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.

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

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

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

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

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.

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

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

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

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

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

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

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

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

Horgan’s hilarious new show probes the perils of ageing and the horror of being single again – and it has sex scenes so wild you’ll be laughing for weeks. The creator and her co-stars open up about Youth

When Sharon Horgan walked into HBO to pitch her new series, Youth, she basically just said “sandwich generation” to them. Alex, the protagonist, is squished between a teenage son and two elderly parents. That’s the classic; the rest of it – the recent divorce, the dating hell, the busy, creative professional life full of pricks – is the icing on the sandwich (if you like). Horgan had been incubating some of the characters for five years, but “honestly”, she tells me, “I said about three sentences and a week later, they said yes. I’ve never had that experience before.”

You might think you can imagine it, but Youth is unlike any portrait you’ve ever seen in the gallery of (for brevity) menopausal women doing everything for everyone. There’s an urgency and valour to it that is very much drawn from Horgan’s own experience. “Everything just changed for me when I hit my 50s,” she says. “I was very bamboozled but I really had a hunger to make time count.” Not every situation is lifted directly from her own life, post-divorce – she’s also borrowing from her friends, she emphasises – but in general terms, the pressures, the worries, the outrages, the surprise and the delight are all so exquisitely drawn that even if it’s not Horgan herself, you hope someone, somewhere, is living this in real life.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Judge held off on formally declaring a mistrial to give the defense an hour to file an emergency appeal

• Judge set to declare mistrial in Lindsay Clancy case after jury deadlocked third time

If you’re just joining us, the judge in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three young children, plans to declare a mistrial after the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict and remained deadlocked after a week of deliberations.

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

Closing arguments ended last Thursday in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother who admitted killing her three young children – Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months – in January 2023. Her attempt to kill herself after killing the children left her with spinal injuries that paralyzed her from the waist down. Clancy pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder due to lack of criminal responsibility, also known as an insanity defense. She faced life in prison if convicted. The tragic case has sparked a national conversation about the state of postpartum mental healthcare in the United States.

The charges up for consideration were first-degree murder, which involves “deliberate premeditation” or “extreme atrocity or cruelty” and is punishable by life in prison without the possibility of parole, or second-degree murder, without either of those conditions, punishable by life in prison with the possibility of parole. They also considered lesser manslaughter charges, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. If they had found Clancy not guilty, she could have spent the rest of her life in hospital, with the eventual possibility of release at a later time if the court determined she was not a danger to others.

Jurors began deliberating last Thursday on whether to accept her insanity defense, but, almost 40 hours on, they have now declared three times that they could not reach a unanimous decision. A jury note indicated that jurors were split 11-1 toward an acquittal but a holdout juror “has acknowledged doubt but refuses to apply it to the verdict”. The prosecution argued this indicated a disagreement among jurors over how to weigh the evidence, while the defense argued the juror had “lied” when they swore to the judge to properly follow the law. But the judge ultimately declined to question the juror further or have them removed.

After the jury declared today that, “with a heavy heart”, it still cannot “and will not be able to” reach a verdict, the judge said he intends to declare a mistrial. That has now been thrown into limbo after the defense asked for an emergency stay from Massachusetts’s highest court. The judge gave him one hour. We’ll bring you the latest as that unfolds.

At the heart of what has been called America’s saddest murder trial is Clancy’s mental health following the birth of her third child. Her defense, led by attorney Kevin Reddington, argued that Clancy should not be held criminally responsible for killing her children because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis – a devastating condition estimated to affect around two women per 1,000 births. He called Clancy “a darn good mother” and argued that she received “lousy” medical care when she sought help for her deteriorating mental state. She was in “the depths of despair” when she killer her children, he argued, and was compelled to kill them and herself by a persistent male voice during a spell of psychosis.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, argued that Clancy “deliberately and meticulously” killed her children, and acted “intentionally, rationally, and swiftly”. Prosecutors acknowledged Clancy’s mental health struggles but in its closing statement argued that Clancy was a “functioning mom” who knew “right and wrong”. The prosecution pointed to the medical resources and treatment available to her, and also downplayed the severity of Clancy’s suicide attempt. She put a level of planning into the killings that indicates she was not psychotic, they argued.

Energy secretary could recommend new North Sea drilling next week, as ministers also consider approval for Rosebank oilfield

• UK politics live – latest updates

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Ministers are poised to approve a controversial new gasfield in the North Sea this month, according to government sources, and are considering approving a major oilfield later this year.

Miatta Fahnbulleh, the energy secretary, will give her recommendation to approve the Jackdaw field off the coast of Aberdeen as soon as next week, according to people close to the decision, and the formal approval could follow a week after.

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

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

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

Five jailed after targeting victim and subjecting him to ordeal linked to past relationship breakdown

Dramatic footage shows a kidnapped man jumping from a first-floor window into a tree before running into the street and, by chance, coming across a police car.

Lincolnshire police said the ordeal of the unnamed man had been “horrifying” and the presence of a marked police vehicle “may have saved his life”.

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

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

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

Comedian and his wife, Cerys Morgan, set up charitable foundation in memory of Felix, who died shortly after birth

Russell Howard has announced the death of his baby son, in what he described as the “most devastating time of our lives”.

The 46-year-old comedian said his family had been “changed for ever” after their “beautiful baby boy”, Felix, died shortly after birth.

Outlet faced significant financial challenges after it had funds blocked by bank without explanation

Workers at the leftwing news outlet the Canary fear it will not survive beyond this year amid access to funds being blocked and allegations of financial mismanagement and internal turmoil.

