Kashmir is focus of arrests after Delhi car blast linked to ‘terror module’

Investigators believe an explosion that killed 13 people may be linked to group operating in the disputed region

Police have carried out raids and made several arrests across the Indian region of Kashmir in the aftermath of a car explosion in Delhi that left 13 people dead.

On Wednesday, the Indian government confirmed it was treating the blast as a “terror incident” perpetrated by “anti-national forces”. The explosion took place outside one of India’s most significant monuments during rush hour on Monday evening.

South Carolina man who wrote message in victim's blood is executed by firing squad

Stephen Bryant, 44, was executed for killing a man in his home and writing "catch me if u can" on the wall with the victim's blood.

South Carolina executes man by firing squad, in state’s third such killing in year

Stephen Bryant, 44, convicted over 2004 murder, was shot dead despite growing backlash against ‘barbaric’ method

South Carolina executed a man by firing squad on Friday, marking the third time the state has used gunfire to kill a person on death row despite growing backlash against the method.

Stephen Bryant, 44, had been sentenced to death for the October 2004 killing of Willard “TJ” Tietjen and pleaded guilty to two other murders. Bryant’s lawyers had argued in final appeals that the sentencing judge had been unable to consider his brain damage from his mother’s alcohol and drug use during pregnancy, but South Carolina’s supreme court declined to halt the execution on Monday.

Bondi assigns prosecutor to lead investigation into Trump adversaries over Epstein ties – live updates

As he faces scrutiny amid latest Epstein email release, US president uses Department of Justice to investigate opponents including Bill Clinton

• Bondi announces investigation into Epstein ties to Trump’s Democratic adversaries

• Jeffrey Epstein advised Steve Bannon during 2018 pro-Trump media campaign

The US trade representative, Jamieson Greer, said that the US has “essentially reached a deal with Switzerland”, after the country was hit with a 39% tariff on Swiss exports to the US.

“We’re really excited about that deal and what it means for American manufacturing,” Greer told CNBC today in an interview.

The scientist who helped win the fight to protect a sacred piece of the Pacific

Respected ocean expert Katy Soapi continues to advocate to protect Tetepare, one of the last untouched places in Solomon Islands

Scientist Katy Soapi’s earliest memories are of the sea. She grew up on Rendova, a lush island in western Solomon Islands, and life centred around the ocean.

“I remember when the big waves came, we would dive under them and come up laughing on the other side. Being part of those natural elements brought me so much joy.”

World Cup 2026 qualifying roundup: Northern Ireland in playoffs despite loss

• Slovakia win 1-0 and battle with Germany for top spot

• Netherlands nearly there after draw in Poland

Michael O’Neill fumed at a goal that “should clearly have been disallowed” after Northern Ireland’s hopes of progressing from World Cup qualifying Group A were ended by the Slovakia debutant Tomas Bobcek in a 1-0 stoppage-time defeat in Kosice.

Bobcek, who had only been on the pitch for three minutes, prodded in after Bailey Peacock-Farrell failed to deal with a corner, but Northern Ireland were enraged that a foul was not given as Daniel Ballard had gone down under pressure from Leo Sauer.

Trump reverses course and cuts tariffs on US food imports

Order exempting coffee, beef, bananas and other items comes as White House fights off concerns about rising costs

• People in the US: how are your holiday shopping plans being affected by Trump’s tariffs and the cost of living?

Donald Trump moved to lower tariffs on food imports, including beef, tomatoes, coffee and bananas, in an executive order on Friday as the White House fights off growing concerns about rising costs.

The new exemptions take effect retroactively at midnight on Thursday and mark a sharp reversal for Trump, who has long insisted that his import duties are not fueling inflation. They come after a string of victories for Democrats in state and local elections in Virginia, New Jersey and New York City, where affordability was a key topic.

Border Patrol plans to expand immigration crackdown to Charlotte, New Orleans

The Trump administration is planning to dispatch Border Patrol agents to Charlotte and New Orleans to oversee immigration operations that could involve armored vehicles and special operations teams.

Felix Auger-Aliassime beats Alexander Zverev to reach ATP semi-finals – as it happened

The Canadian reached the semi-finals for the first time, where he’ll face Carlos Alcaraz, after a 6-4, 7-6 win against the world No 3

Auger-Aliassime to serve. Ready? Let’s play.

Now Auger-Aliassime, dressed in purple, is making Zverev, clad all in black, wait for the coin toss. The match may not have started yet, but the mind games certainly have. Zverev wins it and elects to receive. Laura Robson is going for a Zverev win; Tim Henman opts for Auger-Aliassime. I think I’m sitting on the fence. Auger-Aliassime has the bigger momentum, but of course it’s Zverev with the greater pedigree.

White House drops plan to make airlines pay travelers for delayed flights

The Trump administration is scrapping a proposal that would have made airlines pay passengers up to $775 for flight disruptions.

Stocks close mixed as investors assess strength of AI rally

Stocks claw back earlier losses, propelled by Nvidia gains. "There's a lot of emotion involved with AI," one analyst said.

Judge to approve $7bn settlement with OxyContin maker that requires Sackler family members to pay victims

Deal would also require multibillionaire family to give up ownership of the Connecticut-based firm

A federal bankruptcy court judge on Friday said he would approve OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma’s latest deal to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of opioids that includes some money for thousands of victims of the epidemic.

The deal overseen by US bankruptcy judge Sean Lane would require some of the multibillionaire members of the semi-reclusive Sackler family who own the company to contribute up to $7bn and give up ownership of the Connecticut-based firm.

SAG Awards will change name to Actor Awards next year

The Screen Actors Guild Awards are now called the Actor Awards.

Woman pleads guilty to lying about astronaut wife accessing bank account from Space Station

Summer Worden faces a possible maximum sentence of five years in prison in the case, which involves false allegations she made against astronaut Anne McClain.

