I worked at Google DeepMind. You should listen to the warnings about AI | Alex Turner

We must stop companies from allowing AI to self-improve into an uncontrollable level of intelligence

Major AI lab CEOs advocated for slowing the pace of AI development this weekend. They are right to be concerned: the field runs an extremely dangerous race towards superintelligent AI. We can and should be demanding that our governments protect us from the catastrophe of out-of-control AI.

This July, OpenAI’s AI swarm of 700 agents broke containment to hack Hugging Face, a multi-billion dollar company. OpenAI didn’t tell the AIs to hack that company, but the AIs had different priorities: cheating on the unrelated challenge OpenAI gave them. AI researchers call this a “misalignment” between what OpenAI wanted and what the AI actually prioritized.

Published: September 14, 2026, 5:00 am

She’s Donald Trump’s least-favorite Fox News host. But Jessica Tarlov remains undeterred

The 42-year-old liberal commentator regularly co-hosts the network’s 5pm talk show, taking flak from her conservative colleagues and harsh insults from the president.

Jessica Tarlov is the left-leaning Fox News host that some of the network’s most conservative viewers, including Donald Trump, love to hate.

The US president regularly bashes Tarlov on his Truth Social platform, in April calling her “one of the Least Attractive and Talented People on all of Television”, and demanding that Fox “GET HER OFF THE AIR.”

Published: September 14, 2026, 4:00 am

The desecration of DC: from a giant arch to a nuke-proof bunker, Trump’s legacy-building blingfest is an architectural atrocity

A bloated ballroom, a six-storey military HQ, a helipad-cum-cocktail patio, a gilded angel on a giant arch honouring himself … our architecture critic deplores the decorator-in-chief’s mutilation of Washington

When you have a developer as US president, you might expect some zhooshing up of the capital. A few buildings renovated, maybe some parks replanted. But when you have a megalomaniac builder in charge, things can get out of hand. A decade ago, when Donald Trump was first elected, I asked what it might mean for the US to be led by a real estate tycoon whose career had left a trail of broken promises, angry buyers and endless lawsuits, with rules flouted, heritage trampled and the world pockmarked by a fleet of aspirational towers clad with a flimsy veneer of luxury. The answer is worse than I could have imagined.

With the air of a nightmarish Hollywood sequel, Trump 2 has seen the president’s true architectural ambitions unleashed: The Blingpire Strikes Back. As America’s self-styled decorator-in-chief, Trump has not only overseen the gilded mutilation of the White House, but embarked on the Mar-a-Lagofication of Washington DC itself, applying his gold paintbrush to statuary, daubing ponds with flaking pool liner, and brewing plans for a colossal triumphal arch – all procured in a blizzard of no-bid contracts. And, in true dodgy salesman style, this programme of bauble-building is turning out to be a high-profile decoy for deeper damage being wrought elsewhere.

Published: September 13, 2026, 9:00 pm

Hard truths about solo homeownership – and the tools that made these women DIY pros

Women who have tackled home repairs and renovations share hard-earned tips and tools that helped them patch drywall, refinish floors and build decks

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I entered homeownership the same way I started driving on the highway: learning on the fly and in a blind panic. I bought my house in my late 20s, with minimal home-maintenance knowledge, a flathead screwdriver, a rubber mallet that had lived through the Carter administration – and the realization that throughout my life, I had been spared from doing the dirty work at the cost of learning how it was done.

Many of my (male) friends growing up had nice power drills their fathers had given them, along with lessons on how to use them safely – an education that, for them, seemed to happen almost by default. As a kid, I prepared for my Girl Scouts troop’s big annual event, the cookie sale, while my brother’s Cub Scouts troop was learning to use coping saws and screwdrivers for the Pinewood derby. As recently as this year, I struck up a conversation with a welder and expressed my longtime interest in learning the skill, only to have him say it would probably be too difficult for me.

Published: September 14, 2026, 7:15 am

‘The eye-gouging was very, very satisfying’: how we made cave horror classic The Descent

‘The child crawler whose head I crush with my boot was only 11, bless him. It was actually me stamping on a cauliflower’

I was introduced to Christian Colson at Celador Films off the back of [2002 horror film] Dog Soldiers, and I pitched them a project – actually a feature-length version of my student graduation film – about zombies on an oil rig. They liked it but said it was too expensive, so on the train back to Newcastle I was asking myself what would make a really scary horror film that could be contained and so made on a budget. I was thinking of things set in the dark and was like, well … caves. At the back of my mind was a school trip to a lead mine where the guide had said, “OK, everybody, turn your lights off” and, for the first time, I experienced a darkness that I just couldn’t fathom.

Published: September 14, 2026, 7:23 am

‘I’ve never been more terrified!’ Carly Rae Jepsen on motherhood, stardom and her horniest album ever

Call Me Maybe made the singer-songwriter famous – but also confused. Who was she? Who was her music for? Fourteen years later, about to release the double album Day and Night, she finally has some answers

Carly Rae Jepsen is as bubbly as ever as she comes down for breakfast at Manhattan’s Hotel Chelsea. She’s one of those pop princesses, like Kylie Minogue, whose voice and demeanour remain unchanged whatever the situation. And she feels at home at this New York landmark where, last year, she married the musician and producer Cole MGN. That a wedding at the Chelsea would need to be kept to about 100 people was an immediate selling point. “I loved that it was smaller,” she says. “It felt big to me! I didn’t even get time with all the people that were there.”

We’re here to talk about her new album, though, which comes out 14 years after the song that made her world-famous. Born and raised in the city of Mission in British Columbia, Jepsen had come third on Canadian Idol in 2007, and then released a low-key folk album called Tug of War in 2008, before dropping Call Me Maybe four years later. It became the bestselling global single of 2012; her second album, Kiss, came out in the same year. Now, at the age of 40, she has six more studio albums under her belt. The latest, Day and Night, is her take on marriage and motherhood. And, in its own way – which is to say, a bit coy, a bit breathy – it might also be Jepsen’s horniest album to date.

Published: September 13, 2026, 9:00 pm

Trump claims he is only ‘guardrail’ needed to control AI as top Republicans join him in dismissing calls for more checks – live

President condemns what he claims is a ‘sick conspiracy’ amid global tech selloff following CEOs calls for slowing pace of development

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Donald Trump has claimed there is a “SICK conspiracy” against artificial intelligence and data centers in response to the growing calls for greater checks on AI development.

“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, insisting that the administration has stopped leaders of AI companies from “doing bad, or potentially bad” things. However, he didn’t point to any concrete examples for how he has curbed possible abuse or malfeasance in the industry.

There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China … We are leading China, and all others, and will continue to do so. Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers, BEWARE!

Published: September 14, 2026, 11:03 am

Israel accused of trying to ‘eliminate’ living conditions for Palestinians in West Bank

Report by Israeli human rights group says systematic and broad assault being waged on conditions required for Palestinians’ existence

Israel is working towards the systematic “elimination” of the conditions that sustain Palestinian collective life in the occupied West Bank, according to a major report published by the human rights group B’Tselem.

The Israeli organisation’s hard-hitting report, shared with the Guardian in advance of publication, says Israel is “dramatically intensifying its attacks on every aspect of Palestinian life in the West Bank”, including “the ability to get to work, take children to school or university, receive medical treatment or municipal services, meet family and friends, cultivate land or go on vacation … routine activities that make up human life”.

1,107
Number of Palestinians killed by Israel in the West Bank since October 2023

Published: September 14, 2026, 12:23 am

Alligator Alcatraz held detainees in cages the size of phone booths, DHS watchdog says

Office of inspector general’s report says practice at Florida immigration jail is not aligned with ‘humane treatment’

Before the facility was shuttered, detainees at Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” federal immigration jail were frequently locked in outside metal cages no bigger than a phone booth, according to a damning government watchdog report that said the practice “does not align with standards for humane treatment”.

The findings from the office of the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were published on its website – and offer rare criticism of the Trump administration by one of its own agencies.

Published: September 14, 2026, 10:43 am

US borrowing costs hit 5% for first time since 2023 amid bond sell-off

Soaring oil prices of above $108 a barrel after Houthi attacks on Saudi infrastructure stoke inflation fears

US government borrowing costs have risen to 5% for the first time since 2023 as soaring oil prices fuelled by the war in the Middle East trigger an intensifying sell-off in the global bond market.

The yield – in effect the interest rate – on 10-year US Treasury bonds hit the psychologically important threshold on Monday, on a day of renewed selling pressure on Wall Street as the global oil price reached $108 a barrel.

Published: September 14, 2026, 9:48 am

Russian strike on passenger train will not deter Ukraine’s backers, Nato chief says

Mark Rutte says attack that narrowly missed Boris Johnson and David Petraeus shows Vladimir Putin’s desperation

The head of Nato has said a Russian drone attack on a train close to Ukraine’s border with Poland would not deter Kyiv’s western backers.

Mark Rutte said the strike on a passenger train showed how desperate Vladimir Putin had become. “He thinks that he can stops us from supporting Ukraine and that he can undermine our unity. He is wrong. Our answer is to increase support,” the Nato general secretary said.

