Child was sent to live in 11 different Airbnbs or hotels and two ‘barren and inhospitable’ houses, as companies profited

• Councils pay more than £125m a year placing vulnerable children in illegal care homes in England

Princess had a hard start in life. Her father drank too much, and referrals were made to social services. As she got older, she started going missing, telling police officers she was being physically abused by her parents, who in turn claimed they could not manage her behaviour. She was eventually taken into care amid concerns about self-harm, aggression and exploitation outside the home.

Even though social workers described her as a lovely child, they struggled to find her a permanent home capable of keeping her safe in England’s dysfunctional, largely outsourced residential care system.

The pre-university shop is the moment you find out how much domestic wisdom you’ve managed to impart. In my case, none

I have yet again found my ultimate tribe in a high-street shop, this time Ikea. As far as the eye could see, there were middle-aged women trying to choose kitchen essentials for their late-teenaged sons, for whom the next chapter of life, in which they move to another city and never once use a kitchen, cannot commence fast enough. I don’t know where all the girls were – did they do it all online? Have they been collecting teapots for years, as part of a wistful university trousseau?

The negotiation started with a chopping board, which my son said he absolutely did not need or want. I said, “How are you going to chop vegetables?”, and he said he would cross that bridge when he came to it, and I said: “Oh my God, you’re going to get scurvy.” Behind me a woman and her son were arguing about whether or not he needed a cheese grater, which ended in her saying: “I think you might be about to starve.”

The actor and others involved with the phenomenon speak about the legacy and progressivism of a much-loved science fiction TV series as it reaches an important milestone

‘The mystery of time,” muses William Shatner, and for a moment we are back on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise listening to one of Captain Kirk’s philosophical tag-line speeches. “Not just the passage of time and our perception of it, but what is time? What does 60 years mean? It really is meaningless, isn’t it, 60 years, in terms of what time is? On the other hand, Dolly Parton just died. It brings up the whole concept of the passage of time and what that means.”

In an episode called The City on the Edge of Forever, Shatner’s Kirk travelled back in time and fell in love with a pacifist (Joan Collins) only to discover that she must die to prevent Nazi Germany winning the second world war. Such ethical quandaries help explain why Star Trek will celebrate its 60th anniversary on 8 September not just as a force in US culture but a mirror held up to the country’s politics.

The masterful ​Harrow MC behind the year’s funniest, most inventive UK rap debut explains how his parents sparked his ravenous outlook – and why he’s wrestling his peers

A few Guinnesses into an interview in his local Irish boozer, and 26-year-old Harrow rapper Kibo is cooking. We’re talking football. As a kid, he preferred playing Fifa Street – where ordinary players backflip off walls to score incomprehensible bicycle kicks – to regular realistic Fifa. “If I’m gonna play a video game, I want to do some shit I can’t do in real life,” he says. He’s drawn to similarly miraculous footballers: Balotelli, Drogba in his Chelsea days, Ronaldinho and his dad’s favourite, Eric Cantona: “Oh God, with his collar popped, looking like Kanye West?” Kibo then recites Cantona’s 2019 Uefa president’s award speech – a mash-up of King Lear and philosophical musings on war and science – to near perfection.

Magic is at the heart of Kwelengletarianism, “the idea of being in a place that’s very grey, and trying to find a prismatic iridescence in it”, that underpins Kibo’s sensational album Kwengletaria: Ragamyff. (Cantona? “He’s a Kwengletarian to the nth degree.”) During his long rise through London’s rap scene, canonised by co-signs from Skepta, JME and Dave, Kibo has become a rare MC from Harrow, the town that produced Kate Nash and Jai Paul but no rappers of note. “It’s awesome,” he says of its lack of rap tradition, “a complete blank slate” to be as imaginative as he wants. Kwengletaria finds the myth in the mundane: on the track Bakerloo Dragon, a normal tube journey becomes a cruising broken-beat roller aboard a fire-spitting Bakerloo line train. I tell him my train to Harrow was one of these flame-graffitied dragons. “But did you get any sparks?” he asks enthusiastically. “You get sparks after Stonebridge Park!”

A journalist embarks on a wild goose chase that might – or might not – be informative about the male condition

Recovering from surgery at home in upstate New York in 2023, Jon Ronson awoke to a string of texts from his adult son about a weird evening he just had at a stranger’s castle in Connecticut. Having gone along with a friend who’d been invited to a party there, he arrived to find a few lost-looking young women with the sixtysomething host, Chris Mark, a steel heir filming a reality show about “101 princesses” whose first rule was “Never say no to King Chris”.

As a parent, Ronson is worried; as a reporter of more than 30 years on the cranks-and-crooks beat, he’s already on the clock. After trawling online whispers of sinister goings-on at the castle, he decides to pay a visit to Mark, who proudly shows off the stalactites and waterfall in his “cave-themed” bedroom before explaining how he picks up women on dating apps to “adapt” them to life as “princesses”. “The only girls that really work are drug addicts ... they don’t know what’s going on,” he says. Almost touchingly, Mark asks Ronson to sign an NDA, and the book describes Mark flooding his phone with threats when he declines.

Scientists are battling over whether supposedly simple organisms should be considered ‘intelligent’. The outcome could reshape our understanding of the natural world – and our own place within it

Forty years ago, as an undergraduate in Hokkaido, Toshiyuki Nakagaki came upon a lemon-yellow stain in a petri dish. That encounter turned him into a doyen of slime mould research – and fed a storm of biological and philosophical debate about the meanings of life and intelligence that persists to this day. Before, no one would have called a slime mould “intelligent”; the popular adjective, in fact, was “simple”. “A simple mass of protoplasm,” one 1895 description ran; “among the most simple of organisms”, said another. And it was hard to argue otherwise. A slime mould can appear to be just a small cell, capable only of feeding and reproducing. Simple is as simple does.

Of that first meeting, Nakagaki said: “I was just impressed with how fast it moved.” Physarum polycephalum, the slime mould species in that petri dish, has a top speed of 1cm an hour. For amoebic organisms, that’s gold-medal standard. At first glance, Physarum seems to spread as irregularly as ink on blotting paper, but in fact it senses its meals of bacteria or other microbes and reaches for them with a long, thin finger of protoplasm – which not only digests its food but then forages further or pulls back into the rest of the mould. It’s impossible to watch a slime mould over many days without sensing some deliberation at play.

In strongest condemnation ever by UK government, Ed Miliband announces sweeping sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements

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Israeli “terrorists” are conducting ethnic cleansing in the West Bank with the tacit backing of the government, the UK foreign secretary, Ed Miliband has said, as he announced sweeping sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements alongside France and Canada.

In the strongest condemnation ever issued by the UK government, Miliband said the government would now take the official position that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank was unlawful in its entirety, saying such acknowledgment was “the least the people who face such suffering deserve. And it should be the prelude to justice.”

An import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories.

A comprehensive sanctions regime against providing services such as construction or financing for Israeli settlements.

A ban on the advertising in the UK of illegal settlement properties.

Personal sanctions against key individuals accused of promoting settler violence.

A new ban for arms licences and other exports that “materially contribute to the occupation”.

Details passed to Kent police after far-right activists heard in pub boasting about going to to Dover to ‘attack Muslims’

Police were told the night before far-right agitators blocked roads into Dover that those involved had converged on a village 18 miles away and planned to use it as a launchpad, it has emerged.

People in Preston-next-Wingham told of how hundreds of men had started to arrive in the village of just over 920 residents on Friday afternoon and in effect “took over” the village.

Exclusive: Booming industry of businesses profit from shortage of beds for most at-risk children

• Princess’s story: the case that highlights scourge of illegal care provision

Councils are paying more than £125m a year of taxpayers’ money to place vulnerable children in illegal care homes across England, an investigation has found.

The Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) have uncovered a booming industry of businesses profiting from a shortage of beds for the most at-risk children in Ofsted-inspected homes.

More than 140 clubs breached licences, with a third caught taking water illegally, analysis shows – but no fines issued

More than 140 golf clubs in England have breached their water extraction licences in the past five years, according to data analysis by the Guardian.

More than a third of these clubs were caught taking water illegally from the environment, either by taking more than permitted or by removing it outside the permitted period.

Moscow’s foreign minister issues warning to ‘Russophobic lobby in Budapest’ after diplomats expelled for ‘unacceptable’ activities

But the tone coming from Moscow is very different, as Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia was very confident that victory in its war against Ukraine is “very near.”

“Yes, we are ​confident, and we ⁠are ​sure that ​victory ​is very near,” ​Peskov ‌said in comments reported by Reuters.

Exclusive: Staff expect ‘brutal’ cutbacks as broadcaster seeks to reduce costs amid advertising slowdown

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Channel 4 is poised to cut about 300 jobs – about a quarter of its workforce – in the biggest round of layoffs in its 43-year history, as the broadcaster seeks to dramatically cut costs.

Priya Dogra, who took over from Alex Mahon as chief executive in March, is to address an all-staff meeting on Wednesday on a wide-ranging review of Channel 4’s strategy and structure.

Alarm that Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania may fall next after party’s Saxony-Anhalt election victory

• ‘It breaks my heart’: victory sparks dismay

• Europe live – latest updates

Thousands of Germans have staged protests against the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) after the party’s watershed victory in a state election, warning it posed a danger in two more polls this month.

Demonstrators at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate held a peaceful pro-democracy rally denouncing the anti-immigrant, pro-Russian AfD, which has called for mass deportations of asylum seekers and a rollback of state support for renewable energy and public broadcasting.

Exclusive: London mayor accuses council of ‘ignoring’ responses to a consultation

Sadiq Khan has criticised the “breathtaking arrogance” of Westminster council, which has kept restrictions on vertical drinking in Soho and an effective ban on new bars and pubs in the area.

