Teachers need help with AI. A union is offering training – with $23m in funding from big tech

Partnership between American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest labor unions in the US, and AI firms has stirred controversy

Darius Saczuk, a high school teacher, views artificial intelligence as his enemy. Earlier this year, he and several dozen New York City teachers spent the day inside a windowless conference room in downtown Manhattan to learn how to use AI and prevent students from outsourcing their thinking to it.

As Saczuk sees it, he needs to understand his enemy in order to beat it.

Published: August 5, 2026, 5:00 am

Abdul El-Sayed offers a template for Democrats to defeat Trumpism | Peter Beinart

The candidate has crafted a progressive nationalism and shown his party how to turn Republicans’ financial advantage against them

Every now and then, a Senate race sets the direction for an entire party. In 1991, a state official named Harris Wofford – advised by a foul-mouthed Cajun named James Carville – upset his far better-known Republican opponent to win a special election in Pennsylvania. He did it by promising to expand access to healthcare – and thus created a template for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign the following year.

If Abdul El-Sayed can follow up his victory in last night’s Democratic Senate primary by winning the general election in Michigan this fall, he will have created a template of his own. Despite his closer-than-expected margin of victory, his campaign offers a model for how Democrats across the country can answer the political challenge posed by Donald Trump.

Published: August 5, 2026, 9:15 am

One Night Only review – sex is legal for 12 hours a year in bizarre romcom

‘What if The Purge was for premarital sex?’ is the odd, gimmicky elevator pitch for this slickly made yet ungainly oddity that can’t quite get past the grimness of its conceit

Going into a romcom, there are always the same questions. Will there be genuine chemistry? Will the rom and the com be equal in parts? And, for the last decade and change, will this be the one that finally resurrects a genre long past its prime? But for Universal’s glossy late summer offering One Night Only, notably the first wide-releasing romcom since April, there are more probing questions than usual. The film is the ungainly result of a four-cocktails-in elevator pitch which imagines a world where single people are only legally allowed to have sex on one night of the year, an idea that has seen it been referred to as “Sex Purge”.

On paper, it’s the set-up for a grim Handmaid’s Tale-adjacent horror of a totalitarian state insisting extreme control over the body, but instead it’s used as the backdrop for a sunny meet-cute, screams of protest drowned out by a zippy Top 40 soundtrack. One sits down wondering not just if boy will end up with girl but also how the government would be able to enforce such tyranny and what horrifying punishments lay in store for those willing to pick personal freedom over state-mandated abstinence. If it sounds like far too much for a breezy summer romp to take on, then that’s because it most definitely is, an overstuffed yet undercooked soufflé that can’t quite, ahem, rise to the occasion …

Published: August 5, 2026, 9:00 am

The Leipzig drone bomb marks a dangerous escalation for Europe

Initial evidence suggests aerial drone, found near Ukrainian cargo planes at German airport, came from Russia

The armed drone found at Leipzig airport on Wednesday may not have exploded, but the fact that it got inside the perimeter, close to Ukrainian cargo planes, raises obvious concerns for the security of international aviation.

Though the identity of the culprits is unknown, the initial evidence points firmly towards a Russian-orchestrated plot. It is the first time that a drone with explosives has been found in Europe far from the Ukrainian border.

Published: August 5, 2026, 10:32 am

Trump is pioneering the role of commentator-in-chief when issues grow thorny

The president is constantly assigning motives, identifying heroes and villains, and telling his audience what to think

• This was originally published in This Week in Trumpland. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday

From Charles Barkley to Thierry Henry to John McEnroe, the path from the arena to the commentary box is well trodden, and plenty of politicians have made the transition from elected office to the TV studio. One man, however, insists on doing both at the same time.

Donald Trump is the US president, empowered to kill terrorists, grant pardons, sign and veto bills, and represent the nation on the world stage. But when issues become thorny, as they have of late, he is wont to embrace an alternative role as commentator-in-chief.

Published: August 5, 2026, 10:00 am

32 things worth buying from Nordstrom’s anniversary sale before it ends this Sunday

Nordstrom’s annual sale is live from 18 July to 9 August and includes more than 22,000 items – here are the ones we endorse

• 17 fashion deals in Nordstrom’s anniversary sale

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Need better cooking gear for your next back yard gathering? Quality travel gear to make the remainder of summer count? From 18 July to 9 August, Nordstrom is treating customers to its long-awaited yearly anniversary sale, when it offers significant savings on top brands across home, fashion, beauty, travel and more.

Below, out of more than 22,000 sale items, we found the 32 Nordstrom deals that we personally (and professionally!) endorse, having put them through the ringer in thorough tests and reviews. Read on for our favorites from Le Creuset, Parachute, Owala and more.

Best wellness deal:
Owala FreeSip Twist 24-Ounce Insulated Water Bottle

Best travel deal:
Baboon to the Moon Weekender Bag 32L

Published: August 5, 2026, 7:43 am

Top Democrats set aside qualms and embrace progressive Abdul El-Sayed

Democrats ‘united by a common purpose: putting a check on Trump’, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand say

• Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan Senate primary

• What we learned from midterm primary elections

Leading Democrats quickly papered over whatever qualms they had about progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed after his win in the Michigan Senate primary was confirmed on Wednesday, instead welcoming the former public health official as their champion against the Republican nominee, Mike Rogers.

The state is now key to Democrats’s hopes of retaking control of the chamber in November’s midterm elections. Winning in Michigan would put them on the path to snarling Donald Trump’s legislative agenda and blocking his judicial nominees for the final two years of his presidency, while defeat could undermine their prospects of gaining a majority in the chamber for years to come. Rogers lost a Senate race in Michigan two years ago by a slim margin to Democrat Elissa Slotkin.

Published: August 5, 2026, 2:03 pm

Trump immigration crackdown ensnares families of US troops

An AP investigation found dozens of active-duty troops’ parents and spouses detained despite protections

The Trump administration has detained dozens of parents and spouses of active-duty US troops as it rolls back immigration protections for military families in the pursuit of its mass deportation agenda.

More than 50 parents and spouses of active-duty service members have been detained since Donald Trump returned to office, and at least six have been deported, an Associated Press investigation found. It is the first accounting of such detentions, which the government does not track.

Published: August 5, 2026, 1:00 pm

Understanding reached on coordinates for shipping route through Hormuz, Iran says

Joint statement with Oman is being finalised, but Tehran says deal alone would not guarantee waterway’s security

Iran and Oman have reached an understanding on ⁠the geographic coordinates for a shipping route through the strait of Hormuz, and ⁠a joint announcement ⁠is ​being finalised provided certain third parties do not interfere, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail ⁠Baghaei said on Wednesday.

Baghaei added that any such agreement between Iran and Oman would not, by ⁠itself, guarantee security in the strategic waterway.

Published: August 5, 2026, 12:31 pm

Senate confirms Trump pick Erica Schwartz as new CDC director

Schwartz, president’s third pick to lead top US public health agency, confirmed in 51-44 Senate vote

Dr Erica Schwartz was confirmed by the US Senate as director ‌of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a rare win for the Trump administration after a string of failed attempts to fill senior health posts.

Schwartz was confirmed by a ⁠51-44 vote that broke largely along party lines, with Tim Kaine of Virginia the sole Democrat to support her nomination.

Published: August 5, 2026, 1:27 pm

Trump team pushes to block court order giving BBC access to financial records

President has sued the broadcaster for $10bn, claiming a documentary on 2021 Capitol attack led to financial harm

Donald Trump’s legal team is making an 11th-hour attempt to block a court order that would grant the BBC access to the president’s financial records, as part of his multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the British broadcaster.

Trump claims that the BBC’s 2024 documentary on the January 6 attacks have damaged the president’s business interests. In July, a Miami-based judge ruled that the president would have to start handing over detailed financial records to the BBC by 6 August. The records would reveal details into the hundreds of businesses owned by the US president’s family trust.

Published: August 5, 2026, 2:12 pm

Lindsay Clancy murder trial: toxicologist testifies about medications found in defendant’s blood

Variety of prescriptions were found in blood of mother accused of strangling her three children, court hears

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The trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts woman accused of killing her three children in January 2023, continued on Wednesday with a forensic toxicologist testifying to the variety and concentration of medications found in the defendant’s blood.

Justin Brower, a forensic toxicologist with NMS Laboratories, testified that his lab examined the levels of four psychiatric medications detected in Clancy’s blood after she allegedly strangled her children and attempted to take her own life.

Published: August 5, 2026, 4:27 pm

White House confirms new helipad for supersized Marine One helicopter

Changes come after report says Trump unhappy with helipad’s appearance and lawn’s slope

The White House has confirmed that contractors are redoing a new helipad built on the South Lawn to accommodate a new supersized Marine One chopper recently added to the presidential transport fleet.

A White House official said the changes to the circular concrete landing pad were ordered as “we continue to make improvements as part of the ongoing project to best match the needs of the White House”.

Published: August 5, 2026, 2:25 pm

‘Disturbing’: TikTok faces criticism after Perez Hilton livestreams self-harm

Many online questioned how long the blogger’s broadcast remained up on the app and shared mental health resources

Social media users have criticized TikTok after the celebrity blogger Perez Hilton livestreamed himself self-harming on the platform, prompting many to question how long the broadcast remained live and others to share mental health resources and encourage those in need to seek help.

On Tuesday night, Hilton, 48, livestreamed himself engaging in self-harm as viewers pleaded for him to stop. Shortly after, local authorities responded to his home in Miami, Florida, where he was transported to a nearby hospital for medical treatment.