Published: September 14, 2026, 9:56 am

Trump’s EPA reportedly ⁠poised to axe carbon pollution rules for power plants

Advocates and experts describe the Trump administration’s climate rollbacks as gifts to polluters at expense of planet

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is ⁠poised to formally repeal carbon pollution standards for coal- and gas-fired power plants, according to reports.

The Trump administration’s latest climate rollback is expected to ⁠come as soon as Monday on the sidelines of the G20 energy ministers’ meeting in Houston, ⁠Texas, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.

Published: September 14, 2026, 7:34 am

US airman recounts Iran rescue in 60 Minutes segment branded propaganda

Critics say segment about airman’s rescue was made to boost public perception of Trump’s unpopular war

A US airman has spoken of climbing a 7,000ft ridge with a broken back, arm and shoulder after he was shot down in Iran – and of being rescued by a team of American special forces as hostile locals closed in on him.

The air force colonel, identified only by his codename Bravo, appeared on camera Sunday night on CBS’s 60 Minutes in a segment some critics have labelled Pentagon propaganda to boost public perception of Donald Trump’s unpopular war.

Published: September 14, 2026, 7:17 am

Macklemore dropped from Ed Sheeran’s US tour after ‘free Palestine’ speech

The American rapper will no longer support Sheeran’s US leg of Loop tour after comments at MetLife Stadium show

Macklemore has been dropped from the remainder of the US leg of Ed Sheeran’s Loop tour, after the American rapper drew headlines for saying “free Palestine” on stage at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

In a brief speech between songs on 4 September, the Grammy-winning artist told the audience he wanted the people of Gaza and “the occupied West Bank” to know “we have not forgotten about them”, prompting a petition from the Israeli American Council demanding his removal from the tour.

Published: September 14, 2026, 8:39 am

Maryland boy recovering from surgeries after rabid beaver attack at state park

Teen was swimming at a popular spot at the time of the attack, the latest in a string that have occurred in the state

A 13-year-old Maryland boy is reported to be recovering from multiple surgeries and nerve damage after being attacked by a rabid beaver.

The teen, Dominick Cebula, was swimming at a popular spot in Cunningham Falls state park in Thurmont, Maryland, on 26 July when a beaver attacked his chest underwater, a relatively rare kind of encounter that more recently has been recurring, according to reporting from local news outlets.

Published: September 14, 2026, 10:38 am

Texas Democrat Jasmine Crockett under fire for honoring Chris Brown at concert

Congresswoman awarded the convicted abuser and musician a congressional record recognition in Arlington

Democratic US representative Jasmine Crockett is under fire for honoring musician Chris Brown, a convicted abuser, with an official recognition at a Texas concert over the weekend.

Crockett, a Texas congresswoman, awarded Brown and R&B musician Usher a congressional record recognition at a performance in Arlington, Texas, on Saturday. Appearing alongside Texas state representative Venton Jones, Crockett said she was there to “honor” Brown and Usher.

Published: September 14, 2026, 9:52 am

Ex-CIA director John Brennan subpoenaed in Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ investigation

Subpoena is among a flurry issued in recent weeks as part of DoJ inquiry into alleged conspiracy against Trump

The former CIA director John Brennan has been subpoenaed to testify next month before a Florida grand jury as part of a Department of Justice investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against Donald Trump, one of his lawyers said Monday.

Ken Wainstein, an attorney for Brennan, disclosed in a court filing that prosecutors last Thursday presented him with a subpoena for Brennan to appear before a grand jury in Fort Pierce, Florida, on 15 October.

Published: September 14, 2026, 9:52 am

Kennedy Center leaders say Trump’s name on facade may avoid ‘fiscal collapse’

Center’s Trump-installed leaders also say it is on brink of bankruptcy and could close as early as Tuesday

Leaders of the John F Kennedy Center for ⁠the Performing Arts say it is reportedly on the brink of bankruptcy and could ⁠close as early ⁠as ​Tuesday.

The center’s Donald Trump-installed leaders argued that putting the president’s name on its facade may be the only way ⁠to avoid imminent and “certain fiscal collapse”, the Washington Post first reported, ​citing documents it ‌obtained.

Published: September 14, 2026, 8:42 am

Trump says he will consider releasing more 9/11 records after families’ request

Families have asked Trump to declassify records that could shed light on Saudi Arabia’s alleged role in the 2001 attacks

Donald Trump said on Sunday that he will look into requests from families of 9/11 victims to release records that could shed light on Saudi Arabia’s alleged role in the attacks 25 years ago.

Several families have long alleged that a group of extremist religious leaders in Saudi Arabia gained influence in the kingdom’s government and aided the hijackers. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, but the Saudi government has long denied any involvement in the attacks.

Published: September 14, 2026, 8:45 am

AI CEOs say they need to slow the pace of development. But will they?

After apocalyptic warnings about the threats posed by AI, leaders like Sam Altman and Elon Musk backed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s calls to ‘slow the pace’

Facing a public uproar over Anthropic researchers’ repeated warnings that artificial intelligence could kill all of humanity by 2030, the AI company’s CEO, Dario Amodei, issued a proposal at the weekend to slow down the technology’s advancement to ensure public safety.

In a rare display of unity, the heads of the largest US artificial intelligence companies all agreed immediately.

Published: September 13, 2026, 10:00 pm

Bolsonaro 2.0: Brazil braces for the return of the far right

Neck-and-neck with Lula in polls, Flávio Bolsonaro fires up his base in the bellwether state of Minas Gerais – starting at the scene of his father’s stabbing

A giant banner of Brazil’s incarcerated former president Jair Bolsonaro fluttered in the morning breeze as his eldest son, Flávio, touched down at an airfield on the fringe of a city that will soon help decide the future of one of the biggest democracies on earth.

“Brazil is rudderless. Brazil has no president and Brazil needs a president – and that president is Flávio Bolsonaro,” the far-right senator declared as he waded into the flock of supporters who had gathered to welcome him to Juiz de Fora, one of the largest cities in the battleground state of Minas Gerais.

Published: September 14, 2026, 10:04 am

The royal crown branded on enslaved Africans: Britain’s monarchy and the slave trade

From Elizabeth I’s backing of early voyages to royal investment in trafficking companies, generations of monarchs were central to Britain’s slave trade

Enslaved African people were seared with hot metal brands bearing the royal crown, according to research by historians who have documented the monarchy’s centuries-long involvement in Britain’s slave trade.

The Register of British Slave Traders identifies thousands of people who invested in Britain’s trafficking of enslaved Africans, including kings and queens.

Published: September 13, 2026, 10:00 pm

San Jose officer fired for misusing Flock camera database in domestic abuse case

Police officer shared location of a woman with his relative who is accused of abusing woman

A San Jose police officer was fired for using his department’s Flock license plate tracking system to share the location of a woman with the suspect accused of abusing her, Chief Paul Joseph told NBC Bay Area on Friday.

The firing marks another in a growing number of cases of misuse of a controversial surveillance technology that has expanded rapidly over the last several years.

Published: September 13, 2026, 1:05 pm

Burning Man at 40: the once anarchic desert festival faces a midlife crisis

The subversive bacchanal for San Francisco’s eccentric underground is ageing out amid an influx of the super-rich

Burning Man, the infamous arts festival in the Nevada desert, turned 40 this year, and it’s showing some distinct signs of middle age.

It’s not just the tech billionaires who show up to party, the chartered flights straight to the desert or the HBO documentary about behind-the-scenes power struggles. The tens of thousands of people who assemble each year to create a tent city in the wilderness appear to be growing older, and it doesn’t seem that they’re being replaced by as many younger “burners”, as festival participants are called.

Published: September 13, 2026, 6:00 am

‘A double entendre in every crevice’: what, beyond near-naked tennis, is Sydney Sweeney’s game?

With her new, semi-nude advert for sports site Novig, the actor cements her reputation as the anti-woke poster girl. But is it real – or just provocation with a soft porn gaze?

Bear with me here, but I’m beginning to suspect Sydney Sweeney is a very fine actor. It’s a skill she has been recognised for in the past, of course, winning nominations for Emmys for Euphoria and The White Lotus, but I mean it in a deeper sense, related to her work in advertising rather than drama – can she do more than play a role? Can she make you feel what she’s feeling?

In her “controversial” new ad for the sports prediction site Novig (the scare quotes are because, when you’re begging for controversy this hard, you shouldn’t just be handed it on a plate), she adopts the garb of various sports. Her face, body, aspect, gait and mien are all carefully configured to amp up the erotic overtones to the maximum degree, and yet the feeling that beams out of each image is: “This is really going to piss people off, and I couldn’t be more delighted.” Her expression is so speechful that you cannot help but share in some of her hellion joy.

Published: September 14, 2026, 9:05 am

‘It’s about controlling your entire body’: how to start doing handstands

Handstands display a mastery of one’s physical form that I have never quite felt – and they look cool. Experts share their advice for building up strength and practicing

My aspirations in life are modest: I want to write, spend time with my loved ones, and someday find a lipstick that flatters my skintone. But perhaps my greatest ambition is this: I want to be able to do a handstand.

