AI could be causing 'quiet time' in labor market, top Trump economic aide Hassett says

President Donald Trump has signed executive orders aimed at lowering regulatory barriers and encouraging the construction of AI infrastructure.

11/16: Sunday Morning

Hosted by Jane Pauley. Featured: The boom in online prediction markets; Barstool Sports president Dave Portnoy; William Shatner and Neil deGrasse Tyson; when workers are pushed into homelessness; "Wicked" composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz; and Walter Isaacson on the Declaration of Independence.

Wendy's to close hundreds of U.S. stores as low-income consumers cut back

Wendy's plans to close hundreds U.S. restaurants over the next few months amid spending cutbacks from its customers.

Cop30: calls for new urgency to talks as studies show global warming may reach 2.5C – latest updates

As the summit goes into its second week, complex issues remain with anxiety growing over conference outcomes

Colombia will host a first international conference on the phase out of fossil fuels in April next year, according to advocates of more ambitious action to eliminate the main source of the gases that are heating the planet.

The South American country, which has demonstrated strong climate leadership in recent years, is among a group of 17 nations that have joined the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative which held a press conference on its plans at Cop30 on Monday.

Labour MP calls asylum plans ‘dystopian’ as government accused of ‘performative cruelty’ by rival parties – UK politics live

Nadia Whittome says government has sunk so low it is being praised by Tommy Robinson as SNP and Plaid Cymru criticise plans

Momentum, the leftwing Labour group, has also denounced the government’s asylum plans. In a statement it says:

The home secretary’s new immigration plans are divisive and xenophobic.

Scapegoating migrants will not fix our public services or end austerity.

Draconian, unworkable and potentially illegal anti-asylum policies only feed Reform’s support.

The government has learnt nothing from the period since the general election.

Some of the legal changes being proposed are truly frightening:

Abolishing the right to a family life would ultimately affect many more people than asylum-seekers.

Supreme court to review Trump policy of limiting asylum claims at border

Trump administration’s claim it has authority to ‘meter’ applications may turn on definition of arriving in US

The US supreme court agreed on Monday to hear a defense by the Trump administration of the government’s authority to limit the processing of asylum claims at ports of entry along the US-Mexico border.

The court took up the administration’s appeal of a lower court’s determination that the “metering” policy, under which US immigration officials could stop asylum seekers at the border and decline to process their claims, violated federal law.

‘Better and cheaper’: the case for prostate cancer screening among black men

Decision over routine PSA testing is due at end of this month, though some feel the supporting data is unclear

Junior Hemans was having a routine health check in 2014 when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, at the age of 51. He knew there was an increased risk of the disease in black men so asked to have a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test, which was not initially included.

“And when I went, they said I had a raised PSA level for my age,” Hemans said. “[The diagnosis] was a shock … because I had no symptoms.”

Nigeria left to blame ‘voodoo’ after dramatic playoff defeat by DR Congo

DR Congo won a tense penalty shootout 4-3, leading Éric Chelle, the Nigeria manager, to allege ‘maraboutage’

Thirty-one years ago Nigeria burst on to the global stage in a golden summer at the 1994 World Cup in the US, impressing with a do-or-die attitude that helped them top their group and come within two minutes of reaching the quarter-finals by beating Italy. But the Super Eagles will not be returning to North American soil for next summer’s tournament – and they are not blaming their shooting boots.

After a fraught and dramatic continental playoff final on Sunday, where Nigeria were eliminated by DR Congo on penalties, the Super Eagles manager, Éric Chelle, said that his team had been defeated by “voodoo”.

11/16/2025: The President's Pardon; Anthropic; Chess Boxing

First, Trump pardon of billionaire sparks concerns. Then, what goes into testing Anthropic's AI. And, inside a chess boxing bout, where brain meets brawn.

Ousted Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina sentenced to death for crimes against humanity

Hasina sentenced in absentia by court in Dhaka over deadly crackdown on student-led uprising last year

Bangladesh’s deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina has been sentenced to death in absentia by a court in Dhaka for crimes against humanity over a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year.

A three-judge bench of the country’s international crimes tribunal convicted Hasina of crimes including incitement, orders to kill and inaction to prevent atrocities as she oversaw a crackdown on anti-government protesters last year.

Ireland’s big moment is what World Cup qualifying is all about

Troy Parrott’s last-gasp goal and DR Congo’s triumph proved once again why the best soccer is almost never about the soccer

• Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

Last Thursday, Irish football was in a bleak place. They had two games remaining in World Cup qualifying and apparently no hope of making it to North America next summer. Another campaign had collapsed in predictable ways: they couldn’t score, they made bafflingly simple errors, too few of their players play for elite sides and those that do seemed unable to reproduce club form for their country.

Their one possible star, Evan Ferguson, had not been energised by a move to Roma – quite the reverse – and although there was vague talk of a new contract for their manager, the amiable Icelandic dentist Heimir Hallgrímsson, everybody thought he would be off after the game in Hungary and was vaguely dreading another Football Association of Ireland recruitment saga, which would inevitably take months, throw up a series of implausible names and result in the job being given to Hallgrímsson’s assistant, John O’Shea.

Standard Medicare Part B monthly premium to jump 9.7% in 2026

Medicare Part B premiums are often deducted directly from Social Security checks, and therefore affect how much of an increase beneficiaries may see in 2026.

Jeffrey Epstein victims' ad calls for files to be released, Trump urges GOP to vote for House measure

Trump for months has called the controversy over the DOJ's refusal to release the Jeffrey Epstein files a Democratic "hoax." But some Republicans want them.

UK downplays reports it has stopped sharing intelligence with US regarding narco-traffickers

Yvette Cooper makes first public comments by minister over issue linked to bombing campaign in Caribbean

• UK politics live – latest updates

• US politics live – latest updates

Britain’s foreign secretary has downplayed reports that the UK had stopped sharing intelligence with the US that could be used by the Americans to conduct deadly attacks against alleged narco-traffickers in the Caribbean.

Yvette Cooper, speaking on a ministerial trip to Naples, said “longstanding intelligence and law enforcement frameworks” that existed between the countries were continuing as the US deployed a carrier strike group to the region.

Jeep eyes U.S. comeback following yearslong sales troubles

Jeep has been in a rut. It has experienced six consecutive years of U.S. sales declines amid a leadership carousel, dearth of new products and push into luxury.

The flop that finally flew: why did it take 40 years for Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along to soar?

Its 1981 New York premiere was a disaster but this told-in-reverse musical became a Tony award-winning hit with Daniel Radcliffe. The film version is a tear-jerking joy

I have made enough mistakes as a critic to feel mildly chuffed when a verdict is vindicated. In 1981 I wrote excitedly about a new Stephen Sondheim musical, Merrily We Roll Along, that I had seen in preview in New York; reviled by reviewers and shunned by the public, it then closed two weeks after opening. In 2023-24 the very same musical ran for a year on Broadway, won four Tony awards and was hailed by the critics. Fortunately a live performance of that Maria Friedman production was filmed and I would urge you to catch it when it’s released in cinemas next month.

