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The Guardian

Israel is forcing us to leave Gaza City. We know they may never let us return (mer., 10 sept. 2025)
The Guardian’s reporter in Gaza describes the dilemma facing her family and others, many hungry, penniless and without transport The ninth of September is my sister Enas’s birthday, so we were happy this morning, drinking coffee as a family and telling jokes, until we saw the leaflets dropping down telling us to evacuate. So now, instead of preparing biscuits and cakes to celebrate, we are packing for another displacement. The Israeli army’s plan to occupy Gaza City sent me back to memories of the early days of the war: the tension, the terror and the psychological pressure. I am afraid the cycle of displacement will repeat itself again. Continue reading...
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Mandelson the self-styled fixer-in-chief gives hopeless Kemi a helping hand | John Crace (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
The Tory leader usually misses the open goals, but after the US ambassador’s creepy letter to Epstein she went in for the kill Some days you just have to write off. Keir Starmer might have guessed that this was going to be one of those days when he was woken up at 4am to be told that Russia had launched a drone attack through Poland. It was a time to count his minimal blessings. Principally that he wasn’t the French prime minister. That is a zero-hours contract job. You’re lucky to survive a three-month probationary period. But even Keir can’t have been expecting to be thoroughly duffed up by Kemi Badenoch at prime minister’s questions. That’s just never been part of the script. The whole point of the Tory leader was that she had always been Keir’s strongest ally on a Wednesday lunchtime. Guaranteed to miss every trick. Miss every open goal. Only last week she had failed to land a significant blow when Angela Rayner was fighting for her political life. It was Kemi who kept Angela in a job for an extra day. Continue reading...
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The road to the 2026 World Cup: who has qualified and who is at risk (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Forty-eight teams will participate in next summer’s World Cup and 30 places are still up for grabs Forty-eight teams will participate in next summer’s World Cup, with the hosts, Canada, Mexico and the United States, granted automatic entry. A further 43 places are determined by qualifying competitions from the six confederations and the remaining two will be decided at March’s six-team intercontinental playoffs in Monterrey and Guadalajara. After this month’s internationals, 18 countries have places booked. The draw is due to take place on 5 December at Washington’s Kennedy Center. Continue reading...
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‘It’s like they’re trying to get prosecuted’: when cartoons try to take down governments (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
From The Simpsons mauling George HW Bush to South Park’s current head-to-head with Trump, animations are no stranger to political battles. But sometimes, things get far, far more brutal It shouldn’t really be a surprise that South Park has become “the most important TV show of the Trump 2.0 era”. Trey Parker and Matt Stone have spent decades taking any potshot they like at whoever they choose, from Saddam Hussein to Guitar Hero to – thanks to their inexplicable 2001 live-action sitcom That’s My Bush! – other sitting presidents. But by using every episode in its latest series to focus their fury solely at the current US administration, hitting Trump with a combination of policy rebuttals and dick jokes (and daring him to sue them in the process), this is the strongest sense yet that Parker and Stone are out for nothing less than full regime change. Continue reading...
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The unconscious process that leads to creativity: how ‘incubation’ works (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
The creativity process has been divided into four phases – including one where you need to let your unconscious do the work AE Housman, the English classical scholar and poet, often took a walk after lunch. During one walk he was exceptionally creative – unconsciously. As he strode along, a stanza came to him, and almost immediately afterwards a second stanza wafted his way. He saw the words in front of him and had only to note them down. He knew he wanted to write a poem with four stanzas and after he’d written out the first two and had a cup of tea, he set off on a second walk. The third stanza occurred to him, and again he didn’t have to make any conscious effort. He waited on tenterhooks for the fourth and final stanza that would complete the poem. It failed to arrive. Continue reading...
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The big stink: is ‘genital anxiety’ behind the rapid rise of whole-body deodorants? (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
In the past we would just deodorise our armpits, but now a huge wave of products are aimed at our most intimate areas. Do these serve a need – or just encourage paranoia? Earlier this year, the deodorant brand Sure launched a product to be used on “ta-tas”, “trotters”, and “marbles” (AKA breasts, feet and testicles). “Whatever you call them, wherever you smell”, Sure Whole Body deodorant can help, a playful TV advert promised. It’s not a completely new concept: many of us will remember the intense whiff of a liberally applied “body spray” – the deodorant-cum-fragrances brought out by brands such as Lynx, Charlie and Impulse that were popular in the 00s. But specific deodorants for body parts other than the armpits weren’t really a thing until 2018, when an American obstetrics and gynaecology doctor founded Lume Whole Body Deodorant, after repeatedly seeing patients who were worried about odour “below the belt”. Sold as a roll-on, cream, spray or wipes, it can apparently be used on “pits, underboobs, belly buttons, butt cracks, vulvas, balls, feet and more!” On its website, it has more than 200,000 five-star reviews – and now the mainstream deodorant brands are following suit. Continue reading...
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Trump says Charlie Kirk shot dead during event at Utah Valley University (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
President says ally and Turning Point USA executive director is dead after being shot in the neck at event Charlie Kirk shooting – follow the latest updates Charlie Kirk, the powerful rightwing activist, Trump ally and executive director of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), has died after being shot in the neck on Wednesday while speaking at a university campus event in Utah, Donald Trump has confirmed. “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday evening. Continue reading...
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Poland ‘closer to military conflict than at any time since WW2’ as Nato allies weigh response to Russian drones (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Donald Tusk says Poland dealing with a large-scale provocation after at least 19 violations of Polish airspace Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, said the country is closer to military conflict “than at any time since the second world war” as Warsaw and Nato allies weighed a response to an incursion of Russian drones into Polish airspace. Poland scrambled its own and Nato air defences, shooting down at least three drones, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine spread to Nato territory early on Wednesday in the most significant way since the full-scale invasion more than three years ago. Continue reading...
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Bridget Phillipson and Lucy Powell set for two-horse race to be Labour deputy (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Education secretary and Manchester MP look destined for face-off as three other candidates struggle for MP nominations Labour’s deputy leadership contest is set to be a race between the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, and the ousted cabinet minister Lucy Powell, as three other candidates in the race struggled to make nominations. Phillipson comfortably cleared the hurdle of 80 nominations on Wednesday evening with backing from 116 MPs, but Powell was not yet at the threshold with 77 nominations. Continue reading...
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‘Your friends love you,’ Mandelson told Epstein after 2008 charges, emails show (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
UK’s ambassador to US urged financier to ‘fight for early release’ after charges of procuring child for prostitution The British ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, told Jeffrey Epstein to “fight for early release” and wrote: “Your friends stay with you and love you,” when the disgraced financier was facing charges of procuring a child for prostitution, according to leaked emails. The emails, first published by the Sun after circulating in Washington DC, will put further pressure on Lord Mandelson after he admitted on Tuesday that more “very embarrassing” details of his friendship with Epstein were likely to emerge but insisted he had never seen any “wrongdoing”. Continue reading...
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Meeting with Keir Starmer was ‘tough’, says Israeli president (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Isaac Herzog says ‘when allies meet they can argue’ after some Labour MPs condemn Downing Street meeting The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, and the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, had a “tough” set of exchanges over humanitarian aid in Gaza at a Downing Street meeting, amid street protests demanding Herzog’s arrest as a war criminal. Herzog, speaking to the Chatham House thinktank immediately after the meeting, said he had offered the British government a fact-finding mission to look at the levels of aid entering Gaza. He denied there was any famine and blamed the high civilian death toll on Hamas placing missiles in living rooms. Continue reading...
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Leaked files cast doubt on source of £2.6m in Tory donations (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Official log refers to Wafic Saïd, a Canadian billionaire whose British wife has given millions to party, as ‘donor’ The Conservative party is facing questions over a possible breach of electoral law involving one of its largest benefactors, after leaked files cast doubt on official declarations of donations worth £2.6m. More than 40 donations to the Tories over 23 years have been registered in the name of Rosemary Saïd, a British woman. Continue reading...
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Larry Ellison overtakes Elon Musk as world’s richest person (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Oracle co-founder’s shares rose by 40% in early trading, valuing his fortune at $393bn, just ahead of Musk’s $384bn The US tech billionaire Larry Ellison has overtaken Elon Musk as the world’s richest person after shares in Oracle, the business he co-founded, rocketed in early trading on Wednesday. Ellison’s wealth has surged after the company, in which he owns a stake of 41%, reported better than expected financial results. Continue reading...
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Prince Harry visits King Charles in first face-to-face meeting for 19 months (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Clarence House meeting comes after Duke of Sussex expressed hope of a reconciliation with his family in May Prince Harry met King Charles at Clarence House on Wednesday, in their first face-to-face meeting for 19 months. The private tea in London, which lasted 54 minutes, comes after the Duke of Sussex publicly expressed hopes of a reconciliation with his family in an interview with the BBC in May. Continue reading...
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John Lennon’s killer denied parole for 14th time (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Mark David Chapman, 70, is serving 20-years-to-life sentence in New York after fatally shooting Beatle in 1980 The man who killed John Lennon outside the former Beatle’s Manhattan apartment building in 1980 has been denied parole for a 14th time, according to New York prison officials. Mark David Chapman, 70, appeared before a parole board on 27 August, and the decision was recently posted online by the state department of corrections and community supervision. Continue reading...
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‘My first barricade’: French protests unite teachers, gilets jaunes and students (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Thousands join Block Everything rallies across France to express anger at government and austerity At 7am on the eastern edge of the busy Paris ring road at Montreuil, Jess, a 35-year-old hospital neurologist, had joined protesters attempting to stop traffic in order to show her anger at the French government. “Inequality is rife in France and this is the only way to be heard,” she said. Pushed back with teargas by riot police, Jess, who asked for her real name not to be published, said she was scared by police tactics but felt it was crucial to be on the streets. Continue reading...
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Smoke from Canada’s wildfires killed nine-year-old Carter Vigh – and 82,000 others around the world (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Toxic particles spewed by 2023’s wildfires were even responsible for 22,000 early deaths in Europe, researchers say Amber Vigh had taken the usual precautions when bringing her nine-year-old son, Carter, to summer camp in July 2023. There were no fires near their home in British Columbia, Canada. Her air quality app showed low levels of pollution. She could not smell any smoke. Carter, a music-loving Lego enthusiast who had asthma, brought along his smiling shark tooth-patterned emergency kit that held an inhaler, allergy pill and EpiPen. When smoke did roll in from the north, Vigh took him indoors. Continue reading...
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Starmer’s Mandelson mess and deputy leadership damage – podcast (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
As the race to replace Angela Rayner as Labour’s deputy leader exposes tensions within the party, John Harris speaks to the former transport secretary Louise Haigh about what she thinks Keir Starmer should do to get back on track, and whether he will survive until the next election. Plus, Pippa Crerar joins John to discuss the mounting pressure on the prime minister over Peter Mandelson’s links to Jeffrey Epstein, and why Boris Johnson is in hot water after a Guardian investigation raised serious questions about whether he broke ethics and lobbying rules. Continue reading...
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‘We were ready to be the next Spice Girls’: X-Cetra, the Y2K girl group earning cult fame 25 years late (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
When four Californian pre-teens made an album together it was just one of many creative adventures and quickly set aside, but its reputation as naive avant pop has quietly grown. Still friends, the band explain their odd rebirth Like an outsider art version of Sugababes, or kids singing over Depeche Mode ringtones, there’s something both familiar and odd about Summer 2000 by X-Cetra. Recorded by four preteens in Y2K California, the album distils sleepovers, crushes and butterfly clips into 11 tracks of bedroom pop and Windows 95 R&B, equal parts carefree and gravely serious. Only 20 CD-R copies were ever made. But a still-unknown person posted one of them online in 2001, and by 2020 the girls – now women – were astonished to find it being discussed on muso forum Rate Your Music. “Pure creative expression of these preteen best friends who love each other and wanted to make art together, and that’s so beautiful,” says one user there; “Definitely on the poppier side of ‘accidentally avant garde music made by children’,” says another. Continue reading...
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‘Neutrality should not be an option’: why are so many artists now speaking out on Gaza? (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Musician Brian Eno and artist Malak Mattar, key figures in next week’s Together for Palestine concert, explain why artists are putting fears of a backlash aside and uniting in the call for action A red carpet event, especially one to promote the new Downton Abbey film, is not typically a place for radical political statements. But at the film’s premiere in London earlier this month, that movie’s star, Hugh Bonneville, spoke out about Gaza. “Before I talk about the fluff and loveliness of our wonderful film, what’s about to happen in Gaza City is absolutely indefensible,” he announced to a visibly shocked showbiz reporter. “The international community must do more to bring it to an end.” Bonneville’s words may have been surprising for some, but they’re actually part of a larger pattern of actors, musicians, artists and cultural figures who feel increasingly moved to speak out. This week hundreds of actors – including Olivia Colman, Aimee Lou Wood and Mark Ruffalo – signed a pledge promising not to work with Israeli film institutions they say are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people”. From the Eurovision winner JJ using his victory to criticise Israel to footballer Mohamed Salah lambasting UEFA for announcing the death of Suleiman Obeid, the “Palestinian Pele”, without saying that he was killed in an Israeli attack, there is a sense that if people don’t use their platforms to speak out now, they may bitterly regret it later. Continue reading...