Should you worry about an AI bubble? Investment pros weigh in.

The stock market has stumbled on concerns that the surge in artificial intelligence stocks could echo the dot-com bubble.

StubHub stock plummets 21% after company withholds fourth-quarter guidance

The company said it was taking a "long term approach," and added that shifting event timing made it hard to predict consumer demand.

Dad speaks out after students allegedly share explicit deepfake of his daughter

A 13-year-old girl was expelled from school after she confronted a male classmate who allegedly shared AI-generated nude images of her and other girls.

Trump accused of caving to big business after deal to cut Swiss tariffs to 15%

Rolex denies ‘any negotiation’ with US although luxury watchmaker entertained Trump and gave him gold clock

• US politics live – latest updates

Donald Trump agreed to cut US tariffs on Switzerland from 39% to 15% as part of a new trade pact, lowering duties that strained economic ties and hit Swiss exporters.

The two countries have signed a “non-binding memorandum of understanding”, the Swiss government announced, following bilateral talks in Washington and intense lobbying by Swiss firms.

Comey, James' lawyers argue cases should be dismissed over Halligan appointment

Lawyers for James Comey and Letitia James argued their indictments should be dismissed because the appointment of the interim U.S. attorney in Virginia was unlawful.

Appeals court upholds hate crime convictions of Ahmaud Arbery's killers

A federal appeals court has upheld the hate crime convictions of the three men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia more than five years ago.

Labubu toy movie with potential to anchor franchise in the works at Sony

Viral plush toy is heading to big screen after a deal was signed with details still unclear over whether it would be live-action or animated

Labubus could be headed to the big screen. Sony Pictures has acquired the screen rights to the plush toy sensation and is in early development of a feature film which, if successful, would anchor a new franchise.

The deal, first reported by the Hollywood Reporter, was signed this week between the Chinese toy makers and Sony Pictures, whose animation division is fresh off the global success of KPop Demon Hunters. No producer or film-maker is attached to the project yet, and it’s still unclear if the film would be live-action or animated.

September jobs report will be out Thursday as first data since shutdown starts to trickle out

The departments of Labor and Commerce had not posted revised schedules as of Friday morning, but updates are expected soon.

Trump asks Justice Department to probe Epstein's ties to Democrats, banks

President Trump accused Democrats of using what he calls the "Epstein hoax" to defect blame for the government shutdown.

Trump to ask DOJ to probe Jeffrey Epstein involvement with Clinton, JPMorgan, Summers

President Trump himself is a former longtime friend of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in a federal jail during Trump's first term.

This week on "Sunday Morning" (Nov. 16)

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

England pumped up for chance to end 13-year wait against All Blacks

Maro Itoje and company have talked the talk and are hungry to follow through with a first win at home over New Zealand since 2012

For better or worse it has been lashing down in south-west London. Good news for restocking the reservoirs but rather less so for dry-ball rugby. Had England played New Zealand 24 hours earlier it would have resembled a game of outdoor water polo and, although the matchday forecast is less biblical, a decidedly damp, grey afternoon awaits.

Is it some kind of celestial clue that England’s on-field drought against the All Blacks might be about to break? It is now 13 years since the last men’s victory over New Zealand at what was once called Twickenham, so long ago that Maro Itoje was still at school. Troublemaker by Olly Murs (featuring Flo Rida) topped the UK charts and the nation was basking in a warm, fuzzy post-London Olympics glow that was supposed to last indefinitely.

Thomas Tuchel wants England substitutes to channel anger into World Cup victory

• Coach hopes to match spirit of his 2021 Chelsea team

• Tuchel needs strong bench ‘after a long, long season’

Thomas Tuchel wants his England substitutes to channel any anger they feel at not starting into making the difference when they can because the team that win the World Cup will be defined by productivity off the bench.

The head coach will prepare a heat-proof gameplan for the finals next summer when temperatures at many of the venues in the United States, Mexico and Canada are expected to be stifling and a major part will involve how best to use his substitutes.

Trump official refers Swalwell to Justice Department for alleged fraud

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte has referred California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell to the Justice Department, sources told CBS News.

Why Black Friday discounts could be stingier this year

Some businesses say steeper U.S. tariffs this year give them less financial room to offer holiday savings.

Book excerpt: "There Is No Place For Us" by Brian Goldstone

For his new book, the journalist examines why so many people who work full-time jobs with low wages are homeless in America.

The week around the world in 20 pictures

The Cop30 climate summit, blackouts in Kyiv, immigration raids in Chicago and super-typhoon Fung-wong: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

China voices ‘extreme disappointment’ with Dutch minister at centre of car chip row

Vincent Karremans called semiconductor supply chain crisis a ‘wake-up call for western leaders’

The Chinese government has expressed “extreme disappointment” with the Dutch minister at the heart of a row over chip supply to the car industry.

A spokesperson for the ministry of commerce was responding to a Guardian interview with Vincent Karremans on Thursday in which the politician described the standoff between China and the European Union as a “wake-up call” for western leaders.

US military planning for divided Gaza with ‘green zone’ secured by international and Israeli troops

Exclusive: Almost all Palestinians have been displaced to ‘red zone’ where no reconstruction is planned

The US is planning for the long-term division of Gaza into a “green zone” under Israeli and international military control, where reconstruction would start, and a “red zone” to be left in ruins.

Foreign forces will initially deploy alongside Israeli soldiers in the east of Gaza, leaving the devastated strip divided by the current Israeli-controlled “yellow line”, according to US military planning documents seen by the Guardian and sources briefed on American plans.