I say “the very same musical” but that is not strictly accurate. Based on a 1934 play by George S Kaufman and Moss Hart, it is still the same story, told in reverse chronological order, of dissolving relationships: a success-worshipping composer and movie producer, Franklin Shepard, looks back over his life and sees how time has eroded both his creative partnership with a dramatist, Charley, and their mutual friendship with a novelist, Mary.

President Trump floats sending Americans $2,000 tariff rebate checks

President Trump on Sunday floated the idea of tapping his administration's tariff revenue to send checks to most Americans.

Novo Nordisk slashes out-of-pocket prices for Wegovy and Ozempic

The Danish drugmaker said it's cutting the price of Wegovy and Ozempic from $499 to $349 per month for some customers who buy the drugs directly.

‘People still blame me for their perforated eardrums’: how we made the Tango ads

‘Gil Scott-Heron did the closing voiceover. He was giggling away, saying, “You English guys are crazy!”’

My creative partner Al Young and I had been on the dole for 18 months when we landed our dream jobs at Howell Henry ad agency. We had to prove ourselves fast. Tango’s brief was basically to get talked about. They told us: “We want Coca-Cola to be afraid of this little British brand.” The campaign was based around the hit of real fruit. We decided to escalate that concept, making the hit a physical thing.

Supreme Court turns away dispute over pregame prayer at school football games

The Supreme Court will not reconsider a 25-year-old decision that found student-led and initiated prayer at football games unconstitutional.

Cop30 protests, a Tokyo sunset and a blindfolded giraffe: photos of the day – Monday

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

How Zillow disrupted the real estate industry

Zillow revolutionized how Americans buy, sell and rent homes. Today, it faces lawsuits from a competitor and the U.S. government.

Man who grabbed Ariana Grande at Wicked: For Good premiere sentenced to nine days in jail

Johnson Wen, who jumped over a barricade at Universal Studios Singapore and rushed at the Wicked star, has been convicted of being a public nuisance

The man who grabbed Ariana Grande at a red-carpet premiere for Wicked: For Good in Singapore has been jailed for nine days.

According to BBC News, Australian national Johnson Wen was convicted of being a public nuisance. Wen, 26, has a history of disrupting public events and rushing concert stages.

I keep trying to name storms. Why does the Met Office turn down my suggestions? | Zoe Williams

‘Wubbo’ has made it on to the list and so has ‘Dave’, but although I’ve tried a hundred times, including my kids’ names, I’ve had absolutely no luck

The UK’s most memorable storm occurred in 1987, almost 30 years before storms got names, and will therefore always be known as “the one that Michael Fish said definitely wouldn’t happen”. It was a devastating weather event if you cared about trees, or you held adult responsibility for a roof. If you were 14 and all the routes to school were blocked, yet the train to the cinema was unaccountably still running, and you went to see Hope and Glory – which, in a delicious twist of fate, was also about a kid who couldn’t go to school (although in his case because it had been destroyed in the blitz) – it was just about the best weather-related thing ever to happen. If I ever feel bad for Fish, who has a bunch of weather qualifications and yet saw his reputation defined by this one wrong call, it’s because I enjoyed that day so much that I feel I owe him.

Ten years ago this month, the Met Office began naming storms with Abigail, which (who?) was unremarkable, unless you lived in the Outer Hebrides, where the schools closed and the power shut down, so nobody could even go to the cinema. That’s the thing about weather: it’s very unevenly distributed. There’s no way of getting those with the broadest shoulders to carry the heaviest weight. Storm Claudia, which has just passed, killed a woman in the Algarve and caused catastrophic flooding in south Wales, while everyone outside its path merely looked up, wondered whether it was named after Claudia Winkleman (it wasn’t – it was named by the Spanish meteorological agency), and went on with their day.

Novo Nordisk cuts direct-to-consumer prices for Wegovy, Ozempic to $349 a month

The announcements come days after President Donald Trump struck deals with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly to make their GLP-1s easier for Americans to access.

Inside Ford's new world headquarters: Scratch kitchens, rotisserie chickens and design secrets

Ford's new 2.1-million-square-foot headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, is ceremoniously opening Sunday, although construction is expected to continue into 2027.

Barcelona to play first game at renovated Camp Nou on Saturday against Athletic Bilbao

• Capacity capped at 45,401 spectators for La Liga game

• ‘We’ve dreamed about the return. Now, it’s here,’ club say

Barcelona will finally play at the Camp Nou, 909 nights later. The Catalan club announced they have been granted a licence to occupy 45,401 seats of the renovated stadium, which is yet to be completed, against Athletic Club Bilbao on Saturday afternoon.

The announcement comes after a series of missed targets and 10 days after a successful, smaller-scale test run in which a training session held there was attended by more than 20,000 supporters. The stadium will carry the name Spotify after a €280m title rights deal was agreed in February 2022.

Ford partners with Amazon for dealers to sell used vehicles online

Ford is partnering with Amazon for the automaker's franchised dealers to be able to sell certified pre-owned vehicles through the online retail giant.

Rev. Jesse Jackson's family dispute reports he's on life support in health update

The family of the Rev. Jesse Jackson issued a statement about this health saying, "Rev. Jackson is in stable condition and is breathing without the assistance of machines," disputing reports that the Civil Rights icon is on life support. Jackson was admitted to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago last week.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang surprised investors with a 'half a trillion' forecast. It'll come up at earnings

"This is how much business is on the books. Half a trillion dollars worth so far," Huang said at the company's GTC conference in Washington last month.

‘Making films is who I am’: Tom Cruise gets lifetime achievement Oscar

The Hollywood star – who had been nominated for multiple Oscars but never previously won – was honoured at the Academy’s annual Governors awards, along with Dolly Parton, Wynn Thomas and Debbie Allen

Tom Cruise finally received an Oscar on Sunday night in Los Angeles – though not for a specific acting role. The star of Top Gun, Jerry Maguire and the Mission: Impossible series was given an honorary Academy Award at the annual Governors awards, which are designed to reward lifetime achievement.

In a statement before the event, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) president Janet Yang cited “Cruise’s incredible commitment to our film-making community, to the theatrical experience, and to the stunts community has inspired us all”. Recalling his efforts to shoot the seventh Mission: Impossible in 2020, Yang added that Cruise “helped to usher the industry through a challenging time during the Covid-19 pandemic”.

Incredible story of Irish labourer buried alive in coffin for 61 days told in new documentary

Mick Meaney made global headlines when he beat world record in 1968, but returned to Ireland penniless

They were known as burial artists – people who had themselves buried alive in macabre feats of endurance – and Mick Meaney resolved to be the best there ever was.

