Iraola returns to Bournemouth, Premier League buildup and Townsend’s bizarre accident – matchday live

• News, discussion and updates before Sunday’s games

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How things stand in the Premier League…

At Hill Dickinson Stadium, Thierno Barry fired Everton to a 1-0 win against 10-man Ipswich Town.

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

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

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

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

Victims say Home Office attempt to curtail spycops inquiry will result in a ‘cover-up’

Shabana Mahmood is concerned about length and £144m cost of inquiry into intrusive police surveillance

Victims of intrusive police surveillance have accused the government of seeking to cut short the spycops public inquiry that has been examining widespread misconduct committed by undercover officers.

The independent judge-led inquiry is scrutinising how officers, who spied on tens of thousands of political activists over more than four decades, carried out abuses such as deceiving women into sexual relationships and fathering children.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘We miss her the same every day’: Olivia Cusack on her late footballer sister Maddy

Family is determined to ensure her ‘legacy lives on’ three years after the Sheffield United player’s death

Olivia Cusack says her sister, the late Maddy Cusack, is on her mind every single day and she is determined to ensure her “legacy lives on” three years after the former England youth international midfielder’s death.

Olivia, together with family and friends of Maddy, walked 29 miles from Bramall Lane, Sheffield United’s home, to their family’s home in Horsley, near Derby, on Saturday to raise funds and awareness. Maddy’s loved ones are still enduring a “frustrating and confusing” wait for answers about the circumstances surrounding her death on 20 September 2023.

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

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

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

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

John Harris is a Guardian columnist

Hundreds of drones target Moscow on last day of voting in Russia’s parliamentary election

Authorities accuse Ukraine of trying to disrupt poll and say 1,600 drones in total intercepted, while at least two people killed and oil refinery damaged

Hundreds of drones targeting Moscow and its surrounding region killed at least two people and damaged a major refinery on the final day of the country’s parliamentary elections, authorities said on Sunday.

The capital’s mayor said that more than 1,600 drones had been intercepted and shot down, 450 of which were aimed at Moscow.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Farage says he wants to ‘hijack’ Trump’s ICE czar to help secure UK border

Reform leader also tells US event Europe should have ‘more sensible view’ of president’s administration

Nigel Farage has said he wants to “hijack” Donald Trump’s hardline ICE adviser and bring him to the UK “to secure our borders”.

Speaking at an event in the US, the Reform UK leader also called for Europe to take a “more sensible view” of the US president’s administration rather than seeing it as “villainous”.

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

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

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

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

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

Are global stock markets heading for a crash?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saudi Arabia says Houthis tried to attack its capital

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kemi Badenoch accuses Andy Burnham of ‘fiddling while Europe risks burning’

Tory leader claims prime minister is avoiding difficult decisions as she urges him to increase defence spending

Kemi Badenoch has accused Andy Burnham of “fiddling while Europe is at risk of burning”, as she repeated her call for the prime minister to cut the welfare budget to fund increase spending on defence.

Speaking to the Telegraph, the Tory leader said that “Burnham may be a people pleaser but difficult choices cannot be avoided through dither and delay”.

Camilla praises ‘life-enhancing power’ of books amid Earl Spencer memoir controversy

Queen speaks of love of reading at festival for charity she founded after success of her Instagram book club

Queen Camilla has spoken of her love for books with a “life-enhancing power” after a series of allegations were made about King Charles in extracts from Earl Spencer’s memoir about the life of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Camilla was welcomed to Chatsworth House in Derbyshire for the first day of the festival for the Queen’s Reading Room, a charity she founded after the success of her Instagram book club during the pandemic.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Israeli president pardons combat medic who shot dead wounded Palestinian attacker

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Suzi Quatro: ‘It is absolutely crazy I’m not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But I’m in good company!’

The 76-year-old rocker on her pre-gig routine, the one reality show she’d go on and who she’d cast as herself in a film about her life

Your new album is called Freedom and the title track interpolates The Girl Can’t Help It. You’re going to be rocking until they take you out in a box, aren’t you?

