Small screen, big investment: TV episodes have become way too long

Episodes of The Bear, Stranger Things and Lena Dunham’s new show Too Much are stretching the limits of television and reducing our enjoyment in the process

The big debate over The Bear – apart from the one about whether it’s still any good or not, which is another matter entirely – regards its genre. Once the darling of the Emmys, The Bear initially called itself a comedy, despite not really having any jokes or levity or fun in it. And this was down to some bad maths about its duration. The Bear was a half-hour show, and sitcoms are half-hour shows, therefore The Bear must be a sitcom.

However, in its fourth season, The Bear was no longer a half-hour show. Of its 10 new episodes, none are less than 30 minutes long. True, one is 31 minutes and three more scrape in under 35 minutes. But one is 38 minutes long, two more stretch on for 40 or more, and one somehow manages to be one hour and 11 minutes long.

Published: July 9, 2025, 5:16 pm

Seeking bulldozer drivers to demolish Gaza: how a genocide is being outsourced | Arwa Mahdawi

The systematic destruction of Gaza is hardly a secret. Now, the IDF is posting Facebook ads for bulldozer operators to help demolish the strip

Omer Bartov is an Israeli-American historian and one of the foremost scholars on genocide in the world. He has spent over 25 years teaching a class on the subject. He deals with atrocities for a living, analyzing some of the very worst things that human beings are capable of. And yet even Bartov has said he can’t bear looking at some of the excruciating images coming out of Gaza any more.

What’s happening, Bartov says, is unprecedented in the 21st century. “I don’t know of any comparable situation. Recent estimates show that about 70% of the structures in Gaza are either completely destroyed or severely damaged,” Bartov says. “The argument that the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] is conducting a war in Gaza is simply cynical, there is no war in Gaza. What the IDF is doing in Gaza is demolishing it. Hundreds of buildings are being bulldozed every week. This is not a secret, but mainstream media coverage has been insufficient.”

Published: July 9, 2025, 4:00 pm

My father, the fake: was anything he told me actually true?

Michael Briggs was a well-known scientist - and a fantasist. When his daughter Joanne began digging into his past for a memoir, new lies kept emerging ...

Growing up in the 1960s, Joanne Briggs knew her father, Michael, wasn’t like other dads. Once a Nasa scientist, now a big pharma research director, he would regale her and her brother with the extraordinary highlights of his working life.

If he was to be believed, he had advised Stanley Kubrick on the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey, smuggled a gun and a microfiche over the Berlin Wall and, most amazingly, conducted an experiment on Mars that led to the discovery of an alien life form. This was in addition to earning a PhD from Cornell University in the US and a prestigious doctor of science award from the University of New Zealand. Quite a leap for the son of a typewriter repair man who grew up in Chadderton, a mill town on the road from Manchester to Oldham, before getting his first degree from the University of Liverpool.

Published: July 9, 2025, 9:00 am

‘I was nervous to ask for your socials’: why missed connection posts are making a comeback

The popular Craigslist tradition is seeing a revival from Reddit and TikTok users, hoping a chance encounter turns into more

Layla Rivera was at work when her boyfriend texted: someone on Reddit was looking for her.

In the comments of a post on the subreddit r/warpedtour, attendees of the punk rock and emo music festival searched for their missed connections – ephemeral friends or hookups they met onsite and would like to see again. Rivera could tell that one message, addressed “to Leila/Layla (the short girl with the red top)”, was almost certainly written by a man she encountered while watching the band Sweet Pill at Warped Tour’s Washington DC stop in June.

Published: July 9, 2025, 11:00 am

The end has no end: The Old Guard 2 and the curse of the cliffhanger ending

The sequel to the Netflix hit leaves viewers hanging with a tease for an unconfirmed sequel, highlighting a problem with the state of Hollywood

• Spoilers ahead

They must think they’re making The Empire Strikes Back – or at least Avengers: Infinity War. That’s the simplest explanation of how a movie like The Old Guard 2, a sequel to a generally well-liked Netflix action movie released in 2020, can be released five years after its predecessor without including the courtesy of an actual ending.

Now, technically speaking, especially by the cliffhanging standards established by Star Wars and Marvel, The Old Guard 2 does have an ending (which will be spoiled in short order for clarity’s sake, so don’t read on if you haven’t seen it and want to experience a more organic disappointment). Andy (Charlize Theron), a centuries-old warrior who has lost and subsequently regained her healing powers of near-immortality, fights her enemy Discord (Uma Thurman) to a draw – which allows Discord to escape with the other members of Andy’s immortal team, so she may steal their healing powers. This seems to set up a final rescue/confrontation for the final 30 minutes of the film. Instead, Andy and her once-estranged bestie Quỳnh (Veronica Ngô) resolve to save their comrades. As they enthusiastically run off to do so, the movie ends.

Published: July 9, 2025, 9:16 am

Futurist Adam Dorr on how robots will take our jobs: ‘We don’t have long to get ready – it’s going to be tumultuous’

Researcher says tech could replace nearly all human labour within 20 years and societies urgently need to prepare

If Adam Dorr is correct, robots and artificial intelligence will dominate the global economy within a generation and put virtually the entire human race out of a job. The social scientist doubles up as a futurist and has a stark vision of the scale, speed and unstoppability of a technological transformation that he says will replace virtually all human labour within 20 years.

Dorr heads a team of researchers who have studied patterns of technological change over millennia and concluded that the current wave will not just convulse but obliterate the labour market by 2045. What cars did to horses and carts, and electricity to gas lamps, and digital cameras to Kodak, are templates for the coming shock, he says. “Technology has a new target in its crosshairs – and that’s us. That’s our labour.”

Published: July 9, 2025, 4:00 am

Trump announces 50% tariff on Brazil, citing what he claims is a ‘witch-hunt’ against Bolsonaro – live updates

US president slaps tariff on Brazil and complains about treatment of Brazil’s former president, who is facing trial over an alleged coup attempt

• Trump targets Brunei, Libya and Moldova with latest threat of US tariffs

• Trump says Bolsonaro ‘not guilty of anything’ amid Brazil coup trial

The US justice department has sued California over state policies allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ school sports, alleging that allowing them to do so violates federal anti-discrimination laws.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, claims that California’s policies violate Title IX, which affords legal protection against sex discrimination.

Our Fed Rate is AT LEAST 3 Points too high. “Too Late” is costing the U.S. 360 Billion Dollars a Point, PER YEAR, in refinancing costs. No Inflation, COMPANIES POURING INTO AMERICA. “The hottest Country in the World!” LOWER THE RATE!!!