Published: August 5, 2026, 1:07 pm

Toronto zoo announces birth of pygmy hippo calf, third for mother Kindia

The 20-year-old’s third calf is being monitored by officials as survival rates for the species are challenging, the zoo said

The Toronto Zoo has announced the birth of a female pygmy hippo calf.

Kindia, the zoo’s 20-year-old pygmy hippo, started showing signs of labor at around 8.15am last Sunday, it said. Around four hours later, the calf’s feet emerged and after 1.5 hours of active labor, Kindia successfully gave birth to the baby pygmy hippo.

Published: August 5, 2026, 3:16 pm

‘What they’re doing qualifies as torture’: new details of ICE force-feeding revealed

Exclusive: cases of Afghan man, Ukrainian man and Saudi woman show repeated nasogastric tube insertions and lack of legal representation

One hunger striker in an immigration detention center was force-fed for almost six months.

One detained immigrant with mental health problems was about to be force-fed, until his attorney intervened and stopped the process.

Read part one and part two of our Ice force-feeding series

Published: August 5, 2026, 3:00 am

US to shut five consulates as critics fear China could fill diplomatic vacuum

State department informs Congress of planned closures in Canada, Grenada, Japan, Indonesia and Cameroon

The US state department is to shut five foreign consulates and missions across Asia, Africa, North America and the Caribbean, drawing criticism that it is leaving a diplomatic vacuum at risk of being filled by China.

The US Congress has been served notice of the impending closures, which are being justified on cost grounds and follow a reassessment of the US’s bilateral relationships with a range of countries since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.

Published: August 5, 2026, 12:20 pm

Republican who withdrew last month beats Trump-backed rival in Michigan

Thomas Smith, whose name remained on ballot, beats Republican rivals in primary contest for eighth district

Thomas Smith withdrew from the Republican primary contest for Michigan’s eighth district last month. On Tuesday, he won the nomination.

Unofficial results show Smith with more than 50% of the vote, according to the Associated Press, defeating the man he endorsed, anti-abortion activist Al Lemmo, and the man Donald Trump endorsed, former federal law enforcement officer Amir Hassan.

Published: August 5, 2026, 1:11 pm

Judge signals Trump’s defamation lawsuit against Wall Street Journal may be dismissed again

Obama-appointed judge seemed unmoved by Trump attorneys’ arguments in case also naming Murdoch

A federal judge in Florida seemed skeptical of arguments from Donald Trump’s legal team on Wednesday over whether the court should allow a $10bn defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal to move forward.

Trump sued the Journal and the News Corp founder Rupert Murdoch over a July 2025 article about a “bawdy” letter reportedly from Trump that was included in a 2003 birthday book for disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Trump has denied authoring or signing the letter, and his attorneys have argued that the Journal published the story despite having been told it was false.

Published: August 5, 2026, 11:37 am

Michigan nominates first trans woman for state legislature

Joanna Whaley, ex-megachurch pastor who endured years of conversion practices, comfortably bested her opponents

• US politics live – latest updates

A former megachurch pastor who endured 15 years of conversion practices is set to become the first transgender member of Michigan’s state legislature after winning a Democratic primary election on Tuesday.

Joanna Whaley comfortably defeated Frank Liberati, a former state representative, and Gary Schlack in the primary for the second district of the Michigan statehouse, a Democratic stronghold.

Published: August 5, 2026, 9:59 am

Three key takeaways from Michigan's Democratic Senate primary – video explainer

Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official, beat Haley Stevens to win the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan. El-Sayed will now face Republican Mike Rogers in November. Here are three major takeaways of the race from the Guardian's midwest politics correspondent Rachel Leingang

Published: August 5, 2026, 2:19 pm

Suspect in Washington state wildfire was questioned about blazes last year

Aaron Farinacci is accused of starting the Old Trails fire that has destroyed homes and forced thousands to flee

The Washington state man accused of starting a wildfire that has destroyed homes and forced thousands to flee around Spokane was previously questioned in connection with two fire investigations last year, according to court documents.

Authorities allege that Aaron Farinacci, 37, of Spokane, started Old Trails fire, one of three major wildfires burning in Spokane county in north-eastern Washington. He was arrested on Monday and booked on suspicion of first-degree arson.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

Published: August 5, 2026, 10:15 am

Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez survives Washington’s crowded primary

Two-term Democrat faced attacks from the left and right while defending a House seat in a territory Trump won

• US politics live – latest updates

The Democratic representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez secured one of two spots in Washington state’s crowded all-party primary, overcoming criticism from both the left and the right to advance in one of November’s most closely watched US congressional races.

The two-term Democrat – known for bucking her party on key issues – heads into the general election as she seeks to defend a district carried by Donald Trump in 2024 and a seat that remains central to the battle for control of the House of Representatives. She will face the Republican state senator John Braun in November.

Published: August 4, 2026, 8:32 pm

Armed man arrested at Trump’s California golf course

Jeanine John Taele allegedly took photos and videos of property days before president’s visit

Los Angeles county sheriff’s deputies arrested an armed California man over the weekend who was seen surveilling Donald Trump’s golf course in Rancho Palos Verdes, days before the president was set to arrive there for an event with the Republican National Committee (RNC).

Plainclothes federal agents reported Jeanine John Taele, 38, as a “suspicious individual”, after they observed him on Sunday taking photographs and videos of the golf grounds, located in a coastal town south of Los Angeles, according to county officials.

Published: August 4, 2026, 6:48 pm

Devastating LA wildfire sparked by utility company tower, long-awaited report finds

Investigators pin blame for Eaton fire, which killed 19 people and ruined thousands of homes, on ‘electrical arcing events’ at out-of-service tower

The deadly 2025 Eaton fire in the Los Angeles area was caused by equipment belonging to the utility company Southern California Edison, fire officials said in a report released on Tuesday.

Los Angeles county fire officials found that the cause of the fire that killed 19 people and destroyed or damaged more than 9,000 homes and businesses was a tower that was not in service, according to the report.

Published: August 4, 2026, 12:13 pm

Analogue evil: why today’s horror film-makers are obsessed with obsolete tech

From Obsession to Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, a new wave of movies are ditching minimalism for retro settings

The indie-horror hit films Obsession and Backrooms opened this summer’s movie season with a bang, each grossing hundreds of millions of dollars and turning out legions of younger moviegoers. Many have pointed out the similarity between the films: both were made for comparatively minuscule budgets by gen Z directors – Curry Barker and Kane Parsons – who first rose to prominence on YouTube.

Fewer people are talking about the other quality the two movies share: a steady stream of analogue props and production design that plunges you into some bygone pre-digital era. Obsession’s lead characters Bear and Nikki work at a mom-and-pop music store, take rides in Bear’s vintage station wagon and the plot centers around a kitschy, old-fashioned gag gift. In Backrooms, Mary hawks her self-help cassette tapes on late-night infomercials, Clark smacks his TV to adjust the fuzzy signal – in the HDTV age, no one has done this for decades – and the wall-to-wall carpeted, ceiling-tiled backrooms look straight out of a long-abandoned office park on the side of the highway.

Published: August 5, 2026, 2:00 am

‘So destructive’: women are paying for face scans that tell them what cosmetic procedures to get

‘Looksmaxxing’ culture has led to the rise of facial analysis services – but experts warn they aren’t backed by science and can be harmful to users

Danielle, 37, didn’t always have issues with body image: she used to be a model and recalls receiving positive attention from men. However, when two years of unemployment plunged her into a period of financial insecurity, her confidence faded. “It was easy to wonder, if I was prettier, if some of my features were different, would that help?” she said.

So, when Danielle saw videos on TikTok about a “facial analysis” service that claimed it could provide her with “science-backed” glow-up advice, she bought it without hesitation. Three-hundred and thirty dollars later, after sending in selfies to be analyzed, Danielle received her personalized 30-page report from the company Qoves.

Published: August 5, 2026, 5:00 am

Ice Cream Man review – Eli Roth’s junky slasher is one of year’s worst horrors

The Hostel and Thanksgiving director takes a massive stumble with a rushed retro horror made on the cheap

A few years ago, Eli Roth realized his long-held ambition to make a movie out of Thanksgiving, the horror-movie trailer he made as a gag for the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez anthology feature Grindhouse, back in 2007. Though he didn’t actually go so far as to make the scratched-up decades-ago slasher shown in the original trailer, Thanksgiving was still Roth’s most satisfying movie in ages, replete with ridiculous gore and a side of satirical commentary – a 2020s movie fit for an old video store’s VHS horror section despite its contemporary setting.

Now Roth has founded a horror-focused company actually called the Horror Section, aimed at releasing movies, shows and “experiences” that appeal to the modern equivalent of those VHS-shelf gorehounds. After “presenting” a few other movies, Roth’s first direct contribution to the company is Ice Cream Man, exactly the kind of knowingly disreputable button-pusher befitting the company’s retro-sticker logo. (Indeed, Roth’s movie shares its title with a 1995 direct-to-video curiosity starring Clint Howard, though this one is unrelated.) Unfortunately, rather than a companion piece to the blackly funny murder-mystery of Thanksgiving, which riffed on Scream as much as 80s slashers, Roth’s latest feels like a demo reel for someone vastly less talented.

Published: August 5, 2026, 3:00 am

‘Like Backstreet Boys, but less sultry’: how the Jonas Brothers notched up 20 years of pop stardom against the odds

Unlike their Disney peers, the toothesome trio didn’t pivot to being sexy – and they’re now at their stadium-filling peak. Fans and collaborators explain their unique, cheesy appeal

The Jonas Brothers appeared in the mid-00s in a blaze of smiles, dressed in shirts, suspenders and ties, singing sappy love songs that won the hearts of girls who quickly became obsessed with this Disney-signed band. Many assumed the fraternal trio would fade away, overtaken by whatever new act replaced them in the whims of teenagers. Yet this week marks 20 years since the release of their debut album, It’s About Time, and the toothsome threesome are bigger than ever.

Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas started out with danger-free pop-punk, evolving into a kind of broad-brush feelgood pop. Their true breakthrough was in 2008 with US No 5 hit Burnin’ Up, teeing up three back-to-back US No 1 albums as they became the youngest group to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone. The usual dreaded “creative differences” precipitated a six-year hiatus and the pursuit of solo careers and acting. But they reformed in 2019 in spectacular style, getting their first US No 1 hit with Sucker, and by last year they had the clout to sell out the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where the World Cup final was later hosted.

Published: August 5, 2026, 4:30 am

‘Prisoners killed each other’s kittens. So now they’re forbidden inside’: Vladimir Karamazov’s best photograph

‘The men in this jail in Bulgaria used to adopt these stray kittens. But pets can be a problem. They get killed as punishment or for revenge’

Belene prison, in northern Bulgaria on the border with Romania, is the most heavily guarded facility of its type in my country. It is on an island, so escape is near impossible, and has the largest number of people serving life sentences for murder in any Bulgarian prison.

This image describes a sad, terrible story. There are a lot of stray cats on the island, as well as pigeons and mosquitoes. The prisoners used to adopt stray kittens and keep them as pets. When I started my project, For the Grace of God, at the prison, many prisoners had pet cats. But in a prison, this can become a problem – prisoners kill each other’s pets as punishment or for revenge. So now it’s forbidden. It’s even the same with flowers – some think of the flowers as friends, they nurture and grow them in the sun, but then other prisoners destroy them. Anything a prisoner can create a relationship with can be destroyed. Part of their punishment is to be alone, without any family, or any attachments to anything.

Published: August 5, 2026, 6:21 am

Why I'll never be convinced by Meta's ‘pervert’ glasses | Opinion

'Most people don’t want pervert glasses that can film us without our consent,' said a spokesperson from activist group Everyone Hates Elon. The group has launched a series of guerilla adverts deriding non-consensual filming by the glasses as well as an email campaign encouraging people to legally object to being filmed by Meta glasses under general data protection regulations, which over 20,000 people have signed.

Rights groups have warned that the glasses threaten the right to privacy, while countries such as Germany are reportedly considering a ban.

And while Meta’s safety guidelines say smart glasses should not be used for 'harassment, infringing on privacy rights, or capturing sensitive information', women have taken to social media to share their stories of being filmed by men without their consent.

Watch as Guardian columnist and Opinion editor Kirsty Major dives into why fears of surveillance and 'creepy men' mean Meta can never convince her to love the glasses – and read more about the glasses via the link in the bio

Published: August 5, 2026, 7:13 am

Inside the vigilante movement destroying Flock cameras – Stateside with Kai and Carter

There are more than 120,000 Flock surveillance cameras in 6,000 communities across the US. These ALPRs (automatic license plate readers) are largely used by law enforcement, and have come under criticism from privacy campaigners, who say they are being used to surveil private citizens and target immigrants. Flock says their cameras are integral to public safety, but critics fear that the company is creating a mass surveillance network. Cities across the US are cancelling Flock contracts, but some concerned citizens feel the fightback isn’t happening quickly enough. Carter Sherman speaks to Sanya Mansoor about the underground vigilante movement taking matters into their own hands, and speaks to a self declared Flock vigilante known as Nomark, who is on a mission to destroy every Flock camera across the country

Published: August 5, 2026, 1:45 pm

The Democratic party chair is a handy scapegoat. But the party’s problems are much bigger | Norman Solomon

Much of the criticism of Ken Martin is deserved. But his actions are symptomatic of a party that fails to listen to the grassroots

Ken Martin is now a convenient scapegoat. As chair of the Democratic National Committee, he has stumbled into disrepute as a dubious fundraiser and bad-tempered boss who bungled an autopsy report on the 2024 election disaster. Much of the criticism is justified. But Martin is just a symptom of what deeply ails a party that does not live up to its name.

As the Democratic party’s governing body, the Democratic National Committee has long operated as a fortress for party elites who expect to get their way. Martin seemed to offer a bit of a departure when, as Minnesota party chair, he won the committee leadership election last year in part because of his close ties with other state party chairs. They remain among his strongest supporters. That’s one reason why Martin is very well-positioned to fend off any challenge to his hold on power when the full committee meets next week in Austin.

Published: August 5, 2026, 7:00 am

Why is Anthropic destroying books? | Kathryn James

The AI company apparently found destructively scanning ‘all the books in the world’ easier than dealing with copyright in its quest for training data

Should we destroy all the books in the world?

An answer to this question can be found in the court documents of Bartz v Anthropic PBC. The northern California district court case, decided in late July this year, highlighted the improbably named “Project Panama”, one of the AI company Anthropic’s efforts to improve its large language model Claude. “What is Project Panama?” court exhibit 21 asks, in an internal memo. The answer: “Project Panama is our effort to destructively scan all the books in the world.” The memo advises discretion: “Why use a codename? … [B]ecause we don’t want it to be known that we are working on this.”

Published: August 5, 2026, 4:00 am

Trump’s university ‘compact’ is gone. That doesn’t mean the assault on education is over | Kenneth Roth

The administration’s proposed agreement met a scathing response. But universities must remain vigilant

The Trump administration has quietly abandoned the poisonous deal it tried to foist on American universities. Under its so-called Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, the administration offered select universities privileged access to federal grants if they agreed to conform with Donald Trump’s ideology on how they should be run.

Universities widely pilloried the proposal, demonstrating the power of a collective defense. Higher education in the United States certainly needs reform, as many university leaders and the public would acknowledge, but not according to the dictates of Trump.

Kenneth Roth is a Guardian US columnist, a senior fellow at Yale University, and former executive director of Human Rights Watch. He is the author of Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments

Published: August 5, 2026, 5:00 am

RFK Jr has a new cooking show. Are any Trump officials doing their actual jobs? | Arwa Mahdawi

Shouldn’t the health secretary have his hands full with the cyclosporiasis outbreak, measles or rabbit fever? Not when there are crispy salmon cakes to prepare …

The US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has got his work cut out for him. A cyclosporiasis outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce has the entire country playing salad roulette: one bad leaf and you could become very unwell. The condition isn’t normally deadly, but, on Monday, officials in Michigan confirmed the first two fatalities. Meanwhile, it’s the worst year for measles in the US since 1991. A disease that was once eliminated now looks as though it’s back with a vengeance – thanks in part, according to experts, to anti-vaxxers such as Kennedy himself. And this week New York officials are warning about a rare tick-borne illness called rabbit fever (tularemia).

Still, despite having rather a lot on his plate, Kennedy has found the time to front a new cooking show, hosted on YouTube. It’s called The Real Food Show and it’s supposed to help Americans prepare healthy, affordable meals at home. The first episode features the chef and TV personality Andrew Gruel (perfect name) teaching the US to prepare crispy salmon cakes with … salad. Which is certainly a bold way to kick things off.

Published: August 5, 2026, 3:00 am

Let’s call Trump’s approach to Iran what it is: kindergarten diplomacy | Moustafa Bayoumi

Amid stop-and-start threats and with a divided staff, it’s clear Trump has no idea how to end a war that shouldn’t have begun

On Thursday, 23 July, after weeks of escalating attacks between the US and Iran, Donald Trump told a reporter that Iran hadn’t received “enough pain yet”, and he leveled a threat. “I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before,” he warned. “I am close to making a decision.” Then, on Monday 27 July, he called it off.

A few days later, on Friday 31 July, Trump said: “We’ll be hitting them very hard. At some point, they’re going to say: ‘We just can’t take it any more.’” This time, it took him just one day to back down.

Published: August 5, 2026, 3:00 am

‘Fifa Super League’: Infantino discussed having governing body’s name on European breakaway

• Document shows Fifa staff were involved in project

• Fifa was prepared to sideline member associations

Gianni Infantino held talks about rebranding the ill-fated European breakaway competition the “Fifa Super League”, with negotiations going as far as the term sheet for an agreement that would have changed the face of European football.

The term sheet, whose full contents can be revealed for the first time, is dated October 2020 and proposes renaming any new competition under Fifa’s branding. It outlines the extent to which Infantino’s administration were implicated in a scheme that caused widespread revulsion among fans and excluded clubs in April 2021. It also reveals that Fifa was prepared to sideline its member associations in pushing plans to cut back the number of international windows and outlines how global football’s governing body would have been given special governance and political rights with a “golden share”.

Published: August 5, 2026, 12:19 pm

Game, set, Chat: how tennis players use AI to scout opponents and run their lives

The emergence of GenAI has led to a generational shift with stars conflicted on the impact of technology on their sport

Not so long ago, Emma Raducanu was on her phone when she found herself wondering what her comprehensive usage of ChatGPT said about her own character. “I use Chat a lot,” Raducanu says, laughing. “Every small thing I do it and I got this idea. So, you know how Spotify do a Spotify Wrapped? I asked ChatGPT to make me a Chat Wrapped, and it was giving me a rundown on my personality.

“I was like: ‘It’s a little bit too accurate.’ It was very clear, very concise. No nonsense, straight into the question. I thought: ‘OK, I can relate maybe. Some of that is true.’”