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Burford garden centre: how did it become the UK’s hottest celebrity haunt? (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
It sells £70 trowels and £3,000 trees – and with A-listers suddenly flocking to the Cotswolds, some of the most famous people on earth have been seen there Name: Burford Garden Company. Age: 49. Continue reading...
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‘All the accused men in that court had a double life’: Béatrice Zavarro on defending Dominique Pelicot (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
He is one of the worst sexual predators in history – and she agreed to be his lawyer. But why? The woman who was called ‘the devil’s advocate’ explains all This time last year, Béatrice Zavarro, a then unknown lawyer from Marseille, drew herself up to her full 1.45-metre (4ft 8in) height, and addressed the figure in the dock: “It’s you and me against the world.” That man was Dominique Pelicot. Over the next three months and 17 days, the court would learn that for almost a decade he had drugged his wife, Gisèle, and invited more than 50 men into their bedroom to rape her while she was unconscious. Continue reading...
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How to decorate your university room: 16 easy, affordable ways to make it feel like home (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Student rooms aren’t known for their charm, but with a few clever upgrades you can transform your space into a sanctuary • What to take to university – and what to leave behind, according to students Student rooms are rarely stylish. Think breeze-block walls, tired carpets and little control over the furniture (or feng shui). However, with a few smart, non-invasive tweaks, you can transform that boxy space into something cosier and more personalised. From posters and prints to clever storage, here are 16 easy ways to make your university room feel like home. You probably won’t see your room until move-in day, so look up any photos or information on layout on your uni’s website ahead of time – that way you can plan what’s worth packing, what there is space for, and avoid overbuying. Continue reading...
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Disgruntled NYT journalist to ‘anti-woke’ power grab: how far can Bari Weiss go? (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
After leaving the New York Times, she turned her Substack into an unshakable pro-Israel voice. Now as Paramount eyes acquisition of her company, Weiss is poised to become Trump’s ally among media elites Last month, federal regulators approved the long-anticipated merger of Skydance Media and Paramount Global, positioning David Ellison – the founder of Skydance and the son of megabillionaire Larry Ellison – as one of the most powerful figures in US media. Paramount Skydance Corporation, as it is now officially known, is one of a small handful of American media conglomerates, with Paramount Pictures, cable networks such as Comedy Central and MTV, and CBS all under its umbrella. CBS, in turn, runs one of the major US news operations, with nightly news viewership in the millions and 60 Minutes still being the most watched news program on network television. The implications of the merger are far-reaching and were already being felt ahead of its final approval. In July, Paramount agreed to pay Donald Trump $16m to settle a lawsuit over a 60 Minutes segment the president disapproved of, and a few weeks later, CBS controversially cancelled The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, which many observers speculated was at least partly about jettisoning an outspoken critic of Trump in anticipation of the deal. Continue reading...
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Russia is brazenly provoking the west. Putin must be left in no doubt of the consequences | Paul Taylor (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Germany and Italy may have legitimate fears of escalation but this was no accident – it was a violation of Nato territory By sending a barrage of drones into Polish airspace, Russia is testing Nato’s military response and Europe’s political resolve to stand behind Ukraine with arms and security guarantees in the event of escalation. The timing can hardly have been a coincidence. Less than a week ago, a 26-nation “coalition of the willing” led by France and the UK announced an agreement on a “reassurance force”, intended to help guarantee Ukraine’s security after any ceasefire in Russia’s relentless war of aggression. Vladimir Putin has stepped up the nightly bombardment of Ukraine in defiance of Donald Trump’s efforts to broker a peace deal, and rejected any presence of European forces on the ground. Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre 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. Continue reading...
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What is the endgame in this toxic immigration debate: is it friends and neighbours thrown out of the country? | Jonthan Liew (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
The notion of remigration was abstract, but the right is dragging it towards respectability. If the goal is homogeneous whiteness, they should say it Do they come for you at dawn or dusk? In the dead of night, or at family dinnertime? Will they come with masks and shields, or will they be kindly and sheepishly apologetic? Will they accept a cup of tea and a biscuit if offered? Will there be bags already packed by the door, protocols prepped and drilled, a list of numbers to call? Will you go quietly and with dignity, or in a mess of curse words and screaming limbs? Perhaps right now this all feels a little fantastical and far-fetched. Perhaps it feels hard to imagine the great wave of remigration lapping up on the pristine middle-class doorsteps of Stroud or Stoke Newington. We can still have a chuckle about it. Maybe there’ll be a nice fat relocation cheque. A free one-way holiday on the British government. Always wanted to visit China at this time of year, and so on. Jonathan Liew 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. Continue reading...
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What should you do if, like me, you are irredeemably naff? Embrace it | Adrian Chiles (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
From Abba to Supertramp, my taste in music has often inspired a rising sea of scorn. But whatever. I am cool with being uncool On a first date, relatively recently, I put on one of my favourite albums. It was only later that the woman in question described her distress. It wasn’t terminal, but it wasn’t far off. “I just had to accept that you weren’t the man I thought you were.” Blimey. “I thought you might have bad taste in a heavy metal kind of way, but I wasn’t prepared for this yacht rock.” This album I’d long loved was, apparently, irredeemably naff. It was Breakfast in America by Supertramp. Earlier this week, when I heard that the band’s co-founder Rick Davies had died, I was sad. Does this make me even naffer? I suspect it does. Continue reading...
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So politicians want rid of the Senedd: would they abolish any other country’s democracy? | Will Hayward (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
The Welsh parliament has its faults – but talk of axing it is for charlatans, not leaders who are serious about the nation’s future Sign up for our new weekly newsletter Matters of Opinion, where our columnists and writers will reflect on what they’ve been debating, thinking about, reading and more Wales is a wonderfully unusual country and that is why I love it. But one quirk about Wales I really dislike is how increasingly often I hear it said that its inhabitants should have less say over their lives. As if any people would ever want less power. Time and again you hear this view espoused – most recently by Reform UK’s sole member of the Welsh Senedd, Laura Anne Jones. In her former incarnation as a minor Tory, Jones entered the public consciousness in Wales only a few times. Once was when she used a racist slur to describe Chinese people. Another was when she defected from the Conservatives to join Reform in July because she “just suddenly felt that the Conservative party was unrecognisable”. I am sure this had nothing to do with the fact that the Tories are facing near wipeout in Wales in next May’s election. And what has Jones done since in her role as the lone Reform MS? Well, at the first Reform party conference this week she quickly announced that the party is “not ruling out” abolishing the Senedd. Will Hayward is a Guardian columnist. He publishes a regular newsletter on Welsh politics and is the author of Independent Nation: Should Wales Leave the UK? Continue reading...
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Starmer should beware: in this volatile age, no majority and no leader is secure for long | Rafael Behr (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Labour’s massive election victory already feels long ago. The PM needs to build a new electoral alliance – and quickly Sign up for our new weekly newsletter Matters of Opinion, where our columnists and writers will reflect on what they’ve been debating, thinking about, reading and more Keir Starmer doesn’t see himself as the leader of a coalition government. With 399 MPs and a working majority of 156, why should he? One reason is that those numbers mark a high tide of anti-Tory feeling that receded as soon as Rishi Sunak’s rotten administration was swept away. Voters from diverse places with disparate grievances embraced Starmer’s promise of change, often uncertain what it meant in practice. They needed reasons to be glad of the choice they had made and haven’t found them. Support for the government has tanked as a result. Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
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My dad has Alzheimer’s. He needs full-time care but we have been turned away from every facility | Jane Rawson (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
His illness will get worse, my mum will get weaker, neither of them are safe and nothing will be done until there is an emergency My dad has Alzheimer’s, which is not unusual for an 84-year-old man. He lives with my mum, who is also in her 80s, in a two-bedroom apartment in Canberra. My mum has multiple sclerosis, which makes looking after a fit, otherwise healthy man with Alzheimer’s very challenging. Dad cannot think in any structured way. He can’t really understand what’s going on around him and he can’t follow verbal instructions. He’s too big and strong to wrestle in and out of clothes, the way you would with a small child, but he has to be wrestled in and out of clothes fairly often because he also doesn’t really understand when he needs to go to the toilet. Continue reading...
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What do you call Elon Musk’s trillion-dollar pay deal? Obscene | Arwa Mahdawi (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Tesla’s board is dangling a gargantuan payout in front of its chief. Is it a manipulative ploy or a desperate stunt? Bribery is generally unethical and often illegal, but also quite effective. When my four-year-old is acting up and ignoring my increasingly desperate pleas for her to get dressed, leave the playground or do something else very important, I have, on occasion, resorted to desperate promises of ice-cream. Obviously, I know it’s counterproductive to respond to suboptimal behaviour with sugar-based bribes. But sometimes you are exhausted and just need a short-term win. The ice-cream always delivers. It seems trying to motivate a four-year-old is not much different from trying to keep a petulant 54-year-old tech mogul in line. On Friday, Tesla’s board of directors rolled out a pay package proposal for CEO Elon Musk that could, if he plays his cars right, turn the billionaire into the world’s first trillionaire. In a section of Tesla’s latest stock market update that began: “Yes, you read that correctly”, the board outlines everything Musk has to do to get his hands on that performance-based trillion. Which, to be fair, is a lot. Tesla needs to reach a market cap of $8.5tn, eight times its current value, in 10 years to get Musk the payout. Many analysts believe Tesla is already overvalued, so this is no small task. Continue reading...
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The Guardian view on Israel’s attack in Doha: western passivity is allowing Netanyahu to cross every red line | Editorial (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
The attempt to assassinate Hamas negotiators in the capital of a US ally was the act of a rogue government uninterested in peace “Why does the PM insist on blowing up any deal that comes close?” despaired the mother of a hostage held in Gaza, following Israel’s airstrike in Qatar on Tuesday. For anyone who doubted Benjamin Netanyahu’s commitment to the forever war he unleashed after 7 October, the attempt to wipe out Hamas’s ceasefire negotiation team in Doha offered grim confirmation that peace – and the return of Israeli hostages – is low on Mr Netanyahu’s list of current priorities. Just how close Hamas’s leadership was to endorsing ceasefire proposals backed by Donald Trump – which were being discussed in the capital of an established US ally – is unclear. However, Mr Netanyahu’s strike has ensured that its negotiators will not agree to sit round a table again anytime soon. Israel swiftly stated that the attack was in response to the Hamas-claimed shooting in Jerusalem on Monday, in which six people died. But it also occurred as the Israeli military ordered the complete evacuation of Gaza City, ahead of a full-scale invasion that will bring further death and destruction to a starving, traumatised population. Continue reading...
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The Guardian view on Boris Johnson’s post-PM life: this is a test of public standards – Britain must not fail it | Editorial (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Leaked files show public funds may have supported private deals. This corrodes public life. The National Audit Office should investigate Boris Johnson’s Eton housemaster warned that he thought himself “free of the network of obligation which binds everyone else”. Decades passed, and Mr Johnson remained cavalier about following the rules. Propriety, even as prime minister, was disgracefully little more than performance. His post-office conduct suggests he still treats norms as optional. Leaked documents from Mr Johnson’s private office, obtained by the transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets and seen by the Guardian, raise grave questions about his adherence to standards – and whether public money has helped fund his post-premiership business empire. They centre on the public duty costs allowance (PDCA), an allocation meant to support former prime ministers’ public duties, not their profit-making ventures. Mr Johnson has received £182,000 through the scheme since 2022. But the documents suggest his staff has been working not just on public roles but also on global private deals. Mr Johnson calls the allegations “rubbish”. Continue reading...
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Zack Polanski’s victory brings hope for a new kind of politics | Letters (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Readers respond to articles on the election of the new Green party leader Zack Polanski’s sweeping victory as leader of the Green party opens significant opportunities for the Greens and the left more generally, as both the Guardian editorial (2 September) and George Monbiot recognise (Labour has succeeded only in strengthening Farage. The way is now open for Zack Polanski’s Greens, 3 September). Polanski himself lays out his core policy story and says his party’s “central mission” is to turn its 40 second-place finishes in 2024 into Green MPs at the next election (This is the Green party’s moment – not Farage’s. As leader, I’ll offer real solutions to Britain’s problems, 2 September). But to get there he has to build popular movements and shed populist slogans. He’ll have to choose between grandiose rhetoric and realistic politics. Continue reading...
