Trump to allow import of 300,000 metric tons of ground beef without tariff

Beef prices in the U.S have soared in 2026 due to a reduction in the nation's cattle herd.

Trump temporarily waives higher beef tariffs in bid to lower prices

Ground beef prices, now averaging nearly $7 a pound, remain historically high due to shrinking cattle herds.

8 dead in charter plane crash near remote military radar site in Alaska

The crash of a small plane in Alaska chartered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is under investigation.

‘Shameful’: UK, Australia and Canada criticise Israel over Gaza aid convoy killings decision

Joint statement issued after IDF said it will not pursue criminal investigations into April 2024 strike that killed seven humanitarian workers

Britain, Australia and Canada have called the decision of the Israeli military authorities not to open a criminal investigation into the April 2024 airstrikes that hit a convoy of aid vehicles in Gaza “shameful”. The strikes killed seven humanitarian workers from the US-based World Central Kitchen (WCK) organisation.

WCK staff from the three countries were among the casualties of the attack, which prompted global outrage.

I am often asked how young boys could be rapists. For many adolescent men, the answer is entitlement | Chanel Contos

Violent pornography and algorithmic feeds are teaching young people to prioritise their own sexual gratification. As the problem evolves, so too must our solutions

This week, the Australian public has borne witness to another devastating string of sexual assault allegations. While the alleged perpetrators vary in age – some are as young as 13 – they have something in common.

They are immersed in elite institutions like private all-boys’ secondary schools – places that can socialise entitlement, exceptionalism and impunity in those within them. Of course, to the extent charges have been or are laid in these cases, those accused must be entitled to the presumption of innocence.

Chanel Contos is the founder of Teach Us Consent and the author of Consent Laid Bare

‘We’re barely above porn’: why would a film-maker choose to make a deliberately bad ‘mockbuster’?

With a tiny budget and six days, Anthony Frith directed a film for the studio behind Sharknado – and then made Mockbuster, a documentary about the experience

Directors don’t tend to appreciate having their films eviscerated by critics. And us critics, well practised in lobbing proverbial grenades from the safety of our pretentiously book-lined, Cahiers du Cinéma-strewn offices, don’t tend to look an artist in the eyes and tell them that their work sucks.

This is, however, exactly what I do to the Australian film-maker Anthony Frith. I’ve even prepared a zinger for the occasion. “Your film is a lemon that’s been eaten by a turkey then dumped into a vat of curdled mayonnaise,” I say.

Arsenal complete £51m Konsa deal; Paredes gets 10-match ban for part in World Cup brawl: football – live

⚽ All the latest football news, comment and previews
⚽ This weekend’s fixtures | Read Football Daily | Mail Tom

Nothing like a bit of exclusive news to kick off the shift. Can we keep this momentum going? We shall see!

Uefa and Concacaf have begun talks about setting up a combined Nations League tournament featuring all 96 European and North and Central American and Caribbean countries, in another direct challenge to Fifa.

England’s bowlers tear through Pakistan to seal crushing innings victory in first Test

• 1st Test, D3: England, 409, bt Pakistan, 171 & 135, by inns & 103

• Archer, Robinson and Tongue all take three wickets

The sounds heard emanating from the Headingley area at 3.38pm on Friday were not simply the belching roars of the Western Terrace as England wrapped up a one-sided victory over Pakistan. A pressure valve had also been released.

One win against a team as ragged as this Pakistan outfit might not have been reason for Joe Root to hang bunting off Dickie Bird balcony at his home ground. But given events this year – events that have thrust Root back into the Test captaincy under an interim head coach – the alternative outcome was unthinkable.

Trump tariff deadline looms as U.S. and Canada say final trade deal is near

Businesses have warned that Trump's new 50% duties could cripple their U.S. sales if they take effect.

Gun stash in German forest believed to be linked to Russia, say reports

Germany seeking to extradite suspect from Romania over guns it is feared could have been used ⁠in assassinations

Germany is seeking to extradite a suspect from Romania over the discovery of an underground stash of weapons in a forest near Berlin that German media reports have linked to Russian intelligence.

Two weeks after German authorities found a drone carrying explosives at Leipzig airport, the interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, confirmed federal prosecutors had opened an investigation related to the secret cache of guns “on suspicion of preparing a serious act of violence that threatens national security”.

National Weather Service confirms tornado struck N.Y.'s Atlantic Beach

The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado struck Long Island's Atlantic Beach Thursday evening. It's the first confirmed tornado in Nassau County since 2021.

FTC says "personalized pricing" based on consumer data could violate law

The FTC warned businesses against changing prices based on their analysis of a customer's personal data, which could violate consumer law.

How to exploit the value gap between the S&P 500 and everything else in the market

Staying in the market with less risk but still significant return potential from stocks can be accomplished in multiple ways, according to investing experts.

Jannik Sinner ‘very sad and disappointed’ as knee injury puts him out of US Open

• World No 1 makes ‘difficult decision’ to miss slam

• ‘New York has a special place in my heart’

Jannik Sinner will miss the US Open with a right knee injury. The world No 1 has not played a match since beating Alexander Zverev last month to successfully defend his Wimbledon title, missing the Masters 1000 events in Canada and Cincinnati.

The news comes a day after his great rival Carlos Alcaraz, whom the Italian lost to in the final in New York 12 months ago, revealed he will make his comeback from four months out with a wrist injury at Flushing Meadows.

Airbus bows to remote working demands after series of strikes

Aeroplane maker said to have watered down plans to restrict working from home to one day a week

Airbus has bowed to employee demands on remote working, after a series of strikes over its chief executive’s return-to-the office orders.

The world’s largest aeroplane maker is said to have watered down plans to restrict remote working to one day a week from September. At present, staff are able to work remotely for two.

First ever Fat Marmot Week to kick off in effort to raise money for research

Researchers hope contest – similar to Fat Bear Week – starting Monday will be latest wildlife watching craze

Monday sees the start of what researchers hope will be the latest wildlife watching craze – Fat Marmot Week.

