After her role in the fantasy series, the actor felt lost. Now she’s getting relationship advice from Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, and following a Sex and the City star’s mantra: never be anywhere you aren’t enjoying yourself

Maisie Williams has dabbled in witchcraft exactly once. The actor was getting ready to audition for a part in a film. “I wanted it so badly that I went on to Etsy, and I paid a witch to manifest me the role,” she says, poker-faced.

“It didn’t work, and that was where my days of witchcraft ended,” she adds, breaking into an infectious cackle.

Police received information nearly immediately after the killing. It took Las Vegas police 27 years to make an arrest

For years, US law enforcement officials blamed their failure to solve hip-hop star Tupac Shakur’s murder on the lack of cooperation from key witnesses, and on gang members’ “snitches get stitches” culture.

But testimony in a much-delayed murder trial, which concluded this week, almost 30 years after Shakur’s death, highlighted just how much law enforcement officials knew about the shooting, and how early.

Thoughtful, clever cooking that errs on the side of tasty

Amid all the bunting and hoopla of the platinum jubilee back in 2022, you may well have missed that Colchester, Britain’s oldest recorded settlement, got an upgrade from town to city status. And, as we all know, no true city is complete without at least one fancy restaurant that serves the likes of duck liver mousse on lattice tuiles. Well, in Colchester, Kintsu takes that slot.

Or at least it did until May 2025, when chef Paul Wendholt abruptly shut up shop, citing financial pressures. The name Kintsu plays on the term kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing pottery with gold, silver or platinum or, more commonly, of embracing imperfection and making something pleasing out of bad luck. So it’s rather fitting that Wendholt, a two-time winner of the Essex Chef of the Year gong, managed to reopen Kintsu just four months later, and a year on is now offering eight courses, plus a few extras, for £90 a head in a Grade II-listed building, albeit one that’s down a back lane beside a multi-storey NCP car park. The setting will win no beauty contests, but when a man is so determined to cook dinner, it feels churlish to ignore him. Come for the secure parking, stay for the treacle-cured Dingley Dell pork from nearby Suffolk and the Colchester cherries with amaretto.

You feel guilty because you’ve done ‘better’ in life, but you can’t rescue them. Listen to your resentment and learn to let go

I’m a 66-year-old widow and the middle of three siblings. They are struggling with mental health, financial issues, or both. I’m the only one who is doing well in both areas. I’m the only one who graduated high school and college; the only one who hasn’t spent time in jail; the only one who had a successful career and has a comfortable retirement. I help them when asked and appropriate, and do my best to be supportive, even when they continue to make bad decisions.

Recently, my older sister mistakenly texted me intimate pictures meant for the new man in her life. It’s one more disturbing thing in a very long line of disturbing things she’s said and done over the years and I’ve had enough. My world is so different from my siblings’ – it always has been.

Investors in Emblehope Moor will get their financial returns – and then it will be given to community or charity owners

It is difficult to find the most remote place in England. There is no public transport, no roads and no sign of any human habitation. Online route finders mistakenly direct cars up a grassy track. But miles along gravel forest roads in the far north of Northumberland is the largest contiguous rewilding site under single ownership in the country.

The vast glacial bowl of 7,500-acre Emblehope Moor has been bought for £8.5m by Restore, a nature restoration company that works with landowners across Britain.

Mikel Arteta and Xabi Alonso prepare for an intriguing tactical battle in the first Premier League meeting between old friends

Control v chaos. On the one hand, the forces of order, regimented, playing in precise patterns and, on the other, something darker, more visceral, a method that acknowledges the imperfection of the human soul, the unknowability of football in all its randomness; better, that second way says, to attempt to ride the fury than to believe it might be harnessed.

When it began, a decade ago, that’s how the Pep Guardiola v Jürgen Klopp rivalry appeared. Apollo v Dionysius. Two fundamentally opposed ways of seeing the world. But in time, the two crept towards each other. Klopp moved away from the heavy metal of his Borussia Dortmund years to something more conservative. Guardiola experimented in multiple directions, slowly abandoning the possession-oriented idealism of his past to something less radical but also less predictable.

Serhii Beskrestnov says deadlock on frontline and increasing use of deep strikes is placing civilians and infrastructure at greater risk

Russia and Ukraine are locked in an escalating war of long-range strikes with a growing risk to civilians in which neither side can entirely prevail, according to Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s defence technology adviser.

Serhii Beskrestnov, widely known by his call sign, Flash, said he was worried about the prospects for Kyiv this winter, and suggested elderly people should be evacuated in case Russian bombing were to knock out the capital’s energy supply.

The Reform UK leader is under pressure after senior aides appeared to plot how to bypass electoral laws on foreign donations

Javier Milei’s threats to the Falkland Islands make it even more important that Andy Burnham increase defence spending immediately, according to the Labour chair of the defence committee.

Tan Dhesi said the comments by the Argentinian president this week show why the government should raise military spending to 3% of GDP by 2030.

Taraneh Rahimi was told prison guards would rape her sister, Romina, if she did not sign a confession

The twins were 19 and still in high school when they were taken from their beds in the dead of night by masked men later identified as being sent by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

After four months of desperately seeking news from hospitals and state institutions, their mother, Marzieh Nourmohammadi, finally learned their fate. Taraneh and Romina Rahimi had been seized over their decision to join millions on the streets of Iranian cities during the January protests against the regime. The twins were unrecognisable by the time of their mother’s prison visit in May.

Sources indicate some members states will not enforce EES biometric controls after 6 September deadline

• What are the new EU border checks and how will they affect your holiday?

Travellers to the EU could face renewed border queues as flexibility measures for the bloc’s entry-exit system officially come to an end – although numerous sources have indicated that some member states will not enforce biometric checks.

Airlines last week called on the European Commission to extend discretionary powers to pause EES controls when necessary until the end of 2026, with the deadline for “flexibility” passing on 6 September.

Exclusive: Tan Dhesi says Argentinian threats make it more crucial than ever that PM increase defence spending

Javier Milei’s threats to the Falkland Islands make it even more important that Andy Burnham increase defence spending immediately, according to the Labour chair of the defence committee.

Tan Dhesi said the comments by the Argentinian president this week show why the government should raise military spending to 3% of GDP by 2030. But he said Burnham’s plans remain mired in confusion after the prime minister appeared to reassure him that the 2030 target would be hit, only for Downing Street to later retreat.

Most gambling websites nudge users towards accepting tracking data and harvest it before consent is given, study shows

Online bookmakers and casinos have been accused of widespread non-compliance of information privacy requirements, including “data surveillance” of customers, according to a study.

Nearly nine out of 10 (86%) licensed British gambling websites appear to be flouting the general data protection regulation (GDPR), the strict rules governing how organisations can collect, store and process personal data, according to the research.

Report documents use of commercial licensing for free or donation-based exercise classes in parks and on beaches

At 6am on the beach at Westgate-on-Sea in Kent, Angela Brier-Stephenson used to meet a small group of about 10 people for yoga.

The class lasted 45 minutes and participants paid what they could.

Anak Krakatau eruption disrupts 301 flights, affects fishing and some school activities

Indonesia halted operations at five airports on Sunday, including its main international airport, suspending hundreds of flights, because of an ash cloud from the Anak Krakatau volcano.

Saturday’s eruption, which produced lava and booming sounds that could be heard up to 700km away (435 miles), according to Indonesia’s geology agency, also interrupted some school activities and fishing.

As many as 4,000 positions could go over two years after cyber-attack and US tariffs take toll

Thousands of workers at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will be offered redundancies after Britain’s largest car manufacturer had its revenues slashed by falling sales, a cyber-attack and Donald Trump’s tariffs.

JLR informed workers and their union on Saturday that the company would be opening a voluntary redundancy programme for salaried and management team members, the BBC and Sunday Times reported.

Tories and Reform hope to unseat the incumbent by tempting some Labour voters to shift to the right

The bicycles have been brought out and eager fists are getting ready to knock on hundreds of doors as the race for one of the most sought-after jobs in British politics springs into action.

Sadiq Khan has had a vice-like grip on London, but a range of candidates hoping to unseat him in 2028 have announced themselves. The three-time mayor has been coy about whether he will stand again, and said he would make a decision next year.

Country loses 200 tennis courts in three years, but they still outnumber padel facilities by a factor of 11 to one

England has lost almost 200 tennis courts in three years as padel facilities have grown nearly sixfold.

Guardian analysis of Sport England data found that the country has lost 183 tennis courts since 2023 – the first such decline since at least 2000. The data includes local authority and community-owned courts, privately run health facilities, schools and sports clubs.

The bandleader, drummer, DJ and broadcaster is guest-editing this week’s Saturday magazine Culture features. In his editor’s letter, he shares why he’s optimistic for the future. Plus: his bandmates offer their cultural picks

• ‘Things work out for the good people’: Ezra Collective’s Femi Koleoso meets his inspirations
• ‘Like painting with light’: photographer Temi Adegbayibi on capturing the energy of music
• My cultural awakening, featuring Ezra Collective

My first thought when contacted about guest editing the culture section in today’s Saturday magazine was: this will elevate me into an intellectual bracket far beyond my wildest dreams. The first person I told was my dad. The second was my secondary school English teacher, Mr Pickering. I guess it was a subtle way of letting them know that the student is now in charge.

