Burnout or breakup are constant dangers when one partner carries too much of the mental load of looking after the home and family. Here’s how to spread the burden more evenly

Many households have an imbalance in domestic duties, and women often struggle from carrying the weight of the organisational side of life. Here, mental load experts share the secrets to having a more equitable home – and the rewards that can be gained from it.

Most MPs are clinging to this year’s Beckettian slogan, but the chancellor brought his own brand of despair

• UK politics live – latest updates

It could be just me, but I’m beginning to find that all this “hope” stuff is getting me down. Everywhere you go at the Labour party conference, you are being urged to “Hope Again”. It’s on the screens in the main hall and on banners in the exhibition area. It’s on T-shirts, balloons and coffee mugs. It’s all just a bit much. Overkill. You now bump into Labour MPs who are visibly collapsing under the strain of having to walk around with an optimistic perma-grin. And the conference is only into its second day. Come Wednesday they will all be on intravenous Valium.

What does “Hope Again” even mean? Is it an instruction? Have we all been hoping in a highly unsatisfactory way so far? Are we being sent back to hope school to learn how to be more upbeat? In which case, I rather think these remedial classes in hoping will be wasted on me. I’ve always been a bit miserable. It feels a bit like someone going round and telling you “Smile. It may never happen.” Or to “Keep calm and carry on.” There are also distinct echoes of Samuel Beckett: Fail again. Fail better. Only in Liverpool it’s: Hope again. Hope better.

People living next to a chemicals plant near Blackpool were tested for ‘forever chemicals’. Last week they received the alarming results

Last February, I got a call from a woman called Sam Hammond. We had been speaking on and off for a while over her growing concern that her garden could be affected by pollution from a nearby chemical plant.

That morning, Sam had been hand-delivered a letter from her council informing her that her pet ducks’ eggs, reared in her garden, were contaminated with Pfas chemicals.

I used to be terrified of socialising, certain I would embarrass myself the moment I opened my mouth. And as for dates …

As with a lot of teenagers, social confidence was not my strong suit. Throughout my time at school in the early 2010s, I hated the prospect of new social situations and would often lie awake at night overthinking the day to come.

What I now know to be social anxiety I dismissed as just nerves at that young age. Although I knew something wasn’t quite right, for most of my early teens I managed to disguise my discomfort. Sharing a friendship group with my twin sister meant I could hide behind my sibling.

‘The day Saff came into the studio with red hair, I said, “We’re gonna be massive!” It was the missing link’

We always had a vision of mixing acid house with indie rock, and we managed to rent a space and build our own studio in London’s Shoreditch area, long before it got trendy. I had a little vocal booth called Hattie Jacques, in honour of the Carry On films but also because it’s Cockney rhyming slang [for shakes]. We spent all our money rewiring it, and that’s where we wrote, recorded and produced Ready to Go – 100 mixes later!

After public backlash, the Trump administration changed its tactics from ‘siege’ to ‘soft feet’. Now, ICE is everywhere

Exclusive: Creation of GB Grid will be major step towards putting Britain’s utility companies into public control

Andy Burnham will take his first major step to putting Britain’s utility companies into public control when, at the Labour conference, he announces a new government-backed body to invest in the electricity grid.

The prime minister will use his first speech as party leader to announce the creation of GB Grid, which will use money previously allocated to Great British Energy to compete with privately owned companies such as National Grid.

Amid conflicting statements, local MP and councillors demand answers over how suspects were allowed to enter residential areas of nearby village

An MP and councillors representing the residents of the village near RAF Fairford who were evacuated due to a suspected terror plot have expressed scepticism and concern over the security response to threats made by Iran.

About 85 properties in Whelford, Gloucestershire, were evacuated on Sunday morning after five men were arrested on suspicion of explosives offences in the village. The men, who were later re-arrested on suspicion of terror offences, were released on bail on Monday.

Effect of elevated screen exposure could be as significant as parental behaviour and premature birth, report says

The effect of high screen time on children is as significant as parental behaviour and premature birth, if not greater, a global study has found.

Researchers examined data on more than 2.8 million children across 64 countries and concluded that elevated screen exposure could affect children in areas including academic achievement and emotional problems. It is one of the largest ever studies on the subject.

OpenAI chief scientist also among authors of report on prospect of ‘most consequential technological development in history’

Two of the “godfathers” of modern AI and senior executives at OpenAI and Anthropic have warned governments to prepare for an AI “intelligence explosion”, which they say could be the most consequential technological development in history.

A report co-authored by the Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton and the Canadian computer scientist Yoshua Bengio, considered godfathers of modern AI for their work in the field, urges politicians to act now before there is runaway progress in the technology.

Police say attack on two Jewish men in north London in April now being treated as alleged hate crime

The stabbings of two Jewish men in Golders Green, north London, in April are being treated as an alleged hate crime and not as a terrorist attack, police have said.

Essa Suleiman, 45, was arrested by the Metropolitan police on suspicion of attempted murder shortly after the stabbings on 29 April.

Exclusive: Instructors at tech training company Multiverse hit out at ‘remorseless’ and ‘unnerving’ monitoring system

Teachers at Euan Blair’s £1.6bn tech training company, Multiverse, have blown the whistle about “horrendous stress” and feeling constantly watched after bosses started using AI models to surveil and rate their teaching.

Staff delivering apprenticeship training in computer and AI skills to thousands of UK public and private sector workers now have transcripts of online classroom sessions analysed and scored by an AI programmed to alert human managers when they are suspected of doing things wrong.

Local fire and rescue service says last week’s tragic incident highlights risks the batteries can pose

A fire that left a mother and her three children dead was caused by a lithium-ion battery, firefighters in Merseyside have said.

An electrical event caused the battery, of a type commonly used in vapes, ebikes and e-scooters, to go into “thermal runaway”, Merseyside fire and rescue service said.

Former journalist and honorary life president of Norwich City FC died peacefully at home on Monday

Michael Wynn-Jones, the journalist and husband of the TV chef Delia Smith, has died at the age of 85.

Wynn-Jones was honorary life president of Norwich City football club, which said everyone at the club was “deeply saddened” by his death.

Campaign broadcast across France encourages people to come forward even if they have little to no memory of attack

Gisèle Pelicot is the figurehead of a new campaign run by her daughter to encourage people who suspect they have been drugged and sexually assaulted to come forward, even if they have little to no memory of the attack.

Caroline Darian, 47, who believes she was also drugged and assaulted by her father, Dominique Pelicot – her mother’s ex-husband – launched a primetime public information push on Monday across France’s television network, on social media, in the press and on posters.

Counter-terrorism police have confirmed the five men arrested over the suspected bomb plot near RAF Fairford are all British nationals in their 20s. The men were arrested on Sunday near the base in Gloucestershire, which is being used by the US air force in its operations against Iran. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s defence and security editor, Dan Sabbagh – watch on YouTube

The UK energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh, says her department is looking at all options for investment in the electricity grid. Speaking to the Guardian’s political editor, Pippa Crerar, and policy editor, Kiran Stacey, at the Labour party conference, she accused the previous Conservative government of failing to invest in the system and said the government must find the most cost-effective way to do so

Row comes amid rising division and a tendency towards cynical political posturing in Northern Ireland

Three decades ago, it took the deaths of three Roman Catholic children – the Quinn brothers, Jason, nine, Mark, 10, and 11-year-old Richard – in a petrol bomb attack to bring an end to the Drumcree dispute. “No road is worth a life, let alone the lives of three little boys,” the Orange Order’s County Armagh chaplain said at the time.

It is perhaps extraordinary to think that this could ever have needed saying – but that was then. Northern Ireland is very different place today.

Your other favourites included a lovely lamp, timeless jeans and a heated airer. Hunker down, anyone?

• Don’t get the Filter delivered to your inbox? Sign up here

It may be unseasonably warm, but September’s bestsellers list tells us you’re definitely in an autumn state of mind. Some of you are embracing the unofficial new year with a backpack perfect for commuting or a bento box to avoid overpriced work lunches. Others are leaning into the darker evenings with a vibe-boosting portable lamp and a comfy mattress topper.

From a pocket umbrella and a heated airer to a gorgeous pen and cashmere scarf, September’s favourites make it clear that you’re ready to hunker down, get back to the grind and, most importantly, get cosy.

There may be almost no research on pet aversion during and post-pregnancy, but it may not be particularly rare

About three weeks into her first pregnancy, Sylvia Luu began to loathe the smell of her border collie mix, Ranger.

Luu could hardly be in the same room as Ranger without becoming nauseous. His drool repulsed her, and she found the smell of his fur so disgusting she wore a nose plug all day.

Government announcement sparks a rally in FTSE-listed housebuilders, but there are still a lot of unknowns

• Labour’s modest reheat of help to buy is worth a try

The government will unveil a fresh scheme to help people on to the housing ladder next month but a debate is already raging over whether it is first-time buyers or housebuilders who will be the biggest winners.

At the weekend, Andy Burnham announced plans for Your First Home, which aims to give a helping hand to first-time buyers who do not have the luxury of being able to call on the “bank of mum and dad”.

When the Mr England contest put out a call for entrants, only seven people signed up. Now, with 13 days to go until the final, the organisers are getting desperate

Age: At least two years old.

Appearance: A hunkless vista, as far as the eye can see.

Royal Academy of Arts, London
They’ve marginalised Matisse and given Picasso the cold shoulder – and what’s left seems more informed by pedantic geography than sensual art

The French Riviera is not a place. It is a dream of paradise, one of those Arcadias we long for – timeless, perfect worlds saturated with light. In the modern age, artists found theirs in the south of France. Yet this exhibition misses the point entirely. Instead of the modern myth of the Med, what we get here is a pedantic obsession with the geography of France’s southern coast. Artists get rewarded for which bit of it they painted. This leads to some serious distortions.

The neo-impressionists – the dot-fixated movement led by Paul Signac – and their paintings of the Côte d’Azur get a grand, spacious setting. That’s OK; though when you’ve seen one pixelated shoreline, you’ve seen them all. What’s baffling is that Henri Matisse and the Fauves have been squeezed into a smaller, less weighty adjoining display. The revolution that Matisse and his friends enacted at the seaside town of Collioure, replacing nature with the colours in their heads, was far more radical, exciting and visually brilliant than Signac and co. I couldn’t fathom it.

