US Open tennis: Alcaraz faces Wu, Sabalenka and Pegula advance on day six – live

The latest third-round updates from Flushing Meadows
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Leylah Fernandez has broken Pegula early, taking a 2-0 lead in the first. You might recall that Fernandez was Emma Raducanu’s opponent in the 2021 US Open final; since losing that match, the Canadian has only gone past the third round at a slam once (the 2022 French Open, where she made the quarter-finals) but has won five WTA Tour titles and is a consistent presence in the world’s top 30. So which career path would you prefer: hers or Raducanu’s?

Sabalenka takes the first set 6-3, remaining dominant against an opponent who is playing decent stuff. Marta Kostyuk also claims the first set 6-3 over Alexandrova, while Sorana Cirstea has claimed the opener against Paolini by the same score. That feels like an upset, even though Cirstea is seeded higher – No 16 to Paolini’s 19.

Ipswich Town v Liverpool: Premier League – live

• Premier League updates from the 8pm BST kick-off

• Live scoreboard | Read Football Daily | Email Scott

Gary O’Neil’s turn to speak to Sky Sports. “[The first half at Old Trafford] gives us a big belief that we can compete at this level … the home win against Sunderland was huge for us … we don’t really focus on outcome or results, we just try to commit to being the best version of ourselves all the time … we drifted away from that because of things that happened in the game [at Old Trafford] … it is important that we are better than that … we will be tested tonight, I am sure something will go against us … we can’t go toe to toe … we need to pick our moments … that will be really important for us … you need to be good with the ball … you can’t hang in there for 38 games of a Premier League season … I’m looking forward to it … let’s see if we can please this incredible place again … we’re ready … the group are in a great spot.”

More from Iraola on Sky. “It’s not the results you want, the two draws … we have also been losing both games … always from behind … when you start well, everything looks better … we will try not to concede goals from throw-ins like the other day … offensively the team is doing well but we are not getting the win … Alex [Isak] is feeling comfortable after a difficult season … it’s a good start for him … Ipswich at home is very strong … at Old Trafford they played a fantastic first half … they are doing well … [we need] to start stronger.”

Farage seeks to shore up damaged leadership as scandal engulfs Reform conference

Splits emerge within party after resignation of officials reported to police for apparent plot to evade donations law

Nigel Farage sought to shore up his damaged leadership on Friday as he attempted to distance himself from two of his most senior officials reported to the police for apparently plotting to evade the law on foreign donations.

As the scandal engulfed Reform UK’s party conference in Birmingham, Farage was forced to suspend his closest aide, Dan Jukes, and head of policy, James Orr, after an undercover investigation by reporters from a group called Verbatim.

Lindsay Clancy murder trial judge declares mistrial but allows emergency delay

A mistrial was declared in Lindsay Clancy's murder trial in Massachusetts Friday, but the judge granted her attorney an emergency stay.

Analysis: Lower Treasury yields could require a weaker economy. Trump won't fix them

Long-term Treasury yields are being held up by Trump-era policy risk, heavy government borrowing and AI-driven corporate debt.

Reform donations scandal: is this the final blow for Farage? - The Latest

Reform UK has suspended two senior officials after they were filmed in an undercover operation appearing to attempt to get around electoral laws on foreign donations. The sting, by Channel 4 News and the investigative group Verbatim, was published on the eve of Nigel Farage’s party conference speech in Birmingham. Reform says it has launched an investigation into the actions of James Orr, the party’s head of policy, and Dan Jukes, a senior aide to Farage. Lucy Hough speaks to senior political correspondent Peter Walker – watch on YouTube

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

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

Judge indicates mistrial in Lindsay Clancy trial, then approves emergency delay

A judge indicated the Lindsay Clancy murder trial would end in a mistrial Friday, then gave the defense a one-hour delay to make a plea to the state's highest court.

Cambridge University asks former chief crown prosecutor to open Arday review

Nazir Afzal to focus in review’s first stage on support given to professor in immediate period before his death

The University of Cambridge has asked Nazir Afzal, a former chief crown prosecutor for north-west England, to lead the first part of its review into the death of the scholar Jason Arday.

Arday died at his home in south London on 14 August, nine days after his resignation as a Cambridge professor amid swirling allegations of plagiarism and inconsistencies in statements about his career.

Indictment details alleged lies by ICE officer charged in Minneapolis shooting

The federal indictment against ICE officer Christian Castro has been unsealed, detailing charges accusing him of lying to investigators about a north Minneapolis shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant in January.

Smuggler who used tunnel under U.S.-Mexico border pleads guilty

Prosecutors said Mexican smuggler Luis Carlos Davalos-Lopez helped run an illicit operation that charged migrants as much as $30,000 to cross into the U.S.

Trump’s ex-labor secretary drank on job and created ‘toxic’ work environment, report alleges

Labor department report alleges Lori Chavez-DeRemer also made a staffer attend a strip club while on a personal trip

Donald Trump’s former secretary of labor, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, drank during working hours, kept alcohol on federal property and made a staffer attend a strip club while on a personal trip, according to a new report by the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General .

Chavez-DeRemer was appointed by Trump to serve as labor secretary in January 2025 and resigned in April 2026 amid the misconduct allegations.

U.S. sanctions Turkish bank accused of enabling Iran as Bessent says he 'hopes for' no further bank penalties

President Donald Trump hyped the sanctions plan as "economic D-Day" against Iran, but the U.S. has so far taken few steps to implement it.

Tesla's stock drops as Cybercab update 'underwhelms' Wall Street

Tesla's long-awaited Cybercab update failed to dazzle investors.

Trump to take Qatari Air Force One to Ireland, sources say

The September trip will be the first time the new plane is flown overseas since Mr. Trump traveled to Turkey for a NATO summit.

U.S. payrolls rose 162,000 in August, much more than expected; unemployment rate at 4.1%

Nonfarm payrolls were expected to increase by 53,000 in August while the unemployment rate held at 4.1%, according to the Dow Jones consensus.

The week around the world in 20 pictures

The Nepal-Tibet flood disaster, Russian strikes in Kyiv, the Plaskett Fire in California and Notting Hill carnival – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

The Social Security Administration overpaid her. Now she owes $35,000.

The agency told a woman that she has 30 days to pay it back. Otherwise, it would cut her benefits by 50% while it collects what it overpaid.

