Sadiq Khan given seat in Lords, as Starmer creates 26 new peers days before he leaves No 10 – UK politics live

Downing Street sources suggested Khan’s elevation comes as part of a regular honours list, rather than being linked specifically to Starmer’s departure

Couples could legally marry in forests, on beaches, at sea or in their gardens under new proposals, the Press Association reports. PA says a government consultation announced today, covering rules in England and Wales, could help cut the costs of weddings and mean two ceremonies are no longer required to cover different faiths. PA says:

The average wedding in England is estimated to cost more than £20,000, with venue hire alone typically accounting for around £6,000 without catering.

The system as it stands means some couples have two ceremonies – one where they feel their beliefs are best reflected and another making their marriage legal.

The Open 2026: DeChambeau and Scheffler make strong starts on day one at Birkdale – live

️Updates from the first-round action at Royal Birkdale
️Official leaderboard | R&A gets tough | And mail us

Bob Mac aside, it’s still a wee while until some of the more fancied stars take to the course. Time for a little scene setting, then. Ladies and gentlemen, on the tee, Ewan Murray …

A fast start for Bob MacIntyre! He sends his opening tee shot into the rough down the left, and only just finds the front of the green with his second. But he rolls in a 45-footer and birdie is not a bad way to start the week! Oban’s finest already has three top-ten finishes at the Open on his resumé, including a tie for seventh at Portrush last year. Keep an eye out.

England v India: second men’s one-day cricket international – live

India set England target of 234 at Sophia Gardens
Read The Spin | Follow us on TikTok | Mail Tanya

3rd over: India 17-0 (Rohit 9, Gill 6) Archer continues, pitching full, finding swing, troubling both these master batters. Then he goes short, rushing Rohit into a top edge, and the catch is dropped by Gus Atkinson at long leg. Archer has been so unlucky, in all formats, since he returned from the IPL.

2nd over: India 11-0 (Rohit 4, Gill 6) Another lesson from Tuesday might be: don’t stray onto Shubman’s pads. Saqib Mahmood gives him a straight half-volley and pays the price as Gill’s wrists do the rest. But Saqib too finds the edge of Gill’s bat as another controlled nick squirts away for a single. Rohit comes to the party with a languid push for three, well retrieved by Harry Brook, two inches from the Toblerone. Dinesh Karthik reckons it should have been given as a four, so bear it in mind if England win off the last ball.

Mafia law gives Italian families right to break free from life of crime

Wives and children offered new identities to try to stop gangsters recruiting down the generations

Children and young adults raised in mafia families will be given a chance to break away from organised crime under new legislation in Italy that aims to stop the intergenerational recruitment of gangsters.

In an unprecedented effort to sever the family chain, the Italian state will offer children aged under 25 and other close relatives of mafia bosses a chance to start over: a new home in another city, a new school and, if necessary, a new identity.

La Liberazione di Ruggiero dall’Isola di Alcina review – 17th-century rarity is fun when it forgets to be earnest

Buxton festival
Francesca Caccini’s 1625 work – the earliest surviving opera by a woman – is wildly imaginative, even without the original horse ballet

There is magic in the air at this year’s Buxton festival – and it’s not just the hops from the local brewery. Wizards, sorceresses and fairies curse and charm their way through a trio of operas from three different centuries. Handel and Pauline Viardot take care of the 18th and 19th respectively, but setting the cauldron bubbling is Francesca Caccini’s 1625 La Liberazione di Ruggiero – the earliest surviving opera by a woman.

Premiered at the Medici court – then under the rule of regent Maria Maddalena of Austria – it is no coincidence that the work’s take on Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso is more girl-power than most. Warrior Ruggiero has been reduced to a lovesick captive, while sorceresses Alcina (wicked) and Melissa (good) do battle over him. Add in a chorus of Alcina’s former lovers (now transformed into plants and shrubs) and you have a deliciously semi-serious, mythical romp whose premiere apparently ended with a horse ballet.

Iran reports fresh strikes near Qeshm Island and accuses US over ‘barbaric’ hospital attack – Middle East crisis live

Iranian news agencies say a US missile hit island in strait of Hormuz, after foreign ministry said children’s cancer hospital in Ahvaz had to be evacuated

• US attacks oil tanker in strait of Hormuz as strikes reported in Tehran

The Lebanese foreign minister, Youssef Raggi, said Lebanon has made a decision to “end Hezbollah’s military presence” and that decisions on war and foreign policy are the “exclusive prerogative of the Lebanese state”.

The Lebanese government is pushing to disarm Hezbollah, one of the most heavily armed militias in the Middle East, and it has become a central component of the US-brokered talks between Lebanon and Israel.

Lebanon has made its choice: there will be no return to dual authority, and there is no longer any place for weapons outside the authority of the state or for decisions taken outside its constitutional institutions.

The decision to end Hezbollah’s military presence is a sovereign Lebanese decision. It preceded the Framework Agreement and paved the way for it, affirming that decisions on war and peace, as well as foreign policy, are now the exclusive prerogative of the Lebanese state.”

Tour de France 2026: Merlier completes hat-trick on stage 12 as big crash mars sprint – live

Updates from the 179.1km stage to Chalon-sur-Saône
Wærenskjold wins fastest ever Tour stage | Email Tom

170km to go Tudor’s Michael Storer has had an early technichal and is racing back solo to get back into the bunch. No break as of yet.

174km to go The bunch is still together as the teams feel eachother out. Currently the peloton is strung out after a sharp left into a roundabout and then a big sweeping right turn.

Foreclosures surged 21% in the first half of 2026, new data shows

The state with the biggest jump in foreclosure activity was Idaho, where filings increased 59% compared to the same time last year.

Nearly 736,000 Pillsbury rolls recalled over possible glass contamination

The recall includes cases of Pillsbury "Hard Roll Dough" and "Kaiser Roll Dough" bread rolls, which are marketed to businesses.

The best states for workers to get educated, trained and find a job in America in 2026

These 11 U.S. states excel when it comes to the education level of their workforce, migration patterns, and workforce development programs.

‘Las Malvinas son Argentinas’? Not quite – but the Falklands cannot remain British for ever | Simon Jenkins

The enmity between London and Buenos Aires has gone on for far too long – sooner or later, wise heads will prevail

This week Britain and Spain agreed to demolish the border dividing Gibraltar from the Spanish mainland. It was good news. Decades of negotiation came to a happy compromise. Unfortunately the deal will not be celebrated on Sunday in a World Cup final between Spain and England. But is it too much to hope that a similar negotiation might arise from last night’s semi-final, a crushing defeat for England at the hands of Argentina, after which the Falklands-Malvinas issue raised its tired head in the form of a banner on the pitch? Can nothing good follow the generous embrace of Lionel Messi and Harry Kane?

