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

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

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

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

‘Then who or what did we cremate?’ Daughter’s horror at finding bones in British wildfire victims’ car

Danielle Gillam-Kirton claims police botched investigation into her parents’ deaths in Spain and is demanding answers

When Danielle Gillam-Kirton’s parents, Pete and Fran Gillam, were killed in July’s Spanish wildfires, she felt her nightmare could get no worse. The much-loved couple had built their home in Bédar in Almería after retirement, becoming part of a tight-knit community. Fran, a former headteacher, loved to organise quiz nights to raise money for the local school and the couple enjoyed playing padel at a nearby sports club.

Spanish police told Gillam-Kirton that the vehicle in which her parents died had been “inspected meticulously” and no possessions had been found. But Gillam-Kirton, an assistant headteacher from Nottinghamshire, was sure her parents must have been wearing their wedding rings when they died.

After Lindsay Clancy mistrial, what happens next?

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

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

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

Fetterman texts reveal impatience with constituent duties

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Judge refuses to block Pentagon from firing Stars and Stripes journalists

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How Gloria Steinem’s lifechanging stay in India shaped her approach to feminism

The activist said her two years studying and travelling in country ‘made me who I am’

• ‘We badly need to raise our boys more like our girls’: Gloria Steinem – a life in quotes

• Gloria Steinem: A life in pictures

When Gloria Steinem’s plane touched down in Bombay in 1957, she could not have known that her stay in India would become what she later called a “pivotal, life-dividing event [that] made me who I am”.

She was 22, with a degree in government from Smith college and was travelling on a Chester Bowles fellowship.

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

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

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

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

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

Cameron Myers shines in star-studded field to win 1500m at Diamond League final

• Australian beats Olympic champs Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Cole Hocker

• Pole vaulter Kurtis Marschall soars over 5.82m to finish third in Brussels

Middle-distance runner Cameron Myers has become only the eighth Australian to win a Diamond League final crown with victory in the men’s 1500m in Brussels.

The 20-year-old claimed one of the biggest wins of his career to date as he beat a star-studded field that included Olympic champions Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Cole Hocker to continue his own meteoric rise.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Act 3 review – queer art history and life reflections from masters of metatextuality

Telluride film festival
Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor’s absorbing documentary is a parallel take on their relationship and a nascent drama on artists Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore

Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor are artists and film-makers from Ireland who have created eerie and suspenseful psychological dramas in parallel with a strand of complex and self-questioning essay movies. They explore ideas about history and identity, ruminating on their creative selves and metatextually examining (or re-examining) their own work. You may call it the “Alfred Hitchcock” and “Chris Marker” sides to their work. Sometimes, their documentaries act as a kind of commentary on the fiction feature they are developing at the same time: like The Future Tense, a film about the ideas encountered during a planned movie about the pro-IRA English heiress Rose Dugdale, a project which came to fruition as the drama Baltimore.

Now, they have made a strangely mesmeric, deeply personal, mysteriously stylised film called Act 3, which may itself yet herald a conventional drama about its notional subject. It is structured around Molloy and Lawlor having a weirdly self-aware dialogue about their lives together over 40 years, filmed singly in shot-reverse-shot (was each holding the camera on the other?) but speaking quietly and slowly, as if under hypnosis.

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

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

Supreme Court sides with Republicans in fight over broadcast ad rates

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

9/4: CBS Evening News

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

Judge lets Pentagon move forward with firing Stars and Stripes journalists

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

José Mourinho sick as a Parrott as Real Madrid sunk by Real Betis and Irish supersub

• Mbappé sees late penalty saved by Valles

• PSG are beaten by league leaders Monaco

Real Madrid’s perfect start in La Liga ⁠ended on Friday when Real Betis beat them 1-0, with the ⁠substitute Troy Parrott ⁠scoring ​nine minutes from time and goalkeeper Álvaro Valles saving a stoppage-time ⁠penalty from Kylian Mbappé.

The clash began at a high tempo but the pace ⁠dropped after the interval in the heat in ​Seville. The Republic of Ireland star Parrott, introduced ‌in the 68th ‌minute, broke the deadlock in the 81st when ‌he reacted quickly after Thibaut Courtois parried a header into his path.

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Alcaraz into fourth round after straight sets victory

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

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

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

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

Isak’s rapid double sinks Ipswich to give Andoni Iraola first Liverpool win

A first win for Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool, the introduction of the latest star signing in Bradley Barcola making for a successful Friday night. Better yet, continuing signs that Alexander Isak, last year’s model, is coming back to life, his two, well-taken early goals securing the three points. That Cody Gakpo, Isak’s supplier, might have been at Manchester City or Tottenham had the transfer runes been right, added further to a sense of renewal. Liverpool’s attackers were full of the speed and invention sorely lacking for much of last season.