The largest gathering of Elvis fans in Europe is held annually every September in the seaside town in south Wales

Here in Liverpool, the PM’s ambition for the party – and the country – is evident. There should be no complacency, but also no fear

His ambition is big enough to see from space as he promises the “biggest change to Britain in 40 years”. Andy Burnham pledges what no prime minister until now has dared to, breaking the long spell of Thatcherism. Her sham monopoly markets in public services have crashed. The chancellor, John Healey, promises a “new age of industrialisation”, breaking with her era of industrial desertification. The social care system she blew into disconnected privatised fragments will become a national care service. Something new is waiting to be born.

Things happen fast. Only a year ago, the Labour party was on its knees in despair, thunderstruck to find Nigel Farage ruling the roost so soon after its landslide win, with Reform UK 12 percentage points ahead of Labour’s dismal 22%. Farage was the most popular leader, with a 30% favourability rating, compared with Keir Starmer’s -71%. When Burnham came to Liverpool last year he had no seat, no prospect of a challenge and a numbskull national executive committee bent on barring him, his charisma wasted.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

Older men and younger women were once an unremarkable screen pairing. But watching them with a new generation is a real education

I looked up the cast before I saw the new film adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, thinking: “Who could be as good as Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet?” because of course I did. One, they were peerless and two, this is the condition of middle age, constantly looking at the world thinking: “This could be considerably improved by the presence of Emma Thompson.”

The notable casting update was Col Brandon, whose passion for Marianne would now be known as an “age gap” relationship. In the last film, Alan Rickman (born 1946) was in love with Winslet (born 1975), who cycles through a fair amount of: “Yuck, no thanks,” before having an epiphany.

The Israeli prime minister’s remarks at the UN weren’t just motivated by personal animosity

In a boastful and defiant speech to the United Nations on Thursday, Benjamin Netanyahu called out a list of villains he insisted are intent on destroying Israel and promoting an anti-Jewish conspiracy by accusing Israel of committing a genocide in Gaza. He singled out the leaders of Hamas, Iran, Qatar and Turkey, among others. But Netanyahu spent considerable time on the global stage attacking an unusual target: Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York City.

Netanyahu accused Mamdani of promoting antisemitism, falsely claimed that he supports Hamas, and argued that since the mayor took office in January, “many Jews no longer feel safe in New York.” The Israeli leader also criticized Mamdani’s wife for liking social media posts that supported the Palestinian cause soon after the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023. Overall, Netanyahu seems to have devoted more time in his nearly 40-minute speech to singling out Mamdani than any other political leader, including Israel’s traditional enemies.

Scientists and entrepreneurs knew the dangers of AI a quarter-century ago. But animated by curiosity and profit, they went ahead anyway

Over the past few weeks, many of us have struggled to concoct a mental image of brains in the cloud jumping their “sandbox”, sneaking on to the internet, recruiting “swarms” of other “agents” to cheat on a test, and, after discussing the ethics of the act, hacking into a wiki platform with the weird name Hugging Face.

We knew that artificial intelligence was devouring our jobs, degrading our kids’ education and deepfaking our politics; that datacenters were sucking up our water and electricity and sending us the bills. But until 8 September, when the Anthropic computer scientist Jacob Coxon posted his existential terror on Twitter/X, few of us suspected AI might be endangering our survival.

Turning to George Osborne’s playbook may look awkward, but cutting deposits to 2.5% could jolt a housebuilding sector stuck in a funk

• What you need to know about Your First Home scheme

There may be three reasons why the Labour government has hesitated until now to reheat the Tories’ decade-long help-to-buy scheme. First, the inflationary risks of throwing subsidies at the housing market at a moment when wider inflation, driven by energy prices and the Iran war, is on the march.

Second, the political awkwardness of turning to George Osborne’s playbook. Third, the spectre of Jeff Fairburn, the shameless former boss of Persimmon who bagged a £75m bonus in 2018 as help to buy turbo-charged the value of his share-based incentives. The government would look foolish if, in its desperation to meet its housebuilding targets (or just miss them by a smaller margin), it created more Fairburns.

During the assisted dying debate, most politicians agreed on one thing – palliative care reform is urgent. Patients and those of us who care for them are waiting

• Jane Turner is chief nurse at the palliative support charity Sue Ryder

The UK government is discussing the country’s biggest challenges at the Labour party conference. But amid the speeches, announcements and headlines, it should not forget one of the clearest messages to emerge from parliament just two weeks ago – our palliative care system is not working for far too many people.

Throughout the assisted dying debate, MPs who disagreed deeply on the core issue, often agreed on one thing – our palliative care system urgently needs fixing. Some spoke from personal experience where they had seen relatives forced to wait hours in pain, or those who had to go to hospital instead of staying in their own homes because the right support wasn’t available.

Jane Turner is chief nurse at the palliative support charity Sue Ryder

Thank goodness for this antidote to today’s frantic shows that aim to grab our kids’ attentions the same way our phones grab ours

As a mum to a two-year-old in 2026 there is no shortage of things to make me feel bad about my capabilities as a parent. His snacks aren’t always organic or made from scratch. Some of his toys are plastic and noisy, not wooden and Montessori-inspired. And – most heinous of all – he is sometimes allowed screen time.

Like any good, middle-class millennial mother, I try to approach it “consciously”. There are specific TV conditions in our house – he can watch post-nap to ward off an afternoon meltdown, we always watch together, and we have a strict time-limit of 20 minutes. But more important than how he is watching is what he is watching. OG Thomas the Tank Engine (complete with Ringo Starr’s iconic voiceover), Pingu, Sesame Street, early Wallace and Gromit. I have joined a growing number of parents who almost exclusively choose 90s TV for their children, the very same shows we watched as kids.

Natalie Morris is the author of Mixed/Other: Explorations of Multiraciality in Modern Britain

A reckless decision to authorise an Orange Order parade with a notorious history has deepened the political crisis in the Northern Ireland executive

The last time that the Orange Order successfully marched from Drumcree parish church down the Garvaghy Road, a mainly Catholic part of Portadown, it required a British army presence and a lockdown of locals forced off their own streets. The 1997 parade was preceded by loyalist death threats and followed by nationalist riots, in which more than 160 people were injured. The lengthy track record of lethal violence and disorder associated with the march led the Parades Commission – established the following year as part of the peace process – to ban it.

On Sunday, however, in scenes that rolled back the years in deeply unwelcome fashion, the old traumas and hostilities were recklessly allowed to resurface. Unfathomably, after a routine decision to renew the ban this year was challenged on procedural grounds, the commissioners reversed their ruling late last week and permitted a march to go ahead on a limited scale. The entirely predictable result was a tense standoff and a political crisis in Stormont, after protesters blocked the Garvaghy Road route until the early hours of Monday morning.

John Healey has offered a vision, but an energy shock will mean households and businesses need to be offered help in the budget

In his first speech to Labour party conference as chancellor, John Healey offered prudence with a purpose in a speech stylistically redolent of his former boss Gordon Brown. Mr Healey made fiscal credibility the condition for his goal of turbocharging apprenticeships for young people, funding for unions to reskill workers and spending on defence to create manufacturing jobs. The speech’s imagery was canny: miners, shipyards and submarines give “reindustrialisation” a recognisable Labour history. He also faced the future with a clever line about British workers “harnessing AI, not being outrun by it”. His message was that the “politics of hope” will be earned through “fiscal discipline, good work and through strong industries”.

The new Labour chancellor sounded like New Labour when he claimed that it was “not progressive to allow a bigger and bigger benefits bill”. What was lacking was a plan for care work, public services and the energy transition. Mr Healey clearly has a story about the supply of properly trained workers and another one about revitalising industry, but he offered little explanation of how enough good jobs will be created across the wider economy. Labelling a defence contract “industrial renewal” does not prove it is the best use of state capacity.

Readers respond to the guilty verdict against the football club for breaking the Premier League’s financial fair play rules

Thirty six years ago, the team I support, Swindon Town, were severely punished for financial irregularities that pale into comparison with those of Manchester City (Manchester City found guilty of breaking Premier League’s financial fair play rules, 25 September). We were initially sentenced to be relegated two divisions but, after appeal, refused entry to Division One. It was an incredibly painful experience for us as fans and I feel for those City fans who have enjoyed the last years so fully, but now see it tainted through no fault of theirs.

At the time, a number of journalists made the case that, as off-field crimes had resulted in on-field success, the punishment was fitting. What is different this time is the scale of the offences and the amount of on-field success. Once the appeal process has concluded, and if Manchester City still face punishment, a proportionate scaling up of consequences from those that we experienced in 1990 could mean that club facing relegation and removal of titles.

Gordon McDougall recalls finding the original children to feature in the documentary strand that started in 1964

In your editorial on the Up series (20 September), your point is well made that exposing seven‑year-olds on television today would expose them to dangers not encountered in the 60s. However, Seven Up! was made in the early part of 1964, not 1963 as you stated, and it was the brainchild of Tim Hewat, the producer of World in Action.

As he was leaving the series, the oversight was given to the Canadian director Paul Almond and, for our first jobs after passing through training, Michael Apted and I were given the task of finding the original 20 children (14 of whom were followed in subsequent films). The show was seen as a one‑off and it was only at the instigation of Denis Forman, then CEO of Granada TV, that the follow-up, 7 Plus Seven, was commissioned in 1969. I was too busy running the Stables Theatre Club to work on it, so Apted directed it alone.

