American exodus: why do so many US NHL stars want out of Canada?

Players across the league are leaving their teams up north to return home. It’s prompted questions around money, tax rates, geopolitics and respect

Back in September 1925, Frederick Wilson, sports editor at the Globe, explained the fear among hockey fans that Canadian teams might not be able to compete for players against the new US teams like New York or Boston that were entering the pro league. “Will it be a matter of money?” Wilson headlined his piece. And for about a century, money was the recurrent nexus of the Canadian hockey panic, proven by franchise departures and depleted buying power.

At the time, Wilson reassured everyone that, no matter the big US cash, everyone on the ice would be Canadian anyway. “It will be some years before the [US] will be in a position to furnish players,” he wrote. He was right about that. It took a long time for the US to catch up to Canada in on-ice talent. But now that it has, should we expect Americans to want to play anywhere else than the US? For 100 years Canada has worried that the US would just buy all the best hockey players. But now it makes its own and, as the new NHL season gets underway on Tuesday night, they want to go home.

Published: September 29, 2026, 3:00 am

‘If we’re unhealthy, it is a reflection of an unhealthy democracy’: Sarah Jones puts America on the therapy couch

Playing 19 characters in 100 minutes, the Tony award winner takes the temperature of the nation in America, Who Hurt You?

“We’re in a timeline that even Margaret Atwood, George Orwell or Octavia Butler would be like, ‘Y’all jumped the shark on this one,” the Tony award-winning playwright Sarah Jones says pointedly.

This incredulity towards the state of the US inspired Jones to create America, Who Hurt You? a podcast launched in 2024 where Jones interviewed diverse experts on immigration, climate change and the manosphere, among many other topics. Jones was petrified by her impression that America was on, as she emphasizes, “death’s door”. Her aim was to put the nation on the therapy couch, and she has now transformed the acclaimed podcast to an off-Broadway one-woman play written by and starring Jones herself.

Published: September 29, 2026, 4:00 am

How Senate Democrats can stop Trump from stealing the midterms | David Walbert

Republicans could lean on congressional procedure to defy the will of voters. But if they try that, the Senate has a clear way to fight back

Having lost his mail-in ballot case, Donald Trump will probably resort to ever more extreme ways to try to hold a Republican Congress in November’s elections.

His last-ditch effort to count Joe Biden out in 2020 was for Republicans to “investigate” states Biden narrowly won; proclaim fabricated allegations of “stolen elections” to be true; and then reassign those states’ electoral votes to Trump. I have previously described how that same playbook could be used to try to steal the midterms if a Democratic margin of victory in the House is relatively narrow.

Published: September 29, 2026, 3:00 am

‘Online sex workers literally have to bare it all’: why Patricia Nilsson is exposing the world’s biggest porn bosses

As a business journalist, Nilsson began rigorously reporting on the power players of the adult industry, who prefer to remain in the shadows. Along the way, she uncovered how porn has shaped the internet – and our lives as a whole

There was a time, a few decades ago, when the men who owned the world’s biggest pornography businesses were happy to be famous. They paraded a lifestyle they hoped looked glamorous, appearing in public dressed in silk pyjamas or with a woman in swimwear on each arm. Porn moguls like Hustler’s Larry Flynt or Playboy’s Hugh Hefner were household names.

“Say what you want about these old perverts, who once set the tone of our sexual culture, but at least you knew who they were and what they were selling,” Patricia Nilsson writes in her new book, Guilty Pleasure: The Pornification of the Internet, the Economy, and Everything Else. “These days, the men calling the shots are nowhere to be seen.”

Published: September 29, 2026, 2:01 am

The night sky is getting 10% brighter every year. We’re forgetting what darkness feels like

If more cities start regulating outdoor lighting, we humans could make the environment better for all living creatures

Every night, I can turn off the lights in my room – but I can’t do anything about the outdoor lights in the walkway or parking lot that leak through the curtains. Living in Portland, where the night is still illuminated by street lights, porch lights and parking lot glare, I forgot what it actually feels like to sleep in darkness.

I was excited when I realized my travels to a residency in south-east Oregon would show me a sky I hadn’t experienced in decades. In the Oregon outback, part of the International Dark Sky Places network, I would be surrounded by 2.5m acres of unpolluted night in every direction.

Published: September 29, 2026, 5:00 am

Why am I obsessed with China’s ancient golden age? I took my daughter on a trip to find out

I felt a duty to write about the Tang dynasty and its incredible social and cultural sophistication – but also to connect my Chinese past with my child

During the Tang dynasty, which lasted from the seventh to the early 10th century, Vikings were raiding the coasts of what today is called Europe. In the small archipelago now known as Britain, Anglo-Saxon kingdoms flitted by. Meanwhile, in Mesoamerica, after 3,000 years of flourishing, the Maya civilisation was collapsing. In the east, China had been united for nine centuries and the Tang dynasty was already a proverbial high point of world culture.

Published: September 28, 2026, 9:00 pm

US supreme court allows Trump officials to resume deportations to third countries

Conservative majority temporarily lifts lower-court decision as liberal justices dissent from ruling

The Trump administration can resume quickly deporting immigrants to a “third countries”, or countries other than those immigrants’ homeland, without giving them any opportunity to contest their removals, the supreme court ruled on Tuesday.

The six-justice conservative majority of the high court temporarily lifted a lower-court decision that required the administration to provide immigrants sufficient notice and the opportunity to claim fear of torture or persecution in the countries where they are being sent. The Trump administration had claimed this stipulation had prevented it from “efficiently removing aliens” from the US.

Published: September 29, 2026, 2:38 pm

Key data missing for half of US child labor deaths, official report finds

Over half of 260 workplace child fatalities between 2013 and 2023 lacked data on cause of death or the industry worked

Information is missing on over half of deaths at work of people under the age of 18 in the US because of significant gaps in child labor data, according to a government accountability office (GAO) report released on Tuesday.

The report found that between 2013 and 2023, an average of 24 children under the age of 18 died each year due to work-related incidents. Over half of the 260 child fatality cases did not contain detailed data on the cause of death or the industry the child worked in.

Published: September 29, 2026, 11:00 am

Texts about alleged Cornell gang-rape released after investigation reopened

Texts, including unnamed male defendant appearing to apologize, reportedly sent days after alleged 2024 assault

Excerpts of text messages reportedly exchanged by a defendant in the Cornell University gang-rape case and the woman who claims she was assaulted were published by CBS News on Tuesday, a day after New York prosecutors said they were reopening a criminal investigation.

The texts were reportedly sent within days of the alleged October 2024 assault at a campus fraternity house in which a female student said she was drugged and repeatedly raped over the course of seven hours by multiple men who were alerted to her presence on the social media platform Snapchat.

Published: September 29, 2026, 12:01 pm

OpenAI announces ‘dots’ agent after scrapping launch of new AI model over safety concerns

Company’s product comes weeks after Meta introduced its own artificially intelligent agent Muse

Less than 24 hours after OpenAI announced it would scrap the launch of an artificial intelligence model over safety concerns, the company debuted a whole new suite of AI tools.

During its annual showcase for developers in San Francisco on Tuesday, Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, enthusiastically unveiled an AI agent called “dots” that he said was “more ambitious” than ChatGPT and a “whole new way to work with AI”.

Published: September 29, 2026, 2:25 pm

Utah death-row prisoner released after new DNA analysis of 1985 killing

Douglas Carter, 71, who has spent more than four decades on death row, released on bail until new trial begins

A Utah man who has spent more than four decades on death row was released from jail after newly analyzed DNA evidence showed that he was not connected to a 1985 homicide.

Douglas Stewart Carter, now 71, walked out of the Utah county jail late on Monday night after a judge ordered his release on bail. He will have to wear a GPS monitoring device until a new trial begins.

Published: September 29, 2026, 1:12 pm

Former American Idol contestant found guilty of killing wife during affair

Caleb Flynn convicted of aggravated murder in shooting of Ashley Flynn, a schoolteacher and volleyball coach

Caleb Flynn, the former Ohio music pastor and one-time American Idol contestant accused of killing his wife to pursue a lover, was convicted of her murder on Tuesday.

As a judge read the guilty verdict, 40-year-old Flynn cried, shaking his head and closing his eyes at times. He faces up to life in prison.

Published: September 29, 2026, 2:45 pm

Six Flags permanently shuts down X2 rollercoaster after claims of brain injuries

More than 100 people have said they were injured by the ride in California, which reached speeds up to 76mph

Six Flags has permanently shut down its embattled X2 rollercoaster in Valencia, California, the company announced on Tuesday, as numerous past riders have come forward with allegations of serious injuries.

X2, a Magic Mountain park favorite, which reaches up to 76mph (about 122km/h) and has seats that can rotate 360 degrees, had been closed since mid-July.