ANYBODY BUT “TOO LATE.”

In effect, we went on hold when we saw the size of the tariffs and essentially all inflation forecasts for the United States went up materially as a consequence of the tariffs.

Anybody would be better than Jay Powell. He’s costing us a fortune because he keeps the rate way up.

Published: July 9, 2025, 11:39 pm

US supreme court blocks Florida from enforcing anti-immigration law

Judge finds Republican-crafted law probably unconstitutional for encroaching on federal authority

The US supreme court maintained on Wednesday a judicial block on a Republican-crafted Florida law that makes it a crime for undocumented immigrants in the United States to enter the state.

The justices denied a request by state officials to lift an order by the Florida-based US district judge Kathleen Williams that barred them from carrying out arrests and prosecutions under the law while a legal challenge plays out in lower courts. Williams ruled that Florida’s law conflicted with the federal government’s authority over immigration policy.

Published: July 9, 2025, 9:22 pm

DoJ subpoenas clinics and doctors who offer gender-affirming care to minors

It was not immediately clear to whom the requests were sent and the kind of information that was requested

The US Department of Justice said on Wednesday it had sent more than 20 subpoenas to clinics and doctors who offer gender-affirming care to minors.

It was not immediately clear to whom the requests were sent and the kind of information that was requested.

Published: July 9, 2025, 10:03 pm

US issues sanctions against UN official investigating abuses in Gaza

Trump administration targets Francesca Albanese, a special rapporteur, in latest action against critics of Israel’s war

The Trump administration announced on Wednesday it was issuing sanctions against an independent official tasked with investigating human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, the latest effort by the United States to punish critics of Israel’s 21-month war in Gaza.

The state department’s decision to sanction Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, comes after a recent US pressure campaign to force the international body to remove her from her post failed.

Published: July 9, 2025, 10:09 pm

Linda Yaccarino stepping down as CEO of Elon Musk’s X

Yaccarino announces she is leaving company after two years as chief executive officer

The CEO of X, Elon Musk’s social network, announced on Wednesday she would resign.

“After two incredible years, I’ve decided to step down as CEO of ,” Linda Yaccarino wrote.

Published: July 9, 2025, 2:56 pm

Texas flooding death toll climbs to 119 as search for more people continues

Amid cleanup efforts, residents and news outlets question the government’s pre-flooding alarm and warning systems

• Among the Texas flood victims: campers, staff, grandparents and teachers

The number of people who have died from the flooding in Texas continues to rise, with at least 119 dead throughout the state, officials said on Wednesday morning.

Search crews continue to look for people, as residents and news organizations question the government’s alarm and warning systems.

Published: July 9, 2025, 6:15 pm

Zelenskyy to replace Ukraine’s envoy to US in diplomatic shuffle

Oksana Markarova will be recalled from Washington in move designed to strengthen ties with Trump team

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is replacing Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, who has been heavily criticised by leading Republicans, as part a diplomatic reshuffle designed to strengthen ties with the Trump administration.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, confirmed on Wednesday that Oksana Markarova will be recalled from Washington after four years in the job. He described her as “extremely effective, charismatic and one of our most successful ambassadors”.

Published: July 9, 2025, 4:44 pm

Discovery of ancient riverbeds suggests Mars once wetter than thought

Scientists spot traces of 10,000 miles of rivers in area where many believed ‘there wasn’t any evidence for water’

Thousands of miles of ancient riverbeds have been discovered in the heavily cratered southern highlands of Mars, suggesting the red planet was once a far wetter world than scientists thought.

Researchers spotted geological traces of nearly 10,000 miles (16,000km) of ancient watercourses, believed to be more than 3bn years old, in high resolution images of the rugged landscape captured by Mars orbiters.

Published: July 9, 2025, 11:05 pm

Landmark ruling finds Russia shot down MH17 with 38 Australians on board

Europe’s top human rights court finds Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down by Russia in July 2014

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Europe’s top human rights court delivered damning judgments Wednesday against Russia in four cases brought by Kyiv and the Netherlands, finding Moscow shot down flight MH17, killing all passengers, including 38 Australians.

Judges at the European court of human rights ruled that Russia was responsible for widespread violations of international law, from shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014 to the murder, torture, rape, destruction of civilian infrastructure and kidnapping of Ukrainian children after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of 2022.

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Published: July 9, 2025, 11:00 pm

Trump sues California over transgender athletes in girls’ school sports

Justice department says state policy violates Title IX, which offers legal protection against sex discrimination

The Trump administration has sued California over its policies allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ school sports, alleging that their participation violates federal anti-discrimination laws.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, claims that California’s policies violate Title IX, which affords legal protection against sex discrimination.

Published: July 9, 2025, 8:33 pm

US agriculture secretary says Medicaid recipients can replace deported farm workers

Brooke Rollins also claimed automation can replace the immigrant labor force despite repeated evidence of failure

The US agriculture secretary has suggested that increased automation and forcing Medicaid recipients to work could replace the migrant farm workers being swept up in Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, despite years of evidence and policy failures that those kinds of measures are not substitutes for the immigrant labor force underpinning American agriculture.

Speaking at a news conference with Republican governors on Tuesday, Brooke Rollins said the administration would rely on “automation, also some reform within the current governing structure”, and pointed to “34 million able-bodied adults in our Medicaid program” as potential workers.

Published: July 9, 2025, 4:07 pm

Kennedy touts ultra-processed meals he once called ‘poison’

Health secretary backs company criticized for selling junk-laden meals to Medicaid patients on ‘Make America healthy again’ tour

Robert F Kennedy Jr, promoted a company whose meals contain ultra-processed ingredients – which he has repeatedly railed against – on his “Make America healthy again” tour.

The US health secretary appeared at an enormous food plant in Oklahoma for a company called Mom’s Meals, which makes 1.5m “medically tailored” meals each week and ships them all over the country.

Published: July 9, 2025, 2:04 pm

South Sudan says eight deportees from the US are under government care

Deportees include two people from Myanmar, two from Cuba, and one each from Vietnam, Laos and Mexico

War-torn South Sudan has said it is holding a group of eight men controversially deported from the United States.

Only one of them is from South Sudan. The rest comprise two people from Myanmar, two from Cuba, and one each from Vietnam, Laos and Mexico.

Published: July 9, 2025, 1:57 pm

Undocumented builders face unchecked exploitation amid Trump raids: ‘It’s more work, less pay’

In a new series on undocumented workers, construction laborers talk about how fear is fueling wage theft and workplace abuse

As the Trump administration ramps up its crackdown on immigration, undocumented workers in the construction industry claim raids and arrests have emboldened some contractors to cut pay and increase hours.

