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Reports that sabotaged pagers and walkie-talkies were made by Israeli front company with links to Europe Middle East crisis – latest news updates A meticulous manufacturing operation, probably controlled by an Israeli front company, is emerging as the most likely way thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies containing hidden explosives ended up in the hands of Hezbollah operatives this week. Experts said the sabotaged devices appeared to use small amounts of military grade plastic explosives that could be carefully assembled only over a period of time, amid reports that they were manufactured by an Israeli front company with links to Europe. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Lr2bICM

Local, national, international – the weekday paper was a brilliant one-stop shop. But information, and how we get it, is more atomised now Local daily to close.” Ultimately, that is the truth. From today, London’s Evening Standard is indeed ceasing to appear every weekday, as it has for almost 200 years. Yet you don’t have to have worked there for more than 15 years, as I did, to regard it as so much more than just a local rag. It will live as a website, with a once a week print edition, the London Standard. But it’s certainly a moment. The reach of the Standard as we have known it was huge, if implicit. Though its print edition was largely restricted to the capital, it used to be referred to, without irony, as “the influential London Evening Standard”. How long ago that seems. James Hanning is a former opinion editor of the Evening Standard, an ex deputy editor of the Independent on Sunday and author of The News Machine, about the phone hacking at the News of the World Continue re

Israel is widely believed to be behind the operations – but who made the devices, and how did they explode? Middle East crisis – latest news updates It may be years before the full story is told of how coordinated explosions of thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah was orchestrated. But, even without Israel publicly admitting responsibility, it is clear that the attack must have been carefully planned – however uncertain its consequences. Experts generally believe a small mount of stable explosive was carefully implanted into each sabotaged device. Alan Woodward, a professor of cybersecurity at Surrey University, says: “There wouldn’t need to be much explosive, as proximity to a human body means it would cause injury even if it was a few grams.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/yYGWAEO

American musician and founding member of the Jackson 5 who went on to have a solo career with his own blues band Tito Jackson, who has died aged 70 of a heart attack, remembered his first visit to Britain as a member of the Jackson 5, in 1972. He described how “we had something like 10,000 screaming fans to greet us at the airport. I got lost in the airport and had 1,000 fans chasing me, pulling everywhere. It was crazy.” The group’s glittering run of success included four successive US No 1 singles in 1969-70, I Want You Back , ABC , The Love You Save and I’ll Be There, and they amassed 17 Top 40 singles in five years as well as a string of successful albums. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/aRsQ6D5

Those who know the publicity-shy millionaire talk of a selfless individual who was integral to the election victory By the time Keir Starmer entered Downing Street, his ally and donor Waheed Alli had become so much a part of the Labour operation that no one at the top of the party was surprised to see him floating around the building. According to one person who knows both men. However, the millionaire business executive was surprised to find himself there. “Waheed was an important part of Keir’s team during the election campaign, and so it was felt natural that he should get a pass,” they said. “The thing was, Waheed didn’t really know what he was doing there, so he handed it back.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/eXrLW2u

A settled domestic life can seem like a pipe dream for some LGBTQ+ writers, especially in the midst of a housing crisis. Yet novelists such as Booker nominated Yael van der Wouden are finding that inspiration begins at home ‘I think it’s an investigation of belonging – one that we didn’t have a literal space for before.” I’m on the phone with the novelist Yael van der Wouden, conferring with her about a recent trend in LGBTQ+ writing: a preoccupation with houses. I figured she would be a good person to talk to because her new, Booker-nominated novel The Safekeep centres on a lonely old house in the Dutch countryside that suddenly, one summer, is flooded with queer desire and intrigue. The problem is that the Booker-nominated author is talking to me in transit, touring Europe, at this moment on a train rattling across northern Italy. Reader, witness the irony of our discussing ideas of rootedness and belonging as Van der Wouden keeps getting ousted from her seat. She says she’ll have

While despicable, this second assassination attempt on Trump is partly a symptom of the hate he and JD Vance are peddling The second apparent attempt on Donald Trump’s life – on Sunday at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida – occurred just over two months after he was wounded during an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. “They’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you,” the former president said after the first attempt. “I’m just standing in the way.” “They” should not be coming after anyone. There is no place in a democracy for violence, nor for threats of violence. Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy at the University of California Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His newest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading... from The Guard