Published: September 29, 2026, 1:16 pm

Mamdani releases plan to combat antisemitism and hate crimes in New York City

Strategy includes increased security funding for synagogues, and focus on folding Jewish history into public school education

Zohran Mamdani debuted a sweeping plan Tuesday to combat antisemitism and hate crimes against Jewish people in New York City, moving to assuage concerns from critics who see his steadfast denunciations of Israel as antisemitic.

The strategy includes increased security funding for synagogues, an increased focus on folding Jewish history into public school education, and a pledge to highlight important Jewish cultural and religious sites in the mayor’s day-to-day governance of the city.

Published: September 29, 2026, 12:57 pm

‘Cute but unbearable’ freeloading bear discovered in another LA crawlspace

‘Yellow 2120’ has been driven out of other Altadena neighborhood crawlspaces but he just keeps coming back

He’s back: the 550lb bear made famous after he took up residence under an Altadena home in November 2025 is wandering the Los Angeles neighborhood again after he moved in and out of the crawlspace of another home.

“Yellow 2120”, as the black bear has been tagged, was spotted in the crawlspace of a home on Minoru Drive on Monday.

Published: September 29, 2026, 1:07 pm

Trump agrees to end court fight against $5m verdict in E Jean Carroll case

The verdict stems from Carroll’s 2023 sexual abuse and defamation civil trial against Trump

Donald Trump has agreed to stop fighting in court the disbursement of E Jean Carroll’s $5m verdict in her 2023 sexual abuse and defamation civil trial against him, a procedural development as these funds were already distributed to her.

While the decision does not change anything about Carroll’s receipt of the payout, its revelation effectively means that Trump will no longer oppose the monetary outcome he had long fought.

Published: September 29, 2026, 2:22 pm

‘You make me want to throw up’: Republicans attack ex-special counsel Jack Smith at Senate hearing

GOP senators lash out on Smith, who led criminal cases against Trump, with invective and inaccurate information

Jack Smith, the former special counsel who led two criminal cases against Donald Trump in 2023, faced attacks from Republicans in a wide-ranging hearing on Tuesday that included a basketball mix-up, a reference to the tooth fairy and accusations of perjury.

In the Senate judiciary committee hearing on Tuesday, the Republican senator Eric Schmitt, of Missouri, raised perjury allegations against Smith, seemingly over a mix-up about the Atlanta Hawks and University of Iowa Hawkeyes basketball teams.

Published: September 29, 2026, 12:11 pm

US senator blocks bill to ban Trump from demolishing Kennedy Center without Congress’s approval

Mike Lee objected to the safeguard against the demolition of any presidential memorial Congress designates

• US politics live – latest updates

A Republican senator has blocked a bipartisan bill that would have prevented Donald Trump from demolishing the Kennedy Center without the approval of Congress.

Mike Lee, of Utah, objected on Monday night when the Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley asked the Senate to pass the Protecting Presidential Memorials Act by unanimous consent. The bill, co-written with the Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, would have banned the demolition of any presidential memorial designated by Congress, including the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, unless lawmakers explicitly approved it.

Published: September 29, 2026, 8:04 am

RFK Jr outlines expansive vision for collecting US health data at Maha event

Health secretary calls for medical and lifestyle details to be sent to doctors and AI to address ‘chronic disease epidemic’

Robert F Kennedy Jr laid out an expansive vision for collecting, sharing and analyzing US health information at a Maha event hosted by a close ally and outspoken anti-vaccine activist.

Medical and lifestyle data, from doctor’s visits to exercise, should be connected and shared with the government and independent researchers, where it can be searched by AI – including potential links between vaccines and health outcomes including autism and mortality, suggested Kennedy, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and a longtime vaccine skeptic.

Published: September 29, 2026, 7:41 am

Three deaths, three states, 24 hours: one day in ICE’s quiet but ‘gruesome’ surge

These men in Maine, Georgia and Florida shared no ties – until they became casualties in the latest phase of Trump’s anti-immigration campaign

• Gone in 90 seconds: an ‘invisibilized’ ICE is arresting more people than ever

It was 7am on 13 July this year. A warm, sunny morning, as residents of Biddeford, Maine, left their homes, got into their cars and began their commute. Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero came out of the apartment he lived in with his partner and daughter and drove off in his white car. Minutes later, neighbors heard three pops. Durán Guerrero was dead.

More than 1,200 miles (1,900km) away in Ocilla, Georgia, Jesús Manuel Arenas-Silva was shuffled on to a bus. Private sector guards and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials were beginning the process of transferring him and several other immigrants from one detention center to another nearly two hours away. Ten minutes into the ride, he became unconscious. Doctors at a nearby hospital pronounced him dead.

Published: September 29, 2026, 3:00 am

How American political campaigns are using AI – and what they’re spending on the tools

Though politicians are quiet about how they use AI, the book Rewiring Democracy examines how AI is starting to influence American politics

New campaign finance disclosure data shines a light on which US political campaigns are using AI tools and how much they are spending on them.

Candidates’, parties’ and committees’ spending reveals that AI is fast becoming an essential tool of politics. The candidates themselves are quiet about how they are using the technology in their own campaigns. It’s a sensitive issue that we have been tracking closely since we started writing our book, Rewiring Democracy, which examined how AI is beginning to influence politics. A September 2025 Pew survey of Americans found that more than 70% would think less of a candidate if they used AI to help write a speech.

Published: September 29, 2026, 4:00 am

‘It takes a lot of work’: Deb Haaland puts addiction struggles at center of New Mexico governor bid

First Native American woman to serve as US cabinet secretary candid about history with alcohol as she seeks to tackle billowing public health crisis

“It clouds your mind,” recalls Deb Haaland, the trailblazing US cabinet secretary now running to be New Mexico’s next governor. “They say that, after the first drink, you lose your judgment.”

Haaland developed a drinking problem after leaving high school and was twice arrested for driving under the influence. But in her 20s she decided to get sober, a battle that required personal commitment and critical external support. She went on to become a member of Congress, one of the first two Native American women ever elected to the House, and then to become the first Native American to serve as a US cabinet secretary.

Published: September 29, 2026, 5:00 am

Murdered for their eyes: people with albinism living in terror in Madagascar

The country is struggling to address a rise in attacks, with a record 13 people – mostly children – killed this year for body parts, which some believe can bring good fortune

Not long after midnight in late May this year, three men barged through the door of the small room where Nicole Soalala lived with her family on the outskirts of Toliara, a coastal city in the south of Madagascar. Her husband got up to ask what they wanted, but they attacked him with a piece of wood and an axe.

Soalala, 32, grabbed her youngest child, Landricia – an 18-month-old girl with albinism – and hoisted her on to her back, holding her there with a piece of fabric she started to wrap around herself. Her eldest daughter, 15, hid under the table with her other two children, aged six and three.

Published: September 29, 2026, 2:00 am

‘Dangerous precedent’: authors sue LA library over cancelled Palestine event

City of LA faces free speech suit after public library officials scrapped two writers’ Read Palestine Week book talks

Two authors have sued the city of Los Angeles over the Los Angeles public library’s (LAPL) cancellation of a Read Palestine Week event where the writers were scheduled to discuss their books featuring Palestinian stories.

Jenan Matari, a Palestinian-American author, and Nora Lester Murad, a Jewish-American writer, were invited to speak virtually at a 6 December 2025 event organized as part of the LAPL’s Teen’Scape program, which works with youth.

Published: September 29, 2026, 6:00 am

In-laws arrested on suspicion of murder after New York Times engineer shot dead in California

Police arrest couple in their 70s after Jonathan McKinsey, 40, found dead in park in Bay Area city of Dublin

A married couple in their 70s have been arrested for allegedly shooting and killing their son-in-law, a New York Times engineer, in broad daylight at a suburban Bay Area park.

A police officer found Jonathan McKinsey, 40, lying on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds in a park in Dublin, California, a small city about 35 miles (56.3km) east of San Francisco. Around the time the officer discovered him, 911 calls began pouring in from witnesses reporting the shooting.

Published: September 28, 2026, 4:17 pm

Concern mounts over slow-moving, planetary-scale ‘Kelvin’ wave heading for California

The ocean phenomenon could raise sea levels by up to a foot as El Niño keeps warm water trapped along the coast

Concerns are mounting about an ocean phenomenon known as a Kelvin wave that could raise sea levels along the California coastline by up to a foot, as scientists say El Niño is supercharging the threat of storm surges and flooding in the coming months.

As an incredibly strong El Niño continues to develop in the Pacific, the phenomenon brings with it a strange shift in the ocean. The Kelvin wave phenomenon is created when trade winds that usually blow from South America towards Asia die down or reverse in El Niño years, setting off a massive, slow-moving slosh of water.