Rogelio, a tile setter, works for various contractors in the the Tucson, Arizona, region. He is undocumented, and did not provide his full name.

Published: July 9, 2025, 11:00 am

Has the Trump-Putin bromance finally run its course?

US president appears to have run out of patience with his Russian counterpart – but how that transmits into practical support for Kyiv remains to be seen

• Europe live – latest updates

“I’m not happy with Putin. I can tell you that much right now,” Trump said, expressing his frustration with the Russian leader over the war in Ukraine. “We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin … He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”

It may not have been Churchillian in oratorical flourish, and with Trump everything is capable of being reversed in hours, but possibly, just possibly, the rupture between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump has happened. If so it is a transformatory moment, and a vindication for both Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he arrives in Rome for the annual Ukraine reconstruction conference and for those others, notably the British and the French governments, who have patiently helped the scales to fall from Trump’s eyes about Putin’s true intentions. At long last and after many false starts, the US president seems to have accepted he is unpersuadable on ending the war.

Published: July 9, 2025, 1:00 pm

Miami city officials cancelled an election. Outraged voters call it a power grab

Commissioners for the city of Miami rewrote their election laws to push the off-year 2025 local races to 2026 without input from voters. The decision has sparked outrage

Candidates for local office in Miami have been prepping mailers, gathering volunteers, raising money and hitting the street for the last year, with voters expecting to see a robust campaign to replace the city’s term-limited, scandal-chased mayor.

Last week, Miami’s city commission told those voters they’ll have to wait an extra year. In a 3-2 vote, the commission changed the city’s election bylaws to push the municipal races back to 2026.

Published: July 9, 2025, 11:00 am

My Dad just died … again! A close inspection of TV’s most shocking plot-holes

A character just got bumped off for the second time in And Just Like That – but it’s far from the first show to mess up in this way. Just look at Friends!

Now in its third season, it’s safe to say that HBO’s Sex and the City revival And Just Like That has struggled to capture the zeitgeist in the same way as its mother series. But that all changes now because, in its most recent episode, shrugged off its tired old premise to become something new. Now it is nothing less than a show about the miracle of human reanimation.

The most recent episode was entitled Silent Mode. In it, Nicole Ari Parker’s character Lisa learned that her 90-year-old father had died. As she prepared to deliver a moving eulogy, sharp-eyed And Just Like That loyalists were all grabbed by the same sudden thought: wait, hadn’t he already died once before?

Published: July 9, 2025, 1:02 pm

Fibremaxxing: could TikTok’s latest wellness trend actually make sense?

Beans, pulses, starchy foods and seeds are having a moment on social media. And, for once, the health benefits suggest they deserve it

Name: Fibremaxxing.

Age: Brand new.

Published: July 9, 2025, 4:01 pm

People in the US: have you had any issues with canceling a subscription?

We would like to hear from people in the US who have had difficulties when trying to cancel a subscription

A federal rule designed to make canceling subscriptions as easy as signing up for them has been struck down by a US federal appeals court just days before it was scheduled to take effect.

With this in mind, we want to hear from people about any difficulties they may have experienced when trying to cancel subscriptions such as from phone companies or gyms. What type of subscription was it and when did it happen?

Published: July 9, 2025, 3:47 pm

At US summer camps, kids get a glimpse of their future. That’s what made the horror in Texas so visceral | Emma Brockes

Camps are a rite of passage for American parents and children. That’s why the tragedy at Camp Mystic was intimately imaginable

Among the many dreams that the US offers its citizens, there’s this: that the American child, around the age of eight, will go to sleep-away camp a few hours from home and begin one of the key formative experiences of their life. They will return every summer. They will learn independence. They will form bonds with people who will one day godparent their children. As an adult, a friend of mine – no kidding – returned to the hallowed ground in Pennsylvania where her summer camp once stood, bought a piece of land and built a house there. Whenever we visited, she’d point out the ruins of the old dining hall down by the lake and get a haunted look on her face.

I mention this because, among the many devastated reactions to the flash floods in Texas last week, there is one that is particular, and particularly acute, to millions of Americans: a gut-level blow of unfathomable loss striking at an experience many consider to be sacred.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

Published: July 9, 2025, 2:15 pm

Ice is about to become the biggest police force in the US | Judith Levine

Trump’s budget bill is creating a colossus with more resources than many national militaries

On Thursday, congressional Republicans passed Trump’s 1,000-page budget, and the president signed it on Saturday. The rich will get obscenely richer. The poor will be hungrier and sicker, work more precarious, and the planet unrelentingly hotter. The symmetry is elegant: cuts to healthcare and food programs average about $120bn each year over the next decade, while the tax cuts will save households earning more than $500,000 about $120bn a year.

Trump got what he wanted. But enriching himself and his wealthy friends at the expense of everyone else has long been his life purpose. It was not until he became president, with the Heritage Foundation’s wonks, the deportation czar Stephen Miller, and six loyal supreme courtiers behind him, that he could reshape the US in his own amoral, racist, violence-intoxicated image. In fact, the latter goal may be dearer to him than the former.

Published: July 9, 2025, 1:00 pm

Why has Latin American shifted to the right? | Ernesto Samper Pizano

A market-centered model and growing inequality led to rightwing ascendance. This moment calls for a new regional solidarity

The second world war ended with an agreement of coexistence that included the creation of the UN multilateral system and a development model that combined the state, the market and democracy as an arena for political dispute. In Latin America, this was reflected in the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac) model, which promoted protectionism and addressed social issues through fiscal targeting.

But in the last quarter of the 20th century, the same postwar organizations imposed a new, market-centered model. Value was replaced by price, trade liberalization was prioritized and social issues were subordinated to the laws of the market. The concentration of capital and the delegitimization of democracy broke the previous consensus. Although progressive governments emerged, they were unable to contain the rise of the new autocratic right, supported by de facto powers such as the media, the church, the military and the technocracy. The crisis of representation led political parties to abandon their bases, leaving room for “anti-politicians” who found a platform in mainstream media.

