Premier League buildup, WSL opening weekend news, and more – matchday live

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Back to the WSL and here’s Tom Garry with a morning message.

Sonia Bompastor says she expects a competitive, open title race this season, as she prepares to lead her Chelsea side into their home opener against Aston Villa.

Sweden confirms 458 Britons deported or forcibly removed since Brexit

Scale of deportations made public for first time amid criticism of hardline approach to UK citizens

Sweden has confirmed 458 British citizens have been deported or forcibly removed by police since Brexit.

It is the first time the scale of the deportations of citizens who failed to secure residency in Sweden post-Brexit has been made public and comes amid mounting criticism of a cruel and hardline approach to Britons who had chosen to make the country their home before Brexit.

‘Sinn Féin traitors!’: how far-right rhetoric derailed party’s path to power in Ireland

Party insider reveals how election campaign was blindsided by rise of anti-immigrant feeling in new book

For Siobhán Fenton, the dream of Sinn Féin winning power and leading a progressive leftwing government evaporated the day she was canvassing in Dublin and felt a cold, sharp sting on her neck.

She was in the passageway of a block of flats in the inner city, knocking on doors, and looked around for the source. Fenton, a media adviser to the party leader, Mary Lou McDonald, felt another sting on her shoulder, then another on her forearm.

The pressure on Burnham to appease the right is huge. But now is the time to step out of Reform’s shadow | Andy Beckett

A scandal-besieged Reform still has a loyal base that won’t budge. That should free up the PM to deliver some home truths

Despite the bright start to Andy Burnham’s premiership, and Reform UK’s sudden disarray, a shadow still hangs over British centre-left politics. Labour has a small poll lead, a cautious air of confidence and a leader who seems energised rather than overwhelmed by trying to solve the country’s problems. Meanwhile, Reform is having a terrible 2026: mired in deepening funding scandals, losing winnable byelections and, thanks to the drama and novelty of Burnham’s leadership coup and new government, no longer the freshest story around.

Yet Reform UK’s support has either held up or fallen only slightly in most polls since Burnham entered Downing Street. Even in the Makerfield byelection, where he beat it more decisively than expected, Reform’s vote share and total support actually rose. Nigel Farage may have spent the year uncharacteristically avoiding journalists, or in his prickly rather than jolly public mode, but the overwhelming majority of Reform supporters, almost a quarter of the electorate, remain faithful. “Power is within our grasp!” insisted Zia Yusuf, Reform’s home affairs spokesman, at its party conference in Birmingham on Friday, and they applauded with determined gusto.

Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist

‘Please find daddy’: the haunting missing posters of September 11

A collection of previously stored away posters will be displayed at a new exhibition to mark 25 years since the deadliest terrorist attack in US history

He saw the first one on September 11 itself. “Missing”, said a hastily designed poster on the window of a bar in Tribeca providing food and water to first responders. It was a plea for information about a person who had vanished in the deadliest terrorist attack in US history.

“I was like, ‘Wow, this is going to be …’” recalls Phil Buehler, an artist and photographer who had watched the twin towers collapse from his office window. “But you knew that there would be very few survivors. You knew it then.”

Voters are fed up with data centers. Both parties are trying to cash in for midterms

Democrats and Republicans have found common ground in this campaign season. Both parties have poured millions into ads attacking data centers as the public continues to protest the AI facilities.

Flock cameras draw opposition from across the political spectrum

As political races heat up heading into the midterms, candidates from both parties are increasingly joining the fray to voice concerns over Flock surveillance cameras.

Black-clad protesters in balaclavas block road at port of Dover in Kent

Traffic on A20 in and out of port grinds to halt as Kent police say they are in attendance and engaging with group

A large group of people dressed in black and wearing balaclavas have blocked the road at the port of Dover in Kent, forcing closures in both directions.

Kent police said they were aware of the protest, which the Port of Dover described as a “public order incident”. Officers were in attendance and engaging with protesters, they said.

‘Bold, brilliant, thrilling’: leading authors on the novels every school should teach

A new term, a new PM … time for a new English curriculum? We ask writers from Ben Okri to Samantha Harvey to pick books that will inspire a lifelong love of reading

For the first time ever, we have a British prime minister who studied for an English degree. Not all of his 58 predecessors went to university, but those who did favoured subjects such as history and classics and, more recently, philosophy, politics and economics. Yet reading fiction is a fantastic preparation for life, for understanding people and the times through which we live. Novels encourage empathy, they help you to stand in other people’s shoes, to navigate complicated, sometimes conflicting emotions, they entertain and bring joy. The creative industries contribute some £145.8bn each year to the UK economy; it is our soft superpower.

In other words, books matter. Reading matters.

Sydney reaches 33C in potentially warmest start to spring since mid-1800s, while snow forecast in southern NSW

A total fire ban is in place for greater Sydney with extreme fire danger exacerbated by hot and windy conditions

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Summer heat is due to arrive early across much of eastern Australia with potentially record early September temperatures predicted for Brisbane and Sydney, while snow was expected in southern New South Wales.

Maximum temperatures in Sydney during the first days of September were on track to match the city’s midsummer average of 26.4C, warmer than any other start to spring since the city’s Observatory Hill station opened in 1858.

Philippines Vice President Sara Duterte posts bail after arrest

Philippines Vice President Sara Duterte has posted bail after order issued for her arrest on charges she publicly threatened to arrange assassination of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and two others.

‘We’re plausibly close to crossing the line’: are warnings of uncontrollable AI coming true?