Published: September 28, 2026, 4:00 am

Inside Seoul’s K-beauty ‘mecca’: I hunted for the best skincare at the world’s biggest Korean beauty store

What’s actually worth buying at Olive Young? A dispatch from the epicenter of Korean beauty, including the best skincare, face masks and hair care

• Five of the best Korean skincare brands you can actually find in the US

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

God does not exist in Olive Young’s flagship Seongsu location in Seoul. Inside the five-story, 4,628 sq meters temple to Korean beauty, chaos reigns. The first floor has been converted into a beach-themed installation for the season, complete with “wellness” smoothie and gelato bars, and bewilderingly, in the center of the room, a man sitting atop a giant lifeguard chair, booming greetings to shoppers through a megaphone. On the upper levels, I am greeted by a wall of face masks, a beauty station with mirrors and sinks and a health grocery store. Every floor is overrun by hordes of skincare-obsessed tourists like me, stuffing our bags with everything we can’t find back home. According to reports, a purchase is made every 0.9 seconds in the store.

If flying all the way to Seoul into the eye of the storm for some face masks sounds like overkill, I have good news for the skincare lover reading this. More and more Americans are getting access to Korea’s largest health and beauty retailer, which opened its first US store in Pasadena earlier this year with a line that stretched a quarter-mile long. Last month, it made a buzzy debut in Sephora, where shoppers can buy 19 curated Korean brands in hundreds of locations nationwide. It’s been a relief for K-beauty fans in the US who have been stuck with the frustrating reality that the best stuff isn’t FDA-approved for sale here, or they can only find marked-up or counterfeit options on Amazon.

Published: September 29, 2026, 7:15 am

Digger review – Tom Cruise’s loudmouth oil tycoon goes hard in Alejandro G Iñárritu’s eco-satire

One man’s irresponsible drilling causes a global crisis in Iñárritu’s exasperatingly laborious, self-congratulatory film

A new movie from the Oscar-winning Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu is always an event. So it’s disconcerting to discover that the event in question is the most disappointing film of the year: an exasperatingly shallow, laborious, self-congratulatory satire with a trick up its sleeve, featuring very good actors giving not very good performances. There are moments to enjoy in Tom Cruise’s boisterous leading turn, yes, but the film’s value resides chiefly in some dreamlike and disturbing images, distorted and bulging from the screen, conjured by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and production designer Dennis Gassner.

An ageing, paunchy Texan oil tycoon called “Digger” Rockwell is seen fretfully getting up in the morning, cooing over his horrible old incontinent cat, taking urgent messages from underlings about a certain situation developing in his drilling station in the frozen Arctic. He is played by Tom Cruise with a wispy baldingness and various other prostheses, together with a good-ol’-boy twang and a Stetson borrowed from Slim Pickens’s bomb-riding army major in Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove. His prized possession is the battered old shovel his granddaddy used a century before, digging for black gold as a penniless young man in the lone star state. Digger likes to brandish this to make a point.

Published: September 29, 2026, 9:00 am

Jon Stewart on Trump offering to sell weapons to China: ‘How does America even stay on the map sometimes?’

Late-night hosts discussed Trump’s private ballroom tour for China’s Xi Jinping and his ‘great interest’ in granite

Late-night hosts recapped Donald Trump’s lavish state dinner for the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, and Jimmy Kimmel asked Zohran Mamdani about texting the president.

Published: September 29, 2026, 8:01 am

It was a ghost town of three people. So how did Luckenbach rival Nashville as the heartland of country music?

In 1971, self-appointed mayor Hondo Crouch turned the Texan town into a rural respite for country stars. Soon it was immortalised in chart-topping songs – and became a symbol of a simpler American life

In the summer of 1973, the US country singer Jerry Jeff Walker was in the middle of nowhere, recording his soon-to-be-classic album ¡Viva Terlingua!. A crowd was packed to the rafters in an old dancehall 70 miles west of Austin, in Luckenbach, Texas. An extension lead ran from the hall to a recording truck outside. After everyone had gone home that night, Walker stood in the street and said to Hondo Crouch, Luckenbach’s self-appointed mayor: “I wonder what we just did.”

When Crouch had bought the town two years prior, its population was just three people – and according to the most recent census in 2021, it’s back at the same number. But in the 1970s, this ramshackle town thrived as Walker and his peers headed there, and Luckenbach became one of the most improbable yet important centres for country music.

Published: September 29, 2026, 6:30 am

Donald Trump's Maga cult is finally crumbling | Arwa Mahdawi

With the midterms looming, and after the Epstein files and the war on Iran, Trump superfans are losing faith in their lame duck president

It took a dead child sex offender and a disastrous war to do it, but it looks as though the Maga faithful are slowly beginning to lose confidence in dear leader. As Donald Trump’s approval ratings drop to record lows, some of his most fervent supporters are turning on him.

See, as exhibit one, Trisha Hope, who was once a proud member of the Front Row Joes, a group of Trump superfans who follow the president to rallies around the country. They have custom-made T-shirts! They have branded baseball caps! They even have the attention of Trump himself, who frequently shouts out the group. He did once accidentally call them the “front row Jacks and Joes”, but who can expect a man of his calibre to pay attention to the plebs, eh?

Published: September 29, 2026, 8:21 am

Stop shaming people for using AI. Start organizing to prevent our obsolescence | Garrison Lovely

The industry is engaged in a perverse quest to replace humans. We cannot cede the best tools available to the other side

I don’t need to tell you that people hate AI. The list of grievances is long: slop, cheating, bias, enfeeblement, electricity bills, environmental destruction, exploitation, theft, cybercrime, doom. But resistance to the technology has often taken the form of shaming people for personally using it, with precious little organizing against the companies building the machines. This is perplexing, given that those companies are attempting to render us obsolete.

The executives may contest this framing, offering some bromides about how AI will augment human work or how we’ll simply find new jobs to do. But their clear goals are to create systems that so clearly surpass our abilities that we will have little hope of competing.

Published: September 29, 2026, 5:00 am

The Manchester City case shows us how the global mega-rich now expect to operate with impunity | Jonathan Liew

When transnational alliances have scarcely been weaker, the way the club was allegedly run offers a bleak vision of a world driven by brute power and wealth

The cache of leaked emails and documents that would eventually lead to the crisis in which Manchester City are now embroiled was published by Der Spiegel in 2018, and often it was the tone of the club’s communications that was as startling as their content. Of City chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak, a trusted adviser to the royal family of the United Arab Emirates, it was said that he would “rather spend 30 million on the 50 best lawyers in the world to sue [Uefa] for the next 10 years” than accept a fine.

In the same tranche of documents, City lawyer Simon Cliff asserts that “Uefa doesn’t respond to anything other than aggression”, and threatens the governing body of European football – who were pursuing City over alleged financial irregularities at the time – with “the destruction of their rules and organisation”.

Published: September 29, 2026, 6:30 am

As AI models go rogue, do you still trust OpenAI and Anthropic to stop them? I don’t and neither should you | Chris Stokel-Walker

The need for independent regulation grows more obvious by the day. We must keep this tech in check before it’s too late

• OpenAI scraps release of new model over safety concerns in internal testing

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me more than 16,000 times – as OpenAI agents did to a UN public data hub while repeatedly trying to find its way around the UN’s cyber-blocks – and perhaps it’s time to admit the system we have for keeping AI agents under control isn’t working particularly well.

The news about AI systems cropping up in places they shouldn’t sounds alarming. Though the description of these as “hacks” is perhaps overstating things, AI has exploited issues in IT systems that humans simply haven’t got around to finding. It’s also important to note that we shouldn’t be worried that the machines have suddenly become sentient and decided to rebel against humanity. There is not enough evidence to suggest that’s what is happening. The systems are simply following instructions and trying to complete the tasks they have been given, even if they’re sometimes finding unintended ways around obstacles to do so.

Chris Stokel-Walker is the author of TikTok Boom: The Inside Story of the World’s Favourite App

Published: September 28, 2026, 10:00 pm

A leftwing victory in Berlin shows people want freedom, and liberals cannot deliver it | Eva von Redecker

Die Linke’s surge was propelled by a compelling promise: for voters to have the freedom to stay in their city. This is how to fight back against the far right

The German leftwing party Die Linke won the state elections in Berlin on 20 September. It’s unclear whether the party will be able to form a coalition, appoint its lead candidate Elif Eralp as mayor, and follow through on her core campaign promise: to socialise the housing stock of the city’s biggest real-estate companies. A barrage of accusations started to circulate immediately after the results came in. Even by the standards of present-day polarisation, the pitch was extreme.