Rachel Reeves plans £7.5bn tax rise in budget after U-turn on income tax rates

Chancellor expected to freeze level at which people start paying income tax for two years rather than putting rates up

Rachel Reeves will raise £7.5bn from millions of workers by freezing tax thresholds at the budget, after her decision to scrap controversial plans to raise income tax led to a sell-off in the bond market.

Government sources said the chancellor had decided to maintain the level at which people start paying income tax for two years while abandoning plans to raise the headline rate, which would have broken a manifesto promise.

Ultra-processed foods linked to higher risk of precancerous polyps, study finds

Eating ultra-processed foods could lead to an increased risk of being diagnosed with precancerous colorectal growths for women under 50, according to new research.

Celtic accelerate move to take Wilfried Nancy from Columbus Crew as new manager

• Club hope to have Frenchman in charge next weekend

• Any compensation not regarded as problematic

Celtic are to accelerate talks with Wilfried Nancy over the weekend as the Columbus Crew manager edges closer to replacing Brendan Rodgers in Glasgow. Celtic are understood to have informed the Major League Soccer side on Friday of their plans, with any compensation required to coax the Frenchman not regarded as problematic. Nancy is believed to be keen on the switch.

Celtic hope to have Nancy in place by the time they visit St Mirren next weekend, which would bring an end to Martin O’Neill’s caretaker spell. O’Neill was due to meet Celtic’s main shareholder, Dermot Desmond, in London on Friday. The second tenure of Rodgers in Glasgow ended in acrimony in late October, with Desmond taking public aim at the former Liverpool manager.

Russian attacks on Kyiv ‘calculated and wicked’, says Zelenskyy

Ukrainian president calls for more air defence from Europe and US after six killed and dozens injured in strikes across capital

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described Russia’s latest attack against Ukraine as “deliberate, calculated and wicked”, after six people were killed and dozens injured in a wave of night-time strikes across Kyiv.

Air raid sirens sounded shortly after midnight and residents of the capital made their way to shelters or lay between two walls in their apartments. Soon afterwards the whine of Shahed drones could be heard in the sky, with heavy machine-gun fire from Ukrainian air defences.

‘They all think Keir is done’: how push to protect Starmer’s job backfired spectacularly

Botched briefing operation was proof to many that PM is leading an ineffectual No 10. How did it go so wrong?

If there’s one thing the Labour party can agree on this week, it is that efforts by Keir Starmer’s allies to shore up his position backfired spectacularly.

By briefing journalists that he would face down any challenge and accusing Wes Streeting of leading an advanced plot to overthrow him, figures around the prime minister managed only to expose the weakness of his position.

Despite Coinbase departure, only 28 companies have left Delaware this year

Coinbase became the latest high-profile company to announce plans to reincorporate outside of Delaware, but it's still a very rare move.

Chimpanzee escapes exhibit at Indianapolis zoo, prompting lockdown

A chimpanzee escaped its enclosure and was on the loose at the Indianapolis Zoo, but the animal was later located and returned to her exhibit, the zoo said.

Trump can get away with saying what he likes about the BBC. But Epstein? That’s his one vulnerability | Jonathan Freedland

In attacking a vital broadcaster, the US president is once again holding others to standards he flouts. But the Maga faithful might not let his links to the disgraced financier go

To confront Donald Trump is to engage in asymmetric warfare. It is to enter a battlefield that is not level, where he enjoys an immediate and in-built advantage over those who would oppose him or merely hold him to account. That fact has cost Democrats dearly over the past decade – exacting a toll again this very week – but it has now upended an institution central to Britain’s national life: namely, the BBC.

The key asymmetry can be spelled out simply. Trump pays little or no regard to the conventional bounds of truth or honesty. His documented tally of false or misleading statements runs into the tens of thousands: the Washington Post registered 30,573 such statements during Trump’s first term in the White House, an average of 21 a day. In a single interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes earlier this month, Trump spoke falsely 18 times, according to CNN.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

Guardian newsroom: Year One of Trumpism: Is Britain Emulating the US?
On Wednesday 21 January 2026, join Jonathan Freedland, Tania Branigan and Nick Lowles as they reflect on the first year of Donald Trump’s second presidency – and to ask if Britain could be set on the same path.
Book tickets here or at guardian.live

Share your questions for Meera Sodha, Tim Dowling and Stuart Heritage

Ahead of a special Guardian Live event on 26 November, you can share your questions for Tim Dowling, Stuart Heritage and Meera Sodha

It has been a year of small pleasures and big opinions. Is Kim Kardashian’s legal drama All’s Fair really the worst TV show of all time? What are the best (and worst) vegan cheeses? And 20 years after they first hit the shelves, five-toed shoes are apparently having a big fashion moment. But what is it like to wear them in public?

As the year draws to a close, Guardian Live invites you to a special event with columnist Tim Dowling, film and TV writer Stuart Heritage, and cook and author Meera Sodha. They will join comedian, broadcaster, and occasional Guardian contributor Nish Kumar for an evening of sharp observations, seasonal reflections and behind-the-scenes stories from the Guardian.

Anthropic says Chinese hackers used its AI chatbot in cyberattacks

State-sponsored cybercriminals used Anthropic's tech to target tech companies, financial institutions and other organizations, AI company alleges.

AfD hails US ban on European leftwing groups as historians fear crackdown on anti-fascists

German far-right party urges Berlin and other European nations to also designate ‘antifa’ groups as terrorist organisations

Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland party has welcomed the US government’s decision to classify a prominent German anti-fascist group and three other European networks as terrorist organisations, calling on Berlin and other European governments to follow the example.

But historians of anti-fascism warned that at a time when far-right groups were making electoral gains across the continent, the move set a dangerous precedent that could prepare the ground for a broader crackdown on leftwing activism.

Marjorie Taylor Greene says "I don't see political party lines" on health care

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries called GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene an ally during the shutdown for joining Democrats in demanding that Congress address high health care costs.