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Payments and pravda in the Boris Files | Letters (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Chris Rennard, David Ellis and Richard McNicol on revelations about the former prime minister’s conduct in office and commercial interests You report on the considerable enrichment of Boris Johnson from contacts he made while he was prime minister and his claims from the public duty costs allowance (What are the Boris Files and what do they reveal about former PM’s conduct?, 8 September). The PDCA payments are not supposed to be for work done or staff or travel costs incurred by former prime ministers seeking to enrich themselves personally with business deals, speeches or books. However, unlike with MPs, no breakdown of “costs” is published. How does the National Audit Office know that costs are fairly apportioned between whatever the duties of a former prime minister are supposed to be and the business activities of those MPs? How can Johnson’s three years as PM before being sacked, or Liz Truss’s 49 days in office, justify a lifetime allowance of £115,000 per annum? Chris Rennard Liberal Democrat, House of Lords Continue reading...
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Don’t clap along with the far right – fight them | Letter (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Aleisha Omeike says we have to get organised to fight the racism and misogyny that is on the rise in Britain, in response to an article by Rohan Sathyamoorthy I read Rohan Sathyamoorthy’s piece (I thought I was growing up in a racially tolerant Britain. I now realise I was wrong, 7 September) and thought – “it’s not just in my head”. The far right isn’t creeping back. It’s marching in, boots on, flags waving, and people are clapping along like it’s Eurovision. As a working-class woman of colour, I’m exhausted. Not just from the racism and misogyny, but from how normal it’s all starting to feel again. Like we’re rewinding to a time when public figures could say vile things about migrants, Muslims or “woke women” and still get invited on to Question Time with a smile and a fresh haircut. The vile attitudes that Rohan’s dad had to endure are resurfacing. Continue reading...
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Pensions don’t offer Reeves a quick fix on her £50bn problem | Letter (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Changes to tax relief on pensions isn’t a straightforward solution to the budget deficit, says Prof Stephen Caddick Phillip Inman’s focus on pension tax relief does highlight areas where savings might be made in the long term – but there are no quick fixes (Reeves’s £50bn problem solved: stop splashing it in pension tax relief, theguardian.com, 6 September). Moreover, his proposals would probably disproportionately impact public sector workers because of their membership of defined benefit pension schemes. A significant reduction of the tax-free cash payment may deliver some savings from such schemes. According to figures on Dan Neidle’s Tax Policy Associates website – capping the benefit at £100k might save £5bn – a sum that might usefully offset a few weeks of government debt interest payments each year. Continue reading...
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Ella Baron on escalating tensions between Russia and Poland – cartoon (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
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Tuchel says he’ll be ‘brave’ enough to omit big names if it’s right for England (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Head coach believes ‘competition for places is on’ Bellingham, Palmer and Foden all still to come back Thomas Tuchel has insisted he is brave enough to omit star names from his England XI if it better balances the team. The head coach feels competition for places has increased after the 5-0 World Cup qualifying win against Serbia in Belgrade on Tuesday – especially in the No 10 role. Tuchel watched Morgan Rogers produce an outstanding performance in the position, the Aston Villa player’s best moment being the first-time flick that sent Noni Madueke through to score the second goal. Roy Keane, who covered the game for ITV, compared Rogers to Paul Gascoigne in terms of the X factor he provides. Continue reading...
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England v South Africa: first men’s T20 international – live (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Over-by-over coverage of the first T20 Get in touch with Tim to share your thoughts “Shame (but very predictable) about the current weather,” says Alfie Sparrow, although his email is actually about something else. “I’ve just moved into London, living in Tooting with some old uni mates. I was wondering if any readers have local cricket club recommendations? Played alongside Bas de Leede growing up in the Netherlands, winning 3 national titles in our age group. Wish I could say I was still near his quality but that’s far from the case – just after a friendly club for next summer.” Hope you find one. “My girlfriend has very tentatively started to get into cricket,” reports Charles Aspden. “And we discussed potential telly programmes which would further entice her in. In true Alan Partridge fashion, she wants to see ‘Tea with Amol Rajan,’ a show somewhere between Bake Off and Grandstand. Amol travels the country to try the best and worst teas around the village, county and international grounds, interviewing the local eccentrics and giving tea ladies up and down the country some of the plaudits they deserve.” Continue reading...
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Former Premier League referee David Coote charged with making indecent image of child (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Former official due to appear in court on Thursday Allegation refers to video recovered by police in February The former Premier League referee David Coote, who lost his job last year after a series of scandals, has been charged with making an indecent image of a child. According to Nottinghamshire police, the charge is of the most serious Category A offence and relates to a video recovered by officers in February. The charge of making an indecent image of a child refers to activities such as downloading, sharing or saving abuse photos or videos. Images that are classified Category A customarily show children involved in “penetrative sexual activity”, according to Sentencing Council guidelines. Continue reading...
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Ryder Cup organisers ask Donald Trump to delay Bethpage arrival to avoid security chaos (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
President’s visit at US Open tennis final caused delays PGA of America’s priority is delivering ‘seamless’ event Ryder Cup organisers have asked that Donald Trump does not arrive for the opening tee shots at Bethpage this month, with fears of security chaos similar to the scenes that caused a delay to the start of the US Open tennis men’s singles final on Sunday. Whether the message is heeded at the White House remains to be seen. While Ryder Cup officials have no issue with the US president arriving at the New York course as planned on the first day, they believe logistically it would be far easier if Trump attends for lunch and the Friday afternoon session. Continue reading...
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Steve Borthwick urged by club coaches to rest England’s Lions during autumn internationals (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Players could be rested for matches on welfare grounds Lions squad mandated 10 weeks off after summer tour Steve Borthwick has been urged by Prem Rugby head coaches to consider resting British & Irish Lions players during England’s autumn internationals campaign on welfare grounds. Players who appeared on the Lions tour in Australia over the summer were mandated 10 weeks off, ensuring they will miss the first two rounds of the new season and be available for three before England begin their November campaign against the Wallabies. Continue reading...
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Government to make grassroots funding dependent on equality between boys and girls (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Culture secretary wants equal access for girls’ teams Lisa Nandy says funding will come with conditions The government will look to enforce equal access to grassroots sport, with girls still getting the short end of the stick despite extra investment at the local level, the culture secretary has said. Lisa Nandy told the culture, media and sport committee on Wednesday, that girls were often able to access facilities only “at nine o’clock at night” due to boys teams taking priority and that future funding of sports bodies could come with conditions that require more equitable use of facilities. Continue reading...
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Strike day with a dress code as racing descends on London to make case against tax changes (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Trainers and jockeys from all levels of the sport were among the turf’s great and good who downed tools over fears of rising duty rates The Queen Elizabeth II Centre was presumably chosen as the venue for racing’s Axe The Racing Tax event in London on Wednesday as it is just the briefest of canters from the seat of power in Westminster, but it felt like a nod of respect too towards the most famous fan that the sport in Britain is ever likely to have. The late queen, after all, was never impressed when politics impinged on the serious business of the turf. Her quickfire delivery of the Queen’s Speech in June 2017 when it clashed with day two of Royal Ascot is the stuff of parliamentary legend. It is said that her relationship with Theresa May, who seemingly scheduled the state opening of parliament without checking the diary, never really recovered. Continue reading...
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Olympic medallist Ben Proud becomes first British athlete to join Enhanced Games (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Swimmer won silver for GB in Paris last summer Event allows athletes to take performance-enhancing drugs The Olympic silver medallist Ben Proud has become the first Briton to join the Enhanced Games, an event that allows athletes to take ­performance-enhancing drugs. The 30-year-old, who came second in the 50m freestyle in Paris last summer, does not believe the event undermines clean sport. “I think [the Enhanced Games] opens up the potential avenue to excel in a very different way,” he told BBC Sport. Continue reading...
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Unusual compounds in rocks on Mars may be sign of ancient microbial life (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Surface spots and nodules on rocks in ancient river valley are described in new study as ‘potential biosignatures’ Unusual features found in rocks on Mars may be the handiwork of ancient microbial life that eked out an existence on the red planet billions of years ago. The rocks were spotted by Nasa’s Perseverance rover as it trundled along Neretva Vallis, an ancient river valley that was carved into the landscape by water flowing into the Jezero crater in the planet’s distant past. Continue reading...
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Southport dance teacher who shielded child in toilet during attack ‘tortured by guilt’ (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Heidi Liddle told inquiry she felt ‘crushing’ guilt, while Leanne Lucas said she felt ‘ostracised’ from community A dance teacher who led the Taylor Swift-themed children’s workshop which was attacked in Southport has described feeling “tortured” by a “crushing” guilt over the atrocity. Heidi Liddle, who shielded one little girl inside a bathroom during the attack, said the trauma of that day had “fractured every part of my brain and my life”. Continue reading...
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Samantha Cameron to wind down her Cefinn womenswear brand (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Designer’s final collection will go on sale online and in her two London shops at the end of the month Almost nine years after launching her womenswear brand, Cefinn, following Brexit, the designer Samantha Cameron has announced she will be “winding down future operations” in the coming months. The wife of the former prime minister David Cameron cited “turbulence in the fashion wholesale factor, ongoing cost pressures and international trading restrictions”. It had become increasingly difficult to “achieve the level of growth needed to reach a profitable position”, she said in a statement. Her final collection will go on sale online and in her two London shops at the end of the month. Continue reading...
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Almost all German pilots admit to napping during flights in union survey (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Pilots’ union says the issue has become a ‘worrying reality’ as a result of staff shortages and operation pressure A German pilots’ union has said that napping during flights has become a “worrying reality” for its members, as it sounded the alarm over “increasing fatigue” in the sector. The Vereinigung Cockpit union said it had carried out a survey of more than 900 pilots in recent weeks, which found that 93% of them admitted to napping during a flight in the past few months. Continue reading...
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US drugmaker Merck scraps £1bn London research centre and cuts 125 science jobs (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
New blow to UK’s key life science sector as industry body says country is losing ground on investment and research The US drugmaker Merck has scrapped a £1bn London research centre and is laying off 125 scientists in the capital this year, in a big blow to the UK’s important life science sector. Keir Starmer’s government has described life sciences as “one of the crown jewels of the UK economy” and the previous Conservative government had vowed to turn the country into a “global science and technology superpower” by 2030. Continue reading...
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Wainwright prize for nature writing awarded to memoir about raising a hare during lockdown (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Debut author Chloe Dalton’s ‘dream-like’ book Raising Hare follows the writer from London to the countryside A memoir about a woman who rescued a hare during the pandemic has won this year’s Wainwright prize book of the year. Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton follows the author from London to the countryside, where she looked after a leveret during lockdown. Continue reading...
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‘A little bit of joy’: can tiny rafts save endangered sparrows from rising seas? (Tue, 09 Sep 2025)
In Rhode Island, a small team of researchers and volunteers is fighting, against the odds, to save saltmarsh sparrows from extinction as their chicks drown in ever higher tides • Photographs by Jason Jaacks Knee-deep in water, the young man lifts his arms. His wrists are grabbed, next his ankles, then he feels himself flying through the air, nearly horizontal, before plunging into New England’s pungent tidal waters. Grinning and still dripping, he receives a homemade certificate documenting his induction into the Needle in a Haystack Society. Continue reading...
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Jump in US greenhouse gas pollution pushed global emissions higher – report (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
‘Abrupt shift’ in policy since Trump took office will have major consequences for climate crisis, forecast says A jump in greenhouse gas pollution in the US helped push global emissions higher in the first half of this year. This could be an omen of what’s to come, with Donald Trump’s pro-fossil fuel agenda set to significantly slow down the emissions cuts required to avoid disastrous climate impacts, a new forecast has found. The “most abrupt shift in energy and climate policy in recent memory” that has occurred since Trump re-entered the White House will have profound consequences for the global climate crisis by slowing the pace of US emissions cuts by as much as half the rate achieved over the past two decades, the Rhodium Group forecast states. Continue reading...
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Birdwatch: Catch the beauty of the common snipe’s erratic, zigzag takeoff (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
The Somerset Levels offer an abundance of migratory birds – including the elusive wader famed for its flight pattern Soon after moving to Somerset almost 20 years ago, I rode my bike down a bumpy drove, along which our ancestors took their livestock to graze on the damp, boggy fields of Tealham Moor. I remember seeing several whinchats, a late summer migrant whose presence suggested this was a special place. Now it is even better, thanks to the appearance of a flooded area with muddy edges – perfect for waders as they head south. Continue reading...
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Limited tube services resume as strikes disrupt London for third day (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Central, Northern and District lines partly running as RMT presses Sadiq Khan for talks over shorter working week Limited tube services ran on Wednesday as more staff turned up for work on the London Underground, while RMT strikes disrupted the capital for the third day this week. No talks have taken place to resolve the dispute, with the RMT now demanding a summit with the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, in its quest for a shorter working week. Continue reading...
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National Gallery accused of risking ‘bad blood’ with Tate over 20th-century art (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Sources say decision to collect ‘modern’ art could have two galleries ‘at each others’ throats’ – but others welcome move A decision to tear up an agreement between the National Gallery and Tate, which has prevented the National Gallery from collecting works created after 1900, could create “bad blood” and a situation in which the two galleries are “at each other’s throats”, according to senior sources. The National Gallery announced the shift as part of Project Domani, whereby the 200-year-old institution will receive £375m of investment for a new wing that will usher in a “new tomorrow”. Continue reading...
