Judge hears arguments on Trump White House media ban, hopes to rule 'soon'

The DOJ on Tuesday night cited national security concerns in justifying President Trump's ban of MS NOW, CNN and Politico from the White House.

OpenAI and Anthropic CEOs push for AI cooperation at UN after Trump rebuffs 'globalist scheme' to control it

Altman is one of several tech executives who's argued that AI companies should temper the pace of AI development in order to manage potential risks.

Here's what happens to the economy when Treasury yields soar like they are now

Government debt costs leaped higher Wednesday, the product of multiple factors.

McDonald's CEO expects high inflation, lackluster traffic are here to stay

McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski said that he expects that high inflation and flat traffic will continue to weigh on the restaurant industry.

Chelsea v Austria Vienna: Women’s Champions League – live

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

• Live scoreboard | Disney+ criticised | And Email Daniel

Leuven 0-0 Roma

Servette 0-8 Lyon

Trump lawyers defend president banning journalists from White House ahead of court hearing – live

Trump lawyers say White House access is ‘a privilege, not a right’; CNN, Politico and MS Now to present case in court after president banned outlets from White House grounds

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Rubio also briefly addressed Trump’s meeting with Delcy Rodriguez, the interim Venezuelan president, who last night posed for a friendly photo with Trump at a Manhattan hotel only miles from where her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, was incarcerated.

“It was a short meeting, but it was a very important meeting,” Rubio said.

Why McDonald's is following Walmart and Amazon into the advertising business

McDonald's is following the lead of Amazon and Walmart as it starts its own media network.

As Trump and Xi meet, Chinese automakers could be a Pandora's box for U.S. auto industry

Trump’s meeting with Xi comes as U.S. automakers and lawmakers push to keep restrictions on Chinese vehicles and manufacturers.

Six Flags Magic Mountain sued over alleged ‘catastrophic brain damage’ from X2 ride

Lawsuit joined by more than 100 others claims they experienced traumatic injuries after riding the rollercoaster

California’s Six Flags Magic Mountain is facing lawsuits from three people who alleged they suffered “catastrophic brain damage” after riding the X2 rollercoaster.

More than 100 other people also claimed that they experienced traumatic brain injuries from the attraction at the Valencia amusement park, according to the law firm representing the plaintiffs.

‘I miss old Google’: readers tell us how they search the internet in the age of AI

A feature called AI Overviews has been a profound change, and the browsing habits of billions of people are shifting

Google has put artificial intelligence at the front and center of its search bar. The most-visited site on the internet still shows the same list of links to users, but they have to scroll past a summarized response from an AI chatbot, a feature Google calls AI Overviews. The change to what was once the gateway to the rest of the internet has been profound, and the browsing habits of billions of people are shifting.

“AI is driving the most significant upgrade of the Google Search experience ever,” wrote Liz Reid, Google’s vice-president of search, last August. In May, the company said more AI is coming.

These GOP candidates in tight races are calling for a quick end to Iran war

Some Trump-aligned candidates are calling for an end to the Iran war, even as Trump stands by his Iran strategy and has suggested escalation is possible.

Christian Eriksen leaves Wolfsburg by mutual consent after on-pitch collapse in June

• Danish midfielder has been recuperating in homeland

• Eriksen: ‘I’m pleased we were able to find a solution’

Christian Eriksen and German side VfL Wolfsburg have agreed to terminate ⁠his contract by mutual consent, the club announced on Wednesday.

The 34-year-old collapsed during a Denmark friendly ⁠against Ukraine in June. Eriksen said in July he would ​return to his homeland to undergo a ‌rehabilitation programme. He previously suffered a cardiac arrest during Denmark’s opening Euros group match ⁠against Finland in Copenhagen in 2021.

Former NFL star Antonio Brown to avoid possibility of 30 years in prison with plea deal

• 38-year-old had been facing attempted murder charge

• Former player will accept aggravated assault charge

Former NFL star Antonio Brown plans to accept a plea deal on an attempted murder charge in Miami, his lawyer said Wednesday. Doing so will mean the former wide receiver avoids prison.

Brown is scheduled to appear in court next Wednesday to make the deal final. He could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted of the current attempted murder charge.

Fat Bear Week is here: Meet Backpack, Bucky and other chunky contenders

Sixteen bears are facing off in Fat Bear Week​ 2026, the highly anticipated tournament among the chunkiest bears at the Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska.

Disney is raising prices for Disney+ and Hulu. See the breakdown.

The price hikes for new subscribers are effective immediately. Existing subscribers' plans will go up next month.

Texas to execute death-row prisoner over 2005 triple killing

Ker’Sean Ramey, 41, set to die by lethal injection, sixth person to be executed by Texas officials this year

A man found guilty of fatally shooting three people during a 2005 attempted robbery at a rural Texas home is scheduled to be executed Wednesday, a week after the other man convicted in the killings was put to death.

Ker’Sean Ramey, 41, is set to die by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He would be the sixth person executed so far this year in Texas, with three more scheduled.

Milei threatens at UN that Argentina will take ‘matters into our own hands’ on Falklands

Argentinian president accuses United Nations of being filled with ‘parasites’ in bellicose general assembly speech

Javier Milei has condemned the UN as he warned that Argentina would take “matters into our own hands” in its dispute with Britain over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.

In a caustic speech at the general assembly in New York, the Argentinian president criticised the UN for being ineffective when it came to the long-running tensions over the British overseas territory in the south Atlantic known in Argentina as the Malvinas.

Diesel prices just hit a new record. Would a U.S. export ban bring relief?

Some lawmakers want to halt U.S. diesel exports as prices top $6.50 a gallon. But such a ban could have unintended consequences, experts say.

Federal prosecutors probe Jeffrey Epstein estate executors, WSJ reports

A group that advocates for Epstein victims applauded the news that Richard Kahn and Darren Indyke are facing an investigation. No charges have been been filed.

Social Security tax hike "financially impossible" for many, expert says

Raising payroll taxes enough to stabilize Social Security could add thousands of dollars in annual costs, according to one analysis.