The site, which was founded in 2015 against a backdrop of the wave of support for the then Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, appeared set to expand after a multimillion-pound injection of funds last year.

Reform UK has suspended two senior officials after they were filmed in an undercover operation appearing to attempt to get around electoral laws on foreign donations. The sting, by Channel 4 News and the investigative group Verbatim, was published on the eve of Nigel Farage’s party conference speech in Birmingham. Reform says it has launched an investigation into the actions of James Orr, the party’s head of policy, and Dan Jukes, a senior aide to Farage. Lucy Hough speaks to senior political correspondent Peter Walker – watch on YouTube

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.

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

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

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

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

• Gloria Steinem obituary

• Gloria Steinem: A life in pictures

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

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

The star of Man About the House scored an unprecedented run of hit series during the 70s and 80s, bringing a youthful vitality that audiences – and tabloids – loved

• Richard O’Sullivan, star of 70s sitcom Man About the House, dies aged 82
• Dandies, docs and robbers: a life in pictures

Having started as a child actor – first appearing on screen aged seven – Richard O’Sullivan, who has died aged 82, went on to a major TV career playing still relatively youthful characters, representative of the social and sexual freedoms that grew from the liberations of the 1960s.

Between 1972 and 81, he appeared in more than 100 episodes of peak-time ITV comedies as funny, frisky men in their 20s and 30s. The first of these was Dr Lawrence Bingham in the hospital sitcom Doctor in Charge, radiating a cheeky charm that led to his career-defining casting as Robin Tripp in Man About the House, in the mid-70s and its spin-off, Robin’s Nest, a few years later.

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.

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.

The prime minister talks the talk about reversing decades of privatisation and austerity, but we’re yet to see any policies to this end

If Starmerism sought to present the Labour government as more rightwing than it is, Burnhamism seeks to do the opposite.

The change in rhetoric is certainly stark. Unlike his sulking predecessor, the new prime minister offers both an analysis and a vision. British stagnation and decline, Andy Burnham correctly told the House of Commons, can be explained by a series of “wrong turns” taken from the 1980s onwards: the privatisation of economic power, the deindustrialisation of the country and the ruinous austerity that followed the 2008 crash.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

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Just as the party leader had hoped to change the narrative, along came Channel 4 News to spoil his conference fun

Why, oh why, oh why? You could almost feel Nigel Farage’s frustration. Why was it always him? Surely it was about time someone gave him a break. There he was trying to earn some money from a Thai crypto billionaire and a gold bullion dealer, and yet still Reform kept getting linked to dodgy cash.

It was almost as if a pattern was emerging. First there was the £5m gift, then the Posh George donations via Dicky Tice, and now Channel 4 News had done a sting on him and two of his most trusted aides in which it looked as if they were happy to break the law on political donations. Life can be so damned unfair at times. Always kicking you when you are down.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fury at Russia’s death and destruction has fuelled art, action and resistance. But eventually, rage’s fire is all-consuming

Twice, I have heard Ukrainians perform Verdi’s Requiem. Once in Lviv, last Maundy Thursday, and once last month, under the great dome of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. In St Paul’s, performed by the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra with the Philharmonia Chorus, the great Dies irae – “day of anger” – unfurled in an operatic gale of fury, reverberating so powerfully around Wren’s lofty spaces that the music felt like thunder echoing between mountain peaks.

In Lviv, where it was performed by a Ukrainian chorus and orchestra, the evening began with a call to remember the war dead. Lviv’s lay a mile up the road: 153 graves when I first visited in autumn 2022, and by this year more than 1,000. Ranks and ranks of soldiers killed in their 20s, 30s and 40s, each grave planted with flowers and plants, flags flying above. On that occasion, Dies irae – in the more sober acoustic of the Lviv Philharmonic Hall – seemed to contain the furious ache of grief. Certainly I have never heard a more wrathful day of anger.

Burnham and Macron have committed to going further in the crackdown on French beaches. But little is being done to offer refugees safe alternative routes

Garang*, 18, is one of thousands of refugees recently caught in the crossfire of French riot police, who threw teargas and beat them with batons when they boarded dinghies to travel to the UK. He is a victim of a war in his home of South Sudan – and one being fought on France’s northern shores.

He borrows a phone from anyone with credit who will let him try to call home, where his family is displaced. Garang doesn’t have enough money on the £10-a-week allowance from the Home Office to make a long-distance call. All he wants is to speak to his mum, to hear her voice, and let her know he is alive and safe in the UK despite the violence he has faced.

Diane Taylor writes on human rights, racism and civil liberties

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

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

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

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

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.

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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

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More from Iraola on Sky. “It’s not the results you want, the two draws … we have also been losing both games … always from behind … when you start well, everything looks better … we will try not to concede goals from throw-ins like the other day … offensively the team is doing well but we are not getting the win … Alex [Isak] is feeling comfortable after a difficult season … it’s a good start for him … Ipswich at home is very strong … at Old Trafford they played a fantastic first half … they are doing well … [we need] to start stronger.”

Sky Sports anchor Kelly Cates asks Andoni Iraola whether he was tempted to start Bradley Barcola. “Yes … honestly I was tempted … he has looked good training … but it’s true that he hasn’t played any minutes in pre-season … he is ready … I think definitely we will use him in the second half … but also with some precaution because we do not want to lose him straight away … it makes sense, no, to have him on the bench … he is a smart player … he understands the game … he is quite shy, he doesn’t speak a lot … improving his English … he has his friends with him [Jeremy Jacquet and Hugo Ekitike] who he is more comfortable with … but he has been really good for the first week … I hope he does well straight away.”