The mayor of London has accused the Conservative-led council of “ignoring” the responses to a consultation into its new licensing policy. The vast majority of respondents, 81%, disagreed with the council’s “cumulative impact zone” which decrees that applications for bars and pubs in the West End of London, one of Europe’s most famous nightlife districts, will be refused unless in exceptional circumstances. Eighty-four per cent said the licensing policy would be bad for business.

Final series to be hosted by the ‘utterly unique’ presenter will continue to be broadcast until later this year

Monty Don, the longest serving head gardener on the BBC’s Gardeners’ World programme, will step down at the end of the current series.

After 23 years leading the show, which he has hosted from his own garden in Herefordshire since 2011, Don said it was “the right time for a change”. He will continue working with the BBC on other programmes, as well as pursuing his own projects, such as writing books.

Firms warn of impact of company’s decision to to axe 4,000 jobs and call for government to support sector

• Jaguar Land Rover confirms plan to cut 4,000 jobs

David Roberts is not in an optimistic mood. The chair of Coventry-based Evtec may preside over a business with 900 highly skilled employees, multiple sites and precision machinery, but the outlook for the manufacturer appears tricky. “Everything is against us,” he says.

Evtec is a “tier 1” supplier to Jaguar Land Rover, also headquartered in Coventry, which this week announced 4,000 job cuts over two years even as the chancellor, John Healey, attempted to talk up Britain’s growth prospects in his first big speech, just down the road.

Experts helped guide weather scenes in Pressure – a film depicting dramatic buildup to 1944’s D-day landings

Dressed in a Royal Air Force uniform and sporting a trim moustache, Andrew Scott looks slightly queasy – as well he might. Behind him is a huge map of the Channel, and in front of him is Brendan Fraser, looming with a request: “I need a forecast,” he says.

Starring in the film Pressure, based on a true story, Scott plays the meteorologist Gp Capt James Stagg – the man who must tell Gen Eisenhower – played by Fraser – whether conditions will be suitable for the D-day landings scheduled to take place on 5 June 1944. But a large storm is approaching the Normandy coast.

Alex Gibney’s marathon documentary delivers numerous eye-raising insights into the broligarch’s business deals, early idealism and apocalyptic appetite for fathering children

Veteran documentarian Alex Gibney’s film about the richest broligarch on the planet has been one of the most eagerly anticipated films at the Venice film festival this year. The Oscar-winning 72-year-old, who has in previous films taken on the US military, the Catholic church, Vladimir Putin and Scientology, has been investigating the tech tycoon’s ascent and speaking to people in his orbit since late 2022, before his Maga turn and Trump 2.0.

The result clocks in at just under four hours and presents a comprehensive answer to how on earth one man managed to amass so much money and political influence. It is shocking less for any individual new pieces of information Gibney has unearthed than for its totality. Here are six things the film tells us:

Christmas might be months away, but beauty Advent calendar waiting lists are filling up fast. From cult favourites to cruelty-free picks, here are the ones worth buying

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As I write, an ice-cream van has just parked outside my flat. It’s the middle of this year’s umpteenth heatwave, and I’m finally understanding the appeal of a cold shower. That can only mean one thing: it’s time to start testing the best beauty Advent calendars.

I wish I was joking, but many beauty brands and retailers have been curating their 2026 beauty Advent calendars since before last Christmas. And since these calendars offer a selection of high-end cosmetics, bestselling beauty staples and new launches at far less than their usual combined price, they’ve become a festive staple for beauty fanatics.

Handsome, charming and vulnerable, the host made horticulture TV hotter than ever. What a huge hole he will leave

After 23 years at the helm, Monty Don has announced that he is leaving Gardeners’ World at the end of the series. All said, you are right to be distraught about it.

Gardeners’ World is a show with a long history – it was commissioned by David Attenborough as a way to showcase the potential of colour television – but Don arguably did the show better than anyone. Under his watch, the show and the host managed to mesh perfectly. He became it and it became him.

Impressive stunts and tongue-in-cheek flourishes elevate Scott Waugh’s silly Aussie action flick

Credit where credit is due: of the many, many variations on the hammy late-summer action romp, very few have applied the gonzo B-movie treatment – physics-defying car chases, knee-smashing violence and the like – to the practice of organ transportation.

Donor delivery is not the direction you think things are going in upon first meeting Hank Malone, Alan Ritchson’s outlandishly muscled fixer, of sorts, in Runner, the latest attempt from faith-based distributor Angel Studios to enter the market of more straightforward base entertainment.

Our cartoonist imagines how the football great might while away the hours after calling time on his international career

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Souleymane Bachir Diaw’s photographs of textiles and bodies carry messages around patriarchy, domestic violence and the rituals of manhood

Farewell, New Mexico. The war isn’t going well and nowhere on Earth is safe from the US president’s favourite displacement activity

Busy times for crayon-wielding US president Donald Trump, Earth’s most tireless freelance cartographer, who at the weekend celebrated the US labouring under the highest diesel prices in its history while his “two-week” Iran war edges into its seventh month with a social media spree in which he pushed renaming New Mexico as New America.

In some ways, it was a surprise to see Trump go for merely rebranding a state at this point, given that it was only so recently that he declared: “If you think about it, we have a gulf, and we have a lake. Now all we need is an ocean.” This is believed to be a reference to the Gulf of America, formerly – and indeed currently, in every meaningful sense – the Gulf of Mexico. It was also a nod to Lake America, as precisely no one calls Lake Ontario despite Trump supposedly retitling it by executive order last month, in another fit of pique over his trade war with Canada. Candidates for this heavily trailed American Ocean clearly include the Pacific and the Atlantic – though why the other oceans should be locationally ineligible increasingly feels unclear. At this rate, geography exams in the US are also about to get a whole lot easier.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

The will of the elected chamber – and a popular, compassionate piece of legislation – must not be frustrated again by a small minority of peers

• Lauren Edwards is the Labour MP for Rochester and Strood

I was elected to Westminster two years ago, when the country was crying out for change and looking to parliament to tackle the big issues that had been forgotten for too long. When that change didn’t come fast enough, trust in politics once again started to ebb away. We have one last chance to prove we can deliver on people’s priorities.

Assisted dying didn’t feature in the manifesto I was elected on. Nor should it have done. Matters of conscience such as this are rightly left to individual MPs to decide upon. There will always be a range of views within all political parties. But this issue has been supported by a substantial majority in the country for a very long time. Reputable independent polling has shown support for assisted dying consistently at about 75%. The latest British social attitudes survey from the National Centre for Social Research found that “it is clear we are observing a continued high level of public support for legal change to allow assisted dying in some circumstances”.

Lauren Edwards is the Labour MP for Rochester and Strood and has reintroduced the terminally ill adults bill in parliament

The US president says criticising his soaring investment portfolio is ‘very unfair’. Tell that to the millions of Americans struggling with the cost of living

If I had a dollar for every time Donald Trump said something inane, I would be a very rich woman. But even with an income that steady, I could never hope to be as flush as the president. A Forbes calculation from March puts his net worth at about $6.5bn – and it’s growing rapidly. Trump made $2.2bn in 2025 via business interests that ranged from selling cryptocurrency and Trump Bibles to offering early access to his (often market-moving) Truth Social posts.

To be fair, Trump isn’t making all this money just so he can buy golf clubs and gold toilets. No, he’s amassing these billions for the good of the little people; it’s altruism, not avarice! “I do this for our Country, not myself,” the president wrote on Truth Social on Sunday night alongside an AI-generated picture of him trading Intel stock. “I’ve made Hundreds of Billions of Dollars on Stocks, and many other type Holdings, for the U.S.A., not myself, and all I do is get criticized by the Radical Left Dumocrats. Very unfair, but what can you do!”

From volunteering to the WI, we have lost so many ways to meet our neighbours. Making that easier can only be good for society

Prime minister Andy Burnham has hit the ground running, tackling head-on three of the public’s burning concerns: falling standards of living, failing public services and a remote, out-of-touch, over-centralised Whitehall. Now, this autumn, a fourth challenge, reversing the decades-long decline of civic engagement, is about to move centre stage to achieve his ambition to put citizens back in control of their communities.

For while there are tens of thousands of local champions bringing towns, cities and villages together, Britain is suffering a civic recession, a hollowing out of the associations, clubs and organisations that once were the beating hearts of our communities.

Gordon Brown was UK prime minister from 2007 to 2010

The future starts with us: Gordon Brown in conversation
On Thursday 10 September, join Hugh Muir and Gordon Brown to discuss the intricate connections between global instability and civic decline, as explored in Brown’s new book, The Future Starts With Us. Book tickets here

For decades we were told that privatisation would deliver better services. The experience of millions of passengers tells a different story

• Steve Rotheram is mayor of the Liverpool city region

One of the best-known scenes from the TV series The Inbetweeners is the four angst-ridden teenage characters shouting abuse at people queueing at a bus stop. Only losers take the bus, is the point – except they use a much ruder word. There’s also a statement, misattributed to Margaret Thatcher, that any man over the age of 26 using a bus was a loser. This idea is deeply ingrained.

But when I was an MP it became obvious that there wasn’t the same stigma attached to jumping on the bus in London as there often was in other big cities. It often wound me up that the rest of the country was expected to accept a suboptimal public transport system – so much so that it could be joked that only losers would use it – while London retained its excellent bus service, which it ran under public control.

Steve Rotheram is mayor of the Liverpool city region

The Greens appeal to young and progressive voters here on defence, rent controls and North Sea oil. The Burnham bounce may be about to hit an obstacle

You might think a byelection showdown between two progressive parties is unimportant when the deep struggle for the national heart is between the right bloc and the left – but the result in Holborn and St Pancras matters. It matters for Andy Burnham and Labour because this is a test of the Burnham bounce: he saw off the right in Makerfield – can he win over the left too? Can he show he has enthusiastic approval from voters in southern constituencies as well as those in the north?