Last winter was tough for marmots living high in the Colorado mountains, where researchers say two-thirds of one population died while hibernating because of insufficient snow cover.

Exclusive discounts from CBS Mornings Deals

On this edition of CBS Deals, we show you items that will help improve your everyday lifestyle. Visit cbsdeals.com to take advantage of these exclusive deals today. CBS earns commissions on purchases made through cbsdeals.com.

Increased rain and storms to hit UK due to biggest El Niño for a century, says Met Office

‘Unprecedented’ weather pattern over Pacific Ocean to be felt worldwide with severe droughts expected in southern hemisphere

The El Niño event developing over the Pacific Ocean is likely to be the strongest for more than a century and make 2027 another record-breaking year for heat, the UK’s Met Office has said.

Increased rainfall and storms are forecast to hit the UK this autumn as a result of the “unprecedented” weather pattern, while the pulse in heat it generates means the global temperature will temporarily exceed 1.5C above the preindustrial average, according to the national weather service.

Nashville teen Kingston Kharif turns the volume up on his musical dreams

High school senior and singer Kingston Kharif has dreams of making it big beyond the Nashville, Tennessee, scene. Nicole Valdes spoke with Kingston about his early successes and future goals.

Ditch the giant handbag, don’t overdo the botox and 16 other ways to extend your ‘hotspan’

If ‘lifespan’ is the time you’re alive and ‘healthspan’ the years you’re disease-free, then ‘hotspan’ is the period you’re attractive and vibrant. Want to increase yours? Experts share their tips

Forget 12-step skincare routines, red light therapy and injectables – the single most important thing you can do for your skin is wear UV protection. “Not just sun protection, but UV protection, every single day, regardless of weather or season,” says Dr Jennifer Owens, resident aesthetic expert at the Reborne Longevity clinic in London. “Up to 90% of visible skin ageing is caused by UV exposure – nothing else comes close in terms of impact.”

‘Such adept cover stars’: why dogs are taking over fashion in the ‘AI face’ era

Cute, egoless canines offer a break from a world that feels dominated by ‘nepo babies’ and ‘Maga lady aesthetic’

What do Nicole Kidman, a pair of “nepo babies” and a beagle called Sansa Martínez Berlingeri have in common? They all appear on the covers of the all-important September issues of Vogue and Dogue. But the winner of the unofficial battle of the covers? The one with the keenest sense of smell and a penchant for playing with socks.

The September covers of British Vogue and Vogue US have come under intense scrutiny after their recent release, while their canine counterpoint, Dogue, has been almost unanimously celebrated.

Patients severely injured after being given the wrong drug at Nashville hospital, families say

An investigation is underway after several patients were severely injured when a pharmacy allegedly gave them the wrong medication at a hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. Nicole Valdes reports.

What is salmonella, how does it spread and are eggs safe to eat?

UKHSA says imported eggs eaten in restaurants are source of outbreak that has infected more than 200 people

Contaminated eggs have infected 207 people with salmonella across the UK, killing one and hospitalising 34.

Eggs imported into Britain and eaten in cafes and restaurants were the source, the UK Health Security Agency has said. The outbreak has prompted public concern. But what is salmonella, and are eggs safe to eat?

Most Americans aren't anti-vaccine. They're uncertain — and that's a growing public health challenge

The bigger issue at hand may be that many Americans fall into a large, uncertain middle ground – neither firmly pro-vaccine nor staunchly opposed.

Mom describes hearing voices that turned violent before postpartum psychosis diagnosis

Haley Ashcom's first post-birth experience almost prevented her from following her dream of starting a large family. Ashcom speaks with Shanelle Kaul about her memories of deteriorating mental health, culminating in a postpartum psychosis diagnosis.

Tornado destroys beach club on Long Island

A rare twister tore through a beach club in Long Island, New York, as a larger storm system dumped rain between Ohio and New Jersey. Jared Ochacher has more.

‘I could have put a deposit on a house or do this crazy experiment’: the British musician playing 365 gigs this year

Isaac Neilson is burning through his savings to play a gig every day in 2026 in a bold bid to break through – and champion Britain’s struggling grassroots music scene

In a lively pub in Oxford this week, Isaac Neilson picked up his guitar and performed live for the 231st day in a row.

The singer-songwriter’s performance at the Old Bookbinders is part of a marathon effort to play a gig every day this year. The challenge has seen him put nearly 20,000 miles on the clock of his Peugeot 208 and cost him the best part of his life savings. “I was in a position where I could maybe put a deposit on a house or I could do this crazy experiment,” says Neilson, 26. “I chose to go all in on the music.”

US navy carrier set to honor Black war hero may reportedly be renamed after Trump

Sources say US navy is working to rename carrier originally planned to honor second world war sailor Doris Miller

The Trump administration is facing criticism over reports that a US navy aircraft carrier set to honor a Black war hero may, instead, be named after Donald Trump.

The US navy had previously announced that the carrier under construction would be called the USS Doris Miller, in tribute to a sailor celebrated for his heroism during the attack on Pearl Harbor in the second world war.

Prince Harry and others ordered to pay interim £9.5m to Daily Mail publisher

Judge orders payment within seven days towards legal costs in failed case over alleged unlawful information gathering

The Duke of Sussex and six other high-profile claimants must make a £9.54m interim payment within seven days towards the Daily Mail publisher’s legal costs after losing their high court case over allegations of unlawful information gathering, a judge has ruled.

Associated Newspapers Ltd strongly denied the claims made by Prince Harry and co-claimants including Doreen Lawrence and Elton John.

WNBA commissioner says ‘haters’ trying to stir up debate about trans athletes and league

• Transgender woman has never played in the league

• Engelbert says league being used as ‘political football’

The WNBA commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, has denounced people she said are trying to “sow divisiveness” as the league grapples with a debate over transgender athletes.

Engelbert made the comments on Thursday before the Indiana Fever’s loss to the Dallas Wings at the home of the Dallas Mavericks. Demonstrators showed up outside American Airlines Center, as they have at other venues since the Fever’s Sophie Cunningham voiced support for barring transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s sports.