The latest third-round updates from Flushing Meadows
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Leylah Fernandez has broken Pegula early, taking a 2-0 lead in the first. You might recall that Fernandez was Emma Raducanu’s opponent in the 2021 US Open final; since losing that match, the Canadian has only gone past the third round at a slam once (the 2022 French Open, where she made the quarter-finals) but has won five WTA Tour titles and is a consistent presence in the world’s top 30. So which career path would you prefer: hers or Raducanu’s?

Sabalenka takes the first set 6-3, remaining dominant against an opponent who is playing decent stuff. Marta Kostyuk also claims the first set 6-3 over Alexandrova, while Sorana Cirstea has claimed the opener against Paolini by the same score. That feels like an upset, even though Cirstea is seeded higher – No 16 to Paolini’s 19.

Arsenal invested the most as the leading clubs’ spending dwarfed that of the rest of the league but there was a greater emphasis on stability

The Women’s Super League’s summer transfer window has closed before the start of the 2026-27 season. The finances involved are microscopic compared with the £3.4bn that Premier League clubs spent on new players but the data provides three key points of interest: which club has made the biggest improvement to their squad, who is banking on stability, and how the women’s game has outsmarted its male equivalent.

• Briatore on the attack over Monaco GP decision

• Accusation of judge’s bias towards McLaren

A furious row has broken out in the buildup to the Italian Grand Prix between the Alpine team executive adviser and de facto team principal, Flavio Briatore, and the McLaren principal, Andrea Stella, after Briatore made extraordinary allegations about McLaren’s influence on an FIA court of appeal decision against his team, claims which Stella dismissed as “insulting”.

Early on Friday a decision was released by the court of appeal, finding in favour of McLaren and Red Bull appeals against the result of the Monaco GP, prompted by a series of pit lane speeding penalties that were incorrect. The pit lane at Monaco had been incorrectly measured, leading to the penalties, including two for Alpine’s Pierre Gasly. Alpine appealed against those and they were successful, with the Frenchman subsequently awarded third place.

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

• Player being investigated regarding late-night episode

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

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

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

• Kooij claims stage win at Tour of Britain

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

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

The Saracens wing is focused on becoming more disciplined and says that he is only going to get better after last term’s breakthrough

Noah Caluori is addressing the dangers of second-season syndrome as he sets about charting a path to England’s World Cup squad next year and it soon becomes apparent he has one clear advantage. Twelve months ago he was an unknown quantity, now opponents will see him coming, but Caluori is hoping playing without pain can ensure he soars to new heights.

What made the 19-year-old’s stratospheric rise last season all the more impressive was that he played with a debilitating wrist injury for much of it. That he still ended his first Prem season as joint top try-scorer and won his first two England caps over the summer demonstrates a resilience in someone who has made things look so easy in his short career.

Maresca hails ‘winner’ Fernández but will not make him captain, and De Zerbi defends Richarlison treatment

Fans would have preferred contest for world crown, but 20-minute Rapid games are still competitive substitute

Magnus Carlsen, the world No 1, will be paired at least twice in the next few days with the world championship challenger, Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov, in the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League, the six-team franchise competition based on cricket’s Indian Premier League.

In 2024 the Global League was staged in London, but this year it is back in India at Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), India’s technology capital, from 5-13 September, finishing two days before the 400-team chess Olympiad opens in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

Trump appears to be picking up interest rate fight again with new Fed chief after long-running feud with previous incumbent

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President Trump threatened in a social media post on Friday to stop trade with some countries unless the US Federal Reserve moves to cut interest rates.

Trump cited August’s strong jobs report as sufficient justification to lower rates, and warned that, if the central bank didn’t go along, he’d halt trade between the US and any nations with which it maintains a trade deficit.

Officials say pair were rescued from Trishuli 3A hydropower tunnel in Nepal after being trapped at depth of 170 metres

Two people have been pulled out alive from a hydropower tunnel in Nepal nine days after deadly flash floods buried the projects in deep mud and left them trapped.

The workers were rescued during an operation at the Trishuli 3A tunnel, a hydropower project in one of the areas worst affected by last week’s floods, according to the army spokesperson Brig Gen Raja Ram Basnet.

Ed Miliband says Britain’s position remains ‘unwavering’ in response to remarks by Argentina’s president

• UK politics live – latest updates

British ministers have hit back after the Argentinian president said “winds of change” favourable to his country’s claim to the Falklands were “blowing around the world”.

The foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, said the UK would “resolutely uphold” the self-determination of the islands after the Argentinian president, Javier Milei, said his country needed to take them back.

Actor, who also played title roles in Robin’s Nest and Dick Turpin, dies peacefully at Royal Variety Charity care home

• Richard O’Sullivan obituary

• Sex symbol in a 70s tank top: how Richard O’Sullivan blazed a trail for funny, frisky, cheeky chappies

Richard O’Sullivan, known for his role as Robin Tripp in the 1970s TV sitcoms Man About the House and Robin’s Nest, has died aged 82.

The actor, who was also famous for playing the title character in the TV series Dick Turpin, died peacefully with his family at his side at the Royal Variety Charity’s care home on Friday, the organisation said.