None of Britain’s imperial-era territories have an eternal right to stay as they are, let alone one that costs British taxpayers upwards of £60m a year in defence costs. In the case of the Falklands, its status as an overseas territory has been staunchly defended by successive governments largely as the price of victory in the 1982 Falklands war. In truth, I suspect this has much to do with the fact that the islanders, unlike the abandoned Hongkongers or Diego Garcians, were white British. The war also rescued Margaret Thatcher’s government from unpopularity and covered the then prime minister in glory, unlike later military adventures.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

UK aid cuts ‘reduce bilateral support to some African countries by 90%’

Critics say Foreign Office figures send ‘global message about the role the country wants to play on international stage’

Labour’s foreign aid cuts mean reductions of as much as 90% in the bilateral support the UK will give to some African countries, Foreign Office figures show.

The department’s annual report includes a long-awaited breakdown of how the reduction in the aid budget will affect individual countries for the next three years.

Musk’s xAI sues user who allegedly used Grok to create child sexual abuse material

Case is one of first brought by an AI company against a user ⁠for allegedly using a tool to generate child abuse material

Elon Musk’s artificial-intelligence startup xAI has sued a South Carolina man arrested ⁠earlier this year on charges of sexually exploiting minors, alleging he misused the company’s AI system Grok to ⁠create child sexual abuse ⁠material.

xAI ​alleged in the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Texas on Tuesday, that Terry Harwood violated the company’s ⁠terms of service. The case is one of the first brought by an AI company against one of its users ⁠for allegedly using an AI system to generate child sexual abuse material.

Zelenskyy defends sacking Ukraine’s defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov

President says he had to choose ‘one side or the other’ after breakdown of relations between ministry and military leaders

• Europe live – latest updates

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has defended his decision to dismiss the country’s popular defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, and confirmed reports that relations had broken down between the ministry and the country’s top army leadership.

Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv with the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, Zelenskyy said there had been a “challenging dialogue” between Fedorov – widely seen as a reformist and moderniser – and the military’s commander in chief, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi.

‘From the father of the guy who made Obsession’: is the nepo dad the new nepo baby?

With Dane Cook set to star his new film, Curry Barker’s dad joins Lana Del Rey’s dad and Tom Holland’s dad in a new wave of nepo daddies

A generational shift is happening in Hollywood. The two big breakout films of the spring – Backrooms and Obsession – were made by a pair of plucky young YouTubers who found themselves granted the keys to the kingdom. Both of these films took more money than the most recent Star Wars, the most recent superhero movie (Supergirl) and the most recent Spielberg. It is arguably the biggest shake-up of the film industry since the rise of New Hollywood in the 1970s.

But perhaps the biggest change is tangential to all of this. This week it was announced that Jeff Barker – the father of Obsession direction Curry Barker – is making a film of his own. Medium Rare is a horror short that will shoot this summer and star Dane Cook and the Oscar-nominated actor Leslie Ann Warren. This will come hot on the heels of Good Tape, another horror short of Barker’s that is currently in post-production.

Maps show wildfire smoke forecast, air quality alerts in swath of U.S.

Heavy smoke from several large wildfires blazing in Canada and Minnesota is engulfing large swaths of the Midwest and Northeast U.S. this week.

Nearly one in five World Cup matches reached heat levels players’ union warns against

Guardian analysis finds 19% of games reached heat levels warranting delays, as Fifa defends its player safeguards

The climate crisis has come for football.

During this year’s World Cup, nearly one in five of the tournament’s 100-plus matches took place in levels of heat and humidity that a football players’ union has previously said should trigger delays or postponements, a Guardian analysis has found. An additional 23 matches were played in cities as they reached those heat levels, but in stadiums where conditions were mitigated by air conditioning.

Our sensitive teen daughter’s self-worth is tested by social media and peers. What should we do? | Leading questions

The more unusual you are, the more unusual it is to find people like you, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. But as she grows older, her social world will shift

• Read more Leading questions

Our teen daughter is a deeply sensitive, perceptive kid who longs for close friendship but often feels sidelined; she reads slights quickly, ruminates and compares herself harshly. Her 16th birthday was heartbreaking: the in-person warmth and social-media love she expected didn’t materialise, and she’s crushed. We try to parent with both empathy and backbone, validating her feelings while nudging her towards agency: widening her circles, getting busier and repairing frayed ties without begging for approval.

But how do we wisely accompany a teenager whose self-worth is repeatedly tested by imperfect peers (in her mind at least) and the distortions of online recognition? What practices, language and boundaries help a highly sensitive adolescent convert disappointment into dignity and build friendships rooted in mutual regard rather than constant self-surveillance?

Brain implant helps paralysed man to feed himself and drink from cup

Keith Thomas can move arms and hands, and feel sensation of touch after ‘double neural bypass’ and months of training

A man who was paralysed from the chest down in a swimming accident six years ago has been able to feed himself and drink from a cup thanks to a brain implant that bypasses his spinal cord injury.

Keith Thomas of Massapequa, New York, could not lift his arms off his wheelchair when he agreed to trial the technology in 2021, but after surgery to implant electrodes in his brain and many months of training, he was able to move the limbs again.

Truth Social launches service to give Wall Street traders an edge with real-time service

Trump Media launched an API to give paying customers real-time access to market-moving Truth Social posts.

DHS could weigh use of Medicaid, housing help in green card decisions

Immigration officers could weigh use of Medicaid, food aid and housing help in green card decisions after Trump administration rescinds Biden-era public charge rule.

Navy's Blue Angels investigate after video shows low flyover at Florida beach

The Blue Angels said an aircraft "flew lower than standard profiles, resulting in a disturbance on the beach that affected civilian chairs and umbrellas."

Meteorite that hit home contains "alien world chemistry," experts say

When scientists examined the preserved fragments of a meteorite that crashed in 2024, they found brine-like fluids and key molecules.

Dozens rescued in central Texas after region hit by flash flooding for third day in a row

Torrential rain slammed central Texas for the third day in a row, triggering dangerous flash floods in parts of the region. The same storm system also spun up a tornado near San Antonio. Jason Allen has the latest.

Trump fires U.S. attorney in Washington on heels of court appointment

Judges on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington had appointed Roger Rogoff as U.S. attorney in Seattle. But he was fired shortly after.

'Not a junk rally:' How to trade the strongest small-cap stock market in three decades

The Russell 2000 small-cap stock index is up almost 20% this year, its best first half since 1991, and investing experts say the rally can keep running.

Cyclospora outbreak leaves consumers guessing which foods are safe

Officials are still searching for the source of the outbreak, prompting consumers to seek advice on social media about which foods to avoid.

