Diplomacy or ‘diplotainment’? Key takeaways from the Trump-Xi summit in Washington

Xi Jinping’s visit heavy on symbolism but no sign closed-door meeting yielded breakthroughs on thorny issues such as AI, trade, Taiwan and Iran

Donald Trump welcomed Xi Jinping to the White House on Thursday, with talks on AI, trade and a growing US-China strategic rivalry expected to feature on an elaborate state visit that critics say went big on style but lacked substance.

Here are the key takeaways from Xi’s first visit to Washington in more than a decade.

Published: September 24, 2026, 8:08 pm

Experience: a brain surgeon dropped part of my skull on the floor

I was a healthy 34-year-old when a mass of blood vessels ruptured close to my brain. It took three neurosurgeons and a risky 16-hour operation to fix me

On a Sunday in May 2017, I was at the gym and using a chest press when there was this pop. It wasn’t a sound – it was more like a sigh in my body. There was no pain, but I went limp. I shuffled along the wall to some mats. I thought I was having a stroke, but I wasn’t slurring and my eyes and arms seemed fine. But my left leg felt numb – it was the weirdest feeling. Lying on my back with my legs bent, both knees stayed upright when I looked at them. When I looked away, the left one fell to the side.

I ended up in A&E for hours at nearby St Thomas’ hospital in London. I was 34, healthy and had started regaining feeling in my leg, so they theorised it was a bruised spine and thought it was safe to discharge me. Overworked staff and shift changes meant that when MRI images of my brain went missing, nobody tracked them down.

Published: September 24, 2026, 9:00 pm

‘I’m 100% natural’: how Japan’s 90-year-old bodybuilder is still winning titles

Toshisuke Kanazawa has won 19 national crowns and insists there are more to come

Toshisuke Kanazawa is reminiscing about his long and illustrious career when he pauses and makes an unusual offer: “Shall I take my top off now?”

He strips to the waist to reveal a smooth, bronzed upper body, pecs that most men can only dream of, and cable-like veins extending the length of his arms – the result of countless hours in the gym.

Published: September 24, 2026, 7:11 pm

#NotAllLesbians – we can’t let the Massachusetts bar drama turn us all into a punchline | Arwa Mahdawi

The Last Ditch Bar saga is a case of ridiculous lefty infighting. But well-meaning people often have to tolerate nonsense

I have just wrapped up an emergency meeting with the International Office of Homosexual Affairs and would like to share a statement regarding the recent incident in Greenfield, Massachusetts.

Here we go: those shenanigans, reported in a viral story by the Boston Globe, don’t represent us all. #NotAllLesbians.

Published: September 24, 2026, 11:48 am

Gavin Newsom condemns Democrats’ ‘climate hushing’, predicts Trump’s downfall and expects AOC to run in 2028

Democrats must show links of climate shocks to ‘kitchen table’ issues, California governor says

It’s a mistake for Democratic politicians not to talk about climate change, and the reason they don’t is “because they don’t know how to talk about it”, the California governor, Gavin Newsom, said on Wednesday in an interview with the Guardian and the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now.

Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting and New York Climate Week, Newsom also predicted that the midterm elections in November would bring “the end of Donald Trump’s presidency as we know it”. To prevent Trump from stealing those elections, voters must turn out in such overwhelming numbers that he “couldn’t possibly contest” the outcome. If the US president nevertheless declares a national emergency or otherwise attempts to invalidate the results, Newsom said, then “we the people have to step up. The courts have to intervene. Congress has to do its job and stand up for the rule of law.”

Published: September 24, 2026, 9:00 am

‘Everyone can relate to pain and struggle. So I’m sharing mine’: Michael Kiwanuka on life after his devastating stroke

The Mercury prize winner hasn’t been able to go home since falling ill last summer. In his only interview, he opens up about the ‘poignancy’ of finally releasing the new album his stroke shelved

At the end of July 2025, Michael Kiwanuka was back home in Southampton after a series of European gigs. His 2024 album Small Changes had been critically acclaimed and was kept off the UK No 1 slot only by Kendrick Lamar’s GNX. His fifth record, Fudge, was due that autumn. All was going perfectly for the virtuoso singer-songwriter, whose eccentric, genre-busting mix of psychedelic rock, prog soul, blues and gospel had marked him as a real one-off.

Kiwanuka had been expected to appear at the All Together Now festival in County Waterford, Ireland, in the coming days, when an announcement was posted to his Instagram story: “We are so sorry to announce that due to continued illness, and on the advice of doctors, Michael will sadly be unable to perform at the rest of his scheduled festival performances throughout the rest of the summer and the shows in North America in October.”

Published: September 24, 2026, 9:00 pm

At Trump meeting, Xi Jinping lays out terms to avoid US-China military conflict

Chinese president’s proposals for lessening tensions come amid period of intense competition between the two countries over AI and trade

Xi Jinping has called for extensive cooperation with Washington to avoid the “Thucydides trap” that could put the US and China on a military collision course amid rising tensions over artificial intelligence, trade and Taiwan.

At the start of his summit meeting with Donald Trump in the White House, the Chinese president laid out terms for a mutual understanding that he said could steer the two competing superpowers away from future military conflict and on to a road of mutual gain.

Published: September 24, 2026, 4:58 pm

Lula says Trump wants to ‘colonise’ and capture Brazil’s resources by meddling in election

A TV spot claims the US president is trying to sway October’s presidential vote in favour of Lula’s far-right opponents

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s presidential campaign has accused Donald Trump of wanting to “colonise” Brazil in order to capture its natural resources by meddling in next month’s presidential election.

The accusation came in a televised campaign advert that was broadcast on Thursday by Lula’s team amid growing fears over the impact alleged US interference could have on the vote.

Published: September 24, 2026, 8:33 pm

Man shot and wounded during Trump assassination attempt in Butler dies

James Copenhaver, 76, left with lingering injuries after gunman opened fire from rooftop at 2024 Pennsylvania rally

James Copenhaver, one of three campaign rally attendees shot in 2024 during an assassination attempt on then candidate Donald Trump, has died in Pittsburgh, his lawyer said Thursday. He was 76.

Copenhaver was in the bleachers during the event in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a 20-year-old gunman opened fire from a nearby rooftop, grazing Trump’s right ear with one bullet. Copenhaver was struck in the arm and in the abdomen, wounds that left him with lingering injuries and walking with a cane.

Published: September 24, 2026, 4:32 pm

Iran awaiting response from Trump on proposal to open strait of Hormuz in six days

Country says US must lift sanctions on its oil exports and end the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon

Iran said it has told Donald Trump it is willing to open the strait of Hormuz in six days, and to start talks on its nuclear program the day after, so long as the US lifts sanctions on Iran’s oil exports in return, ends the war on all fronts – including in Lebanon – and releases some of Iran’s frozen assets.

The proposal is designed to accelerate the steps first laid down in the memorandum of understanding signed by the US and Iran in June, particularly by helping the talks on Iran’s nuclear program start much more quickly than previously agreed.

Published: September 24, 2026, 2:57 pm

Texas woman triumphs as court upholds acquittal in voting error case

Crystal Mason has spent nearly a decade fighting conviction for casting provisional ballot that ultimately wasn’t counted

The nearly decade-long case of a Black Texas woman who was sentenced to five years in prison in a controversial illegal voting case will end with an acquittal, the state’s highest criminal court said in a 5-4 decision on Thursday.

The woman, Crystal Mason, has been appealing against the case ever since her 2018 conviction for casting a provisional ballot that ultimately wasn’t counted. In 2024, the Texas court of criminal appeals acquitted her in the case. The local prosecutor handling the case appealed that ruling to Texas’s highest criminal court, which initially agreed to hear it. But on Thursday, the court reversed itself, and said it would not hear an appeal, letting the acquittal stand. It did not offer any explanation for why.

Published: September 24, 2026, 1:06 pm

New Jersey governor calls on lieutenant governor to resign after ethics investigation

Mikie Sherrill says Dale Caldwell ‘engaged in serious, repeated violations’ involving staffers and gifts

New Jersey’s governor on Thursday called on the state’s lieutenant governor, Dale Caldwell, to resign by Friday after a law firm hired by her office concluded he violated the state’s ethics and discrimination rules.

The report published Wednesday found that Caldwell violated the state’s policy prohibiting discrimination in the workplace. It said he made an advance toward a staffer’s friend and when he was rebuffed, he told the staffer: “You young women are looking for young sperm.”

Published: September 24, 2026, 6:35 pm

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes reportedly to be transferred to halfway home next year

Holmes was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2022 but has seen her sentenced reduced several times

Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of blood testing startup Theranos, will reportedly be transferred from a minimum security prison to a halfway home next August.

In 2022, Holmes, 42, was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for defrauding Theranos investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars and ordered to pay restitution. The company falsely promoted its technology as being capable of detecting diseases, including types of cancer, from drops of finger-pricked blood.

Published: September 24, 2026, 4:12 pm

Netanyahu calls Israel’s war in Gaza ‘opposite of genocide’ in UN speech

Israeli PM attacks critics and calls New York mayor Zohran Mamdani ‘antisemitic’ in inflammatory address

Benjamin Netanyahu delivered an inflammatory address to the United Nations on Thursday, decrying what he said was a global anti-Jewish conspiracy and swatting aside criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza, as he faces down international isolation and a fight for political survival in upcoming elections in Israel.

