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Politics
Policy, power, and the news of the day.
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Nepal’s glacial collapse foreshadowed a future of climate disaster | Michael Mann
The deluge capped a summer of extreme climate events, from deadly heatwaves to wildfires. We must take action now For millennia, the high peaks of the Himalayas were held together by an invisible, frozen cement – permafrost and glacial ice that bound ancient rock into seemingly unshakable fortresses. But as the planet continues to warm, this alpine glue is liquefying. The glacial collapse and deluge in Nepal and Tibet was not a freak weather event ; it was the structural failure of a mountain itself, nature’s latest commentary on the deadly consequences of human-caused planetary warming. And it was the exclamation point on a summer of extremes, illustrating with a sole unnatural disaster the apocalyptic future that lies in store if we fail to take dramatic climate action. Continue reading...
Life after Maga: the group offering an ‘exit ramp’ for rightwingers questioning Trumpism
The non-profit Leaving Maga is built on the premise that abandoning the Trump-built movement is like fighting a disease or breaking an addiction Stephania Messina kept birthing boys. In the Quiverfull conservative Christian church she belonged to outside Detroit, Michigan, that made her a community celebrity. Your quiver, as the church taught it, is your womb, meant to be filled with as many arrows – a metaphor for children – as you can shoot unto the Lord. She shot five. “They treated me like I was Mother Mary, like I was this gift to the church,” she said. But while she was quickly pushed into leading worship and Bible study groups for women and children, she wasn’t permitted to talk about politics. Continue reading...
Alex Eala has one career main-draw win at the US Open. She’s already a global star
Alex Eala has become the Philippines’ biggest sporting star since Manny Pacquiao. Now the 21-year-old’s traveling army of fans have descended on Flushing Meadows The crowd began to swell in Louis Armstrong Stadium a half hour before 2pm. A fair number of fans were probably there to see Taylor Fritz and Terence Atmane practice, but it was the session after theirs that was the headline attraction on the Friday of the US Open’s fan week. The blue, red and white throughout the stands, spotted on bucket hats and posters and basketball jerseys and flags, signaled who these people were here to see. This has been the year of Alex Eala, the 21-year-old sensation who has taken the tennis world by storm. At No 18, she is the Philippines’ highest-ranked player ever, its biggest sports celebrity since Manny Pacquiao. The country’s president hosted a reception to celebrate her success, and called for a national celebration after she won her first tour-level title this month at the DC Open. Forbes estimates Eala’s off-court earnings for the past year to exceed $5m, plus $1.7m in prize money, and her agent predicts she will be the world’s second-highest-paid female athlete by 2027. Continue reading...
Sydney records warmest winter on record as Melbourne equals previous hottest temperatures
New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania just experienced their warmest-ever winters – and BoM says above-average temperatures expected to continue Australia’s two biggest cities had their hottest and equal hottest winters on record, with three eastern states also breaking temperature records. The Bureau of Meteorology’s (BoM) spring outlook shows above average daytime and nighttime temperatures are expected to continue for much of the country, with an increased chance of unusually high maximums. Continue reading...
Footage of police officer boasting about punching Sydney anti-Herzog protester raises questions about conduct
Male police officer caught on camera during 9 February protest against visit of Israeli president Isaac Herzog Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Video footage has emerged capturing a New South Wales police officer boasting about “punching” a protester in the head “when he was down”, before the protester was charged with assaulting police. Police body-worn camera footage, which was leaked to a social media account and widely shared over the weekend, reveals a male police officer telling his colleagues during the 9 February protest at Sydney town hall against a visit by the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog: “I fucking pumped that cunt.” Continue reading...
UK house prices rise for first time since April, says Nationwide
Average price of home rose 0.2% month on month in August to £275,465 as market awaits interest rate vote UK houses near top state secondary schools cost £40,000 more, research reveals UK house prices increased for the first time in four months in August, according to a leading index, as buyers and sellers remain in a “holding pattern” before an expected increase in interest rates later this year. The average price of a British home rose 0.2% month on month in August to £275,465, the first increase since April, according to Nationwide. Analysts had forecast a 0.1% rise in house prices. Continue reading...
Thai resort prepares to host USS Abraham Lincoln sailors after more than 270 days at sea
Security stepped up in Pattaya before arrival of thousands of sailors and marines, whose deployment was extended due to US war in Iran Authorities in the Thai resort city of Pattaya have stepped up security as they prepare to welcome thousands of sailors and marines from the USS Abraham Lincoln after more than 270 consecutive days at sea . “About 600 officials will provide security and other necessary assistance,” the provincial governor, Narit Niramaiwong, told AFP. Continue reading...
Anger as BBC withdraws jobs promise for apprentices amid sweeping cuts
Exclusive: Some staff call decision a betrayal of young apprentices who are often selected to increase diversity The BBC is facing internal anger after a group of apprentices were told they could no longer expect jobs they had been promised, as a result of the corporation’s sweeping cuts programme. In a sign of the pressure the BBC is under to find savings , apprentices working with BBC News were told that “exceptional circumstances” meant the broadcaster could no longer stand by its pledge to find them permanent positions. Continue reading...