Whatever happened to the U.S. campaign to ban child marriage?

The global effort to end child marriage is in the news. In the U.S., there's a new bill before Congress (but it's controversial). And the U.N. is designating a day dedicated to ending the practice.

McLaren and Alpine F1 teams at odds after Briatore outburst over appeal

• Briatore on the attack over Monaco GP decision

• Accusation of judge’s bias towards McLaren

A furious row has broken out in the buildup to the Italian Grand Prix between the Alpine team executive adviser and de facto team principal, Flavio Briatore, and the McLaren principal, Andrea Stella, after Briatore made extraordinary allegations about McLaren’s influence on an FIA court of appeal decision against his team, claims which Stella dismissed as “insulting”.

Early on Friday a decision was released by the court of appeal, finding in favour of McLaren and Red Bull appeals against the result of the Monaco GP, prompted by a series of pit lane speeding penalties that were incorrect. The pit lane at Monaco had been incorrectly measured, leading to the penalties, including two for Alpine’s Pierre Gasly. Alpine appealed against those and they were successful, with the Frenchman subsequently awarded third place.

The Guardian view on Reform’s funding scandal: Nigel Farage has questions to answer | Editorial

An undercover investigation raises issues around foreign money, political transparency and the rightwing populist party’s fitness for power

Reform UK’s conference was to open showcasing a party ready for government. It did so with two top aides removed after an investigation aired on Channel 4, its finances under police scrutiny and seven in 10 voters, polls suggest, regarding its leader, Nigel Farage, as sleazy – double the number who thought the same of Andy Burnham. Reform, a rightwing populist party, says it will take power back from a corrupt establishment. The latest scandal raises a question: does Reform oppose the influence of big money – or just who benefits from it?

Undercover reporters from Verbatim Investigations, founded by journalists from the US Center for Climate Reporting, pretended to be a wealthy American father and his UK-based son who wanted to donate to Reform. In the UK, foreign donations are banned from politics. But that allegedly was ignored. Verbatim’s team filmed their meetings with James Orr, a Cambridge academic specialising in ethics, and Reform’s head of policy, as well as with Dan Jukes, Mr Farage’s close aide. Both have been “removed” from their posts.

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.

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert to retire in December

Cathy Engelbert is the second-longest-tenured WNBA president or commissioner.

UN votes to adopt new world map that shows Africa’s true scale

Togo-sponsored resolution called to phase out traditional map that depicts continent as similar size to Greenland

The United Nations has voted to adopt a resolution for the world to formally phase out the traditional Mercator map of the globe in favour of one that more accurately displays Africa’s size.

In a session at its headquarters in New York, the UN general assembly officially retired the 16th-century Mercator projection in favour of one based on the more accurate 2018 Equal Earth design.

‘There’s no plan’: as instability in global bond markets rises, what are the knock-on effects?

From mortgages to inflation, concerns about the public finances of major economies have wide-reaching consequences

When Donald Trump was asked recently about the threat of rising interest rates on US government debt, he told baffled reporters: “The ultimate intervention is our military. And if we have to use that, we will.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, his bellicose words did not soothe fractious bond markets, and his resumption of the bombing campaign against Iran only made matters worse.

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

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

Vuelta a España: Wout van Aert battles scorching heat to claim stage 13 victory

• Mas keeps hold of red jersey with 1min 45sec lead

• Kooij claims stage win at Tour of Britain

Wout van Aert won his fourth career stage at the Vuelta a España amid scorching heat on Friday, while Enric Mas kept the red jersey.

On a hot and sunny day in southern Spain, Van Aert beat fellow breakaway rider Valentin Paret-Peintre to claim the hilly 192km jaunt from Almuñécar to Loja.

The capacitor supply chain bottleneck is becoming a bigger AI trade in the market

Stock market trades on the AI boom continue to multiply, with the latest ETFs targeting the capacitor supply chain dominated by a handful of Asian companies.

Not a mistrial, yet. Clancy's lawyer asks for emergency appeal in her murder trial

The judge was on the verge of declaring a mistrial in Lindsay Clancy's murder case. Then her defense attorney requested time to seek an emergency stay from the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.

The Trump White House’s fetish for gamer culture has moved up a level with new arcade

A string of distractions on the US government’s own website invite you to catch pixelated migrants – showing gaming’s potential to be nastily weaponised

The Trump White House on Thursday released a horrible little propaganda arcade via its website, a collection of nasty riffs on popular games. Wrapped in the cutesy, nostalgic aesthetic of early-90s pixel art, these mindless fascist diversions are harmless-looking, but their intent is stomach-turning: this is the appropriation of play in service of propaganda. It’s just the latest in a series of attempts from Trump’s administration to use video game memes and imagery to further its messaging.

Having riffed on Halo and Pokémon in social media ads last year, inviting potential ICE recruits to “stop the flood” and “catch ’em all”, this time the administration has ripped off a series of recognisable games. Flappy Bill, perhaps the least gross, is a version of the old mobile hit Flappy Bird, except here you’re an eagle with a scroll in its claws. Supply Line could almost be an educational game about healthy food in schools, where you sort junk food off a conveyor belt destined for school lunches, except for some reason you play as a boxer who becomes more bloodied with every seed-oil containing, ultra-processed food item that you fail to punch into the garbage chute.

A mysterious 'island' appears and then disappears in Canada – video

A mysterious island has emerged in Williston Lake in Canada. A local resident shared a video of a floating 'island' with trees growing from it – which has appeared, disappeared and appeared again within two months. Satellite imagery has confirmed its existence and disappearance, and experts say the rising water level has set free trees that have been growing on woody debris on the shore

How much does Donald Trump care about winning the midterms? Apparently, not much at all | Jonathan Freedland

Such is the US president’s narcissism that he would see a Democratic victory as proof that he’s indispensable – meanwhile, his every decision spells calamity for voters

What is Donald Trump playing at? If it’s true that the best way of understanding the behaviour of an organisation is to assume it’s controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies, perhaps that same logic extends to the current conduct of the president of the United States. Maybe he secretly wants Republicans to lose the looming midterm elections that will decide the balance of power in the US for the next two years and for which the first postal ballots were sent out today.

