Supreme Court lets Trump build White House ballroom as lawsuit continues

Chief Justice John Roberts dissented with three liberal justices, saying, "That construction is likely unlawful."

Aston Villa v Arsenal: Premier League – live

⚽️ Premier League updates from the 8pm BST kick-off
⚽️ Email Scott and follow us on TikTok and Bluesky

The teams are out! You know what everyone’s wearing. A reduced capacity of around 37,000 at Villa Park, with the North Stand closed for the season to facilitate its expansion. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes.

Pre-match postbag. “Poor Villa. They were so great last year. Then management sells off the heart of their team. Today they will get embarrassed by the Gunners. What a present to their ever loyal fans” – Mary Waltz

US Open 2026: Alcaraz wins in straight sets on return while Sabalenka also progresses – live

Ailing Djokovic goes out | Williams loses after 2am start
You can email Taha and follow us on TikTok and Bluesky

Sabalenka eases through on her serve, advancing to the net to secure her first game of the tournament with a forehand volley. It’s 1-1 in the opening set against Osorio.

Sabalenka and Osorio are underway on Arthur Ashe, with the Colombian serving. She records two double-faults before Sabalenka seizes upon the second serve, whipping a blistering forehand to make it deuce. But the defending champion finds the net and the stratosphere, too, as Osorio holds to go 1-0 up.

US supreme court allows Trump to keep building $400m White House ballroom

Justices’ 5-4 ruling permits Trump administration appeal to block lower court order halting above-ground work

A divided US supreme court has permitted Donald Trump to continue building his controversial $400m White House ballroom amid legal challenges.

In a 5-4 ruling, the justices permitted the Trump administration’s request to ⁠block a lower court order which had halted above-ground construction of the project while a lawsuit by a historic preservation group seeks to block it.

Supreme Court continues to allow construction of Trump's White House ballroom

The Supreme Court divided 5-4 in allowing construction of the new White House ballroom to continue.

Trump inks deal with 9 pharmaceutical companies to lower drug costs

The White House said the agreements will reduce costs to treat Parkinson's disease, macular degeneration, glaucoma, liver disease and other illnesses.

Trump strikes new drug pricing deals with nine midsized drugmakers

The string of deals builds on the Trump administration's push to link the nation's drug prices to cheaper ones abroad.

Tennessee to wear Dolly Parton tribute on helmets during 2026 college football season

• Beloved singer died last week at the age of 80

• Parton was born 30 miles from college campus

The Tennessee Volunteers will be honoring Dolly Parton with a helmet sticker this season, the college football team’s head coach, Josh Heupel, announced on Monday.

Parton, a Tennessee native, died last week at the age of 80 from cancer.

The U.S. sues Amazon again

Federal regulators and 22 states allege that the tech giant made billions by manipulating how much brands and sellers paid for ads on its platform.

Tupac Shakur murder trial: Las Vegas court hears closing arguments in case

Former gang leader Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis, 63, is accused of ordering the killing of the hip-hop star in 1996

A Las Vegas court is hearing closing arguments in the trial of the South Side Compton Crips gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis, who is accused of ordering the murder of hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur.

Davis, 63, is accused of leading a group of men to kill Shakur in retaliation for the beating of his nephew, though not of pulling the trigger himself. Davis has pleaded not guilty.

US health officials exclude measles-related deaths in Pennsylvania from counts

RFK Jr, the health secretary, has suggested the deaths were ‘fabricated’ while the CDC claimed it was reviewing them

Top US health officials and government agencies are currently not including the two recent measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania in their counts.

“This is highly unusual,” said Debra Houry, former chief medical officer of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She noted that this did not happen with the three deaths reported from measles in Texas and New Mexico last year.

FTC and 22 states sue Amazon over alleged secret ad surcharge scheme

Regulators allege that sellers and brands were overcharged by tens of billions of dollars through secretly inflated ad prices.

US trade regulator and 22 states accuse Amazon of taking $20bn with secret surcharges

FTC alleges in lawsuit that online retailer ‘secretly and systematically overcharged’ advertisers for years

The US’s main trade regulator and 22 states sued Amazon on Monday, alleging the online retailer “secretly and systematically overcharged” advertisers on Amazon.com.

“Amazon has millions of advertising customers who were misled into paying significantly higher prices. These higher costs were largely passed on to American consumers,” said Andrew Ferguson, the FTC chair.

Markets see Warsh endorsing a rate hike in September. Not everyone is convinced

The path toward the move still looks cluttered.

Manchester City gazump Spurs over Iliman Ndiaye and eye Enzo Fernández deal

• City agree £65m deal with Everton for Senegal winger

• Richarlison to stay at Spurs, who want Chelsea’s Mudryk

Manchester City are poised to ­bolster their attack by buying Everton’s ­Iliman Ndiaye for up to £65m and have opened talks with Chelsea over a deal to sign Enzo Fernández.

City’s hijack of Tottenham’s deal for Ndiaye came after their attempts to sign Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo broke down. The Senegal international is poised to undergo a medical after a fee of £60m plus £5m in add-ons was agreed with Everton, who have little time to find a replacement for one of their most important players before the transfer window shuts on Tuesday night.

Defense lawyers for singer D4vd withdraw from murder case

Singer, accused of murder and sexual abuse of teen Celeste Rivas Hernandez, to be represented by LA public defender

Singer D4vd lost his high-profile private lawyers on Monday at a hearing where he entered a new not guilty plea to charges that he killed, sexually abused and dismembered 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.

It is not clear why Blair Berk and her colleagues Marilyn Bednarski and Regina Peter parted ways with the singer, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke. They were replaced by a lawyer from the Los Angeles county public defender’s office.

2 dead, about 15 missing after Grand Canyon hit by flash floods

Violent flash floods hit the Grand Canyon's Bright Angel Canyon and Phantom Ranch area, the National Park Service said, leaving more than a dozen people missing.

Mortgage rates surge to the highest since June 2025 as new Middle East attacks push oil prices up

The expectation had been for falling rates this year, but the war with Iran and its resulting rise in oil prices upended that.

Lionel Messi’s international retirement serves as a reminder: Watch him while you still can

The Argentine’s career with Argentina was singular, and his exit is a reminder that all good things come to an end

It was among the defining moments of the 2026 World Cup: Lionel Messi standing arms akimbo, looking up towards Argentina’s fervent supporters after losing the final. Tears streamed down his face after his team’s embarrassing loss to Spain in what we now know was Messi’s final match wearing that famous Argentina kit.