Once Barcola arrived in the second half, those velocity levels increased yet further, Liverpool playing the attacking style, high on risk and entertainment, the appointment of Iraola promised. “We are starting to get to the way we want to play,” said Isak afterwards.

9/4: The Takeout with Major Garrett

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

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

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

Alexia Putellas begins WSL ride as London City outclass Manchester United

There are few scenarios since Millwall Lionesses broke away from Millwall and became London City Lionesses that would have felt more surreal than the idea of Alexia Putellas captaining the side to a statement win in a WSL season-opener in Bromley just seven years later.

Here we are though: referees have to get used to the formerly talismanic Barcelona captain stooping to pick up the coin after the toss, as is her custom; players must get used to eyes and cameras looking past them to focus in on the influential No 11; and the two-time Ballon d’Or winner has to get used to playing with teammates not drilled in a very specific style of play from such an early age that it becomes an inherent part of them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Indictment details alleged lies by ICE officer charged in Minneapolis shooting

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

Judge weighs how to dismiss Reflecting Pool vandalism charge against Olympian

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Judge declares mistrial in Lindsay Clancy case after jury deadlocked again

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

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

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

Lindsay Clancy judge declares mistrial – what happens next?

The case essentially goes back to the same status as before the trial began, and prosecutors have to decide whether to try again

• Full report: Judge declares mistrial in Lindsay Clancy case

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A Massachusetts jury was unable to come to a unanimous decision in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, a mother accused of murdering her three children, and a mistrial has been declared by Judge William Sullivan.

The 12-person jury was made up of nine women and three men and, according to the notes given to the court, was split 11 to one.

‘‘Never Forget’ is not a slogan’: Mamdani designates 9/11 as a Day of Remembrance and Service

The New York City mayor will sign two executive orders honoring those impacted by the attacks, as he faces campaign to exclude him from the 25th anniversary commemoration

New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani is set to designate September 11 as a Day of Remembrance and Service ahead of the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

Mamdani’s office announced on Friday morning that the mayor will sign two executive orders honoring victims, first responders, survivors, city workers and families affected by the attacks. The orders will also strengthen the city’s ability to protect New Yorkers and maintain essential services during emergencies.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cambridge University asks former chief crown prosecutor to open Arday review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The week around the world in 20 pictures

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert to retire in December

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

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

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

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

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

Vuelta a España: Wout van Aert battles scorching heat to claim stage 13 victory

• Mas keeps hold of red jersey with 1min 45sec lead

• Kooij claims stage win at Tour of Britain

Wout van Aert won his fourth career stage at the Vuelta a España amid scorching heat on Friday, while Enric Mas kept the red jersey.

On a hot and sunny day in southern Spain, Van Aert beat fellow breakaway rider Valentin Paret-Peintre to claim the hilly 192km jaunt from Almuñécar to Loja.

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

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

With jury deadlocked, judge declares a mistrial in Lindsay Clancy's murder case

The judge in Lindsay Clancy's murder case has declared a mistrial after the jury was unable to agree on a verdict.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

Martin Rowson on the return of the Falklands debate – cartoon

Russia strikes Ukraine intelligence HQ in ‘major escalation’

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

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

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

Employer and worker health plan costs expected to jump in 2027

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

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

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

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

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

Pulling the SNAP lever + Why Gen Zers bet (invest?) differently

Changing SNAP eligibility actually can change consumption habits.

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

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

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

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

As AI madness encroaches, we need human connection more than ever. But we’ll have to fight for it | Van Badham

We don’t want the isolating, automated outputs tech lords are selling us. We’re yearning for a shared frame of reference

I have a cherished memory of a family trip to the movies. In the Australian tradition, we bought choc-top ice-creams, chattered through pre-show trailers and a hush fell on the full house as the movie started.

It was Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, on film, only a couple of weeks ago, months after its release.

Carse left out in cold again and told to ‘work through issues’ after Derby bar incident

• Fast bowler left out of England squads to face Sri Lanka

• Player being investigated regarding late-night episode

Brydon Carse has been left out of England’s white-ball squads to face Sri Lanka at the end of the season and told to “work through the issues” that led to him being handcuffed by police outside a bar in Derby last month.

Carse, 31, is being investigated by the Cricket Regulator regarding the late night incident in August that prompted his removal from England’s plans for the ongoing Test series against Pakistan. Derbyshire police are also looking into an alleged assault that night, albeit Carse’s involvement is not currently known.

