Trump nominates loyalist Hung Cao to be permanent navy secretary – US politics live

Cao has been serving as acting navy secretary since John Phelan departed the job unexpectedly and without explanation in late April

• Sign up for the US Breaking News email

After two House Democrats voted with Republicans to advance a procedural vote on Tuesday, minority leader Hakeem Jeffries vowed a “serious response” in an apparent effort to impose discipline on defecting colleagues.

“The decision by two of our colleagues to blindside the entire House Democratic Caucus and join with the Republican majority to pass a procedural rule on the brink of failing represents a significant breach of trust,” Jeffries, whip Katherine Clark and caucus chair Pete Aguilar, said in a statement.

Andy Burnham pressed on borrowing costs and spending at first PMQs – UK politics live

Burnham faced questions from Kemi Badenoch and other MPs amid speculation over budget

In the news release to mark the first anniversary of his election as the Green party’s leader, Zack Polanski highlighted what he described as 10 achievements during his first year in charge. For the record, this is how he sees his record.

-Won the Greens’ first ever parliamentary byelection in Gorton and Denton

-More than tripled the party membership from 68,500 to over 230,000

Zack Polanski in Holborn and St Pancras sounds like a done deal from the hints the party is dropping over the past 24 hours. Needs the formality of local party sign-off.

Our budget for day-to-day spending next year will be lower in real terms than this year. Our capital budget will fall in real terms every year until the end of the decade.

Edouard weakens to depression as heavy rain hits southeastern Texas

Edouard weakened to a tropical depression Tuesday night, but wind and heavy rainfall continued to sweep across Texas, the National Hurricane Center said.

Private payrolls rose by 38,000 in August, fewer than expected, ADP reports

Though job creation held positive, August was the smallest gain since January and reflective of a broader slowdown in the labor market.

Germany’s move to blame Russia for Leipzig drone incident ‘a grave mistake,’ says Putin– Europe live

Nato’s Mark Rutte says ‘Russia has grown increasingly reckless’ as EU ministers meet to consider their response to drone attack last month

German police have opened a investigation into yesterday’s attempt to disrupt the operation of a power substation near Brandenburg.

In a statement, Brandenburg police said they were leading a probe on suspicion of attempting to disrupt public services, causing an explosion and damaging critical infrastructure as well as forming a terrorist organisation

Edouard weakens to tropical depression as Louisiana and Texas pounded with heavy rains

Tropical Storm Edouard weakened Tuesday night to a tropical depression after coming ashore with heavy rain and gusty winds. Jason Allen reports.

Tim Cook handed $47m package for new role as executive chair of Apple

Pay and shares deal nearly matches $58m award to John Ternus, his successor as CEO at the $4.7tn tech company

• Business live – latest updates

Tim Cook has received a $47m (£35m) pay deal as Apple’s executive chair, a remuneration package that nears the level set for his successor as chief executive.

Cook, who handed over to John Ternus on Tuesday, will be paid a base salary of $2m and $45m worth of shares. Half of the share award will be based on performance targets being met, while the remaining half will be paid out over four years.

New lawsuits claim OpenAI execs put image ahead of safety in Canadian mass shooting

The suits say that recommendations to alert police about the alleged shooter were nixed by the OpenAI's global affairs team, led by veteran political strategist Chris Lehane. OpenAI denies the claims.

Chevron plans $7 billion Venezuela investment to double oil production

Chevron, the only U.S. oil company operating in Venezuela, said it has received additional land in the Orinoco Belt region and plans to double its oil production.

How long could the Lindsay Clancy jury remain deadlocked?

Karen Read's first trial ended with a hung jury. Here's a look at how those deliberations played out as the Lindsay Clancy jury says it is deadlocked.

Demand for riskier mortgages rises along with interest rates

Mortgage rates continue to rise, pushing some buyers to riskier, adjustable-rate loans in order to find savings. Rates are at the highest level since June 2025.

‘Everything countercultural is doomed, isn’t it?’​ Sofie Royer, the bracingly brilliant pop star pondering life’s big questions

Referencing Tarkovsky and French theory, the Austrian-Iranian singer is writing some of today’s wittiest music – though she’s ‘too pop for the art world, too indie-darling for the mainstream’

You wait ages for a brilliant pop song about film-making and then two come along at once. Following on from Charli xcx’s Camera comes Actress by Sofie Royer, with lyrics referencing rotoscoping, call sheets, screenplays, establishing shots, cinéma verité and more. “When the dust settles on your heart / I’d like to audition for the leading part,” she purrs over pumping disco, screwball-funny as she stacks up the metaphors to woo some Letterboxd-brained beau. “My mise-en-scène is flawless, don’t you know I’m quite adored / I’ll win you over in 35mm 4K-restored.”

It’s a typically smart and witty number from a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and, as it happens, aspiring actor, whose erudition and taste light up one of the best albums of the year, the forthcoming Before/After. Its lead single Cowboy Mouth is a recreation of a Sam Shepard play in song; another song makes a catchy funk-pop chorus from the word “sesquicentennial”. Her music is cosmopolitan enough to sit Italo disco next to new wave and garage rock, and across her discography there’s a big cast of cultural figures from Andrei Tarkovsky to Kenneth Anger, Luigi Mangione to Ivy Wolk, knowingness offset by her keen sense of humour.

Trump’s ridiculous bullying of Canada is backfiring | Robert Reich

The US president’s need to assert dominance is igniting patriotism abroad and a backlash at home

What do bullies do when someone stands up to their bullying and punches them in the face? They look for someone weaker to bully who won’t punch back.

Presumably that’s why Donald Trump has now taken on Canada, after Iran punched back so hard in the cage match the US president began more than six months ago as to leave him humiliated and baffled.