It’s a truly wonderful feeling. Even if this entire takeover is trash, I’m still proud to have been given this wonderful opportunity. That said, I did get an A in my GCSE English and English Lit!

Bandleader Femi Koleoso brings together the England and Arsenal star, the musician and the artist to discuss adversity, creativity and Black British culture

• ‘On the other side of pain there can be renewal’: Ezra Collective’s Femi Koleoso on reasons to hold onto hope
• ‘Like painting with light’: photographer Temi Adegbayibi on capturing the energy of music
• My cultural awakening , featuring Ezra Collective

Femi Koleoso I wanted to bring together people who inspire me and whose work I think evokes hope and joy. Yinka, the first time I saw your work I thought: this is exactly what joy looks like – it’s bold, colourful and the perfect embodiment of that feeling. Leona’s music has brought me joy ever since hearing you when you were on The X Factor. You’re one of the most iconic Black British singers we’ve ever had. With you, Eberechi, your transfer to the Gunners meant a lot to a lot of Arsenal fans, but personally it was a really beautiful way of seeing that things do work out for the good people. Can you tell me about your journeys to where you are now?

Leona Lewis I grew up in Hackney and I was surrounded by music because my dad was a DJ. He had a million records he would play all the time. I gradually discovered people like Whitney Houston, Chaka Khan and Oleta Adams mainly through my dad and I got really drawn to powerful female singers. I started singing all the time. When I was at school, I had a hard time because I was bullied – singing and writing music became a way to find my voice, my joy and my confidence. From then, I knew music was what I was going to do with my life: I didn’t know how I would get there but I knew I had to. It’s interesting that you do a lot of youth work, Femi, because I went to a lot of youth groups in north London while I was getting into music and then from 14 to 17 I enrolled in the Brit School. It helped me establish my voice and since then I’ve always been obsessed with music and it’s become my therapy: my joy, my pain, everything.

Scammers hope to siphon off some of the £2.6bn in student maintenance funds paid out each September

You are about to start university and can’t wait but then you receive a worrying text message. It is a few days before the first student loan payment is due to land in your account and apparently someone has tried to alter your bank details.

“Our records indicate that your bank details on your student finance account were changed on Friday 16th. If you did not do this please contact us immediately,” says the text.

From the Renaissance treasures of Parma to offbeat creativity in Nantes, these cities offer world-class art, great food and a laid-back alternative to Europe’s hotspots

As dilemmas go, it’s an unusual one: saddle up a giant squid or board a submersible for a voyage to the bottom of the ocean. In the end, I find myself drawn to a fierce-looking merhorse and tentatively take the reins. High above, my daughter glides by on a flying fish, metallic fins flapping, while her Dad is battling stormy seas at the helm of a huge conch shell. A ride on the Carrousel des Mondes Marins (marine worlds carousel) – a three-storey steampunk merry-go-round inspired by Jules Verne’s novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea – is one of the highlights of a visit to Nantes. A surreal fairground ride, a work of art and a homage to the city’s most famous son. It’s also a lot of fun.

This project follows women who are not only preserving Venice’s traditions, but actively transforming them – learning to navigate motorboats, competing in regattas while advocating for equal recognition, building traditional boats, and working in historically male-dominated crafts. We meet female gondoliers, a maestra d’ascia building gondolas, the city’s only female sandolista, and a teacher for lagoon navigation

Venice is a city of tradition and projection, a place feeding the imagination of millions of people arriving from elsewhere. The “impossible city”, suspended on water, often appears unchanged, fixed in time. Yet, like the water that carries it, the city is in constant, subtle transformation.

Beatrice, 28, has been working as a gondolier for one year, pictured during a shift operating the traghetto public-ferry gondola that crosses the Grand Canal

Guardian Australia’s weekend wrap of essential reads from the past seven days, selected by Miles Herbert

• Get this in your inbox every weekend. Sign up for Five Great Reads here

Hello and welcome to the weekend.

This week, we have selected stories that will move you. A dispatch from a disaster zone, where rescue teams are sifting through scattered, buried remnants, a feature about walking away from a community that once welcomed you, and a piece on running just to see how far you can go.

Our premier political comedian heads out on tour, while the 70-metre-long woven story of 1066 arrows its way to Britain for the first time

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass
Out now
Widely popularised by an episode of Friends in which Ross makes an ass of himself with Isabella Rossellini, the notion of the “celebrity sex pass” completes some sort of cultural loop here as another Friends star, Jennifer Aniston, comes full circle to play a version of herself, the subject of Tom’s (Michael Cassidy) get-out-of-jail lust freebie. A romcom from David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer).

Here’s how to follow along with our coverage – the finest writing and up-to-the-minute reports

Willem Dafoe stars as an ageing bohemian being embraced by a younger generation, while the troubled K-pop stars put the emphasis on their songs. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

• Buildup, news and discussion before Sunday’s games

• This weekend’s fixtures | Mail us with your thoughts

Dave Estherby gets in touch: “Not sure about the pile-on for Russell Martin - it takes a very select set of skills to make three teams in succession worse. Love to know the odds on him being the next Tottenham manager.”

Trouble at Fulham? Crystal Palace made it three defeats in three in the Premier League.

• Over-by-over updates from the ODI at New Road

• Sign up for The Spin newsletter | Mail Tanya

2nd over: England 10-0 (Bouchier 8, Dunkley 0) The retiring Kelly starts her final bowl for Ireland. Bouchier drives her gorgeously straight down the ground for four.

1st over: England 2-0 (Bouchier 1, Dunkley 0) Welsh Fire’s Prendergast with the first over which is, a wide apart, on the money. Dunkley is given out lbw to a ball nipping in as Dunkley jackknifes back. But she appeals immediately and the replay shows an inside edge.

• Irish fans dazzled by showcase of skills in huge points win

• Scorecards read 110-90, 110-90 and 98-91 in her favour

Katie Taylor signed off her storied career in style by outclassing Flora Pili on points as an 80,000 crowd at Croke Park celebrated her fairytale farewell.

With the gaze of Ireland upon her, the country’s great became a three-time undisputed world champion by overwhelming the previously unbeaten Frenchwoman 100-90, 100-90, 98-91 on the scorecards.

• Fiery Diamond League comments partially walked back

• On Hocker: ‘Cole and I talked it through after the race’

The double Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen has issued a part-apology for calling his rivals “losers” and a “bunch of cowards” after a spicy men’s 1500m Diamond League final on Friday.

However, Ingebrigtsen has continued to maintain that he was still right to accuse the Olympic 1500m champion Cole Hocker of cowardice – because he asked for a strong pace and swapped in his own pacemaker only to then hide behind others in the race.

New Zealand great made his name at 1995 Rugby World Cup but rapid rise to fame took a toll as his health worsened

Making a film about Jonah Lomu’s life was never going to thrill everyone. The big man’s widow, Nadene, took legal action in an unsuccessful attempt to block the project and declined to be involved. You can’t imagine Mike Catt being overly delighted either. Even 31 years later, the brutal footage of Lomu running straight over the top of England’s full-back in the 1995 World Cup semi-final in Cape Town almost merits an 18 certificate on its own.

Happily, the makers of Lomu went ahead regardless and have managed to shine a fresh light on the biggest rugby phenomenon in history. There was always way more to Jonah’s story than a huge pair of thighs and here it is, laid out in a manner that is thought-provoking, affecting and wincingly nostalgic. As the former All Blacks doctor John Mayhew puts it: “I’m disappointed he didn’t have the life he deserved to have. I wonder, even [with] the magnificent gifts he had, whether he was ever truly happy.”

Oliver Glasner argued there was insufficient evidence to disallow Neco Williams’s goal against Tottenham, accusing the video assistant referee Peter Bankes of guessing that the Nottingham Forest defender handled and said ruling it out weakens the officials’ authority. Midway through the second half, Williams stooped to head in on the goalline as Sandro Tonali attempted to hook the ball clear after Morgan Gibbs-White’s deflected effort bobbled towards the net.

Glasner conceded at least one angle showed Williams appeared to handle the ball, seemingly to protect himself as Tonali went to clear the ball with his left boot, but said the footage was too unclear to disallow the goal. “I don’t think VAR can intervene when he’s guessing,” said Forest’s head coach. “It was not clear and obvious. We had a briefing before the season that the threshold for VAR intervention should be very high and this is why it was a wrong intervention for me.

• Light at end of tunnel is ‘getting dimmer’

• Team needs to show hunger and ‘passion’

Lewis Hamilton has suggested it is time his Ferrari team put their full weight behind his efforts to challenge for the Formula One world championship if he is to have a shot at the title, and warned his chances were diminishing with every race.

Hamilton trails Kimi Antonelli, the championship leader, by 59 points with 11 races to come. Having qualified in fifth for the Italian Grand Prix, one place behind his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, who is 87 points off the lead, Hamilton was asked if it was time Ferrari gave him priority as their best chance for the title.

• Argentinian beats No 9 seed 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4

• Fritz had three break points for chance to serve for match

As his last, desperate backhand soared far past the baseline inside Arthur Ashe Stadium, Taylor Fritz instantly held his face in his hands, unable to hide the agony of squandering such a great opportunity.

For much of his afternoon, Fritz was cruising. He had established two sets to love lead against Francisco Cerundolo before breaking serve in the opening game of the third. One unfocused service game was enough to shift the momentum and once Fritz had lost control, he spent another two hours failing to retrieve it. His US Open ended with an excruciating 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 third-round defeat by a courageous Cerundolo.