D.R. Horton is tapping a startup’s AI zoning tool to build more homes

Portland, Oregon-based startup Prophetic has developed an AI-native platform for land acquisition and development analysis.

AI firm claims it stopped Chinese state-sponsored cyber-attack campaign

Anthropic says financial firms and government agencies were attacked ‘largely without human intervention’

A leading artificial intelligence company claims to have stopped a China-backed “cyber espionage” campaign that was able to infiltrate financial firms and government agencies with almost no human oversight.

The US-based Anthropic said its coding tool, Claude Code, was “manipulated” by a Chinese state-sponsored group to attack 30 entities around the world in September, achieving a “handful of successful intrusions”.

Protesters blockade Cop30 summit over plight of Indigenous peoples

Munduruku people demand to speak to Brazil’s president, saying they are never listened to

• Cop30: click here for full Guardian coverage of the climate talks in Brazil

Protesters blockaded the main entrance to the Cop30 climate conference for several hours early on Friday morning, demanding to speak to Brazil’s president about the plight of the country’s Indigenous peoples.

About 50 people from the Munduruku people in the Amazon basin blocked the entrance with some assistance from international green groups, watched by a huge phalanx of riot police, soldiers and military vehicles.

Foreclosures are surging as U.S. homeowners grapple with rising costs

A growing number of Americans, squeezed by inflation and elevated interest rates, face the risk of losing their home in foreclosure.

The question everyone in AI is asking: How long before a GPU depreciates?

The useful lifespan of AI infrastructure is a key issue for investors, as tech giants plan $1 trillion in AI spending over the next five years.

Russian military spy ship tracked by U.S. Coast Guard off Hawaii coast

An HC-130 Hercules helicopter and a Coast Guard cutter were dispatched to monitor the ship, officials said.

Fewer burritos, more bargains: Consumers flash holiday warning signs

In the coming week, some of the biggest names in retail, including Walmart, Target, Gap and Home Depot will report their latest earnings.

Greene says Trump's stance on Epstein files is "huge miscalculation"

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told "CBS Mornings" that President Trump's opposition to releasing files from the federal investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is a "huge miscalculation."

Remembering CBS News producer and video editor Seth Fox

The CBS News family is mourning the loss of producer and video editor Seth Fox. He leaves behind a wife and three children. He was 49.

Marjorie Taylor Green addresses Epstein files: "The government will not protect the predators"

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks to "CBS Mornings" about the push to release the Epstein files. She was one of four Republicans that joined Democrats to secure a House vote on releasing all of the files and said "the government will not protect the predators." She added she believes President Trump "did nothing wrong." The president, who is mentioned in recently released emails between Epstein and others, has denied any wrongdoing.

Seal escapes killer whale hunt by jumping onto photographer's boat

With killer whales in pursuit, the seal clambered out of the water and onto a swimming platform at the stern of the boat.

Dramatic video shows seal escaping orcas by jumping on photographer's boat

A photographer captured video of a seal escaping a pod of orcas by jumping onto her boat. Charvet Drucker said she noticed a hunt was happening when she got closer to the killer whales. She added the seal "made a beeline" for her boat.

U.S. and Switzerland reach trade deal to lower tariffs to 15%

Switzerland has been subject to one of the highest tariff rates levied on an individual country by the Trump administration.

Question 1: Are phone cheats killing the pub quiz?

Quizmasters are banning smart devices, using dedicated apps and finding plain old honesty can combat trivial offences

Who is older, Gary Numan or Gary Oldman? If you know the answer to this question (see below), you are probably one of hundreds of thousands of Brits who attend a pub quiz every week.

As a nation of committed trivia buffs, it was unsurprising that news of a quizmaster in Manchester outing a team for cheating was leapt on. Just where, we asked, is the special place in hell reserved for those quizzers who take a sneaky look at their phones under the table?

How Anna Wintour’s Vogue front covers made a statement to the end

A look at the editor-in-chief’s Vogue covers from her first radical combination in 1988 to her final ‘weird’ shoot

During her 37-year tenure as editor-in-chief of American Vogue, Anna Wintour has presided over more than 400 covers. December 2025’s, on newsstands this week, will prove her last before she steps away to focus on roles as Vogue’s global editorial director and chief content officer at Condé Nast.

The cover is certainly memorable: an image of the actor Timothée Chalamet photographed by Wintour’s long-term collaborator Annie Leibovitz in a Celine white polo neck, long cream coat and embroidered jeans, standing on a “planet” with a backdrop of a star-filled nebula provided by Nasa.

Exclusive discounts from CBS Mornings Deals

On this edition of CBS Mornings Deals, we show you items that might just become essentials in your everyday life. Visit cbsdeals.com to take advantage of these exclusive deals today. CBS earns commissions on purchases made through cbsdeals.com.

Walmart says longtime CEO Doug McMillon will retire in January

Walmart said Doug McMillon will be replaced on Feb. 1, 2026, by John Furner, head of Walmart's U.S. operations.

Who could be behind the phantom briefing and the tax rise that wasn’t? Inspector Starmer is on the case | Marina Hyde

Chaos and ineptitude dog our poor PM. Perhaps the explanation lies (very) close to home

At this rate the only businesses who will want to invest in Britain after the budget are heroin dealers. No 10 used to have a news grid, now it has an apology grid. Even so, why did Keir Starmer apologise for a sensationally self-destructive round of briefing against Wes Streeting if he didn’t do it? This is like me apologising for accidentally releasing sex offenders from prison. I suppose there is the occasional previous example in public life. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor apologised for his association with Jeffrey Epstein and gave a woman he’d never met a reported £12m. Perhaps that provides the prime minister with the warming cover of precedent.

