Crews battle wildfires in western U.S. and Canada

There have been 183 new wildfires, including eight large ones, across the U.S. since Saturday, the National Interagency Fire Center reported on Sunday.

Demi Vollering wins Tour de France for the 2nd time

Vollering, who first won the competition in 2023, finished the stage more than a minute ahead of Spaniard Paula Blasi Cairol and 2024 champion Polish rider Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney.

Burnham vows crackdown on ‘rip-off’ business practices to ease cost of living

First of PM’s ‘everyday fixes’ to be banning fake discounts and making it easier to cancel unwanted subscriptions

• Andy Burnham: I’ll end the rip-offs that people hate

Andy Burnham has promised a series of measures to tackle the cost of living, including a ban on fake discounts and making it easier for people to escape unwanted subscriptions.

The crackdown on “rip-off” business practices is expected to benefit consumers to the tune of £400m a year and will be the first in a range of “everyday fixes” to be implemented in the coming months.

Don Nelson, former NBA coach and 5-time champion as a player, dies at 86

Don Nelson was one of two coaches in NBA history to have at least 250 wins with three different franchises — Milwaukee, Dallas and Golden State.

Netanyahu rejects US-led 15-point Gaza peace plan in rare public break with Trump

Israeli PM says IDF will not withdraw until Hamas is disarmed and rebukes US pressure to end wars without his country’s buy-in

• Middle East crisis live – latest updates

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has rejected a US-backed 15-point peace plan for Gaza in a rare public break with Donald Trump.

In a statement on Sunday, Netanyahu said that he was confronting a “wave of rumours about Israeli weakness and Israeli withdrawals on all fronts” and rebuked US pressure to end wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran without Israel’s buy-in.

Game of Thrones: The Mad King review – an action-packed saga of dry ice and fire

Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
This prequel to the TV series has one joust after another, spectacular stagecraft and plenty of modern resonance

During the RSC’s 65 years, numerous Lears have lost their minds and frequent Caesars been slaughtered by their courts. Now, though, a tyrant new to its stages faces both fates. He is King Aerys II Targaryen, ancestor of one warring bloodline in Game of Thrones, the dramatisation of George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels that helped TV streamers’ rise to global domination during eight HBO seasons from 2011 to 2019.

Some may balk at an institution named for England’s greatest dramatist staging an American drama franchise. There is, though, a compelling economic imperative: rising costs due to current wars (a frequent problem for Martin’s ancient oligarchs too) and Covid-era debts now exacerbated by paying back government loans means that the RSC could use another big commercial transfer – as its musical Matilda may not be immortal.

Full transcript of "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," July 19, 2026

On this "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" broadcast, Sens. Bill Cassidy and Bernie Sanders join Margaret Brennan.

Bhattacharya says "I trust the science" on childhood vaccines

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, said "I trust the science" on vaccines as measles cases have risen to their highest levels in 35 years.

Woman, 5-month-old die in New York Harbor after boat capsized; Captain arrested

A 46-year-old man was arrested on reckless endangerment charges, and authorities are investigating whether the boat was an illegal charter.

Zuckerberg faces questions over why superyacht reportedly declined to help stranded boat

Small cruise ship rescued skiff in south-east Alaska even though Meta billionaire’s $300m megayacht was closer

Mark Zuckerberg has faced questions over why a small cruise ship in south-east Alaska rescued a stranded skiff and its crew when his 387ft superyacht had been closer.

The Silicon Valley billionaire’s yacht, worth a reported $300m, is said to have “repeatedly” declined to assist when a nearby boat called for help last week.

Don Nelson, legendary coach and five-time NBA champion as player, dies at 86

• Nelson had second-most coaching wins in NBA history

• Won five titles with Boston Celtics in 1960s and 70s

• Helped develop stars Steph Curry and Dirk Nowitzki

Don Nelson, the second-winningest coach in NBA history who won five championships as a player with the Boston Celtics, died on Sunday. He was 86.

“On Sunday morning our beloved husband, dad, grandfather and great-grandfather Don Nelson ⁠peacefully went to be ⁠with the ​Lord, surrounded by his loving family,” a statement from his family read. “Throughout his last week, friends and family encircled him with love, sharing the ⁠blessing of his friendship and revisiting treasured memories.”

Hodgkinson believes gold at home European Championships ‘would mean almost as much as Olympics’

• British 800m star is headline act as Birmingham hosts

• Audrey Werro clash to be ‘race of the championships’

Keely Hodgkinson says winning a European gold medal in front of her home fans in Birmingham this week will be nearly as special as her Olympic title in Paris.

Hodgkinson is the headline act as the European Athletics Champion­ships come to Britain for the first time in its 92-year history, but she insists the intense spotlight on her only increases her determination to win 800m gold.

OnlyFans for Therapy review – a brave and unsettling emotional exposure

Zoo Playground, Edinburgh
Veering from confident to crumbling, Verona Verbakel delivers a vivid show mixing humour with trauma

We are all familiar with the cliche of the influencer narrating their daily routines – or should I say, their journey? – and trying to convince us, and perhaps themselves, they are living their best life. We know, too, about the websites offering intimate access in exchange for cash.

But what if the online medium were put to more honest purposes? What if, instead of endless positivity, it presented a painful recovery from trauma?

Arteta expects Guimarães to ‘ignite’ Arsenal and help take team to new level

• Arsenal lose 3-2 to Borussia Dortmund in Emirates Cup

• Man City’s wide players shine in 3-2 win against Atlético

The Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, has backed “warrior” Bruno Guimarães to “ignite something different” in the Premier League champions. The Brazil midfielder was introduced to fans ahead of Sunday’s 3-2 defeat by Borussia Dortmund in the Emirates Cup after completing his £75m move from Newcastle.

The 28-year-old, who has signed a four-year deal, bolsters a midfield which already includes Declan Rice, Martin Ødegaard, Mikel Merino, Martín Zubimendi and Eberechi Eze.

Perseid meteor shower set to dazzle northern hemisphere this week

Astronomers say viewing conditions promising for this year’s shower, and 50 to 100 meteors an hour may be visible

The Perseid summer light show is back, and viewing conditions are especially promising across the northern hemisphere.

