Robert Redford: the incandescently handsome star who changed Hollywood forever

Robert Redford, who has died at the age of 89, began as a blond bombshell at a time when American cinema favoured grit, then turned into a supremely assured director and unlikely keeper of the indie flame

• Robert Redford, giant of American cinema, dies aged 89 – news

• Robert Redford – a life in pictures

As the 1960s turned into the 1970s, it wasn’t cool for star actors to be good-looking. The style was more a scuffed, grizzled, bleary, sweaty, paunchy and shlubby realness. The fashion was for leading men like Gene Hackman, Jack Nicholson, Woody Allen. Even a very beautiful man like Paul Newman had a kind of rugged, daylit quality. But Robert Redford was very different. Here was a supremely beautiful movie star who went on to direct, produce and then be the guardian and gatekeeper of commercial-indie US cinema at his Sundance Institute. And he was always an outlier.

When movie audiences thrilled to George Roy Hill’s western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969, they knew that in breakout star Redford they had an almost indecently attractive male, however much he might dress it down with buckskins and moustache, playing the devil-may-care outlaw Sundance Kid himself. His sardonic charisma and sexiness shone through. And when he cleaned himself up for other roles, teaming up again with Newman for the jazz age con-men caper The Sting in 1973, the effect was electric. Neatly trimmed and shaved, Robert Redford was just outrageously handsome, incandescently handsome, he was handsomeness on legs. His photograph was in the dictionary next to “handsome”.

Published: September 16, 2025, 12:35 pm

AI will make the rich unfathomably richer. Is this really what we want? | Dustin Guastella

The ‘knowledge economy’ promised cultural and social growth. Instead, we got worsening inequality and division. Artificial intelligence will supercharge it

Recently, Palantir – a tech corporation that boasts no fewer than five billionaire executives – announced its Q2 earnings: over a billion dollars generated in a single quarter. Forty-eight per cent growth in its business compared with the same quarter last year, including 93% growth in its US commercial business. These elephantine numbers are maddening – and, in large part, a result of the company fully embracing artificial intelligence (AI).

The AI revolution is here and as its proponents remind us daily, it will remake our world, making every company and government agency more efficient and less error-prone while helping us unlock hitherto unheard of advances in science and technology. Not only this, but if we play our cards right, big tech’s latest explosion could yield unprecedented economic growth.

Dustin Guastella is the director of operations for Teamsters Local 623 in Philadelphia, and a research associate at the Center for Working-Class Politics

Published: September 16, 2025, 12:00 pm

Sit, stay and manage expectations: how to start training your dog

It doesn’t have to be miserable. We asked experts how best to start training your new (or old) best friend

My family has never been closer to the brink of collapse than when we got a puppy. We spent hours reading articles and watching videos about puppy training, and were constantly arguing about the right way to potty train him or get him to stop barking.

Every new piece of information seemed to contradict what we’d already learned – never scold him! Scold him! – but one thing was certain: make one wrong move and you will ruin your dog and your life forever.

How to start meditating

How to start weightlifting

How to start budgeting

How to start running

Published: September 16, 2025, 4:00 pm

‘I have to do it’: Why one of the world’s most brilliant AI scientists left the US for China

In 2020, after spending half his life in the US, Song-Chun Zhu took a one-way ticket to China. Now he might hold the key to who wins the global AI race

By the time Song-Chun Zhu was six years old, he had encountered death more times than he could count. Or so it felt. This was the early 1970s, the waning years of the Cultural Revolution, and his father ran a village supply store in rural China. There was little to do beyond till the fields and study Mao Zedong at home, and so the shop became a refuge where people could rest, recharge and share tales. Zhu grew up in that shop, absorbing a lifetime’s worth of tragedies: a family friend lost in a car crash, a relative from an untreated illness, stories of suicide or starvation. “That was really tough,” Zhu recalled recently. “People were so poor.”

The young Zhu became obsessed with what people left behind after they died. One day, he came across a book that contained his family genealogy. When he asked the bookkeeper why it included his ancestors’ dates of birth and death but nothing about their lives, the man told him matter of factly that they were peasants, so there was nothing worth recording. The answer terrified Zhu. He resolved that his fate would be different.

Published: September 16, 2025, 4:00 am

Americans have 400 days to save their democracy | Timothy Garton Ash

I never thought I’d see fear spread so far and fast. Next year’s midterm elections are now crucial for the Democratic party – and for democrats everywhere

I return to Europe from the US with a clear conclusion: American democrats (lowercase d) have 400 days to start saving US democracy. If next autumn’s midterm elections produce a Congress that begins to constrain Donald Trump there will then be a further 700 days to prepare the peaceful transfer of executive power that alone will secure the future of this republic. Operation Save US Democracy, stages 1 and 2.

Hysterical hyperbole? I would love to think so. But during seven weeks in the US this summer, I was shaken every day by the speed and executive brutality of President Trump’s assault on what had seemed settled norms of US democracy and by the desperate weakness of resistance to that assault. There’s a growing body of international evidence to suggest that once a liberal democracy has been eroded, it’s very difficult to restore it. Destruction is so much easier than construction.

Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political writer and Guardian columnist

Published: September 16, 2025, 4:00 am

How I brew cafe-quality coffee anywhere, from campsite to carry-on

When you’re done settling for the sludge in the hotel lobby, this portable brewing setup will open the door to perfect coffee anywhere

Nothing makes me feel more settled than making a cup of coffee in the morning. Without it, my whole day feels slightly off. For years, that was just something I accepted about traveling or camping – there might be coffee, but it wouldn’t quite ground me. It would be a compromise. A little off.

That’s why I’ve spent the past few years perfecting my travel coffee setup: so I can make rich, comforting, homey coffee anywhere in the world, without trying to wedge an espresso machine into my carry-on. Here are the inexpensive tools that make it possible.

Published: September 16, 2025, 11:00 am

Israel’s war in Gaza ‘morally, politically and legally intolerable’ says UN secretary general - Middle East crisis live

António Guterres says he wants to meet Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump at UN next week

Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, has been told by medical sources that at least 38 Palestinian people, including women and children, have been killed by Israeli forces since dawn today.

As well as facing relentless bombardments, Gaza City, the biggest built-up area of the territory, is being gripped by a famine caused by Israel’s restrictions on aid.

Published: September 16, 2025, 6:03 pm

FBI director Kash Patel denies social media post about Charlie Kirk ‘subject’ in custody was a mistake – live

FBI director defends handling of Kirk shooting investigation as Senate hearing exchange with Democrat Cory Booker descends into shouting match

Under-fire FBI director Kash Patel will confront Senate Democrats at a congressional hearing at 9am ET, likely to be dominated by questions about the investigation into the killing of Charlie Kirk, as well as the agency’s role in reviewing the files related to the Epstein case, and recent firings of senior officials who have accused Patel of illegal political retribution.

His appearance before the Senate judiciary committee represents the first oversight hearing of Patel’s young but tumultuous tenure. Most recently he has faced criticism for his actions and social media posts during the Kirk shooting investigation, which have raised questions about his experience and judgement, including being seen as “grandstanding” with regards to his own role, and prematurely (and wrongly) announcing on X that the suspect had been caught.

Published: September 16, 2025, 5:50 pm

Top Democrat accuses Trump of dismantling efforts to prosecute sex crimes

Exclusive: amid demands for transparency around Epstein, president has repeatedly taken side of criminal sex predators, says Jamie Raskin

• US politics live – latest updates

A top House Democrat on Tuesday accused Donald Trump of “systematically dismantling” efforts to prosecute sex crimes and hunt down traffickers, as the president faces continued pressure to make public investigative files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The memo from House judiciary committee ranking member Jamie Raskin and his staff, shared exclusively with the Guardian, said that beyond refusing the demands for transparency around Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, Trump has also undercut efforts to hold people accused of similar crimes accountable by “systematically dismantling the offices and programs we rely on to combat human trafficking and prosecute sex crimes”.

Published: September 16, 2025, 6:00 pm

Judge dismisses two top charges against Luigi Mangione in UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting

Man accused in killing of Brian Thompson will not face state charges of first- and second-degree murder but will still face other charges

Luigi Mangione scored a major legal victory on Tuesday with a judge dismissing the two top state charges against him: first-degree murder and second-degree murder, both of which prosecutors had argued were terrorism crimes.

Mangione still faces an additional second-degree murder charge, as well as a federal murder charge, in the killing of United HealthCare executive Brian Thompson last December.

Published: September 16, 2025, 2:18 pm

Robert Redford, giant of American cinema, dies aged 89

Redford achieved huge critical and commercial success in the 60s and 70s with a string of hits including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Way We Were and The Sting, before becoming an Oscar-winning director

• ‘The incandescently handsome star who changed Hollywood forever’: Peter Bradshaw on Robert Redford

• Robert Redford – a life in pictures

Robert Redford, star of Hollywood classics including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and All the President’s Men, has died aged 89.