As planned protests erupted on the streets of New York City, Netanyahu took aim at critics of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the international media, regional leaders such as Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the leftwing commentator Hasan Piker and the New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani in an address that doubled as a stump speech to ignite his rightwing base for the elections.

Published: September 24, 2026, 12:28 pm

Mary Peltola’s campaign says reports of her using slurs and shoving staffer are exaggerated

Alaska Democratic nominee in pivotal Senate race ‘struggled to deal with her grief’ after death of husband and mother, spokesperson said

Mary Peltola’s campaign on Thursday downplayed a report that the Democratic nominee in Alaska’s pivotal Senate race shoved a staffer and used slurs, saying the article exaggerated her behavior, but acknowledging she struggled following the deaths of her husband and mother.

The New York Times article published on Wednesday is based on text messages and interviews with nine former employees of Peltola, who served in the House of Representatives from 2022 till the beginning of last year and is now set to face the Republican senator Dan Sullivan in the 3 November midterm elections.

Published: September 24, 2026, 2:46 pm

Senate Republicans block Democratic effort to end US war with Iran

GOP stymies House-passed war powers resolution as conflict passes 200-day mark with 19 US service members killed

Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a Democratic effort to end the US war with Iran, voting down a House-passed war powers resolution as the conflict that has killed 19 American service members passed the 200-day mark.

The measure, which passed the House last week with bipartisan support, failed in the Senate by a 49-50 vote. Senate Democrats, led by the minority leader, Chuck Schumer, and the senator Andy Kim of New Jersey, forced the vote under the War Powers Resolution, which allows lawmakers to bring such measures to the floor.

Published: September 24, 2026, 1:11 pm

Trump’s FDA nominee says MMR shot is ‘safe and effective’ at Senate hearing

Dr Heidi Overton faces confirmation hearing weeks after standing behind Trump as he suggested shot could be ‘quite lethal’

Dr Heidi Overton, Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has told senators the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is “safe and effective”, weeks after standing behind the president as he suggested the shot could be “quite lethal”.

At a confirmation hearing on Thursday, Overton described the MMR vaccine as “safe and effective”, adding: “It is our best tool right now in the public health response to the measles outbreak.”

Published: September 24, 2026, 9:25 am

EU says Trump’s plan to ban US diesel exports would ‘negatively impact both sides’

US president’s suggested 90-day export ban before midterm elections could bring even higher fuel prices across Europe

The EU has warned Donald Trump against plans to ban US diesel exports to the global market, saying the move would negatively affect Europe and the US.

The European Commission has reacted with “concern” to reports this week that the US president could prevent diesel from reaching the global market.

Published: September 24, 2026, 7:46 am

‘First there’s the gruelling task of trying to charge my laptop’: a day in the life of a university lecturer in Gaza

As the war in Gaza approaches its fourth year, the Guardian follows five ordinary Palestinians as they go about their lives. Each tells the story of their day, revealing the terrible toll of the conflict. Overcoming internet cuts and power outages, Mahmoud battles to provide his students an education

It is time for Mahmoud Seydam’s online lecture on museum architecture. He squats in front of the step he calls a table and opens his laptop.

“Is Mohammed the only one here?” He pulls out his phone and types into the students’ chat group that the lecture is about to start. There are two students now. Mahmoud decides to wait a little for the others to join.

Published: September 24, 2026, 4:00 am

‘Eat the rich, save the planet’: climate protesters call out big tech’s disconnect from reality

Activists gathered outside the OpenAI offices on Monday during climate week in New York City

On Monday evening, protesters gathered outside the unmarked Manhattan offices of OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, holding signs calling to “Eat the rich, save the planet”. Over the next two days, groups also picketed outside the offices of fellow tech giants Google and Amazon; other protesters, including clergy, were arrested while disrupting a closed-door AI health summit in the city. Tonight, protesters will target a Brooklyn gas power plant that was set to close – until it was purchased to power AI datacenters.

The protests come on the heels of an Anthropic employee quitting his job with a warning that intensified an already-growing AI panic: “The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”

Published: September 24, 2026, 7:00 am

California sheriff ordered to return ballots he confiscated in voter ‘fraud’ inquiry

Court says Chad Bianco’s conduct unlawful and seizure of ballots ‘creates substantial risk to election integrity’

California Republican sheriff Chad Bianco must return more than 650,000 ballots his department confiscated earlier this year in an unprecedented move that violated election law, a state supreme court ruled on Thursday.

“Allowing law enforcement unfettered access to ballots, or the ability to handle and count them in secret, based on unregulated protocols, itself creates a substantial risk to election integrity,” the chief justice, Patricia Guerrero, wrote in a Thursday opinion.

Published: September 24, 2026, 1:54 pm

In historic first, tropical turtles spotted nesting on California beaches

What caused the turtles to begin nesting farther north than usual is the ‘million dollar question’

A sea turtle crawled out of the surf in southern California last weekend around sunset and started laying eggs in the sand.

People on Huntington Beach who saw the female olive ridley sea turtle were shocked and excited. And they weren’t the only ones freaking out, said Justin Viezbicke, the California stranding coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (Noaa).

Published: September 23, 2026, 5:32 pm

Six Flags Magic Mountain sued over alleged ‘catastrophic brain damage’ from X2 rollercoaster

Lawsuit joined by more than 100 others claims they experienced traumatic injuries from the ride

California’s Six Flags Magic Mountain is facing lawsuits from three people who alleged they suffered “catastrophic brain damage” after riding the X2 rollercoaster.

More than 100 other people also claimed that they experienced traumatic brain injuries from the attraction at the Valencia amusement park, according to the law firm representing the plaintiffs.

Published: September 23, 2026, 12:53 pm

Nike co-founder gives $1bn to University of Oregon in historic donation

Phil Knight and wife, Penny, make largest known donation to a public university to fund a new engineering school

Nike co-founder Phil Knight, and his wife, Penny, have donated $1bn to the University of Oregon in what the institution described as the “largest gift ever made to a comprehensive public university”.

The donation is intended to be used to establish a new engineering school in Eugene. In a news release seen by the Guardian, the university said the new school would “educate engineers and applied scientists in bioengineering and other high-demand disciplines, attract faculty and researchers to a growing campus, and accelerate the university’s ability to move discoveries out of the laboratory and into products, therapies, technologies and companies”.

Published: September 23, 2026, 8:13 am

‘She never accepted no’: Liam Neeson on dogged heroine behind Tuam mass baby grave film

Catherine Corless’s exposure of almost 800 infant deaths at a home led by nuns prompted Neeson to bring the story to screen

Liam Neeson still remembers his shock and shame when he read a New York Times article about the mother and baby institution in Tuam, County Galway.

It was 2017 and the article chronicled the campaign by Catherine Corless, an amateur local historian, to expose abuse and neglect by Irish nuns that led to hundreds of children being buried in a mass, unmarked grave.

Published: September 24, 2026, 11:00 pm

Can’t Get You Out of My Head by Michael Cragg review – what’s the secret of Kylie’s genius?

The pop star emerges as a great unifier in this in-depth yet heartfelt portrait of an Aussie icon

‘There’s an anxiety in declaring oneself a Kylie fan,” wrote the late San Francisco poet Kevin Killian (who nonetheless once published an entire collection devoted to the singer). Despite her remarkable longevity, with record-breaking chart success across five decades, Kylie’s place in the pop firmament has often felt more precarious than that of other artists, perhaps because of her past as a soap star, and the schmaltz of some of her early material with Stock Aitken Waterman.

But she has always displayed a canny self-awareness, alongside a willingness to push the envelope. It’s evident in her knowing rendition of I Should Be So Lucky as a bad poem at the Royal Albert Hall in 1996, and her many collaborations with experimental dance producers. Then there’s her instinct for giving fans what they want: inarguable bangers, like those of her 2000s imperial phase, that also possess an offbeat, idiosyncratic quality, true of Can’t Get You Out of My Head and of her 2023 viral hit, Padam Padam.

Published: September 24, 2026, 11:00 pm

From bling and birds to ‘really fancy armour’ – the best dressed characters of the Bayeux tapestry

Medieval experts talk us through the fashion of the near-1,000-year-old embroidered work, and what it says about the characters wearing it

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Blood, booze, arrows and boats; these are what you might typically imagine when you think of the Bayeux tapestry, which has become one of the hottest historical tickets since it went on display at the British Museum in London this month. But what about the hair?

“The Anglo-Saxons all have these little moustaches, which are brilliant. And then the Normans have these funny haircuts with the back of their heads shaved,” says Prof Laura Cleaver, an expert in medieval manuscripts at the Institute of English Studies.

Published: September 24, 2026, 11:00 pm

Check mate: what to wear with checked trousers

From tartan to plaid, these styles come into their own during pumpkin-spice season

Published: September 24, 2026, 10:00 pm

Price hikes, ads and lower quality: has ‘streamflation’ ruined the TV experience?

US consumers are starting to opt out of the streaming world as several services raise prices without offering many perks

It may not be quite as politically buzzy as the price of gasoline or eggs, but another household expense is going up for millions of people. Disney has brought the price-gouging experience of its theme park home again by raising the prices of most iterations and bundles of its Disney+ and Hulu streaming services. Whether you pay to watch them with or without ads, separately or bundled together, you’re probably getting a price hike of a couple of bucks per month. The few bundles that will remain the same price feature ad-supported versions of both services (plus ESPN). Don’t worry, though; paying extra to avoid the ad-supported versions of those services won’t mean that you’re missing out on some cross-promotional opportunities. Disney’s terms of service note that they reserve the right to insert ads before and after programming on whatever subscription tier they want, regardless of what you’re paying for. True magic!