Drug mix-up at Nashville hospital causes dire complications in 4 patients

Four patients at Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown received incorrect medications last week, CBS affiliate WTVF reported.

New York Times defamed ex-college player, must pay him millions, jury says

An Alabama jury awarded $9.25 million in damages after finding that The New York Times defamed a former college basketball player, Kai Spears, of the Alabama Crimson Tide, in a story about a fatal shooting.

Bessent's efforts in the Treasury market so far haven't worked. Here's what else he can try

Market experts showed skepticism at whether the push would succeed against a bevy of factors working against Treasurys.

Smoke and mirrors fill the vacuum as Springboks and All Blacks brace for battle

South Africa welcome New Zealand for their Greatest Rivalry series with the suspicion that they plan on beating the tourists at their own game

The problem with Test weeks is that they can feel long. Cricketers can play for days on end, footballers every few nights but rugby players step on to the international stage for just 80 minutes per week. The result is a drawn-out vacuum in the buildup and if it’s not a “war of words” unfolding, it tends to be head coaches ramming home their points to the referee.

We lap it up, of course we do as we wait for Saturday to come, and though the pre-match sparring between South Africa and New Zealand is tedious to some, it is all part of the fun to others. This week in Johannesburg has been lively without crossing the line into poisonous. Suffice it to say that the referee Matt Carley is in for one hell of an afternoon in Saturday’s series opener at Ellis Park but the very fact that both Rassie Erasmus and Dave Rennie have stepped on to the offensive demonstrates the magnitude of the coming four-Test series. It promises to be a barn-burner.

Charter plane crash in Alaska kills all eight onboard near US military airstrip

‘Civilian-contracted aircraft’ crashes in western Alaska killing two pilots and six passengers, officials say

A charter aircraft carrying eight people crashed at a remote radar site in western Alaska on Thursday, killing all on board, the US military said.

The crash happened near Cape Newenham Long Range Radar Site airport, approximately 450 miles (725km) west of Anchorage, Alaska.

Snowboarding in the Andes and a twin panda birthday: photos of the day – Friday

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

Home Office could be blocked from deporting trafficking victims to Albania

Many males are returned even if they have been trafficked but Home Office must now consider new legal guidance

• UK politics live – latest updates

  
  

The Home Office could be blocked from deporting many young male trafficking victims to Albania after a major court ruling.

Thousands of Albanian males have been identified as potential trafficking victims in the UK in recent years. Many are sent back to their country even if they are potential or confirmed victims of trafficking, as the Home Office contends they will be safe there.

No more doom scrolling or Instagram Stories? A Meta trial loss could end the social media we know

"These trials are often compared to the Big Tobacco lawsuits of the 90s, and the outcome will likely be analogous as well," one analyst told CNBC.

Rise in migrant deaths as 19 bodies found along Arizona border last month

Pima county figures show highest number of monthly migrant deaths in two years as critics condemn US policy

According to newly released data from the medical examiner’s office in Pima county, Arizona, the remains of 19 migrants, including children, were recovered along the Arizona-Mexico border last month.

The figure accounts for the highest number of monthly deaths in that area since 2024 and brings the number of total remains found to 73 this year, 14 more than the same time period last year.

When TV turns sour: the shows we simply can’t stomach any more

They were once the hottest shows on television – gripping, sexy, hilarious, zeitgeisty. But for our writers, the likes of America’s Next Top Model, House of Cards and The Office are now part of their viewing history they feel tainted by

When I think of the summer holidays when I was a teenager, I think of watching America’s Next Top Model for hours on end, critiquing each contestant with my sister. The makeover episode was always my favourite: girls sobbing as their hair was cropped short, or even shaved off. At the time, Tyra Banks seemed like a big sister, giving the contestants the tough love they’d need to succeed in a ferociously competitive industry. Now I feel differently. I hadn’t watched America’s Next Top Model since I was young, but like many, I recently watched Netflix’s excellent series, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. It was the strangest sensation, rewatching episodes I hadn’t seen in more than two decades. At times I felt almost teleported back. How could I not find these scenes of models collapsing with hunger utterly abhorrent? I wondered what influence watching a show that celebrated eating disorders had on my own brain. I think it had an impact. I think the residual taint of it is still there. I can’t watch America’s Next Top Model any more, nor do I want to. Ironically, it’s all too ugly. Sirin Kale

Mike D: ‘After Yauch died I couldn’t make music. I’d open a computer file and just feel sadness’

As part of the Beastie Boys, the rapper shot to fame and notoriety in the 80s, before bandmate Adam Yauch’s death saw him withdraw from the spotlight. He returns with a solo album that sees him reckon with greed, mortality – and his past

‘It’s funny how far a joke will get you,” Michael Diamond grins. This time 40 years ago, the New York rapper known as Mike D was working with schoolfriends Adam “MCA” Yauch and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz on Licensed to Ill, their 1986 debut album as the Beastie Boys.

The “joke” in question is that record’s cartoonish send-up of frat-bro culture, set to fusions of hard rock riffs and hip-hop beats. As for how far it got them: destinations included global stardom, a page in the history books with rap’s first US chart-topping album, and the crosshairs of British tabloids as they roused a generation to “fight for your right to party”.

National debt tops $40 trillion after doubling in under 10 years

Federal debt has mounted amid tax cuts and trillions in pandemic spending, adding to the nation's interest payments.

It’s Harry and Meghan in Finding Freedom 2: Back in Blighty | Marina Hyde

Hard to fathom exactly why Megxit is over and the self-exiled wonder generators are leaving California. Luckily, the internet sleuths are on the case

Wednesday night brought an absolute cloudburst of psychic rain for our parched land, as it emerged that Prince Harry and Meghan were reversing their self-styled “freedom flight” to California and returning to live in the UK. Nature is healing! Is that … is that how the expression goes? Either way, all humans in Britain have taken the announcement brilliantly, while fatted calf prices climbed steeply at the news that the reverse Megxit is imminent, with only an adequate headline soubriquet yet to be found. Megain? Megraine?