Readers respond to Zahaan Bharmal’s experience of getting to grips with the Yorkshire dialect

Zahaan Bharmal’s observation on the north-south pronunciation divide (Could we be about to see the end of northern English dialects? My experience – and the science – says aye, 23 September) is neatly corroborated in Rosie Webb’s otherwise delightfully rhyming children’s book Chimpanzees in Dungarees: reading aloud to our grandchildren, my Mancunian partner is forced to southernise the page about “gir-ar-ffes in scarfs”. A dozen miles from Webb’s Bristol base is a place that exemplifies the third, south-western variant: the long “aa” sound. I mean Bath, aka Baaff or Barth. The cities are close, but one is posh, the other not so much.
Tony Benjamin
Bristol

• Please inform Mr Bharmal that up here in t’north as every Yorkshire (and Derbyshire) man knows, kegs can only store beer and the like. But kex is an umbelliferous flower to be seen while strolling through a meadow wearing your keks.
Stuart Garside
New Mills, Derbyshire

Dr Chris Garrard responds to an article about George Osborne assuming that Palantir founder Peter Thiel’s visit to view the Bayeux tapestry would remain secret

As the chair of the British Museum, George Osborne is a holder of public office with a duty to be transparent. His comment that “it wasn’t like we expected anyone to know” about the billionaire Peter Thiel’s private view of the Bayeux tapestry suggests his loyalties lie more with the founder of Palantir and friend of Jeffrey Epstein over the openness that a national museum should demonstrate (George Osborne ‘thought Peter Thiel’s Bayeux tapestry visit would be secret’, 19 September).

Osborne then made the claim that the museum would shut down without unethical corporate sponsors such as BP. In fact, just a few weeks ago London’s Science Museum ended its decades-long partnership with BP, joining Tate, the National Portrait Gallery and others. Last year, 91% of members of the Museums Association also ratified a new code of ethics, which says that museums should “Transition away from sponsorship from organisations involved with environmental harm (including fossil fuels), [and] human rights abuses”.

• Discover and buy more of Ben’s cartoons here

• Order your own print of this cartoon from the Guardian Print Shop

• Ben’s latest book, Drawn to the Chaos, is available to pre-order now

⚽ Updates from 7.45pm (BST) kick-offs across Europe
⚽ Get in touch: email Michael about the action

The teams are out! We’ll have the anthems now. There really is nothing that holds a candle to Il Canto degli Italiani, in my book.

There is some sort of delay in Brussels, where neither Belgium or France are yet to emerge. Ominously, Sweet Caroline is playing over the tannoy.

Khaldoon al-Mubarak has come out fighting against the guilty verdict, having escaped regulation for years

Nothing is over, nothing is done. Or at least not judging by the bravura, balls-out confidence of Manchester City’s chair, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, who remains convinced the past three days of whiplash are simply the drumroll before the big reveal, prelude to some clinching piece of evidence that will swish away the initial finding of guilt on the Premier League’s 100-plus charges.

This appears to be the official City position right now. Rope‑a‑dope litigation. Scooby‑Doo justice. A verdict that is simply exposition, buildup to that moment where we finally get to rip off the zombie mask and reveal the cranky old amusement park owner underneath, with his bulging ring‑binder full of irrefutable evidence of City’s innocence.

• Manor Solomon angry at Ireland’s stance over Gaza

• ‘They hate us and we don’t like them’

Manor Solomon claimed Israel was “10 times better” than Ireland as fallout intensified from their Nations League match and stated bluntly: “They hate us and we don’t like them.”

Players in the Republic of Ireland side stared at the ground during Israel’s anthem and their staff faced away from the pitch. Ireland’s players also chose not to shake hands or exchange pennants with their opponents in protest at Israeli military actions in Gaza which have killed tens of thousands of people.

• ‘We defended well [v Spain] but had individual mistakes’

• Nico O’Reilly and Ezri Konsa are injury doubts for match

Thomas Tuchel will resist making drastic changes to his defence despite England going six games without a clean sheet before facing Czechia in the Nations League on Tuesday.

Although Tuchel acknowledged that his side were a “danger to ourselves” when they lost 3-2 against Spain last Saturday, the head coach stood by Marc Guéhi and Nico O’Reilly after their errors against the world champions.

Franchise tournament remains an enigma after an unexpectedly dramatic men’s international summer and a thrilling Championship title race

After pumping astronomical sums of money into English cricket, the headline act of the summer should probably have been the Hundred’s rebirth under private ownership. After all, the decks were relatively clear.

There was no Ashes series or Indian arm-wrestle in Test cricket to hog the limelight, rather a small-plates menu of touring teams. The Women’s T20 World Cup was on home soil, but for all that it outdid its 50-over equivalent in 2017 by way of engagement, the men’s football World Cup dominated. Plus, folks kind of knew Nat Sciver-Brunt’s England side was not quite ready to derail the Australian machine.

No one at Parc y Scarlets understands why they and the Ospreys are on the chopping block for the union’s proposal to cut a club by 2028

Eight o’clock, Saturday night and at Parc y Scarlets the fans are starting to sing. Their scrum-half, Dane Blacker, has just come skipping through half a gap in the Cardiff line. Blacker has slipped the ball on to their loping lock, Sam Lousi, who has flicked it out the back of his hand to the centre Joe Roberts. And Roberts has juggled it up from one hand to the other, gathered it back in and gone sprinting in to score in the corner. They’re leading 5-0 and in the stands it’s Sosban Fach and Hymns and Arias and “Scarlets! Scarlets! Scarlets!”

And somewhere in among it all, reports will say later, a new chant too – “Dave Reddin’s a wanker”.

• Minnesota will receive fifth-round pick for quarterback

• McCarthy was first-round selection for Vikings in 2024

The New York Giants have acquired quarterback JJ McCarthy from the Minnesota Vikings for a 2027 fifth-round draft pick.

The Vikings announced the trade on Monday pending McCarthy passing a physical.

• Olympic gold medallist also won world and European titles

• ‘I’m proud of where I’ve got to and what I’ve done’

The Olympic gold medallist Katy Marchant has announced her ­retirement. The 33-year-old took gold alongside Emma Finucane and Sophie Capewell in the women’s team sprint at the 2024 Paris Games, the same year she won world and European titles.

“I’ve achieved more than I could ever have dreamed of achieving,” Marchant said, a few months after stating her goal of racing at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. “It just feels really strange. It’s not been a difficult decision. Don’t get me wrong, there’s been moments where I’ve thought: ‘Could I just, should I just, what if I just?’ But I know what it takes to push on for another two years.

It may not be the official best race in the world but winning at Longchamp still confers a status little else can match

When France-Galop announced in June that geldings will be allowed to run in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe from 2027, there was an underlying sense that action was needed to maintain the race’s status as Europe’s showpiece event. The Arc was officially the World’s Best Horse Race in five of the seven years after the award was introduced in 2015, but has fallen short of rivals including the Japan Cup and the Breeders’ Cup Classic since 2021 at a time when several geldings, including the French-trained Calandagan, have been among the world’s top-rated middle-distance horses.

Yet even a brief glance through the leading contenders for this year’s race at Longchamp on Sunday offers reminders that the Arc has a heritage and mystique that will always set it apart among the championship events around the globe. The names of the winners, both equine and human, retain their currency from one generation to the next.

Anger over Israel’s war in Gaza is mobilising British voters, according to Aimee Shalan

Palestine has become a domestic electoral issue in Britain for the first time, according to the incoming head of the country’s largest Palestinian solidarity organisation.

Aimee Shalan, who will take over as director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) in November, joins the organisation as demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza have snowballed into what organisers describe as one of the most sustained protest movements in modern British history.

President claims US negotiators spoke with Iranian officials through intermediaries after Iran says it ‘has no plans to negotiate with US’

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email

While the lawmakers in the US House have already left Washington to get a head start on midterm campaigning, the Senate is hoping to wrap up its legislative agenda this week. Today, we can expect a vote at 5.30pm ET on the Protect College Sports act, which attempts to provide greater protections for university athletes in the US.

The bill includes provisions for players to earn compensation from their name, image and likeness – known as NIL payments, and allow them to transfer schools (and teams) without being penalized or forced to sit out for a defined period of time. If the legislation clears the Senate it will still need to head back to the lower chamber before it can head to Donald Trump’s desk for his signature.

Talks expected on Monday after Sinn Féin leaders join those on streets opposing decision to allow unionist parade for first time since 1998

Tensions between unionist and nationalist leaders in Northern Ireland have escalated as a number of Orange Order members remain at Drumcree church, vowing not to leave until they can proceed with their march down a nationalist road in Portadown.

Members of the loyalist Orange Lodge made a third attempt to proceed down Garvaghy Road at 4am on Monday morning, but a line of police Land Rovers blocked their path.

Marie-Celestin Karondwa was attacked on Sunday after promoting measures to prevent spread of disease, his party says

A senior member of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s ruling party was beaten to death on Sunday after appearing on a radio programme to raise awareness about the Ebola outbreak, a party representative has said.

Marie-Celestin Karondwa, the acting president of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) party’s federal executive committee in Butembo, a new hotspot for the outbreak, was attacked after taking part in a ​radio show during which he ‌promoted prevention measures for the disease, ‌the UDPS federation in the city said in a statement, Reuters reported.

River charters part of wider movement establishing ‘moral’ framework to protect nature and hold institutions to account

One Monday morning in spring last year, 12 people gathered in the morning drizzle at Joyce’s Pool, one of the sources of the Bristol River Avon, and took the first steps of the inaugural Avon pilgrimage.

Over the course of eight days, a revolving cast of pilgrims walked about 100 miles from the source of the river to the point at which it reaches the sea, in some cases bivvying on the riverside at night. Along the way they planted trees, sowed seeds, restored footpaths and presented councillors and decision-makers with a fledgling Avon charter, developed by the Bristol campaign group Conham Bathing.

EU to push member states to cut tax rate below duty on gas, with 11% surge in sales also put down to fallout from Iran war

• Business live – latest updates

• Europe live – latest updates

Sales of residential heat pumps increased 11% across Europe in the first six months of the year as the Iran war sent oil and gas prices rocketing and some countries lowered electricity taxes.

Homeowners bought 1.16m heat pumps across 12 European countries, up from 1.05m in the first half of 2025, according to the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA).

Tom Calver has sacrificed milk yields to give his cows a more varied diet of plants and believes the result is better cheese and richer farmland

In the rolling hills of Somerset, hundreds of thousands of cows placidly munch lush green grass to produce milk for cheddar.

But six fields stand out. Rather than uniform grass, they have technicolour wildflowers sprouting across the meadows. Farmer Tom Calver said that to allow the flowers to grow he has to keep fewer cows and leave some fields ungrazed as they mature.