Police make 2nd arrest in death of woman found hanging from tree

Police said they have an arrest warrant for one more person in the death on Mississippi woman Tasia Fortune.

Trump set to greet Xi for high-stakes state visit

It is the second time the leaders are meeting this year after the Beijing summit in May.

Iran's president gives a rare wartime speech at the U.N.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian addressed the U.N. General Assembly a day after President Trump threatened from the same podium to "annihilate" Iran.

Market sees next Fed hike in October, following Barr comments and hot inflation reading

S&P Global said its overall inflation measure hit its highest level since October 2022.

A Catholic media star will be beatified in St. Louis, moving a step closer to sainthood

Bishop Fulton Sheen, who charmed millions of television viewers on his show Life Is Worth Living,'will come one step closer to being declared a saint.

‘We hope he’ll accept’: US invites Putin to G20 summit at Trump golf club

Kremlin yet to respond publicly to US invitation that is likely to raise concerns from Ukraine and EU countries

The United States has invited Vladimir Putin to take part in the meeting of the G20 scheduled in Miami in December in what would be the first major summit with the Russian leader present since he launched his invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The invitation, which marks a significant reversal by the Trump administration of Russia’s international isolation, was announced by Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, during a press conference on the sidelines of the United Nations conference in New York.

What is the White House press pool and how does it work?

President Trump's move to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House has highlighted the role of the press pool.

Harry Kane says England’s World Cup exit ‘hurt more than any other’

• ‘It wasn’t the team that we wanted and said we’d be’

• England host Spain in Nations League on Saturday

Harry Kane has described England’s World Cup semi-final defeat against Argentina as his most painful tournament exit because of how the team lost sight of who they were.

The captain is determined to move on as quickly as possible and is chasing a statement performance against Spain at Wembley on Saturday night in the Nations League. But he admits he is yet to get over the Argentina game and knows it is something he and his England teammates must work to process.

Netherlands v Germany: Klopp and Xavi begin revival projects with derby

Klopp, with Germany, and Xavi, with the Netherlands, face each other in Nations League after disappointing World Cup for both countries

Before the latest instalment of a time-honoured international rivalry gearing up for two distinct new beginnings, Jürgen Klopp could not resist sprinkling a little of the old mischief. “The good thing is that we both have the exact same situation,” he said of Xavi Hernández, his counterpart when Germany visit the Netherlands on Thursday night. “We met on Monday and play on Thursday. And the coach knows the players from television. I actually know more of the Dutch players personally than Xavi does. Whether that’s an advantage, I don’t know, but it’s still a fact.”

In his public appearances Klopp has been on irrepressible form since taking the role in July. The task of whipping Germany back into shape has visibly and audibly topped up the energy levels that had drained by the time he departed Liverpool. Klopp, his wit sharp and appetite piqued, looks a far cry from the character who, to most trained eyes, was going through the motions upon his unveiling as Red Bull’s head of global soccer early last year.

McDonald’s to take on KFC and rivals as Gen Z flock to fried chicken

Fast food giant aiming to increase share of global chicken market as rising cost of beef hits profits

McDonald’s is betting on fried chicken as health concerns and the rising price of beef shift dining habits.

The company said that it aimed to take an extra 1.5 percentage point-share of the global chicken market by 2030, with an aim to increase its share of drinks by the same proportion. McDonald’s said the growth in chicken, a lower-priced protein, would not come at the expense of beef burger sales, saying it aimed maintain its “leadership position in beef”.

The Guardian view on Russian disinformation: a foreign threat that relies on UK complicity | Editorial

Andy Burnham’s accusation against the Kremlin tells half the story. Domestic extremists amplified by US big tech are part of the same problem

In November 2020, Barack Obama warned of an “epistemological crisis” facing western democracies. Polarisation and radicalisation were corroding trust in established information sources. “If we do not have the capacity to distinguish what’s true from what’s false, then by definition the marketplace of ideas doesn’t work,” the former US president said.

That vulnerability has grown since then. Democracy’s enemies have become more determined to exploit it. This is the threat that Andy Burnham highlighted in a speech at the United Nations this week. The prime minister accused Russia of waging an “industrial-scale assault” on the UK’s information environment using bot armies and fake websites to spread falsehoods, interfere in elections, foment discord and poison inter-community relations.

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.

The Guardian view on the future of the UN: more embattled, but more necessary, than ever | Editorial

As the secretary general, António Guterres, prepares to step down, the general assembly is highlighting the scale of the organisation’s challenges

The United Nations was created, its charter states, to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”. Donald Trump used his address to the general assembly to threaten Iran, another member state, with annihilation again. The charter also speaks of the obligations of international law. On Venezuela, Mr Trump gloated that “to the victor belong the spoils”. His speech in New York on Tuesday might be regarded as an improvement on last year’s only in that it was not an explicit, full-scale attack on the UN itself, merely on its founding principles.

The absences this year are perhaps as telling as the US president’s hostile presence. Vladimir Putin has not attended for more than a decade. Nor has Xi Jinping – but the snub is more striking as he is in Washington to meet the US president. India’s Narendra Modi is not present; nor are Cyril Ramaphosa, Bola Tinubu or Abdel Fatah al-Sisi – the leaders of Africa’s three giants, South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt. While their reasons are various, the gaps speak collectively to Mr Trump’s wrecking capability and the broader challenges faced by the UN.

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.

No signs Chagos deal can be adapted to suit Trump, say UK officials

Agreement with Mauritius over Diego Garcia unlikely to be revived unless president changes his mind, insiders believe

The Chagos Islands deal is on hold for as long as Donald Trump objects to it, UK officials believe, with no immediate signs it can be adapted to suit the US president.

After Trump savaged the three-way plan as “a terrible deal” during a meeting with Andy Burnham at the UN general assembly, the prime minister said he was “confident” the UK would be able to find a solution to revive the idea.

Philadelphia teacher admits to lying about being Palestinian and Black: ‘I hid the truth’

Local advocacy groups say they have cut ties with Hannah Gann, who ‘fully lied about her identity and background’

A Philadelphia teacher is facing criticism from her fellow colleagues and activists after it was revealed that she fabricated being both Palestinian and Black.