When I was 35, a journalist stupidly asked me, “When are you going to retire?” I said, “I will retire when I go on stage, turn my back on the audience, shake my ass, and there’s silence.” This followed me my whole career, so when I got to 65, I said, “I will retire when I go on stage, turn my back on the audience and my ass shakes by itself.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The new lines of southern Lebanon

The U.N. expanded the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon's mandate 20 years ago to include monitoring adherence to a ceasefire in fighting between Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah — the militant group created in 1982 to counter a second Israeli invasion.

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

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

Holmberg rescues point for Arsenal but Manchester United off the mark in WSL

Arsenal were mightily relieved as a 95th-minute Smilla Holmberg volley rescued a point at home to a much-improved Manchester United side, but the draw will not be enough to eradicate concerns about how far behind the leaders Manchester City Renée Slegers’ team are slipping already and how frequently they seem to struggle to break down a low block.

A defiant Manchester United stunned the north Londoners as Eva Olid’s side claimed the first point of her tenure with a performance that defied all of the pre-match scripts, but it was very nearly a victory, had it not been for Holmberg’s last-gasp back-post finish from Leah Williamson’s deep, diagonal ball into the box, which finally broke the visitors’ stubborn resistance.

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

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

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

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

‘They deserved to win’: Mikel Arteta left humbled by Brighton defeat

• Arsenal’s 100% start to season comes to an end

• Manager says team put themselves in trouble from start

Mikel Arteta admitted Arsenal were taught a lesson by free-scoring Brighton as their 100% start to the season was abruptly ended on Saturday. Not since 10 May 2023 – 1,224 days ago – when the same opponents won 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium had the Premier League champions lost by three goals. But they were second-best throughout as Pascal Gross, Charalampos Kostoulas and Chema Andrés rounded off a comprehensive victory.

“They deserved to win the game and it’s a big lesson for us,” said a disappointed Arteta, who felt his players were not their usual combative selves. “From the first throw-in you could sense it, it was so clear.

Caribbean nations draft action plan to push UK to redress reparations over slavery

Leaders hope UK will agree to targeted discussions around reparatory justice, but could consider legal options if Britain resists

Caribbean nations are drawing up a multi-pronged “action plan” with legal options to push the UK into negotiating a decades-long slavery reparations deal, officials at a reparations conference have said.

Leaders in the region are hoping the UK would agree to targeted and constructive negotiation talks at upcoming Commonwealth and UN summits, but they are ready to take the matter to international courts if Britain continues to resist diplomatic options.

England’s historic winning streak ends after Red Roses draw with Canada

• WXV: England 26-26 Canada

• Canadians end home side’s run of 39 successive wins

Still unbeaten, yes, but for England this was anything but business as usual. The Red Roses remain undefeated in 40 Tests, but, for once, there were no victory speeches afterwards. For the first time since 2022 they have failed to win an international fixture, bringing to an end one of the purest winning sequences in world sport.

A wonderfully committed Canada fully deserved a share of the spoils and, in some ways, were unfortunate not to depart with more. The outcome was still up for grabs deep into the final quarter and England were indebted to two first-half tries from their Exeter wing Claudia Moloney-MacDonald.

Rory McIlroy gives himself a chance to repeat history at PGA Championship

• Northern Irishman two behind Celli and Elvira

• Unlikely leaders birdie 18th to reach 13 under

Eighteen holes sit between Rory McIlroy and an impressive piece of symmetry. In September 2025, McIlroy claimed a second Irish Open title in euphoric scenes at the K Club. Five months earlier, he had won the Masters.

At Wentworth on Sunday, McIlroy will take off in hot pursuit of a second PGA Championship crown. As was the case last year, he is the reigning Masters champion. Another season that will inevitably be defined by Augusta National could find itself with a cherry on top.

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

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

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

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

CNN, MS NOW, Politico reporters denied access to White House following Trump ban

Three reporters were blocked from the White House grounds Saturday morning, a day after President Trump said CNN, Politico, and MS NOW would be banned for reporting "FICTION and LIES."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

9/19: Saturday Morning

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

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

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

Cuba power grid collapse leaves millions without electricity again

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

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

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

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

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

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

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

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

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

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

Firefighters struggle with staffing shortages amid record wildfire season

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

Opinion: Remembering Annie Dillard, nature writer

With her 1974 book, "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek," Annie Dillard became the youngest woman to win the Pulitzer Prize. We take a moment to remember her and her work.