For the Greens it matters almost existentially because failing here could send them and their leader, Zack Polanski, back to the political fringes. Holborn and St Pancras, neighbouring Westminster, was vacated (vengefully) by Keir Starmer last week. This plum forever-Labour constituency has attracted 96 Labour applications for selection day on Wednesday, though not, it seems, nationally recognised names.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

The president apparently plans to focus on the person he most admires – himself – even if Republicans would rather he didn’t

With the midterm races officially beginning this week, a big question hanging over the Republican party is how Trump will allocate his giant stash of Super Pac money. As of 31 July, Maga Inc had more than $400m on hand, larger than the cash reserves of any of the major party committees.

But he’s barely spent any of it yet. Why not?

From Dover to Saxony-Anhalt, extremists thrive when voters believe established parties can no longer deliver security, prosperity or meaningful change

What links the thuggish masked agitation in southern England this weekend and the far-right Alternative für Deutschland’s (AfD) best-ever result in a German state – where it more than doubled the 21% vote it received five years ago? Several hundred men in balaclavas blocking an A road are not the same as a party winning a landslide election. But both events draw on the idea that the political system has lost control. The extremists in Dover and Portsmouth dramatise this claim; the electoral result in Germany threatens to institutionalise it.

The prospect of Germany’s first far-right-led state government since the second world war carries real consequences. In Saxony-Anhalt it could see power handed to a party hostile to migrants, Islam, LGBTQ+ rights and climate policy. Alarmingly, it has senior figures linked to former neo-Nazi groups. About 170,000 foreign nationals live among 2 million people in Saxony-Anhalt – and roughly a fifth of the state’s doctors were born abroad. The grim paradox is that an AfD government could oversee the very state intelligence service that has classified the party as “rightwing extremist”.

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.

With melanoma cases rising, the UK must learn from public health campaigns elsewhere

New climate risks bring with them new health risks. An exceptionally warm and dry summer in Europe meant that outdoor workers, and those who choose to spend leisure time in the sun, were confronted more directly than usual by the need to protect their skin from ultraviolet (UV) radiation, as well as avoid dehydration and overheating. In the UK, the annual total of new melanoma cases was reported to have risen above 20,000 for the first time earlier this year (the two most common forms of skin cancer, basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma, are less dangerous).

As with other cancers, the increase in cases reflects an ageing and a growing population. A third of those diagnosed with cancer in the UK are over 75. But with the NHS struggling to cope with the number of those seeking treatment, and melanoma the fifth most common cancer – after prostate, breast, lung and bowel (and excluding other skin cancers) – there are growing calls for behaviour change aligned to stronger public health measures. In May, a group of MPs proposed a ban on advertising sunbeds, which – along with sunburn and tanning – are linked with a raised risk of skin cancer. Last year, a group of experts advocated banning their commercial use altogether, as in Australia and Brazil.

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.

Tackling social and economic conditions must come first, writes Dr Louise Lawson. Plus letters from James Hibberd, Bob Forster and Dr Giles Youngs

Devi Sridhar is right to welcome free cholesterol testing on the NHS in England and blood pressure checks in pharmacies. Such measures can help identify health risks earlier. However, I would take issue with her suggestion that a “health MOT” is “precisely what prevention is all about” (Free cholesterol tests on the NHS are great – but here’s the five-point health MOT I’d really like to see, 2 September).

Sridhar’s proposed five-point health MOT is undoubtedly valuable, but it is better understood as identifying risk rather than preventing disease. Prevention is what comes next: enabling people to make changes that improve health and reduce that risk. Public health has long distinguished between upstream factors, such as poverty, housing, employment, access to affordable healthy food and safe green spaces, and downstream interventions focused on individuals. Screening and health checks sit much closer to the downstream end of that spectrum.

Ross Devenish says he owes a debt to the British film distributor, while Kal Hodgson invites Mike Leigh to join the Manchester and Salford Film Society

With regard to the article about 75 years of Contemporary Films by Andrew Pulver (‘Not just Hollywood crap’: Mike Leigh on the East End communist who brought world cinema to the UK, 1 September), it was not only in Britain that Charles Cooper’s impact was felt: it spread to many other parts of the world.

Contemporary Films made a major impact on me in South Africa before I even went to London to study film-making in 1959. In Johannesburg, as an 18-year-old, I discovered the Johannesburg Film Society. Through Contemporary Films’ distribution systems, the society was able to show Satyajit Ray’s film Pather Panchali, a film that has lived on in my mind while so many others have been forgotten.

The partnership is not funded by ‘dirty money’, as the Exeter branch of the University and College Union claims, says Prof Anthony King

The University of Exeter’s proposed partnership with the National Defense University in Saudi Arabia is not funded by “dirty money”, as the Exeter branch of the University and College Union claims, nor is it remotely covert (Exeter University approves deal with Saudi Arabia to train military officers and officials, 29 August).

Aligning with UK government policy, it is part of a legitimate strategic alliance with a leading Gulf state that, following the 7 October attacks and ongoing crisis, is playing an increasingly decisive role in Middle Eastern geopolitics.

Dr Mary Gibbs says there are a number of problems with AI, particularly its tendency to misunderstand, as Debbie Cameron can attest

I am an out-of-hours GP, and I am glad to see a news report on this issue, which has been causing me increasing concern at work (Doctors’ AI scribes get names of drugs and diagnoses wrong, NHS watchdog warns, 31 August). There are a number of problems with AI, particularly its tendency to misunderstand and contradict itself, which can lead to dangers for the patient, but I will concentrate on the supposed “time-saving” aspect.

Many of the patients I see will have been assessed by someone else first on the phone, and I am used to reading through a triage assessment before I call in the patient. My heart sinks when I see that AI has been used – the consultation is invariably long, with duplications, and sometimes contradictions. Often, any history I take turns out to be significantly different from what is listed. So I can never trust that it is correct – I can state with certainty that I find meaningful errors far more often in AI consultations than in those typed out by colleagues.

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• Letter alleges Fifa president ‘has abused his power’

• Donald Trump links and FFE scandal among objections

More than 100,000 people have added their names to a complaint against Gianni Infantino, alleging the Fifa president has “at a minimum, abused his power, violated his duty of political neutrality, and violated his duty of loyalty” through his interactions with Donald Trump.

The Reboot Fifa campaign was launched before the World Cup with the aim of delivering “the biggest complaint Fifa has ever received” over the organisation’s alleged failings of governance. The campaign has since extended the scope of its accusations to include the overturning of the red card awarded to Folarin Balogun at the tournament and the aborted Fifa Forward Enterprise scheme.

• Midfielder rejected chance to leave the club in summer

• ‘ I will give 100% until my last day’ says 27-year-old

Alexis Mac Allister has said he feels “very sad” after Liverpool declined to offer him a new contract and admitted he rejected the chance to leave this summer.

Mac Allister revealed unhappiness over his contract situation before Liverpool’s Champions League opener against Atlético Madrid on Wednesday. The Argentina midfielder has two years remaining on his deal and believes he is effectively playing for a new contract having been informed no extension is on the table. Mac Allister confirmed he had offers to leave – Real Madrid and Manchester City were among those linked – but chose to stay because Liverpool can accomplish “something special” this season under Andoni Iraola.

Players generally welcome interacting with their fans. But as the league’s popularity surges, there are dangers to be aware of

Caitlin Clark spent most of the 2025 WNBA season sidelined with a series of injuries that forced her to miss more than 30 games. But she also spent part of the season (and the preceding offseason) quietly navigating a tumultuous and scary reality: a 55-year-old man was stalking her, and he was convinced they were in a relationship.

That man, Michael Lewis, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison last July. Lewis sent Clark “hundreds” of messages – many of which were “threats and sexually explicit” – between 12 December 2024 and 11 January 2025. Lewis, who is from Texas, was arrested at a hotel in Indianapolis, where Clark plays for the Indiana Fever. The case took a toll on Clark: she said she feared for her safety and had changed her appearance in public.

My heart has always belonged to Pakistan’s cricketers but the PCB’s decision-making is breaking it

I failed the Tebbit test a long time ago. I was taken in by Shoaib Akhtar’s R-rated speed, then locked up by the madness of Shahid Afridi’s boom-boom-or-bust spirit. And so, despite spending most of my life in England, my heart has always belonged to Pakistan’s cricketers. Maybe there’s something there in wanting a connection to a family far away, some deeper diasporic stuff about a never-ending search for identity. Or maybe it’s really this simple: Pakistan have produced plenty of the game’s most captivating cricketers. When it all comes together – the ball reversing or turning both ways – it’s a ride you never want to get off.

The worrying part? It hasn’t clicked for weeks, months, years – and the grimness is reaching new levels, the last fortnight particularly depressing for anyone with an emotional stake in Pakistani cricket. It was clear that they would struggle on the tour of England, who rarely lose a Test series at home. Even with all that boozy drama, they’ve got Joe Root and Harry Brook taking turns as the best in the world. Chuck in Ollie Robinson with his 19th-century average and that seam attack has a sense of balance it missed last winter. Pakistan, on the other hand, have not won a Test series in England for 30 years and walked into this one having lost eight of their previous nine Tests abroad. The best-case scenario was that they would nab a game, as they’ve done on several trips to England this century.

The world No 10 on getting recognised in New York, coping with hostility and why he’s never changing his walk-on song

“Definitely,” Stephen Bunting says as he considers whether working so hard as a darts player on social media is like making a deal with the devil. After Luke Littler, the prodigiously gifted teenage world champion, Bunting is the most heavily marketed player in darts. But, over the past year, some of his success on and off the oche has been accompanied by vicious abuse.

Bunting has had death threats and he recently moved his eldest son to a private school to end the bullying which had hounded 14‑year‑old Toby, who often shares his social media space. But Bunting remains amiable and happy to reflect on his Faustian pact during a lucrative rollercoaster ride through darts.

