Why are the Democratic Socialists of America so successful? | Akin Olla

There’s an unsung reason for the organization’s success even as other leftwing groups face a bumpy road

A lot has been written recently in an effort to understand the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and how we’ve risen to such prominence in a short time.

It is clear that we reflect a growing disillusionment with the Democratic party, and a further radicalization of the American population. But many leftwing social movement organizations, such as Black Lives Matter and the Women’s March, have risen in the last decade or so, and many groups, from MoveOn to the Sunrise Movement, have attempted to absorb large numbers of people, influence the Democratic party and enter the public consciousness with lower levels of success.

Published: October 7, 2026, 5:00 am

Will Venable: the White Sox manager who used basketball tactics to transform a baseball loser

The White Sox were one of the worst teams in MLB history. Now they are just five wins from a place in the World Series

The postgame celebration songs pounded through the Bluetooth speakers in the Chicago White Sox clubhouse on Monday night, minutes after the team’s playoff victory over the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field.

The White Sox, who lost 121 games two seasons ago, have made a remarkable turnaround. A team who were once so abject that they stopped tweeting out their results are now just five wins from the World Series. They can seal their progress to the American League Championship Series on Wednesday if they beat the Guardians in Chicago.

Published: October 7, 2026, 2:00 am

‘He was devastatingly sexy’: Frasier’s Jane Leeves and David Hyde Pierce on the love between Daphne and Niles

From a breathless tango to a kiss that sent fans wild, the pair crafted a sensational seven-year TV crush. The real-life best friends talk first impressions, Casablanca moments – and having hot husbands

• Lesley Manville and Peter Mullan on their heart-melting TV romance

“Dr Crane, your glockenspiel has sprung to life!”

It was a crush. An unexpected one. The psychiatrist Niles Crane (snooty, conflict-avoidant, married to a high-society wife with a fear of buffets) fell for his father’s physio, Daphne Moon (working class, Mancunian, reckons she’s a bit psychic) the moment he met her in his brother’s Seattle apartment.

Published: October 7, 2026, 3:53 am

Tents, night-vision goggles, bear tracking kits – and even books: America’s first nature library opens

As well as books, the new facility in Colorado offers hundreds of kits to connect people with the natural world. We asked five of the first visitors what they thought of it

Mark Fink knows exactly why he opened the first public nature library in the US. “There are a lot of barriers for people to access nature here. We want people to learn about the birds and the plants in their own back yard and to appreciate that you don’t need a three-day camping trip in the mountains to experience nature.”

The library offers people in Colorado’s Adams county the opportunity to borrow books and equipment to help them to engage with the natural world – for free.

Published: October 7, 2026, 4:00 am

US midterms: what are they and why do presidents dread them? – explainer

The US midterms may not be as much of a spectacle as the presidential elections, but they are just as important and can completely change not just the course of a presidential term, but federal legislation for years to come. The Guardian unpacks how these elections work, what the results mean and how they affect American life

Published: October 7, 2026, 5:54 am

‘All I want to do is cry’: trauma of 7 October survivors three years after the attacks

Israeli communities shattered by Hamas massacres are torn between rebuilding their lives and remembering lost friends and relatives

Keith Siegel spent many of his long hours in Hamas captivity in Gaza etching everything that happened after 7 October 2023 into his memory. For 484 days, he recited to himself every place he was held, the dates he was moved and every attack or humiliation he endured or witnessed.

He aimed to store intelligence that could help Israeli forces free other hostages if he was released, to keep track of time as the days slid by and be able to tell his family what happened to him. Now his body is free, but he cannot loosen those memories.

Published: October 6, 2026, 1:00 pm

British billionaire warned Epstein was a ‘sexual deviant’ decades before FBI closed in on the abuser

Sir James Goldsmith’s links to Hilton Head, South Carolina, add to mystery of Jane Doe 4, who claimed she was abused by Epstein in the 1980s

For Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire Goldsmith family was a gateway to elite society and he wanted to be in their circle.

The disgraced financier, who died in prison in 2019 facing sex-trafficking charges, longed for a billionaire’s lifestyle and cultivated the family’s friends, bankers, business associates and advisers.

Published: October 7, 2026, 8:00 am

Judge orders officials to preserve all evidence tied to Christa Pike’s botched execution

Judge tells Tennessee officials all items in execution room must be saved as Pike remains restrained in hospital bed

A judge ordered Tennessee officials on Wednesday to preserve all evidence related to the botched execution attempt on convicted murderer Christa Pike, as it emerged that the state has refused pleas from medical staff to allow her to be unshackled from her hospital bed.

At a hearing in Nashville on Wednesday, judge I’Ashea Myles said: “Anything that was in the actual room” during the attempted execution a week ago must be preserved by the state, including all drugs, intravenous lines and tubing used in the death chamber.

Published: October 7, 2026, 12:22 pm

Trump heads to Texas as Republican midterms woes deepen – US politics live

Trump earlier said he has ‘no regrets’ about endorsing Ken Paxton amid leaked recordings of state attorney general decrying Iran war and high gas prices

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Tonight, we’ll have another set of midterm debates. In Iowa, we’ll see the Republican nominee for US Senate, Ashley Hinson, face off against Democrat Josh Turek, a state representative and Paralympian at 8pm ET.

The race has become one of the most competitive of this cycle, despite the fact a Democrat hasn’t won a Senate election in the Hawkeye state since 2008. Turek, however, trails by just a point in a recent New York Times/Siena College poll. And Hinson, who currently serves as a congresswoman, has pushed back on Donald Trump’s agenda of late, as the president’s approval rating sinks to a new low. Hinson has called for an end on the war in Iran, despite consistently voting against House war powers resolutions that would curb military action, and criticizing the president’s recent pause on tariffs for foreign beef imports, which, Hinson argues, will affect the bottom line for the many cattle ranchers in Iowa.

Published: October 7, 2026, 2:00 pm

OpenAI’s release of mathematical findings draws concerns from experts

Leaders worry OpenAI is not doing due diligence to vet results and that AI models aren’t accessible to broader field of mathematicians

OpenAI has astounded mathematicians after releasing hundreds of new mathematical findings on Tuesday.

The company published over 370 mathematical results across a variety of topics such as algebra, theoretical computer science and mathematical logic, showcasing what some of its most advanced artificial intelligence models are capable of.

Published: October 7, 2026, 8:40 am

Hegseth tells USS Lincoln sailors controversial deployment ‘wasn’t easy’

Pentagon chief tries to play down problems onboard carrier as it returns to dock after 260 days at sea without port call

Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, told service members on the USS Abraham Lincoln on Wednesday that their deployment “wasn’t easy” as the carrier prepares to dock after spending over 260 consecutive days at sea without a port call, setting a navy record.

For months, there have been widespread concerns since reports first emerged of supply shortages and deteriorating mental health onboard. In his remarks on Wednesday, however, Hegseth again sought to play down the issues.

Published: October 7, 2026, 12:32 pm

EU drops sponsorship of disinformation conference at Trump officials’ request

Lithuania and Canada were also pressured to withdraw, and days before #Disinfo2026, logos were wiped off website

The Trump administration pressured multiple countries to withdraw their sponsorship of a leading European conference on disinformation, with Canada, Lithuania and the EU’s diplomatic service subsequently agreeing to do so, the Guardian understands.

The conference, #Disinfo2026, taking place Wednesday and Thursday, is the annual meetup of Europe’s counter-disinformation community and has drawn hundreds of researchers, journalists, technologists and policymakers to a hotel in Vilnius, Lithuania. It is run by an independent Brussels non-profit, EU Disinfo Lab.

Published: October 7, 2026, 12:38 pm

FBI says it thwarted terrorist attack in Minnesota by an 18-year-old it supplied with an AK-47

Authorities say they arrested an 18-year-old who was planning a shooting attack at the Mall of America

FBI officials stopped a potential terrorist attack on the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, authorities announced Wednesday. An 18-year-old was arrested on one count of obtaining a firearm to carry out an act of terrorism.

Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud had been investigated over the last nearly two years by the FBI. He was arrested Tuesday in a public park after he paid $600 to an undercover FBI employee posing as a member of the Islamic State for an AK-47 and 200 rounds of ammunition, according to the criminal complaint.

Published: October 7, 2026, 1:27 pm

Commemorations for victims of the 7 October Hamas attacks – in pictures

Events were held in Israel and around the world to mark the third anniversary of the attacks led by Hamas on kibbutzim, border towns, military bases and a music festival in Israel, in which 1,209 people were killed and 251 hostages were taken

Published: October 7, 2026, 11:29 am

Skepticism mires Trump’s Iowa steel plant project: ‘Promises are not the same as jobs’

The project has sparked doubts over whether the plant will be built and delivered as promised, given Trump’s record

Donald Trump has long sought to portray himself as a man of steel, from the White House photoshopping Trump to look like Superman, to enacting tariffs on steel and approving the sale of US Steel to Japan’s Nippon Steel with a ”golden” share given to the US government.

Most recently, the Trump administration announced plans to construct the largest steel plant in the US, a $15bn plant in Lee county, Iowa, to be built by India-based Mesabi Metallics.

Published: October 7, 2026, 3:00 am

Landslides, flash floods and raging seas: is California ready for the ravages of El Niño?