Ernesto Samper Pizano was president of Colombia from 1994 to 1998

Published: July 9, 2025, 11:00 am

I’ve started strutting like Liam Gallagher – and the power is great indeed | Adrian Chiles

I happened to be in Cardiff during the Oasis gigs. Before I knew it, my legs developed a mind of their own, my shoulders got involved and my jaw was chewing

By the time I got into Cardiff Central just before 8am on Friday, the early birds of the Oasis flock were already arriving. With a full 12 hours to go until showtime, this wasn’t a bad effort. Respect. I wasn’t there for the big reunion concert. I’d have liked to have been going, but I couldn’t face the hassle. If a ticket package had been available which transported me to my seat, à la Star Trek, just before the gig started, and then transported me straight to bed when the curtain came down, I would have paid handsomely for it. As it was, I enjoyed bystanding, breathing in the thick air of anticipation, like a kind of passive smoker, detached yet vaguely intoxicated by it all.

I was there to present my radio programme from BBC Wales, just across the way from the station. My studio afforded me a view of the crowds thickening outside. I wanted to scoff at all the blokes of my vintage wearing age-inappropriate bucket hats, and the rampant money-making at the heart of it all. But it was all too moving seeing these people getting reacquainted with their 20-years-ago selves. And as for the Gallagher brothers, hell, money has driven many families apart – so what if in this instance, it’s money that has brought them back together?

Published: July 9, 2025, 4:56 pm

Extreme heat is our future – European cities must adapt | Alexander Hurst

Greenery, shade and swimming spots won’t solve the climate crisis, but they’re becoming ever more critical

Three years ago, in Zurich for the first time, I crossed a bridge over the Limmat River and saw people floating down it in rubber rings on their way home from work, some casually holding beers. The Limmat is so clear that it almost begs you not only to jump in, but to drink it.

Paris’s Canal Saint-Martin has never produced either desire in me – but sweltering in last week’s 38C heat, I wanted to close my eyes, pretend it was the Limmat, and leap. Others weren’t so hesitant; there was a line of people going up one of the footbridges over the canal waiting for their turn to jump, dive, backflip or just belly-flop into the water.

Alexander Hurst is a Guardian Europe columnist

Published: July 9, 2025, 12:00 pm

PSG cruise to Club World Cup final after Ruiz and Dembélé stun Real Madrid

• PSG 4-0 Real Madrid: Ruiz 6 24, Dembélé 9, Ramos 87

• Chelsea to play European champions in Sunday’s final

There was a moment towards the end of Kylian Mbappé’s final season in France when Luis Enrique called him into his office and explained that if they did things his way then Paris Saint-Germain could become an “absolute machine”.

A little over a year later, on the day his first season at Real Madrid came to an end against his former club, the striker saw for himself, up close and painful, just how right his coach had been. The team that went to Munich and put five past Inter, the biggest winning margin in a European Cup final, came to New York and scored four against the game’s greatest aristocrats to take them to the final of the Club World Cup against Chelsea.

Published: July 9, 2025, 9:35 pm

How ‘oppressive’ FSU revenue-sharing deals show continued exploitation of college football players

New financial rules for college sports theoretically give football players newfound compensation, but the terms of the deals don’t account for injury

Revenue sharing is now a feature of college athletics. Thanks to the house settelement signed in May, schools are permitted to spend $20.5m annually across sports, including through expanded scholarships and direct payments (of which it appears football will generally receive approximately 75%). This would seem to mitigate the longstanding problem of exploitation in college football.

However, in a sport still defined by extreme injury, recently disclosed provisions in the new Florida State University (FSU) revenue-sharing contract show that schools appear to simply be finding new ways to extract value from players, as ever at startling personal cost.

Published: July 9, 2025, 11:00 am

Djokovic survives Cobolli onslaught to reach record 14th Wimbledon semi-final

• Serb through to last four after 6-7 (8), 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 win

• Djokovic will face No 1 seed Jannik Sinner in semi-finals

The siren call of a record 25th grand slam title grows ever louder for Novak Djokovic. But he was given a scare by the punchy young Italian Flavio Cobolli, as well as a nasty fall on match point, before coming through a pulsating quarter-final to win 6-7 (8), 6-2, 7-5, 6-4.

Djokovic’s reward is a record 14th Wimbledon semi-final, one ahead of Roger Federer, and a meeting with the world No 1, Jannik Sinner, on Friday. It is a battle he is clearly relishing.

Published: July 9, 2025, 7:25 pm

Horner’s Red Bull exit: the end of an era that will be felt across Formula One grid | Giles Richards

Departure now leaves a question mark about the next chapter of one of the sport’s extraordinary success stories

The removal of Christian Horner from his post as team principal at Red Bull represents both the end of an era in Formula One and, in the short term, the most turbulent period in the team’s history. It carries an import that will be felt right across the sport, a significance in how it played out and what happens next as the team Horner built and led to such enormous success faces an uncertain future.

Horner has been at Red Bull since the team was formed in 2005 from the ashes of Jaguar, a team in no little disarray when Red Bull bought it. Horner was at the helm as it was transformed from an operation of 450 personnel, without so much as a win to their name, to one of 1,500 today that has won eight drivers’ titles and six constructors’ championships, and is one of the most extraordinary success stories in F1 history.

Published: July 9, 2025, 3:58 pm

Tour de France 2025: Evenepoel wins time trial as Pogacar powers into yellow

• Slovenian opens clear gap to rival Jonas Vingegaard

• Evenepoel takes stage win in blistering run around Caen

Tadej Pogacar struck the first blow in his rivalry with Jonas Vingegaard by taking the overall Tour de France lead after finishing second to Remco Evenepoel in the stage five time trial in Caen.

Pogacar’s performance exceeded expectations and will have hit hard on Vingegaard’s Visma‑Lease a Bike team bus, with the double Tour winner now more than a minute behind his Slovenian rival after only five days of racing.

Published: July 9, 2025, 4:13 pm

The most aggressive set-piece team in the world plays in Minnesota

Under the guidance of a former Manchester United assistant, Minnesota United are finding MLS success with a surprising tactic

Not many soccer players are as passionate about dead balls as Anthony Markanich. Then again Minnesota United, under the 33-year-old first-time head coach Eric Ramsay, don’t play soccer like most teams.

“All the guys get really excited about set pieces, especially myself,” Markanich gushed last Friday after scoring a goal off a long throw-in by the center back Michael Boxall for the second time in a week. “I told Boxy I love when he has the ball for throw-ins and stuff – I get so excited about that.”

Published: July 9, 2025, 9:00 am

Giants make history with walk-off inside-the-park home run

Patrick Bailey chugged around the bases to defeat the Phillies – the first time a game has been won that way since 2016

Patrick Bailey’s entrance into the Major League Baseball record books on Tuesday night began with a tight swing that sent a fastball from Phillies reliever Jordan Romano into Triples Alley.

It ended with Bailey chugging his way around third base then getting mobbed at home plate by his teammates after becoming the third catcher in major league history to hit a game-ending, inside-the-park home run.