Denshattack! review – time to get on board with kickflipping trains

PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2; Undercoders
Colourful, counter-cultural and captivating – this rail riding game set in a dystopian Japan is as weird as it is exhilarating

Every now and again a game appears with a premise so outrageous you stop in your tracks to take it all in. Denshattack!, a game about kickflipping trains across a dystopian future Japan, is the epitome of this feeling. Set in a post climate disaster world, people have retreated to corporate-owned domed cities to live out their days in air-conditioned, ignorant comfort. Save for a handful of outcasts, the rest of the country is a mess of broken infrastructure, where rival gangs battle it out on the ruins of Japan’s famously extensive rail network. Naive upstart Emi has one goal: become the best Denshattacker there is, one sick nosegrind at a time.

Taking the idea of an on-rails platforming game to its extreme conclusion, developers Undercoders have combined the best bits of the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series – grinding, flipping and spinning through an entire dictionary of tricks – with the anti-establishment message behind Jet Set Radio. The rivals Emi encounters showcase the history of Japanese misfits, pitting you against ageing rockabillies and violent girl gangs without a shred of judgment.

Ex-Fed advisor gets over three years in prison for lying about China ties

The case marks one of the most prominent U.S. prosecutions alleging Chinese intelligence targeting of U.S. institutions, as Trump intensifies its pursuit of foreign economic espionage.

Banking Committee's Sen. Rounds liked Warsh's 'tone' in first testimony as Fed chairman

Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh was on Capitol Hill for two days of testimony this week.

Grief Is the Thing With Feathers by Max Porter review – a bravura rendering of bereavement

Actor Russell Tovey’s narration crackles with compassion and menace in this magical story of a widower and his young sons in mourning

Less than a week after the sudden death of his wife, a grieving man opens his front door to a giant crow who scoops him up into his wing and tells him: “I won’t leave until you don’t need me anymore.” Still in shock, the man is facing the prospect of raising his two young sons alone. The bird, which has previously been roaming around the family’s flat at night, has observed a household of “heavy mourning, every surface dead Mum, every crayon, tractor, coat, welly covered in a film of grief”. In that first visit, the man “woke up and didn’t see me against the blackness of his trauma”.

First published in 2015 and since adapted as a play and film, Grief Is the Thing With Feathers is an inventive and sharply observed novella by Max Porter which uses verse, dialogue and the supernatural to examine a family grappling with the loss of a wife and mother who had been “busy living, and then she was gone”. In a story that shifts between the perspectives of “Dad”, “Boys” and “Crow”, we learn the man is a writer who is working on a book about the poet Ted Hughes called Crow on the Couch.

Pergolesi: L’Olimpiade album review

Monaco/Raftis/Colombo/Frigato/Orchestra Ghislieri/Prandi
(Arcana)
Recorded from a live performance in an 18th-century theatre in Jesi – Pergolesi’s hometown – this is a brain-addling tale of love triangles and long-lost twins set in the ancient Olympics

Pietro Metastasio’s tale of dirty doings at the ancient Olympic Games proved so popular that more than 60 composers set it to music, including Caldara (for whom it was written), Vivaldi and Cherubini. Pergolesi’s version, premiered in 1735, resurrected in 1937, is among the finest, presaging what should have been a glorious operatic career if only the composer hadn’t died at the age of 26.

The story begins as the formidable Megacle is persuaded to compete in disguise as his hot-headed and not entirely honourable friend Licida. What Megacle doesn’t know is that the prize is the hand of Aristea, the woman he has fallen in love with himself. Throw in Licida’s cast-off mistress Argene masquerading as a shepherdess and the discovery that Licida is actually Aristea’s long-lost twin and you have all the ingredients for a plot of brain-addling complexity.

Analysis: Fed Chairman Warsh faces an inflation credibility test after Congress hearings

The new Fed chairman avoided major stumbles in two days of testimony before the House and Senate, but faces a rapid test of his commitment to price stability.

Trump’s Board of Peace drops full Gaza recovery plan in favour of tiny pilot scheme

Revised plan aims to ‘keep something going’ amid fears Netanyahu may gamble on new all-out offensive before Israeli elections

• Middle East crisis live – latest updates

The Gaza recovery plan being pursued by Donald Trump’s Board of Peace (BoP) has shrunk dramatically from an ambitious blueprint for the reconstruction of the whole territory to a small pilot project in the south of the strip.

Even the envisaged pilot scheme – involving a temporary camp for a tiny fraction of Gaza’s 2 million displaced people, with a Palestinian administration, police and a small international security force – is not expected to take shape before the end of the year.

UnitedHealth blows past estimates, hikes earnings outlook as it reins in costs

The healthcare giant is working to stabilize margins by shrinking membership, exiting unprofitable contracts and pouring $1.5 billion into AI.

Hal Williams, actor best known for Sanford and Son and 227, dies aged 91

The actor, who also appeared in The Waltons and Private Benjamin, died at his home in California

Hal Williams, the actor best known for TV roles in Sanford & Son and 227, has died at the age of 91.

His representative confirmed that Williams died on 15 July at his home in California.

This article was amended on 16 July 2026. It was originally stated that Sanford and Son ran from an incorrect number of years

Football Daily | It’s the end of the World Cup as England know it

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They say never go that far back. In the last half an hour of their end-of-days Geopolitics World Cup semi-final with Argentina, England committed to the bit in the Deep South. No wonder there were gaps. Thomas Tuchel stood and watched national trauma unfold in front of his eyes as towering aerial threats such as Alexis Mac Allister and Lautaro Martínez beat his four centre-backs to cross after cross. Forget the ghosts of ‘66, the spectre of Southgate loomed over his successor as realism reared its ugly head at the business end of an England men’s major-tournament run once again.

Hong Kong official warns booksellers on security risks after raids

The police operation marks the third round of arrests targeting independent bookstores in four months.

MI5 lied about ties with neo-Nazi informant who attacked girlfriend with machete, watchdog says

Review of case criticises handling of agent X, who exploited role with agency to violently threaten his girlfriend

MI5 has been reprimanded by a watchdog for lying about its relationship with a neo-Nazi informant, who had exploited his role with the spy agency to violently threaten his girlfriend.

The Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office (Ipco) criticised MI5’s handling of a man known only as agent X, and said some of its officers had initially misled the courts and the regulator about his true status.

Video shows low Blue Angels flyover at event in Florida

The Navy's elite Blue Angels are investigating after a low flyover during an event in Pensacola, Florida. One of the jets came barreling so low over the beach that it sent sand, chairs and tents flying. Tom Hanson reports.

GPS data shows location of boat Nolan Wells was on before he disappeared

The parents of Nolan Wells and their legal team say they've received some assurances about the thoroughness of the investigation into the 18-year-old's death. Wells was last seen on July 4 on a boating trip to Horn Island, which is 10 miles from Mississippi's Gulf Coast. GPS data reveals the movements of the boat before and after Wells' disappearance. Skyler Henry has more.