Inevitably, thoughts turned swiftly to what it all meant. One of the funniest aspects of Meghan and Harry coverage is how their decisions are always analysed as though we were parsing the 4D chess moves of 19th-century master strategists. We are forever imagining we are dealing with a couple of Bismarcks or Clausewitzes, as opposed to a resting actor and the “chief impact officer” of a firm designed to offer tech-based solutions to men crying in their cars or something.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

What a Time to be Alive! by Marina Hyde (Guardian Faber Publishing, £20) is released in September. To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

Top Iran official says US focus on economic warfare shows it has failed militarily

The Iranian regime has dismissed President Trump's threats to crush the country economically, saying that years of U.S. sanctions have failed.

Are you a Gen Z entrepreneur who has started your own business? We’d like to hear from you

We want to hear from young people who have chosen to start their own businesses rather than follow a traditional career path

A growing number of Gen Z are starting their own businesses, with the number of Start Up Loans taken out by young founders rising by 132% over the past five years, according to analysis by the British Business Bank. Meanwhile, Hiscox analysis of Companies House data found nearly 400,000 Gen Z directors are now running UK-registered businesses.

We’d like to hear from people aged between 18 and 29 who have started a business about what inspired you to do it and how you got started. How is your business going? What have been the biggest challenges and rewards? Do you see yourself continuing to run your own business in the future?

Trump declares economic warfare on Iran. And, SCOTUS to rule on White House ballroom

President Trump has declared economic warfare on Iran in an effort to pressure the country back into negotiations. And, the Supreme Court is set to decide on the future of Trump's ballroom. 

Our writers' predictions for the 2026-27 Premier League season – video

Our writers gaze into their crystal balls and deliver their predictions for the Premier League season ahead

Daily Mail accused of stalking woman mistaken as White Stripes drummer Meg White

The tabloid boasted in a now-deleted article that they found White and promised to reveal her ‘secret new life’

The Daily Mail newspaper secretly tailed and photographed a woman in Detroit and then published an article and photographs falsely accusing her of being former The White Stripes drummer Meg White, even after she told the newspaper it had mistaken her identity, multiple sources have told the Guardian.

The rightwing British tabloid quietly removed the article and photographs, first published on 6 August, from its website last week. The Mail did not issue a correction or editor’s note explaining the removal.

The best recent translated fiction – review roundup

The Red Book of Farewells by Pirkko Saisio; Short Circuit by Wolf Haas; Cosmos by Lucia Odoom; The Fallen Trees Are Also the Forest by Alejandra Kamiya

The Red Book of Farewells by Pirkko Saisio, translated by Mia Spangenberg, Penguin Classics (£14.99)
Following Lowest Common Denominator and Backlight, this book completes Finnish author Saisio’s autofictional trilogy. It covers her young adulthood in the 1970s, where she comes out as lesbian (“The electricity doesn’t go out. The Richter scale remains still”) and falls in love. One of her lovers, Havva, is a communist who’s engaged to a man; she relies on his rich parents for funding, but pees in their private pool as a protest. Later, Saisio is voted vice-president of a political drama company, as “she has the skills to bring about the revolution, specifically via theatre” – despite half-baked productions such as the “napalm opera” Vietnam-a-Go-Go. As that suggests, this is a story with a sense of both the ridiculous and the serious. Told in clear prose, it playfully shifts between third and first person as Saisio recounts her memories then analyses them. This enchanting series deserves to become a modern classic.

Short Circuit by Wolf Haas, translated by Jamie Bulloch (HarperVia, £20)
“We think [time] goes in one direction. But really you need to think of it as a loop”. This, well, loopy novel opens with jigsaw aficionado and “merciless hair-splitter” Franz Escher getting an electrician in to fix his power – then accidentally killing him. As Franz waits for the ambulance, he reads a novel about Elio, a man who helped put his own mafia family behind bars. Elio, who’s now on witness protection, kills time by reading a novel about … Franz Escher. The two stories pursue one another, accelerating until they collide, incorporating courtship by car alarm, rival funeral orators and multiple identities for many characters. Oh, and what if the electrician Franz killed turns out to be Elio? Short Circuit, recalling the slipstream fiction of Christopher Priest and the light-touch experimentations of David Mitchell, is an entertaining literary hall-of-mirrors.

Historian Jill Lepore on the datacentre backlash | Politics Weekly America

Less than three months to go until the midterms, voters are thinking about grocery prices, the Iran war and… datacentres.

This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to historian Jill Lepore about how this latest AI backlash could influence those all-important elections in November. Are we seeing the beginning of the end of the 'artificial state'?

The Odyssey becomes highest grossing R-rated film of all time

Christopher Nolan’s epic has achieved $1.35bn at the global box office, overtaking 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine

The Odyssey has overtaken Deadpool & Wolverine to become the highest grossing R-rated film of all time.

According to figures compiled by the Numbers, Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s epic poem has achieved $1.35bn (£990m) at the worldwide box office, compared with the Ryan Reynolds/Hugh Jackman superhero movie, which stands at $1.34bn (£980m) since its release in 2024.

Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol 2 review – once more unto the mercenary breach

PC, Nintendo Switch/Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X/S; Konami
This second collection remasters another three titles from the illustrious stealth espionage series, but their world has changed little since the original releases

‘War has changed,” claims Old Snake in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Back in 2008, the team at Kojima Productions waxed poetic about people recruited to fight in proxy wars they have no political or ideological stake in. As these mercenaries follow their orders, traders get rich out of the so-called war economy. The more disastrous the conflict in a specific area, the higher the bidding price.

I expected my time with Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol 2 to be nostalgic and, in good old MGS fashion, abundant with fictional events that sound eerily familiar to our current reality. Twenty minutes in, I was having an existential crisis.

Tiananmen Square vigil organisers in Hong Kong found guilty of ‘inciting subversion’

UK Foreign Office condemns use of national security law to convict activists Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung

Two Hong Kong activists who organised annual vigils marking China’s deadly Tiananmen crackdown in 1989 have been found guilty of “incitement to subversion” in one of the most high-profile cases in Hong Kong since Beijing imposed its national security law in 2020.

Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, “incited other persons to organise, plan, commit or participate in acts by unlawful means with a view to subverting the state power”, a press summary handed out to reporters said. The defendants each face a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail, with sentencing expected at a later date.

U.S. designates American citizen held by China as wrongfully detained

Min Zin is the second American academic to be designated as wrongfully detained in recent months.

New York unseats San Francisco as the top market for tech talent, CBRE reports

AI-related roles now account for nearly one-third of all tech-talent job listings in the U.S., per the new CBRE report.

‘If you’re just interested in answers, you are missing out’: philosopher Lani Watson on the power of asking questions

The author and academic explains how an open, questioning mindset can bring people with opposing views closer together – and even change history

Asking a question can change your mood, and having a questioning mindset can change your life – or, as the philosopher Lani Watson, an honorary fellow at the University of Edinburgh, is more likely to put it, “create change in your life”. When you live in an answer-oriented world, your phrasing tends towards the glib certainty, which is one of the things Watson – speaking to me from her home in Edinburgh – seems quite naturally to avoid.

Questioning fosters exploration and curiosity, she says. It changes your relationship to yourself and to others: it can make you fall in love; it can stop you going to war. Watson’s challenging book, Q: The Hidden Power of Questions in a World that Wants Answers, is written with a deceptive simplicity and an almost kindly encouragement, so you’re knee-deep into her proposition before you have even considered that it might turn out to be quite hard work.

Proposed London datacentre ‘incompatible’ with net zero with 1m-tonne carbon footprint

Exclusive: Planning documents show annual emissions from North Ockendon project would be equivalent to 8,480 flights to New York

A “hyperscale” datacentre in outer London would generate more than 1m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, equivalent to the carbon footprint of 8,480 flights from London to New York, planning documents show.

The East Havering Data Centre Campus (EHDCC) in North Ockendon would be one of the largest datacentres in Europe if approved by Havering council, using 218 hectares of green belt to run servers and data storage systems for AI and cloud computing. Its developer, Digital Reef, has described the scheme as “a unique opportunity to create a sustainable datacentre campus of the future”.

Can’t beat them? Eat them! Ten of the tastiest garden weeds

Edible weeds grow in abundance in our gardens, streets and parks. With a little know-how, you can harvest delicious, nutritious, free greens

Did you know that free food grows in our gardens, streets and parks without being planted by us? Not only does this food hide in plain sight, we’re encouraged to remove it from our gardens and throw it away. I’m talking about edible weeds, otherwise known as wildflowers. You may not be able to eat weeds into submission, but using them in the kitchen is a good excuse to welcome them into the garden.

We walk past edible weeds without a second thought, yet they’re nutritious and available for much of the year. They return of their own accord every year, either perennially or by seed, making it easy to familiarise yourself with them and learn how to cook.

What to know about this weekend's IndyCar race on the National Mall

Why is the car race in this part of D.C.? Will it be streaming? Who's paying for it? Here's what to know before the Freedom 250 Grand Prix hits the National Mall this weekend.

‘She had this divine calling’: the incredible and transporting art of Minnie Evans

Just over 50 years after she was one of the first Black artists to have a solo show at the Whitney, the museum gathers some of her most remarkable paintings for a new exhibition

Surprisingly, the term “outsider art” was coined fairly recently – in 1972, when the art historian Roger Cardinal made it the title of the book with which he introduced the idea to the English-speaking world. Since then, debates have raged as to whether it’s really justified to use such a term to describe art made beyond the confines of the art world, and if any of the other competing terms – among them naive art, folk art and raw art – are really any better.

The Whitney Museum of American Art’s new show, The Lost World: The Art of Minnie Evans, offers audiences an opportunity to contemplate just how its subject may – or may not – have been an outsider to the art world, and to also revel in Evans’s increasing insiderness in the decades since her death in 1987. A comprehensive retrospective with nearly 100 pieces covering the entirety of Evans’s artistic output, the show occurs almost exactly 50 years after the Whitney first introduced the artist’s genius to New York’s art elite.

Uefa and Concacaf discuss joint Nations League in latest challenge to Fifa

• Biennial tournament could launch as early as 2028

• Confederations are seeking to oust Gianni Infantino

Uefa and Concacaf have begun talks about setting up a combined Nations League tournament featuring all 96 European and North and Central American and Caribbean countries, in another direct challenge to Fifa.

The Guardian has learned that having come together to push for Gianni Infantino’s removal in the light of the World Cup sell-off controversy, the two confederations are now working on creating their own biennial tournament, which could launch as early as 2028 after the next European Championship.

From Showtime to Insurance Time: how the LA Lakers became a $12.5bn hedge fund play

Bob Iger and Josh Kushner’s $12.5bn bid to buy the Lakers shows that NBA teams are no longer family dynasties, but quick flips for private equity sharks

For years, the NBA was built on the alliance of patient money and marketing pizzazz, and no team captured that curious mixture better than the Los Angeles Lakers. Through Showtime in the 1980s and the dominance of the Shaq-Kobe years, the Lakers became the benchmark for a league and a sport intent on global conquest: charismatic, ambitious, and flashy, a sporting-cultural amalgam in which athleticism and celebrity held equal rank. Through careful front office recruitment, savvy coaching, and the harnessing of Hollywood’s star power, the Lakers evolved from a team into a “brand,” establishing a template that virtually every other outfit in the NBA has felt compelled to mimic in the years since. But the razzle-dazzle on the court – the Laker Girls, Magic flinging no-look passes, Shaq smashing the glass, Jack Nicholson smiling his Joker smile in the front row, all eyebrows and mischief – depended on a far more staid and stable arrangement off it. Real estate investor Jerry Buss bought the Lakers for $16m in 1979, and remained the majority owner until his death in 2013, when his children assumed control of the franchise.