Published: July 9, 2025, 2:22 pm

‘It would mean a little bit more’: McIlroy returns to Europe with eyes on Open tilt

• Masters winner plays at Scottish Open this weekend

• ‘I would love to win an Open at Portrush, absolutely’

While it is likely that for Rory McIlroy nothing will ever top the euphoria of Augusta National in April, victory at an Open Championship staged in Northern Ireland could at least come close.

McIlroy’s return to Europe for the Scottish Open is notable in itself as his first playing appearance on this continent since claiming the career grand slam, but next week and Royal Portrush looms large.

Published: July 9, 2025, 2:10 pm

‘Shoot them in the leg’: Kenyan president’s anti-protest rhetoric hardens as death toll rises

William Ruto accuses protesters of terrorism and violence two days after 31 people killed in anti-government demonstrations

Kenya’s president, William Ruto, has ordered police to shoot protesters targeting businesses in the legs, in a sharp intensification of his rhetoric days after 31 people were killed in nationwide anti-government demonstrations.

“They shouldn’t kill them but they should shoot their legs so they break and they can go to hospital on their way to court,” Ruto said in the capital, Nairobi.

Published: July 9, 2025, 5:08 pm

Ex-South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol returned to prison over martial law bid

Politician spent 52 days in jail after being charged with insurrection but was released four months ago

Former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol returned to jail on Thursday after a court approved a warrant sought by prosecutors investigating his attempt to impose martial law last year.

The Seoul central district court’s decision bolstered the special counsel investigation into allegations that Yoon’s move in December represented obstruction of justice and abuse of power.

Published: July 9, 2025, 7:59 pm

Robot surgery on humans could be trialled within decade after success on pig organs

AI-trained robot carries out procedures on dead pig organs to remove gall bladders without any human help

Automated surgery could be trialled on humans within a decade, say researchers, after an AI-trained robot armed with tools to cut, clip and grab soft tissue successfully removed pig gall bladders without human help.

The robot surgeons were schooled on video footage of human medics conducting operations using organs taken from dead pigs. In an apparent research breakthrough, eight operations were conducted on pig organs with a 100% success rate by a team led by experts at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in the US.

Published: July 9, 2025, 5:00 pm

Nvidia becomes first company to reach $4tn in market value

Ongoing surge in demand for AI technology fueled stratospheric rise of chipmaker’s value

Chipmaker Nvidia became the first public company in history to scale a $4tn market value on Wednesday as its stock price continues a years-long stratospheric rise.

Shares of the top chip designer rose roughly 2.4% to $164, benefiting from the ongoing surge in demand for artificial intelligence technologies. Nvidia’s chips and associated software are considered world leaders for building artificial intelligence products.

Published: July 9, 2025, 2:22 pm

Canadian couple’s message in a bottle found 13 years later in Irish bay

Facebook post helps track down Anita and Brad, who had been dating for a year at time of message and wed in 2016

In September 2012, a young couple capped a romantic date in Newfoundland, on Canada’s eastern tip, by putting a message in a bottle and dropping it into the Atlantic.

“Anita and Brad’s day trip to Bell Island. Today, we enjoyed dinner, this bottle of wine and each other, at the edge of the island,” it said. It asked whomever might find the message to “please call us”, followed by a scribbled number.

Published: July 9, 2025, 3:30 pm

New York City’s congestion pricing has cut pollution and traffic – but Trump still wants to kill it

With less congestion, less carbon pollution, less accidents, could it be a model for other US cities? Six months in, environmentalists say yes

It has faced threats and lawsuits and even had its death proclaimed by Donald Trump as he startlingly depicted himself as a king in a social media post. But New York City’s congestion charge scheme for cars has now survived its first six months, producing perhaps the fastest ever environmental improvement from any policy in US history.

New York vaulted into a global group of cities – such as London, Singapore and Stockholm – that charge cars for entering their traffic-clogged metropolitan hearts but also ushered in a measure that was unknown to Americans and initially unpopular with commuters, and was confronted by a new Trump administration determined to tear it down.

Published: July 9, 2025, 10:00 am

French warned of high-risk summer for wildfires as Marseille blaze contained

Mayor urges people to exercise utmost caution as weather service says situation around Mediterranean is critical

More than 15,000 residents of Marseille confined to their homes have been allowed out after a wildfire on the outskirts of France’s second city was brought under control, but officials have warned the country faces an exceptionally high-risk summer.

Fanned by gale-force winds and kindled by parched vegetation, several fires have burned swathes of southern France in recent days, including Tuesday’s just north of the port city. The weather service has said the weeks ahead could be critical.

Published: July 9, 2025, 12:07 pm

China’s coal heartland fighting for a greener future

Shanxi produces more coal than India. How will it survive in China’s clean energy future?

Deep in the recesses of an underground cavern, covered in dust and soot, Xu Xiaobo wondered why, having recently graduated with a degree in mechanics, he was on his hands and knees sifting through layers of coal sludge. But there was no time to ponder the ancestral forces that had brought him down into one of his province’s oldest mines. There was coal to dig for.

New to the job, keeping up with colleagues was challenging. As he tried to crawl at speed under a conveyor belt of coal, he landed badly and sprained his wrist. He still can’t rotate it properly.

Published: July 9, 2025, 5:00 am

Teen suspected of setting off fireworks that sparked California wildfire

Boy, 13, arrested after Rancho fire raced through dry brush in Laguna Beach and forced evacuation of about 100 homes

A 13-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of setting off fireworks that sparked a wildfire this week in coastal southern California, forcing the evacuations of about 100 canyon homes, authorities said.

Crews with air support protected residences from the Rancho fire as flames raced through dry brush on Monday afternoon in Laguna Beach. It was held to 4 acres (1.6 hectares) with no damage to structures.

Published: July 9, 2025, 5:27 pm

Sauce Boss the rodeo bull becomes latest US animal escape artist

Bull also known as Twinkle Toes eluded capture for days in Colorado after reportedly escaping through a fence gap

Animals that have proven themselves to be escape artists as of late in the US have included a terrier and nearly four dozen monkeys. And now a rodeo bull reportedly referred to by the names of Sauce Boss and Twinkle Toes can join their ranks after breaking free from his handlers and spending four days at large.

The bull in question was being unloaded in preparation for the Snowmass Village, Colorado, rodeo on 2 July when he somehow got away, local police chief Brian Olson told the state’s Aspen Times. Olson suspected the creature found and forced his way through a gap in the fencing that was being used during the unloading.

