THE GUARDIAN

Super Cup updates from the 8pm BST kick-off in UdineLive scoreboard | Follow us on Bluesky | And mail ScottThe teams are out! Marquinhos leads out PSG with the European Cup in his arms. Cristian Romero heads the line for Spurs carrying the Europa League trophy. Both teams are in their first-choice garb: PSG in blue and red, Spurs in lilywhite. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes.Pre-match postbag. “The stereotype of the Brazilian player is a hyper-skilled player who uses incredible dazzling […]

Trump says ‘we’re going to be asking for extensions’ on 30-day limit to takeover of DC police as he announces himself as the host of the Kennedy Center HonorsWe can expect to hear from Donald Trump at least a few times today. According to the president’s daily schedule, he’ll make an appearance at the Kennedy Center at 11am ET, and make an announcement.He’ll then head back to the White House and sign executive orders at 4pm ET. For now this will be closed press, but could very well […]

Crowding out every other format from the centre of summer for this still seems odd, but if you sell it they will come and this was a good day“That was SO COOL!” What’s cool around here? The aggressively upbeat DJ box? The handsome supply teacher type with the roving microphone whose job is force people to clap and who promises to get your selfie on the big screen, but only if it’s “supportive”?Perhaps the singer Sapphire is cool, present to perform a live world premiere of her new […]

Analysis: Yvette Cooper solves one headache for justice system but may have caused anotherPlans to disclose the ethnicity and immigration status of criminal suspects in the UK have been condemned by race campaigners for setting a dangerous precedent for “dog-whistle politics”, which will make “Black and brown communities more vulnerable”.The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has welcomed new police guidelines released on Wednesday which encourage forces to release the race and nationality […]

The DC takeover is, first and foremost, an attempt to deflect from the Epstein case. But that’s not all that’s going onIn a dangerous new escalation of his authoritarian rule, Donald Trump has placed the police of Washington DC under federal control and announced that he will deploy the national guard to the country’s capital. According to the president, crime in the city is “out of control” – no matter that crime numbers are down significantly, including for violent crimes. But, of […]

After the club’s two previous attempts to sign the forward, Ruben Amorim will be hoping they have found the real dealIt has, for a while, appeared to be destiny. Benjamin Sesko’s arrival at Manchester United was third time lucky for last season’s Europa League finalists, having attempted to make a deal for the Slovenia striker when he was leaving Domžale in 2019 and again when he agreed to fly the Red Bull Salzburg nest in 2022, eventually joining up with RB Leipzig a year down the […]

More than 100 countries reject draft treaty as ‘unambitious’ and ‘inadequate’ Talks on the world’s first legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution have stalled just one day before the negotiations are due to end.More than 100 “high ambition” countries rejected as “unacceptable” and “unambitious” a draft treaty text that does not limit plastic production, nor address chemicals used in plastic products. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Critics warn move could worsen impact of Donald Trump’s rollback of funding for diversity and aid projects abroadMinisters are considering scrapping a commitment to spend 80% of foreign aid on projects supporting gender equality, the Guardian has learned.Critics warned the move could worsen the impact of Donald Trump’s rollback of funding for diversity and aid projects abroad, which has affected maternal and reproductive health services in developing countries. Continue reading...

Veteran actor played antagonist in Sam Raimi’s acclaimed horror hit and appeared in The Young and the RestlessLorna Raver, who played Mrs Ganush in Sam Raimi’s hit horror Drag Me to Hell, has died at the age of 81.According to the Hollywood Reporter, her death was included in the “in memoriam” section of the Screen Actors Guild’s summer magazine. She died in May. Continue reading...

Democratic socialist edges further ahead of former state governor Andrew Cuomo and incumbent mayor Eric AdamsNew York City’s mayoral race is heating up, with Zohran Mamdani, the young progressive who leapt ahead of establishment figures in the primary to win the Democratic party nomination, appearing to widen his lead over his main rivals this week.Mamdani, 33, edged further ahead of the former New York state governor Andrew Cuomo, with the incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, far behind, in advance […]

Hashem Abedi charged over incident in which four prison officers were injured at a maximum security prison in AprilThe brother of the Manchester Arena bomber has been charged with three counts of attempted murder after prison officers were injured at a maximum security prison.The charges follow an investigation by counter-terror police into an attack at HMP Frankland in Durham on 12 April. Continue reading...