Freelancers are getting buried with ‘soulless’ AI slop cleanup: ‘It’s a shame we need to do it’

As more companies turn to AI, they’re hiring freelancers to cleanup its mistakes rather than create original work

Lisa, a freelance graphic designer based in Spain, noticed a shift in her work after the release of ChatGPT in 2022. She went from receiving slow one-off jobs creating logos and packaging to an onslaught of requests asking her to fix versions that were generated by artificial intelligence – from sharpening fuzzy images for printing to turning flawed designs into usable files.

By 2025, Lisa, who asked not to be fully named to avoid solicitations, said 90% of her incoming logo and packaging design requests required cleaning up AI-generated content, work that accounted for 60% to 70% of her annual income. But the grind was exhausting. Clients lowballed her;' some AI-generated designs were so flawed that she had to recreate them from scratch and she worried about being complicit in AI-driven copyright infringement. By the end of the year, she began turning those jobs down.

Transforming toxic: a new vision for urban waterways takes shape in Brooklyn – in photos

Designers are rethinking one of New York City’s most polluted sites with climate adaptation and community benefits

The Guardian receives support for visual climate coverage from the Outrider Foundation. The Guardian’s coverage is editorially independent

‘It always comes around’: fans react to conviction in Tupac Shakur’s murder 30 years later

Rapper’s supporters reflect on ‘astonishing’ events leading to Duane Davis being found guilty over 1996 fatal shooting

A criminal conviction this week in the murder of Tupac Shakur, the first since the rapper was gunned down in 1996, sent shockwaves through his sea of fans who have waited three decades for answers.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a former California gang leader, was found guilty of murder on Monday for the role he played in orchestrating the fatal shooting of Shakur.

Whatever happened to ... children infected with HIV due to failures in healthcare?

For years, Pakistan has seen cases of children infected with HIV due to unsafe treatment in clinics and hospitals. A current outbreak numbers hundreds of cases. Why does this problem keep occurring?

Iran accuses US of ‘war crime’ after missile blast kills five people at wedding

Blast also injures 68 guests at the wedding in southern Iran, prompting fears of escalation in hostilities

• Middle East crisis live – latest updates

Iran has accused the US of a “war crime” after a missile blast killed at least five people and injured 68 who were attending a wedding at a private home in a coastal city of southern Iran, as the fresh exchange of strikes prompted fears of a wider renewal of hostilities.

Iranian media said that the wedding ceremony was being held in a home in the city of Kuhestak, Hormozgan province, late on Tuesday when a US missile struck, with shrapnel and debris from the strike killing and injuring people.

USS Abraham Lincoln’s crew of 5,000 arrive in Thailand after 270 days at sea

Shore leave comes after reports of deterioriating living conditions on board the vessel during record stint

• Middle East crisis live – latest updates

At Pattaya’s Hard Rock Cafe and hotel, the city’s mayor and police officials, along with women in traditional Thai dress, wait to greet the sailors who are arriving in civilian clothes, bags slung over their shoulders, off the buses.

The USS Abraham Lincoln’s crew of 5,000 have not been on shore for nearly nine months, a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea.

India's prime minister is wooing the GenZ while cracking down on them

Over two months, protesters, most who appeared to be digitally-savvy GenZ, used social media to organize. Government's efforts to respond spotlight how the ruling party appears to be playing catch-up.

ICE says it now has enough body cameras. And, Congress averts shutdown before midterms

Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it now has enough body cameras to equip all of its agents. And, Congress votes to fund the government, averting a government shutdown ahead of the midterms.

Trump’s threat against an NBC journalist is an attack on reality | Margaret Sullivan

The president’s call for the FCC to scrutinize Kristin Welker’s innocuous remarks is a sign of desperation

With his approval ratings tanking, the crucial midterm elections looming, and his war with Iran turning into a quagmire, Donald Trump has entered full freak-out mode.

It’s not hard to tell. Just look at what happened this week when he lashed out at Kristen Welker, the well-respected host of NBC’s Meet the Press, and one of the best-known journalists in the nation.

What's true and false about infertility? We asked a fertility specialist.

Dr. Temeka Zore, a double board-certified OB-GYN and fertility specialist, joined "Healthful" for a deep dive on all things fertility, from endometriosis to PMOS (formerly known as PCOS) to egg freezing.

‘He was always a bit of a groundbreaker’: David Bowie enters a new dimension in ‘extended reality’ documentary

Hundreds of unseen images of the star feature at the Venice film festival, alongside virtual worlds exploring wildfires, wolves and the birth of stars

David Bowie shares the bill with starmen, firefighters and Walt Disney wolves at the 10th anniversary edition of Venice Immersive, the film festival’s pioneering showcase for new forms of storytelling. David Bowie: Unseen Unheard – a 3D documentary featuring hundreds of previously unseen images – is among 69 XR (extended reality) pieces playing at the event’s regular base on Lazzaretto Vecchio, a repurposed small island off the Venice Lido.

Venice Immersive’s 10th birthday marks a milestone for an event which aims to provide a bridge between emergent technology and traditional narrative cinema. But the programme’s organisers are at pains to emphasise the ongoing scope of a project that has in recent years prompted similar sections at the Cannes, Geneva and Toronto film festivals. “This is not a retrospective,” declares the official festival blurb that welcomes guests to the island. It almost sounds like a warning.

Russian airspace becoming unsafe for commercial airlines, Zelenskyy says

Ukraine’s president says aviation industry needs to take account of growing number of Ukrainian drones in Russia

• Europe live – latest updates

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Russia’s airspace is becoming unsafe for commercial airlines, as Vladimir Putin promised to step up strikes against Ukraine’s energy facilities in the run-up to winter.

The Ukrainian president said there was no intention to directly threaten civilian flights, but the growing number of attack drones being flown into the country by Ukraine would have to be “taken into account” by the aviation industry.

