Young sailors on the USS George Washington adjust to life at war – in pictures

Life onboard the aircraft carrier near the strait of Hormuz as it conducts military operations against Iranian targets

Published: October 3, 2026, 11:34 am

It’s the Filter’s first birthday! 25 things readers loved most this year – and if we still recommend them

In the course of a year, we’ve tested products ranging from instant coffees and cat toys to towels and sleep masks. These are the ones you loved most

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

The Filter US is turning one. Over the past year, we have cooked, cleaned, hiked and generally put our homes and bodies through a lot in pursuit of things actually worth buying. We have tested packing cubes on 14 trips, spent 63 nights testing sleep masks, recruited 84 coffee drinkers to taste instant coffee and put thousands of products through their paces (and called out ones which we don’t recommend).

And we have gone deeper: asking a food lab to test the best non-toxic pans, blind-tasting everything from protein bars to nonalcoholic beer and getting the tea on Padma Lakshmi’s favorite kitchen tools. Across hundreds of articles, we have covered everything from a satisfyingly bouncy $1,600 organic mattress to a small but mighty $9 cleaning brush. We have found the legitimately best deals on our favorite things too.

Published: October 3, 2026, 7:15 am

We live in a rape-prone society. The horrific Cornell case reveals what that looks like | Rebecca Solnit

Public outcry to punish the alleged perpetrators in the Cornell case misses the point – the only solution is political, legal and cultural equality of women

Sometimes a story is so so appalling, it captures the public’s attention, including the attention of people who don’t focus on the issue otherwise. Such is the case with the alleged 2024 gang rape at Cornell University.

For feminists who focus on violence against women or anyone who has ever cared about campus rape, the claims made in Jane Doe’s civil lawsuit against the alleged perpetrators may be unusual in its severity – but we know the statistics that show that somewhere between 20% and 25% of women college students will be the victim of a sexual assault (no statistics tell us what percentage of men students will be rapists).

Published: October 3, 2026, 3:00 am

The moment I knew: As a reality TV contestant, I was allowed one 15-minute call a week. Even at 3am, Chris would always pick up

Conor Curran’s first date with Chris lasted nine hours but their relationship remained casual. Then, when Conor was at his most vulnerable, Chris was there for him

• Find more stories from the moment I knew series

At 29 I had lost my career in hospitality because of Covid and decided to throw my hat in the ring as a contestant on MasterChef Australia. By the time I was eliminated in 2021, restaurants still weren’t open and I didn’t know what to do with my life. My lease was coming to an end in Melbourne and I wasn’t doing well with the lockdowns and people recognising me from TV. So I decided to retreat to my father’s place in Adelaide for a while.

By early 2022 I was dating a guy but, after a few months, he ghosted me suddenly.

Published: October 3, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘Brave from the beginning’: 20 years of Friday Night Lights – the sports drama that dared to be different

It launched the careers of Jesse Plemons and Michael B Jordan, and let its stars improvise in a way that was fresh and new. This show about smalltown US football was confident, trailblazing – and wonderful

I’ve been around the south of the US enough to have seen the importance of football: little burgs where the high-school football field has stands that wouldn’t disgrace a League Two soccer club in the UK. Friday Night Lights, which was first broadcast 20 years ago, is set in the most fervent edges of that world, smalltown Texas, where what happens under the floodlights at the end of the working week defines the mood of the place for days to come.

Britt Daniel, the frontman of the Texas band Spoon, grew up in one such town, Temple. “Friday Night Lights is based on Odessa, and Odessa and Temple are very, very similar,” he told me in 2017. “The high schools used to play each other at football, and they’re the kind of towns where everything happens on Friday because it’s the football game. I didn’t really think about it until many years later, but you really risked being beaten [up]. Not just harassed, but beaten. Everywhere you went, you really had to look over your shoulder. If you were at the mall, if you were at the parking lot, if you were at a party – people really wanted to fight.”

Published: October 3, 2026, 4:00 am

Comedy wildlife photography award finalists 2026 – in pictures

A caiman wearing a wig, two brown bears laughing and a leopard doing a handstand feature in the selection of finalists from this year’s Nikon Comedy Wildlife awards. Winners will be announced on 8 December

Published: October 2, 2026, 10:00 pm

Outgoing prison chief in Christa Pike case oversaw five ‘botched’ executions, lawyers say

Frank Strada will leave role next month after uproar over execution attempt, which sent Pike to hospital in critical condition

Tennessee’s prison chief is resigning after the failed execution of Christa Pike, which lawyers say was the fifth “botched” execution under his leadership across two states since 2022.

Frank Strada, the commissioner of the Tennessee department of correction, has faced mounting questions about the state’s highly secretive death penalty protocols since Wednesday evening when Pike became the first death row prisoner in the US to to be injected with lethal drugs and survive.

Published: October 3, 2026, 3:00 am

‘It’s enraging’: lawmakers call for action after Guardian investigation into convenience store overcharges

Congress members say pricing practices at 7-Eleven and Circle K stores underscore everyday Americans’ affordability struggles

Five US House members have called out pricing practices at the US’s two largest convenience store chains in response to an investigation by the Guardian.

The Guardian found that 7-Eleven and Circle K stores frequently charge customers more at the register or pump for snacks, gas and other items than the prices they promise on the shelf or on outdoor fuel signs.

Published: October 3, 2026, 3:00 am

OpenAI safety leader quits, warning AI company’s culture is ‘broken’

David Robinson joins other insiders in urging industry to take more care over rapidly developing technology

A safety leader at OpenAI has quit the company, warning that its culture was broken and that AI firms were not “being nearly careful enough” about developing the technology.

David Robinson, who led the writing of safety reports that accompanied the ChatGPT developer’s product releases, explained his resignation in an essay headlined, “I quit OpenAI because its culture is broken”.

Published: October 3, 2026, 12:41 pm

Episcopal bishop who urged Trump to ‘have mercy’ to resign post in Washington DC

Mariann Budde gained national attention for calling on US president to consider immigrants and LGBTQ+ people

Rev Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington DC who gained national attention when she called on Donald Trump to “have mercy” on the country’s immigrants and LGBTQ+ community after his second inauguration, is resigning.

Budde shared in her resignation letter that she will be leaving her post on 3 June 2028 after the consecration and ordination of the new diocesan bishop.

Published: October 3, 2026, 2:21 pm

Southern California swelters as late-season heatwave smothers region

Temperatures expected to hover around 100F in downtown LA and even hotter inland, raising concerns about wildfires

Southern California faced scorching heatwaves this summer that made locals wonder what happened to their famed Mediterranean climate.

Now, the fall is bringing heatwaves too.

Published: October 3, 2026, 6:26 am

Florida jury finds ex-sheriff’s deputy not guilty in shooting death of Black air force airman

Roger Fortson was shot by deputy when he opened door with gun in hand after a false domestic disturbance call

A Florida jury recently found former sheriff’s deputy Eddie Duran not guilty of manslaughter with a firearm in the fatal shooting of Roger Fortson, a Black US air force airman who was killed inside his apartment after authorities responded to an unfounded report of a domestic disturbance.

An Okaloosa county jury acquitted Duran, 38, on Thursday after about two hours of deliberations. He had faced up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

Published: October 3, 2026, 9:44 am

US Coast Guard searches for missing air ambulance off coast of Massachusetts

The plane was undertaking a medical evacuation from Bermuda with six people onboard when it lost contact

The US Coast Guard is searching for an air ambulance jet with six people onboard that lost contact with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) during a flight from Bermuda to Boston early on Saturday morning.

In a statement to the Guardian, an FAA spokesperson said that the agency issued a search-and-rescue alert notice for a Gulfstream G-100 at about 1.20am local time on Saturday.

Published: October 3, 2026, 10:03 am

TSA to prohibit airport security officers from sitting down while checking travelers’ IDs

TSA says rule change is meant to keep officers ‘alert’, but union says it ignores safety and ‘common decency’

US airport security officers who verify boarding passes and IDs ahead of security checkpoints will no longer be allowed to sit down while working.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was moving forward with this change in policy to keep officers “alert”, the agency confirmed recently.

Published: October 3, 2026, 8:36 am

Paw patrol: Mexico debuts tiniest national guard recruit

Chihuahua Comando is being trained for search-and-rescue work, and helping bring a warm connection with the public

Comando may be tiny, but Mexico’s national guard is giving him ⁠a very big role.

