‘System is rigged’: Democrat Sherrod Brown puts datacenter danger at heart of populist Senate bid

Ohio former senator attacks Republican rival as the ‘face of datacenters’ as he wraps AI concerns into pro-worker message

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Sherrod Brown, the Democratic former senator from Ohio hoping to return to office in November’s midterm elections, has spent the past year traveling across his home state explaining to voters about all the ways the “system is rigged” against them. Recently, he’s been telling people about a trip he took across the north-west Ohio countryside.

“You’re driving on what looks like really good farmland, driving past fields, driving past barns, driving past milking parlors, and you see, all of a sudden, you see these huge cranes and you see these trucks coming,” Brown told a crowd of dozens at a coffee shop in the city of Lima earlier this month.

Published: October 8, 2026, 3:00 am

Sofia Coppola: ‘I’m glad we weren’t kicked out of Tokyo making Lost in Translation’

The director talks about what she learnt from her mother, working with a rookie Tim Burton, and 20 years of her cult classic Marie Antoinette

Hello, I’m Cherry, I’m 14 and an aspiring film-maker. I love how your films capture what it feels like to be a young girl growing up. We hear so much about the famous men in your family, but how have the successful women in your family inspired and influenced you? Your films capture the experience of what it is to be a young girl in a way words often can’t. CherryEmma
That’s nice to hear, thank you. I feel like I got a lot from my mom about being true to yourself, following what you’re interested in and seeing the beauty in your surroundings. My mom always noticed odd details in life, so a lot of my films are made up of those kinds of things.

Your films beautifully capture the isolation of hotel rooms – spaces completely detached from a character’s past or future. If you were forced into that stillness and could choose to preserve only one cherished memory while erasing another for ever, what would they be? Malpractice1
It’s hard to pick a memory, but recently we had a party in Versailles for the anniversary of Marie Antoinette and New Order played. When they started playing Ceremony [from the soundtrack] and the lights went on, I just know that in the future when I have to remember a happy memory, that’s going to be it. Even painful memories are part of making you who you are, and you learn from them, so I can’t think of anything I would erase.

Published: October 8, 2026, 6:16 am

The fashion industry wants women to wear bras again - but is underwire the answer?

From Charli xcx and Rihanna to Victoria’s Secret and Prada catwalks, the fashion industry is keen to move on from the comfy, wire-free bras popularized in lockdown

It’s a trend that might have been expected to be kept under the radar – or at least under a T-shirt. But high fashion’s recent endorsement of underwire bras could not have been more visible.

This fashion month, underwear as outerwear was omnipresent on catwalks, with underwire bras in red and black satin at Prada and black and silver at Tom Ford. At the Matieres Fecales show, Rihanna wore a bra from her own Savage X Fenty range peeking out of her unbuttoned jacket.

Published: October 8, 2026, 6:00 am

An AI boom is sending San Francisco rents through the roof: ‘nowhere left for people to go’

According to city’s rent board, eviction notices are up 44% and tenants are on edge over landlords swooping in over their homes

To say that Maria Zamudio and her team have been busy lately would be a gross understatement.

Every Monday at 9am, the phone lines at the downtown clinic of San Francisco’s Housing Rights Committee start ringing, and they keep ringing until closing at 5 pm. In-person counseling appointments for renters facing eviction or landlord misconduct fill days in advance. After every weekend, the staff of seven sits in their office and sifts through more than 150 voicemails. The rental assistance hotline averages 200 calls a week.

Published: October 8, 2026, 10:04 am

The woman with the mattress: the radical, rage-fuelled history of anti-rape art

A performance piece from 2014 has gone viral in response to an allegation of rape at Cornell University. But with such defiant pieces stretching back hundreds of years, will things ever change?

In September 2014, Emma Sulkowicz began to carry a blue mattress weighing 23kg around her university campus. The mattress was similar to the ones New York’s Columbia University used in its dorm rooms, where Sulkowicz said she had been raped by a fellow student two years earlier. Her performance/endurance artwork constituted her visual art senior thesis, drawing attention to the lack of criminal charges brought against her alleged attacker and his continued presence at the university. As she hauled it across campus, others could choose to assist her with her burden. Many did. She recorded responses to the piece in a diary.

“I could have taken my pillow,” she told the writer Jessica Valenti at the time. “But I want people to see how it weighs down a person to be ignored by the school administration and harassed by police.” Sulkowicz would carry the mattress, she said, for as long as her alleged attacker remained at Columbia. And so she ended up carrying it all the way to graduation where, helped by other women, she took it on stage. The university president refused to shake her hand, turning away from her instead.

Published: October 8, 2026, 7:19 am

Trump’s latest attacks on the press exude desperation | Margaret Sullivan

Trump seems to invent ugly new variations on his press-bashing theme almost every day

When you hate the mainstream press as much as Donald Trump does, nothing gets in the way of the punishment fantasy.

Not court rulings. Not public opinion. Not even the dreadful consequence of less media coverage.

Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture

Published: October 8, 2026, 3:00 am

Thousands turn out to welcome weary USS Lincoln sailors after fraught stretch at sea

Military families admit ‘mixed emotions’ as aircraft carrier finally returns to San Diego after grueling deployment that took severe toll

• USS Lincoln arrives at San Diego base – live updates

By 4am on Thursday, the sky still pitch black, 19-year-old Pvt Grayden Monroe and his mom had arrived to the naval base in San Diego, California, the very first military family members huddled on a set of metal bleachers overlooking the dark water. They were waiting for Monroe’s 21-year-old sister to step off the USS Abraham Lincoln, the embattled aircraft carrier that has been at sea for the better part of a year.

Monroe, a soldier stationed at Fort Campbell, was wearing his army uniform for the occasion. “I hope she’s proud of me,” he said of his sister, “and I hope she knows damn well that I’m just as proud of her.”

Published: October 8, 2026, 1:18 pm

Hurricane Isaias forecast to bring dangerous storm surge, with millions under warnings in US

Residents in areas from the mouth of the Mississippi River to Florida urged to ‘evacuate if told to do so’

Millions of people from Louisiana to Florida are under hurricane warnings on Thursday as Hurricane Isaias heads toward the US Gulf coast, with weather officials warning of dangerous storm surge, hurricane-force winds, heavy rainfall and flooding.

Isaias intensified from a tropical storm into the first hurricane of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season on Wednesday night, and has prompted state of emergency declarations in Florida, Alabama and Georgia, as well as evacuation orders and school closures in several Florida counties as officials urge residents to prepare for its arrival.

Published: October 8, 2026, 1:02 pm

DoJ seeks to charge ex-Trump aide who gave key testimony on January 6 attack

Cassidy Hutchinson told panel she had been told Trump lunged for wheel of SUV to try to join mob at Capitol

Prosecutors in the justice department’s civil rights division are seeking criminal charges against Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top Trump White House aide who gave explosive testimony to the committee that investigated the US attack on the Capitol, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The potential charges involve lying to Congress, the person said.

Published: October 8, 2026, 12:06 pm

Trump promises not to attack Iran before November’s US midterms

Statement outlines pause on protracted war US president has struggled to end after almost eight months

Donald Trump has promised not to attack Iran before November’s US midterm elections, outlining a pause on the protracted war he has struggled to end after almost eight months.

In a Truth Social post on Thursday, the US president said Washington was “having productive discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran”, which he claimed was “in very bad condition, both Economically and Militarily”.