A mix of natural disasters could all befall the state at once as it finds itself in the crosshairs of the climate phenomenon

On a cloudless autumn afternoon, sunlight sparkled on the water that had quietly swallowed a busy intersection to the north of San Francisco, as the surrounding rush-hour traffic slowed to a painful crawl.

There were no crashing waves or storm surges to blame for the flood. Marin county was one of many areas up and down the California coast affected by high tides last week, as parts of the Pacific swelled with excess warmth.

Published: October 7, 2026, 7:30 am

The most shocking part of Trump’s comments is what our reaction says about us

Listening to the president at a rally these days is a mix of deja vu and word salad, but his decade-long project of division remains abnormal and dangerous

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

Donald Trump’s campaign rallies can be repetitive. Very repetitive. He calls himself the “greatest” president leading the “greatest” movement inside the “greatest” economy. He rails against “Dumocrats” for the “transgender mutilization” of children. He lambasts the “fake news” and reheats election lies. He describes illegal immigration as an “invasion” and recites the poem The Snake.

If we were all frogs being slowly boiled alive, we’ve now reached the stage of blackened toad. After a decade of this, presidential utterances that would once have caused outrage are met with a shrug. We are no longer shockable. Or so we thought.

Published: October 7, 2026, 10:12 am

Cornell’s Jane Doe wants justice. Why is that so hard to get? – Stateside with Kai and Carter

The internet is on fire with demands for justice for Jane Doe, the anonymous woman who alleges she was gang-raped at a Cornell fraternity house in 2024. Doe has filed a civil lawsuit, and law enforcement has reopened her case – but did Cornell fumble its Title IX investigation into her case? Title IX is a federal civil rights law that is supposed to protect against sexual discrimination in schools, including protecting young people against sexual assault and harassment. But in practice, it rarely works. Host Carter Sherman, a longtime sexual violence reporter, speaks with civil rights lawyer and Title IX expert Alexandra Brodsky about how the Trump administration has spent the last decade warping Title IX – and why #MeToo never really made its way onto college campuses. If the law is broken, what can be done to fix it?

• Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organizations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

Published: October 7, 2026, 2:45 am

LA officials document first case of a rabid raccoon in more than 50 years

Four people and a dog may have been exposed to rabies from the animal, Los Angeles public health officials say

Los Angeles county recently documented its first rabid raccoon in more than 50 years, and health officials are urging residents to never touch wild animals.

The county’s department of public health announced in a statement this week that four people and a dog may have been exposed to the animal at a backyard work site in the city of Westlake Village. The raccoon appeared in ill health but was not aggressive.

Published: October 7, 2026, 9:16 am

LA and San Diego residents ‘horrified’ by Trump suggesting Iran bomb them

As Angelenos bemoan ‘sad situation’, those in San Diego say remark a ‘disservice’ to town with multiple naval bases

Donald Trump’s extraordinary implication that Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego have sparked condemnation across the political spectrum. As residents of the two major west coast cities awoke on Tuesday to another sweltering day in a record-breaking heatwave, the president’s comments sent blood boiling even higher.

Jessica, a 28-year-old Los Angeles hair stylist, was scrolling through social media early on Tuesday morning and was shocked to see that Trump had just suggested Iran should decimate her home town.

Published: October 6, 2026, 4:45 pm

Record high temperatures as southern California swelters under heatwave

Several cities shatter temperatures for time of year as extreme heat warnings in place along California coast

An unprecedented heatwave has gripped southern California, boosting temperatures 15 to 20 degrees above normal for autumn.

Monday was a notably sweltering day for several cities.

Published: October 6, 2026, 3:38 pm

Whistleblower report alleges Trump ordered FBI investigation on LA anti-ICE protesters

White House denies the allegations as ‘false’ and says ‘first amendment does not protect violent rioting’

Donald Trump ordered the FBI to investigate protesters in Los Angeles who were demonstrating against the president’s immigration crackdown, according to a whistleblower complaint.

Alex Padilla, a Democratic senator who represents California and serves on the Senate judiciary committee, said his office had received a copy of the complaint, which makes sweeping allegations about the Trump administration’s response to protests in LA in early 2025.

Published: October 6, 2026, 2:14 pm

‘Curious and circumspect creatures’: the artist making sculptures for the rats of New York City

For his latest project, Asad Raza made ‘public art’ for rats with pieces designed to appeal to the city’s maligned rodents

“We call this the Hell Door,” artist Asad Raza explained animatedly. It’s 10pm on a warm August evening, and we are standing outside a small enclosure at the back of a seafood restaurant under the Manhattan Bridge that to any other passersby would have been invisible. “Are you ready?” he asks and, with my OK, pulls the door open to reveal what looks like 100 rats cascading over the dumpsters stored in this small, dimly lit room and scampering away into their secret passages in the walls and floor.

This foul-smelling, grime-encrusted site is just one of more than 20 that Raza, and his team of three installers – fellow artists Devyn Gallindo, Kunning Huang and Jared Packard – have identified across New York City as prime locations for, as he calls it, “public art for rats”.

Published: October 7, 2026, 3:00 am

I'm a fashion minimalist. This cozy cardigan makes the cut – and is now on sale

PrettyGarden’s oversized cardigan, on Prime Day sale for just $25, is soft, stretchy and perfect for working from home

• The best Prime Day deals – and sales on home essentials

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I’m a bit of a minimalist when it comes to my closet; I only buy clothing that I truly love and will wear over and over again. The PrettyGarden Cardigan checks the boxes of style, coziness and everyday wearability. Really, it’s like wearing a hug. And now that it is 39% off for Prime Day, I’m about to get this emotional-support cardigan in another color.

As a nature enthusiast and gear tester who is outside more often than not, I have accrued plenty of outdoor-specific apparel and know what to look for in quality clothing. But once in a blue moon I will shop for items that aren’t made with performance fabric. This past January was one such occasion – I browsed Amazon for something that would keep me warm in my chilly office, as blankets tend to slip off my shoulders with the slightest movement, and most sweaters feel too hot and confining. The PrettyGarden cardigan immediately caught my eye with its soothing oatmeal hue and slouchy, oversized charm. The reviews were overwhelmingly positive, too (always a good sign). Other customers raved about the cardigan’s comfy warmth and versatility.

Published: October 7, 2026, 12:15 pm

The Social Reckoning review – Aaron Sorkin’s jittery sequel with all-new evil puppet Zuckerberg

Jeremy Strong’s slow-talking Facebook founder turns into a cameo, background to a thriller about a whistleblower that somehow never mentions Trump

Here is a film for all those people who solemnly deplore social media in conversation but haven’t quite got round to deleting their accounts. Sixteen years have gone by since The Social Network, written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher; this was the addictive, obsessive-compulsive movie about the birth of Facebook in Harvard’s macho-competitive cauldron of student sexism and nerdy self-pity, starring Jesse Eisenberg as the fast-talking, arrogant, not-necessarily-evil genius Mark Zuckerberg. Now Sorkin is back with a sequel of sorts, directing his own script – and now Zuckerberg is basically evil, but also weirdly slow talking, as if all the zinging, smart-alecky Sorkinesque dialogue energy of the first film has been siphoned away in early middle age and dispersed among the insurgents in the new cast.

Sorkin’s jittery, funny, syncopated style is unmistakable, as distinctive in its way as David Mamet, although he has one joke about “spatula” being a Yiddish word that he has borrowed from Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint. It is the story of how in 2021, Zuckerberg’s Facebook empire was challenged by courageous whistleblower-employee Frances Haugen and Wall Street Journal investigative reporter Jeff Horwitz, who were on a mission to tell the world how Zuckerberg, scared by falling revenue, changed the algorithm so that engagement was supercharged by rage bait and hate speech, malice and envy. Facebook, moreover, didn’t factcheck political ads, thus driving a huge, nationwide surge in extremist groups and teen bullying and becoming a major player in the Capitol riots. (Having said that, this film does not say aloud the word “Trump” and rather cravenly declines to specify Maga activity.)

Published: October 7, 2026, 6:00 am

Goodbye Warner, hello Skydance: how will the major merger really impact Hollywood?

After a windier road than expected, Paramount and Warner are now one, under the banner of Skydance, and the film industry is set for a shake-up

Hollywood’s big five have officially become the big four. Following a twist-filled saga that saw the century-old studio Warner Bros nearly acquired by the streaming giant Netflix, only to be outbid by Paramount owners Skydance, the company led by billionaire scion David Ellison. After facing legal opposition that ultimately crumbled, Warner Bros and Paramount are officially under the same corporate roof. They are divisions of Skydance, which joins Sony, Disney and Universal as the remaining major-studio players in Hollywood.

The merger goes beyond film production. Eventually, the streaming services HBO Max and Paramount+ will merge into a single entity, though a timeline has not been disclosed. The television channels HBO, Showtime, CBS, MTV, Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, TNT, TBS and CNN are among many now owned by a single corporation. The presence of CNN on that list has brought particular scrutiny, given the post-Skydance meddling with the once-respected CBS News, resulting in a rocky stewardship from Bari Weiss, who has overseen a dip in both ratings and prestige for the flagship program 60 Minutes. Weiss isn’t expected to add CNN to her purview; current chair Mark Thompson will remain in place for now, and Skydance has insisted that CNN will remain editorially independent. But given Ellison’s chumminess with Donald Trump, who has long ranted incoherently about CNN’s supposed biases, the presence of an oversight board with Ellison appointees has been cold comfort.