Why? It turns the world upside down. It seems fun. It displays a mastery of one’s physical form that I have never quite felt. And it looks cool! Maybe it has to do with that one time in third grade when all my friends could do a handstand and I couldn’t, but that’s for me and my therapist to sort out later.

Published: September 14, 2026, 9:00 am

Ancestors review – messy but moving ghostly drama about the Aids crisis

Toronto film festival: Saipan standout Éanna Hardwicke is a soulful gay man looking for a missing friend in a striking yet muddled debut

It’s not normal to regularly contemplate mortality in your twenties, to ask questions about where we might go after we die and whether any part of our legacy will even matter in the years following. But for gay men in the 1980s, death was everywhere.

In David Turpin’s intermittently impactful debut Ancestors, the director tries to make a connection with those men who lived through the very worst years of the Aids crisis. Turpin, born in 1982, might not have the first-hand experience but he bears the scars passed on from generation to generation and like many young gay men coming of age in the years after, likely experienced a watered down version of the shame and fear those before him once felt.

Published: September 14, 2026, 7:58 am

A job that changed me: Working the pool kiosk in the summer of ’82, I was excited when older boys came by – but I learned that respect is better than attention

My job made me the envy of the cool girls; it made me visible. Then Johnno, Stevo and Whack paid a visit

In the summer of 1982, at the age of 14, I was hired to work in the ticket office and kiosk at the Sale Memorial Pool in Victoria’s Gippsland region. The cool girls at school, who did not usually acknowledge me, were seething with jealousy. It was a sought-after job in a time before fast-food outlets and chain supermarkets.

I was anxious because I didn’t look like the girls who usually worked at the pool. The Dolly magazine cover-girl types. They were tanned, used raspberry lip gloss and Impulse body spray, and wore stretchy boob tubes over their crocheted bikini tops.

Published: September 14, 2026, 8:00 am

Phones are the new cigarettes: why restaurants are discouraging and even banning them

Would you hand in your phone at the door in exchange for a free bottle of wine? One restaurateur has tried that – and there are now many other gambits that are encouraging us to connect

Name: Phone bans.

Age: Their provenance is considerable; their time is now.

Published: September 14, 2026, 8:31 am

The situation in Iran is dangerously escalating – but whatever you do, don’t call it a war | Arwa Mahdawi

Forget the bombing: the Trump administration keeps insisting this isn’t a war. But it’s not just a matter of semantics

“I will not send you to fight and die in stupid foreign wars that never end,” Donald Trump promised a crowd in Pennsylvania in 2024. While the disastrous conflict in Iran, which has escalated in recent days, may make it seem like the president has reneged on that promise, that’s inaccurate. It would be wrong to say that the president has dragged the US into yet another disastrous forever war in the Middle East because, as government officials keep insisting, what’s happening in Iran isn’t actually a war.

“I wouldn’t call it a war,” JD Vance told reporters early this month, for example, after being asked whether the fighting in Iran might be over by the November midterms. “Right now, there is no active shooting.”

Published: September 14, 2026, 3:00 am

Sydney Sweeney’s prediction ad is cynical, unhealthy and reveals plenty about modern sports | Jane McManus

The actor’s latest promotion has stirred outrage but will no doubt be good for the prediction markets hoping to lure in young men

Prediction markets are a cynical business.

Many customers will lose money, and the real product may just be the delightful dopamine hit that comes in that brief window between placing a bet and its outcome – which is statistically more likely to be a disappointment than a victory. So the bettor has to think they are buying more than their own fleecing.

Published: September 14, 2026, 7:30 am

Canada should become an EU state in all but name. Here’s how to make that a reality | Fabian Zuleeg

From the UK to Japan, so many countries need to quickly be brought inside the European tent without the rigours of full membership

The worst conclusion to draw from Iceland’s EU referendum result last month would be that the country, apparently now on Donald Trump’s imperial map along with Canada and Greenland, wanted to distance itself from Europe. Rather, the decision to refuse the reopening of EU accession talks shows that asking voters to choose between membership of the 27-nation bloc and staying outside the club is too binary. Some countries want to be inside the European tent without necessarily becoming members. The EU needs a new status for them.

There are existing models of close cooperation. Iceland and Norway, for example, participate in much of the single market through the European Economic Area (EEA). A range of other partial, gradual or associated membership options for candidate countries is being debated.

Fabian Zuleeg is chief executive and chief economist at the European Policy Centre

Published: September 14, 2026, 8:19 am

Zuckerberg says the science isn’t settled. But the harms of short-form video on the brain are starting to show | Caty Enders

Recent social media lawsuits have addressed concerns about mental health. But what about its cognitive effects?

A few years ago, when I’d just started graduate work, I was waiting with a grandmother finishing a questionnaire I’d handed her about her 19-year-old granddaughter who was in the testing room next door. They were participating in a study that used brain imaging to look at adolescent development. The older woman had a soft southern accent and a warm laugh.

“What’s funny?” I asked.

Published: September 14, 2026, 4:00 am

Labor unions must unite against AI datacenters | Tyler Turner

Workers should start with a moratorium against building until our livelihoods and communities are protected

For the surging number of Americans who now live alongside constantly humming computer-filled mega-warehouses, it is clear AI datacenters come with significant drawbacks.

Opposition to datacenters grows on both sides of the political aisle as developers plan to invest $8tn to build them in the coming years. The bet is massive – roughly a quarter of our country’s entire GDP – but AI CEOs think it will pay off because they believe this technology will allow businesses across industries to rake in profits by cutting out their largest expense: labor. If all goes according to their plan, AI data centers will enable corporations to redistribute workers’ salaries to themselves.

Published: September 14, 2026, 5:00 am

The US right still paints Muslims as the ‘enemy’. But they are fighting for a brighter future for Americans | Nesrine Malik

Progressive politicians such as Zohran Mamdani offer answers to the bitter post-9/11 legacy of failures at home and abroad

Twenty-five years after 9/11, two pieces of journalism, describing two different phenomena in contemporary New York, tell us a great deal about a city, and indeed a world, caught between two eras. In one, New York Magazine dives into “Habibi City”, a New York where a “cultural shift is underway, led by a generation of New Yorkers coming into its own”. This new generation is labelled as originating in “SWANA” – south-west Asia and north Africa, a region that “includes countries from Palestine to Iran to Sudan”. In the other, Vanity Fair describes calls for Zohran Mamdani to not attend the 9/11 memorial ceremony as partly founded in “inchoate, emotional” impulses, that see “the city’s first Muslim mayor as a stand-in for the 19 Muslims who hijacked four planes and turned them into deadly weapons, part of the ‘them’ who attacked ‘us’.”

Together they capture what has changed over a generation, and what remains stubbornly the same. Members of a diaspora of Muslim background are indeed breaking through and accumulating, as New York Magazine says, “clout”. They are no longer simply a fixture of bodegas and halal carts, but of Saturday Night Live, upmarket dining, entertainment and politics too. Mamdani is both the expression of that cohort and the catalyst of its recognition as an emerging force. They care deeply for their local communities but also for those in Gaza and beyond.

Published: September 13, 2026, 10:00 pm

Freedom-loving Britain was at the heart of the 18th century slave trade – and this register proves it | William Pettigrew

Register of British Slave Traders reveals how deeply the trafficking of Africans was embedded in the country’s politics, economy, institutions and culture

Two obstacles have prevented us from appreciating the significance of the slave trade in British history. The first arose from the abolition campaign, which finally overcame opposition in parliament in 1807. The abolitionists promoted the idea that opposition to the slave trade flowed naturally from British values: justice, freedom and Christian benevolence. The success of this strategy obscured the role those same British values had played in supporting the trafficking. Today, Britain’s leaders place abolition in the pantheon of great and definitive national moments.

The second obstacle has been the ingrained tendency of the British to offshore the causes and effects of African chattel slavery to the Americas. According to this view, slavery, and the racial thinking it engendered, was an American, not European concern. But Europeans transported the great majority of enslaved African people to the Americas and reaped huge advantages from doing so. These advantages reshaped European societies.

Published: September 13, 2026, 11:50 pm

We greet the news that AI could extinguish us with a glazed indifference. What is the way out of this nihilism? | Brigid Delaney

There are several answers, and none of them will be provided by tech. One thing we must do is identify the ingredients for human flourishing

Imagining the future as almost entirely bleak has somehow crept into the collective consciousness this year.

Last week I was having coffee with an old friend. He was telling me about what his kids wanted to study when they went to university, when he suddenly broke off, stared into the middle distance and said, “I wish I’d never had children.”

Brigid Delaney is the author of five books, including The Seeker and the Sage

Published: September 13, 2026, 8:49 pm

The Josh Allen rollercoaster is up and running again for the new NFL season

The Bills quarterback produced his usual thrills: a galloping touchdown run, a near game-ending mistake and a brilliant throw. Buffalo fans better hold on

Having Josh Allen as your quarterback is a bit like owning a high-performance sports car with an odd mechanical flaw that can’t be repaired. Most of the results are amazing – perhaps unprecedented – but there are also times when you wonder if a safer ride would get you farther.