Published: October 8, 2026, 10:56 am

Trump donor accuses ‘grifter’ Kimberly Guilfoyle of $100,000 quid pro quo

Eric Deters says US ambassador to Greece asked him to pay off American Express credit card bill in return for access

A Trump donor accused Kimberly Guilfoyle, the US ambassador to Greece and Trump family ally, of engaging in a “quid pro quo” by asking him to pay off her $100,000 debt in exchange for access to administration officials.

Eric Deters, a former congressional candidate and lawyer, told MS Now on Thursday that Guilfoyle had “ambushed” him last year with an offer to provide access to government officials if he paid her American Express credit card bill, before her US Senate confirmation hearing as ambassador to Greece.

Published: October 8, 2026, 1:10 pm

Billionaires fund California ballot measure to make voters show ID at polls

Various out-of-state conservative donors have given millions of dollars to support California’s Proposition 39

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Billionaires across the US are spending vast sums to support California’s Proposition 39, a measure that would require voters to show identification before casting their ballots.

The measure is being promoted as a way to “[increase] trust and confidence in our elections”, and comes amid a nationwide push by the Trump administration to restrict voting. California Republicans have long sought to advance a voter ID initiative in the state.

Published: October 8, 2026, 11:39 am

Russian attack on bus kills at least 30 people near Ukraine frontline

Zelenskyy says Kremlin deliberately targeted ‘ordinary public transport stop’ in Kramatorsk, with 18 wounded

A Russian missile strike on a bus in the eastern city of Kramatorsk has killed at least 30 people, officials have said, in one of the worst attacks by Moscow on Ukrainian civilians this year.

The regional prosecutor’s office in the Donetsk region said on Thursday the vehicle had been hit at 10am by an aerial bomb. “As of now, the death toll from this morning’s attack has risen to 30. Eighteen people were wounded,” it said, adding that all local public transport had been suspended.

Published: October 8, 2026, 7:00 am

Israel promotes film that mimics NAZA documentary

Embassies post links to hastily produced online film echoing style of real Guardian documentary about mass killings of Gaza civilians

The Israeli government is promoting an online film project that mimics the style of NAZA, the award-winning documentary that details Israel’s mass killings of civilians in Gaza, in an attempt to counter the real film’s findings.

The real documentary, directed by the Oscar-winning film-makers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, and produced by the Guardian, is in cinemas and will be shown in more than 50 countries.

Published: October 8, 2026, 10:52 am

Scientists discover 180,000 giant tortoises on one Seychelles island

Free-roaming Aldabra population far exceeds human population of Seychelles after decades-long recovery programme

A survey of the world’s largest free-roaming giant tortoise population has discovered that the once endangered species is thriving.

A population of Aldabra giant tortoises lives on an island in Seychelles called Aldabra Atoll.

Published: October 8, 2026, 1:20 pm

‘Undistilled cheating’: Missouri voters furious in aftermath of Trump bid to rig electoral maps

State residents express anger at Republicans who allowed chaotic voting maps saga to unfold ahead of the midterms

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Eric Leventhal knows he’s going to vote for a Democrat in Congress when he goes to the polls in Missouri this November – the problem is he has no idea which candidate is going to be on his ballot.

In the state’s August primary, he voted for Fred Wellman, a Democrat running in the state’s second congressional district. But after a long and complicated legal battle sparked by Donald Trump’s desire to gain every advantage in the upcoming midterm contest, the districts have changed for the general election that will determine which party controls Congress. Leventhal said he lived right near the border of the first and second congressional district, so now he’s not sure which one he’s in.

Published: October 8, 2026, 8:10 am

Can Sánchez convince Spanish voters he is their best hope for fairer housing?

Recent death of 87-year-old woman likely to focus attention on crisis in run-up to election at end of November

• Europe live – latest updates

Even before María del Carmen Abascal died on Wednesday night, a mere fortnight after her eviction from the Madrid flat where she had lived for most of her life, the frail 87-year-old woman had become the enduring face of Spain’s housing crisis.

Her plight – and the wider issue it embodied – had led to street demonstrations, the creation of a protest camp in the middle of the Spanish capital, and spurred the socialist-led government to propose emergency measures to facilitate and protect access to housing. When rightwing and far-right parties voted down those measures in congress last week, the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, responded by announcing a snap general election for the end of November.

Published: October 8, 2026, 5:16 am

A lake pilgrimage and a quiet car ride to the beach: last hours of sisters who took own lives in Brighton

Inquest hears details of how three women spent their final days but why they ended their lives may never be known

Jane Adetoro and her younger sisters, Christina and Rebecca Walters, were “the closest sisters and the best friends”, according to their family. Devoted to their father, Joseph, whom they messaged every day, the adult siblings lived quiet lives in the flat they shared in west London and would do everything together.

When they died in May this year, it was no different. Early in the morning of 13 May, the sisters’ bodies were recovered from the sea in Brighton, hours after a taxi had dropped the three women at the beachfront.

Published: October 8, 2026, 10:19 am

Patricia Krenwinkel, former Manson follower, granted parole for third time

The 78-year-old has spent nearly six decades in prison and California governor has overturned last two parole grants

Patricia Krenwinkel, a former Charles Manson follower, was granted parole on Tuesday after nearly six decades in prison for her role in the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders in Los Angeles.

This is the third time that Krenwinkel, 78, has been approved for release by California’s board of parole hearings. After both of her last two parole grants, Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, reversed the parole board’s decisions and denied her freedom, and Krenwinkel’s attorneys are now urging the Democrat to allow this latest ruling to stand.

Published: October 7, 2026, 4:37 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: October 7, 2026, 7:30 am

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

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

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

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

Published: October 7, 2026, 9:16 am

Millionaire tax no more? Rightwing groups lead effort to repeal Washington state law

An initiative on November’s ballot aims to overturn the 9.9% tax on earnings above $1m – who’s winning the fight?

Voters in Washington state will soon decide the fate of the state’s so-called “millionaire tax” – a 9.9% income tax on earnings above $1m that was signed into law in March and is now facing a conservative-backed effort to repeal it.

An initiative on November’s ballot aims to overturn the tax, claiming that the tax represents a slippery slope, and would eventually result in taxes for more than just millionaires. A coalition of advocacy groups and unions opposing the initiative say taxing the state’s 20,000 highest-earning households could raise approximately $3.5bn in necessary annual revenue to fund core priorities like education and healthcare, and expand tax credits and sales tax exemptions.

Published: October 7, 2026, 4:00 am

Matchbox: the Movie review – as pointless as a film based on a toy car could be

John Cena and Jessica Biel collect paychecks in a soulless and synthetic slab of corporate product that hints at what we can expect from the Paramount-Warner merger

After a windy road, this week it finally happened. The day that Hollywood, and many of those who are invested in it, had been dreading, the grimly inevitable disappearance of Warner Bros as it was consumed by what is now known as Paramount. The two once-classic studios will become one – Skydance, the David Ellison-owned company that has infinitely more money than common sense or base-level creativity.

The week has seen many, including the Guardian, speculate about what we may be able to expect, what kind of films the billion-dollar behemoth might now be releasing. Warners after all has created classics such as Casablanca, The Exorcist and 2001: A Space Odyssey while Paramount has been behind The Godfather, Chinatown and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Just imagine what the combined might of these two prestigious, industry-defining studios could achieve with the promise of 30-plus theatrical releases a year, huge amounts of money and considerable manpower at play.

