Analysis: Iran war energy shock hits the U.S. economy as gas and diesel prices climb

A new asymmetry in the market means fuel prices won't fall quickly even if the shooting in the Iran war and Strait of Hormuz stops.

Zelenskyy under growing pressure to reinstate sacked defence minister

Campaigners in Ukraine pledge to continue nationwide protests until Mykhailo Fedorov gets his job back

Volodymyr Zelenskyy was under growing pressure to reinstate his sacked defence minister on Wednesday, after campaigners said they would continue indefinite nationwide protests until Mykhailo Fedorov got his job back.

On Tuesday, Zelenskyy bowed to public demands by firing Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi. He appointed Mykhailo Drapatyi as the new head of the country’s armed forces, as part of a radical reshuffle of the top military command.

Woman, 70, charged with murder of British expat Karen Carter in France

Public prosecutor for the region said suspect had been initially arrested shortly after the murder on 29 April last year

A 70-year-old woman has been charged with the murder of Karen Carter, the British expat found dead in south-western France last year, according to reports.

According to the Dordogne Libre and others, the woman was charged on 2 July with Carter’s murder in Trémolat, in the Dordogne, and is “under judicial supervision”.

Tropical Storm Bertha impacting northern Gulf Coast. See its path.

Tropical Storm Bertha is the second named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.

U.S. Secret Service official: 'Threat environment is the highest we've ever seen'

The Secret Service has seen a 40% increase this year in cases involving threats to protectees, include President Donald Trump.

Prosecutors argue D4vd had financial motivation to kill Celeste Rivas Hernandez

Details emerge about how much Interscope Records paid the singer at hearing to determine if there is probable cause for murder case to proceed to trial

Singer D4vd had a multimillion-dollar recording deal, an executive at his former label testified on Wednesday, as prosecutors sought to establish the musician had a financial motivation to kill Celeste Rivas Hernandez.

Details emerged of how much Interscope Records was paying the singer, who was born David Anthony Burke, on the second day of a hearing to determine if there is probable cause for him to stand trial for the murder and sexual abuse of Rivas Hernandez.

Senate panel advances China auto bill that could bar Mercedes-Benz from U.S.

Mercedes-Benz’s largest individual shareholder is Chinese state-owned BAIC. Cruz warned the bill could hurt Mercedes and accused GM of backing it.

Trump threatens to destroy an Iranian bridge or power plant for each strait of Hormuz attack – Middle East crisis live

Threat from US president comes after US military completes 11th night of strikes on Iran

The Jordanian army said it intercepted four Iranian missiles on Wednesday with two additional missile falling in an open area, AFP reports.

The two missiles that the army did not intercept fell in “two remote, uninhabited areas, without causing any human casualties or material damage” the army said in a statement.

What to know about Ukraine's military shakeup

After a week of nationwide protests over the direction of Ukraine's military strategy in the ongoing war with Russia, the Ukrainian military has a new commander, Mykhailo Drapatyi. Here's what to know.

A host of issues: World Cup focus turns to Morocco with costs and legacy topping agenda

With just over 1,400 days to go until 2030 kicks off, the co-hosts are facing a series of challenges familiar to their South African predecessors

Morocco’s World Cup adventure came to a halt with their quarter-final defeat by France. But taking a break, even for a brief post-season summer, is no option for officials of the FRMF, the country’s football federation.

The Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon), in its newly expanded 16-team format, begins in Rabat on Sunday, a week after the World Cup final in New Jersey, and Morocco then hosts the Under-17 Women’s World Cup in the autumn.

Charles Gaines, whose book Pumping Iron helped to popularize bodybuilding, dies at 84

1974 book led to making of seminal documentary and introduced Arnold Schwarzenegger to the world

Charles Gaines, the author whose book and documentary Pumping Iron helped bring professional bodybuilding into the mainstream and introduce Arnold Schwarzenegger to the world, has died. He was 84.

Gaines died on Tuesday, according to Greta Gaines, the author’s daughter. She did not reveal a cause.

‘He knows what he’s doing’: Burnham’s off-the-cuff remarks inspire headlines and headaches

New PM’s conversational tone is markedly different to his predecessor’s, but carries risk of sowing confusion

Before he became Britain’s prime minister, Andy Burnham promised to “do politics differently”. Just three days into his time in Downing Street, that approach is already being put to the test.

In the last two days, the prime minister has been accused of performing U-turns over raising the income tax threshold, raising taxes for higher earners and freezing private sector rents.

Scottish Labour’s rivals decry ‘chancer’ Anas Sarwar for resigning to join Andy Burnham’s government

New prime minister plans to make Sarwar – the first senior Labour figure to call for Keir Starmer’s resignation – a peer

Scottish Labour’s rivals in Holyrood have slammed Anas Sarwar’s shock decision to resign as leader to sit in Andy Burnham’s new government, calling him a “chancer” and accusing him of lying to voters.

The prime minister plans to make Sarwar – who was the first senior Labour figure to call for Keir Starmer to resign – a peer and give him a ministerial post at the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade.

Trump attends dignified transfer of soldiers killed in Iranian attacks

President Trump attended a dignified transfer honoring the four U.S. Army soldiers killed in the Middle East in recent days during the ongoing war with Iran.

Democrats probe DOJ opinion that eases institutionalization of mentally ill

Democrats in the Senate and House are investigating the origins of a DOJ legal opinion that would make it easier for states to keep people with mental illness in institutions, rather than helping them to live at home.

Mykhailo Drapatyi: Ukrainians hope new commander will end army’s ‘Soviet culture’

Drapatyi has long been a critic of the military’s command culture, but experts warn change could take time

Through a haze of smoke, a lone Ukrainian armoured vehicle suddenly burst into view. The BMP-2 accelerated towards a barricade of tyres and debris, smashing through it in seconds as protesters scattered.

Behind the controls, on the chaotic streets of Mariupol on 9 May 2014, was a little-known officer named Mykhailo Drapatyi. The footage became one of the defining images of Russia’s first attempt to seize eastern Ukraine, and made Drapatyi one of Ukraine’s military heroes.