USA win for first time since 2017 after 15½ to 12½ victory Charley Hull beat Nelly Korda 6&4 to give Europe hope They say Virginia is for lovers. The US ensured the overdue resumption of its relationship with the Solheim Cup on an afternoon when the heroics of Charley Hull almost inspired her European teammates towards the making of history. Watching golf fans were given cause to remember why the Solheim Cup is held in such deep affection. The event will return in the Netherlands in 2026; a wait that for now is unsatisfactory. It feels like an understatement to point out Suzann Pettersen’s European contingent battled hard to keep their hands on the trophy for what would have been a record-breaking fourth time. The US held their nerve. The scoreline of 15½ to 12½ did justice to that and a European team who lacked nothing in heart. Far from bursting through the tape, the hosts at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club stumbled over the line like an exhausted marathon runner. Continue

Exclusive: Ex-Labour leader gives speech at event where organisers say they aim to start party named Collective Jeremy Corbyn has addressed a meeting for a new leftwing political party named Collective attended by the former Unite general secretary Len McCluskey and a raft of former independent candidates. Key figures in the group said they hoped the party would act as an incubator for future leaders who could replace Corbyn as a figurehead of the left, and aim to contest seats at the next general election. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/GHrXyFp

The Princess of Wales wasn’t just cosplaying middle class with that video, she was totally reclaiming it Give the Princess of Wales her due, she got our full attention with that video . Posted on Instagram to mark the completion of chemotherapy to treat her cancer, and her reintroduction to public life, filmed by Will Warr in rural Norfolk, it was instant PR dynamite. The Veronica Beard boho dress (a sell-out, naturally). Those flickering sepia-soaked scenes with Prince William and the children; wheat fields, haystacks, hugs, kisses. The heartfelt voiceover, and overall “Eat, Pray, Picnic” vibe, all pulsing with keynotes: home, family, recovery and hard-earned positivity. How fascinating. Pointed. Revealing. You could appreciate why some fellow cancer sufferers might find it overly photogenic and filtered, and not just in terms of the images. Might the rupture with Harry and Meghan be playing into it? Probably. (When does it not?) It’s also telling how the video swerves palaces, gra

National police agency says it is investigating 513 cases of deepfake pornography as a new scandal grips the country The anger was palpable. For the second time in just a few years, South Korean women took to the streets of Seoul to demand an end to sexual abuse. When the country spearheaded Asia’s #MeToo movement, the culprit was molka – spy cams used to record women without their knowledge. Now their fury was directed at an epidemic of deepfake pornography. For Juhee Jin, 26, a Seoul resident who advocates for women’s rights, the emergence of this new menace, in which women and girls are again the targets, was depressingly predictable. “This should have been addressed a long time ago,” says Jin, a translator. “I hope that authorities take precautions and provide proper education so that people can prevent these crimes from happening.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/JwYPEfs

Son of opposition figure who led botched attempt in May is among three Americans sentenced to death A Briton and three Americans are among 37 people sentenced to death on Friday over an attempt to overthrow the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Six people were killed during the botched coup attempt led by the opposition figure Christian Malanga on 19 May that targeted the presidential palace and a close ally of President Félix Tshisekedi. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/MELFbSm

Pontiff, 87, likens abortion to ‘assassination’ and condemns Trump over immigration plans Pope Francis on Friday criticized Donald Trump over his plan to deport millions of immigrants and Kamala Harris over her stance supporting abortion rights. Asked about the US presidential election on his flight back to Rome from Singapore, the pope said not welcoming migrants is a “grave” sin, and likened having an abortion to an “assassination“. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/XR24xkW

Shows presented by eBay and Oxfam are first on-schedule at fashion week to exclusively feature preloved pieces If vintage fashion conjures visions of tea dresses and sweat stains, it is time to update your thinking. London fashion week kicked off in the capital on Thursday with clothes that might have been secondhand but felt very much of 2024. In an event space underneath a railway arch in Shoreditch, eBay, in partnership with the British Fashion Council (BFC), sent clothes by leading British designers from different decades down the catwalk, in a nod to it being London fashion week’s 40th anniversary . Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/6xLZFrW