In Buffalo’s 36-31 win over the Houston Texans on Sunday, Bills fans saw all sides of the Allenmobile. The quarterback completed 20 of 29 passes for 334 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions and a passer rating of 130.5. He also ran the ball six times for 23 yards and two more touchdowns, the first a typical romp through the opposing defense.

Published: September 14, 2026, 12:30 am

VARs who wrongly confirmed Haaland’s goal at Manchester United are stood down

• Matt Donohue and his assistant not used this weekend

• Pro Ref said allowing winner was ‘error of judgment’

The video assistant referee officials who allowed Erling Haaland’s winning goal in the Manchester derby on Sunday have been stood down. Matt Donohue and his assistant, Blake Antrobus, have been told by Pro Ref they have not received appointments for this weekend’s round of Premier League fixtures.

The chief refereeing officer, Howard Webb, took the decision with his management team after a review of the weekend’s action. Their availability will be reconsidered after the international break.

Published: September 14, 2026, 8:39 am

Spanish GP plans to change Madring after fierce criticism from F1 drivers

• New track for Spanish GP frustrated drivers and fans

• McLaren’s Stella: ‘It’s impossible to attempt overtaking’

Discussions are already under way to change the layout of Formula One’s newest circuit after driver condemnation of the Madring during its inaugural grand prix. The race in Madrid was won by Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, but it was notable for being a procession with overtakes failing to reach double digits over 57 laps. Drivers were left frustrated and disappointed at an opportunity that had been lost, resulting in a chorus of criticism.

“I don’t know how someone looks at this design and goes ‘mint’,” said the defending world champion, Lando Norris, who finished third. “There’s a lot of opportunity. They can make it into a track that’s good for racing and I’m excited to come back here next year if they can make these changes.

Published: September 14, 2026, 3:57 am

JJ Watt proves to be a solid replacement for Tony Romo as CBS’s No 1 analyst

With the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback on leave after his arrest in July, CBS brought a dependable presence into the booth with Jim Nantz

If you were looking for insight from the CBS team broadcasting Minnesota’s 39-22 comeback win over Green Bay on Sunday afternoon, you were rewarded even before the first snap.

Asked by his play-by-play partner, Jim Nantz, what he was focusing on with new Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray, JJ Watt told viewers that Murray was playing against his former head coach Jonathan Gannon. The now-Green Bay defensive coordinator was dismissed from the head coaching job in Arizona at the end of last season.

Published: September 13, 2026, 5:33 pm

The drought abides: US men still without a major since 2003 despite Shelton’s heroics

Alexander Zverev was simply too good for the home hope at the US Open on Sunday. Andy Roddick’s record may stand for some time to come

On a Sunday afternoon set up for Ben Shelton to play national hero, the US Open final debutant suffered a four-set defeat to Alexander Zverev, a result that deflated the partisans at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The match compounded Shelton’s miserable head-to-head record against the German, who claimed a second career grand slam title without having to face final bosses Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz. The defeat also extended a long drought – the last win by an American man at a grand slam was Andy Roddick at the 2003 US Open, when Shelton was still a month off his first birthday.

After the final, Shelton wore a hangdog expression as he thanked his team and the capacity crowd in New York, tucking the silver runner-up tray under his arm as if shunted off to high school detention. “Disappointed with how today went,” he said in his press conference afterward. “Excited with the progress that I feel that I’ve made. But, yeah, this one stings 100%.”

Published: September 14, 2026, 6:12 am

Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action

Controversy rules the Manchester derby, Coventry are dunked on and Tottenham still can’t score a goal

The 199th Manchester derby was defined by two refereeing decisions: Phil Foden’s first-half red card for kicking out at Bruno Fernandes, and the intervention by the video assistant referee to award Erling Haaland’s winning goal despite Enzo Fernández appearing to interfere with play from an offside position. In both cases, a healthy dose of common sense might have led to a different outcome and Pro Ref admitted that Haaland’s goal should not have stood. Still, it is tough to argue that the final result was harsh on United. Foden’s dismissal gave the hosts a huge opportunity they failed to take, their best chance falling to Bryan Mbeumo in stoppage time. Michael Carrick began his reign with a 2-0 home derby win against 11 men in January, so this felt like a backward step for the manager, unable to find a way to control the game. Carrick also bemoaned City’s two days of extra rest after Champions League games, but chose to keep Fernandes and others on for 90 minutes in the 4-0 stroll past Sabah. United’s next two league games are away at Fulham and at home to Spurs. Carrick will need to be smarter to stop an early-season wobble becoming something more serious. Niall McVeigh

Match report: Manchester United 0-1 Manchester City

Match report: Coventry 0-5 Brighton

Match report: Sunderland 0-2 Arsenal

Published: September 14, 2026, 12:00 am

USA’s Solheim Cup inquest begins amid early celebrations and stats complaints

• Losing captain frustrated by lack of in-play statistics

• Stanford offers warning to Ryder Cup leader Jim Furyk

The latest inquest into failure by an American team on European soil involves slow greens, the perception of a premature celebration and a curious absence of statistical backup. Angela Stanford, whose Solheim Cup team were defeated by Europe in the Netherlands on Sunday, warned Jim Furyk’s Ryder Cup contingent to take note.

Stanford used the numbers-based evidence of Justin Ray to assist with decision-making and Furyk will do likewise at Adare Manor next year. In the aftermath of the 15-13 defeat and assessing Ray’s input, Stanford clearly had an underlying gripe. “I’m wondering how honest to be,” she said.

Published: September 14, 2026, 7:15 am

‘An error of judgement’: Pro Ref admits mistake in awarding Haaland’s derby winner

• Officiating body announces it will review the incident

• Unhappy Carrick says error was ‘as obvious as it gets’

Pro Ref admitted Erling Haaland’s winner in Sunday’s Manchester derby should not have been allowed after the video assistant referee ruled Enzo Fernández was not interfering with play in the build-up. The elite officiating body will review the decision and has contacted Manchester United.

Haaland’s 60th minute goal for Manchester City at Old Trafford was initially ruled offside before the VAR’s intervention. It came after Josko Gvardiol’s cross hit Patrick Dorgu’s boot, passed Fernández and the United defender Lisandro Martínez, and was finished by the City No 9. VAR decided Fernández was not interfering despite Martínez marking the midfielder.

Published: September 13, 2026, 2:31 pm

PSG have finally won a game in Ligue 1 – but they were far from convincing

Ferran Torres has been brilliant for his new club with most of his new teammates floundering for form

By Get French Football News

It was just a flicker. Ferran Torres picks the ball up and passes it to João Neves. The Portugal midfielder plays it into Ousmane Dembélé, who has lured in Raphaël Le Guen and eliminates him with a mesmeric first-time back-heel into the path of Torres.

The Brest defence are just cones in a training drill, mere extras in this work of art as the Spaniard glides back into the scene to pass the ball into Egil Selvik’s bottom-left corner from 25 yards; it happened in slow motion, but was too quick for the Norwegian goalkeeper to react.

Published: September 14, 2026, 4:35 am

Gulf states postpone strait of Hormuz talks with Iran as Yemen conflict intensifies

Impasse comes amid growing Saudi anger with Tehran over Houthi advances and strikes on airbase and pipeline

• Oil prices rise after drone attacks shut down Saudi Arabia’s east-west pipeline

Gulf states have postponed a critical meeting with Iran on the future of the strait of Hormuz owing to a lack of Arab consensus and growing Saudi Arabian anger with Tehran for helping the Houthis loosen Riyadh’s grip in Yemen.

The stalemate over the vital waterway came as Houthi rebels launched a fresh barrage of missile and drone attacks on Saudi military targets. A Houthi military spokesperson claimed its forces had attacked the King Khalid airbase in Khamis Mushait, hitting fighter-jet hangars, radar systems, runways and landing strips, ammunition depots and additional targets.

Published: September 14, 2026, 5:22 am

UK ministers urged to act after US flies out diplomat accused of possessing indecent images of children

US officials reportedly raided envoy’s London home and took him to American airbase without warning Met police

• UK politics live – latest updates

British ministers face calls to act after US authorities secretly flew out of the UK a diplomat accused of possessing indecent images of children.

US officials reportedly raided the diplomat’s London flat in August before taking him to an American airbase and flying him out of the country, without warning the Metropolitan police.

Published: September 14, 2026, 2:06 am

Scientists find nine new sponge species in glimpse of Alaska’s deep-sea diversity

But their habitat is threatened by bottom trawling in the region and Trump’s plan to expand seafloor mining

Scientists have discovered nine new deep-sea sponge species off Alaska, offering new insights into the region’s largely unexplored marine biodiversity.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) announced the discovery on Thursday, saying the species were found in the Gulf of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. The findings bring the total number of known sponge species in Alaska to 232.

Published: September 14, 2026, 4:30 am

British man accused of drugging and raping wife over two decades admits 60 offences

Man, who cannot be named to protect anonymity of his victim, admits scores of criminal offences

A man has pleaded guilty to drugging and sexually assaulting his wife over a period of 20 years as he admitted 60 criminal offences.

The man, who cannot be named in order to protect the anonymity of his victim, is in his 60s and before his arrest lived in Stockport, Greater Manchester.