A spate of serious safety incidents have increased fears about the power and impenetrability of the most advanced models

Picture humanity in a boat being swept down a raging river, praying there is no Niagara Falls ahead. Or imagine standing with the pioneering physicists in 1942 before they triggered the first self-sustaining nuclear fission chain reaction beneath a Chicago stadium.

These were two of the analogies used this week by Prof Robert Trager, an expert in the nascent field of AI governance, to describe the perilous but potential-filled moment the world stands at with accelerating artificial intelligence.

Uefa legal case may be beginning of the end for Infantino as Trump’s support evaporates | Barney Ronay

The order of discovery related to Fifa’s failed plan to sell the World Cup will worry the American president, a situation that tends to end badly for the culprit

“Tell Mike it was just business. I always liked him.”

“He understands.”

‘Reverse bucket list’: Arteta channels Wenger in defence of Arsenal window

The champions’ manager echoed his illustrious predecessor and urged fans unhappy at the lack of a deadline-day arrival to see the bigger picture

For many people connected to Arsenal, it has been a time to remember the old line from Arsène Wenger. “We live in a society of ‘news’,” the club’s former manager once said, and by that he meant new things – the shinier the better.

Nowhere is the obsession more obvious than in the transfer market, when a club simply has to add new faces. These days, it feels as though some fans prefer them to be signed as late as possible in the summer window to ensure a positive narrative after the deadline; to maximise the potential to generate momentum. Recency bias is powerful.

What colour is octopus’s blood and how heavy is the sky? The kids’ quiz

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

• ​Submit a question

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

What links Baby Reindeer, Fleabag and Taskmaster? The Saturday quiz

From Execution, Greenland and West India to Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky’s ‘Frankfurt’, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 At his funeral in 1219, who was called the “greatest knight in the world”?
2 As the crow flies, what is London’s closest international capital city?
3 Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky’s “Frankfurt” was a celebrated design of what?
4 Which Bowery club was the focus of New York punk?
5 Which route is abbreviated as LEJOG?
6 In 1944, the USS Saint Lo was the first major warship to be sunk by what?
7 Which 75-year-old sporting curse was broken in July?
8 What is known as the “barking deer”?
What links:
9 Jim Clark; Graham Hill; Dan Wheldon (2); Dario Franchitti (3)?
10 Baby Reindeer; Fleabag; Six; Stomp; Taskmaster?
11 Dr B Ching; Lady Liberty; MD; Old Sparky; Piloti; Q-Brick?
12 Execution; Greenland; St Katharine; Royal Victoria; West India?
13 Miki Fare; Musse Pigg; Myszka Miki; Topolino?
14 Cry Baby in 2003 and Embers in 2021?
15 Hill House; Cheam preparatory; Gordonstoun; Geelong Grammar?

The Guide #259: What to watch this Oscars film season

In this week’s newsletter: A non-exhaustive list of the films to keep an eye out for this autumn

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The next three months or so is one of my favourite spells in the film calendar, as a load of Oscar hopefuls with big stars and auteurs attached come out of hiding. You can catch a decent movie at the cinema every week until Christmas – but you might want a guide to direct you to the right ones. This week’s Guide does exactly that.

What’s more, it’s not exhaustive: there will be films landing from the autumn festivals that haven’t yet been given a release date and a host of big awards movies due in the UK in January (Danny Boyle’s Murdoch movie Ink, Robert Eggers’s Werewulf, Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut). But, this should keep you going until the days start getting longer again.

How posh are you? Do you have a therapist? What would you say to Trump at a party? Marina Hyde answers readers’ questions

We asked you what you most wanted to put to our Guardian columnist. You responded in droves, querying her ‘beef’ with Burnham, who she thinks is this generation’s Hugh Grant, and what she really thinks about Richard Osman ...

• ‘There is light at the end of this tunnel. But the tunnel is filled with sewage’: an exclusive extract from Marina Hyde’s new book

What are your bunker plans?
James, Portugal
Masses of things to read, incredible food and an unethical doctor with an insane war chest of interesting pills. The second that bunker door closes, the doors of perception are opening.

Will Restore gain more traction by the next election and genuinely split the rightwing vote?
Natasha, London
They won’t split it in some 50‑50 way, but they could peel off a bit more from Reform’s right flank. Nigel Farage is looking vulnerable. In the Woody Allen film Deconstructing Harry, Robin Williams plays an actor who literally goes out of focus. Having once been sharp and clear, his nervous system is so shot that he becomes a physically blurred and imprecise distortion of himself. Metaphorically, something similar has happened to Farage in recent months.

‘There is light at the end of this tunnel. But the tunnel is filled with sewage’: Marina Hyde on finding hope in political chaos

It’s been an era of global instability, complete with ejector-seat prime ministers, Mars-bound baddies and even a celebrity ski-massacre trial …

• How posh are you? Do you have a therapist? What would you say to Trump at a party? Marina Hyde answers readers’ questions

Let me kick off by letting a little daylight in on magic. If you’ve got a book out in September, you’re probably sending the publisher the final version of the introduction four months earlier. So I guess the moment I truly knew that Keir Starmer was finished was the moment, in the first days of May, when I typed the words “we’ve had three prime ministers since my last book”. At that point it became an absolute cast-iron cosmic inevitability that we would have had yet another prime minister by the time the book was out. Nailed on. It’s the equivalent of lighting a cigarette so the bus turns up immediately.

