This week on "Sunday Morning" (Sept. 20)

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

Retiring Smithsonian head Lonnie G. Bunch III: "You can run from history, but you can't hide"

In 2019, Bunch became both the first historian and the first African American to serve as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. As he prepares to retire, he talks about the museums' mission to protect history, and give America a full picture of itself.

Extended interview: Lonnie G. Bunch III

In this web exclusive, Secretary of the Smithsonian Lonnie G. Bunch III, who recently announced his retirement, talks with Mo Rocca about the mission of the Smithsonian Institution.

Retiring Smithsonian head Lonnie Bunch on protecting history

In 2019, Lonnie G. Bunch III became both the first historian and the first African American to serve as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Now 73, Bunch has announced he is retiring. He talks with correspondent Mo Rocca about fulfilling and enriching the Smithsonian's mandate. He also talks about pressure from the Trump White House questioning the patriotism of Smithsonian staff, and why the museums' mission – to protect history – includes giving America a full picture of itself.

Nvidia's Jensen Huang rejects AI extinction fear as "doomsday narratives"

Predictions that AI could destroy humanity in a few years are irresponsible and not based on science, Nvidia's co-founder told CBS News.

Nvidia's Jensen Huang on artificial intelligence

The Atlantic recently called Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang "the most powerful man in AI." He talks with correspondent Jo Ling Kent at Nvidia headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., about the latest developments in artificial intelligence and the ongoing debate over safety and regulations.

Bournemouth v Liverpool: Premier League – live

• Updates from 2pm (BST) kickoff at the Vitality Stadium

• Get in touch: contact Daniel via email

I don’t imagine Rose spent too long sweating over his team. Kluivert is a miss, and of course Junior Kroupi is long-term injured, but otherwise, his team is pretty settled. Adam Scott, who we might’ve thought would leave in the summer, stayed, and has started the season in excellent form. His ball-carrying is exceptional and he offers height in both boxes; if he can develop his passing, especially shirt, punched through the lines, he might develop into an all-round monster.

But back to our game, let’s have a closer look at our dramatis personae.

Almanac: September 20

"Sunday Morning" looks back at historical events on this date.

AI, data center alarms dominate Congressional Black Caucus week in Washington

AI interests pro and con turned out for the Congressional Black Caucus's annual gathering in Washington as the topics — plus redistricting concerns — dominated.

Celtic 0-1 Rangers: Scottish Premiership – as it happened

Rangers closed the gap at the top of the Scottish Premiership table with an impressive 1-0 win at Parkhead

Derek McInnes spoke to the BBC: “I know Celtic have made a load of changes. A lot was made of last week, us having won the battle through the middle of the park, they’ve filled the middle of the pitch today. We just need to make sure that we still try and compete in there, that middle ground is important for us to win.”

O’Neill has replaced Sam Johnstone with Viljami Sinisalo in Celtic’s goal. This is the explanation, Johnstone having played against Rangers last weel: “I feel that with Sam coming newly into the football club, and not having played for some time, I thought that the two games that he played, it would give him experience of the Old Firm game for a start.”

Sports betting apps entice fans as gambling exacts a growing financial toll

Betting platforms FanDuel and DraftKings say tools are there to help addicted gamblers slow down.

The addiction of online sports gambling: "Like crack in the '80s"

The money legally wagered on sports gambling has surged to $167 billion a year since it was legalized beyond Nevada in 2018. But data show, in states where online gambling has been made legal, bankruptcies and credit card delinquencies go up 25%. Correspondent Jim Axelrod talks to a gambler who wagers his annual income; and examines how the online betting platforms FanDuel and DraftKings – now the subjects of lawsuits regarding their design – interact with their customers.

‘I got married in it’: readers on their favourite secondhand fashion finds

To mark Oxfam’s Second Hand September, here are some of your best thrift discoveries and the stories behind them

Oxfam’s Second Hand September campaign encourages people to avoid buying new clothes for 30 days and choose preloved pieces instead. From £28 Prada skirts to £5 wedding dresses, we asked people to share their favourite fashion finds and the stories behind them.

Readers reply: what would be the most useful superpower?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

• This week’s question: Which leader from history does the world need now?

If you could have your pick, what would be the single most useful superpower you could ever have? And would it also be the most fun? It could be anything – not just the normal Hulk strength or flying like Superman. Joe, Potsdam

Send new questions to [email protected].

My mum has died - and every decision I make about her belongings feels wrong | Polly Hudson

Until now I’d never realised how much work is involved in sorting out a parent’s affairs, and how much heartbreak

In all the talk of the five stages of grief, I don’t recall one of them being spending hours on hold to energy suppliers. Perhaps I misunderstood, though, and that’s entirely what they’re about. This call won’t take long (denial); aargh, are they ever going to answer? (anger); if I hang on for five minutes more, they’ll definitely pick up (bargaining); they are never, ever going to pick up (depression); and I live on hold now – this is my life (acceptance).

You hear the term “sadmin” bandied about, you understand there’s paperwork to do after somebody dies – but until it’s you who has to do it, you don’t realise how much, what it entails or how encompassing it is. My mum’s death has basically become my full-time job. The hours are terrible, the pay is worse and the promotion prospects sobering, to say the least.

Trump says proposed arch will also be a "top grade Military Complex"

President Trump said that he has agreed to convert plans for a massive triumphal arch into a "top grade Military Complex," equipped with snipers and drone storage.

PHOTOS: The precarious life of fisherfolk

In the bustling heart of the southern Indian city of Chennai is a market that never sleeps, where residents from the poorest neighborhoods wage a battle of survival with the sea.

Moscow targeted with hundreds of drones as Kyiv uses its first ballistic missile in the war

Authorities accuse Zelenskyy of trying to disrupt Russian elections, with at least two killed and oil refinery damaged

Ukraine has targeted Moscow and elsewhere in Russia in a large-scale attack that involved hundreds of drones and the first acknowledged use of ballistic missiles by Kyiv in the war.

The attack killed at least two people and damaged what Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said was one of Russia’s “key oil industry facilities” on the final day of the country’s parliamentary elections, authorities said on Sunday.

Michelle Bachelet withdraws from race to become UN secretary general

Former president of Chile drops out after support collapsed in security council straw poll, leaving seven candidates in contest

Michelle Bachelet, a former president of Chile, has withdrawn her candidacy to become the next secretary general of the ⁠UN, ending an attempt ​that had struggled to gain traction among security council members.