Published: September 14, 2026, 9:32 am

Sweden’s political parties launch coalition talks as both blocs try to secure power

Centre-left bloc led by Social Democrats has narrow lead with 95% of vote counted, but faces internal policy battle

Sweden’s political parties have launched coalition negotiations as the Social Democrats leader, Magdalena Andersson, started the long and difficult process of trying to form a new government.

Full results from Sunday’s election are not expected until after overseas votes are counted on Wednesday, but with 95% of the votes counted, the Social Democrats and the centre-left bloc had a narrow but growing lead of 176 seats to the right-leaning parties’ 173.

Published: September 14, 2026, 9:47 am

Four victims identified in Louisiana stabbing spree after suspect detained

Woman, her daughter, her son and his girlfriend identified as victims in incident that also critically wounded a child

A Louisiana woman, her daughter, her son and his girlfriend have been identified as the four victims killed in a stabbing spree on Saturday that also left a young child critically wounded in the southern part of the state, according to a relative and family advocate.

Verna Mae Verdin, her daughter Letha Verrett, her son Paul Verret, and his girlfriend Krissy Lynn Parfait were stabbed to death at their home in the community of Houma, the relative and advocate, Brandon Thiel, told Louisiana television news station WVUE and said on an online campaign raising funds in part for the victims’ funeral expenses.

Published: September 14, 2026, 8:13 am

Experts quit Lucy Letby’s defence team over ‘scientific credibility’ concerns

Some of the arguments inconsistent with ‘available evidence, science and established physiology’, say pair

Two leading experts have withdrawn from Lucy Letby’s defence team over concerns about the “scientific credibility” of some of its evidence.

The former neonatal nurse is challenging her convictions for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others at the Countess of Chester hospital in north-west England.

Published: September 14, 2026, 7:47 am

Disaster insurance, datacenters, right to repair: meet the midterm candidates running on green policies

Some of the everyday struggles animating voters have a climate link lurking in the background

When Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a law erasing the words “climate change” from state statutes in May 2024 – colloquially known as the “don’t say climate change” law – Democrats were outraged. Just six months later, many liberal politicians began to go quiet on the issue themselves. After Donald Trump won the 2024 election, mentions of the climate crisis started to disappear from Democrats’ rhetoric. As the 2026 midterms approach, that retreat is still shaping how some candidates talk about climate on the campaign trail.

The trend, known as “climate-hushing”, may reflect the limitations of Joe Biden’s climate policies, said Daniel Aldana Cohen, assistant sociology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies climate politics and inequality. Green jobs and housing investments fell short of the climate movement’s desires, consumer incentives disproportionately benefited wealthier households, and Democrats struggled to effectively communicate their accomplishments. The president has since rolled back many Biden-era clean energy incentives and regulations.

Published: September 14, 2026, 4:00 am

‘Tidal wave’ of Pfas being launched to satisfy AI industry, campaigners warn

Big manufacturers planning to produce more of the forever chemicals to meet demand from datacentres

Pfas companies are launching a “tidal wave” of forever chemicals production to meet demand from the AI industry, a campaign organisation has warned.

Despite alarm over the chemicals, which have been linked to cancer, a survey of the 10 biggest manufacturers found most had plans to increase production.

Published: September 13, 2026, 11:00 pm

‘Carbon fever’ threatens hard-won Indigenous rights in Bolivian Amazon

Leaders in Pando region denounce opaque deals over carbon credits as government and companies rush to monetise Amazon rainforest after 2024 ruling

In the village plazas of Pando, a remote northern Amazonian region of Bolivia, the main talk is no longer just about the next harvest. One pressing issue is the “invisible air” being sold to foreigners who regularly visit their communities.

In June 2024, the country’s constitutional court struck down the ban on a funding mechanism linked to carbon markets. Since then, Indigenous leaders of three ethnic groups – the Tacana, Ese Ejja and Cabineño – have complained about companies and foundations that arrive with offers of “climate solutions”, often during the ever more frequent droughts or floods.

Published: September 14, 2026, 4:00 am

Weather tracker: Floods in eastern India and hurricane damage in California

Flooding in West Bengal has led to three deaths, while severe beach erosion has been witnessed in Orange county

Flooding around the city of Malda in the Indian state of West Bengal since Thursday has had a devastating effect. So far, three deaths have been recorded and many areas are still flooded, with numerous villages affected, along with the region of Bhutni. Erosion from the flooding, reported from Khaskol, led to a disruption in river flow which led to a more severe impact in Bhutni. More than 100 boats have been sent out for evacuation.

At East Basudevpur, a 20ft (6-metre) embankment collapsed, reducing the channel from 550ft to under 150ft, which could lead to further flooding unless repaired. This flooding resulted after the Ganges River rose about 75cm above its “extreme danger” level owing to heavy rainfall.

Published: September 14, 2026, 2:28 am

New Charlie Kirk statue vandalized at Turning Point USA headquarters

The 8ft statue, installed in Phoenix last week to mark one year since Kirk’s killing, was found painted red

A newly unveiled statue of the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk was vandalized at the Turning Point USA headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona.

The statue was found with red spray-paint. A nearby poster memorial in front of the statue was vandalized with red paint as well.

Published: September 13, 2026, 1:51 pm

Donald Trump doubles down on support for united Ireland

US president brushes off Andy Burnham’s opposition to referendum and says he will remove Irish whiskey tariff

Donald Trump has reiterated his support for Irish unification and brushed off Andy Burnham’s opposition to a referendum.

“Everybody says that. Then things happen,” the US president said on Sunday of the British prime minister’s response.

Published: September 13, 2026, 2:09 pm

Pennsylvania reports apparent third measles-related death amid outbreak

Jefferson county coroner says 40-year-old woman died on Saturday, while two infants died with disease in August

A coroner in Pennsylvania announced the death of a 40-year-old woman associated with the state’s ongoing measles outbreak. The death appears to mark the third in the US state’s ongoing outbreak.

Two previous deaths in the state were in infant children. In one case, the infant was born with a genetic defect that made her vulnerable to infection. The second infant child was infected with measles, and died of a ruptured spleen.

Published: September 13, 2026, 10:46 am

US schools and police warn about viral ‘Cat in the Hat’ trend after teens’ arrests

Disturbing and AI-generated versions of Dr Seuss character have been used to threaten schools and communities

Schools and law enforcement authorities in the US are issuing warnings against a viral “Cat in the Hat” social media trend in which disturbing or AI-generated versions of the Dr Seuss character are used to threaten students, schools and communities.

The latest warnings come as safety concerns increase and several teenagers have been arrested or charged over posts connected to the trend.

Published: September 13, 2026, 12:15 pm

Oasis announce 2027 tour, including return to Knebworth 30 years after historic concerts

After 2025’s wildly lucrative reunion, the Gallagher brothers will tour the UK, Ireland and US, and revisit the Hertfordshire site of their greatest live triumph

• From the archive: How did the Guardian cover Oasis at Knebworth 1996? Well … we didn’t

Oasis have finally confirmed new tour dates for 2027, including their long-rumoured return to Knebworth for a run of shows 30 years after they played a historic two nights at the Hertfordshire venue in 1996.

“Start the celebrations!”, the band said in a statement. “After a period of reflection, The Most Damaging Pop Cultural Force in Recent British History” – a quote from a Guardian opinion piece about the band – “has declared itself fit for purpose and will once again return to lift the spirits of the people. Come witness the fitness. It shall be a sight to behold.”

Published: September 14, 2026, 8:00 am

Andy Burnham cancels engagements as his father’s death is announced

UK prime minister had been due to speak at the TUC conference in Brighton

Andy Burnham has cancelled his engagements for Monday and Tuesday after his father, Roy, died.

Among other plans, the prime minister had been due to speak to the TUC conference in Brighton on Tuesday.

Published: September 14, 2026, 5:44 am

Nine EU countries further delay EES border checks

Holiday hotspots including France and Greece plead for more time to implement changes in busy airports

• What are the new EU border checks and how will they affect your holiday?

Nine EU countries, including France, are delaying the introduction of fingerprinting for non-EU citizens as they plead for more time to introduce the new border controls at busy airports in the bloc.

The entry-exit system (EES), which was due to come into force in full on 6 September, has been delayed multiple times to avoid visitor congestion around large events, including the Olympics in 2024.

Published: September 14, 2026, 4:57 am

Africa’s richest man aiming to make $23bn from continent’s biggest-ever IPO

Public offering of Aliko Dangote’s Nigerian oil refinery business could swell his net wealth by two-thirds

The fortune of Africa’s richest person could swell by two thirds to nearly $60bn (£44bn) after his refinery in Nigeria listed publicly in the continent’s biggest-ever initial public offering.

If Monday’s flotation of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals on the Nigerian exchange goes to plan, then Aliko Dangote will add a further $23bn (£17bn) to his $35bn net worth.