Published: October 8, 2026, 11:23 am

Where to start with: Anne Carson

From essays on sexual jealousy to retellings of classical Greek tragedies, here’s a guide to the Nobel prize winning writer’s catalogue of work

• ‘Delights await!’: Margaret Atwood and other writers on Nobel winner Anne Carson

• Anne Carson wins Nobel prize in literature 2026

Anne Carson, the Canadian poet who has been awarded this year’s Nobel prize in literature, is an exhilarating choice by the committee. The sheer range of writing she has been producing since the mid-1980s is exceptional: poetry, essays, translations, collaborative artwork, and works that find intriguingly under-explored meeting points between scholarship, graphic design and personal rites of passage. But open any of these books and most of all it’s the extraordinary tone that strikes you. Carson sounds like nobody else. All her writing has a kind of high austerity. Almost jaunty in its intellectual cut and thrust, it deals with sometimes painful material without sentiment, sometimes even through literal deletions in the printed text. The result is a compression and intensity that is unputdownable.

***

Fiona Sampson’s WaterTango Against Extinction is forthcoming from Wesleyan University Press.

Published: October 8, 2026, 12:43 pm

A teen tried to navigate Canadian mountains with Claude. His trek ended in an emergency rescue

The incident is the latest to raise questions about the growing reliance on digital maps for wilderness navigation

The route up the Widowmaker Arete, a 1,700-foot wall in British Columbia, is deceptively described as “mostly easy slab climbing”, interspersed with “short steep sections that can include finger cracks, blocky face climbing”. It requires careful planning, and the right equipment.

When 16-year-old Bryce Vincent Gowryluk found himself facing its sheer headwall last week, he had neither. He did, however, ask the AI chatbot Claude for directions.

Published: October 8, 2026, 12:31 pm

Seth Meyers on Trump: ‘Speaks in mangled, incoherent half-sentences that no one can understand’

Late-night hosts discuss Trump’s delusions of power, Iran and the US president’s plan for his Florida golf course

Late-night hosts dug into Donald Trump’s incoherent statements on Iran and his plan to turn his Florida golf course into a Camp David-style retreat.

Published: October 8, 2026, 8:24 am

I’m a personal trainer and this compact dumbbell set is the best additon to my home gym

If you want to step up your strength training at home, snag this compact set at a deal

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In a previous life, if I ever went missing, you could reliably find me at the gym. But since getting these Bowflex SelectTech dumbbells that replaced 15 pairs of weights during the pandemic, I haven’t felt the need to leave my at-home setup.

When I earned my personal training certification in 2021, I was on a quest for a compact set of weights that would fit into my modest space, feel intuitive to use for beginner clients and still challenge veteran fitness buffs. These bells punch well above their weight in helpful specs, offering a solid range of five to 52.5lb in just one package. And as a ubiquitous pair of bells that boast a devoted following, I was surprised to find this generous Prime Day deal for up to 18% off.

Published: October 8, 2026, 7:15 am

As monarch butterflies migrate for the fall, meet the Chicago woman trying to protect them

Claudia Galeno-Sánchez has turned her home into a sanctuary for the insects by planting native milkweed and wildflowers – and sharing her experience

Along the concrete streets of Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, a vividly colored home stands out among the rest.

Over the past few years, Claudia Galeno-Sánchez has transformed her modest family home, which she shares with her husband and two children, into a sanctuary and educational space dedicated to the monarch butterfly.

Galeno-Sánchez painted her home with the help of neighbors, her kids, and the renowned muralist and painter Héctor Duarte.

Published: October 8, 2026, 4:00 am

A death, a plagiarism scandal and a quest for revenge: the bizarre tale of Otto Z

After his mother died, Otto became convinced he’d been wronged by the forensic investigators – and that one of them was a fraud. The truth was even stranger

On a balmy, quiet evening in June 2020, Otto’s elderly mother, Doria, was fading in her Munich apartment. As she lay with her eyes closed, her pale face, framed by her white hair, was calm.

Otto, masked, gloved and draped in a sterile apron, dozed in a chair beside her. Otto, who sometimes goes by the name Rainer, and whose last name is only known as “Z” because of Germany’s strict privacy laws, was a doctor who had cared for his mother for years, ever since she had suffered a stroke and moved in with him. He described the course of that night to me. He woke to the sound of her short breath and tried to sit her upright. Her eyes were shut, and her lips pursed. She stopped breathing. Otto reached for his phone to call for help, but then Doria opened her eyes and stared into his. She smiled, drew one last deep breath, shut her eyes again, and lay still.

Published: October 7, 2026, 9:00 pm

Not since 9/11 has the UK faced such a security crisis – and threat to our liberal principles | Gaby Hinsliff

The combination of Iranian, Russian and Chinese aggression is deeply worrying: just how much more concerned about security should the country be?

The first time the window-rattling roar of a B-1 bomber woke me up this summer, I thought for one crazed second we were under attack. By the second time, I’d learned to recognise the sound of US planes taking off from their base at RAF Fairford for what it was: a reminder that although Britain wants no part in this war with Iran, we cannot quite escape the consequences.

We’ll feel them at the petrol pump, or in the supermarket this autumn, or in this winter’s heating bills. But living under the flight path adds an extra edge to it. The skies finally fell silent last week, but only because the bombers have been hastily summoned home after an alleged terrorist plot to attack Fairford, in which (according to the prime minister) there are “strong indications that Iran played a part”. If Fairford is now a target of war, did that threat disappear when the Americans did? Nobody knows.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

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Published: October 8, 2026, 9:55 am

Ben Jennings on the Gaza ‘ceasefire’ – cartoon

Continue reading...

Published: October 8, 2026, 10:10 am

I’m the attorney general of Washington state. Here’s how we’re protecting the midterm elections | Nick Brown

A coalition of Democratic attorneys general is working to make sure voters across the spectrum have their voices heard

Elections have consequences. So do the Trump administration’s exhaustive efforts to undermine them.

Voters will be confident in their choices, but less certain whose voice will count in the face of myriad intrusions by the executive branch. A coalition of Democratic attorneys general are working to make sure voters across the political spectrum have their say.

Nick Brown is the attorney general of the state of Washington

Published: October 8, 2026, 4:00 am

Can hope save the planet? An endangered parrot that is beating the odds can help us find out | Helen Pilcher

A new global biodiversity report strikes an encouraging note. But we cannot rest on our laurels – and resilience is key

The new Living Planet Report is out. Published every two years, it assesses the health of the natural world and, historically, it’s made for gloomy reading.

Take 2024’s report, which showed global wildlife populations had plummeted by 73% in 50 years and that ecosystems were being pushed toward collapse.

Published: October 8, 2026, 8:05 am

Sam Altman says AI will make ‘bad things’ happen. Exhibit A: needless death | Moustafa Bayoumi

AI is already implicated in violent deaths and nearly started world war three. Those bad things? They only happen to other people

Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, has some words for you about his company and the future of artificial intelligence.

“One of the differences between us and some of the stricter AI safety people is that we believe that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency [to use it],” Altman told Politico’s new technology podcast and newsletter Decoded.

Moustafa Bayoumi is the author of the award-winning books How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America and This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror. He is professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and a Guardian US columnist

Published: October 8, 2026, 3:00 am

The Guardian view on cancers in under-50s: the risks of obesity must be confronted | Editorial

More research into the troubling rise in early onset cancers is needed. But we already know that food is among the culprits

The latest findings about the rise in cancers in people under 50, from the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), are extremely concerning. While a cancer diagnosis is bad news at any time, it is a particular blow for those in younger age groups where most people are in good health. Overlapping trends observed in England, the Netherlands and the US include a troubling rise in the incidence of colorectal (or bowel) cancer. Other diseases that have increased in England include uterine and kidney cancers.

These diseases are still rare in young people: 10 times more adults in their 50s, 60s and 70s are diagnosed than those in their 20s, 30s and 40s. Earlier detection is thought to be one factor behind the rise in younger patients. Diagnosing more cancers sooner is an explicit policy goal in England, where late diagnosis and lower uptake of screening are two reasons for mortality rates that are higher than elsewhere in Europe.