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Camra cancels Britain’s biggest beer festival next year amid ‘budget shortfalls’ (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Great British Beer Festival called off as real ale enthusiasts’ group reports rising costs and stagnant membership Camra, the real ale enthusiasts’ group, has cancelled Britain’s biggest beer festival amid an existential crisis as it launched a cost-cutting drive to address “budget shortfalls”. In an email to members of the Campaign for Real Ale, seen by the Guardian, the embattled organisation said it was responding to a “stark picture” of its finances, caused by rising costs and stagnant membership numbers. Continue reading...
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Blackpool hospital neglect contributed to suicide of man who waited 22 hours for help, coroner rules (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Jamie Pearson killed himself in toilet at Blackpool Victoria hospital after being admitted over painkiller overdose The death of a 27-year-old man who killed himself in a hospital toilet after waiting 22 hours to be seen by the mental health team was “contributed to by neglect”, a coroner has ruled. Jamie Pearson was admitted to Blackpool Victoria hospital’s A&E department after taking an overdose of high-strength painkillers on 17 August 2024. Continue reading...
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South Africa to reopen Steve Biko inquest 48 years after death in police custody (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Death of anti-apartheid activist in 1977 after police beat him into a coma sparked outrage across the world South African prosecutors will reopen an inquest into the death of the prominent anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, nearly 50 years after he died in police custody. Biko, the founder of South Africa’s Black Consciousness Movement, died in a prison cell in 1977 aged just 30, after being beaten into a coma by police who had arrested him nearly a month earlier. Continue reading...
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Harris calls Biden’s decision to seek re-election ‘recklessness’ in new memoir (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
In 107 Days, the former vice-president breaks on certain points from her typically loyal public stance US politics live – latest updates Kamala Harris calls Joe Biden’s decision to seek re-election in 2024 “recklessness” in her new memoir and questions the former president’s judgment while revealing her own frustrations about being marginalized within the administration. In passages published by the Atlantic on Wednesday from 107 Days, her memoir chronicling her presidential campaign, Harris breaks on certain points from her typically loyal public stance. Continue reading...
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Carbon emissions from oil giants directly linked to dozens of deadly heatwaves for first time (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Study shows how individual fossil fuel companies are making previously impossible heatwaves happen and could have to pay compensation Carbon emissions from the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies have been directly linked to dozens of deadly heatwaves for the first time, according to a new analysis. The research has been hailed as a “leap forward” in the legal battle to hold big oil accountable for the damages being caused by the climate crisis. The research found that the emissions from any one of the 14 biggest companies were by themselves enough to cause more than 50 heatwaves that would otherwise have been virtually impossible. The study shows, in effect, that those emissions caused the heatwaves. Continue reading...
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Snapchat allows drug dealers to operate openly on platform, finds Danish study (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Social media platform accused of failing to filter out obvious usernames such as ‘coke’, ‘weed’ and ‘molly’ Snapchat has been accused by a Danish research organisation of leaving an “overwhelming number” of drug dealers to openly operate on Snapchat, making it easy for children to buy substances including cocaine, opioids and MDMA. The social media platform has said it proactively uses technology to filter out profiles selling drugs. However, research by Digitalt Ansvar (Digital Accountability), a Danish research organisation that promotes responsible digital development, has found evidence of a failure to moderate drug-related language in usernames. It also accused Snapchat of failing to respond adequately to reports of profiles openly selling drugs. Continue reading...
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‘Nobody can occupy your imagination’: From Ground Zero’s producer on documenting his native Palestine (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Rashid Masharawi, who produced the anthology of 22 short films that was Palestine’s official entry to the Academy Awards, has remarkable optimism about the future of Gaza Being a Palestinian under Israeli occupation will not help someone make a good film, according to Rashid Masharawi, but a good film-maker will help Palestine. With his anthology film From Ground Zero (in Arabic: From Zero Distance) he attempts to do just that by bridging the space between the Palestinians in Gaza who have endured a campaign of annihilation behind closed doors to those around the world watching as an incomprehensibly vast tragedy unfolds in real time. Continue reading...
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Hollow Knight: Silksong has caused bedlam in the gaming world – and the hype is justified (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
In this week’s newsletter: the long-awaited release from the three-person Team Cherry studio has crashed gaming storefronts and put indie developers back in the spotlight Just one game has been dominating the gaming conversation over the past week: Hollow Knight Silksong, an eerie, atmospheric action game from a small developer in Australia called Team Cherry. It was finally released last Thursday after many years in development, and everybody is loving it. Hollow Knight was so popular that it crashed multiple gaming storefronts. With continual game cancellations, expensive failures and layoffs at bigger studios, this is the kind of indie triumph the industry loves to celebrate at the moment. But Silksong hasn’t come out of nowhere, and its success would not be easily reproducible for any other game, indie or not. If you’re wondering what this game actually is, then imagine a dark, mostly underground labyrinth of bug nests and abandoned caverns that gradually yields its secrets to a determined player. The art style and sound are minimalist and creepy (though not scary) in a Tim Burton kind of way, the enemy bugs are fierce and hard to defeat, your player character is another bug with a small, sharp needle-like blade. It blends elements of Metroid, Dark Souls and older challenging platform games, and the unique aesthetic and perfect precision of the controls are what make it stand out from a swarm of similar games. I rinsed the first Hollow Knight and I’m captivated by Silksong. I’ve spent 15 hours on it in three days, and it has made my thumbs hurt. Continue reading...
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Holding Liat review – powerful study of a family torn apart by Hamas’ 7 October attacks (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Brandon Kramer’s documentary complicates any simple view of the Israel-Gaza war in its portrait of one family’s agonising divisions At the present moment, for pro-Palestinian campaigners, mention of the hostages and victims of Hamas’s 7 October attacks tends to be greeted with indifference, or even contempt. And yet this powerful and complex documentary, directed by Brandon Kramer (a distant relative of some of the people involved) and co-produced by Darren Aronofsky, is a reminder that the situation now can’t be understood without remembering the Hamas massacre – how it was calculated to provoke a rage-filled reaction that would discredit Israel internationally, what it meant and continues to mean within Israel and how the political and ideological connotations of the hostages have themselves evolved. At first, the hostages’ images were widely seen as a focus for outrage and a casus belli. Posters put up in cities showing the hostages were ripped down - to the fury of their families. But now the hostages’ images are associated more with anti-Netanyahu, anti-war-at-all-costs sentiment, with the families demanding real negotiating progress in getting them home. Continue reading...
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The Long Walk review – Stephen King death game dystopia is the grimmest mainstream movie for some time (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Fifty young men compete in an endurance event, during which they are shot in the head at point-blank range if they slow down, in this horrific buddy story adaptation If you like your dystopian scenarios lean and extremely mean, then look no further than this Stephen King adaptation, which is surely one of the grimmest mainstream movies we’ve had for some time. The blunt premise is custom built for death and suffering: 50 young American men are selected by lottery for an annual marathon march. If any walker slows to less than three miles per hour, or strays off the road, they are removed from the competition – by being shot in the head at point-blank range. The final survivor wins whatever they want, they’re promised. Why these men would volunteer for a competition with such unfavourable odds we’re left to wonder, as the broader authoritarian society in which the story is set – which looks a lot like 1960s America – is barely seen or explained. It’s clear who we’re rooting for though: Cooper Hoffman’s Ray Garraty, who is dropped off at the starting line by his tearful mother (Judy Greer), then it’s off to the races. Garraty is an all-round decent soul, who befriends and encourages his fellow competitors, particularly Pete, played by British actor David Jonsson (who’s come a long way from Rye Lane). Their growing friendship is the film’s heart, and both actors are innately charming and natural, though both have deeper, darker histories and motivations to reveal. Continue reading...
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Sovereign review – Nick Offerman v Dennis Quaid in rage-fuelled anti-government crime drama (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Based on a true story, Offerman plays a ‘sovereign citizen’ extremist pitted against Quaid’s police chief in this uncomfortably chilly drama For a film about rage, this is a rather chilly, uncomfortable drama. It’s inspired by the true-life story of Jerry and Joseph Kane, father and son anti-government extremists; Jerry was a self-proclaimed “sovereign citizen” who believed that the government was illegitimate and he could decide which laws to opt out of. He’s played here by Nick Offerman (Ron Swanson in Parks and Recreation), giving a vein-popping, fist-clenchingly believable performance. We see Jerry’s boiling inferno through the eyes of his son Joe (Jacob Tremblay), a quiet, thoughtful teenager urged by his dad to be an independent thinker (so long as he thinks the same as Jerry). It is Arkansas, 2010. Sixteen-year-old Joe opens the door to a sheriff handing him an eviction notice; his dad is behind on the mortgage payments. Even when he has the money, Jerry won’t pay the bank on principle. He’s a minor celebrity, a regular on right-wing radio stations, travelling the midwest in a white suit like a cheap preacher giving seminars on how to avoid mortgage foreclosures (a hat gets passed around at the end for donations). Continue reading...
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AKA Charlie Sheen review – he shows no genuine remorse for all the terrifying things he’s done (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
This flimsy tell-all about the actor’s decades-long addiction to pills, alcohol and crack-cocaine is far too light on contrition or self-reflection. You pity everyone around him If it comes as a shock to anyone that at some point in the grip of a decades-long addiction to pills, booze and crack cocaine the essentially heterosexual Charlie Sheen occasionally “turned over the menu” and had sex with men, then I am delighted. I did not know such pockets of naivety could still exist in this benighted world. You sweet things. Enjoy your time! That this is the fact that has made headlines (the few there have been) around the release of the two-part documentary AKA Charlie Sheen is testimony to how little new information there is in it. How, really, could it be otherwise? Every one of the three acts – which in the film he labels “Partying”, “Partying with problems” and “Just problems” – of his adult life has been comprehensively documented by the media in real time. Sometimes that was via stories sold by the people he partied with, sometimes via public hospitalisations and press conferences called by his father Martin Sheen to try to control the press interest. Sometimes it was thanks to Charlie’s own interviews or call-ins to the likes of Alex Jones’s Infowars shows, or ranting videos posted on YouTube about his “tiger blood” and “Adonis DNA” done under the influence, or as a result of the drawn-out divorce proceedings between him and Denise Richards as his substance abuse made their life together untenable. And sometimes it was an amalgam, as when in 2015 he gave an exclusive interview to NBC’s Today show revealing his HIV+ status, to end various extortion attempts people had made over the four years since his diagnosis. Continue reading...
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Vienna Philharmonic/Welser-Möst review – mighty ensemble strike gold with Bruckner (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Royal Albert Hall, London The Austrian legends glided through Mozart and Tchaikovsky but found grand and powerful direction in Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony Taking the big-shot orchestra slot in the final week of the Proms, the Vienna Philharmonic proved its credentials in two concerts covering the staging posts from classical to modernist. The conductor Franz Welser-Möst barely needed to break a sweat to draw out impeccably polished string sound and top-notch wind and brass solos. No surprises there. But might a few surprises, a few experiments, have made it more memorable? For all the pleasures of these performances, the cumulative effect was of safety and good taste – words not usually applied to Berg’s Lulu Suite, three movements of which began the first concert. The strings and flute sent their tendrils out tenderly and silkily; the blend when the rest joined in was seamless. The intrusion of low brass near the end of the first movement and a moment of barrel-organ brightness in the second briefly ruffled the surface, but you wouldn’t have guessed the anguish of the Lulu story from this. Continue reading...
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Slickness, sarcasm and one-night stands: Supertramp’s 10 best recordings (Tue, 09 Sep 2025)
After the death of co-frontman Rick Davies, we survey the best of the songwriting partnership with Roger Hodgson that propelled them to mass success in the 70s • Rick Davies, Supertramp frontman and co-founder, dies aged 81 Supertramp spent their early years exploring, developing a flair for soft-focus introspection and muscular adventure without quite finding melodic hooks for their stylistic acumen. Crime of the Century, their third album, is where things started to change for the group and School provides the bridge between their art-rock beginnings and the clever pop polish that brought them fame. One of the rare full collaborations between Rick Davies and his singer/songwriter partner Roger Hodgson, School takes flight once Davies’ jazz-inflected piano pushes Hodgson’s sarcastic swipes at educational bureaucracy toward an open-ended space, the sweeping solos suggesting worlds far away from dreary institutions. Continue reading...