• Celtic come from behind to win 2-1 at St Mirren

• Rangers beat Motherwell 1-0 but lose Shankland to injury

Yang Hyun-jun scored the winner as Celtic came from behind to beat an impressive St Mirren side 2-1. St Mirren were heading for the top of the Premiership when Nikolas Agrafiotis netted from the spot midway through the first half.

Liam Scales conceded the penalty with a handball but made amends when he headed home six minutes after the break. And Yang finished off a counterattack midway through the second half after good pressing from Camilo Durán.

It’s no surprise some analysts say we are already in the midst of the third world war, but ordinary people have more power than we think

Don’t look up! The world is a mess. The sky could fall in any day. Unending wars, expanding humanitarian crises, rising authoritarianism, dysfunctional democracies, rampant racial and religious extremism, and unchecked lawlessness cast a dark cloud as the west’s new political year begins. Set all that against a backdrop of staggering global economic inequality, corporate and individual greed, irresponsible government indebtedness, dangerous AI gambles, climate breakdown and proliferating nuclear weapons, and a truly apocalyptic global outlook begins to take shape. It’s enough to make anyone shut their eyes, cover their ears and utter a Munch-like scream. And it’s only getting worse.

Democratic leaders who promise a better, safer, more optimistic future – what Britain’s freshly arrived prime minister, Andy Burnham, calls a “new era of possibility” – cannot escape this wider international context. Last week’s global bond market upheaval, sparked by external factors, left Burnham’s cash-strapped government struggling with sharply increased borrowing costs before he barely got started. The fact he chose Ukraine for his first overseas trip, while symbolically important, highlighted another grim reality. As a lead opponent of Vladimir Putin’s invasion, Britain now finds itself in a de facto state of war with Russia – and facing attack. Argentina, too, is eyeing UK defence vulnerabilities. These are not the sort of possibilities Burnham envisaged.

This Danish concept encourages everyone to stop wasting energy on things we can’t change. You can even buy a pyt button to press. But does it help?

We wouldn’t ignore tennis tips from Serena Williams, or culinary advice from Nigella Lawson, so when one of the happiest countries in the world lets slip a life strategy, we should probably pay attention. Even if it does, at first, sound a little simplistic and perhaps provoke an eye roll.

Obligatory mention of hygge now dealt with, get ready to embrace “pyt”. Not to be confused with the 1983 Michael Jackson single, this Danish concept means accepting when a situation is out of our control. Then, even though we may be so angry and exasperated that we are in danger of spontaneous combustion, we don’t waste energy thinking any more about it and instead move on.

Bond market volatility means John Healey will have to take tough decisions, soon, if he wants to meet spending pledges

In John Healey’s bright Treasury office, overlooking St James’s Park, the artwork has not changed since his predecessor, Rachel Reeves, selected a row of Bridget Riley prints in her feminist rehang. Judging by the signals emerging from No 11 about the chancellor’s 28 October budget, not much else has changed either.

Voters listening to Andy Burnham’s promises to overthrow 40 years of neoliberalism and vanquish the ghost of Margaret Thatcher would be excused for expecting a radical policy reset. Early signs suggest they may be disappointed.

I’m one of many creatives turning to teaching mid-career, but that’s no bad thing. I’m thrilled by the prospect

You know those dreams when you’re back at school? And you’re sitting at a desk reading a GCSE exam paper? Only you don’t recognise anyone around you? Well, I am living that dream. Because, at the age of 41, I have gone back to school. And not just any school. I have gone back to my own secondary school. Only this time, I am allowed in the staffroom.

That’s right: a short 25 years after walking out of those concrete and carpeted halls, the smell of polyester jumpers and canteen chips heady on the early summer air, I am back. But now I’m training to be a teacher.

Nell Frizzell is a journalist and author

My father doesn’t ask for help from just anyone. And yet he asked for mine. He believed in me

My dad and I believe in many of the same things: cheesecake; the Geelong football club; my mum. And that we should immediately be experts at anything. First try. No practice. No revision.

He taught me this in kindergarten. Every day he pushed me to be brilliant. We played spelling games in the car and did maths workbooks for fun. Before I started school I had “published” a library of my own books, complete with copyright information. I had become – and I’m assuming this is true of most Guardian writers – a precocious kid who irritated everyone around her by being boisterously, aggressively right about everything all of the time. Just like my dad. (Obviously I’ve grown a lot since then.)

Like France, the UK has always been centralised – and imposing a new political structure brings huge risks

Devolution in England is going to be messy and slow, and brings with it huge risks that Andy Burnham ignores at his peril.

The prime minister’s devolution push will be messy because Whitehall’s ingrained anxiety about handing over money and power will lead to piecemeal deals, starting with a deal for Cornwall that will lack the much-promised driving force of a newly minted mayor.

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

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

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

Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist

Didn’t manage to get tickets to the exhibition of the 11th-century artwork at the British Museum in London? Don’t worry, our cartoonist has got you covered, capturing the many battles of our times in her alternative version

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

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

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

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

The number of students taking creative subjects at A-level and GCSE is at a record low. The arts must not become the preserve of the most privileged

How many of the young people who attended Reading and Leeds festival or a Prom this summer will be picking up a guitar or clarinet when they return to school? New figures suggest not many. The number of students taking A-level music is at a record low: under 5,000, a drop of nearly half from 15 years ago. “We are facing the worst-case scenario prospect of A-level music disappearing from English state schools entirely,” warned Deborah Annetts, the chief executive of the Independent Society of Musicians. Music GCSE entries have also fallen. It has the widest attainment gap for disadvantaged students of any subject. Private violin lessons are beyond the purse strings of most parents.

The statistics for drama are similarly bleak. A-level drama entries have almost halved in 10 years, with by far the biggest drop in state schools. Forty per cent of state schools no longer even offer music or drama GCSEs. Leading universities have been forced to close music departments and arts courses. The number of teachers training in creative subjects has also declined sharply over the past 15 years. It is no coincidence that the Ebacc, which prioritised core academic subjects at the expense of the arts, was introduced by the Conservatives in 2010. No wonder the worlds of music, theatre and television have become so privileged.

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.

Readers respond to Paul Sagar’s article suggesting a ‘Care First’ year for students in exchange for 50% off university fees

I am sorry that Dr Paul Sagar experienced his injury, but grateful for his moment of enlightenment (The big idea: Could this policy fix the care system and slash student debt at the same time?, 30 August). It is the sort of suggestion that family carers such as myself have been making for years, having been failed by the statutory services for decades.

It needs backing up with some infrastructure: more special schools, more special colleges, better provision in mainstream schools for children with special needs via smaller class sizes, and through more care villages/intentional communities with accommodation, not only for those needing care and support but also for the staff and volunteers on the same site, and housing for family carers.

A camera can interfere with fully experiencing the moment, writes Greg Lewis, while Alan Payling recalls the privacy of the photo booth

Phoebe Greenwood is right (Sunsets, disasters, dinners: we now record them all with our phones. But what is that doing to our souls?, 29 August). Having been a photojournalist, I find that the camera can interfere with fully experiencing the moment.

Many years ago, my wife discovered previously unknown relatives in Denmark. When we visited, they took us to a cemetery where one of her ancestors was buried.

Gary Calder responds to an article by a Guardian Money reader who got even by stringing the fraudsters along

Anyone wishing to get their own back on bank-card scammers using the method described in your article (‘I’ve £80k in the account, here’s my pin’: turning the tables on the scammers, 29 August) might like to add a touch of realism to a made-up bank-card number by picking a known issuer identification number (the first six to eight digits) and ensure that the last digit conforms to the Luhn algorithm (it’s a check digit used to pick up errors in entering all the other digits). Further fun could be had by choosing an interesting postcode, such as SW1A 2AA (or 2AB – 10 and 11 Downing Street), SW1A 2JL (New Scotland Yard) or SL4 1NJ (Windsor Castle).
Gary Calder
Chandler’s Ford, Hampshire

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Sundays in the 1950s are remembered by Bob Waring and Martin Cooper

In 1958 Tony Hancock had a very different take on the British Sunday from Sian Dudley’s bucolic vision (Letters, 30 August), as outlined in the Hancock’s Half Hour episode Sunday Afternoon at Home: “I might just as well be in bed: there’s nothing else to do. [Sigh] I wish I hadn’t got up now … I hate Sundays. It’s not like this on the continent: it’s their big day over there. All the cafes open and football matches and race meetings – everybody’s gay. Aahh! Not over ’ere though! Everything’s shut up.”

My memory accords with the bard of East Cheam. What we have now, and didn’t then, is choice.
Bob Waring
Southport, Merseyside

Polling stations open in Saxony-Anhalt with anti-immigration party AfD predicted to gain 41% vote share

German voterswent to the polls on Sunday for a crucial regional election where the far-right, anti-immigration and Moscow-friendly Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is expected to win.

AfD, polling at more than 40% for months in Saxony-Anhalt, even has its sights on winning its first-ever state government, although this is far from assured.

Chinese man at Trishuli hydropower project and Nepali woman in Nuwakot found 10 days into rescue operation

Emergency responders have rescued a Chinese man and a Nepali woman in two separate operations as authorities continued to search for thousands of people missing 10 days after massive floods hit Nepal.