Corporation says Krish Kandiah’s criticism of senior Tory not appropriate for faith-based radio segmentThe BBC has apologised and retrospectively edited a segment of Radio 4’s Thought for the Day after the head of a refugee foundation described comments by Robert Jenrick about asylum seekers as “xenophobia”.The remarks by Krish Kandiah, a theologian who heads the Sanctuary Foundation, prompted an angry response from Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary. The BBC said it had removed […]

Exclusive: Chancellor focuses on investment and planning rules as she dismisses talk of tax rises as ‘speculation’Rachel Reeves: Labour has fixed the foundations – now we must build a stronger economy for a renewed BritainRachel Reeves has promised to use her autumn budget to prioritise fixing Britain’s dismal record on productivity as she sought to downplay mounting tax speculation with a focus on economic growth.Setting out her priorities for the budget for the first time, the […]

Labour is reversing a decade of stagnation and we’re making progress on wages, jobs and trade. But there is more to doRachel Reeves is the chancellor of the exchequerThese past few weeks I have met dozens of businesses from across the United Kingdom. Pub and restaurant owners in Cornwall and Kent. Defence manufacturers in Belfast and Moray. Investment opportunities in Aberdeenshire and Port Talbot.I have seen an economy that has the ingredients for success – a skilled and committed […]

IHT is unpopular, but voters can be persuaded if the argument is about levelling life chances for young people Britain’s tax debate has changed. Previously the argument was whether there would be rises in an autumn budget. Now the only question is which levies the Treasury will raise.The shift has been a two-stage process. First, economic data made it look highly improbable that Rachel Reeves could fulfil existing spending pledges, while also sticking within her self-imposed fiscal rules, on […]

Historical neglect of vocational training means the sector has a mountain to climb if government housebuilding and infrastructure targets are to be metDuring the 1980s, the construction industry provided the backdrop to one of Britain’s best-loved television comedies. Auf Wiedersehen, Pet chronicled the progress of three Geordie bricklayers as they fled a recession-hit country to seek work in Düsseldorf. That was then. A contemporary reworking would need to start from a radically different […]

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US president also says he would push for three-way summit with Volodymyr Zelenskyy if Alaska meeting goes wellVladimir Putin will face “very severe consequences” if he does not agree a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine at his summit with Donald Trump in Alaska, the US president said on Wednesday.Speaking after a call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders, including Britain’s Keir Starmer, Trump also suggested he would push for a second summit if his meeting with Putin goes […]

It is August, so therefore I find myself in the midst of an intergenerational trip – and somehow unearthing a personality I thought I’d shed decades agoI am not one for aphorisms. I grew up with a water-stained copy of a dictionary of quotations by the toilet and, for the most part, by the toilet is where these things belong. But there is one saying by the American philosopher and yoga teacher Ram Dass that has always cheered me: “If you think you’re enlightened, go and spend a week […]

Emmanuel Macron writes to Cameroonian president with findings of joint commission on country’s colonial pastFrance has acknowledged its role in decades of violent repression of independence movements in Cameroon, the latest stage in a slow process of reckoning with its brutal colonial past.In a letter to the Cameroonian president, Paul Biya, dated 30 July, Emmanuel Macron said it was “up to me today to assume the role and responsibility of France in these events”. Continue reading...

In Songs from the Hole, a man convicted of murder when he was a teenager finds healing in music during his sentenceIn 2014, a sergeant at a California state prison sent James “JJ’88” Jacobs, who was 25 at the time, to “the hole” – solitary confinement in a 6-by-6 cell. One bunk, one strip of a window. Jacobs had already been incarcerated for a decade by then; at 15, he was given a double life sentence for second-degree murder. Alone in the hole, Jacobs thought, as he always did, […]

Figures from digital data company show effect of strict rules brought in last month under Online Safety ActBritish visits to popular pornography sites have slumped following the introduction of strict age checks last month, data shows.Daily visits to Pornhub, the UK’s most used porn site, fell from 3.6m on 24 July, the day before age-gating was introduced, to 1.9m on 8 August, a drop of 47%. Continue reading...

Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Maintaining a remarkable mood of spontaneity and joy, Tothill sweeps his audience through unexpected history and cruise-ship hellBoth his previous shows having almost killed him, the bar for success is set low for John Tothill at this year’s fringe. But you wouldn’t bet against this cat with nine lives high-achieving his way to award recognition this year, so confident is his comic voice, so frothy and delightful the hour we spend in his company. Rare is the […]

USS Higgins and USS Cincinnati sailed near Scarborough Shoal after Chinese tried to drive away Philippine vesselThe US has briefly deployed two warships in a disputed South China Sea shoal where two Chinese ships collided earlier in the week while trying to drive away a smaller Philippine ship in a high-seas accident that raised alarms about maritime safety.Both China and the Philippines claim Scarborough Shoal and other outcroppings in the South China Sea. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan […]

A senior civil servant and Hazel Jones respond to a column by Martin KettleMartin Kettle is right to call for leaders who can operate the machinery of government (Opinion, 7 August). However, it should be made clear that the machinery of government – in which I work as a senior civil servant – is not a “machine”, as many current leaders assume.In his 2024 book On Leadership, Tony Blair says leaders often make the mistake of believing that the machinery of government is “like an […]

Readers respond to the Home Office plan put forward after Reform UK accused police of a ‘cover-up’ over two suspects’ migration statusWe share the concerns of the Runnymede Trust and the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants that the proposal to allow police to reveal the ethnicity and migration status of crime suspects has scant regard for community safety (Campaigners criticise UK plans to reveal suspects’ ethnicity and migration status, 10 August).After another summer of […]

Catriona Lamont says her encouragement helped kickstart a scientific career. Plus a letter from John HinklyDespite her reputation as a formidable, sometimes controlling, editor of Blue Peter, when I met Biddy Baxter (Obituary, 11 August) she exuded nothing but warmth and fun, entertaining us immensely with all her anecdotes. The occasion was a long, leisurely lunch in 2008, along with her original producers. This was to celebrate the awarding of a coveted gold Blue Peter badge to my then […]

John Hyman and Anthony Julius respond to an article by Rashid Khalidi criticising Columbia University’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definitionIn his open letter to the acting president of Columbia University (I spent decades at Columbia. I’m withdrawing my fall course due to its deal with Trump, 1 August), Rashid Khalidi announces that he will not teach his scheduled course in the fall term, “specifically in light of Columbia’s adoption of the […]

Girl, 16, and two boys, 14 and 15, detained after death of Alexander Cashford in Leysdown-on-Sea Three children charged with murder after the death of a man in a Kent seaside resort have appeared in court.Police were called to the Warden Bay Road area of Leysdown-on-Sea on the Isle of Sheppey shortly after 7pm on Sunday after a disturbance involving a small number of people, Kent police said. Continue reading...

The German chancellor’s high-wire statesmanship on Ukraine has done little to alleviate his domestic woesEurope live – latest updatesFriedrich Merz hosted the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Wednesday as a weakened leader 100 days into his term, with his attempts to rally western support for Kyiv and wrangle Donald Trump failing to silence his domestic critics.The German chancellor took the initiative for Wednesday’s lightning round of telephone conferences bringing in EU […]

The rivalry between the regions who claim to have invented it is more heated than ever – and should it be 8cm or 31cm long?Name: Bratwurst.Age: It depends. Continue reading...

After IceBlock’s launch in April, Kristi Noem attacked developer Joshua Aaron and his wife was fired from the DoJ. The attention has only led to more raids being reportedFor many undocumented immigrants living in the US, the constant threat of Ice raids has turned their homes into prisons. Leaving the house to go to work, school, buy groceries or the doctor’s office all carry unthinkable risks.It’s a problem that Joshua Aaron wanted to tackle. A former indie musician (he played bass in […]

Young people are drawn in by the promise of a ‘no-distractions’ zone, rereleases of old classics and music documentaries by global artistsA new generation of film lovers is helping to drive an increase in cinema attendance across the UK. As the industry slowly recovers from the decline of audiences during the pandemic – there were 126.5m admissions in 2024 compared with 176.1m in 2019, the rise in younger people returning to cinema may be due to a newfound love for film developed during […]

In the run-up to this week’s deadly attacks, stories linking Palestinian reporters to Hamas gained currency. What followed seemed inevitableWhat is the role of journalism when Palestinian reporters are treated as criminals and left to die? Last October, I spoke with the journalist Hossam Shabat. He described families packing what little they had left in northern Gaza as Israel began implementing its “generals’ plan”. Six months later, Shabat was dead – killed by Israel, accused of […]

Williams to play first slam singles since 2023Oldest US Open singles entrant since 1981Seven-time major champ won in 2000 and 2001Venus Williams will make her return to Grand Slam singles at the US Open after a two-year absence, having received a wildcard invitation on Wednesday to compete at Flushing Meadows at age 45.Williams will be the oldest singles entrant at the tournament since Renee Richards played there at 47 in 1981, according to the International Tennis Federation. Continue […]