England v Pakistan: play delayed for second men’s cricket Test, day one – live

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The toss is now scheduled for 12pm BST, with play to begin at 12.20. We pray.

Yeah, we all saw it coming.

Meta reaches $17B settlement. And, nuclear regulator to abandon radiation safety rule

Meta and the states that sued the company have agreed to a $17 billion settlement. And, nuclear regulators are preparing to abandon a decades-old radiation safety rule.

Idiots review – throwback bro comedy is an entertaining summer seat-filler

Dave Franco and O’Shea Jackson Jr lead a goofy roadtrip comedy that is just sharp enough to keep you strapped in

Idiots is billed as a return to the raunchy bro comedies of the 2000s like Pineapple Express and The Hangover and about halfway through there is a visual gag involving bodily functions that is so revolting, so unexpected and so genius that it comes close to them. For a moment, I was transported back to the mix of delight and disgust I felt upon watching a ‘90s Farrelly Brothers movie when I was far too young: How is this allowed?

Described as an “earnest-dipshits-on-the-road screwball comedy” by director Macon Blair (I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, The Toxic Avenger), this R-rated indie comedy can’t entirely deliver on that enticingly deranged promise, but it has enough testosterone-fueled transgression to make its runtime breeze by. Dave Franco plays Mark, a doofus with a neck tattoo who expresses affection for his fellow man by slapping them on the jowls. When he is invited to vacate his job at a call center – which he has been coasting through by playing gory video games and sneaking shots of whiskey at his desk – he teams up with with Davis (O’Shea Jackson Jr) for a dodgy under-the-table job involving transporting wayward teens to rehab. Their first charge is Sheridan (Mason Thames), a moody influencer who has made a name for himself by playing cruel stunts on members of the public like an off-brand Jake Paul. Like Harold & Kumar before it, the road trip is an obvious but effective ruse for Idiots’s freeform, THC-addled approach to storytelling which finds the trio jumping from country diner to crummy motel to a Slavic granny’s living room as Sheridan attempts to derail his passage to rehab.

Billy Strings: So Much for Goodbyes review – staggering, stirring songs of grief draw the blues out of bluegrass

(Reprise)
The crossover star’s introspective sixth album is full of memories of his mother, who died in 2025, bringing his dextrous guitar to songs rooted in tradition and yearning

On the face of it, 2025 was a landmark year for Billy Strings. His fifth album, Highway Prayers, won him his third Grammy. The first bluegrass album in more than 22 years to debut at the top of the US album sales chart, it confirmed him as the genre’s biggest crossover star in decades. He was feted by everyone from Bob Dylan to Post Malone to Willie Nelson, the latter describing him as “the John Coltrane of bluegrass”, a pretty impressive soubriquet in anyone’s book. As the New York Times noted, he was now capable of filling the arena-sized venues that his idols – Doc Watson, Clarence White, Tony Rice, Béla Fleck – could never have dreamed of performing in, packing them out with an audience that look less like traditional bluegrass aficionados than Deadheads: a vast, mobile, hippy-ish army that call themselves Goats. They’re presumably drawn by the ease with which Strings occupies the no man’s land between country and expansive, psychedelically informed improvisation, his willingness to put acoustic guitar through umpteen effects pedals and stretch out songs for 20 minutes on stage.

It’s a side of Strings’ music that’s only hinted at on Highway Prayers’ follow-up: as Burn the Other End and Lucid Daydream draw to an end, they briefly unravel into a kind of abstraction that you can imagine as a jumping-off point for heady, out-there exploration live. But So Much for Goodbyes is an album more concerned with introspection, and understandably so. In the midst of 2025’s successes, Strings’ mother died of an overdose. His chaotic upbringing is a matter of record. His father died of a heroin overdose when he was two, both his mother and his stepfather were addicted to meth and he left home at 14 on the grounds that “there was no food in the house and my parents were strung out”. But Strings said he had “no idea” she had relapsed, and her death seeps into every corner of the album: its title and cover art – based on a collage his mother was working on the night she died; the concluding instrumental that bears her name, Debra’s Waltz; the songs that, on the surface, appear to have nothing to do with her passing.

After Meta's landmark settlement with state AGs, legal headaches remain

Meta's agreement to settle a federal social media addiction case with state AGs doesn't absolve the company of similar litigation or potential regulation.

Carse in the wickets for Durham, Essex v Surrey, and more: county cricket day one – live

Updates from County Championship day one
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Shackles Gloucestershire’s Joe Phillips with his sixth ball.

An early wicket at Scarborough on the mottled outfield grass, Adam Lyth obligingly nudging behind. Yorks 5-1.

Rwandans love their milk bars. The health minister wishes they'd drink a little less

A big glass of moo juice — no, make that several glasses a day — is common in Rwanda. Is that too much of a good thing?

Ross Fire explodes to over 80,000 acres, forces evacuations in North Texas

The Ross wildfire has burned more than 80,000 acres across Palo Pinto and Jack counties, forcing evacuations, closing roads and disrupting schools.

CIA chief reportedly warns Russia against attacking Nato countries on visit to Moscow – US politics live

Kremlin dismisses US media reports after meeting as ‘scare stories’, as Pentagon policy chief prepares to meet Nato secretary general

A man who is serving time in a federal prison in New York advanced on Wednesday from the primary for Alaska’s lone US House seat.

Eric Hafner, a registered Democrat, also ran for the seat in 2024 and secured a spot on the general election ballot that November despite a challenge brought by the Alaska Democratic party.

At least 1,500 missing after deadly Nepal-Tibet floods

At least 1,500 people are missing, many of them foreign tourists, after deadly floods hit the Nepal-Tibet border, sweeping away entire villages

How the deadly Nepal and Tibet flash flood unfolded – a visual guide

US Geological Survey says massive glacial collapse caused catastrophic flash floods in the Himalayan border region of Nepal ⁠and Tibet

• Follow latest updates live

• Tell us: have you been affected by the flash floods?