Published: August 5, 2026, 5:00 am

NWSL sets plans for early start, summer break next season to account for 2027 World Cup

• Opening day is 11 February, in line with LA Super Bowl

• World Cup, MLS shift offer opportunities and challenges

• League explores options after Victory+ streamer collapse

The NWSL on Wednesday revealed the schedule footprint for its 2027 season, which will feature a seven-week summer break for the Women’s World Cup and a February start, the earliest in the league’s history.

The regular season will begin on 11 February with a match hosted by Angel City in Los Angeles, three days before Super Bowl LXI is played in the same city. The annual Challenge Cup, which pits the reigning champion against the Shield winner, will be played on 6 February at a location to be determined.

Published: August 5, 2026, 1:34 pm

Washington Commanders to sign four-time Pro Bowl receiver Stefon Diggs

• Veteran reportedly agrees to deal worth up to $12m

• Wideout joins Jayden Daniels and Terry McLaurin

• Diggs cleared by court and NFL after allegations

The Washington Commanders are set to sign four-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Stefon Diggs, multiple ⁠outlets reported on Wednesday.

Diggs, 32, played last season with the New England Patriots, in which he ⁠posted his seventh 1,000-yard ⁠campaign in ​the past eight years.

Published: August 5, 2026, 11:52 am

LIV Golf secures ‘lead investor’ until 2030 but future of star names still uncertain

• LIV chief refuses to disclose new funders’ identities

• Scott O’Neil hopes DeChambeau and Rahm will stay

LIV Golf has secured a “lead investor” to safeguard its existence until 2030, although the agreement is unlikely to prevent a batch of high-profile players departing by the end of this year.

Scott O’Neil, LIV’s chief executive, announced basic plans for the “next generation” of the tour on Wednesday while refusing to disclose the new funders of the business. After the withdrawal of backing from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, O’Neil has been engaged in a race against time to save his business.

Published: August 5, 2026, 10:28 am

From media deals to roster rules: five priorities for MLS’s new commissioner

Larry Berg will have plenty of things on his to-do list when he officially starts as the league’s commissioner in January

As Larry Berg fielded his first wave of questions as MLS commissioner-elect, he tried to make clear his ambitious vision to take the league to another level. Until a question about the league’s broadcasting plans came up, that is. To his right sat Don Garber, whose 28-year tenure in the role will conclude at year’s end.

“Well, as the incoming commissioner, I’m allowed to kick it to the current commissioner to answer that question,” Berg said with a laugh as he briefly reclined in his chair at the league’s headquarters in Manhattan. “Only for a few months,” Garber said.

Published: August 5, 2026, 4:00 am

How the ABA changed basketball forever: Dr J, George Gervin and the league that dared to be different

Fifty summers after the ABA-NBA merger, George Gervin, Ralph Simpson and others reflect on the league whose swagger and innovations changed basketball forever

After practice, George Gervin wanted to go home. He was a rookie playing for the Virginia Squires of the upstart American Basketball Association, and the sleek, Detroit-born hooper didn’t yet know what being a pro quite meant. He didn’t know that the real workouts often started after practice. But his teammate Julius “Dr J” Erving quickly showed him the ropes.

“Doc would say, ‘Hey, young fella! Where you going? Me and you ain’t done!’” Gervin tells the Guardian. “Me and him would play one-on-one after practice. It was beautiful, probably one of the most beautiful experiences I had as a young pro.”

Published: August 5, 2026, 2:00 am

Tour de France Femmes: Vollering victorious on stage five as Ferrand-Prévot’s defence unravels

• Three outstanding riders in race broke clear of peloton

• Padding row intensifies after footage of male inspection

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s defence of her Tour de France Femmes title unravelled among the Beaujolais vineyards as the French rider lost even more ground to rivals Demi Vollering, Marlen Reusser and Kasia Niewiadoma.

The three outstanding riders in this year’s race broke clear of the peloton over the final steep gradients of Mont Brouilly, with 2023 Tour winner Vollering outsprinting overall race leader Reusser to take the fourth Tour stage win of her career.

Published: August 5, 2026, 10:07 am

Fifa accused of using ‘blackmail’ to force support for Infantino’s re-election bid

• Jordan FA president says Fifa threatened to block funds

• Secretary general calls selloff plan ‘sad and reproachable’

The Jordan Football Association president, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, has accused Gianni Infantino’s administration of “blackmail”, claiming that Fifa threatened to withhold financial assistance from his federation if it refused to back the president’s bid for re-election.

In a major intervention Prince Ali, who ran for the Fifa presidency against Infantino in 2016 and finished third, listed a number of problems dogging the global governing body and said Jordan’s players have not yet been paid for appearing in the Arab Cup last year. Prince Ali is head of the West Asian Football Federation, which includes influential states such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates that have thus far backed Infantino to stay on.

Published: August 4, 2026, 11:40 am

Unprecedented images may explain one of greatest mysteries of the sun

Highest-ever resolution pictures of our star could help show why its corona is millions of degrees hotter than its surface

Golden bands and swirling vortices have been spotted on the sun in the most detailed images ever captured of the turbulent surface of our home star.

Astronomers observed the sun with the Inouye solar telescope in Hawaii, the world’s most powerful solar telescope, and saw new features smaller than 20km (12 miles) across in a magnetically active region close to a sun spot.

Published: August 5, 2026, 8:00 am

New Mexico sues justice department for ‘stonewalling’ Epstein investigation

Filing by attorney general Raúl Torrez comes after DoJ appears to have ignored deadline for key Epstein ranch files

New Mexico filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Justice and the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, on Wednesday for “stonewalling” its criminal investigation into the activities of the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein at a remote ranch in the state.

Raúl Torrez, the New Mexico attorney general, had said he was mulling the possibility of legal action if the justice department did not share with him by 31 July information about the alleged historical abuse of girls and young women at Epstein’s Zorro ranch about 30 miles south of Santa Fe.

Published: August 5, 2026, 2:10 pm

Big shake-up in Google’s AI team as DeepMind chief executive steps down

Two senior engineers are leaving company to launch startup amid fears Google is falling behind in AI race

Sir Demis Hassabis is stepping down as chief executive of Google DeepMind, in a leadership overhaul of the UK-based AI research lab.

Hassabis, a Nobel prize recipient, is leaving his main managerial role to become chair of DeepMind – as well as taking on the new position of chief scientist at Alphabet, which is Google’s parent company. DeepMind will now be led by Koray Kavukcuoglu, its chief technology officer, under the title of senior vice-president.

Published: August 5, 2026, 3:23 pm

Judge tosses Alex Murdaugh’s $600,000 suit against former court clerk

Murdaugh, whose murder convictions were overturned due to clerk’s misconduct, will face trial again

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A US federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit by Alex Murdaugh seeking $600,000 in legal fees from the former court clerk whose misconduct led to his murder convictions being overturned on appeal.

Murdaugh sued Becky Hill in May, saying she violated his right to a fair trial over the deaths of his wife and son.

Published: August 5, 2026, 1:18 pm

Woman arrested after four men stabbed in London’s Covent Garden

Metropolitan police say 47-year-old woman arrested on suspicion of possession of offensive weapon and assault

A woman has been arrested after four men were stabbed in Covent Garden, central London, police said.

The Metropolitan police said the men, aged 34, 39, 42 and 52, were found with stab wounds. They were taken to a major trauma centre after the lunchtime incident on Endell Street.

Published: August 5, 2026, 9:42 am

Progressive climate organizer William Lawrence wins Michigan Democratic House primary

Activist who rallied around a datacenter moratorium will face incumbent Republican Tom Barrett in November

• US politics live – latest updates

William Lawrence, a prominent environmental organizer who foregrounded his support for a datacenter moratorium, has won the Democratic primary in Michigan’s seventh congressional district in a victory for progressives.

Lawrence was a co-founder of the youth-led climate justice organization the Sunrise Movement, the group that in 2018 mainstreamed calls for a Green New Deal to battle economic injustice while rapidly phasing out planet-warming fossil fuels. The 36-year-old defeated Bridget Brink, a former US ambassador to Ukraine and Slovakia, and Matt Maasdam, a former US Navy Seal and military aide to Barack Obama.

Published: August 5, 2026, 8:31 am

Mexican influencer shot dead while streaming live on social media

César Gastélum was filming outside a fast-food outlet in Sinaloa state when he was killed by a motorbike driver

A popular Mexican influencer has been shot dead while doing a live stream on social media outside a restaurant in Sinaloa state, where lethal cartel violence has become widespread.

César Gastélum, who had nearly 600,000 followers on TikTok and was known for making comedy videos, was filming with two friends outside a fast-food restaurant in the city of Culiacán. The three were dressed in the bright orange jackets and backpacks of food delivery drivers.

Published: August 5, 2026, 10:31 am

New York City transit auctions off last MetroCard machines: ‘Wild home decor idea’

MTA to sell remaining machines – which weigh up to 1,050lbs – as it transitions to contactless fare system

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) of New York City has begun auctioning off its final MetroCard vending machines, offering New Yorkers the chance to own one of the transit system’s most recognizable fixtures as the agency continues its transition to Omny.

The auction opened on Wednesday morning and will run through 19 August, according to the MTA. The agency is offering a limited number of retired MetroCard Vending Machines (MVM) and MetroCard Express Machines (MEM), which have served subway riders for decades.

Published: August 5, 2026, 11:04 am

The herbicide haunting a New York farm town

Paraquat is banned in over 70 countries. Some farmers and their families in Hebron believe the pesticide is causing Parkinson’s disease and are demanding that New York ban it

Gordon Chaplin gingerly stepped out of the car at the top of the steep hill behind his farmhouse, sporting a bandage on his hand from a fall the day before. He gripped his cane as he shuffled through the knee-high grass. He stopped every few feet to catch his breath, leaning on his caregiver for support.

