Online comments reflect class tensions at Scottish university between those from lower-income families and wealthier US undergraduates

When Sophie Rose Jenkins announced she would not return to St Andrews University this academic year because of her experiences of classism on campus, she did not expect much of a response. But in the two weeks since she published her story on LinkedIn, it has resonated with hundreds of others.

“Working-class students have been made to feel ashamed of their home life at university,” the former comparative literature and classical studies student wrote in a lengthy post. “Arriving at a university ranked first in the UK at the time from a background like mine, I thought I was doing everything right.

Conference delegates grateful ousting Starmer has paid off, but relief tempered by fiscal headwinds ahead

• UK politics live – latest updates

Even Andy Burnham’s closest allies accept that deposing Keir Starmer to install their man as leader was a huge political gamble. But if the mood at the Labour party conference in Liverpool is anything to go by, it is one that – so far – has paid off.

The contrast with last year, when Starmer retained his grip on the party and Burnham slunk away from Liverpool early, could not be more stark. Their relief at their turn of fortune is tempered only by the fiscal headwinds ahead.

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.

The PM oozes confidence and easy-going charm as he tells Laura Kuenssberg the hill he’ll die on is fixing social care

• UK politics live – latest updates

In recent weeks there has been much speculation in some parts of the media that Andy Burnham would call an early general election. Speculation that existed largely in the heads of those writing the stories, as even the most favourable polls suggest Labour would lose its huge majority and become the largest party in a coalition government. But to stop the chatter dominating his party conference, Burnham made it clear there would be no early election. His reward? Headlines in the rightwing press that he had bottled it. By not calling an election he had never planned to call. Sometimes you just can’t win.

There again, you might call this a first-world problem for the prime minister. This time last year, Burnham had been hanging around the fringes of the conference as he and his allies attempted one of the most half-arsed coups in living memory. One that fizzled out almost before it had started and became the butt of many jokes among Keir Starmer’s inner circle. Andy looked to have blown himself up on the runway, leaving Keir safe for the duration of the parliament.

President has let rip with swearwords in recent months, redefining norms about acceptable language in public office

With a lifetime of political memories stretching back to John F Kennedy’s assassination and the Black civil rights struggles of the 1960s, Cheryl Johnson had one complaint above all else about today’s politicians: the swearing.

“All this cursing in politics, we never heard that before,” said Johnson, a retired social worker living in the Pittsburgh area. “Words are very powerful, and the past 45 presidents of this country, have not used such vile language.

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.

Men held also suspected of explosives offences as homes evacuated near British airbase used in US attacks on Iran

Counter-terrorism police are leading the investigation in which five men were arrested on suspicion of explosives and terrorism offences near an RAF base used in US attacks against Iran.

After the declaration of a major incident at RAF Fairford, a bomb squad was sent to the village of Whelford and extra security measures were put in place, including the fortification of entrances to the base. Roadblocks and armed police have been seen in the area over the weekend.

PM says he will put proposals for NHS-style service funded by everybody into Labour’s next general election manifesto

• UK politics live – latest updates

Andy Burnham has said that he is going to “rip the plaster off” to fix the broken social care system, as he set out a vision for a universal service that would be free at the point of use for everybody in England.

The prime minister said the new NHS-style social care service would be funded by “everybody” but did not give further details of how his radical long-term plan would be paid for.

Sinn Féin leaders join those on streets opposing decision to allow Garvaghy Road parade for first time since 1998

• Portadown march: latest updates

Hundreds of protesters spent the day blocking the route of a hugely contentious parade in Northern Ireland after a court gave late-night clearance for the Orange Order to march on a historically significant road for the first time in nearly 30 years.

The loyalist Drumcree parade along the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown was given the go-ahead by the Parades Commission for the first time since 1998, a decision denounced by Sinn Féin as “madness”.

Exclusive: Move by Shabana Mahmood comes after closure of Afghan scheme last year but experts say numbers too small to deter Channel crossings

• UK politics live – latest updates

Shabana Mahmood will announce a new legal route for refugees that prioritises Afghan women and girls and Palestinians, unfreezing a scheme that will put the most vulnerable refugees on a faster path to permanent status.

The change marks a shift in Mahmood’s approach to asylum seekers after the abrupt closure of the Afghan resettlement scheme last year and changes that will keep refugee status under constant review for two decades.

Pat McFadden urges Labour MPs to back overhauls, amid signs party looking to cut payments for some 16- to 24-year-olds

• UK politics live – latest updates

Labour MPs have a moral responsibility to accept significant changes to the welfare system to help get more young people into work, the work and pensions secretary has said.

In a sign he is looking to overhaul the welfare state, Pat McFadden said it was time for Labour to “renew” the system first created by the Clement Attlee government and given a new deal by New Labour.

Waltz says Trump rejected Iran’s proposal to end war because they ‘were asking for everything up front’

The Trump administration’s ambassador to the United Nations said the US rejected Iran’s proposal to end the ongoing war there because Iranian negotiators “were asking for everything up front”.

Echoing comments by Donald Trump on Saturday, the president’s UN ambassador Mike Waltz told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that Iran had asked for relief “from billions and billions of sanctions that are going into place” as part of an economic blockade on Iran. The blockade is aimed at putting pressure on Iran to stop its attacks ‌on vessels in the strait of Hormuz.

Keys crops such as cereals, potatoes, sugar and oils grown in areas with moderate to very high risk

The vast majority of the UK’s essential foods, including cereals, potatoes, sugar and oil, are grown in areas of England rated as having a moderate to very high risk of drought.

A very high proportion – 81% – of England’s fresh produce is concentrated in parts of the country that are already experiencing water stress, according to the analysis by the nature-focused investment fund Rebalance Earth.

Research draws upon reporting and witness testimony, while a permanent memorial is planned for London

The “complex and unsettling” story of what Britain knew during the Holocaust is being explored amid plans to create a new permanent national memorial.

An exhibition highlighting how news of the atrocity reached Britain much earlier than is commonly understood will tour the country after being viewed privately by MPs at Portcullis House on the parliamentary estate at Westminster in September.

Presenter reveals corporation has been paying part of their salaries to keep his Herefordshire garden camera-ready

For 15 years, viewers have looked in amazement at Monty Don’s beautiful Herefordshire garden, known as Longmeadow, as he hosted the show Gardeners’ World from his own back yard.

But now the BBC presenter, who announced earlier this month that he was leaving the show, has said he may have to let go of the gardeners who have kept the space beautiful and broadcast-ready.

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.

Scientists are racing to understand how fires behave as hotter summers turn green landscapes into 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.

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

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.

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.

Miranda felt intimacy and love with Ishan right away, but sex was more awkward to navigate

• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

When you spend time talking about repressed memories, it brings up a lot of shame and complicated feelings

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.

Daisy Edgar-Jones dons the bonnet in Georgia Oakley’s take on the Jane Austen classic, and Catherine Zeta-Jones battles assassins in a madcap action caper

Sense and Sensibility
Out now
Daisy Edgar-Jones has a big bonnet to fill in the role Emma Thompson made her own in Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning version of Jane Austen’s romance. But let’s not compare: Blue Jean director Georgia Oakley’s take sees a fresh cast place new emphasis on the bond between sisters Marianne and Elinor.

The Guardian’s weekend wrap of essential reads from the past seven days, selected by Jacqui Housden and Miles Herbert

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

Hello and welcome to the weekend.

