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2026/08/22 Daily Edition

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businessAugust 22, 2026The Guardian

Why am I called The Black Farmer? Because there are so few of us in Britain. I’d like that to change | Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones

Running a farm is tough – TV’s Clarkson’s Farm shows that – but I know many minorities would love the chance. And we would all benefit Who’d be a farmer? Clarkson’s Farm on Amazon is great entertainment but it also gives some indication of the stresses and challenges behind the farm gate. Would anyone who lacked the significant alternative income that Clarkson is lucky to have want that? Well, actually, yes. I’m an entrepreneur who owns a farm, as opposed to hands-on running the small one I bought 25 years ago, but as I look around the industry, I’m struck by a significant fact: the very reason I can be known as the Black Farmer is because I am such a rarity that it makes me readily identifiable...

sportsAugust 22, 2026The Guardian

‘See you at the hairdressers’: Infantino’s bizarre reply to bald reporter

Fifa president tells Sky man: ‘You have a nice haircut’ Defies Concacaf president plea to stay away ​from youth event Gianni Infantino told a reporter “I’ll see you at the hairdressers” after he was asked whether he had betrayed football over his aborted World Cup sell-off plan. The Fifa president was stopped outside a hotel in the Dominican Republic by the Sky News US correspondent, James Matthews, who challenged the under-fire leader of football’s governing body over why he had not resigned, despite calls from across the game for him to step down...

businessAugust 22, 2026The Guardian

‘It exists only for pleasure’: does ice-cream have a future in the age of wellness fads and weight-loss drugs?

As fitness-conscious consumers turn away from processed foods, the industry is scrambling for new ideas, including nutrient-rich lollies and protein-packed tubs. Will they take the fun out of this summer treat? Last month, I stood in the biggest ice-cream factory in Britain and watched a 5-metre Viennetta mint-flavoured ice-cream cake get made. The factory – which is owned by the Magnum Ice Cream Company and produces nine different brands of ice-cream – is based in an enormous building in Gloucester, where the air is thick with the scent of custard. I walked past the Twister and Solero sections on my way in, through clouds of tangy fruit, before arriving at the Viennetta assembly line, where everything smelled minty fresh. A Viennetta is built on a conveyor belt by a fully automated system, and watching it take shape was oddly hypnotic. Every few inches a nozzle attached to the belt squirted out a frilly layer of mint ice-cream, then another nozzle smoothed a flat layer of vanilla on top of that, then came a squirt of chocolate sauce, and it was back to frilly mint again. On and on it went, layer upon layer, popping out finished Viennettas at the end of the line at a rate of 200 cakes every 60 seconds. A slop bucket full of Viennetta overrun stood at the side of the conveyor belt and I fought a strong urge to squelch my fingers into it. Later, the factory operations manager allowed me to push my whole hand into the slop bucket up to the wrist and then lick my hand at a sink, before washing it and resuming the tour...

scienceAugust 22, 2026The Guardian

Subterranean salad: underground farmers seek solution to food crisis in disused UK mines

Researchers in North Yorkshire feel the clock ticking as they aim to transform British food production It has the vibe of a Bond villain’s underground lair but the workers in hi-vis and helmets aren’t weighing and packing hard drugs or parts for a death laser. It’s pak choi and lettuce. More than 1,000 metres down, researchers in North Yorkshire have created the world’s deepest underground farm and are running trials for a project that could transform UK food production...

businessAugust 22, 2026France 24

Canada says will match new US 50% tariffs 'dollar for dollar'

The trade war between Washington and Ottawa is once again escalating. On Saturday, the US implemented 50% tariffs on certain Canadian goods, just hours after Donald Trump claimed he had a good relationship with his Canadian counterpart and that he thought a deal could be reached. The tariffs were initially set to go into effect on Wednesday but the US president gave negotiators three days to reach an agreement. Details by Eliza Herbert.

powerAugust 22, 2026South China Morning Post

Myanmar air strike kills 14 praying at monastery, rebel witnesses say

A Myanmar military air strike on a monastery where civilians were gathered for a meditation retreat marking Buddhist Lent killed 14 people, two rebel fighters who witnessed the aftermath said. Myanmar has been consumed by civil war since the military staged a 2021 coup ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and detaining the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Over the past five years, more than 100,000 people are estimated to have been killed across all sides as the military battles an...