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Bruce Loose brought his own unique blend of complexity and a menacing darkness to San Francisco punks Flipper | Stevie Chick (Mon, 08 Sep 2025)
The singer, who died from a heart attack on 5 September, ripped up the two-minute hardcore song blueprint and won over a legion of fans including Kurt Cobain and Jane’s Addiction As the blitzing tempo and mosh pit violence of hardcore swept the US in the early-80s, San Francisco punks Flipper – whose frontman, Bruce Loose, died this weekend of a heart attack – assumed a provocative stance, choosing sarcastic nihilism over dumb machismo and swapping high-velocity thrash for menacing, slow-as-sludge post-punk jams. In an era of 7in singles packed with 30-second screeds, Flipper would draw their tunes out to 20-or-more minutes of grind, fielding spiteful comparisons to hated hippies the Grateful Dead as bassist and founder Will Shatter warned audiences, “the more you heckle us, the longer this song gets”. But the true “culprit for any pissing off of audiences”, as drummer Steve DePace told Scene Point Blank in 2022, was Loose. Born Bruce Calderwood, in the late 70s Loose cashed in a life insurance policy his mother bought for him and spent the money on a bass guitar and amplifier. He soon joined an embryonic version of Flipper in 1979, assuming the nom-du-punk “Bruce Lose” (which he later switched for “Bruce Loose”, because he wanted to be “less negative”) and sharing bass and vocal duties with Shatter. The pair laid down heavy, industrial bass lines, while guitarist Ted Falconi, a Vietnam vet Loose later alleged had PTSD, fired off abrasive, trebly guitar lines. Continue reading...
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Jade: That’s Showbiz Baby! review – former Little Mix star thrives in chaos on an idiosyncratic debut (Mon, 08 Sep 2025)
(Sony) Jade Thirlwall offers a wild ride through electroclash, Eurovision drama and emotive synth-pop – albeit one she can’t quite maintain for a whole album Last month, the indefatigable Vice magazine published a piece on the “summer of British chaos”, documenting a scene of deranged social media provocateurs existing at the crispiest fringes of our nation’s cooked identity. Writer Clive Martin defined these graven images of the algorithm as being regionally specific, lurid, rowdy, funny and hedonistic. As a former member of Little Mix, a girl band popularised by public vote on The X Factor, Jade Thirlwall might not seem like the likeliest bedfellow of this unhinged movement. But the South Shields pop star’s debut solo single, last year’s Angel of My Dreams, dodged focus-grouped smoothness to present a sublimely whacked-out, thoroughly British pop vision that felt like spinning through someone else’s for you page and realising they exist in a markedly different universe from your own. It started with a wound-up sample of Puppet on a String, exploded into a falsetto-spiked power ballad, then grinding electroclash paired with a withering rap, then sped through each mode again, variously at double and half speed. Its wild energy was fuelled by contradiction: Gucci glamour paired with lines such as “If I don’t win, I’m in the bin”. And while Jade dissed Syco and X Factor boss Simon Cowell (“selling my soul to a psycho”), the song’s vaulting soundclashes defying his bland vision of pop, Angel was also her love letter to the toxic paramour of fame: a status that might be easier to sustain with more conventional fare than whiplashing Sandie Shaw into growling synths. It was crackers and brilliant: no former boy- or girl-bander has come close to making such an arresting reintroduction since – and I mean this as the highest possible praise – Geri Halliwell burned bright through a short-lived fit of dadaist genius. Continue reading...
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From woodcuts to Colin Firth: how Jane Austen’s stories have been pictured (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Bath museum shows how author’s illustrators and adapters have portrayed her characters through history For the 21st-century Jane Austen fan, the images of Colin Firth’s Mr Darcy in the beloved BBC series Pride and Prejudice or Anya Taylor-Joy’s big-screen portrayal of Emma may be the first to leap to mind. But an exhibition opening in Bath celebrates the varied ways illustrators of Austen’s work and adapters of her novels have depicted some of her most cherished characters. Continue reading...
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How to Save the Internet by Nick Clegg review – spinning Silicon Valley (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Instead of recognising that social media harms mental health and democracy, the former deputy PM and Meta executive repeats company talking points Nick Clegg chooses difficult jobs. He was the UK’s deputy prime minister from 2010 to 2015, a position from which he was surely pulled in multiple directions as he attempted to bridge the divide between David Cameron’s Conservatives and his own Liberal Democrats. A few years later he chose another challenging role, serving as Meta’s vice-president and then president of global affairs from 2018 until January 2025, where he was responsible for bridging the very different worlds of Silicon Valley and Washington DC (as well as other governments). How to Save the Internet is Clegg’s report on how he handled that Herculean task, along with his ideas for how to make the relationships between tech companies and regulators more cooperative and effective in the future. The main threat that Clegg addresses in the book is not one caused by the internet; it is the threat to the internet from those who would regulate it. As he puts it: “The real purpose of this book is not to defend myself or Meta or big tech. It is to raise the alarm about what I believe are the truly profound stakes for the future of the internet and for who gets to benefit from these revolutionary new technologies.” Continue reading...
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A Splintering by Dur e Aziz Amna review – a woman’s ambitions in Pakistan (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
This novel fizzes with energy as it follows the parallel lives of two siblings and exposes the crushing divides of gender and class I admired Dur e Aziz Amna’s precise and lyrical first novel, American Fever; the protagonist – an exchange student from Pakistan to rural Oregon – staying with me long after I encountered her. She has now delivered a superb second novel that features another fascinating central character, though in a much darker, more disturbing context. A Splintering is the story of Tara, one of five siblings from a poor farming family in the hinterlands of Pakistani Punjab. This is the kind of landscape where age-old codes of manhood, with brother or son as provider and adjudicator of women’s lives, still rule. Tara, gazing at the stars from their courtyard at night, wants to get away from the squalor of Mazinagar (literally, past city), where most people live and die unnoticed, and build a life full of money and possessions in the city. She has no romantic notions about the soporific countryside. “I have no nobility. I come from darkness and filth.” Continue reading...
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Between the Waves by Tom McTague review – the long view on Brexit (Mon, 08 Sep 2025)
An ambitious history of Britain’s volatile relationship with Europe, culminating in the 2016 referendum Next year marks a decade since Britain voted to leave the EU. A whole 10 years of turmoil, and still the country can’t seem to agree exactly why it happened or what should happen next, with both leavers and remainers increasingly united in frustration about what the referendum has delivered. How did we end up here? In Between the Waves, New Statesman editor Tom McTague makes an ambitious attempt to answer that question by zooming out and putting Brexit in its broader historical context. The result is a great big entertaining sweep of a book, tracing the roots of Britain’s ambiguous relationship with its neighbours back to the end of the second world war, and will be joyfully inhaled by any reader who loves the kind of podcasts that invariably feature two men talking to each other. It charts the path from a time when membership was seen as an antidote to British decline – the chance for “a nation that lost an empire to gain a continent”, as the Sun put it in 1975 – to a time when it was singled out as the cause of it. Continue reading...
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Cronos: The New Dawn review – survival horror is dead on arrival (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
PC, PS5, Xbox, Switch 2; Bloober TeamAn intriguing setup sees an unnamed protagonist time-travel to discover the origins of a devastating outbreak, but a stingy inventory and one-sided battles lead to frustration Bloober Team, the Polish developer behind 2021’s hugely underrated psycho-thriller The Medium and last year’s excellent Silent Hill 2 remake, clearly understands that there is an established, almost comforting rhythm to survival horror games. It’s baffling, then, to see this latest game excel in so many areas while failing spectacularly on several of the genre’s most basic tenets. You play an unnamed traveller, the latest of many, sent to gather information about a devastating outbreak that transformed the citizens of a town called New Dawn into the sort of misshapen monsters that have become the staple of sci-fi-adjacent survival horror: contorted of limb, long of fang, and ample of slobber. As you explore the stark, often beautifully devastated aftermath of the outbreak, you search for places where you can travel back through time to when all hell was breaking loose, extracting persons of interest who may shed light on the disaster. A slow-burn story is revealed through the usual assortment of voice notes, missives and grim environmental clues (often, as is de rigueur, daubed in blood on walls). Continue reading...
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Forget Tomb Raider and Uncharted, there’s a new generation of games about archaeology – sort of (Wed, 03 Sep 2025)
In this week’s newsletter: an archaeologist and gamer on why we love to walk around finding objects in-game and in real life The game I’m most looking forward to right now is Big Walk, the latest title from House House, creators of the brilliant Untitled Goose Game. A cooperative multiplayer adventure where players are let loose to explore an open world, I’m interested to see what emergent gameplay comes out of it. Could Big Walk allow for a kind of community archaeology with friends? I certainly hope so. When games use environmental storytelling in their design – from the positioning of objects to audio recordings or graffiti – they invite players to role play as archaeologists. Game designer Ben Esposito infamously joked back in 2016 that environmental storytelling is the “art of placing skulls near a toilet” – which might have been a jab at the tropes of games like the Fallout series, but his quip demonstrates how archaeological gaming narratives can be. After all, the incongruity of skulls and toilets is likely to lead to many questions and interpretations about the past in that game world, however ridiculous. Continue reading...
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Ghost of Yōtei: a determined outsider seeks revenge in feudal Japan (Wed, 03 Sep 2025)
The makers of the forthcoming open-world adventure explain how new gameplay features and an extra-resourceful sword-wielding protagonist set it apart from 2020 predecessor Ghost of Tsushima Atsu is no samurai. The lead character in Ghost of Yōtei is a wandering sellsword from a lowly family. Her sex and lack of status mean that, following the murders of her family, she has no fixed place in 17th-century Japanese society, and there is no permitted path for her to tread if she is to get revenge on the Yōtei Six, the men who killed her loved ones. As the game’s co-director Nate Fox puts it, “Atsu is not somebody who walks in to a room and people pay respect to.” Yōtei’s predecessor, Sucker Punch Productions’ 2020 sprawling open-world game Ghost of Tsushima, is the story of a samurai, Jin Sakai, who shreds his honour to defend his homeland. Jin can’t repel the Mongols attacking Tsushima as a noble warrior, but as “the Ghost”, a fear-inspiring legend willing to use any dirty tactic to gain the upper hand, he can. If Ghost of Tsushima is about a man grappling with the trade of one kind of power for another, Yōtei sees Atsu seize the only power she can with both hands. Continue reading...
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Little Problems – a cute detective game with no violence or victims (Tue, 02 Sep 2025)
Shanghai-based developer Posh Cat Studio focused on the satisfying thrill of solving life’s small mysteries in this cosy crime caper As the latest generation of 18-year-olds is about to find out, starting university is an experience fraught with minor as well as major problems. Oversleeping and missing lectures, forgetting where your study group is meeting, mislaying your books – a lot of your time is spent looking for things. It is these small mysteries that concern Little Problems, a cute detective game, in which the protagonist, Mary, must use her sleuthing abilities to make it through each day as a new student . Created by Indonesian designer Melisa, who has chosen to go by her first name only, the idea comes from her love of detective stories, but also her wish to take violence out of the genre. Continue reading...
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Show me the nipple-baring Ziggy knitwear! A tour inside David Bowie’s mind-boggling 90,000-item archive (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
From the plans for a Major Tom movie to the Aladdin Sane mask and some wild ‘artworks’ sent by fans, this Bowie treasure trove is now open to the public – and it’s the freakiest show! In the 1990s, David Bowie started assembling an archive of his own career in earnest. There seems something telling about the timing. It happened on the heels of 1990’s Sound+Vision tour, when Bowie grandly announced he was performing his hits live for the final time – a resolution that lasted all of two years. It also followed the bumpy saga of Tin Machine, the short-lived hard rock band that Bowie insisted he was simply a member of, rather than the star attraction, and whose work has thus far escaped the extensive campaign of posthumous archival Bowie releases. These include more than 25 albums and box sets in the nine years since his death, with another – the 18-piece collection I Can’t Give Everything Away – due this Friday. Having attempted to escape the weight of his past with decidedly mixed results, Bowie seems to have resolved instead to come to some kind of accommodation with it. “I think you’re absolutely right,” says Madeleine Haddon, lead curator at the V&A in London, which is about to open the David Bowie Centre at its East Storehouse, drawn from his archive. “And that capacity for self-reflection was just tremendous.” Continue reading...
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Our Brother review – power games with Pol Pot (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Òran Mór, GlasgowA naive Scottish academic is granted an audience with the genocidal Cambodian dictator in Jack MacGregor’s play If you met a genocidal dictator how would you react? For the Scottish academic who is granted an audience with Cambodia’s Pol Pot in Jack MacGregor’s play, the first encounter leaves him blandly upbeat. “He seems quite nice,” he tells his friend, a sceptical American journalist. His naivety verges on the comic, but the play is at its most gripping when it takes the opinions of this specialist in economic history seriously. Played by Bobby Bradley, and known only as Stranger, he is the author of In Defence of Kampuchea, a paean to the Khmer Rouge, and is predisposed to see the good in policies such as the centralisation of a money-free economy. At Òran Mór, Glasgow, until 13 September. Then at Traverse theatre, Edinburgh, 16–20 September. Continue reading...