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A referee is alleged to have made a remark referring to menstruation that has revived concerns about treatment of players

It was a comment allegedly made by a referee during a WK League match that became one of the biggest controversies in South Korean women’s football. What began as an on-field dispute involving South Korea’s all-time top goalscorer, Ji So-yun, has since developed into a wider debate, prompting a response from the Korea Football Association and raising questions about the treatment of female players, the structural set-up of women’s football in Korea and accountability within its governing bodies.

It was around the 31st minute of the Suwon FC Women v Seoul City Hall game on 28 August when the incident happened. Suwon’s former Chelsea midfielder Ji appealed for a foul after what she felt were repeated rough tackles by the opposition. The female referee, Bae Sun-young, is then alleged to have made, over the officials’ radio system, a remark interpreted as referring to menstruation after describing Ji as “sensitive from the start”. Ji says she overheard the comment and footage from the game shows Ji visibly upset as she talks to the referee. Ji was shown a yellow card after confronting the official. In frustration Ji threw a water bottle as she approached the Suwon bench. Bae walked towards Ji, appearing to reach for a red card before deciding against issuing one, showing a yellow instead.

This is an extract from our free email about women’s football, Moving the Goalposts. To get the full edition, visit this page and follow the instructions. Moving the Goalposts is delivered to your inboxes every Tuesday and Thursday.

A large part of San Francisco’s summer was a literal car crash. On the positive side, they have so far avoided their usual list of crushing injuries

The Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers have trekked to Australia for this week’s NFL season opener in Melbourne. The flight time from California to Victoria is nearly the same for both teams – roughly 16 hours – but their journeys to the start of the season couldn’t be more different.

It’s been smooth sailing for the Rams, with their collection of playmakers growing by the day. It’s a very different story for the 49ers: facing Aaron Donald and Myles Garrett, not to mention the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks, at least twice this season is the least of their problems. Their offseason has been more than lightly turbulent: it’s been batshit crazy.

The trial has caused heated debate in women’s rugby, with England’s Zoe Harrison calling it the ‘worst decision ever’, but others more open to it

“We won a World Cup with a size five so it can’t have been that bad,” the England full-back Ellie Kildunne says of World Rugby’s trial with smaller balls in the upcoming WXV Global Series. The top 12 nations in the world rankings will be playing home and away matches from Saturday with the WXV competition revamped from the one contested over the past few years. There will be no trophy at the end of it and the ball trial that has produced no little debate is in place.

Players will compete with a size 4.5 ball instead ofthe aforementioned size five, which is used across rugby union; the new ball weighs the same but is 3% smaller. The reasoning is to see if a smaller ball will improve skillsets because of women’s physiology, despite statistics such as a 87.8% lineout success rate at the 2025 Women’s Six Nations and kicking success at goal reaching 61% at the World Cup last year with the old ball.

Thousands died because of this summer’s extreme hot weather – caused by the climate crisis. Anita Bazell, taken to hospital during June’s heatwave with a body temperature of 41.2C, was one of them

Anita Bazell had never coped with the heat very well, her family said. So they were worried about her when temperatures across the UK soared to record highs of 35C (95F) in May, and then again in June.

She was living in a nursing home in Southampton near her family, who had struggled to care for her at home due to her declining mobility. Although there were air conditioning units in the communal rooms, there was not one in Anita’s room, which was on the third floor.

Duke and Duchess of Sussex were apparently given little notice before message was sent to the media

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were “surprised” at being given little notice of a formal letter sent to government departments and the military on behalf of King Charles reiterating their status as non-working royals.

Harry and Meghan, who returned to the UK from the US two weeks ago, had insufficient time to clarify any points before details were issued to the media, it is understood.

Hedge fund tycoon is latest financier to exit amid fears among super-rich over tax rises

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The hedge fund billionaire Chris Rokos is poised to leave the UK, the latest in a string of high-profile exits among Britain’s super-rich.

The founder of Rokos Capital Management is preparing to move his residency to Greece, and will open an office in Athens as part of the move, according to Bloomberg.

Thieves took four artworks but it is thought they dropped two in museum garden as they fled

Two thieves have broken into a museum dedicated to the French impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir in southern France, stealing four artworks but leaving two behind as they fled.

“This morning, two individuals broke into the Renoir Museum and stole four works of art,” said Bryan Masson, the mayor of Cagnes-sur-Mer.

OECD test sees results dip in almost all member nations and warns of ‘digital distractions’ eroding academic skills

England’s teenagers are outperforming their peers in most countries in maths, reading and science, according to an international survey that warns of “digital distractions” eroding academic skills around the world.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) programme for international student assessment (Pisa), which last year tested 760,000 15-year-olds in 91 countries and regions, found that results dipped in almost all of its members compared with previous years, with the exception of England and a handful of others.

Researchers urge governments to help worst afflicted countries, such as Nigeria and Algeria, which rely on oil revenues for public services

Conflict, migration and economic upheaval will accompany the global move away from oil, unless governments act urgently to help the worst afflicted countries to cope, research has found.

Nigeria, Iran, Angola and Algeria are among the countries that will be severely affected, as they rely strongly on oil revenues for their government and provision of public services, but have little diversification and too little capital to cushion the blow.

Foreign minister Shisir Khanal tells the Guardian the world’s biggest economies need to help Nepal, which contributes less than 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions

Nepal is demanding $20m in climate compensation for the recent devastating floods, as a senior minister called on the world’s most polluting countries to “wake up” and accept shared responsibility for a disaster that led to the death or disappearance of more than 6,000 people.

Scientists believe the climate crisis had a role to play in the floods, which were triggered when a melting glacier partially collapsed and set off a deadly landslide and flash flooding through Chinese-controlled Tibet and Nepal in late August. So far, more than 1,300 are confirmed dead and more than 5,500 still missing, with hopes of their survival diminished after 12 days of rescue operations.

Anglers will help scientists investigate the porbeagle, tope and blue shark to boost knowledge and conservation

‘We have really cool sharks,” says Dr Lucy Hawkes. She is not referring to animals in the rich coastal waters of South Africa or Mexico, but instead talking about the species that live around Britain. Hawkes, an associate professor at the University of Exeter, is co-leading a new three-year project to investigate the lives of three of England’s most vulnerable shark species.

“I like the porbeagle, which looks like a baby great white shark,” she says. “Surfers could see one and absolutely poop their pants, but they’re not dangerous. It’s amazing that we share the water with some pretty exciting animals.”

Volunteer ‘glow-getters’ overseeing reintroduction of endangered beetles at Nosterfield nature reserve

The bioluminescent beams of “fairy folk” are shining again from a nature reserve in North Yorkshire for the first time in a century after the successful reintroduction of endangered glowworms.

Female glowworms were spotted over multiple weeks at Nosterfield nature reserve this summer following a no-frills, almost zero-budget reintroduction of the much-loved invertebrates, which have vanished from the British countryside in recent decades and are notoriously difficult to re-establish.

Backers seek support for second attempt to get law through House of Lords after ‘undemocratic’ rejection last year

MPs on both sides of the assisted dying debate have voiced fears about turnout affecting the vote on Friday, when the bill returns to the Commons for its second attempt to become law.

Those who back the change in the law in England and Wales have been emphasising the “undemocratic” nature of the bill’s rejection by the House of Lords after it was talked out by a handful of peers after passing the House of Commons. The bill fell despite multiple days of debate from peers because of the number of amendments tabled in the Lords.

Akram Khan among those paying tribute to ‘pioneering’ choreographer of intense musicality and grace who inspired generations of dancers

Sir Richard Alston, the British choreographer and teacher who took contemporary dance into new directions with his elegant and intelligent creations, has died at the age of 77. A former artistic director of Rambert and the Place, where he made more than 50 pieces for the Richard Alston Dance Company, he was celebrated for lucid, emotionally attuned work that was often as graceful as it was rigorous.

His death was announced on Monday by the Richard Alston Foundation, which was established in 2021 to promote contemporary dance and preserve his work. “It is with deep sadness that we have to report the death of Sir Richard Alston,” said the statement. “After a period of ill-health, and despite exceptional treatment at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead and the support of his closest friends, he passed away peacefully at his home on 7 September. While Richard is best known for his extraordinary career and contribution to contemporary dance, we will also remember him for his wit, warmth and generosity of spirit.”

Nearly half of respondents say spending on personal independence payments should be increased

There is little appetite for cuts to disability benefits even among Conservative and Reform voters, and proposals to reduce spending could prove politically risky, according to an authoritative national survey.

The British Social Attitudes (BSA) report found that while support for welfare spending as a whole had dipped sharply in recent years, just 7% of respondents backed cuts to disability benefits – and 49% said they should be increased.

Reports of Soho Farmhouse visit add to speculation Duke and Duchess of Sussex could be settling in the area

When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex landed back in England earlier this summer, six years after they moved to California and quit as working royals, speculation was rife about where they would call home.

Now, members of the luxury countryside retreat Soho Farmhouse have said they spotted Meghan arriving for an early morning coffee, sparking speculation that the couple were settling down in the exclusive countryside enclave of north Oxfordshire. The correspondent for the Royalist Tom Sykes said the duchess was seen arriving at the Comfy Farm lounge before 9am, where she was introduced to senior staff members by name.

With a lower fertility rate than Tokyo and the number of pensioners rapidly rising, Colombia’s capital is being forced to change the way it thinks about growing old

From his wheelchair, Alberto Delgado Londoño can see over the wall of the sunlit courtyard towards the mountains east of Bogotá, Colombia’s capital. The 74-year-old lives in a care home for destitute elderly people, which opened at the end of last year.

Social workers found him in hospital, where he was being treated for throat cancer and a head injury that left him partly paralysed. “I had nowhere to go,” he says. “My daughter couldn’t take me in because she’s a single mother, she already has two children.”

Javier ⁠Milei has vowed to sanction oil companies drilling in the British overseas territory amid speculation Donald Trump is reviewing UK’s sovereignty ​claims

Argentina’s government said on ⁠Monday it will file criminal charges against the Israeli energy company Navitas Petroleum and ⁠its executives ⁠for operating ​in the Falkland Islands.