Scientific breakthrough could reduce food waste and make it easier to add the fruit to prepackaged food

It is the bane of every fruit bowl: sliced banana that turns brown before it has reached the table. But such woes could soon be a thing of the past, with gene-edited bananas that keep their freshly peeled colour now one step closer to reaching British shoppers.

According to Tropic, the Norwich-based agricultural-biotechnology company that developed the fruit, the bananas have the same taste and texture but stay “fresh, yellow and appetising long after peeling and slicing”.

Fallout from Iran conflict continues to drive up bill for motorists with record average cost now at 199.18p a litre

• Business live – latest updates

• Share your experience of high diesel prices in Shetland and the Outer Hebrides

The price of diesel on UK forecourts has hit an all-time high average of 199.18p a litre, as the conflict in the Middle East continues to drive the cost of fuel to record levels.

The price, which previously peaked at 199.09p in June 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, could soon top the £2 mark after Donald Trump rejected Iran’s proposal for a seven-day peace deal to reopen the critical oil and gas shipping route through the strait of Hormuz.

Official says deaths – and dozens of injuries – were probably caused by crushing on boat carrying 105 people

A 10-year-old child and two women died ⁠attempting ​to cross the Channel on Monday, French authorities have said.

Their deaths and the injuries of dozens of others in a large dinghy were probably caused by crushing, according to a French official.

Leak causes outages and low pressure in parts of London and Surrey, affecting 6,000 properties and leaving some without water

Schools, businesses and homes across seven boroughs in England were hit by a Thames Water outage on Monday, from a burst water main reportedly leaking 750 litres a second.

About 6,000 properties across five south London boroughs and two Surrey boroughs had no water supply or low pressure, Thames Water said.

Three others wounded as jet-powered drones increasingly target Ukraine’s capital, with medical centre also hit

• Europe live – latest updates

A Russian drone hit the National Academy of Sciences in central Kyiv on Monday, killing at least one person, in the latest daytime attack on Ukraine’s capital.

Flames tore through the historic building as people clambered out of first- and second-floor windows to escape, in dramatic scenes increasingly familiar in the heavily bombarded city.

The US says it is unable to support a major global text on pandemic prevention and preparedness put forward at UN general assembly

The United States government’s decision to block a major global declaration on pandemic preparedness “severely weakens” the effort, and signals intent to disrupt international cooperation, says Prof Lawrence Gostin, a leading expert on global health law from Georgetown University.

The United Nations general assembly had been due to adopt a political declaration on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response on 25 September after a high-level meeting on the subject.

Renewed fighting between Iran-aligned Houthis and Saudi-backed Yemeni forces has shattered four years of relative calm

In the mornings, 13-year-old Muneer Farie went to school, and in the afternoons he helped his father feed the livestock. He took his studies seriously, dreaming of becoming the first teacher in his family of farmers.

As fighting approached his village in al-Wazeyah district in Taiz, Yemen, two weeks ago, Muneer’s focus started to drift from his lessons. The classroom echoed with the distant sounds of explosions and gunfire. His home was suddenly on the frontline of renewed fighting between the Iran-aligned Houthis and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government.

Bread experts weigh in on whether the rye sourdough that bakers ‘feed every day’ is worth that much

A loaf of bread has become New York City’s latest viral hit and, somehow, status symbol.

At Rye, the first US outpost of Austrian bakery Martin Auer, a 3.3lb loaf of 100% rye sourdough sells for $60 in SoHo. Made with just water, flour, salt and time, the bread has attracted the kind of attention once reserved for rainbow bagels, cronuts and skyscraper milkshakes. Which raises the inevitable question – is it actually worth that much?

World’s biggest economies release lists of products in latest move away from trade war – but no strategic goods are included

The US and China have released reciprocal lists of goods worth about $30bn each on which they plan to cut tariffs, ranging from consumer electronics and agricultural products to artificial flowers and live dolphins.

The announcements are the latest tack away from the intense trade war between the world’s two largest economies that dominated much of last year, though major strategic products are not included and no timeline has yet been given for the reductions.

Supermarket chain declares ‘increasing confidence’ in its growth plans after posting record annual revenue of £19bn

• Business live – latest updates

Aldi says it is stepping up investment in the UK with plans to spend £900m and open more than 40 stores.

The company, which operates 1,092 budget supermarkets in the UK and Ireland, revealed sales rose 5% to a record £19bn last year. It opened 40 stores but profits slipped by £2.6m to £433m as it cut prices despite cost inflation.

Andy Burnham hails nationalisation of much-criticised service between London, Birmingham and Glasgow

Britain’s biggest intercity rail operator, Avanti West Coast, will be renationalised in spring, ministers have announced, while new trains could also be publicly owned under plans to reduce costs paid to private firms.

Avanti, which has been one of the worst rail firms in the country for train delays and cancellations, will come under public ownership from 7 March when its contract ends.

Jeweller reports flat sales and fall in underlying operating profit as retailers anticipate October budget

• Business live – latest updates

The boss of the family-owned jeweller Beaverbrooks has called on the government to give business “a bit of a break” by halting cost increases amid flat sales and falling profits.

The retailer, founded in 1919, revealed a 9% fall in underlying operating profit to £7.8m last year after an increase in employer national insurance contributions (NICs) and the legal minimum wage introduced by the former chancellor Rachel Reeves.

The actor is returning to his character in the cult Channel 4 sitcom with a new autobiography – despite barely watching the series. He talks about his ‘terrifying’ hospital stay and why strangers still shout at him about crack being ‘moreish’

Super Hans is back! What’s he been up to since we last saw him? Splitting up with Molly, the twins, the moped-rental business in Macedonia …
Well, Super Hans finds a legal loophole in the marriage certificate, which means it’s null and void and … hang on … I’m basically telling you the whole plot of the book!

Is the book just you, Matt King, writing on behalf of Super Hans? Or does your inner Super Hans just come out and write it for you?
It’s neither. He comes around my house every morning. I put the kettle on, he borrows my computer and off he goes. I don’t know what he gets up to. I usually try to get out of the way, go for a nice walk.

The actors are working together for the first time ever, in Noël Coward’s comedy Hay Fever. Backstage, there’s no stopping their tales of skinny-dipping, fat-shaming and warring co-stars

Richard E Grant: Despite our vast combined vintage, our paths have never crossed before, have they?

Christine Baranski: Regrettably not. We could have had some good fun a few decades ago. A girl could have got into some real trouble. But here we are, and now we’re the veterans. You’re among the great character actors, popping up delightfully in so many things and always being spot-on.

The latest in our series of writers paying tribute to the films they watch when they need a lift is an appreciation of Jim Carrey’s manic 90s comedy

To be completely honest, whenever anybody asks what my favorite movies are, my list has some typical standbys: Goodfellas and It’s a Wonderful Life among them. The holiday classic National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is another. But there’s one feelgood fave on my list that always surprises people: Jim Carrey’s 1997 blockbuster Liar Liar.

The movie (for the lack of a better word) lies on the bedrock of a simple premise: a lawyer and doting father is physically unable to tell an untruth due to a birthday wish. In the hands of a less competent creative team and cast, Liar Liar would have been yet another forgettable piece of 90s comedy junk; destined for the bottom of a discount VHS bin, forgotten as the years trudged on. But largely thanks to an unbelievable performance courtesy of Carrey, who was working with a smart and peppy script, the film ascends into rarefied air.

Through intimate letters and family interviews, this probing documentary about the Austrian film-maker reveals a complicated figure

A titan of silent cinema, Austrian director GW Pabst left behind a treasure trove of classics. Working in Weimar Germany, Pabst gave Greta Garbo her second ever lead role in The Joyless Street (1925), and propelled Louise Brooks to international stardom with Pandora’s Box (1929) and Diary of a Lost Girl (1929). Attentive to the marginalised elements of society, these early triumphs exemplified the kind of free-spirited film-making that flourished before the rise of the Nazi regime. Faced with this colossal legacy, Angela Christlieb’s probing documentary takes a more winding path through Pabst’s personal archive. Through intimate letters, family albums, and interviews with his descendants, the film foregrounds the man behind the images, while bringing another figure into the spotlight: Gertrude Pabst, the director’s wife of more than 40 years.

Far from a hagiographic portrait, Christlieb’s film reveals Pabst to be a complicated and patriarchal figure. His grandchildren – Marion, Daniel and Ben – describe the great film-maker as a distant figure, who instilled fear rather than love in his two sons. Pabst’s films have been praised for their modern and strong-willed female characters, yet in private he forbade Gertrude from pursuing her own acting aspirations. She also reluctantly underwent numerous abortions – seven in total – so as not to derail her husband’s career.

Watch the official trailer for NAZA, an award-winning documentary produced by the Guardian that details the systems behind Israel’s mass killings in Gaza. The critically acclaimed film, produced with the team behind the Zone of Interest and directed by Oscar-winning film-makers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, includes testimony from 24 Israeli military insiders, shot at night on the rooftops of Tel Aviv. Abraham and Szor are the two Israeli directors of the four behind No Other Land, which won the Oscar for best documentary in 2025. It will be released in cinemas in more than 50 countries in the coming weeks, and then will stream on the Guardian’s website, for free, from late November

A priest investigates his daughter’s kidnapping in Thailand in this Paul Schrader-esque inquiry into spiritual nihilism

‘He’s American, a little bit overweight, sweaty, a little bit camp, creepy.” As far as descriptions of border-hopping paedophiles go, this seems a little on the nose. So it’s not surprising when the man who was enquiring, priest Father Daniel (Steve Oram), responds: “Are you making this up?” Featuring a seedy child-abduction situation in Bangkok, Simon Rumley’s thriller comes close at times to bugged-out exploitation flick territory – but lets its fleet and fresh manner carry it towards a Paul Schrader-esque moral calvary.

Pastor to a mixed Anglo-Thai congregation, Father Daniel has a young daughter, Olivia (Margaux Dietrich), with wife May (Nattapohn Rawddon). At a sleepover, Olivia is traumatised when her friend’s older brother shows her a “crush” video of a kitten being stomped by a scantily clad floozy. So when her own cat Missy goes awol, she is convinced the same lady is responsible, and asks her dad how God could let it happen. The family mobilise to track down Missy, but Olivia in turn disappears one day after school, kicking off Father Daniel’s own test of faith.