Published: October 8, 2026, 10:50 am

The Guardian view on Ethiopia’s return to conflict: civilian catastrophe and a spiralling regional polycrisis | Editorial

The escalating violence reflects deep domestic rifts – but is fuelled by broader geopolitical power games

When the Nobel peace laureate is announced on Friday, the committee will be hoping that its choice ages better than 2019’s. Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, won the prize for ending the 20-year border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea – signing a peace agreement with President Isaias Afwerki. A year later, their new relationship facilitated a war with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that killed as many as 600,000 people, displaced millions more, led to atrocities by both sides, and pushed Tigrayans into famine.

Both sides bear responsibility for failing to properly implement the deal that ended that conflict in 2022, and the African Union and US did little to ensure that a piece of paper became a durable settlement. Now violence has resurged in northern Ethiopia, and old foes are forming bizarre new pacts. Last month, seven Ethiopian regional groups announced an “Alliance for Survival” to remove the federal government. Mr Abiy’s coalition is held together by his patronage, but so far may be faring better than his rivals, united solely by shared loathing of him and riven by deep disputes. The TPLF, which controls Tigray, has previously battled the Fano militia of Amhara, and their territorial dispute endures. Ethiopia accuses Eritrea – previously accused of atrocities against Tigrayan civilians – of backing the rebel alliance. Despite Asmara’s denials, there are multiple reports of Eritrean troops in Tigray.

Published: October 8, 2026, 10:49 am

With no Pulisic and good results, have the USMNT moved on from their savior complex? | Leander Schaerlaeckens

The US have been defined for so long by the next singular player. This past perfect window shows that era may be over

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In 1990, then-United States men’s national team manager Bob Gansler made a critical and somewhat controversial choice. He left three of the program’s laureled veterans at home and brought a young and little-tested team to the World Cup in Italy, the USA’s first in 40 years.

As Gansler recalled later: “I was thinking not only for ’90, but I was thinking about the 90s.”

Published: October 8, 2026, 8:45 am

Valtteri Bottas reveals lizard-leaping, python-dodging cycling exploits on epic ride

• Cadillac driver rode between Malaysia and Singapore

• Four-day trip helped him acclimatise for Singapore GP

Valtteri Bottas has revealed the details of an incident-packed 418km bike ride including encounters with snakes, being chased by dogs and the eerie atmosphere of riding through the jungle at night as the Cadillac driver cycled between Malaysia and Singapore this week.

The 37-year-old is a keen cyclist and after a suggestion from his girlfriend, the Australian Olympic cyclist Tiffany Cromwell, he decided to take on the challenge of riding from the last round in Sepang near Kuala Lumpur to this weekend’s grand prix on the street circuit in Singapore, under his own steam.

Published: October 8, 2026, 9:08 am

Rays sweep Yankees out of playoffs after ‘crazy’ fan interference downgrades New York home run

• Rays sweep Yankees 3-0 after fan interference call

• Dodgers eliminate Braves to keep three-peat bid alive

• Ramírez leads Guardians past Sox to avoid sweep

Anthony Volpe rounded the bases, touched home plate and then waited out the uncertainty like everyone else.

“Just hoping for the best,” the New York Yankees infielder said. “Crazy.”

Published: October 8, 2026, 4:39 am

Indiana Fever and the Magasphere: a WNBA team’s dangerous path to popularity | Howard Bryant

Teams have always symbolized division within America. And the Fever have come to prominence during a time of dark political intensity

It’s over for now, but no professional sports team spent more time receiving and drawing attention to itself than did the Indiana Fever this season. The Fever has broken, the team eliminated by the defending champion Las Vegas Aces for the second straight season, but Indiana succeeded in being the WNBA’s canary in the coal mine, embodying both the obvious and unintended consequences of rapid growth, while also allowing themselves to be a season-long distraction: part-time professional basketball team, part-time right-wing culture war centerpiece. Less than a decade ago, Atlanta and Minneapolis were praised for their unified political stances. Today, Trumpism has replaced social justice as the defining characteristic of the league – and as the curtain closed on the 2026 WNBA regular season, Indiana stood at its epicenter.

The Fever were the most polarizing team in professional sports, known less for their basketball than their culpability in pulling the league from its old cultural identity as a Black/queer league into its current climate of political divisiveness – a calculated and dangerous path to popularity. This season, there was the basketball of the WNBA, and then there was the Indiana Fever, the league’s Maga-friendly option.

This article originally appeared on Howard Bryant’s Substack. You can subscribe here.

Published: October 8, 2026, 2:00 am

Kentucky State basketball player released after two months in ICE custody

• Senegalese player Aminata Seck freed on $2,500 bond

• Judge finds 26-year-old is not a flight risk or danger

• Seck was detained at Louisville airport in August

A Kentucky State University women’s basketball player from Senegal who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been released after spending two months in custody.

At a hearing on Tuesday, a judge granted Aminata Seck a $2,500 bond, which was posted on Wednesday after ICE did not appeal, according to Hishem Alsalman, managing attorney at Alsalman Law Office.

Published: October 8, 2026, 9:43 am

Inside NBA Europe’s $10bn plan that has football clubs queueing to join

Some of the biggest names in European football will bid for a franchise in ESL-style league, now due to launch in 2028

The launch of NBA Europe will be delayed 12 months until 2028, with a pre-qualifying competition planned for next year to find four temporary members to join the 16-team league’s inaugural season alongside 12 permanent franchises.

The NBA is planning to invest about $10bn (£7.6bn) over 10 years in what sources have described as the sporting world’s biggest-ever startup competition. It is understood to have received multiple offers for the 12 franchises that exceed their targets, with prices expected to range from $500m to more than $1bn for the London franchise.

Published: October 8, 2026, 8:08 am

Maresca believes City players ‘don’t care about the noise’ as Haaland calls for unity

• City travel to Liverpool for first game since guilty verdict

• Manager ‘very calm’ despite storm engulfing club

Enzo Maresca says his players “don’t care about the noise” surrounding Manchester City, while Erling Haaland has called for unity after the club were found guilty of serious breaches of Premier League financial rules.

The manager and players reconvened on Thursday after spending the international break apart when the news of the club’s predicament was made public.

Published: October 8, 2026, 11:29 am

Victor Montagliani eyes re-election at Concacaf that would rule out Fifa presidency run

• Confederation president clarifies his intentions to staff

• Canadian was eyed as potential rival to Gianni Infantino

Victor Montagliani has told Concacaf staff he intends to stand for re-election as the confederation’s presidentnext year, which will rule him out of going up against Gianni Infantino for the top job at Fifa.

The Canadian businessman is understood to have relayed the message to most of the 41 members of Concacaf, the North and Central American and Caribbean confederation.

Published: October 8, 2026, 9:00 am

Reese powers Dream to brink of WNBA finals as Valkyries put Aces on ropes

• Reese scores 23 as Atlanta beat Liberty in overtime

• Dream move within one win of first finals since 2013

• Valkyries take 2-0 lead over defending champion Aces

Angel Reese scored 23 points, Naz Hillmon made the go-ahead layup with 20.8 seconds left in overtime and the Atlanta Dream beat the New York Liberty 101-98 on Wednesday night to take a 2-0 lead in the WNBA semi-finals.

Reese scored six of her team’s 13 points in overtime. She made two free throws with 4.3 seconds left after Sabrina Ionescu overthrew a pass as Atlanta moved within one win of their first WNBA finals appearance since 2013.