The meteor shower’s is expected to peak on Wednesday night into Thursday morning, and coincides with a total solar eclipse across Spain, Iceland and Greenland and a six-planet parade – though the best time to view the fireballs will come after totality.

Max Miller stays in Ohio House race as GOP ballot deadline passes

Rep. Max Miller is set to remain the Republican nominee in Ohio’s 7th District after the window for the GOP to replace him on the November ballot closed.

Tour de France Femmes: Vollering wins second title but tactics row rumbles on

• Dutch cyclist finishes 1:18 clear of Kasia Niewiadoma

• ‘I know what’s right and what’s not,’ runner-up says

In the end, there was no debate. Demi Vollering went clear on the Col d’Èze, overlooking Nice, to win her second Tour de France Femmes from rival Kasia Niewiadoma, champion in 2024, by one minute and 18 seconds.

The decisive attacks came on the narrow snaking climb of the Chemin du Vinaigrier, past swimming pools and art deco villas, where breakaway rider Isabella Holmgren was finally overhauled and ­Vollering and Niewiadoma again went head-to-head.

Netanyahu rejects Trump's Gaza Peace Plan, demands Hamas disarm first

Netanyahu's comments come just over a week after President Trump said his Board of Peace had reached a "historic" agreement with Hamas to give up its weapons.

Canadian government steps in as ‘out of control’ wildfires force thousands to flee

British Columbia battling 102 fires day and night across province, as breakneck speed hampers firefighters’ efforts

Canada’s federal government has announced it will provide urgent assistance to British Columbia after an onslaught of unprecedented fast-moving wildfires forced about 22,000 people to flee their homes in frantic evacuations.

A total of 102 wildfires were raging across the province on Sunday, of which nearly half were categorised as “out of control”, according to the BC Wildfire Service. Of those fires, 78 ignited during the past week.

Alleged crime boss Daniel Kinahan’s return to Ireland ends global game of cat-and-mouse

Kinahan built boxing empire while in exile in Dubai but now faces trial in Dublin charged with directing organised crime

A decade after escaping assassination and fleeing into exile, Daniel Kinahan is back in Ireland – but it is not the homecoming he wanted.

The alleged leader of the Kinahan organised crime group was extradited from Dubai in an Irish government jet on Sunday and headed to a huge security operation in Dublin, marking the end of a global game of cat-and-mouse with European, US and Gulf authorities.

Iran denies any direct talks with U.S. on opening Strait of Hormuz as Houthis claim attack on Saudi refinery

Iran's foreign minister reportedly said his country is not engaging in talks with the U.S., but added: "Messages are being exchanged through intermediaries."

Typhoon Dolphin makes landfall in China as its strongest storm this year

Tropical cyclone brings torrential rain and high winds to east coast after hitting Japan’s southern Okinawa province

Typhoon Dolphin, the most powerful tropical cyclone to hit China this year, has made landfall on the country’s east coast, bringing torrential rain and strong ⁠winds and triggering warnings ​of flooding and landslides.

The storm has already swept through Japan’s southern Okinawa prefecture, injuring six people and cutting power to more than 50,000 buildings.

Lake Mead plummets to historic low water level as Colorado River struggles

Levels at reservoir along Arizona-Nevada border dipped below previous record set in 2022, amid water crisis in west

Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States, has plummeted to its lowest water level since it was filled some 90 years ago, the latest sign of a deepening water crisis in the American west.

Water levels at the reservoir, which straddles the Arizona-Nevada border outside Las Vegas, hit 1,040.4ft (317.1 meters) above sea level on Friday, according to federal data. That’s just below the record set on 28 July 2022, according to the US Bureau of Reclamation.

Labour seeking ‘deeper relationship’ with EU under Burnham, new minister says

Exclusive: Hamish Falconer wants ‘sense of renewed pace’ in post-Brexit talks while staying within Labour’s red lines

• ‘I was on my honeymoon!’: Hamish Falconer’s surprise call-up to Burnham’s cabinet

The UK will move faster and be more ambitious on achieving closer ties with Europe under Andy Burnham’s government, his new chief post-Brexit negotiator has said.

Hamish Falconer, the new cabinet minister in charge of the EU reset talks, said there was “room to be ambitious” within Labour’s red lines on Europe, which exclude reopening discussions on the single market and customs union, and he would look at the “art of the possible”.

Iraola says Liverpool have work to do as familiar frailties in defence prove costly

• Head coach frustrated by ‘tired’ performance

• Monaco come from two down to win 3-2 at Anfield

Andoni Iraola told his Liverpool team they have work to do after ­squandering a 2-0 lead against Monaco to lose a second successive pre-season friendly.

The former Bournemouth coach last managed a game at Anfield almost exactly a year ago in the memorable opener to the 2025-26 Premier League season, a game the Cherries were unfortunate to lose 4-2. Now on his debut in the home dugout, Iraola saw his team produce a similarly open display and lose again. It became clear Liverpool’s longstanding defensive frailties are still to be eliminated.

Sen. Bill Cassidy says his decision to confirm Todd Blanche wasn't "black or white"

"If you're looking for a black or white decision here, you're not going to find it," GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy said about his decision to support Todd Blanche's nomination for attorney general.

‘I’m not ready to compete’: Jannik Sinner pulls out of Cincinnati Open

• World No 1 out of tournament with knee injury

• Italian trying to stay fit for US Open which starts 30 August

The World No 1, Jannik Sinner, has pulled out of the Cincinnati Open due to a right knee injury, the Italian announced on Sunday.

“After consulting with my doctors and my team, I have to announce that I need to withdraw from the Masters 1000 tournament in Cincinnati,” he said in a statement posted on the ATP website. “My right knee has been bothering me and even though we have been working hard with my medical team, I have to accept that I’m not ready to compete yet.”

La Liga president Javier Tebas says ‘Infantino era is over’ at Fifa

• Tebas says Swiss is ‘destroying essence of football’

• Any reform at highest levels must be ‘genuine’

Javier Tebas says Gianni Infantino’s position as Fifa president is untenable, claiming he is “destroying the very essence of football” while calling for reform at the highest levels of the game.

The La Liga president, who is a longstanding and vociferous critic of the current Fifa regime, said “the Infantino era is over” and called for control of the game to be expanded beyond the current “elite”.