This week, we could not look away from the series Gaza: a week in the life. In the story linked below, a Palestinian mother recounts how she is rebuilding her future in the ruins and fragments of the past she lost. Across the rest of the reads in this newsletter, there is hope, resistance and rebirth in the history that continues to define our present.

Sharon Horgan takes on divorce in a new series about life as a single fiftysomething, while Brad Pitt makes his way across Alaska with a loyal hound. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

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

• Updates from 7.45pm BST kick-offs in Nations League

• Live scores | Email John | And follow us over on TikTok

The news from that Dutch win, Xavi’s first as coach, is that Cody Gakpo was forced off with an injury just 17 minutes in.

Germany v Greece starting lineups:

Live updates from the 6pm BST games around the NFL
Get in touch: mail Graham about all the latest matches

TOUCHDOWN! Chargers 7-0 Bills 10:33, 1st quarter

J Herbert to K Mitchell for one yard

A Rodgers to R Wilson for 38 yards

• Batter hits first international century in one-sided win

• Will Jacks takes last wicket and named player of series

A dysfunctional summer ended on a brighter note for England as Tom Banton’s eye-catching maiden international century and some masterful finishing from Jordan Cox propelled them to a one-sided victory against Sri Lanka in this one-day international decider.

The neurosis had chiefly centred around the Test team, in fairness, with Harry Brook’s white-ball sides on something of an upward trajectory in 2026. Hence Brendon McCullum was relieved of only half of his duties as head coach in July.

• I don’t take calls from Premier League managers, he says

• England play Czechia in Prague on Tuesday

Thomas Tuchel says it would be “madness” to allow his England players or the clubs to pick and choose their matches during the elongated Nations League window as he promised to go full throttle for victory against Czechia in Prague on Tuesday.

The manager did accept that Declan Rice needed to rest and could not be part of the squad in light of the Arsenal midfielder’s heavy workload across a number of seasons and well-documented fitness issues. Rice was at Wembley on Saturday to watch England lose 3-2 against Spain in their opening Nations League game.

• Manchester City won match 1-0 after goal by Yaya Touré

• Club deny wrongdoing and say ‘process is ongoing’

Tony Pulis has said his Stoke City team was “cheated” out of the 2011 FA Cup after Manchester City were found guilty on virtually all counts of breaching Premier League financial rules.

Pulis’ Stoke lost the 2011 Cup final 1-0 after Yaya Touré’s strike. Yet following Friday’s news that City are guilty on all but one of the more than 100 charges laid by the Premier League in February 2023, Pulis feels serious discontent. City are expected to appeal and they deny any wrongdoing.

Alyssa Thompson’s first-half goal settled the match at Stamford Bridge

2 mins: The Arsenal fans make the early noise in the stands but Chelsea have enjoyed all of the possession.

Peep! Peep! Peep! Here we go!

• Leicester 38-40 Saracens

• Visitors hold on despite Isiekwe’s 20-minute red card

Brendan Venter has history at Welford Road he may care to forget but, after Saracens edged this 12-try thriller, the South African could toast a fine start to his new chapter at the club.

Sixteen years ago Venter was hit with a 14-week ban for making inappropriate and provocative gestures at the Leicester faithful. Fast forward to the present and he was largely on his best behaviour as Saracens overcame Nick Isiekwe’s 20-minute red card to kickstart their season. At the full-time whistle, however, he could not resist a moment of furious delight.

• Australia beat South Africa 42-38 in World Cup warning

• Les Kiss’s side reduced to 11 men in final 15 minutes

A year out from the World Cup, Australia have sent a huge warning shot to the competition, upsetting the four-time trophy winners South Africa with an extraordinary 42-38 win in Perth. On a weekend when the AFL and NRL delivered fairytale comebacks, the Wallabies trumped both rival codes, hammering rugby’s No 1 team with a skilful display that ended in bizarre circumstances when the men in gold held on despite being reduced to 11 players at the end.

Fittingly, the victory found the Wallabies harnessing the aerial powers of Australian Rules and the rambunctious power of rugby league to dominate rugby’s world champions with a brilliant, inventive and courageous five-try performance that kept alive new coach Les Kiss’s unbeaten record and breathed new hope into the hearts of Australian fans nationwide.

• Jakub Mensik and Flavio Cobolli win doubles 7-5, 6-3

• Andre Agassi goads Alexander Zverev at ceremony

Team Europe reclaimed their Laver Cup title with a dominant 13-5 victory against Team World on the final day of competition at the O2 Arena.

The contest had been finely poised after two days’ play, with Team Europe holding a narrow 7-5 lead at the beginning of the day. With each match worth three points on Sunday, Europe needed two victories out of the four remaining matches to win. They clinched their victory efficiently.

Our fragmented political model will endure for the foreseeable future – and Reform will benefit from it until Burnham learns that cooperation is key

As I wrote last week, whatever its current troubles, Reform UK has hardly disappeared. Meanwhile, those black-clad quasi-paramilitaries may well be another augury of a frightening immediate future. One more English settlement – the town of Barnham, in Norfolk – is seemingly poised to stage a pretend independence referendum in protest at plans to locally accommodate asylum seekers. Oh, and our new Labour prime minister has just held cordial talks with a US president who has not only brought a modern de facto fascism to his homeland, but wants to export it to Europe.

But hold all those cheerful thoughts for a moment, and let us have a look at the Labour party as it gathers in Liverpool. The slogan plastered all over its conference is “Hope Again” – which, unlike last year’s dreadful “Renew Britain”, suggests that a few people at the top might have belatedly learned the basics of pithy political storytelling.

John Harris is a Guardian columnist

Surging energy bills, higher borrowing costs and rising inflation have left the PM and his chancellor in a fiscal bind

As Labour heads to Liverpool this week, Andy Burnham has promised to deliver “stability” in the public finances; but the economic backdrop is anything but stable.

The longer the US-Israeli war on Iran persists, the more likely it is that UK consumers will have to swallow higher mortgage rates and energy bills – just as the government is wrestling with its own surging borrowing costs.

The deletion of 11 old sketches from BBC’s iPlayer has angered culture warriors and raises questions about how society has changed

“Are we the baddies?”, asked the comedy double act Mitchell and Webb in their most famous sketch, in which two uniformed SS officers look one another up and down and arrive at that inescapable conclusion. And lo, it turns out they are, if this week’s news about the supposed offensiveness of the duo’s back catalogue is to be believed.

Their newfound unpalatability made headlines last Monday, when 11 of the pair’s sketches were pulled from the rerelease of That Mitchell and Webb Look on iPlayer to mark its 20th anniversary – a move that led to loud condemnation from the keyboard cavalry in Britain’s never-ending, and never much fun, culture war.

Brian Logan is the Guardian’s comedy critic, and the artistic director of A Play, a Pie and a Pint

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

The former PM has been consulted by many who came after him – but Burnham might want to shake his New Labour past once and for all

Tony Blair can, apparently, sound slightly wistful when he describes how he once had a cloak-and-dagger meeting with Andy Burnham, who wanted to talk to him about standing for the party leadership. Before anyone gets too excited, however, this wasn’t in the past few months, during which Burnham succeeded in landing the job. The story dates back to 2010. That was when he was a callow member of Gordon Brown’s cabinet and understandably wary of his boss discovering not only his ambition to take over if Labour lost the looming general election, but also from whom he wanted advice.