Published: October 7, 2026, 7:41 pm

Christa Pike is ‘up and walking’ for first time after failed execution, lawyer says

Recovery marks a dramatic turnaround for Pike, who remains in hospital after a botched execution in Tennessee

Christa Pike is “up and walking” in hospital, her lawyer said, just more than a week after she survived two lethal injections during a botched execution in Tennessee.

The recovery marks a dramatic turnaround after Pike was declared brain dead on Monday, before waking up and beginning to speak on Tuesday. Her ordeal has shocked many in the US and overseas and galvanized critics of the death penalty.

Published: October 8, 2026, 5:32 am

Nicolás Maduro and his wife indicted for alleged torture of US citizens

Ousted Venezuelan president and Cilia Flores have been in jail in New York since early January

The deposed Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted for alleged conspiracy to commit torture, according to Manhattan federal court papers unsealed on Thursday.

The superseding indictment was unsealed shortly before Flores appeared at court in her ongoing push for pretrial release – which was denied by Judge Alvin Hellerstein. Maduro and Flores have been jailed in New York City since early January.

Published: October 8, 2026, 11:04 am

Men accused of shooting Australian surfer brothers and US friend dead in Mexico to learn fate as trial concludes

Martin and Debra Robinson, the brothers’ parents, will address the court before a Mexican judge hands down the verdict

A Mexican judge is expected to hand down his verdict Thursday in the high-profile murder trial of three men accused of killing two Australian surfers and their American friend in 2024.

Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson, aged 30 and 33 respectively, and their friend Carter Rhoad, 30, were on a surfing trip to Mexico’s Pacific coast when they were shot dead in Baja California state in an alleged robbery.

Published: October 8, 2026, 1:40 pm

Anne Carson wins Nobel prize in literature 2026

Most prestigious literature prize goes to Canadian known for genre-crossing works such as Autobiography of Red

• ‘Delights await!’: Margaret Atwood and other writers on Nobel winner Anne Carson

• Where to start with: Anne Carson

The Nobel prize in literature has been awarded to the Canadian poet and essayist Anne Carson, the Swedish Academy has announced.

The academy cited the author’s “bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature”.

Published: October 8, 2026, 7:03 am

Trump says he is considering asking FBI to investigate the death of Nolan Wells

Lawyers for Wells’s family have called for a federal investigation into 18-year-old’s disappearance and death

On Wednesday, Donald Trump said he was considering asking the FBI to investigate the death of Nolan Wells, a Black college freshman who was last seen alive on a 4 July boating trip with friends.

Wells, 18, went missing while on Horn Island, a barrier island off the coast of Mississippi. His body was found on the island two days later. Wells’s cause and manner of death are still undetermined.

Published: October 8, 2026, 8:35 am

Microsoft suspended from applying for green cards for H-1B workers, JD Vance says

Vice-president also says Adobe is barred from visa program that allows high-skilled workers to apply for US residency

Microsoft is suspended from applying for permanent residency for workers employed through a US visa program for high-skilled workers, JD Vance announced on Thursday.

The US vice-president accused the tech company of abusing the H-1B system, which allows those on the visa to work while they apply for and are in the process of obtaining a green card.

Published: October 8, 2026, 11:23 am

Four astronauts return to Earth from ISS after medical relief mission

Crew hurried to International Space Station eight months ago after astronaut fell ill in space

Four astronauts returned to Earth from the International Space Station on Thursday after hurrying there eight months ago to replace an ailing colleague and his crew.

SpaceX brought the US, French and Russian crew back with a splashdown in the Pacific off the coast of Los Angeles.

Published: October 8, 2026, 9:24 am

Top bosses at Goldman Sachs to share bonus pot worth up to $500m

Eye-watering sum, to be split between 20 bankers, is one of the biggest payouts in the bank’s history

Top bosses at Goldman Sachs are in line to share a bonus pot worth up to $500m (£378m) this year, marking one of the biggest payouts in the Wall Street bank’s history.

The eye-watering sum will be shared between 20 bankers, with its chief executive, David Solomon, due to take about $100m (£75.6m) of the reward, which is made up of Goldman Sachs stock.

Published: October 8, 2026, 11:09 am

Florida judge allows lawsuit against Shah of Iran’s alleged ‘chief torturer’ to move forward

Parviz Sabeti denies allegations he led Savak intelligence agency under shah and directed torture of thousands

The alleged “chief torturer” for the deposed Shah of Iran is a step closer to trial for human rights abuses after a Florida federal judge rejected his demand to halt a lawsuit brought by three former political prisoners.

Parviz Sabeti, who was reported last year to have lived in a quiet upscale central Florida community, is accused of being the former head of Savak, the shah’s secret police and intelligence agency. The plaintiffs say they discovered his whereabouts only after a photo of Sabeti at a 2023 protest against the Iranian government was posted on social media by his daughter.

Published: October 8, 2026, 9:00 am

This is one of Norway’s most pristine fjords. So why is it being used as a dumping site for mine waste?

The Norwegian government has given a permit to a mining company to release waste into Førde fjord despite a 17-year battle by campaigners and a supreme court ruling against it

Shortly after the Norwegian stock market closed on 17 June 2026, a few dozen local people from the small west coast town of Vevring crowded around a laptop in a school. Surrounded by children’s drawings and windows looking out over Førde fjord, they listened as news arrived from Oslo. Norway’s supreme court had ruled against its government: a permit to release mining waste directly into the fjord two miles upstream was illegal, the court said.

The moment marked the end of a 17-year fight, one of Norway’s most protracted environmental battles in living memory. In Oslo, Ingvild Fonn Asmervik, the project leader for Naturvernforbundet (Friends of the Earth Norway), compared the joy she felt to giving birth to her child. For Anne-Line Thingnes Førsund, a third-generation fisher living on the banks of the fjord in Vevring and a volunteer for the charity’s local branch, it was more of a relief. Like a mountain lifting off her shoulders, she said.

Published: October 7, 2026, 9:00 pm

Comebacks for wild tigers, tuna and sea turtles prove nature loss can be reversed, scientists say

A landmark report reveals that the world must change the way it produces food to avoid a biodiversity collapse

Conservation comebacks for wild tigers, tuna and green​ sea turtles prove that global nature loss can be reversed, ​scientists have said. ​But a report warns food production must be the next ​“positive tipping point​” if the world is to avert biodiversity collapse.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) analysed nearly 36,000 animal populations and more than 5,000 species, producing the largest ever database of vertebrate wildlife. Scientists found populations had declined by an average of 73% since 1970, showing that “nature continues to be degraded at an alarming scale”, with “no sign of losses slowing”.

Published: October 7, 2026, 4:01 pm

Indonesia accused of ‘gross negligence’ in wildfires lawsuit as haze tests region

NGOs in Indonesian Borneo file class action lawsuit calling for government to better manage annual fires and

The Indonesian government has been accused of “gross negligence” in a class action lawsuit over its handling of wildfires that have cloaked large parts of South-east Asia in a toxic haze, shuttered schools and caused a spike in respiratory illnesses.

The lawsuit, filed by indigenous and civil society groups in the Indonesian part of Borneo, named President Prabowo Subianto and the governor of West Kalimantan among 10 defendants. The case seeks comprehensive recovery and rehabilitation measures that would include covering the healthcare costs of residents.

Published: October 7, 2026, 8:54 pm

Starbucks reportedly exploring Chipotle takeover

Move would reunite chief executive Brian Niccol with chain he led before joining coffee company two years ago

Starbucks has explored a takeover of Chipotle Mexican Grill, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, in a move that ⁠would reunite chief executive Brian Niccol with the burrito chain he led before joining the coffee giant two years ago.