Outfitted with miniature goggles, a fitted tactical vest, a helmet and even a petite head-mounted camera, ⁠the 7lb (15lb) chihuahua ⁠has become ​the most unusual – and smallest – canine member of the force.

Published: October 3, 2026, 2:29 pm

A billionaire is one of Trump’s loudest critics. Will Democrats send him to the White House?

As the Illinois governor seeks a third term, his growing national profile has fueled speculation about a possible White House bid

• Send us your questions about how the Iran war will affect US voters in the midterm election

When Donald Trump returned to power, 20 long months ago, some state leaders wrung their hands, worrying what explicit resistance might cost their citizens – and their careers – during the second term of a vengeful president. JB Pritzker was not among them.

Two days after Trump’s re-election, the Democratic governor of Illinois warned the president would need to “come through me” to reach the people of his state. He waited all of 30 days after the inauguration before drawing a comparison with Nazi Germany.

Published: October 3, 2026, 3:00 am

When is the right time to compare US politics to the Nazi era? This expert on Christian nationalism says: now

Robert P Jones argues that declining white Christian influence has fuelled an alliance with Trump, and warns it is reshaping US democracy

The lawyer Mike Godwin famously came up with the “law” that, as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one (or 100%).

Robert P Jones thought long and hard about whether to go there in his latest book. But the more he studied US demographic numbers, considered the rise of Christian nationalism and heard Donald Trump use the language of racial purity, he found the conclusion inescapable. “This is our 1933,” he writes.

Published: October 3, 2026, 6:00 am

The US midterm races that will decide control of Congress – mapped

These graphics explain what the Democrats would need to do to flip the Senate and House of Representatives

A turning point in Donald Trump’s second term will soon arrive. On 3 November, voters across the US will decide whether to keep the president’s Republican allies in control of Congress, or return Democrats to the majority.

Many indicators of voter sentiment suggest the Democrats are favored to take back control of the House of Representatives, and potentially the Senate. Winning either would be a significant victory for the party and give it the power to block Trump’s legislative agenda and more aggressively investigate his administration.

Published: October 2, 2026, 4:30 am

The DSA has a believability problem with older Black voters. But young people want to take more risks

Black voters reveal a generational divide, with younger voters drawn to the Democratic Socialists of America, and older voters focused on what can realistically be achieved

One of the most heated debates in the Democratic party is how left it should go – especially after a year that has seen several democratic socialists win their primary races. Moderate Democrats worry that left-wing candidates will struggle to win general elections, while progressive voters want fresh solutions to healthcare and the rising cost of living. But largely left out of this debate is one of the most critical bases of the party: Black voters.

A Pew Research Center study found that among Democrats, only 21% of Black voters are likely to positively view candidates who align with democratic socialists, compared to 40% of white, 30% of Asian, and 20% of Hispanic voters.

Published: October 3, 2026, 5:00 am

‘Trump? I think he’s a disaster’: Ohio voters aggrieved as president prepares to visit

President’s popularity has plummeted in solidly Republican state – will his presence at midterm rallies help or hinder?

Kelly Savage-Radich grew up in a Republican-supporting Ohio family and voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. But today the mother of three, who lives in a Montgomery county suburb of Dayton, is facing the prospect of having to sell one of her family’s vehicles due to the high cost of gas. Her grocery bill has gone up about $100 a week.

She lays the blame squarely at the Trump administration’s door.

Published: October 3, 2026, 5:00 am

‘Sadness, cynicism and deep disappointment’: the Cornell gang-rape case and the failure of #MeToo

As the university and local police defend their treatment of the alleged perpetrators, women decry a familiar story

Student safety advocates in the US call the start of the fall semester at universities “the red zone”. Fraternities, sororities and off-campus bars throw parties welcoming students back to school. It’s supposed to be fun, but it can also be dangerous: more than 50% of sexual assaults that occur at colleges happen during that six- to 10-week period.

It was mid-October of 2024, during the red zone and just before a deluge of Halloween celebrations, when, a former Cornell University student says, she was gang-raped by a group of fraternity brothers. Recent attention on these allegations sparked widespread outrage this week, reviving a contentious national debate about how authorities respond to allegations of sexual assault on US college campuses.

Published: October 3, 2026, 6:00 am

The American dream remains elusive in the valley that inspired East of Eden

John Steinbeck’s hometown of Salinas is the least affordable city in the US for the middle class, a recent Brookings Institution analysis found

Nestled between two mountain ranges at the crook of central California’s coastline sits a valley known as the “salad bowl of the world”.

Farm workers stoop over neatly lined rows of crops off Highway 101 to harvest more than half of the nation’s supply of lettuce and nearly a third of its strawberries. The soil here is so rich that author John Steinbeck made the Salinas valley the promised land in his literary depictions of people chasing the American dream: immigrants, farm workers, westward-moving hopefuls, hungering for a better life.

Published: October 3, 2026, 2:00 am

California’s new laws target workers’ biggest fear of AI taking their jobs

The state, which is home to many AI companies, is one of the first to roll out workplace regulations targeting the technology

California’s laws aimed at protecting workers from the impacts of artificial intelligence could pave the way for broader workplace safeguards across the US as calls for regulating the technology mount. As the federal government goes hands-off on AI, California is taking the reins to address workers’ biggest fears.

On Thursday, California governor Gavin Newsom signed a suite of new laws that ban bosses from relying entirely on AI to decide whether to fire workers, using it to predict employees’ emotional states or collecting neural data, meaning the information from electrical signals of someone’s brain or nerves. They also require companies to notify workers if layoffs were caused by AI and prohibit AI surveillance in workplace bathrooms.

Published: October 3, 2026, 7:00 am

Peter Thiel revealed as secret buyer of Bel Air mansion that sold for $130m

The 1938 mansion, Casa Encantada, once belonged to Conrad Hilton and was sold at foreclosure auction

The tech billionaire Peter Thiel has been revealed as the new owner of a storied Bel-Air estate that quietly sold in July for a staggering $130m.

The 1938 mansion, Casa Encantada, was sold at an open-air foreclosure auction in Pomona, with the name of the buyer kept under wraps for months. The winning bid is now revealed to have come from a limited liability company linked to the venture capitalist and PayPal and Palantir co-founder, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the buyer’s identity.

Published: October 2, 2026, 9:22 am

‘There’s a lot of silence’: have we created a new ‘Lonely Generation’?

Learning to be one human among many has always been a little lonely and discombobulating. But young people around the world are lonelier than ever. Why?

In September, a Reddit user identifying themselves as a 25-year-old man turned to the r/ForeverAlone subreddit with a question: How do you deal with touch starvation? “It’s becoming obvious to me that I’ll probably be alone forever,” he wrote. He used to be worried about missing out on sex, but now he just misses hugs. Cuddles.

“I don’t have many friends and none with that kind of physical relationship. I don’t really hug family either anymore. Some days, I feel so desperate for a hug with someone I love.”

Published: October 3, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘Elon is my prophet’: how Musk’s Doge team took a wrecking ball to Washington

When the new ‘department of government efficiency’ sent young techies to disrupt federal agencies, not everyone complied. Here’s what happened when one worker fought to protect immigrant data

In the early hours of Saturday 22 February 2025 the following email landed in the inboxes of the entire US federal workforce:

From: HR hr@opm.gov

Published: October 2, 2026, 10:00 pm

‘It’s been hard’: families await the return of the USS Abraham Lincoln

After reports of suicide attempts and food shortages, the aircraft carrier is expected to dock in San Diego this week following a record-breaking 250-plus days at sea

A mother in San Diego is counting down the days until her son comes home.

“I had a big sign made, welcoming him back,” she said. “I can’t wait to see him.”

Published: October 3, 2026, 2:00 am

‘An extraordinary hour’: the explosive play re-staging the biggest TV clash of the Aids era

A New York production brings Larry Kramer and Anthony Fauci’s 1993 debate to life in a masterclass of controlled fury

On 30 November 1993, the Aids activist Larry Kramer and Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, were arguing again. They argued a lot back then about the US government’s response, or lack thereof, to the Aids crisis. Fauci asserted institutional legitimacy. Kramer scolded that any institution presiding over a genocide doesn’t have any. Kramer wanted to untie Fauci’s hands from politics and bureaucracy; Fauci wanted to de-escalate Kramer’s vituperous hand-wringing. They also ribbed each other, allies as often as antagonists.