The deportation of Milo Yiannopoulos signals a rupture within Maga | Moira Donegan

The far-right provocateur helped galvanize a movement that no longer needs him. Now his imitators are claiming victory

It’s been a long, slow decline for Milo Yiannopoulos. From the vantage point of 2026, it’s easy to forget that he was once a big deal.

The British-born far-right provocateur, who was arrested by ICE in Louisiana and deported from the US this week, was among the first media figures to ride the “gamergate” controversy and ensuing rightwing populist wave that brought Donald Trump to office in 2016. An editor of the then ascendant Breitbart News from 2014 to 2017, Yiannopoulous was an early adopter of the media strategy of algorithm-optimized outrage bait, trawling the internet and a consulting large network of well-placed sources in search of stories he could use to fan the flames of online culture war discourses. He would write a story mocking a feminist, or fire off a tweet saying something racist about Muslims, and the ensuing firestorm of controversy would result in online arguments, media coverage, and his own promptly and decisively rising star. Rinse, repeat.

Barclays faces complaint over backing for power plant near world’s largest mangrove forest

Bangladeshi complainants allege Rampal power station’s pollution and climate risks threaten the Sunderbans, a world heritage site

Barclays Bank is facing a formal complaint over its financial links to a coal-fired power station near the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest and home to millions of people in Bangladesh and India.

Three complainants from the region have submitted a case to the UK government’s Office for Responsible Business Conduct, alleging that the British bank breached international guidelines by underwriting companies involved in the emission-heavy Maitree super thermal power project, also known as the Rampal power plant.

Zelenskyy says airlines should avoid Russian airspace as Ukraine expands drone operations

Zelenskyy urged airlines to avoid Russian airspace, warning that expanding Ukrainian drone operations are making the skies increasingly unsafe.

The Spin | Old master Gooch offers hope for modern great Root in battle against lbws

Batting is all about solving problems, and the grand old man of Essex backs the England captain to find a way past this one – just like he did

Joe Root lets out a “Woaaa-ho!” as a ball from Pakistan’s Mohammad Ali angles in and then jags away late at Lord’s on the evening of day two. The ball flies past Root’s batting gloves and thuds into Mohammed Rizwan’s keeping ones at head height behind the stumps. Rizwan is stood back too, not up to the stumps and breathing down Root’s neck in the summer 2026 way of things.

Root offers that impish smile and shakes his head at the deviousness of the delivery. He isn’t smiling after the next ball. Ali pushes his follow-up fuller, it doesn’t zip and lift away but darts back and scuds low, pinning Root on the pad. He reviews with a weary shrug but he knows his fate – it’s his second lbw dismissal in the Test, his seventh of the summer and ninth in his past 12 innings.

New constitution in Guinea-Bissau will undermine democracy, opponents say

Referendum result means fewer seats in parliament and new rules on candidates, ahead of December elections

Guinea-Bissau voters have approved a new constitution, which critics say will undermine democracy, that significantly expands presidential powers ahead of elections due in December.

According to provisional results, 70% of voters approved sweeping changes in the tiny west African state’s first constitutional amendment since revisions that ended the one-party socialist state more than three decades ago.

Meta settlement could clear the way for new AI product launches, Morgan Stanley says

"There are certainly signals, in our view, that Meta's product pipeline could start flowing following this legal clearing event," analysts said.

The opposite of ‘damsels in distress’: how TV fell in love with female gangsters

The ruthless female characters of The Gentlemen, Beef and Peaky Blinders bring new depth to the evil matriarch stereotype

Television loves a gangster story – and apparently so does the Duchess of Sussex. This week, Netflix’s The Gentlemen – Guy Ritchie’s latest addition to the gangster canon, which stars Theo James as a distractingly handsome aristocrat who becomes embroiled in the world of organized crime – returns for its second season. And in August, the show hit the headlines after rumors that Meghan was reportedly in early talks to join its third season when she and Prince Harry made their highly unexpected return to the UK.

At first, Meghan’s potential role seemed like a random pivot for the former Suits star, who now seems far more at home holding a jar of her Montecito-made jam than brandishing a gun. But really, these casting rumours are indicative of a wider shift in the traditionally machismo-fueled gangster genre, where it’s now more common to see women stealing the spotlight – and calling the shots.

Star Wars Zero Company review – joyfully absurd heroics with a tight-knit team of misfits

PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X, PC; Bit Reactor
Split priorities between scripted and emergent story moments hamper an otherwise brilliant Star Wars-themed successor to XCOM

Even if you’re unfamiliar with the term “emergent storytelling”, you’ve likely experienced some of the unscripted tales that can bubble up out of a game’s systems. Perhaps you’ve led a scheming dynasty in Crusader Kings, or watched a favourite hero succumb to madness in Darkest Dungeon. Maybe you’ve surrendered yourself to the infinite yarn-spinner that is Dwarf Fortress – or read about it from the mid-00s forums where users helped popularise the term “Let’s Play” by chronicling their games in descriptive posts. Or perhaps you’ve played Firaxis’ XCOM, the alien invasion tactics hit that several key members of Zero Company studio Bit Reactor had a hand in.

Zero Company hinges on a concept as simple as it is perfect: take the complementary class abilities, tough dice rolls, and permanent character deaths of XCOM, and house them in a sci-fi setting known for spaghetti western blaster duels, last stands and heroic sacrifices. As creative director Greg Foertsch puts it, “Star Wars is about loss.” Which losses you end up mourning in Zero Company depends on you.

‘If he can make money in a tyranny, that’s fine by him’: Francis Fukuyama on Trump, democracy - and changing his mind

The political thinker became famous for declaring the triumph of liberal democracy. Thirty-seven years on, he explains what he really meant and why he made the rare journey from right to left

There are not many public intellectuals who can say they’ve been cited by Capt James T Kirk of the Starship Enterprise, but Francis Fukuyama is one of them. In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, William Shatner’s character is in a reflective mood, and speaks to the Klingon chancellor. “Some people think the future means the end of history,” Kirk muses. “Well, we haven’t run out of history quite yet.”