The potential deal comes as restaurant chains wrestle with uncertain demand from inflation-weary ⁠consumers and rising operating costs, prompting ⁠companies to look ​for new avenues of growth while facing pressure to improve profitability.

Published: October 8, 2026, 10:35 am

Could Trump’s plan to suppress voters backfire in the south? – Stateside with Kai and Carter

The biggest question in US politics may be whether Democrats can ever win in the south. In this year’s midterms, Georgia has once again emerged as a bellwether. The state has shifted from deep red to purple for the last several election cycles and remains a frontline state in the battle over voting rights. In a recent Stateside with Kai and Carter live event in collaboration with On Air Presents, hosts Kai Wright and Carter Sherman were joined by Guardian contributing writer Charles Blow and political reporter Shrai Popat for a lively conversation about everything at stake in Georgia – including why Jon Ossoff needs Keisha Lance Bottoms to win the governor’s race if he hopes to run for president in 2028, what Donald Trump might do to intervene in the election, and how any voter suppression moves could backfire in the south.

Published: October 8, 2026, 2:45 am

‘Chaos and cruelty’: the kids trapped in Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign

Children are being detained in record numbers, sometimes alone and where lawyers and family cannot find them

The image of immigration officers arresting five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos – in a blue bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack – in January sparked outrage across the country.

Celebrities from Ms Rachel to Madonna called for the closure of the Dilley immigration processing center, the Texas immigrant camp that held Ramos and many children like him. Lawyers filed complaints about contaminated food and shoddy healthcare, and hundreds of activists protested outside the detention camp. Within months, the government began sending fewer children to Dilley.

Published: October 8, 2026, 3:00 am

US infant defies bleak odds from rare congenital trait: ‘Don’t quit before your child quits’

Wren Michelle Roberts was born with heterotaxy, a syndrome so rare a specialist could only find 15 similar cases

South-eastern Louisiana couple Nick and Savannah Roberts planned to bury their infant daughter the weekend after she was born in September with an exceedingly rare combination of birth defects that her doctors feared was unsurvivable.

But an unforeseen congenital trait in Wren Michelle Roberts’ heart, combined with her parents’ dedication to her complex medical care, has allowed her to defy her bleak initial prognosis and meet weeks’ worth of milestones that each are a “miracle in [their] own way”, according to her doctor.

Published: October 8, 2026, 4:00 am

Two Latvian men arrested at RAF base in Cambridgeshire used by US military

Men aged 32 and 36 detained on suspicion of trespass, causing criminal damage and entering a prohibited place

Two Latvian men were arrested in the early hours of Thursday after they were discovered inside the perimeter of RAF Molesworth, a Cambridgeshire base used by the US military and Nato for intelligence operations.

The men, 32 and 36, were picked up at 2am inside the base, in an investigation that began four hours earlier when military police discovered an abandoned vehicle outside the facility.

Published: October 8, 2026, 10:34 am

Search warrants used in Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor raids were unlawful, court rules

‘Technical errors’ are embarrassing for Thames Valley police but unlikely to affect outcome of investigation

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has won his legal challenge against Thames Valley police over search warrants used to raid his home after they arrested him.

The former prince brought a judicial review of the legality of the force’s actions and those of the central criminal court, which granted the warrants.

Published: October 8, 2026, 9:23 am

French students continue protests, saying ministers’ pledges not enough

Schools blockaded again across country as teenagers and teachers demand more investment and ‘concrete measures’ to improve conditions

High school students have again blockaded schools and marched through cities across France, promising to continue their campaign despite government pledges to address the grievances underlying 10 days of protests that have left hundreds injured.

Large crowds took to the streets on Thursday for mainly peaceful demonstrations in cities including Lille, Rennes, Nantes, Lyon, Toulon and Marseille, while in Paris a large procession marched through the city centre to the Place de la Bastille.

Published: October 8, 2026, 10:39 am

Royal Navy sailor accused of spying for Russia appears in court

Intelligence specialist Teddy Young, 24, alleged to have drafted message in Russian containing classified information

A junior Royal Navy intelligence specialist from Bedfordshire accused of trying to pass military secrets to Russia appeared in court on Thursday.

Teddy Young, 24, was accused of abusing his high-level security clearance to access secret defence and intelligence data after being deployed on a warship.

Published: October 8, 2026, 11:14 am

How Black banjo players are changing Americana music

Originating with enslaved Africans, the banjo is now being reclaimed by Black musicians in contemporary music

When Beyoncé incorporated the banjo in her song Texas Hold ’Em in 2024, fans and critics alike marveled at the innovative twist. The song opened with rapid string plucking by the Grammy-winning Black banjo player Rhiannon Giddens, and helped challenge the public image of an instrument commonly associated with Appalachian bluegrass. But it’s little known that the banjo is rooted in Black America.

The instrument’s origins harken back several centuries and across the Atlantic Ocean. The banjo’s precursor is the akonting, a gourd-bodied lute found in west Africa. Enslaved and free Africans in the Americas played the banjo for several centuries until the instrument largely disappeared from popular Black music during the Harlem Renaissance. But in recent decades, the banjo has seen a resurgence among Black American musicians who are reclaiming the narrative of the stringed instrument. The story of Black banjo music is a quintessentially American one: a tale tied to transatlantic enslavement, cross-cultural influence and ancestral memories of home.

Published: October 8, 2026, 4:00 am

Fierce, frantic and loaded with menace: Fontaines DC’s 20 greatest songs – ranked!

Ahead of the Irish alt-rockers’ highly anticipated fifth album, Dopamine Chamber, we count down their potent, occasionally political, catalogue

A single inspired by the birth of bassist Conor Deegan’s daughter, It’s Amazing to Be Young is a lovely example of Fontaines DC operating in euphoric mode, a relatively recent addition to their emotional mood board: “Sometimes,” offered frontman Grian Chatten, “optimism is a necessary delusion.”

Published: October 8, 2026, 7:01 am

Below review – a killer snot-berg causes chaos for Josh Hartnett

Don your best plaid shirts for this supernatural thriller about a gang of beefy fishermen who tackle sea monsters. It is totally ridiculous – but you will have loads of daft fun

Abandon all hope, ye who enter Below. And jettison disbelief while ye be at it. A six-part supernatural thriller forged from industrial-grade bunkum, Below is set in Snook’s Arm, a struggling Newfoundland fishing community beset by an ancient, unknowable evil. And plaid. And sea hags, shifty conservationists, mist, motorbikes, curses, a catch-all nostalgia for the 70s-90s, galoshes, wind and, horrifyingly, the collected works of the Waterboys. But mainly an ancient, unknowable evil (and plaid).

Here’s twitchy young roustabout Wade Penney (Charlie Heaton) with some combatively accented exposition. “I tells ye, these waters can be deadly,” he splutters, waggling his fish slice seawards as he prepares breakfast for his credulous Airbnb guests. “It’s been one seafarin’ tragedy after another for us.” Wade is an idiot but he is not, in this instance, wrong. First there was the seafarin’ tragedy of 1986, a splosh-based catastrophe that saw his family’s cottage – and his disconcertingly muscular grand pappy – dragged underwater by forces unknown. Then there were the fishing bans, the decades of economic uncertainty and the resettlement programme – a looming government-led scheme that threatens the town’s remaining hopes for survival. And now? “Jumpin’ Jesus,” blurts ripped paterfamilias Calvin Penney (Josh Hartnett). “Will ye look at dat!” We look at dat. It’s an iceberg. A towering wodge of inexplicable CGI menace has materialised in the harbour, bringin’ with it yet more trouble for the embattled sea hunks.