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

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

‘Like a tired boxer, battered by applause’: as Andrew Scott’s biopic premieres, Richard Eyre remembers Ian Charleson’s superb, near-death Hamlet

In 1989, the Chariots of Fire actor took on the incredible task of playing Shakespeare’s prince while terminally ill from Aids. This weekend sees the world premiere of Elsinore, a new film about the episode, itself heavily-tipped for awards

Ian Charleson was one of the finest actors of his generation and an important figure in the fight for gay rights. Yet the extraordinary circumstances of his final performance as Hamlet, just months before his death, are less familiar.

Now, a new film is bringing that haunting production back to life. Elsinore, directed by Simon Stone and starring Andrew Scott as the Scottish actor, will premiere at Telluride this weekend before opening the London film festival in October.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nigel Farage meeting a 'shadowy foreign donor'? It can only be another establishment stitch-up | Marina Hyde

The only thing more dodgy than Reform’s financial dealings is the egregious lunchtime combination of oysters, Guinness and champagne

How many sarcastic air quotes is too many for quoting Nigel Farage’s suggestion that Reform have been ““““““““hoaxed”””””””” by some undercover investigators into appearing to seek to get round electoral law to bag a £500k donation from a foreigner, as well as commissioning off-the-books polling and failing to identify it to newspapers? I don’t feel eight was too many. I could run to nine. Amazing, really, that it’s been as long as a few weeks since Farage had a crash-out and forced a byelection. All any of us wants is for Nigel to once again resign after a staged shitfit and ask a few thousand members of the public to judge him.

For whatever reason, though, the law of our country does not amount to an “ONLY THE PEOPLE OF CLACTON CAN JUDGE ME” tattoo, and so it is that as Reform’s conference gets under way today, the party has been reported to the police for allegedly using foreign money to fund its activities. It’s all based on a covert sting carried out by Verbatim – an investigative group founded by journalists from the non-profit Centre for Climate Reporting – and broadcast last night on Channel 4 News.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Philippine vice president is ordered arrested for threats against the president

It's part of a political showdown with Marcos. A trial could impact her plans to run for president in 2028.

For Gloria Steinem, fashion was about much more than aesthetics

In an era when feminists were stereotyped as unattractive, the pioneering writer’s style created a Trojan horse

• Gloria Steinem obituary

• Gloria Steinem: A life in pictures

When people wanted to dismiss Gloria Steinem, they spoke about how she looked. Talking about the pioneering activist and journalist who turned feminism into a major civil rights movement, it might seem reductive to focus on her glasses.

But after Steinem – whose death at 92 was announced on Thursday – wore them on the cover of Newsweek in 1971 next to the cover-line The New Woman, the lightly tinted aviators – often worn over her hair – became an accidental form of self-branding that made her instantly recognisable. They were as indelibly linked to her legacy as Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s jabots or even Anna Wintour’s sunglasses. They also became one of her greatest weapons.

Myanmar military head visits Vietnam to normalize relations

His trip to Vietnam marks his third visit to an ASEAN member state as he seeks to restore Myanmar's standing in the bloc.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Queer Edward II review – funny, touching time capsule of Derek Jarman at work

Venice film festival: Filmed during the making of his queer royal feature, while the director was living with HIV, the candid footage includes uproarious scenes at a Cliff Richard rehearsal

There could hardly be a more vivid time-capsule film about the publicly funded British arts scene in the early 1990s than this engrossing fly-on-the-wall documentary about Derek Jarman and his movie Edward II. Based on the play by Christopher Marlowe, it is about the 14th-century English king and his love affair with his court favourite, Piers Gaveston, with Steven Waddington and Andrew Tiernan as the leads and Tilda Swinton as Queen Isabella.

This film uses the tremendously funny and candid making-of footage shot at the time by Seamus McGarvey, who had worked as a camera assistant on earlier Jarman films War Requiem and The Garden, and whose distinguished career as a cinematographer lay ahead. Jarman emerges as an effortless leader with a beaming patrician authority, rather like David Lean or Richard Attenborough, the kind of chief whom subordinates instinctively wish to please while keeping from him the grubby problems that they themselves have to deal with, such as paying quarrelsome extras or handling tabloid press questions. Jarman had had his HIV diagnosis for five years at this stage, managing the situation with meds which McGarvey’s camera notices.

A storm destroyed her tea factory. One Canadian friend kept the business alive 2,300 miles away

Two businesswomen made a promise to each other, and after two years of support, the Asheville Tea Company in North Carolina will reopen

When Jessie Dean and Alexandra Sangster met in the summer of 2024, they made a pact. The two women both ran tea companies – Dean’s Asheville Tea Company in North Carolina and Sangster’s Sarjesa, more than 2,300 miles away in Calgary, Canada – and they pledged to support each other if their businesses ever needed it.

“The first time I spoke to her, I was like, ‘If something happens to your teabag machine, I’ll make your tea,’” Sangster said. “And if something happens to mine, you can make my tea.”