TikTok facing UK investigation amid fears over age checks and harm to children

Ofcom concerned TikTok’s age verification is ineffective, leaving some exposed to posts on suicide, self-harm and pornography

TikTok is under formal investigation over concerns it has failed to protect children from harmful content, the UK’s online regulator, Ofcom, has announced.

The social media platform’s approach to checking the ages of users has sparked “particular concerns” at the watchdog, almost a year after measures to protect children from the worst of online content came into effect under the Online Safety Act.

‘We weren’t at fault’: British yacht couple bristle at ‘armchair sailors’ and Russian denials

Exclusive: Jane and Alan Kelvey reflect on close encounter with Russian warship a few hours into two-month sailing trip

They found themselves at the centre of an international incident, the close encounter between their small sailing boat and a Russian warship making headlines around the world.

A month later, Jane and Alan Kelvey are to be found berthed in a rainy harbour in north-west France, still taken aback by their brush with Vladimir Putin’s forces – but trying to get on with their fun sailing trip.

Food scraps and mushrooms: the closed-loop garden behind the world’s first community-powered sauna

R-Urban Poplar in London is a ‘living lab’ where locals can experiment with ways of taking charge of their food supply

On a stiflingly hot and dusty morning at the height of the summer’s third heatwave, traffic thunders down the A12 arterial route through east London. A high, red-brick wall rises by the road. What few passersby will realise is that this ivy-topped wall shelters an urban oasis, within which sits an unprecedented sustainable project.

The world’s first “community powered” sauna – heated by food waste from residents of the neighbouring housing estate – is set to open here.

Nvidia-backed Fireworks hits $17.5 billion valuation as companies pursue cheaper AI models

Fireworks once relied heavily on revenue from coding startup Cursor, but has diversified in the past year as more companies reach for lower-cost AI models.

IRS chief Frank Bisignano will lead Trump Accounts expansion

The Treasury Department is putting a top official in charge of the new program as it enrolls millions of families.

A voyage of discovery: an idiot’s guide to reading The Odyssey

Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation of the ancient Greek epic has sparked a new appetite for an old classic. Here are the translations, podcasts and audiobooks that make the Homeric world more approachable

The Odyssey was once all Greek to me. I struggled to keep up with the characters, the mass of heroes and villains, the swarms of sons and daughters. I found the Homeric formula – repeated stock phrases passed down from the oral tradition – confusing and tiring. The prose in my 1946 EV Rieu translation, revised by his son DCH Rieu, felt laboured and laborious. I have put the Odyssey down, several times, in the course of my life. But, like Sirens, difficult books tend to have a hold on us. The recent film adaptation pushed me to once again try reading the Odyssey, so I decided on a new approach. I spoke to classicists and conducted research, aiming to render the inaccessible accessible.

To read the Odyssey, start by avoiding the Odyssey. “Begin with contextualisation” – get to grips with themes and content – Antony Makrinos, associate professor in classics at UCL and director of the Summer School in Homer 2026, told me. He sent me an exhaustive list of recommendations, and I found myself in the British Museum, mid-heatwave, learning about Mycenaean civilisation and ancient Greece. I cooled down that evening with a Simon Armitage documentary, Gods and Monsters: an intriguing assessment of our flawed hero.

Heavy smoke from Canadian wildfires impacts air quality from Minnesota to New York

Millions of people in the U.S. are under air quality alerts across parts of the Midwest and Northeast due to heavy smoke burning from dozens of wildfires primarily in Ontario, Canada. Rob Marciano reports.

Hits don’t lie! Shakira’s 20 best songs, from World Cup anthems to megastar duets – ranked!

As the Colombian pop supremo prepares to perform at Sunday’s final, we rate her greatest work, including gossipy takedowns and lycanthropic lyrics

Of Shakira’s World Cup anthems, it’s the joyfully ludicrous Waka Waka from the 2010 tournament in South Africa that bangs hardest. Featuring Afro-fusion band Freshlyground, the Colombian superstar redraws preened football superstars such as Ronaldo et al as soldiers on a frontline.

Dominik Szoboszlai agrees new Liverpool contract in boost to Andoni Iraola

• Midfielder was team’s best performer last season

• Leeds close to signing centre-back Muharemovic

Dominik Szoboszlai is poised to give Liverpool and their head coach, Andoni Iraola, a significant boost by signing a new long-term contract. The midfielder, who was the team’s best performer during a difficult final season under Arne Slot, has two years on his deal and mentioned several times last season that there had been no real progress over an extension.

After months of negotiations between Liverpool’s sporting director, Richard Hughes, and Szoboszlai’s representatives, the terms of a new contract have been agreed in principle and the 25-year-old is close to signing the deal.

Wildfire pollution and clowns on a pilgrimage: photos of the day – Thursday

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

United earnings top estimates but airline expects $6 billion in added fuel costs

United reported higher revenue for premium, corporate and no-frills basic economy tickets and higher revenue for both domestic and international trips.

U.S. slaps 25% tariff on most Brazilian goods over 'unfair trade practices'

A separate U.S. probe into forced-labor enforcement could see an additional 12.5% duty on Brazilian goods on top of the 25%, with the decision due next week.

Trump wants to fence off the park closest to the White House, a popular protest spot

The Trump administration wants to install permanent fencing around Lafayette Park, directly outside the White House. It's long been a popular spot for protesters, who worry barriers will change that.

Keir Starmer wants Fifa investigation into Argentina players who held Falklands banner

• Spokesperson says islands belong to the UK

• ‘PM wishes both teams well for the final, especially Spain’

Keir Starmer supports the idea of Fifa investigating Argentina players who displayed a banner touting their country’s claim to the Falklands Islands after their World Cup semi-final win against England, Downing Street has said.

Starmer, who watched the match while travelling to Ukraine by train for the final overseas trip of his premiership, endorsed a call by Peter Kyle, the business secretary, for Fifa to investigate what rules may have been broken.

‘Keys to the kingdom’: hackers who gained access to heart of London transport network jailed

Thalha Jubair, 20, and Owen Flowers, 19, sentenced to five and a half years each for cyber-attack that cost Transport for London £39m

The data of millions of commuters was stolen, Londoners were left out of pocket and 27,000 Transport for London staff were forced to reset their passwords.

Over four days in 2024 a pair of teenage hackers had London’s transport network at their mercy. Thalha Jubair and Owen Flowers had burrowed into the heart of Transport for London’s IT systems and held the “keys to the kingdom”.

Tins ain’t what they used to be: canned wine is no longer the preserve of Gen Z

Aluminium is practical, recyclable and, for wines drunk young, the ideal container. Better still – high-quality options are increasingly available

Cans are the answer to many of the problems posed by wine. On picnics, at festivals and generally on the trot, what are more practical than bottles? Cans! For the carbon-conscious, what have a significantly lower environmental impact than glass? Aluminium cans! And what if, for whatever reason, you don’t want to commit to a full 750ml bottle of wine? Try a can! This small, light and sustainable format is a secret weapon to keep, quite literally, in your back pocket; with cans – wherever you are and whatever you’re doing – drinking wine is always possible. Not to get too Barack Obama about it, but “yes, we can”.