Bachelet, 74, announced ⁠her decision in a video posted on Instagram on Saturday, saying: “I will now continue, with the ⁠same determination as always, my international work.”

‘I have nothing in the UK at all’: British man torn from his Swedish wife and home

Charles lands at Heathrow with just two bags and nowhere to go as a result of Brexit and Stockholm’s hardline immigration position

Doubled over a Heathrow baggage trolley, the former British business director is sobbing uncontrollably, exhausted emotionally and physically after being deported from Sweden.

Hours earlier the 65-year-old had been marched on to a plane in Stockholm, separated from his home and his Swedish wife after a five-year battle to stay in the country after Brexit came to an end.

How to make the perfect apfelschmarrn – recipe | Felicity Cloake's how to cook the perfect …

This fruity central European pancake dish can be served as part of a main course or as a dessert. Our resident perfektionistin flips through a selection of the best recipes

Schmarrn, or schmarren, Anja Dunk writes, is “peasant food at its best: filling, simple and comforting”. The usual English translation, pancake, a dish we generally associate with delicate desserts is, I think, somewhat misleading; schmarren, as it’s also spelled, bears very little resemblance to a thin, lacy crepe, and instead sits somewhere between our own plump, rich Shrove Tuesday numbers and a batter pudding. Indeed, you’ll find it on the sweets section of restaurant and cafe menus, but in Germany, Dunk reports in her book Strudel, Noodles and Dumplings, it “passes as a main meal, not dessert, because it is very filling and not particularly sweet in flavour”, and also, I suspect, because “it takes 10 minutes to make from start to finish” and is therefore a brilliantly quick supper. (“Quite frankly,” she adds,” as a mother, I find this recipe a godsend.”)

Austro-Hungarian in origin, it’s eaten in both Germany and Austria, and there are many variations, including kaiserschmarren (studded with rum-soaked raisins), savoury potato schmarren, semolina schmarren and bread schmarren, though fruit, often apples, but also stone fruit or berries, seems to be the most common pairing. Whether you’re serving this as a main course (it goes very well with sausages) or afterwards, it’s a very handy addition to the repertoire, especially when paired with soured cream or ice-cream.

Rabies concerns grow in the US – but it’s unclear if there’s an increase of the fatal disease

Rabid goats at a North Carolina petting zoo and a diseased beaver attacking a Maryland boy have set the public on edge

Recent unusual incidents involving humans and rabid animals and a subsequent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory have prompted concerns about rabies, but it’s not clear if there has actually been an increase in cases of the deadly disease in the United States, experts say.

In recent months, rabid beavers have attacked three people in Maryland, and hundreds of people were exposed to goats with rabies at a petting zoo in North Carolina, according to news reports. The CDC issued a health advisory on 10 September “in response to recent reports of increases in human exposures to rabid or possibly rabid animals”.

US environment agency let Bayer pick regulations for destructive weedkiller, documents show

Environmental Protection Agency asked firm to choose rules it wanted for dicamba, then put the choices in a proposed federal rule

The EPA allowed pesticide giant Bayer to pick from a menu of regulation options for the controversial and destructive weedkiller dicamba, newly released internal agency documents show.

The documents provide an unusually clear look into the process of developing pesticide regulations, which is typically done out of public view. It shows in detail how the EPA asked Bayer which regulations it wanted, received a response from Bayer, then put Bayer’s choices into a proposed federal rule.

Budget airline king Bill Franke warms to first-class seats and premium upgrades

Serial airline investor Bill Franke is embracing more upmarket changes like first-class seats.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang emerges as Trump's top ally in AI safety debate

Jensen Huang's position as the leader of the world's most valuable company, has earned him Trump's ear on the most important topics in AI.

Ed Sheeran says situation in Gaza ‘unjustifiable’ in first show since tour plunged into turmoil

Pop star has faced boycott calls since rapper Macklemore was removed from tour after shouting ‘free Palestine’ at concert

Ed Sheeran has opened a solo concert in Philadelphia with comments about Gaza, saying what is happening is “catastrophic and unjustifiable”, in his first show since his tour was plunged into turmoil.

“My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilians’ lives, of children’s lives,” Sheeran said on Saturday, adding that he wanted his music and shows to be about unity and humanity, not politics.

Dining across the divide: ‘He suggested the Clacton byelection was a vanity project. Obviously I disagree’

A Reform politician and an NHS worker had different takes on Nigel Farage, but could they agree on renewable energy or tax policies?

Chris, 42, London

Occupation Electrical supervisor of the maintenance team at an NHS hospital

Caitlin Moran: social media went from utopia to hellhole in a decade – if you want to feel hopeful again, get offline

Fourteen years ago, Twitter was the fastest, funniest game on the web. Now I’ve been driven out by so-called ‘online activists’. The only answer is to unplug and try this instead

God, I love social media! I cannot believe my exquisite luck – to exist in a time when it was invented! Bliss it is in this dawn to be @live! If you’ve not been on Twitter yet – please join! It’s kind of like a cross between your best ever pub, and the bit on Live & Kicking where celebrities like Duran Duran were doing the phone-in, and you could ring in and talk to them. Literally! Because Duran Duran are on Twitter! Well, Simon Le Bon is. And Spandau Ballet, too! Well, Gary Kemp. And they’re really funny. During the royal wedding with Kate and William, when all the lesser royals were herded on to some shitty coaches, Kemp was horrified.

‘It’s transformed the village’: the volunteers greening up Britain’s train stations

Exclusive: Five gardening teams shortlisted for Royal Horticultural Society’s new Railway Stations in Bloom award

Every year since 1964, towns across the UK have bloomed with hanging baskets and brightly coloured flowerbeds planted by residents.

They wield their trowels in aid of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Britain in Bloom competition, a coveted accolade for the 1,600 communities that enter each year.

In New Orleans, an empty building becomes a free store — and roller skating rink

In the Lower Ninth Ward, an old Family Dollar stands covered in graffiti. It looks abandoned. But inside, it's a treasure trove — clothing, home goods, toys and books. And everything is free.

Andros Townsend avoids injury after bizarre pitch roller incident in Thailand

• Former England player run over while warming up

• ‘It turns out Stoke away wasn’t so bad,’ says winger

The former England winger Andros Townsend has joked Stoke away “wasn’t so bad after all” following a bizarre incident in Thailand where he was run over by a pitch roller.