Mourning turns to anger as residents of Kuhestak say Baloch communities are being placed in path of conflict

People in Kuhestak, a predominantly Baloch city in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, are mourning after a strike on a wedding killed at least four people, including a child, and injured more than 60, according to local authorities.

The blast hit at around 9.30pm on 1 September, turning a night of celebration into one of devastation for the small coastal community, which is on the strait of Hormuz.

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

National Audit Office urges government to act as climate crisis, disease and cyberattacks pose growing risks

The climate crisis, disease and cyber-attacks pose growing risks to the UK’s food supplies and the government needs to act to make the system more resilient, according to the public spending watchdog.

The National Audit Office (NAO) is urging the Department for Food, the Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) to work more closely with households, communities and businesses to ensure the flow of crucial food into the country can withstand supply shocks that are becoming increasingly common and severe.

Intensification of Middle East conflict and ongoing Russian export ban leads to diesel prices rising 10% in less than a week

Farmers are facing an “astronomical” jump in the price of fuel needed to operate their vehicles and machinery after a surge in diesel costs in the UK and the US.

Renewed fighting between the US and Iran has driven up the price of crude oil, while last week Russia extended a ban on diesel exports, further pushing up market prices.

Exclusive: As millions of people face hosepipe bans, many companies are not required to report, let alone cut, use of public supply

Less than 1% of businesses in England use more water than the daily needs of 10 million people, as millions of households face hosepipe bans and three-quarters of the country is in drought.

Businesses across England use 2.6bn litres a day from the public water supply, which includes potable and non-potable water provided by water companies. In total, businesses account for about 30% of public supply use, with two-thirds of their consumption in water-stressed areas, according to Mosl, the organisation that operates England’s business water market.

Revelations are further blow to Nigel Farage before conference speech, with Labour reporting party to police

Reform UK has suspended two senior officials after they were filmed in an undercover investigation appearing to plot to get around electoral laws on foreign donations.

In a blow to Nigel Farage hours before his conference speech, the party said it had launched an investigation into the actions of James Orr, the party’s head of policy, and Dan Jukes, a senior aide to Farage, after the broadcast by Channel 4 News.

Exhibition opens in former home of William Herschel, who discovered Uranus, and his comet-spotting sibling Caroline

From the garden of their Georgian townhouse in Bath in the late 18th century, a brother and sister made a series of extraordinary astronomical discoveries.

A new art show in the house where the siblings – William and Caroline Herschel – worked and lived highlights their pioneering spirit and their domestic arrangements.

Collective training exercises for UK-based units to be suspended for most of this year amid budget pressures

The British army has been ordered to halt non-essential training exercises in an effort to save money.

Troops preparing to be deployed or on deployments, those who are on standby or in a quick-reaction role will continue to train as normal. But collective training exercises for UK-based units are being suspended for most of this year amid budget pressures.

Ministers draw up inspection regime to enforce rules limiting sugar, fat and salt

Schools could be reprimanded if they serve food containing too much fat, salt or sugar under new checks to ensure pupils receive healthy lunches.

The Department for Education is finalising plans for a promised “robust national enforcement system” to ensure all 21,500 state-funded schools in England comply with existing nutrition standards.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As polls point to victory in Saxony-Anhalt for AfD party promising deportations, people face agonising choice: stay or go

As the Bible study session wrapped up, leaving worshippers to mingle over cake and coffee, Fatemeh, 44, fought back tears as the conversation turned to Sunday’s state election in Saxony-Anhalt.

“I worry about it every day,” she said. “I can’t stop thinking about my son and what might happen to us.”

Fatemeh worries about what might happen after the elections. Photograph: Christian Jungeblodt/The Guardian

Student protesters among those hacked, says digital rights group, though Aleksandar Vučić’s government denies spying

At least 14 people from across Serbian civil society were targeted with advanced spyware earlier this year in what the digital rights group Share Foundation said was the largest documented ​wave of such infection in Serbia to date.

The wave of spyware infections was discovered in August after Apple notified people in 110 ⁠countries that they had probably been victims ⁠of mercenary spyware.

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”.

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.

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.

Valuation above $11bn expected for firm whose fans include Prince Harry, Jennifer Aniston and Kim Kardashian

Fans of Oura are accustomed to using its trendy smart rings to fastidiously monitor their health but now investors are preparing to track a new metric: its share price.

The company’s filing to list imminently on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York was made public on Thursday.

He taught maths and walked across Europe, trying to leave his demons behind. As he goes back on tour aged 84, the folk-pop legend explains how he came back to singing

As Art Garfunkel is keen to point out, “I am a singer – there, use that as the title of your article” – but he was never just a singer. “I’ve been an actor. I am a writer,” he continues. “I’ve walked across countries, taken freighters across oceans. I’ve read the dictionary. I’ve read two books a month for 60 years: Darwin, Herodotus, Balzac, Proust, Tolstoy. I’ve taught maths. I have two great kids and I’m a grandfather, but it always does seem to come back to the singing.”

Which is understandable, given that in Simon and Garfunkel (with songwriter Paul Simon) he sold more albums than any other pop duo in history. Garfunkel’s oft-called “angelic” tones powered classic chart-toppers including The Sound of Silence and Bridge Over Troubled Water, and he became a successful solo artist. However, until a year ago, he was hardly singing at all and hadn’t toured since 2019. “I found myself lying on a pillow in a dream state, thinking about the meaning of being alive,” he reveals. “What is my day? What am I supposed to do with myself?”

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.