The massive glacial collapse that caused catastrophic flash floods in the Himalayan border region of Nepal ⁠and Tibet has killed at least 270 people, though the number of dead is set to rise, with local officials saying more than 1,300 are missing.

Officials said 826 people were missing in Nepal, among them 579 tourists from two dozen countries, including India, the US, Australia, Britain and Canada. Chinese ‌state media said 558 people were missing ​in Tibet’s Gyirong ⁠county. It was not immediately clear if the missing counts were separate or some people had been counted twice.

Kim Kardashian's kid wants to work at Starbucks. What a breath of fresh air | Polly Hudson

North West has revealed her sensible intention to get a ‘regular’ job. It could be character-building – unless the venti-sized privilege she was born with holds her back

All these years after Ab Fab, we’re regularly reminded how well observed the characters of Edina (Jennifer Saunders) and her daughter, Saffron (Julia Sawalha), were. Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s eldest child, North West, has given a new – as in, not her first, obviously, given she’s the ripe old age of 13 – interview, in which she revealed her sensible intention to get a “regular” job.

The wide-ranging chat is as depressing (her favourite female artists are “Bktherula, Baby Osama and Babyxsosa”; me neither) as it is eye-opening (her favourite music video of all time is her own). But then she drops the Saffron-shell: “I wanna work at, like, Starbucks next year. I think I can next year ’cause I’m gonna be 14, so … I think I can. I want to have a regular job, I guess.”

In a Pennsylvania congressional swing district, a Republican incumbent faces allegations over embellishing résumé

Ryan Mackenzie, running for re-election, is accused of ‘fabricating’ a career in the real estate industry

The Republican congressman Ryan Mackenzie has been accused of embellishing his résumé with private sector experience in real estate sales amid an acrimonious showdown over his Pennsylvania seat.

Mackenzie, who has previously been accused of lying about his age on Tinder, “was a real estate salesperson licensed in PA”, according to his LinkedIn profile, and biographies have consistently listed it has his former profession.

Drugs in pastries, months on the run: the double-life of Lebanese influencer Dr Food

Georges Dib, who had 8.7m TikTok followers, was arrested on Sunday after being sentenced in absentia to life in prison

Known to his 8.7m TikTok followers as Dr Food, Georges Dib was a popular Lebanese food influencer who would hold giveaways, post behind-the-scenes tours of his food production facilities and wax philosophical about the ingredients of success.

But Lebanese authorities allege that when the camera was off, the chef was living a double life. For months they sought his arrest on charges of international drug trafficking and production, accusing him of hiding narcotics in his pastries.

Nearly 1,400 missing, mostly tourists, after Nepal-Tibet flash flood kills at least 270

Entire villages swept away after glacial collapse triggers flood in mountainous region popular with trekkers and pilgrims

• Nepal-Tibet flash flood – latest updates

• What we know so far

• Have you been affected by the flash floods?

Rescuers are searching for nearly 1,400 people, most of them tourists, who are missing after a catastrophic flash flood hit Nepal and Tibet, thundering down valleys, obliterating entire villages and killing at least 270 people.

Efforts to locate those missing – including hundreds of people from India, the US, UK, Australia and Canada – have been complicated by the destruction of dozens of bridges and almost 25 miles (40km) of roads in the mountainous region popular with trekkers and pilgrims.

Share your tributes and memories of Tim Curry

We would like to hear your tributes and memories of the performer - whether you met him or admired his work

Tim Curry, performer of screen and stage, who made his name as the flamboyant Dr Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show, has died aged 80.

Curry got Tony nominations for his varied stage work on Broadway as Mozart in Amadeus, Alan Swann in My Favorite Year and as King Arthur in Monty Python’s Spamalot. He also made a supremely creepy Pennywise the Clown in the 1990 TV adaptation of Stephen King’s It. But above all he is most remembered for one role: Dr Frank-N-Furter in the Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), the screen version of the 1973 stage show.

Small plane crash into water near remote Alaska town kills all 4 on board

A small plane carrying four people crashed into shallow waters next to a remote coastal town in Alaska on Wednesday, killing everyone on board, officials said.

CIA chief John Ratcliffe reportedly made secretive Moscow trip to warn Russia against attacking NATO

Russia and Ukraine have intensified long-range drone and missile strikes as fears of further escalation grow.

How decoding beluga whales’ chitchat may save them – and teach us more about ourselves

From humpbacks learning the latest songs to sperm whales’ ‘clan codas’, drones and AI learning are helping reveal another dimension to the concept of culture

In 2015, the whale researcher Valeria Vergara pitched a small tent at the icy water’s edge on Somerset Island in the remote Canadian high Arctic, shrouded in a freezing fog so thick she struggled to see her own hands. She trailed a cord out to the coast and plopped a hydrophone into the water to record the calls of belugas.

As many as 1,000 of the whales, accompanied by their newborn calves, frequented the surrounding bay. Belugas’ ceaseless chatter, made up of dozens of unique sounds, is crucial to keeping these creatures connected in the dim, turbid waters of the Arctic.

School districts face a back-to-school math problem: The high price of diesel

With the war in Iran driving up fuel prices, diesel is now nearly $5.60 a gallon, affecting school districts at the start of the year.

‘We’re at a crisis point’: Chappell Roan, Shirley Manson and Eli on playing Olivia Rodrigo’s female-only festival

Ahead of playing Rodrigo’s Daisy Chain Fields, artists explain why female-first festivals are due for a resurgence

When I first saw the poster for Olivia Rodrigo’s inaugural Daisy Chain Fields festival in June, I assumed it was AI. Chappell Roan, Doechii, Mitski, the Breeders, Bikini Kill and Garbage, all arranged in a neat line – and this was before I got to the words “special guests”. Karen O, Sarah McLachlan. And, to top it all off, Stevie Nicks? No.

I saw the post confirmed on Rodrigo’s Instagram, and thought: how?