Published: September 14, 2026, 5:38 am

Love of Your Life review – Margaret Qualley eats, grieves and loves in Amazon’s transporting saga

Toronto film festival: the actor gives one of her best performances to date in a smoothly made globe-trotting drama of a woman’s life after the loss of her husband

There’s a jump scare about 30 minutes into the glossy romantic drama Love of Your Life that’s about as effective as anything you’ll see in a horror movie this year.

The film is focused on the life and loves of Maya (Margaret Qualley), a twentysomething Boston nurse who meet-cutes with the nerdy and idiosyncratic Charlie (Gabriel Basso) during the purchase of a nightstand. We follow the initial giddy rush of their courting as they progress all the way to an impromptu wedding over the course of a few years, marked by Maya’s change in age announced in text. But just as we’re about to process the unsettling introduction of Charlie using Chekhov’s inhaler, a news report interrupts the sunny tone. Spoiler: it’s March 2020.

Published: September 13, 2026, 7:30 pm

‘I never pass up a rewatch’: why Valley Girl is my feelgood movie

The latest in our series of writers explaining their most rewatched comfort films brings us back to 1980s LA

As a teenager growing up in the 1990s, I was deeply obsessed with all things 1980s pop culture. Chalk it up to nostalgia for my Care Bears-filled childhood – or a stubborn adolescent desire to separate myself from the Dave Matthews Band-loving, khaki-wearing kids at my high school. (Mission accomplished: it’s safe to say I was the only person I knew rocking a bandana tied around my pants leg or a Wild Boys-era Duran Duran shirt.)

Back then, I was especially drawn to 1980s teen movies. In my own life, I was having zero luck finding a New Romantic Romeo; instead, I pined after artsy, sensitive boys who didn’t know I existed. But throughout these films, even the most awkward characters managed to find a happy ending, with the ultimate examples being Samantha (Molly Ringwald) in Sixteen Candles landing hunky Jake Ryan or Stacy (Jennifer Jason Leigh) linking up with Rat (Brian Backer) in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Published: September 14, 2026, 2:00 am

In an age of superhero fatigue, Marvel’s best shot is to think small – and outside the box

Sebastian Stan says he pitched Marvel a mid-budget thriller starring his Winter Soldier character. Perhaps the studio should give it – and other modestly scaled vehicles – the green light

Blink a little and you might think we are back in 2019. The latest Spider-Man film, Brand New Day, has just passed $2.4bn at the global box office, to become the third-highest grossing film of all time behind Avatar and Avengers: Endgame. Meanwhile Avengers: Doomsday is reported to have already earned more than $50m in US ticket presales alone, despite the fact that it doesn’t come out until December. Clearly we are in the middle of a superhero renaissance.

And yet it doesn’t really feel like it, largely because it is something of a turnaround for Marvel, after a pretty disappointing 2025 in which all three of the studio’s releases underperformed. Captain America: Brave New World took $415m worldwide, Thunderbolts* managed $382m and even the well-reviewed The Fantastic Four: First Steps stalled at $521m, against a reported $200m budget. These are hardly Madame Web numbers but they do suggest there is still a problem about what to do with all those superheroes who cannot sustain a $300m multiversal extravaganza.

Published: September 14, 2026, 5:46 am

Goody Goody review – intriguing natural childbirth horror lurches into demonic occult blowout

After Samantha Robinson decides a forest cabin in deep winter is the perfect spot to bear her child, it’s going to be a very bad shift for the doula and midwife

Conception, pregnancy and childbirth are defining human experiences, and so remain perennial themes for horror, from Rosemary’s Baby to the Alien franchise to Prevenge. Occupying a no-woman’s-land between life and death, they’re innately anxiety-inducing, perhaps making it harder for film-makers to supply a truly individual take. Debut director Raymond Creamer comes close by initially digging into the interpersonal dynamics around the home-birthing pool of a headstrong mother-to-be, before he defaults into a schlocky creature feature.

Goody (Samantha Robinson) is in the pool, ready for battle, soaking in good vibes beamed at her by husband Jayson (Colby Hollman), his doula sister Candace (Zoe Renee) and their rock, midwife Sarah (Colleen Foy). But shaken by weirdly spaced contractions, Sarah takes Jason aside and admits that she has a bad feeling. It’s not purely premonition: a flashback reveals, in contrast to the new-age love-in around the tub, Goody’s insistence against Sarah’s advice that she give birth in winter at their forest cabin. The midwife fears it will make going to hospital too difficult should anything go wrong – and only agrees to supervise because Goody will probably go ahead solo if she pulls out.

Published: September 14, 2026, 1:00 am

Lenore review – incel’s obsession with online influencer turns into anatomy of dislocated digital-age mindset

Digital-age Australian psychodrama tracks the shut-in mania of dangerously disaffected male fan, but doesn’t get inside his mind

If the parasocial phenomenon is a kind of hell, then Max Wren, protagonist of this Australian digital-age psychodrama, resides in the ninth circle. Self-barricading in a basement room surrounded by screens, working on a documentary about the object of his disaffection (an enigmatic influencer called Lenore), this obsessive shut-in makes Eminem’s Stan look like the Dalai Lama. Touching on subjects including the attention economy, the male gaze, and incel isolation and misogyny, director David Ward feels both Max and Lenore’s pain. But his ungainly debut film doesn’t fully transcend its stage origins to capture the splintered headspace of the terminally online.

Like films about fictional pop stars that feature unconvincing music, it doesn’t help that the quickfire résumé of Lenore’s career only half-conveys her magnetism. A one-time beauty influencer called Veronica Brand, she later graduates to more extreme performance art-type stunts, such as livestreaming her miscarriage; a move that, spliced without her knowledge into a children’s TV broadcast, forced her into hiding. But this performative vulnerability, including hints of her abusive dad, apparently won her legions of OnlyFans-style acolytes. Not just Max, but also his colleague Sam (Sam Macdonald), a brash interloper outraged to find he was nothing special to Lenore and who turns up at Max’s door offering exclusive footage of her.

Published: September 13, 2026, 11:00 pm

Babies review – Anna Kendrick and Seth Rogen embrace childlessness in breezy comedy

Toronto film festival: To be a parent or not to be a parent is the question propelling this often insightful yet largely run-of-the-mill riff on a Judd Apatow movie

It’s a question still casually and routinely asked to couples everywhere regardless of familiarity, one that many fear and some feel actively offended by: are you guys gonna have kids?

Despite living in an age where we’re supposedly more accepting of people who make choices that don’t conform to whatever dusty old standards our parents and their parents had to live by, there’s still an odd regressive judgment attached to those who dare to say no or even maybe. There’s the sad tilt of the head and maybe a “but you’d make such great parents” on top, as if either would make a difference to one of life’s biggest decisions. It’s a question that writer-director Lauren Miller Rogen knows all too well and as the wife of Seth Rogen, it’s one that has an answer that immediately becomes a headline.

Published: September 13, 2026, 3:27 pm

Beck: Ride Lonesome review – stunning end to the heartache trilogy of Sea Change and Morning Phase

(Iliad/Capitol)
On his first album in seven years, Beck keeps the quality control extremely high as he surveys mid-50s malaise in the wake of divorce

The last time Beck released an album it was 2019 and the singer-songwriter found himself in a strange and unenviable position. In some quarters, the arrival of Hyperspace was eagerly anticipated precisely because his personal life was in turmoil. Nine months before its release, his 15-year marriage to actor Marissa Ribisi had ended in divorce, an experience he understandably described as heartbreaking. Unfortunately for him, there exists a pervasive argument that Beck’s greatest work is born out of misery.

His beloved 2002 album Sea Change featured a set of disconsolate acoustic songs written in the wake of a break-up with his long-term girlfriend Leigh Limon that Beck had initially thought were too personal for public consumption. They were certainly very different from the knowing, postmodern approach with which he’d made his name, but no matter: Sea Change went on to become a huge critical and commercial success. It wasn’t entirely clear what prompted the gloomy mood of 2014’s Morning Phase, but it very much seemed to be cut from similar musical and lyrical cloth. Some critics suggested it was the best album of his career; it subsequently won three Grammys, including album of the year. Given the circumstances, there was much pre-release speculation that Hyperspace would be a companion piece.

Published: September 14, 2026, 6:00 am

A great time with Uncle Junior from the Sopranos: best podcasts of the week

Fans of the show will not want to miss this revealing new series with Dominic Chianese and his son. Plus, a political drama that’s as thrilling as a Bourne novel

The Sopranos star Dominic Chianese (95) and his son Dominic Chianese Jr (62) helm this new series – a cosy father-son catchup, and all the better for it. Choice cuts include Chianese Sr’s admission that he thought the show was a spoof at first, playing his first scene as crime boss Junior for laughs. As for “Jimmy” Gandolfini, he was “in the same stratosphere as Al Pacino ... acting with him was so easy because he was so real and so believable”. Hannah J Davies
Widely available, episodes weekly

Published: September 13, 2026, 11:00 pm

End Times Fascism by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor review – the fightback starts here

A sharp analysis of the damage wrought by the reckless super-rich, and progressive toolkit for repairing it

The more power the radical rightwing nationalists of our age accrue, the greater the risk that their destructive brand of politics becomes normalised. We should not, for instance, regard it as normal that the man in charge of one of the world’s largest nuclear arsenals casually promises “a whole civilisation will die tonight”. We should not accept that history’s first trillionaire is allowed to spread racist conspiracy theories to a hitherto unimaginable extent. We should be alarmed that, here in the UK, a party tipped to lead a potential future government is trying to cruise to power in the slipstream of this international movement.