The Nepali military said on Saturday a joint team comprising personnel from its army and South Korean disaster experts rescued the man from a 225-metre (740ft) tunnel in the Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower project, and that he was undergoing a health assessment. Pictures showed him being evacuated by helicopter after being carried out of the tunnel.

Port authorities say access roads ‘free flowing’ again after large group forces road closures in both directions

Dozens of people dressed in black and wearing balaclavas blocked the road at the port of Dover in Kent, forcing closures in both directions on Saturday morning.

Kent police said they were were in attendance and engaging with the protest, which the Port of Dover described as a “public order incident”. No arrests were made during the incident. Responsibility for the demonstration appears to have been claimed by an anti-immigration group with links to the far right.

Passenger recalls seeing cabin lights flicker and ‘a lot of screaming’ after suspected engine issue

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Liza-Jayne Loch was returning home from a business trip to New Zealand when her Qantas flight ran into trouble.

The plane was climbing above the scenic South Island’s mountain ranges on Saturday afternoon, bound for Sydney, when a bang shook the cabin.

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

• Death on the road to Rafah: the night the IDF targeted WCK aid workers

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

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

Climate scepticism is common at the Reform party conference, but many also criticise Labour for failing to protect Britons from hot weather

On the second day of the Reform UK conference, in the wake of an undercover investigation alleging party officials plotted to evade the law on foreign donations, the deputy leader, Richard Tice, addressed the audience. Within minutes, a banner appeared behind him reading: “Collect £5m, burn the planet.”

It was taken down promptly and Tice, who has repeatedly called on people to enjoy the summer’s five successive heatwaves and record drought, rolled on. As Reform members at the Birmingham venue applauded Tice, there was plenty of agreement with his views. “I enjoyed the heat this summer,” said Jeanette Bowden, of Bexley. “I don’t think people need telling to take care of themselves.” Her partner, James, added, without scientific backing: “Carbon dioxide was much higher in the past, it was 10 times higher than this during the ice ages. It’s not a human problem.”

The coastal community in California had already been devastated by landslides and wildfires before a fatal crash

California’s rugged Big Sur coastline is often called a slice of heaven, 120 miles (195km) of unspoiled rocky promontories, sandy beaches and redwood forests at the foot of the Santa Lucia mountains. This year, it has endured a long summer of hell.

Wildfires, road closures and repeated disruptions to the local hotel, restaurant and campsite businesses all have posed significant challenges in an era of climate change and unpredictable weather patterns. One large fire broke out in the highlands east of Big Sur in early August and is still less than 25% contained. A second fire erupted 30 miles to the south two weeks later and is so inaccessible to firefighters that it has grown bigger than the first and is barely contained at all.

Experts say invasive species are creating ‘pollinator deserts’ and could have serious impact on food security

British beekeepers have called for a national awareness campaign about the impact of Asian hornets as they warned the invasive species was creating “pollinator deserts” and threatening food security.

Native to south-east Asia, the yellow-legged hornet is thought to have arrived in Europe in 2004 and has continued to spread ever since, its numbers probably boosted by increasingly warm springs and summers.

Insurers in England and Wales tell of busy August with one reporting near-140% jump in claims

UK insurers are experiencing a surge in the number of homeowners making claims for subsidence after the hottest summer on record, with Hastings Direct reporting a near 140% jump to an all-time high for August.

Insurance firms have been overrun by calls and online queries, as well as a rise in claims during the five heatwaves that followed the warmest spring ever recorded in England and Wales.

Business secretary looks to simplify corporate reporting rules and exempt some SMEs from certain form-filling

The amount of paperwork businesses are required to regularly carry out could be slashed, the business secretary has announced.

Jonathan Reynolds said he plans to simplify corporate reporting rules and exempt some small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from the need to carry out certain form-filling exercises altogether.

Chancellor says he wants to ensure country has ‘buffer’ against uncertainty as global bond yields hit 18-year high

The chancellor has indicated that the UK will face a tough budget next month due to Trump’s war in the Middle East.

In an interview with the Financial Times, John Healey said the conflict in Iran would probably have a strong influence on his first budget on 28 October.

Officers seize supercar in Southend after reports of it being driven at up to twice speed limit

Police have seized a Lamborghini potentially worth more than £200,000 under tightened laws introduced to crack down on dangerous driving.

Essex police confiscated the Lamborghini Huracan on Saturday afternoon after receiving reports of the supercar being driven dangerously in Southend. The car was travelling at speeds suspected to be more than twice the limit, police said.

Sector has avoided issue because of stigma fears, expert warns ahead of closure of Nottingham attacks inquiry

Mental health organisations have “failed to acknowledge” the risk of violence from a minority of people with severe mental illnesses, the chief executive of Mind has said ahead of the closure of the inquiry into the Nottingham attacks.

Dr Sarah Hughes, who has led mental health charity Mind for four years and has worked in the sector for almost four decades, said charities had shied away from addressing the risk of violence due to the fact it had increased the stigma and harassment around people with mental health conditions.

Officials accuse National Liberation Army of launching strike followed by clash inside military compound

An attack involving explosives dropped from drones followed by a clash inside a military compound in north-eastern Colombia has killed at least three soldiers and wounded four, Colombia’s army said on Saturday.

Local authorities blamed the attack – which took place late on Friday – on the rebel National Liberation Army (ELN).

Sarah Khalifa, 39, charged with forming organised criminal gang to manufacture and traffic drugs

An Egyptian court sentenced a well-known television presenter and 11 others to death for manufacturing and trafficking narcotics in a sprawling drug case, official media reported on Saturday.

The presenter, Sarah Khalifa, 39, is best known for her programme Mission Impossible, which dealt with issues concerning security and crime.

Carlos de Almeida Baptista Júnior describes 2022 meeting in new book as ex-leader’s son vies with Lula for presidency

The far-right populist Jair Bolsonaro was in his final days as Brazil’s president when, six weeks after losing the election and still refusing to recognise the result, he summoned the heads of the armed forces to a meeting.

The defence minister, Gen Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira, took out a document from a plastic folder and handed copies to the commanders of the navy, army and air force.

Leading second-wave feminist co-founded Women’s Media Center with Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem

Robin Morgan, a child star of the 1940s and 50s who grew up to become an all-American radical as a poet, essayist, editor and second-wave feminist, has died. She was 85.

Morgan’s death was confirmed Saturday by the Women’s Media Center, an organization she co-founded with Jane Fonda and the celebrated author and activist Gloria Steinem, who died Wednesday.

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

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

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

From mortgages to inflation, concerns about the public finances of major economies have wide-reaching consequences

When Donald Trump was asked recently about the threat of rising interest rates on US government debt, he told baffled reporters: “The ultimate intervention is our military. And if we have to use that, we will.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, his bellicose words did not soothe fractious bond markets, and his resumption of the bombing campaign against Iran only made matters worse.

Under-pressure carmaker will shed 15% of workforce and halve its product line in sector’s biggest ever restructure

The car company Volkswagen has approved controversial plans to shed 100,000 jobs in a battle for survival as it faces fierce competition from Chinese rivals.

After the latest round of talks this week, the company announced a further 50,000 job cuts and agreed a staggered end to current production at four German plants: Emden, Zwickau, Hanover and the Audi site in Neckarsulm between 2031 to 2034. There are no specific plans beyond that.

Bank of England governor says central bankers must explain decisions or risk being seen as ‘unrepresentative elite’

The governor of the Bank of England has said the rise of populist politicians presents a serious challenge to independent central banks.

As Nigel Farage’s Reform UK gathered for its annual conference in Birmingham, Andrew Bailey said central bankers must be prepared to explain their decisions to the public or risk being attacked as an “unrepresentative elite”.

Carlo Gébler describes mother’s doomed battle to complete a final book as age and infirmity sapped her powers – and his own feelings about her passing

After visiting his dying mother in London, Carlo Gébler returned to his rural home in Northern Ireland one night and encountered a hedgehog sitting on the doormat. A thought bubbled up: his mother had died and returned as this woodland creature.

In fact his mother, the novelist Edna O’Brien, was still alive, and not reincarnated, but his mind insisted otherwise. “At that moment that’s what I believed. And then of course I stopped believing it because I knew it wasn’t true.”

Dana Mashoian Walrath’s The Book of Genocides is an audacious and personal new look at genocides from Germany to Palestine

The artist Dana Mashoian Walrath’s new book honours the Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust. But she also expects it to get her banned from Israel.

That is because The Book of Genocides also contains a chapter that portrays Palestinians forced to live as second-class citizens and watch their homes bulldozed or bombed. “What does it mean to be starved?” the narrative asks. “To know that perpetrators have themselves experienced genocide and now commit genocide against you?”

The Gallagher brothers’ comeback concerts are given the full fan-worship treatment, but it’s impossible to begrudge the euphoria they have created

“Hello … hello … It’s good to be back.” With these words – and the unfortunate possibility of a royalty payment to a certain disgraced ex-pop star – this highly enjoyable fan-worship documentary revives the memory of last year’s staggering and already mythic Oasis reunion tour. It also recollects how effortlessly funny the Gallagher brothers are, like a great comic double act. There’s a big laugh in the tense scene in the rehearsal room, when Liam finally shows up after Noel and everyone else had been there for hours – and the very first thing that comes out of his mouth is a fierce and magnificently sullen objection to the baffles on the drum kit: “They’re giving me the hump.”