If you’re just joining us, this is a week in which the government finally achieved the chaos spiral of several recent Conservative administrations. We can now officially say: same car, different clowns. We are less than two weeks out from the budget, with Friday morning’s Downfall meme being yet another U-turn, with the chancellor reportedly not going ahead with her all-but-confirmed plans to raise basic- and higher-rate income tax. The gilt markets reacted accordingly, if by accordingly we mean “made emergency calls for Andrex” – but then new Treasury briefings insisted it was all actually good news and based on better forecasts. Tell you what Rachel Reeves won’t raise: fuel duty on circus vehicles.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

A year in Westminster: John Crace, Marina Hyde and Pippa Crerar
On Tuesday 2 December, join Crace, Hyde and Crerar as they look back at another extraordinary year, with special guests, live at the Barbican in London and livestreamed globally. Book tickets here or at guardian.live

Man who grabbed Ariana Grande at Wicked sequel premiere charged

Footage shows the man jumping the red carpet barricade of the Singapore premiere of Wicked: For Good, then rushing towards and embracing the star

A court in Singapore has charged a man who grabbed Ariana Grande at a premiere of Wicked: For Good on Thursday night with being a public nuisance.

Video footage shows Johnson Wen jumping over a barricade at Universal Studios Singapore and rushing at Grande on the red carpet. Grande’s co-star Cynthia Erivo immediately jumped in to help protect her and Wen was moved away.

Guardian’s former Gaza correspondent named young journalist of the year in UK awards

Malak A Tantesh, 20, ‘showed immense talent and bravery’, said judges at Media Freedom awards in London

The UK’s Society of Editors has named Malak A Tantesh, the Guardian’s former Gaza correspondent, as young journalist of the year in the national press category at this year’s Media Freedom awards.

The judges said Tantesh “showed immense talent and bravery in some of the hardest conditions ever faced by a journalist, she continued to report while having to forage for food and facing the constant risk of bombing and the threat of targeted killing”.

Carney’s ‘nation-building’ programme misses mark to be truly transformative for Canada

The $C56bn plan focused on investing in a resource economy falls short of changing Canadians’ day-to-day lives

Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, likes to say that when he was young, “we used to build big things in this country, and we used to build them quickly.”

That idea – of sprawling projects that transform nations, has influenced both his narrative as an economist turned politician and his government’s multibillion-dollar investment spree. “It’s time to get back at it, and get on with it,” he said in September.

‘I’m not just putting on nice plays’: Hollywood star Alan Cumming’s plan to reignite theatre in the Scottish Highlands

What is the effervescent new boss at Pitlochry theatre planning for his first season? Huge names, undersung stars – and a King Lear played by ‘the woman who changed my life’

‘Holy shit!” This was the instant response of one venerable theatre critic when Pitlochry Festival theatre sent round embargoed copies of the plan for Alan Cumming’s inaugural season. The man himself sits back in the cavernous workshop behind the theatre building, dapper in a grey plaid suit. “I loved that,” he says gleefully.

When the Hollywood star was announced as the new artistic director of Scotland’s only major rural theatre last September, there was widespread shock – not least that Cumming answered an open recruitment call – followed by feverish speculation over which A-list pals he might charm away from London or New York to perform in Highland Perthshire.

Goldman Sachs stands by top lawyer Kathy Ruemmler after her emails with Jeffrey Epstein exposed

The email chats between top lawyer Kathy Ruemmler and Jeffrey Epstein came years after his guilty plea to sex crimes in Florida.

Plastic beads spreading on Sussex coast after ‘catastrophic’ spill, meeting told

Local people describe devastating impact of millions of toxic beads from Southern Water site near Camber Sands

• What are bio-beads used for and how did they get spilled on to Camber Sands beach?

The massive spill of plastic beads at Camber Sands is devastating for local people, wildlife and tourism and the beads are dispersing along the coast, residents heard at an emotional public meeting on Thursday.

Millions of tiny, toxic plastic beads are thought to have escaped into the sea from Eastbourne sewage works in East Sussex about two weeks ago when a screen keeping them in broke. They began to wash up on Camber Sands beach last Thursday, with the situation worsening over the weekend.

UK hospitals bracing for once-in-a-decade flu surge this winter

Officials urge vaccination against mutated strain of virus that may be more transmissible than usual

Hospitals are bracing for a once-in-a-decade flu season, with a mutated version of the virus that is spreading widely in younger people expected to drive a wave of admissions when it reaches the elderly.

The threat has prompted NHS managers to redouble efforts to vaccinate staff and communities, expand same-day emergency care and treat more patients in the community to reduce the need for hospital stays.

From the Met to maximum security: Joyce DiDonato is on a mission to bring opera to the people

The celebrated American mezzo-soprano has graced the world’s top opera houses, but is equally passionate about performing to first-timers – and inmates

• Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email

American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato apologises for the bed hair as we chat via zoom from Tasmania, where she’s preparing a series of concerts to mark her first time performing in Australia. “I’m windswept”, she laughs as she pats down her signature spiky blond hair. “I’m having a week of vacation, which is rare for me.”

Downtime for DiDonato is made rarer by a punishing touring schedule that sees her perform around the globe in recitals showcasing her extraordinary vocal technique, while juggling major roles in classical and contemporary opera. She’s a regular at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and has sung in the world’s top opera houses, including Milan’s La Scala and Covent Garden in London.

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Somebody to love: should AI relationships stay taboo or will they become the intelligent choice? | Brigid Delaney

How will AI destroy the world as we know it? Not through evil. My guess is it will do it through love

Recently, at a pub with a bunch of my friends who were gen X parents, the talk turned to young love. Most of their kids were in their late teens and early 20s, and embarking on their first relationships.

These gen X parents were a cohort that supported marriage equality and trans rights, not just for society more broadly but for their own children. And we all prided ourselves on being more progressive than the previous generation. Love is love.