It was 1968 and the Irish labourer had barely a pound to his name but he believed that if he stayed underground in a coffin longer than anyone else the world would remember his name.

Record 81.8 million Americans set to travel over Thanksgiving, AAA says

Roads are likely to be busy this year, with 90% of travelers planning to drive to their Thanksgiving destination, travel group says.

South Korean decision to close all coal-fired power plants by 2040 sounds alarm for Australian exports

Decision announced at Cop30 climate conference signposts risks for Australia’s reliance on fossil fuel exports, analysts say

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The Australian government has been urged to prepare for a shift away from thermal coal exports and accelerate green industries after one of its main international customers signed up to close all coal-fired power plants by 2040.

South Korea, Australia’s third-biggest market for coal burned to generate electricity, announced at the Cop30 climate conference in Brazil that it was joining the “powering past coal alliance”, a group of about 60 nations and 120 sub-national governments, businesses and organisations committed to phasing out the fossil fuel.

The horrific murders of Hannah Clarke and her children stunned Australia. Could they have been saved?

Exclusive: A two-year Guardian investigation reveals new details about the critical final weeks of Clarke’s life, casting doubt on the coroner’s finding that nothing more could have been done to prevent her death

• Police made potentially critical mistakes in Hannah Clarke murders, new evidence reveals

• Read more from the Broken trust investigation here

Witnesses recall seeing a woman and two children crying out “no, stop”. A man carrying a small girl to his car. Her head banging into the door as he bundled her into a seat. No time to fasten her seatbelt.

“You have caused all of this, it’s your fault,” Rowan Baxter said to his estranged wife, Hannah Clarke, as he drove off with their daughter, Laianah, on Boxing Day 2019.

My kids start sentences in one language and end in another. I hope school doesn’t shrink their joyous, noisy worlds | Shadi Khan Saif

Maybe there’s room for something gentler: letting children know they don’t need to change any part of themselves to belong

Most mornings in our house feel like a friendly little language carnival spinning through the kitchen. Before the kids even put on their shoes for school, they’ve already cycled through three languages – joking in Hindi, arguing in Pashto and sprinkling English on top like chocolate chips tossed over their cereal.

We don’t plan it or rehearse it: it just happens. Pashto is the language of feelings and family business like complaints, alliances, who stole whose pencil, who touched the remote. Hindi came to us through the back door: Bollywood songs and movies playing in the background, cousins in Karachi and the kind of street-style banter the kids pick up from YouTube faster than I can keep track of. And English, of course, is the language that binds the whole day together with school notices, breakfast negotiations, reminders about homework.

Mind guru Gilbert Enoka: ‘England are about to go to war, and I want to be in the trench with them’

The mental skills coach famous for the ‘no dickheads’ policy coined during 21 years with the All Blacks now faces his and Brendon McCullum’s acid test in the Ashes

“We’ve got a smooth lake at the moment,” Gilbert Enoka says, relaxing in the bar of England’s team hotel in Perth a few days before the battle for the Ashes gets under way. “But the series is going to start and then there’s going to be really, really choppy water in terms of what we actually have to sail. All I want is to help the guys develop structures that can help them be reliable when those waves come.”

Enoka is the mental skills coach most famous for instigating a “no dickheads” policy during his 21 years in the All Blacks dressing room, and a man whose path to the pinnacle of team sport is as remarkable as the impact he has had since getting there. He spent much of his childhood in an orphanage before moving back in with his mother, who had settled with a new partner Enoka describes as “alcoholic, dysfunctional”. At 16 he got out, found a subsidised university course and became a PE teacher, playing volleyball on the side, well enough eventually to represent his country.

Jeffrey Epstein’s emails reveal a disdain for morality among the elite | Moira Donegan

Epstein paints Trump as someone he knew intimately. But the documents also reveal how many powerful men confided in him

Before he died, Jeffrey Epstein made it clear that Donald Trump “knew about the girls”.

Trump has denied any knowledge of or involvement in Epstein’s longstanding child sex-trafficking operation. But in newly released emails that members of Congress disclosed to the media amid the end of this fall’s government shutdown, the dead child sex trafficker and financier can be seen corresponding on many occasions about Donald Trump, his former close friend and associate, throughout the last few years of his life, as Trump’s rise to prominence in national politics beginning in 2015 drew renewed attention to his relationship with Epstein.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

TotalEnergies buys €5.1bn stake in Czech tycoon’s power plants business

Daniel Křetínský to become a major shareholder in French oil firm as part of deal creating 50/50 joint venture

The Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský is to become one of the largest shareholders in TotalEnergies after selling a stake in his electricity generation business, which includes several UK power plants, to the French oil company.

Křetínský, whose companies own stakes in Royal Mail and West Ham United football club, agreed to sell a 50% stake in his stable of European power plants to TotalEnergies for about €5.1bn (£4.5bn) in exchange for about 4.1% of Total’s share capital.

David Zucker renews attack on new Naked Gun reboot starring Liam Neeson

The director has taken fresh aim at the new film, saying that producer Seth MacFarlane ‘totally missed’ the spoof-comedy style that defined the original Naked Gun franchise

Original Naked Gun director David Zucker has gone back on the attack over the recent reboot starring Liam Neeson, after appearing to soften his tone in the wake of its release.

In an interview with Woman’s World, Zucker said that Seth MacFarlane, producer on the new Naked Gun and previously director and co-writer of the Ted movies “totally missed” the spoof-comedy style that Zucker, along with collaborators Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams, made famous in Airplane! and the three original Naked Gun films.

Anthony Joshua will ‘break internet over Jake Paul’s face’ as fight is confirmed

• Fight will be live on Netflix on 19 December

• YouTuber to face former heavyweight world champion

Anthony Joshua and Jake Paul will face each other in a heavyweight fight in Miami on 19 December, it has been confirmed.

Rumours of the fight between Paul, a YouTuber-turned-boxer, and Joshua, the British former heavyweight champion of the world, had been trailed earlier this month and Paul’s company, Most Valuable Promotions, confirmed the news on Monday. The fight will be shown live on Netflix.

Poland railway blast was unprecedented act of sabotage, says Donald Tusk

Polish PM vows to ‘catch the perpetrators, regardless of who their backers are’ after blast on track used for deliveries to Ukraine

• Europe live – latest updates

Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, has described an explosion along a section of railway line used for deliveries to Ukraine as an “unprecedented act of sabotage” that could have led to disaster.

There were no casualties from the incident on the line from Warsaw to Lublin, but the consequences could have been catastrophic if the gap in the tracks had caused a train travelling at full speed to derail.