The ex-Tottenham and Crystal Palace attacker Townsend currently plays in Thai League 1 for PT Prachuap and made headlines on Saturday night when a clip emerged on social media which showed the 35-year-old being taken out before a fixture at Pattani.

AI slowdown calls justified but collapse of bubble may be more immediate threat | Heather Stewart

Scale of debt issuance being used to fund the hectic pace of the datacentre rollout by tech firms is a worry

Warnings about powerful and uncontrolled AI have dominated the headlines this past week. But even amid the omens of apocalypse, it is still worth asking if the entire AI-industrial complex is sailing towards a financial iceberg.

It will hardly be our most pressing concern if the bots are poised to take over the world, but a collapse of the AI bubble would have repercussions far beyond the US.

Luke Littler threatens to boycott Netherlands darts events after booing

• ‘If the Dutch stay like this I’m not going,’ says teenager

• Littler hoping to win all 10 major TV events in a year

Luke Littler has threatened to boycott tournaments in the Netherlands after being booed and whistled during the World Series of Darts Finals in Amsterdam.

The back-to-back world champion faced a hostile environment during Friday’s win over home favourite Danny Noppert and it escalated on Saturday night as referee Charlie Costorphine had to intervene in the last-16 win over Nathan Aspinall.

Judge orders Fox to hand over hundreds of documents in shareholders' case

Fox Corp. must turn over hundreds of documents that could shed light on how founder Rupert Murdoch handled some of his media companies' biggest scandals.

Dominic West backs ‘top shagger’ Byron in poetry battle with Bob Geldof

Actor hails ‘proto-rock star’ as best poet, while musician argues for ‘Ireland’s Shakespeare’ WB Yeats at Somerset festival

Dominic West has said Lord Byron is his favourite poet because he was a “top shagger” and said he was not concerned the rise of AI might snuff out poetry.

The actor was taking part in a “poetry battle” at the Big Brue festival in Somerset, against rock star Bob Geldof, who said he preferred the Irish poet WB Yeats to the excesses of Byron.

‘People are pissed off’: anger at the elite and the establishment is fueling this year’s midterms

Coming midterm elections are starting to be framed not as right versus left but instead the ‘well-fed versus the fed-up’

Brian Leeland, a 79-year-old Democratic voter in Detroit, had enough. Frustrated by the way the US media covers this febrile political era, from Donald Trump’s Washington to political campaigns across the country, he contacted the Guardian.

“Your decision to frame the race here as a simple progressive versus establishment choice is overly simplistic verging on lazy,” he wrote to this reporter, after our coverage of progressive Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign in the Democratic US Senate primary in Michigan. “As an electorate, we are not binary for the convenience of the media.”

This is how we do it: ‘As a Catholic monk, I was celibate. But sex with Orla feels so natural’

Rory left the monastery after feeling lonely; with Orla, herself a Catholic, he’s been making up for lost time

• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

We had sex after a week. I remember thinking afterwards wow, everything has changed

Kimchi tuna and beetroot halloumi: 10 easy, delicious lunch bowls to make for work – as suggested by chefs

A ‘packed lunch revival’ is under way among office workers who want to eat more healthily. From bread salads to rice bowls, food experts offer their ideas

Nearly half of office workers are making packed lunches more regularly than they were a year ago, thanks to the rising cost of buying food on the go, according to new research. Does this mean employees will be lunching on soggy sandwiches and ultra-processed snacks? Apparently not.

The survey, by online supermarket Ocado, found the “packed lunch revival” was, in part, driven by a rise in the number of people opting for more nutritious “lunch bowl” options, often inspired by ideas shared on social media. With this in mind, we asked food writers and chefs how to make the perfect lunch bowl – something to brighten up your break, and keep you feeling satiated until you clock off.

U.S. childcare costs are astronomical. More families are turning to grandparents

Grandparents taking care of their grandkids is nothing new. But the surging cost of childcare in the U.S. has made familial support even more critical for some parents who struggle to afford it.

Ukraine fires over 1,000 drones at Russia, including hundreds launched at Moscow

Moscow's mayor described the wave of drones as the "largest ever" attack on the Russian capital and said there had been damage to a Moscow oil refinery and a residential building.

UK minister warns of impact of Trump’s Iran war on next month’s budget

Bridget Phillipson says Burnham’s past criticisms of US president not an issue as PM prepares to meet Trump at UN

Next month’s budget will be made more difficult by Donald Trump’s war with Iran, one of Andy Burnham’s cabinet ministers has said, while adding she did not expect the prime minister’s previous disparaging comments about the US president to be an issue.

Burnham is expected to meet Trump early next week at the UN general assembly summit in New York, the pair having previously spoken twice by phone since Burnham entered No 10.

‘Resident Evil movies? I’ve never seen one’: Weapons director Zach Cregger on resurrecting the beloved zombie franchise

Raised on punk, alt-comedy and the church, Cregger’s Lynchian approach to horror is anything but typical. After two wildly original hits, his pivot to a 30-year-old video game has caused a storm among protective fans

When Barbarian, Zach Cregger’s debut film as a solo writer-director, came out in 2022, it was a big success, creating a buzz among horror connoisseurs, garnering good reviews, and grossing $46m. Then his second film, Weapons, came out in 2025 and did even better. Mounting industry buzz around the project crystallised into a fierce bidding war; Jordan Peele was reportedly desperate to produce and, incensed by his failure to secure the rights, allegedly fired his managers. The rumours went viral, resulting in a wave of incredible PR that saw the film wildly outperform box office expectations and win an Academy Award (for Amy Madigan’s blunt-fringed, bonsai-pruning best supporting actress turn as instantly classic villain Aunt Gladys).

Even if Cregger had not had a box-office smash that crossed over into awards contention, there would still be an atmosphere of hushed expectation around his next move. Both Barbarian and Weapons addressed hot-button issues – sexual assault and school shootings, respectively – while resisting easy interpretation. Both, too, started out seemingly heading in one narrative direction, before thrillingly careening off elsewhere. Thus, with just two features, Cregger had established a reputation for totally terrifying, utterly unpredictable and – most importantly – genuinely original movies.

‘We broke the rules:’ why chef Ferran Adriá is the subject of new TV drama

Six-part drama Gènesi tells the story of Adriá’s Catalan restaurant El Bulli from the day he arrived as a kitchen hand

Revered and reviled, during the 28 years he presided over El Bulli, a small restaurant in a remote corner of Catalonia, Ferran Adrià changed cooking for ever.