Gen Z are largely behind the recent boom in canned wines, which stands to reason: fewer of them are drinkers and those who are do so only moderately, so a smaller format suits. According to a 2025 survey by Ocado, 53% of them “have been directly influenced by social media to try boxed or canned wine”. This shows in the way those formats are marketed: the peachy-pink can of Nice’s Pale Rosé, for instance, reads, “Won’t shatter on the dancefloor”, while Vinca’s catarratto “pairs well with great company”. A and almost all of them make a point of their recyclable packaging, appealing to the most environmentally-conscious generation to date. (Glass bottles are, after all, consistently found to be one of the largest contributors to wine’s carbon footprint.)

‘They said I had to kill him’: the Haiti gangs forcing children into a life of brutality

With the state shattered, armed gangs offer food, shelter and perilous safety to young people – but at a terrible cost

When Davensky was eight years old, he was kidnapped from school. An armed gang pulled a black bag over his head, dragged him from class and threw him into a truck. He was taken to an unknown location, stripped and locked inside a refrigerated room. Some time later, his captors handed him a gun.

“They pointed to another child and said I had to kill him. It was a test. They said if I didn’t pull the trigger, they would cut off my fingers,” he says, speaking in quick bursts. “I did it.”

Why did Manchester United pay Chelsea £48m for Andrey Santos?

Michael Carrick’s first signing is a surprise, but the Brazil midfielder will help the team deal with Casemiro’s exit

By Opta Analyst

Andrey Santos moving from Chelsea to Manchester United was not on our summer transfer window bingo card, but the Brazilian has become Michael Carrick’s first signing. United desperately needed reinforcements in midfield, especially after Casemiro’s departure and Manuel Ugarte’s long-term injury, so deals for Santos and Youri Tielemans will be welcomed by fans.

Tielemans looks like particularly good business – he captains Belgium, has made 244 appearances in the Premier League and was available for £35m – but Santos is a more curious choice. He was often a backup player for Chelsea last season as they finished seven places and 19 points behind United; he is not the finished article, and played for one of United’s rivals. Since Alex Ferguson retired 13 years ago, United had only signed four players from their “big six” rivals: Juan Mata, Nemanja Matic, Mason Mount (all Chelsea) and Alexis Sánchez (Arsenal).

Lando Norris hit with 10-place grid penalty for Belgian Grand Prix

• McLaren’s changes of power unit exceeds regulations

• World champion is fifth in the F1 standings

Lando Norris will have to take a 10-place grid penalty at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix. McLaren announced on Thursday that the car of the reigning world champion will be fitted with a fourth power electronics unit of the season, one more than allowed under Formula One regulations.

Norris’s first two units suffered “terminal” issues in China in March, where he did not start the race, then in free practice in Monaco last month.

Uganda calls for travel restrictions to be lifted after last Ebola patient discharged

Country begins 42-day countdown to outbreak being declared officially over, as numbers continue to rise in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo

Uganda has started lobbying countries to lift Ebola-related travel restrictions after discharging its last confirmed Ebola patient from hospital.

The discharge of a Congolese national from the Mulago national referral hospital’s isolation centre in Kampala on Thursday triggered the start of a 42-day countdown required by the World Health Organization before Uganda can officially be declared Ebola-free, provided no new infections are detected.

Zelenskyy fires Ukraine's tech-savvy defense minister in government reshuffle

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has fired the country's popular defense minister, who pushed for innovation in the battlefield through the use of drones and turned the tables on Russia.

Chop, chop! My favourite fridge-raid dinner, no-cook meals and super salads

From taco in a bowl to cantaloupe and courgette, assemblies of raw ingredients are a terrific choice for lo-fi, hot-weather meals that require minimal cooking

Sign up here for our weekly food newsletter, Feast

When Shakespeare coined the phrase “salad days”, he was referring to a state of youthful inexperience. But at 41, and midway through the hottest summer on record, I can safely say my own salad days – these weeks of endless salad-eating – are the result of experience. As my organs segue into their fifth decade, I need more than rosé and a bag of Tyrrells for dinner. (Although if you’re interested, I’m a salt-and-vinegar Furrows person and my favourite rosé – Catalan producer Can Sumoi’s La Rosa – is on offer.)

I’m not only eating salad, of course, but assemblies of raw ingredients are an obvious choice if you’re looking for lo-fi meals that involve more interaction with the fridge than the oven. I like Tom Hunt’s rubric for a fridge-raid dinner salad, which – rather than sending you out for ingredients and sweat patches – uses whatever you have on hand. And Meera Sodha’s no-cook salad of tomatoes, chickpeas and rose harissa delivers fibre and flavour without so much as a struck match. And then there is Feast’s archive of recipes by Yotam Ottolenghi, which boasts doozies such as his tomatoes with mango-miso dressing and this courgette and cantaloupe salad. Ottolenghi’s lime and poppyseed slaw with curry leaf oil, meanwhile, has accompanied almost every barbecue or “family-style” spread – the citrus juice softens and “cooks” shredded cabbage, carrot and onions into submission, and don’t even get me started on its maple-turmeric cashews. The whole lot cries out for a beer – preferably Table Beer by the Bermondsey brewery the Kernel, a pale ale that is big on hops and low on booze (variable, but about 3%).

The political risks from war in Iran. And, ICE's use of force is rising, report finds

The political implications the war in Iran is having on the GOP. And, a new report has found that ICE officers' use of force is not rare since President Trump took office for his second term.

Cheltenham festival crackdown aimed at stalling significant rise in false starts

• Nearly 40% of 2026 races at showpiece meeting affected

• Track layout and listening devices for stewards on menu

The British Horseracing Authority said on Thursday that it aims to introduce a series of measures before next year’s Cheltenham festival to tackle a significant rise in the number of false starts at National Hunt’s showpiece meeting. The percentage of false starts has climbed steadily over the past five years, from 18% in 2022 to nearly 40% at the 2026 meeting. The rate of false starts in jump racing is around 4% over the same period.

A review of this year’s meeting identified particular problems at the starts for races over two and two-and-a-half miles, which begin near a bend.

‘Cool, suave and weirdly shy’: Miranda Richardson remembers Sam Neill

Sam had such ease about him and I just loved the way he seemed to cruise through life. But he confronted his mortality with real courage

• Sam Neill’s final interview and his life in pictures

• ‘A true gentleman’: actors, directors and leaders pay tribute to Sam Neill

• Jane Campion remembers Sam Neill

When I first met Sam, I thought he was handsome, cool and weirdly shy. He was always a rare combination of suave and down-to-earth: this great, democratic guy with no bullshit. I just loved the way he seemed to cruise through life. He had such ease about him.