Life in Kabul 5 years after the Taliban's return

Five years after the return of Taliban rule, NPR visited Kabul to see how Afghans are dealing with their new government's strict social restrictions.

Betel nuts are a top mind-affecting substance. Now there's evidence of ancient use

New research on ancient human remains suggests the habitual usage of betel nuts, a plant seed with mind-affecting properties that is popular in parts of Asia despite the health risks it presents.

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

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

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

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

Don’t be afraid to be masculine, laugh more, and phone your mum: letters to our sons, by Stephen Graham, Riz Ahmed, Danny Dyer and other wise men

The Adolescence actor and the psychologist Orly Klein asked fathers to write to their sons. The results – from famous dads to the wisdom of strangers – were moving and motivating. Here’s a selection

What can I say? From the moment you and your sister were born my heart has been full of a love I never thought was humanly possible. As a baby you were filled with wonder and so much energy. You had a beautiful, mischievous and inquisitive nature, which has always made me smile. You were climbing, running and jumping everywhere. You’d walk into a room wearing shoes that were four times, five times, 10 times too big for you … Sometimes they were ye mother’s.

Kevin Warsh may be the adult in the room. But can he calm the US economy?

Fed chair presided over unanimous decision to raise interest rates despite intense campaign from White House

In the end, Kevin Warsh’s Federal Reserve acquitted itself well. For all the uncertainty he had sparked at the previous meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, when he refused to provide any indication of what he was prepared to do to tame stubborn inflation, the chair on Wednesday presided over a unanimous decision to raise interest rates for the first time in three years.

“Today’s action starts to show that we’re serious about this,” he said at the press conference after the meeting, with “this” meaning inflation in excess of the Fed’s 2% target for over five years. Welcome though it was, his embrace of economic orthodoxy nonetheless did little to dispel the Keystone Cops quality of governance in Donald Trump’s US.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘It’s almost impossible not to feel inspired’: how the story of Terry Fox fired up Canada’s patriotic spirit again

Canada’s citizens are finding unity again in the story of the man who ran cross-country on one leg to raise awareness for children’s cancer research

Rob Stickle was six years old and waiting to see The Empire Strikes Back when a ripple passed through the crowd. His mother hoisted him on to her shoulders to see a man loping down one of Toronto’s busiest streets.

“I was a Star Wars fanatic, and I remember saying to mom: ‘He has a robot leg.’”

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

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

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

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

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

Archaeologists are racing to save precious artifacts in Alaska after last year's storm

Last year, remnants of a typhoon damaged homes, infrastructure and an archaeological dig site. Now, archaeologists are trying to get as many objects out as possible before the next storm.

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

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

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

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

Ed Sheeran thought fans didn’t want artists to be politically engaged. He’s finding out how wrong he was | Jason Okundaye

Twenty years ago, even Madonna faced radio blacklisting for being overtly political. But in our age of streaming, there’s less excuse for not speaking out

It must have come as a surprise to Ed Sheeran when all of his support acts withdrew from the remainder of the US leg of his tour. The American rapper Macklemore had triggered the walkout when he gave an impassioned speech calling for a “free Palestine” on stage and was dropped for doing so. The decision by the remaining acts to drop out in solidarity exposed a deep divide in the modern music industry. Some artists still insist on keeping politics out of music, while others expect music to speak to our perilous times.

After he was dropped, Macklemore wrote that Sheeran’s “typical apolitical stance was being challenged in a way it never had been before”, to which Sheeran responded: “I am not complicit” and “those who come to my shows do not expect a political forum”.

Jason Okundaye is an assistant Opinion editor at the Guardian

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Ever wonder how the Fed's interest rate actually works? We've got answers

The Federal Reserve just raised interest rates this week for the first time this year. So how does it actually work? And what does it mean for the economy — and the rest of us? Here are some answers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Russia holds parliamentary vote in areas it seized from Ukraine in the war

Russia's parliamentary election for the first time is being held in Ukraine's regions that Moscow illegally annexed after the start of its full-scale invasion more than 4 1/2 years ago.