Published: October 7, 2026, 2:00 am

Jimmy Kimmel on Trump’s joke about Iran bombing LA: ‘Our own president wishing death to America’

Late-night hosts discuss Trump’s rally line that Iran should bomb LA or San Diego as he continues to defend costly war

Late-night hosts reacted to Donald Trump’s inflammatory comments about Iran bombing US cities as he continues to defend his war in the region.

Published: October 7, 2026, 7:43 am

Cruel torment, depraved violence, evil turns: where did TV’s real baddies go?

From Carrie’s bullies to Cathy Ames, sympathetic backstories have made villains boring. It’s time to bring back truly awful villains – in all their deliciously sinful glory

The new Netflix adaptation of East of Eden largely sticks to the plot of the John Steinbeck novel. There are tweaks – the introduction of a wedding photograph, for example, which becomes a significant item – but otherwise, it is faithful to the book. That is, in terms of the plot. There has already been some discussion about what it has done to Cathy Ames, played with considerable ferocity by Florence Pugh. Cathy, who later changes her name to Kate, kills her parents by burning down the family house. She shoots her husband, Adam, and leaves her baby sons wailing and alone. She slowly poisons the brothel madam Faye, a woman who acts as a mentor to her and treats her as a daughter, while simultaneously tricking her into leaving her everything in her will. In the book, Steinbeck lets Kate reflect on killing Faye. She finds that she has “no feeling” about it at all.

She is a brilliant, brutal character, but on television, she becomes something else: complicated. Her cruelty remains intact, but Pugh and showrunner Zoe Kazan have fleshed her out and given reasons for her fury. They invent a scene that implies Cathy was abused as a child by two men in the woods, and when she takes her final bow, the series returns to this moment in flashback, suggesting that her campaign of destruction has been shaped by a life of trauma and pain. In Steinbeck’s hands, Cathy is cold and unfeeling. In the 2020s, Cathy is more sympathetic and less of a brute.

Published: October 7, 2026, 7:11 am

‘Take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego? Trump is beyond irresponsible | Ted Widmer

We appear to be entering a new era, in which political desperation at home leads to increasingly unhinged threats abroad

Donald Trump was in Nebraska on Monday, and though his long rally speech had elements of a performance, this was no Bruce Springsteen album. He offered another dark meditation on a world spiraling out of control, one in which the destruction of American cities is increasingly a possibility, unless Americans trust him to use the vast powers of the presidency to annihilate his foes.

The president drew fury when he suggested that Iran could launch a nuclear attack and “take out” Los Angeles or San Diego. California leaders reacted with scorn at Trump’s alarmism.

Ted Widmer, a former White House speechwriter, is the editor of American Speeches, and the recently published The Living Declaration: A Biography of America’s Founding Text, both published by the Library of America

Published: October 7, 2026, 8:00 am

The impossible dilemma that Black parents face | Saida Grundy

Having to choose between academic rigor and cultural inclusivity puts some families in an untenable conundrum

I don’t recall what provoked me, well into adulthood, to ask my parents what the hardest part of their more than 50-year journey together had been. It was an impromptu inquiry spurred by nothing in particular, but I remember how astonished I was by their answer. “Choosing schools for our Black children,” they said, with no hesitation and in full agreement, as though they had considered and resolved this question long before I asked.

By the time I arrived in the 1980s, the American schooling landscape was still a rocky racial terrain of post-segregation, and lagged far behind the fair and equal education promised by 1954’s Brown v Board of Education decision. My parents are fortunate and had the means to opt in to private schools, but they decided that independent schools were responsible solely for the academic preparation of their children. They would be the ones to supplement the cultural curriculum about Black life and heritage that was also required for their daughters’ development.

Published: October 7, 2026, 4:00 am

I see what’s happening here in Paris: reasonable student demands met with awful violence | Helen Massy-Beresford

The debate around the schools protests is angry and polarised. I fear this is a foretaste of how election tensions next year will play out

• Helen Massy-Beresford is a British journalist who lives in Paris

It would be tough to argue that the demands of France’s protesting high school students are not reasonable ones, worth taking to the streets for: investment in crumbling schools, replacing absent teachers, reducing class sizes and overstuffed timetables, and bridging the inequality gap between schools in different areas.

The protests across the country on Tuesday, which demonstrators dubbed l’acte III (Act 3), or la grande mobilisation, were billed as the most dramatic day of action yet, with more school blockades and a march through central Paris in the afternoon. More than 400 schools closed preventively, including my elder daughter’s, a combined collège (for 11- to 15-year-olds) and lycée.

Helen Massy-Beresford is a British journalist and editor who lives in Paris

Published: October 6, 2026, 10:00 pm

Why do billionaires have so many children if they’re not prepared to parent them? | Arwa Mahdawi

Kim Kardashian’s revelation that she has five nannies for four children caused a ruckus. But the world of the ultra-wealthy throws up far more extreme approaches to childcare

“I have the best advice for women in business,” Kim Kardashian told Variety in 2022. “Get your fucking ass up and work. It seems like nobody wants to work these days.”

The billionaire got a lot of flak for this comment but no one can accuse her of being a hypocrite. It takes serious graft to spin a sex tape into lasting fame and a business empire. That said, like many high-flyers who preach the importance of hard work, the Skims co-founder isn’t above outsourcing the less glamorous domestic labour. She has primary custody of the four kids she shares with her ex-husband, Kanye West, and, according to an interview with the Sunday Times, employs five nannies to take care of them: “One nanny on duty, four on rotation,” she said. Despite having more nannies than kids, she apparently still does the school run. And I bet she doesn’t turn up at the school gate with yoghurt on her shirt like I do.

Published: October 7, 2026, 3:00 am

Will the Zuckerberg, Musk and Altman movies make a dent on tech giant evangelism?

The triple release of The Social Reckoning, Musk and Artificial is less a clear political stance, more like movie studio opportunism

Hollywood is sending a clear message: it’s a friend of tech. Netflix is no longer a lone disruptor: historic studio MGM is now the property of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos; David Ellison’s takeover of Paramount and subsequent Warner Bros merger was supported by his tech giant father; and Apple TV has acted as a patron for multiple film-maker passion projects. Everyone, including trendy auteur-factory A24, is tying themselves financially to AI.

The enormous pull of the tech industry – including its many trillions of dollars, oversized influence on politics and heavily pushed algorithms and AI products – means Hollywood is not alone in courting its wealth, but it has intensified the historic tension between art and commerce in the entertainment business. Technology that augments the human experience may be a compelling narrative subject, but this year brings a trio of films about the gurus responsible for the industry’s false promises.

Published: October 7, 2026, 6:43 am

The Guardian view on the US midterms: the cost of living is on the ballot, but this is about democracy too | Editorial

Donald Trump’s unpopularity and the economic struggles of voters have boosted Democrats. But with less than a month to go, there is no complacency

For once, Democrats and Donald Trump might be in agreement: “Pretend I’m on the ticket,” the historically unpopular president has instructed supporters. Midterms are in large part a referendum on the incumbent, and Trump’s war on Iran and its impact on the cost of living have boosted support for Democrats. With less than a month to go, they have reason to be upbeat. The party has a mountain to climb after the devastating defeats of 2024, and the gerrymandering of Republicans, but surveys give it a lead of about nine points on the generic ballot, which measures preference for parties rather than specific candidates.

Attention has turned from the prospects of seizing the House, where Democrats are forecast a clear majority, to what once seemed like the highly optimistic possibility of taking the Senate too. That would require flipping four seats, with 35 in play. Remarkably, Democrats are prospering in red states from Texas to Alaska. In Kansas – which Mr Trump carried by 16 points, and which has not elected a Democratic senator since 1932 – the race is neck and neck.

Published: October 7, 2026, 10:59 am

Jon Rahm’s LIV exit set to trigger mass exodus of players from stricken tour

• Tyrrell Hatton and other big names likely to follow

• Tour filed for bankruptcy after Saudi funding withdrawn

Confirmation that Jon Rahm will play no part in LIV Golf in its post-Saudi Arabian form is likely to be only the start of a mass exodus from the breakaway circuit.

A bankruptcy hearing on Wednesday heard Rahm’s lawyer say “unacceptable” terms proposed by LIV 2.0 mean the Spaniard will shortly walk away from a tour which has lingering hopes of continuing as a going concern. Rahm’s departure from LIV, which he joined in 2023, was inevitable, but still a significant blow and moment in time given his status in his sport.

Published: October 7, 2026, 12:14 pm

Lionel Messi’s Argentina career turned football into a sacred mystery | Marcela Mora y Araujo

Jorge Messi wanted his country to fall in love with his son. That ambition was fulfilled during a brilliant international career that ended this week

“What Argentina is doing in this World Cup is of a sacred order,” Brazilian writer Milly Lacombe posted at the height of the tide of anti-Argentinian sentiment during this year’s tournament. She was exploring the contradiction she felt around her support of Lionel Messi: “a player who is a God and a man who shakes Trump’s hand”.

