Why is far-right AfD’s state victory significant and what might happen next in German politics?

Aftershocks of party’s win in Saxony-Anhalt will ripple across Germany, with two more state elections this month

• Europe live – latest updates

Germany is reeling from the biggest far-right victory in a state election since the Nazi period after voters in Saxony-Anhalt in the former communist east gave the anti-immigration, pro-Kremlin Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party a thumping first-place finish of 44%, just short of an absolute majority.

Sightings of Meghan at star-studded retreat fuel Cotswolds rumours

Reports of Soho Farmhouse visit add to speculation Duke and Duchess of Sussex could be settling in the area

When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex landed back in England earlier this summer, six years after they moved to California and quit as working royals, speculation was rife about where they would call home.

Now, members of the luxury countryside retreat Soho Farmhouse have said they spotted Meghan arriving for an early morning coffee, sparking speculation that the couple were settling down in the exclusive countryside enclave of north Oxfordshire. Correspondent for the Royalist Tom Sykes said the duchess was seen arriving at the Comfy Farm lounge before 9am, where she was introduced to senior staff members by name.

The AfD’s win in Germany is a dark day for Europe. Time is running out to stop the far right | Cas Mudde

This party is among the most extreme in Europe. To protect our democracies, liberal parties must urgently change their tactics

The far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) narrowly failed to secure an outright majority in state elections in Saxony-Anhalt. But nobody should take comfort from that. The party still won by a landslide. Decades of far-right election gains have made them seem normal to the point where only the biggest victories are deemed newsworthy. But 44% of the vote for a party that is officially classified as “extreme right” is not normal. It is a black day for European democracy, even if it occurs in a small east German state.

While Saxony-Anhalt (and Germany itself) may have dodged the worst outcome because the AfD won’t automatically fulfil its ambition of forming the first far-right state government in Germany since the Nazi era, there is no reason to assume it will be so lucky at the next election. Neither will other German states, such as Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in two weeks’ time, or other countries, such as France next year. No country is immune from the far right and, perhaps even more worryingly, no far-right party or politician is too extreme for political success (as the US has shown). We must therefore update our analyses and strategies.

Cas Mudde is the author of The Far Right Today, and is the Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF professor of international affairs at the University of Georgia

Merz says ‘shock’ AfD victory in key German state ‘is an election result we cannot simply move past’ – Europe live

German chancellor says vote for far-right party ‘will have repercussions’ across the country

• Far-right AfD wins key German state election but falls just short of majority

AfD’s Chrupalla continues in this vein, saying the German public wants to see a change in direction, and specifically saying the electorate is “fed up” as the government keeps “transferring billions of our tax money to Ukraine … instead of using it for our own population.”

He says the party has “a clear mandate” to rule in Saxony-Anhalt and will hold discussions with others about what can be done.

Hurricane warning issued for western Hawaii as Lowell approaches

The National Hurricane Center posted a hurricane warning for western Hawaii's Kauai County as Hurricane Lowell moved toward the area as a Category 3 storm.

Big questions remain after Lindsay Clancy mistrial declared

The judge in the Lindsay Clancy case declared a mistrial Friday after jurors were unable to reach a verdict. Caroline Polisi reports.

‘The more famous I got, the bigger my beehive got’: how Mari Wilson made Just What I Always Wanted

‘I was trying to bring back some glamour. The backcombed hair was like architecture really. It took more than 45 minutes to style’

Just What I Always Wanted had already been in our live set, but with different verses. When we’d gone on David Essex’s Showcase earlier in 1982, in the middle eight I sang “A wink from Wilbur, a kiss from Kurt, don’t tell Hank, he might get hurt” – all names of my backing band the Wilsations. But when it came to recording, I said to Tot Taylor, who wrote most of my early singles, including Love Man and Baby It’s True, “We can’t sing that because no one will know who they are. What about, ‘A mink from Paris, a ring from Rome, a whole new wardrobe in my home?’” Tot, such a brilliant writer, took it from there.

As Nepal identifies those killed in the floods, questions grow over China's reporting

One week after the deadly floods, very little is known about China's dead or missing. China's control over media and digital censorship is in stark contrast to open reporting in Nepal.

Drone activity at border drops 75% after U.S. uses laser weapon, military says

In less than two weeks, the high-energy laser weapon system has taken down 11 drones, coinciding with a 75% drop in drones probing the border, military officials told CBS News.

Greenland welcomes major funding boost from EU amid Trump’s annexation threats

It comes shortly after Icelanders voted to reject restarting EU membership talks and as Trump renews his push to acquire Greenland on national security grounds.

What's open and closed on Labor Day 2026? See which businesses are operating.

Most major retail stores and grocery chains will remain open on Labor Day, while banks will close.

Labor Day travel costs skyrocket

Millions of Americans are set to travel home on Monday as gas prices continue to climb. Lilia Luciano reports.

Amazon cargo plane overshoots runway in Miami in deadly crash

An Amazon cargo plane overshot a runway in Miami, Florida, killing at least five people and injuring more, authorities said. The NTSB and FAA are investigating the crash. Skyler Henry reports.

Oasis recordings up for auction despite band’s objections

Guide price of archive documenting concerts, rehearsals, soundchecks and conversations between £1.2m and £1.6m

An archive of more than 100 hours of Oasis recordings, including concerts, rehearsals and candid conversations between Noel and Liam Gallagher, is to be auctioned for up to £1.6m despite objections from the band.

The collection was amassed by the band’s sound engineer Huw Richards, who worked with Oasis from the release of their 1994 debut album, Definitely Maybe, until 2001. It comprises 209 DAT tapes, 73 analogue cassettes and three MiniDiscs, and is being sold by Richards’s son, Owain.

Four arrested after baby dies on camping trip in Staffordshire

Two women and two men arrested on suspicion of murder after death of three-month-old girl near Great Wyrley

Four people have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a three-month-old girl died in Staffordshire while camping with her family.

Officers said they were made aware of the death on Saturday at 8.45am after being called by paramedics from the West Midlands ambulance service, who were responding to a report of a child in cardiac arrest. An air ambulance was also sent but the child was pronounced dead at the scene.

Trump says he's made 'Hundreds of Billions of Dollars on Stocks' for the U.S., in stream of AI posts

U.S. President Donald Trump posted a stream of AI-generated images and a series of sweeping and unverified claims on Truth Social on Sunday

Serie A’s hierarchy takes shape with wild night in Milan and flat draw in Turin | Nicky Bandini

Inter’s victory over Napoli had the feel of a title race classic, while Juventus and Milan exposed familiar shortcomings despite their summer spending

Already as the words were being spoken, Cristian Chivu started to bristle. “Scontri diretti” translates to “head-to-head clashes”. The term is commonly deployed in a football context as a shorthand for those high-stakes games between teams who are expected to finish close together in the table – much like “six-pointers” in the English game.

Chivu’s Inter finished 11 points clear atop Serie A last season, his first as their head coach, but caught criticism along the way for an early Champions League exit and underperformance in some scontri diretti. Inter lost four out of six games against Napoli, Milan and Juventus. Their only win, at home to the Bianconeri, came after Alessandro Bastoni deceived a referee to get Pierre Kalulu sent off.