Anti-doping chiefs reject claims of Paul Seixas favouritism as Tour rivals cry foul

• Home rider Seixas yet to be tested at night, unlike some rivals

• Authorities deny French doping agency plays role in who is tested

Anti-doping authorities at the Tour de France have rejected accusations of preferential treatment towards Paul Seixas, the teenage French rider and home favourite who is placed fourth overall.

Seixas and his Decathlon CMA CGM team were tested, with the rest of the peloton, on Monday evening as part of the biological passport testing programme, but the 19-year-old has not yet been subjected to the nocturnal test that both the race leader Tadej Pogacar and the now-withdrawn Jonas Vingegaard underwent.

Man killed in ICE ‘encounter’ was on vacation in US with tourist visa – reports

Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán ran into traffic and killed by semi after federal officials approached him at Florida gas station

The Mexican man who was hit and killed by a semi-truck in Florida when running away from federal immigration officials was vacationing in the US with a tourist visa, according to news reports this week.

The 28-year-old, Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán, was killed on 14 July after an “encounter” with federal officials, including those with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a state highway patrol spokesperson said last week.

Nolan Wells' cause of death undetermined, family's autopsy shows

Nolan Wells, 18, was found dead just off Horn Island in Mississippi after enjoying a day out with friends on July 4.

A strange transmissible cancer is spreading through the catfish in this lake

For more than a decade, there's been something fishy going on in a lake that straddles Vermont and the province of Quebec. It involves cancer, a kind of catfish, and — possibly — clues about how tumors metastasize.

The Guardian view on Andy Burnham and devolution: it takes a powerful centre to decentralise power | Editorial

When it comes to driving an agenda from No 10, the prime minister seems to have learned important lessons from his predecessor’s failure

Before entering Downing Street, Andy Burnham cited the overcentralisation of power as a cause of Britain’s social and economic malaise. In his first week, the new prime minister has signalled his intent to bolster No 10 as an organ of executive power. The apparent contradiction – fortifying the centre to pursue an agenda of decentralisation – arises from a perversity in the way the British state works or, rather, fails to work.

The prime minister is right that too much policy has historically been directed from Whitehall. Reforms in recent years have created institutions with varying degrees of local autonomy – elected mayoralties like the one in Manchester that afforded Mr Burnham a platform for national prominence. But genuine control, especially when it comes to fiscal policy, has not matched the rhetoric of devolution. The Treasury is wary of facilitating profligacy in lower tiers of government. Heads of devolved administrations are also adept at claiming credit when things go well and, when they go badly, diverting the blame on to national government.

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.

Amazon cuts some jobs in its artificial general intelligence unit

Amazon's AGI unit has released a set of AI models, called Nova, and also includes groups working on silicon and quantum computing.

The Guardian view on Chinese workers picking up the pen: poetry in motion | Editorial

A food delivery rider has won the country’s highest literary award. It is part of a growing trend for writing by labourers

The hundreds of millions who have built modern China from the ground up – sweeping its streets, labouring in its factories and ferrying its goods – are often overlooked. But they refuse to go unheard. Last week, a food delivery rider won China’s top literary award. Wang Jibing, 56, first caught attention when a poem about his experiences went viral in 2022. The following year, Hu Anyan’s memoir, I Deliver Parcels in Beijing, became a bestseller.

In the early 20th century, Chinese intellectuals sought to capture the harsh realities of working-class lives. But it was under Mao Zedong that the idea of writing by as well as about the masses became reality, with labourers encouraged to take up the pen. In an era when the party tried to govern the language even of diaries and personal letters, the parameters of style and content were strict, and this enthusiasm swiftly diminished after Mao. But workers’ writing has seen a revival in the 21st century. This time, it is bottom-up rather than directed from above.

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.

In pursuit of 'Instagram face,' are we losing the imperfections that make us human?

Plastic surgery is becoming so normalized and undetectable, it's changing our relationship to reality. The New Yorker staff writer Jia Tolentino considers how beauty standards have dovetailed with AI.

Venezuela’s Maduro gets June 2027 trial date in US drug-trafficking case

Venezuelan president and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been held at Brooklyn jail and both have pleaded not guilty

The ousted Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, will go on trial on US drug trafficking charges starting on 1 June ⁠2027, a judge said ⁠on Wednesday.

Maduro wore beige prison ​garb as he was led into a Manhattan courtroom by US marshals for a hearing before district judge Alvin Hellerstein in one of the most consequential criminal cases in recent history.

DOJ sues 2 Chinese companies over immersion water heaters that can catch on fire

The Justice Department is trying to force the two Chinese companies to recall immersion water heaters used for bathtubs and pools.

Student murdered by ex thought she was meeting him one last time

Catina Salarno's sister, Nina Salarno, became a prosecutor in California to warn others about a common tactic abusers use.

Horse trainer discovers pre-dug grave of missing California teen

After seeing a freshly dug hole while conditioning a horse, the equestrian found out later it was used to bury 17-year-old Justine Vanderschoot.

Sen. Wyden introduces bill to curb Trump's tariff powers

Sen. Ron Wyden said Trump has "abused every trade authority at his disposal" and called his new tariffs on Canadian goods a "shakedown."

Gullah Geechee influence is seen all over the US. Why does a notion of isolation prevail?

A new book from leading scholars and historians pushes back against the narrative that Gullah communities were insulated from the mainland US

Gullah Geechee culture is sometimes viewed as static – a common narrative suggests that, isolated from the rest of the country, enslaved Africans and their descendants in the Sea Islands, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and North Carolina, created a language, tradition and society that insulated them from the mainland US. But this limited imagining deprives Gullah Geechee people of receiving full credit for their contributions to the US south and the country at large.

Even before the US civil war, Gullah influences were seen in places such as Mississippi, Texas and the Caribbean, showing that the Gullah Geechee didn’t remain remote, but rather migrated throughout the country, leaving evidence of their presence in their new homes.

Lung cancer in nonsmokers: "A women's health crisis"

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in American women — and a growing share of new cases are in women who've never smoked.