So, four prime ministers in four years … Good times, possibly, for someone whose job involves writing about prime ministers. But not good times for Britain, or indeed for the seemingly endless series of outgoing premiers. Being British prime minister has become the biggest ejector-seat job since the noughties, when the US would announce they’d killed “the al-Qaida No 3” about twice a month.

Getting abreast of life with a baby: the Edith Pritchett cartoon

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Why the Bayeux tapestry and Franco-British relations are natural bedfellows

Tapestry’s loan to UK is just another chapter in the love-hate relationship that has spanned the centuries since it was created

Five British prime ministers ago – and six French ones – when Emmanuel Macron first confirmed that France would return the Bayeux tapestry to Britain after 1,000 years, he told an audience at Sandhurst and Theresa May – the No 10 seat-warmer of the day – that when it came to France and Britain there were “two things that nothing can change, be it a vote or a political decision: our history and our geography”.

It was January 2018, 18 months after the UK had voted to leave the EU, and relations between the near neighbours were not good. The French political establishment had been shocked and angered by Brexit; personal relations were frazzled, and cross-Channel government contacts measurably dwindling. This was not a rupture that a piece of embroidered medieval linen, however perfectly it represented that tangled history, was going to solve on its own.

Meera Sodha’s vegetarian recipe for kacang pool, or Malaysian bean stew

A delicious and triumphant blend of Levantine and Malay cuisines

This is a dish with roots in ancient Egypt. There, it started life as ful medames, the famous fava bean dish lightly seasoned with cumin, garlic and lemon. Then it was, reportedly, brought to Johor in Malaysia by Arab traders. It has since been adopted and adapted with a fierce sort of love, plus more spice and a tin of baked beans. I adore it. It’s a very delicious dinner and a triumphant blend of two cuisines.

From Trump’s takeover threats to a ‘northern neighborhood,’ why the EU chief is going to Greenland

The visit comes as Trump renews his push for greater U.S. control of the self-governing Danish territory.

Williams sisters’ US Open return ends in heartbreak with third-set tie-break defeat

• American duo lose 6-3, 6-7(6), 7-6(7) to Maya Joint and Chan Hao-ching

• Serena and Venus crash out of women’s doubles in first round

In the end, after so much toil and admirable fight, defeat came swiftly for one of the greatest doubles teams to ever share a tennis court. Upon their return to prime time in New York, Venus and Serena Williams fought desperately to overturn the various deficits they found themselves in over three hours inside a thunderous Arthur Ashe Stadium.

They came close. The Williams sisters had clawed their way back into the match after trailing a 1-4 in their final set against Chan Hao-ching and Maya Joint, and they established a 5-0 lead in the third set tie-break. Just as they appeared to be on the verge of victory, they were brushed aside, losing 6-3, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (7) in the first round of the US Open.

50? Moi? How The Muppets rocked the world with anarchy, nonsense and the inimitable Miss Piggy

Half a century on, Jim Henson’s fuzzy felt friends are as influential as Monty Python and the Beatles. It’s been a wild journey of nightclubbing, light operas, duetting with Debbie Harry and tying John Cleese to a chair

Fifty years ago today, it was time to play the music and time to light the lights. On 5 September 1976, the British public first met the Muppets – an epochal moment in the history of light entertainment whose reverberations are still felt to this day.

This was the show that saw Rita Moreno conclude a performance of Fever by smashing a puppet’s head between two cymbals, Alice Cooper convince the characters to sell their souls to the devil and Vincent Price cover Carole King’s You’ve Got a Friend, accompanied by ghosts. The Muppet Show was not like other television programmes.

The unsettling rise of cat seducers: ‘My little companion was missing – and I was consumed with anger’

Has your cat been gaining weight and staying out at night, only to arrive home reeking of marijuana? These are just some of the signs that a neighbour is trying to entice them away ...

When Amy’s cat, Sid*, first started spending more time away from home, Amy* put it down to wanderlust. A former street cat, Sid had landed on his feet in her leafy London suburb, but still retained his free-roaming sociability. When Sid began disappearing for up to days at a time though, Amy worried. She put a tracker on his collar to find out where he was going. She didn’t expect to discover him a few doors up the road.

Sid is roaming – but most of the time, for entire afternoons and even sometimes overnight, he is with Amy’s neighbour. “He is in her house, constantly, all the time,” she says. This is not a coincidence. Sid might not be getting six dinners, like his famous namesake in Inga Moore’s 1990 children’s book, but the neighbour is certainly spoiling him, as she recently let slip to Amy’s partner. “She’s feeding him organic chicken!” Amy says indignantly.

After Lindsay Clancy mistrial, what happens next?

Here's what may happen next after a mistrial was declared in Lindsay Clancy's murder case.

Clancy trial ends in hung jury after attorney's attempt to avoid mistrial fails

A mistrial was declared in Lindsay Clancy's murder trial Friday, after her attorney's last-minute appeal failed.

Fetterman texts reveal impatience with constituent duties

A former staffer confirmed that Sen. John Fetterman has routinely dismissed and at times refused to do core aspects of the job.

Nazi-looted painting must be returned to Jewish art dealer’s heir, Argentina court rules

Portrait of a Lady had been missing since 1940 before being photographed in 2025 in Argentinian home of Nazi officer’s daughter

Argentina must return to the rightful owner’s heir an 18th-century painting stolen by Nazis from a Dutch Jewish art collector, a judge has ruled.