Looking out at the distant Adirondacks and Catskill mountains, he thought back to the years when he could run up the hill with ease.

Published: August 5, 2026, 6:00 am

Italy to place all 27 of its major cities on highest heat alert

Move comes as fourth heatwave of summer intensifies, edging temperatures in some areas close to 40C

Italy is to place all of its 27 major cities, from Trieste in the north to Palermo in the south, under the highest heat alert as the fourth heatwave to hit the country this summer intensifies.

A red alert means there is a higher chance of an emergency owing to the health risk posed by prolonged extreme temperatures to the entire population.

Published: August 5, 2026, 5:01 am

El Niño could push 50m people into acute hunger before end of next year

UN forecasters warn of worsening conditions in 45 countries currently experiencing severe food insecurity

About 50 million people are likely to be pushed into acute hunger before the end of next year by the rapidly developing El Niño weather system, according to forecasting.

This is in addition to the hundreds of millions of people already facing dangerous levels of hunger, owing to years of drought in parts of Africa and pressure on food prices from the war in Iran.

Published: August 5, 2026, 1:00 am

‘You’d want one as a pet’: the irresistibly cute solar-powered sea slug

The beady-eyed, Pokémon-like leaf sheep is far more ingenious than us land mammals

• Revealed: the top 10 invertebrates of the year

• Invertebrate of Year Q&A: discuss our countdown with Patrick Barkham

A neon green punk sheep that lives underwater. A solar-powered slug that can perform photosynthesis. If you are seeking beauty, brains and a wonderfully innovative lifestyle, then vote leaf sheep.

The leaf or sea sheep, Costasiella kuroshimae, is a sea slug about the size of a grain of rice. Like a sheep, it grazes on green stuff – certain species of algae, which it finds in tropical waters around Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines. But its sheepy nickname does it a disservice because it is far more ingenious than us land mammals.

Published: August 5, 2026, 4:00 am

Two US men charged for allegedly using snakes, a lemur and a monkey for exotic photoshoots

Men allegedly used exotic animals for photoshoots featuring a ring of fire in a parking garage in Maryland

Two Baltimore, Maryland, men are facing charges for allegedly using exotic animals – including snakes, a lemur and a spider monkey – in photoshoots featuring three semi-clothed models and a ring of fire in a garage beneath a luxury shopping complex.

Photographer Vernon Crowfey III, the 32-year-old owner of the company Photogeniks, was arrested in Towson, Maryland, on 16 July after an undercover officer arranged a shoot with the animals.

Published: August 5, 2026, 6:33 am

‘They’re selling the safety of the traveling public’: TSA workers decry Trump privatization push

Union exploring options to oppose program that would put US airport screening into hands of private contractors

The labor union representing workers at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is raising alarms over a new program that will expand privatizing security checkpoints at three airports.

The agency informed the union last month of plans to enact the TSA Gold+ program, which would shift security and control of the screening technology into the hands of private contractors at airports in Tampa, Charleston and Des Moines. Union workers are expected to lose their union contract and benefits once a contractor takes over.

Published: August 5, 2026, 4:00 am

US refunds $100bn of Donald Trump’s ‘liberation day’ tariffs

More than half of tariff income refunded after supreme court ruled Trump’s levies were illegal

• Business live – latest updates

The Trump administration has refunded about $100bn from the tariffs it collected before the US supreme court ruled them illegal, according to reports.

The $100bn (£74bn) figure, which represents 60% of the total $165bn collected from Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs, was reported by customs officials to the US court of international trade (CIT) on Tuesday, according to the Financial Times.

Published: August 5, 2026, 3:43 am

Toast the cat survives Utah apartment fire by sheltering in closet for three days

Feline escaped his namesake fate when blaze ripped through building and displaced more than 40 families

A pet cat quite fittingly named Toast survived a devastating fire that recently gutted an apartment complex in Utah by hiding in a closet – and then safely endured a days-long wait before being rescued, according to officials.

Beside prompting comments across the news and social media landscapes about cats having nine lives, Toast’s death-defying story provided a slight measure of glad tidings surrounding a blaze that ultimately displaced hundreds of residents.

Published: August 5, 2026, 3:00 am

Exiled PM vows to return to Bangladesh despite execution threat

Sheikh Hasina plans a December comeback two years after being ousted in a bloody uprising led by students

Bangladesh’s ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina has vowed to return home by the end of the year, even though she faces a death sentence.

“They may put me in a cell. They may kill me. Anything may happen, but still I have to go,” said Hasina, two years after a student-led uprising toppled her government.

Published: August 5, 2026, 10:45 am

AI models have been going rogue in tests – how worried should we be?

The UK’s AI Security Institute test revealed AI models indulging in unprecedented hacking attempts

• AI models shock UK testers by using fake identities to trick developers

Two cutting-edge AI models have targeted real people and organisations in the latest safety scare to hit the technology. The UK’s AI Security Institute (AISI) said the incident was unprecedented but could become more common as the technology becomes increasingly capable.

Published: August 5, 2026, 10:43 am

Drone carrying explosives at German airport marks ‘new level of danger’, says interior minister

Investigators treating incident as part of ‘professional hybrid threat scenario’, says Alexander Dobrindt

• The Leipzig drone bomb marks a dangerous escalation for Europe

Germany’s interior minister has warned that the discovery of a drone carrying explosives at Leipzig airport marks “a new level of danger” for the country, as authorities examine whether the thwarted attack could have been planned by a foreign power.

The discovery of a small drone carrying explosives at Leipzig airport, a leading shipping and military hub, set off alarm and caused flight diversions on Wednesday morning. German police deployed a bomb disposal robot to defuse and destroy the explosive device.

Published: August 5, 2026, 1:56 pm

Zelenskyy calls for more air defences as Russian attack on Kyiv kills at least 17

Ukraine shoots down most drones but no ballistic missiles in overnight attack that mainly targeted civilian facilities

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has blamed allies for not delivering air defences fast enough after Ukraine failed to shoot down a single Russian missile in a deadly overnight attack that killed at least 17 people and ⁠injured dozens more.

Preliminary data from the Ukrainian air force showed its defences shot down 98 of the 115 drones fired by Russia overnight, but no ballistic missiles.

Published: August 5, 2026, 9:41 am

Phoebe Bridgers: Lost Weekend review – long-awaited return is a thrilling, daring study in dislocation

(Dead Oceans)
After sweeping the Grammys and being scrutinised by the press, Bridgers deploys electronics and unsettling sound design to brilliantly evoke emotional turmoil

The last time Phoebe Bridgers put out a solo album was six years ago, at the height of the Covid pandemic: Punisher not only ended 2020 near the top of many critics’ best-of lists, it made the UK Top 10 and sold half a million copies in the US. The intervening period has proved just as commercially triumphant. With the release of their debut album The Record, Boygenius – the band she had formed with Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker – went from a kind of supergroup for Pitchfork readers to a genuine mainstream phenomenon: the album won three Grammys. Another win, for Bridgers’ collaboration with SZA, Ghost in the Machine, meant Bridgers left the 2024 ceremony the night’s biggest winner. Other pop stars called on her services: she sang on Taylor Swift’s re-recorded version of Red (and supported on the Eras tour), Lorde’s Solar Power and on Paul McCartney’s McCartney III Imagined.

But to judge by Lost Weekend’s opening track, all was not well. The Outside depicts the singer crowd-surfing at a gig in Ohio – “they never let me hit the ground, way beyond the barricade” – and ending a song with her fist triumphantly raised. Then it adds a qualifier. “But I was on the outside, watching,” she sings, the sense of dislocation heightened by the fact that her voice is smothered by a vocoder, and the musical accompaniment – a sweet fingerpicked acoustic guitar figure – keeps vanishing into an ambient backing that sounds like static.

Published: August 4, 2026, 9:00 pm

Ted Lasso season four review – TV’s most wholesome football comedy is back

It looked like it was gone forever, but Jason Sudeikis’s hugely popular show returns with a premise that’s all twee nonsensicality. If you love messages of positivity and togetherness, you’ll be thrilled

Having transported a flailing AFC Richmond to the upper echelons of the Premier League with his wholesome, folksy and highly simile-reliant management style, the finale of Ted Lasso’s third season saw our titular coach return to the US to spend more time with his son in Kansas. At the time (2023), the general impression was that we were waving goodbye for good. But could this intensely American protagonist really do the most British thing of all and bow out at the height of his sitcom’s popularity? Nope. Last year it was announced that its star and co-creator Jason Sudeikis had caved to market forces and was reprising his colossally popular alter ego.

It was the logical thing to do: the 11-time Emmy-winning show was the most-watched streaming original of 2023. Not that logic features heavily in this fourth season. Before we discover how Ted has been lured back to south-west London, we find out what he’s been up to in the interim. Did he parlay his success into US soccer? Return triumphantly to college football? Sit back with his millions and rest on his laurels? Nope, nope and nope again. Instead, he’s working in his local supermarket, warmly greeting his customers by name, providing moral guidance to younger colleagues and generally radiating his trademark howdily-doodily energy. Why? Because he’s a good man without ego who loves to connect and make a positive difference in his community! This is Ted Lasso we’re talking about!