businessAugust 22, 2026France 24

Ethiopia uncorks a wine boom, Bordeaux vines driving exports and local demand

A partnership between French experts and Ethiopian winemakers is putting East Africa on the viticultural map. Using seeds imported from Bordeaux, and after years of refining, exports are now on the rise. Domestically, Ethiopians are also consuming more and more of their local product. Our correspondent Tom Canetti went to meet a French-Ethiopian winery in central Ethiopia.

powerAugust 22, 2026France 24

Middle East live: Iran allows several Iraqi oil tankers to pass through Hormuz strait

Iran has allowed a ​number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz following repeated requests from Baghdad, ​Iran’s ‌state news agency reported ⁠on Saturday. Meanwhile, the United States and Iran exchanged defiant messages ahead of Monday's scheduled announcement of new US economic sanctions. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates.

powerAugust 22, 2026France 24

Turkey accuses Netanyahu of 'genocide', Israeli PM calls Erdogan 'antisemitic dictator'

Turkey and Israel traded barbs on Friday after Ankara announced it had sought an international arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of "genocide" linked to the interception of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. Turkey is one of Israel's fiercest critics over its war in Gaza, sparked by the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on southern Israel. Story by Charlotte Lam.

cultureAugust 22, 2026The Guardian

‘A brilliant initiative’: the Youth Sport Games goes from strength to strength

Europe’s biggest amateur sports event for children – that has drawn celebrity ambassadors ranging from Sean Dyche to Alastair Campbell – has marked its 30th birthday in Split On a dais overlooking the Adriatic, 20 children are playing chess. Arranged in a circle, they are competing not against each other but against the grandmaster Nigel Short, who passes awkwardly around the group playing one move each time. The children are no slouches, the best young chess players from the Balkans. But, in a twist, they can also call on the support of celebrity coaches. And so we have the unusual sight of precocious chess talents being coached through their games not just by the former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic, but by the former Burnley manager Sean Dyche and, in quite the eyebrow-raiser, the rightwing tech billionaire Peter Thiel. This is just one event at the Plazma Youth Sport Games (YSG), which is celebrating its 30th anniversary in the Croatian city of Split this month. Described by some of its more esteemed visitors as “the Davos of sport”, it brings eminent figures from the world of sport and politics to the Dalmatian coast each summer. More important, it is also the biggest amateur sports event for children in Europe. Just under half a million young people from across Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovenia and North Macedonia took part in qualifying for this year’s event. The finals in 10 sports – from chess to 3v3 basketball – are then held over the course of a week in Split. Alongside the competition, children are encouraged to learn lessons in teamwork, collaboration and putting phones away. The organisers describe Plazma as both a sporting event and a “social project”...

sportsAugust 22, 2026The Guardian

Fifa general secretary Mattias Grafström sounded out about standing against Infantino

African federations sound out Swede over role ‘They think he can group all the continents’ Senior figures in African football have held talks with Fifa’s general secretary, Mattias Grafström, to sound out his interest in standing against Gianni Infantino, the Guardian can reveal. As many as 15 federations in Africa are also said to be ready to turn their backs on Infantino when he seeks re-election as Fifa president next year, despite the Confederation of Africa Football (Caf) claiming that its executive committee (exco) had “unanimously reconfirmed” its support for the under-fire 56-year-old...

climateAugust 22, 2026The Guardian

‘Its pretty much a guarantee you’ll get stung’: jellyfish keep swimmers out of Delaware beaches

Beach patrols report hundreds of stings a day as warmer waters and drought create favorable conditions for jellyfish An unusually high number of jellyfish are crowding Delaware’s beaches this summer amid climate change and other environmental factors – keeping some beachgoers out of the ocean and stinging lifeguards as well as bathers. Beach safety patrols in the state have reported hundreds of daily stings as the jellyfish have increased with intensifying environmental factors, including warmer waters, hot and dry conditions, and water circulation favorable to the invertebrates...

climateAugust 22, 2026France 24

France's Fontainebleau forest reopens one month after wilfire

Good news for hiking and climbing enthusiasts today: the Fontainebleau Forest just South of Paris is set to reopen to the public. But a month and a half after the terrible fire that ravaged 10% of this unique haven of biodiversity, the disaster is still fresh in everyone’s minds. Portions of the forest remain closed to the public. Story by France 2 and Camille Corcoran.