Yet to the surprise of many who did not believe, and these biblical echoes are strangely appropriate, Liam and Noel did not fall out; the resulting stadium tour put a fresh coat of paint on the word “phenomenon”. Middle-aged and indeedelderly people in bucket hats, together with young people in bucket hats, some accompanied by their pets in bucket hats, sang their hearts out as if it was the 90s again and Manchester City had just won the World Cup 10-0 (although this film was evidently completed before Wonderwall’s moment at this year’s World Cup).

Fans of Guilt will enjoy this thriller about two siblings who accidentally kill a man. Plus: more claustrophobic action in Vigil. Here’s what to watch this evening

10.15pm, ITV1

In this bizarre new gameshow, you will encounter John Bercow doing topless karaoke while tossing glitter at pensioners and Joey Essex pounding on the walls of a shipping container. Why? Who knows!

What is The Box? It is easier, perhaps, to list the things The Box is not, if only to give ourselves something to cling to when the more recognisable trappings start to wobble, the floor gives way and we find ourselves in a tent with Joey Essex, watching in silence as a topless John Bercow hurls glitter at an audience of braying pensioners.

So. Some things The Box is not: a sitcom; a medical drama; a property show presented by sockless men with teeth that follow you around the room; a thing about badgers. Beyond this, however, we are on our own. The opening titles do little to assist. “10 BOXES” booms a caption as the camera swoops over a collection of giant yellow containers strapped to the back of a flatbed lorry. “10 CONTESTANTS” it continues, as a montage of coming attractions reveals footage of Graeme Souness squinting at an egg and a member of JLS running towards some trees. And, finally, a distinctly disobliging caption that is nevertheless pivotal to the wilfully befuddling modus operandi of this six-part series: “NO HELP”. Bloody hell. Or rather, “bløødy hell”, because The Box is a Norwegian format so something may have been lost in translation. Anyway, shh, because it’s episode one and here is Gary Lineker.

Favela Rising showed me how a grassroots movement can change the lives of young people. Its ethos is baked into the youth charity I work for – and where two of Ezra Collective met

• ‘Like painting with light’: photographer Temi Adegbayibi on capturing the energy of music

I grew up in Great Yarmouth listening to classical music, learning piano and violin, playing in an orchestra and singing the Beatles in choir. Music was something that was arranged and formal, a privilege handed to me. At 18 I moved to London to study it at university. But outside my small town, I quickly realised that I didn’t have what it took to make it as a performer.

There were, however, two course units that really resonated with me: music therapy and music in cultural industries. They weren’t about being a musician but about using music in the wider world. And so, as graduation approached, I determined that if I could build a career in organisations that helped people through music, that would be a valuable way to pass on the opportunities I’d been given to others.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Royal Albert Hall, London
In their second Proms concert, the Berlin Phil brought Beethoven’s Violin Concerto (with Augustin Hadelich the virtuosic and breathtaking soloist), and a detailed and compelling take on Scriabin’s third symphony

It’s the clarity that hits you first. The soft thuds of timpani that open Beethoven’s Violin Concerto landed from the back of the stage with the immediacy of taps on the shoulder, quietly urgent. The string sound was simultaneously luminous and translucent. Pizzicato bass-lines were shaped as if the main event and bubbled upwards through the rest of the texture. You’ll hear orchestral playing to match this on high-end studio recordings, of course, where the entire process can be geared to achieving such crystalline polish. And the BBC’s sound engineers can work miracles in real time on radio broadcasts of Proms performances. But to produce such lucidity live – particularly in the Royal Albert Hall, with its monumental bathroom acoustic – is another thing entirely.

For that, you need an orchestra of the calibre of the Berlin Philharmonic under its chief conductor Kirill Petrenko. But violinist Augustin Hadelich also served up his own brand of astonishingly flawless musical beauty as the soloist in the Beethoven. In the first movement, his rising octaves appeared to float out of the orchestra, his bowing inaudible – the kind of violin-playing, in fact, that appears to defy the laws of physics. The slow movement was a masterclass in bel canto, the third a biting, bouncing romp as both Hadelich and Petrenko pushed gleefully through the rondo theme. The apparent ease of Hadelich’s virtuosity – all his energy seemingly focused on phrasing and dialogue with the orchestra – was nothing short of breathtaking.

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

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

In other words, books matter. Reading matters.

The author on dashed dreams of being the next Bob Dylan, cruel words from a revered poet and listening to his own snores

Born in Dublin, Sebastian Barry, 71, published his first novel in 1982. In 2005 and 2008, A Long Long Way and The Secret Scripture were shortlisted for the Booker prize; three of his other books have been longlisted. Barry has twice won Costa book of the year and he was laureate for Irish fiction. Tomorrow he discusses his latest novel, The Newer World, at Queen’s Park book festival in London. He is married with three children and lives in County Wicklow.

When were you happiest?
Purely and unconsciously, living on Greece’s Paros aged 25. Exhausted and happy, when our babies were small.

Fetch by Colin Bramwell; Girling by Eve Esfandiari-Denney; The Dead One, The Unconscious One, Thundering in Your Ear, Thriving Slumber by Jay Gao; Belling the Leopard by Clementine Ewokolo Burnley; The Matter by Padraig Regan

Fetch by Colin Bramwell (And Other Stories, £14.99)
Bramwell’s translation of Fernando Pessoa’s work into Scots won him considerable recognition: it took the Oxford Weidenfeld Translation prize and the Highland Book Prize. Between source and target language, there is always a gap; the translator endeavours within that gap to identify meaning and intention, and that is the difficult work of translation. Fetch, Bramwell’s own debut collection, lyrically thematises this gap in the poet-human’s condition: “I’m an instrument for something else / a digital piano that if you opened it up / you wouldn’t understand the wiring.” Fetch (in Celtic folklore, a doppelganger) is by turns solemnly tender, comically worldly, literarily devout. Here you’ll find deep engagement with Russian poets such as Osip Mandelstam and Anna Akhmatova, poems that fuse Scots and English, alongside filial memories and premonitions of fatherhood. “Death is certain, but back then I was too young for that shit.” For a debut, Bramwell’s poetics convey an uncanny sense of wisdom, patience and, eventually, peace.

Girling by Eve Esfandiari-Denney (Fitzcarraldo, £12.99)
Before theme and subject, there is the pure, iridescent beauty of Esfandiari-Denney’s sentences; a singular voice that is alluring and sensuous, pleasurable to follow to whichever subject the poet chooses. The subjects are girlhood-cum-womanhood, the line between debilitating illness and delusional wellness (“thank god / you invested / in lion’s mane”), the flickering concept of free will for a species so programmed by genes: “I have wondered to what extent my cancer diagnosis is my mother’s, or my grandmother’s cell mutation, before my own … I look up from a cigarette mid-sentence…” The collection hybridises recognisable prose forms: the essay, the diary, the text message, the anecdote. These are interspliced with short-lined lyric poems that startle because of the bubbly voice from which they come: “I hope it’s ok to die. I can / become something / like actualised metaphor.” The magic of this collection is that it is never highfalutin, finding a way to make an ending like “DJ are you listening did you read to the end will you blow my voice a kiss” powerfully funny and moving.

Elizabeth Jane Howard’s niece has picked up the thread of her much-loved family saga series, taking the story into the 1960s

Elizabeth Jane Howard’s beloved family saga the Cazalet Chronicles spans three decades in the life of the upper-middle-class Cazalet family. The first four books, written in the 1990s, run from a bucolic prewar 1937 to a bruising 1947, while the fifth, 2013’s All Change, skips ahead, sitting lonely in 1956. The books are exquisite doll’s houses of feeling and object: both period detail and eternal emotion are rendered precisely and vigorously in Howard’s lovely prose. “Panoramic, expansive, intriguing as social history and generous in their storytelling,” Hilary Mantel wrote in the Guardian. The enormous cast of characters – four late-Victorian siblings, their parents, their children and partners and ex-partners and servants and friends and lovers and enemies and cars and houses – sprawl deliciously over the years. The family fortunes rise and fall. Marriages fail; deaths occur; babies are born; people fall in love. Things change; things stay the same.

Written a decade after the death of the original author, The Golden Hours by Louisa Young adds a sixth to this quintet. As with all Cazalet novels, to describe the plot would be impossible: it is simply that many people, whom we have come to love over the course of the previous novels, live their lives, now in the early 1960s.

As one card recently sold for £12m, opportunistic thefts have surged – envelopes are being opened en route, costing small businesses thousands

Pokémon’s success over the last 30 years has seen it grow from a much-loved Game Boy classic, to a world-dominating brand with TV shows, spin-off games, toys and even a theme park. The trading card game is a huge part of that, with more than 85bn cards printed over its lifetime, and the appetite for them shows no signs of slowing down. Packs get snapped up after release so quickly it’s now almost impossible to find them in shops, and a booming resale market is driving the hobby into murky waters.

One card recently sold for an eye-watering £12m, and an increasing number of people have gotten into the collecting business on the hunt for huge profits, leading to a rise in thefts targeting card shops. More recently though, some small businesses have reported that their sales have been hit by thieves targeting envelopes within Royal Mail, leading to thousands in lost revenue.