Published: October 8, 2026, 12:01 am

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

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

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

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

Published: October 7, 2026, 6:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: October 7, 2026, 7:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: October 7, 2026, 6:18 am

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

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

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

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

Published: October 7, 2026, 4:40 am

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

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

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

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

Published: October 7, 2026, 3:39 am

Book of Lives by Margaret Atwood audiobook review – a dryly funny memoir

The Handmaid’s Tale author reflects on her loves, losses and literary achievements in a memoir that showcases her wisdom and wit

Margaret Atwood had to be persuaded to write a memoir. The thought of writing about herself initially seemed “dead boring. Who wants to read about someone sitting at a desk messing up blank sheets of paper?” Yet, she continues, time passed and the possibility of a memoir took on a “lurid phosphorescent glow. ‘Wasn’t there something appealing in the idea?’ my sinister alter ego whispered … I could thank my benefactors, reward my friends, trash my enemies and pay off scores long forgotten by everyone but me.”

Subtitled “A Memoir of Sorts”, Book of Lives is the Canadian author’s account of her loves, losses and literary achievements (she has written just over 50 books, including novels, short stories and poetry collections), and a fine showcase for her wisdom and wit. What little score-settling she includes is purely for the punchline. When a poet told Atwood in the early 1970s that she wrote like a man – he intended it as a compliment – she told him he forgot the punctuation. “What you meant was, ‘She writes. Like a man’.”

Published: October 8, 2026, 7:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: October 7, 2026, 1:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: October 7, 2026, 7:00 am

Good night, and good lick: what can we expect from George Clooney’s restaurant?

The newly-official French citizen is planning to open an Italian restaurant in Provence. Will it float like his tequila brand or sink as swiftly as the Steven Spielberg submarine eatery that made one reviewer ‘embarrassed to be human’?

The Provençal village of Cotignac is not wanting for places to eat. Within a short drive of its pale stone houses, you can find a wealth of high-end dining options. La Table de Mentone, set within the beautiful Château Mentone wine estate, is famed for the produce it grows on site. The Michelin-starred Restaurant Bruno offers dazzling variations of truffle dishes. More locally, Picotte Provence offers the sort of charming village dining that showcases the best of what the region has to offer.

However, despite all these wonderful options, there is one thing that Cotignac does not yet boast, and that’s a celebrity vanity project. But that is all about to change, thanks to the news that George Clooney is planning to open a restaurant there.

Published: October 8, 2026, 4:25 am

‘He punched a polar bear on the nose!’ Ninety glorious years of Brian Blessed – by Emma Thompson, Adrian Lester and more

Peeing in the sink he shared with Derek Jacobi, making a badger video with Brian May, climbing Everest with Alan Hinkes … as the great actor blasts into his 90s, stars celebrate his ‘loudness and madness’

Emma Thompson

Published: October 7, 2026, 9:00 pm

Willem de Kooning review – the artist’s lifelong rebellion against himself is thrilling to watch

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Marking a century since the Dutch artist stowed away to New York, this vast retrospective gloriously showcases the abstract expressionist’s fierce boundary-pushing

Willem de Kooning was the last great artist who really knew how to draw. More precisely, if less provocatively, he was the last truly transformative painter to have been schooled in the academic tradition that produces what is still recognised, by most people, as “good drawing”. Accurate in the sense of a photograph but, like a filter on your cameraphone, also subtly tidying up the world to meet the ideals of classical proportion. “Draw what you see and not what you think,” the young De Kooning was told. Raw personal emotion had no place – a far cry from what this master of abstract expressionism was to become.

The intense labour required to build a connection between eye, brain and hand so quick as to be instinctive is illustrated by the charcoal still life Dish With Jugs. Made when De Kooning was in his mid-teens, and so minutely rendered that you might mistake it for a sepia photograph, the catalogue estimates that it took 600 hours at the Rotterdam academy to complete. The aim of this exercise was not to produce a single picture so much as to ingrain a way of seeing and reconstructing the world to the point that it becomes inescapable.

Published: October 8, 2026, 7:35 am

‘Spend time going down rabbit holes’: how the Avalanches created their wildest album yet

The Aussie trio explain creating their new record sampling kids’ science shows and Tunisian music – and their surreal film with Haley Joel Osment

Last December, Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi, the core members of the Aussie disco-pop collagists the Avalanches, found themselves winding through the frosty, mountainous region of Minakami, Japan, with Haley Joel Osment. The pair’s lauded debut album, 2000’s Since I Left You, has become a touchstone in plunderphonics – a genre known for its innovative use of samples – and in the years since its release, the group have amassed an ardent cult following. Osment, the former child star of The Sixth Sense and Forrest Gump, seemed to count himself among their devotees, frequently liking their posts on Instagram, so they decided to reach out and ask him to board their latest project: a 35-minute movie that would accompany their new LP, No Bad Memories.

“We’d never made a film before, so it was like, ‘This could be a complete disaster for him,’” recalls Di Blasi, who is dressed in a black tee and purple cap with the logo for the cult electronic label трип when we meet in Manhattan in mid-September. “We were like, ‘We don’t really have anyone yet … We don’t even know what we’re doing.’” To their surprise, Osment signed on.

Published: October 8, 2026, 1:00 am

The dreadful decline of hosting at home: ‘I feel shame any time a friend comes over’

It used to be quite normal to pop next door for a coffee or invite friends over for dinner. But not any more. What’s behind this change – and just how damaging is it?

‘I really loved hosting at home years ago, before I had kids, when my house wasn’t filled with toys and I had lots of time to plan and shop,” says Rehanna, 41, from Birmingham. Now, if she’s catching up with friends, she would rather go out. “I can’t host and cook at the same time, so if I have people over it will usually be a cold buffet I have made earlier. There are so many really nice restaurants where I live that I’d prefer to go out and try something new than make an old favourite at home.”

Personally, I’d never say no to a cold buffet – but Rehanna’s story is not unusual. In the US, the number of people who regularly host friends or family fell from 42% in 1975 to 12% in 2026 – a 70% drop over the last 50 years. In the UK, the numbers are not much better: last year, a poll of 2,000 adults found that more than four in 10 British people avoid hosting at home due to the clean-up it requires. And while chef Nigella Lawson is back on TV screens demonstrating her culinary prowess on The Great British Bake Off, it wasn’t long ago that the self-proclaimed domestic goddess revealed even she had “got out of the habit” of hosting formal dinner parties.

Published: October 7, 2026, 9:00 pm

Monkeys as service animals? The ‘bizarre’, tortured history of humans and primates

Ape Sh*t, a new zine by writer and designer Carrie McLaren, looks at the ways monkeys and apes have communicated to humans that they’re individuals too

Zines have always lent themselves to weird and wonderful topics, from sci-fi reflections to punk fanzines to radical political tracts. The underground, often homemade publications have offered readers and writers a way to throw themselves into niche topics since long before the internet.

For Carrie McLaren, a veteran zine maker, the latest topic of choice is admittedly “bizarre”, disturbing and darkly funny: the tortured relationship between humans and monkeys.

Published: October 8, 2026, 5:00 am

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

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

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

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

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

Published: October 7, 2026, 12:15 pm

Sore feet? 7 comfy shoes that don’t compromise on style (now on sale)

We love the plush feel of these soft and cushy footwear options that are light on our feet (and now wallets)

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

High heels aren’t for everyone. At 25, I’m already partial to a stylish pair of sneakers over a 6-in stiletto.

If you also value comfort, we found seven footwear deals your feet will love, from slippers to work-appropriate flats.