ICE detains dozens in Charlotte, including some who say they have legal status

In the latest round of the Trump administration's sweeping immigration raids, federal agents arrested 81 people in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday alone. In videos posted online, some who were detained said they do have legal status. Skyler Henry has more.

What could happen next in Venezuela as the U.S. increases its military in the Caribbean?

In the Caribbean, the U.S. military buildup continues with the arrival of the world's largest aircraft carrier, the nuclear-powered USS Gerald R. Ford. It comes as President Trump weighed in on possible next steps in Venezuela, saying, "we may be having some discussions" with Venezuelan President Maduro. Mr. Trump has alleged the country supports drug cartels. Charlie D'Agata reports.

11/16: Face the Nation

This week on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, one of the Democrats who eventually voted with Republicans to fund the government after the GOP promised a vote next month on health care subsidies, joins to discuss, as does Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy. Plus, two members of the House Problem Solvers Caucus.

Mega Millions winner bought ticket just 41-miles from where numbers were drawn

A single-ticket won the $980 million Mega Millions prize after hitting the jackpot Friday. CBS News' Dave Malkoff reports.

‘There is so much corruption’: hundreds of thousands protest in Manila over missing flood funds

Huge rally organised by megachurch whose members vote in a bloc could spell trouble for Philippine president

From a skyscraper in downtown Manila, a sea of white spreads out below, covering the vast green lawns of Rizal Park and expanding down arterial roads and sidestreets. It is formed of more than half a million people, clad in matching white T-shirts, the slogan “transparency for a better democracy” emblazoned on their chests.

An estimated 650,000 of them have flooded the centre of Manila to protest, amid fury over a spiralling corruption scandal in which billions of dollars in flood mitigation funds have evaporated. Organised by the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC), a powerful sect in the Philippines, the three-day rally has shut down schools, roads and offices. Many of those protesting have camped out all night on the park’s lawns, sleeping in tents or beneath tarpaulins and umbrellas. Families have journeyed from across the country to set up camp, some equipped with portable stoves and rice cookers, others pushing elderly family members in wheelchairs, many of them bearing placards saying “expose the deeds”.

Georgina Hayden’s quick and easy recipe for roast hake with caper anchovy butter | Quick and easy

Tender hake in a punchy flavoured butter makes for a quick midweek supper or a knockout dinner-party show-off, and all in half an hour

I love this one-tray dinner; it feels elegant but easy, and worthy of both a midweek meal and if you are entertaining. The punchy anchovy and garlic butter does all the hard work, and gives the impression of more effort than was actually exerted. But what to serve it with, I hear you ask? Well, it wouldn’t be out of place with creamy mashed potato, buttery polenta or a salad. Just make sure to baste the fish halfway through cooking, to get all the flavour and juices back into it.

The Guardian aims to publish recipes for sustainable fish. Check ratings in your region: UK; Australia; US.

Apple Cider Vinegar review – a kidney stone leads into whimsical geology doc

Sofie Benoot’s film opens out from the film-maker’s medical problem to a diverting reflection on humankind’s deep roots in ancient minerals

The elegant, humorous, susurrating Welsh voice of Siân Phillips sets the keynote for this whimsical essay documentary from Belgian film-maker Sofie Benoot about the nature of rock and stone, and the mysterious interrelation between our bodies and the landmass of Earth.

Benoot’s starting point is the kidney stone that has just been removed from her body, an intriguingly smooth and worn pebble; it’s a personal event she assigns to her offscreen alter ego, voiced by Phillips. This quasi-fictional narrator musingly notes that once upon a time she provided the voice for nature documentaries; quite true, Phillips has indeed narrated some nature documentaries, which appears to be the reason why Benoot cast her.

Man who had murder conviction tossed wins election in New Orleans

A New Orleans man who spent three decades in prison before his murder conviction was vacated won election to serve as the city's chief criminal court record keeper.

Atmospheric river storm leaves six dead after drenching California

Lingering thunderstorms pose risk of mudslides in areas around Los Angeles recently ravaged by wildfires

A powerful atmospheric river weather system has mostly moved through California but not before causing at least six deaths and dousing much of the state.

Early Monday lingering thunderstorms pose the risk of mudslides in areas of Los Angeles county that were recently ravaged by wildfire.

India deepens energy trade with U.S. to mend trade relations amid tariff strain

India is increasing its energy imports from the U.S. in the hopes that the move could pave the way to a trade deal between the two countries.

The government shutdown is over. The air traffic controller shortage is not

Staffing shortages of air traffic controllers forced airlines to chop flights and delay thousands of others that disrupted travel plans of 5 million people.

Declassified Amelia Earhart records include her last known communications

The documents include military reports about the search as well as memos, telegrams and newspaper clippings.

White nationalist talking points and racial pseudoscience: welcome to Elon Musk’s Grokipedia

World’s richest person wanted to ‘purge’ propaganda from Wikipedia, so he created a compendium of racist disinformation

Entries in Elon Musk’s new online encyclopedia variously promote white nationalist talking points, praise neo-Nazis and other far-right figures, promote racist ideologies and white supremacist regimes, and attempt to revive concepts and approaches historically associated with scientific racism, a Guardian analysis has found.

The tech billionaire and Donald Trump ally recently launched xAI’s AI-generated Grokipedia with a promise that it would “purge out the propaganda” he claims infests Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that Musk has often attacked but that has long been a key feature of the internet.

Memoirs, myths and Midnight’s Children: Salman Rushdie’s 10 best books – ranked!

As the author publishes a new story collection, we rate the work that made his name – from his dazzling Booker winner to an account of the 2022 attack that nearly killed him

“It makes me want to hide behind the furniture,” Rushdie now says of his debut. It’s a science fiction story, more or less, but also indicative of the sort of writer Rushdie would become: garrulous, playful, energetic. The tale of an immortal Indian who travels to a mysterious island, it’s messy but charming, and the sense of writing as performance is already here. (Rushdie’s first choice of career was acting, and he honed his skill in snappy lines when working in an advertising agency.) Not a great book, but one that shows a great writer finding his voice, and a fascinating beginning to a stellar career.

AI firms must be clear on risks or repeat tobacco’s mistakes, says Anthropic chief

Artificial intelligence will become smarter than ‘most or all humans in most or all ways’, says Dario Amodei

• Business live – latest updates

Artificial intelligence companies must be transparent about the risks posed by their products or be in danger of repeating the mistakes of tobacco and opioid firms, according to the chief executive of the AI startup Anthropic.

Dario Amodei, who runs the US company behind the Claude chatbot, said he believed AI would become smarter than “most or all humans in most or all ways” and urged his peers to “call it as you see it”.

FAA lifts emergency order that slashed flights at 40 major U.S. airports

The Federal Aviation Administration says it is lifting all restrictions on commercial flights that were imposed during the government shutdown.