It was not the first time he’d cried at the tournament. There had been tears of joy in Argentina’s opening match, when Messi rolled back the clock to his glory days with a trio of spectacular goals against Algeria. There had been more when his brace against Austria pushed Argentina through to the knockout round as group winners, and even more when his equalizer against Egypt threw la Albiceleste a much-needed lifeline. Later, the world found out that Messi had been struggling all the while with the health struggles of his father, Jorge, a fact that clearly weighed heavily on him as Argentina made a dramatic return to the final in a bid to defend their 2022 title.

Trump says U.S. communities opposing AI data centers could end up 'backwards and poor'

"China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement," Trump said as Republicans express concerns about the backlash to data centers.

Bessent pushes back on Druckenmiller critique of bond intervention

Bessent, at a G20 finance meeting, told CNBC he spoke with Stanley Druckenmiller after his critical op-ed was published and that their conversation went "fine."

Tropical storm warning issued along Louisiana, Texas coasts

The National Hurricane Center issued a tropical storm warning for coastal Texas and Louisiana on Monday as a tropical depression formed in the Gulf.

Turkish deep-sea search vessel joins efforts to retrieve 20 still missing after Cyprus ferry disaster

TCG Isin expected to play vital role in locating Filo Jet’s voyage data recorder 514 metres below surface

A deep-sea search and rescue vessel is on its way to Cyprus as Turkey joins efforts to retrieve the 20 people still missing after a passenger ferry capsized off the island’s northern coast.

The TCG Isin will join the vast operation to find survivors after the high-speed ferry sank on Sunday barely four nautical miles outside the port town of Kyrenia.

Kalshi bans ex-congressman George Santos for life after suspicious trades

George Santos faces a lifetime ban from Kalshi after failing to cooperate with the prediction market's investigation into his alleged unlawful trades.

Kalshi bans ex-congressman George Santos from prediction platform for life

Santos was accused of profiting from bets tied to his attendance at Trump’s State of the Union address

George Santos, the former Republican congressman whose political career collapsed under a mountain of lies, has become the first person ever handed a lifetime ban by the prediction-market platform Kalshi.

The company announced the permanent suspension on Monday, along with a $71,356 fine, after federal regulators accused Santos of profiting from bets tied to his own attendance at Donald Trump’s State of the Union address earlier this year.

Judge orders National Guard shooting suspect to be force-fed

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, accused last year of fatally shooting a National Guard member and severely injuring another, has been refusing to eat for months while in government custody.

Lionel Messi says he is retiring from the Argentina national soccer team

Lionel Messi played in six World Cups and led Argentina to win the tournament in 2022 in Qatar.

Two dead and at least 15 missing after flash flood in Arizona’s Grand Canyon

National Park Service confirms second death from weekend flash flood as area braces for more storms

A second death was confirmed by National Park Service officials on Monday after aflash flood sent a surge of water and debris through an area of the Grand Canyon over the weekend.

Dozens of visitors had to be evacuated by helicopter during the deluge that consumed trails and infrastructure. Fifteen people are still missing or unaccounted for, as more heavy rain and thunderstorms in the forecasts threaten additional debris flows, flash floods or rockfalls, the NPS said in a statement.

Will Trump's Venezuela oil deal ease U.S. gas prices?

The deal involves developing 17 strategic oil fields in Venezuela, an undertaking that experts said could take years.

Who would fall in love with a fake NFL player? Plenty of sensible people

The FBI has charged Daejon Love after he allegedly pretended to be a 49ers receiver. Although football isn’t as glamorous as it looks, it easy to see the attraction

Is romance dead? Yeah, probably. There have never been more options for finding a mate – dating apps, Instagram DM slides, hanging out next to a gas station at 2am – but it’s also never been harder. Meeting someone who is compatible, stable, and even remotely attractive is akin to putting a square peg in a round hole. Blindfolded. From a mile away. Underwater. So, I can’t blame anyone for falling for an elaborate hoax like the one allegedly perpetrated by Daejon Love.

Love is now infamous around the world for allegedly posing as an NFL player in order to scam more than 20 women out of $1.3m. Now that Love and his alleged accomplice, Taylor Jamie Chen, have been charged by federal authorities, prosecutors are claiming they are a flight risk. They certainly seem like they have the money to flee the country. According to court documents, Love managed to fabricate an entire online persona as a San Francisco 49ers player – posting photos and videos in Niners gear, posing with expensive cars, and even performing football drills (badly) to bolster the alleged grift. Love allegedly used AI to trick search engine results to add credibility to his claims on football success with the 49ers. There’s even a video of Love running wide receiver routes on the beach. In a helmet. Do real NFL players carry their helmets in the car, just in case? You never know when you may risk a concussion while laying in the sand.

Kalshi permanently bans former GOP Rep. George Santos over illegal trading

Former GOP Rep. George Santos, of New York, has drawn fire for allegedly trading on whether he would attend this year's State of the Union address.

Trump threatens further action as US and Iran exchange fire in new flare-up

Washington says it acted after observing Iran was planning to deploy fresh mines in strait of Hormuz

The US and Iran have exchanged fire for the first time in a month, with missiles and drones fired at Iranian rocket launchers on an island in the strait of Hormuz, and Iran targeting US military bases in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates in response.

The US president, Donald Trump, on Monday threatened further action. The US is to trying to prise open Tehran’s grip on shipping going through the strait, which before the war accounted for a fifth of the world’s seaborne energy supply. Washington claimed that Iranian control over the waterway had been loosened by repeated US attacks on Iranian missile launchers and radars.

John Galliano's Met Gala exhibit canceled amid backlash

The Met's decision to highlight the work by designer John Galliano sparked widespread controversy due to his history of antisemitic and racist comments.

Paperwork, lines, hours on hold: There's a 'Time Tax' on Americans who need help most

Annie Lowrey explores the administrative burdens people face applying for government benefits. It's not just about wasted time: "When the government treats us like this, we don't trust it," she says.

The Guardian view on Trump’s immigration crackdown: who will have fewer rights next? | Editorial

The president’s deportation machine is creating a class of people inside the US who have fewer protections against the power of the state

Is the Trump administration creating a group in the US with fewer protections against executive power owing to their immigration status? Its often openly racist actions suggest so. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) claims to target “the worst of the worst” – undocumented migrants who commit violent crimes. Yet the Guardian reported that over half of those arrested in July had no criminal convictions or pending charges. That month, ICE made record arrests and deportations, apprehending 1,500 people and removing 1,100 daily.