Daring to defy the norms of political lobbying, the ex-US president is becoming a podcast mainstay – and is opening up about the books that inspired him. Plus, is the Richard Gere gerbil rumour true?

Barack Obama is now a podcast mainstay (good on him for not just defaulting to questionable lobbying). His latest Audible show – via his and Michelle’s company, Higher Ground – is a six-parter about the books that have inspired him, from James Baldwin to John le Carré. The first guest is Tom Hanks, who joins him for a frank chat on parenting and family, prompted by Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer-winning novel Gilead. Hannah J Davies
Audible, out now

Southbank Centre, London
Paraorchestra’s immersive performance of Music for 18 Musicians was immaculate and exhilarating; London Sinfonietta and the Radiohead guitarist’s vibrant tribute to the almost 90-year-old composer followed

Two birthdays were celebrated at Southbank Centre’s Steve Reich-fest. First, the composer himself, a supremely influential artist who has shifted the classical music dial over decades with his evolving yet instantly recognisable soundworld. He turns 90 on 3 October. And then there was Music for 18 Musicians, one of his signature works, which notches up a half-century this year. An immersive performance of the latter invited the audience to mingle with an ensemble dotted around the Clore Ballroom, the collective grins on faces proof positive of the work’s enduring power to raise the spirits.

Doing the honours was Paraorchestra, Charles Hazlewood’s enterprising collective of disabled and non-disabled musicians, who brought Reich’s kaleidoscopic music to life with ironclad discipline. Freed from fixed seats, the itinerant audience peered at musicians on podiums as if they were objects in an exhibition, marvelling at the precision of polyrhythmic marimba players, or grooving in a central mosh pit with a flexuous quintet of dancers who persuaded children and grandparents alike to go with the flow. Line dancing, disco lights – this exhilarating performance had it all.

The Pussycat Doll went roller skating to the Beach Boys and is ‘completely over’ Gangnam Style. But what song makes her cry every time?

The first song I fell in love with
When I learned to drive and got my first car, I felt this real freedom. I’d put the windows down, blare out Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are) by Pras, featuring Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Mýa, and sing at the top of my lungs.

The first single I bought
Every Friday night we’d go to the roller skating rink, and I couldn’t wait for them to play Kokomo by the Beach Boys, from the Cocktail soundtrack. So I bought it on cassette from Best Buy in Warrensburg, Missouri.

(Republic)
This four-track addition to a critically maligned album works hard to remind fans what they love about Swift, with some sweet highs and galling lows

One downside of turning your release strategies into scavenger hunts and layering clues within your work is that it invites enormous amounts of scrutiny about your potential motive. When Taylor Swift announced an expanded edition of last year’s critically maligned The Life of a Showgirl this week, subtitled The Encore, many fans instantly suspected one of two things: that it was designed to remind Grammy members of Showgirl’s existence during their voting period to determine next year’s nominees, or to oust country ingenue Ella Langley from her record-breaking US No 1 run.

If that sounds cynical, it’s also worth remembering that when Swift announced Showgirl last year, she said that unlike her previous album, The Tortured Poets Department – a 16-track record immediately inflated to 31 songs on release day – the purposefully concise, 12-track Showgirl would not be expanded. (This didn’t stop her releasing 34 variants of the record, with various acoustic demos and so on, to juice sales.)

Szubanski’s latest book delves into both her mother’s decline, and her triumphant fight for marriage equality

There is a certain tension in the celebrity memoir between what is confessed and what is withheld. We want to know the things the celebrity isn’t telling us, and comb through what they do say looking for secrets, the flaws or inconsistencies, the myopic and self-serving. Most celebrities try to thread their stories through this needle, giving us the sense of candidness without revealing too much of anything. After all, there are reputations to uphold.

Magda Szubanski doesn’t write those memoirs. She writes about her life with such emotional precision, like a forensic pathologist wielding a scalpel; never aiming for amiability nor belly laughs, but a kind of equilibrium of understanding instead. She processes the tectonic forces in her life in order to stand on firmer ground, like building a mound on which to better survey the topography. I Can’t Tell You But I Will is the follow-up to her 2015 memoir Reckoning, about her father and the scars of war; this memoir turns the attention away from him and on to her mother, Margaret.

From the Beatles and the World Cup to racism and homophobia, the latest instalment in Kynaston’s series captures a society in the throes of change

In February 1965, the civil rights activist Malcolm X visited Smethwick, in the Midlands, where the Conservative-run council was planning to buy up houses to stop the area becoming a “coloured ghetto”. He wanted to see how bad the racism was and he experienced it first-hand when refused service in a pub. White residents thought his visit a “disgusting” intrusion. Nine days later, back in the US, he was shot dead.

Britain in the mid-60s is associated with Carnaby Street, the Beatles and miniskirts, not racism. But what Black people endured, from a colour bar on property to the abuse of Leeds United winger Albert Johanneson as a “golliwog”, is no less a period marker than Harold Wilson’s pipe, Twiggy’s haircut, Mary Whitehouse’s clean-up TV campaign and Bob Dylan’s use of an electric guitar. David Kynaston doesn’t underplay the excitements of the period. But he rightly emphasises that the rotten old 50s – patriarchal, homophobic, class-divided and bigoted – wouldn’t just fade away.

Multi-flavoured Golden Wonder crisps displacing Smith’s plain; one-third of new marriages now civil marriages; pubs reluctantly installing fruit machines; Jimmy Hill’s Sky-Blue revolution at Coventry City; AA patrols no longer required to salute; picture rails, seen as dust traps, removed en masse from Victorian and Edwardian houses; Boots from 1965 at last consenting to sell condoms; arrival of open-plan offices; arrival, too, of the hot drinks vending machine; no car more iconic of modernity than the Mini Cooper …

In the Danish writer’s latest novel, an eminent scientist withdraws to the countryside

When Gunn Haven, an eminent professor of astrophysics at an urban university, moves to rural Denmark, she tells a local newspaper: “It’s to do with the sky.” From the outset of Range, Danish author Dorthe Nors’s fifth full-length novel, it is apparent this is not the whole truth. Soon after arriving, Gunn is compelled to trespass along a nearby track to look at a farmhouse with collapsed gable walls, her curiosity driven by personal interest rather than scientific inquiry. A woman pulls up in a dark blue BMW. She is dressed in “hunter’s camouflage, fleshy-faced. And ponytailed. Weapon raised: a phone, filming Gunn.” Gunn reluctantly retreats.

Gunn is distracted by this woman, Krista, who works at the local potato flour factory. Gunn should be working on a general introduction to astrophysics, “the Work”. Instead, the Professor finds herself wondering what “Gable Woman” would do if she came to “the Institute”, where Gunn researches “light from the oldest galaxies”. She would draw a dick on a blackboard, Gunn imagines, “with a small titillated smile”. Gunn is more generous to promising young scientists. She pays for a former student to travel to America. Closer to home, she begins to help Jenny, the teenage daughter of her hairdresser, with a school project on black holes. Jenny is an “uneducated creature” who smells “faintly of iron”, with a “faint red to the cheeks, from shyness or cold. Oddly sexless, and she had been here before, but with her mother.”

Her debut earned a record-breaking YA book deal – then came her fallout with Hollywood. The author talks about the pressures of success and why she is pictured on the cover of her new novel

There is a photograph of Tomi Adeyemi staring out from the cover of her new novel, The Siren. It is an arresting image: her face fills the frame, unsoftened by a smile, her piercing gaze fixed directly on the viewer. “It’s terrifying – like the Mona Lisa, staring at you everywhere,” she says, laughing.

Using an author portrait on the cover of a novel is highly unusual, and a decision that Adeyemi says is a statement of ownership. After 12 years spent inside the world of Children of Blood and Bone – the first book in the YA trilogy that made her a literary star and its film adaptation which has become a source of profound distress – Adeyemi wanted this book to belong unmistakably to her.

PlayStation 5, Xbox, PC (version played); Bandai Namco
The game generates blood-pumping moments as you twist, turn and weave through the skies, while your locked-on missiles speed away to obliterate an enemy plane

The core appeal of any Ace Combat game lies in the moment when the beautiful clouds part, the sunlight glints off your perfectly rendered state-of-the-art fighter jet, and guitar-shredding music kicks into overdrive as your locked-on missiles speed away to obliterate an enemy plane. All of that is 100% present in Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve. What’s new is the way it delivers its unexpectedly compelling story.

Set in the Earth-like alternative world of Strangereal, where every country is absolutely obsessed with fighter planes and giant superweapons, Ace Combat drafts you into the role of a fake ace pilot called the Wings of Theve – a propaganda invention to raise the morale of a besieged nation, similar to real-life rumours about Ukraine’s Ghosts of Kyiv. You rapidly find yourself becoming an actual legendary pilot, soaring through the skies with your buddies and raining hell upon your oppressors as everybody cheers on the radio. Speaking of ghosts, you have one in your ear – your predecessor, whom nobody else can hear, a gravelly voice waxing lyrical about flying, war and whatever else is on his mind as you flit about.

I’ve been holed up in an flat, affectionately dubbed the ‘brotel’, with my son for weeks – and we’ve revisited the first game we ever played together

I have spent the last three weeks living with my 22-year-old son in a two-bedroom flat he has dubbed the ”brotel”. We cook curries and watch Lanterns. We barbecue meat and analyse Tarantino movies. We get pizza and we play video games. Boy, do we play video games!

The first game I ever played in co-op with him was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in 2009, when he was five. He wasn’t the most accomplished sidekick, not so great at placing a mobile gun turret while under fire from what seems like a bazillion enemy soldiers, but we had a laugh. It started the video game bond between us before his sister introduced him to Banjo-Kazooie and Rayman, and he stopped being a preschool warmonger. Probably for the best. So how would it be tackling the same game nearly two decades later?