This particular magic isn’t reserved for Disney, though. Price hikes among streaming services have become so common that The Verge has a dedicated page aggregating the news of them, which tends to arrive every few months. Apple, apparently high on Emmy fumes, has raised its prices four times in four years, keeping pace with many of its competitors despite a vastly smaller dedicated catalog. Depending on which version of Peacock subscribers use, they’ve seen their bills padded by five or six dollars a month just since the summer of 2025, including another increase last month. Netflix, meanwhile, hasn’t gone up since March 2026. That’s not a reprieve; that’s a sign another hike must be around the corner.

Published: September 24, 2026, 7:04 am

‘We wanted to prove we didn’t need air conditioning’: the airport cooled by natural ventilation

At Roland Garros airport on Réunion island, the ceiling design funnels a light tropical breeze into the terminal

At the arrivals terminal at Roland Garros airport on Réunion island, visitors are greeted by floor-to-ceiling windows framing the lush green mountains of the French Indian Ocean territory.

What they may have also expected was the icy chill of air conditioning; this island just off Madagascar sits in the tropical zone to the south of the equator. But instead, the terminal is cooled by a light tropical breeze, the result of natural ventilation built into its unique design.

Published: September 24, 2026, 10:00 pm

I was arrested protesting Netanyahu’s New York visit. Here’s why we took a stand | Darializa Avila Chevalier

I refuse to play host to a man who has overseen the slaughter or injury of more than 64,000 children in Gaza with American taxpayer dollars. I refuse to be complicit in genocide

Benjamin Netanyahu belongs at The Hague; not in the streets of New York City, and certainly not before the United Nations general assembly. The international criminal court has a warrant out for his arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The UN’s own commission of inquiry has found that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and named Netanyahu as its chief architect.

As the Democratic nominee for New York’s 13th congressional district, I refuse to allow a war criminal to roam the streets of our city unchallenged. I refuse to play host to a man who has overseen the slaughter or injury of more than 64,000 children in Gaza with American taxpayer dollars. I refuse to be complicit in genocide.

Darializa Avila Chevalier is the Democratic nominee for New York’s 13th congressional district

Published: September 24, 2026, 2:20 pm

Berlin’s new political star is offering something all of Europe needs – hope and housing | Fatma Aydemir

Elif Eralp wants lower rents and more public housing. It’s not rocket science but mainstream parties still don’t get why they are failing

Hope is a fragile thing. You can only hold on to it as long as you find reasons to believe tomorrow can be better. A woman, for instance, who has the resources and opportunity to rent her own flat will be more likely to leave her abusive husband and recover. A pupil who has their own room and desk to do their homework might find more meaning in thriving at school. And an elderly person who can afford to live in a neighbourhood where they feel safe and connected is less likely to become isolated and depressed.

It’s not by chance that the examples above all revolve around the same topic. Affordable housing is possibly the most personal and most urgent social issue of our time. In Berlin, a city where 85% of residents live in rented accommodation, rents have risen by almost 70% in the past 10 years. And that is despite a rent control law that has been in effect since 2015. How? Loopholes and illegal practices have allowed property owners to continue putting pressure on the housing market. The social anxiety caused by this crisis, far from affecting just low-earners and single-parent households, affects vast parts of the middle class, too.

Fatma Aydemir is a Berlin-based author, novelist, playwright and a Guardian Europe columnist

Published: September 24, 2026, 9:00 pm

In its push to subordinate women, the American right is embracing raunch

Conservatives long promoted a politics of sexual prohibition. Now such morals have been shed in favor of male domination

Under Kash Patel, the FBI will now hire you even if you have a history of hiring prostitutes, or of having sex with animals. The rightwing Maha influencer Alex Clark had a guest on to her talk show to discuss the idea that wives should provide sex for their husbands on demand. A new ad for a sports gambling website is being hailed as a victory for the political right, because it features a nude Sydney Sweeney clutching footballs to her breasts. The Tate brothers, who encourage their male followers to pursue compulsive sexual conquest and who have been accused of sex trafficking and violence in the operation of their online cam porn business, have reportedly been friendly with members of Trump’s circle. A dizzying array of elites on both sides of the aisle – conservatives very much included – seem to have been socializing with a pedophile financier, and were so unfazed by his constant coterie of underaged girl companions that one begins to wonder whether they were habituated to such scenes. A prominent conservative writer, best known for her opposition to gender transition care for children, has announced a new book claiming to tackle the problem of young women who are supposedly unwilling to have enough sex. And the women of the president’s members club, Mar-A-Lago, are so well known for their dramatic facelifts, and their lips so stuffed with filler that they cannot quite close their mouths, that their faces are now a shorthand in the world of plastic surgery.

Raunch, vulgarity, a boorish entitlement to women’s sexual service, and the aesthetics – and, indeed, the business – of pornography are being embraced by the right.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

Published: September 24, 2026, 3:00 am

We’re in a crisis of loneliness – but is buying friends on an app likely to help solve it? | Elle Hunt

Shortcuts work against the rewards of friendship: authentic relationships can surely only be forged when you’re not expecting a return on your money

What price would you put on friendship? In these hyper-capitalistic times, where nothing is beyond being given a monetary value, perhaps even Mastercard wouldn’t dare to claim that it’s priceless. A YouGov survey found that 15% of Britons say they have no close friends, while nearly one in 10 (8%) have no friends at all. The numbers are similarly dismal in the US. As we face this contemporary crisis of connection, it is little wonder that friendship, or at least the possibility of it, is increasingly being marketed for sale.

There has been a striking increase in online platforms and apps that promise to introduce you – algorithmically, through social mixers or a combination – to your next BFF. There’s Cliq, PLY, standing for “People Like You”, and RealRoots which promises user satisfaction with the tagline: “Make new friends. Guaranteed”. Meanwhile, 222 boldly declares it is “not a friend-making service”, but a means to “explore serendipity” through social experiences with compatible people.

Elle Hunt is a freelance journalist

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 24, 2026, 2:00 am

I’m an avid fan of chard – but you can have too much of a good thing | Adrian Chiles

My veg patch has turned into a chard jungle and now it’s chard for breakfast, lunch and supper

Chard. It’s hard with so much chard. As Jennifer Lopez might put it if she were in my gardening shoes, I used to have a little, now I have a lot. There was too little last year, for whatever reason. I probably did something wrong. This year, I sowed more. Come summer, the crop underwhelmed me again. So I sowed still more, throwing around seeds of as many varieties as I could get hold of. Then I went off to Croatia for most of August, where there is chard aplenty. That’s not why I go there, incidentally, but it suits me because I really like it, which is just as well because on the Adriatic coast it comes with every meal.

If you have not tried chard, I’d describe it as like spinach, but more substantial. In Croatian it’s called blitva, which oddly enough is the sound my belly starts making when I eat too much of it, as I do every summer there. It can get too much. In Split, I met a woman who was so sick of chard she got rather angry at the very mention of it. She was the cousin of the wife of a famous Serbian footballer I know. She wrote pop songs for a living, but she won’t be penning a love song to blitva any time soon, I can tell you that. As she started forking it off her plate on to mine, she spat out the word blitva as if it were a profanity rather than the sound of a stomach-gurgle. And now I, too, am taking its name in vain.

Published: September 24, 2026, 3:00 am

The Guardian view on a supersized El Niño: a natural phenomenon and human folly are a lethal combination | Editorial

Hundreds of thousands are expected to die, millions to go hungry. This is not just about weather patterns, but about injustice

Some warnings are so grave that it is almost impossible to fully comprehend them. The descriptions of a super-sized, “Godzilla-level” El Niño already heating our planet would sound hyperbolic were they not issuing from eminent scientists. They say that the weather pattern, which occurs roughly every two to seven years, may be the strongest in at least a millennium. With its peak yet to come, the temperature rise in the Pacific Ocean has already surpassed the previous high.

The consequence will be huge amounts of heat in an atmosphere already experiencing frighteningly higher temperatures due to the human-caused climate crisis. Next year is almost certain to be the hottest on record globally, breaking this year’s record. The World Food Programme has warned that 50 million people are likely to be pushed into acute hunger. Others estimate that the extra heat from El Niño alone will cause the deaths of 450,000 people by February, from Nigeria and Indonesia to the US. That extraordinary toll is in addition to those killed by the wildfires, droughts and floods it is likely to bring – and also to deaths caused by global heating.

Published: September 24, 2026, 10:37 am

Falcons trample punchless Packers as Bijan Robinson runs riot in Penix return

• Robinson rushes for 194 yards and two touchdowns

• Penix throws TD pass in return from torn ACL

• Packers’ 13-game home-opener winning streak ends

Bijan Robinson rushed for 194 yards and two touchdowns as the Atlanta Falcons capitalized on the return of quarterback Michael Penix Jr and trounced the punchless Green Bay Packers 35-14 on Thursday night.

Atlanta (1-2) erased an early 7-0 deficit by scoring 27 straight points to take control amid a chorus of boos at Lambeau Field. The Falcons outrushed the Packers 242 yards to 17.

Published: September 24, 2026, 8:37 pm

João Félix strike for Portugal enough to sink Wales but Ronaldo fever falls flat

There was a comic-strip feel to another eventful evening in the kingdom of Cristiano Ronaldo. Where to start? It was the 67th minute when his No 7 went up on the fourth official’s board, the cue to remove the captain’s armband from his left bicep before departing to a universal ovation, but for the pocket of Wales supporters.