National parks facing ‘nightmare’ under Trump, warns ex-director of service

Jonathan Jarvis, who led the agency from 2009 to 2017, laid out the dire consequences of not closing parks in shutdown

Americans should “raise hell” to protect US national parks through the “nightmare” of Donald Trump’s presidency, according to a former National Park Service director, amid alarm over the impact of the federal government shutdown.

Jonathan Jarvis claimed the agency was now in the hands of a “bunch of ideologues” who would have no issue watching it “go down in flames” – and see parks from Yellowstone to Yosemite as potential “cash cows”, ripe for privatization.

Is climate change really something we need to stress about? | Fiona Katauskas

We could just wait until it all boils over

• See more of Fiona Katauskas’s cartoons here

Trump’s targeting of alleged drug vessels strains UK-US intelligence ties

Suspension of intelligence cooperation in Caribbean is unusual move and there is potential for political fallout

• Explainer: is US preparing to attack Venezuela?

It is an intelligence relationship that predates even the Five Eyes: the UKUSA alliance that began, naturally enough, in secret in 1946. But this week the strain of trying to be the closest security ally to a freewheeling White House has begun to show.

Britain, it emerged, had quietly suspended intelligence cooperation with the US in the Caribbean because London does not consider the deadly US military campaign against ships accused of drug trafficking to be in line with international law.

StubHub stock tanks 20% as CEO says it is not giving guidance for current quarter

StubHub beat Wall Street's expectations for third-quarter revenue in its first earnings report as a public company.

Britons living abroad: tell us your views on UK politics today

We want to hear from Brits living overseas on their views on UK politics today

The last decade in British politics has been marked by instability and fragmentation, with six prime ministers in ten years, and Nigel Farage’s Reform party now leading in the polls.

A study this month from King’s College London and Ipsos found that 84 percent of people now say the UK feels divided, up from 74 percent in 2020.

RedBird Capital drops £500m Telegraph takeover bid

US private equity group’s deal collapses amid newsroom criticism and threat of regulator intervention

• What next for the Telegraph after takeover collapses?

RedBird Capital has dropped its £500m bid for the Telegraph Media Group, throwing the future of its daily and Sunday titles into further uncertainty.

The private equity group founded by Gerry Cardinale has been under intense attack in recent weeks with the Telegraph newsroom – and allies including the former editor Charles Moore and the ex-Spectator chief Fraser Nelson – publishing a string of pieces calling for its links to China to be investigated.

Calif. wildfire forces evacuations as storm threatens mudslides in south

A Pacific storm could help California crews battle the dangerous Pack Fire in Mono County, but it could also wreak havoc on fire-charred communities further south.

Epic movie: Christopher Nolan uses 2m ft of film for adaptation of The Odyssey

The director has revealed suitably grand scale of his forthcoming Homeric adventure, which was shot with Imax cameras and stars Matt Damon as Odysseus

Christopher Nolan says he has used over more than 2 million ft of film for his adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey, which is in post-production, after the director finished shooting in August.

In an interview with Empire magazine, Nolan said: “I’ve been out on [the sea] for the last four months. We got the cast who play the crew of Odysseus’s ship out there on the real waves, in the real places … We really wanted to capture how hard those journeys would have been for people. And the leap of faith that was being made in an unmapped, uncharted world.” He added: “We shot over 2 million ft of film.”

Vybz Kartel on his legal battles, vulgar lyrics and the lasting scars of prison: ‘If I hear a key shake, it traumatise me’

With his murder conviction overturned, the Jamaican star is back performing. He talks about his illness, regrets, and how he felt about dancehall going global while he was behind bars

There’s a moment when I’m interviewing Vybz Kartel in the courtyard of the Four Seasons hotel in Tower Bridge, London, and the UK government emergency alert test rings on my phone. He is panicked by it and jumps up. “Me ready fi run you know!” he says, which has us both laughing.

It is a funny moment, but also a jolting one considering that it arrives in the middle of him discussing the lasting psychological effects of prison. Kartel, 49, real name Adidja Palmer, had been incarcerated across different institutions in Jamaica following his conviction for the 2011 murder of his associate Clive “Lizard” Williams. Following a lengthy appeal process, he was released in July last year after the ruling was overturned by the UK privy council (which is the final court of appeal for Jamaica due to the nation being a former British colony).

How a Texas shrimper stalled Exxon’s $10bn plastics plant | Shilpi Chhotray

Diane Wilson recognized Exxon’s playbook – and showed how local people can take on even the most entrenched industries

When ExxonMobil announced it would “slow the pace of development” on a $10bn plastics plant along the Texas Gulf coast, the company blamed market conditions. But it wasn’t just the market applying pressure; it was a 77-year-old shrimper named Diane Wilson who refused to stay silent. Her fight exposes big oil’s latest survival plan: ramping up oil and gas production to create plastic.

I first met Wilson back in 2019 while tracking her historic lawsuit against Formosa Plastics, the Taiwanese petrochemical giant accused of dumping toxic plastic waste throughout coastal Texas. Billions of tiny plastic pellets were contaminating waterways, shorelines and even the soil itself.

Shilpi Chhotray is the co-founder and president of Counterstream Media and Host of A People’s Climate for the Nation

‘It’s time for it to end’: the stars of Stranger Things open up about their final, epic season

After a decade, the Netflix hit is bowing out. Ahead of its last episodes, the show’s creators and cast talk about big 80s hair, recruiting a Terminator killer – and the birds Kate Bush sent them

How do you finish one of the biggest and most popular TV series of the last decade? Three years after season four came out, the fifth and final season of Stranger Things is about to make its way into the world. Millions of viewers are getting ready to find out what happens to the Upside Down and whether the plucky teens of Hawkins, Indiana can fight off Vecna for good, but it is early November 2025, and its creators Matt and Ross Duffer are finding it difficult to talk about. It’s not just because they’re feeling the pressure, or because the risk of spoilers and leaks is so dangerously high. It’s because the identical twin brothers from North Carolina are just not ready. “It makes me sad,” says Ross. “Because it’s easier to not think about the show actually ending.”