Published: July 9, 2025, 10:00 am

Three dead as flash flooding hits mountain town in New Mexico, officials say

Heavy rains triggered flash flooding in Ruidoso that was so intense an entire house was swept downstream

Three people have died in a mountain town in southern New Mexico that is a popular summer retreat after monsoon rains triggered flash flooding that was so intense an entire house was swept downstream, officials said.

A man and two children were swept away Tuesday by flood waters, the village of Ruidoso said in a statement.

Published: July 9, 2025, 11:40 am

‘Texas has the money’: families fight for basic air conditioning in state’s prisons

Fearing heat-related deaths in prisons that push past 100F, many advocate for AC to be installed in five dozen facilities

As scorching temperatures continue across the US during these summer months, families of those in Texas prisons – alongside lawmakers – are advocating for air conditioning to be installed in more than five dozen prisons so those incarcerated don’t sweat to death.

In July and August, temperatures inside these prisons can easily surpass 100F, leaving people like Jonathan to wonder what this year’s hottest months will look like for his wife, who calls him almost every day from the Lane Murray Unit, a women’s prison in Gatesville, Texas.

Published: July 9, 2025, 11:00 am

Accelerated glacial melt and monsoon rains trigger deadly floods in Pakistan

Record temperatures and seasonal downpours raise fears of a repeat of the devastating flooding in 2022

Glaciers across northern Pakistan have been melting at an accelerated pace as a result of record-breaking summer temperatures, leading to deadly flash flooding and landslides.

The floods and heavy monsoon rains have caused devastation across the country this summer, killing at least 72 people and injuring more than 130 since the rains began in late June.

Published: July 9, 2025, 2:06 pm

Caribbean leaders pledge to join forces to fight gang violence and support Haiti

Caricom bloc summit committed to prioritising needs of country in grip of heavily armed gangs

Leaders in the Caribbean have pledged to join forces to tackle crime and violence as they reaffirmed their support for Haiti, which the UN says continues to be “paralysed”by gangs.

Taking the reins as chair of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), a bloc of 15 countries, Andrew Holness, Jamaica’s prime minister, said security in the region would be a “matter of great priority” under his chairmanship.

Published: July 9, 2025, 8:33 pm

EU urged to build stockpiles to prepare for pandemic, natural disaster or invasion

European Commission unveils strategy for storing medicine, generators and raw materials

The EU should develop stockpiles of medicine, generators and raw materials to be better prepared for a military invasion, pandemic or natural disaster, the European Commission has said.

Outlining its first-ever strategy on stockpiling, the EU executive said on Wednesday member states should also consider emergency supplies of water purification products, equipment to repair undersea cables, drones and mobile bridges for use in conflicts.

Published: July 9, 2025, 12:10 pm

Latest Daniel Craig Knives Out movie Wake Up Dead Man will open London film festival

Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin and Mila Kunis also star in third murder mystery featuring Craig as private eye

The latest Knives Out film in the popular sleuthing series starring Daniel Craig as private eye Benoit Blanc will open the 2025 London film festival, it has been announced.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is the third in the series written and directed by Rian Johnson. Like its predecessors, it is inspired by Agatha Christie murder mysteries but in 2023 Johnson said of the film: “The goal is to strike out in a completely new direction tonally and thematically”. While Craig is returning as Blanc, Johnson has assembled a new cast including Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin and Mila Kunis.

Published: July 9, 2025, 12:12 pm

‘It’s my creative outlet’ – Ed Sheeran turns to art in time off from touring

Singer puts his collection of Cosmic Carpark Paintings on sale at £900 each to help his music foundation

• Jonathan Jones review: Ed Sheeran’s Pollock homage has energy but no feeling or truth

He has dominated the past decade of UK music with his ability to craft earworm melodies that can become mass sing-alongs but Ed Sheeran has been swapping the recording booth for the artist’s studio.

The singer, who grew up in a household with two parents who worked in art, is teaming up with Heni, the company that represents Damien Hirst, to sell prints of his Jackson Pollock-esque paintings in order to raise money for his foundation.

Published: July 9, 2025, 6:00 am

Apocalypse in the Tropics review – how Brazilian politics succumbed to rightwing fundamentalism

Petra Costa explains how screeching evangelical Christian leaders have become kingmakers to all politicians in a chilling documentary that shows democracy on the brink

Petra Costa’s documentary tells a grim story about modern Brazil and leaves it up to us to decide if there is a happy ending. It is about the country’s leaders’ addiction to rightwing Christian fundamentalism and US-style prayer breakfasts, a strident political mannerism linked to the fact that evangelical Christians make up an estimated 30% of the population; it is on their behalf that Brazil’s religious right, via its substantial bloc vote in Congress, has now created what amounts to a minority-rule theocracy.

This movement was originally imported after the second world war through colossal enthusiasm for the ministry of Billy Graham, and it was covertly encouraged by the US government. The evangelists and their fellow travellers show a particular enthusiasm for the Book of Revelations, whose apocalyptic rhetoric is used to amplify and justify all manner of conspiracist, xenophobic screeching.

Published: July 9, 2025, 12:00 pm

Pavements review – US indie rockers and their dream director run four ideas at once

Alex Ross Perry’s intriguing documentary about 90s band Pavement offers a kind of cine-quadriptych, whose effect is to obscure clarity

If ever a film-maker and a band were a match in indie heaven it is lo-fi writer-director Alex Ross Perry and 90s band Pavement, from Stockton, California (described here as “the Cleveland of California”); the latter made critically adored albums throughout the 1990s with comparisons to the Fall and Lou Reed, while never signing to a major label. Now Perry has made a film about Pavement and it seems to be his intention here to avoid, strenuously and at all costs, obviousness – and perhaps the most clunkingly obvious thing for any newbie to ask about is the name. Pavement as opposed to Sidewalk because of a Brit affectation? No: just a functional name chosen almost at random and one that sounded right.

Intriguingly, but finally a bit frustratingly, Perry is running four ideas at once, a kind of cine-quadriptych with the plurality signalled by the title. Firstly, it’s a documentary about Pavement’s return to live performance in 2022, complete with milky, blurry analogue video flashbacks to their 90s heyday. Secondly, an account of a touring museum exhibition about the band. Thirdly: a study of a jukebox musical project about Pavement called Slanted! Enchanted! after one of their albums, which had a three-day off-Broadway workshop presentation. And finally, a conventional fictional dramatisation of the band’s history, entitled Range Life, of which we see a few clips, with Joe Keery as lead singer Stephen Malkmus, Nat Wolff as guitarist Scott Kannberg, Fred Hechinger as singer Bob Nastanovich and Jason Schwartzman as Matador Records chief Chris Lombardi. But it isn’t entirely clear whether Range Life really exists as a standalone film, or how to judge or imagine its independent existence. We get a scene showing the actors doing an onstage Q&A after a screening, and it doesn’t look like a fictional spoof.