‘Men calling us woke need our show more than most’: punks Piss on finding strength in visceral confrontations of sexual violence

The Vancouver band earned a cult fandom for their uncompromising gigs. As they ready their brutal debut album, they discuss subverting audience expectations and the nightly toll of excavating trauma onstage

You’d be hard pressed to find a band with fewer airs and graces than Piss. First, there’s the unavoidable matter of their name, which they style in all caps, no nonsense; a word that scans as vulgar and combative but also somewhat facetious when displayed on their merch in loopy cursive, sometimes decorated with bows. The Vancouver quartet’s music is a merciless cyclone of hardcore, poetry, sound collage and performance art that revolves entirely around singer Taylor Zantingh’s experiences with sexual violence.

On stage at Eindhoven’s Hit the City festival in late August, the band greets the stacked crowd with a trigger warning before drummer Garreth Roberts, bassist Gavin Moya and guitarist Tyler Paterson launch into pulverising fits of noise-punk, broken up by audio samples of children laughing and feminist writer Andrea Dworkin talking about pornography. Zantingh hurls herself around, clutching at her stomach and flinging her pigtails before winding down to a nervous, twitching standstill. The intense set is finely tuned to present a narrative of gender-based violence not as entertainment, but as lived experience. They play it exactly the same every night, and have done for the last two years.

‘Many of us in Israel live in a state of shock at the savagery’: veteran director Amos Gitai returns to Gaza

The writer-director once called Israel’s ‘one-man New Wave’ is in Venice with The Road to Jericho, a new and poetic attempt to highlight the plight of those in the occupied West Bank

The Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar sits off dust-blown Highway-1, between Jerusalem and Jericho in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. At the village centre is the “school of tires”, a fragile construction of rubber, wood and adobe which is attended by around 300 Bedouin boys and girls. The Israeli authorities denied the villagers an official building permit and ruled that the entire settlement is illegal. For the past eight years the school has been operating under threat of imminent demolition, a symbol of resistance to widespread settler violence.

It is only international pressure, says the veteran Israeli writer-director Amos Gitai, that has kept the place upright and still open. “The school has become a litmus paper. It is a test of how far the international community will go [to protect the rights of the people of Khan al-Ahmar]. For once, on this issue, Europe stood up and said no.” As for the future, who can tell?

Weather tracker: Hurricanes in the Pacific, but none yet this season in the Atlantic

The current record for the latest Atlantic hurricane formation could be broken this year

There are currently two category 4 hurricanes and one category 1 hurricane in the Pacific at the same time. Meanwhile, the Atlantic has been devoid of hurricanes so far this season, making it only the eighth year in the satellite era (about 1960 to present) to go into September without a hurricane. Forecast activity remains quiet for the next seven days at least. This means there is a chance the current record for the latest Atlantic hurricane formation – 11 September in 2002 and in 2013 – will be broken.

Category 1 Hurricane Marie, category 3 Hurricane Karina, and category 4 Hurricane Lowell are spinning around in the Pacific. The National Hurricane Centre says there is too much uncertainty around Lowell to determine potential impacts on Hawaii, whereas Marie and Karina are not currently expected to have any impacts and should stay in open waters.

Katseye review – petulant hyperpop bops from a girl group in crisis

O2 Arena, London
Fans scream ‘eat zucchini’ as if their lives depend on it as the six-piece’s remaining members strut their way through chest-rattling hits, ludicrous bangers and flaccid flops

It takes a certain amount of resilience to be a Katseye fan. Since debuting three years ago via the boot camp meets reality TV show The Debut: Dream Academy, the multinational K-pop hybrid girl band have put their so-called Eyekons through the wringer. Last month alone they lost their second member to a “personal health and wellness” related hiatus, with Sophia joining Manon (who stepped away in more mysterious circumstances back in February) on the sidelines. Weeks later, they landed their first US No 1 album with Wild, a collection led by the carbonated dance-pop rocket Pinky Up – a song referred to by the band’s many online detractors as “skibidi toilet music” (ie slop).

Even as this debut arena tour arrived in the UK, there were fears the newly reshaped quartet might be reduced to a trio after Megan sprained her ankle. But if the fans are worried, they don’t show it, their ear-piercing screams drowning out the opening Hootie Frutti, a sonic melange that somehow makes Brazilian funk sound leaden. By the time petulant hyperpop bop Internet Girl kicks in they’re screaming lines like “eat zucchini, eat zucchini” as if their lives depend on it.

Gas prices surge just before Labor Day, as diesel hits record high

Diesel hit a record of $5.85 a gallon Friday, eclipsing its prior mark of $5.81, set in June 2022.