Portrait of a Lady by Italian baroque painter Giuseppe Ghislandi was missing for eight decades before being photographed in 2025 hanging in the home of the daughter of a senior Nazi officer who had fled to Argentina after the second world war.

Serena and Venus Williams fall in thriller return to U.S. Open women's doubles

Playing together at the U.S. Open in New York for the first time in four years, Serena​ and Venus Williams lost in a three-set thriller match in the first round of the women's doubles tournament.

A Long Winter review – hope, desire and subversion in Andrew Haigh’s beautiful winter western

Telluride film festival
In a remote Colorado farmstead, a family with a mother gone missing finds a strange buoyancy and freedom as they wait for the snows to melt

Andrew Haigh’s mysterious and beautiful new film is adapted by him from the 2006 story by Colm Tóibín, transplanting the action from the 1930s Spanish Pyrenees to the wintry, vertiginous landscapes of Colorado about the time of the Korean war. It is a poignant, subversive study of grief and desire, and the terrible, infantilised loneliness of men without women; it is fiercely acted, and wonderfully shot by cinematographer André Turpin.

Lester, played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach, is a grizzled, hardened farmsteader in the remote hills whose family has a certain sufficiency from their livestock; he makes a precarious living breeding rabbits for their meat and fur. One son, Tommy (Kit Connor) is leaving for military service, leaving behind his shy brother Mikey (Fred Hechinger); Mikey has secret gay longings, which are nourished by furtive glimpses of glossy Cosmopolitan magazines, with their impossibly exotic visions of big-city fashion and design.

Ben Simmons handed NBA lifeline in one-year deal with Sacramento Kings

• Australian returns on AU$4.9m contract after season on sidelines

• Former No 1 pick hopes to reignite basketball career with fourth club

Australian former No 1 overall draft pick Ben Simmons has taken a significant step towards resurrecting his NBA career, agreeing a one-year deal with the Sacramento Kings.

The Melbourne-born guard returns on a US$3.5m (AU$4.9m) contract after sitting ‌out the entire 2025-26 campaign while rehabilitating back and leg injuries that have hampered him in recent years.

This week on "Sunday Morning" (Sept. 6)

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

Judge refuses to block Pentagon from firing Stars and Stripes journalists

Ruling allows defense department to proceed for now in exerting greater editorial control over military news outlet

A federal judge has declined to stop the Pentagon from firing journalists who say they were illegally punished for speaking out about the need for the Stars and Stripes publication to maintain its editorial independence.

The ruling by US district judge Trevor McFadden allows the Pentagon to proceed for now in exerting greater editorial control over the historically independent military news outlet.

Tender Loving Care review – Mike Leigh’s tender and elusive study of love and mortality

Telluride film festival
Alice Bailey Johnson and Kate O’Flynn lead a complicated, quietly heartbreaking drama about friendship, ageing parents and the sadness of lives moving inexorably on

Mike Leigh’s new film – perhaps his last – is a poignant, intergenerational drama of happy-sad acceptance that life goes on, until it doesn’t go on. And then you have to come to terms with the mortality of your elderly parents and by that same token, with the end that is waiting for you too. The decency and clarity of the film are a tonic. It is a movie with one of Leigh’s overtly positive and even sugary titles, like Life Is Sweet (1990) or Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), as distinct from his darker ones: Secrets & Lies (1996) or Hard Truths (2024). But his sweet titles are not simply satirical and intended to mean the opposite: it is more complicated and elusive, and even the contrast here between the two heroines’ private and professional lives isn’t straightforwardly a matter of irony.

As so often, the dialogue has that unique Leigh cartoonish quality that isn’t caricature, and the characters often speak with an almost wartime chirpiness in a world of peckers kept up and noses kept clean. This is a perkiness that the thirtysomethings have unexpectedly inherited and modified from their old mum and dad, and Leigh leaves it to the audience to judge the consequent tone of the drama and the appropriate tone of their response.

US judge extends block on Trump order to restrict mail-in voting

Indira Talwani’s ruling presents major setback for president as first states begin to send out mail ballots for midterms

A federal judge on Friday again blocked Donald Trump’s executive order to impose sweeping restrictions on mail-in voting, the latest in a legal back-and-forth playing out less than two months before election day.

US district court judge Indira Talwani initially placed a temporary order blocking the president’s mandate and has now extended that prohibition with a stronger preliminary injunction. The ruling comes hours after North Carolina became the first state to start sending out mail-in ballots for the 3 November midterm elections.

Neighborhood comes together to give young boy a memorable trick-or-treat birthday

When a mother posted a note on Facebook asking if anyone in her neighborhood would allow her son to trick-or-treat at their homes in July for his 11th birthday, more than 100 neighbors said yes.

Death on the road to Rafah: the night the IDF targeted World Central Kitchen aid workers

The Israeli army had helped plan the delivery of food aid on 1 April 2024, but things went wrong from the beginning and ended in seven deaths

• Exclusive: why seven international aid workers were killed in Israeli airstrike

On the evening of 1 April 2024, a team of aid workers from World Central Kitchen (WCK) stood on Gaza’s Mediterranean shore overseeing the unloading of a barge full of desperately needed food on a makeshift jetty made of sand and rubble.

The Gaza war had been raging for six months and Israel’s closure of land crossings had left the whole territory facing the threat of famine. WCK and local Palestinian contractors had constructed the jetty out of everything they could lay their hands on, including debris from the bombed house of one of the contractors, so that the pallets of humanitarian assistance could be delivered by boat from Cyprus.