That’s not as mad a theory as it sounds. Indeed, there are at least two reasons why Trump might either be unbothered by Republican defeat in November or even covertly desire it. We’ll come to those, but let’s start with a pattern of behaviour that is hard to explain as anything other than calculated self-sabotage.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

Martin Rowson on the return of the Falklands debate – cartoon

Judge set to declare mistrial in Lindsay Clancy case after jury deadlocked again

Defense lawyer has asked for an hour to request emergency stay after jury deadlocked for third time

• Lindsay Clancy murder trial: live updates

The judge in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three young children, plans to declare a mistrial after the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict and remained deadlocked after a week of deliberations.

Jurors in Plymouth state court spent more than 38 hours in deliberations over the charges against the 36-year-old mom, which came on the heels of a weeks-long trial that directed national attention to maternal mental health issues that can occur postpartum.

Russia strikes Ukraine intelligence HQ in ‘major escalation’

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he has told SBU to deliver ‘appropriate, tangible response’ to Kyiv strike

The head office of Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency has been hit in a Russian drone attack, sending plumes of black smoke rising into the air in the heart of Kyiv.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he had instructed the SBU to deliver an “appropriate, tangible response” to the strike, while the foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, described it as a “major escalation”.

Serena and Venus Williams returning to U.S. Open women's doubles tournament tonight

Serena and Venus Williams will play together at the U.S. Open in New York for the first time in four years.

Employer and worker health plan costs expected to jump in 2027

Employer health benefit costs are projected to see the steepest increase next year since 2003. That could mean higher deductions and out-of-pocket costs for workers.

New York City police fatally shoot man who climbed up Brooklyn Bridge cables

Officers clipped to bridge had tried to talk man, who was holding a knife, into coming down safely, officials say

New York City police shot and killed a man on Friday morning after he climbed on to the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge and approached officers with a knife extended, New York police department officials said.

At a news conference on Friday, NYPD officials said that a 911 call came in at around 3.28am on Friday morning, reporting that a man was walking on the beams of the Brooklyn Bridge.

August jobs report shows U.S. added 162,000 jobs, blowing past forecasts

Strong hiring last month was driven by gains in education and in leisure and hospitality, with the nation's jobless rate remaining steady at 4.1%.

Pulling the SNAP lever + Why Gen Zers bet (invest?) differently

Changing SNAP eligibility actually can change consumption habits.

As AI madness encroaches, we need human connection more than ever. But we’ll have to fight for it | Van Badham

We don’t want the isolating, automated outputs tech lords are selling us. We’re yearning for a shared frame of reference

I have a cherished memory of a family trip to the movies. In the Australian tradition, we bought choc-top ice-creams, chattered through pre-show trailers and a hush fell on the full house as the movie started.

It was Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, on film, only a couple of weeks ago, months after its release.

15/18 A Place to Heal review – heartfelt docu-realist study of a French teen psychiatric facility

Venice film festival
Director Cédric Kahn combines compassion with coolly detailed forensic scrutiny in this genre-challenging film which puts a troubled love triangle at the centre of the story

Veteran French director Cédric Kahn brings us a movie in a classic French vein: a docu-realist study of an institution, in this case a state psychiatric facility for teenagers between 15 and 18; with scenes in treatment suites, recreation areas, dorms and interview rooms. It’s something to compare perhaps with Laurent Cantet’s The Class, or Nicolas Philibert’s On the Adamant, or Canadian film-maker Denis Côte’s That Kind of Summer.

Kahn’s film is powerful and committed, although sometimes the acting comes close to shouty improv youth theatre. The tone is of course one of compassion, combined with coolly detailed forensic scrutiny, though audiences might be intrigued at Kahn’s use of Purcell’s Funeral Sentences on the soundtrack, music notably used by Kubrick in A Clockwork Orange, a film in which delinquent youth are treated more roughly. Kahn himself plays one of the senior medical staff, part of the gallery of authority figures – doctors, nurses, orderlies, therapists and a nervous intern – who are almost as affected by the institutional drama as the troubled young people themselves.

Carse left out in cold again and told to ‘work through issues’ after Derby bar incident

• Fast bowler left out of England squads to face Sri Lanka

• Player being investigated regarding late-night episode

Brydon Carse has been left out of England’s white-ball squads to face Sri Lanka at the end of the season and told to “work through the issues” that led to him being handcuffed by police outside a bar in Derby last month.

Carse, 31, is being investigated by the Cricket Regulator regarding the late night incident in August that prompted his removal from England’s plans for the ongoing Test series against Pakistan. Derbyshire police are also looking into an alleged assault that night, albeit Carse’s involvement is not currently known.

NBA suspends Clippers owner Ballmer for one year in Kawhi Leonard salary cap probe

The NBA also fined the Los Angeles Clippers $30 million and said the team will forfeit five first-round picks, one in each year in drafts starting in 2029.

Four women with conflicting views debate Lindsay Clancy case

The trial of Lindsay Clancy has sparked conversations about maternal mental health and postpartum psychosis nationwide. Psychiatrist Dr. Gail Saltz, USA Today columnist Nicole Russell, trial attendee Ashlyn Rizzo and postpartum psychosis survivor Kathryn Myers join "CBS Mornings" to discuss the case.

Gloria Steinem's final message to the world

Feminist activist and writer Gloria Steinem died at 92. Netflix has now released one of her final interviews, which was taped with the intention of being released after her death.

Caitlin Clark’s double-double helps USA rout China in Fiba World Cup opener

• Clark finishes with 14 points and 11 assists

• Americans extend World Cup win streak to 31

• China’s 7ft 3in Zhang Ziyu scores 13 on debut

Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers made the most of their World Cup debuts to help the United States rout China in the opener of the tournament.

Clark had 14 points and 11 assists and Bueckers added another 14 points as the Americans topped China 94-61 on Friday.

Election officials raise alarm over mail voting rules: "Virtually impossible"

One official in California said that scanning individual ballots for every voter in the state would take roughly 43 years based on the Postal Service's estimates.

‘Like a tired boxer, battered by applause’: as Andrew Scott’s biopic premieres, Richard Eyre remembers Ian Charleson’s superb, near-death Hamlet

In 1989, the Chariots of Fire actor took on the incredible task of playing Shakespeare’s prince while terminally ill from Aids. This weekend sees the world premiere of Elsinore, a new film about the episode, itself heavily-tipped for awards

Ian Charleson was one of the finest actors of his generation and an important figure in the fight for gay rights. Yet the extraordinary circumstances of his final performance as Hamlet, just months before his death, are less familiar.