Sanders calls on Democrat leaders to ban "corrupt" super PAC donations

Sen. Bernie Sanders highlighted the hundreds of millions of dollars spent by outside organizations during the 2026 midterm cycle.

The Kettlewell scarecrow festival – in pictures

The two-week event celebrates the creativity of the Yorkshire Dales village and has gone from strength to strength since beginning as a fundraiser for the local primary school in 1994

William Orbit obituary

Musician and record producer who reignited Madonna’s career with his work on her 1998 album Ray of Light

The career highlights of William Orbit, who has died aged 69, would run to several pages, featuring collaborations with Robbie Williams, All Saints, Prince, Kraftwerk, Britney Spears, Beth Orton and U2, but one of the most celebrated was his partnership with Madonna on her 1998 album Ray of Light.

Coming at a point when Madonna had starred in the movie of Evita and had her first child, Lourdes, and her music career seemed to be waning, Ray of Light marked a decisive step into a new world of techno and ambient music. Orbit, who had previously made remixes of Madonna’s Justify My Love and Erotica, proved to be the perfect production partner, and Ray of Light’s blend of styles and textures made it one of Madonna’s most admired achievements, with 16 million copies of the album sold worldwide.

This week on "Sunday Morning" (Aug. 9)

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

The Guardian view on the two cultures: bridge the divide, starting with A-levels | Editorial

Seventy years after CP Snow warned of estrangement between the sciences and arts, breadth in education should be encouraged

After the playwright Tom Stoppard died last year, one of the most striking tributes to his work came from a clinical scientist. Michael Baum explained in the British Medical Journal how, in the interval of a 1993 performance of Arcadia, he experienced an epiphany. Thomasina Coverly’s attempt to plot the equation for a rose prompted him to realise that chaos theory was the best way to explain breast cancer’s pattern of recurrence. It was, he wrote, “the bond that links the arts and the sciences as one enterprise rather than the contents of two silos”.

Mr Baum was not the first person to celebrate the bridging of this gap. CP Snow famously criticised the incuriosity of “literary intellectuals” about technology in his essay The Two Cultures (later turned into a lecture and a book). Whether or not this was justified at the time, many literary intellectuals besides Stoppard have since taken a close interest in science; Richard Holmes’s latest book, about the influence of evolutionary theory on Tennyson, is just one example. But the split between the humanities and sciences remains pronounced, and will be evident when this year’s A-level results are released on Thursday.

The Guardian view on India’s green growth gamble: it will need more than private finance | Editorial

The world’s most populous country needs state-generated demand to industrialise, decarbonise and avoid China’s overcapacity trap

India is attempting to do something the world has never seen before. So claimed Niti Aayog, the government of India’s policy thinktank, earlier this year. It said that no major economy has tried to expand GDP nearly eightfold within a generation while simultaneously redirecting its energy and industrial systems to reach net zero within two generations. Hence its detailed report’s claim that there is “no historical precedent”.

There is something to this. China industrialised at vast scale, but not on a sustainable net zero path. Korea, Japan and Europe became wealthy by industrialising before decarbonising. Today, rich nations have already satisfied the basic demands of their people and created the infrastructure and high per-capita energy use that India is still trying to build. The world’s most populous country has to do this while also reducing emissions.

Pakistani grooming gang suspect ‘refuses to give date for return to UK’

Rukhsar Ahmed was recently elected an MP in Pakistan while on bail over alleged child rape in 1990s Manchester

A grooming gang suspect released on bail in the UK and then re-elected as an MP in Pakistan has reportedly declined to say when he would return to face rape charges.

The Guardian disclosed that Rukhsar Ahmed, a former Pakistan state minister, was arrested at Manchester airport in July 2024 on suspicion of raping and trafficking at least two underage girls from care homes in the city’s Rusholme area during the 1990s.

Christine Borland obituary

Turner prize nominee whose installations, sculptures and films returned repeatedly to the histories embedded within bodies

In 1994, Christine Borland, who has died aged 61 of cancer, opened her first solo exhibition at Tramway in Glasgow. Its starting point was a mail-order catalogue through which human skeletons could be legally purchased for medical teaching.

The discovery that a person’s remains could be bought anonymously through the post gave rise to one of the defining questions of her career. Working with forensic experts, police and medical professionals, Borland attempted to reconstruct the life behind one such skeleton, producing a bronze facial reconstruction alongside the original bones.

My Brilliant Career: inside Netflix’s horny, ‘bonkers’ take on an Australian classic the world is about to love

Starring Philippa Northeast and an extremely buff Christopher Chung, Miles Franklin’s 1901 novel has been adapted into a spirited series ‘unashamedly intended for women’

Within the first 10 minutes of My Brilliant Career, Netflix’s new adaptation of the classic Australian novel by Miles Franklin, there’s smutty performance poetry and a Divinyls needle drop that suggests it’s not going to be your standard turn-of-the-century period drama. By the end of the first episode – in which our teen heroine, Sybylla Melvin, pops a squat for a bush wee and flashes her knickers at a drawing room full of toffs while dancing to a Rod Stewart cover – you sense that anything could happen. And yet somehow, the alfresco fingerbang later in the series still surprises.

“It’s bonkers,” admits the show’s star Philippa Northeast, who plays Sybylla. “You really see this world through a teenage lens – which is true to Sybylla’s spirit and Miles’ age at the time she wrote the book … it reads like a teenager’s diary entry, pretty much.”

Tom Gauld on the military history dad’s holiday reading – cartoon

Kindness of strangers: Leo drove us home in a blizzard, and his parting words have stayed with me

The roads were so treacherous that what should have been a five-minute drive took 40 minutes. My mum didn’t speak much English, so I did the talking

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

I was graduating from university the same day Storm Goretti was due to hit Birmingham. The forecast was for snow – and lots of it – so I decided to get the bus in, rather than risk driving and having to leave my car behind in a snowstorm. Joining me was my mum.

We successfully attended the ceremony and managed to get on a bus back home but as the snow worsened, it broke down a kilometre from my house. The whole bus emptied and we were forced to walk through the blizzard. It was like The Day After Tomorrow out there. Tough conditions for anyone, but my mum, who was in her late 60s, was struggling to take even a few steps.