Venice film festival
Director Cédric Kahn combines compassion with coolly detailed forensic scrutiny in this genre-challenging film which puts a troubled love triangle at the centre of the story

Veteran French director Cédric Kahn brings us a movie in a classic French vein: a docu-realist study of an institution, in this case a state psychiatric facility for teenagers between 15 and 18; with scenes in treatment suites, recreation areas, dorms and interview rooms. It’s something to compare perhaps with Laurent Cantet’s The Class, or Nicolas Philibert’s On the Adamant, or Canadian film-maker Denis Côte’s That Kind of Summer.

Kahn’s film is powerful and committed, although sometimes the acting comes close to shouty improv youth theatre. The tone is of course one of compassion, combined with coolly detailed forensic scrutiny, though audiences might be intrigued at Kahn’s use of Purcell’s Funeral Sentences on the soundtrack, music notably used by Kubrick in A Clockwork Orange, a film in which delinquent youth are treated more roughly. Kahn himself plays one of the senior medical staff, part of the gallery of authority figures – doctors, nurses, orderlies, therapists and a nervous intern – who are almost as affected by the institutional drama as the troubled young people themselves.

James Gunn and Peter Safran’s regime had good reasons to ditch Ben Affleck’s Batman and Henry Cavill’s Superman. Other choices have been much harder to fathom

There was never going to be a completely painless way to break up the old DC gang. Warner Bros’ DC Extended Universe probably needed to be ruthlessly ripped apart in order to create space for James Gunn and Peter Safran’s brand-new DCU. We almost certainly did need a clean break from the likes of Ben Affleck (Batman) and Henry Cavill (Superman), if only to persuade audiences that this really was a proper reboot. The question, as Gal Gadot may have been pondering this week, is quite why some of the old universe’s supporting players were smuggled safely into the new continuity while others were left sprawling amid the ruins.

Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Gadot, who starred in two solo Wonder Woman movies for director Patty Jenkins, revealed that nobody at DC Studios ever formally told her she had been dropped. One minute, Gadot says, she was being assured by Gunn and Safran that they would develop a third instalment with her; the next, she was looking on in mounting alarm as the entire infrastructure of the previous DC continuum was blown to smithereens. “They were like, ‘We’re going to develop it with you, the third one,’” she said. “But I saw the way everybody else was handled, right? And I, you know – the Henry [Cavill] situation was unfortunate. I was in the middle of that. The Henry situation was not handled elegantly, to say the least. Same with Patty – it was not handled elegantly.”

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

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

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

Lance Hammer’s first film in 18 years is a heart-wrenching masterpiece about family, mental decline and sexual consent. He and supporting actor Juliette Binoche discuss how they brought unabashed realism to a condition rarely seen on screen

The first time we see Martin and Leslie, the elderly couple at the centre of Lance Hammer’s wrenching new film, Queen at Sea, they are walking together up a set of stone steps: one of their regular outings, we assume, in days filled with pottering and quiet companionship. They have their backs to us, and we can’t see their destination beyond a bleached sky that fills the top half of the screen. Symbolically, it may be deemed a bit on the nose: two people near the end of their lives, moving gently towards the white light of oblivion. There’s a whiff of sentimentality about it.

But any doubts about this story’s willingness to confront difficult truths are blasted away by the next scene. Leslie’s daughter, Amanda, played by Juliette Binoche, pays a visit to the couple’s house in drizzly, middle-class north London, her teenage daughter in tow. Unable to find her mother and stepfather, she arrives at the bedroom door. Opening it, she finds Martin (Tom Courtenay) on top of Leslie (Anna Calder-Marshall), who lies impassively beneath him, the mask of dementia obvious on her face.

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.

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.

Nacho Pezzati’s new album Swerved taps into the moody ambience of the UK north-west underground, ratcheting a tangible and thrilling sense of unease

From Barcelona, Spain
Recommend if you like Space Afrika, Shackleton, Purelink
Up next Swerved out now

Swerved, by Barcelona-based producer Nueen (Nacho Pezzati) is a bassy, moody, darkly ambient album that travels through R&B, drill, cloud rap and dub without any obvious changes in its grey-black weather. But this is slowly churning music, on the brink of rot. By the 10th track, Copicat, the unease is tangible; after a slow, agonising ratcheting build of fanbelt hi-hats, the album’s only drop arrives with the weight and power of a cloudburst. It’s thrilling.

(Self-released)
Singer Emma Morton brings an indie-girl chorister’s brightness to this captivating debut album, on songs with hints of darkness that sound ages-old

Sairie’s debut album begins at this transitional time of year, its glistening psych-folk easing us out of the summer heat towards the coming darkness. In its Pentangle-like opener Song for the Winter, birds’ voices “climb higher”, hills “glow brighter” and waves “call out louder”, and the songs that follow are similarly saturated with colour and energy, creating an intensity that gradually reveals its perils.

Based in Brighton, Sairie have released a stack of captivating singles and EPs since 2019, spanning folk, originals and modern covers; one great double A-side released earlier in the year had singer Emma Morton master the ballad May Carol and Françoise Hardy’s Tous Les Garçons et Les Filles. Her tone hooks an 80s indie-pop choirgirl-like brightness in tracks like Harder Than It Seemed, bolstered by Andy Thomas’s meaty bass, and makes you realise this style might have its roots in folk singers such as Maddy Pryor. It also channels the twisted beauty of Josephine Foster on songs such as The Breeze on the Meadow, where a wasp-like drone from Jon Griffin’s harmonium, Maria Marzaioli’s violin and Alice Eldridge’s cello amplifies hints of strangeness.