In a statement, his publicist Cindi Berger said the actor died on Tuesday at his home “at Sundance in the mountains of Utah - the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved”.

Published: September 16, 2025, 12:24 pm

US border agent who led immigration crackdown in LA arrives in Chicago

Gregory Bovino announces arrival as local immigration advocates say they have noticed an uptick in Ice operations

The border patrol agent who spearheaded the immigration crackdown that sparked widespread protests in Los Angeles announced in a social media post Tuesday that he has arrived in Chicago.

“Well, Chicago, we’ve arrived!” Gregory Bovino said in a post on X that included footage of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) vehicles and agents under Chicago street signs and views of downtown. “Operation At Large is here to continue the mission we started in Los Angeles.”

Published: September 16, 2025, 4:37 pm

Georgia supreme court ends Fani Willis bid to reverse removal from Trump case

Election interference case in limbo as court declines to hear appeal against disqualification of Fulton county prosecutor

The Georgia supreme court on Tuesday declined to hear Fani Willis’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling disqualifying the Fulton county prosecutor from prosecuting Donald Trump’s election interference case.

In a 4-3 decision, the state’s highest court let stand the lower court order disqualifying Willis from the racketeering and election interference case that initially snagged 19 defendants, including Donald Trump, in 2023.

Published: September 16, 2025, 3:28 pm

Trump has fanned the flames of divisive politics around the world, says Sadiq Khan

Exclusive: London mayor says US president has ‘perhaps done the most’ to encourage far right

Donald Trump will arrive in the UK tonight to a barrage of criticism from Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, who has accused the US president of doing more than anyone else to encourage the intolerant far right across the globe.

In what will be considered to be a direct challenge to Keir Starmer’s government to take a more robust stance towards Trump, Khan said the president’s use of the military in cities and targeting of minorities was “straight out of the autocrat’s playbook”.

Published: September 16, 2025, 6:00 pm

Athletic Bilbao v Arsenal: Champions League – live

⚽ Champions League latest updates, 5.45pm BST kick-off
⚽ Live scores | Follow us over on Bluesky | And email Barry

Arsenal’s goalkeeper David Raya was put up for interview in Bilbao and asked if Arsenal’s players are talking about the possibility of winning this season’s Champions League. “We are, we have belief,” he said. “We want to win, we are Arsenal and we play to win, no doubt. That’s what we play football for. It’s a long journey in the Champions League and the Premier League.”

On his Athletic counterpart Unai Simon: “We played against each other in pre-season,” he said. “We haven’t talked too much about it but as a goalkeeper, there is no need to say what I think about him. He is an amazing goalkeeper. He is a guarantee here and in the national team.”

Referee: Donatas Rumsas

Assistant referees: Aleksandr Radius and Dovydas Suziedelis

Fourth official: Robertas Valikonis

VAR: Pol van Boekel

Published: September 16, 2025, 6:05 pm

Donald Trump files $15bn lawsuit against the New York Times

Title says it will not be ‘deterred by intimidation tactics’ after US president announces latest legal action

Donald Trump has filed a $15bn defamation lawsuit against the New York Times in his latest use of legal action targeting a major media outlet.

The US president accused it of being a “mouthpiece” for the Democratic party and of “spreading false and defamatory content” about him.

Published: September 16, 2025, 2:38 pm

Young climate activists in court aim to stop Trump’s pro-fossil fuel executive orders

Group of activists, who range in age from seven to 25, include plaintiffs who won landmark climate case in Montana two years ago

Youth climate activists are taking the Trump administration to court this week over its anti-environment agenda.

In a two-day hearing in Missoula, Montana, starting Tuesday, the young activists, who are between seven and 25, will argue that a federal judge should block three of Donald Trump’s pro-fossil fuel executive orders.

Published: September 16, 2025, 2:52 pm

‘Like working in a prison’: cuts, fear and understaffing at Trump’s labor department

Morale has plummeted as staff charged with protecting US workers feel their core mission is being undermined

A giant banner featuring a serious-looking Donald Trump now hangs down the front of the Department of Labor’s Washington DC office. Covering the windows of nearly three floors, the poster reads: “American Workers FIRST.”

“Mr President, I invite you see your big beautiful face on a banner in front of the Department of Labor because you are really the transformational president of the American worker,” the labor secretary, Lori Chavez-DeReme, said last month at a cabinet meeting with the president.

Published: September 16, 2025, 11:00 am

Mississippi declares infant deaths emergency as CDC program that could have helped is halted

State forced to stop gathering critical data on pregnancy experiences after Trump administration’s shakeup

The Trump administration’s shakeup of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has forced Mississippi to stop gathering critical data on women’s experiences before, during and after pregnancy – even as the state recently declared a public health emergency over its surging infant mortality rate.

Mississippi has suspended data collection for Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (Prams), a national database that has been integral to policymaking on maternal and infant health for nearly four decades, the Guardian has learned.

Published: September 16, 2025, 10:00 am

How huge London far-right march lifted the lid on a toxic transatlantic soup

Tommy Robinson’s ‘free speech’ protest attracted more than 100,000 people – and it was easy to find links to key political figures and events in the US

• Who were the key figures at the ‘unite the kingdom’ rally in London?

• Far-right London rally sees record crowds and violent clashes with police

A young man in a suit made of union jacks held up a framed photograph of their hero above his head. The crowd loudly chanted the name. The focus of this acclamation was not Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, the organiser of the so-called “free speech” march in central London last Saturday.

They were instead shouting themselves hoarse for Charlie Kirk, the murdered political activist from Cook County in the US state of Illinois.

Published: September 16, 2025, 5:00 pm

‘It seemed like a ghost town’: LA food vendors on how Trump’s Ice raids affected business

Business owners explain how summer immigration sweeps have shaken the community and left them ‘vulnerable’

From early morning to late at night, food vendors are feeding the people of Los Angeles. They offer nearly anything – tamales, fried fish, crispy tacos, mole, pupusas, fresh fruit, esquites, bacon-wrapped hot dogs – to Angelenos as they start their commutes or head home after the bars have closed.

Taco trucks and food vendors are a vital part of the city’s celebrated culinary scene, one that came under attack this summer as Donald Trump ordered mass immigration raids across the city.

Published: September 16, 2025, 5:00 pm

‘Alarming but not unexpected’: NYT lawsuit just latest example of Trump’s presidential lawfare

Intimidation strategy said to be part of broader campaign to quash and bypass independent and critical publications

As newsrooms learned that President Trump had filed another multibillion lawsuit against a major outlet to have provoked his scorn – this time his home town paper the New York Times – media executives again puzzled over his long-term aims in repeatedly deploying the law.

Different theories abound over the strategy, from creating a chilling effect on the media to feeding an anti-mainstream media sentiment among his most vigorous supporters. One firm conclusion, however, is that the tactic is here to stay.

Published: September 16, 2025, 2:13 pm

How an engineering student turned red Solo cups into stylish sweaters: ‘A lot of trial and error’

Lauren Choi wanted to give plastic a second life. Her experiment turned into The New Norm, a sustainable textile startup

If you’ve been on a college campus in the last 30 years, you’ve likely come across red party cups. Made by brands like Solo and Hefty, the iconic cups are beloved by frats, crucial to drinking games like beer pong – and very difficult to recycle because of the type of plastic they’re made from.

But Lauren Choi, an engineering student at Johns Hopkins University, saw an opportunity: she wanted to turn these problematic cups into fabric. In 2019, during her senior year, she led a team that built an extruder machine that could spin plastic waste into textile filaments. They partnered with campus fraternities to gather thousands of red cups that could serve as the raw material.

Published: September 16, 2025, 1:00 pm

Jill Lepore: ‘It’s so hard to amend the constitution’

The esteemed history professor and writer has explored the complicated history of the US constitution in a fascinating new book

In her new book, the Harvard history professor and New Yorker writer Jill Lepore makes a 600-page case for the US constitution as a living document, made to be amended by each generation.

Lepore said her book, We the People, is also “a deep historical critique of originalism”, the conservative legal theory that dominates the supreme court, deep political polarization having rendered constitutional amendments all but politically impossible.

Published: September 16, 2025, 5:12 pm

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey review – Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell play the game of love

Giddy romantic fantasy sends its two commitment-phobe leads on a magical road trip through their pasts that may lead them back to love

Korean-American auteur Kogonada has until now been known for his intriguingly complex, cerebral essayistic movies, such as Columbus and After Yang, whose emotional content, though potent, isn’t immediately obvious. Now he has made the leap into a big, bold, primary-coloured romantic phantasmagoria, as if Chris Marker had remade The Umbrellas of Cherbourg for the American multiplex with two unfeasibly beautiful Hollywood stars. This is a musical without musical numbers (without its own musical numbers, anyway) and a romantic comedy mostly without comedy – an imbalance it shares with most romcoms in fact. The screenwriter is Seth Reiss, co-author of the (much chillier) drama The Menu, with Ralph Fiennes as a scary chef.