On the basis of one leaked chat and one rapper’s performance, the party was described as schmoozing with criminal clans and endangering the lives of Berlin Jews. Accusations of antisemitism prompted the Greens and the SPD – potential coalition partners – to question any potential cooperation, while “alt-right” opinion-makers suggested that “Hamas and Hezbollah” had won the elections, or that the German Democratic Republic (the old East Germany) was about to come back. Alice Weidel of the rightwing AfD alleged that Die Linke intended to “shoot the rich”.

Published: September 28, 2026, 9:00 pm

The Guardian view on Morocco’s election: hosting a World Cup will not placate a disillusioned generation | Editorial

A year after mass protests demanding a change in political priorities, gen Z opted out of last week’s poll en masse

The spectacle of young migrants swimming en masse from Moroccan waters to the Spanish exclave of Ceuta exposed the frustration felt by a generation. One-third of the population of Morocco is aged between 15 and 30, and more than one third of that cohort is unemployed. A dearth of opportunity at home incentivises young men in particular to take huge risks to reach the European Union. More than 100 people died in that attempted exodus, most of them by drowning.

Worryingly, an adequate domestic response to a huge generational challenge is a long way off, if Morocco’s latest parliamentary election serves as any guide. In the wake of the Arab spring, democratising reforms were introduced to Morocco’s monarchical system. But a decade and a half after that supposedly transformative moment, last week’s poll laid bare an alarming collapse of trust in politics among the young.

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

Published: September 29, 2026, 11:22 am

The Guardian view on Andy Burnham: grounds to hope for a better Britain | Editorial

By linking Brexit, voting reform and public services, the prime minister made a powerful, personal pitch for a brighter future

Andy Burnham’s first speech as prime minister to a Labour conference was a serious attempt to argue that rebuilding the public realm will be better for the country than shrinking the state. He is right about this. Mr Burnham’s belief in the power of government is welcome, as is his instinct that by spending now on public services he will save money later. Admitting that Brexit “has done more harm than good” before setting out options for a closer relationship with the EU could be the speech’s most consequential sentence. Offering voters a bargain at the next election – give up a little of the annual triple-lock increase in pensions for free personal care for older people – is a gamble.

But Mr Burnham clearly thinks that he will be able to show that enough has improved by then for him to ask voters to let him finish what he has started. The prime minister smartly recast “take back control” as a Labour argument. His pitch was that privatisation removed economic control, emasculating local government removed political control, and Brexit reduced control over immigration. This was deftly done – threading a common idea through housing, water, energy and Europe.

Published: September 29, 2026, 11:22 am

Sham City: verdict on financial breaches is damning and punishment must be severe | Jonathan Wilson

How can Manchester City be trusted under these owners after they were found to have devised £900m of ‘sham’ contracts?

How bad could it be, really? How serious can a breach of arcane financial regulations be, really? Just how damning can accountancy be? Even after Friday’s revelation that Manchester City had been found guilty of all but one of the charges brought against them by the Premier League, it was perhaps difficult to grasp the scale of what that meant. After the publication of the independent commission’s findings, there can be no doubt: the commission found that Manchester City cheated, that they did so deliberately, and that they have sought to cover that up with a campaign of calculated misinformation.

City continue to maintain their innocence and issued a statement insisting that “the opinion contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact, and is unsafe”. It referred, once again, to “a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of all of its positions”, and, again, insisted that “the club has diligently respected due process for eight years on the basis that the Premier League Board and Executive would behave as an independent, impartial and fair-minded regulator, free from partisan influence”.

Published: September 29, 2026, 1:30 pm

MLB playoff predictions: are the Dodgers heading for an inevitable fall?

As the postseason starts with the wildcard round, our writers pick the dark horses, likely winners and the high seeds at risk of going out early

The Mariners. The only active MLB team to have never appeared in a World Series came within a single win of ending that hoodoo last October and appeared poised to go one stage further in 2026. Instead, their 76-86 clunker feels like a wasted chance for a lineup featuring Julio Rodríguez, Cal Raleigh and Randy Arozarena. BAG

Published: September 29, 2026, 1:30 am

Ferrari say team has ‘made its choices’ and there’s no vacancy for Christian Horner

• Marque reaffirms commitment to Fred Vasseur

• Horner had expressed interest in joining Ferrari

Ferrari have reaffirmed their backing for their team principal, Fred Vasseur, in an effort to end speculation that Christian Horner was being considered as a potential replacement for the Frenchman.

Horner gave an interview in the Times last week in which he stated that leading Ferrari would be his “dream” job and the only one he would consider without having part-ownership of the team. His comments provoked debate that he could replace Vasseur, given the Scuderia’s underperformance this season.

Published: September 29, 2026, 9:37 am

Gordon and Kane fire England to Nations League victory against 10-man Czechia

Anybody can lose to Spain. But when England did so at Wembley on Saturday, it served to turn up the temperature for this trip to Czechia. England have form for finding it difficult at this compact stadium. Remember the European Championship qualifier here in 2019 when they lost 2-1?

It was not easy at first. Thomas Tuchel shuffled his pack, making the surprise decision to start Jude Bellingham among the substitutes. It was all a little angsty and Czechia, for whom this is the dawn of a new era under the Spaniard Santi Denia after their World Cup wipeout, dared to dream of another upset.

Published: September 29, 2026, 1:58 pm

‘The emperor is naked’: Uefa president Ceferin takes new swipe at Infantino

• Aleksander Ceferin condemns FFE and Balogun affair

• Tells club chiefs it is ‘time to say enough’ to Fifa

The Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, has attacked his embattled Fifa counterpart Gianni Infantino in a scathing takedown of the failed Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) project and other recent scandals, saying “the emperor is naked” and declaring “it is time to say ‘enough’”.

In a pointed address to the European Football Clubs (EFC) general assembly, Ceferin did not mention Infantino by name but made clear his view that Fifa’s leadership must change. He drew on the event’s location, Copenhagen, to make a comparison to Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor’s New Clothes in assessing Infantino’s conduct, making clear reference to the peace prize awarded to Donald Trump and last summer’s Folarin Balogun affair along with the FFE scheme.

Published: September 29, 2026, 12:05 pm

Senate passes bipartisan Protect College Sports Act amid ‘chaos’ in industry

• College sports have been upended by athlete payments

• Critics say legislation does not go far enough

The Senate passed a sweeping bipartisan bill on Monday that would regulate college sports, an attempt to end “chaos” in an industry that has been upended by skyrocketing athlete payments and near-unrestricted transfers between schools.

The overwhelming 77-22 vote to pass the Protect College Sports Act is the strongest effort yet by Congress to set national regulations governing payments to college athletes for their name, image and likeness and how often they can transfer. It would give the NCAA new authority over those rules and limited antitrust protections to enforce them.

Published: September 29, 2026, 4:41 am

USWNT roster: Ashley Sanchez earns the call for friendlies v Spain

• Sanchez, NWSL’s top scorer, returns after years away

• Naomi Girma called up despite injury absence for Chelsea

• Mallory Swanson earns recall after Olympic heroics

Naomi Girma and Sam Coffey are returning to the United States women’s national team, with their pair of WSL standouts named in Emma Hayes’ squad for October’s friendlies against defending World Cup champion Spain.

NWSL top scorer Ashley Sanchez has also earned a recall on the back of her MVP-caliber performance with the North Carolina Courage. Sanchez has already set an league record for goals in a season by an American player, already up to 20 in 26 matches. With another goal, Sanchez will break Temwa Chawinga’s overall scoring record. An attacking midfielder, Sanchez’s most recent cap came in October 2024, in a friendly against Argentina early in Hayes’ tenure.

Published: September 29, 2026, 10:00 am

Bears’ 38-year-old backup Case Keenum rolls back the years to ground Eagles

• Philadelphia Eagles 7–27 Chicago Bears

• Keenum throws for two TDs and rushes for another

Case Keenum passed for two touchdowns in his first start in almost three years, and the Chicago Bears shut down Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles for a 27-7 victory on Monday night.

Stepping in for Caleb Williams, Keenum was 24 for 34 for 247 yards. He also scored his first rushing touchdown since 2019 on a one-yard plunge with 7:19 left, capping a 13-play drive that took more than eight minutes off the clock.

Published: September 28, 2026, 8:33 pm

Saudi Arabia urged to reconcile with UAE to drive back Houthi separatists in Yemen

Relations between two countries soured in January when a UAE-backed force was defeated by Saudis

Saudi Arabia is being urged to reconcile with the United Arab Emirates over Yemen as the price Riyadh must pay to form a military alliance capable of driving the Houthis back.

Relations between the UAE and Saudi Arabia in Yemen, where both had backed anti-Houthi forces, plummeted in January this year when a force with which the UAE had been aligned – the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) – was attacked and defeated by Saudi Arabia in a move intended to squash its attempt to recreate a separate southern state. The UAE subsequently in effect quit Yemen.