Much has changed since then, not least Burnham himself. His journey out of Westminster and back again – which in his telling has become an almost spiritual pilgrimage of personal redemption – enabled him to shed the New Labour baggage that proved so cumbersome during his previous, and unsuccessful, runs for the leadership. In common with Brown, Ed Miliband, Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer – all of whom tried with varying degrees of success to distance themselves from Blair – Labour’s latest leader now also wants to keep Blair at arm’s length, and certainly far away from his party conference in Liverpool this week.

Tom Baldwin is a former assistant editor of the Times and a former senior adviser to the Labour party. He is the author of Keir Starmer: The Biography

These one-sided connections with famous people are a normal part of modern life. But sometimes they can lead to emotional distress

• The modern mind is a column where experts discuss mental health issues they are seeing in their work

“It came as such a shock. I just can’t believe he’s gone.”

Psychologists are accustomed to seeing bereaved individuals. But working with Jodie* presented a unique challenge – she’d never met the person she was grieving. Jodie was reeling after the recent death of a well known singer. Despite not knowing the singer personally, Jodie’s grief and loss seemed as palpable as other patients speaking about the deaths of family members or loved ones. Jodie reported that weeks after the singer’s death, she was struggling to attend work and was sleeping poorly, describing herself as consumed with thoughts of the singer.

I understand the pressure on the public purse, but I have also seen the effect of our spending on the ground. Our choices can do so much good

• David Harewood is a Unicef UK ambassador

As Labour party conference approaches, politicians will debate spending priorities, fiscal pressures and the UK’s place in the world. Before those discussions begin, I want ministers to picture a hospital ward I visited in Sierra Leone with Unicef (United Nations Children’s Fund).

Inside the special-care baby unit at Makeni regional hospital were rows of tiny premature babies, some no bigger than my hand. Around them stood dedicated nurses and anxious parents, all willing these newborns to survive.

David Harewood is a Unicef UK ambassador

The streaming channel was full of the president’s vanity and myopia. It was also deeply, deeply dull

Are you currently at an airport? Strapped to a hospital bed, with various tubes protruding from your body? Maybe you’re on a treadmill or visiting an elder care facility? Chained to a radiator in the basement from the Saw movies?

If you said yes to any of these questions, you might be watching cable news while reading this column. Or maybe you’re one of the hundreds of people currently watching Donald Trump’s answer to cable news, Trump TV – a YouTube streaming channel that airs nothing but White House-sanctioned content 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist

Bill payers should not fund another rescue for financiers of the water industry. Public ownership can end the cycle of extraction and failure

This month, a cross-party parliamentary committee said Thames Water should be placed in temporary state control and that any takeover by its creditors should be halted. The MPs were right. The “special administration” regime keeps the taps running while shareholders are wiped out, creditors take a haircut and the firm’s £19bn of debt is restructured. But it must not then be handed back to private hands. After Thames Water has failed its 16 million customers, polluted rivers, paid out billions to shareholders and repeatedly demanded higher bills, a City-friendly reprieve would only reward the outrageous behaviour that the regulatory system is meant to deter. Ministers ought to seize the opportunity to nationalise Thames Water.

In July, Andy Burnham agreed. On the campaign trail in Makerfield, he told reporters that “there’s a very strong case for public ownership [for Thames Water] to sort out its problems”. Having entered parliament and become prime minister, Mr Burnham is instead looking at letting elected mayors “oversee” private water companies. There is nothing wrong with more democratic scrutiny. However, oversight without ownership and proper control seems like a sleight of hand. Voices from different wings of the party recognise this. Mr Burnham can’t kick the decision down the road for ever.

If a guilty verdict on multiple counts of financial misreporting is upheld against the club, its achievements in the modern era will be forever tainted

In surveys ranking the Premier League’s greatest moments, football supporters regularly give pride of place to Sergio Agüero’s championship-winning goal for Manchester City in 2012. Scored in injury time on the last day of the season, Agüero’s strike against Queens Park Rangers delivered the first league title for City since the 1960s. Knocking their historic rivals Manchester United into second place, it also signalled a new era in which the club replaced United as the dominant force in the English game.

“Aguerooooooo!” – the incredulous single-word response from the match commentator Martin Tyler – has entered football folklore. But an asterisk may now be needed at the end of all those Os. Reports that an independent panel has found Manchester City guilty of breaking Premier League rules between 2009 and 2023 cast a dark shadow over that day, and much else besides. During that period, the club won seven Premier League titles, six League Cups, three FA Cups and the Uefa Champions League, all while under the ownership of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi ruling family. The inescapable implication of the apparent ruling is that those trophies were won unfairly.

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

Readers respond to an article by John Harris in which he urges Labour to offer hope and change

John Harris writes: “Reform is apparently in deep trouble, yet also still in with a serious chance. How come?” (Don’t discount Reform because it’s had a bad year. In our angry, fragile democracy, anything can happen, 20 September). Because it is a cult, just as Maga is a cult. It is sustained by faith, not fact. It offers simple solutions to problems of such complexity that most of us are incapable of understanding them.

Reform UK would not exist without Nigel Farage. All his other “parties” only existed because of him. Its self-designation as outside “the establishment” is one of the few truths to be relied on – in the sense that it’s beyond the pale. It is an ethics-free zone. Farage is the tool of the US hard right in the UK. All that’s missing is the Christian end-times nihilism, and not many would be surprised if that clawed its way to the surface soon.

The rushed law probably increases pre-match binge drinking, writes Prof Geoff Pearson; plus a letter from a concerned reader who lives near a football ground

The prime minister is right to identify that the existing ban on alcohol consumption at football matches is viewed by fans as discriminatory (Andy Burnham signals he may lift ban on alcohol in football stands, 23 September). However, the need for reform of this legislation goes much further.

The Sporting Events (Control of Alcohol etc) Act 1985 was rushed through parliament, despite reservations at the time from the police and football authorities, and the absence of any evidence that it would reduce football-related disorder. Since then, no studies have indicated that the prohibition has reduced drunkenness or disorder at matches, but research has demonstrated how the ban can increase risks to public order and safety.

We should learn about emancipated people’s extraordinary capacity for mutual endeavour, writes Prof Kathryn A Monk, in response to an article in the Cotton Capital series

Your report (British corporation continued trafficking of enslaved Africans to Guyana 40 years after abolition, 23 August) tells one important part of Guyana’s post-slavery history. There is another that deserves to be better known.

In 1839, little more than a year after full emancipation in British Guiana, 83 formerly enslaved men and women pooled their savings to buy the 200-hectare (500-acre) Northbrook plantation. They renamed it Victoria. Other purchases by other groups followed, developing into what became known as the communal African village movement.

Readers respond to Polly Hudson’s article about disposing of her late mother’s possessions

Reading Polly Hudson’s account of clearing her mother’s house (My mum has died – and every decision I make about her belongings feels wrong, 20 September) made me think about my experience of doing the same. I sort of enjoyed the task, viewing it as the last thing that I could do for my mother, and seeing myself as a curator in reverse.

I was determined to recycle as much as possible, feeding the good things through to charity shops and going back later to see what had and hadn’t sold. When one charity shop in the Welsh border town where my mother lived didn’t want her manual typewriter, on the grounds that nobody would have use for it, I took it to a charity shop in London, which snapped it up and put it in the window.

At least one person killed and nearly 150,000 households lost electricity from North Carolina to New England

A strong, deadly storm known as a nor’easter battered the US’s east coast over the weekend, bringing power outages, flooding, damaging winds and hazardous ocean conditions.