West Yorkshire city to host magic, music, film and theatre performances celebrating local talent, plus Turner prize A city centre magic show, the Brontës as you’ve never seen them before, and a bassline house symphony are all part of Bradford’s City of Culture lineup , which its organisers call a celebration of everything that makes the West Yorkshire city great. Shanaz Gulzar, the creative director of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, said the whole of the country was invited to come next year to a place she billed as young, diverse, creative and “the heart of the UK”. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/rdTByX1

A tried-and-tested take on a late-summer New England speciality that you’ll devour with glee If there’s a single ingredient that unites Americans from Cape Horn to Canada, it’s maize. One of the sacred Three Sisters of indigenous north and central American diets , it’s revered as a god in Mesoamerican culture – and treasured in the UK largely as a way to bulk out tuna sandwiches. Disrespectful, perhaps, but then this is not a plant that was much grown here – for human consumption, at least – until relatively recently, so it’s not surprising that we’re not up to speed with what to do with the stuff, apart from sticking it in a baked potato or burning it on the barbecue. If you’d like to expand your repertoire, this late-summer New England favourite is a great way to extract maximum flavour from each cob, and with minimal risk to your dentistry. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/6TlgMph

PM becomes first to address union conference in 15 years before Mel Stride struggles to rouse revolt in benefit cut vote Sometimes it’s all about the little things. The details. Like actually bothering to turn up and show your face. For the last 14 years the Tory government had always insisted it was on the side of the hard-working people of Britain. And yet in that time none of the five different prime ministers thought it worth their while making the hour-long train ride to Brighton to speak to the TUC conference. Or to even open a dialogue. Perhaps because they imagined that only slackers needed a union. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/M3HGdwn

Toronto film festival: the actor leads a top-tier ensemble, including Stanley Tucci and Isabella Rossellini, in an entertainingly juicy adaptation of Robert Harris’s novel Like the easily devoured paperback it’s based on, pulpy papal thriller Conclave has a brisk, page-turning allure, filled with juicy intrigue and mystery, a beach read that would follow you back home after. We’ve become grimly accustomed to plot-heavy best-sellers such as this stretched out into indulgent 10-episode seasons of television (such as the recently misjudged re-adaptation of Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent on Apple TV+), a baggy over-extension of stories that demand a tighter grip. So it’s a mercy of sorts to see All Quiet on the Western Front’s Edward Berger transform Robert Harris’s “unputdownable” pot-boiler into a brisk, contained feature instead, a two-hour escape to the Vatican that knows exactly when to drop us in and take us out. It’s a fairly dry setup in theory but Harris and playwright Peter

Explaining things to another person – or a rubber duck – can boost your understanding and even bridge political divides Over breakfast this morning, I enjoyed a short chat with Mia, my new Spanish study buddy. I went over some of the stuff from my recent lesson and explained what I have learned about the psychology of happiness from a Spanish-language podcast . By the end of the 10-minute conversation, I felt that I had embedded more of the vocabulary, grammar and turns of phrase than if I’d done an hour of textbook exercises. Mia, however, does not exist in real life: they are an AI that I created to take advantage of a phenomenon called the “protege effect”. According to a wealth of psychological research, we learn more effectively when we teach someone else about the topic we’ve just explored – even if that person doesn’t really exist. There are few shortcuts to mastery, but the protege effect appears to be one of the most effective ways of accelerating our knowledge and understan

Assistant coach insists England can still grasp victory Jamie Smith’s quick scoring proof he is ‘an entertainer’ Paul Collingwood admitted that England had endured “one of those days when we didn’t get it right” after Sri Lanka ended the third day of the summer’s final Test on 94 for one and needing 125 to secure their first victory against the home side in a decade and just their fourth in this country. Needing to win this game to complete a clean sweep of their six summer Tests, England scored 156 in their second innings, bowled out in just 34 overs with only Jamie Smith’s explosive, 50-ball 67 saving them from humiliation. “It certainly hasn’t been one of our better days of Test cricket this year,” said Collingwood, England’s assistant coach. “We’ll always try to knock bowlers off their lengths and find a positive way to apply pressure on the opposition, and sometimes it doesn’t work. It’s Test cricket, you’ve got good players out there and they find ways to put you under pres