What Kogonada and Reiss are offering is a likably, if obtusely uncynical, heart-on-sleeve wish-fulfilment spectacular, which gradually retreats from its initial, borderline insufferable self-awareness. Or maybe it’s just that you get used to it. We are plunged into a woozy daydream as multicoloured as a ball pit in a kids’ play centre, all about love, relationships and the overwhelming importance of being open and risking emotional hurt to find the One. This involves coming to terms with your past and how you feel about your passionately remembered parents who are either dead or at any rate don’t tactlessly appear on screen in their present elderly form.

Published: September 16, 2025, 4:00 pm

‘This country’s gonna fall on its face. There’s nobody coming to save us’: Boston punks Dropkick Murphys take on Maga

Videos of frontman Ken Casey confronting rightwing provocateurs at the band’s gigs have gone viral, attracting new fans and new safety worries. He wants to lower the temperature – and see other bands speaking out

Backstage at the Rock la Cauze festival in Victoriaville, Canada, where Boston punk-rock institution Dropkick Murphys are headlining, founding bassist/singer Ken Casey is experiencing an uncharacteristic moment of anxiety.

“We have concerns about going back over the border tonight,” he says, gravely – not for the illicit reasons touring musicians usually fear border crossings, but because Casey’s regular on stage rants against Donald Trump have gone viral. “We’re not worried about being arrested,” he adds. “But we have a show in New York tomorrow. Are we gonna get harassed or held up? We used to come over that border and they’d be, ‘Dropkicks! Come right through!’ But what’s it going to be like now?”

Published: September 16, 2025, 2:53 pm

I used to have wonderful vaginal orgasms. Why did they stop – and how can I get them back?

My husband and I still have sex – but something’s missing. Is stress the culprit?

I’m a woman in my 50s and have been with my husband for decades. We have always had a wonderful sex life and I used to be able to climax vaginally very easily, often without clitoral stimulation. During an eventful time for the family a couple of years ago, my libido and ability to climax disappeared, though they did eventually return. A few months ago, I had a health crisis, which has slightly impaired my coordination on one side. Although I have recovered very well, I am again experiencing a loss of libido and sexual sensation.

We continue to have sex regularly and I enjoy the intimacy. I can climax with clitoral stimulation but it takes a long time and can be almost physically painful. I really miss vaginal orgasms and the release they brought. Although I am of perimenopausal age, I have no obvious symptoms and a hormone test came back normal.

Pamela Stephenson Connolly is a US-based psychotherapist who specialises in treating sexual disorders.

If you would like advice from Pamela on sexual matters, send us a brief description of your concerns to private.lives@theguardian.com (please don’t send attachments). Each week, Pamela chooses one problem to answer, which will be published online. She regrets that she cannot enter into personal correspondence. Submissions are subject to our terms and conditions.

Published: September 16, 2025, 7:00 am

Why are so many Americans moving to Portugal? Apart from the obvious reason …

Vietnam and Albania have their fans. Some Americans might even enjoy the UK. But there’s a lot to be said for a country with universally accessible healthcare and freedom of movement within the EU

Name: Portugal.

Age: Founded 882 years ago.

Published: September 16, 2025, 4:58 pm

Jews and Israel are not the same. Equating them is a propaganda technique | Norman Solomon

The claim is central to rationales for arming Israel even as leading human rights groups decry genocide in Gaza

More than nine months after Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch issued reports that concluded Israel was committing genocide – and more than a month since key Israeli human rights groups asserted the same – the American political establishment remains in rigid denial while horrors continue nonstop in Gaza. Virtually all Republicans and most Democrats in Congress still support massive US arms shipments to Israel, so they certainly can’t admit that the weaponry is making genocide possible.

Central to rationales for arming Israel is the claim that it is the nation of “the Jewish people”.

Norman Solomon is the director of RootsAction and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His latest book is War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine.

Published: September 16, 2025, 4:24 pm

Just when Keir Starmer thought he’d got Jeffrey Epstein off his plate – look who’s coming to dinner | Marina Hyde

After a tough week for Labour, Donald Trump is touching down for a state visit. Let’s hope the PM can stomach it

Quick update on Keir Starmer’s government of “national renewal”: having just lost his deputy and housing secretary over her failure to pay the required stamp duty, the prime minister has also lost his US ambassador over his known close association with a known paedophile sex trafficker. Hang on – he’s now also lost his director of political strategy for relating some dirty jokes about Diane Abbott.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of people think the solution to all this is Andy Burnham taking over, suggesting the current Greater Manchester mayor could run in a parliamentary seat that has only notionally become free because the previous Labour MP was suspended from the party after being found to have sent messages hoping a couple of constituents would soon be dead/“mown down”, and is now apparently “off sick”. On top of which, we’re having the Americans round. US president Donald Trump touches down in the UK tonight on the eve of the most hideously ill-starred dinner party since the vomiting scene in Triangle of Sadness. I don’t think the nation could possibly feel any more renewed.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

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.

Published: September 16, 2025, 3:16 pm

Finland is ready for the next crisis, with stockpiled food and 72-hour kits – Europe should be too | Miika Ilomäki

The next pandemic or geopolitical shock could be close at hand. To look after our people, we’re looking after our supply chains, agriculture and fuel reserves

• Miika Ilomäki is chief preparedness specialist for Finland’s National Emergency Supply Agency

In times of crisis, food is more than sustenance. It is a pillar of national stability. Finland has long understood this, not just because of policy, but because of who we are and where we live. Geography, a mild continental climate and our history have shaped a mindset where preparedness is essential. In a country with vast territory, a sparse population and long distances between communities, resilience must be built into everything we do.

This understanding is deeply rooted in our society, in individual households as much as government institutions. Today, Finland’s approach to preparedness is rightly seen as a model for Europe. But it is not a one-size-fits-all solution. What works for Finland, such as our high levels of food self-sufficiency, strong institutions and a culture of cooperation, may not work elsewhere. Still, our experience offers valuable lessons. Preparedness must be proactive, inclusive and deeply integrated into national strategy.

Miika Ilomäki is chief preparedness specialist for Finland’s National Emergency Supply Agency

Published: September 16, 2025, 12:00 pm

Birth control: why are influencers turning away from the pill and towards natural contraceptive methods? | Antiviral

Claims on social media feeds are that synthetic hormones cause infertility and affect romantic choices. Experts say unintended pregnancies have reached ‘concerning levels’

• Read more in the Antiviral series

In the 1960s it was considered a watershed moment of liberation for women. Now, a new generation is being inundated with messages online that birth control is “evil” and “poison”. Across social media feeds, influencers are venting about hormonal contraception. Some are spreading false claims that taking synthetic hormones causes infertility, or can even be responsible for bad romantic decisions because you are “attracted to different men than you would be if you were off the pill”. Others emphasise known side-effects, such as weight gain and depression.

Meanwhile, millions of TikToks promote the effectiveness of natural contraceptive methods, with self-described “hormone experts” claiming it is “not that hard to prevent pregnancy naturally” with fertility awareness methods “just as effective, if not more effective than the birth control pill.”

Published: September 16, 2025, 3:00 pm

The Guardian view on Donald Trump’s Ukraine strategy: talking tough and doing very little isn’t working | Editorial

Last week’s incursion into Polish territory by Russian drones was an ominous escalation. But the US president keeps finding reasons not to act

Back in January, with Donald Trump’s campaign promises to end the war in Ukraine “within 24 hours” still fresh in the memory, there was genuine unease in Moscow over the US president’s intentions. When Mr Trump mused that “high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions” on Russia might be necessary, one high-profile and pro-war Moscow commentator wrote: “It’s better to prepare for the worst. Soon, we’ll look back on Biden’s term with nostalgia, like a thaw.”

How wrong can you be? Since then, the US president has repeatedly talked the talk without coming close to walking the walk. In May, when Vladimir Putin rejected a 30-day ceasefire, and peace talks in Turkey went nowhere, a “bone-crushing” US sanctions package failed to materialise. An 8 August deadline for Mr Putin to agree to a ceasefire somehow morphed into a red carpet welcome in Alaska, where Mr Trump applauded a leader wanted for war crimes as he disembarked from his plane. The “severe consequences” threatened by Mr Trump if the Alaska talks failed to lead to peace never happened.

Published: September 16, 2025, 6:02 pm

The Guardian view on the UN’s genocide finding: Britain – and the world – can no longer look away | Editorial

A UN commission has found Israel’s war in Gaza ranks among history’s greatest crimes. The UK government must stop hiding behind legal fictions and recognise the reality

A United Nations commission of inquiry has now said what Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights organisations, as well as many genocide scholars, have already argued: that Israel’s war in Gaza amounts to genocide. The commission finds that mass killings, attacks on vital infrastructure, starvation, displacement and denial of medical care meet the legal definition of history’s gravest crime. It finds genocidal intent “the only reasonable inference” from both the statements of Israel’s leaders and the conduct of its forces in Gaza.