The referee, Donatas Rumsas, hurried him off the pitch but Ronaldo, his hair glazed copper, was presumably ruminating on a series of missed chances, a sitter from a few yards at the start of the second half, and his disallowed goal, after skating offside to latch on to a Bruno Fernandes pass. The grandiose “Siu” celebration went to waste, though try telling that to the locals who worship him.

Published: September 24, 2026, 1:55 pm

NHL’s Andrei Kuzmenko steps away from team after father killed in Siberia bear attack

• Alexander Kuzmenko was fatally injured on fishing trip

• Region had been flagged as site of recent bear activity

• Forward joined Pittsburgh Penguins this year

Pittsburgh Penguins forward Andrei Kuzmenko has stepped away from the team after his father, Alexander Kuzmenko, was killed in a bear attack in Siberia this week.

REN TV was the first to report the death of the 62-year-old, who was a well-known hockey coach in Russia.

Published: September 24, 2026, 10:08 am

Kim Kardashian’s Team Moms highlights the ridiculous excess of the US youth-sports industry

A new Paramount+ series premiering Thursday turns pushy sports parents into glossy entertainment – with the children largely ushered off stage

Remember when pushy sports parents were deserving objects of our collective scorn? When Marv Marinovich and Jim Pierce were bywords for abusive fatherhood, Sarah Palin made the overbearing hockey mom a global punchline, and grim stories of pushy parents assaulting officials, kids and one another grabbed headlines and trained a harsh spotlight on youth sports? Well, the rebrand is in full swing.

Team Moms: Baseball is a glossy new reality series premiering Thursday that aims to recast the pushy sports parent as something well worth coveting, a sexy black hat with a designer label. From the makers of Love Island (ITV America), for Hollywood’s most rapacious studio (Paramount Skydance), with none other than basketball mom Kim Kardashian attached as executive producer, the Paramount+ series follows a cluster of parents whose sons attend Legendary Prep Academy – a Scottsdale, Arizona baseball hothouse with an intense focus on cultivating diamond gems. Anyone coming to this expecting genuine insights on a $40bn industry that’s now under siege from private equity, swallowing ever larger chunks of hard-earned family budgets along the way, should know up front: this is a closer cousin to Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise than ESPN’s 30 for 30.

Published: September 24, 2026, 2:00 am

Former England player Andy Carroll reveals he was sexually assaulted in 2021

• Carroll was assaulted by a man at his home while he slept

• Attacker found guilty of sexual offences after player testified

The former England forward Andy Carroll has revealed in his autobiography he was sexually assaulted by a man in 2021. The 37-year-old included the details in his book, Owning It. As a victim of sexual assault, Carroll was automatically granted anonymity.

Carroll revealed the incident took place at his home during a second spell at Newcastle. The offender – a friend of his former partner, who was staying away at the time – was later jailed for three years, with Carroll having testified in court.

Published: September 24, 2026, 10:18 am

US Jockey Club orders racehorse Austrian Painter to be renamed due to Hitler reference

• Hitler was an artist in Vienna before first world war

• Horse also has full sister called New Order

The US Jockey Club has ordered a racehorse to be renamed after ruling the animal’s name was a reference to Adolf Hitler.

In a story first reported by Horse Racing Nation, Austrian Painter won its debut race at the Horseshoe Indianapolis track on Monday. However, the Jockey Club received a complaint about the name and began an investigation. Hitler, who was born in Austria, was a professional artist in Vienna before the first world war. People often use the term “Austrian Painter” online to discuss Hitler without naming him in order to avoid content moderation filters.

Published: September 24, 2026, 5:05 am

Fury v Joshua fight confirmed for December at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium

• Fight on 11 December will start in UK Saturday small hours

• Non-title all-British bout to be streamed globally on Netflix

The Battle of Britain is officially fixed for Wales. Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua will stage their long-awaited heavyweight blockbuster in Cardiff on 11 December after an 11th-hour standoff over the venue that threatened to derail the encounter.

The agreement ends years of false starts between the former world champions and clears the way for one of the biggest all-British fights in boxing history. The undercard will take place on a Friday night, with the main-event ringwalks at the Principality Stadium expected in the small hours of Saturday morning – widely reported to be around 2am.

Published: September 24, 2026, 5:49 am

Japan teenager Shin Ohashi overcomes Covid and fever to smash breaststroke world record

• Swimmer wins 200m gold at Asian Games

• Says Covid helped him rest and ‘was a good thing’

The Japanese teenager Shin Ohashi said a bout of Covid helped him smash the men’s 200m breaststroke world record in a time of 2min 4.83sec at the Asian Games on Thursday.

The 17-year-old won his second gold of the Games in Tokyo despite running a temperature of about 39C just days before the competition began.

Published: September 24, 2026, 7:31 am

Nepal’s PM says flash flood was ‘warning to world’ as he scolds leaders at UN over climate change

Shah ⁠said ​Nepal’s recovery and reconstruction needs were estimated at about 10% of GDP, as he appealed for more international support

Nepal’s prime minister scolded world leaders at the UN on Thursday, saying last month’s catastrophic deadly flood was a reminder that climate change keeps hurting people who didn’t cause the crisis.

The disaster “was a warning to the world,” Balendra Shah told the general assembly. “And I ask you today: Have you really heard that warning?”

Published: September 24, 2026, 10:17 pm

ICE has wasted tens of millions to carry out Trump’s mass detention agenda – report

GAO documents array of costly problems as ICE pursues controversial plans to rapidly increase detention capacity

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies have wasted tens of millions of dollars pursuing controversial plans to rapidly increase detention capacity – and the total will likely rise due to continuing mismanagement, congressional investigators warned on Thursday.

The US government accountability office (GAO) documented costly problems in several initiatives ICE has pursued since Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025 and ordered the mass arrest and deportation of people his administration has deemed should be forced out of the country.

Published: September 24, 2026, 11:54 am

US mortgage rates top 7% for first time in 20 months

Increase comes after Fed decision to raise interest rates, as Americans struggle with high prices and stagnant wages

US mortgage rates surpassed 7% for the first time since January 2025, according to federal lender Freddie Mac, aggravating a housing market that has endured years of high interest rates and low supply.

The increase comes after the US Federal Reserve hiked interest rates, which directly affect mortgage rates, for the first time since 2023, citing high inflation.

Published: September 24, 2026, 9:31 am

Ukraine war briefing: Finland urges Elon Musk to expand Kyiv’s Starlink coverage over Russia

Ukraine believes that turning on Starlink over Russian territory would help it target missile launchers. What we know on day 1,675

Finnish President Alexander Stubb has said he pleaded with SpaceX owner Elon Musk to expand Starlink satellite internet coverage for Ukraine so it can strike Russian ballistic missile launchers located inside ⁠Russian territory. Ukraine ⁠has an acute shortage ​of air defences to repel Russian ballistic missiles and Kyiv believes that turning on Starlink over Russian territory would help it target the launchers that fire the missiles. Musk switched on the Starlink satellite internet service over ‌Ukraine shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. It has become the lifeblood of Ukraine’s battlefield communications and a tool for piloting drones, but it does not work over Russian territory.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has met with senior Wall Street executives on ​the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York, ⁠as Kyiv seeks to attract investments to help finance the country’s rebuilding efforts. The meeting focused mainly ⁠on areas such as helping Ukraine get through the winter and supporting its economy, the Ukrainian ⁠government said. Ukraine faces a brutal winter as stepped-up Russian strikes on ​its infrastructure and key ‌export industries deepen ‌the country’s budget crisis. The daily cost of the war ‌grew to about $190m this year. The meeting, attended by more than two dozen US companies, was facilitated by US banking giant Citigroup and the US chamber of commerce.

Russia could launch a limited military attack against a Nato country in the coming months, Danish intelligence said, in one of the starkest warnings yet by western security services. In a report published on Thursday, the Danish defence intelligence service warned of a “low but growing risk” that Russia could launch long-range strikes on Nato infrastructure supporting Ukraine, or carry out a limited incursion into a neighbouring country with a small number of troops, potentially operating without insignia. The report came hours after a fire at a Starlink satellite station in central Poland that local authorities described as an “act of sabotage”.

Nato is capable of handling sabotage and drone incidents in Europe and has good action plans in place to deal with them, the alliance’s secretary general said after the warning from Danish intelligence. Secretary-general Mark Rutte said he believes the rising number of hybrid incidents in Nato countries shows that Russian President Vladimir Putin is losing the war in Ukraine. He said that citizens of the 32 Nato countries can remain calm. “Putin is in a bad place,” Rutte said. “He is not winning the war in Ukraine.”

Russian drone and missile strikes on Kyiv and Ukraine’s north-east killed eight people on ⁠Thursday in attacks that included ⁠a maternity hospital and a ​farm, officials said. Two people died ⁠in the assault on Kyiv, Zelenskyy said. “As people were sleeping, flashes from explosions lit up the sky,” the president said on Telegram. Police said nine homes, a post office, ​warehouses and dozens of cars were also damaged in Kyiv. A separate ‌Russian attack on a vegetable storage ‌facility at a farm in a village of the north-eastern Kharkiv region killed six people and injured a further 12, prosecutors said.