Trump is turning the US military into a political prop | Jan-Werner Müller

The military has been recast in a partisan, performative mold – all according to the president’s logic of impunity

Of all the reasons Americans have been losing sleep recently – hunger, canceled flights, Democrats betraying them – the most ominous has to do with an institution usually absent from discussions about the fate of our democracy: the military. No need to be starry-eyed about US imperialism and what has long been criticized as an ever-expanding “national security state”; one can still appreciate that it is a good thing if generals do not take sides in politics – just ask anyone from the many countries around the world where they do. But a pattern is becoming clear: Donald Trump is purging the higher ranks based on his prejudices and demands for loyalty; the military is being turned into a partisan instrument and a political prop; more dangerous still, the president is instilling the logic of impunity that has come to characterize his entire approach to governance.

Figures deemed too close to Trump critics, such as Gen Mark Milley, have seen promotions delayed or canceled; those targeted by far-right influencers might face professional backlash. Trump used Maga-fied soldiers as background to a Fort Bragg speech, violating longstanding norms against instrumentalizing state institutions for partisan purposes. Every violation becomes a test of who will be loyal: critics – the potentially disloyal – will identify themselves.

Undisciplined? Entitled? Lazy? Gen Z faces familiar flood of workplace criticism

A new generation of younger workers are being derided as delusional and unreliable, just as millennials were

Gen Z is undisciplined, apparently; entitled, some critics claim; and purportedly hates work. One viral column in the Wall Street Journal went so far as to suggest this entire generation was potentially “unemployable”.

As younger employees establishing themselves at work continue to face relentless criticism from the higher rungs of corporate America, those old enough to remember the arrival of the last generation could be forgiven for experiencing a sense of deja vu.

Can SJP make wide-open handbags a trend? I hope not | Emma Beddington

Over the years, the actor has popularised everything from name necklaces to giant corsages. But, with all their dark secrets, women’s handbags should remain shut ...

Vogue aired a matter of public import last week, posing the question on all our lips: “Can Sarah Jessica Parker make the wide-open bag trend happen?” Pictures of the Fendi bag in question showed it shamelessly flaunting its purple sequinned lining for all the world to see. Apparently, it’s deliberate (the bag went down the catwalk like that, keep up) and part of a wider trend for gaping leather goods: “We saw similar styles at Loewe, Chanel and Louis Vuitton.”

So, can she? Vogue says it’s “chic and insouciant”, while conceding it’s also “polarising”. But if anyone can make an unlikely trend happen, it’s SJP. She – or at least her Carrie Bradshaw alter ego – has already popularised name necklaces, vast corsages, even vaster duvet coats and “satin Maison Margiela Tabi Monster bow pumps” (Vogue again) for WFH – I’m wearing mine now, obvs. The JW Anderson pigeon handbag she carried on And Just Like That sold out.

Weather tracker: Storm Claudia brings more flooding to Portugal and Spain

Heavy rainfall hit Galicia region first before slowly moving across western parts of the Iberian peninsula

Portugal and Spain are again recovering from flooding after Storm Claudia brought heavy rain and strong winds last week. The storm developed from an area of low pressure that had earlier driven early season cold and snowy conditions through eastern parts of Canada and the north-eastern US through early November.

The system tracked eastwards across the Atlantic during the second weekend of November before slowing and stalling to the north-west of the Iberian peninsula, caught in the trough of an increasingly amplified, or wavy, jet stream. Spain’s meteorological service AEMET named the storm last Monday before the arrival of several bouts of heavy rainfall, which slowly pushed through during the rest of the week.

China travel warning for Japan sends shares in tourism and retail companies plunging

China warns citizens not to travel to Japan amid escalating row over comments about Taiwan made by PM Sanae Takaichi

Shares in Japanese tourism and retail firms have fallen sharply after China warned its citizens not to travel to Japan, while a senior Japanese diplomat was due to travel to Beijing amid an escalating row over comments about Taiwan made by the Japanese prime minister, Sanae Takaichi.

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated dramatically in the past week after Takaichi, a conservative who has hawkish views on China, suggested that Japanese self-defence forces could intervene if a Chinese attempt to invade Taiwan represented a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan.

Reeves could allow holiday tax on English hotel and Airbnb stays

Move to give mayors powers to raise funds through levies, but industry says it will ramp up prices and inflation

• Business live – latest updates

British holidaymakers could have to pay a nightly tax on hotel stays and Airbnb-style visits in plans expected to be announced by Rachel Reeves in the budget next week.

The chancellor is reportedly preparing to give mayors powers to raise taxes by charging tourists on the cost of an overnight stay in their cities.

Trump urges Republicans to vote for release of Epstein files in surprise U-turn

US president says he backs efforts to release documents related to late sex offender because ‘we have nothing to hide’

• US politics live – latest updates

• How the Epstein row plunged Maga world into turmoil – a timeline

• Epstein emails: key takeaways from 20,000 pages of newly released files

Donald Trump has told his fellow Republicans in Congress to vote for the release of files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in a sudden reversal of his earlier position.

The US president’s post on his Truth Social website came after the House speaker, Mike Johnson, said previously that he believed a vote on releasing justice department documents in the Epstein case should help put to rest allegations “that he [Trump] has something to do with it”.

These rare whales had never been seen alive. Then a team in Mexico sighted two

The search for a gingko-toothed beaked whale had taken five years, when a thieving albatross nearly ruined it all

It was an early morning in June 2024 and along the coast of Baja California in Mexico, scientists on the Pacific Storm research vessel were finishing their coffee and preparing for a long day searching for some of the most elusive creatures on the planet. Suddenly a call came from the bridge: “Whales! Starboard side!”

For the next few hours, what looked like a couple of juvenile beaked whales kept surfacing and disappearing until finally Robert Pitman, a now-retired researcher at Oregon State University, fired a small arrow from a modified crossbow at the back of one of them.

Charlotte, North Carolina reels as 81 people arrested in immigration raids

Thriving business districts in North Carolina city now at a ‘standstill’ after at least 81 were arrested over the weekend

Many communities in Charlotte, North Carolina, were reeling after federal Customs and Border Protection teams descended on the city at the weekend and arrested at least 81 people – while normally-thriving immigrant enclaves and business districts came to a standstill.

Federal agents were deployed in what the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), calls Operation Charlotte’s Web, sparking protests.

Poem of the week: Now winter nights … by Thomas Campion

A song to the consolations of winter is delivered with the grace and precision typical of this intellectually ambitious poet

Now Winter Nights …

Now winter nights enlarge
The number of their hours;
And clouds their storms discharge
Upon the airy towers.
Let now the chimneys blaze
And cups o’erflow with wine,
Let well-tuned words amaze
With harmony divine.
Now yellow waxen lights
Shall wait on honey love
While youthful revels, masques and courtly sights,
Sleep’s leaden spells remove.