Published: September 29, 2026, 9:52 am

‘Godzilla’ of weight-loss drugs could provide other important health benefits

Though not yet approved by any regulatory agency, retatrutide could help improve blood sugar levels and reduce inflammation

The ‘Godzilla’ of weight-loss drugs could help improve blood sugar levels, reduce inflammation and cut a person’s body weight by a quarter, according to the largest study of its kind.

Retatrutide mimics three key gut hormones that help control appetite, blood sugar and metabolism: GLP-1, GIP and glucagon. Unlike other drugs such as Wegovy, which primarily targets the GLP-1 pathway to suppress appetite, or Mounjaro, which contains GLP-1 plus GIP to control blood sugar levels, retatrutide also engages the glucagon receptor, which helps increase energy expenditure.

Published: September 29, 2026, 3:01 pm

Lindsay Clancy returns to court as lawyer asks judge to find her not guilty

In new posture, Kevin Reddington argues there was insufficient evidence that she murdered her children

Lindsay Clancy returned to court on Tuesday in her lawyers’ fight against a possible retrial after a jury earlier in September failed to reach a verdict on charges that she murdered her children – a proceeding that ended without definitive action.

Clancy’s team asked William F Sullivan, the superior court judge in Plymouth, Massachusetts, to deem Clancy, 36, not guilty of murder for killing her ⁠three young children in 2023, which she maintains she did while suffering postpartum psychosis and is therefore not legally responsible for. Sullivan on Tuesday only heard arguments on that request.

Published: September 29, 2026, 11:33 am

CDC reports second measles death in US while excluding Pennsylvania deaths

Pennsylvania has reported over 900 measles cases and four deaths as governor and health chief RFK Jr spar over data

A second measles death in the US has been announced on Tuesday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as the country grapples with an outbreak affecting 47 states.

As of 24 September, a total of 3,659 measles cases have been confirmed by the CDC, with the two deaths having been confirmed on Tuesday. The confirmation did not specify in which states the deaths had occurred.

Published: September 29, 2026, 9:59 am

Smart ring maker Oura puts off initial public offering due to market ‘uncertainty’

Researchers say the IPO market was off to a solid start but tailed off in the third quarter

Smart ring maker Oura Inc says it is postponing a planned initial public offering due to market “uncertainty”.

In a Tuesday press release, Oura said it is delaying the stock market float “despite strong demand”.

Published: September 29, 2026, 10:57 am

New York man killed after bag caught in subway train doors, police say

Man, 57, was reportedly leaving A train at Utica Avenue station when stuck bag dragged him back and on to tracks

A man in Brooklyn, New York, died after his bag got caught between the doors of a subway train which then dragged him down.

On Monday, a man was leaving a Manhattan-bound A train at the Utica Avenue station in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood when his shopping bag became caught between the subway’s doors.

Published: September 29, 2026, 9:20 am

Team of skydivers drop in to help survivors of a plane crash in Wisconsin

Recreational jumpers used their training as paramedics to treat crash victims before ground crews arrived

A team of experienced skydivers recently dropped in to help at a plane crash they happened to witness in Wisconsin – and used their training as paramedics to treat a seriously injured victim before ground-based rescue crews arrived.

The single-engine plane carrying four people crashed in a cornfield near East Troy on Sunday, watched by the occupants of a Skydive Milwaukee aircraft who were preparing for an afternoon of recreational jumping.

Published: September 29, 2026, 9:47 am

‘It’s just cruel’: US households hit by surge in electricity shutoffs amid record hot summer

Utility disconnections were up 28% in 10 states in July 2026 – the hottest month ever recorded in the US – compared with July 2024, data shows

A record hot summer collided unhappily with rising energy costs for households across the US that struggled to the point where many were disconnected from their electricity supply, even as dangerous heat baked their communities.

In July, the hottest month ever recorded in the US, 173,598 households were shut off from their electric supply by utilities across 10 states, figures provided to the Guardian show. This snapshot of American life points to a worsening problem, with the rate of electricity disconnections surging 28% compared to July 2024.

Published: September 29, 2026, 6:00 am

UN warns of ‘narrowing window’ to restore world’s forests

Food and Agriculture Organization urges governments to make forest restoration a national priority

The world faces a “narrowing window” to restore forests essential for food security and resistance to the climate emergency, a United Nations report has warned.

More than 489m hectares (1.2bn acres) of forests have been cleared since 1990, while an even greater area is degraded, the world body said in a call for governments to make forest restoration a national priority.

Published: September 28, 2026, 11:00 pm

Saving the Siamese crocodile: Cambodia moves to protect one of the world’s last wild populations

Indigenous communities play crucial role, as ‘genetic bank’ area of wetland offers hope for critically endangered reptile

In the 1990s, conservationists in Cambodia feared the Siamese crocodile had disappeared for good. Fishing and hunting had devastated the species throughout the 20th century, leaving populations across its native south-east Asia on the brink of extinction.

But in villages dotted among the wetlands of the remote Cardamom mountains, Indigenous Chorng communities still reported seeing them. Passing this knowledge to researchers surveying the area in 2000 led to an official recording of the species – and bolstered the mission to revive the population.

Published: September 28, 2026, 10:00 pm

EPA union sues Trump administration to restore collective bargaining contract

Federal workers’ union alleges EPA illegally terminated agreement with the goal of repressing political dissent

The union representing more than 8,000 workers at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) filed a lawsuit against the agency and administrator Lee Zeldin on Tuesday alleging the agency illegally terminated the union’s collective bargaining agreement.

The lawsuit, filed by two local unions of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), claims the agency failed to justify the contract’s termination and was motivated by a desire to repress political dissent, a violation of the employees’ first amendment rights.

Published: September 29, 2026, 9:28 am

Trump administration asks supreme court to block gender-affirming care for trans prisoners

Trans prisoners have sued administration over the policy and, so far, two lower courts have blocked implementation

The Trump administration asked the US supreme court, on Monday, to allow it to deny gender-affirming care to transgender people in federal prisons, while litigation over the matter continues in lower courts.

In its latest emergency request to the high court, the solicitor general, D John Sauer, wrote that certain care, including sex-trait-modification surgeries, hormone therapy and social accommodations – such as undergarments, makeup, padding and wigs – “could no longer be justified as treatment for gender dysphoria”.

Published: September 29, 2026, 8:25 am

US ban on Canadian imports likely to weaken already fragile relationship

It marks another ratcheting up of Trump’s trade war and affects nearly $1bn in imports of a $880bn trade relationship

US-Canada relations, already tense, are likely to deteriorate further after the United States went ahead early on Tuesday with a decision to ban nearly $1bn worth of Canadian imports, including alcoholic beverages, dairy products and motorcycles.

The ban amounts to barely a ripple in $880bn worth of annual two-way trade between the two northern neighbors. But it marks another ratcheting up of Donald Trump’s second-term trade war with the US’s longtime ally and trading partner.

Published: September 29, 2026, 7:04 am

Nor’easter unearths pieces of 19th-century shipwreck in Massachusetts

Storm seems to have exposed segments of the Warren Sawyer, a wooden vessel that ran aground in 1884

The nor’easter storm that pummeled New England over the weekend looks to have exposed large segments of a 19th-century schooner shipwrecked in the so-called graveyard of the Atlantic.

The Warren Sawyer was sailing from New Orleans to Boston carrying cotton and scrap iron when the three-masted wooden vessel ran aground in Nantucket on 22 December 1884. Its captain and crew of seven were rescued and the ship began to break up after several weeks on the shoreline.

Published: September 29, 2026, 7:07 am

Eiffel Tower chief to quit after female staff told to stay hidden during Hindu group visit

Patrick Branco Ruivo to leave post after decision contrary to France’s ‘value of equality’ sparked outrage and strike

The head of the operating company that runs the Eiffel Tower is to step down after a row over female staff being ordered to stay out of sight during a visit by a Hindu religious group.

Patrick Branco Ruivo will leave his job at the end of the year, the Eiffel Tower Operating Company (Sete) announced in a statement on Tuesday.

Published: September 29, 2026, 8:57 am

National Rally’s Jordan Bardella rails at ‘war’ on party after antisemitism claims

President of Marine Le Pen’s far-right party faces calls to resign over comments he allegedly wrote as a teenager

Jordan Bardella, the head of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN), has claimed a “total war” is being waged against his party as he faces a political storm after the publication of antisemitic comments he allegedly wrote as a young party member.

Bardella, who is facing calls from political opponents to resign, said on Tuesday that the report by the investigative website Mediapart was false. To a standing ovation from his party’s lawmakers and senators at a meeting in parliament, he said the report was an attempt to damage his party as Le Pen tops the polls before the 2027 presidential election.