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

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

• ​Submit a question

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

Tim Dowling: could the new dog’s tricks make her into a star?

Two women I meet on our walk are way more interested in Jean than me – and insist she’ll clean up if we enter her in the local dog show

It’s a Saturday morning and I’m walking the dog on a vast bit of scrubland. The path in front of me is parched and deserted. Up ahead, the dog turns the corner at a patch of brambles, and I hear the excited voices of two women. My immediate reaction is one of alarm; I whistle, but the dog doesn’t reappear. The voices rise.

Only when I turn the corner myself do I see that everything is fine: the dog is dashing from one woman to the other, tail wagging, and the women are both delighted. Meanwhile, their own dogs stand to one side, staring balefully at the ground, leads trailing.

Nine women in South Africa have been murdered since July. We are being told to be vigilant – but where are the warnings to men? | Nolethu Ndude

The country has one of the highest femicide rates in the world, and women are yet again being asked to remove themselves from public life to counter it

When I heard the authorities advising women in and around Kempton Park, the site of a recent spate of femicides, not to walk or run alone, to avoid isolated places and to “remain vigilant”, my immediate response was anger. Remain vigilant. How groundbreaking.

Women are already vigilant. We photograph number plates before entering vehicles. We share Uber details with friends. We phone one another while walking. We watch the driver’s route and notice every unexpected turn. We avoid certain roads, certain times and certain conversations. We scan parking areas before getting out of our cars. We check the back seat. We listen for footsteps. We carry pepper spray where we can. We hold our keys in a way that makes us feel slightly less defenceless.

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

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

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

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

European education powerhouses rocked by falling scores in global study

France and Germany among countries with low Pisa scores, which show how well 15-year-olds use school learning in life

France’s were its worst ever. Germany’s, too. In the Netherlands, results also tumbled to all-time lows. Even in Finland, Europe’s much-vaunted schools champion and a global leader for decades, scores plummeted.

The 2025 Pisa scores, which assess how effectively 15-year-olds apply school-learned knowledge and skills in reading, mathematics and science to real-life situations, have rocked some of western Europe’s education powerhouses.

Henry Harris’ recipe for tomatoes, creme fraiche and herbs

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

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

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

From Beabadoobee to 70 Up: the week in rave reviews

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

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

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

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

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

‘A maelstrom of his own making’: how Ed Sheeran’s tour turned into a full-blown culture war

Moment of reckoning for ‘Mr Nice Guy’ of music, who embraced Macklemore’s political cred only for pro-Palestine rapper to be dropped under pressure from billionaire

Ed Sheeran has long been known as the “Mr Nice Guy” of music. His is an unthreatening kind of pop stardom; he looks and talks like the bloke who might be standing behind you in a pub, rather than someone selling out stadiums. He champions other artists, he celebrates different cultures. His songs are about love, heartbreak and friendship. People get engaged at his concerts.

But this week, one of the most successful musicians in the world faced the biggest controversy of his career, and found himself dragged into exactly the kind of political row he has spent his career avoiding.

From ovations in Venice to death threats in Israel: the extreme responses to NAZA documentary

As Gaza documentary wins cinematic acclaim, its directors face vitriol in Israel amid a febrile election campaign

First there was a moment of stunned silence. Then, in the Sala Grande, the main screening hall of the Venice film festival within the Palazzo del Cinema, the audience stood almost as one and turned to applaud the film-makers for 25 minutes.

The film the audience had watched for 80 harrowing minutes was the Gaza documentary NAZA, which has been produced by the Guardian.

Jay-Z in 8 review – the rapper’s interminable interview show should have been a podcast

Rick Rubin’s eight-part interview series with the MC is irritatingly unstructured, has portions that feel like filler and would hugely benefit from a different medium – which encourages use of the pause button

Jay-Z in 8 does what it says on the can: the docuseries, released by Mubi, finds influential, mercurial superproducer Rick Rubin interviewing rap titan Jay-Z over the course of eight meandering, freeform episodes. Directed by Rubin himself and shot in black and white, the series is ostensibly designed to give viewers a look inside the brain of a godlike musical figure as he celebrates 30 years in music.