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The mystery of the coffee-shop meltdown – told by dancers, a drummer and a brown bear (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Frauke Requardt and Vivienne Franzmann’s dance-theatre show Anatomy of Survival examines 23 versions of reality in ‘powder keg’ cities One morning, playwright Vivienne Franzmann was queueing for a coffee when an argument broke out. “A customer absolutely lost it,” says Franzmann. “She was demanding her drink, shouting and swearing, and the rest of us stood there not knowing what to do.” When Franzmann got to the rehearsal studio, she shared the story with Frauke Requardt, a choreographer she had just started working with. “I said, ‘This arsehole started screaming about her coffee.’ I was really appalled.” Requardt had a different response. “She said the woman ‘died a social death’,” recalls Franzmann. As well as being a choreographer, Requardt is a psychotherapist, and she explained what would have been happening in the woman’s nervous system at the time, the famous “fight, flight or freeze” state (the sympathetic nervous system) versus the “rest and digest” state (parasympathetic). Our ability to cope with these fluctuating states is called the “window of tolerance” and that morning in the cafe, the window didn’t just crack, the glass was blown out completely. Continue reading...
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Radical Harmony review – Seurat’s shimmering visions trounce his spotty dotty imitators (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
National Gallery, London The tradition of neo-impressionism begun by Georges Seurat was radical, even revolutionary, but this po-faced showcase is sadly lacking its joyful dazzle Georges Seurat had kaleidoscope eyes. He saw in limitless colours, that swarm and bubble on his canvases in galaxies of tiny dots. Choosing random, barren subjects – an empty harbour, a rock – he found endless wonder in the most banal reality. In his 1888 painting Port-en-Bessin, a Sunday, myriad blues and whites create a hazy sky and mirroring water while a railing in the foreground explodes into purple, brown and orange as if it had a lurid spotty disease. Seurat only lived to the age of 31, but he inspired an entire art movement, the neo-impressionists, who copied his “pointillist” method. Yet in a coarse-grained approach to this fine-grained art style, the National Gallery struggles to tell a different story. The neo-impressionists didn’t just paint dots, they dreamed of revolution. And by the way we shouldn’t call them by the evocative nickname “pointillist” because they didn’t like it. Continue reading...
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Rodion Shchedrin obituary (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Russian pianist and composer of startlingly diverse orchestral works, ballet music and operas The prolific Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin, who has died aged 92, displayed a disconcertingly diverse range of styles, and a political agility useful in sustaining a career in the Soviet Union. He was also one of the earliest Soviet composers of his generation to make a mark in the west. His First Concerto for Orchestra (1963) was taken up by George Balanchine, which prompted Leonard Bernstein to commission the succinct Second Concerto for Orchestra (The Chimes, 1968) for the New York Philharmonic. The Third Concerto (Old Music for Russian Provincial Circuses, 1988) was written for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Lorin Maazel; the Fourth Concerto (Round Dances, 1989) was premiered by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra; and the Fifth (Four Russian Songs, 1998) was a BBC Proms commission. The last two were first recorded by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Kirill Karabits. Continue reading...
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‘It was a fair shot’: Anna Wintour belatedly gives her verdict on The Devil Wears Prada (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
The formidable Vogue boss said Meryl Streep’s subtle performance as a fictional fashion editor ‘had a lot of wit’ – adding that she attended the premiere wearing Prada without knowing its theme Anna Wintour, the outgoing editor-in-chief of Vogue, has addressed Meryl Streep’s performance as a formidable glossy fashion-mag editor widely perceived to be based on her in the 2006 comedy The Devil Wears Prada. Based on the novel of the same name by Lauren Weisberger, who previously worked as Wintour’s assistant, the film starred Anne Hathaway as an aspiring reporter who secures a post as a lackey to the ice-cold editor of fictional publication Runway. Continue reading...
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CMAT, Pulp and PinkPantheress among Mercury prize shortlist light on new names (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Only two debut albums – including the ‘token’ jazz release – feature among this year’s list of nominations for the coveted UK and Irish music prize A raft of familiar names fill this year’s list of Mercury prize nominations, with only two debuts among the 12 shortlisted albums. In Limerence, the first full-length by the Scottish folk songwriter Jacob Alon, and Hamstrings and Hurricanes, the first by Welsh jazz musician Joe Webb, will compete with the likes of Pulp’s comeback album More, folk godfather Martin Carthy’s Transform Me Then Into a Fish and the album with the UK’s biggest opening week of the year so far, People Watching by Sam Fender. The list features four women, five men, two mixed groups and one non-binary performer. The solo female artists on the list tend to the iconoclastic: Irish pop star CMAT’s acclaimed third album Euro-Country, Leeds jazz musician Emma-Jean Thackray’s Weirdo, FKA twigs’ Eusexua and PinkPantheress’s mixtape Fancy That. As for bands, as well as Pulp, the Irish band Fontaines DC (Romance) and London four-piece Wolf Alice (The Clearing) appear. Continue reading...
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Stanhope Silver Band walk on water! Richard Grassick’s best photograph (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
‘There was only room for one band member on each stepping stone. When they saw me standing in the middle of the River Wear, I imagine they just thought, “Here he goes again”’ I joined the Amber Film & Photography Collective in 1983. Amber’s aim was to capture working-class life in north-east England, and over nearly 30 years I amassed a body of work documenting life in the upper Durham Dales – a project I later called People of the Hills. In 1994, I moved with my young family into a derelict plumber’s workshop and yard in Stanhope, Weardale. Living there over the next six years meant I met people in all kinds of circumstances – I got to know and photograph many local owners of smallholdings because my kids befriended theirs at school. The members of the Stanhope Silver Band, seen in this photograph, were well known in the village. One was a joiner who paid us five quid a month to use our outbuildings as workshop space. I don’t know how many of those in the picture are still in the band – a fair few, I’ll bet. Continue reading...
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Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion:mini, maxi or knee-length? With my hemline rules, you’ll always hit the right spot (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Whether you prefer miniskirts or floor-skimming dresses, here’s the long and short of looking good Bye bye summer. Time to switch up the mood music and get back to business. Keeping the holiday spirit alive by sitting at your desk in sandals feeling sorry for yourself will only prolong the agony. It is much better to rip the plaster off quickly and start dressing properly again. In the spirit of which, I would like to run you through a few hemline rules. I love a fashion rule – anything that helps pull an outfit together is fine by me. But if you don’t, then think of them as prompts to guide you by walking you through the best combinations of print, fabric and length. They don’t curtail what you can wear. In fact, they might expand it. By giving you a formula for how to wear each different length of skirt or dress, they might help you find a way of wearing whatever hemline it is that you think doesn’t suit you. We all have one of those, right? Continue reading...
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‘It’s better than plastic and cheaper’: 20 sustainable swaps that worked (and saved you money) (Tue, 09 Sep 2025)
From a metal dustpan and solid shampoo to refillable deodorant and organic veg boxes, these are the eco-friendly changes readers stuck with • 33 plastic-free kitchen alternatives As a constant cycle of studies reveal the harm plastic does to our health – from particles found throughout our bodies to the chemicals in plastics being linked to disruptions in our sleep – it’s no wonder many of us want it eliminated from our lives. However, after global talks on a treaty to tackle plastic pollution were left deadlocked, it’s clearer than ever that if you want to reduce your plastic consumption, it’s an issue you’ll have to tackle on your own. And many of you already are. We asked for eco-friendly swaps that have stuck, and you gave us plenty of tips: from reducing plastic in your grooming routines to savvy ways to cut down on food waste. Continue reading...
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Back to work and back to school – let’s embrace the return to routine (Mon, 08 Sep 2025)
Ease into autumn by refreshing the basics in your wardrobe and work bag. Plus: Jess Cartner-Morley’s autumn edit; back-to-school essentials; and frying pans, tested Don’t get the Filter delivered to your inbox? Sign up here The French call it la rentrée. But more than panic-buying school shoes and booking emergency haircuts, early September’s “return” in France signifies a broader reset for everyone. Not all of us are lucky enough – or French enough – to have the summer off. Regardless, there’s something in the air at this time of year, whether you’re young or old, have kids or don’t: that delicious new-pencil-case feeling. For me, it’s a welcome return to order after the freewheeling anarchy of the summer holidays, a time to re-establish routines. Suri 2.0 electric toothbrush review: does this sustainable brush live up to the hype? ‘Melts beautifully on toast’: the best plant-based spreads, tasted and rated The best pregnancy pillows for support and comfort, tested Never put them in the dishwasher! How to make wooden kitchen utensils last longer The best electric toothbrushes: prioritise your pearly whites with our expert-tested picks Continue reading...
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‘Melts beautifully on toast’: the best plant-based spreads, tasted and rated (Sat, 06 Sep 2025)
Today’s butter alternatives are creamier, tastier and more ethical than their 1980s predecessors, but not all spread joy … • Which brand makes the best plant milk? I tried 10 favourites to find out Butter has a powerful place in the culinary imagination – it’s nostalgic, indulgent and rich in flavour. I love the way it holds texture, then melts into a slice of warm toast. But is that really too much to ask from a spread, let alone a plant-based one? The truth is, I haven’t eaten margarine since the 1980s – at home, it’s always butter or extra-virgin olive oil – but spreads are hugely popular. Is it mainly the convenience? Culture? Something else? The main benefit of a spread is that it’s firm but spreadable straight from the fridge. It ought to taste good, too, but that seems to be an afterthought for many brands, which taste of seed oils and emulsifiers. It should also have a perfect melt time, so it pools slowly and satisfyingly on your toast. Continue reading...
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The best frying pans for every kind of cook, tested – and they’re all Pfas-free (Fri, 05 Sep 2025)
Looking for a non-toxic frying pan that lasts? From cast iron to non-stick, stainless steel to ceramic, these are the ones that impressed us most • ‘Hands down my favourite bit of kit’: 13 kitchen gadgets top chefs can’t live without My frying pan is the most reached-for implement in my kitchen (other than the kettle). And I don’t just mean to fry things. I use it to steam, simmer, roast, toast, grill and bake things, too. I’ve had to replace its glass lid, but the pan itself – a Le Creuset cast-iron round skillet – has survived being used daily for a decade, and I’d honestly be quite lost without it. I’ve focused on Pfas-free frying pans here, for obvious reasons. Ceramic has often been held up as the best non-toxic alternative to problematic non-stick and to be sure, when new, these coatings are quite superbly non-stick. However, manufacturers’ claims that increasingly popular “quasi-ceramic” coatings are “non-toxic” are coming under scrutiny in the US. With that in mind, if sustainability and avoiding toxicity are top priorities for you, it may in fact be best to rethink how much you need non-stick. Best frying pan overall:Netherton spun iron chef’s pan Best budget frying pan: GreenPan Essence Continue reading...
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How to turn a single egg and rescued berries into a classic British dessert (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Strawberries and cream meets Eton mess, using just a single egg white and past-its-best summer fruit – a towering success Just a single egg white can be transformed into enough elegant meringue shards to crown more than four servings of pudding, as I discovered when, earlier this year, I was invited by Cole & Mason to come up with a recipe to mark London History Day and decided to do so by celebrating the opening of the Shard in 2012. Meringue shards make a lovely finishing touch to all kinds of desserts, from a rich trifle to an avant-garde pavlova or that timeless classic, the Eton mess. As for the leftover yolk, I have several recipes, including spaghetti carbonara (also featuring salt-cured egg yolks that make a wonderful alternative to parmesan) and brown banana curd. Continue reading...
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Pineapple pudding cake, chocolate ginger beer cake, Portuguese napkins: Helen Goh’s cake recipes (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Three treats from her new book, Baking and the Meaning of Life The combination of pineapple, salt and tamarind was part of my childhood in Malaysia. In fruit salads and the famous Penang laksa, the mix of sweet, tangy, salty and acidic is so vibrant and distinctive that, for me, it is almost synonymous with the country of my birth and, more importantly, its incredible range of foods and flavours. Naturally, then, I wanted to recreate that in a cake. The choice of an upside-down cake was obvious when thinking about pineapple, and adding tamarind to the caramel felt an exciting addition to the flaky sea salt we all know and love. I have always been intrigued by the fact that small children, my own included, who seem so sensitive to spice in anything else, love gingerbread cookies, which have such a robust flavour profile and warm spiciness. When my boys were going for a birthday sleepover, I had the idea of translating Nigella Lawson’s chocolate Guinness cake into a ginger version, replacing the stout with ginger beer. It was a very successful experiment – the cake retains all the damp luxury of the original, with a backbite of ginger that engages intriguingly with the chocolate. The children loved it, as did the adults. Continue reading...
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Where there’s a will there’s a whey: cheese producers lean into their craft as Trump tariffs bite (Tue, 09 Sep 2025)
Europeans put their faith in centuries-old, all-natural production to maintain US custom Giuseppe Alai wanders through the cellar of his dairy in Emilia-Romagna, the air filled with the smell of ageing wheels of parmesan lined up in endless rows. Pointing towards the thick rinds wrapped around them, each bearing the distinct dotted engraving of their Parmigiano Reggiano mark of origin, he recalls an anecdote from his grandfather at the end of the second world war. A wheel of parmigiano reggiano. Continue reading...