Acting was just one chunk of his life: there was always a lot of other stuff going on. He couldn’t wait to get back to his farm and his wine and his animals. I remember when we were making Merlin in 1998, he kindly took me out for lunch. We had a really delicious bottle of pinot noir, and he said that was what he was aiming for with his winery Two Paddocks.

Revealed: how Europe’s most powerful farming lobby killed EU’s pesticide law

Exclusive: High-level documents show how Copa Cogeca worked to weaken legislation to protect climate and wildlife

• Europe live – latest updates

Newly revealed documents from inside the most powerful farming lobby in Europe show how it delayed, gutted and overturned some of the most sweeping farming reforms in EU history, including a plan to cut pesticide use in half.

Copa Cogeca describes itself as the voice of 22 million farmers across the continent, and enjoys unrivalled access to EU lawmakers. It has even been described as a “partner in policymaking”.

‘A first step to fascism’: critics denounce Trump administration replacing slavery exhibit at George Washington’s ​home

Replacement of panels with version that’s sympathetic to enslavers comes amid effort by Trump to dismantle diversity initiatives

Critics say the Trump administration acted under the “cover of darkness” to replace an exhibit exploring the lives of nine enslaved people who lived at George Washington’s ​Philadelphia home with a version that is overly sympathetic to enslavers and that whitewashes the country’s origins.

The installation of new information panels followed a six-month fight between the city of Philadelphia and the Trump administration over an enslavement memorial at the President’s House, the former home of both Washington and his presidential successor John Adams.

Nia Archives: Emotional Junglist review | Aimee Cliff's album of the week

(Island)
On the Bradford-born producer’s self-assured second album, drum’n’bass rhythms power up angsty odes with shades of Arctic Monkeys, Kate Nash and myriad genres

Like another of the year’s biggest pop records, Olivia Rodrigo’s You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, the second full-length from the self-proclaimed “emotional junglist” Nia Archives is an album of two halves. The first documents its protagonist falling in love at breakneck speed; the second, the whiplash of sudden heartbreak. Unlike Rodrigo, Archives didn’t grow up starring on Disney Channel, a predestined route to success, but in Bradford, cutting her teeth on early 00s pirate radio, dancehall and landfill indie.

More than most major artists, Archives has carved out her own path. After leaving home at just 16 to move into a youth hostel in Manchester, she started teaching herself to make beats; eventually, she uprooted to Hackney and studied music production, and used her student loan to fund the promotion of her self-released debut single. Since then, she’s made history as the first electronic/dance act to win a Mobo in decades (after publicly campaigning for the inclusion of dance music at the awards in 2022). With her 2024 debut album Silence Is Loud, she became the first junglist to be nominated for three Brit awards, and the first to be nominated for the Mercury prize since 1997 – before she was born.

Carbon monoxide found in SUV where 3 died, 2 sickened in Ohio, official says

Officials in Toledo, Ohio, say the presence of carbon monoxide was confirmed in a parked vehicle where five people were found unresponsive and three of them died.

Uber to buy Germany’s Delivery Hero in $14.8bn global deal

Agreement combines Uber Eats with food delivery brands in 99 countries and expands taxi service reach

• Business live – latest updates

Uber has reached an agreement to take over the German takeaway company Delivery Hero in a $14.8bn (£11bn, or €12.9bn) deal that would create a global food delivery giant.

The US tech firm said it had offered to pay €41.50 a share to Delivery Hero’s shareholders, valuing the business at $14.8bn. Uber will pay $13.7bn after accounting for its previous purchases of a quarter of Delivery Hero’s shares, most recently in May.

Moms of Black newborns often flagged to police over drug use claims

In 14,000 cases, Black families were flagged to law enforcement over unverified allegations that often begin with unreliable hospital drug tests.

From Balogun's red card to an upset run, some of the World Cup's biggest stories

Spain is looking to secure a World Cup victory for the first time in 16 years, and Argentina enters Sunday hoping to become back-to-back champions.

Demise of Timmy the whale inspires satirical play exploring German identity

Timmy: Hope Dies Last elevates stranded humpback into Jesus-like figure, igniting hope and grief

When people in Germany organised a daring rescue mission for a humpback whale stranded on the Baltic coast in April, it briefly looked like a country stricken with political division and economic anxiety was rallying around a common cause.

A new satirical play inspired by the episode, however, suggests the spectators, social media influencers, politicians and millionaires who flocked to the seaside in support never just wanted to rescue the cetacean that came to be nicknamed Timmy, but for Timmy to rescue them.

Ukrainians take to the streets after Zelenskyy ousts defense minister in surprise shake-up

Ukrainian protesters took to the streets of Kyiv on Thursday, decrying Zelenskyy's surprise decision to dismiss Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.

Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: forget delicate chains – this summer, make your jewellery big and bold

Fashion is getting braver with accessories again, so lean into it by embracing loud earrings and chunky pendants

This summer, I want jewellery that makes some noise. Real noise – earrings that swish, bangles that clatter – and visual noise as well. Stuff to wear when you want to be seen and heard. The total opposite, in other words, of the jewellery most of us have been wearing lately. Charming, delicate jewellery has become the default. Two necklaces of different lengths on fine chains. One has a heart pendant, the other an initial or a birth stone, am I right? Maybe a curated earlobe of tastefully small mismatched diamond hoops.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this look. It is really nice. In fact, this is exactly the problem.

$100 million New Jersey deli fraud defendant Patten wants no prison time despite past conviction

James Patten is the person to be sentenced for a scheme that sent the market capitalization of a company that owned just a small New Jersey deli soaring.

The best books to read in July: new paperbacks from Andrew O’Hagan, Miriam Toews and Oyinkan Braithwaite

Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some fantastic new paperbacks, from the gripping story of an international murder case to a state-of-the-nation yarn

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View from the other side: inside Argentina’s celebrations after semi-final win against England

Watching England lose is one thing. Watching them lose surrounded by millions celebrating Argentina’s march to another World Cup final, is completely different

Look, most people were awfully good about it. Our waiter at a restaurant near Plaza de Mayo shook our hands warmly and said nice things about Jude Bellingham. On the metro ride back from the fan zone there was no massive gloating either, just bright-eyed kids in Lionel Messi shirts swept along by the nationwide euphoria. “Vamos, vamos, Argentina,” they sang, barely able to believe that their team were once again heading to a World Cup final.

To be a stray English bystander in a city totally awash in sky blue and white was a rare privilege. Some of us covering England’s rugby union tour have been lucky enough to visit a few memorable sporting cauldrons, but to be in Buenos Aires after Argentina defeated England at a football World Cup is right up there.