The Racial Justice Organizing Committee (RJOC) and Philly Educators for Palestine (PEFP) announced over the weekend that it was cutting ties with “one of their long-time members”, Hannah Gann, who “completely lied about her identity and background, claiming at various times to be Palestinian, Tunisian and Black”.

McDonald's stock falls as it unveils plan to spend big on restaurant upgrades

The plans are part of the fast-food giant's new growth strategy, called McDonald's > NEXT.

Italian pop legend takes the lead in Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Fendi collection

Milan show full of diaphanous dresses and visible bras celebrates ‘incredible feminist’ of the 1970s, Raffaella Carrà

Maria Grazia Chiuri has been having more fun with clothes since she decamped from Paris back to her native Rome to work at Fendi. “I have less of a uniform these days. I think it is because being back here makes me feel young again. I’m not sure my daughter appreciates [this attitude]! But I don’t care,” she said at a preview before her Milan fashion week show.

Not that Chiuri doesn’t approach her work as a designer seriously. She described her second ready-to-wear season at Fendi not as a show, or a collection, but as “the second part of the project I am working on for them”.

Ben Jennings on Andy Burnham’s meeting with Donald Trump – cartoon

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Iran’s president hits out at ‘bully’ Trump in UN speech but signals willingness to talk

Masoud Pezeshkian says Tehran is ready for dialogue and diplomacy ‘but without the language of force’

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, turned the tables on Donald Trump, describing the US as the true bully and terrorist in the Middle East while insisting that Iran had always shown a commitment to the negotiating table.

In a defiant speech to the UN general assembly in New York, his first since the US and Israel launched an all-out war on Iran, Pezeshkian repeatedly vowed that Tehran would never bend the knee to the US.

‘I want to go’: Lewis Hamilton hopes F1 is able to end season in Middle East

• ‘I love going to the Middle East,’ says Ferrari driver

• Qatar and Abu Dhabi races could still be cancelled

Lewis Hamilton said he hopes the Formula One season can still end at the two scheduled rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, with the finale still in doubt because of the war in the Middle East.

Formula One is pressing ahead with its original plan, although a contingency is understood to be in place to host a final round in Imola if the volatile situation means both meetings have to be cancelled.

DOJ defends Trump media ban, citing national security and "professionalism"

The Justice Department claimed that reporting from CNN, MS NOW and Politico raises national security concerns and accused their journalists of failing to act with "professionalism and decorum."

Germany pledges to phase out fossil fuels for first time with target of 2045

Campaigners say plan marks notable shift away from oil and gas as previously pledges were only for carbon neutrality

Europe’s biggest economy, Germany, has committed to phasing out fossil fuels by 2045, despite fierce debate about its green policies.

In a roadmap published on Wednesday, the German government set out for the first time an explicit promise of “transitioning away” from fossil fuels. Previous pledges were only for “carbon neutrality”.

Has Burnham proved he can handle Trump? - The Latest

Andy Burnham has navigated his way through a first high-stakes meeting with Donald Trump at the UN general assembly in New York. The prime minister’s aides were delighted with how the meeting went, as Trump praised the US-UK relationship and described Burnham as a ‘natural businessman’. The anticipated sticking points – the Chagos Islands, West Bank settlement sanctions and Ireland – appear not to have derailed the talks nor cast a shadow over the future relationship. Lucy Hough speaks to policy editor Kiran Stacey – watch on YouTube

"Lioness" star Michael Kelly talks season 3 finale

"Lioness" actor Michael Kelly sits down with "CBS Mornings" to discuss the season 3 finale of the popular series.

‘And you will be the People’s Earl’ – Charles Spencer’s Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, digested by John Crace

The earl on his globally lauded eulogy for Diana, King Charles’s sausage fingers and toxic Raine, topped off with a lavish sprinkling of adverbs

Cheers were heard up and down the land. Halley’s comet made an unscheduled appearance in the ethereal night sky. In very heaven, angelic choirs rang out. A saviour had been born. A light to lighten the world. But enough about me. For this paragraph at least.

In my universally acclaimed funeral address, I aimed to speak for my sister. The real Diana. For only I truly knew her. She had the heart of a lion. And I had a glut of cliches. Yet when Diana had swept so triumphantly into the arena of royal life, I was but a callow youth awash with hormones and gripped by the self-centredness of adolescence. Nothing much has changed. Yet I know, with all my heart, that Diana would have wanted me to tell our story.

Chris Spatola, basketball analyst and Mike Krzyzewski's son-in-law, dies at 47

Spatola played basketball for the U.S. Military Academy and later coached on legendary Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski's staff.

From cybersecurity to AI to Taiwan, what's at stake in Trump's summit with Xi

As President Trump and China's President Xi prepare to meet, Rush Doshi of the Council on Foreign Relations explains the current state of U.S.-China relations and what to expect from this summit.

‘I had a headache for days’: Hrgovic reveals brutal toll of Itauma world title fight

• ‘I didn’t celebrate. I went home to rest. It was a hard fight’

• Hrgovic stopped Briton to win the IBF heavyweight title

Filip Hrgovic, the new IBF world heavyweight champion, has offered a candid insight into the ordeal he endured before beating Moses Itauma in a shock stoppage victory last month, revealing he absorbed so many heavy punches in the first eight rounds that he felt headaches for a number of days afterwards.

“I felt fucked up,” said the 34-year-old Croat. “I received a lot of shots and I was bruised. I had a bit of a headache for a few days. On the Wednesday after the fight I was back in the gym, working out already, but for a few days I felt really tired and bruised, with some headaches.”

Cristiano Ronaldo vows to play on for Portugal and targets 1,000 career goals

• Player reflects on critics, says ‘they’ve tried to kill me’

• Jorge Jesus launches passionate defence of 41-year-old

Cristiano Ronaldo said he considered quitting international football after the World Cup, but confirmed he plans to play on for Portugal and hopes to reach 1,000 goals for club and country. Ronaldo, who is 21 goals shy of the milestone, accepted some critics are trying to “kill” him but is determined to carry on.