As FromSoftware’s new multiplayer game The Duskbloods nears release, the legendary game director behind Dark Souls talks connection, pessimism and of course, feet

Since 2009’s Demon’s Souls, Japanese video game director Hidetaka Miyazaki has shown the world a different way to think about game design. His games defy convention with punishing fights, obscure rules, and unknowable, inhospitable worlds. The “Soulslike” genre – named after Demon’s Souls and its sequel Dark Souls – is now ubiquitous, influencing multimillion-sellers from God of War and Star Wars: Jedi to Hollow Knight. Miyazaki’s most recent success, 2022’s Elden Ring, which credited Game of Thrones author George RR Martin as a co-creator, sold over 30m copies and inspired Alex Garland to adapt it for the big screen at A24. It earned Miyazaki a spot on Time magazine’s “most influential” list, an accolade he shares with just one other game developer: Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto.

Miyazaki is now 51 and has been FromSoftware’s president since 2014, elevated from game designer to CEO after the success of the Souls series. He has a cherubic face that could pass for 35. He rarely speaks publicly, and never on camera. When he does speak, he answers questions like one of his characters – softly, sadly, his head bowed, making eye-contact only when I am speaking. Outside the studio where we speak is the sprawl of Tokyo’s Shinjuku, an ever-changing maze where tourists get lost and pop-up stores appear and vanish without a trace. Today, a J-pop band performs in the square as the cicadas scream from the trees. A gilded statue of Malania, one of Elden Ring’s toughest bosses, looms over this dimly lit conference room inside From’s headquarters, a bonfire checkpoint away from the chaos.

As Rockstar’s blockbuster prepares to dominate the headlines, it’s time for the mainstream media to stop treating video games as a novelty that needs explaining

Predictably, the Grand Theft Auto VI “extended look” which premiered on Netflix last week was a success for all involved. The 30-minute preview scorched to No 1 on the viewing chart and even brought the site down for a few minutes as millions of gamers tried to watch what was, effectively, a very long teaser trailer. According to data collated by Eurogamer, more than 9,000 Twitch streamers covered the show leading to 5,227,798 hours of viewing there alone. And this was just the beginning of what will surely be two months of escalating hype – and unprecedented media attention.

Call me cynical, but I suspect the coverage of GTA VI in the media over the next few weeks will follow a familiar pattern. Mostly, it will be five-minute slots wedged in near the end of news bulletins in which games journalists, industry analysts and other pundits will be asked why the game is such a big deal, how much it cost to make and how much revenue it will generate. Perhaps a few will try to reignite the hoary old “violence in video games” debate, there will be presenters laughingly admitting they’ve not touched a game since Pac-Man, rolling their eyes and wallowing in their ignorance, in a way they never would while discussing any other art form. Somebody will venture the subversive view that “games are no longer just for kids”; somebody else will say “games make more money than films and music put together”. And that will be that, job done for another decade … or until there’s a funny story about Pokémon.

PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X, PC; Bit Reactor
Split priorities between scripted and emergent story moments hamper an otherwise brilliant Star Wars-themed successor to XCOM

Even if you’re unfamiliar with the term “emergent storytelling”, you’ve likely experienced some of the unscripted tales that can bubble up out of a game’s systems. Perhaps you’ve led a scheming dynasty in Crusader Kings, or watched a favourite hero succumb to madness in Darkest Dungeon. Maybe you’ve surrendered yourself to the infinite yarn-spinner that is Dwarf Fortress – or read about it from the mid-00s forums where users helped popularise the term “Let’s Play” by chronicling their games in descriptive posts. Or perhaps you’ve played Firaxis’ XCOM, the alien invasion tactics hit that several key members of Zero Company studio Bit Reactor had a hand in.

Zero Company hinges on a concept as simple as it is perfect: take the complementary class abilities, tough dice rolls, and permanent character deaths of XCOM, and house them in a sci-fi setting known for spaghetti western blaster duels, last stands and heroic sacrifices. As creative director Greg Foertsch puts it, “Star Wars is about loss.” Which losses you end up mourning in Zero Company depends on you.

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

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

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

National Theatre, London
Letitia Wright plays the ambitious young reporter seduced into cutting corners with contentious reporting in a brilliantly kinetic production

Tracey Scott Wilson’s play follows in the fine tradition of the fast-paced newsroom drama, beginning with the cold-blooded murder of a white schoolteacher by an unknown Black assailant as his pregnant wife watches. Cue moral panic, rolling news and the entry of a fiery young journalist determined to solve the case.

That is where the Watergate-style investigative blueprint warps because Yvonne (Letitia Wright, of Black Panther fame) is no simple hero in pursuit of truth. She is an ambitious Black woman, assigned to an enclave of a newspaper reserved for Black journalists. Her imperious editor, Pat (Lorraine Toussaint) is after positive news stories on the Black community while her white editor boyfriend, Jeff (Wilf Scolding) promises her a bigger gig if she proves herself worthy.

Actor will play 15th-century hero in sweeping production about Welsh rebellion against English crown

There are myriad films, plays and books focusing on heroes of English, Scottish and Irish history but far fewer that tell the stories of the great figures of Wales.

A major new play about the Welsh nobleman Owain Glyndŵr’s early 15th-century rebellion against the English crown will help redress the balance this autumn.

The Bayeux tapestry arrives, the Americas go mainstream and modern, and Manchester threads its way to Korea and India – all in your weekly dispatch

The Bayeux tapestry
Blood and thunder, friendship and betrayal, marginal monsters and raw sex – all human life and more is depicted in this medieval artistic masterpiece that tells an epic national story with unrivalled punch and power.
• British Museum, London, from 10 September until 11 July 2027

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

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

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

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London
Even though Beyoncé rumours prove unfounded, there are plenty of guests, from Idris Elba to Lauryn Hill – but this show doesn’t need cameos to lift it

Jay-Z’s first solo tour in nine years bills itself as a celebration: it marks the 30th anniversary of his debut album, Reasonable Doubt. But it feels less concerned with nostalgic reverie than a show of strength in the present day. Hip-hop is a genre predicated on constant forward motion, in which careers tend to burn brightly, then dim as the music moves on. Jay-Z may not be the only fiftysomething rapper out on a career retrospective tour in 2026, but he is, unequivocally, the only one who’s capable of doing it at this level: packing out the biggest stadiums in the world nearly a decade after he last released an album, his standing impressively undiminished by a retreat into semi-retirement.

Moreover, he’s doing it in considerable style. The show’s musical approach can clearly trace its origins back to 2001, the year Jay-Z solved the problem of how on earth a rapper was supposed to appear on MTV Unplugged by eschewing hip-hop’s standard DJ-and-backing-tapes approach and employing a live band: the Roots were apparently astonished to be asked, but the end result was pretty jaw-dropping. Back in May, his first solo gig in five years essentially recreated it – he headlined the Roots’ annual Picnic festival with Questlove and co in tow once more – but the Jay-Z 30 tour supersizes it, featuring not just a 10-piece band, but an 18-piece string section. The resulting sound can, very occasionally, feel a little de trop – the squealing metal guitar solo appended to Can I Live definitely seems surplus to requirements – but for the most part, it works extraordinarily well, amping up the cinematic sweep of Empire State of Mind and the lush 70s-soul inflections of Izzo (H.O.V.A), adding a thunderous heft to Public Service Announcement and 99 Problems. It also serves to underline Jay-Z’s technical skill: a lesser rapper would be swallowed up by the density of the sound, but the precision of his delivery consistently cuts through.

Photographer Max Dupain’s diverse and creative output helped shape Australia’s visual identity in the mid to late 20th century. A major retrospective, Definitive Dupain, runs at the State Library of New South Wales until July 2027

• Sydney Dance Company’s 40 years at the Wharf – in pictures

The Dutch photographer was pleased to capture this suitably orange scene in some toilets in Rotterdam

‘I must admit I was very sceptical of phone photography at first,” Henk Stam says. Sixty years ago, he received his first camera for his 11th birthday. The advent of a newer technology initially stumped him. “My first portable phone, that we used to call ‘a brick’, had a terrible camera that took fuzzy pictures. But like everyone, I noticed the steady improvements,” he says.

This photo was taken in Portlantis, a visitors’ centre in the Port of Rotterdam that opened in spring 2025. Stam spent his working life in Canada but was born in the Netherlands and returned there on retirement. With a friend from his photo club, he went to visit Portlantis on a Monday, but found it closed. “As we were leaving, we noticed a large tour bus arriving filled with teenagers,” he says. “We simply joined the slipstream as they entered; no one batted an eyelid.”

Alfredo Bravo had a job he loved and was determined never to be grounded by marriage and kids. Then a voice from the control tower changed everything

Alfredo Bravo had landed aeroplanes in a lot of sticky situations – as a bush pilot in Chilean Patagonia and as a commercial pilot in rural China – but it was a singular voice floating over the radio waves from air traffic control in Santiago, Chile, that set his heart aflutter, upended his concentration and reshuffled his life.

It was the 1990s and, although he was still young, Bravo had held pretty much every low-level flying gig possible. He had dumped plumes of orange chemicals on to forest fires and flown surveillance missions to detect illegal fireplaces polluting the already smoggy Santiago airspace. He had completed hundreds of flights with photo crews operating a big Hasselblad camera as they mapped tree farms, calculating the heights of trees in a forest owned by a timber company involved in a low-level guerrilla war with the Indigenous Mapuche. As a pilot for the company, Bravo was a conspicuous outsider who slept in the fields amid the Indigenous communities, and worked alone in the hangar. But Bravo had a pair of aces up his sleeve.