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.

The American author on falling in love with The Great Gatsby, being inspired by Dylan Thomas – and the memoir of a canoe trip in Texas he comes back to

My earliest reading memory
The deaths of Old Dan and Little Ann in Wilson Rawls’s Where the Red Fern Grows were etched into my being as a first grader in Chesterfield County, Virginia.

My favourite book growing up
Stephen King’s The Stand. I completely lost myself in the story. I don’t think I realised at the time what a rare gift it is to have that experience.

The activist’s memoir, due to be published this month, now stands as a posthumous testament to her remarkable life

Gloria Steinem was due to speak at a women’s lunch in New York at the end of this month and at more events in October, illustrating the central theme of An Unexpected Life, her new memoir, which, when it’s published a few weeks from now, will stand as posthumous testament to the 92-year-old icon: just keep going. So it is, after her death on Wednesday, that the book’s opening pages unfold with a deep, added poignancy and when Steinem expresses gratitude for a life that has been both happier and longer “than I ever imagined”, one is struck by the greater gratitude we probably owe her.

An Unexpected Life is a follow-up of sorts to My Life on the Road, the activist’s memoir of a decade ago, and as the tributes pour in, the book offers us an opportunity to go back over Steinem’s hardscrabble origins in Toledo, Ohio, and the roots of her activism. This is where it all happened, the formation of a woman who would come to define second wave feminism by combining a tough-as-they-come stance with something that looked a lot like serenity. Reading the first half of the book, one is reminded of Steinem’s original power and the improbability and iconoclasm of her journey, in which a childhood governed by poverty and dysfunction turned into a lifelong mission to resist the narrow templates laid out for her.

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.

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

The ex-marketing manager’s win, for his spoof Sycamore Gap-inspired whodunnit Rewilding, arrives just as he’s gearing up for a new season of hit sketch show SNL UK – which he calls ‘the hardest job of my life’

For the last month, Chris Cantrill has been performing his fringe show Rewilding daily in a lunchtime slot. And yet, when we plan to speak about his victory in the Edinburgh comedy awards, the interview is arranged – on the festival’s penultimate day – for lunchtime. Can he really have won the fringe’s major prize, and – hell of a mic drop, this – immediately sacked off his last two shows? “I couldn’t be happier not to be at the festival today,” he says, on video call from his Northumberland home. But the cancellation, it transpires, is long-standing, because work starts immediately post-fringe on the new series of SNL UK, for which he writes.

“But I’m absolutely over the moon not to be doing my show right now,” he admits. “I’ve got a lot of adrenaline in my body slowly seeping out, and I feel like I’ve been hit by a train.” The Edinburgh comedy award (it used to be the Perrier, and was won in the past by Steve Coogan, The League of Gentlemen and Frank Skinner) has been a long time coming for Bradford-born Cantrill. This year’s was his fourth nomination, twice as a solo act, and twice as part of his duo The Delightful Sausage, alongside 2024 winner Amy Gledhill. He is, as I tease him when we speak, a comparatively senior winner, the oldest since Bridget Christie, also 42, 13 years ago. “Finally, a victory for the middle-aged white man!,” he retorts, then bursts into laughter. “Common sense at last!”

Theatre Royal Bath
Antihero actor Garry becomes a magnificent new kind of beast as Gerri, played with blistering hilarity by Tracy-Ann Oberman

The reputation of Noël Coward’s plays has involved escaping restrictions: his recorded clipped, waspish tone in key roles and a perception that, at a time when gay men’s careers and lives were at risk, the dramatist could not be socially and emotionally truthful.

Seven years ago, in an Old Vic revival of Coward’s 1942 off-stage comedy Present Laughter, Andrew Scott – as actor Garry Essendine, a gorgon of priapic self-importance – memorably banished the parodic playing style and probed forbidden subtext. Changing Joanna, one of Garry’s love interests, into Joe made characters bisexual or in sham marriages.

Nick Park began modelling the character as a feline, before finding it too difficult and changing him to a dog

The creator of Wallace and Gromit has revealed that the world’s most famous stop-motion animated dog was nearly a cat.

As Aardman Animations marks its 50th anniversary, Nick Park, who joined the studio in 1985, told the BBC he had originally modelled Gromit as a feline companion for Wallace.

Film-maker acclaimed for his celebrations of Roma culture had been working on a ‘historical film project’ in Provence

Tony Gatlif, the French director of more than 20 films that mostly concentrated on celebrating Roma culture across the world, has died aged 77.

His family said in a statement to AFP that Gatlif died on Wednesday of “a health issue” while working on a “historical film project” in Arles in Provence, France. “The beauty of his films, his generosity, his joy, his poetry, and his love of music will remain with us forever.”

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

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

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

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

There’d been no morning sickness, cravings or tiredness. My mum didn’t believe I’d had a baby – even after seeing her on FaceTime

When I was 19, I went to college in Texas, where I met my ­boyfriend Preston. It was 2023 and I had big plans. After ­finishing my degree in criminal justice, I wanted to go to law school. I wasn’t in a rush to get married or have kids. My mum had drilled into me a fear of getting pregnant at a young age. I was on the pill and careful with contraception.

In May 2025, I took a trip to London, returning to campus in August after the summer holidays. I noticed I was slowly gaining weight; by January this year I’d gained 10lb. I put it down to my late-night snacking and lack of exercise.

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.