Against this, Israel’s repeated assertions that it is acting in lawful self-defence ring hollow in the face of overwhelming evidence and a deliberate pattern of destruction. The UN’s conclusion imposes moral clarity. It also demands political action, especially from those, including the UK and the US, who have for too long treated Israel as an exception to international norms.

Published: September 16, 2025, 6:02 pm

McLaughlin-Levrone throws down gauntlet to Kipyegon in race to be greatest

• American is targeting the 40-year 400m world record

• Kipyegon is first woman to win four 1500m world titles

First Tokyo witnessed the spectacular. Then came a divine act of Faith.

In the women’s 400m, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone ran one of the fastest times in history, easing down, to raise the question of whether one of the oldest – and most controversial – track and field records might fall this week.

Published: September 16, 2025, 4:35 pm

The Bengals think they’re playing fantasy football, and Joe Burrow keeps paying the price

Cincinnati have dazzled with their weapons but failed at the one job that matters most: protecting their franchise quarterback

It sounds obvious: you don’t build an actual NFL roster like it’s a fantasy football team. It’s not enough to pack your squad with flashy weapons and hope you dazzle your way to the Super Bowl. You have to focus on more and different dimensions – roster depth, how players fit into coaching schemes, how they work together, and how even the “unsexy” positions are addressed at a high level.

And yet that is generally not how the Cincinnati Bengals have built their teams over the years. And once again, they’re paying for it in the worst possible way – with an injury to their star quarterback, Joe Burrow, that will severely affect their season. In the Bengals’ 31-27 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, Burrow suffered a turf toe injury as he was being sacked by defensive lineman Arik Armstead; it’s estimated that Burrow will be out at least three months. It’s the third time in six seasons that Burrow’s underwhelming offensive line – the line that is supposed to protect him from this sort of stuff – has helped shorten his season.

Published: September 16, 2025, 8:00 am

USA’s Cordell Tinch goes from toilet paper factory to 110m hurdles world champion

• 25-year-old took three-year break from elite sport

• Beats Jamaican duo to gold on sweltering night in Tokyo

Cordell Tinch took the long road to becoming a world-class athlete but capped a superb second season as a professional by winning the 110m hurdles at the world championships on another sweltering Tokyo night on Tuesday.

The 25-year-old American was all control and pace as he blazed over the 10 hurdles and held off the fast finishers in the run-in to claim the title in 12.99 seconds. Orlando Bennett ran a personal best 13.08 to win silver, while his fellow Jamaican Tyler Mason took the bronze in 13.12, which matched his previous best time.

Published: September 16, 2025, 3:05 pm

Tom Brady draws online ire as he appears in Las Vegas Raiders coaching booth

• Some have raised conflict of interest concerns over role

• Brady is a broadcaster and part-owner of Raiders

Tom Brady drew ire from fans on Monday night as the minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders appeared in his team’s coaching booth during a home loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.

Brady, who joined the Raiders’ ownership group last October, was spotted on ESPN’s telecast wearing a headset in the coaching booth. According to the ESPN broadcast, the future Hall of Famer discusses game film and goes over the gameplan with Las Vegas offensive coordinator Chip Kelly every week.

Published: September 16, 2025, 1:02 pm

‘I still have homework to do’: USA’s 16-year-old 800m star Cooper Lutkenhaus misses world semi-final

• Teenager is youngest ever US athlete at world champs

• Texan finishes seventh in heat, short of personal best

Cooper Lutkenhaus must have the best excuse for missing class of any high school junior, given he has been in Japan these past two weeks preparing to compete for Team USA at the World Athletics Championship.

But the 16-year-old’s dream of reaching the 800m final ended in the opening round on Tuesday as he could only finish seventh in the sweating heat of Tokyo.

Published: September 16, 2025, 1:37 pm

Paige Bueckers near unanimous rookie of the year after scintillating WNBA debut season

• Dallas star received 70 of 72 votes for honor

• Had superb campaign despite team’s struggles

Dallas Wings star Paige Bueckers was a runaway choice for WNBA Rookie of the Year after one of the best debut seasons in league history.

Bueckers received 70 of the 72 votes from sportswriters and broadcasters in balloting announced by the league on Tuesday. The other two went to Washington Mystics guard Sonia Citron.

Published: September 16, 2025, 4:36 pm

Italian skier Matteo Franzoso dies at the age of 25 after training crash in Chile

• Franzoso suffered ‘major head trauma’ in accident

• Lindsey Vonn: ‘This is incredibly sad … RIP Matteo’

The Italian skier Matteo Franzoso has died at the age of 25 following a crash during pre-season training in Chile at the weekend, his country’s winter sports federation (FISI) has confirmed.

After suffering “a major head trauma” in the accident at the La Parva track on Saturday, Franzoso was taken by helicopter to the intensive care unit of a clinic in Santiago and placed in an induced coma. The FISI confirmed on Monday that he did not recover after “cranial trauma” and a subsequent swelling of his brain.

Published: September 15, 2025, 9:26 pm

Baker Mayfield’s late magic leads Bucs to thrilling victory over Texans

• Tampa Bay Buccaneers edge out Houston Texans 20-19

• Justin Herbert leads Chargers to 20-9 win over Raiders

Two years ago, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost to the Houston Texans on a touchdown in the final seconds. On Monday night, Baker Mayfield and the Bucs were the ones to deliver a knockout blow as the clock neared zero.

Mayfield led an 11-play, 80-yard drive capped by Rachaad White’s two-yard touchdown run with six seconds left, and the Buccaneers rallied past the Texans 20-19. In the Bucs’ last visit to Houston, in 2023, CJ Stroud connected with Tank Dell for a TD with six seconds to go to give the Texans a 39-37 win.

Published: September 16, 2025, 6:30 am

Why have top Democratic leaders failed to endorse rising star Zohran Mamdani?

New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul has finally lent the city’s mayoral nominee her support – but the party’s top congressional leaders, both New Yorkers, have not

He’s the hottest politician in the US, who managed to attract thousands of young and first-time voters to the Democratic party in his unexpected win in the New York City mayoral primary.

With the Democrats suffering from historically low approval ratings, one might have thought the party would rally round Zohran Mamdani, to learn lessons from the media-savvy 33-year-old and bask in his soaring popularity.

Published: September 16, 2025, 10:00 am

Minnesota votes to fill seat of state representative who was killed along with her husband

Election to fill Melissa Hortman’s seat comes amid heightened alarm in the US over political violence

• US politics live – latest updates

Minnesota voters are heading to the polls on Tuesday for a special election to fill the state House seat of the late state representative Melissa Hortman, who was killed in June alongside her husband in what officials described as a “politically motivated assassination”.

Residents in Minnesota’s Brooklyn Park and surrounding suburbs will have the choice between Democrat Xp Lee, a health equity analyst and former Brooklyn Park city council member, and Republican Ruth Bittner, a real estate agent.

Published: September 16, 2025, 1:49 pm

Russia has network of 200 camps for ‘brainwashing’ Ukrainian children – report

Investigation uncovers documents and satellite imagery that confirm children being taken to sites for patriotic indoctrination, weapons training and combat drills

• How Russia is grooming Ukraine’s children to fight for it: ‘I understood it wasn’t just play’

Russia is running an extensive network of more than 200 camps to re-educate, Russify and militarise Ukrainian children, a new investigation has found.

The facilities, across Russia and occupied Ukraine, include camps as well as schools, military bases, medical facilities, religious sites and universities.

Published: September 16, 2025, 9:50 am

US health officials to revisit vaccine policies using anti-vax tactics, experts warn

Data public health experts say is worrisome will reportedly be presented to ACIP later this week before vote on shots

US health officials are reportedly planning to release data on child deaths and serious side effects they would attribute to Covid-19 vaccines, raising alarm among public health experts who say the publicly available data does not support these claims and the report may lead to increased anti-vaccine sentiment.

Independent advisers for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) later this week plan to revisit recommendations for Covid shots as well as vaccines for measles and hepatitis B.

Published: September 16, 2025, 3:43 pm

California nurses decry Ice presence at hospitals: ‘Interfering with patient care’

Caregiving staff say agents are bringing in patients, often denying them visitors and speaking on their behalf to staff

Dianne Sposito, a 69-year-old nurse, is laser-focused on providing care to anyone who enters the UCLA emergency room in southern California, where she works.

That task was made difficult though one week in June, she said, when a federal immigration agent blocked her from treating an immigrant who was screaming just a few feet in front of her in the hospital.

Published: September 16, 2025, 12:00 pm

Long Covid linked to heavier periods and risk of iron deficiency

Survey of 12,000 women also revealed severity of long Covid symptoms rose and fell across menstrual cycle

Women with long Covid are prone to longer, heavier periods, which could put them at greater risk of iron deficiency that exacerbates common symptoms of the condition, doctors say.