Now he is the subject of Gènesi (Genesis), a six-part TV drama screening on Catalan television with a worldwide release later in the year that recounts the story of El Bulli from the day he arrived there in 1983 as a kitchen hand with no background at all in haute cuisine.

Taryn Simon on her most ambitious exhibition yet: ‘It’s built almost like a novel’

The multidisciplinary artist delves into pockets of history, including within her family, for the largest ever debut of new work staged at the Guggenheim

Taryn Simon is seated in a conference room at the Guggenheim, looking dazed. Her new show, Father Country I Do Love You, opens in under three weeks. It’s a big deal, the first monographic exhibition by a photography-based artist in the iconic spiral rotunda, and the largest debut of new work ever staged at the museum. There’s still a lot of work to be done.

Downstairs, the lobby is being transformed into the Bangkok living room of Jim Thompson, a silk businessman-slash-spy who disappeared in 1967. Simon’s father, a US government worker, was living in Thailand at the time and figured that the Chinese got him, if not a tiger. When Simon was nine, the father and daughter recreated Thompson’s famous wood-panelled den back in Long Island. “And then I built it here with fake teak,” she says, voice wilting. “It’s driving me nuts. I’ve spent so much time trying to make non-teak look like teak.”

NPR's College Podcast Challenge is back for 2026

Students: It's time to turn on the mic and hit 'record.' Send us your podcasts and we'll pick the best ones. It's $5,000 for our grand prize and $500 for our finalists.

Thousands of planned launches, terms of deal, worry some near Louisiana SpaceX site

State officials say the new SpaceX site will be a $100 billion investment and launch thousands of rockets. Lawmakers helped ease regulations and negotiations were covered under nondisclosure agreements.

Earl Spencer says media treatment of Harry and Meghan ‘echoes’ Diana’s experience

Comments come after he accused King Charles of gaslighting him in response to claims made in new memoir

Earl Spencer has said the relationship between the press and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex “echoes” the way the media treated his sister Diana, Princess of Wales.

In an interview with the BBC to be aired on Sunday evening, Spencer described the press’s coverage of Harry and Meghan as having a “cancerous influence”, adding it would be “beholden on people to learn from Diana’s example”.

Pizza dough and TV prison dramas: how Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe survived jail in Iran

Former charity worker tells Big Brue festival in Somerset of the strange comforts that helped her during imprisonment

It is a TV show about women confined to prison in the US, but Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe found watching Orange is the New Black with her fellow inmates a strange comfort after smuggling episodes into her Iranian jail cell, downloaded on to an illegal USB stick.

The British-Iranian former charity worker was detained in 2016 for more than five years and kept in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran.

‘I can’t wait for the Ashes’: new Test coach Fleming wants England to be No 1

New Zealander hopes to add ‘a bit of cricket sense in the key moments’ to Bazball template

“Flemball? That’s a medical condition.” Stephen Fleming’s first press conference as England Test coach was exactly what you would expect from a man appointed to bring calm to a team that had started to career off course.

While the Manchester rain did its worst outside, Fleming was the handsome sea captain on top of his ship, even if that ship had to float without him during the Test series against Pakistan. England won 3-0 while Fleming saw to family and commercial commitments. But the wait has given him thinking time to work out what he wants to achieve.

Don’t discount Reform because it's had a bad year. In our angry, fragile democracy, anything can happen | John Harris

Nigel Farage’s tactics are to play up the anxiety and resentment that people feel. Labour’s job is simple: to offer hope and change

Despite the energised start Andy Burnham has made as prime minister, plenty of his party’s MPs and hardcore activists are still haunted by a familiar sense of insecurity. Underpinned by a political version of impostor syndrome, it runs deep – and, bar the odd spell of Labour optimism, it always has. So it is with the battle between Labour and Reform UK that will define an election that could arrive much sooner than some people think, and a widely held ambivalence on the left about the possibility of Nigel Farage’s party taking power. Reform is apparently in deep trouble, yet also still in with a serious chance. How come?

Investigations into the party and its leadership’s finances by both the Metropolitan police and parliament’s standards commissioner may worsen Reform’s woes. Those investigations predate the two recently announced £36m donations from the crypto tycoons Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo, which themselves risk being backdatedly ruled illegal and are reportedly already being spent on 400 “field agents”. The two mega-donations symbolise two connected stories. One is about the possible buyout of our fragile democracy. The other centres on how, from much of the public’s perspective, all the allegations about Farage and his party might have already turned into an indecipherable blizzard. So, although Reform is down, it is still far from out.

John Harris is a Guardian columnist

Thousands of pregnant women in England are reporting domestic abuse. Midwives are struggling to cope

Exclusive: Analysis ‘lays bare’ something midwives already know from their day-to-day work

About 20,000 disclosures of domestic abuse are estimated to be made to maternity services in England every year, analysis has found.

The figures are likely to be an underestimate of the true scale of disclosures, according to experts, highlighting the role maternity professionals play in identifying abuse.

10 of the best mountain huts in Europe: bunkrooms, bothies and bonhomie

Beautifully situated refuges with superlative views offering sanctuary to intrepid hikers and climbers

A good mountain hut, I reckon, should be small and only accessible on foot after considerable effort. Throw in a bit of historical interest and I’m bound to be happy. In which case, Cabaña Verónica in the Picos de Europa is a fine start to this list. It sleeps six, and at 2,325 metres requires a two-hour trek from the nearest cable car station, never mind road. It has incredible views and a friendly custodian who keeps things in good order. Yet the real attraction is that this place was formerly a gun turret of a US navy battleship that was scrapped in Bilbao in 1960. An enterprising engineer, Conrado Senties, had it carried up on horseback and reassembled on a plug of rock in the middle of nowhere. Don’t ask why, just enjoy the eccentricity.
€15, reservarefugios.com

Chiltern Railways enters public ownership in Labour nationalisation push

Operator that runs services between London Marylebone and Birmingham is sixth to be nationalised since 2025

Chiltern Railways has become the latest train operator to enter public ownership as the government closes in on its ambition to renationalise all major passenger rail services.

The operator, which runs commuter rail services on the Chiltern mainline between London Marylebone and Birmingham, on Sunday became the sixth to be nationalised under Labour, with the remaining four to follow by the end of 2027.