When Jerry Buss died, the Lakers were valued at $1bn. Now, the team looks set to be sold to former Disney CEO Bob Iger and venture capitalist Josh Kushner, the brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared, for $12.5bn. The sale is still under negotiation and will need to be approved by the NBA’s board of governors; the Buss siblings are also now bickering over whether to join the stampede and sell their minority 17.8% stake in the franchise to Iger and Kushner, which has added a subplot of Shakespearean family intrigue to proceedings. But in the likely event it goes through, the sale would make the Lakers the most valuable franchise in basketball. It would also signal an acceleration in private equity’s scramble to get its claws into the world of sport.

Federal government thins the herds of wild horses in Colorado

U.S. officials say the ever-growing population of wild horses that roam federal lands in Colorado is depleting natural resources. But some activists say efforts to remove the horses are inhumane.

As USS Lincoln heads home, mental health experts tally the stressors of life at sea

The USS Abraham Lincoln is now on its way home after spending nine months at sea. Experts weigh in on the mental health challenges of prolonged confinement and isolation aboard an aircraft carrier.

Morning news brief

Trump threatens economic pressure campaign against Iran, SCOTUS to weigh in on whether Trump's ballroom project, investors dump stocks and bonds despite government's efforts to calm market.

Mom and best friend remember girl killed in a mass shooting one year later

For StoryCorps, a mother remembers her daughter who was killed in a mass shooting by speaking with her daughter's best friend.

Tadej Pogacar looks unstoppable as he sets sights on another slice of history at Vuelta

Slovenian is aiming to become the ninth rider to win all three Grand Tours, and it doesn’t look like anyone can stop him

Who’s coming second? That’s the question being most frequently asked as the peloton convenes for the final Grand Tour of 2026, the Vuelta a España, which rolls away from the start line in Monaco on Saturday.

The unrelenting Tadej Pogacar, making his first appearance in the Spanish race since 2019, is the overwhelming favourite to take the top spot on the podium in Granada on 13 September, with his cowed rivals already seemingly accepting of his supremacy.

Weather tracker: Extreme rain deluges Japan and South Korea

Downpours break records and cause transport chaos, evacuations and deaths, as people get trapped inside vehicles

South Korea and Japan were hit by extreme rain late last week and into this week. On 13 August in the city of Chiba near Tokyo there was a record-breaking 115mm of rainfall in just one hour, while the nearby city of Sakura broke its own record with 97mm in one hour. Local authorities issued a level 5 emergency warning for heavy rain, the highest alert level and the first time one has been issued since the system was implemented in May.

More than 100,000 households were asked to evacuate, with more than 20,000 in the Chiba prefecture left without power, while thousands of people were stranded at Tokyo’s Narita airport. Thirteen people have been confirmed dead, at least three of whom were found trapped inside their vehicles. One person is still missing.

Footage shows clash with French police on beach as dinghy tries to leave for UK

Film emerges as France says it has stopped 185 small boat ‘events’ in three months since new £660m deal with UK

Footage has captured the moment French police officers clashed with people on a beach in northern France as the authorities tried to intercept a dinghy attempting to reach the UK.

Men wearing lifejackets appear to throw objects at the police to try to keep them away from their dinghy. The officers then use Pava spray before slashing the inflatable boat with a knife.

Gaia Wilmer Large Ensemble: Parabólico review – gorgeous reinvention of Gilberto Gil’s grooves

(Sunnyside)
Saxophonist and composer Wilmer brilliantly transforms Gil tunes, changing tempos and adding breathy melodies, flourishes of horns or undulating rhythms to luscious effect

Over the past three years, Brazilian saxophonist and composer Gaia Wilmer has reimagined the catalogues of her country’s virtuosos so radically that it’s become a signature art. Folia: The Music of Egberto Gismonti transformed his finger-picked melodics into an almost prog-influenced cacophony; Trem das Cores, celebrating tropicália pioneer Caetano Veloso, found the eerie tenderness in his lilting melodies. Now returning with the first part of a three-volume homage to singer Gilberto Gil, Wilmer and her 20-piece ensemble produce luscious new works from their deconstructions.

For listeners familiar with Gil’s music, hardly any of Wilmer’s arrangements are recognisable from the originals. Her Overture transforms the 25 seconds of strummed guitars and group vocals that open Gil’s 1985 album Dia Dorim Noite Neon into a slowly unfurling four minutes of breathy trumpet melody and twinkling piano accents. Oriente replaces Gil’s wavering, emotive vocal harmony from the 1972 original with flourishes of horn fanfares and jazz swing that bolsters singer Mônica Salmaso’s lightly tripping bossa nova vocalisations. Eu Vim da Bahia even slows one of Gil’s best-known tunes to experimental flute-heavy ambience, transmuting his sprightly melody through the brassy weight of a big-band horn section.

Stella Lefty: Long Way Home review – Boston singer’s debut is bland, boilerplate and beyond banal

(Atlantic Outpost)
The breakout 24-year-old country star’s debut is stunningly unremarkable, offering little in the way of artistic identity or her peers’ originality

Anyone railing against nepo babies taking over culture has already lost: the rage they engender is as key to the publicity plan as their ready-made profile. But once in a while, you meet one so egregious that it’s hard not to want to flip a table. The breakout 24-year-old country star Stella Lefty is the daughter of a multibillionaire Groupon co-founder. Given her stunningly unremarkable songwriting, you wonder whether that might explain a few things.

After gaining notice for posting clips of her music, Lefty wanted to work as a songwriter-for-hire until music execs insisted she was an artist. It’s hard to tell what her USP is: her huge hit Boston sounded so much like Noah Kahan’s Stick Season that she had to add a retrospective credit. Her writing has none of his introspection or regional specifics, nor the wry country literacy of close competitor Ella Langley. In Lefty’s songs, she’s often catching some guy’s eye at the bar. Maybe they get together but then she runs, because she always does – but maybe this time, she doesn’t? She knows it’s good when he’s nice to her, or they look good in photos. Props: whiskey, neon lights, bar stools. It’s relatable, right? Right??

Week in wildlife: Bat in a toilet, a speeding gull and a bird with shoes

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

Charter plane crash kills 8 near remote radar site in western Alaska, military says

A charter aircraft carrying eight people crashed at a remote radar site in western Alaska on Thursday, killing all on board, the U.S. military said.