On the night they appeared on C-Span, the buttoned-up not-for-profit cable channel better known for unfettered congressional coverage than for the verbal pyrotechnics of CNN’s Crossfire, or the revelations-as-entertainment approach to politics by Oprah and Donahue. But this night was different. Journalist Steve Scully spent the hour trying to moderate Kramer and Fauci as they attacked and amused each other: he redirected them back to his questions when passions erupted, and kept those questions to centrist concerns of, mostly, money. And in between all this he took he took calls from civilians whose empathy and expertise in Aids, let’s say, ranged wildly. It was an exhausting hour, which settled little. But it showed what just might happen when people yell at each other loudly enough so they can be heard, and also listen.

Published: October 3, 2026, 2:00 am

I craved a mean girl’s approval until My Little Pony broke the spell

I didn’t realise my school infatuation was just making fun of me, but then an episode of the cartoon series taught me the attributes of true companionship

When I was seven, I was obsessed with one particular classmate. She was the only girl taller than me and she never let me forget it. She was allowed to wear colourful nail polish and had shiny Lelli Kelly shoes, while I had short, plain nails and had to make do with classic black Clarks. I craved her approval.

That spring she got an iPhone, and deliberately shunned me for a while afterwards. I cried for hours, but I wasn’t confused. I understood, and even respected it. Why would she grace me with her aura? I was lucky she let me sit at her table at all, even if it was only to taunt me for still bringing in a packed lunch. She was my best friend – I was always holding out hope that one day I would be hers.

Published: October 3, 2026, 4:00 am

Pete Hegseth just took his personal crusade to a new level | Arwa Mahdawi

The US defense secretary who hates ‘beardos, weirdos and wimps’ has announced an Office of Religious Affairs at the Pentagon

Apart from money and McDonald’s, there’s nothing Donald Trump seems to love more than a “big, beautiful” wall. The government is currently spending billions of taxpayer dollars to fulfill the president’s fantasy of lining the US-Mexico border with 30ft steel bollard walls and high-tech surveillance.

What the Trump administration is apparently not so keen on is the wall of separation between church and state. While the president may hawk bibles as a side hustle, he is not exactly devout; he serves only mammon. The top levels of his government, however, are stuffed full of religious fanatics who appear hellbent on remaking the country as a Christian theocracy.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

Published: October 3, 2026, 5:00 am

The hill I will die on: not everything is a ‘girl’ thing – stop gendering and infantilising it all | Elle Hunt

No, I don’t want to go for a girl walk before my girl dinner with my girl mates: I am a grown woman who walks and eats and votes – and, patriarchy, I am on to you

This morning, after waking up with my girl cats, I made myself a cup of girl coffee then got stuck into some girl work. I took a break to lift some girl weights, then sent some more girl emails. Finally, after my girl dinner, it was time to get some sleep ahead of another long, hard day of being a girl.

I know what you’re thinking: why is this woman so insistent on gendering her unremarkable activities, and infantilising herself when she is clearly an adult? It’s a fair question. Since the pandemic, when “hot girl walks” followed Megan Thee Stallion’s 2019 song Hot Girl Summer to become one of the first big TikTok trends, this framing has become dismayingly ubiquitous, in person and online.

Elle Hunt is a freelance journalist

Published: October 3, 2026, 4:00 am

Let there be blanks instead of Manchester City’s name on trophies: there was no honour there | Jonathan Wilson

The spaces can stand both as a rebuke to an era of greed but also a tribute to the Premier League’s hunt for justice

At half-time in the 2014 League Cup final, Sunderland led Manchester City 1-0. Yaya Touré equalised with a casually brilliant 30-yard clip 10 minutes after the break, and City went on to win 3-1. City, we now know from the independent commission, were at the time involved in a prolonged and calculated act of cheating, while Touré, the leaks in Der Spiegel suggested, was being paid via a dual contract to disguise exactly how much City were spending. Although precise details were left to the appendices, the commission’s report refers to payments “not recorded in an employment contract … but instead recorded in a consultancy agreement”.

Had Sunderland won, they would not merely have ended a 41-year wait for a trophy but would have qualified for the following season’s Europa League. It’s possible, of course, that the strain the extra games placed on the squad would have led to relegation in 2015, rather than the familiar trope of sacking a manager, in this case Gus Poyet, midway through the season, and surviving thanks to a bump under his successor, Dick Advocaat.

Published: October 3, 2026, 12:00 pm

Christa Pike survived her execution attempt. Tennessee must not try again | Austin Sarat

What happened to Pike was gruesome. No one deserves what she went through, not even those who commit horrible crimes

Botched executions are nothing new in US history. In the era when hangings were common, some condemned people were decapitated. Later, when the electric chair was in vogue, every now and again, someone would catch fire during an electrocution. And nitrogen hypoxia, the US’s newest execution method, has already proven notoriously unreliable.

But, of all of the ways we have tried to execute people, lethal injection has the worst track record. More than 8% of all lethal injection executions have been botched. Most of them resulted when those charged with carrying them out could not find a usable vein.

Published: October 2, 2026, 2:00 am

What do Britain’s death-penalty cheerleaders have to say about Christa Pike? | Maya Foa

Her harrowing botched execution is a reminder of why we must not even entertain the idea of restoring capital punishment

• Maya Foa is the CEO of the human rights charity Reprieve

In recent months, there has been a resurgence of interest in the death penalty among rightwing politicians in the UK. The leader of Restore Britain, Rupert Lowe, has made a manifesto commitment to holding a legally binding referendum on bringing back capital punishment. The Reform MP Lee Anderson is also in favour of a referendum, arguing that the public would vote in favour of the death penalty.

Such supporters of capital punishment in Britain point to polls such as this “bombshell survey” that supposedly showed 47% of students favoured bringing back the death penalty. But these headlines are misleading, as surveys rarely include details about the grim administration of capital punishment and only present a binary choice of the options.

Maya Foa is the CEO of the human rights charity Reprieve

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

Published: October 3, 2026, 2:00 am

AI weapons systems are already here. Algorithms must not decide who lives and dies | Kenneth Roth

Israel’s conduct in Gaza shows the danger of using AI in warfare. Humans must remain at the center of wartime decisions

As tech leaders warn about the threats of artificial intelligence, most conjure up images of AI agents running amok, such as hacking systems used to run our critical infrastructure, banks or even militaries. Yet one serious danger is mentioned less frequently – the threat posed by AI–empowered lethal weapons. Fully autonomous versions of these weapons are colloquially known as killer robots.

Israel’s conduct in Gaza shows that, in an important respect, such AI weapon systems are already here. An algorithm has been deciding who lives and who dies.

Published: October 2, 2026, 3:00 am

Get on down, baby!: the Edith Pritchett cartoon

Continue reading...

Published: October 2, 2026, 10:00 pm

Manchester City’s guilty verdict brings football’s great sell-off crashing to earth

On the day Andy Burnham spoke of the wrong turn Britain took under Thatcher, football was facing a day of reckoning over its own story of corporate acquisition

It was somehow fitting that Tuesday’s damning ruling against Manchester City landed in the heart of the Labour party conference, in the afterglow of Andy Burnham’s rapturously received prime minister’s speech.

I was there, and read the astonishing 40 pages of findings – that City created “sham” contracts to boost income artificially by £900m – on my phone during a long meeting of the Socialist Campaign Group, where people were celebrating Keir Starmer’s ousting and Burnham’s more leftwing direction.

Published: October 2, 2026, 10:00 pm

‘Portugal’s greatest symbol’: Bruno Fernandes backs Cristiano Ronaldo despite walkout

• Fernandes: ‘there are no divisions in the national team’

• Ronaldo left team camp last week in selection row

Bruno Fernandes has said Cristiano Ronaldo remains “the greatest symbol” of the Portugal team, despite his decision to walk out on the squad this week.

Ronaldo said on Wednesday he had left the team camp after the Portugal coach, Jorge Jesus, said he would not start against Denmark. Portugal went on to win the Nations League contest 4-2 without him, and Ronaldo’s international future remains in doubt.