Aubameyang rolls back years as revamped ‘Super Dépor’ return to La Liga in style | Billy Munday

Two assists and the winner for Deportivo A Coruña leave Gabonese striker with one club record and eyeing another

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was already the best player on the pitch when he ran through to score Deportivo A Coruña’s winner on Saturday night. It was certainly not Ilias Akhomach, the Villarreal substitute whose pass on halfway had inadvertently played Aubameyang through, nor Sergi Cardona, the unassuming intended target of that pass. After 89 minutes and two assists, the 37-year-old Aubameyang raced the length of the half to slot past Luiz Júnior to make it 3-2.

It had been a similar case the week before, when Aubameyang’s pace again left the Valencia defenders behind before he dinked the ball over the goalkeeper. The week before that, he calmly rounded Málaga’s Alfonso Herrero before opening the scoring. The week before that, the former Barcelona striker marked his return to La Liga against Elche with a superb touch and finish from Lorenzo Amatucci’s diagonal pass. Scoring in each of his first four games for Deportivo is a club record, eclipsing Bebeto’s fast start of three in a row from 1992.

Georgina Hayden’s quick and easy recipe for courgette and preserved lemon herby giant couscous | Quick and easy

A seasonal special featuring both summer vibes and autumn comfort

While I dig my head in the sand at September’s arrival and the back-to-school dread, I’m trying to hold on to summer flavours for as long as possible. And this salad does just that: it’s summer and autumn, vibrant and comforting, all at the same time. It can also be served a multitude of ways: still warm, at room temperature with the feta added at the last minute, or even as leftovers (it’s great for lunchboxes, say).

Legal veterans lead fightback against Trump’s ‘full-out assault on democracy’

Advocacy groups expand legal challenges and condemn president’s ‘self-serving attempts to take over midterms’

A cluster of advocacy groups that boast veteran lawyers, voting experts and ex-judges have expanded legal challenges to Donald Trump’s authoritarian executive orders on voting and other presidential actions they see as a “war” on the rule of law in the US.

Heavy legal opposition to Trump’s two executive orders on elections to curb voting rights and supplant the authority of states on election matters has come from the Democracy Defenders Fund, the Campaign Legal Center, the American Civil Liberties Union and kindred groups.

Jaguar Land Rover to cut 4,000 jobs over two years in major cost-saving drive

The luxury carmaker is targeting £1.7 billion ($2.3 billion) in savings as it faces Chinese competition, a cyberattack and U.S. tariffs.

At least 5 dead in Amazon cargo plane crash at Miami airport

An Amazon cargo plane overran a runway at Miami International Airport and struck several vehicles, killing at least five people and injuring five others, officials said.

Heatwaves and wildfires are setting back air quality improvements, UN finds

WMO report details extreme weather events causing climatic feedback loop with serious health consequences

Big increases in wildfires and heatwaves supercharged by the climate crisis are hindering improvements to air quality around the world, UN experts have said.

Regions that had recorded a fall in pollution emitted by cars and industrial sites are facing new threats to air quality because of exposure to smoke from wildfires, according to a new report, while rising temperatures caused by intense heatwaves are causing a surge in ground-level ozone.

Karius keeps Kane at bay as Schalke nullify Bayern on Neuer’s return | Andy Brassell

The often-derided Loris Karius upstaged Manuel Neuer as Schalke held Bayern to a rare goalless draw in a tale of two goalkeepers in Gelsenkirchen

If one goalkeeper was going to dominate the discussion in this game, it actually felt as if it would be the less busy one. Schalke fans do not take kindly to being dumped and even if Manuel Neuer left the club behind 15 years ago – and even if most of the world associates him with Bayern Munich rather than his home town club – he is still given a rough ride when he returns.

Opposing sporting directors Max Eberl and Frank Baumann had their words to say about that after Saturday evening’s latest visit, but it wasn’t Germany’s legendary goalkeeper who took the headlines – or not he alone, at least. It was always going to be a landmark afternoon with Schalke playing a first home game in the top flight since May 2023, but this was way beyond what anyone could have expected. The numbers said it all – with Bayern failing to score for the first time domestically since a goalless draw at Leverkusen more than 18 months ago, meaning they finished the weekend not on top of the table for the first time in almost two years – but told nothing of the story.

WSL talking points: Palace result in doubt after substitution nightmare, Arsenal signings shine

Promoted side’s thrilling win may be overturned after they used four substitutions windows while Georgia Stanway show the way for Gunners

Kirsty Howat’s 60-second cameo deep into injury time could ruin what was a memorable day for Crystal Palace on their return to the top flight. An impressive 1-0 victory over Everton was celebrated emphatically by Jo Potter and her players but that joy would have been replaced by concern and frustration not long after. On Sunday evening WSL Football revealed that there had been a breach of the rules – the Eagles used four different substitute windows rather than the regulated three – which had not been picked up by either the coaching staff or the match officials. An investigation has now been launched with punishment to be decided (there is a potential for the result to be overturned). The needless error has put a dampener on what should have been a positive afternoon thanks to England Under-23s forward Lexi Lloyd-Smith’s winner on her WSL debut. Sophie Downey

Ratko Mladić, the ‘Butcher of Bosnia’, given hero’s funeral in Serbia

Fanfare at Belgrade funeral of man convicted of genocide raises questions from EU over Serbia’s membership plan

• Europe live – latest updates

Thousands of mourners have gathered in Belgrade for the funeral of Ratko Mladić, a Serbian general convicted of orchestrating the worst massacre in Europe since the second world war, and whose hero’s return home has raised international alarm.

Known as the “Butcher of Bosnia” for ​his role during the Balkans genocide in the 1990s, Mladić died in prison in late August aged 84 while serving a life sentence for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

BBCSO/Oramo/Gillam/Kanneh-Mason/Goldscheider review – Simcock’s triple concerto bursts with musical interest

Royal Albert Hall, London
Gwilym Simcock’s concerto – written for Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Ben Goldscheider and Jess Gillam (cello, horn and sax) – had problems of balance but at its best was a riot of colours and energy

BBC Young Musician has produced a whole galaxy of stars over the years, but 2016 was rather special. It was a neat idea then to commission a 10th-anniversary triple concerto for three of its finalists – cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, saxophonist Jess Gillam and horn player Ben Goldscheider – each of whom has gone on to a significant career. The composer of choice was Gwilym Simcock, an eclectic artist who straddles the worlds of jazz and classical music. The result was stretched to bursting with musical interest, though not without its problems.

At its best, the concerto was a riot of primary colours, with vibraphone, harp and orchestral piano – played here by Simcock himself – adding spice to the mix. The outer movements grooved, the first with a minimalist nod to Steve Reich, the finale channelling a Scottish reel. The serene central “Mesto” – the word means mournful or melancholy – was a keening lament for Simcock’s father who died during the work’s composition.