The one change that worked: I had Sad and felt desperate – until a scientist gave me some priceless advice

Since I was a teenager I had struggled in winter, experiencing excessive tiredness and low mood. A specific instruction lifted the gloom

I’m pretty sure I must be half human, half plant – how else to explain why I need the light to thrive? During the brighter seasons I feel fine, but when winter comes and the light begins to fade, I start drooping.

I have struggled with seasonal affective disorder (Sad) since I was a teenager. The symptoms of Sad are similar to regular depression, with low moods and lethargy, and can be equally debilitating. Over the years I’ve experienced the full Sad spectrum, from moments of excessive tiredness and carb cravings (yes, those are official Sad symptoms), to a low point of breaking down crying on the kitchen floor after school because it was so cold, dark and bleak.

‘He caught what I thought was impossible’: Danny Boyle, Hanif Kureishi and others on the genius of Akram Khan

Thikra: Night of Remembering is Akram Khan Company’s last touring show. Here, the choreographer and dancer’s collaborators recall how he motivated them

Nitin Sawhney, composer, collaborated on multiple projects with Khan, including Kaash (2002), Zero Degrees (2005) and Vertical Road (2010)

High art: the museum that is only accessible via an eight-hour hike

The Frattini Bivouac is part of a Bergamo gallery’s experiment to ‘think like a mountain’. But in the thin air of the Italian alps, curatorial ideas are challenged in more ways than one

At 2,300 metres above sea level, Italy’s newest – and most remote – cultural outpost is visible long before it becomes reachable. A red shard on a ridge, it looks first like a warning sign, and then something more comforting: a shelter pitched into the wind.

The structure stands on a high ridge in the municipality of Valbondione, along the Alta Via delle Orobie, exposed to avalanches and sudden weather shifts. I saw it from above, after taking off from the Rifugio Fratelli Longo, near the village of Carona – a small mountain municipality a little over an hour’s drive from GAMeC, Bergamo’s Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea – the closest access point I was given for the site visit.

‘His role is to recruit’: the Sheffield-based propagandist for Sudan’s RSF militia

Abdalmonim Alrabea has appeared in hundreds of videos in which he expresses support for paramilitary group accused of committing genocide

A British citizen based in Sheffield appeared in a TikTok live broadcast laughing along while a notorious fighter from Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces group boasted about participating in mass killings in the city of El Fasher.

The video, broadcast on 27 October, is just one of hundreds posted to social media in which 44-year-old Abdalmonim Alrabea expresses support for the RSF and the ethnically targeted atrocities it has committed in Sudan’s western Darfur region.

Game review – Sleaford Mods’ Jason Williamson poaches a role in sceptical take on 90s rave culture

Williamson stars in a debut feature that feels more like an elongated music video than a fully realised drama, but it’s redeemed by some hilarious moments and strident imagery

Produced by Portishead co-founder Geoff Barrow, this scabrous if undernourished debut feature turns a sceptical eye on 90s rave culture. Venal pillhead David (Marc Bessant) first robs an unconscious dealer, then in another flashback tries to burgle his own parents. Before you can say “post-Brexit revisionism”, he’s upside down in the wreckage of his car in a forest – and subject to the wrathful eye of the Poacher (Sleaford Mods frontman Jason Williamson). Refusing to extricate David, with no time for townies, he is broken Britain personified: “You’re one of those noisy cunts from up on the heath.”

Game gets off to a shaky start, spending too long on pedantically chronicling David’s attempt to free himself from his seatbelt, while clumsily segueing into flashbacks of his normal activities. The bigger point – that the ecstasy generation were primarily out for number one – is firmly made. But these vignettes are too thin to properly prime us for what to expect when the Poacher turns up, fuming after David strangles his dog. Still, a darkly funny duel takes hold – David desperate to escape; the Poacher withholding his jerrycan of scrumpy, intent on dousing him instead in embittered discourse. Williamson, exuding ponderous menace in the role, is reminiscent of Michael Smiley.

Borderline Fiction by Derek Owusu review – life with borderline personality disorder

A student navigates troubled relationships at age 19 and 25, as he comes to terms with mental health difficulties

“The best way to make sense of life,” Derek Owusu believes, “is to write about it.” His semi-autobiographical debut, That Reminds Me, was an attempt to understand how he came to be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder: a condition marked, among other things, by intense emotions, self-destructive impulses, fear of abandonment, black-and-white thinking, and an unstable sense of self. The novel, written in an elliptical and densely poetic style, offered an illuminating, if harrowing, account of alienation, addiction and self-harm, through the story of K, an alter ego whose early childhood, like Owusu’s, was spent in foster care. It won Owusu the Desmond Elliott prize in 2020, and announced him as an idiosyncratic talent; in 2023, he was named one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists.

Owusu now turns again to the subject of BPD, this time exploring the complexities and contradictions of living with the condition. His narrator, Marcus, is 25 when the book opens. An English literature student of Ghanaian heritage, he is at a speed dating event when he meets San. San is strikingly beautiful, and she grabs his attention right away: “So, yes, I was in love again, losing balance, stumbling towards an earlier phase of my life.”

At least 98 Palestinians have died in custody since October 2023, Israeli data shows

Exclusive: Real toll likely substantially higher as hundreds of detainees from Gaza are missing, says NGO Physicians for Human Rights - Israel

Israeli data shows at least 98 Palestinians have died in custody since October 2023, and the real toll is likely substantially higher because hundreds of people detained in Gaza are missing, an Israel-based human rights group has said.

Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (PHRI) tracked deaths from causes including physical violence, medical neglect and malnutrition for a new report, using freedom of information requests, forensic reports and interviews with lawyers, activists, relatives and witnesses.

Déjà boo: Sam Darnold didn’t think he’d see ghosts on the field again. Then he faced the Rams

The Seahawks quarterback has looked like an MVP this season. But his old failings returned in Los Angeles on Sunday

The biggest game of Week 11 was undoubtedly the matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and the Seattle Seahawks. Both teams came in with 7-2 records, and were seemingly evenly matched on both sides of the ball, with dynamic offenses and stingy defenses. In the end, it was a defensive battle that the Rams won, 21-19, by the skin of their teeth.

Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold, who had played at a near-MVP level this season for the most part, did absolutely nothing to help his team – and plenty to hurt them. Darnold matched his career high with four interceptions, completing 29 of 44 passes for 279 yards, no touchdowns, those picks, and a passer rating of 45.5.

England keep sights on rugby’s Everest in relentless climb to game’s summit | Robert Kitson

Beating the All Blacks shows how far Steve Borthwick’s men have come – but there remains yet more room for improvement

After finally scaling Mount Everest with Tenzing Norgay on 29 May 1953 the first person Edmund Hillary encountered on his descent was his longtime climbing friend, George Lowe. “Well, George,” Hillary said, “we knocked the bastard off.” Which is basically how England’s captain, Maro Itoje, and his team felt on Saturday having lifted the Hillary Shield, named in honour of the indomitable New Zealander who conquered the world’s most famous summit.