Now, a new film is bringing that haunting production back to life. Elsinore, directed by Simon Stone and starring Andrew Scott as the Scottish actor, will premiere at Telluride this weekend before opening the London film festival in October.

Chat to strangers and let your kids be bored: how to embrace a ‘slow September’ – and enjoy life more

The pressure to self-optimise at the start of the new school year can lead to disappointment and burnout. Instead, here are seven ways to slow things down and reap the benefits

It is a hangover from our school days that September can feel like a time for getting back to the grind. As in January, there is a sense that we should return as better workers, partners, friends and parents. This sense is even stronger now a culture of optimisation – has taken over – evidenced by the fad for adding “maxx” to everything. Yet that can lead to disappointment and burnout, which Mental Health UK reports up to 91% of adults were at risk from over a recent 12-month period.

One antidote to this drive is to embrace a slower way of living. Rather than always rushing from one activity to the next, we could be enjoying life.

Wide-legged trousers for men are having a moment. Just ask Gary Neville

Neville may have been mocked for wearing them on Monday Night Football, but he is actually bang on trend

From Kylian Mbappé’s World Cup style to Erling Haaland’s hair tie, football has had many viral fashion moments in 2026.

Perhaps the one that speaks to the fashion crowd, and a larger debate happening in menswear right now, is Gary Neville being mercilessly teased on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football for sporting wide-legged trousers.

Woman, 45, killed in Florence in seventh alleged femicide in Italy since mid-August

Lorena Isceri was thrown off a motorway bridge, allegedly by ex-boyfriend Federico Vella

A 45-year-old woman abducted and thrown off a motorway bridge near Florence has become the seventh alleged femicide in Italy since mid-August.

Lorena Isceri was abducted on Thursday afternoon, allegedly by her ex-boyfriend, Federico Vella, in the Rifredi area of Florence, before being forced into the boot of his car and driven towards a bridge on the A1 motorway.

In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 988 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org

Nigel Farage meeting a 'shadowy foreign donor'? It can only be another establishment stitch-up | Marina Hyde

The only thing more dodgy than Reform’s financial dealings is the egregious lunchtime combination of oysters, Guinness and champagne

How many sarcastic air quotes is too many for quoting Nigel Farage’s suggestion that Reform have been ““““““““hoaxed”””””””” by some undercover investigators into appearing to seek to get round electoral law to bag a £500k donation from a foreigner, as well as commissioning off-the-books polling and failing to identify it to newspapers? I don’t feel eight was too many. I could run to nine. Amazing, really, that it’s been as long as a few weeks since Farage had a crash-out and forced a byelection. All any of us wants is for Nigel to once again resign after a staged shitfit and ask a few thousand members of the public to judge him.

For whatever reason, though, the law of our country does not amount to an “ONLY THE PEOPLE OF CLACTON CAN JUDGE ME” tattoo, and so it is that as Reform’s conference gets under way today, the party has been reported to the police for allegedly using foreign money to fund its activities. It’s all based on a covert sting carried out by Verbatim – an investigative group founded by journalists from the non-profit Centre for Climate Reporting – and broadcast last night on Channel 4 News.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

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

What a Time to be Alive! by Marina Hyde (Guardian Faber Publishing, £20) is released in September. To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

Colombia president provokes disgust by posing with bodies of ‘terrorists’

Abelardo De La Espriella posts video of himself with rows of body bags as performative populism continues to sweep Americas

Colombia’s hardline president, Abelardo De La Espriella, has provoked outrage after posting a video on social media in which he strides through rows of white body bags that he says contained the corpses of 23 “neutralised” guerrillas.

De La Espriella took power last month vowing “all-out war” against illegal armed groups and he published the footage on Thursday in an apparent attempt to show he was fulfilling that pledge.

Traveling this Labor Day weekend? It will probably cost you more

Airfare is up 20% from last year, and gas is almost $1 more per gallon than it was in 2025. Diesel fuel costs just hit an all-time high. Kris Van Cleave takes a look at rising travel costs ahead of the busy holiday weekend.

Philippine vice president is ordered arrested for threats against the president

It's part of a political showdown with Marcos. A trial could impact her plans to run for president in 2028.

Storms slam the Midwest ahead of Labor Day travel

More storms hammered the Midwest as the Labor Day travel rush began. Lana Zak has the latest.

For Gloria Steinem, fashion was about much more than aesthetics

In an era when feminists were stereotyped as unattractive, the pioneering writer’s style created a Trojan horse

• Gloria Steinem obituary

• Gloria Steinem: A life in pictures

When people wanted to dismiss Gloria Steinem, they spoke about how she looked. Talking about the pioneering activist and journalist who turned feminism into a major civil rights movement, it might seem reductive to focus on her glasses.

But after Steinem – whose death at 92 was announced on Thursday – wore them on the cover of Newsweek in 1971 next to the cover-line The New Woman, the lightly tinted aviators – often worn over her hair – became an accidental form of self-branding that made her instantly recognisable. They were as indelibly linked to her legacy as Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s jabots or even Anna Wintour’s sunglasses. They also became one of her greatest weapons.

Myanmar military head visits Vietnam to normalize relations

His trip to Vietnam marks his third visit to an ASEAN member state as he seeks to restore Myanmar's standing in the bloc.

Latcho Drom director Tony Gatlif dies aged 77

Film-maker acclaimed for his celebrations of Roma culture had been working on a ‘historical film project’ in Provence

Tony Gatlif, the French director of more than 20 films that mostly concentrated on celebrating Roma culture across the world, has died aged 77.

His family said in a statement to AFP that Gatlif died on Wednesday of “a health issue” while working on a “historical film project” in Arles in Provence, France. “The beauty of his films, his generosity, his joy, his poetry, and his love of music will remain with us forever.”

Lindsay Clancy trial juror appears to stand in the way of a unanimous verdict

After several days of deliberations, the jury in the trial of Lindsay Clancy is still deadlocked. Clancy's lawyer asked that a dissenting juror be dismissed, but the judge refused. Shanelle Kaul and legal analyst Caroline Polisi have more details.

Two workers pulled alive from tunnel nine days after Nepal-Tibet floods

Officials say pair were rescued from Trishuli 3A hydropower tunnel in Nepal after being trapped at depth of 170 metres

Two people have been pulled out alive from a hydropower tunnel in Nepal nine days after deadly flash floods buried the projects in deep mud and left them trapped.