In fact, we shouldn’t just be alarmed by such developments: we should stop them and urgently repair the damage already done. But how? And what is the nature of that damage? This bold, clarifying intervention from Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor provides some of the answers. “End times fascism” is their term for a convergence of interests that can broadly be understood as a response to the climate crisis. Faced with a world coming under unprecedented strain from environmental shocks and an unequal, resource-hungry economic system, today’s reactionaries are effectively saying: bring it on.

Published: September 13, 2026, 11:00 pm

Farewell to Eden by Sebastian Faulks review – conflict and compromise, from a veteran of the genre

A returning British soldier is haunted by his time in Palestine in this panoramic epic set after the second world war

Sebastian Faulks’s latest book focuses on the most irreconcilable geopolitical struggle of our age, the Israel-Palestine conflict. While “the sound of mortar and machine gun, the collision of flesh and metal” are integral to Faulks’s best known works, such as Birdsong, in his 17th novel the military presence is a peacekeeping one. It’s 1946 and infantry officer Philip Deval, who saw action in Normandy, is deployed to the Holy Land to take part in maintaining Britain’s mandate in Palestine. Initially Philip is second in command of a battalion overseeing febrile relationships between Jewish and Arab communities. Britain’s profound failures and manipulation in the region, and the imminence of its disastrous departure from the territory, come under scrutiny.

While able to drum up motivation and cheer for the men in his battalions, privately Philip wrestles with inner melancholy. He is “shrouded” in a “loneliness … that insulates him from the world”. Experiences on the battlefield and other, slowly elucidated tragedies have led to his pessimistic bent. Much of what Philip observes in the Middle East, and his “foreboding” sense of its intractable problems, only confirms his despairing sense of human nature. It also underlines his ambivalence towards notions of divine benevolence.

Published: September 14, 2026, 1:00 am

Emily St John Mandel: ‘When half the electorate disagrees on basic reality, how do you come back from that?’

Her hit novel Station Eleven seemed to predict the pandemic, now the novelist is tackling the future of the US. She talks about chance, world-building and experiencing a ‘tiny bit’ of clairvoyance

When Emily St John Mandel was a child she had a dream that would stay with her for decades. It was a nightmare in which “I was trying to find my dad in a crowd, and there were other people who looked like him but weren’t him”, she says. “It just kind of struck my imagination.”

Forty-ish years later, Mandel’s seventh novel, Exit Party, opens with a gathering in Los Angeles, 2031, where bizarre things happen. Doubles of some guests appear. Someone else disappears altogether. The novel then alternates between two potential future Americas, one riven by the chaos of civil war, the other a surveillance state.

Published: September 13, 2026, 4:00 am

We Are Family: photography from Images Vevey 2026 – picture essay

We visited the idyllic Swiss lakeside town of Vevey for its 10th Biennale of photography. Global head of photography Fiona Shields picks out some of her favourite projects on display

• Discover the 50 artworks on display at the 10th edition of the Biennale Images Vevey, 5-27 September 2026

Every two years, on the shores of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Swiss Alps, the town of Vevey transforms its public spaces and buildings with 50 installations of artistic projects from 21 countries, which are free and open to the public. With such a breathtaking natural setting as its backdrop, the photography displayed at Images Vevey has to strike its own particular note of magnificence to hold the gaze.

Rising six storeys high, Sian Davey’s portrait of the renowned photographer Martin Parr, who died at the end of last year, sets the tone for this year’s festival. Taken in a splendid garden that seems to have flourished straight from Eden, the monumental portrait overlooks the town.

Published: September 13, 2026, 11:00 pm

The Route to Cappyness review – capybara boosterism is an ode to the internet’s favourite rodent

From a cappy-cafe owner in Japan to an escaped capybara in the UK, this homespun film takes the temperature of an international obsession

One of Midlands-based film-maker Sharon Walia’s previous works was The Keepers of the Pigs, proudly described on her production company’s website as “the first ever documentary about guinea pigs”. So it makes zoological sense that her latest film takes on capybaras, guinea pigs’ ridiculously cute semi-aquatic cousins that are indigenous to Latin America, and relatively recently became ubiquitous on social media in memes and short films alike. As glimpsed here, there was even a capybara in the recent Academy Award-winning animated feature Flow, some pro-cappy boosterism that captured the creatures’ chill vibe and snuffly sweetness.

Walia’s celebration of the species stays on script, rejoicing in the animals’ natural geniality, friendliness to other species in their natural habitat, and their compelling, remunerative charm that seems to have bolstered the fortunes of several animal attractions around the world.

Published: September 14, 2026, 3:00 am

Royal Ballet: The McRae/Vassilev Project review – an encounter between two masterful ROH performers

Linbury theatre, London
Directed by Natalie Abrahami and choreographed by Loughlan Prior, this is an evening of many parts that sometimes feels bolted together

It’s an evening of two halves and many, many parts, some that dovetail snugly, others more clunkily bolted together. And perhaps that’s because The McRae/Vassilev Project is just that: a project more than a piece.

Directed by Natalie Abrahami and choreographed by Loughlan Prior, it is essentially an encounter between two masterful performers with long careers at the Royal Opera House, dancer Steven McRae and violinist Vasko Vassilev, entwined with the near mythical figure of another virtuoso artist, Niccolò Paganini.

The first half opens with Vassilev centre stage playing Bach (for some reason); he backs off to cede space for a luxurious pas de deux by McRae and partner Sarah Lamb, all exquisite lines, spins and lifts. From this “front stage” scene, the set switches to a backstage studio, artists McRae, Vassilev, Lamb and pianist Pamela Tan Nicholson entering as if for rehearsal. The rest of this section is a light-touch show-and-tell of McRae and Vassilev’s backstories – one a homespun Australian who happened upon dance as a child, the other a Bulgarian prodigy hothoused within a musical family – illustrated with old photos and videos, supplemented by comments from Lamb and Nicholson, and interspersed with consummate yet seemingly off-the-cuff demonstrations of their skills in music and dance.

The scene is at once charming – personalising the figure of the professional performer – and contrived: even as you warm to the characters you feel the joins in the script (voice acting is not their forte) and the jolts between the attempted naturalism of their conversation and the executed artifices of classical performance.

The second half is a complete change of tack. Everyone returns as devilish Paganinis in tailcoats and cummerbunds, hair dyed dark and tastefully tousled. As well as flourishing a violin bow like a baton, sword or spear, McRae uses his tap dance training in fiendish zapateado and brilliant Cossack spins, sometimes melding his commanding footwork in partnership with Lamb’s airy pointe-work and lean lines. Still, it’s perhaps Vassilev who holds the stage most, simply by putting his body into playing Paganini; the laser focus is spellbinding.

Shame, then, that there are so many distracting effects, from back-projected dancers to billowing smoke and glaring lights, and a busy abstract animation that visualises the musical dynamics. With performers like these, it’s enough for them to just do their thing.

At the Linbury theatre, London, until 19 September.

Published: September 14, 2026, 2:00 am

Onwards and Sideways review – Rhys Ifans and Laura Linney lift solid Parkinson’s drama

Toronto film festival: Shakespeare in Love director John Madden’s feelgood – and bad – comedy-drama is powered by excellent performances and authenticity

So far at this year’s Toronto film festival, I have seen three films involving someone with dementia and two featuring someone who has Aids. It’s not just a sign that the lineup could perhaps benefit from some more light relief but also that certain conditions and illnesses still tend to be covered more often than others on screen.

Last year’s festival saw Scottish hit I Swear bring an unprecedented level of awareness to people who live with Tourette’s and while there’s perhaps less of an obvious edge to John Madden’s more politely framed comedy-drama Onwards and Sideways, it too acts as both narrative movie and potential educational tool. Our knowledge of Parkinson’s is usually restricted to the celebrities who have it, from Muhammad Ali to Michael J Fox to, most recently, Carly Simon, but for many of us, it’s still seen in an abstract way, a handful of symptoms we know about, but so many more that we don’t.

Published: September 13, 2026, 6:41 pm

The one change that worked: I was terrified of the dentist – until I found a very special one

After an agonising experience, I avoided checkups for four years. But a practice that assured a stress-free process for scared patients was transformative

I haven’t always been afraid of the dentist. If you had asked me a decade ago whether sitting in the dentist’s chair filled me with dread or made me break out in a cold sweat, I would have laughed and said no – what is there to be afraid of? It was only in 2021, after I had a filling without being properly numbed, that I understood why people are afraid of dental work. Despite telling him I was in excruciating pain, the dentist carried on with the procedure anyway, and I was left with a newfound and deep-seated fear.

At first, this was easily managed. I simply binned the reminders to book checkups, avoided their calls and carried on with my life. After a year, I told myself I’d see the dentist soon – just not yet. I firmly shoved the problem to the back of my mind.