Published: July 9, 2025, 6:00 am

The Other Way Around review – witty uncoupling comedy is meta breakup movie for grownups

This Spanish marital drama finds Itsaso Arana and Vito Sanz planning a party to mark their separation. But not everyone thinks it’s a good idea

A little bit like Woody Allen, or an episode of Seinfeld minus the stream of gags, this talky Spanish comedy tells the story of a couple planning a break-up party. It follows film director Ale (Itsaso Arana) and her soon to be ex, actor Alex (Vito Sanz), as they call it quits after 14 years together. The decision is mutual, and as reasonable people who still like each other, they think they can split without the pain and heartache. “We’ve separated, but we’re OK!” says Alex, so many times it starts to sound hollow.

So, alongside the breakup admin (deciding who gets to stay in their amazingly cheap rented flat in Madrid and dividing the DVDs), they organise a party to mark their uncoupling. The idea originally comes from Ale’s dad (played by director Jonás Trueba’s father, veteran film-maker Fernando), who has a theory that people should celebrate separations. Her brother says the idea is corny and American. The pair’s friends are shocked: “You’re the perfect couple!” says one with that panicky look people get when a solid-seeming couple splits, like it might be contagious.

Published: July 9, 2025, 8:00 am

Wet Leg: Moisturizer review – Doritos, Davina McCall and dumb fun from British indie’s big breakout band

(Domino)
After winning multiple Grammys and Brits, the Isle of Wight band explore love and sexuality on their second LP – but there’s still room for some barbed put-downs

Moisturizer concludes with a track called U and Me at Home. In it, Rhian Teasdale sings about the pleasures of doing nothing over guitars that bend in and out of tune in the style patented by My Bloody Valentine. Nothing much happens in the song – there’s some discussion about possibly getting a takeaway, and a brief nod to the “happy comatose” effects of weed – but it does feature a few lines that function as a kind of Wet Leg origin story. “Maybe we could start a band as some kind of joke,” sings Teasdale. “Well, that didn’t quite go to plan … now we’ve been stretched across the world”.

You don’t need to be a member of Wet Leg and aware of the circumstances of their formation – apparently the result of a conversation between Teasdale and guitarist Hester Chambers while on a ferris wheel – to feel slightly surprised at their continued success and how hotly anticipated their second album has turned out to be. Their breakthrough debut single Chaise Longue was a great song, but it carried a hint of the left-field novelty hit, the kind of funny-weird track that temporarily ignites indie disco dancefloors and festival audiences before it and its authors recede swiftly into memory: the latest addition to a pantheon that includes Electric Six’s Gay Bar, Liam Lynch’s United States of Whatever, and – one for readers of a certain age – the Sultans of Ping’s Where’s Me Jumper? But that wasn’t what happened at all.

Published: July 9, 2025, 10:42 am

‘The best song to have sex to? Kraftwerk has good beats’: Mel Giedroyc’s honest playlist

The comedian, presenter and podcaster was haunted by Eleanor Rigby and can’t really handle Abba at karaoke, but which 90s dance banger makes her pine for the good old days?

The first song I remember hearing
My mum was a massive Beatles fan. I remember, pretty much every day after school from the age of five, coming home and putting on Eleanor Rigby, because I loved the storytelling. The idea of a face that you keep in a jar by the door haunted me, and “all the lonely people” was just too much.

The first single I bought
I got 2p a week pocket money – it was in the 70s. My older sister and I went halves on Bo Rap [Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen], which cost 30p on seven-inch, from a record shop in Epsom. I’d heard it on Top of the Pops and I must have listened to it seven times a day.

Published: July 9, 2025, 11:40 am

‘We must unite’: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s rallying cry at Nigerian literature festival

Author’s keynote speech calls for preservation of Igbo worldview, culture and traditions amid separatist movement turning increasingly violent

As Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie took to the stage in a hall in the south-eastern Nigerian city of Enugu, dressed in a vibrant burnt orange African-print outfit, her hair styled in an elegant afro, the audience clapped and ululated in appreciation.

“It’s always a homecoming when I return to the south-east,” the novelist, who was born in the city, began. “But it no longer feels like home – the calm, the warmth, the essence seems to have faded,” she added, in an allusion to the violence associated with an armed separatist movement in the region – where 90% of people are from the Igbo ethnic group – and a recent rise in ritual killings.

Published: July 9, 2025, 8:23 am

Havoc by Rebecca Wait review – a Saint Trinian’s tragicomedy

A mysterious illness sweeps through an isolated girls’ boarding school, in a work brimming with horror, humour and hysteria

Even if it wasn’t perched on a cliff on the south coast, the position of St Anne’s, Eastbourne – the decaying girls’ school that is the setting for Rebecca Wait’s gleefully macabre new novel, Havoc – might reasonably be described as precarious. Deeply eccentric, staffed by the barely employable, and permanently teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, St Anne’s hangs on, against all the odds. And then, in 1984, Ida Campbell turns up on the doorstep, in possession of a full scholarship and rather a lot of baggage.

Sixteen years old and already an outcast, Ida is in flight from her hapless mother, her foul-tempered sister, the small community in the Western Isles to which they have been transplanted, and the nameless scandal that has ruined their lives. St Anne’s is to be Ida’s salvation, but it soon dawns on her that the school might not be quite the refuge she had hoped for.

Published: July 9, 2025, 6:00 am

The game developers striving to offer authenticity and inclusion in the face of AI

At the Develop conference in Brighton this week, talk turns from cancelled deals and job cuts to replicating real human experiences and telling stories about diverse characters

For anyone looking to gauge the mood of the UK games industry in 2025, there has been only one place to hang out this week: the bar of the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Brighton. It’s in this building that the annual Develop conference has been bringing together developers, publishers, students and journalists since 2006 – and during the three days of talks, roundtables and keynotes, it’s in the bar that everyone meets and unloads their theories and concerns about the state of the business.

This year, after many months of cuts and closures, the mood has been dour. On Tuesday, I spoke to many coders, artists and studio heads who have had games cancelled, staff axed and deals obliterated; several senior developers predicted that the recent savage cuts to staff numbers and game projects will lead to a gaping black hole in the release schedules of many triple-A publishers in late 2026 and 2027. Grand Theft Auto VI was always going to be huge; now it’s looking like the only game in town.

