmer is because I am such a rarity that it makes me readily identifiable.

‘A brilliant initiative’: the Youth Sport Games goes from strength to strength

Europe’s biggest amateur sports event for children – that has drawn celebrity ambassadors ranging from Sean Dyche to Alastair Campbell – has marked its 30th birthday in Split

On a dais overlooking the Adriatic, 20 children are playing chess. Arranged in a circle, they are competing not against each other but against the grandmaster Nigel Short, who passes awkwardly around the group playing one move each time. The children are no slouches, the best young chess players from the Balkans. But, in a twist, they can also call on the support of celebrity coaches. And so we have the unusual sight of precocious chess talents being coached through their games not just by the former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic, but by the former Burnley manager Sean Dyche and, in quite the eyebrow-raiser, the rightwing tech billionaire Peter Thiel.

This is just one event at the Plazma Youth Sport Games (YSG), which is celebrating its 30th anniversary in the Croatian city of Split this month. Described by some of its more esteemed visitors as “the Davos of sport”, it brings eminent figures from the world of sport and politics to the Dalmatian coast each summer. More important, it is also the biggest amateur sports event for children in Europe. Just under half a million young people from across Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovenia and North Macedonia took part in qualifying for this year’s event. The finals in 10 sports – from chess to 3v3 basketball – are then held over the course of a week in Split. Alongside the competition, children are encouraged to learn lessons in teamwork, collaboration and putting phones away. The organisers describe Plazma as both a sporting event and a “social project”.

Island-hopping through stone-age history in Ireland, Wales and the Isle of Man

Exploring prehistory sites around the Irish Sea – that were old even before the pyramids were built – throws a magical light on our ancestors

The guide was adamant. “I’ve picked human teeth out of there and I’m not doing it again.” The small group of tourists looked suitably aghast, except the boy. He was jiggling the wellington boots on his feet and singing to himself. He looked about 14. I sensed that he was the catalyst, the one to make things happen.

“So, if anyone is planning to leave human remains in this ancient place,” went on the guide, throwing the boy a stern look, “I say, DON’T.”

The Guide #257: What we lose when a medium ​built for the ear surrender​s to the camera

In this week’s newsletter: As platforms chase ​s​ubscribers, podcasts are losing their off‑screen charm​, leaving listeners to wonder whether the intimacy of audio can survive the studio lights

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This has been the year that podcasting properly, unapologetically “pivoted to video”. Yes, it’s been a progression that has been in the making for quite a while, arguably ever since Joe Rogan first trained a webcam at himself and whichever guest he was smoking weed with in his studio back in 2009 – but in 2026 the medium’s transformation from purely aural to audio/visual (often with more of an emphasis on the visual) is truly complete.

In January, Netflix started broadcasting video versions of popular podcasts from The Ringer, iHeartMedia, Barstool and more, as well as continuing to make video pods of their own. That landgrab was a slightly desperate response to YouTube’s phenomenal success with visualised pods; after becoming the preferred podcast platform for most Americans in 2024, it managed the same feat in the UK in 2026, overtaking Spotify. No wonder, then, that Spotify has – as part of a wider push to get people sticking to its platform for pods – continued to bolster viewing capabilities for its own pods too.

A bridge too far? Why link to Sicily is still a dream despite 2,000 years of plans

Roman dream of building structure over strait of Messina has been revived by officials, despite claims it is unworkable and protests from locals

For more than 2,000 years, it has been an obsessive dream: a plan to link the Mediterranean Sea’s largest island to mainland Italy. It began with the Romans, who, according to Pliny the Elder, built a bridge of boats and barrels across the strait of Messina in 251BC to transport 140 war elephants captured from the Carthaginians.

Centuries later, the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini embraced the same vision, followed by rightwing prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who made the bridge a flagship project. Then, in 2022, after being appointed Italy’s infrastructure minister, Matteo Salvini revived the mythic ambition, claiming that the ferry crossings “cost people more in a year than it would cost to build the bridge”.

What is the pan-European emergency telephone number? The Saturday quiz

From Adventure Galley and Queen Anne’s Revenge to a bus station that’s a classic of brutalist architecture, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 Emily Firmin was the only human in which children’s TV series?
2 What is the most spoken language written in Devanagari script?
3 Which brothers were, respectively, King of Scots and High King of Ireland?
4 What is the pan-European emergency telephone number?
5 Who has trained a record 12 Epsom Derby winners?
6 Where is the bus station a classic of brutalist architecture?
7 Who is said to have found the True Cross in Jerusalem in the fourth century?
8 Whose last general election victory was in 1906?
What links:
9 Photographed by Luna 3; Berlin 1961-89; Judith Chalmers series; Wind in the Willows, ch 7?
10 Adventure Galley; Fancy; Queen Anne’s Revenge; Royal Fortune; Whydah?
11 Daedalus; George London and Henry Wise; Adrian Fisher?
12 LA Dodgers; San Francisco Giants; New York Jets; New York Giants?
13 Maestro; Taking Sides; Tár; Unfaithfully Yours?
14 Satoshi; Wei; lamport; lovelace?
15 John II; Louis Philippe I; Napoleon III?