Published: October 3, 2026, 12:02 pm

WNBA playoffs: Valkyries rally from 16 down to oust Wings and reach last four

• Golden State rally from 16 down for 77-73 victory

• Williams scores 19 and hits go-ahead jumper

• Valkyries advance to face defending champion Aces

Gabby Williams scored 19 points and hit a go-ahead 17-footer with 1:17 remaining, and the Golden State Valkyries won a late replay review to complete a rally from 16 points down and beat the Dallas Wings 77-73 on Friday night in a wild deciding Game 3 of their first-round WNBA playoff series.

With 13.1 seconds left and Golden State leading by one, Williams jumped back inbounds to corral her own miss on a play that was originally ruled Dallas’ ball, but Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase – who moments earlier had fallen to her knees on the sideline before being helped up – successfully challenged the call. Nakase walked off the court escorted by a member of her staff after the final buzzer, holding her face as the team celebrated at midcourt.

Published: October 3, 2026, 9:15 am

Croatia 0-7 England: Nations League football – as it happened

Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka grabbed two goals each as England demolished their opponents in Rijeka

Thomas Tuchel speaks to ITV. “[Being in Rijeka on the sunny Adriatic coast] has helped us to unwind and recharge our batteries …. now we need to switch on … the atmosphere is very different … we want to make it really competitive … I think we are up for it … [Alex Scott] did so well when he made his debut … the full package … there is a lot to defend on [Jarell Quansah’s] side with [Ivan] Perišić … we have [Trent Alexander-Arnold] as an option from the bench … hopefully we can get the edge in physicality.”

Been Around The Block dept. Harry Kane will win his 124th cap for England today. That will put him just one appearance shy of Peter Shilton’s all-time record of 125 for his country. Jordan Pickford is the next cab off the rank for England – he’ll be winning his 92nd cap here – then it’s Bukayo Saka who’ll make it to 58. Croatia by comparison have experience up the yin-yang: Luka Modrić will earn his 203rd cap today, while Ivan Perišić and Mateo Kovačić will win caps 159 and 118 respectively. Should Andrej Kramarić get on at any point, he’ll pick up his 120th Croatian cap.

Published: October 3, 2026, 11:22 am

Ireland cut short news conference as mood darkens further before Israel game

• Ireland manager Hallgrímsson calls for ‘cool heads’

• Accusations of racism dismissed as ‘completely untrue’

The Republic of Ireland’s press conference on the eve of their second Nations League match against Israel in Serbia was cut short as the head coach, Heimir Hallgrímsson, fielded questions from Israeli journalists.

Ireland beat Israel 3-0 in Hungary in their first match on Tuesday after a turbulent buildup in which the Irish squad voted to fulfil the fixture despite unease among the team over the war in Gaza.

Published: October 3, 2026, 8:02 am

Clay Travis: inside the Maga permadad’s world of sports bros, trans panic and mortgages

The rightwing media mogul has lost ground to the likes of Pat McAfee and Joe Rogan. He’s hoping his new venture can recapture some headway

When Maga media blowhard Clay Travis offered $2m to Colin Kaepernick last week to appear on the daily talkshow he hosts with former CIA analyst Buck Sexton, it represented the culmination of a years-long obsession on the right with the onetime NFL star. In Travis’s telling of history, Kaepernick taking a knee during the 2016 NFL season was the event that catalyzed professional sports into the era of “woke” excess from which, he claims, it has been struggling to recover ever since.

But more than simply confirming the right’s longstanding villainization of Kaepernick, Travis’s offer was also a smarmy bid for publicity for his new media venture, Sport & State. Sport & State, which launched in August, is Travis’s bid to get back to his roots as a media mogul who sold the wildly popular Outkick to Fox Sports for a rumored $100m, and reclaim some of the cultural territory lost to fellow sports bros and Magagitators like Pat McAfee, Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson and Ben Shapiro. But if there’s one thing Sport & State won’t be doing, it’s engaging with anyone beyond the Magaverse. There has been no response from Kaepernick since Travis made his “offer” of $2m to charity in exchange for an interview, which suggests he understands that it was extended more in a spirit of trolling buffoonery than sincerity. No one associated with the left or progressive politics ever appears on Travis’s shows, for the simple reason that they are designed purely for the right to talk to itself. (Some would say the same could be said of the left, although the disregard for dissenting perspectives in the Magasphere seems way more extreme.) More than it heralds a renewal of Travis’s career or an injection of fresh energy into the Trumpist mediasphere, Sport & State is a case study in the stagnation that has taken hold on the right as Donald Trump stares down the barrel of defeat in November’s midterm elections.

Published: October 2, 2026, 2:00 am

Verstappen ends pole wait at Bahrain GP in Malaysia but Russell risks losing more ground

• Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton starts second on the front row

• Kimi Antonelli in fourth, George Russell down in eighth

The wait has been long for Max Verstappen but when the Dutchman finally claimed his first pole position of the year he did it in no little style. Taking the top spot for Red Bull at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, Verstappen was all but untouchable.

However, what was of greatest import for the Formula One world championship was the gulf between the title leader, Kimi Antonelli, and his Mercedes teammate, George Russell. The latter, somewhat floundering in Sepang, is now in danger of losing further points he can ill afford in pursuit of the Italian.

Published: October 3, 2026, 2:47 am

Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic emblems leaked by official YouTube account

• Sneak preview shown in video after pieces revealed over past week

• Cockatoo-inspired emblem to be officially unveiled on Monday

The Brisbane 2032 Olympics and Paralympics emblems have been accidentally leaked by the Games’ official YouTube channel, three days before its own big reveal.

Pieces of the puzzle had been revealed across Queensland over the past week with the full logos to come together during an official unveiling on Monday.

Published: October 2, 2026, 6:17 pm

49ers owner Jed York suspended, fined $500K after prostitution sting arrest

• NFL announces violation of personal conduct policy

• York pleaded no contest after arrest at Ohio trailer park

The NFL suspended San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York for six games Friday after his arrest earlier this year in a prostitution sting in Ohio.

The league announced that York also was fined $500,000 for violating the league’s personal conduct policy. York has not attended any games or league meetings so far this season and was credited with three games served. He is eligible to return on 20 October, following the team’s game the previous night against Washington. The NFL’s fall league meetings begin that day in New York.

Published: October 2, 2026, 11:26 am

Brazil’s neck-and-neck election offers test for growing pro-Trump Latin American bloc

Sunday’s poll pits the leftist incumbent Lula against the son of a former far-right president convicted of staging a coup

• ‘No one disrespects Our Lady’: fears for Brazil’s patron saint grip country ahead of election

Shortly after his controversial speech to the United Nations general assembly in September, Donald Trump gathered a dozen like-minded Latin American leaders and boasted that rightwing candidates had won all seven presidential elections held in the region since he began his second term.

“Everybody I’ve endorsed has won,” the US president said in New York to most of the leaders of the Shield of the Americas, an anti-drug cartel coalition of 15 countries governed by the right or far right.

Published: October 3, 2026, 12:00 am

Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s former husband says he was ‘shocked’ by death of her ex-partner

Ryan Anderson says he reached out to Blanchard’s father to offer support after apparent overdose death of Ken Urker

The ex-husband of Gypsy Rose Blanchard has said he was “shocked” by the recent death in Louisiana of her former partner Ken Urker – and that he would be there for Blanchard and her daughter “if she needs me”.

Ryan Anderson made those remarks during an appearance on The Sarah Fraser Show podcast on Friday, providing a noteworthy reaction to the latest chapter involving Blanchard, who achieved an unusual level of celebrity in the US after spending time imprisoned for a role in the murder of her abusive mother in Missouri.

Published: October 3, 2026, 8:33 am

Flydubai co-pilot used crash axe to attack captain, says UAE

Attorney general says ‘terrorist attack’ was attempted by suspect who is said to have been barred from flying by Oman because of extremist views

The co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073 used an axe to attempt to carry out a “terrorist attack” during the Israel-bound flight, the United ⁠Arab Emirates prosecutor general has said.

Disaster was narrowly averted on Wednesday when passengers and crew intervened to stop the co-pilot’s attempt to take control of the plane, which had 182 people onboard and plunged 16,625ft in just over 30 seconds. The descent was so extreme that part of the rudder was ripped off.