When campaigning, Donald Trump falsely claimed that Haitians were “eating the pets”. In office, his administration moved to end temporary protected status (TPS) for Haitians. In June, the supreme court let the protection expire, leaving about 350,000 people at risk of deportation to a country gripped by violence and instability. The court’s decision means more than 1 million TPS holders from 13 nations previously considered too unsafe to return to are now at risk of deportation. Many have lived and worked legally in the US for years.

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 regulating big tech: Meta has got off too lightly | Editorial

New child safety measures are welcome, but the wider risks posed by these platforms remain unaddressed

“Hook, hold, harvest and hide” was how Megan O’Neill, a lawyer for the US state of California, characterised Meta’s business model in the trial that ended last week with an $18bn settlement, to be shared between the states and territories that brought the case. It was a clever way to describe the company’s approach to users’ attention and data. But the sharpness of her words was not matched by the deal. While the strengthening of child safety features is welcome, the tech giant once again batted off efforts to alter its products.

Meta’s decision to settle enabled it to avoid any admission of liability. It put a stop to the awkward questions being asked of witnesses including Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s CEO, and the damaging claims made by whistleblowers such as Arturo Béjar. This former Meta safety engineer told the court that his own daughter had been sent unsolicited photos of male genitals on Instagram.

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.

Head of Viktor Orbán’s favourite thinktank quits over unpaid wages

Frank Furedi announces resignation from MCC Brussels after organisation’s staff ‘not paid in July or August’

The head of Viktor Orbán’s favourite Brussels thinktank has quit, citing unpaid wages since the change of government in Hungary.

The sociology professor Frank Furedi said he was resigning as the executive director of MCC Brussels with “immediate effect” on Monday over “persistent failure to provide the contractually agreed funds”.

Pakistan sack head coach and send seven players home after England Test series defeat

• Sarfaraz Ahmed sacked after 194-run loss at Lord’s

• White-ball coach Mike Hesson steps in

Pakistan have decided to rip up their plans during an already chaotic tour of England by announcing that seven players and head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed have been sent home before the third Test at Edgbaston next week.

Already confirmed to lose the series after going 2-0 down with a 194-run defeat at Lord’s on Sunday, Pakistan have now asked Mike Hesson, the New Zealander who runs their white-ball teams, to replace Sarfaraz as head coach. Umar Gul, their bowling coach, has also been swapped out for the Australian Ashley Noffke.

Lionel Messi says he's retiring from playing internationally for Argentina

He said he wrote his retirement letter after the World Cup final in July, but waited to publish it because his father was facing health issues that eventually claimed his life.

Dolly Parton laid to rest in private Nashville funeral

The queen of country was interred next to her late husband in an intimate ceremony attended by close family

Dolly Parton was laid to rest in a private ceremony in Nashville on Friday, her family has confirmed.

The queen of country music, who died aged 80 on 25 August “after bravely facing a brief battle with cancer”, was interred at Woodlawn Memorial Park and Mausoleum alongside her husband of 60 years, Carl Thomas.

Marseille’s squad is being gutted but their manager is staying – for now

It has been a tough transfer window for Marseille and a 2-0 defeat at Monaco suggests it could be a long season

By Get French Football News

A humid night in Monaco provided an opportunity to gauge the temperature of the Marseille supporters. Despite the ban on away fans at the Stade Louis II, plenty were in attendance for their 2-0 defeat in the Principality. There were cheers for their new manager, Bruno Génésio, and boos for Geoffrey Kondogbia, but it was the silence for much of the second half that spoke volumes.

Génésio, who replaced Habib Beye in the summer, has been appointed to keep a lid on things. The former Lille manager has been part of a larger reshuffle at Marseille, with the president and the sporting director also replaced. The new arrivals have inherited a mess. After making promises to Uefa and the DNCG – French football’s financial watchdog – Marseille were allowed to compete in Europe this season. However, if they fail to reduce their wage bill drastically, they will not be allowed to do so next season.

Fifa extends ban on man who secretly filmed female footballers in Austria

• Former SCR Altach employee now banned worldwide

• Move follows pressure from players’ unions

Fifa has extended worldwide the ban on a former match official and SCR Altach employee found guilty of taking secret videos and photographs of members of the club’s women’s team.

In February, a regional court in Feldkirch, Austria, handed the man a seven-month suspended prison sentence, a €1,200 (£1,046) fine and ordered him to pay the victims €625 (£545) each in compensation after he was found guilty of filming and taking photographs of players, including minors, in the changing room, gym and showers of Altach’s women’s team between 2018 and 2025.

Did you solve it? The fin-tastic fish puzzle

The solution to today’s underwater conundrums

Earlier today I set you the following puzzles. Here they are again with the solutions.

A fish is swimming in a tank that is two metres high, one metre across and one metre deep. The image below shows one path it swam.

Onslaught review – super soldier slasher doesn’t go hard enough

There’s a committed performance from a spunky Adria Arjona in the Guest director Adam Wingard’s decent B-movie but it’s missing some sharper weaponry

There’s something rather fascinating about an indie director who heads to the A-list before returning to their roots, a wider skillset and different perspective gained for better or worse. Working within a stricter system – the tiniest of choices being agreed upon by the largest of committees – can often be a creatively crushing experience that we’ve heard gruesomely detailed by many who survived it but the expansion of what one is allowed to technically do with a bigger budget can also be instructive and enriching. The dream scenario is bringing back the good and allowing the bad to inspire new work that makes the most of how unshackled one again now is.

There are plenty of examples of how this hasn’t worked. Neill Blomkamp following Elysium and Chappie with chintzy low-budget horror Demonic (easily his least effective film although since opening his own AI “studio” I imagine the worst is yet to come), Marc Forster following Quantum of Solace and World War Z with a blind Blake Lively film that, ironically, no one saw while Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck went from the greatness of Half Nelson to the blandness of Captain Marvel to the headache of Freaky Tales. But then we were also gifted with the hometown intimacy of Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma after he came back from space for Gravity and Hogwarts for the Prisoner of Azkaban while Karyn Kusama brushed off the nightmare of Æon Flux with the brilliantly creepy dinner party thriller The Invitation.

Nepal rescuers race to reach hundreds feared trapped in hydropower tunnels

Workers thought to be stuck in underground areas at 11 sites after last week’s devastating flash floods

Rescue teams are working to reach more than 900 missing hydropower workers, hundreds of whom are feared trapped in the tunnels and underground areas of 12 hydropower projects in Nepal after the devastating flash floods, ​the ⁠country’s disaster ​management authority has said.