The rise of south-east Asia’s girl bands: ‘The talent and popularity were always here’

Girl bands from the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand are going global with their fusion of traditional and modern sounds

“We all know that music is a universal language,” says Maloi Ricalde from Filipina girl band BINI, which mixes tropical pop with traditional songs, English with Tagalog, and silver knee highs with pastel colours.

“Incorporating Filipino language, Filipino culture, Filipino sound, into our music, it really gives identity and meaning to our music,” Ricalde tells the Guardian.

‘Guilt by association’: why seven international aid workers were killed in Israeli airstrike

Exclusive: Guardian investigation reveals targeting of World Central Kitchen convoy was result of widely used military tactic

• Death on the road to Rafah: the night the IDF targeted World Central Kitchen aid workers

Seven aid workers killed in an airstrike in Gaza were marked as targets under an Israeli military practice of establishing guilt by association, a Guardian investigation shows.

A top Israeli military prosecutor announced last month that he would not pursue criminal proceedings for the April 2024 incident in which drones fired missiles at three clearly marked World Central Kitchen (WCK) cars soon after they had escorted a food aid delivery to Gaza. Three British humanitarian workers along with an Australian, a Palestinian, a Pole and a dual US-Canadian national were killed.

American Airlines passenger duct-taped to seat after mid-flight outburst

A picture shows the man with multiple loops of tape around his wrists, torso and head.

Alabama community comes together to help boy go trick-or-treating on his birthday

A community in Huntsville, Alabama, came out in support of an 11-year-old boy who loves trick-or-treating. Steve Hartman has more.

Powerful storms, heat waves hit several states ahead of Labor Day weekend

Labor Day weekend travel is set to be disrupted by powerful storms across the country. Lana Zak reports and Rob Marciano has the forecast.

BOP faces scrutiny over exclusive deal to sell nicotine pouches to prisoners

The BOP in July entered into an exclusive arrangement with a Florida startup that allows the company to sell federal prisoners nicotine pouches that are not authorized by the FDA.

Supreme Court sides with Republicans in fight over broadcast ad rates

The Supreme Court left in place guidance from the Federal Communications Commission that allows political parties and committees access to cheaper rates for political ads.

9/4: CBS Evening News

What Lindsay Clancy mistrial ruling means; Storms, heat waves cause Labor Day disruption.

Judge lets Pentagon move forward with firing Stars and Stripes journalists

The Pentagon accused two of the Stars and Stripes journalists of insubordination after one of them had told "CBS Sunday Morning" in a July interview that she worked for Stars and Stripes, "not for the Pentagon, not for any administration, not for any policymaker."

The U.N. backs a new world map showing Africa in its true relative size

The U.N. has backed a new map showing Africa in its true relative size, with the U.S. standing alone in opposition.

From cleanskins to hitmen: are mistaken identity killings the result of Australia’s ‘crimetasker’ economy?

The underworld is using big paydays and encrypted apps to lure amateurs into gangland hits – even young people with no criminal history

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Two hands extend out the rear passenger window of an Audi sedan as its driver pulls up in front of a house in Sydney’s west.

In each fist is the black grip of a semi-automatic handgun. At least four shots are fired at the men outside the Merrylands West property on Wednesday before the driver pulls away.

4 things investigators learned about the dysfunction at Trump's Labor Department

A report from Labor Department investigators found former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer violated her own department's policy prohibiting harassment. She resigned in April.

How AI is reshaping the U.S. Open for players and fans

At the U.S. Open, artificial intelligence is giving players and fans a new way to experience the tournament.

‘Someone is smoking weed’: Sabalenka halts US Open match due to cannabis smell

• ‘It’s tricky to handle when you’re trying to compete’

• Alcaraz into fourth round after straight sets victory

Aryna Sabalenka briefly stopped her match at the US Open to complain about the strong smell of cannabis on her court as she comfortably reached the fourth round in New York.

Sabalenka, the two-time defending champion, continued her attempts to rebuild her form as she overcame a challenging test from Kamilla Rakhimova before winning 6-3, 6-4.

'Hidden tribunals': Immigration court due process in tumult with new locations

The new effort appears to be another tactic in a broader Trump administration strategy to short-circuit immigrants' already limited due process options in order to speed deportations.

9/4: The Takeout with Major Garrett

Judge declares mistrial in Lindsay Clancy murder case; U.S. employers add 162,000 jobs in August.

Trump says Lindsay Clancy "did a horrible, horrible thing"

Shortly after the judge overseeing Lindsay Clancy's murder case declared a mistrial, President Trump called it a "terrible situation" and a "horrible tragedy."

'The health system in Nepal is not prepared for this'

That's the grim assessment from the ground in the wake of the catastrophic flooding, which damaged or destroyed 7 health facilities, interrupted routine care and is affecting mental health.

El-Sayed split Michigan Democrats. Whether they unify could decide Senate control

After a bruising Senate primary, Michigan Democrats are trying to unify to hold onto a must-win seat. But healing those fissures is proving not so simple.

U.S. sanctions Turkish bank accused of enabling Iran as Bessent says he 'hopes for' no further bank penalties

President Donald Trump hyped the sanctions plan as "economic D-Day" against Iran, but the U.S. has so far taken few steps to implement it.

Are mortgage rates heading back above 7%? Here's what experts think.

Mortgage rates have climbed sharply this year amid mounting concerns about inflation and U.S. debt.

Indictment details alleged lies by ICE officer charged in Minneapolis shooting

The federal indictment against ICE officer Christian Castro has been unsealed, detailing charges accusing him of lying to investigators about a north Minneapolis shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant in January.