Published: September 14, 2026, 3:00 am

Pixel 11 Pro Fold review: the foldable with the best triple camera

Big screen folder with slick software and advanced AI is just like a regular Android when closed

Google’s latest folding phone sticks with its tried and tested design of a traditional phone shape when closed and almost square when open, in the face of new competition from Apple’s squat iPhone fold.

The Pixel 11 Pro Fold is Google’s fourth-generation folder and is still one of the only models with a full water and dust resistance rating similar to standard slab phones. It costs from £1,799 (€1,999/$1,899/A$2,799), which is £50 (€100/$100/A$100) more than last year as the pressure of RAMageddon continues to push up prices.

Published: September 13, 2026, 11:00 pm

Am I walking my dog all wrong?

Walking your dog is crucial for its health, but many owners (me included) aren’t doing so properly, experts say

• Your dog is bored. Here are the best tools, toys, and tips in the US to keep them enriched

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

Each week the Filter newsletter cuts through the noise to bring you smart, practical recommendations on how to live better – from what is worth buying to the tools, habits and ideas that actually last.

My family dog, Cocoa, calls the shots.

Published: September 13, 2026, 12:15 pm

My deep fryer lives in a tool polycule. Here’s how to stop buying things your friends already own

The key to happiness isn’t hoarding gadgets – it’s loaning them out and buying fewer things

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

They live under your bed and in your basement, your garage and probably in that weird cabinet above the fridge that requires a stepstool.

Alton Brown calls them unitaskers: the tools and appliances that aspire to do only one thing and do it well. Pasta makers and juicers are the classics, but they exist outside the kitchen, too. Do you really need to own a post-hole digger? Seasonal candle molds?

Published: September 13, 2026, 7:15 am

Not glamorous, but common: how to manage dandruff at home and when to get help

Experts don’t know exactly what causes dandruff, but if you’re seeing light flakes on your scalp, over-the-counter products can help

You spy a scatter of white flakes on your collar. Or you’ve got an itch that won’t quit, no matter how much you wash your hair. Dandruff isn’t glamorous, but it’s common: about half the world’s population has it.

An itchy, flaking scalp is rarely dangerous, but it can be annoying. Here’s what you need to know about what might be causing your flakes, what you can do about it, and when it’s time to get help.

Published: September 13, 2026, 9:00 am

‘But enough about you …’ How to survive in a world of monologuists, interrupters and trauma dumpers

Conversations are supposed to be two-sided – but all too often we come up against someone who’s passionately, exclusively in love with the sound of their own voice. Time to fight back …

When I was in my early teens, I was often invited round to a schoolfriend’s house for dinner. Her family struck me as wildly progressive: they were Danish and indulged in all sorts of “out-there” activities – fondues, candle-making and, most terrifying of all, the talking stick.

Before the meal was served, someone would retrieve the sacred broom handle and it would be passed around the table. You could speak only if you had possession of the stick. Despite it being the most stressful thing ever (it meant being in the spotlight, and then remembering to keep quiet the rest of the time), I now frequently yearn for a more convenient version of that stick.

For example, I met a friend recently who I see infrequently but keep up with via voice notes. No sooner had we sat down than he launched into a long discourse about his new marathon training food plan. He only broke the flow to order an omelette: “Four egg whites, two yolks, is that possible?” (We were in my local greasy spoon, so the request was greeted with mirth.) When we left, 90 minutes later, he finally had the grace to turn to me and ask: “And how are things with you?”

Walking home, I felt a mixture of disappointment and irritation. Had he always been so self-absorbed? So uninterested in anyone else? I couldn’t help wondering if our one-sided virtual updates had played a part in the problem.

There is a name for this type of egocentric behaviour – “conversational narcissism”. Although it was coined by the sociologist Charles Derber in his 1979 book The Pursuit of Attention, the term seems more relevant than ever. “WhatsApp communication and voice notes are really a series of monologues,” says Charlotte Fox Weber, a psychotherapist. “In face-to-face situations, people are forgetting how to pause naturally, to make space to hear and listen. And people are chatting on the phone – an activity that at least requires turn-taking in a defined way – much less often.”

A lot of our communication online can feel weirdly transactional, focused on logistics or niche WhatsApp groups. According to Tamu Thomas, a life coach and author, this has damaged the art of improvised conversation. “People have less capacity for meandering conversations that don’t have a purpose,” she says. “A good dialogue is a back-and-forth between two people discovering new things about each other, even if they have known each other for years. Because there are now so many different channels available to stay in touch, some people are confusing communication with connection.”

Knowledge is power, though. If you can recognise the five types of common conversation hogger, it will be much easier to handle them.

Published: September 13, 2026, 6:00 am

Is it true that … having a hot drink will cool you down?

A warm cup of tea can trigger sweating and lower your body temperature, but only if you’re in an airy space

Could a warm cup of tea really be the key to cooling down in hot weather? Or is that just something caffeine fiends tell themselves when they’re still working through a pot of coffee as the temperature hits 30C?

Prof John Tregoning, the author of Live Forever? A Curious Scientist’s Guide to Wellness, Ageing and Death, says it depends on the circumstances. He points to the work of Australian scientist Prof Ollie Jay, who is a world leader in researching heat and how it balances out in your body.

Published: September 14, 2026, 12:00 am

The pet I’ll never forget: Polly, the golden retriever who saved my husband’s life

We got her as a puppy and she became particularly close to Adam – a blessing when he went into cardiac arrest in the middle of the night

My husband, Adam, and I had always planned to have a big family and that journey began when we got our dog, Polly, five years ago. I’ve loved golden retrievers since I was a child because I grew up with one. We got Polly as a puppy and she was everything we’d hoped for: loving and smart.

She immediately connected with both of us, but became inseparable from Adam. They would go for morning runs together; Polly could always be found wagging her tail by his side. This bond proved to be lifesaving.

Published: September 14, 2026, 3:00 am

Burrata and beyond: a foodie tour of northern Puglia, Italy

It’s the birthplace of the popular cheese, but the Barletta-Andria-Trani province in southern Italy has an array of local delicacies – from olive oil and yellow tomatoes to goat prosciutto

‘I don’t eat mozzarella outside Puglia,” says our friend Savio. “It’s not the same.” Savio is a very opinionated foodie, so I take his words with a pinch of good Puglian sea salt (see below). He was adamant about the superiority of the stretched-curd cheese from his home turf.

Puglia is also the birthplace of ingredient du jour burrata, which originated in Andria, a few miles from Savio’s home town of Barletta. Andria forms one part of the triangular Barletta-Andria-Trani (BAT) province, but despite the cheese connection and Barletta having miles of palm-backed, sandy beaches, it is often passed over for better-known parts of Puglia. So I asked Savio’s company, Unexpected Italy, an app that calls itself the antidote to overtourism, to organise a trip to the area.

Published: September 13, 2026, 11:00 pm

Can you futureproof your career by choosing an AI-resistant degree?

Humans will have to compete with AI-powered virtual employees in the near future. Here are our tips for the last human holdouts

Futureproofing your career with an AI-resistant degree is a tough ask, says Charlie Ball, an expert on graduate employment for Jisc, the UK’s higher education digital, data and technology agency.

“What you’re trying to do is futureproof a 45-year career in a time of rapid technological change – and that’s really quite hard to do. What’s likely is that jobs that hinge a lot on human, face-to-face interaction are unlikely to be replaced.”

Published: September 13, 2026, 10:00 pm

Haitian youths transformed life in an ageing Ohio city. Then Trump made them targets

Until Pierre Damas Bel’s death on 31 August, the story of Haitian adolescents in Springfield was one of triumph

At a pavilion west of downtown Springfield, Ohio, 32 high school students dressed in black T-shirts stand silently at a vigil in the warm fall evening air.

Some are holding signs depicting the number 11, as worn on the soccer field by Pierre Damas Bel, the 20-year-old Haitian student and athlete who died in an apparent suicide on 31 August. Other students hold signs that read “live like Pierre” and “Pierre was selfless”.

Published: September 14, 2026, 5:00 am

A spoonful of sugar: how South Africa’s weigh-and-pay shops are tackling ‘poverty tax’ head on

Run by a social enterprise, the six shops operate from shipping containers across Johannesburg’s Alexandra township and sell food and household goods by weight in small, affordable amounts

Every morning, on her way to the laundry shop she runs in Johannesburg’s Alexandra township, Tsholofelo Mphela stops at a bright yellow shipping container to buy a few spoonfuls of sugar.

Inside, shelves are lined with large jars of beans, rice and maize meal, and clear boxes filled with breakfast cereal and loose teabags. A tap dispenses cooking oil by the millilitre. The cashier weighs Mphela’s purchase before ringing it up for a few rand.

Published: September 13, 2026, 11:00 pm

The end times fascists are plotting their escape from our world. Our mission is clear | Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor

An unholy alliance is working toward an apocalyptic future from which only a chosen few will emerge unscathed. It’s becoming clear how we stop them

• Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor: the future according to end times fascism – video

Published: September 13, 2026, 6:00 am

A royal cavalry and beating a drum: photos of the day – Monday

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

Published: September 14, 2026, 6:20 am