The move follows remarks on Friday by the Argentina president, Javier ⁠Milei, who vowed to sanction oil companies drilling in the British overseas territory as ⁠he stepped up the South American nation’s sovereignty ​claims.

Sinking of inflatable dinghy in 2021 resulted in 31 people dead or missing, including a seven-year-old child

Fourteen men have gone on trial in Paris over the deaths of at least 31 people in the worst mass drowning from a small-boat crossing in the Channel on record.

The accused men, alleged to be linked to people-smuggling networks, face charges including manslaughter and facilitating illegal immigration as part of an organised criminal group.

Man, who had arrived in Turin from Miami via Istanbul, under investigation for smuggling and faces fine or prison

An Italian man is facing a hefty fine or possible prison term after the dried head of a critically endangered crocodile was found in his luggage at Turin’s Caselle airport.

The man had arrived at the airport in the northern Italian city on a flight from Miami via Istanbul, the Turin unit of Italy’s financial police squad said in a statement.

UK borrowing costs jumped at debt auction today, as MPs quiz the Bank of England about inflation risks

Gas prices are rising this morning, putting pressure on European countries who need to stock up their storage levels before the winter.

The month-ahead UK gas price is up around 1% at 184p a therm, close to yesterday’s highs when gas hit its highest since January 2023.

Plus: Americans think they have it bad with unwanted surveillance. They should visit London

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian, writing to you after visiting Coney Island in New York City, where I ate a hotdog, rode a ferris wheel and enjoyed a quintessentially American summer holiday.

Today in tech, we’re examining OpenAI’s new model release and the Silicon Valley’s monopoly power, and wondering why Brits and Americans have such vastly different opinions about surveillance cameras.

Nvidia to buy developer platform Hugging Face in $12.9bn deal

New York City to ban student AI use in public schools until high school

Freelancers are getting buried with ‘soulless’ AI slop cleanup: ‘It’s a shame we need to do it’

Tumbler Ridge mass shooting victims file 30 new lawsuits against OpenAI

Child sexual abuse survivor alleges Elon Musk’s AI chatbot used photos of her to generate new illegal images

Rene Haas also claims artificial intelligence could pave way for widespread use of humanoid robots within five years

• Business live – latest updates

The boss of one of the UK’s biggest chip companies has claimed AI will be able to find a cure for cancer “in our lifetime”.

Rene Haas, chief executive of the chip designer Arm Holdings, said that, while modelling how a DNA marker is affected by cancer was currently “too complex” a problem for either humans or technology, computers were “going to solve it” in the future.

Draft legislation enforces digital duty of care including limiting children’s exposure to misogynistic and eating disorder content

Australia will allow social media account holders to opt out of the powerful algorithms pushing dangerous and divisive content into users’ feeds, part of new laws designed to boost online safety.

Users over 16 years of age will be given new tools to turn off algorithm-driven content, with platforms facing fines of more than A$100m for non-compliance.

Beyond her famed paintings of flowers and landscapes, the American artist created stunning studies of urban architecture

Georgia O’Keeffe is celebrated for her ethereal depictions of flowers, sunlight, landscapes and animal bones, their gracefully swooping forms dripping with organic curves and seemingly on the verge of melting before our eyes. Such an approach would seem to be quite at odds with the firm, straight lines of farmhouses and barns, to say nothing of the electrified skyscrapers of New York City – and yet that is exactly what is centered in Georgia O’Keeffe: Architecture, a new show at the Detroit Institute of Arts (Dia).

“I wanted to tell a new story about an artist who is so familiar,” said curator Ben Colman, who oversaw this collection of close to 40 works from the famed artist. “We can take a fresh look at works that O’Keeffe always considered essential and celebrate them in the way she wanted to.”

To generations of women, the feminist campaigner was an inspiration, a fearless challenger of sexism and domestic violence. Guardian readers share memories of her courage, intelligence, and warmth

What I appreciated most about Gloria was she let me feel normal. I graduated in engineering as one of three women in a class of over 150. In her world, a feminist was a woman that wanted to be judged for her capabilities and not her gender. She was very inspirational and empowering when I first read her books as a young engineer. Teresa, Switzerland

The directing duo behind uplifting mega-hit Intouchables return for this heartwarming coming-of-age drama, but it is the parents in the story who pull focus

Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano are the French directors who created the uplifting mega-hit Intouchables, about a wealthy quadriplegic and his carer. Now the pair bring their brand of squishy heartwarming charm to the 1980s, with this nostalgic movie about a 13-year-old boy growing up in the Paris suburbs. It’s funny and sweet but I couldn’t help feeling the film-makers missed a trick; their coming-of-age plot is all very well, but Louis Garrel and Call My Agent! star Camille Cottin give such funny and charismatic performances as the boy’s bickering parents, a portrait of their marriage in crisis would have been 10 times more entertaining.

The film opens with Vincent (Simon Boublil) preparing for his barmitzvah against a fractious atmosphere at home. The country is gripped by recession and money is tight. His dad, Yves (Garrel) was laid off months ago, but every morning puts on a suit and pretends to go out to work; Garrel is terrific, likable but fundamentally unreliable. Vincent’s mum is a go-getting secretary, who can see that the future is technology and signs up for an IT course. At school, Vincent has a massive crush on a girl who cannot remember his name, or chooses not to – she calls him “Thingummy”.

Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott’s no-nonsense spy heads a game cast that includes Ian Ogilvy and Roger Moore’s son Geoffrey, but this austerity actioner lacks tension

Proceeding from an old-school title pun – yes, the heroine goes by the name Ros Knight – the latest from resourceful microbudget producer Jonathan Sothcott surely has one optimistic eye on filling the void left by the withdrawal of 007 from public life. Here is the gender-flipped Bond some have been seeking: the adventures of a no-nonsense, tough-talking security operative (Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott) who is tasked with recovering a lethal bioweapon pilfered from a scaled-down Porton Down during the prologue. Everything, in truth, proves a bit reined-in. This austerity actioner spends less on its set pieces than the Broccolis typically did on keeping one Aston Martin refuelled; the Sothcotts’ car of choice, emblematically, is the dinkiest of Minis.

In essence, it’s Bond without the attendant glamour, hanging around drizzly marinas and parky-looking country lanes, in dim light that hopefully obscures some of the more obvious budget limitations. What money there is here has wisely been spent on human resources, faces who might still look good on the promotional material: a cameoing Michael Paré as a shady Felix Leiter type, Roger Moore’s son Geoffrey as our gal’s understandably worried-looking lover, Nick Moran giving cut-price Colin Firth as a meddling bureaucrat. The pick of the players is a spry, characterful Ian Ogilvy as Ros’s estranged father, helpfully identifying where the real power lies on a chessboard and generally steadying scenes whenever matters get a bit too threadbare.

After season two’s mortifying ending, the charming hit comedy is back for the last time … with sex parties, extreme cringe and a final answer to the central will-they-won’t-they

There are cliffhangers, and then there’s whatever happened at the end of Colin from Accounts’ second season. We had, by that point, witnessed protagonists Ashley and Gordon’s unconventional love story evolve from bizarre meet-cute – key stages: boob-flashing, car accident, injured dog – to soulmate-level relationship. But what starts with an exposed nipple can abruptly go tits up. On a heaving dancefloor at Ash’s best friend’s wedding, Gordon – drunk and buoyed up by the DJ dropping Slice of Heaven by Dave Dobbyn (the Oceanian equivalent of Come on Eileen, judging by the euphoric reaction) – decides to ask his girlfriend to marry him. Ash, humiliated by the circumstances, doesn’t respond. Everyone else films it and laughs. Gordon insists the whole thing was a joke and awkwardly boogies on. Then the credits roll.

If you had somehow managed to wipe this eye-watering faux pas from your mind’s eye, fear not: the Aussie rom-sitcom returns for its third and final series by replaying the agonising proposal in full. It gets worse. We discover the pair split soon after and haven’t seen each other for three years. In fact, they’ve both since found other (extremely attractive) partners: the kind but dim David and the hyper-capable and efficient Chelsea. As Ash later observes, they’ve “upgraded” – but you know their respective hearts don’t really belong to their nice new beaux.

Director Kirsty Bell alternates archival footage with tacky dramatised filler, but it’s the breadth of appreciation, from Keith Richards to Kiefer Sutherland that impresses

No one could argue that rock’n’roll legend Eddie Cochran isn’t worthy of a birth-to-untimely-death bio-doc; it’s almost shocking that this is the first one to be made. But if truth be told, director Kirsty Bell’s effort is stretched so thin to make a feature-length running time you can practically see through the screen. Also it’s so old-fashioned in its structure it plays almost like a tongue-in-cheek parody.

The film deploys just about every scrap of archive material featuring Cochran that the budget could afford (which means we see precious little of his performance in The Girl Can’t Help It), plus scads of rostrum-mounted newspaper articles. That’s still not enough to make more than a long short film, so Bell has inserted endearingly tacky dramatic recreations with actors playing Cochran and his mother, whom the rocker reportedly phoned regularly while on tour. In these performed conversations Cochran confides to mom about, for instance, his fears that he’ll die an early death like his friend Buddy Holly. (And sure enough he did, in 1960 in a car accident on the road between Bristol and Heathrow.)

Royal Albert Hall, London
Simon Rattle, guest conducting the period instrument ensemble, brought insights and detail to these three lesser known works by Schumann. Isabelle Faust was a spirited and graceful soloist in the Violin Concerto

Simon Rattle sure loves a challenge. This all-Schumann evening featured three “problem” works: the overture to a failed opera, a violin concerto deemed sufficiently disappointing that the composer’s executors ordered it locked away for a century, and a symphony written in the depths of depression. What’s more, he was conducting the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra in an acoustic hardly conducive to the soft-grained tones of period ensembles. In the event, we needn’t have worried, but you have to admire his pluck.