They offer advice, referee card games and manage players’ tantrums – we caught up with some of the volunteer profs who keep the competitive game going at this year’s world championships

Professors may be the most revered characters in the fictional world of Pokémon (apart from perhaps the Gym Leaders). In Pokémon Red and Blue, Professor Oak greets the player in a pixelated lab coat, and later provides trainers with their first battle partner; since then, each successive generation of games has introduced another professor to aid and guide trainers through their journeys. If you’ve ever played a Pokémon game, they are often the first people that you meet, apart from your in-game mom.

But you may not know that there are also real-world Pokémon professors – volunteers who help organise the game’s competitive communities around the world. Instead of lab coats, they can be seen at events wearing red Pikachu-mascot shirts labelled “staff”, paired with black trousers and shoes.

From highlighted ledges to characters telling you what to do, blockbuster games are increasingly taking the challenge out of playing – and players are pushing back

• Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here

Marvel’s Wolverine, the latest action game from Sony’s stable of expensive blockbuster-factory studios, has had an unfortunate launch. Reviews were decent, if not stellar, but a series of viral video clips from reviewers and streamers have made it the scapegoat for a patronising flavour of game design that gamers have hated for decades. This clip, from Skill Up’s review, shows the player entering a beautiful wintry landscape before being overwhelmed by visual cues telling them what they’re supposed to be doing there. Sonar pulses point you in the direction of objectives. Targets – which, it bears emphasising, are shaped like targets – get an extra reflective visual effect so you know you’re supposed to pay attention to them. A trail shows you not just where to go, but where the level’s sole hidden collectible is.

It is hand-holding to the point of parody. Indeed, it reminded me of the sniggersome Mario in Unreal Engine satirical videos that makes the social media rounds every few months (“A mushroom? I should take a look at this”). Skill Up’s clip has been followed by hundreds of others, gleefully ripping into Wolverine with ironic savagery. In one much-copied clip, a streamer simply lays down his controller during a motorbike chase sequence and watches as Wolverine speeds on regardless, bouncing off the scenery as the game plays itself.

New Diorama theatre, London
Passionate production based on testimonies from Gaza poses many questions regarding Israel’s actions but gets overwhelmed by fact-delivery and form-switches

How do news outlets cover war in a region where independent foreign journalists are blocked entry? What to make of the reports of the Israel-Gaza war by the western press in relation to the livestreamed footage on our phones?

These are some of the questions that come to mind when thinking about Israel’s actions in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’s attack on 7 October 2023, and bringing apocalyptic brutality and death tolls. This 90-minute production by British-Romanian collective BÉZNĂ theatre asks many more in its polyphony of satire, song, graphics, snatches of history, absurdism and sincerity. The four-strong cast – comprising Maryam Abu Khaled, Sara Masry, Luca Kamleh Chapman and Sofia – juggle it all in a series of mini lectures, dramatised dialogue, poetic monologues and meta theatre.

Pitlochry Festival theatre
In what feels now like a premonition of the climate crisis, Siobhán Redmond is compelling as the everywoman putting on a brave face in an unforgiving landscape

Samuel Beckett’s play is always staged with a radiant brightness. It is hot enough to set a parasol alight. If, on its premiere in 1961, that resonated with audience anxieties about nuclear Armageddon, in 2026, it feels like a premonition of the climate crisis. Is this how it ends?

Emma Bailey’s set is a dune of bleached-white sand, clumps of sea grass forcing their way through into a scorched environment, baked by Colin Grenfell’s lighting. When Forbes Masson crawls out of his hole as Willie, keeping his back to us, he reveals nothing more than his neck and shoulders, raw and sunburnt, his scarred head protected by a handkerchief (used).

Chichester Festival theatre
A narcotic, orgiastic woodland party clashes with the traditional values of John Major’s Tory party in Justin Audibert and Hannah Joss’s exuberant production

The Shakespearean canon contains the term “love juice” twice, both in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. So, though purists might be furious, that druggy usage – and Fairie King Oberon’s access to potions that “make eyes roll” – offer textual justification for Justin Audibert and Hannah Joss staging the play around a narcotic, orgiastic woodland party in the summer of 1994.

At that time, prime minister John Major was introducing legislation to ban “illegal raves”. Egeus (Henry Everett), an Athenian courtier in the source, becomes Chief Constable of West Sussex, surnamed Anderton, an allusion to Sir James, a Thatcher ally whose Bible-inspired policing saw him called God’s Copper. Duke Theseus becomes MP for Chichester, a seat held by the Conservatives for a century from 1924. With one character wearing Major rosettes on her breasts, a PM often derided as dull is becoming a theatre star: the National next year stages a James Graham bio-drama, Major.

Menier Chocolate Factory
Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s 85-minute monologue and Paul Farnsworth’s immersive set deserve better than a Broadway museum piece text on the Breakfast At Tiffany’s author

Truman Capote’s core creative life was brief, peaking between the jolly novella Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1958) and the genre-influential “nonfiction-novel” In Cold Blood (1965).

Blocked by drugs and drink, he spent two decades not writing a soi-disant masterpiece, Answered Prayers, although magazine publication of early chapters led to ostracisation by socialites who found the novel to be too nonfiction.

At the Menier Chocolate Factory until 14 November

Previously unreleased material comes as Wonder marks 50th anniversary of album with arena tour

Stevie Wonder has expanded the scope of what was already the most epic studio album in his catalogue, 1976’s Songs in the Key of Life.

Four unheard songs from the recording sessions have been released today as a new EP of the same name, marking the 50th anniversary of an album which won album of the year at the Grammys and contains a number of Wonder’s landmark tracks including Sir Duke, As and Isn’t She Lovely.

Madonna and Swift take home four of six prizes given out during ceremony telecast, alongside K-pop star Lisa and British newcomer Sienna Spiro

• MTV VMAs 2026 red carpet: Taylor Swift, Charli xcx, Troye Sivan and more – in pictures

• MTV VMAs: full list of winners

Madonna and Taylor Swift triumphed at the 2026 MTV Video Music awards, with the former winning three trophies and the latter winning the night’s top honor, extending her run as the most-awarded artist in VMAs history.

In a ceremony that largely awarded female artists, Madonna entered the evening as the most nominated artist of the year with 13 nods and won seven, including three during the telecast: for best collaboration (with Sabrina Carpenter), best dance, and artist of the year.

Billy B Van’s 1919 comedy Van-ar-chy found by student in Sendai will be shown in early November in New Hampshire

A silent comedy filmed in New Hampshire more than a century ago was recently found in Japan, and plans have been set to show the film in early November in the state where it was created.

Van-ar-chy, a 1919 film starring the US entertainer and film-maker Billy B Van, was rediscovered by Kohei Okita, a film student in Sendai, Japan. While researching early cinema related to the word “anarchy”, Okita bought several old film reels at an antique store in Japan and found the comedy starring Van, whom he did not recognize, according to a Van-ar-chy news release.

Trinidadian singer and songwriter hailed as a living legend and the greatest calypsonian of all time

The singer and songwriter Mighty Sparrow, who has died aged 91, was quite simply the greatest calypsonian there has ever been. For at least five decades he was a monumental figure on the Caribbean music scene, while also capturing the hearts and minds of millions of fans around the world with self-penned songs that were the quintessential calypso mix of political commentary, humour, sexual innuendo and melody.

Loved and feted by Trinidadians more than any other public figure in the island’s history, he was to calypso what Bob Marley was to reggae – an inspirational living legend. In Britain, no less than elsewhere, the sheer wit and quality of classic songs such as Jean and Dinah, Congo Man and Mae Mae brought calypso to many who would never otherwise have encountered the music form, particularly in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, when he was in his prime.

Being kind to your jeans and shirts by laundering them less will keep them looking great for longer, says fashion editor Hannah Rochell

I have an emotional attachment to my most reliable clothes. There’s my favourite pair of socks that are back on my feet as soon as they’re clean. The trusty pair of trousers that not only have an elastic waist (comfy!) but make an ordinary T-shirt look part of a really well put together outfit. And then there are my best jeans. I wouldn’t say they’re lucky, per se, but good things seem to happen when I wear them. Oh, and I pretty much never wash them.

Many of us own an item of clothing that we perceive as “lucky” and, anecdotally at least, we’re often reluctant to wash it. Perhaps because we don’t want to rinse off the “luckiness”. Or maybe it’s because we’re beginning to understand that washing clothes too often can do more harm than good.

The smartest wardrobe investment might be looking after the items you already own, says fashion editor Hannah Rochell

What do you think of when you hear the word flares? The counterculture of the late 1960s? Pictures of your parents in the 1970s, perhaps. For me, it’s the Wrangler bell-bottoms I bought secondhand in 1995. They were already 20 years old, but completed my vintage look of Adidas T-shirt and shell-toe trainers in a contemporary way.

Bootcut jeans, the bell-bottom’s slightly toned-down cousin, were huge in the early noughties before skinny jeans took their place. But our love for flares couldn’t be suppressed for long; they were back on the catwalks as soon as 2015. Fast forward another 11 years to Claudia Winkleman’s celebrated wardrobe for The Traitors at the beginning of 2026, and it was full of, you guessed it, flares.

It seemed like a good idea to get a puppy with my partner, but then he left me. Single life was hard at first but my disobedient dog made me laugh again

In the spring of 2024, my boyfriend and I lay in bed scrolling through photos of puppies. What about this one? Or that one? We had only been dating for six months or so, but had become besotted quickly, making long-term plans and talking about our future.

Then I found the one: a scruffy, small terrier with black and brown markings on his back that looked like the world map and eyes like Galaxy Minstrels. We named him Dennis to connect him to my mum’s terrier, Beano, because she was ill at the time and I’d failed to provide her with a grandchild. A puppy was the consolation present.

Experts share what you need to know about GLP-1-related hair loss as the side-effect gets more attention from researchers

About 20 million people across the US, UK, and EU are taking GLP-1 receptor agonists like tirzepatide and semaglutide (Ozempic or Mounjaro are common brands) for weight loss and type 2 diabetes. As their use has surged, we’re learning more about their side-effects. One that’s been getting a lot of attention from researchers lately: hair loss.

In one survey of people who take these medications, 20% of respondents experienced hair shedding, although the lack of high-quality data from a randomized, controlled trial to assess this side-effect makes it difficult to know exactly how common it is.