Ronaldo, who has won 233 caps for his country, captained Portugal in the summer at the World Cup, where they exited to Spain in the last 16. Asked if he considered walking away from international duty, he replied: “Yes, I did. Of course, I’m always thinking about my decisions, my future, the present also. I’m a thinker; you have to think. This is why you see me here now, it means I will continue.

Something in your eye? Here’s how to get it out – without making it worse

It’s natural to want to soothe eye irritation, but mishandling could lead to more problems, experts warn. We asked them for advice on how to deal with it properly

It may feel like a gritty, annoying sensation, or a sharp pain. Either way, you may have the same problem: something is stuck in your eye and needs to come out.

Addressing the situation incorrectly can lead to bigger issues such as infection, scarring, an ulcer or corneal scratches, which are abrasions on the clear covering of your eye. Ignoring the dilemma can lead to similar consequences.

Sleep payments: could they lead to better rest – and better health?

We all need a good night’s rest, but regular, sufficient sleep is hard for many of us to come by. Students in Pittsburgh have been offered a novel incentive

Name: Sleep payments.

Age: A new strategy for an age-old problem.

Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 15 years after sexual assault conviction

Sentencing comes after years of appeals and retrials in case involving former TV production assistant Miriam Haley

Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 15 years on Wednesday after being convicted of sexually assaulting former TV production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006 at his Manhattan apartment.

Haley appeared in court on Wednesday morning and delivered a victim impact statement.

Unhappy couples staying put due to cost of living crisis, say divorce lawyers

Financial pressures suspected to be behind figures showing failed marriages are lasting longer in England and Wales

Couples are putting off divorce because of the cost of living crisis, lawyers have said, after figures showed the average length of a marriage ending in divorce in England and Wales reached a record high last year.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) released figures on Wednesday showing that the average marriage ending in divorce in 2025 lasted for 13 years. This is the longest since records began in 1963 and up from a record low of 8.9 years in 1985.

Trump’s UN speech was delusional and dangerous | Kenneth Roth

It is sad and dangerous that at such a perilous moment, the United States is saddled with a president like Trump

Donald Trump’s speech on Tuesday to the United Nations general assembly was an object lesson in his lawless rule and remarkable capacity for self-delusion. Disregarding the UN charter’s emphasis on the peaceful resolution of disputes, he doubled down on his violent unilateralism while denigrating the global issues that the UN is designed to address.

For many, the headline remark was his musing about whether to “annihilate the Islamic Republic” of Iran. “Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?”

Kenneth Roth is a Guardian US columnist, a senior fellow at Yale University and a former executive director of Human Rights Watch. He is the author of Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments

Mark Wood was a high-speed hero who put body and soul on the line for England | Taha Hashim

Fast bowler won the Ashes and two World Cups but those successes were punctuated by long spells out with injury

To reach for the career stats on Cricinfo is no way to go about it. This is a full-on YouTube job: boil the kettle, load up those spells at Headingley, St Lucia and the rest, and take in the whippy, absurd, mesmerising sight of perhaps the fastest English bowler there has ever been. That’s probably the best way to remember Mark Wood’s career.

Tuesday’s announcement of his international retirement was coming from the moment Wood hobbled out of the Ashes last December, the series opener his only appearance. That always felt like the last act, one he rushed back for after surgery on his left knee earlier that year, and the game moves on fast. England’s seam stocks look healthy across formats, with Jofra Archer there to ramp it up when required. It’s a sore point that Archer and Wood played just two Tests together: one without supporters during the 2020 Covid-bubble summer, the other Wood’s farewell at Perth.

Trans row nurse tells tribunal she ‘felt discriminated against’ by her union

Sandie Peggie accuses RCN of failing to adequately support her in dispute over sharing women’s changing room with trans doctor

A nurse who objected to sharing a changing room with a transgender doctor has said she felt “discriminated against” by her union after raising the complaint.

Sandie Peggie, who worked for NHS Fife for more than 30 years, won a partial victory against her employer after a tribunal in December 2025, when a judge upheld her harassment claim against the health board but dismissed claims of discrimination, indirect discrimination and victimisation.

Nike co-founder gives $1bn to University of Oregon in historic donation

Phil Knight and wife, Penny, make largest known donation to a public university to fund a new engineering school

Nike co-founder Phil Knight, and his wife, Penny, have donated $1bn to the University of Oregon in what the institution described as the “largest gift ever made to a comprehensive public university”.

The donation is intended to be used to establish a new engineering school in Eugene. In a news release seen by the Guardian, the university said the new school would “educate engineers and applied scientists in bioengineering and other high-demand disciplines, attract faculty and researchers to a growing campus, and accelerate the university’s ability to move discoveries out of the laboratory and into products, therapies, technologies and companies”.

DOJ defends Trump ban of 3 news outlets, says White House access is a 'privilege — not a right'

The Department of Justice also argued President Trump was motivated by national security concerns in banning MS NOW, CNN and Politico from the White House.

Eric Idle has had tons of celebrities staying at his house. God, it must be exhausting | Adrian Chiles

Whether it’s an A-lister or an old schoolfriend emerging blearily from the spare room, those first moments of the day are tricky

First thing in the morning, that’s the hardest time. Eric Idle told me this. A wise man, is Eric. Actor, comedian, songwriter, musician, screenwriter and playwright and, when it comes to mornings, a man of wisdom.

I interviewed him about his new book, which is a love letter to his house in Provence. He bought it more than half a century ago, before he hit the big time. It didn’t cost him much, because it was tiny, tumbledown and without water or electricity. Slowly, as the money came in from this job or that, he made improvements. By hook or by crook, the water and electricity started to flow, and with them a steady stream of guests coming to stay. These weren’t just any old guests: they were superstars, among them David Bowie, Art Garfunkel, Penny Marshall, Lauren Hutton, Brian Cox (the professor and the actor too, I think, although possibly not at the same time), Paul Simon, Carrie Fisher, Robin Williams and George Harrison. Also Michael Palin and assorted Pythons; Ronnie Wood and assorted Stones. And so on. There are photos of Wood sitting on the floor strumming his guitar; Bowie mooning about clad only in short shorts. Quite something, but all I could think about was how tiring it must have been to have so many guests turning up all the time. Let’s be honest: guests are a bit of an effort. A-lister or Joe Bloggs, a guest’s a guest.