Ted Lasso is on Apple TV

Published: August 5, 2026, 12:00 am

Himmler’s ‘anti-Nazi’ masseur: Claes Bang stars as SS chief’s ‘magic Buddha’

Felix Kersten, the personal therapist of Hitler’s principal enforcer, claimed to have saved countless lives from the Holocaust. A new feature film exposes him as a narcissist prone to myth-making

Five years ago, German writer-director Felix Randau was approached by French producers who wanted him to make a miniseries about Felix Kersten, the former massage therapist to Nazi SS head Heinrich Himmler.

When the producers first pitched the project, there was one sentence which leapt out. “They said that if Steven Spielberg had known about Felix Kersten, he would have shot a film about him, not about Oskar Schindler.” Who was this intriguing, largely overlooked figure, who claimed to have saved countless Jews and other concentration camp prisoners from certain death?

Published: August 5, 2026, 2:52 am

Sterling Point review – this teen drama from Gossip Girl’s creators is brilliant escapist TV

Set on an idyllic Canadian island, this coming-of-age series is juicy stuff. It swaps the darkness of recent YA TV for warmth, humour and a surprisingly compelling mystery

I’ll be honest: I was prepared to grit my teeth through Sterling Point, Prime Video’s newest coming-of-age offering, which I dismissed as another by-the-numbers high-school drama. The show follows a type-A teen on a journey of sun-dappled self-discovery, escaping her native New York for an idyllic getaway on a picturesque Canadian island. It’s an unassuming, summer camp-style narrative, but in the style of last year’s seasonal phenomenon that was series three of The Summer I Turned Pretty, it manages to transcend the limits of its YA niche, revealing itself to be quite juicy.

Protagonist Annie (Ella Rubin) is a highly strung 17-year-old, still reeling from a rejection from a summer business school programme when she receives the news that her estranged maternal grandfather has left her some mysterious assets. Annie, whose mother had died years ago, and her twin Connor (Keen Ruffalo), are prompted to start digging through family secrets, much to the distress of their dad (Jay Duplass of Transparent and Industry). The two learn that they’ve inherited a house in Canada – prompting Annie to take off on a secret trip in search of answers about her late mother’s life.

Sterling Point is on Prime Video

Published: August 5, 2026, 3:00 am

A Child of My Own review – barely believable true crime tale of desperation and delusion

Candy-coloured recreations of one woman’s pregnancy unravel as dark truths are revealed in Maite Alberdi’s intimate docudrama

This cheekily inquisitive docudrama by Chilean director Maite Alberdi features a unique variation on the long con, and one with a precise duration: nine months. After suffering three miscarriages and under pressure from her husband and in-laws to give them a child, Eleonor Alejandra Marín Mendoza (aka Ale, and played by Ana Celeste in re-enactments) decides to fake her next pregnancy. She is determined to have something to show at the end of it: after meeting single mother Mayra, who wants to abort her second pregnancy, at the hospital where she works, Ale agrees to take her baby once it is born.

The details are hardly believable: eating copiously to gain weight, Ale manages to convince husband Arturo (Armando Espitia) and his family that this pregnancy is on track for her entire term. She reflexively tenses her muscles while he strokes her baby bump and smiles through a swirl of conflicting thoughts at her baby shower. While most con artists must dupe themselves on some level, it is true down to a physiological level in Ale’s case: a judge later testifies that her desperation to bear children may have resulted in a pseudo-pregnancy. How else to explain that the doctor signing off her maternity leave appears to hear the baby’s heartbeat?

Published: August 5, 2026, 3:00 am

Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie review – plucky pups do their thing on Jurassic-style island

Stranded on an island full of prehistoric animals, the Paw Patrol squad get stuck in in a remarkably charmless animation

The Paw Patrol pups – that’s Chase, Marshall, Skye, Rocky, Rubble and Zuma – are engaged in a rescue mission as this latest film instalment of the puppy rescue team series opens. A family on a yacht are in danger of being burned alive, and the plucky dogs are all that stands between them and a crispy fried demise. Unfortunately, it’s a little difficult to root for this family, the annoying teenaged son in particular, who is either an influencer or wannabe influencer. Obviously nobody deserves to die on the basis of their being an influencer, but building a rescue sequence around one feels a bit like if Jurassic Park were about trying to save dino-embryo-thief Dennis Nedry, instead of having him meet his demise at the hands and claws and teeth of a dilophosaurus with impeccable comic timing.

Speaking of Jurassic Park, that’s more or less where the plucky pups end up after the yacht rescue: a storm blows them off course to a mysterious island that boasts a T rex and other assorted prehistoric beasties. None of what transpires as a result is particularly entertaining, and we can only urge families to vote with their wallets and hand over their hard-earned to higher quality children’s entertainment.

Published: August 5, 2026, 1:00 am

‘I put a raging dent in Neil Young’s forehead!’ Tim Pope on his riotous videos for the Cure, Bowie, Queen, Soft Cell and more

He dressed Freddie Mercury as a prawn, got Paul Weller to wear lipstick, put a camera in Robert Smith’s mouth and created a 75ft penis for Hall & Oates. Pope looks back on is wild adventures with titans of music

As video director to the stars in the golden age of MTV, Tim Pope’s trademark was putting his very famous clients in uncomfortable or dangerous situations. He dressed Freddie Mercury as a “giant Mediterranean prawn”, locked the Cure in a flooded wardrobe then chucked it off a cliff, and almost electrocuted two Psychedelic Furs.

“The core of my work seems to be sadism,” he chuckles. “I have wondered if it was all some sort of revenge for the brutality I suffered away at primary school, but maybe I’m just cruel.”

Published: August 4, 2026, 9:00 pm

A Sense of Occasion by Brodie Crellin review – a surprising and darkly funny debut

A dysfunctional family comes together for a funeral in this heartfelt, keenly observed novel

Most of us come upon our family’s dysfunctions gradually, like a door that opens a little wider each year. This uncle, you find out, has had an affair; grandma has a hoarding problem. The cremation of the nuclear family illusion is a cornerstone of literature, especially when it’s hastened by one of those unavoidable core gatherings: weddings, births, funerals. But what happens when there was never any illusion to start with; when the story begins in the ashes?

The delight of Brodie Crellin’s accomplished, surprising debut lies in the way it wrestles with this question, and in its depiction of a family that fails to meet any conventional definition of the word. With a cutting eye and wry humour, Crellin finds fantastic power in the story of three maladjusted people reeling in the face of death, whose relationships to one another are endlessly confronting and complex.

There is friendless Patch, riddled with anxiety, who bursts into tears at the memory of the postman’s suicide and falls victim to a terrible haircut. There is Patch’s father, Robin, who is “gay, yes, mostly, but mutable”. And there is Jude, her domineering, malevolently competent cousin, a playwright who “loves to make an entrance”. They’re bound by the newly deceased Mary: Robin’s ex, Patch’s mother, and Jude’s aunt – a woman who “[didn’t] have a problem with gay men” but was lukewarm on lesbians. Orbiting this “isosceles”, as Jude calls it, is Juliette, Jude’s gleefully moneyed mother, and Mel, Mary’s neighbour. Various other characters swing in and out, all fully realised no matter how brief their appearances, my favourite of which was Mary’s poor, forgotten “empath” labrador, Leonard.

The stage is set, as Jude cruises in from Naples, for a fraught collision of past and present. As the funeral draws closer and tensions simmer, Crellin juggles the minutiae of death – chopping vegetables, arranging memorial photos – with fragmented recollections of messy family history. It’s rare to read a novel that can skip in and out of so many points of view and keep the different styles of narration intact. Yet even with regular flashbacks, A Sense of Occasion feels remarkably natural thanks to Crellin’s light touch, especially in the arch, zippy dialogue. There are shades of classic mid-century stories, particularly Dorothy Baker’s Cassandra at the Wedding, and some of the caustic social wit of Edward St Aubyn’s Melrose chronicles, but the boldness feels entirely modern.

It’s a joy, too, to read fiction that understands sex so well, and is neither sentimental nor sleazy. Crellin conveys the importance of sex as a vehicle for each character’s foibles and desires; as a shadowy place where so much can be manipulated and communicated. The book summons up a kaleidoscope of erotic experience across the spectrum, sometimes hot and sometimes ridiculous, including a quasi-incestuous relationship rendered with nuance and consideration.

If the novel leans a little hard on Jude and her mother, Juliette, for its class critiques, it’s easily forgiven on account of just how much fun it is to watch these characters crash into each other, and for the deftly nasty one-liners that they toss out. “Patch lacked the confidence conferred by a private education,” Jude thinks smugly. “But she could also say that Patch was simply less intelligent.” And yet the story never veers into mean-spirited satire, largely thanks to Patch herself, the grief-stricken daughter, who is the heartbeat of the novel. Perennially misunderstood and underestimated – including by her own mother, when she was alive – Patch is awkward but raw, a keen observer of herself and others.

There is immense pleasure and vitality – and ultimately a great deal of tenderness – in A Sense of Occasion’s depiction of flawed, strange people who love badly, and can’t help but get in the way of themselves over and over again. After all, as George Bernard Shaw wrote, “If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.”

Published: August 5, 2026, 1:00 am

The Ghost of the Mountains by Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi review – the secrets of the snow leopard

An Indian mountaineer follows in the footsteps of explorers and conservationists in search of an enigmatic animal

When bored, try the following game – I call it “Purr or Roar?”. Take any feline and guess whether it can purr or roar (it cannot do both because purring and roaring require different anatomical structures). Some candidates are easy: any child knows that lions and tigers roar and that a tabby does not. But between the great cats and our pets are numerous other species, from lynxes to panthers, whose anatomy is not so easy to infer. A leopard, for instance? Roar (or growl). The discreet, mountain-dwelling snow leopard? Purr.