Lacombe highlighted the importance of acknowledging the complexities around Messi and the Argentinian team. How is it possible that Messi was not speaking out against the racist incidents we all saw around the Argentina team, she asked. “That’s why it hurts so much to see someone with Messi’s power choosing to make himself small,” she wrote.

Published: October 7, 2026, 10:02 am

Teen brilliance to Pochettino’s haters: Winners and losers from the USMNT’s perfect window

The United States winning four of four benefits many that were involved, and may hurt those who were left behind

Cavan Sullivan

Published: October 7, 2026, 5:30 am

Verstappen’s victory in Sepang should serve as a warning to Red Bull’s rivals | Giles Richards

Improvements to the car are paying off as the team look to lay the groundwork for renewed success next season

The importance for Max Verstappen of emerging triumphant from the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia was writ large in the Dutchman’s pleasure at finally being able to drive a competitive car. In a ride with which he was comfortable and able to take to a dominant victory for Red Bull, Verstappen was in his element. With it came a sense of what might have been had he not been long out of the championship fight, but also what might be to come next year.

The transformation was so marked because for so long this season the car has been a handful – the reason Verstappen’s title hopes faded long ago. That the team have come back to deliver a win in such emphatic fashion was no little achievement.

Published: October 7, 2026, 9:28 am

Cristiano Ronaldo: the extraordinary eight points he says Jorge Jesus agreed to make

• Ronaldo lists notes ‘validated’ for Portugal coach to say

• Pelé, Maradona, loyalty and selfies get mentions

Cristiano Ronaldo said in a lengthy statement on Tuesday that the Portugal head coach, Jorge Jesus, had agreed to make eight points relating to him in a press conference before the team’s game in Denmark last week.

Ronaldo said he had approved a document listing the points after a video meeting involving him, Jesus, his adviser Tiago Craveiro and his club Al-Nassr’s sporting director, Simão Coutinho.

Published: October 7, 2026, 1:20 am

Coco Gauff says online racist abuse during China Open was ‘draining’ after loss to Mertens

• American involved in disputed point during tournament

• Gauff called out ‘insane’ amount of abuse online

Coco Gauff said she had been left drained by the racist abuse she experienced during the China Open after losing in the last 16 to Elise Mertens.

The American was dismayed earlier this week after an incident during her match against Chinese teenager Sun Xinran. The 16-year-old thought she had hit a winner late in the first set but Gauff had raised her hand to stop the point because she was distracted by flickering lights on the stadium’s advertising hoardings. The move prompted some boos from the crowd. The umpire agreed to have the point replayed, and Gauff went on to win 7-5, 6-1.

Published: October 7, 2026, 4:39 am

Philadelphia Eagles great Lane Johnson abruptly retires citing ‘mental health’

• Two-time All-Pro won two Super Bowls with Eagles

• Johnson says family priorities have changed

• 36-year-old started 171 games for Philadelphia

Lane Johnson, the Philadelphia Eagles’ decorated right tackle and a cornerstone of the franchise for nearly a decade and a half, announced his retirement from the NFL on Tuesday after 14 seasons.

The 36-year-old, a two-time first-team All-Pro and six-time Pro Bowl selection, said in a statement on social media that he had hoped to play one final season but had decided to step away to prioritize his mental health and spend more time with his family.

Published: October 6, 2026, 1:32 pm

Lionel Messi describes ending Argentina career as his ‘saddest day’ in football

• Messi addresses crowd after scoring in win against Benin

• ‘Not coming any more is going to be deeply painful’

Lionel Messi described his retirement from international football as the “saddest day of my career” after playing his final game for Argentina in a 3-0 defeat of Benin.

Messi, who scored and provided two assists in the victory at the Monumental Stadium in Buenos Aires, took to the field after the win to express gratitude to fans and teammates as he reflected on his 21-year career with Argentina.

Published: October 7, 2026, 12:20 am

WHO says it does not have ‘full picture’ from Russia following suspected plague death

‘Transparent information sharing’ from Moscow is required to conduct full risk assessment, UN agency says

The World Health Organization has said it does not have the “full picture” from Russia following the suspected death from plague last week of a 28-year-old laboratory worker in Siberia.

Darya Shipilova died two days after falling ill with cold-like symptoms. She was an employee at the anti-plague research institute in the eastern city of Irkutsk, with some reports suggesting she was infected after a workplace accident.

Published: October 7, 2026, 1:46 pm

Canada to indefinitely bar mental illness as sole reason for access to euthanasia

Legislation is an effort by ruling Liberals to address growing clash over who has access to doctor-assisted death

Canada’s federal government said Wednesday it would advance legislation to prevent people whose sole health condition is mental illness from accessing euthanasia, an effort by the ruling Liberal party to address a clash in the country over who has access to physician-assisted death.

Under the current rules, people whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness have been barred from accessing medical assistance in dying (Maid) to end their lives. But that ban – due to be lifted in March – has divided lawmakers over whether to permit this expansion of the Maid program.

In Canada, Crisis Services Canada can be contacted at any time on 1.833.456.4566, or via text on 45645 from 4pm-12am ET. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

Published: October 7, 2026, 12:00 pm

Houthi forces appear to make slow advance in south-west Yemen

Group’s fighters hit key airport in Aden with explosive moments before plane from Cairo was due to land

Houthi forces appeared to be making slow advances on Wednesday in south-west Yemen, approaching the city of Taiz and firing a missile and an explosive towards the airport in Aden, the chief international hub of the Saudi-backed government.

The explosive hit the key airport moments before a plane was due to land. The British ambassador to Yemen, Abda Sharif, said the attack could have endangered thousands of people. It forced the flight – from Cairo – to be diverted to Jeddah and led to a review about the safety of flights in Aden.

Published: October 7, 2026, 12:45 pm

Tropical Storm Isaias near Mexico is forecast to become a hurricane

Isaias, which succeeded Tropical Depression Nine, would be the first hurricane of the belated Atlantic season

Tropical Storm Isaias formed early on Wednesday in the warm waters off eastern Mexico and forecasters said it was expected to strengthen into the first hurricane of the belated Atlantic season, as early as Thursday, before hitting the US Gulf coast later in the week.

Isaias succeeded Tropical Depression Nine as it strengthened overnight. It was located about 285 miles (460km) west of Progreso, Mexico, and about 580 miles south-west of where the Mississippi River spills into the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). The storm on Wednesday morning had maximum sustained winds of 40mph (65km/h) and was moving east to north-east at 8mph.

Published: October 7, 2026, 12:27 pm

‘Another coup d’état’: fears grow as Flávio Bolsonaro vows to ‘re-democratise’ Brazil

After a surprise first-round victory, critics suggest son of disgraced ex-president could seek to continue his father’s authoritarian project

• Flávio’s surprise first-round win highlights rapid rise of Brazil’s House of Bolsonaro

Flávio Bolsonaro, the far-right frontrunner to become Brazil’s next president, has vowed to “re-democratise” the South American country, increasing fears about a move into authoritarian rule if he wins power.

Brazil was re-democratised in the 1980s after a brutal 21-year dictatorship that Flávio’s father, the disgraced ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, has long praised.

Published: October 7, 2026, 8:03 am

Electric-shock gloves ICE plans to use inflicted intense pain in army study

Immigration enforcement agency has signed $16.7m deal for devices that induced ‘excessive’ fear in military subjects

The electric-shock gloves immigration agents could soon use to control detainees and protesters worked so powerfully during a military exercise that participants felt intense pain, stopped fighting immediately and feared additional exposures, according to a previously unreleased army study.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) leaders were aware of the findings before signing a $16.7m contract in August to purchase 6,000 pairs of shock gloves, according to records obtained by the watchdog group American Oversight and shared with the Associated Press.

Published: October 7, 2026, 5:30 am

Satellite images show attack jets at Chinese military facility in Laos

New ‘support and training centre’ prompts concern in region but China says it is ‘not directed at any third party’

Satellite images show attack jets stationed at a new Chinese military facility in Laos, which opened last week and gives Beijing’s air force its first foothold in mainland south-east Asia.

Images provided by the commercial satellite provider Vantor show eight light attack aircraft positioned at Ban Keun airport alongside what appear to be more than a dozen military vehicles lined up in rows.

Published: October 7, 2026, 7:46 am

Jonathan the giant tortoise, 194, offers up insight into secrets of longevity

DNA analysis of oldest living land animal reveal patterns on genes that appear to protect functioning of mitochondria

The ancient quest to extend human lifespan has received a boost after scientists analysed the genetic code of the world’s oldest living land animal, a giant tortoise called Jonathan.

The tortoise, which lives in the grounds of Plantation House, the official residence of the governor of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, is believed to be 194 years old, making him a contemporary of Queen Victoria and Charles Darwin.

Published: October 7, 2026, 11:00 am

World’s largest penguin colony suffers ‘enormous population crash’

Chinstrap penguins on Zavodovski Island in Antarctica down by two-thirds since 2011, probably due to climate crisis

The world’s largest penguin colony has declined by two-thirds since 2011, most likely because of the climate crisis, a study has revealed.