When the film came out in 1991 and in the years that followed, you’d often hear comments like that. They were nods to a thesis so famous it hardly needed spelling out. It debuted in a 15-page essay written by Fukuyama, then a 36-year-old thinktanker, which was published in the National Interest, a right-leaning journal of US foreign policy, in the summer of 1989. There was a question mark in the title: it was called The End of History?. In book form three years later, it became The End of History and the Last Man. But these were subtleties that, as we shall see, got lost.

No eggs, no potatoes but ‘a lot of imagination’: how Spain cooked in war’s hunger years

Book recreates recipes from period following end of Spanish civil war when people faced food shortages

Few dishes are simpler to prepare than Spain’s signature dish of tortilla de patatas, which – aside from disputes about onions – requires nothing more than two basic ingredients and a pinch of salt. But where to begin if you have neither eggs nor potatoes?

That is the question the chef and food writer Berta Álvarez Acal sets out to answer in Recetas de Guerra (Wartime Recipes), a compilation of recipes covering the years of hunger after the end of the Spanish civil war in 1939.

How will tariffs affect the midterms? In this Michigan border town, it's complicated

The recent trade war between the U.S. and Canada has both economic and political implications for Michigan given it's the state's top trade partner.

He died of 'natural causes.' But his mother says she knows what killed him: heat

When Arizona counts heat-related deaths, Adam Willson isn't included. His story shows how thousands of heat deaths can go uncounted every year in the United States.

Morning news brief

U.S. military strikes rock Iran for a second day in a row, Trump attempts to combat rising gas prices as midterm approaches, Sen. Ed Markey wins Massachusetts' Democratic primary.

Germany blames Russia for last month's attempted drone attack at Leipzig airport

The German government blamed Russia for an attempted attack at Leipzig airport last month using a drone laden with explosives. It announced that it would shut down a Russian consulate among measures.

Top seed Alexander Zverev survives near five-hour marathon at US Open

• German scrapes home 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-5, 6-4 in thriller

• ‘I think this is the longest first-round match I’ve played’

Alexander Zverev rallied just in time to avoid becoming the first men’s No 1 seed to lose in the first round of a grand slam tournament since 2003, edging Lorenzo Sonego 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-5, 6-4 in a US Open match that ended in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Zverev could not cash in on repeated chances to break Sonego’s serve for much of the night and was in danger of becoming the first top-seeded man to fall in his first match in a major tournament since Ivo Karlovic beat Lleyton Hewitt at Wimbledon in 2003.

Transfer window verdict: how every Premier League club fared

The British transfer record was equalled and one club signed no fewer than 18 players in another hectic summer

Bringing in Christos Tzolis, Bruno Guimarães and Ezri Konsa was a strong start to the window but could Arsenal’s failure to sign a marquee attacker cost them in the long run? They began targeting Morgan Rogers before pivoting to Vinícius Júnior when the England forward went to Chelsea, only to end up disappointed when Vinícius signed a new deal with Real Madrid. Julián Alvarez made clear he had no intention of joining from Atlético Madrid in the final days of the window and Arsenal kept their powder dry despite sanctioning the exits of Gabriel Jesus to Barcelona and Ethan Nwaneri to Borussia Dortmund. Should Gabriel Martineilli complete his move to Al-Hilal as expected in the coming days – the Saudi Pro League window remains open – a few injuries could leave Arteta short. Ed Aarons

Profits, Prophets, Coaches and Kings by Jared Diamond review – how to change the course of history

The author of Guns, Germs and Steel falters in this flawed study of whether individuals really make a difference

Early in this book, Jared Diamond proudly introduces “what I term ‘the Hamlet test’”, which helps decide whether prominent individuals really make a difference, or whether others might have done just as well. Among William Shakespeare’s contemporaries on the Elizabethan stage, he explains, were “Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe and John Webster. But not even their best plays remotely approach in quality Hamlet and Shakespeare’s other masterpieces.” It follows, for Diamond, that Shakespeare was indeed “uniquely talented”: “We can be confident that no Elizabethan other than Shakespeare could have written a masterpiece like Hamlet if Shakespeare hadn’t done so.”

One obvious problem with this is that Marlowe was stabbed to death in a pub in Deptford in 1593 at the age of 29, having already written the absolute bangers Doctor Faustus and Tamburlaine, as well as – so it is now thought – co-writing the Henry VI trilogy with the up-and-coming Shakespeare. Shakespeare himself did not begin to compose his major tragedies, including Hamlet, until he was a decade older. So we can’t rule out the possibility that, had Marlowe lived another 10 years, he would have matched or even exceeded his colleague’s genius. Scholars widely agree that Hamlet and Shakespeare’s other masterpieces were possible only thanks to the outsized influence of Marlowe.

Late Fame review – Willem Dafoe superb as ever as twilight-years bohemian getting a second chance

Samy Burch’s adaptation of an Arthur Schnitzler novella sees Dafoe’s ageing poet embraced by a younger cohort of capricious hipsters. It’s smart, literate and affecting

There’s a marvellous tenderness and generosity to this elegant tale of autumnal regret; an intimate movie acted with effortless grace by Willem Dafoe. In fact, this is yet another of his almost numberless performances of intelligence and self-possession. Screenwriter Samy Burch has adapted a novella by Arthur Schnitzler, which has been directed by critic turned film-maker Kent Jones (who in 2015 made Hitchcock/Truffaut, a documentary that I very much admired). Their movie finds a new variation on the Schnitzlerian theme of life’s lost opportunities for love, lust and success, and how, as mortality’s shadow closes in, one might be tempted to risk everything for a last chance at worldly triumph.