Trees and power lines were knocked down across the region, at least one person was killed and hundreds of thousands were left without electricity as officials cautioned that conditions could deteriorate further.

Family doctors’ professional body finds the majority have no time to discuss preventative measures

A friendly chat with your GP about your life, health and happiness was once a key part of the UK’s family doctor service.

But most GPs no longer have time to have pastoral conversations, because they are too busy dealing with the country’s rising tide of illness, research reveals.

US-owned firm says average monthly users at UK arm surged to nearly 700,000 with sales up by a third

Love them or hate them, Lime ebikes are an increasingly common sight on England’s roads with new figures showing annual profits more than doubling thanks to a surge in riders.

Lime’s average number of monthly users jumped 31% to approaching 700,000 as it added more than 4,500 ebikes and scooters to its fleet, taking the total to almost 38,000, the company’s UK arm, Lime Technologies, said in accounts filed at Companies House.

Home Office faces legal action after 1,473 people living in UK before Brexit told settled status was granted in error

The Home Office faces legal action over a policy to strip residency rights from EU citizens who were in the UK before Brexit on the grounds that it gave them the status “in error”.

It comes as a Home Office minister revealed that the government has contacted 1,473 citizens with post-Brexit residency rights to tell them the original decision to grant them residency was made in error.

70% vote against tightening centuries-old neutrality, which far right said was being eroded by sanctions against Russia

Swiss voters have decisively rejected a proposal for a strict definition of neutrality that would have required Switzerland to curb cooperation with Nato and abandon sanctions against Russia.

All cantons and about 70% of voters rejected the proposal for a strictly defined version of neutrality to be ⁠written into the Swiss constitution, final results from the Federal Statistical Office showed. The motion had been promoted by the far-right Swiss People’s party (SVP).

Two troops of chacma baboons are breaking into homes and shops but animal rights activists insist coexistence is the answer

Cape Town’s city council has said it will “imminently” round up two baboon troops coming into repeated conflict with residents. The animals will be sterilised and permanently moved to a newly constructed sanctuary. The plan has been fiercely criticised by animal rights activists, who say the monkeys should remain roaming freely, and that less destructive options have not been properly considered.

Cape Town’s baboon problem has been brewing since the 2000s, after the city stopped culling troops in the late 1990s after pressure from the public. But in the past two years it has reached boiling point. A 2025 census found that the population had grown by a third since 2000, from 360 baboons to 493, now living in 12 managed troops.

This year’s ‘godzilla’ climate phenomenon has already broken temperature records. We ask a climate scientist what is happening

This year’s huge El Niño, which comes less than two years since the last one, has already broken temperature records. To understand what is happening, and why, the Guardian interviewed Prof Mat Collins, a climate scientist at the University of Exeter, the author of some of the world’s most important climate reports and an expert on the dynamics of the El Niño southern oscillation.

Lewes, East Sussex: Owls, bats, badgers and countless birds are my new neighbours, but I’ve been particularly taken by a mystery tree – and its resident treecreeper

I have made the woods my home, moving from Brighton to the outskirts of Lewes, where the garden backs on to the remains of an old oak wood. Here there’s a riot of wildlife: a badger that makes snuffle holes in the lawn, a family of tawny owls in the trees and a cauldron of bats in the chimney.

I have plans to let the wood expand into the garden, but in the meantime there’s a mystery tree whose branches almost reach my bedroom window. It’s nearly dead, stressed from too many droughts, perhaps, or coming to a natural end. Some have suggested it’s a willow, but I suspect it’s a cultivated species I’m not familiar with.

Hurricane Nolo is the latest storm to menace the islands as sees warming ocean temperatures fuel more severe weather

With Hurricane Nolo, the islands of Hawaii are grappling with the third major tropical storm in recent months.

Hurricanes Lala in August and Lowell in early September flooded homes and roads, downed trees and toppled electricity lines across the islands. Nolo, which strengthened to a hurricane on Thursday night, is expected to batter the islands with rain and high surf.

Decision to allow development of 190 new homes in north Somerset sparks campaign for change in the law

Houses can be built on floodplains even if they fail a crucial safety test, according to a high court judgment that will be of “immense interest” to developers across England and Wales.

The ruling clears the way for a highly controversial development of 190 new homes on north Somerset’s floodplains, despite the site being in “flood zone 3a”, the highest level of flood risk before land is considered a functional floodplain.

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS trust apologises after illicit access of medical records of toddler who died in Brantham

An NHS trust has apologised after the medical records of three-year-old Noah Woods were accessed by unauthorised people after his disappearance.

Noah was found dead in a pond in Brantham, Suffolk, after going missing from a playground. More than 1,300 members of the public joined a search for the boy before police discovered his body.

Officer forced to admit relationship with woman lasting at least six months while working under fake name Dave Evans

An undercover police officer who infiltrated leftwing and animal rights campaign groups appears to have lied to the spycops inquiry when he claimed he did not have a sexual relationship as part of his deployment.

The officer who used the fake name Dave Evans had originally testified that he did not have any relationships while using his fake identity.

A new walking heritage trail follows hidden histories and overlooked landmarks in a city built on the cotton trade

• All photographs by Ruby Ramelize

They are the stories that have survived decades, despite being largely ignored by official acts of commemoration, obscured, or erased from the landscape. Now, chapters from Manchester’s Black history are being brought to life by a series of walking tours in the city, led by local historians, including Linford Sweeney, the Moss Side-raised genealogist, and the urbanist Hayley Flynn.

The Heritage in Action trail – guided walks exploring the lives of people whose labour made the city what it is and the city’s direct relationship with transatlantic slavery – will run in the city on 7 October, World Cotton Day. The events have been produced by the Guardian’s Legacies of Enslavement programme and the charity Greater Manchester Moving, which works to improve the region’s wellbeing through physical activity.

Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist speaks with NBC’s Kristen Welker in interview airing on Sunday

Bill Gates has called on the US’s federal legislators and law enforcers to regulate the development of artificial intelligence (AI), saying in an interview airing on Sunday that the technology left unchecked could cause “a billion deaths” and “no one thinks self-regulation is enough”.

“You need law enforcement and the politicians to get into the discussion about what safeguards and monitoring look like,” the Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist said to Kristen Welker, the NBC Meet the Press host. “And that has to be a required thing.”

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.

Pontiff also uses visit to Catholic shrine at Lourdes to criticise assisted dying as ‘false compassion’

The pope has called on the Catholic church to heal “deep wounds” and “painful errors”, before a meeting with survivors of child sexual abuse as he continues his four-day visit to France.

Addressing a crowd in a large field near the Catholic shrine of Lourdes on Sunday, Pope Leo XIV called on the church to reckon with its past, without directly referencing sexual abuse scandals in France that affected at least 330,000 children over seven decades.

More than 300mm of rain fell in two days in parts of Thailand’s capital, inundating homes, shops and roads

• Bangkok’s flood disaster – in pictures

Thousands of Bangkok residents awoke in shelters on Sunday after flooding triggered by days of heavy rain in the Thai capital inundated homes and roads, with some starting to dry out their homes and belongings.

Nearly 4,900 people have been evacuated to shelters, with about 52,000 households affected by the floods, which prompted a disaster declaration across the capital, according to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA).