Scientists said the rapid demise of chinstrap penguins on Zavodovski, the northernmost of the South Sandwich Islands in Antarctica, increased the risk of a wider ecosystem collapse.

Published: October 7, 2026, 8:00 am

Heatstroke ruined his health. Years before, it took the life of another farm worker at the same company

A farm labor contractor exposed laborers on H-2A agricultural visas to heat-related health hazards, but is still bringing hundreds of migrant farm workers to North Carolina

It was 4pm and 90F (32C) when Carlos Vargas Moreno and other farm workers set out to weed a watermelon field in Goldsboro, North Carolina, on 19 July 2022.

The work day had begun at 7am and included two 15-minute breaks and a one-hour lunch eaten outdoors. The heat index – what the temperature feels like to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature – was 98.3F. It was the kind of day that a heat safety app created by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh) defined as “hazardous” for outdoor workers.

Published: October 7, 2026, 4:00 am

Flávio Bolsonaro’s advance in Brazil’s election is grim jolt for climate campaigners

Inquest under way into why President Lula’s success in curbing Amazon deforestation has not led to success at polls

More fire, more ash, more crime, more death. And a globally important ecosystem driven ever more rapidly towards a point of no return. That is the prospect for the Amazon rainforest for at least the next four years if Flávio Bolsonaro holds on to the lead he established this week in the first round of Brazil’s presidential election.

This appears to be of far more concern to the outside world than to voters in Latin America’s biggest, richest and most biodiverse nation.

Published: October 7, 2026, 12:23 pm

Scientists who put faith in technology less likely to take climate action

‘Techno-optimism’ may lead to reliance on unproven solutions at expense of societal changes needed

Scientists who believe technology will largely solve the problems caused by the climate crisis are less likely to engage in civic action on the issue, according to a study.

The report from the London School of Economics found they are 23% less likelyto sign petitions or take part in protests than peers who doubt that technology is the answer. They are also 18% less likely to make high-impact lifestyle changes, from reducing flights to changing to a vegan or vegetarian diet.

Published: October 6, 2026, 11:00 pm

McDonald’s sued for allegedly using AI tool to determine pricing for franchises

Suit says AI tool allows independently owned franchises to exchange nonpublic price and sales information

McDonald’s is facing a lawsuit in federal court over its alleged use of an AI tool to determine pricing across independent franchises, which prosecutors say violates antitrust laws and has unfairly inflated menu prices for Americans.

The vast majority of McDonald’s US stores are independently owned and are said to individually decide on prices under company policy. Antitrust laws require businesses to set prices independently from their competitors, as coordinating prices can stifle market competition and push up costs for consumers.

Published: October 7, 2026, 4:00 am

A New Orleans judge wanted to press charges against a TV news station. But it hadn’t violated any law

Kimya Holmes relied on a repealed law to force WWL Louisiana to remove details of a gift she received from a man accused of pandemic-relief fraud

A New Orleans criminal court judge who filed a police report against a local CBS affiliate after it aired a segment critical of her ultimately conceded that her complaint relied on a section of law which she did not realize had been repealed, according to a public document obtained by the station and prepared by the detective investigating the case.

“There is no violation … or criminal offense” that had taken place when Judge Kimya Holmes tried to turn WWL Louisiana – a Guardian reporting partner – over to the New Orleans police department (NOPD) in September, Det Marcus Dubuclet wrote in the document that the outlet reported on in a story on Tuesday.

Published: October 7, 2026, 3:00 am

‘Not exactly his favorite senator’: Susan Collins distances herself from Trump in Maine debate

Republican challenged by Democrat Troy Jackson in critical Senate race says she opposes Iran war and Canada tariffs

Susan Collins, the Republican senator for Maine, pointedly distanced herself from Donald Trump in a televised debate with Democratic challenger Troy Jackson on Tuesday, as she sought to present an image of independence in a state that has voted against Trump three times.

Proclaiming herself as not the US president’s “favorite senator”, Collins made the highly unusual boast for a Republican that she had voted with Joe Biden, a Democrat, more than 90% of the time when he was president. She also emphasized her differences with her fellow Republicans, saying she voted against her own party more than any other senator.

Published: October 6, 2026, 6:43 pm

California to ‘actively monitor’ for possible threats after Trump said Iran could ‘take out’ LA and San Diego

Gavin Newsom said state’s threat-assessment center would be on heightened alert after president’s remarks

California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, on Tuesday directed the state’s emergency preparedness center to “actively monitor” possible threats to the state after Donald Trump suggested Iran could “take out” the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego.

Trump has faced a chorus of condemnation from Democratic leaders in California after his comments at a rally in Nebraska on Monday night, which the White House has suggested were being taken out of context.

Published: October 6, 2026, 8:39 am

Nobel prize in chemistry awarded for work on mirror-image molecules

Henri B Kagan and Kensō Soai awarded prize for discovery that has aided understanding of how medicines work in the body

The Nobel prize in chemistry 2026 has been awarded to two scientists for discoveries that showed how chemical reactions can produce an overwhelming excess of one of two mirror image forms of a molecule.

Henri B Kagan at Paris-Sud University in France and Kensō Soai at Tokyo University of Science in Japan have been awarded the prize “for the discovery of nonlinear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis”.

Published: October 7, 2026, 6:36 am

German court orders detention of former intelligence chief after spying arrest

August Hanning, 80, appears before judge after being accused of treason and espionage on behalf of foreign state

A formal arrest warrant has been issued against Germany’s former top spy, with a judge ordering him to be held in pre-trial detention, a day after he was arrested on suspicion of treason and spying on behalf of an overseas intelligence agency.

August Hanning, 80, is accused of buying secret documents from a former colleague and using them to advise a foreign intelligence service, according to the office of the federal prosecutor.

Published: October 7, 2026, 10:03 am

French police suspend use of stun grenades at school protests as minister rejects accusations of brutality

Minister says use of grenades has been stopped after a student lost a hand as protests across France continue

• How dilapidated are French schools and how bad is inequality in the education system?

France’s interior minister has suspended the use of stun grenades by police at high school demonstrations but rejected mounting accusations of police brutality during two weeks of protests marred by often violent clashes that have injured hundreds.

Laurent Nuñez told RTL radio on Wednesday that he had ordered a temporary halt on the use of the grenades “in the context of the high school students’ movement” after a 15-year-old boy lost a hand during a protest in Lens, northern France, on Monday.

Published: October 7, 2026, 1:04 pm

Naval drone hits oil tanker off Russian resort city Sochi, triggering massive blaze

Russian officials said a Liberian-flagged tanker was attacked and a crew of 23 Indian nationals rescued

An oil tanker off Russia’s Black Sea coast was struck by a naval drone, triggering a huge fire and black smoke cloud that blanketed parts of the resort city of Sochi, Russia’s transport ministry has said.

The transport ministry said a Liberian-flagged tanker had been attacked and that “crude oil is burning openly in the waters of the Black Sea”.

Published: October 6, 2026, 9:39 pm

Carrie review – the teenage hell-raiser’s glorious return couldn’t come at a better time

This witty, smart remake takes bullying and telekinetic violence to new extremes. Even the shower scene is more excruciating than the original

The automatic response to the news that a stone-cold classic of any genre is to be remade is: “Why?” In an accompanying letter to critics, the creator of the new TV series Carrie, Mike Flanagan, promises us that this was the first question he asked himself too when he was approached about the project. Why mess with perfection – in this case, the Brian De Palma horror film, based on and nearly eclipsing in terms of cultural currency Stephen King’s debut novel about a telekinetic teen, that has been gloriously shocking audiences for half a century?

But it’s a far less necessary question than usual. Why remake Carrie, a story of teenage bullying, alienation and the vengeful violence they can fuel, for the modern age? Babe, look around! We’ve got the internet now. We’ve taken teenage bullying, alienation and the fuelling of vengeful violence to levels that De Palma and King, with all their vaunted capacity for darkness, could never have imagined! We are, to use a construction popular among the very youth of whom we are speaking, Carriemaxxing these days. The question is not why remake but quite why it has taken this long.

Published: October 7, 2026, 12:01 am

‘In the wake of death, Courtney Love was giving it her all’: Hole’s Melissa auf der Maur on her best photograph

‘This is Courtney doing her makeup on the ’95 Lollapalooza tour. I was documenting my generation being hijacked by corporate greed – and destroyed following the sacrificial death of Kurt Cobain’

When I was going through the archives for my rock photo book, I came across my first ever self-portrait, at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, in front of Jim Morrison’s grave. I am a 13-year-old on an awkward trip with my cool father. He had no respect or interest in Jim Morrison, and that photo is like every photo I’ve taken from that moment on – I’m trying to take agency over what is happening. Photography was the absolute first thing that gave me a feeling of having my own say. It became a way of creating my own universe, one that I could trust. It was absolutely my first love.

I was sidetracked into music in a beautiful way by these radical women and a countercultural movement, so the subject of my photographs just changed. It was me within this environment, on stage with Hole, backstage with these luminary, wild people, travelling across the world. My photography followed and morphed with me, and my camera documented my generation being hijacked by corporate greed and destroyed in the wake of the sacrificial death of Kurt Cobain. It was a generational call to document the Lollapalooza ’95 tour, where this photo was taken, for us to understand later. It was also when the wild alternative freaks crossed into the mainstream.