England 325 & 156; Sri Lanka 263 & 94-1 England all out in 34 overs, Sri Lanka need 125 to win There has been a distinct end-of-term feel about England in this Test match, an early loosening of the tie before the final school bell rings. And having gone into it hoping to secure what would be their first perfect home summer for 20 years with a sixth successive win , Sri Lanka are now poised to deny them full marks. Things were certainly shaping up that way at the end of a white-knuckle third day in which 16 wickets fell and the pendulum swung the way of the tourists. Inspired by Vishwa Fernando’s left-arm swing and a four-wicket haul from the burly Lahiru Kumura, Sri Lanka turned a first innings deficit of 62 into a pursuit of 219 that was within striking distance by stumps. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/jHvrL1b

Japan’s Miki and Oda beaten 6-2, 6-1 in Paris final Briton’s are first men’s pair to complete ‘golden slam’ The hug lasted for an entire minute. Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid, after years of effort and no shortage of heartbreak, had earned the reward their partnership has been searching for and so truly deserved: gold medals at the Paralympic Games. Reid and Hewett have won a staggering 21 grand slam titles since coming together as a wheelchair tennis pair from 2016, but they have always said that the Paralympic title was the one they believed to be the pinnacle of their sport. It had eluded them, however, and defeat in the final in Tokyo three years ago had felt like the end of the road, with Hewett having been told he would subsequently be declassified from the sport. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/RCqgyYG

Toronto film festival Tom Michell’s feelgood memoir could have been a winning buddy movie with Coogan’s colleague – if it wasn’t for the titular bird always muscling its way in looking baffled Films set in Latin America during periods of political and social unrest – the early work of Pablo Larraín, say – have traditionally been low on Dead Poets Society-style inspirational uplift. Or, for that matter, penguins. Now the Steve Coogan Heartwarming True Story Machine – the same one which produced Philomena and The Lost King – seeks to rectify the oversight, and not a moment too soon. This adaptation of Tom Michell’s cosy memoir The Penguin Lessons, scripted by Coogan’s semi-regular collaborator Jeff Pope and directed by Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty), begins in Buenos Aires in 1976, just as Isabel Perón is being ousted in a military coup. Tom, played by Coogan, pitches up with his wardrobe of snazzy beige and mustard-coloured jackets (“Steve Coogan’s suits by Gresham Blake”) at a priv

In New Zealand’s largest city, no-shame early eating has become entwined in a dining culture where booking a table past 8.30pm is a rarity It’s 5pm on Auckland’s Karangahape Road, and the tables spilling on to the street outside Coco’s Cantina are full – but these aren’t your usual sticky toddlers, or after-work suits. As the sun glints off the dusky-pink frames of her glasses, Gabriella Stead, 32, says she doesn’t care if it’s uncool to tuck into Italian food this early; she and Max Coombes, 34, are hungry. “It’s meant to be kind of cringey and embarrassing to eat early because it means you care about digestion, but it’s all about having enough time before bed,” says Stead, who lives nearby and says she regularly dines at this hour. “When you’re out later, you just see people drinking.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/fgz2pvG

Exclusive: Leaders believe Green party ‘on a roll’ as they look to exert their parliamentary influence The leaders of the Green party have promised to hold to account a “timid” Labour government as the party gathers for what will be a celebratory annual conference after it returned four MPs in the general election. Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, who both won seats on 4 July, told the Guardian that the gathering in Manchester of the England and Wales Greens would be both a chance to mark the successes of a party “on a roll”, and to set out what comes next – and how best to exert their new parliamentary influence. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/sct50qV

To watch this documentary about the one-time comedian’s astonishing journey to statesmanship is to feel that you’re witnessing the birth of a hero It’s such an astonishing story that you wouldn’t dare make it up. And yet someone already had, which is part of what makes the story so astonishing. From 2015 to 2019, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a popular comic film and TV actor, starred in Servant of the People – a political satire about an ordinary man suddenly made president of Ukraine who gradually proves himself to be the incorruptible leader the country needed. In 2019, Zelenskiy began serving as president in real life; barely three years after that, he found himself president in a time of war, when Vladimir Putin did what he had long wanted to do and invaded the country. The Zelensky Story, directed by Michael Waldman, is told in three hour-long parts filmed over several trips to Ukraine. It comprises interviews with Zelenskiy, his wife, Olena, and friends and colleagues, mixed with foota