Oil companies are making billions. In the U.S., calls to tax their windfall are growing

Higher oil prices since the Iran war began mean many oil companies have brought in excess profits. Some U.S. lawmakers want to tax those windfall profits and give the money to lower-income Americans.

Why does the US want to ‘dismantle’ the international criminal court? | Kenneth Roth

Marco Rubio has offered nonsensical rationale in attacking the court. The Trump administration’s real goal is impunity

With the pointless war of choice in Iran going poorly, the Trump administration has declared a virtual war on the international criminal court (ICC). Secretary of state, Marco Rubio, vowed on Monday to “dismantle” the court as a supposed threat to US sovereignty. His rationale is laced with sophistry. The administration’s real goal is to secure impunity for war crimes, even those committed on the territory of ICC member states.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed and a video posted on X, Rubio conjures up a dystopia in which local American officials such as police officers or border patrol agents “could be dragged before an international court, tried by judges from random countries across the globe, found guilty under international laws we neither consent to nor control, and then imprisoned thousands of miles from America”.

‘People think you’ve got 10,000 cats’: the support group for hoarders

Many hoarders are scared to seek help but one UK housing association is taking a more empathetic approach

At one end of the table sits Tony*, who showers at his local leisure centre in Birkenhead every day. His landlord won’t fix his bathroom because of his hoarding. Then there’s Sarah*, who ended up homeless with her three teenagers after their landlord evicted them because of hoarding. In her new home the problem has started again, but she says she’s petrified to ask for help in case she loses her property.

Sian Cowley, 35, who has struggled with hoarding for decades, says: “I’ve lived without central heating for two years. A lot of us live without the basics like hot water, heating and cooking because we are too scared to get people in to do repairs because of the threat of eviction.”

‘A sublime, breezy confection’: writers on their 2026 songs of the summer

The annual rundown of Guardian writers picking their most played tracks of the season goes from club-ready pop to sunny tech house

• Check out a Spotify playlist of the choices

Kim Petras’ greatest song to date is also the best outsider country song in recent memory: if Ethel Cain and Lana Del Rey could ever put the beef behind them and duet, the dusty gutter romance of Jeep is exactly how you’d want it to sound. The song creates a flyover state love story in a strangely effective union of hyperpop and Americana, creating a windswept fantasy of “doing some middle America shit” with your man: Four Loko-fueled hookups, gas station canoodling and screaming along to rage music beneath the stars. The truly audacious thing is the bridge, a whispered and impressionistic slur that feels like Petras is eight drinks deep, doing donuts in her car until everything blurs. It’s total make-believe, but Petras is so good at making you feel her longing that it gets me choked up. When she recently came out at a Charli xcx show to perform Jeep unannounced, it already felt like an anthem. Owen Myers

DHS pledged body cams for all immigration agents. Months later, that hasn't happened

In recent days, federal immigration agents fatally shot two immigrant fathers. None of the federal officers involved were wearing body cameras, the agency said.

Trump earned billions last year. Some Pennsylvania swing voters say they don't care

Key voters in Pennsylvania are split on whether President Trump earning a big windfall last year is a big deal or not. Their reaction reveals a level of cynicism about many in the political class.

Renzo Piano’s giant glass cube towers over the rest of the Stirling prize’s samey brick-built shortlist

Coming from the same developer as the Shard, London’s latest trophy building may be 54 storeys shorter than envisaged but should rise to building of the year

If Irvine Sellar, the larger-than-life developer who gave London the 95-storey hypodermic pinnacle of the Shard, had had his way, the UK’s tallest building would have been joined by a sibling: a 72-storey residential tower soaring above Paddington Station, the pair of leviathans winking conspiratorially at each other across the capital. In the end the Paddington Pole, as it became known, attracted the feather-spitting ire of heritage bodies and community groups, and after 1,800 objections, was refused planning permission by Westminster Council.

Undaunted, Sellar and his architect Renzo Piano – the Italian imperator of hi-tech and co-designer, with Richard Rogers, of Paris’s Pompidou Centre – went back to the drawing board and simply lopped off 54 storeys. And so, in a reverse ferret that was a gift to headline writers (“Pole-axed” trumpeted Building magazine), the Pole became the Cube: an 18-storey office block, homogenous, crystalline and curiously self-effacing, despite its cubic chonk, its glacial glass walls reflecting the grey London sky.

Midnight social media curfew and limits to infinite scrolling proposed for older UK teens

The U.K. government has proposed new measures to protect older teens on social media, including a midnight curfew and a limit to infinite scrolling.

More than 500 feared dead after reports of two shipwrecks off Myanmar, UN says

Vessels believed to have departed from Myanmar in late June, with mostly Muslim Rohingya minority onboard

The United Nations has said more than 500 people are feared dead after reports of two large shipwrecks off Myanmar since late June.

The UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) and its refugee agency UNHCR voiced alarm in a joint statement at reports “that two boats carrying more than 500 people may have capsized off the coast of Myanmar in recent days”.

The Hawk review – Will Ferrell’s dated golf comedy just isn’t that funny

Ferrell’s brash ladies man and loser golfer could have been hilarious. But comedy has sped up over the last two decades, and all the genital gags and dodgy references fall flat

In the 2000s, American comedy had a rude awakening. While the preceding decade had been all attractive sophisticates bantering in big cities, the new millennium arrived in a miasma of crude, cartoonish buffoonery: Austin Powers, American Pie, Dude, Where’s My Car? These were, sadly, the sacred texts of a millennial adolescence.

In comparison, the work of the Frat Pack – a group of comic actors that included Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, Seth Rogen and Luke and Owen Wilson, plus writer-director Judd Apatow – seemed almost highbrow. By the middle of the decade, this cohort had funnelled ribald irreverence into much better films, including Zoolander, Dodgeball and Anchorman. Eventually, though, the worm turned; as chin-stroking dramedy and nerdy Marvel wisecracking took hold of the zeitgeist, this PC-needling silliness fell out of fashion.

‘I felt Holden was talking to me alone’: The Catcher in the Rye at 75

JD Salinger’s wry, subversive classic inspired novelist Joseph O’Connor to be a writer. He reflects on why this story of a disaffected teenager remains as fresh and transgressive as ever

In 1981, when I was 17, my first girlfriend gave me a paperback of her dad’s favourite novel. I’d never heard of it despite living in a home full of books. My parents loved the work of Edna O’Brien, Muriel Spark, John le Carré, Dickens. So did I. But encountering the first sentence of JD Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye made the world burst into colour.

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”

Fleabag at 10: did Phoebe Waller-Bridge usher in a wave of female-fronted series – or straitjacket them?

The confessional classic opened the floodgates for a generation of brilliant female showrunners. But as risk-averse streamers tighten their purse strings, is the industry forcing women’s stories back into a box?