The workers were rescued during an operation at the Trishuli 3A tunnel, a hydropower project in one of the areas worst affected by last week’s floods, according to the army spokesperson Brig Gen Raja Ram Basnet.

Volkswagen plans 50,000 job cuts as analysts see ‘halo effect’ for German auto industry

Volkswagen shares jumped on Friday after it announced plans to slash a further 50,000 jobs as part of its transformation plan.

‘I’m used to doing the impossible’: George Lucas unveils new LA museum – what’s its story?

Spaceship-shaped gallery, featuring works from Banksy, Norman Rockwell and Frida Kahlo, is devoted to ‘visual storytelling’ – and is finally ready to open

“I’m used to doing the impossible,” George Lucas said on Wednesday. But “this one almost broke my will”.

The film-maker was describing the decades of work that went into his latest project, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, as it was unveiled to the press in Los Angeles eight years after breaking ground, following attempts to build it in two other cities. Shaped like a spaceship and towering over the nearby University of Southern California – Lucas’s alma mater – the long-awaited institution finally opens on 22 September. It aims to be a testament to visual storytelling across all kinds of media – paintings, comics, murals, photography, sculpture.

Seeds of hope: how a local farming project is offering a lifeline to Gaza

Family-run Al-Qarara Seed Bank is striving to help Palestinians gain sovereignty over their food security

Salama Ayesh Muhanna still remembers the first seeds he planted on his family’s land in al-Qarara, Gaza. At just 17, Muhanna had proudly sprouted cucumbers.

“I was very happy because I saw the results,” Muhanna says. “We were farmers at heart.”

Tennessee is about to execute its first woman since 1819. Her case raises troubling questions | Austin Sarat

Christa Pike’s planned execution is emblematic of America’s broken death penalty system

On 30 September, the state of Tennessee plans to put Christa Pike to death. She would be the third person brought to the death chamber in the Volunteer state this year, one of which was stopped after it was botched.

She would join 17 others who have been put to death there since 1960. None of them were women.

A storm destroyed her tea factory. One Canadian friend kept the business alive 2,300 miles away

Two businesswomen made a promise to each other, and after two years of support, the Asheville Tea Company in North Carolina will reopen

When Jessie Dean and Alexandra Sangster met in the summer of 2024, they made a pact. The two women both ran tea companies – Dean’s Asheville Tea Company in North Carolina and Sangster’s Sarjesa, more than 2,300 miles away in Calgary, Canada – and they pledged to support each other if their businesses ever needed it.

“The first time I spoke to her, I was like, ‘If something happens to your teabag machine, I’ll make your tea,’” Sangster said. “And if something happens to mine, you can make my tea.”

‘Men calling us woke need our show more than most’: punks Piss on finding strength in visceral confrontations of sexual violence

The Vancouver band earned a cult fandom for their uncompromising gigs. As they ready their brutal debut album, they discuss subverting audience expectations and the nightly toll of excavating trauma onstage

You’d be hard pressed to find a band with fewer airs and graces than Piss. First, there’s the unavoidable matter of their name, which they style in all caps, no nonsense; a word that scans as vulgar and combative but also somewhat facetious when displayed on their merch in loopy cursive, sometimes decorated with bows. The Vancouver quartet’s music is a merciless cyclone of hardcore, poetry, sound collage and performance art that revolves entirely around singer Taylor Zantingh’s experiences with sexual violence.

On stage at Eindhoven’s Hit the City festival in late August, the band greets the stacked crowd with a trigger warning before drummer Garreth Roberts, bassist Gavin Moya and guitarist Tyler Paterson launch into pulverising fits of noise-punk, broken up by audio samples of children laughing and feminist writer Andrea Dworkin talking about pornography. Zantingh hurls herself around, clutching at her stomach and flinging her pigtails before winding down to a nervous, twitching standstill. The intense set is finely tuned to present a narrative of gender-based violence not as entertainment, but as lived experience. They play it exactly the same every night, and have done for the last two years.

‘Many of us in Israel live in a state of shock at the savagery’: veteran director Amos Gitai returns to Gaza

The writer-director once called Israel’s ‘one-man New Wave’ is in Venice with The Road to Jericho, a new and poetic attempt to highlight the plight of those in the occupied West Bank

The Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar sits off dust-blown Highway-1, between Jerusalem and Jericho in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. At the village centre is the “school of tires”, a fragile construction of rubber, wood and adobe which is attended by around 300 Bedouin boys and girls. The Israeli authorities denied the villagers an official building permit and ruled that the entire settlement is illegal. For the past eight years the school has been operating under threat of imminent demolition, a symbol of resistance to widespread settler violence.

It is only international pressure, says the veteran Israeli writer-director Amos Gitai, that has kept the place upright and still open. “The school has become a litmus paper. It is a test of how far the international community will go [to protect the rights of the people of Khan al-Ahmar]. For once, on this issue, Europe stood up and said no.” As for the future, who can tell?

Weather tracker: Hurricanes in the Pacific, but none yet this season in the Atlantic

The current record for the latest Atlantic hurricane formation could be broken this year

There are currently two category 4 hurricanes and one category 1 hurricane in the Pacific at the same time. Meanwhile, the Atlantic has been devoid of hurricanes so far this season, making it only the eighth year in the satellite era (about 1960 to present) to go into September without a hurricane. Forecast activity remains quiet for the next seven days at least. This means there is a chance the current record for the latest Atlantic hurricane formation – 11 September in 2002 and in 2013 – will be broken.

Category 1 Hurricane Marie, category 3 Hurricane Karina, and category 4 Hurricane Lowell are spinning around in the Pacific. The National Hurricane Centre says there is too much uncertainty around Lowell to determine potential impacts on Hawaii, whereas Marie and Karina are not currently expected to have any impacts and should stay in open waters.

Katseye review – petulant hyperpop bops from a girl group in crisis

O2 Arena, London
Fans scream ‘eat zucchini’ as if their lives depend on it as the six-piece’s remaining members strut their way through chest-rattling hits, ludicrous bangers and flaccid flops

It takes a certain amount of resilience to be a Katseye fan. Since debuting three years ago via the boot camp meets reality TV show The Debut: Dream Academy, the multinational K-pop hybrid girl band have put their so-called Eyekons through the wringer. Last month alone they lost their second member to a “personal health and wellness” related hiatus, with Sophia joining Manon (who stepped away in more mysterious circumstances back in February) on the sidelines. Weeks later, they landed their first US No 1 album with Wild, a collection led by the carbonated dance-pop rocket Pinky Up – a song referred to by the band’s many online detractors as “skibidi toilet music” (ie slop).