⁠Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey ⁠had ⁠stepped up ​efforts to re-establish the Black ⁠Sea grain corridor. “We have now increased ⁠our efforts to ​re-establish ‌the grain corridor. ‌We are also ‌accelerating our diplomatic steps for this,” Erdogan told a group of Turkish journalists ‌in New York. Erdogan said ⁠he had discussed ​the ​issue again ​with Zelenskyy ‌and received ​a ​positive response.

Published: September 24, 2026, 5:20 pm

Russia could attack a Nato country within months, Danish intelligence says

Warning comes hours after Poland says fire at Starlink satellite station was ‘act of sabotage’

Russia could launch a limited military attack against a Nato country in the coming months, Danish intelligence said, in one of the starkest warnings yet by western security services.

In a report published on Thursday, the Danish defence intelligence service warned of a “low but growing risk” that Russia could launch long-range strikes on Nato infrastructure supporting Ukraine, or carry out a limited incursion into a neighbouring country with a small number of troops, potentially operating without insignia.

Published: September 24, 2026, 9:05 am

Family of Iranian twins sentenced to death and decades in jail ask UN for help

Taraneh and Romina Rahimi were charged with ‘waging war against God’ after joining protests against Tehran regime

The family of 21-year-old twins who have been sentenced respectively to death and decades in jail for protesting against the Iranian regime have appealed to the United Nations for help.

A formal “submission of information” relating to the case of Taraneh and Romina Rahimi has been submitted by British human right lawyers on their family’s behalf.

Published: September 24, 2026, 6:15 am

U2 announce new album Carnaval de Luz, featuring final recording by Dolly Parton

Irish rock legends’ 16th studio album, described by the Edge as ‘a messy, provocative, sacred collection of songs’, to arrive in November

U2 have officially announced their first album of new material in nearly a decade, entitled Carnaval de Luz, to be released on 13 November.

Closing out the album’s 12 tracks is Torn, the final recorded performance by Dolly Parton, who duets with Bono on a song described in press materials as “a tender country song detailing broken family ties, that holds wider resonances”. Parton died aged 80 on 25 August.

Published: September 24, 2026, 9:00 am

The long-range drone war: Ukraine and Russia scramble for supremacy in the skies

A conflict that began with tanks and then artillery is now pivoting around a new generation of drones focused on military, industrial, economic and civilian targets

Finally, in the dead of night, the threat above has passed. The rain has eased and the Ukrainian drones are ready, prepared by a ground crew shrouded in hard-to-detect green and red lights. A small succession of Ukrainian Fire Point FP-2 craft, miniature monoplanes with a 6-metre wingspan and more than 100kg of explosive, line up for an attack mission into occupied Luhansk, over 200 miles away.

The drone’s main piston engine is a familiar scooter’s buzz, but its launch booster is something else. The jet sound reverberates, almost painfully. A burst of fire lurches into the distance, the last of which signifies it is time for Ukraine’s 413 Raid drone regiment to pack and go.

The launch of an FP-2 drone during the mission into occupied Luhansk

Published: September 23, 2026, 9:00 pm

Would you bet on the future of our planet?

Prediction markets are focusing on extreme weather and the climate crisis. But it’s led to questions about what exactly people are betting on

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How hot will it get in your nearest city tomorrow? How quickly will the planet’s ice melt and its corals die off? How many huge, costly climate disasters will hit this year? If you’re inclined to do so, you can now place online bets on how the weather and the broader, longer-term climate crisis will play out.

In the US, big online prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket are considering a new area of growth beyond mere sport and crypto: the climate itself. Kalshi recently reported 500% growth in weather and climate wagers over the past year, taking the market to a $1.1bn, and is now partnering with the Weather Company, which owns the Weather Channel, to boost its credibility in this new arena.

Huge El Niño projected to cause more than 450,000 deaths by February

‘Planetary boundaries’ necessary for flourishing of life have been massively breached, scientists warn

British people understand the climate crisis threat. Today I’m empowering them to tackle it | Andy Burnham

Published: September 24, 2026, 11:00 pm

‘We can’t ride this storm’: the English farmers facing uncertainty after sustainability funding runs dry

After the available money ran out after just six hours, some fear they will have to reverse efforts to boost nature

On Tuesday morning, farmer Peter Hatley logged on to his computer at 10am. England’s 2026 sustainable farming incentive (SFI) was opening for applicants and, after three bad harvests, the money would be a lifeline.

But Hatley, who runs a 240-hectare family farm in Cambridgeshire, was faced with repeated error messages. He called the government’s helpline, which he says acknowledged there were problems with the scheme, but says by the time the problem was fixed, the money had gone.

Published: September 24, 2026, 10:00 pm

‘You can’t just bet everything on exports’: as its gas runs out, is Bolivia doomed to repeat history?

A fossil gas boom that lifted millions out of poverty has collapsed and inflation is rising – but not everyone believes selling gold and soya is the answer

Once hailed as the “energy heart of South America”, Bolivia’s economy was buoyed up by a fossil gas boom from 2006 to 2014. At its height, then-president Evo Morales commissioned a gleaming presidential skyscraper and installed the world’s longest urban cable car network in La Paz, the seat of government.

Flush with cash, the country grew its GDP, expanded social programmes and halved poverty rates. But then commodity prices plummeted and gas reserves started to dry up, bringing Bolivia’s “economic miracle” crashing down. Inflation – once the region’s lowest – has soared.

Published: September 24, 2026, 6:00 am

Fossil-fuel firms in line for billions in benefits after answering Trump’s donation call

Senators’ report says taxpayers face higher bills after ‘bargain’ between president and major polluters

The fossil fuel industry secured an estimated $190bn in tax breaks and subsidies over the next decade after responding to Donald Trump’s pre-election call for major campaign donations, leaving American taxpayers to shoulder higher bills and public health costs associated with pollution, according to a new report.

Released on Thursday by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, ranking member of the Senate environment and public works committee, and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, the report details what the senators describe as the fossil fuel industry’s expansive influence over the Trump administration.

Published: September 24, 2026, 5:30 am

US citizen injured after ICE agents reportedly mistook him for fugitive

Man left bloodied and hurt after immigration enforcement agents tried to arrest him in Evanston, a Chicago suburb

An eyewitness has described how two federal immigration agents allegedly beat and badly injured a US citizen in a botched arrest attempt in Illinois, and left the man dazed and bleeding on the ground as they walked away after realizing their apparent mistake.

Bystander Ryan Garton told the Associated Press that he saw the agents pinning down the man, who is Black, on the side of the road as he was driving home on Sunday in Evanston, a suburb of Chicago. He said he pulled over to record what was happening on video.

Published: September 24, 2026, 9:41 am

Democrats demand answers after man dies in car crash during ICE traffic stop in Michigan

Mario David Coronado Juarez was killed when his car struck a tree and burst into flames as he attempted to avoid ICE

Leading Democrats and immigration advocates in Michigan are demanding transparency from federal authorities after a man died in a fiery car crash as he attempted to avoid agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Mario David Coronado Juarez, a Guatemalan national, was killed on Sunday in Grand Rapids when his vehicle struck a tree at high speed and burst into flames shortly after the ICE officers tried to conduct a traffic stop.

Published: September 24, 2026, 11:45 am

JoAnn Fabrics fans seek to stitch void left by private equity with crafts co-op

US crafters are looking to build a communal network to replace the company after it was bankrupted by private equity investors in 2025

To its dedicated fans, JoAnn Fabrics wasn’t just a fabric store. It was a vital hub for small businesses – wedding dress makers, upholsters, milliners and rug repairers. It taught generations to make, fix and craft. A visit sparked new ideas in a way that shopping online just can’t replicate.

Since it became one of hundreds of US companies bankrupted by private equity investors in 2025, it has been sorely missed.

Published: September 24, 2026, 4:00 am

Trump administration faces fresh scrutiny after DoJ drops bribery case against Indian billionaire

Warren and Blumenthal raise concerns about case against Gautam Adani, who promised to invest $10bn in US

The Trump administration is facing growing questions over its decision to abandon a fraud and bribery case against the Indian billionaire Gautam Adani after he promised to invest $10bn in the US.

For the second time this year, two Democratic senators have demanded that the US attorney general, Todd Blanche, answer questions about the Department of Justice’s handling of the case – and raised concerns over its judgment under Donald Trump.

Published: September 24, 2026, 3:00 am

Global release announced for acclaimed Gaza documentary NAZA

Theatrical rollout across 56 territories planned for documentary about Israel’s mass killing of civilians in Gaza before film will stream on Guardian website

NAZA, the award-winning documentary from Israeli film-makers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, is set to be released in cinemas in more than 50 countries before a digital global release on theguardian.com.

The film, which the Guardian produced, premiered at the Venice film festival earlier this month, where it was met with a 25-minute standing ovation – a festival record. The documentary went on to win the special jury prize.

Published: September 24, 2026, 3:00 am

Rick Wakeman performs piano concert to 150 rescued moon bears in Vietnam

Former Yes musician plays at sanctuary to raise awareness of animals that remain stuck in cages at ‘bile farms’

Rick Wakeman has played to all kinds of people around the globe, but he has now performed to an audience he had never encountered before – an enclosure of 150 bears.

The former Yes musician, who has gone on to have a prolific solo career, played the piano at a Vietnamese bear sanctuary.

Published: September 24, 2026, 8:40 am

Clan leader in Paris sentenced to eight years over child pickpocketing gangs

Roberto Hamidovic, 48, ran network of thieves who targeted tourists in Paris Métro and Disneyland

A clan leader who sent gangs of child pickpockets to target tourists in the Paris Métro and popular attractions such as Disneyland Paris has been jailed for human trafficking.