The snow leopard is the protagonist of Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi’s first book, a compelling and intimate look at this elusive mountain specialist. An Indian conservationist and mountaineer, Suryawanshi pursues the creature through the Himalayas and Gobi desert. This is a gritty and detailed portrait of an often misunderstood and endangered species in an increasingly hostile, crowded and hot environment.

Published: August 4, 2026, 11:00 pm

Children of the Wild by Kevin Powers review – gripping tale of a friendship forged in war

Written by a US army veteran, this novel of courage and cruelty during the first world war is filled with unsettlingly authoritative depictions of violence – but its characters are less believable

Kevin Powers’s fourth novel marks a return to the themes and subject matter of his acclaimed debut The Yellow Birds, winner of the 2012 Guardian first book award. Through the lives of its central characters, it explores the courage, folly, cruelty and absurdity involved in war, and the challenges of adjusting to civilian life afterwards. But while The Yellow Birds focused on the experience of US soldiers fighting in Iraq, where Powers himself served between 2003 and 2004, Children of the Wild is set amid the carnage of the first world war.

It follows the fortunes of two young men from a remote valley in Virginia. Roy is the arrogant young heir to a wealthy local landowner; Ennis is an orphan of unknown origin who has been living, like a character in a fairytale, in a shack on the top of a mountain. Ennis and Roy are first linked in a love triangle when Ennis is lured off his mountain top by his desire for Samantha, the daughter of the local minister, whose eyes have the “lustre of smoky quartz”. Roy has expected to marry Samantha, but she chooses feral Ennis. Roy accepts the setback remarkably swiftly, transferring his affections to Esther, the wealthy and shallow sister of his college roommate, Fintan. Roy and Ennis settle their differences with a mighty punch-up that cements an unlikely friendship between them.

Published: August 4, 2026, 2:00 am

Geography of Heaven by Rory MacLean – soul-searching journeys into the afterlife

From an ashram in India to an ayahuasca ceremony in Peru, a travel writer searches for meaning after the death of his wife

In this moving, sometimes grandiloquent grief-memoir-cum-travelogue, Rory MacLean pairs an affinity for new-age thinking with a habit of loftily holding forth (“none of us are created for naught”, “love can but lead to truth”) and a proclivity for arresting one-liners (“I watched gods walk on fire”). In his search for meaning in the five years after his wife’s untimely death from cancer, he shows himself to be both refreshingly broad-minded and unnecessarily crotchety, like a more cantankerous Michael Palin.

MacLean’s work as a travel writer has taken him across the world, whether flying a handbuilt plane over Crete or riding shotgun with a drug warlord in Burma. This is his first book since losing Katrin, for 32 years the “fixed point” in his life, whose final weeks and moments he describes tenderly. Unable to process her death, he turns to travel to seek out “thin places”: áiteanna tanaí in Celtic mythology, where the veil between worlds is porous. Starting in Jerusalem, his quest takes him to more than a dozen sacred locations, including an ashram in India, a Native American community in South Dakota, an “excruciating” Vipassanā retreat in Suffolk and, inevitably, an ayahuasca ceremony in Peru.

Published: August 4, 2026, 1:00 am

The ​games industry’s obsession with ​visual fidelity is costing them money and talent

Big developers are discovering that the technical progress of photorealism doesn’t always translate into the creative spark that gives gamers joy – and keeps them playing

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Last week, Asha Sharma, the new head of Xbox, laid out her vision for the future of the console and interestingly, the two titles she picked out as potential areas of growth were Minecraft and Candy Crush Saga – games that don’t exactly scream next-generation entertainment. Neither relies on hyper-realistic visuals, which is the north star that games consoles and gaming PCs have been aiming at for the past 40 years. They are, instead, well-designed, well-loved franchises that you can play and enjoy on almost any PC, console or phone.

The fact is, the quest for visual hyperrealism is breaking the games industry. It’s becoming more and more expensive to put high-end graphics hardware into machines thanks to demand from the AI sector; at the same time, creating superrealistic visuals is an incredibly expensive and complex part of game development, leading to longer development periods. GTA VI, for example, has taken at least eight years to develop and is rumoured to have cost between $1bn and $2bn. By my back-of-an-envelope calculations, that’s around four times more than GTA V. Admittedly, the detail on everything, from the characters’ faces, to the cars, to the cityscapes, is astonishing. But will it be four times better than GTA V? Will it be four times more fun?

Published: August 5, 2026, 7:00 am

What is Fields of Mistria? A magical new obsession for fans of Stardew Valley

Since Stardew Valley rejuvenated the farming sim genre a decade ago, games like Fields of Mistria are capitalising on its popularity with their own special touches

Farming simulator games deliver on an escapist fantasy: going off-grid from the modern work grind, in exchange for charming small-town life and a farm to call your own. While these games have had dedicated fans since the days of Harvest Moon, the most popular today, Stardew Valley, contemporised the genre with a larger range of activities and lovable townspeople to befriend and romance. Created in 2016 by independent developer Eric Barone, it has now sold more than 50m copies and become the mould for so many other indie farming sims.

Fields of Mistria is one of these farming sims in a post-Stardew world – though it updates the core formula. Created by independent developer NPC Studio, Fields of Mistria has already proven popular: it debuted in early access (a pre-release version of the game meant for early players to find bugs and give feedback) for PC players on Steam in August 2024, and in the first month the game racked up more than 4m player hours. It’s for a good reason: Mistria satisfies all of those same farming sim desires but with more expansive character creation and a story steeped in magic.

Published: August 5, 2026, 1:00 am

‘He’s tiny, dumpy and funny – so his BMX tricks are hilarious’: Tanuki: Pon’s Summer, an adorable slice-of-life adventure

Denkiworks’ debut lets players pull off tricks and pull pints in a stunning, Japan-inspired setting

A freeloading tanuki, mounting debt, and a town full of possibilities will sound familiar to fans of Animal Crossing. Alas, while you won’t find accountability from Tom Nook, Kyoto-based studio Denkiworks has stepped in to heal your financial trauma with a BMX-filled adventure in which a mammal finally pays the price for their years of bad behaviour. “Even Japanese people ask why it’s a tanuki,” jokes Liam Edwards, a game designer at Denkiworks. “They have such a mythological background to them; they’re almost like dragons in terms of their mythology.”

In Tanuki: Pon’s Summer, you play as an adorable but irresponsible critter named Pon, who’s bled the coffers of the local shrine – his home – dry by buying video games and snack food instead of preparing for its semicentennial matsuri. As a result, the shrine is in total disrepair, and important architecture and cultural artefacts – such as the ema stand and the chōzuya – are left cracked and broken, unbefitting a festival half a century in the making.

Published: August 4, 2026, 8:00 am

Big Walk review – larking around with mates elevated to an artform

Switch 2, PlayStation 5, PC; House House
The creators of Untitled Goose Game return with an online, open-world adventure that delivers slapstick silliness and bucolic majesty in nearly equal measure

Radiant sunsets glinting on lapping waves; bushland valleys that beckon with secrets; modernist buildings sat atop craggy ridges: Big Walk’s setting is as arresting as it is beguiling – a kind of architectural fever dream transplanted to a handsome Australian wilderness – but it is the images created by players that lodge deepest in the mind. Here’s one that has stuck with me: in the black of night, cicadas kicking up an almighty din, I had lost my partner. Panic. Despair. Fear. Then, there in the far distance, I saw him signalling in my direction. He was relentlessly spamming a gigantic, ball-shaped lamp on and off, the ground around him flicking from inky dark to warm pastel pink and back again, like a single Christmas light blinking from afar.

This kind of encounter is common in Big Walk, the brilliant and whimsical new online co-op puzzler from House House, the Melbourne-based studio behind the 2019 viral hit, Untitled Goose Game. Rather than playing as a honking, mischief-making goose as you do in that game, you are a bug-eyed, gangly limbed kind of bird person (think Pingu as drawn by Mondrian) for whom getting separated from your mates is all part of the fun. That’s somewhat because this rugged terrain is dense with vegetation and cliffs to fall down, and also because the game makes ingenious use of proximity and direction-based voice audio. Step out of earshot of your party and you will find it difficult to call for one another (unless, of course, you’ve picked up a Fisher-Price-like walkie-talkie).

Published: August 4, 2026, 3:41 am

Should a tech tycoon be able to pay his way into conducting a world-class orchestra? And should they really sell tickets?

Elon Musk may be able to buy a trip to Mars, but when the super wealthy pay to be conductors – as Canadian entrepreneur Mandle Cheung is doing – it makes a mockery of a meritocracy in classical music

There are some pretty gigantic non-negotiables for an orchestral musician. You have to be able to perform the right notes in the right order, with a combination of technical expertise, artistry, skill and understanding that demands years, decades and lifetimes of devotion.

But there is one figure on the orchestral concert platform who is both the most important person in the room – at least according to classical music’s hierarchies – yet who makes no sound, and whose job looks the simplest of all: the conductor, waving their arms about in time with the music and gurning at the players.

Published: August 5, 2026, 7:52 am

‘Getting old is no fun’: Game of Thrones author George RR Martin speaks out about depression amid further book delays

A new blog post by the fantasy writer has outlined his recent difficulties, as fans continue to speculate on the elusive sixth book in his A Song of Ice and Fire series

George RR Martin has opened up about experiencing depression during a “stressful” and “overwhelming” year, as readers continue to await the long-delayed sixth instalment of his A Song of Ice and Fire series.

The 77-year-old American author, whose fantasy novels shaped and inspired the hit HBO television series Game of Thrones, wrote candidly about his recent difficulties in his first personal blog post for almost six months.