The main character here is a distant cousin – though a wiser cousin – to the doctor in Schnitzler’s Traumnovelle or Dream Story, filmed by Kubrick as Eyes Wide Shut. Dafoe plays Ed Saxberger, an old guy in New York who works in the post office, sorting mail, perhaps without the means to retire, living solo in a small but book-filled room in a humble walkup, drinking and playing pool with his buddies in the evening. One day, Saxberger is astonished to be accosted by a dandyish young hipster outside his apartment building; this is Meyers (played by Edmund Donovan), who knows something about Saxberger that nobody else does. Saxberger was once a talented young poet in the 70s New York bohemian scene and Meyers has found his long since out-of-print volume of poems, entitled Way Past Go. He declares Saxberger a neglected genius that he, and his similarly callow and excitable literary friends, are going to take up.

Victoria police confirm they have spoken with four people over Sydney Swans scandal

• Detectives from Sexual Crimes Squad travelled to NSW this week

• Investigation into sexual assault allegation continues

Victoria police say they interviewed four people this week as part of the investigation into an alleged sexual assault at a Melbourne hotel where the Sydney Swans were staying last month.

In a release on Wednesday, police confirmed detectives from the Sexual Crimes Squad travelled to New South Wales earlier this week to speak with four Sydney men aged between 25 and 30.

Britain is OK with public ownership, but only by foreign powers. Why?

Arthur Downing, author of Power and the People: A History of British Energy, says all-encompassing rapid transition will need a mutualised system

Have you ever wondered why it is that most houses in the UK are reliant on gas boilers? Not what’s stopping more people from replacing them with heat pumps, but instead why and how the gas boiler became so ubiquitous in the first place?

Arthur Downing, the author of the new book Power and the People: A History of British Energy, can tell you exactly why. “We only have boilers in our houses because of a state-owned enterprise that went into everybody’s home and installed natural gas-suitable appliances at no direct cost,” he says. The nationalised gas industry of the 1940s to the 1980s, which oversaw this huge project, was for three decades one of the “most dynamic, innovative, efficient industries in Britain”, Downing says. Yet few of us would use these terms to describe it as such now.

Football connects communities but can pull them apart if governed carelessly | Cath Bishop

Sport is a space to help youngsters to develop character, resilience and confidence, but we need stronger leadership and safer environments to make this happen

The fight for the soul of football isn’t just happening in the offices of Uefa and Fifa, it’s taking place on pitches much closer to home. At the weekend games of football for 750 children aged five to six in Scotland were cancelled because of severe behavioural issues within the ironically named “Fun 4s” programme. Seventy-two red cards were handed out in the first week of the season. Accounts describe adults displaying aggression, intimidation and head-butting as if it’s the “wild west”.

This isn’t just a Scottish problem. Contacts I speak to in different roles around football confirm and almost accept that “youth football is atrocious”. This should be sounding major alarm bells, for the consequences go way beyond the pitch. The existing disciplinary systems and PR campaigns are not nearly enough to address and change the situation.

Turning Point: Generation 9/11 review – nothing about that day has lost its power to shock or harrow the soul

The attacks changed the world as we know it – and now, 25 years on, this heartbreaking Netflix film shares 9/11 recordings and memories from the bereaved that stop time in its tracks

It is 25 years since two planes, sent by Osama bin Laden as the head of the terrorist organisation al-Qaida, flew into the North and South Towers that comprised the World Trade Center, killing almost 3,000 people and changing the world as we know it.

I’m old enough to remember the day itself – I was a trainee lawyer in London and we watched the news unfold on a conference room television – which means I am also old enough to remember the world before it. But a quarter of a century on, it is taught in schools as a historical event. Can you believe it? No, because if you experience such a convulsive moment – even at the distance of being a television viewer in a different country – time bends around it and normal chronology becomes meaningless ever after. But that is only our perspective.

The Bridge by Colm Tóibín review – betrayal and survival in the High Pyrenees

Deep sorrow mingles with illicit desire in this potent novella, the follow-up to a 2006 story about an isolated family in the Catalan mountains

Twenty years ago, Colm Tóibín published a steadily desolating novella set in the high villages of the Catalan Pyrenees. A woman walks out of her house and her life, starts along the mountain road and disappears in the snow. Her son Miquel, failing to find her body, waits through the dark months for the thaw. A Long Winter, which appeared in a standalone volume and then as the final story in the 2006 collection Mothers and Sons, followed Miquel through dramatically extreme circumstances and patient endurance. It was told with the most restrained prose ever likely to be employed for a son’s view of vultures circling a corpse.

Now, in The Bridge, a single year has passed in Miquel’s life and he is eking out an existence with his hurtful, unyielding father. The sheep are grazing their high summer pastures; a side hustle smuggling contraband brings in a little much-needed cash. In the bare conditions of the lonely farm, any warmth of feeling is a kind of contraband smuggled in by night; love between men is doubly illicit. The grave tenderness that grows between Miquel and his father’s maltreated servant Manolo gives The Bridge its emotional centre. These young men salve the emptiness with a few quiet words and touches. We sense their youthful beauty and resilience, their suppleness in a place of fixity.

UK must end all trade with Israel, says co-founder of BDS movement

Exclusive: sanctions against ministers and settler groups are ‘smoke and mirrors cop-out’ says Omar Barghouti

Britain’s legal and ethical obligation to stop a genocide in Gaza requires it to take bigger steps than halting trade with illegal Israeli settlements or imposing further sanctions, Omar Barghouti, the co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement has said.

He described sanctions against individual settler groups or extremist ministers as a “smoke and mirrors cop-out and distraction” from the UK’s legal obligation under international law to end all support for Israel, including arms exports, trade deals and academic relations that “may directly or indirectly enable Israel’s illegal occupation” of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

A moment that changed me: I had a panic attack on public transport – and it led me to a horrifying secret

For a decade I lived with a fear so bad that I once tried to climb out of a tube carriage while it was in motion. Then a hypnotherapist told me to ask my parents one very important question

In 2000, I had been living in London for just over a decade and working at EMI Records for five years. I had moved to Brixton from Surrey – where space and peace were generally abundant – in the late 80s, and I’d noticed I was becoming increasingly anxious and claustrophobic, particularly on public transport.