English rugby’s ultimate Everest is still up ahead of them, of course, in the form of the 2027 World Cup, but this was their South Col moment. And while a first home win against the All Blacks since 2012 and their second‑highest margin of victory in this 120-year-old fixture will both be sources of satisfaction there was also a powerful sense that their upwardly mobile trek is far from complete.

‘It touched us from the start’: Palestine savour historic night in Bilbao | Sid Lowe

More than 50,000 fans cheered on Ihab Abu Jazar’s team with the coach and players ‘shocked’ by the outpouring of support during their visit

“We are more than a national team, we represent a story of pain but also hope,” Ihab Abu Jazar said, “and we are not alone.” At 8.26pm on Saturday the Palestine coach, whose father was killed in the Israel-Gaza war and whose siblings now live in tents in Khan Younis, emerged from the tunnel and took his place by the bench at San Mamés, Bilbao. Dressed in black, a keffiyeh over his shoulders, he watched 11 men in red, “a team of refugees playing for Palestinians all over the world”, and listened to 51,396 people applaud them, chanting for their freedom.

“We don’t play just to win; we play to exist,” he had said in the days before Palestine played their first game in Europe, an occasion that turned out to be bigger than even he had imagined: “The most important day in my life”, a “historic” night that “all the words in the world can’t explain”. They didn’t win – they were a goal down within four minutes and lost 3-0 against the Basque national team – but they competed, and it wasn’t about that. In fact, when Zaid Qunbar looked like he might equalise after 12 minutes the whole of this vast stadium cheered him on, roaring the opposition striker running towards their goal.

John Updike: A Life in Letters review – the man incapable of writing a bad sentence

Friends, enemies and lovers animate more than 60 years of the author’s remarkable correspondence

John Updike had the mind of a middling middle-class postwar American male, and the prose style of a literary genius. Such a lord of language was he that even the notoriously grudging Vladimir Nabokov afforded him a meed of praise. A reviewer, musing on the disproportion between the style and content of Updike’s fiction, likened him to a lobster with one hugely overgrown claw. It was a comparison Updike was to remember – for all his bland urbanity, on display from start to finish in this mighty volume of his letters, he could be prickly, and did not take slights lightly.

As a novelist he aimed, as he once put it, to “give the mundane its beautiful due”. Apart from a few rare and in some cases ill-advised ventures into the exotic – the court at Elsinore, Africa, the future – his abiding subject was the quotidian life of “ordinary” Americans in the decades between the end of the second world war and the coming of a new technological age in the closing years of the 20th century.

Paul McCartney joins music industry protest against AI with silent track

Former Beatle and artists including Sam Fender, Kate Bush and Hans Zimmer record silent LP Is This What We Want

At two minutes 45 seconds it’s about the same length as With a Little Help From My Friends. But Paul McCartney’s first new recording in five years lacks the sing-along tune and jaunty guitar chops because there’s barely anything there.

The former Beatle, arguably Britain’s greatest living songwriter, is releasing a track of an almost completely silent recording studio as part of a music industry protest against copyright theft by artificial intelligence companies.

Rule Breakers review – rousingly feelgood real life story of Afghan girls’ robotics team

This story of emancipated young women escaping draconian social strictures brims with enthusiasm and features a cameo from Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Based on a true story, Bill Guttentag’s rousing drama attests to the resilience of women who dare to dream despite draconian social strictures. The film follows Roya Mahboob (Nikohl Boosheri), a trailblazing coach and businesswoman in Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) who assembles a robotics team of Afghan girls for international competitions. The young dreamers hail from different walks of life but they all share the same zest for engineering. They face the same dangers too; in a country where women are not encouraged or even allowed to pursue higher levels of education, their quest for medals sees opposition from their own families as well as public scorn from conservatives.

Rule Breakers is at its most thrilling during the competition sequences, which splice together real-life documentary footage of the events with fictional re-enactments. (There’s even an appearance from Phoebe Waller-Bridge as a host.) A breathless enthusiasm thrums through the film, as the camera swirls around the young competitors, all energised by their love for science. These spaces are portrayed as a haven that encourages camaraderie rather than competitiveness, and in a world divided by military conflicts and war, they offer a utopiian vision of international collaboration and solidarity.

The Smallville star who joined a sex cult: best podcasts of the week

After serving time in jail, actor Allison Mack opens up about her experiences in a group with links to sex trafficking. Plus, a deep dive into Jane Austen

Sami Tamimi’s recipes for prawn and tomato stew with fregola, and herby quick-pickled vegetable salad

Celebrate the flavours of Palestine and bring heart, warmth and freshness to your plate

Hearty and warming, this prawn and tomato stew with fregola is a comforting bowl, with the fresh pesto brightening every bite. It pairs beautifully with a crisp, fragrant, quick-pickled vegetable salad; the freshness cuts through the richness of the stew perfectly. I’ve always loved leafy, lively salads, and I could honestly eat one with every meal, every day.

‘Two more broomsticks please!’ Was James Blades the greatest percussionist ever?

He played china mugs, bells, rattles and car horns for everyone from Alfred Hitchcock to Benjamin Britten – and once got Laurence Olivier to bang a broomstick. We go behind the scenes of a Radio 3 celebration

Saturday night and the Britten Studio at Snape Maltings is filling up with 300 chattering punters. We are about to record a show that will go out “as live” on BBC Radio 3. This is a one-shot wonder: for one night only, in this drama-documentary, we are exploring the work of percussionist James Blades. Our setup neatly combines the most stressful elements of a live show, plus the key aspect of audience participation which we have – obviously – no proper chance to rehearse. Nerves are fraying. How did it get to this? And who is James Blades anyway?

Born in 1901, Blades was one of the great percussionists of the 20th century, whose life spanned the century itself – he died in May 1999. His blazing talent combined with a startling capacity for hard work took him to the top of his profession and later made him a mentor to music stars as varied as rock drummer Carl Palmer, percussionist Evelyn Glennie and a young Simon Rattle.

YouTuber Jack Doherty arrested in Miami Beach, police say

Miami Beach Police announced that the 22-year-old was taken into custody on multiple charges, including possessing amphetamine and marijuana, along with resisting an officer without violence.

Not OK? Booker winner Flesh ignites debate about state of masculinity

Toxic male behaviour of David Szalay’s protagonist reflects real-world concerns about a ‘crisis of masculinity’

In the immediate aftermath of David Szalay’s book Flesh winning the Booker prize, one feature of the novel stood out: how often the protagonist utters the word “OK”.