The death toll from the ⁠unprecedented deluge of ice, rock, mud ​and debris on Wednesday last week has risen to 939 people, with 16 more dead reported in Tibet. More than 4,400 are missing on the two sides of the border.

Kyiv suffers hours of daytime air raids as Russia deploys new jet-powered drones

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says about 800 Shahed drones fired into Ukraine in four days in effort to ‘wear down’ country

Kyiv is enduring hours of daytime air raids and air raid warnings as Russia has fired 800 jet-powered drones into Ukraine in four days, using the faster weapons to sustain prolonged waves of attacks

The new-model Shahed drones have a cruising speed of 200mph to 250mph , about double the 115mph achieved by the piston-engine version and beyond the speed of Ukraine’s cheap interceptors, making them harder to stop.

Trump warns 'we're going to hit them hard' after Iran targets U.S. forces in Jordan: Report

The latest attacks prompted oil prices to climb above $90 a barrel, as energy market participants monitored the prospect of renewed supply risks.

Argentina’s Lionel Messi retires from international football: ‘This hurts me a lot’

• Argentina great’s last game was in World Cup final

• Player’s father Jorge died earlier in August

Lionel Messi has announced his retirement from international football seven weeks after Argentina were beaten by Spain in the World Cup final in the US. The 39-year-old captained Argentina to World Cup glory in 2022 and two Copa América titles after winning his first cap in 2005.

On Monday, Messi posted a picture on Instagram of notes that he wrote on 21 July, two days after the World Cup final, confirming he was ending his Argentina career and said the death of his father, Jorge, in early August made him feel “more convinced than before”. Messi was often visibly emotional during the tournament and revealed in the knockout stages that Jorge was undergoing medical treatment.

Ross Fire still burning after a week, with 85,000 acres scorched

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

A job that changed me: Being a theatre usher cracked open my heart to beauty

The performances often gave me goose bumps, but I also got to observe the highs and lows of audience behaviour

• Read more in this series here

I was 24, had just moved into a share house I couldn’t afford, and my job as a nanny was proving less than ideal. I’d graduated from my music degree a few years prior and was floating along, feeling a little lost.

A friend had told me to apply to become a front-of-house staff member at Australia’s busiest performing arts centre, Arts Centre Melbourne. It was a rare opportunity, as people rarely quit. To be surrounded by art again sounded like a dream.

Gen Z ‘Chinamaxxers’ fantasise about life in China. This journalist and this artist can never go back there

A graphic novel by Melissa Chan and Badiucao imagines China and the US at war in 2035. They hope to remind young people that ‘authoritarianism everywhere is bad’

Drinking Tsingtao beers, eating congee, walking with hands behind their backs: for many young people in western countries, “Chinamaxxing” has become all the rage. Some content creators have even gone beyond the jokes about being in “a very Chinese time in my life” and have followed this passion to the Middle Kingdom: making TikToks in Chongqing’s multi-layered metropolis, bathing in Chengdu’s 24-hour spas, or backflipping on the Great Wall of China.

This irreverent, mostly ironic trend is jarring for some, but Chinese-Australian artist Badiucao and Chinese-American journalist Melissa Chan don’t want to lecture the so-called Chinamaxxers.

Met Gala exhibition honoring John Galliano is cancelled after backlash

Fashion designer was convicted of hate crime by French court in 2011 after series of racist and antisemitic remarks

The controversial fashion designer John Galliano announced on Monday that an exhibition honoring his work that New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art had scheduled to open for the upcoming spring’s Met Gala is not going to go forward.

The museum’s decision to honor Galliano, who was convicted of a hate crime by a French court in 2011 after a series of racist and antisemitic remarks, had drawn controversy and backlash.

The law won't save us from Meta's 'pervert glasses'. The only solution is mockery | Jonathan Liew

These things are undermining not just our public spaces but the very nature of being human. Let’s shame them off the streets

So far I am yet to be tempted into purchasing a pair of Ray-Ban Meta glasses. To a certain extent this is a function of possessing a large, misshapen and comically convex head upon which no pair of sunglasses has ever looked remotely appropriate. Nor am I one of those consumers who professes to be “really into gadgets”, a preference I’ve always found weirdly unspecific. It’s subtly telling when people claim to be into “gadgets”, because they’re never talking about, say, a tin opener. What they really mean is something gimmicky and expensive that almost certainly requires the services of a datacentre and enough water to irrigate Kent.

And even if I were to surmount these two obstacles, you then get into the ethics of the thing. I’m nobody’s idea of a PR expert, but if your shiny new product keeps requiring patches and updates to prevent people from using it to do degenerate things to women, perhaps it might be worth walking it back to the research and development stage.

Jonathan Liew is a Guardian columnist

Psychologist shares secret to overcoming challenges without losing your cool

Angela Duckworth, a psychologist and author, joins "CBS Mornings" to discuss her new book, "Situated: Find the People and Places That Bring Out Your Best." Duckworth reflects on her philosophy shift about the power of grit and shares ways that people can maximize their personal success.

Costumed carnival-goers in Notting Hill – in pictures

People hit the streets of west London as Europe’s largest street carnival marks its 60th year, celebrating Caribbean history and culture

100 ultramarathons in 100 days: former rugby pro hit by brain injury nears end of feat

David ‘Jacko’ Jackson has aimed to raise awareness of brain injuries, with fellow runners sharing their stories

The key for David “Jacko” Jackson is to take each stage nice and gently. “It’s not about running fast,” he said. “It’s more like the hare and tortoise story. Slow and steady – and do it again tomorrow.”

So far, so good. Jackson, a former professional rugby player who retired after a traumatic brain injury, is nearing the end of an extraordinary bid to run 100 ultramarathons (50km, or about 30 miles) in 100 consecutive days.

A$AP Rocky review – arena spectacular has plenty of helicopters but little sense of direction

O2 Arena, London
The polymath rapper’s stage show, which also features SWAT teams and a warship, is truly bravura stuff – but you can’t help feeling this is an artist at a creative crossroads

A$AP Rocky dangles precariously from a helicopter, while beneath him black-clad SWAT officers brawl with his white-masked followers. This isn’t some cliffhanger setpiece from the rapper/actor’s latest film – it’s just how shows on his Don’t Be Dumb tour open. It’s a big production: there are further prop helicopters, including a smaller one up in the rafters from which he also raps (a reference to his single Helicopter), while the stage recreates the top deck of a naval warship, for reasons that never become clear.