As things got progressively worse, I had a string of distressing panic attacks. Every time, it felt like the world around me was closing in. Then, in July 2003, during my daily commute between Brixton and the South Bank, I had a panic attack so intense I tried to climb out of the tube carriage doors. Thankfully, other passengers held me back until we arrived at the next platform – but I knew the problem was no longer something I could ignore.

Japan halves speed limit to 30km/h on all narrow city streets

Speed limit dropped from 60km/h for around 70% of general roads in the hope of making narrow streets of crowded cities safer

Drivers on residential roads in Japan have been forced to take their foot off the accelerator, after the speed limit was slashed from 60km/h (37mph) to 30km/h in an attempt to reduce deaths and injuries among pedestrians on narrow urban streets.

The new limit, which went into effect on Tuesday, applies to residential roads with no centre line or maximum speed signs, media reports said.

Poppy O’Toole’s midweek timesavers: spicy chicken and baked rice, and Thai-style lemongrass fishcakes – recipe

You’ll thank yourself for making these batch-cooking beauties to store in the freezer until the next busy worknight

I’ve called this spicy chicken and baked rice “midweek”, but you can enjoy this baby all week long. Juicy, spiced chicken, fluffy baked rice and enough flavour to make you bin that takeaway menu and raid your cupboards instead. Then some fragrant, delicate fishcakes with a lovely, bouncy texture, which are such a winner for the freezer. Taking only 10-ish minutes to cook from frozen, they save you from hunger and distraction on a busy WFH day.

It’s not easy to show my scars. But I am proud to break the deadly silence around breast cancer in Nigeria | Gloria Chinyere Okwu

I was told to keep my diagnosis private but I am determined to show the reality of breast cancer and reject the stigma that prevents women seeking treatment

‘Madam, this looks like breast cancer, and if it is, we will chop off your breast.” That was how the doctor welcomed me into the chaotic world of cancer in 2017 when I was 32 years old. He had his back to me, but kept on talking, peering into the specimen bottle.

For a moment, I could no longer hear him. I thought of my three children, the university degree I had just bagged and the future I had envisaged. If I was going to die, what was the point of it all? I had invested everything I had to obtain that degree, subjecting my children to days of absence while I spent my nights in the university library.

Andy Burnham has already made a mistake that will cost him his premiership: he lost his nerve over political donations | George Monbiot

Being subservient to the interests of the wealthy now means that his hands are tied, and he will be unable to tackle Britain’s most pressing issues

Damn the electorate. They’re so impatient. No sooner do they get a new leader than they want another one. Those ingrates are already starting to grumble about Andy Burnham. Maybe the country is becoming ungovernable. Perhaps it’s social media. Or a consumerist culture, always picking the next shiny thing. Perhaps we’re addicted to drama. As we’re on our sixth prime minister in 10 years, and as similar levels of discontent surface in many other countries, these claims are recited across the media. What’s wrong with us?

Yet our disgruntlement is entirely rational. We give up so quickly on our prime ministers because they give up so quickly on us. Though it may involve different issues, it is always the same betrayal: the public interest is sacrificed for the sake of a tiny number of immensely wealthy people. And it tends to happen almost immediately.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong pleads guilty in second national security case

Wong, 29, is accused of urging foreign powers to impose sanctions, blockades and other hostile measures against China

Joshua Wong, one of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy activists, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiring to seek foreign sanctions against Hong Kong and China, a national security charge that carries a maximum life sentence.

Prosecutors have accused Wong, 29, of working with the exiled Hong Kong activist Nathan Law to urge foreign powers to impose sanctions, blockades or other hostile measures against China.

Off-grid UK-Australian couple given more access to children who were removed from home in Italy

Decision marks a significant turning point in a case that sparked a national debate in Italy

A British-Australian couple will be allowed to spend more time with their three children after the ⁠youngsters were removed from the family’s off-grid woodland home in central Italy last year, their lawyer said on Tuesday.

The juvenile court ⁠of L’Aquila in Italy has ⁠approved a ​staged process under the supervision of social services that could ultimately allow the children to leave the residential care facility ⁠where they have been living since November.

Architect of UK’s AI strategy joins Anthropic amid conflict of interest warning

Matt Clifford will stay as chair of government funding body for tech projects alongside his senior role at US firm

The architect of the UK government’s AI strategy has joined the US startup Anthropic in a senior role a year after stepping down from his Downing Street post.

Matt Clifford, a successful tech investor, was appointed as AI opportunities adviser by Keir Starmer last year but resigned from the unpaid role six months later for personal reasons.

The shadow of the AfD hangs over German democracy – but I still have faith in my adopted country | John Kampfner

As I celebrate five years of citizenship, the far right is poised to take control in Saxony-Anhalt. Courage is needed to defeat it

Two events take place in coming days that will affect my relationship with Germany. One, which will be splashed across the media, is dark and forbidding. The other, which will pass unnoticed except by me and my close family, should have brought me joy. Now that feeling is tempered with confusion.

On 6 September, voters in the small eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt are expected to give Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) a resounding victory. If the arithmetic falls in a certain way, a German far-right party could assume power for the first time since the Nazis.

John Kampfner is a Berlin-based author and broadcaster. His latest book, Braver New World, is published by Atlantic

Global heating will hit at least 1.8C, UN warns, and there are ‘no good outcomes’

But scientists say the world could get back to 1.5C through deep, rapid emissions cuts and removing carbon from the atmosphere

Global heating will reach at least 1.8C under even the most optimistic future, well beyond the Paris agreement goal of 1.5C, according to a UN report that warns every fraction of temperature rise intensifies destructive extreme weather, glacier melt, ecosystem loss, and island and coastal city submersion.