Can the Philly Classic ignite another golden age of US road cycling?

The race was at its peak when American riders were regularly challenging for titles. Its return could help prompt a revival

After a decade-long absence, the beloved Philadelphia International Cycling Classic is set to return this weekend, with some of the world’s best bike-racing teams taking to the famous circuit around the city’s leafy Art Museum, Manayunk, and Roxborough areas on Sunday.

The race is one of just a handful of events on American soil sanctioned by UCI, cycling’s international governing body, and will feature squads such as EF Education EasyPost, Lidl-Trek, Lotto-Intermarché, and Jayco AlUla in the men’s race, and powerhouses CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto and Human Powered Health in the women’s event. It is classified as a 1.1 race, meaning it’s two levels below the top-flight WorldTour, whose races include the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

The Philadelphia Cycling Classic will be livestreamed on Channel 6 ABC, with the women’s race kicking off at 8.30am Eastern. The men will follow at 12.30pm. Of course, you could always trek to Philly and become part of the party yourself. I highly recommend snagging a spot somewhere along The Wall.

Before an emergency hearing, the Kennedy Center's board threatens to demolish it

A lawsuit seeks to block President Trump's name from going back on the center. The center's board warns that if renovation plans don't go forward, it may be demolished.

Nuclear regulator prepares to abandon a decades-old radiation safety rule

A push by President Trump could mean the elimination of a safety standard designed to keep radiation exposure as low as possible.

Morning news brief

Trump faces mounting pressure at home and abroad, Meta and states agree to $17 billion settlement in child safety trial, death toll continues to rise after flash flood hit area of Nepal and China.

Nvidia jumps 7% after blockbuster earnings boost AI confidence

Nvidia shares rose on Thursday after the chip giant's revenue guidance reassured investors that AI demand will remain strong.

Liverpool agree £120m deal for Bradley Barcola after breakthrough talks with PSG

• Liverpool would pay £100m plus £2om in add-ons

• France winger has been main summer transfer target

Liverpool are closing in on a £120m deal for Bradley Barcola after a breakthrough in talks with Paris Saint-Germain. Barcola has been Liverpool’s main transfer target all summer only for PSG’s £145m valuation to prove a significant hurdle.

However, further negotiations on Thursday night ended in an outline agreement being reached over a compromise fee. Liverpool have agreed to pay a guaranteed sum of just over £100m for the France international, with add-ons based on individual and team success, taking the overall package to about £120m.

Ukraine’s drone attacks have left Russia desperately scrambling for oil imports

The once world-leading producer of crude oil has plunged into an energy crisis as Kyiv targets its refineries

A sanctioned shadow fleet tanker carries oil from Nato member Turkey to a Russian Baltic port. A deal is signed for Russian oil to be processed in Kazakhstan. Fuel cargoes arrive from India via Egypt. The Kremlin pressures allies to sell it badly needed fuel.

The data points may be diverse, but they point to a single inescapable conclusion.

Share your tributes and memories of Yayoi Kusama

We would like to hear your tributes and memories of artist Yayoi Kusama – whether you met her, or appreciated her work

Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese outsider artist who became a global superstar, has died aged 97.

Kusama died in a Tokyo hospital on 14 August, her company Yayoi Kusama Inc announced in a statement on Thursday.

Nvidia agrees to buy Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, report says

Nvidia reportedly agreed to buy open source AI platform Hugging Face for $12.9 billion as the chipmaker expands deeper into the AI ecosystem.

You be the judge: should my partner stop eating off other people’s plates?

Helen says grabbing friends’ leftovers is a no-no. Bill thinks wasting food is wrong. You decide who should eat their words
• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

I know Bill hates waste, but pouncing on people’s leftovers is embarrassing, unhygienic and rude

‘It’s sad to lose a really nice person’: mourners flock to Dollywood after death of Dolly Parton

A memorial at the park’s entrance held bouquets, and a child asked his mothers why so many people were crying

Becky Bullard was en route home to Austin, Texas, when she heard the news.

“As soon as I heard about Dolly, I thought of you,” read a text from a close friend while she waited for her flight home from Albany, New York.

Plight of Pogba, Sancho and others is cautionary tale for any Carrick rebuild

Bruno Fernandes is the only surviving attacker from Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s attempt to bridge gap to rivals in 2021

Five years is a long time in football. Manchester United’s summer of 2021 is now remembered as the turning point in Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s reign; the sentimental decision to sign Cristiano Ronaldo the headline act as United set off on the wrong course after a few years of building steadily.

But back then, even before the signing of Ronaldo, there was optimism aplenty around Old Trafford. United swatted aside Leeds 5-1 on the opening day to fuel talk of a first genuine title charge since Alex Ferguson’s retirement. They had, after all, just signed the most coveted young English player on the market in Jadon Sancho and looked to pair the £74m man with Bruno Fernandes and Paul Pogba, their creative fulcrum, and an exciting set of forwards.

The big transfer stories to follow in the final week of the summer window

Bradley Barcola, Julián Alvarez, Enzo Fernández and Cody Gakpo could be on the move in the next few days

By WhoScored

Every transfer window has at least one saga that dominates the headlines. Barcola’s potential move to Liverpool has been that story this summer. Given that Liverpool are crying out for a right winger to replace Mohamed Salah, one of their greatest ever players, it might seem surprising that their attention has been fixed on Barcola, who has spent 77% of his minutes at Paris Saint-Germain on the left side of the attack. However, rather than signing a like-for-like replacement, Liverpool seem keen to bring in a fast forward who is willing to press and can play on either flank.