Published: October 3, 2026, 4:56 am

Michigan state police rule out claim that Larry Nassar was removed from sex offender registry

Eaton county prosecuting attorney’s office had said court ruling forced removal of Nassar’s name – but he wasn’t on list because he was imprisoned out of state

Michigan has removed more than 20,000 entries from its sex offender registry, but convicted serial abuser Larry Nassar is not one of them – the former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor was not in that system, as a local prosecutor’s office claimed, because he was serving an out-of-state federal prison sentence, according to state police.

On 9 September, the Michigan supreme court ruled that the state’s Sex Offender Registration Act (Sora) cannot be applied retroactively to cases involving offenses committed before the law’s relevant date. Michigan’s state police, as a result, removed more than 20,000 people whose offenses occurred before 1 July 2011 from the agency’s online sex offender database.

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 3, 2026, 7:07 am

Shop clerk and son charged with selling illegal kratom after two Ole Miss students die from suspected overdoses

Aidan Hamilton and Robert Strang died after apparently ingesting kratom product last month

Federal authorities investigating the recent deaths of two University of Mississippi students have charged a store clerk and his son with selling an illegal kratom product, prosecutors announced on Friday.

A drug taskforce in Mississippi had previously urged people to avoid kratom, an herbal substance that acts as a stimulant at low doses and a sedative at high doses, after authorities found packages of kratom derivatives while investigating the deaths on 21 September.

Published: October 3, 2026, 9:17 am

Florida court reverses felony murder charge for death of baby left in hot car

Rhonda Jewell was sentenced to 17 years for forgetting 10-month-old Ariya in car’s back seat, leading to child’s death

A state appeals court in Florida reversed the felony murder conviction of a woman who accidentally left a baby in her car, resulting in the child’s death.

In July 2023, while babysitting four children from two different families, 46-year-old Rhonda Jewell forgot 10-month-old Ariya Paige was in the back of her car, and went inside to care for the other kids. Strapped into her carseat in the Florida summer heat, Ariya died of hyperthermia before Jewell realized her mistake. Jewell was convicted the following year of third-degree felony murder, predicated on the underlying felony of leaving a child unattended in a vehicle. She was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Published: October 3, 2026, 7:00 am

Soaring diesel prices take their toll on US farmers in midwest corn belt

Fuel costs are biting for crop growers, trucking firms and a host of other industries as Iran war stokes record prices

Joe Hamilton farms corn and soybeans on 2,500 acres in Indiana’s Delaware county. Next week, when his soybean harvest kicks off, four tractors, two combine harvesters and five semi-trucks will roar to life.

And with that, a record bill for about 9,000 gallons of diesel awaits him.

Published: October 3, 2026, 5:00 am

‘This can’t go on’: tens of thousands protest against housing crisis in Spain

Demonstrators take to the streets of Madrid ⁠and other Spanish cities ⁠after ​new legislation fails to pass

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Madrid ⁠and other Spanish cities as they step up demands for action to tackle ⁠a mounting housing crisis ⁠after ​government measures were struck down by the opposition.

Demonstrators on Saturday waved posters calling for a general strike ⁠after the measures drawn up to address mass anger over the eviction of an 87-year-old woman in ⁠Madrid, and other housing issues, were rejected in parliament on ​Friday.

Published: October 3, 2026, 7:19 am

They embraced the Fiat 500, the Vespa, even tuk-tuks. But will Romans draw the line at the golf cart?

Authorities crack down on trade they says risks spiralling out of control – but operators say they are being targeted unfairly

On the edge of Piazza Navona, one of the grandest squares in central Rome, Barry and Linda, visitors from Texas in the US, stepped out of a golf cart. They planned to cross the square on foot, perhaps stopping to admire Lorenzo Bernini’s 17th-century Fountain of the Four Rivers, before being picked up by their driver at the opposite end.

The couple had already done a walking tour on day one of their trip, and had been so exasperated by a stifling three-hour shuffle along a corridor towards the Sistine Chapel on day two that by the third day they wanted to give their tired feet a rest.

Published: October 3, 2026, 3:00 am

Rare northern bald ibises take flight in human-led European migration project

Micro aircraft used to help guide birds to Spanish stopover as part of efforts to create sustaining migratory population

Fifteen new birds have joined a growing flock of bald ibises in northern Spain, guided there by human migration guides in micro aircraft who helped them along the route.

The birds are part of the growing European flock of the northern bald ibis (Geronticus eremita), the charismatic and frankly extraordinary bird that had been extinct on the continent for 300 years.

Published: October 2, 2026, 5:00 am

Cyclospora found at Mexican farm linked to lettuce outbreak, FDA says

Announcement from US officials comes after CDC declared end to outbreak that infected nearly 13,000 people

The Food and Drug Administration said on Friday its inspectors had detected cyclospora at the Mexican farm blamed for the largest foodborne illness outbreak of the parasite in US history.

FDA inspectors said Friday they found cyclospora in two places: a wastewater tank and a drainage ditch used for lettuce cultivation. They said it was unclear how the lettuce became infected.

Published: October 2, 2026, 5:27 pm

US sanctions three individuals and two charities over alleged Hamas financing

The justice and treasury departments said they sent $2m to Hamas through charities and cryptocurrency, while six people were arrested across the US and France

The Trump administration on Friday unveiled sanctions against three individuals allegedly related to the Islamist militant group Hamas and against two charities based in France while also announcing six arrests – actions that the government called an “extraordinary counter-terrorism work” to expose “a sophisticated, multi‑year financing architecture”.

Investigators alleged that the network moved more than $2m to Hamas “through deceptive charitable fronts and cryptocurrency channels”.

Published: October 2, 2026, 3:24 pm

Hawaii’s centuries-old sea arch collapses into Pacific after series of rough storms

Hōlei sea arch, formed 550 years ago by erosion from ocean waves, no longer standing, National Park Service confirms

A famed centuries-old sea arch on Hawaii’s remote and rugged coastline has collapsed into the Pacific Ocean, the National Park Service confirmed on Friday, following a stretch of rough storms in the region in recent weeks.

The beloved landmark, Hōlei sea arch, stood at around 90ft high for over half a millennium in Hawaii’s Volcanoes national park, located on the dramatic southern coast of the Big Island. It was naturally formed around 550 years ago due to differential erosion by ocean waves.

Published: October 2, 2026, 1:16 pm

Federal judge halts Big Bend border wall construction in blow to Trump agenda

Plan to install barriers through popular national park sparked outrage from advocates and politicians alike

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from expanding the border wall and other security infrastructure across the Big Bend region of west Texas, where contentious plans to build roads and vehicle barriers through a popular national park have led to furious backlash and public protests.

US district judge Kathleen Cardone’s ruling after a Friday hearing in El Paso deals a major blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to expand the border wall through west Texas at breakneck pace, while riding roughshod over the objections of local business owners, landowners, public land advocates and politicians from both parties.

Published: October 2, 2026, 4:32 pm

Hegseth calls US-built nuclear submarines the ‘apex predator’ of the seas. But are they right for Australia?

Some experts argue Virginia-class submarines government is buying second-hand are good for fighting American wars, but not for defending Australia

• Get our new political email, free app or daily news podcast

On stage for his “arsenal of freedom tour”, the US secretary of defense – who prefers the appellation “secretary of war” – was ebullient.

“This Virginia-class submarine is a paragon of American engineering and fighting spirit,” Pete Hegseth roared, standing at Newport News shipyards where those boats are being built.

Published: October 3, 2026, 12:00 pm

Women given free cycling shorts to prevent upskirting on Oktoberfest amusement ride

Investigation revealed thousands of voyeuristic videos taken on Munich beer festival’s Teufelsrad, or Devil’s Wheel

Women have been given free cycling shorts to prevent upskirting on a famous amusement ride at the Oktoberfest in Munich, after an investigation revealed tens of thousands of voyeuristic videos circulating online.

The Teufelsrad, or Devil’s Wheel, which rapidly spins around while people try to sit on it for as long as they can, is one of the beer festival’s oldest rides. But many of the videos discovered by German journalists focus on women whose traditional dirndl dresses have ridden up, often showing their underwear.

Published: October 3, 2026, 8:10 am

How an 87-year-old Spanish woman became the face of the fight for affordable housing – explainer

María del Carmen Abascal, 87, was evicted from her home, on a stretcher, after being given 30 minutes to gather her belongings.