Bumper fees paid in the year’s mergers and acquisitions spark anger over high City pay during cost of living crisis

London’s investment bankers and lawyers have made more than £1bn from a frenzy of takeover deals this year, sparking anger over high City pay during the cost of living crisis.

The value of mergers and acquisitions of UK stock market listed companies has surged 175% in 2026 to $132.9bn (£100bn), according to the London Stock Exchange, as overseas buyers snap up British companies at record pace.

Former footballer appeared in about 12 ad campaigns this summer, pushing holding company’s revenue to $110.5m

David Beckham has taken a $51m (£39m) dividend from his business empire after a series of deals with brands for the Fifa World Cup.

Beckham appeared in about a dozen ad campaigns across this summer’s tournament in the US, working with brands including Lenovo, McDonald’s, Bank of America, Verizon and the PepsiCo crisps brand Lay’s.

Warning from union comes as corporation cuts local specialist correspondent roles as part of plan to save £500m

The BBC has been warned it risks entering a “doom spiral” of endless cuts and weaker public support for its services, as insiders anticipate the imminent closure of some TV and radio services.

Morale at the corporation is said to be extremely low as a series of cuts are slowly revealed to staff. In the latest announcement, the BBC said it would be reducing the number of local specialist correspondent roles.

UK watchdog fined video app in 2023 for failing to enforce minimum age limit and remove underage users

TikTok will pay a £12.7m fine to the UK’s data watchdog after dropping an appeal against a ruling that it did not do enough to keep children below the age of 13 off the platform.

The video app was punished by the Information Commissioner’s Office in 2023 for inadequate checks of who was using the platform, and failing to remove underage users.

Sixty years after the film’s release, Salzburg is embracing a Hollywood classic it once kept at arm’s length

Let’s start at the very beginning – famously, a very good place to start.

Just two decades after the second world war, a Hollywood crew descended on Salzburg with stars, show tunes and a compelling, essentially true story of love and opposition to Adolf Hitler: The Sound of Music.

Kym Karath, Debbie Turner, Angela Cartwright, Duane Chase, Heather Menzies, Nicholas Hammond, Charmian Carr and Julie Andrews in The Sound Of Music.

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.

The actor sets off on a culinary adventure, starting in Paris. Plus: ridiculous but addictive reality show Apocalypse. Here’s what to watch this evening

7.15pm, BBC Two

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

New York film festival: The follow-up to 2023’s Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One dazzles with smart social commentary and jaw-dropping effects

Even by the standards of older movie stars catching a major second wind later in their careers, Godzilla pulled off an impressive reclamation of the spotlight three years ago. Godzilla Minus One, the most recent reboot featuring the 70-year-old kaiju – the version(s) from his native Japan, mind, not the Americanized one concurrently starring in a series of Warner Bros blockbusters opposite King Kong – wasn’t just another monster-movie success. It fully crossed over, becoming the highest-grossing Japanese-language movie ever released in North America, and won an Academy Award to boot for its terrific visual effects. Now. Japanese Godzilla characters are mainstream enough to pop up in Happy Meals, and the Toho-made sequel Godzilla Minus Zero is world-premiering at the New York film festival. Arguably the artsiest, brainiest of the major fall fests is playing unexpected host to a truly spectacular monster battle royale, packaged alongside some of the same thoughtful historical context that informed the previous film.

Writer, director and VFX maestro Takashi Yamazaki returns for the sequel, bringing his lead characters back with him. In the previous film, former military pilot Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) used his experience with Godzilla to overcome his guilt and shame over failing to complete a pointless kamikaze mission toward the end of the second world war – the devastation of which brought Japan back to “zero”, hence a newly emergent Godzilla bringing the country to “minus one”. Minus Zero catches up with Kōichi, his now-wife Noriko (Minami Hamabe), and their adopted daughter Akiko (Sae Nagatani) two years later, in 1949 (although Akiko somehow seems more or less the same age). Another monster threat looms over post-war Japan in the form of a dragon-like creature dubbed Ghidorah, whose menace will be familiar to kaiju fans. (Though he isn’t seen directly in trailers, this isn’t a spoiler; he’s featured from the very first scene of the film.)

They sign a rental contract, and then their relationship immediately collapses. This funny comedy-drama from Mexican-American comic Lara Ricote tackles real life in a way most sitcoms daren’t

I’ve been at more than one party where a stranger has told me they are still living with their ex, even sharing a bed. I don’t judge. I’ve experienced this myself. I remember a sad, uncanny time at the end of a relationship. Untangling our lives but not our bodies, supporting the other through their worst pain while trying to ignore the fact that the worst pain is you. But sometimes these strangers tell me they have been living this way for months, perhaps years, and my empathy flips to horror. “What the hell is going on in your house?” I think.

I found answers in Break Clause (Thursday, 10pm), a new Channel 4 dramedy. It’s the story of sweethearts Ben (Samuel Bottomley) and Lil (Lara Ricote), Leeds University graduates who decide to transplant their lives to London. On the eve of moving, there’s an incident that leads to a terrible confession in the hallway of their new flat. Ben and Lil break up – in the presence of their estate agent, who tells them the paperwork is irrevocable. They will have to live together for six months until the contract break clause. That’s awkward! But can tenancy rights correct a relationship wrong?

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.)

The Mercury prize winner hasn’t been able to go home since falling ill last summer. In his only interview, he opens up about the ‘poignancy’ of finally releasing the new album his stroke shelved

At the end of July 2025, Michael Kiwanuka was back home in Southampton after a series of European gigs. His 2024 album Small Changes had been critically acclaimed and was kept off the UK No 1 slot only by Kendrick Lamar’s GNX. His fifth record, Fudge, was due that autumn. All was going perfectly for the virtuoso singer-songwriter, whose eccentric, genre-busting mix of psychedelic rock, prog soul, blues and gospel had marked him as a real one-off.

Kiwanuka had been expected to appear at the All Together Now festival in County Waterford, Ireland, in the coming days, when an announcement was posted to his Instagram story: “We are so sorry to announce that due to continued illness, and on the advice of doctors, Michael will sadly be unable to perform at the rest of his scheduled festival performances throughout the rest of the summer and the shows in North America in October.”

Every one of the Grammy-nominated Floridian’s songs reveal a different side of him. His latest album, Roadrunner, is all languid reggae basslines and come-hither lyricism

From Tampa, Florida
Recommended if you like Kwn, Tyla, Odeal
Up next Performing in Dallas, Texas, 1 November

Destin Conrad has had a busy couple of years: three albums, one Grammy nomination and a string of collaborations with fellow R&B up-and-comers such as Bellah and Nia Smith. Pick any record and you’ll hear a different side of the 26-year-old. His spring 2025 debut Love on Digital pays its dues to the genre that raised him while swerving derivative cliches with small production quirks – a vocal glitch here, a skittering Jersey beat there. Last summer’s Whimsy is a sprawling alt-jazz album that was written in two weeks, inspired by his time in a high-school jazz choir. A year later, Roadrunner arrived as a celebration of his Jamaican roots and queer identity – all languid reggae basslines, gyrating dancehall rhythms, drinks-in-the-air swagger and come-hither lyricism.

As her latest novel about Daphne du Maurier is published, the bestselling author reflects on age and creativity – and why at 83 she has no plans to stop

My generation of writers is dying. Of Granta’s fabled list of 20 Best of Young British Novelists, 1983, six are gone, including our most princely satirist, Martin Amis. We’re all approaching birthdays where the cake is too small for the candles. Some of us are wounded: Salman Rushdie by an attacker’s knife, Julian Barnes lives with blood cancer, others with the fatal hurt of being forgotten.