Architourism in France: the retro futurist seaside town near Montpellier that’s out of this world

Built in the 60s and 70s to curb a holiday exodus to Spain, with apartments inspired by Mayan pyramids and featuring ‘intergalactic curves’, La Grande-Motte is having another moment in the sun with fans of modern architecture

My dream holiday is a trip back in time. Not to see the results of seismic Pompeii or 15th-century Machu Picchu – although I love both – but somewhere created specifically between the mid 1950s and 1970s, when cities were getting weird. I love postwar architourism, exploring urban planning at its most frenzied and optimistic. I have relished trips to Niemeyer’s Brasília and Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh in India, where the monumental and visionary modernist architecture and interiors are at odds with the minimal population. So La Grande-Motte, the retro futurist folly of a resort town on the southern coast of France, a 30-minute drive from Montpellier, had long been on my “must visit” list.

The tourist board of this Occitanie seaside town likes to flag up some superficial parallels between it and the aforementioned cities, but this isn’t a high-concept capital city or administrative hub. It was built in the late 1960s and early 1970s purely to persuade the French to stop going south to the Costa Brava in Spain. As part of an initiative by the French government, a stretch of windswept mosquito-infested coast between Montpellier and Perpignan, including Gruissan and Port Leucate, was reimagined as an alternative to the Côte d’Azur with several new-build beach towns. La Grande-Motte would be the weirdest project. It was made for fun. It’s also well positioned to visit the nearby salt marshes and 13th-century walled-in town of Aigues-Mortes, for when you want to feel as if you’ve ticked a few more holiday boxes.

‘I am so tired’: Jill Edelstein’s devastating portraits of apartheid and more – in pictures

The South African photographer documented her country’s harrowing Truth and Reconciliation Commission. These pictures form part of a new exhibition – alongside intimate images of actors, artists and friends

A 16-year-old girl has died from suspected sexual choking. How do we come to terms with this? | Lucy Clark

We can no longer deny that many children get their sex education from online pornography. But the normalisation of violence can lead to tragedy

How can we possibly come to terms with reports a 16-year-old girl child may have died as a result of consensual sexual strangulation with her 16-year-old boyfriend? Police are still investigating this case. Meanwhile what do we do, as a society, to contend with children getting their sex education from pornography when this may be what they learn? When this is what they think sex is?

Often mistakenly referred to as choking, sexual strangulation in the mainstream is new. It has arrived into the bedrooms of young people via online porn which has become part of life, one of the many addictive services generously provided by tech companies making billions of dollars. Some companies do a good job of cleaning up the urgent issues of child sexual abuse material and trafficking, but still, violent porn proliferates.

Nvidia’s 70% growth forecast puts it on track to become tech’s No. 2 company by revenue

"Our demand is much greater than 70%," CEO Jensen Huang said on the earnings call.

Rachel Roddy’s recipe for saffron and tomato rice | A kitchen in Rome

Laborious to harvest and extortionately priced, the sunset-coloured stigmas of the saffron crocus have an extraordinarily warm, pungent taste. Fortunately, however, a little goes a very long way …

The saffron crocus has six lilac-purple flowers, three yellow stamens and three orange-red stigmas that extend beyond the petals like the wiry antennae of an insect. The thread-like stigmas have to be picked only by hand when the flowers are fully open, a laborious, finickety job that hasn’t changed much since ancient times. Then, to avoid the colour and flavour fading, the stigmas need to be dried very quickly, a process that reduces their weight by about 80%. Tens of thousands of fiery-looking filaments are required to produce half a kilogram of the dried threads, which make the “hay” or powder we know as saffron and explains the exorbitant cost. Fortunately, just a few threads of this precious spice go a long way.

Native to Crete, Iran and south-west Asia, the saffron crocus has been cultivated since the dawn of civilisation for its medicinal properties, as well as for use in cosmetics, perfume, food and as a dye. According to Alan Davidson in The Oxford Companion to Food, the Moguls brought the use of saffron from Persia to India, in particular Kashmir; meanwhile, in the westward direction, the Arabs were cultivating saffron in Spain by AD960, although it was not until the 13th century that cultivation spread to Italy, France, Germany and England, particularly Essex. In his book The Last Food of England, Marwood Yeatman describes the “orderly strips of purple flowers inches apart in beds of up to 10ft wide” growing in a field outside the prosperous, half-timbered Essex wool town of Chipping Walden. “The women (‘crokers’) stooped to lift the crop on damp and dewy September mornings.” By the early 1500s, Chipping Walden had been renamed Saffron Walden.

Thursday news quiz: a PM’s nose, a pop star’s clothes, and a kitten with too many toes

Test yourself on topical news trivia, pop culture and general knowledge every Thursday. How will you fare?

Every now and then the Thursday quiz gets involved in a flap, as it did last week with “birb”-gate. After a sustained campaign lasting at least two weeks, subeditors finally relented and allowed the quiz to call our feathered friends “birbs” – only for half the comment section to revolt against the indignity of modern internet parlance. Still, that is nothing compared with the time a reader complained that the quiz using the phrase “baby cows” was unbecoming of a broadsheet newspaper. Anyway, 15 questions on news, general knowledge and obscure trivia await, and no “birbs” were harmed in the process. Allons-y!

The Thursday news quiz, No 262

Weatherwatch: how to protect our railways in hotter summers

Steel rails warping and signalling equipment failing in metal cabinets are among the problems to be solved

Tarmac softens in the summer heat, which may cause problems on the roads, but even trains running on steel rails are not immune.

Railways in the UK are generally designed to operate within a 45C temperature range. The rails expand slightly in the heat, and excessive temperatures can produce “sun kink” with rails warping into S-shapes. The effect is small but the distortion can derail fast trains, so speeds are reduced for safety.

Wild swimming linked to higher risk of stomach bugs and skin rashes

Findings from research into illnesses associated with bathing in lakes and rivers come amid boom in hobby

Wild swimming has been linked to a higher risk of stomach bugs and skin rashes, according to the largest ever controlled study of illnesses associated with bathing in rivers and lakes.

The research found that swimmers at locations in Hungary were more than twice as likely to develop skin problems, while the risk of contracting a stomach bug rose significantly in water with higher concentrations of E coli and other bacteria linked to faecal pollution.