The overture to Genoveva got off to a moody start. Rattle and the Freiburgers drew the listener in by tapping into the musical storytelling – the quartet of horns was especially striking – rather than relying on sheer volume. Closer to Mendelssohn than Wagner, it must have felt old hat in 1848, but here came up bristling with romance and chivalry.

Larmer Tree Gardens, Wiltshire
Hitting 20, this festival has grown into a warm, genre-hopping powerhouse where fringe experimental acts are greeted as warmly as the star headliners

There is a celebratory feeling in the air at End of the Road festival this year as it turns 20. The piano stage has been turned into a giant birthday cake with candles on top, one man is dressed as a toilet to commemorate the porcelain anniversary, and Jarvis Cocker leads a spirited singalong of Happy Birthday while wishing for 20 more years.

Retaining a core identity while also expanding and evolving has been key to that longevity. While early days were centred more on alt-folk and Americana, EOTR is now a genre-hopping powerhouse, blending everything from pop fun to noisy experimentation via global grooves, and with an equal focus on the familiar and the unknown.

The US marine turned journalist went missing in Syria 14 years ago – and now, a suspenseful new pod uncovers essential evidence. Plus, the charming Julie Andrews serenades audiences with Jane Austen’s Emma

It has been 14 years since US marine turned journalist Austin Tice went missing in Syria. Much has changed in the embattled nation since then – not least the end of Bashar al-Assad’s regime – but Tice is yet to be found. In this series, Josh Baker and Sara Obeidat uncover crucial new evidence, some of which has already made headlines. Sensitive and highly suspenseful. Hannah J Davies
Widely available, episodes weekly

Royal Albert Hall, London
Gwilym Simcock’s concerto – written for Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Ben Goldscheider and Jess Gillam (cello, horn and sax) – had problems of balance but at its best was a riot of colours and energy

BBC Young Musician has produced a whole galaxy of stars over the years, but 2016 was rather special. It was a neat idea then to commission a 10th-anniversary triple concerto for three of its finalists – cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, saxophonist Jess Gillam and horn player Ben Goldscheider – each of whom has gone on to a significant career. The composer of choice was Gwilym Simcock, an eclectic artist who straddles the worlds of jazz and classical music. The result was stretched to bursting with musical interest, though not without its problems.

At its best, the concerto was a riot of primary colours, with vibraphone, harp and orchestral piano – played here by Simcock himself – adding spice to the mix. The outer movements grooved, the first with a minimalist nod to Steve Reich, the finale channelling a Scottish reel. The serene central “Mesto” – the word means mournful or melancholy – was a keening lament for Simcock’s father who died during the work’s composition.

The third in a loose American trilogy follows the epic journey of a formerly enslaved man in the aftermath of the civil war

But is not the story as good as the truth?” asks Tennyson Bouguereau, the narrator of Sebastian Barry’s The Newer World. Tennyson, a formerly enslaved man in post-civil war America, recounts his life story in ways that call to mind the age-old debate about whether it’s better to get our history from novelists or historians. While historians might argue that there is no contest, the question hints knowingly at the novelist’s counter-argument. It sent me searching for a line from Barry’s 2008 Costa-award winning novel, The Secret Scripture, in which the narrator describes history as “a fabulous arrangement of surmises and guesses held up as a banner against the assault of withering truth”.

In her Reith Lectures, Hilary Mantel suggested that history is “what’s left in the sieve when the centuries have run through it”, but I tend to think of it as more of a butterfly net. Historians chase after and capture the things they deem significant. They leave things out, often deliberately. Barry’s entire body of work is a prime example of fiction’s ability to fill history’s gaps, merging personal tragedies with national ones in ways that (dare I say) demonstrate the supremacy of the form – especially for those of us descended from people for whom history never cared one whit. I was therefore intrigued to learn that he had set out to write the story of a man like Tennyson. Barry’s earlier novels refracted Irish history through the lens of two fictional Irish families, the Dunnes and the McNultys. His first foray into this period of American history in Days Without End, for which he won his second Costa award, also followed one of the McNultys – Thomas McNulty flees the Irish famine for America, where he finds himself drawn into the genocidal work of clearing Native Americans off their land, and then, together with his lover and fellow soldier, John Cole, adopts a Lakota girl, Winona, whose family they have helped slaughter. Barry picked up Winona’s story in A Thousand Moons, published in 2020, which follows her fortunes as she, Thomas and John settle on the same farm outside Paris, Tennessee that is occupied by Tennyson and his twin sister Rosalee among others.

A biography of the physicist recognises his achievements, but also reveals the selfish narcissist underneath

When I wrote an unadoring review of Stephen Hawking’s final book, a collection of essays published posthumously in 2018, New Scientist suppressed some of my criticisms on the grounds that it was “too early” to voice anything other than praise for the physicist who died, aged 76, that March. It was apparently still too early in 2021, when no British publisher would touch Charles Seife’s exposé of Hawking’s bullying and self-aggrandising behaviour, Hawking Hawking.

In this new biography, veteran science writer Graham Farmelo takes a different approach. It is a comprehensive and accessible portrait of a brilliant scientist and an extraordinarily determined man who also possessed deep personal flaws to which the scientific community and the public mostly turned a blind eye. The uncomfortable but unavoidable truth is that Hawking’s overweening ambition and self-promotion, his repeated failure to acknowledge the work of others, his sexism and controlling behaviour were largely ignored because of his disability. I think it is indeed going to take us years to process that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was her very first film and it won her an Oscar. But can Callie Khouri now make it work on stage with songs? She talks about the outrages that made her write it – and how little has changed since

‘I have a world-class case of beginner’s luck,” says Callie Khouri, who won an Oscar for her very first screenplay, Thelma & Louise. She also scored a hit with her first TV series, Nashville, which lasted six seasons. And at 68, she is taking on another first by penning a musical theatre version of Thelma & Louise, hoping her luck hasn’t run out. “I hope that this is not the end of that streak,” she laughs. “That I don’t hit a wall here and slide down it like Wile E Coyote.”

Thelma & Louise isn’t an obvious bet for a musical. A story that features an abusive marriage, attempted rape, murder and double suicide doesn’t scream “jazz hands”, and Khouri had turned down offers before. “My agent said, ‘There’s a guy who wants to meet you to talk about doing Thelma as a stage musical,’” says Khouri. “And I just thought, ‘Well, that’s nuts!’” But the iconic 90s film – starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis (and a young Brad Pitt) – is an ultimately triumphant piece of cinema: a feminist road movie driven by the power of female friendship, which still captures imaginations. Khouri was eventually convinced. It’s been a decade in the pipeline, but things took off when uber-producer Sonia Friedman came on board, and now it has premiered at London’s Young Vic, starring Rachel Tucker and Amy Lennox.

A selection from the dozens of outdoor art performances that made up the Greenwich+Docklands international festival, which finished on Sunday. The theme was We Move – a celebration of the resilience of Londoners facing the challenges of city life

Finborough theatre, London
Nichola McAuliffe returns to the roles Wesker tailored for her in 1981, in a trio of wistful and insightful soliloquies about working-class women’s inner thoughts

Some years before Alan Bennett spawned Talking Heads, his celebrated televised monologues on the inner lives of solitary women, Arnold Wesker created a trio of short soliloquies for women who speak their thoughts and vulnerabilities aloud in the same wistful manner.

His three-character series, written in 1981 and tailored especially for the actor Nichola McAuliffe, originally began with elderly, homeless Annie Wobbler, who wanders around London’s Waterloo station ruminating on her life in service, the changing world, and what she sees as the ever-rising tide of “foreigners” in it. Younger women follow, their names variations on Annie’s, and each incorporating a specific question or inquiry into their life.

Citizens theatre, Glasgow
Orwell is himself a character in this frustrating but provocative adaptation of his dystopian classic, which seeks to refresh its metaphors and make its totalitarian nightmare seem real again

What is there left to say about Nineteen Eighty-Four in 2026? By now, Orwell’s dystopian satire has been held as a mirror to everything from Trump to TikTok. But this co-production from a trio of Scotland’s leading theatres (Dundee Rep, Edinburgh’s Lyceum and Glasgow’s Citizen) is a new adaptation by Chris Hannan, and seeks to shine fresh light on one of our most overused modern-day shorthands.

It’s framed by speculative biography about Orwell’s tuberculosis treatment in a hospital near Glasgow, and it feels cheap, at first, to correlate Orwell and 1984’s Winston so simply. Both are played by Jack Tarlton with the same petulance and hacking cough. But Winston’s childlike naivety, and his monologues pleading for genuine conversation (which reverberate emptily; a literal echo chamber) eventually make for jarring contrast with Orwell’s frosty dialogues with his doctor, who fought opposite him as a fascist in the Spanish civil war.

From going undercover as a Playboy bunny to founding Ms Magazine, Steinem brought feminism into the US mainstream. Carter Sherman explains her legacy

By the time she died last week at the age of 92, Gloria Steinem had become almost synonymous with the modern feminist movement in the US.

The arc of Steinem’s life – and activism – was a long one. From going undercover as a Playboy bunny to becoming a radical publisher bringing feminism into the mainstream. She was a fearless reproductive rights campaigner. In Ms Magazine she wrote about having an abortion – and encouraged other famous women, and readers, to do the same to break the stigma around it.

Capturing the band’s 2025 global comeback tour, this two-hour film reveals the tense first rehearsal with Liam, Noel being a big softie and the Gallaghers’ politics – just don’t expect any mention of ticket prices

It was the reunion that many thought would never happen: Oasis re-forming for a series of sold-out live shows, their first since Noel and Liam Gallagher split acrimoniously in 2009. For those who managed to get tickets last year, the performances were a celebration of one of Britpop’s finest bands and a chance to live through a night of 90s nostalgia. For the millions who missed out, be it due to demand or budgetary restraints, the tour represented a generational Fomo moment.