But what’s the likely fate of those of us who are surviving – for now? Do readers still love us? When Barnes announced that he was signing off because of illness, was he also intuiting that the younger generations had heard enough from us old birds and geezers who were young when Sean Connery had dimples, when David Hockney first coloured his hair yellow?

Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel by Lucy Foley; The Silent Appeal by Janice Hallett; Cold Sunset by William Boyd; The Occidental Book of the Dead by T Geronimo Johnson and The Last Tenant by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir

Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel by Lucy Foley (HarperCollins, £22)
This, the first Miss Marple continuation novel, must have been a more difficult undertaking than a new Hercule Poirot; furnished by Christie with a cartoonist’s worth of exaggerated traits, the Belgian detective is surely easier to bring off the page than the unassuming but observant elderly spinster. Foley makes a commendable attempt, removing Miss Marple from the postwar austerity of St Mary Mead to the comparative luxury of the Swiss Alps. Although we are introduced to the unnamed body in the gondola cabin at the start, an immediate backward shift for a two-day lead-up means Miss Marple has little actual detecting to do until about halfway through the proceedings. Employing four narrators rather dilutes things, as well as necessitating a considerable amount of Murder of Roger Ackroyd-style withholding of information, but Foley’s Miss M shows her true colours when – of course – the hotel gets cut off from the outside world, and provides a solution worthy of the Queen of Crime herself.

The Silent Appeal by Janice Hallett (Viper, £20)
Bestseller Hallett’s latest novel reunites us with amateur dramatic group the Fairway Players, first encountered in her debut novel, The Appeal. This time the play is The Hollow, dramatised by Agatha Christie from her novel of the same name, and, as before, lawyers Charlotte and Femi are called upon to review the mountain of emails, online messages and police reports through which the story is told, in order to figure out exactly what happened. All we know at the start is that “a brutal murder was committed” and Hallett slowly but expertly ratchets up the tension as clashes over casting, power plays, marital suspicions and distrust of newcomers create an entire gallery of potential murderers and murderees. The epistolatory method may not be for everyone, but Hallett excels at the form – these missives are variously funny, sinister, heartfelt and thoroughly human in their relatable pettiness – and the plot is well up to her usual standard.

The pop star emerges as a great unifier in this in-depth yet heartfelt portrait of an Aussie icon

‘There’s an anxiety in declaring oneself a Kylie fan,” wrote the late San Francisco poet Kevin Killian (who nonetheless once published an entire collection devoted to the singer). Despite her remarkable longevity, with record-breaking chart success across five decades, Kylie’s place in the pop firmament has often felt more precarious than that of other artists, perhaps because of her past as a soap star, and the schmaltz of some of her early material with Stock Aitken Waterman.

But she has always displayed a canny self-awareness, alongside a willingness to push the envelope. It’s evident in her knowing rendition of I Should Be So Lucky as a bad poem at the Royal Albert Hall in 1996, and her many collaborations with experimental dance producers. Then there’s her instinct for giving fans what they want: inarguable bangers, like those of her 2000s imperial phase, that also possess an offbeat, idiosyncratic quality, true of Can’t Get You Out of My Head and of her 2023 viral hit, Padam Padam.

The earl on his globally lauded eulogy for Diana, King Charles’s sausage fingers and toxic Raine, topped off with a lavish sprinkling of adverbs

Cheers were heard up and down the land. Halley’s comet made an unscheduled appearance in the ethereal night sky. In very heaven, angelic choirs rang out. A saviour had been born. A light to lighten the world. But enough about me. For this paragraph at least.

In my universally acclaimed funeral address, I aimed to speak for my sister. The real Diana. For only I truly knew her. She had the heart of a lion. And I had a glut of cliches. Yet when Diana had swept so triumphantly into the arena of royal life, I was but a callow youth awash with hormones and gripped by the self-centredness of adolescence. Nothing much has changed. Yet I know, with all my heart, that Diana would have wanted me to tell our story.

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

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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.

Royal Festival Hall, London
Three fine soloists were joined by the excellent Tiffin Boys’ and Girls’ Choirs alongside the London Philharmonic Choir and the London Symphony Chorus whose pianissimo singing left us with a much-needed glimpse of hope

‘All a poet can do today is warn,” Wilfred Owen wrote in 1918. The London Philharmonic Orchestra, launching their new season In Search of Purpose, find it in Owen’s words, just as Benjamin Britten did in 1962 with the premiere of his War Requiem – a pacifist manifesto that doesn’t just mourn the dead, but rages at the senseless conflict that killed them, and cautions of “greater wars” yet to come.

It’s a curious starting point, a piece that stresses the limits of art as well as its capacity, but one depressingly, perennially pertinent. Originally cast to reflect the three main warring nations, the three solo roles once again reflected this topicality in Ukrainian-Welsh soprano Natalya Romaniw, American tenor Paul Appleby (replacing an indisposed Allan Clayton), and German baritone Benjamin Appl.

Soho theatre, London
This latest bulletin from the Irish standup’s fraught life delves deep into her OCD and dismay at her own foibles

People talking about their mental health is boring, says Catherine Bohart. Even listening to herself do so frays the patience. So how to justify Borrowing Trouble, a new standup hour from the Irishwoman delving deep into her OCD? Well, the justification here is the humour, rich and hard-won. But it also comes down to Bohart’s trademark candour. This is a condition so all-consuming, on this evidence, that to not address it might feel like dishonesty – which, for the 38-year-old, would be intolerably off-brand.

In this latest bulletin from Bohart’s fraught life, we find her fulfilling an ambition close to all Irish hearts, she tells us, and buying her first home. This entails moving in with her girlfriend too, a process that applies pressure on her compulsion to control. But what’s a girl to do? Move on to her fifth therapist, after the underachievement of the preceding four? Try coming off antidepressants? Her doctor’s response to that suggestion does not inspire confidence. Seek refuge with her family? Well that won’t work, as illustrated by an ill-advisedly long visit home to her parents – AKA her symptoms. Here we see mum fret intrusively on Catherine’s behalf and (in one eye-opening anecdote) dad display the type of behaviours that might, just might, suggest that obsessive compulsions run in the family.

Pitlochry Festival theatre
Martin Sherman’s meta new work sees Fra Fee’s writer struggling to turn out a play about the flamboyant pianist while despising everything the showman stands for

Simon Russell Beale makes his entrance in mid-air, appearing some way above the stage in a heavenly haze of smoke and light. He flashes a voluminous silver cape and spangly waistcoat, his eyes wide and imploring as if he cannot believe it either. It is flashy and flamboyant and it is a problem for Fra Fee.

In this headily meta new play by Martin Sherman, still provocative and unexpected at the age of 87, Fee plays a writer commissioned by Pitlochry Festival theatre to turn out a play about Liberace. The only thing is, he despises everything the American showbiz pianist stands for.

OVO Hydro, Glasgow
Ahead of the sitcom’s new series in 2027 the full TV cast reunite for a masterclass in comfort comedy, adding musical interludes to the familiar suburban bedlam

It may have started as a one-off special in 2013, but seven series and five Christmas specials in, Two Doors Down has become a Scottish institution of sorts. Created and written by Simon Carlyle and Gregor Sharp, the BBC Scotland sitcom set in a Glasgow suburb is comfort comedy at its very best, with endlessly quotable quips and characters that are masterfully crafted – simultaneously far-fetched and remarkably familiar.