The human fridge: is this really the best way to cool down in a ‘cruelly hot’ climate?

A ‘personal cooling booth’ that promises to chill you out in 10 minutes has launched in Japan, with its makers claiming it beats air-conditioning or a fan

Name: The human fridge.

Age: Brand new.

Glasgow Commonwealth Games organisers hope for late surge in ticket sales

• Opening ceremony and several events yet to sell out

• Programme reduced from last time city hosted in 2014

Commonwealth Games organisers will hope for a late surge in ticket sales as Glasgow prepares to stage the opening ceremony on Thursday night, with seats still available across a number of events at the four competition venues despite the significantly reduced scale.

The opening ceremony at the OVO Hydro still had adult tickets available on Wednesday, with prices ranging from £45 to £95. The 13,000-capacity arena will host live music, the parade of nations and the arrival of all 74 Commonwealth batons. The six-time Olympic cycling champion Sir Chris Hoy, who revealed in 2024 that he has stage-four cancer, will also take part.

Cutting down on ultra-processed foods isn’t easy. Here are eight tips that worked for my family

Experts say reducing ultra-processed foods can be challenging in a world built around convenience, but these strategies can help make it more manageable

I have been trying to eat fewer ultra-processed foods with my family for five years, and it has been challenging.

Many experts agree that ultra-processed foods (UPF) pose health risks, whether because of unhealthy ingredients, links to disease and environmental impacts, or replacing more nutritious foods. Thus, some consumers – including me – are interested in removing them from their daily diet.

Learn techniques: “Once you know how to saute, it doesn’t matter what you put in the pan.”

Develop knife skills: “If people want to get more comfortable in the kitchen, they should take a knife skills class. Those skills are a massive upscale for confidence in the kitchen.”

Know your taste: “Know what you like, then create that, because that’s the starting place. Don’t start by making miso brownies when the core is to make a really good brownie that you like, because then you’ll do it again.”

Tesla set to report second-quarter results after the bell

Tesla's earnings report lands in the midst of a slide in the company's stock price even as its core auto business is rebounding.

Congressional stock trading curb due to get House vote amid public support for a ban

The House is scheduled to vote on Wednesday on a bill that would bar members of Congress from purchasing additional stocks while in office.

Kalshi debuts a midterm election hub to predict race outcomes

The site claims its hub will provide accurate insights into election outcomes based on traders' bets.

Lobbying giant filmed offering reporter payment for flattering client coverage in national press

Exclusive: Guardian investigation of CT Group uncovers practice that appears to seek hidden influence over public opinion

A political lobbying firm founded by the former electoral strategist for David Cameron and Boris Johnson secretly pays journalists to write pieces for British newspapers that are favourable to its clients, a Guardian investigation can reveal.

In a practice that appears to create a backdoor for private companies to influence public opinion, lobbyists for CT Group – co-founded by the campaign strategist Lynton Crosby – told an undercover reporter they had paid journalists to place apparently independent stories in newspapers.

People are watching the Reflecting Pool like reality TV. What does that say about us?

It's not just watching paint dry. The twists and turns of the Reflecting Pool repairs, originally a two-week project, have kept bloggers and viewers busy all summer.

Streeting says Burnham government will prioritise military over other spending

Defence secretary says he will give arms industry ‘clarity and confidence’ in contrast to row preceding Starmer’s exit

Wes Streeting has said increased defence spending would make “an enormous contribution” to economic growth as he emphasised that the military will be a spending priority for Andy Burnham’s government over other departments.

The new defence secretary, in a speech at the Farnborough airshow, did not make any extra financial commitments but promised he would give the arms industry “clarity and confidence” in contrast to the row that contributed to the fall of Keir Starmer.

France records more than 5,700 excess deaths during June heatwave

Figures come as large parts of southern Europe endure another record-breaking period of extreme temperatures

France recorded more than 5,700 excess deaths during its June heatwave, authorities have said, as swathes of southern Europe continue to endure another record-breaking period of extreme temperatures.

The French national health agency said on Wednesday that it had recorded 5,764 excess deaths ⁠between ​17 June and 2 July, an excess mortality rate of 36%.

Shabana Azeez: ‘The most disgusting thing I’ve seen on The Pitt? American coffee’

The Australian actor on posing as a patient for medical schools, having multiple birthdays on The Airport Chaplain and the song ‘nobody likes’ by the Strokes

What is the most disgusting thing you saw on the set of The Pitt?

I mean, American coffee. It’s bad over there. The de-gloved leg was gross. I saw a full vaginal birth. I drilled into a skull!

Nolan Wells' preliminary independent autopsy results read by attorney Ben Crump

The body of Mississippi teen Nolan Wells was discovered days after he went missing during a Fourth of July boat trip. Attorney Ben Crump read the results of a preliminary independent autopsy commissioned by Wells' family to the public.

Wreckage of Pan Am plane found in ocean 74 years after deadly crash

The crash in 1952 killed 52 people and led to requirements for the passenger safety briefings given on every commercial flight.

In the bizarre world of short-form video, nobody is allowed to take a breath | Adrian Chiles

I never thought I’d miss punctuation so much, but as the pauses on social media videos are cut to shreds, I wonder where the assault on our senses will end

It’s not the worst thing about social media, but something dreadful is happening in short-form videos. At first I thought my phone or my broadband was on the blink. Then I assumed I was just unlucky, that this aberration was practised only by the creators of the very few videos I chanced to see. And now I realise that they all do it. It’s mad, it’s driving me mad, it’s going to drive us all mad. Or perhaps it’s just me. I’m the bonkers one, lost and alone in a world I no longer understand.

It’s the way these things are edited. The pauses between sentences, or even the pauses between clauses within sentences, are cut out. Each sentence clatters in to the next, so whoever is talking sounds as if they’ve lost control of their speech. Words tumble out of them in a frantically fast but disjointed torrentThis is my attempt to reproduce on the page how absurd it soundsI really can’t stand itIt’s a crime against civilised discourseIt’s both a symptom and a cause of madnessI never thought I’d miss punctuation and breaths this muchBut it turns out you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s goneTrue thatPreachOr whatever it is they sayI’ll stop now.