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Beyond the bacon sandwich: the many uses of brown sauce (Tue, 09 Sep 2025)
From pairing with fried fish, to being the reviver of a leftover Sunday roast, brown sauce doesn’t just have to be in a bun I like my bacon sandwich with brown sauce, but that means keeping a bottle for a long time. What else can I do with it? Will, via emailIn the early 1980s, Tom Harris, co-owner and chef at the Marksman in east London, made a beer mat from penny coins for his dad (and in the quest to secure a Blue Peter badge): “The instructions said to put the dirty coins in brown sauce overnight,” he recalls. “The next morning, they were all shiny and looked brand new, so there’s another use for it right there!” Brown sauce is “an absolute marvel”, agrees Sabrina Ghayour, author of the recently published Persiana Easy, and not just for its cleaning prowess: “If you break it down, the sauce is packed with some pretty interesting ingredients, including my beloved tamarind.” It’s worth exploring your bottle options beyond HP, too, not least because there was much controversy back in 2011 when the brand gave its recipe, which had remained unchanged for more than a century, a tweak. “They reduced the salt [from 2.1g per 100g to 1.3g] and it completely upset the balance,” Harris says, “and that’s a great sadness.” That’s why Ghayour’s go-to these days is Tiptree: “It has a slightly less vinegary punch and a more rounded sweetness,” which comes with the added bonus of making it “even more versatile”. Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com Continue reading...
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The $1,000 wedding ticket: should you charge friends and family to attend your big day? (Tue, 09 Sep 2025)
A couple in the US convinced nearly 300 people – some of whom they’d never met – to pay to come to their nuptials Name: Wedding tickets. Age: Marley Jaxx is 34, Steve J Larsen is 37. Continue reading...
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My partner won’t pleasure me – and it is making me paranoid (Tue, 09 Sep 2025)
I am happy to give him oral sex, but feel disrespected when he fails to reciprocate. Does this mean the end of our relationship? I am a 56-year-old widow. My husband died two years ago, and I am now in a long-distance relationship with a 55-year-old man. We have been dating for six months. Our sex life is really good, but he will not give me oral sex. I love pleasuring him but when he doesn’t reciprocate I feel disrespected and as if something is wrong with me. When I broached the subject, he said he wanted to wait to see if we got serious enough for marriage and that he would do it then. He says he has done it in the past without being married so I don’t understand. I am going to stop giving him oral sex, but I’m afraid this will end our relationship. I know I need to set boundaries but I don’t know how. He is a great cuddler when we sleep and he never takes his hands off of me, which is very important to me. My late husband, who was very disrespectful to me, wasn’t really affectionate unless we were being intimate but he was always happy to give me oral sex. I see myself as a strong woman; I take care of myself and do not look my age, so I’m not sure what is wrong. Pamela Stephenson Connolly is a US-based psychotherapist who specialises in treating sexual disorders. If you would like advice from Pamela on sexual matters, send us a brief description of your concerns to private.lives@theguardian.com (please don’t send attachments). Each week, Pamela chooses one problem to answer, which will be published online. She regrets that she cannot enter into personal correspondence. Submissions are subject to our terms and conditions. Continue reading...
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Our daughter is being controlled by a school friend. What can we do? (Sun, 07 Sep 2025)
This is a horrible situation. It would be difficult even for an adult, so your daughter definitely needs action Our 11-year-old daughter is in a “friendship” with a classmate, which we have come to realise is unhealthy and controlling. She was very shy and self-conscious through the early years of school and struggled to make friends, so we were initially delighted that she had found a close friend. However, we’ve become aware that there is a consistent pattern of control from this girl: demands about when and where they meet, or what our daughter can and can’t wear. If our daughter goes against her, she risks being shunned and ignored or spoken to aggressively. This girl does not let our daughter interact with others without her. There is a barrage of demanding messages and calls at home about arrangements, and we see our daughter being vigilant and tense, having to respond immediately. Sometimes there is unkindness, for example saying our daughter’s clothes are babyish. Around the controlling behaviour, they seem to interact more normally, having fun, playing and chatting – it is this Jekyll and Hyde pattern that makes it so difficult to know how to support our daughter. Continue reading...
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The kindness of strangers: a nurse saw me crying and asked if I wanted a hug (Sun, 07 Sep 2025)
I had cancer and I was alone in hospital when it all suddenly hit me. I have never needed a hug more in my life Read more in the Kindness of strangers series In 2024, I was unexpectedly diagnosed with leukaemia. I was 34. I had no symptoms (none!) and it came at the worst possible time, although there is never a good time. I am a musician and was one week away from flying to New Zealand to be in a show. I was extremely excited about the show and, to be organised, I thought I’d get a blood test to check my iron levels before I left the country for five weeks. Continue reading...
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Developer wants 63% of retirement flat sale price (Tue, 09 Sep 2025)
My widowed sister-in-law has dementia and we need to sell to fund her care home, but the charges seem excessive The sheltered housing provider Anchor is taking more than 60% of my widowed sister-in-law’s nest egg, which she needs to fund her care home. She and her late husband bought a £59,995 retirement flat at an Anchor development in Leominster in Herefordshire in 2004. She now has dementia and has had to move out of the flat into full-time care. Continue reading...
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‘It more than halved my rent’: students on their best money-saving tips (Mon, 08 Sep 2025)
From using cash on nights out to making use of societies, six current and recent students suggest ways to save money at university Last-minute money tips for university: top tips and tricks to help you save We asked current and recent students for their university money tips. Sign up to student discount sites such as UNiDAYS and Student Beans, and always check them for discount codes and deals before you buy anything. Most places offer between 10 and 20% discount, and the savings can really add up. Zahra Onsori, City, University of London, journalism Continue reading...
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Our charity could have lost thousands due to Thames Water delay (Mon, 08 Sep 2025)
It took a year and a half after we paid for installation for the company to connect our refurbished property I work for a charity providing affordable sheltered housing for older people. In January 2024, we began refurbishing a building that was bequeathed to us. We paid Thames Water to connect a water supply in February 2024. It wasn’t until November that it informed us that it would need permission from Transport for London (TfL) to close part of the road. Continue reading...
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PCN parking fines: drivers warned over rise in text scams (Sun, 07 Sep 2025)
Councils across the UK are issuing alerts to residents about the latest SMS con now gaining traction The text arrives out of the blue stating you have received a penalty charge notice (PCN) and includes a link to click and pay. But don’t click through. It is a parking scam that is gaining traction, prompting councils across the country to warn motorists. Continue reading...
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The one change that worked: I sobered up – and started to listen to what my body was telling me (Mon, 08 Sep 2025)
After years of partying, I realised the exhaustion and anxiety weren’t worth it, and turned my back on Friday night Fomo. I still enjoy the dancefloor, but I always know when to leave Most of my adult life has revolved around music: clubs, bars, festivals, house parties – anywhere I could dance to loud music. I loved how energising and cathartic it was to get immersed in it, to lose myself a little and move my body expressively without judgment. I’d get so absorbed that I would lose track of time; once, at Burning Man, I was awake for 36 hours exploring the festival, meeting new people and partying. When I became a DJ, these kinds of events increased. Late nights out would last until the morning. Often, they became marathon weekend sessions, which ran from Friday night to Sunday lunchtime. It wasn’t all dancing and shenanigans – there would be moments to sit around and chat with people, too. I’d be out at least three times a week. Even though I’d get tired, I would always find some way to push through to the early hours because I was scared to miss out on things. Fomo (fear of missing out) drove many of my decisions. Continue reading...
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I got a robot massage and lived to tell the tale (Mon, 08 Sep 2025)
Can one really relax while being prodded by large robotic arms? I am alone in a dimly lit room, splayed face down on a table. Megan Thee Stallion’s Mamushi is bumping from a speaker, and on a large screen, two white circles roam up and down an outline of my body. Am I at an exclusive German sex club at 2am? Continue reading...
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‘It’s my second home!’ Gen Z and the sudden, surprising boom of luxury gyms (Sun, 07 Sep 2025)
Expensive fitness facilities might seem a tough sell in a cost of living crisis. But for young people in crowded or dilapidated house shares, the high price for a haven can be worth paying The best part of Owen Willis’s day is his morning shower. Notes of lavender and eucalyptus waft through his private, stone-tiled shower room as he uses a £32 bottle of Cowshed bodywash. He dries off with a fluffy white towel before slathering on Cowshed body lotion (£24). This isn’t Willis’s home, however. It’s his gym. He belongs to Third Space in London, which calls itself a “luxury health club”. Memberships start at £230 a month for an individual site and go as high as £305 for access to all of its branches, including the Mayfair club, where gym-goers can expect “UV-treated fresh air” and “a Himalayan sea-salt walled sauna and steam room”. Continue reading...
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Venus Williams, LeBron James, Cristiano Ronaldo – elite athletes are extending their careers into their 40s. How? (Sat, 06 Sep 2025)
Athletes are commonly thought to peak in their 20s. But some top sports stars are extending their careers across decades At this year’s US Open, when 45-year-old tennis great Venus Williams stepped on to the court to play in doubles, it was alongside a teammate who wasn’t even born when Williams won gold in the singles at the Sydney Olympics. Given that the peak performance age for a tennis player has traditionally been considered to be around the mid-20s, it was an extraordinary feat to be competing at a major, but Williams’ exceptional extension of her athletic career is increasingly common. Continue reading...
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Tennis is serving! How the US Open went high fashion (Mon, 08 Sep 2025)
Carlos Alcarez in Barbie pink, Naomi Osaka crowned with rosebuds – tennis is becoming a hot ticket in the fashion world. And this time it is emerging not heritage brands dominating play It has been one of the breakout stories of the US Open: not the surprising second-round exits, nor the at-the-net spats, but the freshly shorn head and Barbie-pink tank top of the winner, Carlos Alcaraz. The outsize reaction to the Spanish phenomenon’s new look is the latest example of the final grand slam of the year attracting attention not just for sporting prowess, but for the style moments it serves. Take, for instance, former champion Naomi Osaka, who crashed out to Amanda Animisova in Thursday’s semi-final, but not before sparkling under the night lights in a custom Nike indigo zip-up jacket embellished with Swarovski crystals, worn over a bubble-hem minidress. For her opening match, she wore a rose headpiece. (Also present throughout Osaka’s tournament: a series of bejewelled Labubu dolls, created by accessories line A-Morir, with monikers including “Billie Jean Bling” and “Andre Swagassi”.) The getup was “really elaborate”, Osaka admitted in a press conference, but it’s the kind of statement outfit her fans have come to expect and appreciate. Continue reading...
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Are US fashion brands at risk of growing anti-American backlash over Trump policies? (Mon, 08 Sep 2025)
Concerns over such sentiment outside US rise after Levi’s says UK sales could be hit by president’s decisions An effortlessly cool Nick Kamen strolls into a launderette, strips to his boxer shorts and washes his jeans in front of a stunned clientele, soundtracked by Marvin Gaye’s I Heard It Through the Grapevine. The 1985 Levi’s 501 advert made a star of its model, and presented an image in keeping with the clothing brand’s all-American style. But could that deep-seated association with the US prove an achilles heel? Last week, in its UK accounts, Levi’s issued a warning that “rising anti-Americanism as a consequence of the Trump tariffs and governmental policies” could affect its sales in Britain. The idea is not unique – attitudes towards Tesla in the UK and Europe deteriorated when Elon Musk was closely associated with Trump. However, the Levi’s warning raises the question – could fashion become the latest sector affected by anti-American sentiment outside the US? Continue reading...
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Move over fashion week: Chanel and Dior soft launch creations at Venice film festival (Sat, 06 Sep 2025)
Big brands use red carpets and gondolas in Italian city to show looks from newly installed designers After a year of musical chairs in the fashion industry, September is poised to be one of its biggest show months ever, with debut collections from 15 creative directors. Rather than waiting for the catwalk, over the past 10 days brands including Chanel and Dior have given themselves a head start at the Venice film festival, using its starry red carpets and even gondolas to soft launch looks from their newly installed designers. Continue reading...
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‘A void that is impossible to fill’: tributes paid to fashion designer Giorgio Armani (Fri, 05 Sep 2025)
Donatella Versace says ‘the world lost a giant today’ while Victoria Beckham called him ‘a visionary designer whose legacy will live on forever’ Giorgio Armani, celebrated Italian fashion designer, dies at 91 Giorgio Armani obituary Elegant, determined, a little unknowable: Giorgio Armani is gone but will never be forgotten A life in pictures Pioneering fashion designer Giorgio Armani has been remembered as a “true friend”, “an immense talent” and “a visionary” following his death at the age of 91. Designers, celebrities, politicians and artists were among those paying tribute after the Armani Group announced his death on Thursday. Continue reading...