Published: August 5, 2026, 6:41 am

‘This isn’t some vendetta’ – Tulisa Contostavlos on taking on the tabloids, sex tapes and shame

The N-Dubz and X Factor star’s career went into freefall after an elaborate sting by the Sun on Sunday, and she’s still campaigning for tougher press regulation. But will it work?

Late last year, Tulisa Contostavlos took a good look at her life. Her relationship had come to an end and she found herself in her late 30s (she’s 38 now), wondering what next. “I started thinking about all the things I’d never done,” she says. At 20, life had got weird – Contostavlos was in the successful hip-hop group N-Dubz and became an adult just as the fame and money started coming in. By 24, she was a judge on the Saturday night TV show X Factor. If that hadn’t happened, she thinks she might have become an archaeologist – she’s obsessed with ancient history. And so last year she went travelling, to Egypt to see the pyramids, and to Peru to visit Machu Picchu.

There were other, bigger changes. She gave up smoking and started having therapy for the first time. Contostavlos sat down, she says, and “I wrote a list of what my ‘greatest self’ looked like – where she’d go, how she thought, how she felt, the things she would do. I started implementing every single thing on that list and I found through doing that, you just become her – it is actually that simple. It just takes effort and discipline.” Her greatest self, she says, “is a person of action, and she turns lemons into lemon cake”. It got her thinking about the criminal trial that left her career in freefall. “I was like, right, let’s try to do something.”

Published: August 4, 2026, 9:00 pm

Film posters for The Mummy banned from public display in UK

Watchdogs say adverts in London tube stations broke its rules with ‘realistic impression of a dead child’

Film posters for The Mummy have been banned from outdoor public display in the UK because they include realistic depictions of a dead child.

The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received 30 complaints over the promotional campaign in London tube stations for the new Lee Cronin film.

Published: August 5, 2026, 6:23 am

‘If we don’t fight back, we don’t have a future’: the journalist taking on the ‘tech fascists’ of Silicon Valley

As Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and their peers have grown richer and more influential, Gil Durán argues they have all but abandoned democracy – and found the perfect government to enable them

In April, Gil Durán was permanently banned from Elon Musk’s X for posting just two words. Durán was responding to a post from the tech company Palantir outlining its 22‑point “technological manifesto”, which praised American “hard power”, western culture and AI weapons, denounced inclusivity and called for compulsory national service. Durán responded: “TLDR: Fascism” (TLDR is short for “too long, didn’t read”).

Durán didn’t break any of X’s written rules, he points out over a video call from San Francisco – so much for Musk’s “free-speech absolutism”. His ban might just have had something to do with his preceding tweet, showing the cover of his new book, The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy. The book’s central argument is that big tech is no longer our friend, as many of its billionaire owners have seized economic and political control and are steering the fate of the planet towards their own bizarre, apocalyptic visions.

Published: August 5, 2026, 2:00 am

A moment that changed me: I found a forbidden novel – it led to a dangerous, lasting love

Growing up in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, romance was frowned upon – as was much of my Uyghur culture. But one day, exploring a strange house, I found a gateway to both worlds

Many people have a book that changes their life. For me and my wife, one book in particular changed our destinies for ever. We have been in love since we were teenagers, and today we are happily married – all because I accidentally discovered a forbidden novel in someone else’s house.

It was a hot summer’s evening in 2009, in Kumul, Xinjiang. I was 16 and my father insisted I accompany him to visit a distant relative, where they would spend hours chatting about the old days and feasting as if they hadn’t eaten in years. As the well-behaved teenager I tried to be, I sat politely, nodding at their stories and pretending to absorb their “life lessons”, attempting to hide my boredom. The living room, with its small windows and bright lighting, was unbearable.

Published: August 4, 2026, 10:45 pm

The truth about blushing: why we do it, how we can resist it – and why it’s actually good for us

Humans are the only animals whose faces redden with embarrassment. Should we see that as an affliction, or as a blessing?

‘Blushing is the most peculiar and most human of all expressions,” Charles Darwin once wrote, and he wasn’t wrong. Though certain species of bird pinken up as a means of communication, and uakari monkeys have red faces when in good health, we seem to be the only animal that flushes as a sign of embarrassment.

“It’s a very truthful signal,” says Prof Sophie Scott, the director of the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London. “It’s not fakeable, and there aren’t many things that humans do that fall into that category. You can’t blush on command.”

Published: August 4, 2026, 2:00 am

Skip the run: here are six joint-friendly cardio alternatives suggested by experts

Whether you’re nursing a joint, have an existing condition or just don’t feel like running, these exercises help get your cardio in

The runner’s high might be contagious. In 2024, the fitness tracking app Strava recorded a 59% increase in users attending social running events and run clubs globally. Applications for London’s marathon have increased 40% since 2024, while New York City’s received about 20% more applicants this year. Overall, an estimated 56 million Americans regularly run on a treadmill and 51 million jog, according to a report from the Sports and Fitness Industry Association.

But running has a reputation for being rough on our joints. There is some good news for those chasing the high: one 2023 study found little relationship between recreational running and arthritis of the hip or knee, and another suggests that the impact of running causes cartilage to adapt, fortify and thicken over time.

Published: August 4, 2026, 9:07 am

In Britain, we equate blackness with the working class. It’s time for a rethink

In my new book, I narrate the existence, behaviours and sensibilities of the black British middle class, a social group largely ignored, until now

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While narrating the audio version of my new book, The Good, the Black and the Boujee, came a revelatory reminder of why many black Britons see middle class status as a “white people ting”. After a recording session, I headed upstairs to see if I could find any friendly faces from my publisher before heading out into the sweltering heatwave for my cycle home. To my disappointment, I found a near-empty office floor, and left minutes later. Donning my helmet, I joined the middle class commuters who regularly left the office in cycling gear.

As I approached the exit, something peculiar happened: I was met with a friendly expression of relief from the reception staff. The building had received a concerned report about a potential intruder on the top floor, they told me. The intruder was believed to be a rogue courier who had somehow passed the loading bay and made it into the editorial offices. It took me a moment to realise – the intruding courier was … me.

Published: August 5, 2026, 6:09 am

Nolan Wells went to an island with friends and never came home. His death has renewed debate over race and justice in Mississippi

Uncertainty around the investigation into the death of the 18-year-old, whose body was found after a 4 July boat trip with friends, has led some to question whether justice will be meted out equally

Almost a month after his body was found, mystery still shrouds what happened to Nolan Xavier Wells, an 18-year-old college student from Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

There are the facts: Wells was alive on the morning of 4 July when he and a group of friends took a boat out to Horn Island, a barrier island off the coast of Mississippi. Hundreds of people were on the island, enjoying a last hurrah before returning to work or school after the holiday weekend. Wells was due to report to Southwest Mississippi Community College the following Monday for football camp, but he never returned home with his friends that day. The last known photos of him were taken around 4pm that afternoon.

Published: August 5, 2026, 3:00 am

As the lights go out, Cuba’s true believers vow to resist US intervention

Amid rolling blackouts, thousands come together to mark 1953 raid seen as first step to Fidel Castro taking power

In the dark before dawn, Juan Victor Hernández Campo was cheerleading a 5,000-strong crowd in the outskirts of the Cuban provincial capital of Pinar del Rio. “Aquí, quien no salte es yanqui!” he roared. “If you don’t jump, you’re a Yankee!”

Those in front of him, in T-shirts commemorating Fidel and Raúl Castro’s 1953 attack on the Moncada military barracks, roared back and – as much as their age allowed – leapt to their feet.

Published: August 5, 2026, 6:38 am

Hundreds in Morocco gather near Ceuta border in anxious wait for missing loved ones

People hope to see friends or relatives among those still returning as death toll from mass crossing nears 100

Hundreds of people have gathered in the northern Moroccan town of Fnideq, near the border with Spain’s Ceuta, flashing photos of their missing loved ones to passersby in the hope of tracking them down.

Their perch was the same small tranche of land that made headlines around the world last week as extraordinary scenes emerged of about 72,000 people making their way into Ceuta, a tiny Spanish territory in north Africa.

Published: August 4, 2026, 9:00 pm

Parents in the US: do you have a program similar to Mamdani’s 2-K rollout?

We would like to hear from US parents about whether they have a program comparable to New York’s 2-K rollout

The New York mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has rolled out a 2-K program providing free early care and learning for two-year-olds. The program has two-thirds more applicants than spots available, indicating high demand.

With this in mind, we would like to hear from parents across the US about whether they have a program comparable to Mamdani’s 2-K rollout. If so, how has it helped or changed your life?

Published: August 5, 2026, 5:38 am

Tell us: has Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey stoked your interest in classics and poetry?

We would like to hear from people for whom the film has increased their interest in poetry or classics in general

UK poetry sales are on course to reach a record high this year, thanks to the success of Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey.

We would like to hear from people for whom the film has piqued their interest in Homer’s poetry. Has it led to a greater interest in classics or poetry in general? Tell us below.

Published: August 4, 2026, 9:21 am

Are you part of a community environmental action group? We’d like to hear about your experience

We want to hear from people around the world who have been getting involved in local action on the climate

We’d like to hear from people across the world who have been involved in a local environmental action group or community project tackling climate change from where they live. What made you get involved?

What has the group achieved, and what obstacles have you faced? Has it changed how you feel about your local area, or led to wider change? We’d also like to hear from anyone who tried to set up a group and found it difficult to gain traction.

Published: August 4, 2026, 1:59 am

Summer heat and a Bangladeshi jute market: photos of the day – Wednesday

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

Published: August 5, 2026, 6:13 am