A decade ago, hardly anyone knew what the Upside Down was. Few had heard of Vecna, Mind Flayers or Demogorgons. In 2015, the brothers – self-professed nerds and movie obsessives – were about to begin shooting their first ever TV series. Stranger Things was to be a supernatural adventure steeped in 80s nostalgia, paying tribute to Steven Spielberg and Stephen King. Part of their pitch to Netflix was that it would be “John Carpenter mashed up with ET”. Winona Ryder and Matthew Modine were in it, so it wasn’t exactly low-key, but it was by no means a dead-cert for success, not least because it was led by a cast of young unknowns. The first season came out in the summer of 2016, smashed Netflix viewing records, and almost immediately established itself as a bona fide TV phenomenon.

Joseph Parker faces ban after failing drugs test on day of Fabio Wardley fight

• New Zealander lost high-profile bout in London

• Fight could prove his last for a prolonged period

Joseph Parker failed a drugs test on the day of his 11th-round stoppage to British heavyweight Fabio Wardley.

Ipswich-born Wardley and New Zealander Parker produced a pulsating encounter in London on 25 October to determine who would become WBO mandatory challenger to undisputed world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk.

Venezuela’s Maduro urges Trump to avoid Afghanistan-style ‘forever war’

Authoritarian leader calls for US to make peace amid military buildup and strikes against alleged drug smugglers

• Explainer: is US preparing to attack Venezuela?

Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, has urged Donald Trump not to lead the US into an Afghanistan-style “forever war”, as the American military buildup in the region intensified and Trump’s defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, vowed to purge the Americas of “narco-terrorists”.

Speaking to CNN outside the Miraflores presidential palace in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, Maduro called on Trump to make peace, not war, after the world’s largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R Ford, arrived in the region.

It’s not all about roasting on an open fire – there’s so much more you can do with chestnuts

They have strong Christmas connotations, but these nuts are so versatile, whether you’re eating them hot out of the shell, or with pasta or pheasant. Plus: a burger that lives up to the hype

• Sign up here for our weekly food newsletter, Feast

If I’d ever spared a thought for how chestnuts – the sweet, edible kind, not the combative horsey sort – were harvested, I would probably have conjured rosy-cheeked peasants bent low in ancient forests and filling rough-hewn hessian sacks by hand. Back-breaking labour, sure, but so picturesque!

I was delighted, therefore, while on a writing retreat in Umbria last month, to get the opportunity to watch an elderly couple manoeuvre a giant vacuum around their haphazard orchard, followed by their furious sheepdog. The fallen crop was sucked into a giant fan that spat their bristly jackets back out on to the ground, and the nuts then went to be sorted by other family members on a conveyor belt in the barn – the good ones to be sold in the shell, the less perfect specimens swiftly dropped into a bucket for processing.

New foreclosures jump 20% in October, a sign of more distress in the housing market

All phases of the foreclosure process are seeing big increases, as homeowners fall behind on mortgage payments due to stress in the economy.

‘Will it change the weather? Will wildlife cope?’: Europe’s rush to build energy projects in Chile might not be as green as it seems

The country’s government is upbeat about the economic prospects of the growing number of windfarms, solar parks and industrial complexes but others warn of ‘green colonialism’

For generations, Alfonso Campos’s family has raised sheep in the grasslands of San Gregorio, a tranquil area in Magallanes province, in the far south of Chile’s Patagonia region. Now, he says, his farm will be encircled by three massive containers of ammonia, a desalination plant, a hydrogen plant, gas pipelines and hundreds of wind turbines.

“If the ammonia leaks, it will poison everything,” he says. “The noise of the windmills will also upset the animals, and the landscape will be turned into an industrial desert.”

‘The water came up to my waist but I carried on walking’ – This is climate breakdown

When the rain started I had to find a way home to my children. I could never have imagined how long it would take. This is Ruchira’s story

Location Mumbai, India

Disaster Maharashtra floods, 2005

Ruchira Gupta is an English-to-Hindi interpreter, a former lawyer, and mother of two daughters. In 2005, she was working at a small law firm in Mumbai, India when heavy rainfall flooded the country’s western state of Maharashtra, killing 926 people. Between 1950 and 2015, there was a threefold increase in extreme rain events in India.

The ear-rattling psychedelia of Brighton’s Oral Habit and the week’s best new tracks

Overpowering, explosive and intense, the trio’s contemporary form of psychedelia is rebooted for the troubled, disturbing climate of 2025

From Brighton
Recommended if you like Osees, Ty Segall, the noisier bits of King Gizzard
Up next Currently working on a debut album for release next year.

A city with its own psych festival, and indeed a gig promotion company called Acid Box, Brighton has no shortage of lysergic left-field rock bands. But while most of their local contemporaries tend to the more recumbent end of the psychedelic spectrum, Oral Habit deal in what they call “the ear-rattling psychic dream of choked-up acid punks”, a sound that feels overpowering, explosive and intense: you could say it’s more closely aligned to the disoriented racket of mid-60s freakbeat than the pie-eyed beatitudes of the Summer of Love; equally you could suggest it’s a very contemporary form of psychedelia, rebooted for the troubled, disturbing climate of 2025.