Judge weighs how to dismiss Reflecting Pool vandalism charge against Olympian

President Trump has said damage to the Reflecting Pool was due to vandalism, not to a flawed installation of a new liner as prosecutors say.

Trump’s ‘retribution’ could now include Falklands as favor to Milei – and revenge on the UK

US president suggests he might support his Argentinian acolyte’s drive to reclaim sovereignty of disputed islands

Donald Trump has long embraced vengeance. “I am your retribution,” he declared to an admiring audience at the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) as he commenced his march back to the White House.

It is unlikely Argentina, and far-flung holdovers of the former British empire, were on the US president’s mind at the time.

Trump's arch may break ground without final approval. Veterans are trying to stop it

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum says "excavation work" will begin in the next two weeks, without approval from a key federal body. Veterans who sued over the arch want a judge to intervene before then.

Tesla's stock drops 6% as Cybercab update 'underwhelms' Wall Street

Tesla's long-awaited Cybercab update failed to dazzle investors.

The Basics of Philosophy review – Paul Schrader back to his cool, cruel best

Venice film festival
When a figure from his past turns up to a family funeral, a college professor faces an agonising dilemma that makes him question his own morality and whether he can change

Paul Schrader is back with his most successful picture since First Reformed in 2018. It’s a stereotypical Schrader study of masculinity in some ways, about a man agonising over moral choice and ethical behaviour while – as so often in Schrader’s movies – reading and writing philosophy in an austerely furnished room. And yet there is nothing abstract about the issue he faces here. The film moves with a determined suspenseful tread, everything hangs together right up to the queasy final shot and Schrader flavours everything with a streak of melodrama and even a kind of gaunt black comedy. Karl Glusman’s cameo is surely the weirdest thing at Venice this year.

The scene is a blandly prestigious liberal arts college, presided over by a genial, grey-haired dean, played in cameo by Richard Gere. John Jorrisen, played by Jack Huston, is the star of the philosophy faculty, enjoying agreeable mid-career success, working on a book about Spinoza. He is cordially resigned to bored students showing up to his “The Basics Of Philosophy” course for what they assume will be easy extra credit, attracted by that undemanding word “basic”.

Trump to take Qatari Air Force One to Ireland, sources say

The September trip will be the first time the new plane is flown overseas since Mr. Trump traveled to Turkey for a NATO summit.

See the U.S. cities where worker pay is rising fastest

Although worker wages have risen modestly this year, pay is increasing much faster in some metro areas than in others, labor data shows.

Lindsay Clancy murder case ends in mistrial after SJC denies emergency appeal

The Lindsay Clancy murder trial ended in a mistrial Friday, after jurors announced for a third time that they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

August jobs report shows U.S. added 162,000 jobs, blowing past forecasts

Strong hiring last month was driven by gains in education and in leisure and hospitality, with the nation's jobless rate remaining steady at 4.1%.

Kimi Antonelli: ‘The F1 environment is great but at times it can be very brutal’

Before his home grand prix, the Mercedes driver opens up on his rocky debut season and quest to become the first Italian world champion since 1953

If Kimi Antonelli feels any pressure as the favourite to take the Formula One world championship at just 20 years old and in his second year in the sport, it is imperceptible. He admits F1 can be brutal but a thing of beauty too, a labour of love for the Italian who has been a revelation this season.

Compelling and brilliant, that he is also endearing and likable marks Antonelli out as more than just a potential champion. Sitting in the Mercedes motorhome it is impossible not to be struck by how young he looks, the tousled hair, engaging smile and eyes gleaming with youthful enthusiasm. He speaks with an open candour, the air of a kid in a sweetshop who still can’t quite believe all those sherbet lemons are there for the taking.

Judge declares mistrial in Lindsay Clancy case after jury deadlocked again

Defense lawyer had asked for time to request emergency stay after jury was split 11 to one

The judge in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three young children, has declared a mistrial after the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict and remained deadlocked after a week of deliberations.

Jurors in Plymouth state court spent more than 38 hours in deliberations over the charges against the 36-year-old mom, which came on the heels of a weeks-long trial that directed national attention to maternal mental health issues that can occur postpartum.

Farage seeks to shore up damaged leadership as scandal engulfs Reform conference

Splits emerge within party after resignation of officials reported to police for apparent plot to evade donations law

Nigel Farage sought to shore up his damaged leadership on Friday as he attempted to distance himself from two of his most senior officials reported to the police for apparently plotting to evade the law on foreign donations.

As the scandal engulfed Reform UK’s party conference in Birmingham, Farage was forced to suspend close aides Dan Jukes and head of policy James Orr after an undercover investigation by reporters from a group called Verbatim.

Analysis: Lower Treasury yields could require a weaker economy. Trump won't fix them

Long-term Treasury yields are being held up by Trump-era policy risk, heavy government borrowing and AI-driven corporate debt.

Ross Fire still burning, with over 90,000 acres scorched

The wildfire, which has torn through Palo Pinto and Jack counties, forced evacuations, closed roads and disrupted schools.

Cambridge University asks former chief crown prosecutor to open Arday review

Nazir Afzal to focus in review’s first stage on support given to professor in immediate period before his death

The University of Cambridge has asked Nazir Afzal, a former chief crown prosecutor for north-west England, to lead the first part of its review into the death of the scholar Jason Arday.