Published: September 29, 2026, 8:16 am

French students and police clash as school blockades turn violent

More than 200 arrested while teachers join protest over class sizes, exhausting timetables and staff shortages

French teenagers blockading their schools in protest at class sizes, teacher shortages and long timetables have clashed with police, as politicians traded verbal blows over how to respond.

Demonstrations that began in Paris last week have escalated and spread across France, with the authorities reporting the arrests of 164 people on Monday.

Published: September 29, 2026, 8:19 am

Estonia blames Russia for arson attack on drone maker supplying Ukraine

European and Nato leaders express support for Estonia after August attack on manufacturer in Tallinn

• Europe live – latest updates

European and Nato leaders have expressed full support for Estonia and Ukraine after the Baltic state said an August arson attack on a drone manufacturer supplying Kyiv was an act of sabotage commissioned by Moscow’s security services.

Estonia’s foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna, said on social media on Tuesday that such attacks were “absolutely unacceptable” and that Russia’s chargé d’affaires in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, was being summoned to his ministry.

Published: September 29, 2026, 7:20 am

‘A genre-defying monument’: how Sign o’ the Times captured Prince at his creative peak

As a new book on the Paisley Park polymath is released, author John McKie explains why Prince’s 1987 album is the ultimate showcase of his genius

By the early 1980s, Prince had cemented his place as a pop heavyweight with the phenomenal success of his 1999 album, as well as becoming a movie star thanks to Purple Rain. Even when his second film, the old Hollywood throwback Under the Cherry Moon, bombed worldwide in 1986, he notched another massive hit off its soundtrack with Kiss. It didn’t matter if audiences didn’t understand; Prince kept moving forward.

That restless spirit propelled Prince’s final masterpiece, 1987’s Sign o’ the Times, as he dabbled with different directions. Anything seemed on the table: maybe he would drop another album with his backing band, The Revolution, or he would explore his feminine alter-ego Camille with a self-titled album. He even, at one point, wanted to put out a triple album, a reasonable response to the vast collection of music that Prince was creating. “Sometimes when people are in a place of transition, they’re distracted,” said John McKie, whose new book Prince: A Sign o’ the Times follows the pop legend’s career through the lens of this classic. “For Prince, he focused on his music.”

Published: September 29, 2026, 2:00 am

‘We got naked and covered ourselves in Vaseline’: Katherine Hubbard on photographing her ailing mother

Over five years, Hubbard photographed her mother at home as her memory declined – even persuading her to make nude body prints. What does her mum think of the wrenchingly beautiful images?

At the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, artist Katherine Hubbard started to sense something was not right with her mother, Antonette Berger. “It was impossible at the time to say what I was noticing, but something was off.”

Berger was living alone in Philadelphia, and as restrictions were lifted, Hubbard went to stay with her. Berger was eventually diagnosed with LATE [limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy], a condition which causes symptoms similar to Alzheimer’s, though the decline in memory and day-to-day functioning is slower. The diagnosis was “a painful, drawn-out and confusing process – then a feeling of so much grief, so much loss”, Hubbard explains on Zoom from New York.

Published: September 29, 2026, 8:04 am

School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play review – comedy makes a near-flawless Broadway debut

Nearly a decade after it was first staged, Jocelyn Bioh’s study of girlhood in 1980s Ghana is better than ever in irresistible new production

After its 2017 premiere off-Broadway, School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play transferred to Los Angeles, was remounted in New York the following year, and has since been staged in over 75 theaters across the US, plus a successful run in London. It’s easy to see why – Jocelyn Bioh’s one-act comedy has a familiar structure, richly detailed characters, and an onslaught of delicious barbs. Plus it has the good sense of an 80-minute runtime.

Its splendid Broadway debut is not content with being a mere victory lap, though, in a freshly glorious production helmed by Whitney White. Having staged Bioh’s Tony-winning Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, the director knows her way around an all-women ensemble, and often counts upon a team of usual suspects to make her shows pop: Nikiya Mathis, who won a special Tony for Jaja’s hair and wig designs, and Qween Jean, whose costumes enlivened the Pulitzer-winning Liberation, ensure there’s always visual splendor onstage.

Published: September 28, 2026, 6:30 pm

‘Richly rewarding’: why Netflix’s A Different World is the only TV reboot worth watching this year

With zany twists and lovable new faces, reboot of the Black sitcom is a worthy sequel to the trailblazing 1980s original

It’s often the case that nothing disappoints like a sitcom reboot. The Malcolm in the Middle revival is missing Dewey. The updated Saved By the Bell felt like detention punishment. And Just Like That … had Sex and the City diehards sharpening their stilettos.

When Netflix announced plans to reboot A Different World two years ago, fans of the Cosby Show spinoff mostly saw reasons not to. Too much time had passed since the show’s 1992 sign-off. Too much cultural currency had been invested in the show and in Hillman College – the series backdrop that was like Wakanda before Wakanda, a grand bastion of fictional yet somehow tangible Black excellence that drove attendance at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and a crowd-sourced CRT education boom online. And too much cynicism had set in among American TV viewers to bother replicating the show’s classic multi-cam setup – too dusty and fusty, they might sneer.

Published: September 28, 2026, 4:00 am

Crushed review – Steve Oram is priestly lead in harrowing Bangkok-set child-abduction thriller

A priest investigates his daughter’s kidnapping in Thailand in this Paul Schrader-esque inquiry into spiritual nihilism

‘He’s American, a little bit overweight, sweaty, a little bit camp, creepy.” As far as descriptions of border-hopping paedophiles go, this seems a little on the nose. So it’s not surprising when the man who was enquiring, priest Father Daniel (Steve Oram), responds: “Are you making this up?” Featuring a seedy child-abduction situation in Bangkok, Simon Rumley’s thriller comes close at times to bugged-out exploitation flick territory – but lets its fleet and fresh manner carry it towards a Paul Schrader-esque moral calvary.

Pastor to a mixed Anglo-Thai congregation, Father Daniel has a young daughter, Olivia (Margaux Dietrich), with wife May (Nattapohn Rawddon). At a sleepover, Olivia is traumatised when her friend’s older brother shows her a “crush” video of a kitten being stomped by a scantily clad floozy. So when her own cat Missy goes awol, she is convinced the same lady is responsible, and asks her dad how God could let it happen. The family mobilise to track down Missy, but Olivia in turn disappears one day after school, kicking off Father Daniel’s own test of faith.

Published: September 28, 2026, 3:00 am

‘Should have garnered the actor an Oscar’: why Liar Liar is my feelgood movie

The latest in our series of writers paying tribute to the films they watch when they need a lift is an appreciation of Jim Carrey’s manic 90s comedy

To be completely honest, whenever anybody asks what my favorite movies are, my list has some typical standbys: Goodfellas and It’s a Wonderful Life among them. The holiday classic National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is another. But there’s one feelgood fave on my list that always surprises people: Jim Carrey’s 1997 blockbuster Liar Liar.

The movie (for the lack of a better word) lies on the bedrock of a simple premise: a lawyer and doting father is physically unable to tell an untruth due to a birthday wish. In the hands of a less competent creative team and cast, Liar Liar would have been yet another forgettable piece of 90s comedy junk; destined for the bottom of a discount VHS bin, forgotten as the years trudged on. But largely thanks to an unbelievable performance courtesy of Carrey, who was working with a smart and peppy script, the film ascends into rarefied air.

Published: September 28, 2026, 2:00 am

‘We wanted it to be a battlecry’: how Republica made 90s anthem Ready to Go

‘The day Saff came into the studio with red hair, I said, “We’re gonna be massive!” It was the missing link’

We always had a vision of mixing acid house with indie rock, and we managed to rent a space and build our own studio in London’s Shoreditch area, long before it got trendy. I had a little vocal booth called Hattie Jacques, in honour of the Carry On films but also because it’s Cockney rhyming slang [for shakes]. We spent all our money rewiring it, and that’s where we wrote, recorded and produced Ready to Go – 100 mixes later!

Published: September 28, 2026, 7:00 am

The Fall of the West by Owen Jones review – a bracing history of the changing world order

A journalist charts a quarter century of geopolitical hubris and economic overreach

Like many Britons born in the 1980s, the journalist and Guardian columnist Owen Jones came of age with Tony Blair’s platitudes ringing in his ears. Politics at the turn of the millennium was a story of temporary dispensations mistaken for eternal truths: the definitive triumph of free market ideology; US military supremacy; a rules-based global order. As Jones recounts in his new book, these certainties would come crashing down over the next quarter of a century amid a succession of economic failures, foreign policy disasters and political crises.