Country diary: A stonking great harmful hornet? Ah it’s only a fly | Paul Evans

The Marches, Shropshire: For this hoverfly, pretending to be far more dangerous than it actually is has been a useful evolutionary technique

Back in the analogue world – where “analogue” means signals transmitted by continuous waves of sound or light, but also means something that looks like something else – intelligence is more poetic and weirder than its shambling digital doppelganger.

In a bend of the heatwave, a remarkable fly lands on a rose leaf in full sun. The hornet mimic hoverfly, Volucella zonaria, is a stonking great (for a hoverfly) 2cm-long creature with a peachy-yellow and black striped abdomen. It has no sting, a chestnut thorax and a big-eyed head with a pad for nectar, not jaws for chomping insects, two rather than four cellophane wings folded at rest, and an aura to unnerve the uninitiated.

The flat-pack skyscraper: how wood can shape the cities of the future

Our buildings are monuments to extraction and extreme emissions. But what if we turned from destructive concrete to timber?

• Last chance to buy the summer issue of The Long Read magazine, now with 15% off. Click here to order

I travelled to Oslo in the early autumn. It felt like arriving into the future. Or, at least, a fragment of a possible future. I drove north in the quiet digital bubble of my electric rental car. In 2024, Norway became the first country in the world where electric cars outnumbered petrol cars.

A smooth, pristine motorway unfolded between farmlands and low hillsides of dense green forest. Long tunnels carried the route up above the banks of Lake Mjøsa, Norway’s largest lake. After a little more than an hour, the road curved downward to run parallel to the lakeshore.

My home state is set to hand a breakthrough to the German far right. It’s a disaster decades in the making | Marcus Böick

A sense of abandonment could make Saxony-Anhalt the first state government to be solely led by the AfD. But the party’s hollow promises will only make a dire situation worse

It was in the summer of 2004 that I stopped understanding my own people. I was standing on a sweltering market square in Aschersleben, the town where I was born, picturesquely situated on the northern edge of the Harz mountains. A large crowd of angry people had gathered in front of a stage to protest about the welfare reforms (or, as many saw them, welfare cuts) introduced by the Social Democratic-Green coalition government under chancellor Gerhard Schröder. They chanted “We are the people!”, waved handpainted placards and seemed utterly beside themselves.

I had gone to secondary school nearby, volunteered at the local hospital and interned at the local newspaper: I knew this place. And yet I found myself bewildered. What, exactly, did these deeply aggrieved people want – standing on a freshly renovated, almost idyllic market square? Weren’t things going reasonably well for them? Where did this burning resentment toward the west come from? Wasn’t the east-west divide supposed to be disappearing by now?

Marcus Böick is assistant professor in modern German history at the University of Cambridge

Forty children reported missing from UK asylum hotels still not found

Parliamentary committee welcomes fact most of 472 missing have been found but ‘extremely concerned’ for rest

Forty children who went missing from hotels housing asylum seekers in the UK have still not been found, according to a parliamentary report.

Ministers are facing calls from MPs and peers to explain what they are doing to locate the group, two of whom are believed to still be under 18. The figure emerged in a report on Thursday by the joint committee on human rights on how the social care system is failing young adults.

Top of the crops: record heatwaves help deliver bumper UK berry harvest

Investment in climate-resilient irrigation enables this year’s haul to rise 6% on 2025’s already bigger-than-usual yield

British farmers have faced a sweltering summer tested by heatwaves, wildfires and water shortages – but a bumper berry harvest could prove a rare bright spot.

With two-thirds of the harvest now picked, this year’s haul is 6% up on last year’s already unusually large crop, according to British Berry Growers (BBG). Volumes of blackberries, blueberries and raspberries picked have been particularly strong, the trade body said.

Dalliance review – a rare drama so beautifully written you will be instantly devoted

Hugo Weaving stars in this wonderful Australian series about old friends in their 60s. It is a feast of hilarity and heartbreak – and there needs to be more TV like it

With Dalliance, television continues its brave expeditions into unknown narrative lands. It was forced first to venture into women’s stories (using female writers, directors, stars and, oh my goodness, sometimes it was just wall-to-wall womanity, you know?) in the post-Weinstein years. Previously unassailable figures were toppling like ninepins and investors needed to take refuge in those unlikely to have problematic pasts who were likely to tank projects the moment any reporter turned a beady eye upon them.

That turned out quite well. Women were not as boring as we had been led to believe, and were often capable of anchoring quite interesting, intelligent or funny shows. Sometimes they were all three at the same time, even if they weren’t called Fleabag.

Tell us: have you been affected by the flash floods on the Nepal-Tibet border?

Floods and mudslides have swept away houses and roads with many hundreds missing

Hundreds are missing and at least 160 people have died after torrential floods ⁠hit the Himalayan border areas of ⁠Nepal and in ​Tibet in China. An avalanche of ice and rock triggered massive flash floods causing widespread damage to villages and infrastructure.

Officials said hundreds of travellers from countries including India, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Malaysia, were reported missing.

Roger Goodell says NFL is reviewing Jed York’s arrest under personal conduct policy

• Goodell confirms review after Ohio prostitution sting

• York pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor charges

• NFL has previously disciplined owners for misconduct

Commissioner Roger Goodell said the NFL is looking into whether San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York will be punished for violating the league’s personal conduct policy after he was caught in a prostitution sting in Ohio.

“It’s being reviewed under the personal conduct policy,” Goodell said Wednesday at the owners’ meetings in Atlanta. “We’ll do that and when there’s something to be reported we’ll talk.”

Yayoi Kusama, Japanese artist who became a global superstar, dies aged 97

From the 1950s to the 2020s, Kusama produced vivid paintings, sculptures and vast installations that often drew on her experience of hallucinations

• Kusama – a life in pictures

• Was Kusama the world’s favourite artist?

Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese outsider artist who reached superstar status after decades living in a psychiatric hospital, has died aged 97.