5 dead after crash at Miami Airport. And, Germany's far-right wins state election

A cargo plane crash at Miami International Airport has left five people dead and several others injured. And, Germany's far-right AfD party achieves an electoral victory in a key state election.

Fetterman texts reveal impatience with constituent duties

A former staffer confirmed that Sen. John Fetterman has routinely dismissed and at times refused to do core aspects of the job.

‘Nakedly political’: US attempts to link trans support to authoritarianism in new health department report

HHS releases report linking ‘gender ideology’ to political violence – a study scientists say was poorly conducted

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released a report linking “gender ideology” to leftwing authoritarianism and political violence – a study scientists say was poorly conducted and “nakedly political”, likely leading to greater politicization of science and health.

It follows attempts by the administration to limit access to gender-affirming care – including, on Friday, an agreement reached between the Department of Justice and a New York hospital to no longer offer pediatric gender-affirming care. Dozens of hospitals stopped offering gender-affirming care after the Trump administration began investigating them for offering the standard of care.

‘The most anti-union president’: how Trump turned his back on US workers

Labor experts stunned at how anti-worker Trump has been with actions since last Labor Day that have hurt unions

Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to champion US workers. Shortly before Labor Day last year, he said: “Every policy of the Trump administration is designed to lift up the American worker and “promote great-paying blue-collar jobs”. But in the year since last Labor Day, Trump has taken many actions that have hurt US workers and unions, with some labor experts saying they’ve been stunned at how anti-worker Trump has been.

In the months after Trump returned to office, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) cut workplace inspections by 20%, compared with Joe Biden’s last year in office. Even though Trump campaigned as a champion of coal miners, his administration has repeatedly delayed implementation of a rule to limit silica dust, which has afflicted and killed many coal miners with black lung. The United Mine Workers union has urgently called for “immediate enforcement” of the stalled silica dust rule.

Ross Fire still burning, with over 90,000 acres scorched

The wildfire, which has torn through Palo Pinto and Jack counties, forced evacuations, closed roads and disrupted schools.

Grindr pays £26m to settle UK lawsuit over allegedly sharing users’ HIV status

US-owned dating app allegedly allowed ad firms access to private information in breach of UK law

• Business live – latest updates

Grindr will pay £26m to settle a lawsuit brought by thousands of users in the UK who allege that the US dating app shared highly sensitive personal information, including in some cases their HIV status, with advertising companies.

The settlement brings to an end a two-year legal battle, after the UK law firm Austen Hays filed a claim at the high court of England and Wales in April 2024 on behalf of Grindr users alleging violations of UK privacy laws during a period up to early 2020.

Lindsay Clancy was failed by our warped understanding of motherhood | Moira Donegan

Clancy’s case became a referendum on mothers, healthcare, and the status of women

Most family annihilators are men. It’s a grim fact that such incidents are common enough to have a discernible pattern. The massacre is carried out by a husband and father, often one who is on the verge of bankruptcy or divorce; typically, it forms the finale of a long reign of domestic violence terror.

About half the time, the perpetrator kills himself after slaughtering his family. Gun use is common – a large number of what are termed “mass shootings” in the United States are in fact family annihilation killings, in which a man turns his weapon on his family members. Other times, the killer uses knives, or fires.

In the Shadows of Nuremberg review – trial-adjacent thriller aims to be Russian answer to Saving Private Ryan

A trivial personal plotline and a strain of maudlin patriotism undermine Nikolay Lebedev’s shaky telling of the Soviet side of the story

Taking place in the wings of the Nuremberg trial, this Soviet-side political thriller, first released back in 2023, features a scene in which the crowd turns on a boa-draped Hollywood floozy in town to entertain the troops. A case of mea culpa for director Nikolay Lebedev, who trivialises the momentous issues emerging from the courtroom by dressing the legal stuff up with a tenuous and shakily handled plotline about a missing soldier, in an attempt to make his film the Russian answer to Saving Private Ryan.

After his brother goes MIA in the vicinity of the soon-to-be-historic city, Red Army intelligence officer Igor Volgin (Sergey Kempo) wangles a post translating for the Soviet delegation. He’s approached by Lena (Lyubov Aksyonova), a Russian wastrel with a perfectly coiffed bob despite months of forced labour in a German munitions factory; she claims to have run into his sibling, an artist, in captivity. But she is also feeding information to Helmut (Wolfgang Cerny), a Nazi resistance diehard who believes Göring (Carsten Norgaard) and company should be accountable only to German courts.

Why are so many people stealing from restaurants?

About a quarter of British adults admit to having pilfered something from a pub or restaurant. Is it an Insta-fuelled craze, or just old-fashioned greed?

Knives, candles, a toilet roll holder complete with screws and Rawlplugs – that’s just some of the stuff Michelin-starred restaurants in France complained about clients nicking in a recent news report. I’m not sure why the screws were presented as the ultimate absurdity – if you want to use your stolen toilet roll holder, you’ll need them – it’s just common sense!

A Québécois restaurateur complained about similar thefts in July – a picnic table, a painting and even the thermostat had been pinched – and British restaurateurs confirm it happens in the UK, too. Jan Ostle of Wilsons in Bristol told the BBC’s World at One that the mother-of-pearl spoons he uses to serve herb sorbet are a particular target: “Every few months I have to buy another 28.”

‘Like an AI agent’: Wolff hails Antonelli’s Italian GP victory in title charge

• Mercedes principal likens 20-year-old to F1 greats

• ‘No stopping him when a driver and car are one’

Toto Wolff has compared Kimi Antonelli to the greats of Formula One after the Mercedes driver’s remarkable victory at the Italian Grand Prix where he came back to take the flag from 19th place on the grid.

The Mercedes team principal cited the win as similar to some of the best made by seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton and said that Antonelli would likely remember the race as one of the greatest of his career.

Primetime review – Robert Pattinson’s preening TV host hunts paedophiles but real drama proves harder to target

Venice film festival: Lance Oppenheim’s drama about controversial US reality show To Catch a Predator is unsure what it wants to say about media or morality

Lance Oppenheim is the acclaimed documentary-maker who has made his feature debut with a strangely overwrought and heavy-footed drama-thriller, which for all its elaborate neon-lit atmosphere of noir danger isn’t at all sure what it wants to say about media or morality, or anything else.

The subject is the controversial top-rated US TV reality show To Catch a Predator which ran from 2004 to 2008; that title was evidently taken from the Hitchcock movie To Catch a Thief, which in turn was inspired by the phrase “Set a thief to catch a thief”. In search of prey, the show’s researchers baited paedophiles in online chatrooms posing as children, lured them to “sting houses” where actors played underage teens on the front porch to get the abusers inside, where they can be clearly filmed expressing criminal intentions. But before anything could happen, sonorous host Chris Hansen appeared from nowhere and confronted these cringing abusers – which made for fantastic television. After this the cops made an arrest, and they and the state prosecutor did the heavy lifting of overseeing due process and presumably debating the merits of entrapment in court, although this obvious issue is not raised in the movie.

25 years ago, two strangers met in the twin towers and escaped on 9/11. What happened next?