Arday died at his home in south London on 14 August, nine days after his resignation as a Cambridge professor amid swirling allegations of plagiarism and inconsistencies in statements about his career.

Smuggler who used tunnel under U.S.-Mexico border pleads guilty

Prosecutors said Mexican smuggler Luis Carlos Davalos-Lopez helped run an illicit operation that charged migrants as much as $30,000 to cross into the U.S.

U.S. payrolls rose 162,000 in August, much more than expected; unemployment rate at 4.1%

Nonfarm payrolls were expected to increase by 53,000 in August while the unemployment rate held at 4.1%, according to the Dow Jones consensus.

The week around the world in 20 pictures

The Nepal-Tibet flood disaster, Russian strikes in Kyiv, the Plaskett Fire in California and Notting Hill carnival – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Whatever happened to the U.S. campaign to ban child marriage?

The global effort to end child marriage is in the news. In the U.S., there's a new bill before Congress (but it's controversial). And the U.N. is designating a day dedicated to ending the practice.

The Guardian view on Reform’s funding scandal: Nigel Farage has questions to answer | Editorial

An undercover investigation raises issues around foreign money, political transparency and the rightwing populist party’s fitness for power

Reform UK’s conference was to open showcasing a party ready for government. It did so with two top aides removed after an investigation aired on Channel 4, its finances under police scrutiny and seven in 10 voters, polls suggest, regarding its leader, Nigel Farage, as sleazy – double the number who thought the same of Andy Burnham. Reform, a rightwing populist party, says it will take power back from a corrupt establishment. The latest scandal raises a question: does Reform oppose the influence of big money – or just who benefits from it?

Undercover reporters from Verbatim Investigations, founded by journalists from the US Center for Climate Reporting, pretended to be a wealthy American father and his UK-based son who wanted to donate to Reform. In the UK, foreign donations are banned from politics. But that allegedly was ignored. Verbatim’s team filmed their meetings with James Orr, a Cambridge academic specialising in ethics, and Reform’s head of policy, as well as with Dan Jukes, Mr Farage’s close aide. Both have been “removed” from their posts.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert to retire in December

Cathy Engelbert is the second-longest-tenured WNBA president or commissioner.

UN votes to adopt new world map that shows Africa’s true scale

Togo-sponsored resolution called to phase out traditional map that depicts continent as similar size to Greenland

The United Nations has voted to adopt a resolution for the world to formally phase out the traditional Mercator map of the globe in favour of one that more accurately displays Africa’s size.

In a session at its headquarters in New York, the UN general assembly officially retired the 16th-century Mercator projection in favour of one based on the more accurate 2018 Equal Earth design.

The capacitor supply chain bottleneck is becoming a bigger AI trade in the market

Stock market trades on the AI boom continue to multiply, with the latest ETFs targeting the capacitor supply chain dominated by a handful of Asian companies.

The Trump White House’s fetish for gamer culture has moved up a level with new arcade

A string of distractions on the US government’s own website invite you to catch pixelated migrants – showing gaming’s potential to be nastily weaponised

The Trump White House on Thursday released a horrible little propaganda arcade via its website, a collection of nasty riffs on popular games. Wrapped in the cutesy, nostalgic aesthetic of early-90s pixel art, these mindless fascist diversions are harmless-looking, but their intent is stomach-turning: this is the appropriation of play in service of propaganda. It’s just the latest in a series of attempts from Trump’s administration to use video game memes and imagery to further its messaging.

Having riffed on Halo and Pokémon in social media ads last year, inviting potential ICE recruits to “stop the flood” and “catch ’em all”, this time the administration has ripped off a series of recognisable games. Flappy Bill, perhaps the least gross, is a version of the old mobile hit Flappy Bird, except here you’re an eagle with a scroll in its claws. Supply Line could almost be an educational game about healthy food in schools, where you sort junk food off a conveyor belt destined for school lunches, except for some reason you play as a boxer who becomes more bloodied with every seed-oil containing, ultra-processed food item that you fail to punch into the garbage chute.

A mysterious 'island' appears and then disappears in Canada – video

A mysterious island has emerged in Williston Lake in Canada. A local resident shared a video of a floating 'island' with trees growing from it – which has appeared, disappeared and appeared again within two months. Satellite imagery has confirmed its existence and disappearance, and experts say the rising water level has set free trees that have been growing on woody debris on the shore

How much does Donald Trump care about winning the midterms? Apparently, not much at all | Jonathan Freedland

Such is the US president’s narcissism that he would see a Democratic victory as proof that he’s indispensable – meanwhile, his every decision spells calamity for voters

What is Donald Trump playing at? If it’s true that the best way of understanding the behaviour of an organisation is to assume it’s controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies, perhaps that same logic extends to the current conduct of the president of the United States. Maybe he secretly wants Republicans to lose the looming midterm elections that will decide the balance of power in the US for the next two years and for which the first postal ballots were sent out today.

That’s not as mad a theory as it sounds. Indeed, there are at least two reasons why Trump might either be unbothered by Republican defeat in November or even covertly desire it. We’ll come to those, but let’s start with a pattern of behaviour that is hard to explain as anything other than calculated self-sabotage.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

Martin Rowson on the return of the Falklands debate – cartoon

Russia strikes Ukraine intelligence HQ in ‘major escalation’

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he has told SBU to deliver ‘appropriate, tangible response’ to Kyiv strike

The head office of Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency has been hit in a Russian drone attack, sending plumes of black smoke rising into the air in the heart of Kyiv.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he had instructed the SBU to deliver an “appropriate, tangible response” to the strike, while the foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, described it as a “major escalation”.