Indeed, “the west” itself – as a shorthand for the US plus the wealthier western European nations – feels almost quaint today, given the increasing unilateralism of the administration in Washington. But in the 2000s it was part of the lexicon, as if the hemisphere were a political actor in its own right. Revisiting the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, we are reminded not just of their horrific death tolls (totalling half a million, by conservative estimates) but also their total strategic failure; the 2021 evacuation of Kabul airport, Jones writes, was “among the starkest images of American decline yet broadcast to the world”.

Published: September 29, 2026, 1:00 am

Stations by Louise Kennedy review – a superb follow-up to Trespasses

This tale of broken hearts and broken people moves from the Troubles of 1980s Northern Ireland to an unforgiving London of squats and payphones

Louise Kennedy’s first novel, Trespasses, was one of those rare triumphs, a debut that was not only rapturously received by critics but adored by readers around the world. A story of forbidden love set during the Troubles in 1970s Belfast, it was an international bestseller, translated into more than 20 languages. It was shortlisted for the 2023 Women’s prize and scooped debut fiction of the year at the British Book awards. A four-part television adaptation with Gillian Anderson aired last autumn on Channel 4.

Inevitably Kennedy found herself lauded as an overnight success – much was made of her 30-year career as a professional chef – but in fact she had been writing short stories for a decade and to considerable acclaim; her first collection, The End of the World Is a Cul de Sac, was published in 2021. Included in that book was Belladonna, the story of Róisín, a young girl from Belfast who moves south with her mother and, ostracised by her new classmates, becomes friendly with the couple who live across the road. Like Briony Tallis in Ian McEwan’s Atonement, the prickly and precociously bright Róisín misinterprets the dynamic of her neighbours’ marriage to disastrous effect.

Published: September 28, 2026, 11:00 pm

I Can’t Tell You But I Will by Magda Szubanski review – an insightful, elegant, anti-celebrity memoir

Szubanski’s latest book delves into both her mother’s decline, and her triumphant fight for marriage equality

There is a certain tension in the celebrity memoir between what is confessed and what is withheld. We want to know the things the celebrity isn’t telling us, and comb through what they do say looking for secrets, the flaws or inconsistencies, the myopic and self-serving. Most celebrities try to thread their stories through this needle, giving us the sense of candidness without revealing too much of anything. After all, there are reputations to uphold.

Magda Szubanski doesn’t write those memoirs. She writes about her life with such emotional precision, like a forensic pathologist wielding a scalpel; never aiming for amiability nor belly laughs, but a kind of equilibrium of understanding instead. She processes the tectonic forces in her life in order to stand on firmer ground, like building a mound on which to better survey the topography. I Can’t Tell You But I Will is the follow-up to her 2015 memoir Reckoning, about her father and the scars of war; this memoir turns the attention away from him and on to her mother, Margaret.

Published: September 28, 2026, 8:00 am

Range by Dorthe Nors review – an astrophysicist at odds with reality

In the Danish writer’s latest novel, an eminent scientist withdraws to the countryside

When Gunn Haven, an eminent professor of astrophysics at an urban university, moves to rural Denmark, she tells a local newspaper: “It’s to do with the sky.” From the outset of Range, Danish author Dorthe Nors’s fifth full-length novel, it is apparent this is not the whole truth. Soon after arriving, Gunn is compelled to trespass along a nearby track to look at a farmhouse with collapsed gable walls, her curiosity driven by personal interest rather than scientific inquiry. A woman pulls up in a dark blue BMW. She is dressed in “hunter’s camouflage, fleshy-faced. And ponytailed. Weapon raised: a phone, filming Gunn.” Gunn reluctantly retreats.

Gunn is distracted by this woman, Krista, who works at the local potato flour factory. Gunn should be working on a general introduction to astrophysics, “the Work”. Instead, the Professor finds herself wondering what “Gable Woman” would do if she came to “the Institute”, where Gunn researches “light from the oldest galaxies”. She would draw a dick on a blackboard, Gunn imagines, “with a small titillated smile”. Gunn is more generous to promising young scientists. She pays for a former student to travel to America. Closer to home, she begins to help Jenny, the teenage daughter of her hairdresser, with a school project on black holes. Jenny is an “uneducated creature” who smells “faintly of iron”, with a “faint red to the cheeks, from shyness or cold. Oddly sexless, and she had been here before, but with her mother.”

Published: September 28, 2026, 1:00 am

Cherise Saywell wins national short story award for ‘tender’ tale of a child facing violence – read an extract here

The Edinburgh-based writer takes £15,000 prize for Ditto, a ‘beautifully told’ story about domestic abuse in a small Australian town

• Read an extract from Ditto below

Edinburgh-based writer Cherise Saywell has won this year’s BBC national short story award for a “tender” and “taut” story about a young boy caught in the midst of domestic violence.

Saywell was announced as the winner of the £15,000 award, run in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, at a ceremony held at BBC Broadcasting House on Tuesday evening.

A full audio recording of Ditto is available on BBC Sounds.

Published: September 29, 2026, 12:00 pm

The cure for doomscrolling? Why Tom Cruise stopped a woman mid-scroll

Viral CCTV footage shows the star checking in on a woman he thought was in distress, but who was only engrossed in social media. Perhaps we could all use some Cruise

Name: Doomscrolling interventions.

Age: Very recent.

Published: September 29, 2026, 9:34 am

England’s national museums to remain free to overseas visitors

Government decision comes in response to Margaret Hodge review that proposed charging international tourists

Overseas visitors will continue to enjoy free entry to England’s national museums after ministers decided against charging them after months of discussions between the government, museums, the tourism sector and local leaders.

Ministers said in March that “charging international visitors at national museums could provide significant benefits” as they promised to explore options including examining whether making overseas tourists pay could boost the institutions’ finances.

Published: September 29, 2026, 6:46 am

Structural decline: what happened to Japan’s iconic buildings? – in pictures

Japan once had a reputation for statement architecture – yet many buildings have been torn down since 2000. A new book reminds us of their futuristic beauty

Published: September 28, 2026, 11:00 pm

On the rocks? Scotch distilleries pause production as unsold ‘whisky loch’ grows

Demand for Scotland’s most famous export has slumped, with industry facing job cuts and closures

Obscured by the Scottish countryside on the outskirts of Kirkcaldy, Cluny bond is, in effect, a small town built to store whisky. By the time the latest set of warehouses are finished on the former opencast coal mine, Diageo’s 220-hectare (544-acre) maturation campus will be able to store almost 3m casks of Scotch. The drinks multinational needs the space.

After a 15-year boom turbocharged by the Covid-19 pandemic, demand for Scotch whisky has slumped around the world. Distilleries have paused production across Scotland to avoid adding to the glut of supply, known as a “whisky loch” – the equivalent of a “wine lake”.

Published: September 29, 2026, 2:01 am

‘Just look at this monstrosity!’ Inside Britain’s bilious back yard shed wars

The number of luxury sheds and garden rooms has rocketed since the pandemic – fuelled by those wanting an office, a gym or extra living space. Meanwhile, the resentment between neighbours has been rising, too

Linda loves her shed. She loves that she can work there rather than in her dining room, which her toddler likes to tear through. She loves its Scandinavian vibe – it’s clad in wood and set on decking at the bottom of her garden. She loves the views of the countryside from the window by her desk. Or she did. Her desk faces the wall now, because she’s too nervous to face her neighbour. She never sits on the decking, either. “What if they see me?” she says. “It’s a horrible feeling.”

Linda’s neighbours are unhappy about her shed, or “garden room”, which is actually two rooms. They do not like its size (7.25 metres by 2.74 metres, or 3.5 metres if you include the raised decking) or its position, about 30 metres away from their house. Linda says they have barely spoken since the construction, which is awkward, as the gardens are separated by a low fence.

Published: September 28, 2026, 9:00 pm

‘It’s such a joy to ride:’ this cargo e-bike makes errands and commuting a breeze

This pricey ebike is a gamechanger for going around town, getting groceries and hauling cargo with ease – without paying for gas

• The best bike lights and bike locks in the US

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

Parking a car in an urban area can be stressful. Spaces are often hard to find, traffic congestion is a pain and it just takes extra time.

An electric bike changes that paradigm – you can roll up on the curb, lock your bike, and walk to your destination. Recently, I tested the Lectric XPedition2, an electric cargo bike that not only made grocery shopping easier but helped me explore my city stress-free.

Published: September 28, 2026, 9:19 am

‘12 weeks and SO disgusted by my dog’: what happens when you’re pregnant and can’t stand your pet?

There may be almost no research on pet aversion during and post-pregnancy, but it may not be particularly rare

About three weeks into her first pregnancy, Sylvia Luu began to loathe the smell of her border collie mix, Ranger.