We boiled litres of water to find the best electric kettles, from hard-water heroes to vintage-style, repairable and wifi-connected models

• The best air fryers, tried and tested for crisp and crunch

Despite the march of progress, the humble kettle remains a kitchen staple. It’s what we turn to in times of strife, when spirits are flagging, or to start our day. When a visitor calls, one of the first things we often do is put the kettle on.

Many small appliances have evolved beyond their original form, but the kettle’s basic principles remain largely unchanged. Water goes in and heats until a thermostat switches it off; the water then pours out, and we enjoy a cuppa. However, the technology that goes into a kettle has been slowly improving: better insulation to keep water hotter for longer and reduce reboils; different temperature settings to suit every drink from green tea to herbal brews; and more features such as filters and concealed elements to keep scale out of our cups.

The seasons might be changing, but the muggy weather remains, and heatwaves are on the rise. Stay comfortable on the move with our tried and tested portable neck and handheld fans

• The best fans for your home, tested
• Shark ChillPill 3-in-1 fan review

So far this year, we’ve seen five heatwaves in the UK. The climate crisis means things are heating up year on year, and while we can hide in air-conditioned shops and offices, our homes can get uncomfortably – sometimes dangerously – hot.

We also have to go outside – or worse, pack ourselves like sweaty sardines on sweltering public transport. On those occasions, a portable fan can make all the difference between manageable discomfort and indulging in an inadvisable quantity of ice-cream. Their recent popularity has led to manufacturers churning out cheap-but-not-especially cheerful products that ultimately end up as clutter in your house – or worse, landfill, where an estimated 4.3m will end up this year alone.

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

Thoroughly British, a bit rustic, and very much an early-autumn treat

This easy, food-friendly drink is built around the flavours of the countryside – sharp apple, local honey, garden herbs – rather than imported citrus. A touch of blackberry gives colour and depth without turning it too sweet, and echoes the kind of preserves and foraged fruit that run through our food menu.

Laurissa Heywood, co-owner, Pignut & The Hare, Scawton, North Yorkshire

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.

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.

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

I was forced to examine the idea of sexual pleasure after a tumor was removed from my spinal cord

Ten years ago, my right elbow started to hurt. The internet suggested I had tennis elbow, so I stopped playing tennis. Once the outer elbow pain moved inward, I changed my self-diagnosis to golfer’s elbow. I stopped lifting weights, competitive dragon-boating and bouldering.

For good measure, I consulted an occupational therapist about my nightly bullet-vibrator routine after reading that golfer’s elbow is common among construction workers who operate heavy-duty vibrating machinery. He listened closely and said he’d note VRI on my patient chart. I asked what VRI meant, eager to end my diagnostic journey. “Vibrator-related injury,” he responded. We busted out laughing.

Assisting an ageing loved one can start with small tasks but may lead to full-time caregiving that requires more support

Helping an ageing parent or loved one often begins with easy-to-field requests: Pick up a prescription. Drive them to a doctor’s appointment. Grab groceries.

However, light tasks – just “helping out” here and there – may eventually snowball into the avalanche of full-time caregiving, a phenomenon becoming known as “caregiver creep”. Like “caregiver burnout”, it’s not a formal term, but there is growing awareness about this slow build among healthcare providers and experts.

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

Across the world, hundreds of people have come to believe they have made extraordinary scientific discoveries with AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. Others say their AI has ‘awakened’, or is leading them to a higher spiritual realm. The Guardian journalist Michael Safi begins investigating a phenomenon labelled ‘AI psychosis’, travelling to the US to meet two people who have been on weird journeys with their chatbots

As more companies turn to AI, they’re hiring freelancers to clean up its mistakes rather than create original work

Lisa, a freelance graphic designer based in Spain, noticed a shift in her work after the release of ChatGPT in 2022. She went from receiving slow one-off jobs creating logos and packaging to an onslaught of requests asking her to fix versions that were generated by artificial intelligence – from sharpening fuzzy images for printing to turning flawed designs into usable files.

By 2025, Lisa, who asked not to be fully named to avoid solicitations, said 90% of her incoming logo and packaging design requests required cleaning up AI-generated content, work that accounted for 60% to 70% of her annual income. But the grind was exhausting. Clients lowballed her;' some AI-generated designs were so flawed that she had to recreate them from scratch and she worried about being complicit in AI-driven copyright infringement. By the end of the year, she began turning those jobs down.

He doesn’t have an account with them, but is being bombarded with demands for money and threats of debt collectors

My autistic son has been bombarded for years by letters to his home from OVO Energy addressed to “The Occupier”, with demands for money and threats of debt collectors. He is supplied by Scottish Gas.

He was required to let an OVO agent into his flat to “prove” he didn’t have an OVO meter. Neither this, nor countless phone calls, has stopped the demands.

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.”

There’s no excuse for being UV-reckless with these new options

Almost half of UK adults do not apply sunscreen daily. If you think even this woeful figure sounds surprisingly high, I agree with you – some surveys have daily SPF use as low as 8% in the male adult population.

My own feeling, based on hundreds of conversations with the UV-reckless, is that most would probably offer “greasy texture and feel” as their defence. And yet almost a third of the population wear moisturiser.

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.”

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.

Looking for an alternative to fast fashion, Eve Ogden Schaub decided to create a garment from homegrown flax

From crop tops to shorts and brightly patterned dresses, many of today’s clothes are the result of fast fashion. But one woman is taking a radical approach to challenging this trend by growing her own dress.