The report by the Nairobi-based UN Environment Programme confirmed overshooting the 1.5C goal inscribed in the landmark Paris agreement of 2015 was now “unavoidable” and, despite some progress in addressing the human-caused climate crisis driven by burning fossil fuels, likely in the next few years.

Pa. police officer charged​ after fatally shooting student at wrong home

Upper Pottsgrove Police Cpl. Sean Farrell was charged with voluntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Glenwood Earl Pysher IV on Aug. 23, officials said.

Defense attorney believes jury had "preconceived notions" in Tupac trial

Duane "Keffe D" Davis was convicted of first-degree murder nearly 30 years after the drive-by shooting that killed Tupac Shakur.

As Nepal’s morgues fill, Parkrit hopes her DNA can be used to find her mother

A week on from the flash flooding disaster, authorities are urging relatives of the thousands of missing and dead to provide blood samples

An army official calls out a name. A young woman stands, two pieces of identification in her hands. She fills out a form, takes another and moves to the back of the hospital to give a vial of blood.

With so many people killed by Nepal’s floods, and hundreds of bodies being buried because the morgues are full, there is now a push to identify victims through DNA. The woman, Prakrit Gurung, 19, is hoping her DNA will be linked to her mother’s body. Her father’s has been found – her brother recognised his picture on a wall outside the hospital.

Tiger Woods to change not guilty plea in Florida DUI case, court records show

Court documents show that Tiger Woods plans to change his not guilty plea in a DUI case stemming from a rollover crash in Florida.

Charlie Kirk's alleged killer will stand trial for aggravated murder

Judge Tony Graf said prosecutors have enough evidence against Tyler Robinson to put the 23-year-old on trial on a charge that could see him face the death penalty.

Accused Charlie Kirk killer must stand trial and is eligible for death penalty, judge rules

Suspect Tyler Robinson to be tried for aggravated murder, felony charge that carries death penalty sentence in Utah

• Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email

A Utah judge ruled Tuesday that the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk must stand trial for aggravated murder, a felony charge that makes him eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

After several hours of closing arguments in Provo, Utah, judge Tony Graf ruled there is sufficient evidence to try Tyler Robinson, 23, who has been charged with the murder of one of the US right’s most prominent figures.

China dissented from G20 statement opposing 'cheap exports' flooding market, Bessent says

Bessent is leading the Trump administration's plan to choke off Iran's economy by threatening its business partners with secondary sanctions.

Officer charged with manslaughter after fatally shooting student who knocked on the wrong door

A 22-year-old college baseball player was gunned down in Pennsylvania last week after knocking on the wrong door. On Tuesday, a 58-year-old police corporal was charged with manslaughter. Tom Hanson reports.

Woman gets potential shark bite off Martha's Vineyard, in the same town "Jaws" was filmed

No one spotted a shark on Monday off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, in the very same town where "Jaws" was filmed. But a woman emerged from the ocean there with what officials say looked like a shark bite. Lilia Luciano reports.

Tony Romo apologizes after pleading no contest to OWI: "None of this is an excuse"

Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo pleaded no contest on Tuesday to a civil charge of operating while intoxicated. He explained how football injuries led to painkillers and eventually alcohol, but also took responsibility for what he called failures. Mark Strassmann reports.

Tit-for-tat strikes with Iran as lawmakers react to Dan Driscoll's resignation

U.S. forces struck Iran on Tuesday, the second series of attacks in three days. Meanwhile, lawmakers reacted to the resignation of U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, part of a wave of about two dozen early departures among America's generals, admirals and top military brass. Weijia Jiang reports.

Judge sends Lindsay Clancy jury back for deliberations after they could not reach a verdict

The chance of a mistrial in the Lindsay Clancy case grew on Tuesday after the jury said they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict and the judge sent them back to continue deliberating. Clancy is on trial for the killing of her three children. Shanelle Kaul reports from the Massachusetts courthouse and Caroline Polisi has more.

Tropical Storm Edouard makes landfall, drenching parts of Texas and Louisiana

Tropical Storm Edouard drenched parts of Texas and Louisiana on Tuesday. The threat intensified very quickly after developing late Monday night out in the Gulf. Jason Allen reports from Texas and Rob Marciano has the forecast.

House censures Rep. Chuck Edwards over "inappropriate conduct" toward aides

The House Ethics Committee detailed the North Carolina Republican's "unprofessional and inappropriate conduct" toward two young women who worked for him.

Trump homeland security chief says ICE agents could be sent to polling places

Markwayne Mullin says officers could be deployed ‘if there is a threat to that polling place or we’re serving a warrant’

US homeland security secretary Markwayne Mullin on Tuesday said that federal immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) officers could be deployed to polling sites across the country.

Speaking to reporters in New York, Mullin said: “ICE isn’t there to patrol the polling places. We’re there to enforce specific threats.”

Lindsay Clancy trial jury deadlocked, leaves for day without verdict

The jury in Lindsay Clancy's murder trial told the judge Tuesday morning they are deadlocked, and left a Massachusetts courtroom hours later without reaching a verdict.

9/1: CBS Evening News

Tropical Storm Edouard made landfall in Louisiana; the Lindsay Clancy jury told the judge that they are deadlocked.

MapQuest hits No. 1 on App Store after refusing to rename Lake Ontario

MapQuest topped ChatGPT as Apple's most-downloaded free app after the digital mapping company said it would keep "historical, familiar" lake names.

House adopts measure condemning socialism ahead of November election

Republicans also inserted a call to pass the highly controversial voter-ID bill known as the SAVE America Act into the socialism resolution.

Dell surges 9% after lifting fiscal 2027 forecast on AI server strength

Dell sees AI server revenue tripling in fiscal 2027. Six months ago, it was looking for the number to double.