Reαd carefully: how to spot – and avoid – a homoglyph attack

Scam emails are increasingly using psychological tricks, such as using near-identical URLs like miсrosoft.com

You’ve read the email carefully and it looks legitimate. The link it asks you to click on has none of the usual red flags: there are no weird numbers or extra parts to the URL. You feel safe to proceed.

But if you had looked slightly closer you may have noticed something slightly wrong with one of the characters. Just as in the headline of this piece where instead of “a” we used the Cyrillic “α”.

It just goes to show that the split-second decision you make when clicking a link is often the most vulnerable part of the whole security chain.”

Are global stock markets heading for a crash?

Economies thrown into renewed turmoil as AI debt, Iran war and soaring government bond yields fuel alarm

At the height of the summer, the mood was optimistic in the world’s financial capitals. Powered by the AI revolution, the US stock market had rallied to a fresh all-time high, as investors bet the multitrillion-dollar investment spree would overshadow the hit from the Iran war.

Now the warning lights are flashing red. As the fighting in the Middle East intensifies without clear sign of a resolution, financial markets have been thrown into renewed turmoil. A slowdown looms in the AI arms race, and tinderbox conditions in the market for government debt are fuelling alarm.

Ms Rachel, the controversial queen of toddler TV: ‘My goal isn’t to be the most liked. It’s to help kids and speak the truth’

Her catchy videos have racked up billions of views, but Rachel Accurso’s statements on everything from Gaza to LGBTQ rights have caused a stir. She talks about screen time, song fatigue and speculation she might enter politics

The YouTube star Ms Rachel, toddler whisperer extraordinaire, spots me before I clock her, and even from a distance and without her trademark pink T-shirt and denim dungarees, she is instantly recognisable by her wave, which is accompanied by an enthusiastic bounce. I half expect her to say, “Hi, friends”, as she does at the start of many of her videos. Instead she bounds over, wearing a classic off-duty mum uniform – Sesame Street sweatshirt, grey leggings, baseball cap that reads “Mama” – and removes her oversized sunglasses. She’s very sorry, she says, rubbing her eyes, that she is so tired – but her manner remains unfailingly, characteristically peppy.

It is only seven years since Rachel Accurso, who used to be a preschool music teacher, uploaded her first video to YouTube, a counting song for preschoolers called Bubble, Bubble Pop!. She and her husband, Aron Accurso, who worked as a music director on Broadway, made the video because their one-year-old son had a speech delay and there seemed to be a dearth of quality videos online that could help toddlers learn to speak.

‘The rules have changed’: has Russia begun to order assassinations on US soil?

Exiled dissidents and an unsealed indictment suggest Kremlin may have abandoned longstanding taboo on attacks on its rival’s territory

Roman Dobrokhotov had been content enough for his appearance at a conference in Washington DC this week to be publicised, although it was not something he would normally risk in Europe. The dissident Russian journalist was named during a trial in London last year as one of the targets of a Russian spy ring that appeared to have murderous intent.

“Maybe burn him alive on the street, spray him with some super-strong acid, VX, like the North Koreans, or the ricin,” a Russian-hired operative had texted of the plans for Dobrokhotov in Britain.

Saudi Arabia says Houthis tried to attack its capital

Saudi Arabia on Saturday said that Yemen's Houthi rebels tried to attack Riyadh with a ballistic missile, the first time the Saudi capital has been targeted since the escalation in fighting with the Iran-backed rebels opened a new front in the Iran war.

Ed Sheeran says situation in Gaza is 'catastrophic and unjustifiable' as he opens solo concert

Ed Sheeran opened a solo concert Saturday with comments about Gaza after controversy swirled around his tour and supporting acts withdrew in solidarity with opener Macklemore, who was dropped after making pro-Palestinian comments onstage.

Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv denounces Russia’s inclusion of annexed regions in parliamentary elections

Ukrainian officials call the move illegal while European Commission condemns ‘another blatant violation of international law’ in parliamentary poll. What we know on day 1,670

Future of German chancellor hangs in the balance as two states go to polls

Embattled Friedrich Merz faces nervous wait while far-right Alternative für Deutschland party targets further gains

Voters in two German states are going to the polls with the political future of the embattled chancellor, Friedrich Merz, hanging in the balance and an emboldened far right targeting further gains.

Coming two weeks after a seismic election in Saxony-Anhalt in which the anti-immigration, pro-Kremlin Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) scored its highest ever result in a regional poll, the nativist party is expected to drain support again from Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

Union Jack Classic fails to spark on the pitch but electric atmosphere fires up Wembley

The Arizona State Sun Devils cantered to victory in the first ever Union Jack Classic in front of a noisy crowd – despite thousands of empty seats

You sensed that Britain’s first US college football game in nearly 40 years was going to be a very different experience when Wembley Way began to reverberate to the sound of steel, muscle and a few whoops long before kick-off.

The noise came from the Arizona State Sun Devils’ marching band, who were so energetic their horns and trombones swished from left to right like air raid lights hunting a target as they played.

Strictly Come Dancing review – delighted new hosts help show feel genuinely fresh

The presenters look terrified and some of the celebs are hard to identify, but Strictly remains a rare refuge of joy

At this point, Strictly Come Dancing cannot be allowed to fail. When we’re all living off our Wes Streeting-mandated prepper rations, it’s the only thing that will keep us going, linking us to a time when joy, sparkle and diversity brought the nation together. Enshittification stalks the show – it has long felt too repetitive, its celeb lineups seem to get feebler each year, and the departure of longstanding presenters Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman threatened to be a lethal blow – so there’s a lot riding on this new series.

“Strictly Come Dancing – still fabulous,” said the continuity announcer introducing the launch show, not sounding entirely sure.

Lawsuits filed over Nazi-looted art displayed in museums in Los Angeles, Auschwitz

Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazi regime orchestrated the largest art theft in world history, seizing over 600,000 works of art across Europe from Jewish families, collectors and museums.

Israeli president pardons combat medic who shot dead wounded Palestinian attacker

Elor Azaria’s conviction in 2017 for manslaughter of man who stabbed soldier continues to divide country

Israel’s president has pardoned a combat medic who shot dead a badly wounded Palestinian attacker who had stabbed a soldier in the occupied West Bank, in a case that divided the country a decade ago.

Elor Azaria’s conviction in 2017 for manslaughter and his release after serving two-thirds of his 18-month sentence drew enormous attention in Israel, where military service is compulsory for most Jewish men.