Bats originated in Europe, rewriting mammals’ family tree, study reveals

Biggest study of its kind provides insights into bats’ evolution – a potential gamechanger for research into treating viruses and cancer in humans

In the northern forests of the Congo-Brazzaville, as the sun slips away, a distinctive honking fills the dusky sky. Every evening, thousands of hammer-headed fruit bats depart their daytime roosts in search of mates, calling out through large, box-shaped snouts that give the flying mammals the appearance of a winged moose. Here, along the Congo River, scientists have been collecting DNA swabs and tissue samples from the bats for years, working deep into the night in spacesuit-like protective gear.

Those hard-won samples are now among the thousands of specimens gathered from bats across the world that have helped to reshape what we know about the bat family tree.

My (complicated) relationship with AI: often seductive, occasionally frustrating and always demanding vigilance | Setareh Seyedghorban

As a multilingual academic, artificial intelligence has levelled the playing field. But I will continue to think, judge and develop ideas that are stubbornly mine

I am walking between carriages in search of a cup of tea on a train travelling over 100 miles an hour from Liverpool to London when I see half the people in my carriage in deep conversations with a machine: ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini to name a few. I am meant to be on sabbatical, the rare stretch of academic life reserved for slow thinking. Around me, almost nobody is thinking slowly.

This is not limited to a train carriage. Half of the adults surveyed in one US study reported using an AI chatbot, one example of how fast people are entering a relationship with their AI tools, which now receive more of our questions, problems and drafts than our friends and colleagues do.

El Niño could cause 451,000 more heat deaths compared to normal year, group says

Researchers project nearly half a million more heat-related deaths from June 2026 to February 2027 compared with a typical year, as a result of El Niño.

Zelenskyy says Ukraine ready for ‘energy ceasefire,’ calls for trilateral meeting with Putin, Trump

Zelenskyy said Ukraine is ready for an “energy ceasefire” with Russia, provided Moscow stops attacks on critical infrastructure.

Meta's Muse shopping agent is a hit, as AI commerce starts to take off

Meta's new AI tool now ranks at the top of the App Store. Some retail experts see a "natural evolution from search."

Wonka’s Golden Ticket review – this bleak reality show is all nausea, no sugar rush

Netflix’s new series is the ruthless, hyper-capitalist competitive take on a kids’ book that no one needed. AI-generating Gene Wilder’s voice for it just feels wrong

As the sad-faced Oompa-Loompas who acted in Glasgow’s famously catastrophic Willy’s Chocolate Experience in 2024 will testify, if you come at Willy Wonka, you’d better not miss. There’s always a risk involved when trying to recreate fantastical, fictional worlds: if you fall short – or miss the point – the bathos is all the more devastating. Roll up, then, for Wonka’s Golden Ticket, Netflix’s twist on Roald Dahl’s confectionary phantasmagoria, which reimagines the story as Squid Game: The Sugar Headache. It gets messy.

As we join our contestants, they’ve assembled outside Wonka’s factory, having found Golden Tickets in apparently random bars of chocolate – although, as a group, they seem fortuitously demographically mixed and able to bring a range of disparate yet complementary backstories to the table. A lucky break. But wait! Is that the voice of beloved Wonka-proxy Gene Wilder?

The EU’s Canada offer is more mood than reality but it could hint at a future geometry for the bloc

While Brussels and Ottawa desire a deeper partnership born of Trump-era volatility, ​the EU has no legal framework to accommodate it

• Don’t get This Is Europe delivered to your inbox? Sign up here

The EU and Canada, Ursula von der Leyen said last week, “see the world with the same eyes”, with shared stances on everything from AI to the climate crisis, the Ukraine war and the unholy chaos unleashed by the current occupant of the White House (OK, she didn’t actually say that last bit. But I like to think she almost certainly thought it.)

So, the European Commission president went on, Canada should become “the first associate member of the EU”. In the audience, Mark Carney beamed with delight. The next day, Canada’s prime minister enthusiastically embraced the idea of an “alliance for the future”, to build “collective resilience” through “deep cooperation”.

Mortgage rates top 7% for the first time since May 2024

As rates climb, more buyers are seeking riskier adjustable-rate mortgages, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Shipwreck, apparent human remains found 7 years after boat sank in Atlantic

The nonprofit Green Oceans asked the Coast Guard to reopen an investigation that had classified the F/V Mistress as lost.

It's getting harder to afford rent in the U.S., even for middle-income families

Housing affordability challenges are spreading to higher income brackets, according to new research, which found one in five renters struggled last year to pay for their housing in full and on time.

Why fans are digging their claws into Wolverine over its patronising gameplay

From highlighted ledges to characters telling you what to do, blockbuster games are increasingly taking the challenge out of playing – and players are pushing back

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Marvel’s Wolverine, the latest action game from Sony’s stable of expensive blockbuster-factory studios, has had an unfortunate launch. Reviews were decent, if not stellar, but a series of viral video clips from reviewers and streamers have made it the scapegoat for a patronising flavour of game design that gamers have hated for decades. This clip, from Skill Up’s review, shows the player entering a beautiful wintry landscape before being overwhelmed by visual cues telling them what they’re supposed to be doing there. Sonar pulses point you in the direction of objectives. Targets – which, it bears emphasising, are shaped like targets – get an extra reflective visual effect so you know you’re supposed to pay attention to them. A trail shows you not just where to go, but where the level’s sole hidden collectible is.

It is hand-holding to the point of parody. Indeed, it reminded me of the sniggersome Mario in Unreal Engine satirical videos that makes the social media rounds every few months (“A mushroom? I should take a look at this”). Skill Up’s clip has been followed by hundreds of others, gleefully ripping into Wolverine with ironic savagery. In one much-copied clip, a streamer simply lays down his controller during a motorbike chase sequence and watches as Wolverine speeds on regardless, bouncing off the scenery as the game plays itself.