The Guardian's European community affairs correspondent, Ashifa Kassam, explains how her eviction sparked protests across Madrid, which led to 'Maricarmen' becoming the symbol of a long-running housing rights movement

• Eviction of 87-year-old puts Spain’s deepening housing crisis in the spotlight

Published: October 3, 2026, 6:05 am

North Korea launches ballistic missile after Seoul demands apology over wounded soldiers

Pyongyang fires towards sea a day after Kim Jong-un sister denounces South Korea for claiming North’s mines wounded South’s soldiers in DMZ

North Korea fired a ballistic missile towards the sea on Saturday, South Korea and Japan said, ⁠a day ​after it rejected Seoul’s accusation of its mines wounding soldiers.

The missile was launched from the Wonsan area at about 6.30am towards the East Sea – also known as the Sea of Japan – and flew more than 700km (434 miles), the South Korean military said. Seoul and Washington were analysing the test for details, it added.

Published: October 2, 2026, 10:31 pm

‘Happy Christmas, Ange’: why we have always loved a dramatic TV divorce

Untying the knot is having a television moment with the launch of the HBO legal thriller War and BBC’s The Split Up

There were 105,002 divorces in England and Wales last year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Right now, it feels like there are almost as many on TV.

The new HBO legal thriller War, which launched on Sky Atlantic on Friday night, chronicles what it calls “the highest-profile divorce case in UK history”. This enjoyably juicy eight-parter is joined in the weekend schedules by the BBC ​drama The Split Up – a Manchester-based spin-off from Abi Morgan’s The Split – following a British Asian family law firm specialising in elite divorces.

Published: October 3, 2026, 4:00 am

The ICE documentary as chilling as a horror movie: ‘We’re trying to put the audience in a position of terror’

Film-makers Laura Poitras and Rachel Lauren Mueller’s new short is an unvarnished portrait of ICE-occupied Minneapolis

Get Out. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The Purge. All three films build on an august tradition of using horror as a Trojan horse to comment on the social, political and racial anxieties of their day. They’re Here, a new documentary featured in this year’s New York film festival, flips the script. Directed by Rachel Lauren Mueller, a film-maker and journalist, and Laura Poitras, Academy award-winner, the 24-minute film employs horror tropes to re-examine the surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Minneapolis last winter. “For film-makers and journalists, there’s a great sense of responsibility in these moments when they arise,” said Mueller, a Minneapolis resident. “This is my neighborhood. It was my community. It was very clear to me what my role in this moment would be.”

Framed as a dystopian story set in an urban tundra, They’re Here follows the Trump administration’s border control campaign in Minnesota – officially dubbed Operation Metro Surge. Over the course of three winter months, the Department of Homeland Security moved to remove the Twin Cities’ Somali immigrant population and destabilize its progressive political order. The documentary takes in the wanton shock-and-awe campaign and scales it down to the battlefield, following Minneapolis residents as they evade and resist ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents – obscuring the residents’ identities for protection.

Published: October 2, 2026, 2:00 am

Get Jiro: Anthony Bourdain’s ultraviolent sushi chef makes for wild, pulpy television

A love of food and a taste for bloodthirsty action collide as a very angry chef gets caught up in a brutal turf war between warring restaurants in LA

Has foodie culture gone too far? It’s a truism that to get to a lasagne recipe now, you have to wade through an essay about someone’s childhood in Tuscany. We talk about food sentimentally, consume TV about it fetishistically, slavering over slow-motion shots of chopped pepper falling on to stainless steel. We enjoy judging the food of others. We talk about the provenance of our ingredients with a kind of purity fixation. It strikes me that there’s a totalitarianism to it.

So it was bracing to watch Get Jiro (from Sunday 4 October, HBO Max), an adult animation that pairs a love of food with a taste for ultraviolence. It’s the story of a sushi chef, caught up in a bloodthirsty turf war between warring restaurants. It is set in a dystopian near-future Los Angeles, in which all human desires “including companionship, travel and sex, can be experienced … virtually”. (The episodes I’ve seen don’t go into this, explaining for example how chiropody could be experienced virtually, but that’s beside the point.)

Published: October 2, 2026, 11:00 pm

How Bassam Tariq pivoted from stalled Blade reboot to new Mahershala Ali thriller: ‘I’m happier I made this movie’

In the film-maker’s Houston-set film, Ali stars as a devout Muslim who moonlights as a vicious hitman

Mahershala Ali is swinging around a blade in Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother. That’s not a nod to Ali’s previous attachment to Marvel’s Blade. It’s of a piece with Ali’s character, Latif, a devout Muslim who also happens to be a contract killer, though he fashions himself a righteous killer. Latif justifies his violence as divine retribution, dispensing victims he believes to have offended God. His sword, according to writer and director Bassam Tariq, is a part of Latif’s code, a negotiation with his faith.

“You are forced to strike with intention when you use a sword,” Tariq says, speaking in a recent interview in Toronto.

Published: October 2, 2026, 4:00 am

Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall review – Paul Thomas Anderson’s sumptuous recording is an immediate classic

New York Film Festival: The Geese frontman mesmerizes in a concert film that is both swoony and austere

One night last December, weary from a busy week and the impending doom of winter, I hurried into Carnegie Hall to witness Cameron Winter. The Geese frontman was marking the end of a breakout year with a series of rapturously received solo acoustic shows, drawing the penitent for whom the 23-year-old’s primordial voice struck some kind of destabilizing natural frequency. I had bought the ticket months earlier, after being hypnotized by Winter’s beguiling debut solo album, Heavy Metal, and sat transfixed in the rafters, far from the Brooklynite’s lanky, stygian presence before a single piano.

So far, in fact, that I assumed the maybe-camera that came on stage at one point was a bit, perhaps a jab at our incessant need to film things from a very deadpan celebrity whose only non-music interlude that evening was to wordlessly stand, stretch and mockingly fight with the stage door, as if trying to escape his own momentous show. I emerged from the event teary, charged by what felt like a communion across time, and confused by a friend’s text: “can’t wait for the cameron winter PTA doc”.

Published: October 2, 2026, 1:13 pm

‘My hips can’t help but move’: readers on the songs that always get them dancing

From Northern soul and 90s bangers to disco classics and indie anthems, readers share the floorfillers that never fail to start the party

My now-husband and I attended a wedding. The reception was boring. No one was dancing and people were wondering if it was too early to leave. We sat at our table thinking what song would get everyone up on to the dancefloor. We chose I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’. When I asked the DJ to play it he laughed and said: “That’s appropriate.” We danced by ourselves and people started joining us. The party kicked off and we all had a great time. Years later, we played the song at our own wedding. It makes me happy. Rachael, 46, Warrington

Published: October 2, 2026, 9:00 pm

Trá Pháidín: Cloch’s Claí review – giddy Galway gang burst the boundaries of folk music

(World of Echo)
With musical ideas spanning mariachi and motorik beats, and lyrics with Kneecap-grade rage, this brilliant collective evolve tradition with stinging, joyful songs

Quicksilver and giddy in its exploration of Irish music, language and identity, Trá Pháidín’s second album bursts open the idea of a 21st-century traditional folk record. It woos you with the reverb-smothered guitars and birdsong-like flutes of Tí Mhichael Phaddy (Michael Paddy’s House, an opener suggesting a psychedelically perfect rurality) before an Irish woman cuts in, bigging up her countryside Airbnb on the phone. A shouty local then comically interrupts her.

Trá Pháidín (Paddy’s Beach) are a six-strong collective of brilliant musicians from Galway, Ireland’s largest Irish-speaking county, and their album’s title, Cloch’s Claí (Stone and Dry Stone Wall), suggests that each track plays its own scabrous, weight-bearing part in the whole. The 45 minutes unfold as an interrupted sequence, full of improvisation, texture and ornament, the band freely roaming other genres, revealing them as connected neighbourhoods.

Published: October 2, 2026, 1:00 am

Greg Freeman: All Set the Bone review – ambitious alt-country double album spreads its talents a touch thin

(Transgressive)
The Maryland singer-songwriter’s third album has an impressive sense of scale compared to last year’s breakout Burnover, but is less immediately appealing

Greg Freeman’s third album All Set the Bone feels, at its best and most nervy, like an off-brand pressure cooker: too hot, bursting at its seams, rattling with kinetic energy. The Maryland-born singer-songwriter has a voice that often sounds like it’s straining at its limits, and although he is ostensibly part of a growing indierock revival that’s been taking hold over the past few years – a cosy perennial – there’s nothing particularly comfortable about the songs on this double album. On Marooned, frantic stabs of guitar and drums create queasy unease; opener Cahokia muddles up the catharsis of a great American road song, descending into proggy bedlam. And his lyrics most often drum up anxieties big and small: “Who do you look to when you’re all on your own?” he asks on Culture. “When all your heroes lost their microphones?”