When friends become good neighbours: the Melbourne families who transformed one home into three townhouses

In a novel approach to urban housing, some residents have pooled their time and finances into redeveloping single dwellings. It’s a herculean task – with feel-good results

Melbourne architect Chris Gilbert had run out of eggs. He texted a neighbour and within minutes, he says, their child arrived with some. “Then I made brownies and my kids took some over to the neighbours’ house.”

It sounds like a flashback to a bygone era, but this neighbourly exchange took place this month, at the Davison Collaborative, a novel housing project in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick. In 2020 the townhouse development replaced one past-its-prime brick veneer house with three architecturally designed three-bedroom family dwellings, trebling the lot’s density and future proofing it “for at least the next 50 years,” says Liam Wallis, from the sustainability focused property development and consultancy company Hip V. Hype.

‘I feel like I’m cancelling out her life’: the wrenching work of clearing out a parent’s home

From old love letters to pieces of string, our homes are stuffed with stuff. When it comes time to empty a parent’s home, sorting the junk from the memory can be overwhelming

Soon after her marriage in 1952, Ellen Rogers’ mother, Fay, bought a coordinated bedroom ensemble – a floral dressing gown and matching bedspread. The day I talk on the phone with Rogers, she has made a tough decision – she is putting the gown and bedspread in a garbage bag to be sent off to a charity shop. “I feel so bad,” she says.

Fay died in May aged 97, and had lived in the same terrace house in Camperdown in inner Sydney her whole life. Rogers grew up in the house and returned three years ago to be a live-in carer for her mother. Now she’s cleaning out the house so it can be sold. The decisions she must make are endless; which pile for what item – family, rubbish or charity? “It’s overwhelming – there’s so much,” Rogers says, “including every bloody card she ever received.”

Belmont Park is back: inside New York’s $555m bet on horse racing

The storied Long Island racetrack, rebuilt with a $455m state loan, is smaller, sleeker and designed for a changing audience. Can it create the public needed to sustain it?

Henry Miller stood on the trackside apron of the new Belmont Park on Friday trying to decide what he thought of the place.

“It has to grow on me,” said Miller, a 59-year-old retired sanitation worker from Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood who has been coming to New York racetracks for 47 years. “For me, it’s too much concrete. I don’t think it’s as friendly as the old Belmont.”

Zidane’s next move as France coach may reveal the wizard behind the curtain | Jonathan Wilson

It is apt that the most perplexing football country will now be guided by the most enigmatic of leaders

Even in his playing days, Zinedine Zidane seemed unknowable. As a manager, the sense of distance has only grown. He won three Champions Leagues with Real Madrid without ever giving a sense of what his idea of football looked like.

France are perhaps the most perplexing football country: a squad that teems with such talent that a B team would be serious contenders at a World Cup, that reached three major finals under Didier Deschamps with a sense of unfulfilment, a team that progressed but rarely entranced, or at least didn’t until this summer’s World Cup, when they attacked with gusto and ended up overrun in midfield by Spain.

Trump vows to form "AI Force," says he won't allow slowdown of AI development

In a Truth Social post​, Mr. Trump called fears around artificial intelligence possibly becoming a superintelligence that could pose a threat to human existence a hoax.

CNN, MS NOW and Politico staffers barred from White House after Trump ban

President Trump said Friday that three outlets would be banned from the White House, "effective immediately."

Lawsuit says AI giants made illegal deal on technology's slowdown

The lawsuit argues the leading AI companies violated antitrust laws when they agreed to coordinate slowdown efforts.

Elderly man allegedly beaten to death in Virginia Walmart by parents of employee

Bert Atienza and teen worker reportedly exchanged words before parents showed up and allegedly attacked shopper

A 77-year-old Walmart shopper died after he was allegedly attacked inside a Virginia store by the parents of a teenage employee he had confronted over a shopping cart incident involving his wife, according to US media reports.

Bert Atienza died from blunt head trauma on 8 June, one day after the attack at the Walmart in Norfolk, Virginia, WTKR reported on Monday. The shocking incident was captured on surveillance video.

Jewish heirs of Holocaust victims sue California museum over Nazi-looted art

Pasadena’s Norton Simon Museum holds 16th-century paintings stolen by the Nazis during the second world war

Jewish heirs of Holocaust victims and their representatives have filed two lawsuits in California staking their claims to Nazi-looted paintings that still hang on the walls of prominent museums in Los Angeles and Auschwitz.

This pair of lawsuits are the first to be filed after the recent passage of laws by California and the US Congress, which strengthen US-based claims to artwork that were forcibly taken from Jewish families during the second world war.

Denmark and Greenland say US military agreement will not compromise Arctic territory’s sovereignty

Statement sought to clarify Trump’s announcement that US will have ‘permanent control’ over Greenland’s security

Denmark and Greenland have said any agreement with the US to develop a significant military presence in the strategic Arctic territory will not compromise Greenland’s sovereignty.

In a statement on Saturday clarifying an announcement by Donald Trump that an agreement had been reached to give Washington “permanent control” ⁠over Greenland’s security, Denmark and the semi-autonomous territory ⁠expressed hope that a deal would end friction with the US over the issue.

A deadly crash and the perilous history of LA’s news helicopters: ‘The eye in the sky’

An on-air helicopter crash killed journalist Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw, shaking LA’s news tradition

The whir of news helicopters flying overhead has long been a familiar soundtrack to life in Los Angeles – and the footage they gather of high-speed chases, wildfires and celebrity sightings a fixture of local television.

For nearly 70 years, Angelenos have gotten their news from “the eye in the sky” – from scenes of OJ Simpson’s fleeing white Bronco, the 1992 LA riots and even Madonna’s wedding to Sean Penn.

How the NYPD is preparing for the U.N. General Assembly

The United Nations General Assembly kicks off next week. President Trump and foreign leaders, including Benjamin Netanyahu, are expected to speak. Anna Schecter spoke to the NYPD about security efforts.

9/19: Saturday Morning

President Trump bans some journalists from the White House, how Apple broke into retail, plus Tex-Mex barbecue on The Dish.

Trump says he's banning CNN, Politico and MS NOW from the White House

CBS News observed two MS NOW employees being turned away from the White House on Saturday morning.

Cuba power grid collapse leaves millions without electricity again

One Cuba resident said there is "no way to know" when power will be restored to the island nation.