The premise of every episode is essentially the same: longsuffering couple Beth and Eric Baird (played by Arabella Weir and Alex Norton) spend their days being hassled by their eccentric neighbours, who continuously abuse their hospitality and turn trivial moments into drama-fuelled bedlam. While the story follows the same structure in this stage adaptation, we soon learn that big changes are afoot, which threaten to upturn the entire ecosystem of Latimer Crescent as we know it.

The Londoner is the set designer big names turn to for eye-popping spectacle. As a new retrospective opens, she gives the Guardian a glimpse at her studio

Four years ago, the V&A East Storehouse in east London got in touch with Es Devlin. The museum’s curators wanted to invite the British artist and designer to respond to a 100-year-old theatrical backdrop by the Russian artist and designer Natalia Goncharova. For a 1926 London production of The Firebird by the Ballets Russes, Goncharova had painted a fortified Muscovite cityscape festooned with onion domes and spires, rust-red and golden against a deep-blue sky. Devlin didn’t know much about Goncharova. But alighting on the term she had favoured for describing her kaleidoscopic approach to art-making, Devlin realised she’d found a kindred spirit. “She called herself an ‘everythingist’,” Devlin says, a smile in her eyes.

Works in progress in Devlin’s studio

It might seem like self-preservation, but the results aren’t necessarily what you’d expect

In Dr Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham, the relentlessly upbeat Sam-I-Am spends the entire book badgering a grouchy, nameless narrator into tasting the eponymous dish. He cycles through one inventive but futile pitch after another – in a house, with a mouse, in a box, with a fox, on a train, in the rain – until the narrator, caving just to get some peace, tastes the dish and discovers he loves it. When my son was growing up, “Green Eggs and Ham” was my shorthand for telling him he was avoiding something he’d love if he only tried it.

Of course, not every experience we fear or dread turns out to be a delicious surprise. Misery is an inescapable part of the human condition. We can’t avoid it, yet people try their hardest anyway. We cling to hope even when a situation is hopeless. We push painful thoughts out of mind rather than confront them. We struggle to control things that cannot be changed. And we go to sometimes self-destructive lengths to protect our pride from even the tiniest pinprick. These strategies may sometimes spare us pain in the moment. But while they are intended to promote (or at least preserve) our happiness, over time they have the perverse result of making us much more miserable.

Criminals are trying to glean login details to harvest players’ in-game currency and personal data

Your 10-year-old son has started playing Roblox, when he realises all of his in-game currency, Robux, is gone.

When you try to find out what happened, he says he was recently promised extra Robux if he followed a link on YouTube. When he signed on at the site link, he was taken to the Roblox site as usual but there was no sign of the extra currency.

The Grammy-winning artist on ​d​estroying egos in school, the dealers who looked out for her, and learning from early failure

Born Eve Jihan Jeffers in Philadelphia in 1978, rapper Eve released her debut album, Let There Be Eve … Ruff Ryders’ First Lady, in 1999; it entered the Billboard 200 at No 1. She followed its success with the platinum-selling Scorpion, which went on to win a Grammy for the single Let Me Blow Ya Mind. As an actor, she appeared in the Barbershop films and starred in her own sitcom, Eve. She married London-based entrepreneur Maximillion Cooper in 2014; together they have a son, and she is stepmother to his four children. Eve will tour the UK and Europe in 2027.

This was taken in Miami, where I was recording Scorpion. I was obsessed with red because of its astrological affiliation with Scorpio – everything had to be that colour. My hair is short because I convinced my hairstylist to put both a perm relaxer and colour in, which you’re not supposed to do. All my hair fell out, but thankfully it looked good. I felt powerful and sexy.

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.

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.

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

Little bits of loveliness from Sauchiehall Street to the Silk Road, from a chef who wants to deliver maximum joy

Sebb’s is a basement restaurant on Miller Street in Glasgow with a door that’s perilously easy to miss, even though it’s bright red. The first time I tried to find it, I waltzed past and almost ended up in the pants department of TK Maxx. I was luckier the second time around, and soon found myself descending a set of stairs into a room with the distinct vibe of a beatnik diner inside a bowling alley: there’s no natural light, there are booths that are perfect for conspiring in, a DJ playing psychedelic rock and food served in brown paper bags. The 13th Floor Elevators at noon on a Thursday?! Absolutely – as well as the globally ranging delights of sobrassada and ancho honey pitta, tandoori pork belly with tamarind chutney, barbecued squid with zhoug and preserved lemon aïoli, and trout ceviche with habanero, mango and tequila. It’s as if the Big Lebowski took up cooking.

Sebb’s opened in late 2024, and just over a year later, head chef Danny Carruthers’ food had already snagged the place a Michelin bib gourmand – to my mind by far the most interesting part of the whole tyre company’s advertising hoopla. Bibs are designed to reward places just like Sebb’s: odd, informal, intriguing – the type of place where you can pop out to for lunch without needing four spare hours, a booking months in advance and a decorative Patek Philippe watch on your wrist.

It has taken me decades to get over the vegetarian cookbooks of my past

It would be unwise to overstate things, the world being as it is, but what happened in the UK with stuffed peppers is a tragedy. You know the ones I mean: traffic light bell peppers stuffed with a cupboard raid of rice, breadcrumbs, lentils, nuts and veg – 70s stuffed peppers. The kind you might find in a wholefoods cookbook, cheerfully distended and jaunty of cap, with the physiognomy of PC Plod. I used to make them at university sometimes, my sensibilities being, as ever, several decades out of touch. I think I was trying to channel the vegetarian cookbooks my parents once had – in the years before discovering pesto, these peppers were the vegetarian’s lot. The recipes I concocted bore things like buckwheat groats, curly leaf parsley and yeast extract. To this day, I cannot hear “stuffed vegetables” without flashbacks to such peppers and their generous cargo of junk.

It’s a shame, because stuffed vegetables so obviously do not have to be this way. Take chiles rellenos: think about what it takes not just to stuff a poblano, but to blacken it over flame, then to peel off its skin, fill with cheese, secure the seam with a toothpick, coat in flour, dip in fluffy whisked egg, and fry until the batter is crisp and puffed.

She prepared a miraculous feat for my celebration. The very thought of it still makes me smile

Though we were nurtured by Mum’s cooking daily, my parents’ brood thought little of the effort required, though we devoured the efforts made. It wasn’t until later in life, having donned the mantle of cook as a career, did I begin to appreciate quite what was required to feed a large, boisterous family well. For the most part, we ate simple Scots fare – lentil soup, mince and tatties, suet puddings – but, on occasion, Mum would sit at the counter, trawling through her favourite books, cigarette in hand, and, indicating a find, would duly pen a shopping list.

One such instance was for a birthday feast – Mum’s and mine, for I was born on Mum’s birthday – and the date was the 21^st. And this particular birthday was my 21^st. Birthdays for the most part were celebrated by just the family around the table at home, and, usually in both Mum and Dad’s hands: the triumphant entrance of a splendid cake, made in whichever child’s favourite flavour (chocolate for my sister, while I adored a spiced fruit cake, thickly iced). I always felt that mum’s birthday was overshadowed by mine, which seemed somewhat unfair. So, for this celebration, I volunteered to bake a cake – an offer she kindly accepted. And so Mum graciously relinquished her kitchen – in itself quite something, for the kitchen was her domain – but more of that anon.