Even as this debut arena tour arrived in the UK, there were fears the newly reshaped quartet might be reduced to a trio after Megan sprained her ankle. But if the fans are worried, they don’t show it, their ear-piercing screams drowning out the opening Hootie Frutti, a sonic melange that somehow makes Brazilian funk sound leaden. By the time petulant hyperpop bop Internet Girl kicks in they’re screaming lines like “eat zucchini, eat zucchini” as if their lives depend on it.

Gas prices surge just before Labor Day, as diesel hits record high

Diesel hit a record of $5.85 a gallon Friday, eclipsing its prior mark of $5.81, set in June 2022.

Wallace’s dog Gromit was nearly a cat, reveals creator as Aardman turns 50

Nick Park began modelling the character as a feline, before finding it too difficult and changing him to a dog

The creator of Wallace and Gromit has revealed that the world’s most famous stop-motion animated dog was nearly a cat.

As Aardman Animations marks its 50th anniversary, Nick Park, who joined the studio in 1985, told the BBC he had originally modelled Gromit as a feline companion for Wallace.

Trump asks SCOTUS to OK changes to mail-in ballots. And, diesel prices hit record high

Trump has asked the Supreme Court to lift the block on his plan for the USPS to restrict mail voting ahead of the midterm elections. And, diesel prices have reached a record high.

The best recent poetry – review roundup

Fetch by Colin Bramwell; Girling by Eve Esfandiari-Denney; The Dead One, The Unconscious One, Thundering in Your Ear, Thriving Slumber by Jay Gao; Belling the Leopard by Clementine Ewokolo Burnley; The Matter by Padraig Regan

Fetch by Colin Bramwell (And Other Stories, £14.99)
Bramwell’s translation of Fernando Pessoa’s work into Scots won him considerable recognition: it took the Oxford Weidenfeld Translation prize and the Highland Book Prize. Between source and target language, there is always a gap; the translator endeavours within that gap to identify meaning and intention, and that is the difficult work of translation. Fetch, Bramwell’s own debut collection, lyrically thematises this gap in the poet-human’s condition: “I’m an instrument for something else / a digital piano that if you opened it up / you wouldn’t understand the wiring.” Fetch (in Celtic folklore, a doppelganger) is by turns solemnly tender, comically worldly, literarily devout. Here you’ll find deep engagement with Russian poets such as Osip Mandelstam and Anna Akhmatova, poems that fuse Scots and English, alongside filial memories and premonitions of fatherhood. “Death is certain, but back then I was too young for that shit.” For a debut, Bramwell’s poetics convey an uncanny sense of wisdom, patience and, eventually, peace.

Girling by Eve Esfandiari-Denney (Fitzcarraldo, £12.99)
Before theme and subject, there is the pure, iridescent beauty of Esfandiari-Denney’s sentences; a singular voice that is alluring and sensuous, pleasurable to follow to whichever subject the poet chooses. The subjects are girlhood-cum-womanhood, the line between debilitating illness and delusional wellness (“thank god / you invested / in lion’s mane”), the flickering concept of free will for a species so programmed by genes: “I have wondered to what extent my cancer diagnosis is my mother’s, or my grandmother’s cell mutation, before my own … I look up from a cigarette mid-sentence…” The collection hybridises recognisable prose forms: the essay, the diary, the text message, the anecdote. These are interspliced with short-lined lyric poems that startle because of the bubbly voice from which they come: “I hope it’s ok to die. I can / become something / like actualised metaphor.” The magic of this collection is that it is never highfalutin, finding a way to make an ending like “DJ are you listening did you read to the end will you blow my voice a kiss” powerfully funny and moving.

Add to playlist: the churning darkness of Barcelona producer Nueen and the week’s best new tracks

Nacho Pezzati’s new album Swerved taps into the moody ambience of the UK north-west underground, ratcheting a tangible and thrilling sense of unease

From Barcelona, Spain
Recommend if you like Space Afrika, Shackleton, Purelink
Up next Swerved out now

Swerved, by Barcelona-based producer Nueen (Nacho Pezzati) is a bassy, moody, darkly ambient album that travels through R&B, drill, cloud rap and dub without any obvious changes in its grey-black weather. But this is slowly churning music, on the brink of rot. By the 10th track, Copicat, the unease is tangible; after a slow, agonising ratcheting build of fanbelt hi-hats, the album’s only drop arrives with the weight and power of a cloudburst. It’s thrilling.

Drones, teargas, riot squads: why has the UK gone to war against asylum seekers already fleeing conflict? | Diane Taylor

Burnham and Macron have committed to going further in the crackdown on French beaches. But little is being done to offer refugees safe alternative routes

Garang*, 18, is one of thousands of refugees recently caught in the crossfire of French riot police, who threw teargas and beat them with batons when they boarded dinghies to travel to the UK. He is a victim of a war in his home of South Sudan – and one being fought on France’s northern shores.

He borrows a phone from anyone with credit who will let him try to call home, where his family is displaced. Garang doesn’t have enough money on the £10-a-week allowance from the Home Office to make a long-distance call. All he wants is to speak to his mum, to hear her voice, and let her know he is alive and safe in the UK despite the violence he has faced.

Diane Taylor writes on human rights, racism and civil liberties

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.

Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman was one of DC’s few successes. It’s a mystery why she got the chop

James Gunn and Peter Safran’s regime had good reasons to ditch Ben Affleck’s Batman and Henry Cavill’s Superman. Other choices have been much harder to fathom

There was never going to be a completely painless way to break up the old DC gang. Warner Bros’ DC Extended Universe probably needed to be ruthlessly ripped apart in order to create space for James Gunn and Peter Safran’s brand-new DCU. We almost certainly did need a clean break from the likes of Ben Affleck (Batman) and Henry Cavill (Superman), if only to persuade audiences that this really was a proper reboot. The question, as Gal Gadot may have been pondering this week, is quite why some of the old universe’s supporting players were smuggled safely into the new continuity while others were left sprawling amid the ruins.

Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Gadot, who starred in two solo Wonder Woman movies for director Patty Jenkins, revealed that nobody at DC Studios ever formally told her she had been dropped. One minute, Gadot says, she was being assured by Gunn and Safran that they would develop a third instalment with her; the next, she was looking on in mounting alarm as the entire infrastructure of the previous DC continuum was blown to smithereens. “They were like, ‘We’re going to develop it with you, the third one,’” she said. “But I saw the way everybody else was handled, right? And I, you know – the Henry [Cavill] situation was unfortunate. I was in the middle of that. The Henry situation was not handled elegantly, to say the least. Same with Patty – it was not handled elegantly.”

Iranian town mourns after deadly strike on wedding

Mourning turns to anger as residents of Kuhestak say Baloch communities are being placed in path of conflict

People in Kuhestak, a predominantly Baloch city in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, are mourning after a strike on a wedding killed at least four people, including a child, and injured more than 60, according to local authorities.

The blast hit at around 9.30pm on 1 September, turning a night of celebration into one of devastation for the small coastal community, which is on the strait of Hormuz.

Six people refused to get off ICE deportation plane – now they’re held in limbo in Equatorial Guinea

Believed to be first US deportations to fourth country, six face ‘horrific conditions’ in Equatorial Guinea, say lawyers

In late August, around 20 people were put on a flight in the US, shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles, and sent to Liberia as part of one of the largest third-country deportation arrangements of Donald Trump’s second term.

Although more than 23,000 people have been sent to 26 countries other than their own since last year, that day saw something that had not happened before: six people refused to get off the plane – and were instead taken to another country.

Scientists map key protein interactions linked with profound autism

Research published in the journal Science illuminates a "missing piece" in the biological understanding of profound autism and offers new targets for drug development.

Germany's far-right AfD party is poised for power in a state election

Germany's AfD's TikTok-fueled rise in Saxony-Anhalt is raising fears the country could see its first far-right governor since World War II.

Thieves target mail order sales as Pokémon card prices soar

As one card recently sold for £12m, opportunistic thefts have surged – envelopes are being opened en route, costing small businesses thousands

Pokémon’s success over the last 30 years has seen it grow from a much-loved Game Boy classic, to a world-dominating brand with TV shows, spin-off games, toys and even a theme park. The trading card game is a huge part of that, with more than 85bn cards printed over its lifetime, and the appetite for them shows no signs of slowing down. Packs get snapped up after release so quickly it’s now almost impossible to find them in shops, and a booming resale market is driving the hobby into murky waters.

One card recently sold for an eye-watering £12m, and an increasing number of people have gotten into the collecting business on the hunt for huge profits, leading to a rise in thefts targeting card shops. More recently though, some small businesses have reported that their sales have been hit by thieves targeting envelopes within Royal Mail, leading to thousands in lost revenue.

Javier Milei: ‘winds of change’ support Argentina’s claim to Falkland Islands

President cites Trump’s suggestion that he might reconsider US stance on British sovereignty and threatens swifter sanctions on UK oil interests

President Javier Milei has said “winds of change” favourable to Argentina’s claim to the Falkland Islands are blowing around the world in a televised address, citing signs that Donald Trump may reconsider the US position on the islands’ sovereignty.

“Recently, President Trump declared that the US is re-evaluating its historic position in relation to the Malvinas,” he said, using the Argentinian name for the islands.

What app surged in downloads after Trump's 'Lake America' change? The quiz knows

Plus: George Santos is back in the news!

Sturdy stock market mints a record number of 401(k) millionaires

The number of millionaire 401(k) accounts at Fidelity reached a record 769,000 in the second quarter.

A remarkable documentary made by blind students: ‘We were stunned by the footage’

In Brailled It, the tension and stakes of the annual Braille Challenge are brought to the screen by three of the competitors

For the past 26 years, about 22,000 blind and visually impaired schoolchildren from around the world have competed in the Braille Challenge: a literacy test against a loudly ticking clock. It has all the theater of a Model UN competition, all the stakes of a make-or-break standardized exam and young competitors from first grade through high school juggling their own expectations, ambitions and emotions – with a degree of difficulty that is surely unfathomable to most.

Brailled It is a new film that immerses viewers in the ups and downs of the 2024 edition of the Braille Challenge, which saw more than 1,100 students descend on the University of Southern California campus. But instead of Emmy-winning director David Grabias steering a phalanx of camera and sound operators through the scenes, as he has done for past documentary projects on climate change and immigration policy, he strapped cameras to the competitors and left them to their own devices. “Every documentary is a collaboration, and you’re giving agency to your participants,” he says. “But this was: you’re going to go off and make the film, and we’ll help put it together.”

Kevin Powers: ‘I was ready to abandon Infinite Jest a thousand times’

The American author on falling in love with The Great Gatsby, being inspired by Dylan Thomas – and the memoir of a canoe trip in Texas he comes back to

My earliest reading memory
The deaths of Old Dan and Little Ann in Wilson Rawls’s Where the Red Fern Grows were etched into my being as a first grader in Chesterfield County, Virginia.

My favourite book growing up
Stephen King’s The Stand. I completely lost myself in the story. I don’t think I realised at the time what a rare gift it is to have that experience.

Who owns the beach? A heated battle plays out in the Florida Panhandle

After years of fighting over who gets to use the beach, and where, in Walton County, Florida, public-use advocates are calling for a state constitutional amendment to finally settle the matter.

How will bond market turmoil affect your mortgage, pension and savings in UK?

Sell-off raises concerns of higher borrowing costs for households. Here’s what it could mean

The bond market sell-off has sparked fresh fears of higher borrowing costs for UK households. We look at what the turmoil in financial markets could mean for your mortgage, pension and savings.

Argentina's Milei escalates Falklands dispute as Trump questions U.S. support for Britain

Argentina's President Javier Milei has renewed the country's claim to the Falkland Islands and threatened sanctions on oil companies.

Week in wildlife: a hitchhiking crab, a shy wallaby and penguins in little jackets

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

Sports quiz of the week: transfer deadline day, the US Open and rugby drama

Have you been following the big stories in football, cricket, tennis, boxing, Formula One and cycling?