The idea of sin can cause shame and trauma. But what if it’s used as a cue to act? | Jackie Bailey

Instead of ‘being’ or ‘doing’ the wrong thing, a more useful understanding of sin may be of ‘missing the mark’ – a sense of not quite right-ness

• Making sense of it is a column about spirituality and how it can be used to navigate everyday life

As a child, I was taught we are inherently unworthy of God’s love. “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,” I would intone at Sunday mass, along with the other parishioners. I was imploring God, not just to overlook my theft of the last cookie in the pantry, but for something more fundamental. I asked him to remove the heavy weight of shame from my eight-year-old shoulders.

I had absorbed the doctrine of “original sin” into the marrow of my bones, even though it was hard to square with another key teaching of my church: God is love. Surely, I reasoned, a loving God would not send me to hell if I failed to believe in Him?

Jackie Bailey is an award-winning author whose latest book is The Outrageous Good Fortune of Living (HarperCollins). Jackie works as a funeral celebrant and pastoral care practitioner, supporting people to navigate death and dying

Italy condemns Spain’s ‘unacceptable’ border controls as Ceuta fallout intensifies

Travellers caught up in migration row as Madrid introduces checks on visitors from Italy in retaliation for Rome’s move

Italy’s foreign minister has called Spain’s decision to impose retaliatory checks on travellers from Italy “incomprehensible and completely unacceptable” as people making their way between the two EU countries were left grappling with the effects of the escalating feud.

Spain started carrying out spot checks on visitors from Italy at midnight on Saturday. The tit-for-tat move came after Rome infuriated Madrid by launching checks on 1 August for travellers from Spain in response to the recent influx of about 72,000 people into Ceuta, a Spanish territory in north Africa.

Ocasio-Cortez hasn't 'ruled out' running for president or Senate in 2028

The congresswoman, who has emerged as a polling favorite to be the Democratic nominee, said she also has not ruled out a run for the Senate in 2028.

I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming review – brilliant bulletin from Ukrainian frontline dives deep into culture war

Locarno film festival
A couple attempting to leave Ukraine when the war encounter gender identity issues in this bold and challenging film

A movie’s themes could hardly be more urgent and contemporary than those on offer in this entirely absorbing film from German director Isabelle Stever and Ukrainian critic turned screenwriter Anna Melikova. It’s a bulletin from the frontline of Russia’s war on Ukraine, and from the culture war too. It is about identity and choices made in peacetime when less was at stake. There is a bold and brilliant premise that may at first look artificially satirical but is actually inspired.

When Russia begins its attack, the crisis is very specific for a scared young Ukrainian couple, recently engaged: Olya (Tania Myronyshena) and Oleh (Markus Bright). As bombs rain down, they head west in the cramped car of Olya’s elderly mum and dad – with Olya grumpily objecting to her dad’s sexist comments from behind the wheel about female drivers – to stay with Olya’s sister, who is married with a young baby and whose husband, to her fury, has joined up. Oleh’s plan is to get out of Ukraine and live with Olya in the safety of Germany and the EU.

Nature: Otters in California

We leave you this Sunday morning among river otters frolicking at Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County, Calif. Videographer: Lee McEachern.

8/9: Face The Nation

This week on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," Sen. Bill Cassidy joins to discuss his pivotal vote to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general. Plus, Sen. Bernie Sanders and National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya join.

How THC tests have landed new mothers onto child abuse registries

In Idaho, new mothers have ended up on a child abuse registry after testing positive for THC – a chemical found in marijuana. An investigation raises hard questions about who gets punished, and who doesn't.

The bond between dog and duck

Barley, the golden retriever, lost her spunk once she started taking medication. But when Justin and Tori Cannarelli, of New York, brought Louie, a duckling, home for a short visit, the bird and the dog immediately bonded – and Barley was once again good as gold. Steve Hartman reports on a healing friendship that transcends species.

‘You’re hit with a slam of shadow’: Nasa’s air mission to capture rare eclipse data

Two aviators will take off from Iceland to photograph the sun while flying at high altitude along solar eclipse’s path

After lunch on Wednesday, two Nasa aviators will climb into a research plane and take off from Keflavik airport on a western tip of Iceland. They will climb north towards Greenland and then bank to head south on a gently curving course 40 miles (64km) off the Icelandic coast.

Their mission can be described as chasing an eclipse, but in reality the eclipse is chasing them. As the plane cruises at 50,000ft (15,000 metres), the shadow of the moon will race up from behind, crossing the ocean below at more than 2,000mph (3,200km/h). The pilot will aim to reach the point of greatest eclipse, when the largest fraction of the sun is obscured by the moon, at the moment the shadow catches up with them.

How THC tests have landed new mothers onto child abuse registries

In more than 40 states, marijuana is now a legal method of relieving pain. But in Idaho, more than a thousand new mothers have ended up on a child abuse registry after testing positive for THC – a chemical found in marijuana – following childbirth. In other states, women have even been sent to jail. The findings of a joint investigation by "CBS Sunday Morning" and the Marshall Project raise hard questions about who gets punished, and who doesn't. Erin Moriarty reports. [This story was produced in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system.]

Passage: Remembering Jeanne Gibson, a.k.a. "Rosie the Riveter"

Jeanne Gibson, who at age 18 joined the war effort by becoming a "Rosie the Riveter" to help build Navy destroyers as a welder, died July 29, 2026 at age 100. Seth Doane looks back on the life of a woman who stepped up during World War II. Gibson later earned a Ph.D. and worked as an educator, while continuing to tell the story about the contributions of millions of Rosies during World War II.

‘I’ve definitely lost followers’: influencers face backlash over Meta ‘pervert glasses’ content

Using ‘spy glasses’ made by Facebook owner leads to floods of negative comments, say content creators

It was hardly an offensive video. Amid the buzz of the Tour de France finale, Oliver Hooson filmed himself whipping up a delicious-looking flat white for a fellow cycling enthusiast. But after posting the footage on social media, the comments that soon rolled in were a real shock. “PERV,” read one. “Out here pushing creep glasses,” said another. His mistake? Documenting the moment with Meta’s “spy glasses”.