Maga wants more babies. But they don’t seem too worried about miscarriages in ICE detention |

Officials lack data on miscarriages after October 2025. Detained women aren’t getting the prenatal healthcare they need

Maga men have babies on the brain. They may not all be interested in changing diapers or hands-on parenting, but they’re very keen on population growth. “[W]e want more babies, to put it very nicely,” Donald Trump said last year.

Trump, who has called himself the “father of IVF” and joked that he will be known as the “fertilization president”, surrounds himself with people who profess a similar fondness for children. Only a few days after being sworn in as vice-president, JD Vance declared he wanted “more babies in the United States of America” and went on to make pronatalist policies a theme of his time in office.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

Hunk – or ‘unc’? What magazine covers of Michael B Jordan and Tom Cruise tell us about manhood

Images of two actors on front of Vogue and GQ land at a time when masculinity is increasingly dominating headlines

Tom Cruise and Michael B Jordan share many similarities as box-office powerhouses known for their death-defying action hero stunts. But this week the two stars went head-to-head, or more accurately chest-to-chest, on magazine stands.

In one corner there’s 64-year-old Cruise on the cover of GQ, his first for the magazine in 20 years. Posing in an unbuttoned shirt, one hand running through his tousled hair, the other gripping his belt buckle, this is Cruise playing the role of sexy Cruise.

Firefighters struggle with staffing shortages amid record wildfire season

Wildfires have burned more than 8.5 million acres of land in the U.S. this year, and at the peak of the season, there weren't enough people or equipment to fight them.

The Black women who choose to have children on their own: ‘We’re going in eyes open’

With growing support networks online and in person, these moms say they’re changing the narrative around Black single motherhood

When Chamise Alston was ready to have a child, she connected her computer to her TV and scrolled through profiles with her best friend, dismissing people who seemed like the wrong fit. Unlike the average millennial on a dating app, Alston was scanning a sperm bank catalogue for potential donors. The Maryland-based therapist hoped to conceive a child through the assisted reproductive technology in vitro-fertilization (IVF).

That winter day in 2023, Alston and her friend chose a donor who would help her become pregnant with her now 16-month-old daughter. As a Black woman, she felt empowered taking control of her reproductive destiny.

Unease in ‘newly independent’ Piddington as world media and Danny Tommo descend

As villagers take stock following symbolic vote, some fear far-right weaponisation of asylum dispute and influx of ‘masked people like in Dover’

The first significant event in the newly independent principality of Piddington was a decision to select the newt as the national animal, reflecting optimism that the amphibian’s endangered status might help block plans to open a centre for 1,250 asylum seekers on neighbouring land.

The choice was announced on Thursday morning, the day after Piddington announced that villagers had voted overwhelmingly to leave the UK. Parish councillors were also thinking about asking local children to design a flag and considering whether the new principality’s national sport should be cricket or football.

Trump says U.S. to build a 'large Military presence' in Greenland as part of a security deal with it and Denmark

Greenland has maintained it is not for sale, and the European Union earlier this year united to rebuke Trump over his push to acquire the island.

China bogeyman looms large over American firms’ AI doomsday scenario

Silicon Valley China hawks, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei among them, fear the country surpassing US’s AI lead as much as superintelligence destroying humanity

• Why China is pushing back on US warnings over rapid AI development

When reporters asked Donald Trump this week if he supported calls to slow down the development of artificial intelligence out of growing fears for cybersecurity, public safety and the fate of humanity, he said no. His argument: China.

“We’re leading China in AI,” Trump said. “We’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly, I want to ⁠keep it that way, because whoever wins AI, wins.”

Trump ally Stephen Miller leads sweeping push to accelerate removal of migrant children

Exclusive: key White House loyalist orchestrating multi-agency effort condemned by critics as cruel and racist

Stephen Miller is leading an unprecedented and intense White House drive across a host of government departments to accelerate the removal of undocumented immigrant children from the US, using tactics that critics say are cruel and racist and, in some cases, flout federal law, the Guardian has learned.

As deputy chief of staff at the White House, focused on immigration policy, Miller is seen as the mastermind and enforcer behind Donald Trump’s hardline anti-immigration agenda.

Stephen Ashman on the difficulties facing first-time homebuyers – cartoon

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‘It felt like an eternal moment of silent tranquillity’: Amit Lennon’s best phone picture

On holiday in Greece the photographer came across two elderly people bathed in the beautiful evening light

Amit Lennon describes his approach to portrait photography as “always respectful and collaborative”. Originally from Israel but now living in London, Lennon was holidaying in Greece in 2023 when he took this image of an elderly couple.

“I’d been for a swim in the sea, then ambled through the outskirts of Poros town, looking for a restaurant for dinner that evening,” Lennon says. It was late afternoon when he happened upon the couple. He tried to strike up a conversation, but they only spoke Greek. As Lennon did not, “the interaction became entirely nonverbal”, he says. “I play-acted that I wanted to take their photo and whether that would be OK. I’m not interested in taking a photo without someone noticing. I prefer to make a connection, however fleeting,” he says.

Amanda Redman: ‘My most embarrassing moment? Getting caught doing a pretend Bafta thank you speech’

The actor on a terrible accident as a toddler, her bossy nature, and feeling too old to play a Shakespearean heroine

Born in Brighton, Amanda Redman, 69, studied at Bristol Old Vic theatre school. She starred in the TV comedy drama El C.I.D. in the 1990s, and in At Home With the Braithwaites from 2000 to 2003, a role that earned her a Bafta nomination. She played the lead in the BBC series New Tricks for a decade until 2013, and her later work includes The Trials of Jimmy Rose and The Good Karma Hospital. On 28 September, her 2000 film Sexy Beast will be rereleased in a limited-edition box set. She has a daughter and lives in London with her second husband.

When were you happiest?
I am happiest when I have my daughter and granddaughter with me.

John Wilson on his unlikely concrete movie: ‘There might be a kind of sickness in shooting things this way’

The creator of How To with John Wilson has returned with his first film, a documentary about how to sell a documentary about concrete

As mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani has frequently demonstrated impressive media savvy, but arguably nothing has proved his genius for in-the-know promo more than a video, released in April, with the documentarian John Wilson.