Employer and worker health plan costs expected to jump in 2027

Employer health benefit costs are projected to see the steepest increase next year since 2003. That could mean higher deductions and out-of-pocket costs for workers.

New York City police fatally shoot man who climbed up Brooklyn Bridge cables

Officers clipped to bridge had tried to talk man, who was holding a knife, into coming down safely, officials say

New York City police shot and killed a man on Friday morning after he climbed on to the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge and approached officers with a knife extended, New York police department officials said.

At a news conference on Friday, NYPD officials said that a 911 call came in at around 3.28am on Friday morning, reporting that a man was walking on the beams of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Holly Throsby: ‘I was proud to not make a breakup album’

The writer and musician on returning to music, finding herself, and why right now is a terrifying time to be an artist

Holly Throsby does not enjoy having her photo taken. There’s even a song on her new album about it. But you wouldn’t know it to see her gamely bush-bashing off the beaten track to pose in a cluster of supersized lomandra for the perfect portrait. After all, this is her happy place.

Walking along various bush tracks is a daily ritual for Throsby. A sense of nature gently pervades her seventh album, Normal Magic. It is in the imagery of sparkling water and swims; gardens and birds; bushfires and wind and rain on the roof. The album itself feels like the breaking of a drought: her first solo record in nine years. In the intervening time, she moved to the New South Wales south coast, had her second child, wrote her third novel, and recorded and toured a second album with Seeker Lover Keeper, her collaborative project with Sarah Blasko and Sally Seltmann. She has hardly been idle.

NBA suspends Clippers owner Ballmer for one year in Kawhi Leonard salary cap probe

The NBA also fined the Los Angeles Clippers $30 million and said the team will forfeit five first-round picks, one in each year in drafts starting in 2029.

Chat to strangers and let your kids be bored: how to embrace a ‘slow September’ – and enjoy life more

The pressure to self-optimise at the start of the new school year can lead to disappointment and burnout. Instead, here are seven ways to slow things down and reap the benefits

It is a hangover from our school days that September can feel like a time for getting back to the grind. As in January, there is a sense that we should return as better workers, partners, friends and parents. This sense is even stronger now a culture of optimisation – has taken over – evidenced by the fad for adding “maxx” to everything. Yet that can lead to disappointment and burnout, which Mental Health UK reports up to 91% of adults were at risk from over a recent 12-month period.

One antidote to this drive is to embrace a slower way of living. Rather than always rushing from one activity to the next, we could be enjoying life.

Wide-legged trousers for men are having a moment. Just ask Gary Neville

Neville may have been mocked for wearing them on Monday Night Football, but he is actually bang on trend

From Kylian Mbappé’s World Cup style to Erling Haaland’s hair tie, football has had many viral fashion moments in 2026.

Perhaps the one that speaks to the fashion crowd, and a larger debate happening in menswear right now, is Gary Neville being mercilessly teased on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football for sporting wide-legged trousers.

Woman, 45, killed in Florence in seventh alleged femicide in Italy since mid-August

Lorena Isceri was thrown off a motorway bridge, allegedly by ex-boyfriend Federico Vella

A 45-year-old woman abducted and thrown off a motorway bridge near Florence has become the seventh alleged femicide in Italy since mid-August.

Lorena Isceri was abducted on Thursday afternoon, allegedly by her ex-boyfriend, Federico Vella, in the Rifredi area of Florence, before being forced into the boot of his car and driven towards a bridge on the A1 motorway.

In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 988 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org

Colombia president provokes disgust by posing with bodies of ‘terrorists’

Abelardo De La Espriella posts video of himself with rows of body bags as performative populism continues to sweep Americas

Colombia’s hardline president, Abelardo De La Espriella, has provoked outrage after posting a video on social media in which he strides through rows of white body bags that he says contained the corpses of 23 “neutralised” guerrillas.

De La Espriella took power last month vowing “all-out war” against illegal armed groups and he published the footage on Thursday in an apparent attempt to show he was fulfilling that pledge.

Volkswagen plans 50,000 job cuts as analysts see ‘halo effect’ for German auto industry

Volkswagen shares jumped on Friday after it announced plans to slash a further 50,000 jobs as part of its transformation plan.

‘I’m used to doing the impossible’: George Lucas unveils new LA museum – what’s its story?

Spaceship-shaped gallery, featuring works from Banksy, Norman Rockwell and Frida Kahlo, is devoted to ‘visual storytelling’ – and is finally ready to open

“I’m used to doing the impossible,” George Lucas said on Wednesday. But “this one almost broke my will”.

The film-maker was describing the decades of work that went into his latest project, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, as it was unveiled to the press in Los Angeles eight years after breaking ground, following attempts to build it in two other cities. Shaped like a spaceship and towering over the nearby University of Southern California – Lucas’s alma mater – the long-awaited institution finally opens on 22 September. It aims to be a testament to visual storytelling across all kinds of media – paintings, comics, murals, photography, sculpture.

Seeds of hope: how a local farming project is offering a lifeline to Gaza

Family-run Al-Qarara Seed Bank is striving to help Palestinians gain sovereignty over their food security

Salama Ayesh Muhanna still remembers the first seeds he planted on his family’s land in al-Qarara, Gaza. At just 17, Muhanna had proudly sprouted cucumbers.

“I was very happy because I saw the results,” Muhanna says. “We were farmers at heart.”