Despite being marketed as the latest must-have gadget, Meta’s smartglasses, which can record video footage while being worn, have faced a vicious backlash, particularly relating to concerns about surveillance. There are widespread fears about the glasses being used to film people, especially women, without their consent, and the resultant footage being posted on social media. This has earned them the label of “pervert glasses”, and content creators, no matter how they are used, have faced a flood of negative comments for deploying them.

Visiting the Iowa 80 Truckstop, the world's largest

The Iowa 80 Truckstop, on Interstate 80, claims to be the world's largest truck stop – and who would argue? Luke Burbank pulls up to the Walcott, Iowa truck stop larger than 150 football fields, catering to those who keep America moving, which features everything from 24-hour restaurants and maintenance shops, to a dentist, ministry office, and movie theater. (Originally broadcast Aug. 31, 2025.)

Dog Days of Summer

How did the "dog days of summer" get their name?

Protecting the Venus fly trap

The carnivorous Venus fly trap is native to the Carolinas, but its population is dwindling due to loss of habitat. Correspondent Seth Doane talks with botanist Julie Moore, who has spent much of her life helping to save these remarkable plants; and with Damon Waitt, director of the North Carolina Botanical Garden, who discusses the unusual traits of a species that Charles Darwin called the most interesting plant in the world. (Originally broadcast April 26, 2026.)

Rescuing a candlepin bowling alley helps bolster a Maine community

Autumn Mowery was 18 when she took over a candlepin bowling alley threatened with the wrecking ball, challenging herself to maintain a pillar of the community.

Rescuing a candlepin bowling alley helps bolster a Maine community

Autumn Mowery was 18 when the candlepin bowling alley in Ellsworth, Me., where she worked, was threatened with the wrecking ball. She took it over, challenging herself to keep the lights on in a pillar of the community – and in so doing Mowery found a way to help others in need of a safe place. Lee Cowan reports.

‘You live for those breakthroughs’: an investigation into military tribunals on US airbases meant protecting those who spoke out

Guardian journalists have been uncovering cases involving US military personnel that bypassed British courts. It involved telling the stories of women who have been denied important rights and protections, and safeguarding them as sources

• Support investigative journalism today

When reporters talk about protecting their sources, it isn’t always about protecting a source’s identity. Some sources are prepared to go public. Others may have already shed their anonymity before a journalist gets in touch with them. But they all still need to be supported and safeguarded as their stories are brought to light.

“I try to ensure there are no surprises for them,” says Harry Davies, a Guardian investigations correspondent. “You have to prepare them for the exposure and talk them through what it will mean.”

The secret lives of theatre workers: ‘People were having full sex in the stalls’

Domestic dramas, bodily fluids, drink, drugs, rudeness and worse … ushers and box office staff have seen it all. So much for the myth of the ‘genteel’ theatregoer

‘Theatre still has a sheen of respectability, so people feel they can behave badly because where they are cancels out how dreadful they are being,” says John, who has been a box office manager for 15 years. From my early 20s to my mid-30s, I too worked in the box office, at some of London’s top theatres. During my decade in the job, I witnessed audience behaviour ranging from the odd and the outrageous to the outright belligerent. If you are under any illusion that theatre audiences are classy, allow my former colleagues to disabuse you of that notion.

The misuse of phones is one of the most common offences. In April, Cynthia Erivo stopped her one-woman West End production of Dracula mid-performance to urge an audience member to stop filming. Former Love Island winner Amber Davies, starring in a tour of Legally Blonde, last month asked staff to kick out an audience member who was filming the performance from the front row of a Dublin theatre. And in May, Rosamund Pike spotted an audience member texting during the climax of her performance in Inter Alia. After the curtain call, Pike returned to the stage and shamed the behaviour, without singling out the culprit. Part of me hoped that, like a teacher, she would make the individual in question read their texts out to the rest of the theatre.

‘America’s saddest murder trial’: mental health in focus in Lindsay Clancy case

Jurors hear from host of medical experts as defence says postpartum psychosis caused young mother to kill children

It’s been called “America’s saddest murder trial” and last week jurors in the Lindsay Clancy case listened to mental health professionals, counsellors, psychiatrists, and medication experts explain the circumstances in which the young mother killed her three children.

It has been a spectacle that has gripped America, not least because Clancy’s legal defense has been supported by her now divorced husband.

In the US, call or text Mental Health America at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. You can also reach Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741. In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and Childline on 0800 1111. In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978

8/9: Sunday Morning

Hosted by Seth Doane. Featured: Saving a candlepin bowling alley; THC tests jeopardize young mothers; writer Gay Talese; actor Tim Curry; protecting the habitat of Venus fly traps; and the world's largest truck stop.

Haunted by Hoover, Trump searches for an endgame in Iran

President Trump is confronting a question that has haunted presidents throughout history: how a war - that has gone on longer than predicted - can reshape a presidency.

There's a birth control backlash online. Can it explain the rise in abortions?

The number of abortions is up in the United States. Is it because fewer people are using birth control pills?

Top Democrats simulate election threats as Trump continues assault on voting

Chuck Schumer and other senators took part in exercises in which legal experts laid out election disruption scenarios

In a Washington DC conference room last month, some of the most senior Democrats in the US Senate gathered to plan for a prospect that only recently would have felt more akin to science fiction: they started to wargame democracy.

Chuck Schumer, the US Senate minority leader, and senators including Alex Padilla, Adam Schiff, Mark Warner, Elissa Slotkin and Raphael Warnock were among those in the room as a team of legal experts offered scenarios.

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

A free-form fruit tart that’s easy to throw together with whatever seasonal fruit you have to hand

The galette takes its name from the pebble it’s said to resemble – as Elizabeth David observes, it takes many forms, all of them round and flat. For me the word conjures the buckwheat pancakes of Brittany while French friends, in a quick straw poll, tend to think first of the frangipane-stuffed puff pastry galette de rois served at Epiphany, with one vote for a buttery Breton biscuit.

Ask the English-language internet, however, and you’ll be served what is more commonly known as a tart(e), more specifically a charmingly rustic, free-form version which doesn’t require a tin. Though Anne Willan references prune and apple three-tier galette pies from the Pyrenees in her 1981 classic French Regional Cooking, and David includes a yeasted version that sounds more like a cobbler in French Provincial Cooking, most fruit galette recipes I find seem to be American. My hunch is that Alice Waters’ tradition of a daily seasonal galette at Chez Panisse may have popularised the name across the pond, but the general idea never needed upselling. As a quick and easy way to turn a punnet of fruit into a dessert, it’s hard to beat, whatever you call it.