The findings emerged from a UK survey of more than 12,000 women, which also found that the severity of long Covid symptoms rose and fell across the menstrual cycle and became worse when women had their periods.

Published: September 16, 2025, 3:00 pm

Tourist riding electric unicycle spotted on Dolomites hiking trail

Italian scientists travelling to measure Marmolada glacier ‘astonished’ when visitor overtook them on rocky path

Researchers monitoring a melting glacier on the Marmolada, the largest peak in the Italian Dolomites, said they were astonished to witness a tourist navigating one of its trails on a self-balancing scooter.

The group, from the University of Padua’s Museum of Geography, had been making their way down the mountain’s glacier of the same name after carrying out measurements on its retreat when they encountered the man on a path at an altitude of about 2,600 metres.

Published: September 16, 2025, 2:23 pm

Coachella 2026: Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber, Karol G set to headline

Other acts for North America’s largest music festival include the Strokes, Young Thug, Addison Rae, the xx, Nine Inch Noize and FKA twigs

Justin Bieber, Sabrina Carpenter and Karol G will headline the 2026 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

It will be the first headliner set in the desert for all three artists. Other artists set for North America’s largest music festival include the xx, Disclosure, Teddy Swims, Sexyy Red, Katseye, Central Cee, Ethel Cain, Dijon and Nine Inch Noize on Friday; the Strokes, Giveon, Addison Rae, Labrinth and David Byrne on Saturday; and Young Thug, Bigbang, Major Lazer, Iggy Pop, FKA twigs and Subtronics on Sunday.

Published: September 16, 2025, 1:37 pm

Chadwick Boseman play about police brutality to receive UK premiere in London

Deep Azure, written by the Black Panther star in response to the death of a fellow college student, will open at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse next year

A play by the Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, who died of cancer aged 43 in 2020, is to receive its UK premiere next year.

Deep Azure was written by Boseman in response to the death of Prince Jones, his fellow college student at Washington DC’s Howard University, who was killed in 2000 by a police officer. The play was first performed in 2005 in the US and will be staged at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in London in February, directed by Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu.

Published: September 16, 2025, 3:20 pm

UN tries to limit staff going to Cop30 in Brazil due to high price of hotels

Accommodation costs at climate summit in Belem are pricing out some developing countries and media outlets

The United Nations has urged its staff to limit attendance at the Cop30 climate summit in Brazil in November due to high accommodation prices, while government delegations are still scrambling to find rooms within their budgets.

The move comes as delegations grow increasingly concerned about the cost of accommodation in the coastal Amazon city of Belem hosting Cop30. Brazil said it was working to increase the number of available hotel beds, but soaring prices for accommodation have stoked calls from some governments to relocate the conference, which Brazilian officials have rejected.

Published: September 16, 2025, 4:44 pm

US senator calls on big oil to disclose lobbying that led Trump to axe key climate rule

Senate committee investigates suspected push that led administration to overturn EPA’s endangerment finding

In the wake of the Trump administration’s announcement that it will overturn the rule which underpins virtually all US climate regulations, a Senate committee has launched an investigation into a suspected lobbying push that led to the move.

On Tuesday, the Senate environment and public works committee sent letters to two dozen corporations, including oil giants, thinktanks, law firms and trade associations. The missives request each company to turn over documents regarding the 2009 declaration, known as the endangerment finding, which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said in July that it will unmake.

Published: September 16, 2025, 3:00 pm

‘You’re going about your day and suddenly see a little Godzilla’: Bangkok reckons with a giant lizard boom

Viral videos have shifted public opinion about water monitors, long held in contempt in Thai culture, even as rising numbers of the reptiles pose problems for residents

Shortly after dawn, Lumphini Park comes alive. Bangkok residents descend on the sprawling green oasis in the middle of the city, eager to squeeze in a workout before the heat of the day takes hold. Joggers trot along curving paths. Old men struggle under barbells at the outdoor gym. Spandex-clad women stretch into yoga poses on the grass.

Just metres away, one of the park’s more infamous occupants strikes its own lizard pose. About 400 Asian water monitor lizards call Lumphini Park home, and this morning they are out in full force – scrambling up palm trees, swimming through the waterways and wrestling on the road.

Published: September 15, 2025, 6:00 am

Progressive groups fear ‘McCarthy era’ attacks in wake of Charlie Kirk shooting

Advocacy groups say Trump and allies’ calls for investigations represent attempt to ‘quash dissent’

The president, vice-president and members of Congress have begun calling for the government to investigate progressive organizations in the wake of the Charlie Kirk murder, in terms those targeted say are reminiscent of the House Un-American Activities Committee and the “red scare” of the 1950s.

Donald Trump, speaking to Fox & Friends on Friday, presented “vicious and horrible” radicals on the left of US politics as a roadblock to the country coming together politically after the shooting. On Sunday, he amplified his attack on political enemies by declaring that “a lot of people that you would traditionally say are on the left … [are] already under investigation”.

Published: September 16, 2025, 11:00 am

‘Diplomatic abuse’: Brazil minister on US revoking his 10-year-old daughter’s visa

Alexandre Padilha’s father fled dictatorship for the US – now the health chief’s family is a target of Trump’s bully tactics

When Alexandre Padilha’s father most needed help, the United States took him in.

It was 1971, the height of Brazil’s brutal two-decade dictatorship, and Anivaldo Padilha, a young Methodist activist, had been forced to flee his homeland after spending 11 months in one of São Paulo’s most notorious torture centres.

Published: September 16, 2025, 9:00 am

Trump at first says he is ‘not familiar’ with Minnesota Democrat’s assassination

President says he would have ordered half-staff flags for Melissa Hortman if Tim Walz had asked him to do so

• US politics live – latest updates

In response to a question about why he did not order flags lowered to half-staff to honor Melissa Hortman, the Democratic speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives who was assassinated alongside her husband this summer, Donald Trump initially said he was “not familiar” with the case.

The question came up during a briefing in the Oval Office on Monday, in light of the president’s order last week to lower flags in response to the killing of rightwing activist Charlie Kirk.

Published: September 16, 2025, 1:53 am

Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK: what’s on the agenda?

Visit comes at sensitive time for UK government, which is laying on display of royal and military pageantry

Donald Trump arrives in the UK on Tuesday for a historic second state visit. His trip comes at a tricky time for Keir Starmer, who is facing growing discontent from his own MPs and is in the middle of preparations for what could be a make-or-break party conference speech.

The government is hoping to wow the US president with a show of royal and military pageantry, while keeping him away from sensitive places such as central London – and sensitive topics such as immigration and free speech.

Published: September 16, 2025, 8:00 am

Spain first of Eurovision ‘big five’ to say it will boycott event if Israel participates

Head of state broadcaster says it is ‘impossible to look the other way’ over Israel’s actions in Gaza

Spain has become the latest country to confirm it will not take part in next year’s Eurovision song contest if Israel participates, with the head of its state broadcaster saying “the genocide currently taking place make[s] it impossible for us to look the other way”.

The majority decision by RTVE board members makes Spain the first of the “big five” Eurovision countries that contribute the most money to the event to take such action in response to Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

Published: September 16, 2025, 5:21 pm

Google announces £5bn AI investment in UK before Trump visit

Rachel Reeves says move is a ‘vote of confidence’ in British economy as she prepares to open firm’s first UK datacentre

• Business live – latest updates

Google has said it will invest £5bn in the UK in the next two years to help meet growing demand for artificial intelligence services, in a boost for the government.

The investment, which comes as Google opens its new datacentre in Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire, is expected to contribute to the creation of thousands of jobs, the US tech company said.

Published: September 16, 2025, 7:00 am

Sex work and abuse: the women trapped in Malawi’s growing refugee camp

With the US no longer accepting refugees, Dzaleka’s residents have no prospect of relocation. Three women tell us what life is like in a camp designed for 10,000 people but which now holds more than 58,000

• Photographs by Amos Gumulira for the Guardian

Tears stream down Francine’s* face as she pulls her glove off. Her right hand is covered by a pale, mottled burn scar. Her fingers are stiff and unnaturally bent. Francine turned to sex work to survive soon after she arrived alone at Malawi’s Dzaleka refugee camp in 2015, having travelled there from Burundi.

On Christmas Eve in 2022, a client refused to pay. When she blocked the doorway, he grabbed a boiling-hot saucepan of beans and threw it at her, scalding her hand and chest.

Published: September 16, 2025, 11:00 am

Kenya seeks arrest of former British soldier over alleged murder of Agnes Wanjiru

High court judge issues arrest warrant, saying a suspect has been charged in relation to 2012 death of 21-year-old

• Profile: who was Agnes Wanjiru?

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of a British national on suspicion of the murder of the Kenyan woman Agnes Wanjiru, who was found dead in the grounds of a hotel near an army base in 2012.