Luckily, the directors Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern were embedded within team Oasis throughout the whole thing, alongside the Peaky Blinders creator, Steven Knight: the result is Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger, a two-hour concert film that hits cinemas around the world this week. Whether you were on the front row at Manchester’s Heaton Park, doing the Poznan in Seoul or stuck at home watching it all online, Don’t Look Back in Anger captures the Oasis Live ’25 Tour for posterity. Here’s what we learned.

Singer has rewarded patience of hundreds waiting outside hotel with regular appearances and even some dancing

Noëlla Lamy, 52, who described herself as one of Céline Dion’s biggest fans, was preparing to spend all night on a Paris pavement without a tent but wearing a sweatshirt printed with the singer’s face for comfort.

“Céline Dion is a force of bravery and an inspiration,” she said.

Creators Damon Beesley and Iain Morris return as writers and directors, with the original cast reprising their roles

Netflix has announced that production has begun on a new Inbetweeners film, with the original cast members reprising their roles.

It will be a continuation of the popular Channel 4 sitcom, which aired on E4 from 2008 to 2010, followed by two films in 2011 and 2014.

Conservationists have helped Cantabrian brown bears claw their way back from the edge of extinction in the beautiful mountains of Asturias – and carefully controlled nature tourism allows visitors to see them

Once upon a time, in the woods outside Pola de Somiedo, lived a family of Cantabrian brown bears. The villagers reported sightings of a mother bear who had lost a leg to a hunter’s trap, her two cubs and two adult males, either of which might have been the father. In those days, at the end of the 1980s, they seemed to be the last of their kind in this part of Asturias. Meanwhile, the wider population dropped to about 60 bears across the surrounding Cantabrian mountain range that gave the species its name.

They have since clawed their way back from the edge of extinction here in northern Spain, and nature guide Luis Frechilla believes their numbers may now be upwards of 500 again. “They’re still classed as endangered,” he tells me, until the official count hits 1,000. But relative abundance makes them much easier to see today in Somiedo natural park – one of Spain’s first such protected areas, established in 1988.

In a cheap London flat with no heating, dozens of the insects swarmed, leading to a Valentine’s Day that still makes me break out in a cold sweat

I don’t know if cockroaches really could, as we’re often told, survive a nuclear apocalypse, but I can tell you this with certainty: they can definitely survive pest control. “Hopefully that should be a bit better now,” said the friendly exterminator after his first visit to our flat. By the third visit he was speaking more honestly. “The only way to get rid of your cockroaches,” he said, “would be to burn this whole block of flats to the ground.”

It was January 2003 when I moved with my girlfriend Helen into our first London flat. It’s fair to say there were red flags we probably should have spotted. It was suspiciously affordable – £140 a week for a place less than a minute’s walk from Finsbury Park tube station? Sure, the place looked pretty skanky, but it was still spacious for a studio flat. We put the price down to the fact there was absolutely no way of heating the property and signed up.

From loafers to lunch boxes to fancy stationery, these picks for kids, teens and grownups will bring that new-term energy, whatever your age

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Shiny shoes. Freshly sharpened pencils. New rucksack. Back-to-school season is here, and even for those of us no longer in full-time education, the energy of this time of year is undeniably one of fresh starts and renewed momentum.

A couple of well-chosen items, from a notebook to inspire ideas to a lunch box that might encourage you to bring in your own food, are often all it takes to feel a touch more pulled together after a languorous summer. So whether you’re looking for school kit or your own stuff, here’s our pick of the best back-to-the-grind products for kids, teens and grownups.

From space-saving storage to an affordable toastie maker, here’s how to set yourself up in halls without blowing the budget

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Clothes packed? Laptop at the ready? Flip Cup skills honed? As freshers’ week beckons, thousands of students are preparing for life away from home. But what do you actually need to bring with you, besides an eager mind and a broad tolerance of Jägermeister?

We’re here to help. Because student debt is big enough without spending on stuff you don’t need, we quizzed veterans (well, second- and third-year students) on what is and isn’t worth packing. We’ve also rounded up some of our best budget buys – from mattress toppers to toastie makers – rigorously tested by the Filter experts. These won’t break the bank and should last far beyond your first essay deadline.

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

• The best supermarket anchovies, tasted and rated

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

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

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

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

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

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

It all depends on the variety of tomato and the dish you’re making, says our panel of experts

Why do recipes often say to deseed tomatoes? Isn’t that where the flavour is, especially since the seeds don’t make much difference to a sauce’s texture?
Catriona, by email
“It all depends on the variety of tomato,” says the Guardian’s Rachel Roddy, “because some are much seedier than others. Sicilian varieties that require little watering, for example, have loads of little bitter seeds, which do need flicking or sieving out.” If, however, Catriona had some vesuvio tomatoes destined for a salad, Jay Patel, co-owner of Italian restaurant Legare in London, wouldn’t bother: “Those are generally pretty meaty and don’t have many seeds, so I’d just slice and dress them generously with olive oil and salt, and you’ll have something pretty special.” And that’s the crux of the matter: as well as the type of tomato, the answer hinges on what you’re planning to do with them, too. “If you’re making a salad with watery winter tomatoes, say, there’s a purpose for those seeds,” Patel adds, “because they provide a lovely pop as well as acidity.”

The most common deseeding scenario is for pasta sauces, but even that comes with a caveat, Patel says: “If I’m going for a slow-cooked sauce, it’s tinned chopped tomatoes, seeds and all. But if I’m after a lighter, fresher tomato sauce, I’ll quickly blanch, peel and deseed fresh tomatoes myself.” Nick Molyviatis of Zylia in London, meanwhile, scoops out the seeds with a teaspoon or he grates his tomatoes instead – “the skin acts as a protector, a glove” – while Roddy’s “best defence against seeds” is a food mill: “Seeds don’t contain flavour as such, but the fleshy gel around them does, which is why a food mill is great,” she explains. “It presses the flavour from that and the skin, while at the same time separating them from the sauce base.”

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

A winning combination of oily fish, sweet berries and a sharp dressing

One of my favourite summer memories is making collares de moras as a child in Extremadura, which involved threading wild blackberries on to a piece of straw to make little necklaces. We’d always eat some too, of course, as well as wearing them, and we’d always come home with stained hands and big smiles. At the time, I never imagined that one day I’d be cooking sardines and pairing them with those same wild berries, but that’s the magic of food. The ingredients that filled my childhood with such simple joy have become part of the dishes I love creating today. Every time I make this recipe, it takes me straight back to those carefree summer days.

A seasonal special featuring both summer vibes and autumn comfort

While I dig my head in the sand at September’s arrival and the back-to-school dread, I’m trying to hold on to summer flavours for as long as possible. And this salad does just that: it’s summer and autumn, vibrant and comforting, all at the same time. It can also be served a multitude of ways: still warm, at room temperature with the feta added at the last minute, or even as leftovers (it’s great for lunchboxes, say).

Making your own filo is notoriously faffy but, luckily, there are great ready-made versions out there that make these crunchy, golden savoury treats a doddle

I love this gossamer-thin pastry for its lightness and crunch, not least because it can be used for both sweets and savouries. Once, on a trip to Athens, I learned how to make filo from scratch: it needs to be rolled very, very thin, so, unless you are skilled with a rolling pin, it’s hard and time-consuming. Luckily there are good ready-made varieties out there (if you’re using the frozen variety, make sure it’s fully defrosted). And always keep the pastry you are not working with under a damp cloth, because it dries out very quickly and will probably crack.

He was the gorgeous furry tabby who made my day, even when he waltzed into my flat just to finish my takeaway. Now he’s a campus celeb, with a part-time job guarding the doors of the village shop

In 2022, when I moved into halls of residence at the University of Sheffield, my biggest concern was no longer having a furry friend to come home to, as I’d had a cat since I was 11 years old. Then I met Harold.

My first encounter with this gorgeous tabby was quite unusual. One day, in our 10-bed flat, a flurry of messages appeared on the group WhatsApp chat after my fellow roommates caught an intruder on the sofa, innocently munching on my leftover pizza.

A woman in the queue said she was happy to drive an hour, pick up the vacuum, then bring it to Mum’s house. I was worried – but how wrong I was!

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

For a 94-year-old woman, my mother is still very busy and active. So when a vacuum cleaner she liked the look of went on sale at a national electronics chain, Mum drove herself to the nearest store to buy it.

Unfortunately, the shop in her area had sold out by the time she got there. The sales assistant told her it was still available in another Melbourne store – but that store was an hour’s drive away. As active as she is, Mum pointed out that at her age she really could not manage a drive of that length. She asked the sales assistant if they could transfer the vacuum to this store and was flatly told no.

A part-time musician and an office manager disagreed on benefits and work-life balance, but ​where did they stand on community responsibility?

• Want to meet someone from across the divide? Click here to find out how

Henry, 33, Manchester

Occupation Waiter and musician

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

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

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

Transport for London has fined me and warned that if I don’t pay it will possibly destroy my car

I paid the £12.50 London Ulez charge on my Amex card within hours of driving through the zone. I was then fined £90 for non-payment. According to my card issuer, Transport for London (TfL) had failed to collect the £12.50.

TfL’s letter threatened a £180 fine, rising to £360, and possible destruction of my car, if I did not pay. My appeal was rejected.

Thefts spike during freshers’ week so make sure you choose a good lock and check your insurance

For hard-up students, a bike is a low-cost way to travel. But with cycle theft at an all-time high, experts are urging young people not to skimp on insurance and to buy a good lock.

Recent data from Aviva shows one in five (19%) of insurance claims involving student possessions relates to bicycles.

I arranged for my daughter to attend three sessions during the school holidays but the venue and one of the dates were changed

I booked my daughter for three sessions during the school summer holidays at The Gymnastics Academy. The reservation was made and paid for last November because of a promotional offer.