This rising painter reimagines Renaissance art in a cocoa plantation in Cameroon

A new gallery show in London features the paintings of Marc Padeu, playing with themes from Renaissance art and bringing them to his homeland of Cameroon.

How a small Israeli startup was linked to rogue AI hacks at OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta

The rogue AI attacks involving OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta all tied back to a small Israeli startup named Irregular.

Winning Powerball numbers drawn for $863 million jackpot

The total is also the eighth-largest Powerball jackpot in the game's history.

We know sleep, exercise and diet are vital for health. But why?

The benefits of all three come down to a crucial piece of cellular kit

Sleep. Exercise. Eat well. It’s the oldest recommendation in medicine, repeated so often it’s become a cliche. We know the advice, even if we don’t always follow it. But have you ever stopped to wonder why these three seemingly different habits have such remarkably similar effects on our brains and bodies?

For generations we’ve treated them as separate prescriptions – sleep restores us, exercise strengthens us and food fuels us. Yet neuroscience is beginning to suggest something rather more elegant: they’re all essentially doing the same job.

Press access spat adds to fears of circus around Luigi Mangione murder trial

Lawyers for man accused of killing healthcare CEO Brian Thompson raise red flags about limits on reporters

Weeks before Luigi Mangione faces a jury over the killing of the UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson, the hugely anticipated proceedings already have potential to reach trial-of-the-century status.

Intense global interest in Mangione’s case is unfolding against a media landscape where news consumers expect minute-by-minute updates, a mise-en-scène now made all the more complicated by social media influencers who managed to get press credentials and often flock to major US criminal cases in search of clicks and money.

This is how we do it: ‘Since I started HRT, we’ve switched roles – he jokes that I want to do it every day’

After being on the brink of divorce, Antonia and Rob have experienced a radical revival of their sex life

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

The perfect storm of work stress, menopause and raising kids meant our sex life slowly slipped out of view

‘Grief became my brand’: Freya Bromley on writing about personal tragedy

Touring her memoir and talking to others helped the author come to terms with her brother’s death, but the book’s success left her feeling guilty. Had she commodified her family’s pain?

When my memoir about my life after my brother’s death was published, I was very fortunate that people connected with it. It’s not easy to feel good fortune from the worst thing that’s ever happened to you. But I suppose I felt pleased when the experience that had once made me so lonely suddenly became a point of connection.

I had not always been an open book. I was 22 when my brother died from a rare bone cancer. The people around me didn’t know what to say about this awful thing, so they pretended it hadn’t happened and I pretended, too. For a few years I was a ghost in my own life. Nothing felt real. I got very good at imitating normality, imagining I was in a video game called Office.

Nas / The Roots review – NY rap legend is in a nostalgic state of mind

Crystal Palace Bowl, London
Nas performs his gritty but intricate 90s classics, sharing the bill on the first London edition of the Roots Picnic festival with Questlove and co’s exuberant funk

Looking out over the audience at the Crystal Palace Bowl, Nas feels moved to reminisce about his first visit to London. It was in 1994, around the time he released his landmark debut album Illmatic; he remembers performing on pirate radio stations and “eating good Jamaican food”. It seems unlikely that he ever thought he’d be back in the capital sharing the stage with a man playing a sousaphone, but such is the power of the Roots Picnic, a US institution for nearly 20 years. Its famously eclectic bill has regularly featured great rappers backed by hip-hop’s premier live band, sousaphone player and all: Lil’ Wayne, the Wu-Tang Clan, Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z.

Before Nas appears at the festival’s first London iteration, the Roots play their own set, augmented by a guest appearance from Common. It plays out almost as one long medley which shifts restlessly between their own back catalogue and old funk, soul and disco covers. They do a killer version of James Brown’s The Payback. Awesomely tight, driven by the relentless crack of drummer Questlove’s snare and heavy on jazzy brass solos, it’s a perfect demonstration of the unique musical space they’ve carved out over the years, somewhere between hip-hop and jam band: the Grateful Dead of rap, if you like.

Andy Burnham to tour Britain in effort to reconnect government with public

PM expected to announce policies to tackle cost of living and indicate intent to help improve country’s high streets

Andy Burnham is to undertake a national tour this coming week as he aims to improve the government’s connection with the British public during his premiership.

The prime minister is expected to announce a set of policies that will help people financially as many struggle with the cost of living, as well as indicate his intent to improve high streets across the country.

The Democratic party needs to do more than represent wealthy progressives | Dustin Guastella

New research shows that a class gap on the left threatens any winning coalition – but there are ways to address it

Debates on the left are typically framed as a division between moderates and progressives, with the two sides wrestling over how best to form a governing coalition. Yet, in many ways, this divide obscures a much bigger fault line: the class divide. The fact is, many of the Democratic party’s ideological factions consist almost exclusively of college-educated professionals. As a result, the priorities of this class tend to dominate the party’s appeals. The priorities of working-class voters, meanwhile, are an afterthought.

A new report from Jared Abbott, the director of the Center for Working Class Politics, and Joan Williams, author of Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back, looks at ways to bridge the yawning class divide that threatens the possibility of forming a winning coalition.

Recession nails or racial erasure? Why a ‘naked’ manicure is not as neutral as it seems

Bold colours are out and short, (seemingly) bare nails in, but some see trend as part of criticised ‘clean girl aesthetic’

Trends at Copenhagen fashion week are usually easy to spot. The so-called “fifth fashion week”, a laidback sibling to the other four main fashion cities, has previously popularised everything from romantic floaty dresses with practical trainers to giant hair scrunchies. But during its latest iteration that wrapped up on Friday, a much more subtle trend had emerged – naked nails.

From the models on the catwalks to show-goers and passersby, fingers and toes featured short and unvarnished nails. The trend is a sharp shift away from the long, bright and glossy mani/pedis that have more recently dominated beauty standards.

Can the Mounties regain Canada’s trust after race, sexism and public safety scandals?

