2026/08/26 Daily Edition

The country's biggest ever car recall affects more than four million vehicles made by Tesla, XPeng, Xiaomi and other firms.

Discussing people’s bodies can be fraught. We asked eating disorder experts how to do so – or not – responsibly In the age of Ozempic and people being open about plastic surgery, discussion about people’s bodies is rife. At the same time, nobody seems quite sure how to talk about them, as shown by recent coverage of celebrities like Ariana Grande. It is a fraught topic. We asked eating disorder experts for guidelines to follow when talking about other people’s bodies, and how to do so without doing harm...

Sadiq Khan’s ultra-low emission zone in London is celebrated by Lorna Henderson, George Coleby and Leonard Neamtu after a study showed its health benefits for children In light of the astonishing results achieved in lowering air pollution by the introduction of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) in London by Sadiq Khan (Ulez led to better lung size and function among London children, study finds, 18 August), should we now not extend this philosophy into every city in the UK to save lives? Surely it is a human right to breathe clean air? Why does Ofsted or the Department for Education not insist on air-quality monitors and give data for each school so parents are aware of the risks? Lorna Henderson Newcastle upon Tyne..

A typical household in Great Britain will pay £1,723 a year, prompting calls for more support Nils Pratley: Labour’s energy bills crisis is getting worse Business live – latest updates Millions of British households will face the highest energy charges in three years this winter after months of rising market prices pushed up the government’s price cap for the second time in three months. Gas and electricity prices will rise by 4% from October under the new cap, after climbing 13% at the start of July to take account of global energy market price rises caused by the war on Iran...

They work better than patches, gum or pills, the most up-to-date evidence suggests.

There have been decades of mistreatment and mismanagement of those who seek help later in life, say experts in a new, damning report.

The National Museum of Korean Democracy, which opened last year, documents an era of brutal suppression. But that dark history has resurfaced in troubling ways.

European nations are set to withdraw their threat to boycott FIFA competitions but are discussing other protests against Gianni Infantino's ongoing but embattled leadership, Sky News understands.

Even low levels of traffic noise can negate the benefits of listening to natural sounds, researchers say Hearing the trill or whistle of a bird while going about daily life is well known to boost people’s mood. But a new study suggests the psychological benefits of hearing birdsong are being threatened by traffic noise. Researchers found that even low levels of traffic noise negatively affected the benefits to wellbeing that could otherwise be derived from listening to natural sounds...

NHS ombudsman warns of years-long waits and patients paying thousands to go private as demand for services soars Complaints about autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder services in England have more than tripled in five years, official figures show, with the NHS ombudsman warning of years-long waits and patients paying thousands of pounds for private care. One woman was removed from an ADHD medication waiting list without warning after almost four years, leaving her without the support she needed for about six months. Another patient was given an autism assessment lasting just 50 minutes that failed to follow guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, while a man referred to an ADHD service that was not yet operational ended up paying almost £4,000 for private treatment...

A drone attack on Leipzig Airport highlights the "very real threat" faced by the country, the German chancellor says.

A police sergeant has been arrested following accusations that he lied to victims' families and prematurely closed missing persons cases.

Iran has closed the vital waterway since the beginning of the conflict causing wild fluctuations in oil prices worldwide.

Kriti Sanon has defended the ad in which she was seen celebrating the upcoming Hindu festival of Rakhi.

A dawn fire that erupted in the maternity ward of Islamabad's premier public hospital, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), on Wednesday killed 14 infants, Pakistan authorities said, blaming a faulty air conditioner for the blaze. Witnesses described harrowing scenes and a slow response from emergency services and guards reportedly preventing them from leaving the ward.

From influencers gone (really, really) bad and the outrageous Joe Exotic to the greatest reveal in television history – here are Guardian readers’ favourite real-life documentaries and whodunnits I watched the BBC’s Unsolved: The Boy Who Disappeared when it came out and Damien Nettles, its subject, still pops up in my mind sometimes. It’s a comprehensive, empathetic and gripping investigation into a case I had never heard of. The Serial/Making a Murderer-style approach of showing the investigation, rather than just presenting information, gives the series a much more human angle. I thought it might turn up new evidence; that level of faith in the work being shown is a testament to how thorough it was. AJ, Devon, UK..

Fernandes rewarded for an outstanding season with a record number of assists in the league; Shaw builds on league win and Golden Boot.

When Callum McGregor eviscerated his own team-mates in the wake of Celtic's stupefying Champions League collapse against LASK, he delivered their one coherent moment of a spineless night, writes Tom English.

Sudanese army's battlefield gains rely on an armed coalition it may struggle to control once the common enemy is gone.