Austria opens police station at Hitler birthplace to deter neo-Nazi tourists

It is hoped opening of unit tackling narcotics trafficking will deter people from visiting it as pilgrimage site

Austria has opened a police station in the birthplace of Adolf Hitler in an attempt to “neutralise” its toxic legacy, after years of debate over how to stop neo-Nazis visiting it as a pilgrimage site.

Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in a rented flat in the centre of Braunau am Inn and spent the first weeks of his life there.

At greyhound life drawing, artists try to tackle complicated shapes

With soulful eyes and ‘reverse chicken legs’, greyhounds are challenging to sketch. At a fundraising event in Melbourne, Josh Nicholas tries his hand

I’ve done life drawing before, but this time I am a bit worried. The woman across the room from me has done life drawing too, “but not with dogs”.

The problem with drawing people from life is they tend to move. The same is true of greyhounds, but they also don’t understand when you ask them to hold a pose.

Moon mountains and star dust: David Malin astrophotography awards 2026 – in pictures

From auroras and nebulas to deep sky star clusters, the competition features submissions from amateur astronomers and photographers from Australia and around the world

• Blue mushrooms, shy trees and glowing seas: Beaker Street science photography prize – in pictures

FDA recalls antihistamine tablets. Here are the affected products.

A generic version of the allergy medication Zyrtec is under recall across the U.S. over cross-contamination concerns.

A 12-year-old casualty of war recovers in hospital: Alessio Mamo’s best photograph

‘Manal suffered severe burns to her arms and face after a missile explosion in Iraq. Yet in many ways she seemed just like a regular young girl’

When I started to take photographs about 18 years ago, I was more interested in the aesthetics. Then came a moment when I realised the power of the camera as a tool. On 3 October 2013 there was a huge shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa. More than 250 migrants from Eritrea lost their lives. I was sent to cover the event, and it was during that assignment that I understood I was interested in telling stories about social injustice, about people’s lives post-conflict.

At first I worked mostly on stories about refugees in Sicily, where I am from, but a few years later I had the opportunity to travel to the Middle East with a friend, the journalist Marta Bellingreri, who is an expert on the region. She was living in Jordan and I joined her there for six months . That is how our project, The Hospital of All the Wars, about the patients at the Médecins Sans Frontières Al-Mowasah hospital in Amman, began.

Independent autopsy 'inconclusive' on cause of death for 18-year-old Nolan Wells in Mississippi

An independent autopsy of the body of Nolan Wells shows that the cause of death is undetermined pending an investigation, according to attorney Ben Crump.

Extreme weather hits across the country as Gulf states prepare for Tropical Storm Bertha impact

Tornadoes swept across parts of the Midwest to the Northeast on Tuesday, leaving behind major damage. Meanwhile, on the Gulf Coast, Tropical Storm Bertha's winds reached 59 mph and rough surf pounded Panama City Beach, Florida. Lana Zak has the latest.

Liverpool issue 432 life bans and seize £1.2m in ticket tout investigation

• Almost 700,000 ticket registrations were analysed

• Club worked with local police economic crime team

More than £1.2m in assets have been seized and 432 lifetime bans issued as part of a clampdown by Liverpool FC and Merseyside police on ticket touting. In the first operation of its kind between a Premier League club and their local police authority, Liverpool’s investigations team worked with the force’s economic crime team to analyse almost 700,000 ticket registrations last season and to focus on the laundering of criminal proceeds from illicit ticket sales.

The joint investigation has led to £1.2m in assets related to organised ticket touts being detained with several cases taking place under the Proceeds of Crime Act. Two people have been convicted and another is due in court next month. The assets seized will be split between Merseyside police and the Home Office.

Salman Rushdie attacker faces US terrorism trial

Hadi Matar, already serving 25 years for attempted murder, denies federal charges that could bring a life sentence

The man who stabbed Salman Rushdie in the eye on stage in 2022 is standing trial for a second time – this time facing terrorism charges after being found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison last year.

Hadi Matar’s federal trial begins in Buffalo, New York on Wednesday, about 70 miles from the venue where Rushdie was due to speak about writers in political exile in August 2022, when he was stabbed more than a dozen times.

Food price fears after Europe’s heatwave destroys estimated €2bn of crops

Record June temperatures expected to cut grain harvest by 9m tonnes to its lowest level since 2018

The heatwave that swept across Europe in June is estimated to have cost the continent’s grain farmers €2bn (£1.7bn) in lost revenue and destroyed 9m tonnes of crops, sparking concern about the impact on the price of food.

Coceral, the European cereals and oilseeds trade association, made the estimate for the harvest of crops such as wheat, barley, maize and oats following the heatwave.

Tornadoes and record flooding leave parts of US east in crisis

Rescuers freed trapped residents as Kentucky and West Virginia faced catastrophic floods and widespread storm damage

A band of extreme weather that ripped through states including Kentucky and West Virginia Tuesday night sparked devastating tornadoes and record flash flooding that left dozens of people trapped in their houses and vehicles, and injured several others.

First responders in one West Virginia county were overwhelmed by the volume of calls as waters rose to unprecedented levels, with rescuers cutting through attic roofs to free those inside. Patrick Morrisey, the governor, placed all 55 counties under a state of emergency.

How Pokémon Go encouraged me to find wonder in the world

These days, I ‘collect’ birdsong and wild flowers, but it all started when my sons and I first set out to find Pikachu and pals

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Believe it or not, Pokémon Go is 10 years old this month. The wildly successful smartphone game, which allows you to track down lovable creatures in the real world using GPS and augmented-reality technologies, has reportedly been downloaded 800m times across 150 countries and regions. A trillion Pokémon have been caught so far – and I have been responsible for a modest percentage of that figure.

When the game was first released, my sons and I spent many happy hours wandering the streets and parks of Frome searching for Jigglypuffs and Charizards, and the game’s social element, which lets you take on gym battles with other players in your vicinity, offered my autistic son a route to communicate with other children in a way he’d never been able to before.