Hayden Panettiere died of an accidental overdose, coroner's office says

Hayden Panettiere died of an accidental overdose involving fentanyl, the coroner's office said in its autopsy report. Lillia Luciano reports.

A blood-splattered surgeon after an emergency horse op: Andrea Modica’s best photograph

‘You’d have to be out of your mind not to want to photograph this incredible woman. And it was only afterwards that I realised she looks like a medieval statue, a madonna’

After my first job in the 80s, I had a little money and set off for Italy with my camera and a backpack. I had grown up hearing about Italy, where my family is from, and so began 40 years of travelling back and forth – at times to teach photography, or for a relationship, and always to make photographs with no real agenda, just being in the moment.

My new book and the show that this image appears in spans my many visits. It was taken about six years ago. I became very interested in a horse hospital outside Bologna. I made a large body of work there and this first appeared in a book called Theatrum Equorum, Latin for Horse Theatre, all caught on an old-style large-format 8x10 camera.

Greetings from Edinburgh, where a cheeky tour guide makes art history hilarious

For anyone who grew up staring blankly at museum artwork, this is the fun that was missing: Coco leads interactive and (mostly) factual art history comedy tours.

Rumors swirl after 2 Ole Miss students found dead in separate locations with packaged kratom

Two University of Mississippi students were found dead in separate locations, each with packaged kratom, police said. Jason Allen has the latest.

Diesel prices hit all-time high

Diesel prices hit an all-time high Tuesday of $6.52 per gallon on average. Kris Van Cleave has more.

New powerful synthetic opioids behind sharp rise in Scottish drug deaths

Eleven per cent increase in fatalities last year partly down to presence of nitazenes in Scotland’s illicit drug market

New forms of a powerful synthetic opioid have contributed to a sharp rise in Scottish drug deaths, with the latest data showing an 11% increase in fatalities last year

Annual figures released by National Records of Scotland (NRS) on Wednesday recorded 1,133 drug-related deaths in 2025, 116 more than the previous year. The 2025 figures are the sixth highest on record.

‘We live in a world of extreme consumption and waste’: Magali Reus, the artist reimagining rubbish

Making vast versions of sardine tins and fishing lures, the Dutch sculptor explains how she imbues disposable objects with autonomy and meaning

Midway through my conversation with Magali Reus, we are interrupted by a courier. They’ve arrived at the artist’s studio to deliver an important package – one of the final components of a sculpture being finalised for Reus’s show Swimming By Night at the Perimeter in London.

The studio is filled with such sculptures, all in various stages of completion. Reus likes to take everyday, often disposable, items – pizza boxes and sardine tins among them – and recreate them on a larger-than-life scale. One of them – vast looming fish hook lures made to look like uncanny cupcake cases or severed skeletal limbs – looms nearby, resting against a studio wall.

Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: in praise of slightly silly clothes

The push to buy lasting, sustainable clothes is a good thing, but every wardrobe need a bit of mischief

I do hope you are wearing your zebra stripe trousers today. Anyone who is anyone is wearing zebra stripes this month, you know. If you haven’t yet got with the programme, I suggest you nip to the shops and snap some up before they are all gone. It would be mortifying to be the last one without a pair. Hurry!

Only teasing. Fashion doesn’t work like that any more. The days when people like me bullied everyone else into wearing banana yellow one season and puffball sleeves the next are over. Looking trendy is over. Timeless chic is the only show in town. Peacocking has been phased out in favour of understatement and personal style.

‘He made something every single day’: David Lynch’s inscrutable photography celebrated in LA show

The director’s surrealist films defined Los Angeles. Now the city is celebrating his other passion: photography

No one can bring Los Angeles together like David Lynch.

The first posthumous exhibition of the director and artist’s photographs went on display at LA’s Pace Gallery this weekend, drawing a massive crowd of goths, weirdos and art world observers to celebrate a creative mind that has few equals in American pop culture history.

Beluga whale rescued from closed Canadian marine park dies in US

Osiris, one of 30 belugas removed from Ontario’s shuttered Marineland, struggled to acclimate to her Illinois home

An Illinois aquarium has said that a third beluga whale it rescued from a closed marine park in Canada this summer has died after it struggled to acclimate to its new environment.

Osiris, a 26-year-old female, was one of 30 belugas removed from Ontario’s shuttered Marineland amusement park, and among 10 rehomed at the Shedd aquarium in Chicago, which said the whale died there on Monday.

The living dead: we can watch ‘Janis Joplin’ perform or reunite the Beatles, but who are the real winners here?

Advances in digital technology mean that avatars are ever more realistic, and zombie concerts are coming our way. Exciting as it might be to witness the Fab Four, or Maria Calla on stage, I’d rather have flesh and blood live experiences any day.

It seems that AI’s powers – terrifyingly – know no bounds. But can it raise the dead? Here’s what Avatar concert producer Unit1 Studio’s CEO Barney Wragg said in a recent interview. “We [are] talk[ing] about using AI to simulate the way that tears evaporate in your eye between blinks, or subcutaneous blood flow, so that when one of our [digital] characters laughs or opens their mouth or smiles, areas of their flesh will change colour as it would do in a real human”. Digital avatars are already part of our entertainment landscape – from Tupac and Abba to Maria Callas – but now that an avatar’s cheeks can change colour mid-set, is it game over for humans?

Wragg last week reported a massive investment in his company to make hyper-realistic avatar-entertainment. Unit1 plans to roll out avatars of musicians living – and dead – so that the success of Abba Voyage is just the start of a slew of “hybrid” concerts. In other words, flesh-and-blood audiences paying massive amounts of human money to witness a very expensive LED screen showing phantom musicians in the 21st century’s equivalent of the magic lantern. (The tech is a 2D illusion: you think you’re seeing Abba’s Agnetha in 3D, but you’re not; it’s all just a new-fangled but fundamentally old-fashioned trick of the light.)

Wife of American detained in China holds out hope for his return amid Trump-Xi meeting

The wife of a U.S. citizen wrongfully detained in China has not spoken with him for more than 100 days. Sylvia Zin spoke with Margaret Brennan, saying she hopes President Trump pushes Chinese President Xi Jinping to release her husband.