Life of M by Rachel Cusk review – is this story of a film star based on Natalie Portman?

A teasing tale of the friendship between a writer and an actor explores the fallout from fame, and the blurring between pretence and reality

M is a celebrated film actor. A star since childhood, now the face of a major fashion brand, she has been famous all her life. That her career closely resembles Natalie Portman’s has been gleefully seized upon by the press, something Rachel Cusk must surely have anticipated: in the novel, M’s first film has its sex scenes cut at her mother’s insistence, as happened with Portman’s 1994 debut Leon, while her ballerina movie is recognisably Black Swan. M is also, in the words of the nameless and genderless narrator of Life of M, “a good sport”. When the narrator suggests writing M’s autobiography, M likes the idea. “Would you just make it up?” she asks.

A celebrity autobiography is seldom the work of the celebrity herself. And yet any suggestion that the narrator will serve as a kind of ghostwriter to M is dispensed with in a few pages. The pair meet for coffee at a luxury hotel and, after the narrator’s partner falls suddenly and seriously ill, for lunch in a restaurant. The lunch is unsatisfactory, an attempt at intimacy that the narrator acknowledges afterwards to have been a mistake. Though M is determined to live as normal a life as possible (“her personal task is to become real, or rather to acquire some reality”), the narrator is uncomfortably aware of their own falseness with M: “It was as if I was acting, while M came across as authentic and real. It was as if she was the only one good enough at acting to attain reality.” After that the two of them do not see one another again “for a long time”.

‘If I’m spending that kind of money, the shoe has to do everything’ – the backlash to the three figure trainer

From Nike’s infamous 110s to £250 and back again, sneakerheads are rediscovering why cheaper shoes can be worth just as much hype as much more expensive ones

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When Nike’s Air Max 95 trainers first landed in Britain back in the mid-1990s, they looked unlike anything else. Created by footwear designer Sergio Lozano, the shoe had wavy layers running down its sides, neon yellow accents, and visible ‘Air’ bubbles underfoot. But in the UK, one detail quickly became as famous as the shoe itself: its £110 price tag.

The Air Max 95 immediately picked up the nickname “110” because spending £110 on trainers seemed outrageous at the time. Owning a pair quickly became a status symbol among young men across Britain, while in celebrity circles they were worn by everyone from Jay-Z to Kylie Minogue.

UK men with heart disease at higher risk of developing and dying from cancer

Decade-long study finds stark gender difference in outcomes of people with heart disease

Millions of men with heart disease have a higher risk of developing and dying from cancer, according to a decades-long study.

The biggest drivers behind male cases were smoking, obesity and drinking too much alcohol, researchers said, with the link most pronounced in lung and oesophageal cancers.

The Taliban have built a system for enslaving women in Afghanistan | Tala Elissa

Five years on, the regime’s chokehold has left Afghan women with almost nothing, but many are still bravely fighting for their freedom

The Taliban did not just ban women from schools, impose the burqa and outlaw smartphones. The Taliban built a system that enslaves nearly half the country’s population, or according to outdated statistics: 21,701,532 women and girls.

In general, the Taliban’s system runs on laws that get changed, forgotten or scrapped as needed to oppress women, such as the abolition of the minimum marriage-age law, which made the only “legitimate” criterion for a girl’s marriage that she has reached puberty or in other words, that she is “fit for consummation”.

Rewilded land remains green amid drought-stricken English countryside, images show

National Trust’s Holnicote estate says restored wetlands and rivers offer proof of resilience to drought, wildfires and flooding

Aerial footage of an estate in Somerset has revealed the benefits of rewilding land in the face of extreme weather brought about by the climate crisis.

The area of the National Trust’s Holnicote estate where rivers have been returned to their natural courses and wetlands have been restored have remained green and lush during the five heatwaves across the summer. In contrast, the surrounding countryside has become parched and brown.

I’ll admit it: I’ve cycled through red lights. But Britain’s traffic laws are to blame, not me | Simon Jenkins

The essence of cycling is to keep moving, but London’s chaotic roads often make this difficult. My solution: fewer, not more rules

I plead guilty. I have loved and used the streets of London all my life, as a cyclist, driver and pedestrian. Touch wood, I have done so without accident, blemish or insurance claim. Yet now I find myself perpetually on the wrong side of the law. Regulation has become bureaucratic and chaotic.

When I try to drive at the authorised speed of 20mph on many through roads, I am hooted at and overtaken by vans, cars, coaches and buses. And when I sit dutifully on my bike at a traffic light, I am jostled by swarms of cyclists riding through on red, furious at being treated as if they were car drivers.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

Russia’s missile tests around disputed islands anger Japan

Pacific fleet launched missile drills near what Moscow calls the Kuril Islands but Japan regards as its Northern Territories

Japan has criticised missile tests carried out by Russia’s navy around the disputed islands visited by Vladimir Putin last week amid continuing tensions between the two countries.

Russia’s Pacific fleet said on Thursday that it had fired Bastion surface-to-ship missiles from Etorofu, the largest island in the disputed archipelago, simulating an attack on enemy vessels, hitting all of its targets approximately 300km away.

Python named Jodie Foster first snake to receive pioneering cancer treatment

Chester zoo resident, 23, ‘back to her usual feisty self’ after electrochemotherapy for tumour in her jaw

A 15ft (4.5-metre) python is believed to be the first snake in the world to be given a pioneering, life-saving cancer treatment normally used on humans.

The 50kg reticulated python, named Jodie Foster after the Hollywood star, has just turned 23 and lives at Chester zoo. Keepers first became concerned that she may be unwell when she began eating less and spending more time inactive in her habitat.

Spa Weekend review – female answer to The Hangover spreads the slush with the massage oil

Despite stars Leslie Mann, Anna Faris and Isla Fisher and the writers behind The Hangover, this tale of friends at a luxury hotel is a dud

Jon Lucas and Scott Moore are the screenwriters who struck gold nearly 20 years ago with The Hangover, a brilliant stag-weekend nightmare comedy about what happens in Vegas, which sadly spawned a terrible (though lucrative) franchise. Now, as writers and directors, they have tried turning it around and making a movie about how middle-aged women behave on a longed-for spa weekend at a luxury-porn hotel. The result is a comedy without gags, a comedy which, for all the strenuous high-jinks, is afraid to be flippant or mean or, indeed, funny in any way.