Greetings from Jerusalem, whose holy sites host some of the oldest colonies of nesting swifts

The scythe-winged birds have nested in the cracks of the Western Wall and other holy sites in Jerusalem for thousands of years.

Football Daily | Chelsea’s financial shrug and Liverpool leaking players – what you may have missed

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After the eye-watering excess of the Geopolitics World Cup, we can return to the modest, measured land of the domestic game. While our attention has been elsewhere, Manchester City have splashed £116m on Elliot Anderson. Chelsea, not to be outshone, have splurged £117m on Morgan Rogers. Even Tottenham have parted with £230m to revamp their mildly traumatised squad. Manchester United, who went down to Wrexham in their first pre-season friendly in Helsinki, have kept things modest, buying Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans for the same £85m Spurs have thrown in the direction of relegation’s West Ham for Mateus Fernandes.

I was pleased with a lot of things that I saw in the game. We could do better. We could have taken more responsibility to have the ball instead of just watching and reacting … efficiency is very important at this level. When you don’t kill, you get killed” – new Hearts boss Wouter Vrancken chooses to focus on the positives after the, erm, 4-0 tonking by Sturm Graz in the first leg of their Bigger Cup qualifier.

How’s your World Cup hangover? I must have been bored because I couldn’t help but notice that Tuesday was a rough day for British, Irish and British Overseas Territory club teams in Bigger Cup. Not only were Hearts, Larne, Shamrock Rovers and Lincoln Red Imps all beaten in their second qualifying round first legs, they didn’t manage a single goal among them! Rovers’ Cape Verdean Pico Lopes went from taking Argentina to extra time in Miami just a few weeks ago, to getting blanked by Ararat in Armenia. Larne were were given no home comforts on the coast of Northern Ireland by Red Star Belgrade, who brought on Marko Arnautovic, the Austria veteran who retired from his national side after exiting the GWC at the hands of Spain. Football just rolls on and on” – Peter Oh.

Here we go again, another new face in the top job, you know the drill by now. Smiles, handshakes and social media soundbites. Claims of ‘understanding why people have been frustrated’, promises of ‘change’ and ‘progress’. Speculation about who’s being brought in to play a key role, and who’s out of favour. Sooner or later, the realisation there is no time or trust to make the difficult long-term changes everyone knows are necessary. Media pressure, infighting, the ‘need to act before it’s too late’. Out the door to be replaced by the next great hope, mainly distinguishable by having a different accent. All of which to say, good luck to Alessio Dionisi at Watford this season. Now to see what’s going on in UK politics …” – David Craddock.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

Model scout for Jeffrey Epstein found dead at his home near Paris

Daniel Siad faced allegations of rape and trafficking in France and appeared in more than 1,000 documents in Epstein files

A modelling scout who recruited women for Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead at his home near Paris, French officials have said.

Daniel Siad, 69, was under investigation by the prosecutors specialising in human trafficking in France, accused of rape and other charges. His name appeared in more than 1,000 documents in the US Department of Justice Epstein files that were declassified earlier this year.

Citizens United provision allowing foreign campaign contributions draws Democratic bill

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., want to establish foreign ownership thresholds for companies that spend on campaigns.

Nicaragua’s congress announces ‘work plan’ to suspend elections

US secretary of state says international community should ‘join forces’ against authoritarian Ortega regime

Nicaragua’s congress, controlled by the country’s long-serving president, Daniel Ortega, has announced a “work plan” to implement the authoritarian leader’s order that the country should no longer hold elections.

The UN and the US strongly condemned Sunday’s announcement by Ortega, who has been in power since 2007 and, after a controversial constitutional change last year, now governs alongside his wife, Rosario Murillo, as “co-president”.

Democrats claim Social Security email included "misleading information"

Lawmakers claim Commissioner Frank Bisignano used an agency email to exaggerate tax savings under the Republicans' OBBBA while inserting partisan political messaging.

Tell us your happiest TV show ending

We would like to hear about the endings of TV series that brought you the most joy

From Detectorists to The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, the Guardian’s writers have curated their list of TV’s happiest endings. Now, we would like to hear yours. What was the TV series ending that brought you the most joy?

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Red Kiss – guiding vampires through a blood-soaked cold war Berlin

Inspired by interactive theatre and fuelled by the motion capture tech used by VTubers, the vampire spies in Red Kiss have personality in spades

‘You look at the news and you’re like, ‘Another pointless war, another pointless bloodshed, another pointless genocide.’ And that can make you a bit hopeless.”

Roy van der Schilden, narrative designer and business director at Wispfire, speaks of a very human feeling. But the protagonist of its upcoming game Red Kiss can relate – despite being a vampire.

Tenisha Warner, widow of Malcolm-Jamal Warner, opens up about being a single mom

Tenisha Warner sat down for an exclusive interview with "CBS Mornings" before a lawsuit over her late husband's estate became public, and discussed her grief and raising her daughter alone.

Widow of Malcolm-Jamal Warner opens up 1 year after his death amid lawsuit over his estate

This week marks one year since actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner drowned in Costa Rica while on vacation with his family. His widow, Tenisha Warner, filed a lawsuit on Monday that seeks to recover over a million dollars from the family trust, which is controlled by Malcolm's mother, Pamela Warner. Tenisha spoke exclusively to "CBS Mornings" co-host Gayle King about her grief prior to the lawsuit being filed.

Sperm whales change ‘vowel’ sounds when boats are nearby, scientists discover

Researchers listening off the Caribbean island of Dominica found variations in the mammals’ audible clicks when marine traffic was close

Sperm whales produce a specific pattern of clicking noises when they hear the noise of boats, researchers have found. The pattern is so distinct that the scientists who identified it said they can now use it to predict when ships are nearby.

Researchers from Project Ceti (the Cetacean Translation Initiative), a non-profit research organisation working to decode sperm whale communication, spent four years tuning in on the calls of 15 sperm whales off the coast of Dominica.

Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: mermaidcore calls for shimmer and shells – just don’t go overboard

What does a grownup mermaid look like? It starts with the silhouette …

Before wild swimming was even a twinkle in the eye of the culture, and before ice plunging went viral on TikTok, there were mermaids. Mermaids are the original summer It girls. Who doesn’t want hair that looks great when it’s wet and salty, shell jewellery, killer sex appeal and a life of sun, sea and winding up sailors for kicks? These chicks know how to live.

Mermaidcore is this summer’s hottest style vibe. It is beach chic with a hot-sauce dash of brat energy. Every summer has its own off-duty avatar – tomato girl summer, anyone? – and 2026 is all about mermaids. For legal reasons, please note this column is not endorsing the luring of innocents to certain death. The vibe is Daryl Hannah in Splash, not selkies and sirens.

Wall Street is selling more rental homes, as buying ban takes effect

The largest landlords are all net sellers year to date, with 3,180 more homes sold than bought since Jan. 1.

RFK Jr. says cyclosporiasis outbreak "under control" as CDC reports over 4,000 confirmed cases

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday the cyclosporiasis outbreak is "under control" and claimed last year's federal budget cuts had no impact on the investigation. The CDC is now reporting more than 4,000 confirmed cases in 41 states. Carter Evans reports.

The Fed rang the alarm about Anthropic's Mythos AI model — but had to go months without it

The central bank didn't have access to Claude Mythos Preview as of mid-July, even as other institutions were racing to patch their vulnerabilities.

3 soldiers killed in Iran strike on base in Jordan were from Texas, Hawaii, N.Y.

U.S. forces launched a new round of airstrikes against Iran at the direction of President Trump following the deaths of three U.S. soldiers in an Iranian strike in Jordan.

Track Tropical Storm Bertha's path through the Gulf

CBS News meteorologist Rob Marciano has the latest on Tropical Storm Bertha's projected path as the storm travels through the Gulf of Mexico.

British woman jailed in Hong Kong for blackmail after accusing banker of rape

Isabel Rose, 26, sentenced to six years for blackmail and perverting course of public justice over her allegations against British man

A British woman who reported being raped to police in Hong Kong has been sentenced to six years in prison for blackmail and perverting the course of public justice.

Isabel Rose, 26, from south-east London, travelled to Hong Kong in early 2024 to visit a British banker she had met while travelling in south-east Asia.

Jessica Morgan named new Tate director – with ‘big pay cut’ to take job

Clear frontrunner leaves lucrative role at New York’s Dia Art Foundation to join UK arts organisation at critical juncture

Jessica Morgan has been confirmed as the new director of Tate, marking her return to the arts organisation where she worked as a curator for more than a decade, at a critical juncture in its history.

Morgan, the clear frontrunner in the race to replace Maria Balshaw, who left this spring after nine years in charge, is currently based in New York, where she has led the Dia Art Foundation since 2015.

Putellas, Batlle and León are gone: what will be left of Barcelona after latest exodus?

The European champions’ squad is falling apart … because of the men’s team’s struggles with financial fair play

The joy of lifting all four trophies in 2025-26 has been short-lived for Barcelona’s women’s team as they face a second consecutive summer exodus.

If winning the Champions League is not enough to retain players then you have to wonder what is. Seven players have left the European champions so far with 19-year-old Renee van Asten from Ajax the only arrival.

This is an extract from our free email about women’s football, Moving the Goalposts. To get the full edition, visit this page and follow the instructions. Moving the Goalposts will be sent out once a week, on Wednesdays, in the close season but will be back on Tuesdays and Thursdays from September.

Nostalgia review – Tarkovsky’s yearning cine-poem is deeply mysterious and profound

A scholar has an existential crisis while researching the life of a composer in the Russian director’s Italy-set 1983 masterwork

Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1983 film is a mysterious, imagist cine-poem about alienation and belonging, whose title means a yearning not simply for a lost time or lost place but for something, anything, else – with a profound anguished sense that the here-and-now of existence is unsatisfactory.

The movie takes something from the poetry of the director’s father Arseny Tarkovsky, which is quoted in the film. A distinguished Russian scholar is in Italy to research the life of the (fictional) Russian composer Pavel Sosnovsky who is supposed to have travelled there before being overwhelmed by homesick longing and returning to the motherland. His beautiful, flirtatious interpreter is reading Tarkovsky’s poetry in an Italian translation, and the Russian coldly tells her to throw the book away: “Poetry is untranslatable, like the whole of art.” Does he really mean that? This movie is itself, in a way, translated; it is set in Italy and co-written by Tarkovsky with the veteran Italian screenwriter Tonino Guerra, who worked with Fellini and Antonioni. (Like Jean-Claude Carrière, Guerra, who died in 2012, was a prolific collaborator in European cinema.)

Three speeches on a single day signaled a dying American democracy | Robert Shpiner

Stephen Miller warned of a leftwing ‘cancer’ threatening civilization. As a critical care doctor, I have a response to his diagnosis

The presumption that US elections are legitimate died last week in Washington. It was 237 years old. It did not die of one wound. It died of three, inflicted in a single day, in daylight, on the record. And the country, running to the loudest of them, never examined the one most likely to kill.

In critical care we distinguish the mechanism of death from its cause. The mechanism was a Thursday. The cause was chronic, progressive and untreated.

Robert B Shpiner is a clinical professor of medicine in pulmonary and critical care at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

How to turn beetroot leaves into a classic south Indian vegetable dish – recipe | Waste not

Simple spices, fresh coconut and a handful of lentils or nuts is enough to transform leaves normally destined for the compost

Poriyal is south India’s version of sauteed spiced vegetables, and it can be made with just about any vegetable, though green beans or a leafy green such as spinach, moringa or amaranth are most commonly used. The vegetables are fried with onions and spices, a spoon of urad dal is added for texture (if you don’t have urad dal, a handful of cashews makes a delicious alternative), and it’s finished with a grating of fresh coconut. This fragrant, spicy and flavoursome side dish also works brilliantly with the earthy flavour of beetroot leaves, and I like to serve it with boiled beetroot, yoghurt, chapatis or/and rice.