Albanese has everything to lose engaging in a fight with Hanson, but he may be drawn in anyway | Analysis
The PM wants to combat One Nation through core Labor values such as education and health, even as his popularity takes a beating Sign up for Guardian Australia’s new Politics, really newsletter here At the height of her 1998 re-election fight, Pauline Hanson was challenged to give her honest assessment of John Howard. Two years on from her firebrand maiden speech, the One Nation leader was contesting the Queensland seat of Blair when she was bailed up by a group of punters at a country race meeting. The men had been drinking and one demanded to know if Howard was “a prick”. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s new Politics, really newsletter here Continue reading...
Shaun the Sheep hailed on latest list of storm names
Meteorologists release list of monikers for potential storms this season after 40,000 suggestions from public From a five-year-old weather enthusiast to a beloved animated sheep – the inspiration for the list of storm names for this autumn and winter is wide and varied. Austen, Boelo and Chloe will be the first named storms of this winter, meteorologists have revealed, after more than 40,000 suggestions were submitted by the public. Austen Ireland Boelo (Boo-loh) Netherlands Chloe UK Dano (Dah-noh) Netherlands Evelyn Ireland Finn UK Gwendolyn Netherlands Heather Ireland Ivy UK Jade Netherlands Kilian Ireland Laoise (Lee-sha) Ireland Miriam Ireland Nicola UK Olaf Netherlands Phelim Ireland Ruban UK Shaun UK Theo UK Vesna (Vehs-nuh) Netherlands Wende (Vhen-duh) Netherlands Continue reading...
Burnham to say he wants to unlock ‘positivity’ in first statement to MPs since becoming PM – UK politics live
Prime minister will bring upbeat message to adversarial Commons after a summer of policy announcements and improved poll ratings Good morning. Andy Burnham became prime minister six weeks ago, but today will be the first time he addresses MPs in the Commons. It will also be the first time he has spoken as a minister from the dispatch box in more than 16 years. As MPs return to Westminster, they will be telling each other about how they spent the summer holiday and, for Burnham, it has undoubtedly gone well. He has unveiled a blitz of announcements which, broadly, have had a good reception and he has delivered the kiss of life to Labour’s poll ratings. Today Burnham will chair cabinet in the morning and then make a ministerial statement in the Commons after 3.30pm. Normally a prime ministerial statement has a specific focus; it will be about a major policy decision, or a foreign affairs crisis. From the briefing that we have had so far, it sounds as if Burnham’s will be more of a wide-ranging rehash of all the things that he has been talking about this summer. In her preview, Jessica Elgot says he will talk about his intention to bring more essential services back into public control. Continue reading...
At least 12 people killed in Russian overnight attacks on Ukraine – Europe live
Zelenskyy says dozens more injured as strikes leave thousands without electricity in Odesa region On behalf of the Irish presidency in the EU Council, Ireland’s defence minister Helen McEntee said the talks in Wicklow come “at a moment of profound challenge for all of us in terms of defence and security,” with closer cooperation needed “more than ever.” Ukraine, maritime security, and resilience against hybrid and cyber threats will be top of the agenda today, she says. Continue reading...
Charles Perrottet told fugitive developer plan at Nobu dinner to have NSW MP ‘on his knees’, Icac hears
Liberal party figure tells inquiry he never asked Jean Nassif ‘for payments for political outcomes’ as lawyer tells him she is ‘gobsmacked’ by his ‘obfuscation’ The younger brother of Dominic Perrottet has insisted he never asked a fugitive property developer for money for political outcomes – including at a meeting at fine-dining restaurant Nobu in Crown Casino, an inquiry has heard. On Tuesday, the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) heard that developer Jean Nassif had withdrawn from a scheduled videolink appearance from Lebanon later this week, after Charles Perrottet faced questions about the dinner meeting between the two men in Melbourne in May 2021. Continue reading...
Canada’s ruling Liberals sweep special elections in boost to Mark Carney
Three projected victories are ‘a message’ to US that Carney ‘has the support of the Canadian people’, says one lawmaker Canada’s ruling Liberal party has swept three special elections in a result that showed voters backing the prime minister, Mark Carney, after his face-off with the US president, Donald Trump . The Canadian Press, Canada’s national news agency, projected Liberal victories in Chicoutimi-Le Fjord in Quebec, Beaches-East York in Toronto and North Vancouver-Capilano in British Columbia. Continue reading...
Colin Kaepernick knelt 10 years ago. America responded with a clear warning to Black people | Howard Bryant
A decade after Kaepernick’s quiet protest shook the NFL, his exile looks less like an aberration than a blueprint for the culture war that followed America likes nice round numbers, perfect for anniversaries and reflections, and it has, suddenly, been 10 years since Colin Kaepernick first protested police killings – more accurately, police killings of Black people that went unpunished either internally or by the courts – by taking a knee during the national anthem for the entirety of the 2016 NFL regular season. He never played in the league again. Ten years covers a lot of ground, especially in these years of American darkness, and many of the important details surrounding Kaepernick, his banishment and significance have disappeared, time replaced by more time and more darkness – time moving faster than ever, at internet speed, where nothing matters, where nothing sticks. We consume by clip, by click, by meme, and knowledge by meme is not knowledge at all. Continue reading...