With autumnal comfort food in mind, it’s time to find the perfect pot for pies, gratins and roasting. Our chef put nine casserole dishes, from Le Creuset to John Lewis, to the test

• The best frying pans for every kind of cook

We are now firmly in slow-cooking season. Each weekend, you’ll likely find me tinkering over a pot in the kitchen, glass of wine in hand, tunes on, before retiring to the sofa to watch a film while the scent of beef shin ragu wafts through the house. A good casserole dish is essential to bring this vision into reality.

Many of my favourite meals emerge from them – from stews and lasagnes to gratins and pasta sauces. The quality of your casserole dish plays a vital role in how pleasurable the process of cooking such things is, so I’ve put some to the test.

We sift through the sweet and the sour of the creamy citrus dessert, but which ones are overloaded with additives and which are more generous with the juice?

• The best supermarket party cakes

Lemon cheesecake is traditionally made by whipping cream, cream cheese, sugar and lemon, then pouring that on to a base made from melted butter and crushed biscuits (butter, flour, oats, sugar), before putting it in the fridge to set. That’s eight ingredients max, yet the average for today’s store-bought versions is 24.

Every cake in today’s test falls firmly into the ultra-processed food category and typically contains at least five ingredients that aren’t found in domestic kitchens. Although real lemon juice or concentrate features in every one, lemon oil and acidity regulators are used to ensure that tart, lemony flavour.

Forget a head-to-toe overhaul. Whether it’s swapping loafers for lace-ups or mixing your metals, try these styling tweaks to give your look a fresh seasonal spin

• Don’t get the Filter delivered to your inbox? Sign up here

You know what I always think looks really chic? When someone is dressed timelessly, but with just one element that brings the outfit bang up to date. A look that is 90% personal style, 10% zeitgeist. That is such a good formula.

Being head-to-toe in new trends is not cool these days. It can look a little overeager, and your clothes end up wearing you rather than the other way around. But a look that plays it completely classic can feel a little safe.

Buying preloved always feels that bit cooler, says celebrity stylist Bay Garnett, but how do you find a gem in charity shops or online? She reveals her top tips

• Your favourite secondhand finds

I’ve been championing secondhand shopping for decades. For my debut shoot for British Vogue in 2003, I dressed Kate Moss entirely in pieces I’d found in New York charity shops – including a banana-print top that cost $5 and a gold sequin jacket I found in the Salvation Army for $7.

I think every shoot I have done has had secondhand in it – vintage jeans, blazers, coats, belts, boots – and they are always the pieces the people I am dressing exclaim over and want. So, often they just look and feel cooler.

Transform two tins of baked beans into this creamy curry

Masala baked beans, tadka baked beans, curried baked beans, spicy baked beans; all avatars of spice-laced baked beans are a mainstay of British Asian kitchens. We were raised on this stuff – use as a toastie filler, to smother jacket potatoes, or scoop them up with roti. Enter baked beans butter masala. With a sharp sweetness, a versatile tin of baked beans already has all the foundations required to build a brilliant butter masala, so all we’re doing is dressing them up. I like to think of it as though the beans are donning a frock made of all the good stuff: butter, cream and spices.

This recipe is an edited extract from Modern Masala, by Sanjana Modha, published by Quadrille at £25. To order a copy for £22.50, go to guardianbookshop.com.

Spoons at the ready for 83-year-old Maria’s rustic risotto with pork and saffron, and Rita’s polenta-style rice with a punchy sauce

If I were to say “Italian rice”, you might well think “risotto” and “the Po Valley”. However, these two recipes come from Sardinia and the Marche, mainly because I wanted to share a few easy, not-laden-with-rules Italian rice dishes.

With its garish ‘grellow’ colour, mythological origins, secret recipe and limited supplies, the herbal liqueur made by French monks is now the coolest thing to order at the bar

It’s just after 9pm in drizzly Belleville, Paris. Too late for cocktails, too early for bedtime, but up the steep hill that straddles the 19th and 20th arrondissements, digestif hour is in sight.

In the past few years, more and more Parisians have been reaching for a glass of Chartreuse, an intensely green/yellow herbal liqueur with a folkloric backstory involving Carthusian monks, cholera and a recipe of omertà-like secrecy.

While it’s ideal for mopping up chilli and soup, this Southern US staple can be made substantial enough for a main meal with a few simple additions

Like banana bread, a rather less ancient North American creation, cornbread isn’t a loaf in the conventional sense. Though it’s perfect for soaking up chilli, brothy bean soups and the like, it’s actually substantial enough to be the main event, rather than something you might reach for to mop the plate after it. (It’s also gluten-free, should that be a consideration.)

Prep 10 min
Soak 2 hr
Cook 25 min
Serves 6

My son adores helicopters, so we waved as hard as possible as it flew past. Then it suddenly looped and came back around

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

My sister lives in Ukraine; I live in Australia. We had gone five long years without seeing each other when we finally reunited during a trip to Los Angeles. One day we took my three-year-old son to the beach and spent the afternoon catching up.

We had a lot of conversations about people and kindness that day. I told her how I had noticed a softer side to men since having a son. As a woman, you’re often wary of construction workers, for example – what might they say to me when I walk past? But now when I pass a building site with my son, the workers often let him play with their radio, or beep a tractor to make him laugh. It was very heartwarming and gave me a whole new perspective on the other sex.

How did a solicitor who is the leader of the English Democrats and a Norwegian national fare on Brexit, surveillance and Ukraine?

Robin, 68, Essex

Occupation Solicitor

From making life hell for a young teacher to doubting the motives of a caring foster mother, Olivia Petter, Derek Owusu, Annie Lord and other writers repent for past bad behaviour

At school, I was not a good girl. Actually, that’s putting it mildly: I was an emotional terrorist hellbent on inflicting torture and humiliation on my year 6 teacher, Ms Hill, one whoopee cushion at a time. That’s how it began, anyway, but like all crimes, mine followed a strategic pattern of escalation, carefully executed alongside my best friend and accomplice.

Financial pressures, legal changes and shifting attitudes may help explain why couples are staying married for longer

“We don’t know anyone whose marriage hit the skids after just a few years,” Celia said, reflecting on her divorce. “Everyone seemed to cling on to their relationships for as long as they possibly could.”

It took Celia two years to initiate divorce after realising her 12-year marriage wasn’t going anywhere – and the latest figures show this experience is increasingly common, with marriages that end in divorce now lasting longer than at any point since records began.

Savers face a dilemma: lock down the deals now or wait, with offers tipped to ‘get even better’

• Britain’s low-paid urged to sign up to savings scheme offering cash bonus

Returns on the top fixed-rate savings accounts are at their highest level in years and still climbing, with some now paying up to 5.25%.

It leaves those with money to put away facing a choice: lock into some of the best interest rates on offer in several years or hold your nerve in the hope they get even better?

Now TFL is threatening to seize goods for four penalties for a car I’ve never owned

Bailiffs turned up at my home to seize goods over four unpaid Ulez fines issued by Transport for London (TfL) that have nothing to do with me.

The saga began two months ago when I received four enforcement notices from CDER Group relating to a vehicle I have never owned.

From a getting part-time job at 14 to receiving a letter from the king at 100, some milestone ages hold advantages in Britain

Have you just unwrapped some presents? Been sitting in a soft play centre and watched a toddler blow out some candles? Double-checked what time the party starts later?

With 26 September being statistically the most common day to have a birthday in England and Wales, according to the Office for National Statistics, it is quite possible that you or someone close to you is marking another trip around the sun.

Increasing the rate of CGT is one of the levers available to the chancellor as he considers revenue-raising options

Capital gains tax (CGT) has been widely cited as a possible revenue-raiser as the chancellor, John Healey, prepares to deliver a tough budget next month. How does it work, and what are the pros and cons of raising it further?

I was a healthy 34-year-old when a mass of blood vessels ruptured in my brain. It took three neurosurgeons and a risky 16-hour operation to fix me

On a Sunday in May 2017, I was at the gym and using a chest press when there was this pop. It wasn’t a sound – it was more like a sigh in my body. There was no pain, but I went limp. I shuffled along the wall to some mats. I thought I was having a stroke, but I wasn’t slurring and my eyes and arms seemed fine. But my left leg felt numb – it was the weirdest feeling. Lying on my back with my legs bent, both knees stayed upright when I looked at them. When I looked away, the left one fell to the side.

I ended up in A&E for hours at nearby St Thomas’ hospital in London. I was 34, healthy and had started regaining feeling in my leg, so they theorised it was a bruised spine and thought it was safe to discharge me. Overworked staff and shift changes meant that when MRI images of my brain went missing, nobody tracked them down.

Madeleine Finlay sits down with her co-host and Guardian science editor, Ian Sample, to discuss three science stories from the week, including a study that offers a clue in the age-old debate about whether sex differences are present from birth or a product of socialisation. Also on the agenda is the super El Niño, which is predicted to lead to 450,000 deaths in the next six months, and an answer to why the UK’s meningitis outbreak earlier this year was so big.

It’s natural to want to soothe eye irritation, but mishandling could lead to more problems, experts warn. We asked them for advice on how to deal with it properly

It may feel like a gritty, annoying sensation, or a sharp pain. Either way, you may have the same problem: something is stuck in your eye and needs to come out.

Addressing the situation incorrectly can lead to bigger issues such as infection, scarring, an ulcer or corneal scratches, which are abrasions on the clear covering of your eye. Ignoring the dilemma can lead to similar consequences.

A growing number of men, including singers Shaggy and Harry Styles, are taking up pilates. When I realised I could no longer touch my toes, I decided to try it out

I realised something needed to change when I nearly toppled over trying to tie my shoelaces. I was on a busy high street, with people rushing past holding shopping bags, when I saw my open shoelace spooled on the ground. I bent down to deal with it and felt gravity move against me. Only a quick flail of my arms stopped me from faceplanting. When I raised myself back upright, I felt a sharp pain in my lower back. This can’t be right, I thought.

Bracing my foot on a bin to finally fix my shoelace, it dawned on me. I’d become rusty. My core strength was nonexistent, as was my flexibility. Years behind a desk had taken a toll, not helped by an after-work routine of watching TV or playing video games on the sofa. But after getting home and doing some research (yes, from my sofa), I found a potential remedy: pilates.