Published: October 7, 2026, 12:49 pm

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

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

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

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

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

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

Published: October 7, 2026, 11:50 am

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

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

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

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

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

Published: October 7, 2026, 10:33 am

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

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

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

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

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

Published: October 7, 2026, 8:43 am

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

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

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

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

Published: October 7, 2026, 1:49 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: October 7, 2026, 6:00 am

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

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

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

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

Published: October 7, 2026, 12:49 am

A good friend brings her dogs when she stays with me. I kind of dread it. What can I do? | Leading questions

People often forget social rules when dogs are involved, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith. But you’ll have to say something if you want things to change

• Read more Leading questions

A good friend of mine stays with me regularly when she comes into town. She brings her husband and two dogs that don’t get along with my dog. They’ve “used the bathroom” in our house before. I try to be nice and help clean or pretend it doesn’t bother me so that they feel comfortable. But when she asks for a weekend to come back with everyone, I kind of dread it. I enjoy seeing her and she’s a great friend. I think our friendship would be better if she stayed somewhere else, but I would feel bad if she stayed in a hotel and I don’t think she’d visit as often. She cleans up after the dogs and whatnot, but I like my home to be my safe haven. This friend doesn’t handle confrontation well, but is understanding. What can I do to handle this?

Eleanor says: It sounds as though you’re in the jam we all get into when we try to smooth things over: you can have the social ease of pretending something is fine; or the outcome from confessing it isn’t, but not both simultaneously.

Published: October 8, 2026, 7:00 am

‘Vibrant, design-led and surprisingly green’: why the Dutch city of Eindhoven is perfect for a relaxed arty break

After electronics giant Philips left, the city reinvented itself as a multicultural hub for creativity and innovation, and the home of Dutch Design Week

A baggily clad skateboarder’s wheels clatter across concrete floors, the noise bouncing off exposed pipes and iron girders. Vaulted skylights set in high ceilings illuminate the industrial space and its central kitchen, from which my main course – a silky lemon risotto, spiked with samphire, rhubarb, garlic, baby onions and basil – has just been transported.

I’m in the Dutch city of Eindhoven, in North Brabant, famous for its historic connection to Philips, the one-time electronics giant. The restaurant, Radio Royaal, is housed in what was once their engine room, in the Strijp-S neighbourhood. Today, Strijp-S buzzes with concept stores, an indoor food market, MU Hybrid Art House and the Area 51 skatepark. The broader area, Strijp, was where the company was largely headquartered: its zones are named S, T and R. In the late 90s, Philips withdrew from the city where it had started in 1891, and the letters I, J and P were never assigned.

Published: October 8, 2026, 12:17 am

SOS meals – the food to cook for friends that shows you care

After the death of my beloved dog, I’m thinking a lot about the role food plays in all of life’s big events – be they happy or sad

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I lost my beloved cairn terrier Wilf a couple of weeks ago, and when I say lost, sadly, I don’t mean I mislaid him yet again on Hampstead Heath. Rather, after 13 and a half years of (mostly) civil disobedience, we had to make the tough but ultimately kind decision to say a final goodbye. Since then, I have been bombarded with kindness. Friends and family have rallied round to take me out for breakfast, lunch, dinner and coffee, clearly worried that the bereavement might affect my appetite – well, apart from the one who responded by having a baby a week early, and who now requires me to provide for her.

It got me thinking about the part food plays in big life events. We so often cook, or otherwise provide for people in the aftermath of such shocks, be they happy or sad, as a way both to offer practical help and to show them how much we love them. Such tokens of affection tend to fall into two camps. The first is high-energy food that can be easily eaten with one hand while the other is holding a baby or clutching a sodden handkerchief, or simply when you’re just too busy to sit down. Just this morning, I received a picture of the new mother tucking into my extremely wholesome fruit and nut-packed granola with her daughter sleeping on her arm, but Melissa Hemsley’s five-ingredient flapjacks (pictured top) would fall into this category, as would Meera Sodha’s chaat masala popcorn and Thomasina Miers’ dark chocolate and toasted walnut banana bread. Like Anna Jones’s chocolate chip cookie power bites, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s spiced nuts or my own kale chips, they’re full of good things, and tempting enough to compete with the less nutritious options that are so easy to reach for instead. (That said, no one should judge anyone for the choices they make at times of stress.)

Published: October 8, 2026, 4:40 am

You be the judge: my friend and I bought a tent but she’s moved away. Who owns it now?

Ava shared the initial cost but Ruth has forked out for repairs. You decide who’s on the wrong side of this in-tents debate?

• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

I paid for half of the tent, so I deserve equal use of it, even if we no longer live in the same country

Ava hasn’t used the tent in years, and I’ve stored it and paid for its upkeep. Surely I get first dibs?

Published: October 8, 2026, 12:00 am

Why Arturo Béjar left Meta – and blew the whistle: ‘I don’t recall Mark ever being empathetic’

Béjar’s daughter was 14 when she told him Instagram was failing to keep her safe. So when he became part of Meta’s ‘wellbeing team’, he knew he had to speak out – and his testimony cost it billions

The Social Reckoning hits cinemas this Friday, but the real world has already been working on a sequel – or rather, a threequel. Directed by Aaron Sorkin, the movie is a follow-up to The Social Network, detailing the further misadventures of Mark Zuckerberg and his social media empire, and in particular Frances Haugen, the employee who in 2021 leaked internal documents that appeared to show Facebook was aware of the harms its products had inflicted.

It’s no spoiler to reveal the film climaxes with Haugen’s testimony to the US Senate, on 5 October 2021. That very same day, Arturo Béjar, a consultant on the wellbeing team of Instagram (which is also owned by Facebook), hit send on a long-gestating email to Zuckerberg and other senior Facebook executives on a similar theme. “I wanted to bring to your attention what I believe is a critical gap in how we as a company approach harm, and how the people we serve experience it,” Béjar began, before laying out some shocking statistics from his team’s survey. For example: 24.4% of 13-15-year-olds on Instagram said they had received unwanted advances, and 21.8% said they had been the target of bullying on the platform in the past seven days. Furthermore, 51% of Instagram users said they had had a bad or harmful experience in the past seven days. Only 1% of them reported it, and of those, 2% had the content taken down – so just 0.02%. This was a far greater degree of harm than the company’s existing measurements suggested. Zuckerberg never replied.

Published: October 8, 2026, 2:00 am

‘Neither war nor peace’: Palestinians in Gaza on existing amid disease, despair and ruins

People tell of lives changed beyond recognition after the 7 October attacks by Hamas three years ago and the subsequent Israeli offensive

Ahmed Ishtaiwi has six chairs. They are cheap and plastic and battered, but they are among the 43-year-old driver and mechanic’s most valuable possessions.

Published: October 7, 2026, 2:00 pm

China’s succession crisis: a generation of entrepreneurs is retiring, but are their children ready to take over?

Family run private businesses helped power China’s economic miracle, but the next generation is finding it difficult to carry on the work of their parents

Growing up, Ayu would watch his parents put together hand made leather shoes on the ground floor of their three storey home in the Chinese city of Wenzhou. Their relatives in Europe would send photographs of designer products from Italy for the workers to base their designs on, and in the decades that followed, the tiny family-run workshop transformed into a 700 person factory.

“The factory and the home were the same place. I watched them make shoes by hand, piece by piece, using small machines,” Ayu recalls of watching his parents work in the 1980’s.

Published: October 7, 2026, 4:19 pm

Houthi advances and a multimillion Mondrian for sale: photos of the day – Thursday

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

Published: October 8, 2026, 5:56 am