Roberto Hamidovic, 48, likened to Fagin, Charles Dickens’s notorious criminal boss, ran a network of child thieves, mostly girls, some as young as 10, who brought in an average of €25,000 (£21,500) a day, according to police.

Published: September 24, 2026, 2:00 am

‘We fled with nothing’: the people making perilous journeys to escape violence in DRC

More than a year after a peace deal was signed, those fleeing fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are finding refuge in camps that are already home to hundreds of thousands living in dire conditions

A cry of panic erupts across the camp as several shelters are engulfed in flames. Women rush to pull their children and meagre possessions away from the blaze. The young men of the camp quickly tear down the neighbouring shelters to form a firebreak.

Fire destroys homes at the Muganwa camp outside the town of Kalemie, DRC, on 11 September

Published: September 24, 2026, 4:03 am

The rise of Dom Dolla: what the DJ’s record-breaking stadium show for 60,000 fans tells us about music today

Dom Dolla’s enormous show in Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium set a new record for a solo EDM artist in Australia, and proves how the genre is dominating

“Abandon all hope, ye who enter,” it says on the wall – no, my mistake, that is just the sign for the Johnnie Walker bar at Marvel Stadium. I have a theory that what everyone is drinking at a show can tell you a lot about the mood of a crowd, and based on the stacks of Hard Solo and Walker cans strewn on the streets outside Dom Dolla’s biggest ever show, 60,000 people are in for an intense, sticky night.

And a significant one. That 60,000 people have turned out to see a DJ play in a stadium, the biggest electronic dance music (EDM) concert by a solo artist ever staged in Australia’s history, tells us something about the way music is changing – both in Australia and outside it.

Published: September 24, 2026, 9:26 pm

Greek epics, gory obsessions and awkward invites: where does this year’s Oscars race stand?

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey might be the one to beat but a crop of competitors is starting to materialise

Reporting from fall film festivals used to be a more streamlined process – what’s good, what’s bad, what’s being sold, what has Oscars chances – but with each year, the season arrives with larger, more existential questions.

The 2025 run, from Venice to Telluride to Toronto, was notably underwhelming and took place months after Sinners went from box-office hit to legitimate contender and at the same time as One Battle After Another skipped festivals and went on to win best picture. The pipeline that had once birthed winners such as Birdman, Spotlight, 12 Years a Slave and The King’s Speech had no longer played as big of a part with Covid-affected Nomadland being the last fall festival film to win the top prize. Even without an awards hat on, there has been a more general lack of buzz, an excitement of something new that much harder to find as more films of considerably lower quality took up underserved space. If the trades are to be believed, a lot of it is down to studios choosing against the risk of bad buzz and potential embarrassment to A-listers because for every The Shape of Water or Poor Things, there’s a White Noise or Joker: Folie à Deux. So while this season might see new films starring Tom Cruise, Timothée Chalamet, Anne Hathaway, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Ben Affleck and Mikey Madison, none of them are braving a festival premiere.

Published: September 24, 2026, 2:00 am

East of Eden to Kill Jackie: the seven best shows to stream this week

Florence Pugh shines as the icy sociopath at the heart of the Steinbeck classic, plus Catherine Zeta-Jones plays an international cocaine dealer in a truly bananas thriller

“A girl like that doesn’t just fall out of the sky.” Charles Trask has a bad feeling about Cathy Ames, the woman who has arrived, beaten almost to death, on the doorstep of the farm he shares with his brother Adam. But it’s too late – Adam is smitten and therefore doomed. Zoe Kazan is behind this adaptation of John Steinbeck’s study of family, free will and arbitrary evil. Her new twist is a closer focus on Cathy (played with icy sweetness by Florence Pugh). She’s a more ambiguous figure here: not a purely sociopathic destroyer of lives but instead a ruthless survivor at all costs. The script doesn’t always do the ideas justice but there’s still plenty to like.
Netflix, from Thursday 1 October

Published: September 24, 2026, 11:00 pm

‘Stranger Things was a train you can’t jump off’: Gaten Matarazzo on his return to the stage

The actor we know as Dustin was a ‘theatre kid’ from age 11. Now he’s starring in a new staging of Rent. He discusses why the musical is as relevant as ever – and what it’s like being a child star in the internet age

Rent is a study in both joy and despair. The 90s rock opera spawned the kinds of irrepressible musical numbers – Seasons of Love, Take Me Or Leave Me – that would become Broadway standards, mastered and massacred in choir auditions and high schools across the world. Jonathan Larson’s self-described attempt “to bring musical theatre to the MTV generation” is also a capitalist critique: a drama about a bohemian coterie of penniless creatives sticking it to the man, all while their circle is ravaged by HIV and Aids. It still feels highly relevant today; see: What You Own – sample lyric “And when you’re living in America / At the end of the millennium / You’re what you own”.

Gaten Matarazzo says “that song may arguably be more impactful now than in 1996, considering what we know about what American media and world media would become, and our access to constant mind-numbing noise …” This autumn, he makes his West End debut as Mark, the struggling film-maker who chronicles the lives of his friends in New York’s East Village, and serves as the show’s de facto narrator.

Published: September 24, 2026, 12:00 am

A Different World review – it was only a matter of time before they remade this trailblazing black sitcom

Many of the original cast of this Cosby Show-spinoff are back (including Jada Pinkett-Smith, briefly). Its look at life on a black college campus has its sights set firmly on comedy

In the golden age of remaking old content and young-adult television, it was only a matter of time before a streamer got its hands on A Different World, the pioneering black sitcom that ran from 1987 to 1993 in the US. Set at a historically black college (one of a discrete group of US higher education institutions known as HBCUs), it covered issues ranging from HIV/Aids to date rape. It was a laughter-track-heavy affair that helped to pave the way for other series about upwardly mobile black Americans, among them The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Living Single. In any case – for reasons that will probably be abundantly clear – A Different World is an easier sell for a 2026 reboot than the programme it was an offshoot of: The Cosby Show.

This new version is still steeped in the world of its predecessor (A Different-ish World?), and even boasts many members of its cast – among them Jasmine Guy, Kadeem Hardison, Darryl M Bell and Cree Summer, with a cameo from Jada Pinkett Smith. The original series ended with Dwayne (Hardison) and a pregnant Whitley (Guy) preparing to move to Tokyo; now their daughter, Deborah (Maleah Joi Moon), is attending their alma mater. (Yes, if we were following real-world time, Deborah would be in her 30s, but – from experience – it would have probably been considerably less exciting to watch a series about Deborah indulging in such thirtysomething pursuits as planning a get-together with your friends eight weeks in advance, or realising your knees have started making a weird noise every time you stand up.)

Published: September 24, 2026, 12:01 am

Forgotten Island review – best friends forever trapped in frantic DreamWorks animation

This over-controlled adventure never takes a breath or a moment to let its characters come to life

Frantically and even stroboscopically over-energised, this big new movie from DreamWorks about best friends for ever seems to me another example of exhausting AI-type content production in animation. You could make the same argument against plenty of live-action films of course, but it is in animation that this kind of soulless blitzkrieg tends to predominate. Forgotten Island is over-controlled and over-determined, a movie that never, or hardly ever, takes its pedal from the metal, never takes a breath or a moment to let its characters come to life. At times it seems to be aping the world of Japanese anime, but without its sense of character or capacity for calm.

The story, weirdly reminiscent of The Hangover of all things, is set in the Philippines in the pre-social media 90s. Jo, voiced by R&B star HER, is a lonely and super-imaginative teen always in trouble at school; like Moana she has a wise grandma who guides her to her ancestral destiny and has captivated Jo with stories of her culture and identity – stories of the forgotten island of Nakali. Jo makes friends with similarly lonely Raissa (Liza Soberano) who like Jo is smart but with a much more focused sense of academic discipline.

Published: September 23, 2026, 11:00 pm

George Bush, murder and nautical infidelity: the Chicks’ 20 greatest songs – ranked!

As the country trio once known as Dixie Chicks celebrate 20 years of their album Taking the Long Way, we count down the best of their catchy, sometimes controversial catalogue

One of eight singles released from the album Fly. Amazement at the sheer number should be matched by astonishment at their consistency. If I Fall … is just great. Organ-driven rock lent a Nashville twang by the fiddle, it barrels along, rich with the confidence of a band who know they can’t put a foot wrong.

Published: September 24, 2026, 5:35 am

Julia Jacklin: The Gem review – tender, emotional storytelling of hope and hopelessness

(4AD/Remote Control Records)
The Australian musician’s fourth album blends mystery and intimacy with luscious pop-rock, bright, upbeat jangle and stripped-back acoustics

Julia Jacklin is an artist of dualities. Over her decade-plus career, the Melbourne singer-songwriter has examined the question of how to be both vulnerable but protected, spiritual but grounded.

Her second studio album and commercial breakthrough, 2019’s Crushing, introduced her to an international audience as an introspective storyteller. Rich in detail, Crushing delivered tales of heartbreak and betrayal with a kind of quiet impassivity, setting the scene for her own duality as an artist – at once open and reserved.