John Green got an astronomical following from his books. What came next? ‘I’m still competing for clicks’

Returning with his first-ever adult novel, the bestselling author reflects on fame, YouTube and his brother’s AI controversy

By his mid-30s, John Green had done pretty well for himself. His debut novel, Looking for Alaska, had won a prestigious award for young adult literature. He and his brother, Hank, had launched a popular YouTube channel, where they regularly posted videos about their lives. With their combined incomes, Green and his wife were able to cobble together a living, buying a house and starting a family in Indianapolis.

And then, in 2012, he published The Fault in Our Stars.

AI, trade, Taiwan and climate: what will and won’t be on agenda at Trump-Xi summit

Two leaders could discuss tech safety issues and US-China trade ties but may skip over climate emergency

• Analysis: AI looms large over Trump-Xi meeting

The leaders of the world’s two superpowers are meeting in the US this week. It is Xi Jinping’s first state visit to the US in more than a decade. The last time the Chinese president was hosted in Washington (by Barack Obama in 2015), the issues on the agenda included cybercrime, technology, the climate crisis and human rights. The star of the day was Ne-Yo, who serenaded Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, with Peng reportedly singing along at the state dinner.

This time, Xi is meeting Donald Trump, who has overhauled the world order and recalibrated the US-China relationship. Trump is contending with a China that is in a much stronger position than it was 10 years ago. Here are five things to look out for at this week’s US-China summit.

Ancient wall found beneath Paris could confirm site of first settlement

Discovery of Gallo-Roman period structure hailed as ‘major breakthrough’ by French culture ministry

An ancient wall discovered beneath Paris has been described as a “major breakthrough” by France’s culture ministry, with the archaeological find possibly confirming the location of the city’s original settlement.

A roughly 20-metre (65ft) stretch of wall dating from the Gallo-Roman period was discovered in Paris this summer beneath a building on the Île de la Cité, near Notre Dame Cathedral in the heart of the French capital.

How to turn leftover roast chicken into a brilliant midweek meal – recipe | Waste not

Whip up a curry mayonnaise and turn your leftovers into a semi-instant classic

It was my gran’s funeral a few weeks ago, so today’s recipe seems rather fitting, because coronation chicken was one of the few savoury dishes she cooked, and also one I loved. This homage to her glorious personality and astonishingly sweet tooth (add extra mango chutney for sweetness) is a wonderful way to use up leftover chicken from a roast, barbecue or whatever. I make the mayo from scratch, because I don’t keep mayonnaise in my larder, but I do have eggs and extra-virgin olive oil.

Manhunter review – Michael Mann serves up a bold and queasy starter to the serial killer spectacle

Before Anthony Hopkins’ Dr Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, Brian Cox played a cannibalistic killer in Mann’s pioneering Red Dragon adaptation

Five years before The Silence of the Lambs, there was writer-director Michael Mann’s pioneering Thomas Harris adaptation Manhunter, now on re-release in a director’s “final cut” for its 40th anniversary. It was his version of Harris’s 1981 novel Red Dragon, a movie which features Dr Hannibal Lecter (here spelt Lecktor) in a relatively minor part, and played in a much more coolly matter-of-fact and downbeat way by Brian Cox, who is first discovered in his cell lying down with his back to the camera.

It has long been a haughty, hipster film-bro affectation to claim that Cox is better in the role than Anthony Hopkins. (Lecktor’s early acoustic stuff was great, you see, before he went electric as Lecter.) I think that’s a bit obtuse, for all that Cox is of course very good. Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs is the definitive version: face it. But I will concede that Cox is more interesting than Hopkins by the time the latter came to make the 2002 adaptation of Red Dragon, at which stage the franchise had become a bit tired. Manhunter itself is a very interesting and watchable movie, but feels a little unevolved compared to Jonathan Demme’s masterly guignol spectacle, although Demme clearly inhaled Mann’s excitement at jets, ’copters and military hardware deployed at speed to bring down just one man.

Police use teargas on protesters as disabled woman, 87, evicted from Madrid home

Housing rights campaigners decry landlord’s ‘barbaric behaviour’ after apartment Maricarmen had lived in for 71 years was bought by a developer

There were violent scenes in Madrid on Wednesday as riot police fought with protesters trying to prevent the eviction of an 87-year-old disabled woman from her apartment in the Retiro district.

Hundreds of protesters had gathered, many of them overnight, in an effort to block the fourth attempt to carry out the eviction. Activists from the Madrid and Barcelona tenants’ union, and celebrities including the actor Carlos Bardem and the singer and actor Ana Belén, joined the protest.

Burnham survived his first Trump meeting. His nice hair may have had something to do with it | Emma Brockes

The PM’s shiny newness could explain the easy ride he got this time. But who would dare predict the ever-shifting weather in the president’s head?

Watching footage of Andy Burnham at the UN general assembly on Tuesday was like watching your child from behind a tree in the playground. Are they making friends? How normal do they seem relative to the average? How will they react when they come into contact with that hulking great child who seems to be running things? Burnham’s first face-to-face with Donald Trump was billed as a knife-edge encounter that, due to the latter’s capriciousness, could go either way. In the event, it was drama-free, leaving observers to ask: was it Burnham’s brilliance or simply the weather in Trump’s head?

To viewers at home, Burnham’s performance at the press conference looked like that of a man who had worked out his best approach was to go for the sheepish, slightly cheeky air of the junior partner. Burnham is 24 years younger than Trump, on top of everything else – which can afford a certain licence to the less powerful person in any exchange. At the last minute, the meeting had been moved behind closed doors and afterwards, in a windowless room at the UN, the two men appeared side by side, mirroring each other’s body language: just two guys, legs akimbo, shoulders hunched, hanging on a bench in the locker room.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

Is Nepal's flood a harbinger of what's to come in the Himalayas?

Building dams and hydropower plants in the Himalayas holds great promise for providing electricity. In the wake of the Nepal disaster, experts are asking about the risks of such construction.

Nearly 10% of borrowers opted for riskier mortgages last week, as rates soared over 7%

As mortgage rates rise, borrowers are seeking savings in riskier, adjustable-rate mortgages that offer lower rates.