Coles website down after viral Reddit post sees customers buy cases of alcoholic drinks at nearly 80% discount

Supermarket’s website and app go offline as customers save more than $100 on some 24-packs

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The Coles website and app have gone offline hours after a viral Reddit post highlighted a nearly 80% discount on 24-packs of premixed alcoholic drinks.

For several hours on Saturday, both the Coles website and app displayed a message advising “we’re currently offline – but not for long”. The website and app came back online, before the website went down again during the afternoon. It was back up at about 4pm AEST.

Tim Dowling: my working holiday just isn’t working

The weather is unrelentingly glorious, the views are amazing, but I cling to the freelancer’s habit of never quite admitting I’m on holiday

In the summer of 1995, I went on a family holiday to Portugal. On the first day I got a call from a UK magazine, asking if I would be interested in interviewing Meg Ryan, in three days’ time. I looked out to the pool, where my wife and my mother-in-law were pushing my infant son across the water in an inflatable ring.

“Sure,” I said. I broke the news, packed my things, flew to London and, the next day, to LA.

Summer fashion? I’ve found my feet: the Becky Barnicoat cartoon

Continue reading...

‘We are in the inferno’: diaspora writers lead new movement of nature poetry

UK anthology inspired by question: ‘Where are our black and Asian nature writers?’ has boosted interest in genre

A new movement of eco poets from black and brown communities in the UK is challenging the canon of nature poetry against the backdrop of the climate and biodiversity crisis.

Mona Arshi, who co-edited the first UK collection of eco poetry from African, Asian and Caribbean diaspora voices, was inspired to put the anthology together after asking in a social media post that went viral: “Where are all our black and Asian nature writers?”

It’s time to write about daffodils
again.

Would even an AI disaster on the scale of Hiroshima be enough to make humankind protect itself? I fear not | Timothy Garton Ash

It’s clear here in Silicon Valley that AI is advancing faster than humans’ ability to control it. That means even sober prophecies seem optimistic

Here in Silicon Valley, the experts think that within the next couple of years we’ll see an extraordinary takeoff for artificial intelligence. “Welcome to the foothills of the singularity,” as a Stanford University friend greeted me. More prosaically, the imminent breakthrough is described as “recursive self-improvement” – the point at which AI itself trains each successive model of AI, resulting in an exponential development to something which, in many significant respects, is more intelligent than us humans.

As Robert Wright puts it in his book The God Test: “Never before has the near-term future … held such a wide array of not-implausible paths for humankind that would be so wildly transformative.” But will this be heaven or hell? Heaven, says Elon Musk, who predicts “an age of amazing abundance” – although he also sees a 10-20% chance of killer robots murdering us all. Hell is more likely according to Geoffrey Hinton, one of the intellectual founding fathers of AI. “My intuition is, we’re toast,” he told an interviewer in 2023. And talking to Sebastian Mallaby, author of The Infinity Machine, a book about the quest for superintelligence, Hinton estimates p(doom) – the probability of human extinction – at 50%, “because I haven’t got a clue how to estimate the real number”. “As soon as evolution [of AI] kicks in, we’re fucked,” he adds cheerfully. But whether it’s God or Godzilla, artificial superintelligence is just around the corner.

Timothy Garton Ash is a Guardian columnist

Hours after U.S. imposes tariffs, Canada says it'll strike back starting Sept. 8

The U.S. has now imposed 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian products. Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada will match those tariffs "dollar for dollar" next month.

Drastic water cuts issued for California, Nevada and Arizona from Colorado River

Federal officials announced sharp water cuts for the next two years on Friday for three Western states that rely on the imperiled Colorado River.

As Russian missiles rain down on Kyiv, casualties mount and the mood darkens

Ukraine’s military has run out of US Patriot interceptors to repel ballistic attacks, which have one aim, the capital’s mayor says: to destroy morale

Viktor, 23, Sofiia, 18, and their dog, Teddy, were bedding down for the night on Thursday at the Dorohozhychi metro station three stops from Kyiv’s city centre. The couple have sheltered here “every night for the past three weeks”, Viktor said, as the missile threat to the city worsened; the dog, only three months old, has been with them a fortnight. Teddy lies quietly, knowing no different a life.