The bizarre set underscores a sense of a man in career transition, unsure who he is any more. In the eight years since his last album, this survivor of homelessness and incarceration became a father, three times, with Rihanna; he’s pivoting towards movies – good ones – and co-chairs the Met Gala. His new record sought to redefine him as an artist, juggling more of his trademark pugilistic rap with ambitious stylistic experiments and unexpected collaborations (Damon Albarn! Danny Elfman!).

South African airline defends dramatic low-level flyby before rugby union clash

• Cape Town stunt sparks major debate over safety risks

• Airlink insists flyby conducted according to regulations

A pre-game stunt involving two passenger jets flying dramatically low over a stadium in South Africa drew huge cheers from the estimated crowd of 56,000 people, but also sparked a major debate over safety risks. The flyby by two Embraer jets, operated by the local airline Airlink, happened on Saturday before the second rugby union Test between South Africa and New Zealand in Cape Town.

The flight tracking service Flightradar24 estimated that the lead jet passed just 41-46 feet (12-14 metres) above the roof of Cape Town Stadium, with the crowd and the world’s top-ranked rugby teams below. The second jet, which was very close behind, flew through a cloud of pink dust that shot up from the stadium roof as part of the show.

A mobile cinema in Gaza and a golden ritual in Thailand: photos of the day – Monday

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

Fiorentina’s Serie A renaissance feels a way off after chastening centenary | Nicky Bandini

The home game against Frosinone seemed a perfect way to celebrate their landmark. It did not work out that way

Fiorentina’s 100th birthday party had been going for four days, starting with a fan procession through the historic centre of Florence on Wednesday night and extending to their home game against Frosinone on Saturday afternoon. The club was founded on 29 August 1926, but a decades-old discrepancy in the reporting of that date has led supporters to celebrate traditionally on the 26th.

This time they started a few hours earlier, gathering in their thousands beneath the marble façade of the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella on the evening of 25 August and building to a firework show beside the river Arno at midnight. The club’s president, Giuseppe Commisso, stopped by to give a speech. At least one former player, Borja Valero, was among the crowd.

‘The whistling on the theme tune? That’s Dickie Attenborough!’ Hayley Mills on Whistle Down the Wind

‘I’d just made two films in America. Shooting on a Lancashire farm was very different. There was mud everywhere – and we’d be eating dripping, jam butties and fried eggs in buns’

Whistle Down the Wind was originally a novel written by my mother, Mary Hayley Bell, about three children living on a farm in Sussex. The children – loosely based on my sister Juliet, my brother Jonathan and myself – discover a man in their barn. Thinking he’s Jesus, they decide to hide him and protect him from the adults because they don’t want the same thing to happen to him as before.

Man poses as NFL player, allegedly steals millions in shocking love scam

Daejon Love is a 35-year-old man who posed as an NFL player on dating apps. Now he's accused of scamming unsuspecting victims out of millions of dollars. Tom Hanson reports.

How a South African town cleaned up its polluted river using stones, wood and sand

Scientists say system to treat contaminated wastewater offers a model for ensuring food security in a fast-warming climate

All it took to turn the murky, heavily polluted waters of South Africa’s Stiebeuel River into a resource clean enough for irrigating a community’s vegetable plots was a collection of stones, heat-treated wood and sand.

Without chemicals and using renewable energy, researchers from the University of Cape Town are cleaning 36,000 litres of water, polluted by sewage, chemicals, and traces of drugs and medication, every day to make it usable for growing food in a fast-expanding informal settlement along the course of the river.

Readers reply: If all car tyres were filled with CO2, would this cut atmospheric carbon significantly?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions considers a change that might help the environment

This week’s question: Would equal pay create a better society?

If all the vehicles on the planet had their tyres pumped up with CO₂, would this lock up enough carbon to lower the amount in the air significantly? Would there be other issues, such as the carbon cost of trapping it all into the tyres? Chris Coldwell, Lancaster

Send new questions to [email protected].

Can Reform UK recover from its summer horribilis?

Clacton, funding, internal divisions – party prepares for annual conference next week after a season of missteps

Senior Reform UK figures like to boast that the summer time – and parliament’s longest recess – is when the party makes hay.

Supposedly, it is when Nigel Farage and co can muscle in on the news cycle with provocative statements and new policies, painting “establishment” opponents as workshy layabouts.

Grand Canyon flood evacuee says he "didn't know what was going to happen"

Flash floods ripped through Grand Canyon National Park over the weekend. One body was recovered in the park Sunday night, the National Park Service said, and more than a dozen are still believed to be missing. Matt Gutman reports.

Rise of Chicken Shop Date highlights how YouTube turned the tables on TV

Amelia Dimoldenberg says publicists ignored her interview show for years but she can now be picky over A-list guests

Just a decade ago, Amelia Dimoldenberg found it impossible to drum up any mainstream celebrities to come on her mock date YouTube show, in which she chats awkwardly with guests over chicken and chips.

Even persuading a local actor connected with her London youth club to come on took years of prodding. Managers of A-listers with movies or albums to push instead battled to claim a spot on the hallowed cushions of the primetime TV chatshow sofa.

Rosie Mackean’s quick and easy recipe for cucumber rice with fudgy eggs | Quick and easy

An intriguing and refreshing hot-cold combo of eggy rice, butter, cold cucumber sauce and pickles

When cooking on a weeknight, it’s easy to forget that sometimes experimenting with temperature is as important as flavour. Hot things combined with very cold things are exceptionally refreshing in the summer, and also make the mundane more exciting and playful. This dish of hot rice, hot butter, cold cucumber sauce, hot egg and cold pickles might sound, well, a bit weird, but I promise it’s delicious, comforting and also cooling.

Good Time Cooking: Show-Stopping Menus for Easy Entertaining, by Rosie Mackean, is published by Pavilion Books at £26. To order a copy for £23.40, visit guardianbookshop.com

Countries legally obliged to consider slavery reparations, says UN committee

Guidance says states must implement ‘comprehensive measures’ to address legacy of racial discrimination

A UN committee has said countries are legally obliged to consider reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and take other ⁠measures to address the enduring ⁠legacy of racial ​discrimination.

Guidance published on Monday by the committee on the elimination of racial discrimination (CERD) said the obligations arose from ⁠a legally binding 1965 convention on racial discrimination, not from the legal standards that existed when the slave trade took place.

Elversberg and ‘miracle village’ prove that Bundesliga fairytales still exist | Andy Brassell

German football has long insisted there is more to their elite league than a title race. Now they have a story that shows the world that surprise and wonder does live here too

Friday night was no first day fun for VfB Stuttgart as they got first-hand proof of what the rest of the Bundesliga feared: that Bayern Munich are perhaps mightier than ever. The curtain-raiser, though, didn’t actually set the tone for the the weekend. German football has long insisted there is more to their elite league than a title race, and now they have a story that shows the world that surprise and wonder does indeed live here too.