Boss of City regulator accused of threatening consumer group over £9.1bn car loan scheme
FCA chief, Nikhil Rathi, warned of ‘adverse consequences’ if challenge made to settlement, court filings allege The boss of the UK’s financial regulator is accused of threatening a consumer group with “adverse consequences” if it blocked a £9.1bn compensation scheme meant to settle the motor finance scandal . Legal documents reviewed by the Guardian said the alleged comments by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) chief executive, Nikhil Rathi, amounted to “an inappropriate intervention by a public official”. Continue reading...
Shein shares slide on fast-fashion retailer’s stock market debut
Hong Kong flotation at $26bn by firm once valued at $100bn follows failure to list in US and UK Shares in the fast-fashion brand Shein slumped by as much as 10% as the China-founded company made its long-anticipated trading debut on the Hong Kong stock exchange. The Singapore-headquartered company, once valued at almost $100bn (£74bn), went public on Tuesday pricing shares at HK$48.56, valuing the business at just over $26bn. Continue reading...
Beveridge revisited: Simon Callow film celebrates the radical co-founder of Britain’s welfare state
Christine Edzard’s The Man With the Plan tours the country with a timely message about tackling want, disease, squalor, idleness and ignorance A new film that addresses issues fundamental to the new prime minister’s declared mission will star Simon Callow as a historical British political figure. The hero of The Man With the Plan is William Beveridge , who helped to lay the foundations of the postwar welfare state. It shows that the Liberal peer was much more radical than is usually assumed – and certainly far more so than Churchill anticipated when he asked Beveridge to draw up a report into the future of Britain’s fragmented social insurance and national health system after the second world war. Continue reading...
Thinktank reports epidemic of loneliness among England’s ‘disconnected’ young
Youth club closures, unaffordable housing and social media cited as factors contributing to a sharp decline in wellbeing The number of young people with no close friends has risen fivefold since 2014 as a result of growing up in a “bleak world” dominated by austerity, the pandemic and social media. New research paints a sobering picture of how 11- to 24-year-olds in England are increasingly lonely, isolated and “disconnected” from themselves, peers and wider society. Continue reading...
Almost half of terrorism arrests in Great Britain since 9/11 have been in past year
Increase coincides with proscription of Palestine Action last year which has led to thousands of arrests for allegedly supporting the protest group Almost half of all terrorism arrests in Great Britain since the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers in 2001 have come in the past year, official data shows. There have been 6,539 arrests for terror-related activity in Great Britain since the 2001 attacks and 3,021 of those arrests were in the year ending 31 March 2026, according to the Home Office. Continue reading...
Man, 23, charged with murder after fatal Teesside house fire
Seven-year-old girl and aunt, 34, killed while four others injured in incident near Middlesbrough last Wednesday A 23-year-old man has been charged with murder after a house fire killed a seven-year-old girl and her aunt, police said. Officers were called to reports of a blaze at Birchington Avenue in Grangetown at 5.23am on 26 August. Continue reading...
Wendell Berry, US author, farmer and environmentalist, dies aged 92
Author and Kentucky native, who celebrated the farming world of his home state and warned of the excesses of industrial society, died at home Wendell Berry, the Kentucky-born author and agrarian whose poems, stories, novels and essays celebrated the farming communities of his native state and warned of the excesses and misjudgments of an industrial, commercialized society, has died aged 92. His daughter, Mary Berry, confirmed on Monday that he died in his home in Port Royal, Kentucky. Continue reading...
‘The mountains are changing’: What the floods tell us about the future of India’s Himalayas
As families await news of missing loved ones, the disaster is a stark reminder of how the climate crisis is creating a fast-growing threat. Plus, the town considered India’s ‘Jurassic Park’ It has been hard not to despair while watching the ruinous floods swallow parts of Nepal , and harder, still knowing that the agony compounds each passing day for dozens of Indian families whose members remain unaccounted for. Social media is awash with desperate pleas, photos and details of the young and old, men and women, from Mumbai to Kolkata, posted by families searching for traces of life. The disaster unfolded when a melting glacier slammed into the valley below, unleashing a deadly cascade of rock and ice down the Bhote Kashi River, which flows from Tibet into Nepal. Continue reading...
How misconceptions and woeful PR allowed Musk to shred USAID so easily | Jeremiah A Carew
A year on from the purge, with thousands of jobs cut and billions in foreign aid lost, a former leader reflects on the sorry saga – and why it would never happen to Nasa A year has passed since I and thousands of colleagues lost our jobs at USAID. Asking myself “Why us?” I have come to the conclusion that the American public had very little idea of what we were doing and why. Doge, the “department of government efficiency” , began its work in January 2025, with USAID as its first target, in a reckless campaign that even Elon Musk has said he would not repeat . At that moment of chaos, Americans lacked the knowledge that could contradict the false narrative presented by Musk , who called the agency a “criminal organisation” and “a viper’s nest of radical left-marxists who hate America”. Continue reading...