You really need to find a way to talk about this and explore the underlying issues – for both of you

Since the start of our relationship, more than 20 years ago, I was aware my husband had a strong work ethic.

But I am beginning to resent the time he spends working, which often includes late nights and weekends when an emergency happens.

Miklos, 25, a PhD student, meets Minnie, 23, who works in film production

What were you hoping for?
To take a step outside my comfort zone. To meet the love of my life.

Would you pay thousands to meet the love of your life? In an age of app fatigue, many singles are hiring coaches to help them find partners. But are they chancers preying on the lovelorn, or do they hold the key to true romance?

Modern dating is a hellscape. Just ask any single person, who will probably regale you with stories of endless swiping, ghosting, cringe Hinge dates and unfulfilling “situationships”. But what if there was a way to escape all this and put yourself on a fast track to finding The One?

That very aim is driving the rise of dating coaches – people who make money from helping their clients to find a partner. According to the New York Times, now is a better time than ever to be a relationship coach, with the widespread dissatisfaction with dating apps and a growing sense of “heteropessimism” fuelling their popularity. In 2023, Shirley Williams, a then 37‑year‑old from New York, went viral when she posted a video sharing that she spent $10,000 on a dating coach, and got engaged within a year. Her post sparked intense debate between people who thought it was a ridiculous expense, and others who wondered why this was so much more controversial than, say, investing in education, travel and work.

Rhonda believes Ned ruins woks. He reckons he has famous chefs on his side. You decide whose argument is in flames

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

He whacks the heat right up, which stains our wok and makes it really hard to wash up

The person doing the cooking is in charge of the temperature – plus a wok is supposed to blacken

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?

From a thatched cottage with a green-topped sweeping extension to a lodge-style home in a town that is heaven for foodies

A First Saver account was set up by my mother when the children were born which we planned to use to fund them through university

My mother set up NatWest First Saver accounts for my children when they were born. The accounts are held in trust for when they turn 18 and my parents have paid into them monthly to help fund them through university.

My mother is now in the final stages of Alzheimer’s and I have registered financial power of attorney for her.

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.

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.

Collection by the designer, brought in to return the ailing fashion house to profit, is on the money

He’s the mononymic designer who has been charged with rescuing Gucci from plummeting sales. So where better for Demna to stage his third catwalk show than at the forefront of commerce – a purpose-built Gucci shop.

During Milan fashion week on Friday, the designer transformed a convention centre into a sprawling retail space that mirrored the design for the brand’s new boutiques.

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

Under the Finnish capital lies a world of swimming pools, go-karting tracks, playgrounds – and even an art gallery

The moon is an impostor. Swimming backstroke beneath its surface, I look up at craggy hollows in close relief. White rock undulates in all directions, a forest of peaks rising next to a desert of craters. Every time I trick myself into thinking I’m somewhere celestial, the sound of children splashing brings me back to earth.

This is no lunar landscape but Helsinki’s underground swimming hall, excavated from granite bedrock and officially opened in 1993. These days, Itäkeskus uimahalli is one of the Finnish capital’s most visited leisure facilities, welcoming 400,000 people a year. Local people mingle with tourists, I will discover, during a week exploring Helsinki’s subterranean metropolis.

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.

The tech giant has launched a cute ‘little guy’ that can answer emails, book travel or do your weekly food shop

After the recent backlash against Meta’s so-called “pervert” smart glasses, this week Mark Zuckerberg launched a much cuter alternative: the Muse “charm” device.

With a screen that shows a cutesy little avatar, it has drawn comparisons with Tamagotchis. “We’ve packed a lot of technology into this little guy,” the Meta founder told the San Francisco audience.

From the Battle of Watling Street and dingo dollars to Atomic Monster, Hammer and Troma, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 Which diarist was born on 2 April 1967?
2 Which No 1 hit was a tribute to the most recorded female singer of all time?
3 What type of fossils does an ichnologist study?
4 Quinine is a traditional remedy for which disease?
5 What line divides the daylit and dark sides of a planet?
6 Who was finally defeated at the so-called Battle of Watling Street?
7 Where do contestants compete to win dingo dollars?
8 Which story was inspired by rogue waves hitting the RMS Queen Mary?
What links:
9 Amicus; Atomic Monster; Blumhouse; Hammer; Troma?
10 Reed; Newley; Kass; Holm; Gibson?
11 Canada; Fortuna; Mio Babbino Caro; Superman?
12 Crato, Brazil (54 metres); Konotopie, Poland (55.6 metres); Batangas City, Philippines (98 metres)?
13 Australian Open, 1987; French Open (never); Wimbledon, 2026; US Open, 1974?
14 Antigua and Barbuda, and Newfoundland and Labrador; Ascension Island and Guyana; British Columbia and Seychelles?
15 Less Than Zero; The Goldfinch; The Fortress of Solitude?

Five multiple-choice questions – set by children – to test your knowledge, and a chance to submit your own junior brainteasers for future quizzes

• ​Submit a question

Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun, a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book, as well as her new title, Everything Under the Sun: All Around the World.

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

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.

The popular Twitch streamer has been vilified by Republicans, but the socialist commentator has a large audience that some Democrats have courted

It’s only 9am and the latest media shitstorm is well under way. Hasan Piker scrolls through his social media feeds as he comes down the stairs of his home in West Hollywood.

An interview with Axios, in which Piker said the US had committed more atrocities than al-Qaida, is blowing up his phone. Requests from reporters are streaming in. Comments on the interview flood his replies.

Behind the stories of bombings and mass deaths, the everyday challenges facing Palestinians living under siege portray a quieter tragedy we rarely hear

What does it take to make a morning cup of tea in Gaza?

For Alaa Hessi, in her final month of pregnancy, this small ritual begins with a calculation of gas rations. Her family gets a ration of 6kg of gas every three months – enough to heat a pot for 18 precious minutes a day. That’s needed for cooking – so for tea, a fire must be built instead.

Are you taking fewer journeys by car? Or are you cutting back in other areas to pay your diesel bill?

Russia’s war-damaged refineries and the Middle East crisis have erased about a fifth of the world’s diesel supplies and are pushing up the price of diesel at forecourt pumps.

We would like to speak to people living in Shetland and the Outer Hebrides who are paying the highest average price for diesel per litre. How are you coping with the surge in cost? Are you taking fewer car journeys? Have you cut back in other areas to pay for your diesel bill?

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.

How did you find them? Were they helpful in getting you to the next stage in your education or in securing a job?

Teenagers are to be offered new vocational GCSEs in England, marking the biggest changes to the qualification for more than a decade.

From 2029, pupils will be able to supplement compulsory GCSE subjects such as English, maths and sciences with courses including building and construction, creative media production and child development.

We would to hear about the changes in your life after taking GLP-1s

Around 100 million people globally are taking GLP-1s. The majority experience significant weight loss. Research has shown that women in particular experience greater success in dating and job-seeking as a result. We would like to explore the impacts of this: how do you go about processing this change? How hard is it to balance, or make peace with, such differing experiences of life before and after GLP-1s? Do you feel you have a “before” and “after” self?

If you have taken GLP-1s and lost weight as a result, and experienced changes in your workplace, your romantic life, or in how you feel about yourself before and after, we would love to hear from you for an article exploring the emotional adjustments involved in rapid and significant weight loss.

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