Freeman broke out with last year’s Burnover, a set of taut story-songs that were at turns witty, delirious and devastating. Freeman’s secret was in his ability to weld that literary streak to loud, bolshy, riff-heavy music that wouldn’t sound out of place on mainstream rock radio. All Set the Bone is several orders more ambitious in its scale, and its songwriting, which is more imagistic and diffuse. The result is an impressive record but one that’s less immediately appealing. Freeman wrote it while travelling through the US and reckoning with “a lot of change in my personal sense of … everything”, and you can hear that searching quality in the final product. All Set the Bone contains fewer fireworks than Burnover, but Freeman still has plenty of spark.

Published: October 2, 2026, 12:30 am

‘I thought, if I’m going to die, I’m going to write a book first’: Pachinko author Min Jin Lee

Her last novel sold 5m copies and was adapted into a hit series. Nearly 10 years on, the Korean-American author has written another epic. She discusses ambition and the diagnosis that inspired her to leave work and write

Back in 1995, when she was in her mid-20s, Min Jin Lee quit her job as a corporate lawyer. As a teenager she had been diagnosed as a hepatitis B carrier and doctors told her she was highly likely to develop liver cancer in her 20s or 30s. “I thought, if I’m going to die, I’m going to write a book first,” the now 57-year-old Korean-American author says of her decision to turn her back on a regular pay cheque and healthcare. “I was told so many times that I was going to get sicker and sicker, that I’ve always felt that if I can get a really good book out then I’m done.”

Lee, looking very much alive and well, is on a video call from her home in Harlem, New York, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves behind her. We are meeting to discuss the publication of her third novel, American Hagwon, the final part in what she calls her “Korean trilogy”, following Free Food for Millionaires in 2007 and her 2017 international bestseller, Pachinko, stylishly adapted for Apple TV in 2022. “Korean quartet!” she corrects me now. Thanks to experimental drugs, she is now so healthy she can commit to another book. “Before I turn 70, I should turn in my manuscript,” she jokes. “I’m writing the four books that I wanted to write and after that I’m going to take a long nap.”

Published: October 3, 2026, 1:00 am

‘I waited patiently, hoping he might make the jump’: Mirna Abass’s best phone picture

As a fan of Henri Cartier-Bresson, the Egyptian photographer was determined to capture his own ‘decisive moment’

Mirna Abass regards his small Egyptian city as “heaven for street, travel and documentary photography”. At the intersection of the Nile and the Mediterranean, the governorate of Damietta is home to Ezbet El Borg, a shipbuilding and fishing port. Abass describes it as “a colourful hub of daily fishing life; fishers and their nets, boats being built, maintained and painted”.

On the day he took this shot, Abass had joined a walk with the Egyptian Camera Crew photography club. Abass works as an agricultural engineer, but describes film and photography as his true passions. Henri Cartier-Bresson is one of his biggest inspirations, and he is often guided by the pioneering photographer’s concept of the decisive moment.

Published: October 3, 2026, 3:00 am

The week in wildlife: a rescued orangutan, the chonkiest bear and a barn owl’s triumph

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

Published: October 2, 2026, 12:00 am

A new Skywalker trilogy for Star Wars? Going back to the same family-saga well is a waste of time

Reports that Jon Watts could make a new trilogy about a clan who have already saved and destroyed the galaxy several times over leaves you wishing for a newer world

The Skywalkers: who are they exactly? A family that has moulded the entire Star Wars galaxy in their image, to the extent that nobody can really imagine the long-running space opera without them. An almost endless familial battle between good and evil, featuring absent fathers, secret siblings, murdered mentors, wayward nephews, surprise grandfathers. For nearly half a century they have blown up Death Stars, built Death Stars, destroyed Jedi orders, rebuilt Jedi orders, fallen to the dark side, risen from the dark side, died heroically, come back as ghosts. Star Wars has occasionally attempted to escape them. It has made films and TV shows about stolen Death Star plans, bounty hunters, smugglers and rebels from entirely different corners of the galaxy. Ryan Gosling will soon appear in a Star Wars movie that, as far as we know, has absolutely nothing to do with them. But they have never really gone away, and now they are back, possibly because Disney has run out of ideas for how to take the franchise forward without them.

Deadline reports this week that Lucasfilm has hired Jon Watts to direct the first instalment of a new trilogy continuing the Skywalker saga, written by Simon Kinberg, with Daisy Ridley reportedly being eyed to return as Rey. The films have not yet been greenlit, and there are precious few other details, but Watts does seem an inspired choice, if for no other reason than that he has previously overseen a film – Spider-Man: No Way Home – that was built around the idea that nobody in a long-running franchise needs to remain dead.

Published: October 2, 2026, 3:00 am

My relationship with food was broken. Then I killed my own dinner

For years, eating was something to control, fear or regret. After I hunted my first deer, I started to see fat, hunger and my own body in a different light

I muffled my sobs with a pillow so my family couldn’t hear me from the adjacent room. I was 19 years old and we were in Paris, staying on the top floor of an old six-story walkup where every step echoed through the thin walls. I was trying, and failing, to hide the emotional war I had decided to wage on my body. Who does that on a family vacation? In Europe, no less?

Pulling tear-soaked strands of hair off my cheeks, I stood in front of a full-length mirror and grabbed the fat of my thighs. If only I could just – I pictured ripping off fistfuls of my body and flinging them out the windows, where they would land on some unknowing French person six stories below. I had this vision often: pulling bits of myself off and casting them somewhere far away from me.

Published: October 3, 2026, 5:00 am

Tim Dowling: nobody’s laughing – is the joke on me?

By over-committing to the bit, I’m in danger of becoming the very thing that I mock

There was a kid in my year in high school named Jimmy Tremarelli. We were in a couple of the same classes, and also had occasion to pass each other in the hall between bells about three times a day. Whenever we did Jimmy would nod and say, “Dr Dowling”, and I would say, “Dr Tremarelli”. And then we’d carry on in opposite directions.

Over the years the pretence became gradually more elaborate. Sometimes Jim would steal up alongside me at the end of class, cupping my elbow in the palm of his hand.

Published: October 2, 2026, 10:00 pm

The best beauty advent calendars of 2026 in the US are already here and selling out

Beauty advent calendars can be overwhelming with gifting options galore – but which ones are worth your money? We put offerings from Anthropologie, Lush and others to the test

• I hunted for the best skincare at the world’s biggest Korean beauty store

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

Though the summer is just barely in the rearview, Halloween decorations are already on clearance at the drugstores and retailers are soft launching gift guides. And just two weeks before the official start of fall, luxury beauty retailer Liberty London launched its holiday advent calendar, kicking off the season’s forthcoming influx of gift sets and the like.

These days, you can get an advent calendar for everything from the viral Needoh toys to Redbull. But beauty advent calendars can actually be a good buy. Unlike the humble, milk chocolate-filled ones, beauty advent calendars such as Liberty London’s are stocked with typically high-priced beauty items at steep discounts, from viral lipsticks to luxurious moisturizers. Many are valued at more than $1,000.

In the UK? Check our UK beauty Advent calendars guide here

Anthropologie 24 Days of Beauty

Liberty London Beauty

Published: October 2, 2026, 6:30 am

The seven best blenders in the US: for smoothies, frozen drinks and more

A great blender is a kitchen workhouse – I tested more than a dozen options including the Vitamix and Breville for budget, size, mulch factor, speed and whether they had plastic or glass jars

• In the UK? Check out Filter UK’s top-rated blenders here

There are few breakfasts that feel as healthy and refreshing as the ever-mutable smoothie. You can make them virtuous, with lots of greens and nut milk, or luscious, with full-fat dairy and cocoa powder – but in order to make a good one, you need a really good blender.

And while smoothies are the classic use for a blender, these appliances can do so much more; a truly great blender is a kitchen workhorse that can make your morning smoothie, your afternoon dip, your evening soup and even a frozen drink if you’re feeling frisky.