The spot, in support of the mayor’s plan to reduce the presence of the city’s ubiquitous sidewalk sheds, suggested that either he or someone on his team was a fan of How To With John Wilson, the film-maker’s cult-beloved HBO series that remains a taste signifier for alt-humorous New Yorkers. And for good reason: over three near-perfect seasons, Wilson, armed with his ever-present camera and diffident, memoiristic narration, explored the city’s disintegrating streets with a singular eye for the weird and unintentionally hilarious, turning the most mundane of NYC preoccupations – public restrooms, parking spots, scaffolding – into profound meditations on the glories, indignities and absurdities of modern life.

Jonathan Franzen: ‘It’s still mysterious to me that I was angry for so long’

The author of The Corrections talks about a new TV adaptation, the future of reading and why creating new work is ‘horrible’

When HBO dropped its plan to adapt Jonathan Franzen’s bestselling novel The Corrections in 2012, the author was so relieved he says he performed his first and last cartwheel on the lawn of his home in Santa Cruz, California. There had been an attempted film adaptation before that, but he had been unsurprised by its failure, having warned that it was impossible to condense his densely plotted doorstopper of a novel into a feature-length film. This time, Franzen had signed up as co-writer, with filmmaker Noah Baumbach. He says that HBO was “excluded from the development process. Mistake, because we didn’t know how to do TV.” Franzen himself hadn’t even owned a telly until a few years earlier and certainly didn’t have cable, so as he was wrestling with the script, he began renting box sets. Around three episodes into one drama series, he realised “we have no idea what we’re doing. This is not how you do TV. This is bad,” he recalls. The result, he says, was “one of the worst pilots anyone has ever made”.

Franzen used to think TV was the “enemy” of the serious novelist. In a well-known 1996 essay for Harper’s Magazine about the decline of high literature he had complained bitterly about the “banal ascendancy of television”. But after the HBO series failed, he watched Breaking Bad, Nurse Jackie and Silicon Valley and loved them. In the age of social media, AI and the endless scroll, TV has started to look like a “friend”, he says now. And The Corrections is finally being adapted into an eight-part Netflix series, with Meryl Streep playing Enid Lambert, the matriarch clinging to dreams of hosting a perfect last family Christmas, even as her husband Alfred is in terminal decline with Parkinson’s and dementia and their grownup children’s lives are falling apart in terrible, comical ways. Once Streep announced she was in, Franzen felt the “chances of making this show have gone up above 50%”. He says he’s a month away from finishing the script.

Pact with Saudi Arabia threatens to draw Pakistan into Middle East conflict

Activation of mutual defence agreement by Riyadh as fighting with Houthis escalates would have wide-reaching repercussions for Islamabad

As he stood in Riyadh last September, the world looked like a very different place for Pakistan’s most powerful man, Gen Asim Munir.

The country’s army chief was there to witness the signing of a historic defence pact with Saudi Arabia, which he had personally orchestrated with the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

Youth: Sharon Horgan’s comedy about dating at 50 is utterly hilarious

The perils of ageing and the horrors of finding post-divorce romance are laid bare in the new show from the creator of Motherland. It’s humungously funny, and so acutely observed it’s painful

Ageing has changed, hasn’t it? There’s a generation of middle-aged and perimenopausal elder millennials and xennials who refuse to do it. We’re young enough to be part of an online world that puts a premium on appearance, too old for such narcissistic self-branding to be achieved without unsustainable effort. Dating apps and social media connect people across generations, so it’s easy to become confused about how old we actually are. Here’s a tip: ask your knees.

This brings us to Youth (from Monday 21 September, HBO Max), Sharon Horgan’s dramedy about being 50. That perky title is a quip about the decade being known as “the youth of old age”. Horgan is Alex, a divorcee in her sandwich years, caring for teenage son Ruarí and ageing parents. There’s a lot going on in her life, and some doom. She’s falling forwards in a semi-successful career as a literary agent, getting back into dating under pressure. She needs someone to fall in love with her immediately, as she points out to her best friend. Not for romantic myth-making, but “so there’s a bit of time with the present version of me, before the ‘old me’ is here”.

Why do some balloons float and how do bees hear? The kids’ quiz

Five multiple-choice questions – set by children – to test your knowledge, and a chance to submit your own junior brainteasers for future quizzes

• ​Submit a question

Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun, a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book, as well as her new title, Everything Under the Sun: All Around the World.

Deep cuts: how one Londoner’s fake vinyl empire sheds light on ‘industrial scale’ fraud

Thousands of knock-off records worth a fortune are being seized in the UK by anti-counterfeit police stings

From 2017 onwards, Rehan Ahmed styled himself as a savvy business owner. But behind the facade of a successful entrepreneur lurked one stark fact: his empire was built on fakery.

On Friday, the man behind the biggest-ever UK case of producing fraudulent vinyl, who sold counterfeit copies of records by some of the world’s biggest artists including Taylor Swift, Coldplay and Kendrick Lamar, was jailed.

From Beabadoobee to 70 Up: the week in rave reviews

The singer-songwriter’s new album sprinkles her 90s alt-fuzz with sweet melodies, while Asif Kapadia wraps up the seminal series. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

Henry Harris’ recipe for tomatoes, creme fraiche and herbs

Sumptuous, late-summer tomatoes cooked with cream and served on toast? Supper is served in 10 … OK, maybe 15 minutes

Forty years ago, an antiquarian bookseller recommended to me Edouard de Pomiane’s La cuisine en dix minutes, a selection of recipes that could be cooked at home in less than 10 minutes. A scientist and food lover, de Pomiane stripped back what was then viewed as a very complicated craft, and also gave the time-poor an opportunity to cook and enjoy a good meal made from good ingredients. This was the first recipe I cooked from that book, and it is still a great favourite that has punctuated my menus ever since.

Henry Harris is chef/co-owner of Bouchon Racine, London EC1. His book, The Racine Effect, is published by Quadrille at £40. To order a copy for £36, go to guardianbookshop.com

Burning forests, emptying rivers, €180bn in damage: Europe’s politicians face reckoning after ‘summer of truth’

Amid record-shattering heatwaves and popular demand for climate action, why are politicians often timid or in denial?

It was, according to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, the “summer of truth”. Climate chaos ripped through Europe and the northern hemisphere, sending heat records tumbling, scorching crops in the fields, burning forests, emptying rivers and reservoirs, warping train tracks, melting roads and killing about 35,000 people in Europe alone.

The EU has estimated the damage at about €180bn, and the full bill is yet to arrive: harvests have been depleted, which will probably raise food price inflation, and expensive repairs to infrastructure have only just begun.