Luu could hardly be in the same room as Ranger without becoming nauseous. His drool repulsed her, and she found the smell of his fur so disgusting she wore a nose plug all day.

Published: September 28, 2026, 9:00 am

‘Whose job is it to empty the dishwasher?’ Experts on the conversations every couple needs to have

Burnout or breakup are constant dangers when one partner carries too much of the mental load of looking after the home and family. Here’s how to spread the burden more evenly

Many households have an imbalance in domestic duties, and women often struggle from carrying the weight of the organisational side of life. Here, mental load experts share the secrets to having a more equitable home – and the rewards that can be gained from it.

Published: September 28, 2026, 2:00 am

Is it true that … double-dipping food is unhygienic?

This practice does transmit mouth bacteria, but don’t panic

Double-dipping means eating part of a piece of food and then putting it back into a communal dip – for example, biting a carrot and dipping it into shared hummus, or redipping a half-eaten tortilla chip in salsa. The concern is that bacteria from your mouth get transferred into the dip and could cause illness in the people you’re sharing it with.

“You do transmit bacteria from the food you have eaten back into the source,” says Prof John Tregoning, the author of Live Forever? A Curious Scientist’s Guide to Wellness, Ageing and Death. He points to a study testing salsa, chocolate sauce and cheese dip, which found bacteria were transferred to all three, with salsa showing the most contamination.

Published: September 28, 2026, 12:00 am

Jonathan Anderson mixes Austen romance with chic streetware in Dior’s Paris show

Designer’s latest work takes bold steps away from the fashion house’s brand, creating a show that felt like an event

“I want to land on a vibe.” This was how Dior designer Jonathan Anderson, one year into what is arguably the biggest job in fashion, summed up his assignment before his latest show. Expounding on chiffon and buttons with the intensity of a barrister delivering a closing speech in the high court, ruffling his hair as if his mind might at any moment explode with ideas, Anderson brings more brainpower to the pursuit of the vibe than the superficial phrasing suggests.

The vibe is coming in to land. This Dior show felt like an event, which is the bar Christian Dior set for his successors back in 1947, when his New Look silhouette made front pages all over the world. Overnight, trees had emerged out of the circular pond in the Tuileries Garden in Paris, and – thanks to the deep pockets of owners LVMH – a magical mist conjured to swirl around them, lending a cinematic grandeur to the slender catwalk spanning the water. (The trees will be replanted elsewhere in the gardens, after the show.)

Published: September 29, 2026, 8:56 am

Magnesium is essential for health. But can supplements really help with digestion, muscle pain, anxiety and sleep? | Antiviral

Experts cite inconsistent evidence for supplementing with the essential mineral – and warn taking magnesium without a deficiency has risks

• Read more in the Antiviral series

Danielle Shine says her Instagram inbox was filled with questions after Scarlett Johansson was quoted in the Daily Mail and other publications recently saying she takes magnesium to improve her digestion and sleep.

“I know that everybody is taking magnesium now. It’s so helpful,” the actor reportedly told beauty publication Byrdie.

Published: September 29, 2026, 8:00 am

Saunas, cinnamon buns and coastal scenery on the new rail route from Malmö to Oslo

A new direct train service connects the far south of Sweden to the Norwegian capital in just over six hours, with the option of stopping off in the seaside town of Varberg or lively Gothenburg en route

‘This carriage is due for modernisation. Don’t miss the opportunity to experience 90s Germany style,” reads the sign on the door to the dining carriage. The couple inside aren’t missing theirs: they’re taking endless selfies in the clinical pink-and-turquoise carriage that looks like a hospital canteen and smells like cinnamon buns and strong filter coffee.

I’m on Snälltåget’s iconic red-shelled train, on the Swedish rail company’s new route from Malmö to Oslo – a 6.5-hour journey along Sweden’s picturesque western corridor. Until now, the journey between the two cities involved long bus rides and fragmented train transfers. This direct line is easier and cheaper, with tickets starting at £11 each way. It’s already a hit, shuttling more than 25,000 passengers since launching this summer.

Published: September 28, 2026, 11:40 pm

Mac mini M6 review: truly mighty but now more pricey

Apple’s cheapest desktop computer is no longer a bargain but its newest, fastest chip makes it a pocket powerhouse

Apple’s latest Mac mini brings real speed and power for far more than everyday tasks in a practically pocketable form you can fit almost anywhere.

The impressive new desktop machine is the first to receive an update to Apple’s latest M6 chip while remaining smaller than a headphones box. It is the cheapest computer Apple sells with an M-series chip, but like every other memory-containing piece of electronics, it has been hit by RAMageddon, driving up the starting price to £899 (€1,049/$899/A$1,449) from the £599 or equivalent of its M4 predecessor.

Published: September 28, 2026, 11:00 pm

The pest I’ll never forget: I turned the toaster upside down. A mouse fell out

We tried humane traps, wire wool, hardcore cleaning regimes. Nothing worked. In the end, I wondered if the mice in our house were the real residents, while we were the intruders

Some of the happiest years of my 20s were spent in a house-share in east London. Four of us were crammed into a three-bedroom terrace where the dining room had been turned into a bedroom. My housemates were my closest friends. We were young women with the kind of intense-bordering-on-codependent dynamic that becomes unsustainable later in life, when you have long-term partners, pets and children. We lived together, we went out together, in the summer we took our Argos tent to festivals together. We stayed up late discussing love-life and work dilemmas, often crowding round a phone to draft text messages.

We were also not particularly clean, which meant our cluttered, chaotic house was the ideal home for mice. At first we told ourselves it was just one mouse we saw running along next to the skirting board or darting behind a sofa. But a quick scan of the internet confirmed our fears that it’s never just one – mice are social creatures, and they were likely in a nest-share similar to our house-share. A female mouse gives birth to a litter of five to eight mice and can be pregnant up to 10 times a year. We read forum posts that claimed mice were doubly incontinent (something I’ve since learned is fake news), and our horror began to grow.

Published: September 28, 2026, 11:00 pm

Trump and Hegseth want men to take risky testosterone boosters. It’s all based on shoddy science

Hoping to win back male voters, the Trump White House is pushing the regressive idea that one hormone could be a magic elixir of masculinity

Two years after Donald Trump decisively won the vote of the American man, polls say male voters are increasingly disillusioned with an administration that has waged wars and enriched itself.

Ahead of the midterms, Trump’s strategy seems to be to find a way to get that masculine animus back, so the male populace will vote not with their heads or their hearts, but with their hogs. At least, that’s one way of understanding why, this summer, Trump’s secretaries of health and defense announced plans that could increase levels of testosterone, or simply “T”, in the civilian and military population.

Published: September 28, 2026, 4:00 am

How a $60 loaf of rye bread went viral in New York City: ‘It’s a conversation piece’

Bread experts weigh in on whether the rye sourdough that bakers ‘feed every day’ is worth that much

A loaf of bread has become New York City’s latest viral hit and, somehow, status symbol.

At Rye, the first US outpost of Austrian bakery Martin Auer, a 3.3lb loaf of 100% rye sourdough sells for $60 in SoHo. Made with just water, flour, salt and time, the bread has attracted the kind of attention once reserved for rainbow bagels, cronuts and skyscraper milkshakes. Which raises the inevitable question – is it actually worth that much?

Published: September 28, 2026, 8:03 am

Gouged: why Americans are being ripped off – and what to do about it

How can we fix our pricing crisis? Economic sociologist Lindsay Owens urges tough new rules – and a consumer uprising

“Repeat after me: it’s not my fault, it’s not my fault, it’s not my fault.” That’s the message to frustrated US shoppers in Gouged: The End of a Fair Price – and What That Means for Your Wallet by Lindsay Owens, economic sociologist and head of the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive Washington thinktank.

Consumer rage is rising and no wonder – we are all living through the “reinvention of the rip-off”, Owens told the Guardian, an experience that is undermining Americans’ trust in the economy. Nothing short of a consumer uprising and a slate of tough new rules is going to fix the problem, she believes.

Published: September 28, 2026, 4:00 am

We would like to hear your stories of loneliness

How has loneliness affected you? Please share your experience

We live in an age where we have better tools for communication and connection than ever before, and yet we are in the midst of a loneliness epidemic.

In 2025, a World Health Organization report identified that 1 in 6 people globally are lonely. The report defined loneliness as “the painful feeling that arises from a gap between desired and actual social connections.” Perhaps, most strikingly, the age bracket that had the highest levels of loneliness was 13–29-year-olds.

Published: September 28, 2026, 8:39 am

Colombia protest, hungry seabirds and a smoking Mount Etna: photos of the day – Tuesday

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

Published: September 29, 2026, 5:54 am