Kusama died in a Tokyo hospital on 14 August, her company Yayoi Kusama Inc announced in a statement on Thursday.

Tim Curry, star of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," dies at 80

Tim Curry was known for his iconic performances in cult classics like "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and the original screen adaptation of Stephen King's "It."

Ex-JPMorgan Chase executive shared confidential bank information with Epstein

Jes Staley told US House committee he also was at one point named a trustee of convicted sex offender’s estate

Former JPMorgan Chase executive Jes Staley told US lawmakers he repeatedly shared confidential and market-sensitive bank ⁠information with Jeffrey Epstein and ⁠was at one ​point named as a trustee of his estate, according to a transcript released by the House oversight committee on Wednesday.

These admissions come as lawmakers investigate the late convicted ⁠sex offender’s ties with political and business elites. Staley appeared before the committee in July as part of its investigation into Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Transcripts ⁠from the meeting were released on Wednesday.

Cyborg cockroaches with tiny syringes designed to join search and rescue teams in major disasters

Giant burrowing cockroaches with added cameras and medical injectors are being tested as potential ‘first responders’ in earthquakes

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For people trapped under rubble in an earthquake or similar disaster, the arrival of a fleet of cockroaches could one day be the difference between life and death.

Biorobotics engineers have been working on the design of six-legged cyborg insects with cameras and miniature medical injectors for search and rescue missions.

Salesforce stock jumps 12% on AI growth and Anthropic investment gain

Salesforce's Anthropic stake led to higher profit in the latest quarter.

Mom arrested for vandalism after breaking bus window to pull out child

A mother was arrested for vandalism in California after smashing a school bus window to haul out her own child. Carter Evans has the story.

New Mexico farmers, residents fear data center's impact on health, bills, jobs

CBS News reporter Riley Callanan traveled to New Mexico to see Project Jupiter, one of the country's biggest hyper-scale data centers, for herself. She spoke with residents and farmers about their fears, concerns and in some cases, hopes.

Fed Gov Lisa Cook’s lawyer fires back at Trump's renewed threat to oust her

The Supreme Court in late June blocked Trump from firing Cook from the Federal Reserve, but left the president with a path to try again to remove her.

Queensland woman gave birth to twins with different parents after surrogacy coincides with natural pregnancy

Both children were born on same day in November 2025 in situation so rare it had not been contemplated by state surrogacy laws

A Queensland woman gave birth to twin children with separate sets of biological parents last year, in what is believed to be an Australian first situation so rare it had not been contemplated by state surrogacy laws.

The woman, anonymised in a court judgment, conceived an unplanned natural pregnancy about the same time as she received an IVF embryo transfer under a surrogacy arrangement with another couple.

FDA approves new pancreatic cancer drug that could extend patients' lives

Patients taking the first-of-a-kind pill, called daraxonrasib, lived for a median of 13.2 months compared with 6.7 months for chemotherapy recipients, studies showed.

The toy industry's latest craze is cheap, colorful and very squishy

Squishy toys are booming, with social media and low prices helping fuel the craze.

See which U.S. states are most at risk from Canadian tariffs

Canadian officials said the tariffs set to be imposed on more than 800 U.S. imports are "strategic" and designed to target some states.

Meta settles social media addiction suit for up to $17.1 billion

Meta agreed to pay up to $17.1 billion to settle allegations that its social media platforms are addictive.

Meta settles in social media addiction case

Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, agreed to pay billions of dollars and adopt new safety measures, settling claims that its products have harmed American kids. Kelly O'Grady has more.

Why Dolly Parton is so heavily associated with butterflies

The growing number of memorials for the late country star Dolly Parton often features butterflies. Tony Dokoupil explains why they are associated together.

Details on custody battle over Texas surrogacy baby

A couple from California confronted the surrogate who refused their request for an abortion for the first time Tuesday in a Texas courtroom. They argue she is trying to take away their biological child. Mark Strassmann reports.

Trump fights to keep name on Kennedy Center, warning demolition if renovations don't continue

President Trump's ongoing effort to add his name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts took a turn on Tuesday, with the administration warning that if renovation plans are blocked in court, demolition may be the next move. Nancy Cordes reports.

Heat-fueled wildfires tear through U.S., consuming thousands of acres

More than 60 million people are under heat alerts from the Gulf Coast to the Pacific. The dangerous heat is fueling a wave of more than 90 wildfires burning across the U.S. Kris Van Cleave reports and Lonnie Quinn has the forecast.

Fans mourn Dolly Parton at Dollywood in Tennessee

Thousands buzzed into Dollywood on Wednesday, one day after Dolly Parton's family announced her death at 80 years old. Skyler Henry has more from the theme park she built.

Republicans are dismissing affordability. That could be a problem in November

President Donald Trump quipped that affordability was "devised" by Democrats, while Vice President JD Vance said groceries "cost what they cost."

NFL ends Pro Bowl after 75 years, will still honor roster at season's end

In a news release, the NFL said it plans to "elevate" Pro Bowl selections, with no replacement selections.

Women’s Super League 2026-27 preview No 6: Chelsea

There has been plenty of change over the summer at Stamford Bridge after last season left sour taste

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 3rd (NB: this is not necessarily Suzanne Wrack’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 3rd

Rainbow Warrior review – spies bomb activists in truly gasp-inducing TV

The bizarre story of French secret agents blowing up a Greenpeace ship in New Zealand is rivetingly retold by the eco-veterans – revealing an increasingly unhinged litany of lies, denials and James Bond-style antics

When DS Terry Batchelor received the call informing him of the whereabouts of the French couple suspected of bombing the Rainbow Warrior, he was eating a pie. The suspects were in Auckland, he learned, preparing to return their hired Toyota HiAce campervan to the rental depot. A scoop! Batchelor, who was based nearby, gathered his team and set off in hot – and ultimately successful – pursuit. And the pie? “Actually,” reflects the retiree, peering at us over his moustache, “I hadn’t started the pie yet.” A pause, heavy with the threat of italics. “But I was about to.”