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police face increasing scrutiny from critics who say they have lost touch and should be disbanded

With their bright red tunics, dark blue breeches and beige Stetsons, the officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police offer a globally recognised symbol of Canada.

The Mounties, as they are colloquially known, have been featured across popular culture for decades, from Hollywood films to the Simpsons.

Yemen's Houthis claim attack on Aramco oil facility in Saudi Arabia, and other Middle East news

Meanwhile, Iran has made new demands about the restart of negotiations and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and the Pentagon is pressing the U.S. defense industry to accelerate production of weapons.

‘Even the good guys were doing bad things’: the wild, twisted story behind the new Tiger King

Monsters of God is a jaw-dropping new series from the makers of the hit Netflix pandemic smash, exploring the murky world of exotic reptile smuggling

In 1993, a sci-fi blockbuster about an animal theme park that resurrected the dinosaurs sparked more than a flurry of interest in those long-extinct beasts. It left audiences jonesing for the next best thing: a close encounter with a bearded dragon or a ball python. Jeremy McBride, the Emmy-winning film-maker was one of them. “I wanted a pet iguana,” he said. In the wake of the Spielberg classic, reptiles have become fixtures of the modern imagination, adorning zoo exhibits, living room terrariums and every corner of pop culture while underpinning a multibillion-dollar pet trade.

But just as in Jurassic Park, the urgent danger isn’t the prehistoric creatures with the teeth and venom. It’s the people willing to steal, smuggle and kill for them. People like the Pablo Escobar of animal trafficking. “Our next documentary is going to be called Who Backstabbed Who,” jokes Eric Goode, an Emmy-nominated director. “You never know when that knife is going to go in your back because everyone’s trying to make a deal with the feds, with another reptile dealer. Even the good guys were supposedly doing bad things. It’s messy.”

Falkland Islanders call for referendum on plans for massive salmon farm

The 3,500 population is divided over the venture, which would bring investment and jobs, but critics claim the environmental cost would be too high

It is among the world’s last pristine wildernesses, with unique coastal waters rich in krill and squid that attract sea lions, elephant seals, dolphins and whales, and where penguins, of which there are five different species locally, outnumber people.

But plans to make the Falkland Islands, one of the most remote and furthest-flung British overseas territories, a new frontier for salmon farming has split the 3,500-strong population. Now, people opposed to salmon farming are calling for a referendum because they have lost confidence in a consultation process they claim is biased towards the industry.

‘Like being in prison’: the ship crews stuck in Gulf since February

US-Iran war has stranded up to 20,000 seafarers, mostly Indian and Filipino crews, with none knowing when the nightmare will end

The panicked crew of a cargo ship broadcast a distress signal late on Monday night from their location in the strait of Hormuz. About 20 nautical miles north of the coast of Oman, the Minoan Pioneer bulk carrier was hit by an unknown projectile, causing a blackout in the engine room and a fire in the accommodation area.

The crew scrambled to put out the blaze and called for help from nearby vessels. When they managed to disembark from the Greek-owned, Liberian-flagged ship on Tuesday morning, they realised the third engineer was missing. Days later, he is yet to be found.

‘Chris Martin seems nice – but Coldplay make me feel carsick!’: Lucy Beaumont’s honest playlist

As a tween, Hull’s finest learned the rap from Waterfalls – now she blubs to prog. But which song from a British singer-songwriter is her guilty pleasure?

The first song I fell in love with
Caravan of Love by the Housemartins, when I was four or five. They’re also from Hull, but I think I mainly liked it because my granny and grandad had a caravan in their garden that I used as a wendy house.

The first single I bought
I remember buying Thriller by Michael Jackson from HMV in Hull, even though it was before my time. Everyone loved Michael Jackson so I was probably copying somebody at school.

Is your ill fate bad luck or a curse? You could ask Ted Lasso, but why not consider the psychology | Helen Pilcher

The hit TV show confirms that sports lore is rife with powerful hexes. But there’s really nothing mystical about the dread and self-doubt they can induce

As the new season of Ted Lasso started, I was reminded of one of the show’s stranger storylines. When Dani “Football is life!” Rojas gets injured, his teammates blame the incident on a curse said to haunt the treatment room.

Absurd? Perhaps. But sports curses aren’t just fictional plot devices. Football is fertile ground for stories of mysterious forces, blamed for everything from missed penalties to decades of failure.

Helen Pilcher is a science writer and author of Life Changing: How Humans Are Altering Life on Earth and This Book May Cause Side Effects

Russian family denied asylum in Finland fear reprisals for pro-Ukraine activism

Nikita and Olga Belov say they will be persecuted on return to Moscow but are yet to convince Finnish authorities

A Russian family faces deportation from Finland after repeatedly being denied asylum – despite the threat of arrest, imprisonment and potential torture for their pro-Ukrainian activism.

Nikita and Olga Belov fled their homeland in 2022 after attracting the attention of Russian authorities – including military summons, threatening messages and attempts to locate them – after expressing opposition to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Costa Rican diplomat emerges as strong contender to be first female head of UN

Rebeca Grynspan seen as continuity candidate with tacit support from current secretary general, António Guterres

A Costa Rican diplomat and former vice-president whose parents were refugees from the Holocaust has become the surprise frontrunner to lead the United Nations as its first female secretary general.

Rebeca Grynspan, whose parents emigrated to Central America from Poland – and whose maternal grandparents were killed by the Nazis – is the current head of the UN conference on trade and development (UNCTAD), a body that has exhaustively tallied the economic damage inflicted by Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Woman learns man who attacked her killed a young mother years later

When C.C. Opanowski of Hudson Falls, New York, was a teenager, she survived a terrifying attack at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, Shawn Doyle. Years later, he would kill Lori Leonard, a mother of two young sons in Chittenango, New York.

‘These are human fires, not wildfires’: Dunwich reflects on the devastation

As residents, nature wardens and experts consider the damage to the heathland and how to restore it, the climate crisis is foremost in their minds

A local community pulling together, emergency services saving homes and caravan parks from catastrophe, and farmers and nature reserve wardens working to rapidly create fire breaks to halt a marauding fireball 40 metres high – there was plenty to praise the week after a swathe of east Suffolk burned.