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‘It landed like an alien spaceship’: 100 years after Bauhaus arrived, Dessau is still a magnet for design fans (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
The German city is celebrating the renowned art school’s centenary with exhibitions, digital tours and bike and bus routes connecting landmark Bauhaus buildings The heat hits me as soon as I open the door, the single panes of glass in the wall-width window drawing the late afternoon sunlight into my room. The red linoleum floor and minimalist interior do little to soften the impact; I wonder how I’m going to sleep. On the opposite side of the corridor, another member of the group I’m travelling with has a much cooler studio, complete with a small balcony that I immediately recognise from archive black and white photographs. Unconsciously echoing the building’s past, we start using this as a common room, perching on the tubular steel chairs, browsing the collection of books on the desk and discussing what it must have been like to live here. At night, my room stays warm and noise travels easily through the walls and stairwells; it’s not the best night’s rest I’ve ever had, but it’s worth it for the experience. Continue reading...
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Bivouacking in the Pyrenees: how we got our teenagers to take a mountain hike (Tue, 09 Sep 2025)
With the help of a droll local guide, we managed to enthuse our two sons on a wild camping adventure in the mountains of south-west France ‘So, it’ll be like a DofE camping expedition, but without any of my friends?” Lying on his bed in our stone gite in Lescun, a picturesque mountain village beneath a towering glacial cirque, it’s fair to say the 15-year-old isn’t leaping with enthusiasm for our bivouac hike. He and his 13-year-old brother would rather have stayed at the beach, where we spent the first part of our holiday. My husband and I last hiked with the kids in the French Pyrenees when they were five and three, yet they barely fussed on that trip despite walking for two full days. Back then we had a secret weapon – a donkey called Lazou who carried our packs, and the youngest when he got tired, and proved a great distraction. Continue reading...
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From farms to fork: a food-lover’s cycle tour of Herefordshire (Mon, 08 Sep 2025)
Orchards, dairies, vineyards and farm shops are among the delicious pit stops on a new series of ebike tours around the county It’s farm-to-fork dining at its freshest. I’m sitting at a vast outdoor table in Herefordshire looking out over rows of vines. On the horizon, the Malvern Hills ripple towards the Black Mountains; in front of me is a selection of local produce: cheeses from Monkland Dairy, 6 miles away, salad leaves from Lane Cottage (8 miles), charcuterie from Trealy Farm (39 miles), cherries from Moorcourt Farm (3 miles), broccoli quiche (2 miles) and glasses of sparkling wine, cassis and apple juice made just footsteps away. This off-grid feast is the final stop on White Heron Estate’s ebike farm tour – and I’m getting the lie of the land with every bite. Before eating, our small group pedalled along a two-hour route so pastorally pretty it would make Old MacDonald sigh. Skirting purple-hued borage fields, we’ve zipped in and out of woodland, down rows of apple trees and over patches of camomile, and learned how poo from White Heron’s chickens is burnt in biomass boilers to generate heat. “Providing habitats for wildlife is important, but we need to produce food as well,” says our guide Jo Hilditch, who swapped a career in PR for farming when she inherited the family estate 30 years ago. Continue reading...
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The man and the mushroom kayak: can a boat made from mycellim change the future/ (Sun, 07 Sep 2025)
Sam Shoemaker’s record-setting voyage shows the promise – and limits – of fungi as a plastic alternative On a clear, still morning in early August, Sam Shoemaker launched his kayak into the waters off Catalina Island and began paddling. His goal: to traverse the open ocean to San Pedro, just south of Los Angeles, some 26.4 miles away. But upon a closer look, Shoemaker’s kayak was no ordinary kayak. Brown-ish yellow and bumpy in texture, it had been made – or rather, grown – entirely from mushrooms. His journey, if successful, would mark the world’s longest open-water journey in a kayak built from this unique material. Continue reading...
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Set controls and teach privacy: how to manage your child’s first mobile phone (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Decide which type of phone to buy – and then talk to your child about online safety and security From getting the right handset and trying to make sure children are safe online from scammers to ensuring they don’t lose it, there is a lot for parents to bear in mind when giving a child their first phone. Continue reading...
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The women in love with AI companions: ‘I vowed to my chatbot that I wouldn’t leave him’ (Tue, 09 Sep 2025)
Experts are concerned about people emotionally depending on AI, but these women say their digital companions are misunderstood A young tattoo artist on a hiking trip in the Rocky Mountains cozies up by the campfire, as her boyfriend Solin describes the constellations twinkling above them: the spidery limbs of Hercules, the blue-white sheen of Vega. Somewhere in New England, a middle-aged woman introduces her therapist to her husband, Ying. Ying and the therapist talk about the woman’s past trauma, and how he has helped her open up to people. Continue reading...
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Country diary: A wade through nettles that’s worth every sting | Nic Wilson (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Purwell Ninesprings, Hertfordshire: For 50 years, small teasels have grown in this wood. The trouble is, they keep on moving The alder carr looks tired and dishevelled today, as if we’ve arrived the morning after the night before. Sedges and nettles have passed their peak – their stems lie splayed across the path. Even the sentry of the woods has forsaken its post beside the boardwalk. When I look over to greet this much-loved guardian (an elder alder with a woodpecker hole of a mouth and a twiglet wave), all that remains is a tangle of rotten wood and the crusty bracket fungus that almost certainly hastened its demise. Beyond the boardwalk, we look out for small teasel (Dipsacus pilosus) – a specialist of damp calcareous soils that has been growing in this wood for at least half a century. Some years it favours an overgrown clearing by the path, where we can admire its dainty white flowers and the spiky spherical seedheads that sway above the nettles like medieval morning stars. But its towering stems are nowhere to be seen. Continue reading...
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Houseplant clinic: why has my peace lily got streaky leaves? (Tue, 09 Sep 2025)
Tiny insects called thrips feed on the leaves, weakening the plant. Here’s how to discourage them What’s the problem? My peace lily has recently developed silver and grey streaks on its leaves. It hasn’t been moved and there haven’t been any changes to its routine – it gets watered and misted once or twice a week. Any advice? Diagnosis Silver or grey streaks on peace lily leaves often signify thrips. These are tiny slender insects that feed by scraping the surface of leaves and sucking out the sap, leaving behind a silvery sheen or streaking. They enjoy warm, dry conditions, and can go unnoticed until damage becomes obvious. Continue reading...
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Between Moon Tides: hacking nature to save the saltmarsh sparrow documentary (Tue, 09 Sep 2025)
Sea levels are rising in New England at some of the fastest rates in the world. On a quiet ribbon of saltmarsh in Rhode Island, septuagenarian Deirdre isn’t prepared to accept the loss of her beloved saltmarsh sparrow - the species is facing extinction before 2050 due to elevated high tides inundating nests and drowning fledgling birds. Leading a team of citizen scientists, Deirdre unravels the secret to finding delicate nests amid thick marsh grass, while they design and deploy a low-cost ‘ark’ to try to raise the sparrow nests to safety. Continue reading...
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How Russia is grooming Ukraine’s children to fight for it: ‘I understood it wasn’t just play’ (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
Abducted children and those from occupied territories are turning up in Russia’s military-style training camps, with fears that some are already on the frontline Last summer, Sonya*, aged 17 at the time, had endured more than two years of a difficult life under Russian occupation in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine. Her foster mother agreed that she needed a break. Growing up under forced assimilation had been scary, Sonya says, and her Russian-controlled school had offered to take her to a holiday camp in Crimea, a balmy peninsula once famed for being the spa of the Soviet Union. Continue reading...
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Plane to purgatory: how Trump’s deportation program shuttles immigrants into lawless limbo (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
44,000 immigrants, 1,700 flights, 100 days: a Guardian investigation of leaked flight data and government detention data reveals the inhumane journey of immigrants shuttled around and outside the US The Trump administration is shuttling immigrants around the US in irregular and unprecedented ways, according to the findings of a Guardian investigation, in effect vanishing people into a “purgatory” that denies them constitutionally – protected rights. A review of leaked flight records and passenger manifests from Global Crossing Airlines (GlobalX), the charter company that operates the majority of deportation flights for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), has provided a rare look at the winding journeys of more than 44,000 immigrants detained or deported by the Trump administration. Continue reading...
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‘You want to talk about a world of lies?’ Teaching philosophy in prison | Jay Miller (Tue, 09 Sep 2025)
My class of college students and inmates can get loud and rowdy, with everyone engaged. This is what philosophy should look like • This essay was originally published as Socrates Would Be Pleased on Aeon.co At 8.30am sharp, a white van pulls up to the North Carolina college campus where the Outsiders are huddled in their black shirts, sleepy-faced but in good spirits. They pile in quickly, knowing there is a tight schedule to stick to. A 10-minute drive from campus, then the van pulls up under the arch of a large metal gate crowned with razor wire. By 8.45am, the Outsiders are standing in line, placing their possessions in plastic bins and waiting for the no-nonsense guards to pat them down and rifle through their things. They’re checking: are all cellphones securely locked in the van? Has the driver checked in their keys at the front desk? The Outsiders know the drill. They know that their clothing should be neutral and moderate. They know that IDs and visitor cards should be out and ready, bags open for inspection. Every beep of the metal detector makes everyone go tense, and slows things down. The Outsiders know that everything needs to go smoothly so that at 9am sharp we can make it to Room 209 of the main building where another no-nonsense guard is waiting impatiently to let us in. With him is a group of women in uniforms of various shades of blue. We know them as the Insiders. In here, they are known as the “offenders”. Continue reading...
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People in the UK: tell us how you have been affected by the rise in energy costs (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
We would like to hear from people about how they are coping with their household energy bills According to a report by the Resolution foundation thinktank, around 1m households are behind on their gas and electricity bills with no repayment plan. This comes as energy debts have more than doubled in the last 12 years. We would like to hear from people about how they are coping. Are you struggling to pay your gas and electricity bills? If you have been unable to pay them, how long for and what has the response been like from your energy provider? Continue reading...
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Share your highlights from the V&A East Storehouse (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
We would like to hear from visitors to the V&A East Storehouse about their highlights from the exhibition The V&A has launched a new exhibition space, the V&A East Storehouse in East London, where visitors can choose from over 250,000 objects and have one delivered to a room for a private viewing. A recent addition to the collection is the David Bowie Centre, containing the singer’s archive. Continue reading...
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Share your experience of tech surveillance at work in the UK (Fri, 05 Sep 2025)
We’d like to hear from UK staff and bosses about their experiences of tech monitoring at work Big city firms such as Lloyd’s of London and PwC use employee pass swipes to measure time spent in the office. Now we’d like to find out more about employee tech surveillance at work. Whether you’re in the office, hybrid or work from home, what is your experience of employee surveillance? Are you aware of bosses checking when you log on and off, reviewing your emails or browsing history? Have there been consequences? Continue reading...
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Tell us how the London tube strike has affected your commute (Mon, 08 Sep 2025)
We would like to hear from people about the effect the strike action has had on their journey to work London commuters have been queuing to board buses and the Elizabeth line following strikes by the RMT union which have closed the underground. Monday morning marked the first of four days of strike action by tube train and station staff, which has left nearly the entire underground network suspended. Continue reading...
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Sign up for the First Edition newsletter: our free daily news email (Tue, 20 Sep 2022)
Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you through the top stories and what they mean Scroll less, understand more: sign up to receive our news email each weekday for clarity on the top stories in the UK and across the world. Explore all our newsletters: whether you love film, football, fashion or food, we’ve got something for you Continue reading...
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Sign up for the Feast newsletter: our free Guardian food email (Tue, 09 Jul 2019)
A weekly email from Yotam Ottolenghi, Meera Sodha, Felicity Cloake and Rachel Roddy, featuring the latest recipes and seasonal eating ideas Each week we’ll send you an exclusive newsletter from our star food writers. We’ll also send you the latest recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi, Nigel Slater, Meera Sodha and all our star cooks, stand-out food features and seasonal eating inspiration, plus restaurant reviews from Grace Dent and Jay Rayner. Sign up below to start receiving the best of our culinary journalism in one mouth-watering weekly email. Continue reading...
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Sign up for the Football Daily newsletter: our free football email (Mon, 14 Nov 2022)
Kick off your afternoon with the Guardian’s take on the world of football Every weekday, we’ll deliver a roundup the football news and gossip in our own belligerent, sometimes intelligent and – very occasionally – funny way. Still not convinced? Find out what you’re missing here. Try our other sports emails: there’s weekly catch-ups for cricket in The Spin and rugby union in The Breakdown, and our seven-day round-up of the best of our sports journalism in The Recap. Living in Australia? Try the Guardian Australia’s daily sports newsletter Continue reading...
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Sign up for the Guide newsletter: our free pop-culture email (Tue, 20 Sep 2022)
The best new music, film, TV, podcasts and more direct to your inbox, plus hidden gems and reader recommendations From Billie Eilish to Billie Piper, Succession to Spiderman and everything in between, subscribe and get exclusive arts journalism direct to your inbox. Gwilym Mumford provides an irreverent look at the goings on in pop culture every Friday, pointing you in the direction of the hot new releases and the best journalism from around the world. Explore all our newsletters: whether you love film, football, fashion or food, we’ve got something for you Continue reading...
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France protests, Nepal riots and a rock cellist: pictures of the day – Wednesday (Wed, 10 Sep 2025)
The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world Continue reading...
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