Published: October 7, 2026, 6:02 am

The Uprising review – Paul Greengrass turns revolutionary rage into a Robin Hood origin myth

Andrew Garfield’s fictional ploughman joins the historical heroes of the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt in a dirt-caked, docudrama-style film with disconcertingly silly moments

Paul Greengrass has in fact already made his “uprising” film: United 93, the gut-wrenching 2006 masterpiece about the passengers onboard United Airlines flight 93 who rose up against the 9/11 hijackers and prevented them from hitting their destination and causing fatalities – except, that is, for those onboard the plane. Greengrass’s new movie, shot in his distinctive handheld, docu-reportage style, is notionally about the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt, in which Wat Tyler and John Ball became legendary for leading an insurrection against the cruel poll tax of Richard II. Or at least … it sort of is. Because the film, in a disconcertingly silly way, imagines the uprising as an origin myth for Robin Hood, or at least someone who’s supposed to be more or less Robin Hood – because that’s not what he’s called and the dates don’t quite match up.

Ex-soldier Tyler and radical preacher Ball, capably played by Cosmo Jarvis and Jamie Bell, are joined by a third fictional hero, apparently destined later to canter through the forest with a wealth-redistribution plan. He is a ploughman, known simply as “Ploughman”, played by Andrew Garfield; grieving the loss of his wife and children to the plague and sickened by the tax collectors’ greed and brutality, he instigates an insurrection that soon merges into other outbreaks of revolutionary rage. This involves rivers of smudgy-faced folk in rough clothes descending on the capital from all directions, to demand concessions from the king to whom they are still loyal and believe to have been misled by advisers.

Published: October 7, 2026, 7:00 am

Artificial review – Luca Guadagnino takes on OpenAI in muddled tech satire

New York film festival: The origin story of Sam Altman’s company is reimagined as a campy comedy starring Andrew Garfield

On the day that Luca Guadagnino’s film about Sam Altman and OpenAI premiered, Vanity Fair released a cover story on Altman. Alongside glossy portraits from Annie Leibovitz, the world’s pre-eminent portrait photographer, the story describes him as the Oppenheimer of his day, evoking the image of a man leading humanity towards its own inevitable demise at the hands of sentient robots. Altman doesn’t seem to be grappling with much existential angst about the whole thing though: in an interview also released this week, he said that we should be prepared to accept “bad things” in return for the benefits of AI.

How much worse can things get? AI agents have already gone rogue, hacking into government systems and “bruteforcing” UN databases. Last year, a young woman used ChatGPT as a therapist before she killed herself (the software helped her write her suicide note). Studies show that using AI is probably leading us all towards something called cognitive surrender, which does not seem like the best use of your one wild and precious life.

Published: October 6, 2026, 9:58 am

‘Rip it open’: Big Girls Don’t Cry director explores wounds of early love in film festival hit

Director Paloma Schneideman explores issues of consent and queerness in coming-of-age film set in New Zealand

In Big Girls Don’t Cry, the New Zealand coming-of-age film quietly devastating film festivals, there is a scene on a moonlit beach. It features the main character, Sid, played by Ani Palmer, and one of the cool older city boys who has come to the small, golden-sand town of Ōmaha for the summer. It is a deeply relatable, deeply uncomfortable watch; reliving the teenage negotiation – or not – of consent feels unsettling and validating.

“Yeah, an 18-year-old at the screening last night said, ‘I feel so seen and exposed,” director and writer Paloma Schneideman, 34, says. “I was like, whoa, that’s quite an astute way to think about it. One is cathartic and healing, and the other is quite confronting.”

Published: October 6, 2026, 4:29 pm

Only connect: two composers who put humans at the heart of their music, and the conductor who didn’t

This week, from Reich to Kendall and Celibidache, three musicians who prove there is no such thing as “pure music”, whether we’re talking about a technique, a mode of musical expression or a musician’s legacy.

Steve Reich turned 90 on Saturday, and I’ve been thinking about his early tape pieces from the mid-1960s, It’s Gonna Rain and Come Out. They’re such vital works not only because they opened his imagination to what could happen if you made a micro-canon – playing the same material slightly faster or slower – which is what happened when one of his tape machines slipped out of sync with the other: it’s that these are human voices that Reich is setting. It’s Gonna Rain is made from the voice of Brother Walter, a Pentecostal street preacher in San Francisco, whose warning of apocalypse in 1965 Reich recorded and looped against itself, over and over, so that Brother Walter’s voice becomes a wall and wail of sound, a sonic realisation of the sublime inundation he’s announcing. Come Out was made in 1966 with the voice of Daniel Hamm, one of the Harlem Six, six black men wrongly convicted of first-degree murder in New York. Reich’s piece was commissioned for a benefit event for their legal costs as “background music for passing the hat”.

These pieces don’t just set words, Reich says they “set human beings”, using the vocal recordings not only as musical material but political inspiration and emotional expression. Techniques that are seemingly all about narrowly musical processes – looping, canon-ing, fugue-ing – are embedded in the facts of where they were made and how, and whose voices are being represented by whom.

Published: October 7, 2026, 6:18 am

The 80-year-old market trader who became a Chilean music star

Born and raised in Valparaíso, JM is seen as one of the last of a golden generation after a late foray

At a concert hall in the Chilean capital, Santiago, an 80-year-old man edges unsteadily down a steep staircase. With one hand he grips the metal bannister, in the other he carries a mug of hot water with a slice of lemon, as if heading to bed.

But when the red stage curtain is pulled aside for him, Luis Gómez, or JM as he is universally known, transforms in an instant. He skips on to the stage to a roar from the crowd and launches into a bolero, punctuated by hip thrusts and shuffling two-steps.

Published: October 7, 2026, 4:40 am

‘Men are a scam!’ The trials of Danielle Ponder, the lawyer turned singer rooting for a better world

After representing society’s dispossessed, Ponder started a music career in her 40s – then faced miscarriage, anxiety and more. She explains her survival instinct

“You can get everything you dreamed of career-wise, and your life can still crumble, and that is what happened to me,” says US singer-songwriter Danielle Ponder.

Five years ago, and five days before her 40th birthday, Ponder left her job as a public defender – a lawyer for those without the means to pay for one – to pursue music full-time. Ponder’s rich, church-reared voice and resonant music quickly lent themselves to cinematic moments: she wrote and performed the theme song for Apple TV+’s Manhunt and her trip-hop-infused track Roll the Credits has been used by adverts, TV shows and video games. Several comments on the YouTube video come from viewers who searched for it thinking she was Nina Simone. Her debut album, Some of Us Are Brave, came out in 2022 and was warmly received by critics, and she appeared on Seth Meyers’ talkshow. Her gamble had paid off. “But personally,” she says, “it felt like everything around me was falling apart”.

Published: October 7, 2026, 3:39 am

‘I was so out of control!’ Bez on cocaine, Happy Mondays, his ‘sexless marriage’ to Shaun Ryder, organic courgettes …

Drugs, drink and dancing made Bez famous. Thirty-five years on, has he really swapped it all for filtered water, intermittent fasting and walks with the dogs?

Bez has both shoelaces undone and it’s making me nervous. Out walking his dogs, we’re up and over barbed wire, across streams and over gates. We bash through brambles and skid down slopes. I’m becoming fixated on the perilously trailing laces of his trainers and why he hasn’t tripped over them. Can he be such a thrill-seeker that a dog walk can be turned into an hour of jeopardy?

Of course he can. This is Bez, anarchic maraca-shaker, party person, the man Shaun Ryder, his Happy Mondays bandmate and partner in crime, says is a bad influence. Bez, whose real name is Mark Berry, has been in more scrapes than seems possible for one person. A small sample: knocking his teeth out in a motorbike crash at the age of 16, threatened with a gun when he and Ryder were trying to buy crack in New York, kidnapped and held hostage during another drug deal, smashing his body up in another motorbike crash in 1999 and then getting MRSA in hospital and ending up in a coma for a month.

Published: October 6, 2026, 9:00 pm

Blockers by Michael Lewis review – the quiet heroes who tried to stop Doge

The author of Moneyball brings his exceptional narrative skills to bear on Musk’s anti-government crusade

Donald Trump’s catastrophic errors get so much attention that his systemic ones can easily be missed. While the world looks on in dismay at his farcical war in Iran, the thuggery of Ice agents or clownish attacks on erstwhile allies like Canada and Denmark, the core functions of the American government are slowly disintegrating.

It is harder to get people to focus on the machinery of the state because the effects are often slow and hard to pin down. Outbreaks of disease – such as the recent wave of explosive diarrhoea across the US – might have happened anyway, but were probably made worse by lay-offs at the Centers for Disease Control. Likewise, Trump is not directly responsible for natural disasters, but response times in the past year may have been hampered by mass redundancies at the National Weather Service. Cuts to tax collection also seem to have reduced revenue by multiple billions, though we cannot be sure of the causal relationship.