Social media, mental health problems, the pandemic and financial instability all contribute to the phenomenon

On Tess Lavanda’s YouTube channel there is one video with substantially more views than the rest: it is titled “I don’t have any friends” and has been watched more than half a million times since she posted it a month ago.

Over on Instagram she has posted dozens of reels with titles like “I turned 22 alone”, “Living alone in London” and “Feeling alone this summer is OK”, each garnering thousands of views and hundreds of comments, many from people feeling the same way.

From sustainable catch methods to the most pleasant texture and aroma, which tinned and jarred fish had our tester hooked and which left him reeling?

• The best supermarket anchovies, tasted and rated

Eaten straight from the tin, without seasoning, lemon, olive oil or mayonnaise, canned tuna is pretty gruelling stuff, not least because it’s pungent, mealy and hard to swallow. Testing tuna in this way demonstrates the overall poor quality of the product and why certain brands and species are revered for their superior texture and flavour. That said, a tuna mayo sandwich is one of my go-to lunches, so long as the fish is sustainably sourced (so as not to leave a bad taste in the mouth) and there’s enough pepper to balance out its flavour.

Skipjack is a fast-growing species with a softer, flakier texture and fishier flavour than some others. Albacore tuna, meanwhile, is a larger, slower-growing fish, which makes it more sensitive to overfishing. Its flesh is much paler and more delicately flavoured, with large, meaty flakes.

Want every day to be a good hair day? We tested 22 hair dryers to find the best, from gentle diffusers to high-speed and travel-ready models

• The best hot brushes, tried and tested by our expert

In my years of reviewing beauty tech, it was upgrading my hair dryer that made the biggest difference to my routine. I used to dread hair-wash days: the chore of shampooing, conditioning and rinsing my hair, plus the time – and aching arms – spent getting it dry again.

My clunky, bargain-bucket hair dryer of seven years was weighty, deafeningly loud, and took a painstaking 20 minutes to dry my hair. So happier days really did arrive when I switched to a new model.

Whether you want a smart-but-stylish commuter rucksack or a hike-friendly pack, our writer lugged 16 over hundreds of miles to find the best bags for your buck

• The best travel mugs for taking hot drinks on the go

Chart your course through a fun, active or productive day, and you’ll often find cause to carry things. Backpacks are arguably the best people-powered way to do it, used by pretty much everyone from Napoleonic soldiers and Ötzi the Iceman to ultra-marathoner Courtney Dauwalter, as well as innumerable workers, students and travellers.

The best backpack to choose depends on which elements of your own world you wish to carry, and where you’re planning to take them. You can choose between smart-looking options suitable for work and travel, hiking-focused day packs and trail packs designed for outdoor itineraries, and versatile backpacks with water-resistant materials and a high storage capacity.

Missed out on a fan this summer? Chill your space with our pick of the best still in stock, including tower and misting models

• The best portable neck and handheld fans
• Dyson HushJet Mini Cool fan review

Our world is getting hotter. Summer heatwaves are so frequent, they’re stretching the bounds of what we think of as summer. Hot-and-bothered home working and sweaty, sleepless nights are now alarmingly common.

Get a good fan and you can dodge the temptation of air conditioning. Aircon is incredibly effective, but it uses a lot of electricity … and burning fossil fuels is how we got into this mess in the first place. Save money and carbon by opting for a great fan instead.

A delicious and triumphant blend of Levantine and Malay cuisines

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

High food prices are affecting everyone right now, but it turns out they are affecting some people way more than others. Josh Toussaint-Strauss looks at the grocery price situation and official healthy eating advice in different countries to find out how food prices are hitting lower-income households harder and whether it’s even mathematically possible to eat a government-recommended healthy diet

A bar for the bountiful season, with a rubbly oat crust, a soft fruit filling and a crisp topping

September is always a wistful time for me. Summer has all but slipped away, the days are noticeably shorter and the children are heading back to school. But there is comfort, too, in settling back into familiar routines. These bars, with their buttery oat crust, soft fruit filling and crisp, golden topping, are just the sort of thing to have waiting for whenever everyone drifts home. I like to use a mixture of apples – some that soften and collapse into the filling, others that hold their shape – to give the bars a little more texture and interest.

Palatable premix cocktails – well, ones that adults like, at least – are far and few between

For somebody whose children recently learned how to crack open a tinnie, this week’s tasting was a perilous one. Cans covered in seductive, brightly coloured pictures of parasols, palm trees and their favourite fruits filled the kitchen, and both the seven- and the five-year-old tried to take a swig. Premix cocktails are disproportionately marketed to young drinkers – gateway booze, if you will, as the likes of Bacardi Breezer pineapple was for me – and often have a one-note, cloying taste. Absolut’s passionfruit martini and Malibu’s piña colada are cases in point: both have sugary, synthetic fruit flavours that mask, or even eliminate, the taste of the base spirits. Is it any wonder that, in 2024, Britain had the worst rate of child alcohol consumption in the world? These drinks make it easy to forget that you’re even drinking alcohol.

Perhaps more than any other theme, writing about premix cocktails has made me confront the very question of why we drink alcohol. Take me as an example. My Bacardi Breezer years were undoubtedly a question of booze for function; it loosened my teenage inhibitions and I had a laugh. The fact that this so-called “alcopop” was so saccharine chimed with my childish predilection for sweetness, and conveniently masked the flavour of the rum, which may at the time have offended my uninitiated palate. Twenty-five years on, and my palate is a different place, and I welcome the notes and nuances of a well-mixed drink. I now drink alcohol to savour it, and I like what I’m drinking to give me pause; it doesn’t need to be hard work, but I do like it to make me think.

When Karen Bleakley locked eyes with Matt on the dancefloor, it was a sign of a new beginning. But when she lost his number, she thought she’d never see him again

• Find more stories from the moment I knew series

In 2002 I was in the midst of a messy breakup, so my friend Clare did what friends do – she took me out, fed me shots and showed me a good time.

We were at Route 66, a cheesy nightclub in Portsmouth on the southern coast of the UK, that was blasting 80s tunes. Then on the dancefloor I saw him: a young, hunky Ryan Phillippe lookalike, if Ryan Phillippe had spent the summer windsurfing. Matt, a Portsmouth local, was all blond curls, tanned skin and bright blue eyes that caught mine as I stared at him.

It’s kind of you to wonder if you should change the way things were left, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. But it’s possible his preference is already clear

• Read more Leading questions

My dad died suddenly earlier this year, with no will, and I am unsure as to how I should distribute the estate. We are talking about very modest sums of money – about £5,000 (US$6,750, A$9,500) in total.

My dad was a very ethical person. While his death was unexpected, he had a sense it was coming. About six months before he died, he arranged for the disposal of many personal effects. The lack of a will, given his self-discipline and preferences for forward planning, is odd.

Don, 76, who works in TV and film, meets Claire, 63, a counselling charity manager

What were you hoping for?
To meet someone interesting. To be part of a cultural phenomenon called the Guardian Blind date. To have a pleasant lunch.

Robin keeps used packaging on the kitchen ledge. Benny thinks that’s unhygienic. You decide who’s talking rubbish

• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

We’ve had little flies buzzing around – I know they’re coming from the recycling

As the government prepares to crack down on ‘phoney bargains’ we ask experts about what exactly constitutes a genuine price reduction

When is a sale not a sale? Online and on the high street, some shops just always seem to be selling at a discount.

Whether it’s the closing down sale that goes on for years, or the crossed-out original price that you can’t remember ever paying, some retailers try all kinds of ways to convince us we are getting a bargain.

As the battle for current account customers takes a new twist we look at how tempting the offers really are

Fancy up to £500 of “free” cash – or how about a complimentary eco-friendly electric toothbrush? Many of Britain’s banks are offering sizeable “welcome bonuses” and other freebies in an attempt to convince people to switch to their current accounts.

This week the battle was turned up a notch. Santander is offering £240, while NatWest is hoping to tempt high-earners to defect by dangling the carrot of £500.

Sell-off raises concerns of higher borrowing costs for households. Here’s what it could mean

The bond market sell-off has sparked fresh fears of higher borrowing costs for UK households. We look at what the turmoil in financial markets could mean for your mortgage, pension and savings.

From a period cottage in Oxford with its own blue plaque, to a quiet leafy pocket in a bustling area of London

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

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

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

New Zealand decision follows Australian approval in 2023 of psychedelics to treat PTSD and treatment-resistant depression

Two psychiatrists in New Zealand won approval on Friday to prescribe pharmaceutical-grade MDMA to people with severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The move by New Zealand’s pharmaceutical regulatory body Medsafe makes the country only the second worldwide to approve the party drug for use in treating PTSD, following Australia in 2023.

Experts say that the smell comes from a chemical compound called 2-nonenal, and it can show up much earlier than one expects

Last week, my mom complained that she’s starting to smell “like an old person”.

She had grabbed her favorite sweater and draped it over herself at the movie theater. “It smelled like my grandmother,” she said, almost whispering. “I thought someone must have borrowed the jacket. But it was just me.”

Studies have found that anti-inflammatory drugs can improve your mood. But what does that mean for conditions such as depression and anxiety?