There is a lot of this sort of thing in Sky Documentaries’ Rainbow Warrior, a feature-length retelling of the events surrounding the July 1985 sinking of the titular Greenpeace flagship. That is to say; granular recollections, delivered by elderly men with combative facial hair, seemingly irrelevant in isolation but riveting and oddly comforting when viewed as part of a startling and frequently unhinged whole.

Nvidia’s quarterly revenue doubles to nearly $100bn as CEO declares ‘golden age’

The $5tn firm beat Wall Street expectations for yet another blockbuster quarter, though the stock made only modest gains

Nvidia announced on Wednesday that its quarterly revenue had doubled in a year to nearly $100bn. Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO, jubilantly declared that demand is accelerating as the AI industry had reached a “golden age”.

The chipmaker, the most valuable company in the world with a $5tn market cap, brought in $96.2bn in revenue, beating Wall Street expectations of $92bn in the second quarter. That’s 106% more than the company saw in revenue this time last year. The company expects its revenue to continue to grow to $108bn by the end of the third quarter, higher than analysts predicted.

Bill Gates issues stark warning about AI's impact on American jobs

In a nearly 6,000-word essay, Gates argues that artificial intelligence poses a mounting threat to U.S. workers.

Judge denies Minnesota's request to halt release of ICE officer Christian Castro

A federal judge on Wednesday denied Minnesota's request for a temporary restraining order to halt the release of the ICE agent sought for extradition in a shooting earlier this year in north Minneapolis amid Operation Metro Surge, and then lying about the circumstances under oath.

8/26: CBS Evening News

Latest developments on Nepal flooding; Extreme heat fuels wildfires.

ICE arrests of people without criminal records hit record high, new data shows

The surge in arrests comes as the White House pushes ICE to hit a target of 2,000 per day.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rejoins DSA after membership lapse of seven years

Then House candidate joined Democratic Socialists of America in 2018 but didn’t renew membership after a year

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has rejoined the Democratic Socialists of America after not renewing her membership for seven years, amid speculation that she might run for president in 2028.

The 36-year-old New York representative and one of the country’s most prominent democratic socialists renewed her membership in the group’s national organization after reports emerged earlier this month that it had lapsed. Ocasio-Cortez initially joined the group in 2018.

Final witness in Lindsay Clancy trial says he doesn’t believe she heard a voice during killings

FBI psychiatrist Gregory Saathoff says he has treated only two women with postpartum psychosis, both decades earlier

Testimony finished in the Lindsay Clancy trial on Wednesday, as a final witness for the prosecution laid out that he believed the Massachusetts mother knew right from wrong when she took the lives of her three young children before attempting to commit suicide in 2023.

Closing arguments are expected to begin on Thursday. The jury will then start deliberating.

8/26: The Takeout with Major Garrett

President Trump says Iran war to "continue for as long as necessary"; Sen. Darline Graham prevails in South Carolina Republican Senate primary runoff.

Was a police search for a murder weapon cut short by a guard dog's growl?

After Kevin Davis was found dying at the foot of the stairs in his Indiana home, police initially believed it was an accident. They did not search the room where a pit bull mix was secured.

Meta agrees to major changes to Facebook and Instagram as it settles US trial over teen addiction for up to $18bn

US tech giant agrees to establish further protections for teens such as daily usage limits and blocks on night-time use

Meta agreed to significant changes to its Instagram and Facebook apps in a settlement that ended a landmark lawsuit on Wednesday. Dozens of US states had accused the tech giant of addicting and harming children with dangerous products.

The agreement curtails a major trial in California and will require the social media company to pay up to $18bn. Meta agreed to establish safeguards for teenage users, including daily usage limits and blocks on night-time use nationwide in the US.

Man convicted in Microsoft exec's murder in plot allegedly involving ex-wife

Prosecutors believe Jared Bridegan was killed because of ongoing strife with his former wife over the parenting of their twins.

Dolly Parton remembered by fellow stars, politicans: "A true loss for millions"

President Trump said that he would be "lowering the American flag" throughout the nation for one week in Dolly Parton's honor.

24 states sue to block new Postal Service rules for mail voting

The group of 24 states and the District of Columbia argues the Postal Service's new rule violates the Constitution and federal law.

Nvidia’s dependence on hyperscalers faces big test in earnings report

Nvidia is trying to expand its customer base by creating new financing options that allow for more clients to purchase its costly systems.

Fed, NASA and DOJ among victims of Chinese state-sponsored hacker group: Court documents

Hackers targeted networks "operated by hospitals, telecommunications providers, power companies, financial institutions, and defense contractors," a filing said.

Iran says the U.S. is standing in the way of Hormuz deal amid talks with Oman

Iran and Oman are approaching a deal to secure safe transit through the Strait of Hormuz and future administration of the vital economic artery.

Judge awards Blake Lively $400,000 in legal fees in Justin Baldoni case

The actor had sought $8m in attorney costs resulting from her protracted legal battle with Baldoni

Blake Lively has been awarded more than $400,000 in attorneys’ fees after her 18-month legal battle with Justin Baldoni.

On Wednesday, judge Lewis Liman awarded the actor $363,245.40 in attorneys’ fees and $44,206.35 in costs, figures far lower than the $8m Lively had sought.

Apple sets iPhone launch event for Sept. 9, first under new CEO John Ternus

Analysts expect the company to launch new iPhones and Apple Watches at the event, including the company's first folding phone

The Guardian view on electoral reform: don’t wait for a crisis to fix a broken system | Editorial

In an era of multiparty politics, first past the post risks generating perverse outcomes that delegitimise the democratic process

If the system that elects MPs to Westminster was obviously the most democratic one available, there would be no need to use alternative modes when electing the UK’s devolved assemblies or England’s regional mayors. The fact that first past the post (FPTP) was not preferred when establishing those institutions reflects an acceptance that there are better ways to turn popular opinion into fair political representation. So why should the Commons stick with an inferior system?