In June, I received emails from The Gymnastics Academy, confirming a session for a venue I had not booked. I was concerned my account had been hacked.

Longer battery life, faster chip, actually useful AI tools and better cameras keep quality Android ahead of competition

Google’s Pixel 11 continues to set the standard for what you should expect from the base model of a flagship phone with class-leading cameras, long software support and almost all the bells and whistles of its most expensive phones.

The regular Pixel 11 costs £879 (€999/$899/A$1,499) making it £80 or equivalent more expensive than last year’s model as the cost of RAMageddon continues to bite. It’s not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but it comes with 256GB of storage and is £200 less than the Pixel 11 Pro, matching rival Samsung’s Galaxy S26.

Screen: 6.3in 120Hz FHD+ OLED (422ppi)

Processor: Google Tensor G6

RAM: 12GB

Storage: 256 or 512GB

Operating system: Android 17

Camera: 48MP+ 13MP UW + 10.8MP 5x tele; 10.5MP selfie

Connectivity: 5G, eSIM, wifi 6E, UWB, NFC, Bluetooth 6 and GNSS

Water resistance: IP68 (1.5m for 30 minutes)

Dimensions: 152.8 x 72.0 x 8.6mm

Weight: 197g

GLP-1 medications have been a gamechanger in the fight against obesity. But for a minority of patients, their impact is negligible. Why?

When Mercedes was told by her doctor that she could be prescribed GLP-1 weight loss jabs in 2024, she broke down. “[When] she said yes, I cried in her office. And I didn’t really stop crying for a week,” she said.

“Finally, after being overweight my entire life, this was going to save me. My struggle, my burden, my shame was finally going to come to an end.”

Mineral deposits can accumulate, making hair drier, but removing them can cause different problems

From hair treatments to shower filters, a wave of products have been launched promising to protect hair from the “problems” caused by living in a hard-water area. But are they really necessary? “Hard water has a higher concentration of dissolved minerals, especially calcium and magnesium,” says Desmond Tobin, professor of dermatological science at University College Dublin. “These are naturally occurring in water, particularly water that is not rainwater.”

When water moves through soil and rocks, such as limestone, minerals dissolve into it and remain there when it comes out of your tap. These minerals are responsible for the limescale that builds up in your kettle.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Despite Anna Wintour’s years-long redemption campaign on his behalf, the Dior designer’s controversial past got him booted as the 2027 Met Gala honoree

When the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced it was dedicating its 2027 costume exhibition to designer John Galliano, vintage dealer Johnny Valencia figured it would be a red carpet for the ages. Celebrities would show up in full Marie Antoinette drag, or squeeze into tightly bound corsets showcasing hourglass figures, recreating the pageantry of Galliano’s over-the-top runway shows.

“There was a lot of excitement around this theme,” said Valencia, whose customers include the likes of Beyoncé and Rihanna. “There had not been this much excitement since camp” – the institution’s fete of outrageous and questionable taste in 2019.

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

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

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

With the release of his new biography, the British designer talks about leaving school at 15, the real reason he won’t retire and why no one wears velvet trousers any more

Go for a browse in the Paul Smith shop in Mayfair, London, on any given Saturday and you’ll likely find an older shop assistant, straight-backed in fine tailoring, approaching to help you with a new shirt, or a suit for a special occasion, perhaps a jaunty pair of socks. There aren’t many global fashion brands, Paul Smith points out, perhaps unnecessarily, “where the owner is a Saturday boy”. But working in his shop, one of more than 130 around the world, is probably Smith’s favourite part of the job. “It’s fantastic, you meet so many interesting people,” he says, smiling broadly. Smith’s whole career, he says, has always been about doing things in a different way. He’s the untrained fashion designer who created a global British brand, who put a bright lining or some stripes into classic tailoring, and who has turned down multiple substantial offers to buy his company, in order to remain in control.

Sir Paul Smith has just turned 80 – and he has the enviable energy of someone less than half his age, swimming each day before 6am. He’s about to publish his memoir, Threads: My Life in Style. It’s been a good opportunity to do a stocktake. His has undoubtedly been a lucky life – right place, right time, right people (not least his wife, Pauline, whom he met at the age of 21 and who has been integral to his success) – but it’s also a story of hard work, integrity and modesty. We’ll get to whether those values are still relevant in a harsher, more competitive world, and whether Paul Smith can survive.

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

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

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

On a self-drive break in search of Lake Saimaa’s autumn colours, we encountered blue skies, cosy lakeside cabins and saunas, great food – and lots of stubbornly green trees

I wasn’t sure what to expect from an autumn trip to Finland, my first ever to the country, but spending an afternoon sprawled on a deck chair beneath blazing blue skies certainly wasn’t part of it. After a morning walking beneath the leafy canopy at the Mustila Arboretum – the oldest, most extensive botanical garden in the country – and a lunchtime wine-tasting (more of which later), my friend Sara and I pitched up at the Sahanlahti resort, deep in the Finnish Lakeland, only to find sun-drenched scenery that felt far more Mediterranean than Nordic.

Sahanlahti was the second stop on a mid-September road trip from Helsinki to the shores of Lake Saimaa; a journey in search of ruska, the spectacular autumn colours that blaze for a few short weeks before the long Finnish winter sets in. However, on our opening drive east from the airport to the Radalla resort, set on Lake Urajärvi, most of the thousands of trees we drove past were resolutely green, with just the very tips of the leaves tinged with auburn, like a foliage balayage.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who’s more likely to steal sweets from a child? According to science, it’s the rich. A study seemingly confirming our suspicions about the moral behaviour of the wealthy was one of the winners of the 2026 Ig Nobel prizes, which honour research that makes you laugh and then think. Science editor Ian Sample tells Madeleine Finlay what the researchers think could be behind the phenomenon, and they explore some of the other awards, including one for a surprising quality we look for in our friends and another for a biomechanical definition of kissing

Rich people more likely to steal children’s sweets, finds Ig Nobel prize-winning study

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Dust and hard water can leave deposits that slow photosynthesis, but don’t believe everything you read about using acids to remove them

The problem
Dusty leaves are more than a cosmetic problem. A film of dust blocks light, which slows photosynthesis and dulls the plant. Hard water makes it worse, leaving chalky white mineral spots on the foliage that a damp cloth simply smears around.

The hack
The acids in white vinegar, or lemon juice, dissolve the mineral salts left behind by hard water – just wipe a very diluted solution over the leaves with a microfibre cloth.

Eyam Moor, Derbyshire: It’s a place that I treasure greatly, and now it has a change of ownership that is worth celebrating

Can a landscape sigh with relief? It felt that way, pushing through bilberry and cowberry hung with pearls of overnight rain that soaked my lower legs.

On the path, dry, dusty soil had reverted to reassuring gloop. I was thrilled, at one point, to step cautiously round a puddle. Overhead, a buzzard wheeled and a small gang of swallows skimmed across heather whose purple intensity was already fading, too soon it seemed to me. To the west, a kestrel was quartering the slopes of Wet Withens.

We all know tiredness can lead to hunger, and vice versa. But there are so many other ways our habits in these areas are linked. Here are some easy tweaks to help us feel properly refreshed

A study published in the journal Nature Health last month found that food choices and meal timings have “immediate and measurable effects” on sleep. It was just the latest in a growing body of research into the link between diet and rest. Here is the latest science on what to eat for better sleep – and how sleep deprivation can affect your dinner the next day.

Stanley Praimnath and Brian Clark were two of only four individuals known to have survived above the impact zone in the south tower

He has told the story hundreds of times, but it never seems to fade. If anything, it only becomes more vivid. “Oh, gosh,” exclaims Stanley Praimnath, his voice cracking with an “ooooooh!” as if bearing a weight. “It’s like reliving that day.”

Nearly 3,000 people died in the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington DC on September 11 2001. But Praimnath and another office worker, Brian Clark, were two of only four individuals known to have survived from above the impact zone in either tower of the World Trade Center. The two strangers met in the smoke and fire of the 81st floor of the south tower, and walked down 1,620 steps into the rest of their lives.

‘I was trying to bring back some glamour. The backcombed hair was like architecture really. It took more than 45 minutes to style’

Just What I Always Wanted had already been in our live set, but with different verses. When we’d gone on David Essex’s Showcase earlier in 1982, in the middle eight I sang “A wink from Wilbur, a kiss from Kurt, don’t tell Hank, he might get hurt” – all names of my backing band the Wilsations. But when it came to recording, I said to Tot Taylor, who wrote most of my early singles, including Love Man and Baby It’s True, “We can’t sing that because no one will know who they are. What about, ‘A mink from Paris, a ring from Rome, a whole new wardrobe in my home?’” Tot, such a brilliant writer, took it from there.

More than 400 competitors battle windy conditions on Easdale, a year after tampered-with stones made headlines

“Want to touch it?” Jonny Jennings asked, clutching the World Stone Skimming Championship trophy in his arms as he waited for the ferry. The mind games from the 2025 men’s champion had started hours before this year’s competition had even begun. The 38-year-old had travelled from Kentucky to Easdale island just off the west coast of Scotland to defend his title. He was not giving it up without a fight.

On Saturday, more than 400 of the world’s best stone skimmers descended on the tiny island in the Inner Hebrides, normally home to just 60 residents. From Argentina to India, Hong Kong to Jamaica, more than 30 countries were represented, ferried over in groups of 10 from the mainland.

We would particularly like to hear from people whose commute has been affected by others who keep Lime bikes or other ebikes in their private areas and gardens

Nearly half of Londoners aged 18-34 now use Lime bikes weekly, and the rental ebike company reported 16 million commuter journeys in 2024.

But are you a Lime bike or other ebike user who has experienced selfishness from other riders during the commuter rush? Specifically, have you recognised a problem with “Lime bike hoggers” – users who keep booked bikes in their private areas so that you can’t actually access it?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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