Published: September 24, 2026, 8:00 am

Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty review – Big Little Lies sequel shoots for high drama but fails to deliver

At 400-plus pages, Moriarty’s follow-up is too long and offers too little reward, with menopause, vaping teens and even a stalker failing to raise the stakes

Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies was such a runaway success – debuting at No 1 on the New York Times bestseller list and adapted for a television miniseries starring Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Zoë Kravitz – that she always had her work cut out for her if she was to return the fluctuating narrative back to the page. Recognising this hurdle, Moriarty opens the sequel (her first) with a note to readers that details the way the new novel both responds to its TV adaptation – by making Laura Dern’s Renata and Meryl Streep’s Mary-Louise more central characters – and returns readers to the original landscape, the fictional Pirriwee Peninsula along Sydney’s northern beaches.

Moriarty immediately situates the reader back in Australia: a magpie swoops “like a missile” at an unsuspecting cyclist against a backdrop of “bright yellow native wattle” and “lush-purple” jacarandas. Time has passed, in both the real and fictional world. It has been 12 years since the 2014 publication of Big Little Lies, and the sweet kindergarteners at the heart of the original are teenagers now, with mothers in the midst of menopause. The idyllic setting is shattered when a severed human finger is posted to the local high school, setting the scene for a sequel packed with all the intrigue, drama and suspense of the first.

Published: September 24, 2026, 8:00 am

Exit Party by Emily St John Mandel review – alternate visions of post-crisis America

Is the price of stability necessarily the loss of freedom? Two possible future worlds are linked in the new novel from the author of Station Eleven

In her second novel, 2009’s The Singer’s Gun, Emily St John Mandel tells the story of Anton Waker, a young man desperate to make a break from his criminal family. His plans are thwarted by his cousin Ari, whose hard-nosed talent for operating outside the law has become a way of life. A decade later in The Glass Hotel, a painting called Swan Dive that hangs in the lobby of the luxury retreat stands as a symbol of escape from a trap that is closing. You will not need to have read either of these earlier novels to enjoy Mandel’s seventh, Exit Party, though their loose intertwining of narrative threads will provide extra pleasure and a sense of homecoming for those who have. It is also interesting to observe Mandel’s evolution from a writer of quirky tales of offbeat protagonists to a novelist whose world-spanning, politically resonant narratives now attract a wide and devoted following.

Exit Party begins five years into our future, in 2031. Ari Waker has just come out of prison after serving an 18-year sentence for the attempted murder by contract killing of her cousin Anton. Much has changed while she has been inside: a second civil war has devastated lives and blighted the economy, and the United States as such has ceased to exist.

Published: September 23, 2026, 11:00 pm

Yellow Dog by Martin Amis review – Bill Nighy has a ball

From spoof monarch to porn tycoon, the actor narrator goes to town on the larger-than-life characters in this Booker-nominated satire

In the 2003 novel Yellow Dog, Xan Meo is set upon by two men in a pub who cosh him over the head: “Like the statue of a fallen tyrant, he crashed sideways into the damp paving, and lay still.” Meo is a writer and actor whose late father was a dangerous gangster; the attack is in revenge for Meo naming an old associate of his father in print. Meo survives, though the injury leaves him with an altered personality. Where he was previously a conscientious husband and father, now he is a chip off the old block.

While Meo languishes in hospital, King Henry IX – who is struggling to conceal his boredom with the job – is informed that images of his 15-year-old daughter in the bath are in circulation. And Clint Smoker, star reporter and gossip peddler at the tabloid newspaper the Morning Lark, gets an unexpected tipoff.

Published: September 24, 2026, 7:00 am

The Complex by Karan Mahajan review – a superb family saga set in Delhi

At once a grand sweep through history and a domestic novel of petty differences, this tale of corruption and betrayal is packed with drama

We learn about the murder of the Chopra clan’s shifty, crude, charismatic patriarch Laxman in the opening pages of The Complex. Twenty-five years have passed, but the stain on this once-respectable Punjabi family remains. The man who did it, Laxman’s nephew Brij, has served his jail time and is about to be released. Some relatives think Brij is too dangerous, too shameful to return to the family home, but his son Mohit decides the pair will live together – and rewinds the clock to tell the story of the decades leading up to the crime.

Karan Mahajan’s warmly received first two works, Family Planning and The Association of Small Bombs, explored individual lives alongside larger forces – urban development in the former, a car bomb’s traumatic aftermath in the latter. His excellent third novel has Delhi at its heart, but also visits Indian villages and cities, the American midwest and London, its short chapters flitting between different members of the Chopra family. You start by nodding in appreciation at Mahajan’s observant character portraits; before you know it you’re waist-deep in frustration, corruption and betrayal, as the book ranges through politics, faith, migration, infidelity and entrepreneurship.

Published: September 23, 2026, 1:00 am

Meet the real-life Pokémon professors, the unsung heroes of competitive monster-battling

They offer advice, referee card games and manage players’ tantrums – we caught up with some of the volunteer profs who keep the competitive game going at this year’s world championships

Professors may be the most revered characters in the fictional world of Pokémon (apart from perhaps the Gym Leaders). In Pokémon Red and Blue, Professor Oak greets the player in a pixelated lab coat, and later provides trainers with their first battle partner; since then, each successive generation of games has introduced another professor to aid and guide trainers through their journeys. If you’ve ever played a Pokémon game, they are often the first people that you meet, apart from your in-game mom.

But you may not know that there are also real-world Pokémon professors – volunteers who help organise the game’s competitive communities around the world. Instead of lab coats, they can be seen at events wearing red Pikachu-mascot shirts labelled “staff”, paired with black trousers and shoes.

Published: September 24, 2026, 2:00 am

Why fans are digging their claws into Wolverine over its patronising gameplay

From highlighted ledges to characters telling you what to do, blockbuster games are increasingly taking the challenge out of playing – and players are pushing back

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Marvel’s Wolverine, the latest action game from Sony’s stable of expensive blockbuster-factory studios, has had an unfortunate launch. Reviews were decent, if not stellar, but a series of viral video clips from reviewers and streamers have made it the scapegoat for a patronising flavour of game design that gamers have hated for decades. This clip, from Skill Up’s review, shows the player entering a beautiful wintry landscape before being overwhelmed by visual cues telling them what they’re supposed to be doing there. Sonar pulses point you in the direction of objectives. Targets – which, it bears emphasising, are shaped like targets – get an extra reflective visual effect so you know you’re supposed to pay attention to them. A trail shows you not just where to go, but where the level’s sole hidden collectible is.

It is hand-holding to the point of parody. Indeed, it reminded me of the sniggersome Mario in Unreal Engine satirical videos that makes the social media rounds every few months (“A mushroom? I should take a look at this”). Skill Up’s clip has been followed by hundreds of others, gleefully ripping into Wolverine with ironic savagery. In one much-copied clip, a streamer simply lays down his controller during a motorbike chase sequence and watches as Wolverine speeds on regardless, bouncing off the scenery as the game plays itself.

Published: September 23, 2026, 7:00 am

‘I never choose the cautious option’: Royal Opera’s Jakub Hrůša on collaboration, control and conducting Wagner

One year into the role, the Royal Opera’s music director is taking on the challenge of Parsifal, and, next season, the Ring Cycle. I’m here, and I am courageous says the conductor

‘You can choose the cautious option – or you can take the full risk and just go and conduct. Maybe I would like the cautious option, but I never choose it.” Jakub Hrůša learned to trust his instincts at the Royal Opera House back in 2022 when he conducted his first ever Wagner opera – Lohengrin – there, describing the experience as “one of the absolute highlights of my life”. Now he’s a year into his role as the house’s music director and about to conduct his first Parsifal, staged by Evgeny Titov. And next season there’ll be yet more Wagner firsts when he conducts complete cycles of the Ring as staged by Barrie Kosky. For most conductors, this would be a gradual process, adding the four Ring operas to their repertoire one by one, but not for Hrůša: he’ll be conducting his first Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung all in the space of a week.

“Is it too bold? I find it wonderful!” he says. “I could have chosen to do it in my own way, in 10 years’ time, somewhere else – but I’m here, I’m the music director, the Ring should be done and wants to be done in its entirety, and I am courageous.”

Published: September 24, 2026, 11:00 pm

‘Cracking auction, Gromit!’ Original Aardman puppets go under the hammer

Wallace and Gromit stop-motion models and other beloved creations raise money to train new generations of animators

Wallace’s reaction as the auction got into full swing might have been a trademark “good grief!” – and the enthusiasm of some of the bidding could have caused even the phlegmatic Gromit to show surprise.

Fans of Wallace and Gromit and other beloved creations of Aardman Animations seized the chance to grab souvenirs when more than 200 pieces – including Wallace, Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Chicken Run puppets from Aardman productions – went under the hammer on Thursday.

Published: September 24, 2026, 2:41 pm

Seth Meyers on Trump’s praise of Xi Jinping: ‘Not even Chinese citizens gush this much about Xi’

Late-night hosts discussed Donald Trump’s unusually lavish state reception for the visiting Chinese leader

Late-night hosts reacted to Donald Trump’s lavish praise for visiting Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Republicans’ desperate efforts to save their chances in the midterms.

Published: September 24, 2026, 8:25 am

Nicole Eisenman review – ICE-like goons clash with sublime stargazing as America’s magical magpie returns

Sadie Coles HQ, London
Abstract, humorous yet deeply unsettling, the painter’s dazzling exhibition sees her caught between distant skies and the ugly reality on the ground

Nicole Eisenman’s 2023 exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery took its title from Hillary Clinton’s account of the 2016 US presidential election: “What happened.” With its absurdist riffs on contemporary American life, the show confirmed that Eisenman is among the most important artists of her time and that “what happened” was a disaster. So her return to London might be thought of as a sequel, with the working title: “So what do we do now?”