Stanley Primnath and Brian Clark were two of only four individuals known to have survived above the impact zone in the north tower

He has told the story hundreds of times, but it never seems to fade. If anything, it only becomes more vivid. “Oh, gosh,” exclaims Stanley Praimnath, his voice cracking with an “ooooooh!” as if bearing a weight. “It’s like reliving that day.”

Nearly 3,000 people died in the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington DC on September 11 2001. But Praimnath and another office worker, Brian Clark, were two of only four individuals known to have survived from above the impact zone in either tower of the World Trade Center. The two strangers met in the smoke and fire of the 81st floor of the south tower, and walked down 1,620 steps into the rest of their lives.

‘Swiftly enchanted’: why Bedknobs and Broomsticks is my feelgood movie

The latest in our series of writers recommending their most rewatched comfort films is a reminder that Disney’s kids fantasy is more than a Mary Poppins knock-off

“Filigree, apogee, pedigree, perigee!” – the four incantatory words I blame for receiving a shonky Paul Daniels Magic Set as a child in the 80s. In Bedknobs and Broomsticks, it’s the spell that Angela Lansbury’s patriotic Nazi-vanquishing witch Eglantine Price casts to transform people into fluffy rabbits; a trick I yearned to pull off.

When it became clear I wouldn’t deter the Third Reich with three plastic thimbles, a deck of playing cards and a flaccid wand, my conjuring kit was mothballed – but my irrational love of the Disney film remains to this day. For me, it originally fell into the category of the crackling VHS that your parents taped off ITV at Christmas then would repeatedly plonk you in front of to shut you up – to the point I can even recall the adverts.

'Her body temperature was 106': How heat is killing Americans in their homes

Heat kills thousands of people across the U.S. every year. The risk is especially high for the millions of Americans who live in manufactured housing like mobile homes and trailers.

The copper peptide trend has gone from creams to injections — ahead of the science

The peptide is supposed to deliver flawless and firm skin, promote wound healing and other anti-aging effects. So what's the evidence behind GHK-Cu?

Morning news brief

Five people are dead after a cargo plane crash at Miami International Airport, Trump's top envoys go to Ukraine with hopes of restarting peace talks, Germany's far-right party wins landslide victory.

Labour’s new powers for water customers are a ‘stitch-up’, say campaigners

Exclusive: Documents reveal water firms have been allowed to advise on how they wish to be held to account

Labour’s new powers for customers to hold water companies to account are a “stitch-up”, campaigners have said, as utilities firms have been advising on how to implement it.

The Consumer Council for Water (CCW) is creating what the government referred to as “powerful consumer panels” so the public can question the executives of their local water company and get redress for problems they face from sewage and water companies in England and Wales.

Weather tracker: Typhoon Saudel causes mass evacuations in south-east China

Torrential rain causes widespread damage; while north-west South Africa hit by thunderstorms and central-southern US faces oppressive heat

Typhoon Saudel brought days of torrential rain to Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong provinces in south-east China last week. The city of Putian, in Fujian province, recorded 416.5mm of rain in a 24-hour period between Thursday and Friday, with surrounding villages recording more than 500mm in the same period. In Fujian, authorities estimate that almost 600,000 people were evacuated from high-risk, flood-prone areas. A further 128,000 people in 53 counties were also affected across Jiangxi, with emergency evacuations affecting 9,000 people.

Flooding, landslips and infrastructure damage were reported widely in the region. More than 2,500 teachers and students were trapped in a school compound in the Zhejiang city of Wenzhou on Wednesday after extreme rainfall caused flash floods in low-lying areas. At least 1,260 people reportedly had to be rescued in Putian after a river embankment collapsed on Thursday, flattening 100 homes. On Saturday, a landslip in a village of Suichuan county, in Jiangxi province, killed three people and nine others remaining missing.

Okurimono review – a heartbreaking dispatch from survivors of the Nagasaki bomb

Laurence Lévesque’s powerful documentary follows a woman who discovers a support network among her mother’s generation of survivors of the nuclear blast

No words are spoken during the first five minutes of Laurence Lévesque’s documentary. In a rustic house on the island city of Nagasaki, a Japanese woman in her 60s, Noriko, draws back the curtains to let in the glow of dawn. The tranquil mood, however, is deceptive. Once her childhood home, the place holds a lifetime of secrets, which Norkia only discovers after her parents’ death. While clearing out the house, she comes across letters received by her mother that shed light on her turmoil as a survivor of Nagasaki’s atomic bombing in 1945.

Noriko has always known her mother was a hibakusha – a term referring to people who survived the nuclear bombs. Already scarred by psychological and physical trauma, the victims also faced ostracism in the postwar period, with many barred from work or marriage. Perhaps due to the stigma, Noriko’s mother mentioned little of this to Noriko and her siblings. The letters, however, reveal a moving network of support among the hibakusha, as well as those who lost their loved ones in the bombings. In one heartbreaking note, a grieving mother speaks of sending a healthy son into the army, only to receive his hair and clipped nails in return.

Ministers condemn ‘thuggish’ far-right activists after Portsmouth unrest

Hundreds of men, some wearing balaclavas, attempted to prevent asylum seekers being transported for processing

• UK politics live – latest updates

The government has condemned the “thuggish and intimidating behaviour” of far-right activists who blocked roads in Portsmouth after a boat carrying asylum seekers arrived in the city, two days after similar scenes in Dover.

Hundreds of men, some dressed in black and wearing balaclavas, tried to stop the arrivals from being transported for processing until 3am, when police removed them with threats of arrest. A witness said two police car windscreens were smashed.

We’re the mayors of Paris, Milan and Phoenix. The heat crisis has us all facing the same question | Emmanuel Grégoire, Giuseppe Sala and Kate Gallego

Our three cities are learning from each other about how to protect residents. These climate policies are also public health measures

This summer, mayors met in London during the heatwave that ironically threatened to derail London Climate Action Week.

As temperatures broke records across the UK and Europe, leading some climate talks to be suspended or cancelled, we found ourselves seeking shelter and comparing how our cities prepare for extreme heat: how we protect vulnerable residents, communicate risk, and redesign neighbourhoods for hotter summers.

Will hordes of influencers, weed smokers and mid-point talkers bring down the US Open?

This year, the noise at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center has officially become A Problem. But changing it would mean changing society

The first thing you notice while sitting in the upper tiers of Arthur Ashe Stadium is the noise. A persistent exterior hum filters up from ground level, fed by the massive ventilation and cooling units that sit outside the stadium, the clack of the Long Island Rail Road to the north, and the forklifts receiving goods from the refrigerator trucks that keep the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center flush with its essential supplies of Evian, champagne, and premium IPA. Overhead, planes descending toward LaGuardia airport ensure the auditory assault takes place by land and air simultaneously. In the lower rakes of the stadium, the babble of the spectators is incessant; it’s not unusual to overhear full-volume conversations on various non-tennis topics – work, family, romance, last night’s dinner – that continue without interruption for the duration of an entire match.