The high court judge Alexander Muteti issued the arrest warrant earlier on Tuesday in Kenya, with the prosecution telling the court a suspect had been charged with murder, and his extradition to Kenya was being sought.

Published: September 16, 2025, 2:28 pm

Death on the Riviera: The White Lotus is coming to France

Rumours that Mike White’s hit series will be filming next in France have now been confirmed – but what can we expect?

The White Lotus didn’t have the Emmys it expected this year, but a little thing like critical disappointment isn’t going to slow it down. In other words: forget season three, because we already know where season four is headed.

In a post-Emmys conversation with Deadline, HBO’s Casey Bloys confirmed the rumour that The White Lotus season four will take place in France. Were there any other details? No. Did he offer even the slightest indication of even a sliver of what’s to come? Again, no. But this is the internet, so let’s speculate wildly nonetheless.

Published: September 16, 2025, 9:04 am

‘Trump is a defecating fly on a camel’s back’: Palestinian artist Samia Halaby on being banned, exiled – and now celebrated

At 88, she has won a Munch award for artistic freedom – despite her pioneering work being cancelled by the US university she studied at. She talks protest, polarisation and propaganda

It’s a miracle I get out of my interview with Palestinian artist Samia Halaby alive. Not just because the creaky wooden stairs to her second-floor Tribeca, New York live-work space are alarmingly steep, but because certain people view the 88-year-old acclaimed abstract artist, a pioneer of digital art, as a dangerous security threat.

In December 2023, Indiana University, Halaby’s alma mater, cancelled what was due to be the first American retrospective exhibition of Halaby’s work at the university’s Eskenazi Museum of Art. The exhibition had been three years in the making but Halaby was informed she was no longer welcome in a terse two-sentence letter from the museum’s director, citing vague security concerns. The real reason, she suspects, was the museum’s wish to distance itself from anything supportive of Palestine in the wake of 7 October. Almost a year later, says Halaby, Michigan State University abruptly cancelled the opening party for her solo retrospective and removed a painting whose title, Six Golden Heroes, referred to the escape of Palestinian political prisoners.

Published: September 16, 2025, 7:00 am

Giant: Rock Hudson and James Dean’s epic family drama that lives up to its name

Hudson, Dean and Elizabeth Taylor make a thrilling trio in this decades-spanning saga set on a scorching Texan ranch

“I think Rock Hudson worked best with a big background,” says film historian Steve Hayes in a biography of the Hollywood heart-throb, “in a big melodrama against a big landscape”. It doesn’t get much bigger than George Stevens’ three-and-a-half-hour epic Giant, starring the towering Hudson – who stood 6ft 5in at the height of his fame.

Adapted from Edna Ferber’s 1952 bestseller of the same name, Giant is a film of great conscience and scale, tracing multiple decades of a southern family reckoning with social and political tailwinds on their ranch. Often described as the national movie of Texas, Giant actually begins further east in the state of Maryland where Jordan “Bick” Benedict Jr (Hudson) has journeyed to buy a horse fit for his 595,000 acres of land. There he meets and quickly marries debutante Leslie Lynnton, played by a young Elizabeth Taylor.

Published: September 16, 2025, 3:00 pm

The Astronaut review – jump-scares and levitating eggs in a luxury location

In this slow-burn sci-fi, Kate Mara’s Nasa pilot crash lands back on Earth and is placed in a swanky safe house – but things soon start going bump in the night

At the start of this slow-burn sci-fi, Nasa pilot Captain Sam Walker (Kate Mara) crash lands in the ocean; she is retrieved by her employer and placed in a very swanky safe house. The quarantine is standard, the location isn’t; she has her CIA honcho father (Laurence Fishburne) to thank for this unexpectedly aspirational hideout, all sleek glass and angular, impersonal interior design. Most of the film then unfolds in this luxe-but-remote location, where it’s a toss-up between what is more disturbing: Sam’s newfound ability to levitate an egg, or the things that go bump in the night and also leave residue on the floor.

The egg levitation suggests that not only is Sam possibly being menaced by external entities unknown, but she must also contend with changes to her own body. A grey bruise on her hand keeps getting worse, and she is experiencing migraines and hallucinations. What, exactly, is going on? Initially, director Jess Varley does a really fine job of setting up and starting to unravel these mysteries; she is aided by a committed cast, with Fishburne providing gravitas as Sam’s dad, Gabriel Luna doing a soulful, wounded turn as the other half of Sam’s troubled marriage, and newcomer Scarlett Holmes as the couple’s adorable daughter.

Published: September 16, 2025, 2:00 pm

Bad Man review – southern-fried script and idiosyncratic locals lift gun totin’ black comedy

Seann William Scott turns up to take over a small town murder, in this crime flick with a blokey, improv flavour

One might be forgiven for forming very low expectations for this crime flick given its poster’s generically moody imagery showing star Seann William Scott holding a gun with an electricity pylon in the background. What a nice surprise to discover this is in fact a comedy, better yet one that’s actually often funny, in a blokey, improv sort of way.

The conceit is that in the tiny Tennessee town of Colt Lake a man is murdered in the street, run over by a car so many times that he looks like meatloaf. Clueless but kindly local cop Sam Evans (Johnny Simmons) and his deputy DJ (Chance Perdomo) make a feeble stab at investigating, but are soon upstaged when special agent Bobby Gaines (Scott) suddenly shows up, representing a statewide taskforce, and takes over the case. Gaines’ methods may be a little on the violent side and not strictly by the book, but he gets confessions amazingly quickly and soon he works his way up the (admittedly) short crime food chain until he finds the main bad guy. There are a few twists but the crime plot is of much less significance than the southern-fried backchat: a constant patter of men insulting each other, maligning one another’s manhood, and generally describing each other as small town failures.

Published: September 16, 2025, 12:01 pm

Rebel Royals: An Unlikely Love Story review – the one about the princess and the ‘soul-sexual’ shaman

She is Norwegian royalty. He is Gwyneth Paltrow’s healer. Now, the tale of their shocking marriage is shared in this shallow, gushing documentary. Still, at least they have Prince Harry’s blessing

In 2019 – two years after her divorce from her former husband Ari Behn – Norway’s Princess Märtha Louise went public with her new partner. To say that Durek Verrett wasn’t what the Norwegian public had in mind would be an understatement: as well as being a Black American man based in Los Angeles, Verrett was also a celebrity shaman who had worked with the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow. The trailer for Rebel Royals: An Unlikely Love Story plays up his wild side and the sense that Märtha Louise was dramatically departing from tradition by dating – and later marrying – him. But, really, this Netflix documentary shows that they have a tremendous amount in common. Märtha Louise may be a princess but she is, to use a trendy word, incredibly “crunchy” – a woman who was communicating with angels and teaching energy healing way back in 2007. The pair are convinced that they met in a past life. And by the time we see them flogging their wedding pictures to a glossy magazine, it’s clear that their connection transcends the spiritual realm and extends to the financial one, too.

Rebel Royals is presented entirely via talking heads – most notably, Märtha Louise and Verrett – giving it little narrative cohesion. Interesting titbits are teased throughout, such as Verrett describing himself as “soul-sexual”, and saying he had previously thought he would end up with a male partner. There is a section on the vile racism he faced in Norway – much of it from online trolls, but not helped by initial silence from his new in-laws. (As Verrett notes, when his father-in-law, King Harald, did speak out, he was praised by Prince Harry, who was himself embroiled in a race-related row with his family.)

Published: September 16, 2025, 4:00 am

The Big Payback by Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder review – the case for reparations

The TV star and his co-author make a compelling argument for properly addressing the legacies of slavery

When slavery was abolished in the British empire in 1833, it was thought only reasonable that slave-owners should be recompensed for the loss of their property: the British government had to borrow the equivalent of £17bn at current values to do this and that loan was not completely paid off until 2015. Meanwhile, the slaves themselves never received a penny in compensation.

There have always been dedicated Black campaigners for reparations, but it is only recently that their demands have gained momentum. Furthermore, it is impossible to talk about reparations without talking about race and migration – and these are issues at the top of the political agenda internationally. All this makes Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder’s new book both timely and vital.

Published: September 16, 2025, 8:00 am

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan review – the limits of liberalism

A century from now, a literature scholar pieces together a picture of our times in a novel that quietly compels us to consider the moral consequences of global catastrophe

The sheer Englishness of Ian McEwan’s fiction may not be fully visible to his English readers. But it is clearly, and amusingly, visible to at least this Irish reader. It isn’t just McEwan’s elegiac, indeed patriotic, attentiveness to English landscapes – to the wildflowers and hedgerows and crags, to the “infinite shingle” of Chesil Beach, to the Chilterns turkey oak in the first paragraph of Enduring Love. Nor is it merely the ferocious home counties middle-classness of his later novels, in which every significant character is at the very least a neurosurgeon or a high court judge, everyone is conversant with Proust, Bach and Wordsworth, and members of the lower orders tend to appear as worrying upstarts from a world in which nobody plonks out the Goldberg Variations on the family baby grand. No, McEwan’s Englishness has most to do with his scrupulously rational, but occasionally and endearingly purblind, liberal morality: England’s most admirable, and most irritating, gift to politics and art.