Do you suffer from organ failure? Here’s why you should give this mightiest of instruments a hearing

A Sunday morning Prom showcases the magnificent RAH instrument, but the organ’s not just for Bach – check out pioneering musicians from Jonny Greenwood to Kali Malone. Plus, Igor Levit is cancelled – and at the top of the German charts

It has 9,999 pipes, it’s 155 years old and 21m high. You can see it, but not always hear it, at every single London prom. I’m talking of course about the Willis organ in the Royal Albert Hall, which takes centre stage this weekend on Sunday morning’s recital by French organist Olivier Latry.

With his mostly Bach programme, Latry’s recital represents the core of the organ’s repertoire, music that has been heard in cathedrals and on concert hall organs for centuries. It will be magnificent in the building-shaking flesh on Sunday morning, but my assurances might not be enough to convince non-organ fans that they should forgo a lazy Sunday morning and head to South Kensington.

Six beluga whales finally leave embattled Canadian marine park

Whales flown to US aquariums after long-running saga in which Marineland had threatened to euthanise them

Six beluga whales have at last left Marineland, the embattled Canadian marine park in Niagara Falls that previously threatened to kill its own animals, and are arriving at US aquariums this week.

While the whales’ journey into the US marks the end of their long and controversial saga of captivity in Canada, advocates say the new conditions, though superior to Marineland, could bring continued challenges.

Mortgage rates are rising again, but homebuyers are seeing some advantages

Mortgage rates last week rose to the highest level since last August, but homebuyer demand climbed as well, as buyers see more supply.

Trump to attend dignified transfer of fallen soldiers. And, Hegseth testifies on Iran

Trump will attend the dignified transfer of U.S. service members killed in the Middle East. And, Pete Hegseth is requesting billions from Congress to help with the rising cost of the war in Iran.

Her son was killed by ICE at a traffic stop. She says she's still waiting for justice

Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, was fatally shot by an ICE agent two months into President Trump's second term. His mother says her family has yet to receive justice.

What is Pickaxe Mountain, the Iranian nuclear facility Trump is threatening to strike?

"We'll be hitting that area pretty soon, and very heavily," President Donald Trump said about Iran's underground nuclear facility in Pickaxe Mountain.

The rise of the ‘hot literati’: how reading became sexy

Celebrities are hosting literary clubs and designers are launching products emblazoned with the classics – but does reading’s trendy turn have a darker side?

From celebrity book clubs to the revival of the edgy literary party, being a book lover is in. Dior has launched new versions of their Book Tote emblazoned with the covers of classics such as Ulysses and Dracula. Earlier this year, Coach collaborated with Penguin to produce miniature literary bag charms – fully readable micro-versions of books, from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings to Sense and Sensibility. Miu Miu hosts a Literary Club; Chanel its Rendez-vous littéraire.

Being bookish is now sexy, we’re told. i-D magazine recently ran a piece on the Whitney Review – a literary journal based in New York – proclaiming its team part of the “hot literati reshaping criticism”. The founder describes the Review as “sexy, surprising, stubborn”, and its contributors “curious and beautiful” (corroborated by an accompanying shoot in which the Whitney team look more like a bunch of models than anything else). But the piece raised eyebrows in the comments section of i-D’s Instagram page: “the definition of vacuous and vapid”, writes one user; “No room for ugly literati, only HOT”, says another. Should we be sceptical about reading’s voguish turn?

‘The magnificent, the magical, the marvellous!’ It’s TV’s happiest endings

Gold dances, the Good Friday agreement and standup superstardom … get ready to blub because here are the most heartwarming denouements in TV history

Warning: this article contains spoilers

BBCPhil/Storgårds / Park & Jupiter Ensemble reviews – stylish Strauss and lyrical Sibelius … and a lutenist’s singalong

Royal Albert Hall, London
Sueye Park’s poetic, enthralling Proms debut in Sibelius’s violin concerto was followed by an effervescent late-night concert from Thomas Dunford’s Jupiter Ensemble with Laurence Kilsby

A late-night Prom can sometimes serve as a musical Rennie, a soothing digestif after 90 minutes of heavyweight orchestral fare. Fortunately, none was needed here. In the early evening programme John Storgårds kept the BBC Philharmonic sufficiently light on its feet, while Sueye Park made the most poetic of Proms debuts in Sibelius’s violin concerto, a cornerstone work she owned from start to finish.

If the opening wash of strings was barely audible over the whirr of the Royal Albert Hall air-con, it wasn’t long before the South Korean violinist grabbed our attention, her lean, silvery tone penetrating and intensely lyrical. In fact, Storgårds seemed to worry unnecessarily, keeping the orchestral volume on a low simmer for much of the work’s span. Park, an enthralling musical raconteur, imbued the first movement with a forthright romantic sweep before conjuring the kind of laser-focused, ethereal fireworks that set the finale dancing.

Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender review – engaging TV-to-movie adventure

A feature-length continuation of the much-loved animated series provides enough for fans as well as the uninitiated

Avatar just can’t catch a break at the movies. Not the blue-cat-people franchise that makes at least a billion dollars each time, mind you – though that mega-successful series is part of what vexes big-screen versions of Avatar: The Last Airbender, a Nickelodeon animated series that predates the release of the similar-named, different-premised James Cameron film. Following the anime-inspired, fan-beloved show’s three-season run on cable, the material was adapted into a live-action feature, The Last Airbender, by no less than M Night Shyamalan, released six months after Cameron’s megahit. The Last Airbender was a decent-sized hit, but loathed by fans and critics alike – even today’s crop of Shyamalan boosters can’t find much positive to say about it – and failed to kickstart the hoped-for live-action film series. (Netflix has since made an unrelated live-action adaptation as a TV show.)

More recently, Paramount announced that an animated sequel film, Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, following the characters years after the events of the series, would arrive in movie theaters – only to delay the release and eventually backtrack its theatrical status, turning it into a direct-to-streaming movie. The film was then leaked online, well ahead of its debut. Now it’s getting a token two-city theatrical release, simultaneously with its debut on Paramount+, to make sure it qualifies for this year’s Oscars. Given the franchise’s cinematic luck so far, the film-makers may not need to clear shelf space quite yet.