New York is famously noisy, and the US Open, as the most glamorous annual sporting event in town, has always been loud in sympathy with its environment. Indeed, the brashness of the American grand slam has historically been its major selling point, the signature that distinguishes it from the Australian Open (the “happy slam”), Wimbledon (strawberries and cream, all-white attire, the home of tennis), and the French Open (French). People have been complaining about the volume of the New York crowd for decades. But this year the noise at the US Open feels different. This year noise at the noisy slam has become A Problem.

Warning over future of Olympic Games if Brisbane 2032 program is not modernised

• Kieren Perkins expresses concern over some traditional sports

• Door is open to likes of cricket and netball for Games in Australia

Former gold-medal winning swimmer and Australia’s most senior sport executive, Kieren Perkins, has called on the IOC to modernise the sporting program for Brisbane 2032, arguing that some current Olympic sports “have no modern relevance whatsoever”.

The IOC has indicated it wishes to curb a long-term trend of a rise in the number of sports at the Games. Sydney 2000 featured 28 sports, while Los Angeles 2028 is set to feature 36, including many with more than one discipline – for example road and track cycling – that require multiple venues.

Friendships meant everything to me as a child. I worry today’s young people are being robbed of that | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

We sat in the park, laughing for hours, talking about nothing. Today’s childhoods are digital – and the result is an epidemic of loneliness

I saw an old friend recently – the kind you’ve known for so long that you clear a whole day for them, as you might a family member. We laughed and laughed like we were teenagers again, and drank martinis before lunch, and it felt almost like it always did when we were young, except we could afford better than cheap cider, and he owns a house and I’m someone’s mother.

Another old friend – one I’ve known even longer, since I was six – described me and the other girls who made up our little group as “fake siblings”. That is how lifelong friendships feel. There’s an easiness and acceptance that comes with longstanding intimacy. You know each other’s secrets, you’ve been inside each other’s parents’ houses, shared beds and cigarettes, witnessed heartbreak and foolishness, tears and whiteys, before the more serious stuff piles up: weddings, births, illnesses, life crises, deaths. You talk about the serious stuff, of course (there has always been some serious stuff, but teenage friendships often provide a refuge from it), but when you need it that old friendship is a portal, transporting many of us to a time of lightness and freedom that is otherwise hard to access.

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist

Is it true that … hard water damages hair?

Mineral deposits can accumulate, making hair drier, but removing them can cause different problems

From hair treatments to shower filters, a wave of products have been launched promising to protect hair from the “problems” caused by living in a hard-water area. But are they really necessary? “Hard water has a higher concentration of dissolved minerals, especially calcium and magnesium,” says Desmond Tobin, professor of dermatological science at University College Dublin. “These are naturally occurring in water, particularly water that is not rainwater.”

When water moves through soil and rocks, such as limestone, minerals dissolve into it and remain there when it comes out of your tap. These minerals are responsible for the limescale that builds up in your kettle.

Azhar Ali: ‘Pakistan cricket cannot change in the space of a year’

One of the batting stalwarts of the team that reached Test No 1 a decade ago says the current side’s woes go far deeper than this tour of England

As a pillar of the Pakistan team that climbed from the nadir of the Lord’s spot-fixing scandal in 2010 to the top of the Test rankings six years later, all while playing overseas for security reasons, Azhar Ali knows a bit about overcoming a crisis.

But for all that Misbah-ul-Haq’s side offered hope back then – a reminder of Pakistan’s innate ability to overcome hardship and defy expectations – Azhar is currently looking on in despair at the state of their cricket and a tour of England that has pretty much imploded this past week.

A crucial look at the disappearance of Austin Tice: best podcasts of the week

The US marine turned journalist went missing in Syria 14 years ago – and now, a suspenseful new pod uncovers essential evidence. Plus, the charming Julie Andrews serenades audiences with Jane Austen’s Emma

It has been 14 years since US marine turned journalist Austin Tice went missing in Syria. Much has changed in the embattled nation since then – not least the end of Bashar al-Assad’s regime – but Tice is yet to be found. In this series, Josh Baker and Sara Obeidat uncover crucial new evidence, some of which has already made headlines. Sensitive and highly suspenseful. Hannah J Davies
Widely available, episodes weekly

‘This is what I have to do to survive’: the Sudan refugees forced into sex work

They fled a brutal civil war to reach safety in Egypt, but now many Sudanese women and girls are falling prey to sexual exploitation

Sudanese women who fled to Egypt to escape the war in their country are facing increasing levels of sexual exploitation, with the Guardian told of single mothers forced to sell their bodies to survive and feed their children.

Many of the women have not previously worked in Sudan, where conservative social norms dictate that men are usually responsible for financial support. Without established trades or professions, and with their husbands and other family members dead or missing, many female refugees are struggling to pay for food, medical care and rent.

Pixel 11 review: Google sets the bar for standard flagship phones

Longer battery life, faster chip, actually useful AI tools and better cameras keep quality Android ahead of competition

Google’s Pixel 11 continues to set the standard for what you should expect from the base model of a flagship phone with class-leading cameras, long software support and almost all the bells and whistles of its most expensive phones.

The regular Pixel 11 costs £879 (€999/$899/A$1,499) making it £80 or equivalent more expensive than last year’s model as the cost of RAMageddon continues to bite. It’s not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but it comes with 256GB of storage and is £200 less than the Pixel 11 Pro, matching rival Samsung’s Galaxy S26.

Screen: 6.3in 120Hz FHD+ OLED (422ppi)

Processor: Google Tensor G6

RAM: 12GB

Storage: 256 or 512GB

Operating system: Android 17

Camera: 48MP+ 13MP UW + 10.8MP 5x tele; 10.5MP selfie

Connectivity: 5G, eSIM, wifi 6E, UWB, NFC, Bluetooth 6 and GNSS

Water resistance: IP68 (1.5m for 30 minutes)

Dimensions: 152.8 x 72.0 x 8.6mm

Weight: 197g

A new start after 60: I was always quiet – but at 82 I’m a famous, funny fashion influencer

Vivienne Truran was a civil servant and antiques dealer, who spent most of her life in the background. At 80, she realised how outgoing she was, and started a soaringly successful new career

‘It took me till I was 80 to realise that I’m quite an outgoing and loud person,” says Vivienne Truran. Now 82, she has 829,000 followers on Instagram, where she posts daily videos about her outfit choices, including which of her trademark glasses work best with her look, all in her lilting Cardiff accent.

It all started 18 months ago. “I think I want to be an influencer,” she announced in one of her first reels. “Now, what can I influence people in?”

Rob Reiner wins posthumous Emmy for The Bear, as Widow’s Bay dominates early awards

Reiner broke record set by his father Carl Reiner at the ceremony formerly known as the Creative Arts Emmys, with The Pitt, Pluribus and DTF St Louis also winning big

Rob Reiner has won a posthumous Emmy for his performance in The Bear, nine months after his death – breaking the record set in the exact same category by his own father, Carl Reiner.

Reiner’s win for outstanding guest actor in a comedy was announced on Sunday night at the ceremony formerly known as the Creative Arts Emmys, a two-day awards event held a week before the main ceremony and telecast.