The late designer’s niece echoes his sense of relaxation, as the house seeks to prove itself to potential buyers

A year after the death of Giorgio Armani, the Italian fashion house he founded in 1975 is facing increasing uncertainty about its future ownership.

In his will, Armani, who ruled over the business for 50 years, instructed his heirs to sell an initial 15% stake of the company within 18 months of his death. If a private sale does not materialise, an IPO is mandated to take place. Now there are reports the group is readying itself for formal talks with the French conglomerate LVMH, the beauty giant L’Oréal and the eyewear group EssilorLuxottica – three of Armani’s preferred acquirers – over the possible sale of a minority stake.

Critics say partnership between Mounjaro maker Eli Lilly and fashion giant suggests thinness is an aspiration

The fifth iteration of Vogue World, overseen by Anna Wintour, took place in Milan on Tuesday night. Gigi Hadid and Jennifer Lopez provided theatrics on the catwalk, but it was one of the event’s backers that caused the biggest stir.

Eli Lilly, an American pharmaceutical company that manufactures a wide range of medicines, including weight-loss jabs Mounjaro and the Foundayo pill, was listed in the event credits as one of its “fashion adjacent” sponsors.

A look evoking memories of All Saints and Destiny’s Child has fashion editors, Brad Pitt and the high street all blending in

Discussing their style while in All Saints, Nicole and Natalie Appleton said earlier this year that some things don’t change: “Army trousers and combat trousers will always be a staple with us.”

If, for a long time after All Saints’ noughties heyday, the sisters would have known this look was not the height of fashion, things have changed in 2026. Judging by those attending shows at London fashion week this month, camo is very much back.

With Jennifer Lopez providing some star power, the Italian house’s Milan show came at a crucial time for the brand

Earlier this week Jennifer Lopez walked down the Vogue World catwalk in Milan wearing a black beaded A-line bustier dress from Dolce & Gabbana. On Saturday, she sat in the front row at the Italian house’s womenswear show in a three-piece velvet suit from the same brand, her look topped off with a baker-boy cap.

The reminder of Dolce & Gabbana’s inimitable celebrity connection is no coincidence. In a turbulent luxury market, the brand has found itself trying to navigate a nearly £400m debt pile.

‘Kölsch is not a drink, it is a religion’ in Cologne, and it’s only brewed in and around the German city. But which of the many beautiful, storied beer halls serves up the best?

There’s a saying in Cologne, repeated with the mild smugness of people who know they’re right: kölsch is the only culture you can drink. It sounds like a line lifted straight from the tourist board’s brochure. Then you spend a day working your way around the city’s traditional brewhouses and realise it’s a statement of fact.

Since 1997, kölsch has held a protected geographical indication within the EU, guaranteeing that any beer bearing the name is brewed within 50km of the city and made strictly to the Kölsch-Konvention. That agreement, signed in 1986, defined the style as “a light, highly attenuated, hop-accentuated, clear, top-fermenting ‘vollbier’ [full-beer]”, restricting production exclusively to the local area. It is, in effect, the champagne of pale ales: locally adored and tied to a city that has always insisted on doing things its own way.

Get inspiration for your next short break with our pick of self-catering accommodation, from a sleek Highlands retreat to a cabin with a hot tub on a Somerset vineyard

• 15 great small hotels, inns and restaurants with rooms for an autumn stay in the UK

***

From a cosy Cornish inn with open fires to a boutique hotel in Northumberland, these new and revamped boltholes tick all the right boxes

• 15 great cottages and cabins for an autumn escape in the UK

With autumn officially here, our readers savour days of fruitful mellowness, from Cornwall to Loch Lomond

• Tell us about a great wellness experience – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

I love Loch Lomond in autumn. I’d start with a walk around Balmaha village and a stretch of the West Highland Way, pretending I’m there for the scenery rather than earning the right to eat something massive afterwards. Autumn is when it looks best: orange hills, cold air, dramatic clouds and the constant Scottish gamble of whether you’ll get sunshine, sideways rain, or both within 10 minutes. I finish, if I’m not driving, with a wee dram to properly round things off.
Pete

The solution to the seventeenth century stumper

Earlier today I set you a puzzle that Isaac Newton posed in 1679 in a latter to Robert Hooke. I mentioned that the answer is counter-intuitive, and also gave you the hint that it might have something to do with figure skating. Here’s the problem again, with its solution.

The tower drop

slightly to the west

slightly to the east

exactly at the bottom

Below the southern edge of the Great Square of Pegasus lie the fishes, linked by two strings

This week we will track down Pisces, the fishes. Despite being one of the largest zodiacal constellations, it can be surprisingly difficult to identify because it contains no bright stars.

The chart shows the view looking east from London at 10pm on Monday. As the week progresses, the bright waning moon will rise later and later in the evening, allowing the faint stars of Pisces to be more easily seen.

Bedmond, Hertfordshire: Serge Hill Project is a haven for humans and wildlife, and there’s much to find in its collection of drought-tolerant plants

Looking across a swathe of golden oat grass to the Apple House, it seems almost inconceivable that the M25 and M1 motorways are just beyond the treeline. I’m exploring the Serge Hill Project for Gardening, Creativity and Health: a therapeutic resource for local schools, community groups and charities, founded three years ago by Tom and Sue Stuart-Smith.

All around me, a diverse collection of drought-tolerant plants is thriving in a six-inch layer of sharp sand in the uppermost section of the Plant Library, despite not having been watered once during our sweltering summer.

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

• This week’s question: Is it possible that 3 is the most common number in UK street addresses?

It’s clear that the world as it is – considering the climate crisis, the rise of nationalism, geopolitical tumult, the possibility of AI killing us all by the end of the decade – could do with some more ethically astute and capable leadership. If you could time warp them into the present day, which leader from history could the world do with now – and why? Bernard, Machynlleth

Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com.

A teenager struggling with climate anxiety searches for hope in an unexpected place – writing letters to imprisoned activists. Max, 14, is on a quest to understand the human stories behind direct action and why so many climate protesters are in prison​. As replies begin to arrive, a dialogue bridging generations unfolds and connection transforms despair into purpose. ​When Max writes to the judge presiding over a high-profile trial​, he is surprised to hear the letter referred to in the judge's closing remarks

Removal of war debris, in which lives, memories and unexploded Israeli bombs lie buried, is one of largest clearance operations in modern history

It took all day to clear a section of road in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood in Gaza City. At the end of it, Ahmed Alyan, a UN engineer, was exhausted, surrounded by mountains of rubble despite the day’s work.

“I feel as if we are holding a spoon and trying to empty the sea,” Alyan said, beads of sweat trickling down his forehead after a long, hot summer day.

Scientists are racing to understand how fires behave to predict and prevent them as hotter summers create tinderboxes

From the scorched heathlands of the New Forest to the smouldering valleys of south Wales and burned-out homes in Stourbridge, an extraordinary summer of wildfires has left its mark across Britain.

To most of us, these charred landscapes may look like pure devastation, but to a trained wildfire investigator they are full of clues. Heat-scorched leaves can become frozen in position, preserving evidence of the wind direction as the fire passed through. Soot or staining on rocks, the pattern of fallen grass and bracken, and even how those stems have burned, provide further information about how the fire itself moved.

Ukrainian forces airdrop supplies to city where bodies are left to be eaten by dogs because of deadly risk from drones

The phone message sent out of Russian-occupied Oleshky was grimly matter-of-fact: food had finally run out for the 2,000 or so civilians, including 50 children, remaining in the city and its surrounding villages.

“We’re in Oleshky [and] we can’t get out. We’re going hungry … Right now, I’ve got absolutely nothing to eat,” read the message from a woman in the besieged city who was waiting to be evacuated by the occupying forces.

If you have been affected by the events in Gloucestershire you can share your experiences or news tips direct with our journalists

Five men were arrested on suspicion of explosive and terrorism offences after armed police stopped three vans near RAF Fairford in the early hours of Sunday.

Dozens of households in the Cotswolds village of Whelford were subsequently evacuated during the operation and have still not returned to their home.

There were 13,464 reported assaults against passengers and members of the public on the mainline railway in 2025-26

The number of reported assaults on Great Britain’s railways has risen to a record high of almost 25,000 incidents in a year, data published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) shows.

There were 13,464 reported assaults against passengers and members of the public on the mainline railway in 2025-26, up 36% on the previous year and the highest number recorded by the ORR since it started tracking the figures in 2004.

We’d like to hear from people in England who used the government’s previous equity loan scheme to buy their first home about how it worked out for them

The government has announced plans for a new scheme to help first-time buyers purchase a home. The programme, called “Your first home”, is intended to help buyers in England who have a regular income but have been unable to save for a large deposit or don’t have financial support from their family.

We’d like to hear from people who used the previous help-to-buy equity loan scheme. Did it help you buy a home you otherwise couldn’t have afforded?

How has loneliness affected you? Please share your experience

We live in an age where we have better tools for communication and connection than ever before, and yet we are in the midst of a loneliness epidemic.

In 2025, a World Health Organization report identified that 1 in 6 people globally are lonely. The report defined loneliness as “the painful feeling that arises from a gap between desired and actual social connections.” Perhaps, most strikingly, the age bracket that had the highest levels of loneliness was 13–29-year-olds.

Wake up to the top stories and what they mean – free to your inbox every weekday morning at 7am

Scroll less, understand more: sign up to receive our news email each weekday for clarity on the top stories in the UK and across the world.

Explore all our newsletters: whether you love film, football, fashion or food, we’ve got something for you

Get smart, sustainable shopping advice from the Filter team straight to your inbox, every Sunday

The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link.

A weekly email from our star chefs featuring the latest recipes and seasonal eating ideas

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

Sign up below to start receiving the best of our culinary journalism in one mouth-watering weekly email.

Upgrade your space today, with eight emails packed with tips to brighten up your home - whatever your budget

Embrace your space: the Guardian’s House to Home newsletter is bursting with tips and tricks to help you boost your bedroom and give your living room some love.

Sign up any time, and get eight emails direct to your inbox every Sunday morning.

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world