Published: October 6, 2026, 11:00 pm

Other Worlds Than These by Stephen King and Peter Straub review – a self-indulgent finale to the Talisman trilogy

There are moments of shivering joy as the protagonist of two enduring classics, Jack Sawyer, returns – but this time his journey feels endlessly repetitive

Bear with me, because there is some backstory to get through before we can talk about the book I am actually here to review. Back in 1984, Stephen King and Peter Straub collaborated on the fantasy novel The Talisman. Like all the best King stories, it follows a young boy: in this case Jack Sawyer, 12, whose mother, Lily, is dying. Jack learns that a magical object called the Talisman might save her – if he can find it in a parallel world known as the Territories. Straub and King followed this up in 2001 with Black House, in which an adult Jack investigates a series of child murders that turn out to have disturbing links to the Territories.

The books are very different: one a coming-of-age cross-country quest, in which Jack flips back and forth between two versions of the US; the other a fantastical and horror-inflected murder mystery. Both are brilliant and enduring classics which will always have a place on my bookshelves – I reread both of them, all 1,800-odd pages, to prepare for Other Worlds Than These and was as swept away and delighted as the first time round.

Published: October 7, 2026, 1:00 am

Holding Lightning by Emily Lordi review – an intimate portrait of Whitney Houston

An empathetic biography of the the singer recasts her tumultuous later career as a triumph of self-expression

Since Whitney Houston’s death in 2012, a flurry of books and documentaries have appeared, most of them presenting her life as a cautionary tale. In this new biography, Emily Lordi, a professor of English at Vanderbilt University, refuses to reduce Houston’s story to another “good girl gone bad” narrative. Instead she presents a pluralistic take on her life in which Houston’s queerness, drug use and eccentricities are not dismissed as aberrations (as they were in her lifetime) but rather seen in the wider context of her unique talent and the pressures placed on her to embody black excellence.

Lordi describes the unsteady building blocks of Houston’s family (her mother Cissy’s band The Sweet Inspirations were in-demand session musicians who worked with Elvis, as well as on Van Morrison’s Brown Eyed Girl and Dusty Springfield’s Son of a Preacher Man). When Cissy was still a child, Houston’s grandmother had a debilitating stroke following a miscarriage, eventually succumbing to a cerebral haemorrhage during a later pregnancy. The response to this trauma was to bury it. As Lordi writes: “Here was a lesson in suppressing your feelings and getting on with it.” But in a book where the act of singing through the pain is invoked multiple times, it is striking that reports Houston was molested as a child (a pivotal part of Kevin Macdonald’s 2018 documentary, which drew a line between that and her addictions) are not discussed.

Published: October 6, 2026, 1:00 am

What the £350 Grand Theft Auto ‘collector’s box’ says about the escalating cost of gaming

The launch of a collector’s box hints at a new reality: the kinds of games I grew up with are becoming a luxury item, locked behind a forbidding spending barrier

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As a parent (and partner) to a habitual collector, I do feel like an unwelcome portion of my life is occupied by an endless war against stuff. Surfaces in my home ceaselessly accumulate piles of random objects: a JoyCon wrist strap, a sticker sheet, an unidentifiable plastic piece of a toy or gizmo, an Xbox 360 controller with no batteries, cases for Switch cartridges lost down the side of the sofa … Stuff encroaches everywhere, especially in a gaming household. Much as I regret the imminent disappearance of physical games, I do not regret the extra space I have in my attic as a result of switching almost entirely to downloaded games over the last decade or so.

Speaking of the imminent disappearance of physical games: Rockstar recently announced a £350 ($400) “collector’s box” of Grand Theft Auto 6 goodies … that doesn’t include the game itself. Not even a download code. The Grand Theft Auto VI: The Goodtime State – Vice City Collection, to give it its full and unwieldy name, contains a hat, a bag, a pair of sunglasses, a figurine, a poster and more, including a mirror and a “swizzle spoon” that looks, unambigiously, like a cocaine spoon. The game retails at £70, so if you want something to play alongside all your stuff, you’re looking at an outlay of £420.

Published: October 7, 2026, 7:00 am

Silver Pines review – a stylish, neo-noir detective drama

PC, PS5, Switch 2; Wych Elm Games, Team 17
Abandoned shops, ruined apartment buildings and rotting sewer networks make up a dark landscape in which you play a private eye searching for a missing singer-songwriter

In a weird deserted town miles from anywhere, a troubled detective searches for a missing musician and the girl he may or may not have murdered. It could be a Silent Hill game or a lost David Lynch movie from the 1990s – in fact, it’s neither. And also both. If that whets your appetite, stick around, there’s plenty more to come.

Developed by Scandinavian studio Wych Elm Games, Silver Pines is a dark Metroidvania-style adventure, where you play as shambling private eye, Red Walker, exploring a 2D universe of abandoned shops, ruined apartment buildings and rotting sewer networks. Officially, everyone has left because of an incoming storm, but very quickly you learn that something much darker is afoot. Someone has hired you to find singer-songwriter Eddie Velvet, but you don’t know why; your only contact with your client is via the payphones dotted around town, where you can also save your progress – as long as you have a dollar to pay for the call. Each location is filled with clues and puzzles – a weird newspaper story pinned to the wall, a strange statue that needs a missing piece – and through these artefacts you unlock new rooms and descend further into the mystery.

Published: October 6, 2026, 6:00 am

Freddie Jackson, romantic US singer with 10 R&B chart-toppers, dies aged 70

Celebrated for his earnest, dextrous voice, Jackson crossed into the pop charts with the hits Rock Me Tonight (For Old Times Sake) and You Are My Lady

Freddie Jackson, the US singer whose smooth and romantic take on R&B found a huge audience in the 1980s, has died aged 70.

A statement from his family on social media reads: “Freddie was more than a legendary voice. He was a kind, generous soul who loved his fans, his family, his friends and his music with everything he had. For decades he gave us the songs that became the soundtrack to our love stories, our celebrations and our most treasured memories. That gift will live on for ever.” No cause of death was given.

Published: October 7, 2026, 4:14 am

‘I was drawn to the femminielli’: blurring gender in Naples – in pictures

Roman Manfredi took to the Neopolitan streets to photograph intimate portraits of locals who live outside binary gender expectations

Published: October 7, 2026, 1:00 am

‘My first photographs coincided with me falling in love’: why children have always adored taking pictures

What makes someone pick up a camera at a young age, and what can their images tell us? A new book and show explore why a child’s first photo could be as formative as their first record

What was the first photograph you took? Though most of us use cameraphones every day, few think about how the habit started or even why we choose the pictures we keep. Photography is one of the most popular hobbies in the world, typically picked up in childhood, but its impact – particularly pre-smartphone and digital imagery – has not been much studied. This lapse fascinates Annebella Pollen, professor of visual and material culture at the University of Brighton.

“My generation is used to being asked: ‘What was the first record you bought?’ Music is seen as a key part of identity formation, but what if something similar crystallises when we handle a camera?” she asks. “I certainly remember my first photos, because they coincided with me falling in love, as a 10-year-old, with a beautiful boy at school. I pursued him with my camera.”

Published: October 7, 2026, 2:00 am

Eva Marie Saint: the Hitchcock Blonde who outgrew the persona

Her glacial poise in North By Northwest made her a cinematic icon, but films including On the Waterfront and Loving revealed great subtlety alongside the glamour

• Eva Marie Saint dies aged 102

• Her best films – ranked

• Her life in pictures

‘I’m Eve Kendall. I’m 26 and unmarried. Now you know everything.”

Not quite everything. That is the famously succinct introduction given in a swaying dining car in a voice creamy with insinuation. Eve is speaking to Cary Grant’s fugitive ad man Roger Thornhill, wrongly accused of murder and hiding out from the cops on a train from New York to Chicago in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 classic North By Northwest. Eve is going to hide him in her compartment because she wants to have sex with him, and much later that train of theirs is to symbolically enter a tunnel. But is that the whole story? Eve’s amazingly beautiful, enigmatic face encodes a secret.

Published: October 6, 2026, 2:51 pm

Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: how to wear a leather jacket so it doesn’t wear you

There’s a lot of Brando badboy baggage attached to this classic outerwear – here’s how to look chic rather than stompy

In lots of ways, the arrival of autumn makes getting dressed easier. Not having to shave above your knees. Enough pockets to make a handbag optional. But it’s not all plain sailing. For instance, I don’t think we talk enough about how hard it is to carry off a leather jacket.

I thought maybe it was just me. And then I came across Lucinda Chambers – Vogue fashion director for 25 years, now co-curator of gorgeous platform of desirables Collagerie – remarking that she found leather jackets tricky. Lucinda is without a doubt one of the best-dressed women in London, always rocking a strong look – colour, stripes, great jewellery, unexpected shoes – so I was amazed and a bit gratified to find even she struggles.

Published: October 7, 2026, 6:00 am

‘We live in grief-phobic societies’: experts on how to get more comfortable with death

We are all going to die, and so is everyone we know. So how can you not be terrified?

For most people, death is not a standard conversation topic. Once, at lunch, a friend began talking about her mother’s death several years earlier. Her voice caught occasionally, but she spoke about it plainly – like a simple fact of life. As we talked, I noticed another friend was shifting uncomfortably in his seat; he didn’t say much.

Afterwards, I asked him what was wrong. “I really don’t like talking about death,” he said, his hands twitching anxiously. “I don’t even like thinking about it. It freaks me out.”