Visa pour l’image: Perpignan festival of photojournalism 2026 – in pictures

A selection of the powerful photojournalism being shown at this year’s Visa pour l’image exhibition in France

Israeli ministers keep telling everyone their brutal plans – so why doesn’t the world take them seriously? | Nesrine Malik

Schemes to forcibly remove Palestinians from Gaza are not being promoted by fringe voices. But the international community continues to avert its eyes

The gap between what is being inflicted on Palestinians and the appropriate reaction on the part of the international community has always been vast. But now it yawns so wide that it swallows reality itself. As arms export licences for Israel from states such as Germany surge, talk of harsher measures and sanctions on the part of other European countries remains talk. People continue to be killed in Gaza, Palestinian families remain besieged in the West Bank, and the Israeli political right has been removing all doubt that these violations are intentional, by telling the world of its hopes and plans.

A sample from only the past few days. On Thursday, Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, detailed a scheme for the illegal ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. He also posted an AI-generated video, now deleted, of Palestinian men entering a conveyor belt into detention, emerging emaciated and tearful. Also a few days ago, the defence minister, Israel Katz, stated that the country was “organised and prepared” to expel Palestinians from Gaza “by every way possible”.

Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist

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

Cheese pie, seed crackers and prawn rolls: Ravinder Bhogal’s recipes for cooking with filo

Making your own filo is notoriously faffy but, luckily, there are great ready-made versions out there that make these crunchy, golden savoury treats a doddle

I love this gossamer-thin pastry for its lightness and crunch, not least because it can be used for both sweets and savouries. Once, on a trip to Athens, I learned how to make filo from scratch: it needs to be rolled very, very thin, so, unless you are skilled with a rolling pin, it’s hard and time-consuming. Luckily there are good ready-made varieties out there (if you’re using the frozen variety, make sure it’s fully defrosted). And always keep the pastry you are not working with under a damp cloth, because it dries out very quickly and will probably crack.

Armed man arrested for allegedly charging at Democratic Ohio governor candidate

The suspect "aggressively shoved his way through the crowd" toward Amy Acton, Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Greene told CBS News.

‘Sharks are my film stars’: how the Jacques Cousteau of the North Sea finally unlocked its beauty

Epic plankton blooms make filming in the North Sea notoriously difficult. But a new documentary gives a rare glimpse of the kaleidoscopic life – seals, sharks, tuna, orcas and shorthorn sculpins – lurking beneath its waves

The North Sea, as even its greatest admirers will concede, often glowers an unappetising grey or brown. And we assume that its dull exterior is matched by sediment-filled waters where little life dwells. For years, the friends and family of Peter van Rodijnen wondered why the Dutch cinematographer and diving fanatic spent so much time exploring “this murky bowl of soup”. But, inspired by a childhood of watching Jacques Cousteau’s adventures in rather more enticingly temperate waters, Van Rodijnen’s dedication to North Sea diving gradually revealed its hidden wonders.

Over 20 years, as camera technology improved, Van Rodijnen obtained more and more amazing footage of marine life near his home on the Netherlands coast. Nearly a decade ago, he teamed up with director Mark Verkerk. “We started with the idea,” says Van Rodijnen, “that if somebody can make a movie about the North Sea, it’s got to be us.”

Reindeer and rare-earth minerals: Swedish politicians take aim at Indigenous Sami in mining dispute

Gabna community fear their traditional herding routes will be sacrificed as far-right rhetoric ramps up against them

For the Swedish-Sami politician Åsa Larsson Blind, it was something of a watershed moment in the national conversation around Indigenous rights.

In late April and May, as the country geared up for this month’s elections, the deputy prime minister and energy minister, Ebba Busch, gave a series of speeches and articles publicly attacking the Sami’s rights to graze reindeer herds on their ancestral lands. Reindeer husbandry, Busch said at one press conference, “is an industry that affects very large areas, but has limited economic significance”.

‘Work hard – nobody cares how good you used to be’: Paul Smith at 80 on love, fun and his fabulous life in fashion

With the release of his new biography, the British designer talks about leaving school at 15, the real reason he won’t retire and why no one wears velvet trousers any more

Go for a browse in the Paul Smith shop in Mayfair, London, on any given Saturday and you’ll likely find an older shop assistant, straight-backed in fine tailoring, approaching to help you with a new shirt, or a suit for a special occasion, perhaps a jaunty pair of socks. There aren’t many global fashion brands, Paul Smith points out, perhaps unnecessarily, “where the owner is a Saturday boy”. But working in his shop, one of more than 130 around the world, is probably Smith’s favourite part of the job. “It’s fantastic, you meet so many interesting people,” he says, smiling broadly. Smith’s whole career, he says, has always been about doing things in a different way. He’s the untrained fashion designer who created a global British brand, who put a bright lining or some stripes into classic tailoring, and who has turned down multiple substantial offers to buy his company, in order to remain in control.

Sir Paul Smith has just turned 80 – and he has the enviable energy of someone less than half his age, swimming each day before 6am. He’s about to publish his memoir, Threads: My Life in Style. It’s been a good opportunity to do a stocktake. His has undoubtedly been a lucky life – right place, right time, right people (not least his wife, Pauline, whom he met at the age of 21 and who has been integral to his success) – but it’s also a story of hard work, integrity and modesty. We’ll get to whether those values are still relevant in a harsher, more competitive world, and whether Paul Smith can survive.

Millions mark end of summer at "The Great Minnesota Get-Together"

Jonah Kaplan is at one of the biggest state fairs in the country to show us why so many are drawn to some old-fashioned fun in the digital age.

Volcano eruption in Indonesia leaves 170,000 travellers stranded as seven airports remain closed

Volcanic ash from eruption of Anak Krakatau delays more than 1,500 flights, including in the capital Jakarta, while airport closures extended

Seven Indonesian airports – including two serving Jakarta – remained closed on Monday ⁠morning because of volcanic ash from eruptions at Mount ⁠Anak Krakatau, the transport minister ⁠said.

Ash from ​Anak Krakatau, which sits halfway between Java and Sumatra islands, has blanketed Jakarta and several surrounding areas since it erupted ⁠late on Friday, leading to the closure of the airports for safety reasons.

Connecticut school honors Sept. 11 attacks victim through education

The Adam J. Lewis Academy in Bridgeport, Connecticut, is a living tribute to principal Patty Lewis' husband, who died in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. "CBS Weekend News" producer Caroline Lewis reports on her dad's legacy 25 years after the terrorist attacks.

Labor Day weekend gas prices hit record high

Labor Day weekend gas prices have never been higher, and Californians are feeling the sticker shock more than most in the U.S., as prices regularly top $6 per gallon. Mark Strassmann is in Los Angeles with the latest.

Amazon cargo jet runs off Miami airport runway, crashes into multiple vehicles

Emergency crews rushed into action on Sunday after an Amazon cargo jet ran off the runway in Miami. At least five people were killed. Lindsey Reiser reports on what we know so far.