The 500 times István grunts out the response is part of a sparse prose style through which the British-Hungarian Szalay gives the reader few insights into the inner workings of a man whose fortunes rise and fall.

Flesh by David Szalay (Vintage Publishing, £18.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

Russell Tovey on pride, sexual power and politics: ‘The Green party slogan – make hope normal again – is what we need’

One of the most prolific and popular actors of his generation, he reflects on therapy, homophobia, why he suspects now is the worst time in history for trans people, and his secret life as a geek

Russell Tovey’s best characters often seem to have it all together, typically as a barrier to further interrogation. Take his recent projects: in surreal BBC sitcom Juice, Tovey plays Guy, a buttoned-up therapist with a seemingly perfect life, hobbled by an aversion to recklessness. Then there’s the closeted Andrew Waters in award-winning American indie film Plainclothes, a well-respected married man of faith who secretly cruises New York shopping mall toilets. Even in the forthcoming Doctor Who spin-off, The War Between the Land and the Sea, Tovey’s character, Barclay, is an ordinary office clerk who is swept up into a planet-saving mission while trying to keep his family from falling apart. In each performance, Tovey anchors his characters with a beguiling mix of strength, empathy and vulnerability.

In interviews, the immaculately put together Tovey, 44, often seems similarly well-adjusted, speaking eloquently about his acting, his passion for art (he co-hosts the successful podcast Talk Art and has co-written three books on the subject) and his advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community. Flaws, if there are any, are carefully stage-managed.

Here in Sweden, the Vikings are back. And this time they’re searching for stability in a chaotic age | Siri Christiansen

I joined a ‘sacrifice’ ritual outside Stockholm – and found that the revival of Norse paganism reflects broader battles over identity and climate anxiety

“Hail Thor!” The priestess and her heathens, standing in a circle, raised their mead-filled horns. We were gathered in an unassuming spot in a pine forest outside Stockholm. This was our temple, and the large, mossy stone before us was our altar. I was relieved to see that the animal-based sacrificial offerings were long-dead and highly processed. A bearded man reached his tattooed arms into his backpack and raised a red, horseshoe-shaped sausage to the sky. A goth girl unboxed a plastic tub of hammer-shaped cookies. The priestess offered me a handful of flaxseeds to toss on the altar, which was overflowing with gifts, apples and bottles of homemade mead.

A dozen people had gathered for an autumn sacrifice to summon Thor, the hammer-wielding Norse god of harvests and storms. Many pleaded for him to bring rain, after a summer plagued with drought. Others asked for the strength to battle unemployment, or for the recovery of a sick mother. We all had our own reasons for being there. A middle-aged man, perspiring in his blue office shirt, seemed to be there to connect with his hippy-looking wife and teenage daughter.

Siri Christiansen is a Swedish investigative journalist based in Stockholm

France’s birds start to show signs of recovery after bee-harming pesticide ban

Analysis shows small hike in populations of insect-eating species after 2018 ruling, but full recovery may take decades

Insect-eating bird populations in France appear to be making a tentative recovery after a ban on bee-harming pesticides, according to the first study to examine how wildlife is returning in Europe.

Neonicotinoids are the world’s most common class of insecticides, widely used in agriculture and for flea control in pets. By 2022, four years after the European Union banned neonicotinoid use in fields, researchers observed that France’s population of insect-eating birds had increased by 2%-3%. These included blackbirds, blackcaps and chaffinches, which feed on insects as adults and as chicks.

Alibaba is helping Chinese military target the U.S., White House memo claims: FT

The Financial Times cited a White House memo that alleged Alibaba was providing tech support to Chinese military 'operations' against targets in the U.S.

Paige Greco, Australian Paralympic gold medallist, dies aged 28

• Cyclist passes away in Adelaide home after ‘sudden medical episode’

• Paralympian won women’s C1-3 3,000m individual pursuit in Tokyo

After her shock death on Sunday at the age of 28, Australian Paralympic gold medallist Paige Greco has been remembered for her humility, generosity, and the joy she brought to her teammates.

Paige passed away in her Adelaide home after experiencing a sudden medical episode, according to South Australian authorities, and her family has asked for privacy.

Far-right candidate José Antonio Kast favourite to become Chile’s next president after first round vote

The ultraconservative lawyer is in pole position going into the second round election, after running a campaign with a distinctly Trumpian feel

​The ultraconservative lawyer, José Antonio Kast, is in pole position to become Chile’s next leader after advancing to the second round of the South American country’s presidential election where he will face the Communist party candidate Jeannette Jara.

With more than 70% of votes counted, Kast had secured about 24% of the vote in Sunday’s first round vote, having campaigned on hard-line promises to crack down on crime and immigration, while making a Donald Trump-style pledge to “put Chileans first”.

Veterinary students learn to treat honeybees in addition to pets and livestock

Beekeepers were ordered in 2017 to work with veterinarians to maintain the insects' health, but not a lot of doctors had experience with honeybees. That's why Colorado State University launched its first honeybee veterinary science course. Dillon Thomas reports.

New report shows share of first-time home buyers dropped to record low

The American dream feels increasing out of reach as home prices have skyrocketed for years. The latest report from the National Association of Realtors shows the share of first-time home buyers has dropped to 21%. Andres Gutierrez reports from Burbank, California.

2 deaths in California blamed on heavy rain that sparked flooding

Parts of California saw a month's worth of rain in one day, and two deaths are being blamed on the heavy rainfall and the flooding it triggered. Andrew Kozak has more.

Nearly 100 arrested in Charlotte by Border Patrol and ICE amid latest immigration crackdown

The Department of Homeland Security has launched "Operation Charlotte's Web" in Charlotte, North Carolina, saying it is targeting criminals who are in the U.S. illegally. Shanelle Kaul has the story about a Honduran-born American citizen who says he was injured during an arrest.

Man held on suspicion of murder after woman, 21, found dead in Welsh boatyard

Man, 29, arrested after Corinna Baker found at Netpool Boat Yard on River Teifi in Cardigan

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a 21-year-old woman was found dead in a boatyard in west Wales, police said.

Corinna Baker was found shortly after noon on Saturday at Netpool Boat Yard, located on the River Teifi in Cardigan, Ceredigion.

U.S. strikes another alleged drug boat, killing 3 in Eastern Pacific

The U.S. military conducted a strike on another boat accused of carrying narcotics on board on Saturday, killing three people, U.S. Southern Command announced.

New York Fed met with Wall Street firms about key lending facility: FT

The Fed sought feedback from dealers on the use of the central bank's standing repo facility, a permanent lending tool that acts as a backstop for markets.

Cassidy says he's "very concerned" about possible hepatitis B vaccine schedule change

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician whose medical practice focused on hepatitis B, said he's "very concerned" about a potential change to the hepatitis B vaccine schedule for infants.