Bayer Leverkusen arrived into their opening fixture of the campaign thinking their season might contain greater certainty than the last one, a more tranquil voyage after being blown off course by almost €300m of player sales and the ill-fated appointment of Erik ten Hag. Enter SV Elversberg, Bundesliga first-timers and representatives of – a “miracle village” as Bild put it – Spiesen-Elversberg, a town with a population of just over 13,000, situated 15km north-east of Saarbrücken, 30 minutes’ drive from the French border.

Nepal's hesitance to accept foreign help for flood relief comes under scrutiny

A group of the country's private sector power producers says Nepali authorities lost crucial time in rescuing hundreds of people trapped in hydropower tunnels.

U.S., Venezuela strike oil deal. And, the staggering hidden toll of U.S. heat deaths

The U.S. and Venezuela have entered into an oil deal. And, NPR spent two years tracking heat-related deaths and found that people in the U.S. are dying from heat more than the official counts show.

Russia's jet-powered drones bring empty Kyiv supermarket shelves and rattle Ukrainians

Russian forces relentlessly battered Kyiv and cities in the region around the Ukrainian capital for a fifth straight day, leaving some supermarket shelves bare after repeated strikes on warehouses.

Morocco not to blame for Ceuta border breach, says Spanish PM

Pedro Sánchez says two countries cooperating and accuses Israel and Russia of spreading fake news about migration

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has said there is no evidence to suggest the Moroccan government was behind last month’s massive border crossing into Ceuta but accused Israel and Russia of spreading disinformation.

As many as 141 people are thought to have died trying to enter the Spanish enclave at the end of July. The influx of about 70,000 men, women and children unleashed a political crisis, a humanitarian emergency and reignited tensions within the EU over immigration.

Attacks flare between the U.S. and Iran after a monthlong pause

U.S. threats erupt into attacks in the Strait of Hormuz, and Iran retaliates against U.S. targets in the United Arab Emirates and Jordan in the first exchange of fire since July 29.

As US-Canada tensions flare, who’s calling the shots in Trump’s trade team?

US trade representative Jamieson Greer has a level-headed reputation but commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and White House adviser Peter Navarro also have key roles

Having reportedly read Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, in French, during a military tour of duty in Iraq, Jamieson Greer considered himself an unlikely target for accusations of francophobia.

But Donald Trump’s US trade representative, hitherto one of the president’s less high-profile cabinet members, found himself in that uncomfortable position amid the acrimonious collapse of bilateral trade talks with Canada that now threatens to degenerate into an all-out trade war between the two close trading partners whose economies are tightly intertwined.

Do you have a bespoke ‘dirty zone’? | Emma Beddington

Apparently a dedicated mud room will make you less stressed. But I have a very different approach

I was excited to learn that the latest interiors essential, according to the Washington Post, is a “dirty zone”. I’m ahead of the curve – I’ve already got a dirty zone by each main door (and also one directly outside the back door, where, rudely, a mystery animal has defecated). The fridge drawers are dirty zones thanks to the windfall apples I thought I would cook, but predictably left to liquefy. There’s a dirty zone next to the washing machine and a mildewy one inside it. There’s the festering compost bin I’m too chicken to tackle post-heatwave, plus the cupboard under the stairs, which we don’t talk about. Good luck finding a clean zone, basically.

Does this make me kinda chic? Unfortunately not: the Post is actually preaching the benefits of confining the sordid ephemera of life to carefully delineated and hidden areas: storage benches, monogrammed totes or even a “mud room” (for coats, shoes, skis, lacrosse sticks and dog-washing sinks – I think posh Britons call it a boot room). A 2021 study in the Netherlands found that participants who did chores in chaotic environments had higher levels of the stress marker salivary alpha-amylase. I always wonder what’s brewing in my mouth as I fall over piles of filthy shoes yet again while running to answer the door.

The pet I’ll never forget: Jerry, the king of dogs, who taught me how to live

After a burglary, my parents decided we needed extra security. Jerry was the answer – and this hungry, handsome hound helped us all in countless ways

Jerry came into our lives because a burglar had broken in. My mum had woken in the middle of the night to find an intruder in our kitchen. He scarpered, but the psychological damage was done. Two days later, my dad came home with the cutest little rescue puppy, with traces of beagle and labrador in him. He was two months old, had a black, brown and white coat, and big, bashful eyes. We called him Jerry because we had a cat called Tom. “I’m not sure how he’ll protect us,” I said. “He will,” my dad replied.

Jerry was very laid-back and Zen. He became part of the family straight away. He also became the therapy dog we hadn’t realised we needed. With two teenagers in the house (me and my older brother) and a hyperactive younger brother, someone was always in a strop and needing to let off steam by taking him out for a walk. Each time, Jerry obliged. I’d bore him with my latest teen-romance trauma; he was a very good listener. Sometimes, he’d have five walks a day, with both of my parents taking their turn. He certainly got his steps in.

Parasomnia review – sleep-schedule horror conjures up a succubus on the loose in waking nightmare

Debut director James Ross II shows promise in this gore fest, but the fear factor suffers from an overly complex plot

Sleep has been part of the horror genre repertoire since The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, and the anxieties around it are spiking as the “sleep economy” becomes a thing. This ambitiously structured gore fest about a woman suffering from waking nightmares comes with an all-black cast, but race isn’t a central preoccupation here. Instead, as night terrors burst the banks into reality, debut director James Ross II concentrates on maintaining an appropriately scrambled and claustrophobic experience – perhaps to the detriment of the fear factor.

On her 15th birthday, Riley (Jasmine Mathews) is paralysed in a waking/sleep state at her foster home, able to observe but powerless to intervene to stop a care worker going berserk. Since this massacre, Riley keeps a strict sleep protocol as an adult, making sure anyone under the same roof drops off before her, which apparently protects them from the malevolent presence invading her nights. Old foster home pal David (Stephen Barrington) accepts an invitation to the house where Riley’s dad murdered her mum, but gets the willies when a pallid demon begins manifesting in the small hours. It turns out that Riley’s boyfriend, Cam (RJ Brown), has been lax in letting her fall asleep before him – and now her resident succubus is on the loose again.

Coupang dispute fuels new U.S. tariff pressure on South Korea

South Korea's dismissal of Congress' allegations that it discriminated against U.S.-based Coupang is straining the country's ties with the U.S., sources said.