Leslie Mann plays a hotshot lawyer called Jane who can’t make room in her life for romance; Anna Faris is goofy Sophie, PA to a rich asshole; Michelle Buteau is outspoken badass Coco, angry at her ex-husband dating again; and Isla Fisher is landed with the stridently unfunny role of Mel, a wild child who makes the other three nervous, but whose life-affirming no-filter honesty is going to break everyone’s emotional logjam and sort out their lives. As for Jane, it looks as if the hotel’s super-hot super-sensitive yoga teacher, Kai (Adam Demos), is going to hook up with her.

‘It is the riskiest film I’ve ever made’: Pedro Almodóvar on being the villain in his own movie

As his new film Bitter Christmas is released, the legendary Spanish director turns his fire on Donald Trump, Will Smith, Netflix – and himself

Black sunglasses indoors and a tufty cloud of cotton-wool hair: it can only be Pedro Almodóvar, bourgeois arthouse darling nonpareil and master of everything from screwball romps (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) to clammy thrillers (Live Flesh, The Skin I Live In) – and sumptuous melodramas such as his 24th film, Bitter Christmas, a cautionary tale about the perils of autofiction.

We are sitting in the library of a London hotel and Almodóvar is dressed in a thin black windcheater, grey trousers and white trainers; add a whistle on a string and he could pass for a PE teacher. The 76-year-old director may have won more than 60 awards including two Oscars, five Baftas and six Goyas but when the shades come off today, he looks momentarily sorry for himself. He has been deaf in one ear since childhood, he tells me, and now the other one is giving up the ghost. In addition, a nasty stye has turned his left eye a gluey purple. Might he have picked it up while swimming? “I do swim almost every day because I have a pool,” he sighs. Never can those words have sounded so sorrowful.

Woman accused of plotting "major attack" on New York State Capitol building

A New York woman is accused of plotting "a major attack" on the state Capitol building in Albany, authorities said Thursday.

Storms soak Northeast as possible tornadoes reported in New York, Delaware

Heavy rain and winds were pounding the Northeast U.S. as storms tore through a beach on Long Island and knocked out power in Delaware's capital city.

Pilot killed as plane collides with police helicopter at airport, officials say

One person was killed and two Pennsylvania State Police troopers were injured when a small plane collided with a state police helicopter on the ground in central Pennsylvania, authorities said.

Army to nix drone battalion set up to absorb lessons from Ukraine war

The decision to phase out the Army drone battalion comes amid tension between senior officers who envisioned the unit and the acting chief of staff of the Army.

Breaking down postpartum psychosis amid the Lindsay Clancy trial

Hundreds of Lindsay Clancy supporters rallied outside the courthouse on Thursday, where she's on trial for murder in the killings of her three children. Shanelle Kaul reports on postpartum psychosis, the rare, but treatable illness Clancy's defense team argues made her not responsible for the crime.

USS Abraham Lincoln leaving Middle East after 9-month deployment

The aircraft carrier and its 5,000 crew members will return to San Diego after an approximately nine-month deployment.

Why an Instagram bench-rater gave out his first 10/10 in 7 years

A man who, instead of rating movies or restaurants, rates benches on Instagram, just gave out his first 10/10, a milestone seven years and 300 reviews in the making. Tony Dokoupil has the story.

Hayden Panettiere's death under scrutiny with DEA investigation

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has joined the investigation into the sudden death of actress Hayden Panettiere, who would have turned 37 on Friday. Mark Strassmann reports.

Jailed ex-Pakistan PM Imran Khan allowed brief hospital visit after uproar over health

Supreme court ordered transfer of ex-leader whose health is reportedly deteriorating, but he was returned to prison several hours later

Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Imran Khan was briefly taken to a hospital in the country’s capital on supreme court orders after weeks of uproar about his deteriorating health.

Khan, 73, was transferred to the hospital in the early hours of Friday, but then moved back to Adiala prison in Rawalpindi after a ⁠few hours, a spokesperson for his party said on Friday.

Neutrogena shares statement on Hayden Panettiere after backlash

After Hayden Panettiere's death, fans resurfaced her claim that Neutrogena had fired her in 2015 over her comments about postpartum depression.

8/20: CBS Evening News

Woman arrested in alleged plot to blow up New York State Capitol; fierce rain swamps Ohio, Kansas and Nebraska as storms hit Mid-Atlantic.

FBI seizes Swalwell's devices, executes warrants in sexual misconduct probe

FBI agents executed search warrants targeting former Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell and seized his electronic devices, two sources told CBS News.

Hyundai considering U.S. production increase at new Georgia plant, CEO tells CNBC

The potential capacity increase would be part of Hyundai's plan to invest $26 billion in the U.S. through 2028, Hyundai CEO José Muñoz told CNBC.

Warsh faces Fed independence test as Bessent moves in on central bank's turf

Bessent’s effort to tamp down long-term Treasury yields could force Warsh to clarify how far the Fed should go in coordinating on bonds and the balance sheet.

Ludwig review – cosy crime at its bumbling best

David Mitchell and Anna Maxwell Martin are back and having a blast nerding around Cambridge solving low-stakes murders. Long may this whimsical, corduroy-clad mystery continue!

Oh, Ludwig – how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Or at least allow me to hold your favourite biro as you scurry around Cambridge in a state of rumpled exasperation, like a Womble that’s just been chased out of Ryman following a misunderstanding over a hole-punch.

New details about Trump's plans for Kennedy Center and White House ballroom

The latest court filings in cases involving the Kennedy Center and the White House ballroom project detail the work being done at the two institutions.

Stripe to buy OpenRouter as fintech expands deeper into AI

Stripe said it's acquiring OpenRouter, as the payments company expands into the artificial intelligence model market.