Inflammation is the immune system’s response to injury or infection. If you cut yourself and the area becomes red and swollen, that’s inflammation: immune cells are rushing to fight germs and repair tissue.

But inflammation can also occur in the body during illnesses, and a low level of inflammation can arise from obesity or ageing. “A marker of that inflammation tends to be elevated cytokines in people’s blood,” says Prof Daniel M Davis, head of life sciences at Imperial College London and author of Immune Health: A Myth-Busting Guide. “They’re the molecules immune cells use to communicate with each other.”

The ‘hip boost’ aims to create hourglass silhouette, much like Kim Kardashian’s shapewear brand’s padded shorts

For decades shapewear has been used to compress and cinch. But now there is a sub-genre emerging. Rather than shrinking a silhouette, it aims to add inches.

This week M&S launched a bodysuit that features exaggerated padding at the hip allowing the wearer to create an hourglass shape, or at least the illusion of one.

NYC’s elite figures, led by Julie Menin, made Wintour blink, and the designer who in 2011 had gone on a drunken antisemitic rant, bowed out of industry’s biggest event

Did Anna Wintour, Vogue’s long-serving fashion titan and ringmaster of the annual Met Gala, meet her match in Julie Menin, the speaker of New York’s city council?

The museum is the crown jewel of the wealthy neighborhood and some residents hold significant sway at the institution, financially and in terms of the art they plan to bequeath to it. So when it was announced late in July on a Friday afternoon that Galliano would be the focus of the Met Gala next year, it left many stunned.

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

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

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

September is the most fun time of year to shop, but it can also be dangerously seductive. Keep your wits about you with these tips

I used to love back-to-school shopping when my children were little. The miniature highlighter pens, the name labels, those pop-out pencil cases from Smiggle, even the intergenerational wrangling over when the price of a water bottle becomes unreasonable. I love the ceremony of new beginnings. The curtain-raising drama of it all.

Luckily for me, you don’t have to grow out of back-to-school shopping even though your children do, because in fashion September is considered the start of the new year. This is eminently sensible, because this time of year is a much better moment for a restart than January. The actual new year is dark and bleak and makes resolutions and projects feel intimidating rather than exciting. But right now, the evenings are still light, and while I’ve still got a bit of a tan pretty much anything feels possible.

The imposing red-brick mills of its industrial past are a stunning example of urban regeneration in the former ‘city of a thousand chimneys’

Sometimes travel delivers a real shock. I’m moving along the boulevards in the Polish city of Łódź, enjoying the excellent cafes and warm sunshine, when I spot the vans. They are parked up on the verge, with racks of clothing and heavily laden tables behind. I can’t resist a Sunday morning market and walk towards a group of men huddled around a car that is covered in blankets. And then it happens. They turn – and I see they are weighing pistols in their hands. I recognise the lean profile of a German Luger, and then the bulkier Colt 45.

There is a second of doubt. I hesitate. They replace the weapons on the display and walk away laughing. I approach. On the car roof is a row of dusty soldiers’ helmets. “We were repairing a pavement in the centre of town,” says the seller cheerfully, handing me a badge to inspect. “Imagine! For 80 years, all this stuff was just under our feet.”

A fragment of temperate rainforest lies on the edge of Dartmoor, and following years of conservation work, its owners have now opened up a sustainable campsite next to this fragile ecosystem

Mist blankets the valley as I wheel my camping gear down the small hill towards a clearing ringed by trees and shrubs. A picnic bench sits at its edge, angled towards the reason why I’m here: one of the last remaining fragments of temperate rainforest in Britain. I’m pitching my tent at Wray Valley Camping, a low-impact site on Dartmoor’s eastern edge between Lustleigh and Moretonhampstead, where I’ll spend five days on one of the site’s “nearly wild” pitches.

Also known as Atlantic woodland, temperate rainforests depend on a rare combination of high humidity, rainfall and consistently mild coastal temperatures where the sea moderates the climate. They once stretched from the western Highlands of Scotland down to Cornwall, covering 20% of the UK, and sheltering rare and delicate lichens and plants. Today more than 95% of our temperate rainforest cover is gone, but Devon’s near-constant dampness and its exposure to the Atlantic make it one of the last strongholds for this rare habitat.

Distilleries are the backbone of Islay’s economy and tourist trade. Thanks to their success, other businesses – from breweries and farms to restaurants and chocolatiers – are now thriving and adding to the island’s appeal

The Paps of Jura disappear into the mist as I pedal along the shores of Loch Indaal, and the rain cloud I’ve been racing finally catches up. I stash my hire bike at Port Charlotte youth hostel, quickly change and make it to Lochindaal Seafood Kitchen just before the downpour.

I’m soon warmed, by the welcome then by a bowl of creamy fish chowder. “We’ve plenty of fresh seafood just in,” is all the temptation I need to order the seafood plate. It’s a bowl for one, but a hungry one, and soon I’m picking and cracking my way through piles of fat langoustines and crab claws, with hot whisky-butter scallops and plenty of bread and butter.

The famous pueblos blancos in southern Spain’s Sierra de Grazalema natural park teem with wildlife amid a limestone wonderland of peaks

‘The wind is in from Africa / Last night I couldn’t sleep.” Joni Mitchell has ear-wormed her way into my head as my wife and I step out from Zahara de la Sierra into the mountains of Sierra de Grazalema natural park. The Africa bit probably comes from yesterday’s visit to Zahara’s castle museum. Here, high above the tiled terracotta mosaic of village rooftops, we learned how the recapture of this picturesque hill town was a turning point in the Reconquista – the military campaign of the 1400s that saw the Catholics retake southern Spain after seven centuries of Moorish control. As for sleep deprivation, I may just have overdone it on last night’s tapas.

Either way, Africa feels present as we tramp through the countryside of Andalucía, if only in the wildlife. The painted lady butterflies drifting over the flower-spangled verges, the turtle doves purring from the olive groves and the booted eagle drifting overhead: all are summer visitors recently blown in from the great continent to our south.

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

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

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

Isle of Lismore, Argyll: They skim over the surface like stones, making such a hullabaloo you could hear them a mile away

I hear them before I see them: a wailing, or something more like ululation. High-pitched, repeated vocalisations that are neither man nor cat, but somewhere in between. I throw open the cabin door, unsure what to look for, and for a moment see nothing new: only the rocky strand and the sweep of dark wrack high above the shoreline.

The strange, warbling sound comes again. Ai-ai-ai-ai. Not quite screaming, not quite howling, not quite trilling, but all of those things at once.

It’s raining in our hallway. Could my louche bathing regime be behind the showers?

August is the traditional time for something major to go wrong with my house. So I’m not surprised, as I’m getting dressed one morning, to hear the middle one shouting something about it raining in the hallway.

“What?” I say, standing on the landing with a shirt half pulled over my head. “What do you mean?”

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

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

A new breed of adventurer is chasing internet fame by targeting uncontacted peoples. Critics say they are risking the wellbeing of these remote communities – and their own lives

He set out from the beach around midnight, packing his camera, a coconut and a can of Diet Coke. Mykhailo Polyakov – then 24 and a native of Scottsdale, Arizona – pointed his inflatable dinghy out towards the open water, keeping his speed slow in the hope of avoiding detection.

After hours of motoring across the Bay of Bengal, his destination came into view: a low-lying island, narrowly separating sea and sky. With the sun now high above him, Polyakov cut the engine and set his GoPro to record. “So, the goal,” he said, squinting towards the blinding-white beach. “Introduce this Palaeolithic tribe to modernity … Let’s land on this bitch.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We would like to hear your tributes and memories of Gloria Steinem – whether you met her, or appreciated her work

Gloria Steinem, the American feminist and journalist whose activism helped push through greater rights for women around the world has died, aged 92.

We would like to hear your tributes and memories of Gloria Steinem – whether you met her, or appreciated her work.

Are you dealing with subsidence or other issues caused by the hot weather?

During a dry spell, such as the successive heatwaves that affected some parts of the UK this year, houses built on clay-rich soil suffer as moisture is sucked away by trees and bushes. This causes the clay to shrink and foundations to drop, causing structural problems.

We would like to speak to homeowners who are dealing with damage to their homes which is likely to have been caused by this year’s extremely hot, dry weather.

We would like to hear from people who live in an area where there are plans for AI datacentres to be built – or who already live near one

The Scottish National Party and the Greens have backed a moratorium on new developments of AI datacentres, as part of a growing backlash against the boom.

There are currently around 450 large data centres across the UK. These warehouses contain computing infrastructure that power cloud services and, increasingly, AI.

We want to hear from young people who have chosen to start their own businesses rather than follow a traditional career path

A growing number of Gen Z are starting their own businesses, with the number of Start Up Loans taken out by young founders rising by 132% over the past five years, according to analysis by the British Business Bank. Meanwhile, Hiscox analysis of Companies House data found nearly 400,000 Gen Z directors are now running UK-registered businesses.

We’d like to hear from people aged between 18 and 29 who have started a business about what inspired you to do it and how you got started. How is your business going? What have been the biggest challenges and rewards? Do you see yourself continuing to run your own business in the future?

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Each week we’ll send you an exclusive newsletter from our star food writers. We’ll also send you the latest recipes from our star chefs, stand-out food features and seasonal eating inspiration, plus restaurant reviews from Grace Dent.

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