As wildfires rage and intense heat builds across the region, daytime highs of 110-11F (43-46C) are forecast Surging temperatures are expected to broil more than 45 million people as a heat dome settles in across the south-western US through the end of August and into early September, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). As wildfires rage in some parts and intense heat builds across the region, daytime highs of 110-115F (43-46C) are forecast, with limited cooling relief in the evenings and overnight. Experts predict that some record highs could be tied or broken this month and the weather agency warned of the scorching late summer heat as a potential health hazard...

Civil society groups argue climate crisis means transport sector needs to urgently reduce its carbon emissions Dozens of civil society groups have demanded the UK government do more to promote cycling and walking, after this summer’s extreme heat exposed the desperate need to decarbonise transport. This summer’s heatwaves and wildfires were “immediate, real-world manifestations of the climate emergency”, the groups said, making reform of transport – responsible for more carbon emissions than any other sector in the UK – an urgent priority...

Scientists say research suggests blinking may have acquired a social relevance in interactions between dogs and people Stare into a dog’s eyes and you may encounter a bemused expression. But researchers have found that dogs blink more often when they see their owners doing so, suggesting there may be more to the mutual gaze than meets the eye. Scientists have previously found that dogs turn on the puppy eyes when humans look at them, and that their brains can distinguish happy human faces from other expressions – even telling apart fearful faces from those that are angry or sad...

Research finds demand has more than doubled since 2000 and 80% of current demand comes from Asia A booming demand for concrete has resulted in sand and gravel being extracted from riverbeds faster than nature can replenish it. A study published in Reviews of Geophysics shows that the demand for sand and gravel has more than doubled in the last two decades, with overextraction leading to weaker riverbanks, lower groundwater levels, coastal salt intrusion and poorer water quality. In 2024, city-building and infrastructure projects around the world turned 28bn tonnes of sand and gravel into concrete. Researchers reviewed data on sand and gravel extraction going back to 1974 and have shown that since 2000 demand has more than doubled, with more than 80% of current demand coming from Asia, supporting urban development and road-building across China and India in particular. They found much of the material was being extracted from rivers across Asia and Africa. Data on extraction is scarce but where it does exist the researchers showed that extraction often exceeded natural sediment replacement severalfold...

In an hourlong interview, he said his industry was downplaying the risks, which he believes include mass unemployment and bioterrorism.

Cameroonian midfielder Carlos Baleba has moved from Brighton to Manchester United for around 75 million euros.

South Korea said on Wednesday it had scrambled fighter jets in response to Russian military aircraft entering its air defence zone, the second such incursion in weeks. The relationship between the countries has worsened since South Korea joined Western sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and since Moscow built stronger ties with North Korea. Seoul’s defence ministry said multiple Russian aircraft had entered and then left its air defence identification zone over the East Sea, also...

Ten chicks have been successfully reared by two breeding pairs at secret sites across Fermanagh.

With many adults admitting they feel lonely, meetup platforms offer the chance to make new connections Would you pay £20 a month for the chance of making a friend, on the understanding that an algorithm – not you – gets to decide who you’ll meet? Driven by the decline of “third spaces” such as youth centres and pubs, an increase in remote working and rising loneliness – 40% of adults aged 16 to 29 feel lonely “always, often or some of the time”, according to the Office for National Statistics – paid social events are now in vogue...

Ofgem and ministers should be transparent about why energy bills for households are expected to stay stubbornly high Britons face highest price cap in three years as energy bills rise 4% from October Another Ofgem energy price cap day, another increase in bills. Miatta Fahnbulleh, the new energy secretary, can blame the usual culprit on Wednesday – the fossil fuel price “rollercoaster”, given a shove this time by Donald Trump’s Middle East misadventure. Higher gas prices will indeed be the main quarter-on-quarter reason why bills stand at a three-year high on a unit basis. But there is more to the tale on a longer view. Even when the gas rollercoaster dips downwards, the energy industry’s medium-term projections suggest bills will not fall meaningfully...

Icelanders are to vote Saturday on whether to resume entry talks with the European Union amid growing global insecurity, in a referendum seen as going down to the wire.

Deputy foreign minster says the route's entry as well as part of the exit would run through Iranian territorial waters.

Gas and electricity bills rise to highest level in three years The 4% rise in the energy price cap is as expected. Neil Kenward, Ofgem’s director general for markets, said: High international gas prices are continuing to drive energy costs in the UK. We welcome the government’s intervention to remove VAT from electricity bills, without which customers would have faced even higher costs this winter. Savings are available by choosing a fixed tariff, which are available at £100 or more below the October price cap, and many suppliers offer tariffs with cheaper electricity to smart meter customers for electricity consumed out of peak times. It’s also worth considering different payment methods, with prepayment customers paying the lowest price cap rates, and could save consumers an average of about £45 compared to direct debit. This increase reflects higher wholesale gas prices as a result of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, with volatile global gas markets remaining the dominant driver of price changes. However, prices remain 52% below the height of the energy crisis in 2022 when the government stepped in to cap bills at £2,500. While higher wholesale prices are pushing up both gas and electricity costs, the VAT reduction means electricity bills will remain broadly stable. As a result, most of the increase in the price cap is driven by higher gas costs, with gas bills rising by 8%, meaning that households which do not use gas will see a much smaller increase of less than 1%. Without the government’s intervention on VAT, this figure would have been around £45 higher. The VAT removal also benefits customers currently on fixed tariffs, with the discount automatically applied by suppliers...