Best overall:
Breville Fresh & Furious

The very best blender (luxury):
Vitamix 5200

Published: October 2, 2026, 12:05 pm

They’re delicious, popular and versatile – but how healthy are berries?

Experts say that if you’re eating any berry – strawberries, blackberries, currants, raspberries, blueberries – you are benefiting

Sprinkled on top of yoghurt, blended into smoothies or baked into crumbles, berries are among Americans’ favorite fruits.

Luckily, berries are as healthy as they are delicious and versatile: low in calories, full of vitamins and antioxidants, and a good source of fiber. Research shows that, depending on the type, berries support cardiovascular health, may boost gut health and fight inflammation and show promise as part of a “healthy dietary strategy for diabetes prevention and management”, to quote researchers. Meta-analyses also link compounds in berries with improved cognitive health.

Published: October 2, 2026, 9:00 am

Blind date: ‘He asked if my disco ball tattoo was an onion’

Shahar, 29, a graphic designer and music label manager, meets Stephen, 34, a product designer

What were you hoping for?
I’d never been on a blind date, so a good story, and a new connection.

Published: October 2, 2026, 10:00 pm

Bailiffs and 100 unpaid teachers: inside the collapse of ‘groundbreaking’ yoga studio Triyoga

Formerly a favourite of the A-list, the chain has abruptly ceased trading, leaving teachers and customers blindsided

Kate Comer is a single mother with two children, so she is used to living on a financial knife-edge. But when the yoga studio at which she taught closed without warning in September, leaving her with two months’ worth of unpaid wages, it sent her anxiety skyrocketing.

“I’m just reeling right now,” she said, estimating her loss at about £1,500. “I’m very concerned about the future.”

Published: October 3, 2026, 2:00 am

The incredible science of memory manipulation

Madeleine Finlay hears from Steve Ramirez, an associate professor of psychological and brain sciences at Boston University, whose book How to Change a Memory was shortlisted for this year’s Royal Society Trivedi science book prize. He explains how scientists have been able to locate memories in the brains of rodents, trigger them artificially and even remove them, and reveals what the practical applications of this science could one day be for humans.

Published: October 2, 2026, 3:55 am

Fashion designer Henry Holland: ‘I’ve thought about a nose job but everyone says I’ll look different. That’s the point!’

Holland on his dashed Olympic dreams, ranking the Real Housewives shows, and a terrifying taxi ride

Born in Greater Manchester, Henry Holland, 43, worked as a stylist and fashion editor for Smash Hits magazine. In 2006, he gained attention for his witty slogan T-shirts which were worn during London fashion week. Two years later, he founded his fashion label, House of Holland, and in 2020, he established Henry Holland Studio, which specialises in ceramics and homewares. He has curated There’s No Place Like It, an exhibition at The Royal Society of Sculptors in London, which runs until 28 November. He is married and lives in London.

When were you happiest?
In my late teen years, on that verge of having independence and no responsibilities.

Published: October 3, 2026, 2:00 am

More celebrities are embracing grey hair. For other women, it can come at a cost

Olivia Colman and Lisa Bonet are among the stars going silver – but workplace ageism means many women still fear ditching the dye

To dye, or not to dye. That is the decision many people, particularly women, face when their hair starts to grey.

This week Olivia Colman joined the growing ranks of women embracing grey hair and ditching the dye. Appearing at Zurich film festival, Colman had swapped her dark signature pixie cut for a grey, curly mane swept to one side.

Published: October 2, 2026, 7:54 am

Daniel Roseberry adds ‘aerodynamic‘ edge to Schiaparelli’s surrealist glamour at Paris show

American in Paris showcases new simplicity with stretch cocktail frocks, but there’s still plenty of gold-foiled nipples and peekaboo fabrics to wow the frow

In a world of mega brands, the house of Schiaparelli is small but perfectly formed. There are only 10 points of sale worldwide where Schiaparelli clothes can be bought. The size of the business has risen from $6m in 2020 to around $100m today, but Schiaparelli is still small fry compared with other names on the Paris catwalks.

However, the Schiaparelli name punches above its weight. An exhibition at London’s V&A museum this year made a strong case for its founder, Elsa Schiaparelli, who collaborated with Salvador Dali and Jean Cocteau, as a creative force in the surrealism movement of the 1930s.

Published: October 2, 2026, 9:24 am

Brimful of personality: the rise of fashion’s ‘silly little hats’

From pillboxes and boaters to bicornes and buckets, characterful hats are making their way from the catwalk to the high street

“Here goes – an order for a million hats,” wrote Jackie Kennedy to Bergdorf Goodman before moving into the White House in the early 1960s. It’s a line that could have been uttered by any number of people working in fashion today, because the hat – and not just the ubiquitous baseball cap – has been enjoying a very characterful resurgence.

This season at the turbo-high-end brand Loro Piana, whose clothes are beloved by tech bros and Kendall Roy, almost every model was wearing a hat. At Thom Browne, straw boaters came shrouded in colourful mesh. At Chloé there were see-through hats to match see-through trenchcoats and white sailor hats atop all-white outfits. Courrège’s hats were space-age, Burberry had big buckets, Bottega Veneta had hats brimming with charisma.

Published: October 2, 2026, 8:00 am

Feeling wired? The truth about ‘nervous system resets’

The internet is full of warnings about our ‘dysregulated’ nervous systems. But, experts say, you don’t need to reset yours – you might just need to make it more flexible. Here’s how (and no, you don’t need an acupressure mat)

Whether it’s tapping the side of your hand or standing on a vibrating plate, suggestions on how to “reset” your nervous system are saturating the internet. Cold water plunges, humming, gargling, yawning and spiky acupressure mats are all being touted as ways to help us “regulate” and return to calm. If you’re still talking about feeling “stressed”, you’re behind the times; now, says the internet, you are “dysregulated”.

The nervous system is an integral part of being human. “It’s essentially the body’s communication and control network,” says Dr Serena Lai, consultant psychiatrist and associate medical director at London Psychiatry Clinic. “Made up of the brain and spinal cord, it communicates with the entire body through nerves, helping us to sense what is happening around and inside us. When we have that information, we can process it and coordinate a response.”

Published: October 2, 2026, 7:00 am

A vodkatini, a garibaldi and a shrub – your essential autumn cocktails – recipes

Try a millionaire’s martini, a Campari that couldn’t be simpler and a booze-free blackberry fizz (plus an Aperol that doesn’t need a spritz)

I make a variation on this year-round. Bring on the autumn.

Published: October 2, 2026, 8:00 am

While I dream of garden greenhouses, a coldframe will do me just fine

A hothouse in my garden may be just a fantasy, but I can still offer plenty of protection for tender plants

I thought I would have had a new coldframe by now, but the only new thing in the garden is a fox hole. It would be more polite of them to direct their exemplary digging skills towards where we’re excavating for new foundations, but so it goes.

I’m writing this, then, in the hope that it will spur me on to order one. I like to think that, one day, in a fantasy life, I might be a greenhouse person. I’d fill it up with pelargonium cuttings and orange blossom and hold tiny little lunch parties for one. Or maybe have a clever walk-through one like Mary Keen’s – genius for making sure you go in there, what with it being on the path. But I think of glasshouse life in the same way I think of one day learning Italian. It’s a nice idea, but unlikely to happen.

Published: October 2, 2026, 3:00 am

‘We swept a lot under the carpet’: Vichy regime film hits home in France of 2026

Movie about Nazi-collaborating administration strikes chord during what director calls ‘time of great uncertainty’

It is the story of how a lowly state administrator unthinkingly becomes a cog in the machine of an authoritarian regime, embracing the bureaucracy and logistics of sending people to their deaths – and it is drawing in audiences to French cinemas.

The French film Notre Salut (Our Salvation), with its modern lighting, improvised scenes and anachronistic 1980s Europop soundtrack, is far from the standard historical costume drama about the second world war.

Published: October 2, 2026, 9:00 pm

Five Great Reads: ICE 2.0, millennial motherhood, and skinny-dipping with Christine Baranski

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

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

Hello and welcome to the weekend.

The Guardian’s range was on display this week across these five very different stories. Grab a coffee and dig in, digest, and reflect on harrowing accounts of Trump’s immigration crackdown, investigations into modern motherhood and masculinity, and for a bit of weekend fun, we leave you with some celebrity gossip.

Published: October 2, 2026, 3:08 pm