sportsAugust 22, 2026France 24

Maradona's 'Hand of God' ball in match against England goes for auction

The football that Diego Maradona punched into the net for his infamous "Hand of God" goal is under the hammer this weekend. The historic ball from that infamous quarter final World Cup match between Argentina and England in 1986 is expected to fetch over 10 million dollars. Details by Camille Knight.

worldAugust 22, 2026France 24

Children among wounded in Zelensky's hometown, struck by Russian drones

Early this Saturday, Russian strikes killed at least two people in Ukraine. In Zaporizhzhia, a drone killed a man and wounded four, according to officials, while a warehouse was on fire in Kyiv. It comes after a Russian bombing killed at least 20 people on Friday, 16 of them in two successive strikes on a busy shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih. Details by FRANCE 24 correspondent in Kiyv, Emmanuelle Chaze.

worldAugust 22, 2026South China Morning Post

Albanese: Canberra to join Australia’s gun buy-back program after Bondi attack

Australia’s capital will join a gun buy-back ⁠as part of ⁠a response to a ⁠shooting spree that killed 15 at a Jewish festival in Sydney, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Saturday. Albanese’s centre-left government enacted laws in January for the gun buy-back, tighter checks for gun ‌licences and a crackdown on hate in the wake of the December 14 gun attack at a Bondi Beach Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, the capital of New South Wales. The state, Australia’s most populous, became the...

sportsAugust 22, 2026The Guardian

Formula One 2026: George Russell on pole for Dutch Grand Prix sprint race – live

️ F1 qualifying updates from 11am BST ️ Preview | Mail Philip “And now excuse me while I interrupt myself.” Every summer, the F1 season channels the late Murray Walker, taking a month off, and every summer we do excuse it, and welcome it back. Here we go for the last 11 or 12 race weekends of the season. Eleven or twelve because we still don’t know where the season will end: it should be in Abu Dhabi on the first weekend in December, a week after Qatar, but if Donald Trump’s war with Iran rules out those two then a European finale will be arranged, likely at Imola. Which should be fun, given the seasonal weather in November/December...

technologyAugust 22, 2026The Guardian

Would even an AI disaster on the scale of Hiroshima be enough to make humankind protect itself? I fear not | Timothy Garton Ash

It’s clear here in Silicon Valley that AI is advancing faster than humans’ ability to control it. That means even sober prophecies seem optimistic Here in Silicon Valley, the experts think that within the next couple of years we’ll see an extraordinary takeoff for artificial intelligence. “Welcome to the foothills of the singularity,” as a Stanford University friend greeted me. More prosaically, the imminent breakthrough is described as “recursive self-improvement” – the point at which AI itself trains each successive model of AI, resulting in an exponential development to something which, in many significant respects, is more intelligent than us humans. As Robert Wright puts it in his book The God Test: “Never before has the near-term future … held such a wide array of not-implausible paths for humankind that would be so wildly transformative.” But will this be heaven or hell? Heaven, says Elon Musk, who predicts “an age of amazing abundance” – although he also sees a 10-20% chance of killer robots murdering us all. Hell is more likely according to Geoffrey Hinton, one of the intellectual founding fathers of AI. “My intuition is, we’re toast,” he told an interviewer in 2023. And talking to Sebastian Mallaby, author of The Infinity Machine, a book about the quest for superintelligence, Hinton estimates p(doom) – the probability of human extinction – at 50%, “because I haven’t got a clue how to estimate the real number”. “As soon as evolution [of AI] kicks in, we’re fucked,” he adds cheerfully. But whether it’s God or Godzilla, artificial superintelligence is just around the corner. Timothy Garton Ash is a Guardian columnist..

technologyAugust 22, 2026The Guardian

‘Digging the grave of my profession’: the Hollywood creatives training AI to do their jobs

Amid a jobs slump, award-winning writers, directors and producers taking on sometimes lucrative temp work teaching AI skills such as screenwriting and production Hollywood creatives are taking gig work to train AI models to replicate their skills in a bid to offset tightening earnings in a trend one compared to being “handed a shovel and asked to dig the grave of my profession”. Experienced and award-winning writers, directors and producers are being paid from $12 to $200 an hour to teach AI models the intricacies of their jobs, from writing a screenplay to devising a shooting schedule...