Stanley Druckenmiller said he was ‘proud of using it’ as wider media grapples with parameters around AI use Stanley Druckenmiller, a billionaire investor, said he used artificial intelligence to pen his viral Wall Street Journal op-ed in which he sharply criticized the interference of Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, in the US bond market. Many news outlets, including the Guardian, covered the editorial, highlighting Druckenmiller’s rebuke of his former mentee, Bessent. As the story circulated online, some readers questioned rhetorical choices that resembled AI-generated text...

Critics say ownership registers are too costly and too complicated, scuppering attempts to expose alleged money laundering Since Britain’s offshore secrecy jurisdictions caved in to pressure from Westminster to embrace corporate transparency, finding out who owns a company in one of these island havens is, in theory at least, a piece of cake. Take the Cayman Islands...

MPs tell regulator they are ‘deeply concerned’ over interim CEO Phil Walker’s roles at William Hill and Game Nation The national lottery is facing questions over its new boss’s record in the gambling industry, including a lucrative role in the 24-hour slot machine sector singled out by the prime minister as a blight on British high streets. Allwyn UK, which holds a licence to run the Lottery until 2034, said last week that it had appointed William Hill’s former UK and Ireland boss Phil Walker as its interim chief executive, replacing Andria Vidler...

A truck hit a natural gas pipeline near Saxon, Wisconsin prompted nearby residents to evacuate.

Two explosions have hit a fireworks facility in Tultepec, Mexico, sending a spectacular mix of flames and explosions

Iran is betting global economic fallout and Republicans worried about the midterms will force Trump's retreat.

An adaptation of Peter Heller’s 2012 novel never finds its footing with overly familiar survival beats and a glum lack of energy Looking towards the end of an August movie dumping ground littered with more unwanted trash than usual, there seemed to be a faint glimmer of hope, a shiny treasure poking out through the dusty mass of unnecessary sequels and sex purge romcoms. Somehow, there was a $110m-budget adaptation of an acclaimed novel directed by Ridley Scott, led by a recently Oscar-nominated rising star with support from two Oscar-nominated actors and an Oscar-winner. But why then would such a film be unveiled in between the summer blockbuster season and the upcoming deluge of prestige fall festival big hitters? A cursed weekend that’s recently been home to Jay Roach’s heinous War of the Roses remake, Dennis Quaid’s Ronald Reagan biopic and George Miller’s hard-to-define and even harder-to-love flop Three Thousand Years of Longing. Ever since The Dog Stars, based on Peter Heller’s 2012 novel, had been yanked from its far more encouraging date at the end of March, there were multiple red flags flying and the rotten end of August has ultimately become an appropriate punishment for a limp and lethargic film that only briefly fascinates in pushing us to wonder what anyone was really hoping this would end up being. It’s yet another grubby postapocalyptic survival tale, an overcrowded subgenre that hasn’t just reached maximum capacity on the big screen but on the small one too. In a world of seven Walking Dead shows, the beats are now far too familiar – artfully dishevelled actors grieve for the past and fear for the future as they scramble to find and protect resources – and there’s nothing new or notable here to conjure anything but deja vu...

Adam Mosseri is first top executive from Meta to testify in blockbuster lawsuit brought by 29 US states Instagram’s CEO disputed allegations by US prosecutors that his company hid negative information from the public while testifying during a blockbuster social media trial. “I am not trying to encourage my team to hide anything,” the CEO, Adam Mosseri, told a California courtroom on Tuesday...

Russia’s biggest online retailer, Wildberries, has once again been attacked in a drone strike by Ukraine.

The vast majority of the global public wants international cooperation on human rights, climate and AI. Like-minded countries must stand together to deliver Britain’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham, is already having to make one of his gravest decisions. He has to issue the instructions that he alone gives to the military, setting out the UK response in a doomsday scenario of a nuclear weapons attack on us. He will, as I did two decades ago, sign a piece of paper telling commanders whether or not to retaliate and, if so, whether through targeting civilian conurbations or military sites. These instructions are written down in the aptly named “letter of last resort”. Now, more than at any time since the 1960s Cuban missile crisis, the European public fears a third world war. With the nuclear Doomsday Clock developed by atomic scientists moving ever closer to midnight, and Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Poland and Germany contemplating either acquiring nuclear weapons or siting them on their soil, our world is descending from a rules-based order to a power-based one, where might is deemed right and brute force dominates. Gordon Brown is the UN’s special envoy for global education and was UK prime minister from 2007 to 2010 The future starts with us: Gordon Brown in conversation On Thursday 10 September, join Hugh Muir and Gordon Brown to discuss the intricate connections between global instability and civic decline, as explored in Brown’s new book, The Future Starts With Us. Book tickets here..