House returns with vote expected on Senate bill to prevent shutdown

Lawmakers could also vote on condemning socialism and censuring GOP Rep. Chuck Edwards.

‘I organised my spices – and feel happy every time I cook!’ 12 readers on their most rewarding tiny accomplishments

Forget writing that novel: the most satisfying tasks are often the smallest. From batch cooking and bird feeding, to filling a kettle with meticulous precision, our readers reveal their favourites

Sometimes, it’s the smallest accomplishments that bring the biggest feelings of joy. You don’t need to run a marathon or write a novel to get a sense of achievement; something as simple as reorganising your cutlery drawer or repairing a garden fence can prove surprisingly satisfying. Here, readers share the modest achievements that have brought them great pleasure.

I really enjoy cooking and have a large collection of spices. Recently, I bought a few dozen glass bottles and organised my herbs and spices in a drawer, with labels on the lids and sides. Every time I cook, I feel pleasure from being able to instantly put my hand on the requisite spice without fumbling through piles of little boxes, and having to open and smell them to be sure which is which. Anna Smith, musician, Utrecht, the Netherlands

The one change that worked: I stopped listening to podcasts – and my mind flooded with ideas

For decades my life was soundtracked by comedy duos, mostly male, discussing their friendships. When I gave them up, I felt as if I was having a mental reboot

I have always loved podcasts. The genre of audio I have come to think of as Two Men Talking (In Excessive Detail About Their Lives) has been one of my favourite forms of entertainment for decades. It started with a semi-religious devotion to a Sunday morning XFM show hosted by Jimmy Carr and the comedy writer Iain Morris, but as the years progressed and podcasting boomed, I was soon spoilt for choice. Eventually there were enough comedy duos candidly discussing their hopes, fears and awkward social interactions to fill every moment of my day.

I was initially drawn to these podcasts because they made me laugh, but from the start I also found them hugely comforting: there was a period in my teenage years when I couldn’t fall asleep without mainlining episodes of Adam and Joe’s BBC 6 Music show, waking up each morning relieved I hadn’t been strangled by my iPod earphones in the night.

‘Sometimes you just need a good cry’: why Little Women is my feelgood movie

The latest in our series of writers highlighting their go-to comfort films is an ode to the teary 1994 adaptation of the classic novel

I have an ongoing argument with some friends about how I refuse to watch Interstellar again, despite considering it a beautiful and well-crafted film. It’s just so sad, I tell them, even with its hopeful ending. A desperate, choking lump forms in my chest as soon as I hear the futuristic swells of Hans Zimmer’s score and I have to remove myself before I am overtaken by emotion.

But at the same time, the movie I choose as my feelgood film is one that has reduced me to a sobbing, snotty mess time and time again, whether I’m watching it curled up with my cat on the couch, swaddled in blankets while sick in bed or jostling with my seatmate for the armrest on an airplane. And just like with the score from Interstellar, the moment I hear Thomas Newman’s wistful little oboe intro of the 1994 version of Little Women, I can feel my eyes well up with tears.

Why too many women are prescribed antibiotics for UTIs they don't have

A recent study found that many women treated for recurrent UTIs didn't have UTIs at all. Instead, their symptoms were caused by hormonally driven inflammation and pelvic floor dysfunction.

Singapore is scrambling to stabilize birth rates. Experts see lessons for the U.S.

Singapore has unveiled a national initiative built entirely around its collapsing birth rate. Some demographers say the plan includes policy ideas that could help American parents.

British Museum hosted Palantir founder Peter Thiel in private viewing of Bayeux tapestry

Concern among staff that fragile artwork’s scarce ‘light hours’ given to someone with no known interest in museum

The British Museum privately hosted the Donald Trump-supporting tech billionaire Peter Thiel in the exhibition space of the Bayeux tapestry earlier this month, the Guardian understands.

The museum’s director of development, Charlotte Appleyard, hosted the PayPal founder at a VIP viewing of the tapestry, which is yet to open to the public, on 18 August.

Bhutan hosts first ‘conscious food summit’ amid threats to global supplies

Organisers say people must revive spiritual relationship with food amid double threat of climate crisis and conflict

Mending the broken food system under the threat of climate-driven weather extremes will require more than economic fixes and intensive agriculture, according to the organisers of a pioneering summit this week, who say the world must revive its spiritual relationship with food.

Delegates from more than 60 countries and the UN will gather for the next five days in Paro in the tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan for the world’s first “conscious food summit”, which will bring together governments and farmers, mindfulness experts and yoga therapists.

Bel review – the powerful life force and haunting absence of a traumatised singer-songwriter

Beldina Odenyo alchemised the pain of exile, loss and racism into music as Heir of the Cursed before her death in 2021, as this attentive tribute explores

Instead of an artist in a booth, a lone amplifier plays the music of singer-songwriter Beldina Odenyo for a cluster of microphones to pick up during the posthumous recording of her debut album. It is a haunting encapsulation of the absence and presence at the heart of Louise Lockwood’s documentary, which makes a commendably thorough exploration of the mental illness that led to Odenyo killing herself in November 2021, and its roots: exile, loss and racism.

Performing under the moniker Heir of the Cursed, a translation of the Tetela name of assassinated Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba, Odenyo was on the verge of bigger recognition at the end of 2021 after a successful performance at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall. But hemmed in by successive Covid lockdowns, the 31-year-old is clearly unwell in a discomfiting backstage interview. Squirming, monosyllabic, she seems to be regressing to the non-verbal state of shock in which she arrived in Dumfriesshire from Kenya as a young child.

The Future Starts With Us by Gordon Brown review – the ex-PM’s recipe for beating populism

Global crises are tightly linked to how we treat each other at the local level, argues this optimistic book

In times of crisis, there is one person to whom the left still turns for guidance.

More than a decade and a half after leaving government, Gordon Brown has mellowed into the Labour party’s favourite wise elder; one who has never disappointed the faithful by going off to make a ton of money, remaining quietly committed to public service and deeply engaged with the world’s knottier problems. Having successfully led the global response to the financial crash of 2008, and advocated powerfully during the pandemic for global cooperation against the virus, he was never going to simply sit back and shrug as the world spiralled into conflict and chaos under Donald Trump.

Russia preparing 'massive strikes' on Ukraine's energy sites after deadliest attack of the year

Russia's Defense Ministry has announced preparations for "massive strikes" on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.