I joined the long lines for Trader Joe’s viral tote bags. What I found surprised me

Shoppers are waking up before sunrise to score the $3 mini grocery bags, which have become a global status symbol

A Friday morning on a public holiday usually means sleeping in. Instead, I was standing outside my local Trader Joe’s before 7am, staring at a line of shoppers that seemed to stretch for miles.

The grocery store in Santa Clarita, just north of Los Angeles, wouldn’t open for another hour. But hundreds of people were already waiting for the same thing: Trader Joe’s new striped pastel mini canvas totes, a $2.99 reusable bag that has inspired a frenzy more typically associated with sneaker releases or concert presale tickets.

Southampton head coach Tonda Eckert charged with misconduct by FA over spygate scandal

• 33-year-old German could be hit with one-year ban

• South-coast club denied chance to win promotion

Southampton’s manager, Tonda Eckert, is facing a lengthy suspension from all football activity after being charged with three counts of misconduct by the Football Association.

They relate to the Spygate scandal and involve breaching FA rules during covert missions to illicitly observe Championship training sessions involving Middlesbrough, Ipswich and Oxford last season.

U.S. and Iranian attacks continue as tensions mount on a key waterway in the Red Sea

The fighting comes as the Trump administration is seeking billions of dollars more from Congress for the war with Iran, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says has already cost $37.5 billion.

Video shows death of man in Italy while under police restraint - video

Warning: some viewers may find the following footage distressing. Italian police have clashed with demonstrators in Bologna, northern Italy, during a protest over a man's death. The demonstrations on Monday night followed Italian media reports that Abderrahim Fakir, a Moroccan-born businessman, had died on Sunday when police tried to arrest him.

A video filmed by a resident and shared on social media shows Fakir repeatedly calling for help as two officers sit on him and ambulance workers appear to look on

• Protests in Italy after Moroccan man dies pleading for help from police

Opposition parties shut down Indian parliament in solidarity with ‘cockroach’ protests

Proceedings suspended as politicians call for Modi government to address police violence and education scandals

India’s opposition parties have shut down parliament in a protest calling for the resignation of the education minister, in solidarity with the new youth-led “cockroach” movement.

Opposition politicians, led by the Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, gathered outside the parliament building in Delhi on Wednesday, many dressed in black and waving placards calling on Dharmendra Pradhan to quit.

The world is on fire, and who does Trump blame? The Canadians | Arwa Mahdawi

The US president has been complaining about Canada’s ‘filthy, polluted and unhealthy air’. Maybe he should put all that energy into tackling the climate crisis

Right, that’s it: we’ve got to do something about Canada. The country’s wildfires, which resulted in air quality alerts across more than 20 US states, ruined my weekend. On Friday the air in Philadelphia, where I live, was so unhealthy I couldn’t go outside without my eyes stinging. My kid’s preschool cancelled outdoor time, while the city suspended trash pickup and closed public pools.

You know who did not suspend their regularly scheduled programming because of a bit of toxic smoke? The plot monitoring committee at my allotment. Despite the apocalyptic conditions, they were still busy ensuring the gardening bylaws were strictly adhered to. I realised this on Saturday when I got an official violation for too many weeds. Yes, I’d got a bit carried away with “chaos gardening” (all the rage these days) and I’d meant to clean things up on Friday, until the smoke got in the way. So, thanks for that Canada.

‘If all else fails, sue’: how ultra-processed food firms are using the courts to obstruct health rules

Exclusive: Global investigation reveals 235 lawsuits have been brought against governments in five countries since 2010

The world’s biggest ultra-processed food companies have filed scores of lawsuits challenging government policies that tackle junk diets, the Guardian can reveal.

Ultra-processed food (UPF) is linked to harm in every major organ system of the human body and poses a seismic threat to global health. Worldwide consumption is rising and UPF now makes up as much as half the average diet in many countries, including the UK, the US and Australia.

It cost £2.1bn to divert a river in Brazil’s outback. So where has all the water gone?

Despite official claims that the São Francisco River project supplies 12m people, many of those who had to make way for its construction in 2007 still have no water at all

A concrete canal cutting through the Caatinga scrubland feeds a surface reservoir two and a half miles from Maria de Fátima Ferreira da Silva’s home in rural Brazil. The canal passes Sertânia and continues until it reaches Monteiro, the next town along, where it spills its precious cargo into the bed of the Paraíba River – a human-directed inflow into the seasonally dry waterway.

Such proximity to a reliable water source would usually be considered a blessing in the sertão, a vast outback in Brazil’s north-east known for its punishing droughts. But not for Ferreira, who was displaced nearly 20 years ago by the construction of the canal and now lives in a house without any water supply, despite the nearby reservoir.

Maria de Fátima Ferreira da Silva in her maize crop at Salão productive rural village. She bathes at the reservoir and collects water there for her smallholding and donkey, and pays to fill her barrel with drinking water each month

‘The moles of Poblado Uno’: villagers’ mission to recover body of Venezuela quake victim

The Guedez García family spent 18 days searching for their missing daughter in La Guaira, Venezuela, after devastating earthquakes last month. When her body was finally found, the family and volunteers from their village of Poblado Uno travelled back home to lay her to rest

In a mountainside cemetery high above Caracas, far from the chaos of Venezuela’s earthquake-lashed coast, a family of three huddles in the back of a pickup truck coming to terms with their loss.

“At first, it will be difficult,” says Adolfo Guedez, tears rolling down his cheeks as his eldest daughter, Carmen, hugs a wooden cremation box containing the ashes of her sister, Alexandra.

Yaritza García and her daughter, Carmen, hug after receiving the box containing the remains of Alexandra at El Junquito Cemetery on the outskirts of Caracas

ICE detentions hit highest monthly total in June since crackdown began

More than 43,000 immigrants were arrested last month as DHS continues to detain people in less-publicized enforcement surges.