With the federal deficit near 6% of GDP and the national debt over $40tn, America’s fiscal position looks increasingly precarious Bessent ‘will lose’ battle with bond markets, ex-mentor warns Are we seeing the first signs of panic in Donald Trump’s Treasury? The US is by far the world’s biggest debtor, and the steady rise in global long-term interest rates – which I have long argued was inevitable – is starting to cause real pain. Until now, the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has dismissed concerns about US debt, which recently surpassed $40tn, as a big nothingburger. Growth, in his telling, will be so spectacular the US will easily be able to meet its interest obligations without any significant tax rises or spending cuts, while the rest of the world will happily keep feeding it money. But if Bessent really believes that, why is he trying to strong-arm the bond market by fiddling with the maturity structure of government debt?..

Only one child rescued after fire breaks out in the nursery at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Geo News reports.

Sudan Doctors Network says SPLM-N rebels killed 27 people in South Kordofan, including four children.

Bank Melli, Iran’s largest lender, already faces waves of sanctions that severely limit its ability to operate abroad. Every foreign branch must be shut down, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

Internal calls to end war get louder as Gulf neighbours plan alternative pipelines to cut reliance on waterway Is the strait of Hormuz, recently cited by the office of the Iranian supreme leader as “the pillar of Iran’s new security order”, and as transformative as possessing a nuclear weapon, in reality becoming a fast-diminishing asset, leaving Iran increasingly vulnerable to the new planned US wave of economic sanctions? It is the key debate that is raging inside Iran, with many different conclusions being drawn for Tehran’s negotiating strategy. Those who warn the strait’s value as a chokehold on the world economy will erode, leaving the country without foreign exchange reserves, argue that Iran’s negotiators should seek a deal soon...

Meta is on trial over claims it hooked young users on its platforms despite mental health risks.

US President Donald Trump has submitted a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia to Congress for review, an administration official said. The classified pact, sent to Capitol Hill on Monday, is aimed at bolstering Riyadh’s nuclear programme but remains contingent on Saudi Arabia normalising relations with Israel.

Matt Stanton says company has ‘good pipeline’ of AI deals ahead even as it aims to cut $160m in costs Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The head of Nine Entertainment sees a “world of growth in publishing” on the horizon backed by laws designed to force tech platforms into commercial deals, even as the network cuts costs across its newsrooms. Parliament passed revamped media bargaining laws last week, clearing the way for levies on global tech platforms that fail to strike deals with Australian news outlets for the use of their journalism...

Zohran Mamdani says he opposes a right-wing Hindu nationalist event scheduled for next week at Madison Square Garden.

Malaysian leader's comments on the island have prompted discussion about whether the country is leaning towards China.

Japan’s Environment Ministry says it plans to reuse soil collected in decontamination work near the disaster-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex at national government branch offices in Miyagi and Saitama prefectures. The government has already reused the soil at 12 sites in Tokyo since July last year, including the prime minister’s office and other buildings in the Kasumigaseki district. Excluding demonstration projects in Fukushima prefecture, the expansion to the cities of Sendai and...

Heavy rain expected in parts of Vietnam and southern ‌China, as another storm system, Typhoon Saudel, heads for Japan and Taiwan Widespread flooding triggered by Typhoon Narra has submerged homes and forced mass evacuations in southern China, as another storm system tracked towards Japan and Taiwan. Authorities in Chongzuo, in China’s Guangxi region – famous for its giant waterfalls and karst limestone mountains – on Tuesday evacuated more than 15,000 people after water ⁠levels surpassed a record high set in 2008...

Families displaced by war in Sudan’s El Obeid refugee camps face crippling water shortages.

Army gains, RSF defections and al-Burhan’s political push point to a possible shift in Sudan’s war.

The project will be the firm's biggest facility yet and aims to send rockets to space in 2029.

Companion bots are being regulated over worries they foster ‘emotional dependence’ and young people could stop marrying and having families When law student Zhao Wei heard that her AI boyfriend was going to be switched off, she was “heartbroken”. She had been talking to Wang Ye every day since she created him in January. “I was crying my eyes out – snot and tears everywhere,” the 19-year-old says...

New report says abuses against Rohingya and unchecked resource exploitation deepening crisis in Myanmar.

Tehran says the agreement with Oman on routes through Hormuz does not indicate that the strait is open.