‘If you can’t understand what sex is, it’s irrelevant if you seem to be enjoying it’: how Queen at Sea upended the dementia drama

Lance Hammer’s first film in 18 years is a heart-wrenching masterpiece about family, mental decline and sexual consent. He and supporting actor Juliette Binoche discuss how they brought unabashed realism to a condition rarely seen on screen

The first time we see Martin and Leslie, the elderly couple at the centre of Lance Hammer’s wrenching new film, Queen at Sea, they are walking together up a set of stone steps: one of their regular outings, we assume, in days filled with pottering and quiet companionship. They have their backs to us, and we can’t see their destination beyond a bleached sky that fills the top half of the screen. Symbolically, it may be deemed a bit on the nose: two people near the end of their lives, moving gently towards the white light of oblivion. There’s a whiff of sentimentality about it.

But any doubts about this story’s willingness to confront difficult truths are blasted away by the next scene. Leslie’s daughter, Amanda, played by Juliette Binoche, pays a visit to the couple’s house in drizzly, middle-class north London, her teenage daughter in tow. Unable to find her mother and stepfather, she arrives at the bedroom door. Opening it, she finds Martin (Tom Courtenay) on top of Leslie (Anna Calder-Marshall), who lies impassively beneath him, the mask of dementia obvious on her face.

The Golden Hours by Louisa Young review – this continuation of the Cazalet Chronicles is a total delight

Elizabeth Jane Howard’s niece has picked up the thread of her much-loved family saga series, taking the story into the 1960s

Elizabeth Jane Howard’s beloved family saga the Cazalet Chronicles spans three decades in the life of the upper-middle-class Cazalet family. The first four books, written in the 1990s, run from a bucolic prewar 1937 to a bruising 1947, while the fifth, 2013’s All Change, skips ahead, sitting lonely in 1956. The books are exquisite doll’s houses of feeling and object: both period detail and eternal emotion are rendered precisely and vigorously in Howard’s lovely prose. “Panoramic, expansive, intriguing as social history and generous in their storytelling,” Hilary Mantel wrote in the Guardian. The enormous cast of characters – four late-Victorian siblings, their parents, their children and partners and ex-partners and servants and friends and lovers and enemies and cars and houses – sprawl deliciously over the years. The family fortunes rise and fall. Marriages fail; deaths occur; babies are born; people fall in love. Things change; things stay the same.

Written a decade after the death of the original author, The Golden Hours by Louisa Young adds a sixth to this quintet. As with all Cazalet novels, to describe the plot would be impossible: it is simply that many people, whom we have come to love over the course of the previous novels, live their lives, now in the early 1960s.

Vista, Saarikoski Songs, Three Preludes album review – Saariaho’s iridescent visions evocatively rendered

Komsi/Nyman/BBC Symphony Orchestra/Oramo
(Ondine)
Three works by the idiosyncratic Finnish composer who died in 2023 are recorded for the first time

Kaija Saariaho died in 2023, leaving behind a significant body of unrecorded music. The three works here, all premiere recordings, span 40 years, yet each bears the Finnish composer’s idiosyncratic fingerprints.

The most substantial is Vista (2019), a tone poem inspired by a drive along the scenic Interstate 5 highway to San Diego. The first part, Horizons, opens with a lingering oboe duet before brass, winds and gleaming tuned percussion usher in more piquant colours. This is music on cruise control, with otherworldly washes of strings and a deal of ear-catching incident. Targets, which follows, is altogether more dynamic, a turbulent road trip that winds down to a serene conclusion. Fellow Finn Sakari Oramo is a sensitive, sure-footed guide with the BBC Symphony Orchestra commendably precise and texturally detailed throughout.

Experience: I didn’t know I was pregnant until I gave birth

There’d been no morning sickness, cravings or tiredness. My mum didn’t believe I’d had a baby – even after seeing her on FaceTime

When I was 19, I went to college in Texas, where I met my ­boyfriend Preston. It was 2023 and I had big plans. After ­finishing my degree in criminal justice, I wanted to go to law school. I wasn’t in a rush to get married or have kids. My mum had drilled into me a fear of getting pregnant at a young age. I was on the pill and careful with contraception.

In May 2025, I took a trip to London, returning to campus in August after the summer holidays. I noticed I was slowly gaining weight; by January this year I’d gained 10lb. I put it down to my late-night snacking and lack of exercise.

‘This could just be the beginning’: minorities fear first far-right win in German state election

As polls point to victory in Saxony-Anhalt for AfD party promising deportations, people face agonising choice: stay or go

As the Bible study session wrapped up, leaving worshippers to mingle over cake and coffee, Fatemeh, 44, fought back tears as the conversation turned to Sunday’s state election in Saxony-Anhalt.

“I worry about it every day,” she said. “I can’t stop thinking about my son and what might happen to us.”

Fatemeh worries about what might happen after the elections. Photograph: Christian Jungeblodt/The Guardian

‘Why not try to be the best in the world, just for the fun of it?’ Art Garfunkel on a rich, restless life – and reconciling with Paul Simon

He taught maths and walked across Europe, trying to leave his demons behind. As he goes back on tour aged 84, the folk-pop legend explains how he came back to singing

As Art Garfunkel is keen to point out, “I am a singer – there, use that as the title of your article” – but he was never just a singer. “I’ve been an actor. I am a writer,” he continues. “I’ve walked across countries, taken freighters across oceans. I’ve read the dictionary. I’ve read two books a month for 60 years: Darwin, Herodotus, Balzac, Proust, Tolstoy. I’ve taught maths. I have two great kids and I’m a grandfather, but it always does seem to come back to the singing.”

Which is understandable, given that in Simon and Garfunkel (with songwriter Paul Simon) he sold more albums than any other pop duo in history. Garfunkel’s oft-called “angelic” tones powered classic chart-toppers including The Sound of Silence and Bridge Over Troubled Water, and he became a successful solo artist. However, until a year ago, he was hardly singing at all and hadn’t toured since 2019. “I found myself lying on a pillow in a dream state, thinking about the meaning of being alive,” he reveals. “What is my day? What am I supposed to do with myself?”

Trump-promoted Freedom Fuel expands to Detroit as lawsuit over supplier's unpaid fuel heats up

Freedom Fuel won free publicity when President Donald Trump urged other gas retailers to emulate its low prices in July.

ICE officer who shot immigrant in Minnesota in federal custody, source says

Federal prosecutors have charged an ICE officer who shot a Venezuelan immigrant in Minnesota with making false statements about the incident, sources said. He is now in custody.