Ten years ago, Phoebe Waller-Bridge locked eyes with the camera and asked her audience: “Do I have a massive arsehole?” An unexpected punchline to a monologue about a booty call that went surprisingly – and literally – south, it announced Waller-Bridge as a new star of British telly. The half-hour comedy series Fleabag broke the fourth wall, and the internet. Its second season was even bigger, spawning countless thinkpieces discussing Andrew Scott as the “hot priest” and the sold-out Topshop jumpsuit worn by Waller-Bridge, which had a keyhole cutout revealing an aspirational slice of boob.

Both Fleabag and Waller-Bridge were praised for blazing a path that female showrunners and their feminist creations could later stomp down. It secured Waller-Bridge an exclusive deal with Amazon worth a reported $20m (£16m) a year. The show’s success certainly changed Waller-Bridge’s life. But, a decade on, as the British television industry has been reshaped by the rise of streamers, budget cuts and dwindling opportunities for new talent, how did it change TV?

You be the judge: should my girlfriend stop buying so many flowers?

Damien says plants last longer, but Tolu doesn’t think things have to survive for years to be worthwhile. Who should turn over a new leaf?

• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

Flowers are a fleeting gesture. Why not buy plants that last years instead?

The social media ban sceptic: are we getting it wrong on kids, tech and mental health?

Psychologist Candice Odgers has studied adolescent mental health for 25 years. She fears the current debate around smartphones obscures some of the biggest issues facing teenagers – from the impact of Covid to the health of their adult caregivers

The quickest way to make being online safer for children and teens would be to kick all adult men off the internet, the Canadian psychologist Candice Odgers believes. Men are the biggest perpetrators of sextortion and most likely to spread misinformation, she says.

Odgers is not recommending this as a policy for governments to adopt: “That would be crazy, right? It would be unfair.” But she is on a drive to puncture the prevailing narrative that the best way to address online harms is a social media ban for teenagers.

Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey used occupied land as a film set. That feels like a betrayal | Mohamed Sleiman Labat

The decision to shoot in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara, where the Indigenous people can’t tell their stories without fear of imprisonment, helps erase our own brutal journey

• Peter Bradshaw’s five star review
• A classicist’s verdict

The simple act of holding a camera in my homeland of Western Sahara can be a crime. When Sahrawi film-makers and journalists attempt to document everyday life under Moroccan occupation, they can often end up in prison cells. For the Moroccan regime, a camera in the hands of a Sahrawi threatens its official narrative that Western Sahara is part of Morocco.

In contrast, when celebrated international names in the film industry wish to capture an ideal picture for an epic journey, and decide that our land is exotic enough to shoot the desired scenes, they are welcomed, escorted and granted access by the same authorities that usually deny us that right.

Where tourists seldom tread, part 21: two northern powerhouses on the rise once more

Preston and St Helens were heartbeats of the industrial age, but their power faded. In the last of our series, we discover how their legacy is finally being celebrated

• Where tourists seldom tread, parts 1-20

This double act of “Lancashire” locations is my final celebration of Britain’s bypassed towns. My native county has dominated my life of late, and one key question asked in these columns has been: can you holiday right at home?

The French author Xavier de Maistre believed you could fit a journey inside a single room. And in Instructions on How to Climb a Staircase the Argentine-French writer Julio Cortázar turned a walk upstairs into a quest. An entire county offers enough adventures to fill a life.

Up All Night by Imogen Willetts review – a seductive history of going out

From 18th-century pleasure gardens to Studio 54, the story of nightlife in all its hedonistic – and political – glory

In this fabulous alternative history of the modern world, the academic and “party historian” Imogen Willetts looks at the last 500 years of civilisation through the sometimes blurry lenses of its after-dark scenes, with fascinating results. She begins by trying to capture what it feels like to go on a big night out, focusing on a phenomenon that, in 1912, the sociologist Émile Durkheim labelled “collective effervescence”. In one passage, she explains this by referencing dancing as part of ancient tribal hunting rituals, listening to Charli xcx’s 365, or singing along to Sweet Caroline with tens of thousands of other people in a stadium.

This is no dry academic study, then, and its mix of historical research, critical theory and conversational references to pop culture makes for a bright and compelling read. What Willetts calls the “seemingly superficial act of getting gussied up to drink, dance, have fun and meet people” is, of course, much more than that, and she scratches away at the layers with skill. Nightlife can contain, or enable, rebellion, community, innovation, art, love, sex and political revolution. From Japan to France, from Shanghai to Germany, via many detours to the United States, she examines historical movements as they might be seen from dusk till dawn.

From Cambridge ‘impostor’ to New Labour star: Andy Burnham’s winding path to power

In the first of a two-part profile, Daniel Boffey traces the incoming PM’s early forays into politics and his rise to prominence – ultimately leading to him leaving London for Manchester

Andy Burnham had emerged victorious, but niggling doubts remained about his mandate. It was the summer of 1987 and the 17-year-old had represented Labour in a school hustings as Margaret Thatcher and Neil Kinnock were battling it out in that year’s general election.

“Andy was standing against another guy, a really nice guy who was the Conservative candidate,” said Steve Harrington, a former English teacher at St Aelred’s Catholic high school, in Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside. “Andy gave a speech, which was excellent, then the other guy came on to make his speech and Andy’s fans – unbeknown to Andy – snatched the plug out of the microphone. So they couldn’t hear what he was saying. Andy won by a landslide. Having said that, he probably would have anyway, as it was a heavily Labour area … But he was innocent, he hadn’t been involved in [the prank] and wouldn’t have been.”

U.S. to impose 25% tariffs on Brazilian imports over unfair trade practices

The United States is imposing 25% tariffs on imports from Brazil after finding a range of what it deemed unfair trade practices by the world's 10th-biggest economy.

Thursday news quiz: Meta losing face, sugar in space and a bear in the wrong place

Test yourself on topical news trivia, pop culture and general knowledge every Thursday. How will you fare?

And so after nearly 70bn matches – or so it seems – the Fifa World Cup has reached the sharp end. But regular readers will know that they face the sharp end of the challenge of the Thursday news quiz every Thursday. Fifteen questions await on topical news, general knowledge and pop culture. Plus collective nouns for some reason. There are no prizes, but let us know how you got on in the comments. Allons-y!

The Thursday news quiz, No 256

Revealed: Bucharest tourists hiring rentals that could collapse in an earthquake

Exclusive: More than 200 illegal holiday properties found in buildings at the highest level of seismic risk

Tourists in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, are staying in illegal accommodation listed on Airbnb and Booking.com in buildings considered so seismically vulnerable they could collapse in the event of a major earthquake, according to exclusive data shared with the Guardian.

Analysis of data collected by Re:Rise, a Romanian organisation working on seismic risk reduction, identified at least 207 illegal tourist rental properties advertised across the two platforms in Bucharest at the end of May, with a combined capacity to host more than 1,000 visitors each night.