Eisenman is justly celebrated for her rambunctious, magpie and irreverent subversions of the conventional histories of art and society. A painter who has lately (and successfully) turned to sculpture, her work often places people in situations – ranging from crowded bars to town squares flooded with mud – that match broad humour to sharp technique in reflecting on how our identities are shaped by the company we keep. And yet my first thought on entering Sadie Coles’ gallery was the artist had turned her back on the world.

Published: September 24, 2026, 7:14 am

Toxic bosses: why do companies protect managers who make working life hell?

Bullying, manipulation and intimidation can destroy lives, yet abusive authoritarians continue to rise to the top. How do they get away with it – and can they be brought to heel?

When Andrea finally resigned, her colleagues told her the truth they had always known about her boss. Some apologised. Others admitted they had watched what happened to her and said nothing. One offered the sentence I have been unable to forget: “You’ve been an emotional stab vest for us. You protected us.”

Andrea was a senior legal executive with decades of credibility when she began reporting to a powerful new colleague. Within months, something was wrong. Expectations shifted without warning and feedback contradicted itself. He spoke over her in public and undermined her in private. Slowly she began questioning not just him but herself, her competence, even her grip on reality.

Published: September 24, 2026, 6:53 am

You be the judge: should my partner dial down the heat when he cooks?

Rhonda believes Ned ruins woks. He reckons he has famous chefs on his side. You decide whose argument is in flames

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He whacks the heat right up, which stains our wok and makes it really hard to wash up

The person doing the cooking is in charge of the temperature – plus a wok is supposed to blacken

Published: September 24, 2026, 12:00 am

Something in your eye? Here’s how to get it out – without making it worse

It’s natural to want to soothe eye irritation, but mishandling could lead to more problems, experts warn. We asked them for advice on how to deal with it properly

It may feel like a gritty, annoying sensation, or a sharp pain. Either way, you may have the same problem: something is stuck in your eye and needs to come out.

Addressing the situation incorrectly can lead to bigger issues such as infection, scarring, an ulcer or corneal scratches, which are abrasions on the clear covering of your eye. Ignoring the dilemma can lead to similar consequences.

Published: September 23, 2026, 9:00 am

‘Going places with panache’: Max Mara channels audacious women for Milan show

Chore jackets and loose-fit trousers nod to ‘nonconformist glamour’ of Amelia Earhart and other pioneers

The Max Mara catwalk at Milan fashion week had well-cut coats, sturdy block-heeled boots, crisp white shirts and capacious suede handbags. What it quite deliberately did not have was shock value. “I hope everyone watching this show can recognise something of themselves in what they see,” said Ian Griffiths, the British designer who has been at this Italian house since 1987. “I think that’s really important. Without being critical of other brands or designers, so much of fashion alienates people and makes them feel that they aren’t good enough or thin enough or young enough to wear what’s being represented.”

Trousers were pleated and roomy, skirts long enough to be elegant but not long enough to trip you up. In shades of sand and chalk, grey and black, every piece was designed to work with everything else, and to blend into an existing wardrobe. The styling gestures – a popped collar here, a knotted belt there – stopped short of gimmick. The models could have walked off the runway and on to the Milan street – which, Griffiths said backstage, was the point. “The catwalk show is only the prelude to what to me is the real presentation, which is when I see women walking down the street in my clothes.”

Published: September 24, 2026, 4:52 am

Italian pop legend takes the lead in Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Fendi collection

Milan show full of diaphanous dresses and visible bras celebrates ‘incredible feminist’ of the 1970s, Raffaella Carrà

Maria Grazia Chiuri has been having more fun with clothes since she decamped from Paris back to her native Rome to work at Fendi. “I have less of a uniform these days. I think it is because being back here makes me feel young again. I’m not sure my daughter appreciates [this attitude]! But I don’t care,” she said at a preview before her Milan fashion week show.

Not that Chiuri doesn’t approach her work as a designer seriously. She described her second ready-to-wear season at Fendi not as a show, or a collection, but as “the second part of the project I am working on for them”.

Published: September 23, 2026, 10:09 am

Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: in praise of slightly silly clothes

The push to buy lasting, sustainable clothes is a good thing, but every wardrobe need a bit of mischief

I do hope you are wearing your zebra stripe trousers today. Anyone who is anyone is wearing zebra stripes this month, you know. If you haven’t yet got with the programme, I suggest you nip to the shops and snap some up before they are all gone. It would be mortifying to be the last one without a pair. Hurry!

Only teasing. Fashion doesn’t work like that any more. The days when people like me bullied everyone else into wearing banana yellow one season and puffball sleeves the next are over. Looking trendy is over. Timeless chic is the only show in town. Peacocking has been phased out in favour of understatement and personal style.

Published: September 23, 2026, 6:00 am

Benjamina Ebuehi’s recipe for Belgian buns | The sweet spot

These old-school classic treats may struggle for attention among today’s more Instagram-worthy cardamon buns, but they’re simple to make and divine to devour

Belgian buns are among a dying breed of bakes, forgotten about in favour of pretty cinnamon and cardamom buns and creative laminated doughs. I’d love to see more of these old-school, classic treats in bakeries, not least because they’re really simple to make. There are no twists or extra frills, just soft, buttery dough swirled with lemon curd and juicy sultanas. The icing glaze and cherry on top are essential, though, for maximum eating pleasure.

Published: September 24, 2026, 10:00 pm

Weatherwatch: How the weather affected early flight record attempts

A century ago, René Fonck tried and failed to cross the Atlantic despite having clear weather

In September 1926, the French pilot René Fonck set out on a daring attempt to make the first crossing from New York to Paris in an aircraft, piloting a custom-built Sikorsky S-35.

John Alcock and Arthur Brown had flown the shorter distance from Newfoundland, Canada, to County Galway, Ireland, seven years earlier. That was in June, when good weather was expected, but the aviators encountered dense fog and freezing temperatures in an eventful but successful flight.

Published: September 24, 2026, 10:00 pm

What to cook when summer meets autumn

The weather is in transition, so here are some dishes to bridge the gap between crisp salads and hearty stews

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The weather in London can’t quite make up its mind. You leave the house in the morning and immediately wish you’d brought gloves, but by lunchtime you’re carrying your jacket under your arm, and by dinner you’re closing the windows again. Summer hasn’t exactly gone, but winter has started sending little reminders that it knows where we live.

We love this time of year. The air feels fresh from the occasional shower, the days are still long enough to make something of, the light is perhaps the most beautiful it will be all year, and, for cycling, it is perfect. There are days when London seems to contain two seasons at once: summer in a sunny spot at lunchtime, winter the moment the sun disappears.

Published: September 24, 2026, 4:45 am

‘That’s so AI!’ What gen Alpha’s biggest insult tells us

The year’s most popular slang reveals what young people think about artificial intelligence – and it’s not positive

Name: “That’s AI!”

Age: Brand new.

Published: September 23, 2026, 9:00 pm

Republican jitters grow as unpopular Trump fuels midterm ‘bloodbath’ fears

Iran war, rising prices and president’s low ratings give Democrats advantage, but Republicans have poured cash into key races – could it be decisive?

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Donald Trump pulled out all the stops at the Republican party’s midterm convention two weeks ago. In speeches aimed at the voters who will soon decide whether to keep Republicans in control of Congress for the final phase of his presidency, the president dangled $5,000 checks, and warned the United States would turn into a “communist country” if Democrats are elected.

The unprecedented political gathering amounted to a Hail Mary pass at retaining control of Congress, which history indicated Trump’s Republican allies had always been likely to lose in the 3 November vote. Two weeks later, with election administrators in several states already sending out mail ballots, there is no indication the gambit has worked.

Published: September 23, 2026, 3:00 am

John Green got an astronomical following from his books. What came next? ‘I’m still competing for clicks’

Returning with his first-ever adult novel, the bestselling author reflects on fame, YouTube and his brother’s AI controversy

By his mid-30s, John Green had done pretty well for himself. His debut novel, Looking for Alaska, had won a prestigious award for young adult literature. He and his brother, Hank, had launched a popular YouTube channel, where they regularly posted videos about their lives. With their combined incomes, Green and his wife were able to cobble together a living, buying a house and starting a family in Indianapolis.

And then, in 2012, he published The Fault in Our Stars.

Published: September 23, 2026, 5:30 am

Parents and carers: how has your view on your children’s use of social media or AI changed?

Is the scrutiny tech firms are facing making you rethink your children’s relationship with technology? Let us know

AI and social media companies have drawn intense scrutiny in recent months for some of the ways the technology they’re building operates, especially when it comes to their younger users.

Parents and regulators have accused companies like Meta of designing products that are addictive to younger users. AI developer OpenAI is facing dozens of lawsuits that allege its ChatGPT bot lacks safety guardrails. Now, in the last few weeks, employees of the biggest AI firms say the companies are more focused on competing with each other than building their AI models safely.

Published: September 24, 2026, 8:59 am

Tell us: do you enjoy listening to music on CDs?

Is this a recent development, or are you a die-hard compact disc fan? What do you like about the format?

Despite the prevalence of music streaming services, CDs players appear to be having a resurgence.

John Lewis said searches are up 96% since July, and portable CD players are also proving popular, which chimes with a report this year that found CD sales are up 16%.

Published: September 24, 2026, 4:35 am

Anti-eviction protest and a flower project: photos of the day – Thursday

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

Published: September 24, 2026, 6:32 am