The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup

The Murder at World’s End by Ross Montgomery; The Confessions by Paul Bradley Carr; The Good Nazi by Samir Machado de Machado; Bluff by Francine Toon; The Token by Sharon Bolton

The Murder at World’s End by Ross Montgomery (Viking, £16.99)
The first novel for adults by award-winning children’s author Montgomery is a locked-room mystery set in 1910 on a remote tidal island off the Cornish coast. At Tithe Hall, Lord Conrad Stockingham-Welt is busy instructing his servants to prepare for the apocalyptic disaster he believes will be triggered by the imminent passage of Halley’s comet. The labyrinthine house is a nest of secrets and grudges, harboured by both staff and family members, who include an irascible and splendidly foul-mouthed maiden aunt, Decima. When Lord Conrad is discovered in his sealed study, killed by a crossbow bolt to the eye, she co-opts a new footman to help her find the culprit. With plenty of twists, red herrings and a blundering police officer, this is a terrific start to a series that promises to be a lot of fun.

Are you limiting the time you spend online? We’d like to hear from you

What prompted this change, and how has it affected you?

Are you bored of AI slop dominating news feeds? Fed up of “enshittification”? Tired out by “advice pollution”? Done with polarising content? Giving up social media and rediscovering the joy of boredom?

One study shows that time spent on social media peaked in 2022 and has gone into decline since then, according to an analysis conducted for the Financial Times by digital audience insights company GWI.

Under Armour splits with Steph Curry, leaving NBA legend free to find a new business partner

Under Armour announced mutual split with Curry Brand, effective immediately, to focus on what CEO Kevin Plank called the "core UA brand."

Lô Borges obituary

Singer-songwriter revered in Brazil for founding the Clube da Esquina collective and releasing two landmark albums of the 1970s

The year of 1972 was an extraordinary one for the young Brazilian singer, guitarist and songwriter Lô Borges. Along with his friend Milton Nascimento, he created one of the most celebrated albums in Brazilian music history, Clube da Esquina, featuring many of his compositions. In the same year he also released his first solo album, which gained similar recognition as a Brazilian classic. Borges, who has died aged 73, may not have achieved Nascimento’s international celebrity, but he played a key role in transforming his country’s music.

Clube da Esquina (Corner Club) had its genesis in a group of friends who met up to play and write songs on the corner of Divinópolis and Paraisópolis streets in Belo Horizonte, the state capital of Minas Gerais in the south east of Brazil.

From conscience to platforming Trump: inside the slow death of ‘woke’ ESPN

The broadcaster was once attacked by critics for being too progressive. But that stance appears to have changed for good in Trump’s second term

“What happened to the Redskins, by the way?” Donald Trump asked in an interview on the Pat McAfee Show that notably did not stick to sports. His call-in appearance on Tuesday’s program to mark Veterans Day was meant to be a major coup for ESPN, the first time Trump had been interviewed on the network as a sitting president. But viewers could have just as easily been mistaken into believing they were watching Fox News.

Trump took his usual shots at Joe Biden, claimed credit for the Department for Veteran Affairs’ high approval ratings and declared victory over the Democrats in a government shut down that dragged on for a depressing 43 days. Rather than push back against the political self-promotion, McAfee cheered Trump on before opening the floor to his lackeys to ask him which NFL coach would make a great president. It was all delivered live from South Carolina’s Parris Island, the US’s oldest Marine depot, which gave McAfee further excuse to goad the commander-in-chief into barking “oorah” – a Marine battle cry that the recruits present were duty bound to respond to in kind. The only thing missing from the jingoistic scene was a monument to ESPN’s fallen integrity.

It’s been a great year for strawberries – and you can plant now for a bumper 2026

A sunny spring helped the plants to flourish in gardens. Now dig up their runners and position them elsewhere on your patch to avoid disease

It has been an epic year for fruit. My strawberry patch – which had been mediocre at best until this season – flourished in those extremely sunny spring days. Not only did we pick more fruit, but the strawberries were larger and sweeter than those of previous years. And even when the fruit had dwindled, the runners – the new plants emerging from the parent plant – just kept coming. They’ve stretched out from their original site, romped into the path and rooted into a neighbour’s bed.

Strawberry plants will produce fruit for a good three to four years and then start to slow down, so when you’ve reached this point it’s a good idea to replant your patch. You can do this with newly bought plants (a wise choice if yours are showing signs of disease or vulnerability) or by relocating the new runners that have appeared this season.

British-Egyptian activist stopped from flying to UK, says family

Egyptian authorities prevented Alaa Abd el-Fattah from attending human rights awards in London

Alaa Abd el-Fattah, the British-Egyptian writer and human rights campaigner who was freed from jail in September, was stopped from flying to the UK by Egyptian passport control, his family has said.

Abd el-Fattah was pardoned after more than 10 years in jail but his status, including his right to travel back and forth between Britain and Egypt, was left unclear and subject to discussion between the family and authorities.

Dorothy Waugh’s epic 1930s US national park posters – in pictures

Between 1934 and 1936, artist Dorothy Waugh was commissioned to create 17 posters for the National Park Service, a groundbreaking opportunity for a female designer at the time. Her designs, which were both accessible and avant-garde, are being celebrated in an exhibition for the first time at New York’s Poster House. Blazing A Trail: Dorothy Waugh’s National Parks Posters is on display until 22 February 2026

Lisa Nandy: BBC review will examine political appointments to board

Culture secretary says she shares concerns that such appointments have damaged trust, amid calls for Robbie Gibb to go

• UK politics live – latest updates

The BBC’s charter review will examine political appointments to the broadcaster’s board, Lisa Nandy has said, as they have “damaged confidence and trust”.

The culture secretary was asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme whether the BBC board member Robbie Gibb, formerly Theresa May’s communications chief, had overstepped his remit and weighed in on politics.

The 100 greatest men’s Ashes cricketers of all time

Sport’s famous rivalry began in 1877 and since then 853 men have featured in Australia v England Tests. But who are the very best of the best?

• Barney Ronay on the No 1 | Video: review the top 10

• Check how all the judges voted | Our methodology

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