businessAugust 22, 2026The Guardian

Hook, hold, harvest and hide: Meta’s alleged strategy laid out in first week of landmark trial

In trial that opened on Tuesday, California and 28 other states accused the company of designing addictive sites and violating laws protecting children’s privacy Meta’s business can be boiled down to four words that begin with the letter H: hook, hold, harvest, hide, according to a lawyer who is prosecuting the world’s largest social media company. The owner of Facebook and Instagram “hooks” in users, “holds” them on its platforms for as long as possible, “harvests” their data and then “hides” the truth from the public, she argued...

powerAugust 22, 2026The Guardian

Unions worry Labour’s plan for zero-hours contracts may break manifesto pledge

Leaders claim scaremongering from business figures may cause key legislation to become ‘meaningless’ Trades unions are warning Andy Burnham that Labour’s policy on cutting zero-hours contracts risks failing to live up to the party’s manifesto. Union leaders are seeking reassurances from the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, amid what the TUC has condemned as “scaremongering” from business groups...

businessAugust 22, 2026The Guardian

Battery fires at recycling centres are costing UK £1bn a year, figures show

Experts say fires caused by wrongly discarded lithium batteries, such as those in vapes, are putting lives at risk Fires at recycling centres caused by wrongly discarded lithium batteries such as those found in vapes are occurring at the rate of more than 10 a week, according to new figures. Experts say the sheer volume of battery fires now occurring at waste facilities has reached a crisis that is putting lives at risk, costing £1bn a year and frustrating fire chiefs...

businessAugust 22, 2026The Guardian

‘The worst part is the guilt’: the owners who fear dog food caused pets’ eye problems

In the week that Years recalled all of its fresh meals, concerns grow about a potential link to dogs’ health conditions “It’s been horrible – Chester developed sudden red and gunky eyes in May,” said Elizabeth, whose six-year-old cavachon “can’t open his eyes” on many days. The 29-year-old civil servant is one of a number of people who contacted the Guardian because they are concerned about a potential link between a recalled dog food and their pet’s eye condition...

sportsAugust 22, 2026The Guardian

Mitchell Starc sparks Bangladesh collapse before Australia’s batting woes continue

Second Test, day one: Bangladesh 64; Australia 165-8 in Mackay Fast bowler takes five wickets before lunch and finishes with 6 for 12 Left-arm pacemen Mitchell Starc and Shoriful Islam starred with six-wicket ⁠hauls as Bangladesh rallied from a dreadful start to pin back Australia on a ⁠rollercoaster day one ⁠of ​the second test on Saturday. Eighteen wickets fell across three madcap sessions on the ⁠bouncy Mackay wicket, with Australia limping to 165 for eight at stumps but holding a ⁠101-run lead after blasting out the tourists for 64 ​in the first innings...

businessAugust 22, 2026The Guardian

Premium bonds: more chance of win as NS&I ups prize fund rate again

Savings bank estimates there will be 308,000 more prizes available in September draw than the month before Premium bond holders will have more chances of winning prizes after changes announced this week. From September there will be more prizes up for grabs for the 22 million people who hold the government-backed savings bonds...

technologyAugust 22, 2026The Guardian

‘They’re thinking about the likes’: deadly TikTok motorway trend horrifies Ireland

Social media platforms face public ire after fatal crash involving teenagers filming themselves driving on wrong side Videos often begin with the camera panning across a glowing dashboard as a gloved hand starts the ignition. The camera turns to show figures with masked faces in the rear seat, who are also filming, and swivels back to show the windscreen. Beyond it, a dark cityscape. The engine throbs, headlights puncture the night and the journey begins, first down a suburban road, then a motorway. The speedometer shows acceleration, the needle juddering as the car gathers velocity...

worldAugust 22, 2026France 24

Russian strikes in Ukraine kill at least two people, injure several others

At least two people were reported dead early Saturday by local authorities, after Russian strikes on Ukraine. The strikes came after a series of Russian bombings killed at least 20 people in Ukraine on Friday, including 16 in a daytime drone attack on a busy shopping center in President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown Kryvyi Rih.