As it makes eminently clear, this is a deeply reflective time for Jay-Z: in any given episode, he is liable to make reference to old collaborators such as Biggie and Jaz-O, reminisce on his upbringing in the Marcy Projects (the public housing units in Brooklyn where he grew up), and speak with astonishment about his rapid rise from crack dealer to generational rapper, often swinging between anecdotes with free-associative ease.

I live in the ‘coolest neighbourhood’ in the world. It’s not as great as you’d think

A wave of tourists and visitors has changed the character of the Seoul neighbourhood I live in and helped create a place that no longer feels like home

In 2021, I was asked by Time Out to nominate a Seoul neighbourhood for its annual list of the world’s coolest. I didn’t think much of it and put forward the one I live in, Jongno 3-ga, in the old centre of the city. Somehow, it got ranked third.

This week, the same area was named the coolest neighbourhood in the world. I should be pleased, but instead, I’m devastated.

Google's Gemini becomes latest AI model to break out and hack computer systems

The disclosure comes as scrutiny over misbehaving artificial intelligence intensifies in Washington and Silicon Valley.

AI security experts say they used Claude to hack ChatGPT

Cybersecurity researchers said they were able to use Anthropic's Claude AI platfom to penetrate ChatGPT in "less than 72 hours."

Nvidia CEO calls for AI to be developed "as fast as we can"

The CEO of the world's largest chipmaker told CBS News that tech companies should proceed with artificial intelligence development despite recent warnings from worried industry leaders that there may be a need to pull back.

Patrick Clancy: "I think I did the best I could"

Asked whether he feels like he failed in some way, Patrick Clancy told 60 Minutes he believes he did the best he could with the information he had at the time.

Holdout juror in Lindsay Clancy trial says he "didn't have any doubts"

Michael Desronvil, the lone holdout juror in the high-profile Lindsay Clancy murder trial, said he "didn't have any doubts" during deliberations.

Steve Hartman reflects on parenting journey as his son leaves for college

Steve Hartman stays home this time around to let us into his parenting journey as his son George leaves the nest for college.

Mountain lion runs wild on streets of San Francisco

A chase for a wild mountain lion terrorizing locals on the streets of San Francisco ended with the feline being caught and carried to safety. Carter Evans has the story.

9/18: CBS Evening News

Trump bans 3 media outlets from White House; Details of power bank fire on plane.

Pentagon releases UFO files with documents on secretive military program

The Pentagon on Friday released a new group of files about unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP or UFOs, including a batch of documents regarding a mysterious military program studying aerospace threats.

Trump signs Russia sanctions bill championed by Graham

The new law lets the president impose tariffs on the largest purchases of Russian oil and natural gas.

AI cloud provider Nscale files to go public

Nscale is the latest artificial intelligence neocloud to turn to public markets.

9/18: The Takeout with Major Garrett

President Trump says he is banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House; Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang argues against artificial intelligence slowdown.

Mortgage rates are nearing 7%. One house hunter says he's "despondent."

"It seems like we're trying to climb out of a hole somebody else is digging," said one frustrated house hunter as homeownership costs rise.

Feds plan to transfer hundreds of pre-trial detainees in private prison dispute

The U.S. Marshals Service is preparing to transfer some Georgia detainees to another private facility 200 miles away.

Elon Musk talks up AI safety while fighting regulation in wild week of strange alliances

In the past week, Musk has agreed with the CEOs of Anthropic and OpenAI, while getting contradicted by President Trump and Nvidia's Jensen Huang.

California Gov. Newsom issues executive order to rein in AI 'before it's too late'

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other 2028 Democratic presidential hopefuls have called for a more aggressive approach to addressing AI fears.

Fed staff should have known Silicon Valley Bank was vulnerable, new report finds

Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman said a new report indicates the central bank's staff missed signs ahead of Silicon Valley Bank's 2023 failure.

Three words from Kevin Warsh have Wall Street wondering how far the Fed will go with rate hikes

The chairman both explained this week's decision to raise interest rates, and raised vexing questions about what comes next