This question is raised by an amendment tabled to the representation of the people bill, which returns to parliament next week. The call to establish an independent national commission on electoral reform has been endorsed by 185 MPs.

The Guardian view on child marriage: girls should not be wives | Editorial

There’s growing agreement that under-18s need to be protected – but international turmoil is pushing many towards wedlock

Every minute, 23 girls around the world wed, according to the Girls Not Brides campaign, a coalition of more than 1,000 organisations across 100 countries. No child should be married. But girls are far more likely to be affected than boys, accounting for nine in 10 of those wed before 18, and their spouses are often much older men. The consequences, beyond the immediate threat of sexual violence, include the shortening of their education, increased risks of poverty and domestic abuse, and poor health, including high rates of maternal mortality. In spring, the Center for Global Development thinktank estimated that child marriage costs $175bn annually in lost productivity and increased health risks.

The good news is that the last decade has seen a drop in rates; last year alone, Grenada, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Kuwait and Portugal introduced bans. But there are disturbing signs of regression elsewhere. In May, the Taliban issued a new judicial code enabling child marriage below the previous minimum age of 16, and preventing wives from ending marriages they entered as children if their husbands object. Previous protections were inadequate and often poorly enforced; now even those have been swept away. Activists say forced and early marriages have soared since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, thanks to the ban on secondary education and the state of the economy.

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.

Whimsical shortlist announced for Edinburgh comedy award 2026

A shortlist rich in kookiness sees Lara Ricote tipped for the main prize, alongside returning nominees and a new generation of eccentric fringe acts

The shortlist has been announced for the annual Edinburgh comedy award, and it’s a list that majors in whimsy. With an act hymning his belief in healing crystals, another dreamily counting sheep and a third whose show is about “mystery and messages” – and that’s before we even get to the loopy DIY comedy of TV veteran Spencer Jones – this year’s “Oscars of comedy” nominees (for both the best show and best newcomer prize) suggest an art form exploding with creativity but also increasingly oriented towards woo-woo: in full flight, perhaps, from our troubled times.

The award favourite is Mexican-American comic Lara Ricote, co-star of Sam Campbell’s Channel 4 mockumentary Make That Movie and former fringe best newcomer. Ricote’s Inkling is a remarkable hour about picking up on the messages that come one’s way, and how that’s complicated by, in the 29-year-old’s case, being hard of hearing.

Mark Walter's TWG Global says there's 'no fraud' amid probe of insurers' disclosures

The empire of billionaire Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter has faced media scrutiny since he said he would sell his majority share of the LA Lakers.

Rebecca Hendin on the legacy of Dolly Parton – cartoon

Affairs? Drugs? You could ask Dolly Parton about anything and get a laugh. Just stay away from politics …

One autumn day in 2023 I bathed in the luminous glow of this utterly authentic star – and while she did have one weak spot, her life and music will speak for themselves

• Celebrity tributes pour in for Dolly Parton

• Dolly Parton’s 10 best deep cuts

• Alexis Petridis on Dolly Parton’s peerless career
  

The great privilege of my kind of journalism is to get the chance to meet extraordinary people – some famous, many not – and very occasionally that person is beyond extraordinary. Dolly Parton, you may not be surprised to learn, was one of them. I’ve only come across it a handful of times. It has nothing to do with extreme fame – I’ve met plenty of A-listers who are dead behind the eyes. It’s not charm or extroversion either, nor beauty, and it’s not what we’d call “star quality” because it’s less showy than that. It’s almost indescribable, but “luminous” probably comes closest. I think it’s partly innate – God-given, Parton might have said – but it also comes from living with humility, gratitude and humour. Parton was luminous, and it wasn’t just the rhinestones.

The cliche that you should never meet your heroes because you’ll only be disappointed only stands if you think famous people have somehow transcended the deep character flaws that make the rest of us human. Everyone has off days, or off years. Still, I’d been slightly dreading interviewing Parton. The machinery that surrounds a superstar interview – the holding rooms, the allotted time slots, the officious publicists – is designed to be intimidating, and it was all present on that autumn day in 2023. And then it was just Parton and me in a London hotel room, borderline uncomfortably close on a sofa, but unusually, no publicist sitting in, taking notes.

‘9 to 5? She was full-on round the clock!’ Dolly Parton celebrated by kd lang, Peggy Seeger, Annie Lennox and more

Musicians and performers pay tribute to the country legend who managed to be a generational talent, a formidable entrepreneur, a dedicated philanthropist and a truly kind person

Shirley Collins, singer-songwriter

Farewell, Dr Frank-N-Furter: why Tim Curry’s Rocky Horror Show will go on

The versatile stage performer will always be remembered for his defining film role in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which turned him into an icon of 70s underground cinema and proto-punk
• Tim Curry, star of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Stephen King’s It, dies aged 80
• Tim Curry on sexuality, surviving a stroke and 50 years of stardom
• Clowns, corsets and kings – a life in pictures

Over the past decade, the issues of trans identity and gender fluidity couldn’t have been more contemporary, and Tim Curry was an integral part of what might be called their pre-history in pop culture. He was an icon – though maybe now a dimly remembered icon – of the 70s underground cinema and proto-punk.

Curry was a good-looking actor with a tremendous speaking and singing voice, and a versatile performer – he got Tony nominations for his varied stage work on Broadway as Mozart in Amadeus, Alan Swann in My Favorite Year (the part Peter O’Toole played on screen) and as King Arthur in Monty Python’s Spamalot. But it was his strange destiny to be remembered for one role: at once indelibly prominent and weirdly peripheral. He was the sensational Dr Frank-N-Furter in the thoroughly outrageous Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), the screen version of the 1973 stage show.

Trump hasn't decided on Leavitt's replacement as press secretary, sources say

President Trump hasn't settled on a replacement for White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, whose last day is Friday, according to administration officials close to the situation.