These thoughts were provoked by a brief passage in McEwan’s future-set new novel that describes the “Inundation” of Britain after a Russian warhead goes off accidentally in the middle of the Atlantic, causing a tsunami that, combined with rising sea levels, wipes out everything but a Europe-wide archipelago of mountain peaks. In these entertainingly nihilistic pages, the fate of that other major chunk of the British Isles is not mentioned. Presumably Ireland, with its dearth of high peaks, fared badly as Europe drowned. But from McEwan’s future history, you’d never know it. I began to think of What We Can Know as another of McEwan’s deeply English stories. It has, I thought, the familiar partialities of vision. Has Brexit, endlessly backstopped by those pesky six counties, taught English liberals nothing?

Published: September 16, 2025, 6:00 am

From shocking short stories to a talking foetus: Ian McEwan’s 10 best books – ranked!

As the author’s future-set novel, What We Can Know, hits shelves, we assess his top 10 works – from chilling short stories to Booker prize-winning satire

Two old friends, composer Clive Linley and newspaper editor Vernon Halliday, meet at the funeral of charismatic Molly Lane, a former lover of both men (along with many other successful men of the time). This sharp 90s satire – the Conservatives have been in power for 17 years – has the misfortune of being McEwan’s only novel to win the Booker prize in his 50-year career, despite being widely considered one of his slightest. But it fizzes along like the champagne that is part of the euthanasia pact hatched by the two men in a plot that even the author conceded was “rather improbable”. New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani was right when she concluded that it was testament to the author’s skill that he had managed “to toss off a minor entertainment with such authority and aplomb” to win the gong he had so long deserved.

Published: September 15, 2025, 11:01 am

We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad review – a delicious follow-up to Bunny

Scabrous satire drives this camp, goofy sequel about a cabal of writing students at an Ivy league university – its hot-boyfriend golems are adorable

We Love You, Bunny, is the much-anticipated sequel to Mona Awad’s beloved campus horror/satire of 2019, Bunny. Both books are set at an Ivy League university in a crime-ridden New England town; from various well-seeded clues, we can identify this as Brown University. Here it is called Warren, because the Bunnyverse is unabashedly silly and self-referential. Rabbit jokes abound.

The first book followed Samantha, an alienated, cash-strapped creative writing student cold-shouldered by her workshop cohort, a cabal of four ultra-feminine rich girls who all call each other Bunny. The Bunnies wear fluffy dresses, eat mini food and – as Samantha learns when she’s finally inducted into their cult – express their creativity through demonic rites that involve exploding rabbits. Samantha has to transcend them to find her voice as an artist. The story of Bunny is the result.

Published: September 15, 2025, 8:00 am

Seth Meyers: ‘Trump clearly has no answer to Putin’s aggression’

With most late-night hosts on Emmys break, Meyers discusses Trump’s feckless foreign policy as Russia impedes on Poland’s airspace

As several late-night hosts take a break for the Emmys – which went to the Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Sunday night – Seth Meyers looked into Donald Trump’s lack of international leadership.

Published: September 16, 2025, 2:03 pm

Owen Cooper’s Emmy sends message to ‘look outside the box’, drama school says

Co-head of Manchester school where Adolescence actor trained says she hopes win will encourage casting of ‘raw northern talent’

The co-director of the drama school where Adolescence star Owen Cooper trained has said she hopes his Emmy win will encourage producers to “look outside the box” when it comes to casting working-class and northern talent.

Cooper, 15, became the youngest ever male recipient of an Emmy on Sunday, when he won the best supporting actor in a limited series award for his role as the teenage murder suspect Jamie Miller in the Netflix drama.

Published: September 16, 2025, 1:16 pm

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui: ‘Artists are liars who just make things up – but we reveal a lot’

The internationally feted choreographer has worked with pop megastars, a sculptor and the monks of the Shaolin Temple. Now he is tackling the cultural divisions and colonial legacy of his homeland

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui is almost offended when I suggest he’s a busy man. “When people tell me, ‘You do so much,’ I cringe,” says the artistic director of the Grand Théâtre de Genève – the largest stage in Switzerland, with its ballet and opera companies – who runs his own company Eastman in his native city of Antwerp. He is also the creator of contemporary dance-theatre productions and a choreographer for film (Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina and Cyrano), musicals (Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill), pop (Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Madonna) and plenty more.

This autumn alone, nine different works of Cherkaoui’s are being performed around the world, including An Accident/A Life, a collaboration with performer Marc Brew, about the car accident that left Brew paralysed from the neck down – “It’s maybe the piece I’m most proud of,” Cherkaoui says – and the UK premiere of Vlaemsch (Chez Moi), both in London.

Published: September 16, 2025, 8:42 am

To understand how AI will reconfigure humanity, try this German fairytale | Clemens J Setz

Artificial intelligence will replace creativity with something closer to magical wishing. The challenge for future generations will be dealing with the feeling of emptiness that leaves us with

In the German fairytale The Fisherman and His Wife, an old man one day catches a strange fish: a talking flounder. It turns out that an enchanted prince is trapped inside this fish and that it can therefore grant any wish. The man’s wife, Ilsebill, is delighted and wishes for increasingly excessive things. She turns their miserable hut into a castle, but that is not enough; eventually she wants to become the pope and, finally, God. This enrages the elements; the sea turns dark and she is transformed back into her original impoverished state. The moral of the story: don’t wish for anything you’re not entitled to.

Several variations of this classic fairytale motif are known. Sometimes, the wishes are not so much excessive or offensive to the divine order of the world, but simply clumsy or contradictory, such as in Charles Perrault’s The Ridiculous Wishes. Or, as in WW Jacobs’ 1902 horror story The Monkey’s Paw, their wishes unintentionally harm someone who is actually much closer to them than the object of their desire.

Published: September 16, 2025, 6:00 am

Baggy jeans, workwear and plenty of grit: luxury reimagined at Coach

Creative director Stuart Vevers appeals to gen z audience with ‘down-to-earth pieces’ for New York fashion week

New York fashion week is proving a particularly perplexing time for brands as they continue to grapple with a global slowdown, leading many to question what luxury even means today.

For some consumers, it is always going to be about a gleaming five-figure handbag. For others, it is a limited-edition Labubu. While a certain cohort considers a plain cashmere jumper to be the peak of high status, logomania endures for others. Vintage shopping is now used to denote quality but equally buying nothing has become a powerful signifier.

Published: September 16, 2025, 3:29 pm

‘I love you too!’ My family’s creepy, unsettling week with an AI toy

The cuddly chatbot Grem is designed to ‘learn’ your child’s personality, while every conversation they have is recorded, then transcribed by a third party. It wasn’t long before I wanted this experiment to be over ...

‘I’m going to throw that thing into a river!” my wife says as she comes down the stairs looking frazzled after putting our four-year-old daughter to bed.

To be clear, “that thing” is not our daughter, Emma*. It’s Grem, an AI-powered stuffed alien toy that the musician Claire Boucher, better known as Grimes, helped develop with toy company Curio. Designed for kids aged three and over and built with OpenAI’s technology, the toy is supposed to “learn” your child’s personality and have fun, educational conversations with them. It’s advertised as a healthier alternative to screen time and is part of a growing market of AI-powered toys.

Published: September 16, 2025, 4:00 am

Is a memory palace actually useful? It helped me memorize the first 20 digits of pi

It felt like a gargantuan achievement – I’m someone who regularly forgets the most important item on a shopping list

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There’s a scene from the 2010s series Sherlock that I think about a lot. Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) visits his “mind palace” to figure out how he and his friend/minion John Watson (Martin Freeman) got drugged. Words, phrases and images float around his head, and he moves them around with his hands.

“It’s a memory technique,” Watson explains to a confused onlooker. “You plot a map of a location – it doesn’t have to be a real place – and then you deposit memories there.” Theoretically, he says, you can never forget anything, he says: “All you have to do is find your way back to it.”

Published: September 15, 2025, 4:08 pm

A new start after 60: I’d spent five decades travelling. Then I fell in love, got married and finally found a home

Grady Harris spent his young life hitchhiking, working various jobs and playing in a band. When he met his future wife, he found his ‘bulwark’ and has never looked back

On Grady Harris’s wedding day, his father, a Presbyterian preacher, presided over the vows. “And when my father told us to kiss, and we did, I felt a sense of joy that I’d never felt before,” Harris says. “I’ve had a life full of happiness … But that was a new joy.”