Published: July 9, 2025, 2:00 pm

The Salt Path author defends memoir against fabrication allegations

Raynor Winn describes enduring ‘hardest days’ and publishes clinic letters saying her husband, Moth, has been treated for CBD/S for many years

Raynor Winn, the author of The Salt Path, has described enduring some of the “hardest days” of her life as she defended her memoir against allegations that parts of it were fabricated.

The bestselling 2018 book, which was adapted into a film starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, tells how she and her husband, Moth, walked the 630-mile trek along the south-west coast path in the UK after losing their home.

Published: July 9, 2025, 7:22 pm

Shelter from the storms: queer sanctuaries – in pictures

In a world still hostile to the LGBTQ+ community, a new exhibition looks into the things that provide solace, from chosen families in Manila to a decrepit Parisian bar

Published: July 9, 2025, 6:00 am

Ed Sheeran’s Pollock homage has energy but no feeling or truth

Abstract art like this gives all abstract art a bad name, just meaningless concoctions that avoid proper scrutiny

One thing is obvious about Ed Sheeran the painter: he doesn’t want to ruin his clothes. He paints in a white protective suit, photos reveal, as if paint was radioactive material or sewage. It’s a telling contrast with a real artist like Jenny Saville, who gets completely covered with paint like a naughty three-year-old, let alone Van Gogh, who ate the stuff.

Sheeran isn’t claiming to be one of those artists – is he? He’s in it for fun and charity. And his paintings have more energy than you’d think from the prissy hazmat suit. He must have moved about a bit, flicking and pouring the fizzy greenish blues, hot orange, lime, mixing them as if making cocktails.

Published: July 9, 2025, 6:00 am

The new rules of small talk: how to nail every conversation, from first dates to weddings, parties and funerals

Dull questions, awkward silences, excruciating gaffes: socialising can be a minefield. Here’s how to avoid disaster – and even enjoy yourself

The cliche about small talk is that everybody hates it. The misapprehension is that it has to be small. In fact, conversational interactions are objectively good. “The person who starts the conversation is in a better mood afterwards; they tend to feel more connected – and not just to the person they’re talking to,” says Gillian Sandstrom, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Sussex. “We all have a fundamental need to feel connected, valued and seen.” Even if small talk were not socially beneficial, society would demand it nonetheless – we are coming in to wedding season and we are all going to need some moves.

However, we have this perception that there are rules, which haven’t really changed since the 50s: keep things light and relevant, avoid sex, religion and politics, stay on safe territory, such as the weather. But anodyne topics tend to be boring and difficult to segue out of.

Published: July 9, 2025, 4:00 am

A moment that changed me: I was told my home was haunted – and it made me a tidier, happier person

I don’t believe in ghosts, but I am also an extreme people pleaser. If my living room was filled with judgmental spirits, it felt disrespectful to remain such a mess

About a year after I moved into my apartment in Los Angeles, I was woken up by three loud knocks on my bedroom door at 3am. I thought there might be an intruder – but I got up, opened the door, and there was nobody there. I went to the front door, thinking I had misheard it, but there was nobody there either. I thought I had imagined it. Then it kept happening about once a week.

I thought it must be my upstairs neighbours, perhaps working a night shift, but after I introduced myself to them to ask about the noise, they assured me they wouldn’t be awake at that hour. I asked the man who looks after our 70s-built apartment block if there were problems with the pipes. He said no. At one point, I started putting my dresser in front of the door, because I was so scared. I couldn’t shake the idea that somebody was getting into my apartment, even though there was no evidence of it. I didn’t tell anyone for ages – because if I had, I would have had to recognise how crazy I sounded.

Published: July 9, 2025, 5:55 am

Sony WH-1000XM6 review: raising the bar for noise-cancelling headphones

Upgraded Bluetooth cans fold up, fit well, have long battery life, sound great and reduce more noise than rivals

Sony’s latest top-of-the-range Bluetooth headphones seek to reclaim the throne for the best noise cancellers money can buy with changes inside and out.

The Sony 1000X series has long featured some of the best noise cancelling you can buy and has been locked in a battle with rival Bose for the top spot.

Published: July 9, 2025, 6:00 am

How to turn broad bean pods into a refreshing summer soup – recipe | Waste not

Turn shelled broad bean pods into a quick, bright green and nourishing soup – an ingenious way to use an otherwise unused byproduct

Broad bean pods are one of the most under-appreciated edible scraps, and I can’t believe I haven’t written about them here since way back in 2018, when I deep-fried them in spices. They’re wonderfully fragrant, and yield the essence of the broad bean’s familiar flavour without having to use the bean itself.

Published: July 9, 2025, 12:00 pm

Demna bows out at Balenciaga with star-studded final show in Paris

At times controversial fashion designer used show as study for ‘La Bourgeoisie’ before move to Gucci in Milan

Kim Kardashian modelling an off-shoulder fake mink coat inspired by Elizabeth Taylor. Nicole Kidman and Kyle MacLachlan nattering on the front row. And an appearance from Mrs Bezos herself.

The stars were always going to align in Paris for Demna’s final show at Balenciaga. And on Wednesday lunchtime, the most controversial and copied designer in modern fashion bowed out after a decade with a show that conformed to the idea of couture as much as it challenged it.

Published: July 9, 2025, 3:43 pm

Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: So long, sequin kaftan! The holiday wardrobe is all about sleek, muted neutrals

The vacation aesthetic is now altogether more low-key. Take a deep breath and put those fringed palazzo pants down

Does your kaftan have a sequin trim? Adorable! Does your holiday tote bag have a shell bag charm? Cute. Does your maxidress have pom-poms dangling from it? Um, OK, I’m sure it’s lovely, but let’s take a moment here, shall we? Are you completely sure you need to coordinate your beach jellies with your candy-striped shorts and cropped top? Look, I’m going to come out and ask the question here. Have our holiday wardrobes got a bit … overexcited?

I don’t want to be a killjoy. But there is a fine line between a cheerful holiday aesthetic and looking as though you bought the entire contents of your suitcase while on a sangria-fuelled shopping spree at Gatwick. Beguiling though all this stuff is, there is a point where tomato-print sundresses and sandals with ric-rac lacing stop looking delightfully Dolce, and start looking a tiny bit overwrought. Take a deep breath and put those fringed palazzo pants down.

Published: July 9, 2025, 1:00 pm

Floods, fires and a T-Rex foot for sale: photos of the day – Wednesday

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

Warning: graphic content

Published: July 9, 2025, 1:05 pm