‘Breakthrough’ as Turkmenistan starts fixing ‘mindboggling’ methane mega-leaks

Secretive state begins repairs on ageing facilities after being revealed as worst country for leaks of potent greenhouse gas

Turkmenistan has started plugging the mega-leaks of methane that spew from its ageing oil and gas facilities, the latest UN data shows, in a move hailed as a breakthrough.

Methane, also called natural or fossil gas, is a potent greenhouse gas. It traps 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide and causes 25% of global heating today. Stopping leaks can be quick and cheap and, because methane breaks down in the atmosphere far quicker than CO2, this has a rapid impact, with some experts calling it the climate “emergency brake”.

Is it true that … mental health is affected by inflammation?

Studies have found that anti-inflammatory drugs can improve your mood. But what does that mean for conditions such as depression and anxiety?

Inflammation is the immune system’s response to injury or infection. If you cut yourself and the area becomes red and swollen, that’s inflammation: immune cells are rushing to fight germs and repair tissue.

But inflammation can also occur in the body during illnesses, and a low level of inflammation can arise from obesity or ageing. “A marker of that inflammation tends to be elevated cytokines in people’s blood,” says Prof Daniel M Davis, head of life sciences at Imperial College London and author of Immune Health: A Myth-Busting Guide. “They’re the molecules immune cells use to communicate with each other.”

Goodbye to Babylon Berlin, the 1920s TV drama that has eerily foreshadowed real-life politics

The long-running drama reaches Hitler’s rise to power in its final season as its creators reflect on the unsettling parallels between Weimar Germany and the present day

It’s the global hit TV series that pulled audiences straight into the chaotic hedonism of 1920s Germany, dramatising the brilliance and brittleness of a newly built democratic system with unprecedented ambition.

But in the 13 years that the German makers of Babylon Berlin have worked on the show, modern democracies from the US to Hungary to South Korea have come under pressure in ways the creators say they could never have imagined when they started.

Switzy by Emma Cline review – this Booker-listed account of a man’s last days is profoundly moving

Struggling with Alzheimer’s, the central character sets out on his final journey to a euthanasia clinic

The word “Alzheimer’s” never appears in Switzy, Emma Cline’s third novel, which arrives pre-endorsed as a Booker prize longlistee. But we can be certain that it is the disease afflicting its central character, David Hastings – certain in a way he finds it increasingly hard to be about anything.

When the novel begins, David and his assistant Cody are aboard a private jet flying from his home in the US to the UK. Landing at London City airport (which the book, experiencing its own senior moment, situates in the countryside), they visit David’s daughter and her family before travelling on to Zurich (hence “Switzy”). One more appointment, a catchup with an old boarding school roommate called Tom, awaits just over the French border, after which David will be euthanised at a facility resembling Dignitas.

Squash salad and chocolate mousse: Dean Parker’s recipes for early autumn

Celebrate the flavours of the coming season via this rewarding salad and rich dessert to share

As the days start to shorten and the temperature drops (finally!), the produce becomes richer, sweeter and more comforting, and the onset of autumn is a time of year that naturally brings people together around the table, which is something I’ve always loved about food. At the restaurant, we try to let the ingredients do the talking, and we work closely with growers and producers to make the most of whatever’s in season. Today’s recipes celebrate some of my favourite seasonal flavours: the salad is simple but deeply satisfying, balancing sweet roast squash with bitter greens and a punchy black olive tapenade. For dessert, meanwhile, chocolate mousse with poached fruit is my idea of autumn in a bowl, not least because quince has a beautiful, floral character that develops as it cooks, and pairs perfectly with dark chocolate and the nutty richness of browned butter. The creme fraiche adds freshness and balance, and brings everything together. Both dishes are rooted in the philosophy that guides my cooking: celebrate the season, respect great ingredients and create food that encourages people to slow down and enjoy each other’s company.

The Nepal floods seem a world away – but make no mistake, climate breakdown will affect us all | Nesrine Malik

Richer countries might have more resources to deal with catastrophe, but this problem grips the entire planet, however much leaders may want to deny it

Climate breakdown is happening on one Earth, but two different worlds. In one, its impacts increasingly encroach on everyday life; longer periods of discomfort and shorter periods of sharp pain. Endless, hotter summers, and within them sudden wildfires, evacuations, homes burned to cinders in a matter of hours. In another, catastrophe. This summer has been a snapshot of that split-screen. The hottest day on record in parts of Europe, and a wave of water, mud and ice in Nepal that so far has claimed more than 750 lives. Thousands of people are still missing.

The difference is also one of resources. The climate crisis has an economic cost, but some places can absorb it better than others. Responses to this summer of wildfires in Europe included a rapid scrambling by the French government to provide everything from tax breaks for businesses affected by the fires to relocation costs and aid to rebuild homes. The UK government had deployed almost £100m before the summer to strengthen wildfire resilience.

‘Everything’s smashed to bits’: Ukrainians turn anger on those storing weapons near their villages

As Russia hits another ammunition warehouse, killing at least 38, locals put blame on poorly placed depots

It is a day and a half since a Russian jet-powered drone smashed into an ammunition dump in Myla, a village 15 miles outside central Kyiv. Volodymyr, 61, a security guard, leads visitors from his family’s badly damaged home, its roof blown off, back windows shattered, through the garden towards the impact site 300 metres away.

The garden, like so many in Ukraine’s villages and suburbs, is a sizeable allotment. But today the greenhouse is shattered, a vegetable patch is blackened and crisp underfoot. Several metres of grapevine have been destroyed. Even so, Volodymyr finds two surviving bunches to hand to the Guardian.

Forbidden planet: was Pluto’s 2006 demotion a big mistake?

Since it was stripped of planetary status, Pluto’s defenders have been fighting the decision – and they’re only getting more passionate

Twenty years ago, Pluto got demoted. After a vote by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in August 2006, Pluto was relegated from major planet to dwarf planet status. Our solar system dropped from nine planets to eight. At the time, many scientists were unhappy with the decision. Two decades on, the debate is, if anything, even more polarised.

“The definition of a planet they created, you can’t use it at all,” says Philip Metzger, the director of the Stephen W Hawking Centre for Microgravity Research and Education at the University of Central Florida. “It makes the definition of a planet completely non-useful in science.”

Properties in UK national parks command 24% premium, study finds

Nationwide research also shows average 14% premium for housing in national landscapes of England and Wales

Housebuyers are paying a premium of almost a quarter to own a property located within a UK national park, with the New Forest the most expensive national park to live in, according to Britain’s biggest building society.

Nationwide found that a property located within a national park cost 24% more on average than a similar property elsewhere, while buyers were also stumping up a 6% premium for homes within three miles of a national park.