Eve Ogden Schaub is in the midst of a project to create a linen garment made from flax she is growing at home, documenting the process in videos shared on her Instagram account.

Due to its ubiquity in fast fashion, gen Z are pushing back against the synthetic material and using it as an insult

In 2015, Kate Moss called an easyJet pilot a “basic bitch” and a catchy new insult meaning obvious and uncool hit the mainstream. Had it happened in 2026, Moss might have used the word “polyester”, reportedly gen Z’s new favorite diss, levied at cheap-looking videos on TikTok, and sometimes at other users’ taste.

But its use as a figurative insult also echoes a literal backlash against polyester, now the most-produced synthetic fibre on the planet.

The ‘dad’ look favours straight lines and muted colours, while ‘dudes’ prefer baggier clothes with adornments

There is a competition going on at the US Open this week and it’s not the one involving rackets and balls. Instead, leading men who are not entered into this year’s draw are serving looks rather than aces.

Tennis legend Roger Federer took to the court on Tuesday in navy blue polo shirt and shorts, navy blue sweatbands and navy blue socks. The cuts were trim and the top was tucked in. The young Spanish player Carlos Alcaraz wore a Nike vest, untucked and the colour of Ribena, maroon shorts, and trainers that looked like a sweetshop counter.

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.

Pierogi are a religion in Poland, but I’d never been a believer. Could a recce in the charming Baltic city convert me?

I used to live in Poland. I worked in a fish-and-chip shop in the western city of Poznań, boning cod and peeling potatoes for £1.50 an hour. With the exception of that job, I enjoyed everything about my time in the country, not least the food. I liked the chicken broth with noodles, the slippery herring, the knuckles of pork the size of basketballs, the cold beetroot soup that beats gazpacho hands down.

One thing I was less delighted by were Polish dumplings – pierogi. It wasn’t that they weren’t nice – they were – it was more that they didn’t seem to warrant the extreme levels of affection and esteem Poles often bestow on the doughy parcels. By being ambivalent about them, I was going against a well-established grain.

Increasing heatwaves mean we need to rethink what we grow. The good news? You can still go cottagecore

The only spot-watering my garden has seen in recent months was done by the builder in a quiet moment. I hadn’t asked him to, but I think he saw the state of things and took pity on an acer I’d given up on. I explained I’d been using the drought as an, admittedly extreme, experiment to find which plants are resilient to multiple heatwaves, but said he was welcome to take the acer back to his well-irrigated garden.

My observations are that the roses hung in there. Not flowering, as I’ve seen others doing, but mine are probably younger. The wildflower meadow has been surprisingly floriferous; it’s been a good year for zinnias – although not good enough to make me like them. The volunteer buddleja that was hacked to the ground in April made an Oasis-worthy comeback. Euphorbias, meconopsis, sage, erigeron: all fine. Volunteer robinia saplings loved life. Verbascum coped. My son has been eating passion fruit straight from the vine.

Appledore, Devon: By-the-wind sailors have been washed up in great numbers this summer. I stumble on a single one of these bright blue beauties

Amid the hot grit of the estuarine beach, a cool light glints. Not the habitual shade of mussel shells, nor even the shimmer of sea glass, this is a blue so bright that at first I mistake it for a kind of plastic, perhaps the discarded part of a pair of goggles.

I’m about to pick it up when something prompts me to pause, mid-swoop; an inkling that this is not synthetic, but animal.

British Museum, London
The greatest battle ever depicted in art is here at last – and it hurtles along, making your heart pound with its sense of doom and destiny, culminating in fires and corpses on a battlefield full of pathos

It should not work. It should not even exist. Nothing about the Bayeux tapestry makes sense according to any norms of art: its creators couldn’t do proper portraits or pictorial depth or landscapes or any of the sophisticated things we associate with timeless masterpieces. When they depict a church, they have to write what it is: Ecclesia. But these artists – or who knows, perhaps she was a single artist – created something so stupefying and delightful, so abundant in visual thrills, horrors and humour, it beats almost everything else ever painted or carved – let alone embroidered on a strip of linen.

And now here it is, in front of my eyes, close enough to touch if it wasn’t behind a glass screen of such high quality you never catch a reflection. The British Museum’s display of this wonder is perfect. It’s laid out in its case, the length of a gallery, which you reach after some archaeological foreplay involving armour, quotes from chronicles and info screens. Then you see the colours of the tapestry below you from a parapet – russets, greens, yellows – after which you simply start at the beginning and follow the story rightwards. Surrounded by darkness and picked out by finely adjusted lighting, the Bayeux tapestry shines. My only quibble is the ethereal soundtrack – shouldn’t there be drums, oliphants, troubadours?

A Maltese businessman has been cleared of involvement in the journalist’s death, but his trial revealed the challenges faced by those leading the search for her killers

The conclusion of the longest-running murder trial in Maltese history has left a country in turmoil, and a grieving family still searching for answers.

At 7.30pm on Wednesday, gasps and cheers echoed around hall 22 of the courts of justice in Valletta, as a jury pronounced a businessman accused of ordering the murder of the investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia not guilty.

Relocation coincides with proposed laws that opponents say would entrench power of US tech billionaires in country

Dozens of protesters converged on Peter Thiel’s mansion in Buenos Aires this week after a congressional session raised questions about the billionaire’s presence in the country.

In white masks, they held signs saying “Peter Thief” and “No to the Peter Thiel law” in front of the wrought-iron gates of the $12m (£8.9m) residence, which Thiel bought in April as he moved his family to Argentina.

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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