Susan Sarandon says she is losing movie roles because of her support for Palestine

Oscar-winning actor says she and other outspoken critics of Israel have found it ‘impossible’ to get hired by major studios

The Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon has said she is still losing work because of her outspoken support for Palestinians, despite what she ⁠described as a broader shift ⁠in public opinion against ​US support for Israel.

Speaking at the Venice film festival, where she is promoting her latest movie The Echo Chamber, Sarandon said some parts of the film industry continued to ⁠shun her over her activism.

Chancellor to argue UK economy can ‘turn corner’ despite bond market turmoil

John Healey speech on Monday will stress links between fiscal discipline and growth amid concerns his cautious approach jars with Burnham’s radical plans

John Healey will argue the government’s plans to boost growth across the whole country will enable the British economy to “turn a corner” despite anxiety over volatile bond markets derailing Labour’s crucial first budget.

The chancellor is expected to argue that fiscal discipline is “indivisible” from good growth, especially at a time of difficult global headwinds, amid concerns that his cautious approach jars with Andy Burnham’s more radical policy plans.

9/6/2026: Sharswood; Boom Chicago

First, man unknowingly buys former plantation house where his ancestors were enslaved. Then, a look at the Amsterdam improv club behind comedy legends.

9/6: CBS Weekend News

An Amazon cargo plane overran a runway at Miami International Airport and struck several vehicles, killing at least five people. Gas prices rise for Labor Day weekend.

Reckless review – this breathless thriller about siblings in a hit-and-run is a masterpiece

The Australian retooling of Neil Forsyth’s excellent Guilt sees a brother and sister deal with the aftermath of accidentally killing a stranger. It’s a fast-paced, impressive ride

Just do what your elder sister tells you. That’s all there really is to leading an easy life. As a senior female sibling myself, this has always been my belief and now, as a viewer of Australian comedy-drama-caper-thriller Reckless, I can report it as absolute fact.

I mean – first things first. Ideally, do not hit a pedestrian out walking late at night in his pyjamas while you’re driving under the influence of a joint you smoked at a family wedding, as record shop owner Charlie (Hunter Page-Lochard) does. But if you do, and if the older sister you are taking home tells you to keep driving – well, at least give it some consideration? Especially before you get your fingerprints all over the corpse’s wallet and start dragging him out of the road in front of his neighbours’ houses, then putting him back into his home. And if you do do all that, at least start listening to her thereafter. Follow her lead, after she finds a letter in the dead man’s house about the terminal cancer he was suffering from, in thinking that you just saved him months of agony, then go about the rest of your life with your mouth shut.

At least five dead after Amazon cargo plane crashes at Miami airport

Three people in critical condition and two hospitalized as operations at one of busiest US airports brought to a halt

An Amazon cargo plane crashed at Miami international airport in Florida on Sunday afternoon after the flight, which was arriving from Puerto Rico, overshot the runway, striking several vehicles and resulting in at least five deaths.

The plane erupted in flames as dark smoke billowed into the sky, bringing operations at one of the busiest airports in the US to a halt. The pilot and copilot were trapped in the cockpit as a result of the crash, said the Miami-Dade rescue fire chief Ray Jadallah.

Woman Unknown review – postwar paranoia with some deliciously dastardly Du Maurier touches

Venice film festival
A nanny becomes the new lady of a prosperous Copenhagen house as accused Nazi sympathisers are violently shamed in May el-Toukhy’s shrewd, painful portrait of survival

Here is an elegantly appointed drama-thriller from May el-Toukhy, about sexual shame and political paranoia in postwar Denmark, with something of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca, which it consciously recalls. As director and co-writer, El-Toukhy has created a shrewd and painful movie about the terrible things you need to do to survive, and what it takes to forget those things afterwards.

The scene is a prosperous, upper-middle-class apartment in Copenhagen just after the second world war, when the Danish resistance was permitted the powers of a secret-police militia to detain and interrogate those suspected of having given assistance to the Nazis. Christian (Carsten Bjørnlund) is a ageing factory owner and widower who has evidently fallen in love with his infant daughter’s nanny: this is Marie (fiercely and convincingly played by Mathilde Arcel). Or at any rate, he sees that the child needs a new mother, finds Marie attractive and appreciates her submissive attitude. They are now engaged.

The US now has access to more than half Australia’s military bases – could it drag the country unwillingly into war?

Exclusive: US-controlled weapons corporations and forces have control or access to more than 100 facilities across the continent, which some analysts describe as a ‘colonisation’ of Australia’s military. Find a map of them here

• US military presence in Australia, mapped – video

• Why can the US access so many Australian military bases? – podcast

US military interests control or have access to more than 100 defence facilities on Australian soil, in what some analysts describe as a “saturation” – even a “colonisation” – of the Australian continent.

New data compiled by the Nautilus Institute and published by Guardian Australia maps the extent of US militarisation. The US military controls 17 facilities on mainland Australia and has access to 75 more Australian-run military installations. US defence corporations have access to an additional 18.

Gathering intelligence, accessing satellite data for targeting information and communications intercepts.

Training, including for 2,500 marines on dry-season rotation in the Northern Territory.

Pre-positioning warfighting assets such as Osprey aircraft.

Logistics hubs holding weapons, munitions and fuel, stored in case of a war in the Pacific.

At least five dead after Amazon cargo plane crashes at Miami airport

An Amazon Prime cargo plane was landing at the airport around 2 p.m. ET on Sunday when it overran the runway, crashed and rammed into vehicles on the ground, according to FAA.

GOP conference chair says Miller is "our nominee right now" despite allegations

House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain said she is supporting Rep. Max Miller's reelection bid for a third term because "I will support anyone with an R behind their name."

Full transcript of "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," Sept. 6, 2026

On this "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" broadcast, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Rep. Jason Crow join Margaret Brennan.

SEC sues ISS as Trump administration ramps up scrutiny of proxy advisers

The SEC sued Institutional Shareholder Services to enforce a subpoena as the Trump administration increases scrutiny of influential proxy advisers.

Ella Baron on Reform UK and the donations row – cartoon

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Jamaican delegates arrive in UK to hand slavery reparations petition to King Charles

Slavery’s legacy continues ‘to deprive our country and our people’, says minister, as group prepares to appeal to Jamaica’s head of state

A landmark petition is to be handed to King Charles by Jamaica over slavery reparations, aiming to confront historical crimes that still disadvantage former British colonies, the Caribbean nation’s culture minister has said.

The petition will be lodged with Charles, Jamaica’s head of state, on Monday.

Minecraft cosplay and Oasis in Venice: photos of the weekend

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

Germany's far-right achieves an electoral breakthrough in key state election

Germany's populist, far-right Alternative for Germany party has declared victory in the state of Saxony-Anhalt after more than doubling its share of the vote in the first of several regional elections this fall.