Autumn equinox and Asian Games: photos of the day – Wednesday

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

What is an "AI swarm," and why is it giving tech experts nightmares?

AI "agents" show a remarkable ability to share information and knowledge with other bots. That should worry us.

Dems have an edge over GOP, poll finds. And, ICE looks into 'mobile detention centers'

An NPR poll shows that Democrats have an edge over Republicans going into the midterms, partially due to Trump. And, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is looking into "mobile detention centers."

Nazi jokes and ‘cum trophies’: meet the Texas gunfluencer who could soon represent Uvalde

Brandon Herrera, a YouTuber known for making outrageous pro-gun statements, is the frontrunner to represent a district devastated by mass shootings

The video begins with Brandon Herrera staring intently into the camera. He is filming himself in a hotel room seated between twin beds, his black hair slicked back and beard neatly trimmed. He is wearing a T-shirt branded with his trademark nickname, “The AK Guy”, above the image of a semi-automatic rifle primed for action.

Three days earlier, on 3 August 2019, a white nationalist armed with a semi-automatic firearm not dissimilar to the one stamped across Herrera’s chest entered a busy Walmart store in the Texas border city of El Paso and opened fire.

‘This is where I live now, the back of a truck’: a day in the life of a grandmother in Gaza

As the war in Gaza approaches its fourth year, the Guardian follows five ordinary Palestinians as they go about their lives. Each tells the story of their day, revealing the terrible toll of the conflict. At 76, Mansoura’s most precious possession is the key to her former home

As the war in Gaza approaches its fourth year, this week, the Guardian follows five ordinary Palestinians as they go about their lives. Each will tell the story of their day, revealing the terrible toll of the ongoing conflict.

The flat-bed truck is open to the hot summer air, its metal frame covered on two sides by draped tarpaulins, the rear by a pegged-up bedsheet. On the tin floor lies a squab mattress and pillow with a yellow frilled cover.

Last night, I stayed awake until 2am. I barely sleep during the night because of the mosquitoes and the heat. I fall asleep for a short while, I wake up early in the morning, pray to God, and wait to hear the call to dawn prayer. When I wake up, I call for my grandson to bring over the white plastic chair that I need to climb in and out of the truck.

At Climate Week, Elmo recalls a storm on Sesame Street: ‘Courage is when you still help others’

New York event hears about the red Muppet’s fears during a recent storm as climate crisis increasingly affects children

A generation of political leaders has failed to galvanize sufficient action on the climate crisis for so long now that it was perhaps little surprise that an audience in New York City turned to a three-and-a-half-year-old red furry monster for inspiration on Tuesday.

Elmo, the Sesame Street denizen, made a starry appearance at a Climate Week event that highlighted how the impacts of global heating affect children. The red creature, who frequently refers to himself in the third person, recounted to the audience his fear when a storm hit Sesame Street, an event depicted in a recent episode that featured the singer Post Malone.

Boorman and the Devil review – enjoyable re-evaluation of the disaster that was Exorcist II: The Heretic

John Boorman generously details the mortifying experience of making a sequel to 1973 hit horror The Exorcist, which was widely and unfairly panned

David Kittredge gives us a thoroughly enjoyable, detailed account of the catastrophe that was John Boorman’s 1977 film Exorcist II: The Heretic, the deeply ill-conceived and widely derided follow-up to The Exorcist, a bizarre but ambitious fantasy supernatural rhapsody, brimming with unintentional comedy. Yet it was visually bold and even brilliant, pioneering in its use of Steadicam; Linda Blair and Max von Sydow were persuaded to return; Richard Burton was cast as a troubled priest, and Louise Fletcher as a psychiatrist whose weird “mind-reader” contraption was entirely ridiculous. At the first film, people screamed. Now they screamed with laughter.

According to an apocryphal tale gleefully repeated by William Friedkin, director of the first film, the sequel resulted in an enraged audience one night turning round and booing Warner Brothers executives in the back row of the cinema, and then chasing them out of the building and down the street. Boorman desperately recut the film with the sillier bits removed. But the damage was done.

I tried to become a gay tradwife – and failed abysmally | Arwa Mahdawi

My sourdough starter died and my lone tomato nearly ruined me financially and emotionally. How did domestic drudgery and hard labour become an aspirational aesthetic?

I have just eaten what may be the world’s most expensive tomato. It comes from a little region of Philadelphia better known for sports culture than horticulture and was cultivated by yours truly. I spent only a few dollars on the plant, but then I had to buy a tomato cage and a few companion plants to keep it company. Then I had to spend an ungodly amount of time watering it and hacking away at weeds. In short: I put a huge amount of emotional investment into that tomato. Was it worth it? Absolutely not. I should have just gone to Aldi.

Of course, the tomato growing wasn’t really about saving money, it was about saving my sanity. Earlier this year, my wife and I got a plot at our local community garden; buoyed up by this development, I decided to ward off existential angst by throwing myself into tradwife-adjacent hobbies such as gardening and baking. I don’t know if it’s possible to be a gay tradwife but, after Googling the subject, I did find a magazine piece entitled The Curious Case of the Bisexual Tradwife. Alas, I can’t tell you much more about the phenomenon because there was a paywall. There are a lot of walls to pay in this life and this one did not make the cut.

Our message to global leaders: we need solar power everywhere by the decade’s end | Open letter

As the UN gathers, signatories from Bernie Sanders to Yeb Saño issue an open letter calling for clean power for all

• The climate fight has one great ally. You just can’t look at it directly


We the undersigned write this letter out of great fear and great hope.

Over the last few months, we’ve seen the world set ablaze by both war and warming. From the conflict in Iran, which has claimed thousands of lives and disrupted billions more, to the series of ever worsening climate disasters, from wildfires in Europe to collapsing glaciers in Nepal, the world seems to be falling apart exactly when it needs to be coming together.

Texas turning blue may hinge on Democrats harnessing data center opposition

Data center opposition is reshaping Texas' 2026 governor and Senate races as voters raise concerns over power, water and utility costs.