9/1: The Takeout with Major Garrett

Lindsay Clancy jury unable to reach unanimous decision on Day 4 of deliberations; Trump warns Iran not to retaliate after latest U.S. strike.

Rising bond yields threaten to push up U.S. borrowing costs

The U.S. bond market influences how much American consumers pay for loans and the interest they can earn on their savings accounts.

IRS audit revenue plunged following workforce reductions, watchdog finds

IRS audits collected $3.5 billion less in fiscal 2025 as the agency shed thousands of auditors and other agency staffers.

U.S. House votes to avoid government shutdown amid GOP hard-liner resistance

The U.S. House on Tuesday voted in favor of a short-term spending measure that would avoid a government shutdown until after November's midterm election.

Ross Fire still burning after a week, with over 90,000 acres scorched

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

Stan Kroenke, owner of Arsenal and LA Rams, to buy MLB’s Angels for reported $4bn

• Arte Moreno sells after owning team since 2003

• Deal gives KSE teams in NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and MLS

Kroenke Sports + Entertainment announced Tuesday that it will buy a controlling interest in the Los Angeles Angels from Arte Moreno in a deal that is expected to close in the first quarter ⁠of 2027.

The sale will require the approval of Major League Baseball and its owners.

Pa. Gov. Shapiro says too many data center developers 'don't care about our communities'

A Gallup survey released in May found that "seven in 10 Americans oppose constructing data centers for artificial intelligence in their local area."

Peekaboo island: the floating forest confounding nature watchers in western Canada

A 150-metre-long island appeared from nowhere on Williston Lake, British Columbia; vanished, then reappeared 20 miles away

A thickly forested island appeared mysteriously on a western Canadian lake. Nearly 150 metres (500 feet) long and 75 metres (250 feet) wide, the land mass took local people and experts by surprise. It wasn’t on any maps or navigation charts.

One boater approached and took a video of the island, capturing nearly 100 trees undulating in the chop of the lake.

Bessent touts bond market as 10-year Treasury yield spikes

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent downplayed short-term bond moves even as he touted the U.S. market, saying, "what happens over a month doesn't matter."

Canada's Carney slaps Trump admin for 'doing memes ... throwing shade'

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said "It's beneath their office' when asked about Trump Cabinet secretaries insulting his nation's military.

Modest pay hikes next year could leave some workers lagging inflation

Employers are likely to offer limited salary increases in 2027 amid ongoing economic uncertainty, according to a survey of 1,000 businesses.

Ex-Border Patrol commander Bovino was under investigation when he retired

CBP informed Gregory Bovino in an email on March 2 that the agency was "conducting an official Inquiry into allegations of misconduct reported to CBP." He initiated retirement 16 days later.

Congress passes funding bill to avoid shutdown before midterms

The House on Tuesday passed a measure to extend government funding into December, averting a shutdown in the final stretch of the midterm campaign.

U.S. crude oil hits $90 per barrel following latest U.S. attacks against Iran

Oil prices extended gains Tuesday as tensions in the Middle East escalated, with the U.S. carrying out new strikes against Iran.

Ford recalls nearly 149,000 Mustang vehicles over potential power issue

A potential wiring issue could lead to vehicles losing power or disruption of other functions, such as windshield wipers and headlights.

Vuelta a España: tearful Tronchon claims surprise stage victory in chaotic finish

• Mas retains red jersey ahead of rival Roglic

• Winner sobbed after his shock success

Bastien Tronchon claimed victory in stage 10 of the Vuelta a España as the Frenchman edged a thrilling bunch sprint on Tuesday.

The Groupama rider was followed over the line by Magnus Cort Nielsen and Thibau Nys, who edged Wout van Aert to complete the day’s podium. The Spaniard Enric Mas retained the red jersey ahead of Primoz Roglic and Felix Gall in the general classification.

How one of the largest investors in student housing is playing this school year

Mike Gordon of Harrison Street Asset Management said funding cuts and enrollment trends are making specialization more vital than ever.

Apple enters John Ternus era as AI challenges and memory crunch intensify

John Ternus' first day as Apple CEO comes at a critical juncture for the iPhone maker, with memory prices soaring and AI challenges looming.

Full-blown adulthood: does it actually start at 50?

According to a new survey, that’s the age when people feel most confident and in control of their lives. In other words, they no longer have a chairdrobe ...

Name: 50 (and thriving).

Age: You can work this one out.

After a reckoning and the toppling, what is replacing Britain’s symbols of empire?

In this month’s newsletter: communities are reshaping how empire is remembered in public life. Plus, holding royalty to account in Jamaica and repairing centuries of harm in California

• Don’t get Cotton Capital delivered to your inbox? Sign up here

Hello and welcome to the Cotton Capital newsletter. I’m Nadine White and this month we’re asking: after the toppling, what comes next?

Britain spent much of 2020 arguing about what should come down. Statues of enslavers and colonial figures were toppled, defaced or quietly removed. Edward Colston ended up in Bristol harbour. Robert Milligan was taken down outside London’s Museum of Docklands, while campaigners renewed calls for Cecil Rhodes to come off his plinth at Oriel College, Oxford. But six years on, one of the most persistent battles is still playing out.

How slavery reparations could help make yearning to return to Africa a reality | Natricia Duncan

British corporation continued trafficking of enslaved Africans to Guyana 40 years after abolition | Chris Osuh

Trafficked on the last US slave ship, Cudjo Lewis never returned home to Benin. But his descendant has | Adria Walker

Moringa lattes and tigernut kebabs: the Ghanaians ‘taking back the power’ of their food | Kaamil Ahmed

Sydney’s sugar rush: how the colony’s most powerful profited from Australia’s slave trade | Paul Daley

Lionel Richie hospitalized after weekend show

While performing in St. Louis on Saturday night, Lionel Richie appeared at one point to lean on a piano for support, according to video from the show.