The Guardian view on extreme heat: its scale should be a wake-up call to us all | Editorial

With thousands dead across Europe this summer, it’s time to recognise heatwaves as the major natural disasters they are

The numbers are now trickling in: nearly 2,900 dead in the UK, at least 35,000 dead across Europe. That’s how many people are believed to have lost their lives in this year’s early-summer heatwaves – the death tolls for the August heatwaves have yet to be counted. In a sense, these people died in a series of natural disasters, similar to the hundreds who died last month after flooding in Nepal, or during the 2024 floods in Valencia, Spain. And yet we do not process these events the same way. Increasingly deadly heatwaves are the most direct and damaging effect of the climate crisis felt in Europe, but they are rarely framed as such.

There are some obvious reasons for this. Heatwaves by definition unfold over longer periods than other disasters, they are less dramatic, the majority of those who die are elderly or otherwise vulnerable, and their deaths often take weeks or months to be catalogued and reported, all of which make heatwaves seem less immediate and visible. But while heatwaves will probably never provoke the same visceral shock as earthquakes or tornadoes, it should still be possible to shift the way the public thinks about them, which could save lives and lessen their damage.

The Guardian view on Burnham’s devolution plans: power must be accompanied by scrutiny | Editorial

Vital accountability mechanisms have withered as English devolution has evolved. The government should take note

Andy Burnham has criticised Britain’s “unaccountable state” that is at once too powerful and too distant from everyday life. He has made English devolution the central idea of his premiership, but his plan to give England’s mayors unprecedented power and money will have to confront a number of tricky realities, not least a landscape in which scrutiny of local government is vastly diminished.

As England’s devolution map has evolved, vital accountability mechanisms have withered. The abolition of the Audit Commission in 2015 deprived Whitehall of information about local government spending. The decision, taken by the then Tory prime minister David Cameron during his “bonfire of the quangos”, coincided with a period when cash-strapped councils were selling off assets and making risky investments. A succession of bankruptcies and scandals have since exemplified the dangers of governing in darkness, including the questions raised at Teesworks, the development led by Ben Houchen, a Tory mayor, where a “culture of excessive confidentiality” has prevailed, according to a damning 2024 government report.

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

This week on "Sunday Morning" (Sept. 6)

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

Biopsies, aerial drills and a personal pizza: a day in the life of a shark scientist

Jasmin Graham, a shark scientist and science communicator, also makes time in her day to practice her hobbies and play music bingo with friends

“Sharks are not monsters, they just need better PR,” writes Jasmin Graham. And she should know: Graham is a shark scientist and science communicator.

Here’s what a day in Graham’s life in Sarasota, Florida looks like.

China prepares £40bn stimulus for financial sector amid fears over sluggish growth

Beijing wants banks and insurers to bolster investment in stock market as it helps to replenish cash reserves

China will inject $54bn (£40bn) into its financial sector as Beijing attempts to shore up banks and insurers in the face of faltering economic growth.

A host of financial institutions said they were due to receive billions of yuan in capital from state institutions including the ministry of finance and even the company that runs the country’s tobacco monopoly.

Kindness of strangers: A hall-of-fame athlete helped my 94-year-old mum buy a vacuum cleaner

A woman in the queue said she was happy to drive an hour, pick up the vacuum, then bring it to Mum’s house. I was worried – but how wrong I was!

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

For a 94-year-old woman, my mother is still very busy and active. So when a vacuum cleaner she liked the look of went on sale at a national electronics chain, Mum drove herself to the nearest store to buy it.

Unfortunately, the shop in her area had sold out by the time she got there. The sales assistant told her it was still available in another Melbourne store – but that store was an hour’s drive away. As active as she is, Mum pointed out that at her age she really could not manage a drive of that length. She asked the sales assistant if they could transfer the vacuum to this store and was flatly told no.

Remembering 9/11: Where tragedy left its marks

"Sunday Morning" talks with people forever touched by the 2001 terror attacks, from a man who helped a woman escape the North Tower, to a Marine major who rushed into the Pentagon, to a young woman who lost her dad when Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania.

9/11 changed the U.S.; can we change back?

Twenty-five years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, former Carter White House speechwriter James Fallows offers thoughts on the legacy of 9/11 and how American daily life and civic culture changed after the attack.

Possible Love review – a tale of two couples is finely judged study of exploitation and friendship

Venice film festival: Acclaimed Korean director Lee Chang-dong returns with an inspired account of an unhappy married couple befriended by a documentary maker and her wealthy husband

Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong brings to Venice his first feature for eight years. It is a finely judged, beautifully acted and rather novelistic work, in which a character at one point actually compares her surroundings to something from a novel. It is expansive and diffuse in terms of storytelling scope and dramatic focus, rich in intelligence while paying its audience the compliment of treating them as intelligent also. There are moments of pure inspiration in the superb flashback scenes of two characters’ early lives, and I rather regretted that these flashbacks were phased out relatively early on and that more was not made of their relationship with the present. Possible Love is perhaps a little contrived and self-aware and unsure how much emphasis to lay on its moments of irony and comedy, but it is made with such fluency and verve.

It is a tale of two couples. Jeon Do-yeon (from Lee’s Secret Sunshine) and Sul Kyung-gu play Mi-ok and Ho-seok, a deeply unhappy married couple from a blue-collar background with a young son. Ho-seok is angry, depressed and struggling with a drinking problem after a catastrophic end to a strike at the factory where he worked. While at the funeral of a colleague of Ho-seok’s, who has taken his own life, he and Mi-ok meet a fashionable and wealthy couple who are making a documentary about the injustice of the way the factory workers were treated. (This couple have a dog instead of a child.)

9/11 changed the U.S.; can we change back?

Twenty-five years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, former Carter White House speechwriter James Fallows offers thoughts on the legacy of 9/11 and how American daily life and civic culture changed after the attack.

Robert De Niro on helping revive Lower Manhattan after 9/11

As the dust settled on New York City following the 9/11 attacks, Robert De Niro and his longtime business partner, producer Jane Rosenthal, looked for ways to pull Lower Manhattan out of the ashes. The Tribeca Film Festival, which debuted in 2002, has not only successfully launched a new generation of filmmakers; it has also helped revitalize the city in what De Niro called "an act of defiance." Tracy Smith talks with De Niro and Rosenthal about their festival's mission: to use art as an antidote to what they see as traumatic times facing America.

Extended interview: Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem, a trailblazing figure in the women's liberation movement, died on Sept. 2, 2026 at age 92. In this extended interview recorded in 2023 and posted for the first time, Steinem talked with correspondent Rita Braver about the challenges facing female journalists in the 1960s; the founding of Ms. Magazine, and the response from advertisers and the public; the use of Wonder Woman as the cover of its first freestanding issue; and why, despite setbacks in the fight for gender equality in the decades since, she considered herself a "hope-aholic."

Remembering 9/11: Andrew Card on the moment everything changed

On the morning of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush was visiting an elementary school in Sarasota, Fla., when his chief of staff, Andrew Card, informed him that America was under attack – a singular moment, captured in an iconic photograph.

9/6: Face The Nation

This week on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," with midterm elections less than two months away, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson joins as well as Reps. Jason Crow and Lisa McClain. Plus, Sunoco chairman and Republican midterm convention chair Ray Washburne joins.