Published: October 6, 2026, 9:00 am

No Prime? No problem. Fourteen actually great sales on products we already love

As Amazon takes a second stab at Prime Day, live on 6 and 7 October, plenty of other brands are lining up for your dollars with their own competitive sales

• The best Amazon Prime Day deals and deals on home essentials

Amazon’s Prime Day sale dominates the deals landscape each October.

However, they aren’t the only retailer to keep an eye on. We rounded up a few ongoing sales on products we have previously recommended that don’t require a trip to Amazon’s homepage.

Published: October 7, 2026, 8:43 am

Indestructible and ultra-light, our favorite cast-iron pan is 20% off for Amazon Prime Day

Field Company’s best-in-class cast-iron pans that seldom shed their premium price tags are on sale for Prime Day

• Field Company’s new No 5 chef skillet fixes everything I hated about cast iron

• Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things

The perfect pan I reviewed, the No 5 Chef Skillet, has dropped from $125 to $100 for Prime Day. At the risk of sounding like an ad, this is a very rare sale on a unique little pan you’ll buy for life. (Zero payment behind this endorsement – only a thorough and satisfying product test.)

I previously covered food at Bon Appétit and have tried a lot of the cookware out there. Among its wrist-straining peers, this is the rare cast-iron pan that feels nimble. At just 2.2lbs and 7.25in in diameter, it’s light enough for flipping breakfast eggs with one hand, swirling sauces, or popping in the oven for a deeply charming Dutch baby. A comparable-size Lodge weighs more than a pound more.

Field Company’s new No 5 chef skillet fixes everything I hated about cast iron

Published: October 7, 2026, 11:50 am

Dyson, Breville, Apple: the 59 best Amazon Prime Day deals actually worth it, obsessively vetted by us

From Ugg and Ninja to KitchenAid and Shark – we researched the best sales to get your hands on for Prime Day

• The best deals from Amazon’s rivals and sales on home essentials

• Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things

Amazon Prime Big Deal Days, live on 6 and 7 October, is the Super Bowl of online shopping. While the e-commerce behemoth just hosted another Prime Day in June, consumerism never sleeps and there are still genuinely good deals to be found, although some are exclusive to Amazon Prime members. But if parsing through thousands of deals isn’t your jam, fear not, because it’s ours.

As veteran consumer journalists, we’ve taken the time to find out what’s really worth the spend, from expert-vetted tech gadgets to make every day a little easier to rigorously tested kitchen scores that help put dinner on the table quickly. Here are the top Prime Deals to shop from brands you know and love such as KitchenAid, Ninja, Bissell, Ugg and more.

Published: October 7, 2026, 10:33 am

Cozy Earth review: we tested the buzzy bedding and sleepwear brand. Here are its best – and worst - pieces

From bamboo sleep masks and sheet sets to waffle bath towels, these are some of the brand’s best products – and a few we really dislike

As its name suggests, Cozy Earth initially caught our attention for two reasons: its ultra-comfortable bedding, loungewear and sleepwear, and its sustainable production practices, such as sourcing ethically harvested viscose bamboo (said to be gentler on the planet).

After rigorous testing we can attest that the buzzy brand indeed earns its hype. It has appeared on Oprah’s favorite things list for seven consecutive years and in our Filter US best-of lists time and time again. So we made a guide!

Published: October 7, 2026, 1:49 pm

Nicolas Ghesquière takes us into the future for Louis Vuitton show in Paris

Models walk runway at the Louvre with flying cars hovering above as designer envisions city life in a warming world

In silk slip dresses, breezy vented tunics and gossamer layers of chiffon, the models on Louis Vuitton’s catwalk were perfectly dressed for an unseasonably warm October evening in Paris. As the show began at sunset it was still 24C.

This summer’s record temperatures were on designer Nicolas Ghesquiière’s mind. “The world is getting warmer, this definitely had a strong influence” he said.

Published: October 7, 2026, 12:49 am

Chanel is all about joy as Blazy celebrates year at helm of world’s hottest brand

Artistic director is all smiles as he swaps quiet luxury for bold colours and patterns at Paris show

“It’s a good start,” Matthieu Blazy said after a Paris show that marked a year of his tenure as artistic director at Chanel. “I am happy with where we are at.”

Chanel now holds the top spot in the Lyst index of the world’s hottest brands, which tracks demand and engagement across search and social media. The privately held company announces official financial results only once a year, but figures reported by Bloomberg showed 16% growth in the first half of 2026. In Vanity Fair’s list of the world’s 50 most powerful people, published this month, Blazy is the only fashion designer to make the cut. People who don’t much care about fashion have noticed him; people who do care about fashion talk about him non-stop.

Published: October 6, 2026, 2:35 am

French wine industry facing historic low harvest after extreme summer heat

This year’s harvest expected to be down 2% on mediocre yield in 2025, when production was lowest in nearly 70 years

France’s wine industry is facing a historic low harvest after the country was hit by a series of summer heatwaves.

At about 35m hectolitres, the total harvest would be down 2% on a mediocre 2025 yield and 14% below the 2021-2025 average, according to estimates published on Wednesday by the ministry of agriculture.

Published: October 7, 2026, 8:40 am

‘Green, red, yellow, blue’? Beneath the surface, diaspora language is anything but Black and white

Black communities across the globe have large and complex vocabularies to describe race, shaped by their specific cultures and histories

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One thing you might not know about this newsletter is how much it is shaped by behind-the-scenes chat. The Long Wave team, and its broader family at the Guardian, is a mini-diaspora in and of itself – one that is constantly in conversation. Often, during our meetings, someone will mention what was assumed to be a quirk of their specific background, only to discover that it is replicated almost entirely across the board. This week, we spoke about the fact that in many of our cultures, there is not just one word for “Black”.

“Green”, “red”, “yellow”, “blue”, “wheat”. These are some of the words many tribes in parts of Sudan use to describe complexion. There is no “Black”. I tripped over my words trying to explain to colleagues what these colours denoted – each category is infused with so much cultural depth. In fact, in some cases, they are not even descriptions of complexion, but of features, of broad ethnic background, and even of attractiveness. “Green” means dark, but also implies a sort of uniformity of colour, an even hue, and therefore almost a comeliness. Yellow is lighter, and comes with an unstated connotation of beauty. Blue is the darkest, and is sometimes pejorative, but other times just a description. “Wheat” is the one most likely to be a compliment, a shade that does not diverge too sharply into light or dark.

Published: October 7, 2026, 6:00 am

Roast chicken, congee and cookies: Ravinder Bhogal’s autumn squash recipes

Nutty in flavour and creamy in texture, autumn’s bounty of squash and pumpkin has many uses, both sweet and savoury

The shops are heaving with pumpkins and squash, and though there are so many different varieties to choose from, most of them are interchangeable. My favourites are kabocha, crown prince and delicata, for their deeply nutty flavour and creamy texture, plus they hold their shape well when roasted or braised. And if you’re carving a pumpkin for Halloween over the coming weeks, don’t waste the flesh: chop it up and throw into a risotto. It’s hard to imagine that such deliciousness could come from such a ghoulish grimace.

Published: October 6, 2026, 10:00 pm

‘Using the presidency to line his pockets’: could claims of corruption fuel backlash against Trump?

Experts say president is vulnerable amid discontent over rising prices – and the US public has ample cause for complaint

• Can the Iran war cost Trump in the US midterm elections? Your questions answered

In Donald Trump’s telling, he’s a model of incorruptible self-sacrifice.

“I’m the only president that donated his salary,” he told a group of cheering supporters at a Hispanic heritage month celebration in the White House last week, before conceding that George Washington – “a very wealthy person” – might have beaten him to the punch.

Published: October 6, 2026, 3:00 am

The generation raised on sugar rations – and what their health reveals 70 years later

From blood pressure to ageing, research suggests the first 1,000 days of sugar exposure could leave a decades-long mark on health

They were born into a Britain still recovering from the hardships of war. Though the air-raid sirens had fallen silent, many everyday foods remained rationed, including sugar. Adults were restricted to about 3 tablespoons (40g) a day to stretch between cups of tea, baking and desserts; children were limited to less than a tablespoon. Babies and very young children were expected to have little or no added sugar.

Then, in 1953, the brakes came off. Separate restrictions on sweets and chocolate were lifted in February, followed by sugar in September. By the second half of 1954, average sugar consumption had almost doubled.

Published: October 6, 2026, 10:00 pm

Tell us: do you use AI agents to manage your finances?

We would like to speak to people about their experience of using AI agents when dealing with their finances

Following the release of Meta’s Muse and Open AI’s dots there’s now capacity for these AI agents to assist with some financial transactions on a user’s behalf.

With this in mind, we would like to speak to people who use AI agents to manage their finances.

Published: October 6, 2026, 9:02 am

How have good or bad practices of hiring managers affected you in your job search?

Did you receive helpful feedback, or were you ghosted?

Applying for jobs can feel like a full-time job in itself, with unwieldy application forms and the pressure to write the perfect cover letter.

Then there are the interviews – if you’re lucky – and the inevitable post-mortem when you miss out on the role.

Published: October 6, 2026, 3:10 am

7 October commemorations and French student protests: photos of the day – Wednesday

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

Published: October 7, 2026, 7:06 am