People sleeping at Dorohozhychi metro station for safety.

Pilot reports possible burn injuries after passenger's laptop catches fire

"I think we have about four to five passengers that were burned by the laptop," a pilot can be heard saying in air traffic control audio obtained by CBS News.

Trump campaigns with Darline Graham in South Carolina ahead of runoff

Sen. Darline Graham is facing Rep. Ralph Norman to replace her late brother on the ballot in November.

Powerful storms bring record rainfall, tornadoes across U.S.

Violent storms are bringing multiple tornadoes and record rainfall across the East Coast and beyond. Jared Ochacher reports.

Another child's room now a silent memorial to the toll of school shootings

In south Minneapolis, a second-floor bedroom remains much as it was. For the parents of 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel, it's something every American should see.

Icons, new stars and First Nations excellence: 10 key shows from New Zealand fashion week

The event feted its 25 year anniversary with labels like Zambesi, promising emerging designers and an explosion of Māori and Indigenous culture

New Zealand fashion week took place in Auckland this week at the heritage-listed Shed 10 on Waitemata harbour and other venues across the city. Founded by Dame Pieter Stewart in 2001, now run by entrepreneur Feroz Ali, the 25th anniversary featured a mix of established names, exciting newcomers and a dramatically enhanced Indigenous program. The event boasted three separate group showcases of creatives from not just the Pacific region, but India, Taiwan and the US, in addition to the inaugural New Zealand Indigenous fashion symposium.

Meet Fat Papi, the little-known NZ rapper catapulted to Billboard 100 fame

Kurdish New Zealander Baban Hussain has gained global fame with online hit he created with Australian producer

Two months ago, Baban Hussain, a 22-year-old Kurdish New Zealander, was working from a self-run studio in Auckland, putting out music to a few thousand followers as little-known rapper Fat Papi.

Then, as modern fairytales go, he made a viral hit that has amassed over 7.5bn views across YouTube, gained him nearly 10m new monthly listeners on Spotify, and catapulted him on to global charts – including the US Billboard Hot 100.

‘She’s not afraid of anyone’: the prison writings of one of Hong Kong’s last outspoken democracy activists

Chow Hang-tung has been detained since 2021, and written about everything from clothes to Tiananmen Square and the meaning of freedom

• Tiananmen Square vigil organisers in Hong Kong found guilty of ‘inciting subversion’

In one essay written from prison, Chow Hang-tung worries about her hairstyle before court appearances because there are no combs or mirrors in her cell.

“In a place like prison, where anything that is personal is stripped away, it’s even more important to hold on to every means by which you can express yourself,” she writes. “Don’t let uniform, depersonalised rules, dress codes, schedules, and behavioural requirements grind down your edges and mould you into a ‘model citizen’”.

Pentagon moves to fire publisher and editor of Stars and Stripes

The Pentagon has given separation notices to both the publisher and the editor-in-chief of Stars and Stripes, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trump administration deports immigrants to dangerous Central African Republic

Camilo Montoya-Galvez speaks to two men who were deported to the dangerous Central African Republic instead of their homes.

Reports of sexual assault in U.S. military declined for third straight year

The review included data from an anonymous survey conducted every other year that asks service members whether they've been the victim of unwanted sexual conduct or harassment.

As GOP warns data centers put Ohio Senate seat at risk, Husted defends energy policy

Vice President JD Vance joined Sen. Jon Husted and other GOP leaders at a Middletown, Ohio, steel plant, as data center fears loom.

Alfalfa sprouts recalled after E. coli, salmonella outbreak sickens dozens

An outbreak of E. coli and salmonella that has sickened dozens of people across 15 states has been linked to an alfalfa grower in Minnesota, federal health officials said Friday.

Trump to allow import of 300,000 metric tons of ground beef without tariff

Beef prices in the U.S have soared in 2026 due to a reduction in the nation's cattle herd.

"Everything as it was": Explore the bedrooms of kids killed in school shootings

The families of nine school shooting victims opened their doors to Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp, allowing them to document their children's bedrooms.

8/21: CBS Evening News

Psychiatrist testifies in Clancy trial; Powerful storms rock East Coast.

A battle over 'Italian brainrot' could shape who owns AI art

A legal battle over what looks like a cartoon stick could help set the rules over whether creators can claim ownership of their AI-generated characters.

Trump says U.S., Canada 'should be able' to reach trade deal as tariff deadline looms

Trump had already postponed the 50% tariffs on a range of Canadian goods so Washington and Ottawa could finalize a tentative deal.