Harris was 60, and marrying for the first time. Now 69, he lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife, Marcia Wood, 66, who has an art gallery in the city. At times, their relationship must have seemed unlikely – 12 years separated their first and second dates, and they met by chance through a long chain of friends of friends.

Published: September 15, 2025, 5:55 am

The one change that worked: I went to a festival by myself and made peace with being perimenopausal

As I reached my late-40s, I’d become anxious and risk-averse. A solo trip made me realise who I was again – and taught me to embrace the thrill of trying something new

I used to pride myself on being a gung-ho kind of person, embracing change and thrills in life, whether that was travelling alone to South America or doing standup comedy. But, as my 40s progressed, I found myself becoming more cautious. I started to choose the safer option, such as booking a package holiday instead of a DIY adventure, or hesitating before sending a work email, worried it didn’t sound “right”.

I felt anxiety, low mood and brain fog – all symptoms of perimenopause – creeping in. I was in what I would call a menopausal funk: weighed down by my feelings and my slightly aching body. I began experiencing this two years ago. I’m 47 now. Taking HRT (hormone replacement therapy) helped, but I felt as if I had reached a point in my life where I had to accept that I was just going to be a bit less “me” and not so brave.

Published: September 15, 2025, 9:00 am

Cos takes centre stage at New York fashion week and Gwyneth Paltrow rebrands

The high street brand moves beyond fast fashion with a brutalist collection, while Paltrow loses the gimmicks

The headline act on day four of New York fashion week had all the hallmarks of a typical designer catwalk, including a pulsating soundtrack and a front row peppered with Hollywood stars. However, there was a twist. Instead of a luxury brand staging the show on Sunday, it was the high street label Cos.

The Swedish label, founded in 2007 by the H&M group, welcomed guests including the British actors Jodie Turner-Smith and Naomi Watts as well as the singer Lauryn Hill to a former 1890s rope factory in Brooklyn.

Published: September 15, 2025, 7:24 am

Dinner dumplings: Alice Zaslavsky’s savoury syrniki with caraway and caramelised onion – recipe

Inspired by cottage cheese hacks and the sweet breakfast her Mum makes, Alice Zaslavsky turns syrniki into a sophisticated midweek meal with caraway seeds, sour cream and dill

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Isn’t it funny how ingredients have entirely different connotations depending on your context?

In the Anglosphere, cottage cheese is mid-century diet food. Served with grapefruit halves, joyless and tasteless. Richard Nixon’s last White House meal: tinned pineapple slices with an ice-cream scoop of cottage cheese and a glass of milk. Yikes.

Published: September 16, 2025, 3:00 pm

Wanted: bakes to make use of a glut of homemade jam | Kitchen aide

Give cakes and cookies a fruity boost, lend breakfast a sweet lift – and save the rest to jar up as Christmas gifts

I have a lot of jam made with all kinds of berries – are there any bakes that would use some of it up?
Anne-Lies, Gouda, the Netherlands
“Jam is at the heart of many great British puddings and cakes, so there are never too many jars in my house!” says Emily Cuddeford, co-founder of Edinburgh’s Twelve Triangles bakery. Her first thought, though, would be to tip a jar of the sweet stuff into a buttered ceramic baking dish and top it with sponge: “Make a classic, equal-parts mix scaled to your dish by creaming, say, 180g butter and 180g sugar, slowly beating in an egg and a dash of vanilla or lemon zest, and finishing with 180g self-raising flour.” Spoon that on top of the jam and bake at 190C (170C fan)/375F/gas 5 until the sponge “bounces back” and a skewer comes out clean. Serve warm with cream or custard, and job’s a good ’un.

You’ll also want jam to fill or top cakes. “Obvious things are a Victoria sponge, but that doesn’t use much jam,” says the Guardian’s own Benjamina Ebuehi, so she’d be more inclined to spoon buttercream over the top of a coconut cake, for example, make a dip in the middle with the back of a spoon and pop some jam in there: “That’s a nice way to decorate a cake and it also uses up a decent amount of jam.” It wouldn’t hurt, either, to use berry jams to finish a classic school dinner traybake sponge: “Once it’s out of the oven, top with jam then scatter with desiccated coconut.” Otherwise, Ebuehi says, joy can be found in a nostalgic jam tart or Italian crostata (look out for Ebuehi’s blackberry version next week).

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

Published: September 16, 2025, 12:00 pm

Houseplant clinic: will my euphorbia ever sprout again?

Don’t panic! This plant has a natural seasonal rhythm, so resist the urge to overwater when it’s bare

What’s the problem?
My Euphorbia ritchiei sprouted a leaf, but it was accidentally knocked off and now it’s bare. Will it grow back?

Diagnosis
Please don’t panic, this east African succulent is unusual in that it grows fleshy leaves along its ridged stems during its growing season, then often sheds them in winter. In its native Kenya, rainfall is seasonal. The plant responds by producing foliage in the wet season, then dropping its leaves in the dry season to conserve water and energy. The green stems continue to photosynthesise so the plant can survive leafless for long periods.

Published: September 16, 2025, 9:00 am

Steam baths and seaweed safaris on Sweden’s spa island

A new wellbeing hotel on the tiny outpost of Styrsö in the Gothenburg archipelago is a perfect base for a relaxing, restorative break

If you came to stay on the tiny island of Styrsö (steer-shuh) in the Gothenburg archipelago in the late 19th or early 20th century, there was a good chance it was because you had tuberculosis. The island had already begun to appeal to city folk who came here for fresh air, sea baths and peace, but the sanatoriums set up by the renowned Dr Peter Silfverskiöld gained such a positive reputation that the isle became known as a health resort. Those glory days have long since faded but Kusthotellet, a new hotel dedicated to wellbeing, aims to tap back into the restorative vibe.

The conditions that first drew health-seekers to the island still pertain. It’s tucked away and protected from winds, but the lack of high ground nearby means the sun shines on its southern coast from dawn to dusk, and there’s no pollution. “This island is such a peaceful place – you can really relax and recharge your batteries,” Malin Lilton, manager of Kusthotellet, told my companion and me. “As soon as you get on the ferry your pulse rate goes down and you start breathing in the good air.”

Published: September 16, 2025, 6:00 am

US right capitalizes on fatal stabbing of Ukrainian refugee in North Carolina

Far right points to lax criminal justice system and racist narratives, not mental health system failures as experts say

The random and unprovoked killing of a young woman in North Carolina several weeks ago has become a viral video, a political football, and a powerful rightwing talking point – even as the horror and anger her death has provoked obscures what experts say is a vital story about the failures of the American mental health system.

The alleged perpetrator, Decarlos Brown Jr, 34, has a long history of problems with the law and mental health issues. He had been arrested 14 times and served a five-year stint for armed robbery. Brown had also come to believe that there was something alien and malevolent inside him – a “man-made material”, he told people, possibly a computer chip implanted by the government that was fighting him for control of his body.

Published: September 15, 2025, 12:00 pm

The US town that pays every pregnant woman $1,500: ‘We’re not OK with our babies being born into poverty’

Infants in Rx Kids in Flint, Michigan, saw lower rates of prematurity and other issues, saving millions in NICU visits

When Angela Sintery first learned about Rx Kids, a program for new mothers in her home town of Flint, Michigan, she thought someone must be trying to scam her.

“I had some teacher friends that kept sending me links saying: ‘You need to apply for this. It’s a brand-new program. We think you qualify,’” Sintery said. But it seemed too good to be true.

Published: September 15, 2025, 11:00 am

‘Americans should be alarmed’: Experts say loss of expertise at CDC will harm US health

Top officials exited agency under RFK Jr’s leadership, and his anti-vax beliefs have dismayed medical community

After high-profile departures and sweeping layoffs, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) faces an unprecedented loss of expertise and a simultaneous erosion of trust as top health leaders undermine vaccines and other vital health tools.

“Americans should be alarmed,” said Nirav Shah, former principal deputy director at CDC and now a visiting professor at Colby College. “All of these moves leave us less safe, and it comes at a time of rising public health threats.”

Published: September 15, 2025, 12:00 pm

Share your tributes and memories of Robert Redford

We would like to hear your tributes and memories of Hollywood star Robert Redford – whether you met him, or appreciated his work

Robert Redford, star of Hollywood classics including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and All the President’s Men, has died aged 89.

In a statement to the New York Times, his publicist said the actor died in his sleep at his home in Utah.

Published: September 16, 2025, 1:03 pm

Tell us about the worst meal you have cooked

We would like to hear from people about their culinary disasters and what they think went wrong

From an overambitious birthday cake to an adventurous would-be feast that ended up in the dustbin, we would like to hear about the worst meal you’ve ever cooked.

We will feature a selection in an article of humorous (and non-lethal) anecdotes of culinary disaster for G2.

Published: September 16, 2025, 9:04 am

Palestinians flee Gaza City and funeral procession in Nepal: photos of the day – Tuesday

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

Published: September 16, 2025, 12:51 pm