But local people were also in tears at the blackened, ruined state of more than 112 hectares (277 acres) of Dunwich Heath, mourning the devastation of a much-loved nature reserve alongside neighbouring Minsmere. The rare birds that inhabit the reserve have lost crucial habitat, while the rare invertebrate species there will have been “decimated”, according to the reserve staff.

Survivor's testimony key in helping convict ex-boyfriend of murder

C.C. Opanowski says it's still difficult to process the fact that a person she once loved was convicted of murder. She hopes that others can learn from her story.

The hill I will die on: Remove those earphones – you’re blocking out the music of humanity | Stefan Stern

Beyond the white noise lies a vibrant world of possibility, so take your headphones off and listen to your surroundings. It may even save your life

Er, excuse me. Hello? I’m sorry, but would you mind taking your … I SAID, WOULD YOU MIND TAKING THOSE EARPHONES OUT FOR A SECOND, PLEASE?

I try, in the main, to be a live-and-let-live kind of person. Patient. Considerate. But this patience is being tested to breaking point by the proliferation, the epidemic, of almost-ubiquitous earphones.

Stefan Stern is co-author of Myths of Management and the former director of the High Pay Centre. His latest book is Fair or Foul: The Lady Macbeth Guide to Ambition

‘Voters are fed up’: Michigan primary forces Democratic party to accept leftwing shift

With Abdul El-Sayed’s win, the party’s leftwing insurgency had breached the walls of a midwestern swing state, forcing a reckoning about Democrats’ direction and leadership

Standing before The Spirit of Detroit, a landmark bronze statue in the city’s downtown, in the early hours of a Wednesday morning, Abdul El-Sayed channelled boxing great Muhammad Ali. “We shook up the world,” he declared.

The 41-year-old former public health official had just delivered a knockout blow to the Democratic establishment, defeating the US congresswoman Haley Stevens to claim the party’s nomination for the Senate in swing state Michigan.

The Chosen in the Wild with Bear Grylls review – in a world of toxic masculinity, this feels radical at points

As the survivalist takes the cast of the Christian drama out in the wild to discuss faith, it’s surprisingly moving to find two very confident men so comfortable in their gentleness

Judas Iscariot is so nice! That’s a surprise. Just goes to show – you betray ONE messiah, the scroll-media gets to work and people forget everything else.

I’m joshing, of course. I’m having a little religious joke because The Chosen in the Wild with Bear Grylls has put me in such a good mood. The Judas Iscariot in question is actually Luke Dimyan, the actor who plays him in The Chosen: the multi-season series about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. The Chosen is a venture by evangelical Christian film-maker Dallas Jenkins that began as a crowdfunded project in 2017 and is now watched by an estimated 280 million people worldwide. Bear Grylls is a fan and a Christian – what could be more natural than him taking members of the cast for survivalist adventures in the Utah desert, to talk to them about faith in between ziplining across chasms, filtering water through socks and rappelling down cliffs?

Cockroach protests: parents of Indian students who took their own lives reveal pressure of leaked exam papers and resits

The number of student suicides in the country has risen steeply in the past 10 years and many families blame education system mismanagement as a contributing factor

When the Indian government announced the resignation of its education minister in late July after weeks of protest, there were widespread celebrations. Students from across the country had joined the mass demonstrations led by the Cockroach Janta party amid growing resentment over repeated examination cancellations and question paper leaks.

The pressure of exams in the country has only increased in recent years. The number of student suicides rose from 8,068 in 2014, to 14,488 in 2024 – an increase of roughly 80% – according to the Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India report released by the country’s National Crime Records Bureau. After family problems, failure in examinations has been listed as the leading cause of suicides among students.

Some meat products with jalapeños may be linked to salmonella outbreak, USDA says

Federal officials issued a public health alert for meat products containing jalapeños that may be linked to a salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds of people across at least 27 states.

Family of murdered photographer wonders if his killer acted alone

Joe Shymanski, a, well-known Washington D.C. photographer, was murdered and dismembered in 2023. His ex-wife's former boyfriend, Brandon Holbrook, was convicted in the case. Shymanski's family still wonders if anyone else was involved.

Haitian pregnant woman in Florida fears deportation as TPS ends

A 29-year-old expectant mother is in hiding, concerned that she will be deported at any moment after the Trump administration ended the Temporary Protected Status program for hundreds of thousands of Haitian migrants.

Hunter Biden says his father's cancer has spread

In a wide-ranging interview with the CBS News partner BBC News, Hunter Biden grew emotional as he discussed his father's condition, describing it as very sad to watch.

Solar eclipse to occur next week. Here is what to know

It will be visible in parts of the U.S. on Wednesday.

Verizon mobile service restored after outage for thousands of customers in the U.S.

Customers still having trouble with their service should restart their devices, the wireless carrier said. Verizon did not provide ⁠a reason for ⁠the outage.

Meet the man circumnavigating the Arctic Ocean, alone

Matt Rutherford is sailing 10,000 nautical miles, through ice floes and gales, to try and accomplish a world first. He spoke with NPR from the cabin of his boat.

Tanker sailors still face danger in the Strait of Hormuz

An agreement over the Strait of Hormuz is still far away. Tim Wilkins, who works for a tanker industry group, says the ships stuck around the waterway are in limbo, and transiting is still dangerous.

The moment I knew: As I packed, our future looked uncertain – then he gave me his fluffy pyjamas

Stephanie Casey was an exchange student in Ireland when she met Jack. They quickly became close but as the year drew to a close, her departure loomed

• Find more stories from the moment I knew series

In 2016 I was an Australian student on exchange in Dublin, plotting to fall in love at Trinity College before Normal People made it cool. My housemates had swiped on Jack’s Tinder profile on my behalf, and we met in October for the first time under the Spire on O’Connell Street.

Jack couldn’t quite believe I had actually shown up; I was just glad he wasn’t the other lad standing there with the Peaky Blinders haircut and matching tracksuit. We went to a bookshop cafe, where Jack spilled his tea due to nerves and I waxed lyrical about the importance of compulsory voting due to mine. It was sweet, genuine, interesting conversation. When we parted ways, we both did the classic over-the-shoulder, cow-eyed glance back. Jack kept his cool; I panicked and walked straight into a line of kindergarteners on an excursion in the city.