With possible election looming, Jagmeet Singh calls end to confidence and supply arrangement with ‘weak, selfish’ party Canada’s New Democratic party says it has “ripped up” a key agreement with prime minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, sowing uncertainty into the country’s politics as party leaders brace for a possible election. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh made the surprise announcement on social media on Wednesday afternoon, accusing Trudeau of “caving” to corporate greed. “The Liberals have let people down. They don’t deserve another chance from Canadians,” he said. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/EZ4MzwI

First minister makes eradicating child poverty his top priority while Scottish Labour says he had ‘no vision’ John Swinney has been accused of signalling “18 months of managed decline” in the run-up to the next Scottish parliament elections, as he set out his inaugural programme for government the day after his finance secretary announced savage cuts to fill a £1bn hole in this year’s government finances. Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said the first minister’s programme – the Holyrood equivalent of the king’s speech – revealed “an SNP government with no vision, no strategy and no plan”, while the general secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress, Roz Foyer, said the slimmed-down prospectus indicated “managed decline” ahead of the 2026 elections. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/AkFLxRY

Inspired by a notorious real-life case, Fabrice Du Welz’s film starts strong but gets lost in the murky waters of conspiracy Fabrice Du Welz began the century as a master of Belgian gothic, riding the wave of Euro-extreme cinema. Calvaire, or The Ordeal , from 2005, was a gruesome gripper. Since then, in a chequered career, he has more or less maintained his stride, and now he comes to Venice as director and co-writer of an initially promising true-crime horror procedural. It is loosely inspired by the serial killer and child rapist Marc Dutroux , whose case enraged the Belgian public when it became clear the country’s various quarrelling law-enforcement authorities, hampered by bureaucracy, incompetence and turf-war disputes, had in effect allowed Dutroux to go free for years. It’s an intriguing premise and this baggy, free-ranging movie presents a tonal range of sour acrimony, anxiety and occasional flourishes of nauseous black comedy. But it’s a long film which finally – and rathe

Former security minister promises a ‘revolution’ if elected leader and apologises for ‘recent political trauma’ Tom Tugendhat has said that people will “never vote for a party that they’ve stopped taking seriously”, promising to lead a “Conservative revolution” as he became the fifth Tory MP to officially launch his campaign for the Tory leadership . Ahead of a vote on Wednesday in which Conservative MPs will eliminate one of the six contenders, the shadow security minister gave a speech in London in which he said there were tough lessons to be learned from the party’s time in power, which was characterised by frequent infighting. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/HhNRAi3

Fifteen suspected assailants, members of the Turkey Youth Union, were detained after attack in port city of Izmir Two US military service members were “physically attacked” in the port city of Izmir in western Turkey on Monday by members of an anti-American youth group, authorities said. Fifteen suspected assailants were detained in the attack on the two service members, who were dressed in civilian clothing at the time of the incident. Five other US service members joined in the incident after seeing the violent encounter, officials said. Reuters contributed to this report Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/RifhMoO

PM says ‘it’s unacceptable’ when asked about Jas Athwal allegations but adds MP is ‘taking action to put it right’ Keir Starmer has criticised a Labour MP who has been accused of renting out flats with black mould and ant infestations, calling the conditions “unacceptable”. The prime minister addressed the accusations against Jas Athwal, the MP for Ilford South, on Monday after a report by the BBC quoted several of his tenants complaining about the conditions in the properties they rented from him. One said there were ants “everywhere”, adding: “They are on my kid’s body and on their clothes.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Z5ME7HC

Police tracked down long-lost fingerprint evidence, solving mystery of ‘Pinnacle Man’ whose body was found in 1977 A man who was discovered frozen in a Pennsylvania cave almost five decades ago was finally identified after police tracked down long-lost fingerprint evidence, solving a mystery that had long baffled authorities in mountainous Appalachia. The Berks county, Pennsylvania coroner’s office on Tuesday identified the man as Nicholas Paul Grubb, 27, of Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, CNN reported . Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/RM0bLA9

Reigning champion struggles to sixth in Italian GP He says retaining his Formula One title is ‘not realistic’ The Formula One world champion, Max Verstappen, has condemned his Red Bull car as “undriveable”, “a monster” and insisted he does not believe either he or his team remain world championship contenders as things stand. Verstappen was speaking after finishing sixth at the Italian Grand Prix, where he was off the pace all weekend and the race was won by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in second and third. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/tuSQlp1