TikTok agrees to pay $400 million to settle child privacy lawsuit

The Justice Department sued TikTok in 2024, alleging that it violated a U.S. law prohibiting the collection of kids' data.

8/21: The Takeout with Major Garrett

USS Lincoln leaves Middle East after 9-month deployment; Supreme Court temporarily allows White House to continue ballroom construction.

8 dead in charter plane crash near remote military radar site in Alaska

The crash of a small plane in Alaska chartered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is under investigation.

Walmart to let shoppers use Apple Pay and other tap-to-pay methods

Walmart will let shoppers use tap-to-pay methods, including Apple Pay and Google Pay, beginning later this month.

Nearly 25% of workers are "functionally unemployed," analysis finds

An alternative measure of unemployment that accounts for wages suggests the U.S. labor market is weaker than it looks.

You’re Killing Me review – did an AI monkey write this terrible Brooke Shields crime caper?

I desperately wanted this show to be Gilmore Girls meets Murder, She Wrote – but the story of a novelist turned amateur sleuth is just so lazy. And yet, I still have high hopes for the confirmed second season

Look, we all want Brooke Shields to be in gainful employment. We all want her to have a fabulous third act to her career. God knows, the child model turned star of prurient fever dreams Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon (and the “Nothing comes between me and my Calvins” jeans ad campaign when she was 15) has earned it. Plus, she did a fine turn in Friends and a number of us remember Suddenly Susan very fondly.

But she’s terrible in the terrible new thing she’s in, which is a six-part comedy drama called You’re Killing Me. Shields plays successful cosy mystery novelist Allison Chandler, who lives in the picturesque town of Founder’s Cove, Maine. It’s Murder, She Wrote vibes all right, but please lower your expectations.

People are scrambling to find wads of cash dropped all over American cities

Cash drop social media accounts have people racing to find money hidden across the country. Here's what's behind the viral videos.

The US has a plan to save the Colorado River. Experts say it won’t be enough to stop the crisis

The 10-year blueprint mandates water cuts of up to 40% for California, Arizona and Nevada

It’s official: after years of tense negotiations and missed deadlines, there is finally a plan to govern the future of the imperiled Colorado River - or at least the makings of one.

With the previous framework set to expire in October, the US Bureau of Reclamation publicly released its proposal for a new plan on Friday.

Tesla recalls 3 million vehicles in China over doorhandle safety, driver monitoring

Tesla will voluntarily recall about 3 million of its vehicles in China to address doorhandle safety concerns and deficient driver monitoring systems.

Woman covertly filmed by Meta smart glasses raises privacy concerns

One woman is speaking out after she was secretly filmed, saying that technology like Meta's AI-powered smart glasses threatens personal privacy.

Most Americans aren't anti-vaccine. They're uncertain — and that's a growing public health challenge

The bigger issue at hand may be that many Americans fall into a large, uncertain middle ground – neither firmly pro-vaccine nor staunchly opposed.

Drug mix-up at hospital causes dire complications in 4 patients

Four patients at Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown received incorrect medications last week, CBS affiliate WTVF reported.

AI companies accused of hoarding and destroying millions of books

Consumer advocates are urging the FTC to examine whether AI developers are hurting competition and reducing public access to source material.

Supreme Court allows Trump's ballroom construction to continue for now

The ruling comes after months of back-and-forth between the Trump administration and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Court says prosecutor who subpoenaed Letitia James was unlawfully appointed

A federal appeals court said the top federal prosecutor in the Northern District of New York was unlawfully serving when he subpoenaed state Attorney General Letitia James.

Meghan reportedly in talks to join Guy Ritchie’s TV series The Gentlemen

The Duchess of Sussex is said to be discussing a return to acting in the third season of Netflix’s hit crime series

The Duchess of Sussex is in talks to make her acting return in Netflix’s hit series The Gentlemen.

According to Variety, Meghan is in discussions to join the third season, which has yet to receive an official greenlight. The Gentlemen is a spin-off from the 2019 crime comedy of the same name with Guy Ritchie acting as creator of both.

National Weather Service confirms tornado struck N.Y.'s Atlantic Beach

The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado struck Long Island's Atlantic Beach Thursday evening. It's the first confirmed tornado in Nassau County since 2021.

Bessent's bond gambit aimed at calming markets is instead stirring inflation worries

The so-called breakeven rate hit its highest levels in more than two months.

The week around the world in 20 pictures

Wildfires in Europe, Russian strikes in Kyiv, the Meta trial and swimming in Gaza – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists