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2026 News Archive

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sportsAugust 28, 2026The Guardian

All Blacks brace for Bok-lash as Erasmus adds late fly-half plot twist

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s inclusion may be a classic piece of misdirection from South Africa in their must-win match against New Zealand On the face of it, South Africa have been beset by disruption before their most significant match since the successful defence of their World Cup title. Rassie Erasmus had sought to lean further on the Springboks’ set-piece strengths by selecting Handré Pollard at fly-half for the second Test against New Zealand in Cape Town, suggesting a narrow gameplan. A return to the tried and tested. A reliance on what he knows best. Then came news of the “niggle”. Out goes Pollard, who, according to the Friday morning bulletin, suffered said niggle in training on Wednesday and failed a fitness test 24 hours before the match, and back comes the far more adventurous Sacha Feinberg‑Mngomezulu into the No 10 jersey. Feinberg‑Mngomezulu struggled in last week’s 33-16 defeat at Ellis Park, as he did on his comeback from injury against Argentina earlier this month, but the 24-year-old has a skill set that has marked him out as a future global star...

sportsAugust 28, 2026The Guardian

‘I want to be seen as a bloody good trainer’: Gihan Arnolda’s journey from sleeping rough to beating Britain’s top stables

Former jockey reflects on remarkable story from overcoming hardship to breaking barriers as the first trainer of black or Asian heritage at Flat racing’s HQ “It’s just unbelievable, isn’t it?” Gihan Arnolda says as he reflects on his first three months as a trainer: five winners from 33 runners, £50,000 prize money banked and a string that is, according to the much-respected Timeform operation’s “run to form” statistic, outperforming every other Flat yard in Britain. But it could equally apply to the story of Arnolda’s journey from the east end of London to Cadland Cottage Stables at the bottom of Warren Hill in Newmarket. He was the first trainer of black or Asian heritage in Flat racing’s HQ when he received his licence earlier this year, and that is just one among a host of unlikely firsts and Sliding-Doors moments along the way...

cultureAugust 28, 2026The Guardian

‘I don’t care if I look good’: French heartthrob Louis Garrel on fashion, fatherhood and his radically dorky new role

The star has long been French cinema’s favourite tousle-haired Adonis, which makes his latest performance – as a schlubby, stay-at-home dad – all the more surprising. ‘I appreciate people laughing at me,’ he says ‘Even though I’ve been working in film for over 20 years, I still have this desire to look beautiful on screen,” says Louis Garrel, on a video call from his bed inside a boat off the coast of Corsica. The French film star is lying on his stomach, occasionally kicking up his bare legs, ruffling his curls and running the nail of his thumb over his moustache. I think the person he sees on the laptop screen in front of him is me, but I am pretty certain he is flirting with his own reflection. The attraction between the Paris-born 43-year-old and the camera tends to be reciprocal. Long of limb, tousled of hair and chiselled of nose, Garrel has spent a career on screen as French cinema’s favourite Adonis – the man film-makers turn to when they need an erotic wrecking ball to smash up bourgeois twosomes and turn them into quivering menages a trois...

sportsAugust 28, 2026The Guardian

Forget H2H records: are Premier League games now about the manager’s form?

With 110 matches to feature two coaches appointed this year, tactical history is becoming harder to ignore in a league of rapid turnover New managers are facing an almost one-in-two chance of being fired before the end of the season, a finding from Guardian analysis that shows 22 of the last 50 permanent Premier League managers to leave their roles lasted less than a year. The betting markets reflect this reality. Six of the eight Premier League managers deemed most likely by bookmakers to be next to leave their post were appointed in 2026. Football management is a very precarious employment position. It looks inevitable that some of the 11 men who have only been in their role since earlier this year will fall before the final hurdle of the 2026-27 season – even if none of them are the first to move on...

businessAugust 28, 2026The Guardian

UK petrol prices hit highest level in almost four years as bank holiday getaway looms

Average cost of petrol reaches 161.6p a litre, while diesel costs average of 183.4p, according to the AA UK petrol prices have hit their highest level since 2022, piling more financial pressure on motorists before the bank holiday weekend. The average cost of petrol has reached 161.6p a litre, while diesel costs an average of 183.4p a litre, according to the breakdown company the AA...

worldAugust 28, 2026France 24

Nepal and Tibet: around 93,000 people affected, according to the Red Cross

The death toll continues to rise in the Nepal and Tibet floods as the situation remains fast-moving. The Red Cross says around 93,000 people have been affected. International aid is arriving from several countries, but rescue efforts have been hampered by the difficulty of coordinating operations in the remote Himalayan terrain. The epicentre of the disaster was only reached 48 hours after the floods began. FRANCE 24's Jamie Smith-Maillet has the latest.

cultureAugust 28, 2026The Guardian

Memo to Ridley Scott: no one needs more Alien: Covenant movies – get the franchise back to stalk’n’slash

News that Scott is working on a follow-up to his maligned 2017 film leaves me worried the franchise has run out of shocks If any science-fiction saga looked beyond recovery, it was the Alien franchise. For the 38 years that followed James Cameron’s Aliens, film-makers contrived to find every imaginable way of not making a good Alien film. They tried killing everyone the audience cared about before the opening credits, marooning Sigourney Weaver on a planet populated entirely by bald British character actors, cloning Ripley, pitting xenomorphs against Predators, and sending scientists across the universe to ask an enormous, hairless space bodybuilder why he made them. They even ponied up the thick end of $100m for a film in which Michael Fassbender teaches himself to play the flute. And then in 2024, we got Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus, in which actual xenomorphs chase actual human beings down actual corridors for the clearly defined purposes of either killing them or putting smaller xenomorphs inside them. Better still, a year later we got Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth, which reminded us that giant, murderous space insects are in fact less awful than tech trillionaires...

scienceAugust 28, 2026The Guardian

‘So much fringe science’: RFK Jr’s advisers are pushing an extreme makeover in autism research

Experts warn the 336-page plan from RFK Jr’s advisers deflects federal dollars into unreliable alternative therapies Autism groups and researchers have reacted with alarm to a federal research roadmap drawn up by advisers handpicked by the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, fearing it will promote unproven fringe therapies at the expense of promising genetic research. A slew of scientific bodies and groups within the autism community are warning that the 336-page plan risks deflecting federal dollars away from potentially groundbreaking genetic research in favor of unreliable alternative therapies...

powerAugust 28, 2026The Guardian

Bigmouth strums again: was Andy Burnham’s Smiths jam in Kyiv the perfect soundtrack to a Britain in freefall?

The UK prime minister clearly still adores the band. Perhaps he’s attracted to songs about sham justice and murderous meat factories, shot through with nihilism and exquisite despair As an origin story, Andy Burnham: Smiths Fan has a lot going for it. It’s plainly authentic: he can name the time he saw them live (Salford University, Queen Is Dead tour, 1986). A cynical young man in a hurry might fake that now, but not back when he first said it, in 2013. Asked by Labour Uncut for his desert island tracks during his 2010 leadership bid, three of the eight were sung by Morrissey (two Smiths singles and one off Viva Hate), which is superfan territory. That’s a softball exercise to endear yourself to Labour members; you have eight chances to hit every base, and to blow three lives on an artist who had already, by then, been dabbling in nationalism for 18 years (we’ll come back to this) was dicey and brave. You’ll recall that Burnham did not win that election. If you were an enemy state, amassing this hinterland for an asset, you’d have basically done a really good job...

businessAugust 28, 2026The Guardian

The chefs turning down the heat by switching from gas to electric

As well as being quieter, cheaper to run and easier to clean, induction cookers can cut kitchen temperatures by up to 10C Leaping flames, searing heat, copious sweat and scorchingly inventive swearing – restaurant kitchens are never a place for the faint-hearted, but this summer they have been sweltering in successive heatwaves to a dangerous degree. Some restaurants, cafes and bakeries in the UK grew so hot that they were forced to close, or reduce their hours, for the safety of their staff. There is still no maximum working temperature, despite calls from the TUC, and tens of thousands of kitchen staff are thought to have carried on working in “furnace-like” conditions...

businessAugust 28, 2026The Guardian

Detroit despairs as ‘insanity’ of Trump’s Canada trade war punishes city

Unpopular new policy comes as midterms loom and control of Congress could be decided by several Michigan races Every day $1bn worth of goods crosses the river dividing Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, two largely blue-collar US and Canadian cities that have come to act as one in the creation of North America’s auto industry. News this week of Donald Trump’s escalating trade spat with Canada has everyone worried. Political and economic leaders and observers labeled the move an act of “hubris”, blamed Trump’s “ego”, and called the escalation “insanity”...

climateAugust 28, 2026The Guardian

Nepal-Tibet flood: this is the cost of not acting in the face of the climate crisis | Sunil Acharya

Nepalis and Tibetans must not pay the price – with their lives, livelihoods and money meant for education and health – for global heating caused by wealthy states Sunil Acharya is an international climate policy and just transition specialist based in Kathmandu, Nepal As a Nepali citizen working on international climate policy for more than a decade, it is difficult to look at the harrowing images coming out of the catastrophic flash flood that thundered down valleys in Nepal, sweeping down the Lhende Khola, Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers, and not feel angry. Not just because of the destruction, but because it comes after years of warnings from scientists and civil society that a rapidly warming planet would make disasters more frequent, more intense and harder to predict. This is what the cost of delaying global climate action looks like. Sunil Acharya is an international climate policy and just transition specialist based in Kathmandu, Nepal..

sportsAugust 28, 2026The Guardian

Carse ‘feels he let England down’, says Durham coach: county cricket, day two – live

Updates from the latest round of Championship matches Day one roundup | Sign up for the Spin | Mail Tanya I want to eat all my breakfasts on the North Bay drinking coffee out of a cornflower blue cup, in the shadow of a ruined castle, to the rhythm of the waves. Delicious cheese scone too. Durham coach Ryan Campbell told BBC sport last night thatBrydon Carse was mortified by events in Derby, but would play for Durham unless they were told otherwise...

businessAugust 28, 2026The Guardian

Jumping beans: UK shoppers turn to legumes to save cash and improve diet

Sales of beans, lentils and soya bean derivatives on rise while Britons buy less real and fake meat British shoppers are munching more beans, lentils, tofu and tempeh – while cutting back on both real and plant-based fake meat – to save money and improve their diet. The amount of beans, pulses and soya bean derivatives sold in the UK increased by 7.3% in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period last year, led by a surge in cheap dried lentils, an analysis has found...

powerAugust 28, 2026The Guardian

John Healey to duck meeting UK defence spending target in budget

Chancellor pledges ‘fiscal discipline’ as plan to spend 3% of GDP on defence by 2030 deferred until 2027 review The new chancellor, John Healey, will delay setting out when the UK will meet the target of spending 3% of GDP on defence until next year’s spending review, the Treasury has confirmed. Healey resigned as the defence secretary in June under Keir Starmer’s leadership, accusing the then prime minister of being “unable” and the Treasury “unwilling” to “commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country”...

cultureAugust 28, 2026France 24

Spain's Villena Treasure stolen in four-minute museum heist

Almost the entire Villena Treasure, one of Europe's most valuable Bronze Age collections, was stolen from a museum in eastern Spain in a four-minute raid after thieves smashed through a window and bulletproof glass. Police believe several people and vehicles were involved, and suspect the thieves created a diversion by triggering an alarm at a nearby sports centre before the break-in.

worldAugust 28, 2026France 24

US: Tate brothers remain in jail as judge delays bail decision

Andrew and Tristan Tate will remain in custody in Miami after a federal judge declined to rule on their bail request as they fight extradition to the UK, where they face charges including rape, assault, human trafficking and money laundering. The UK has until mid-September to submit its evidence to the US State Department, while the brothers continue to deny wrongdoing and claim their online personas were fictional.

worldAugust 28, 2026France 24

EU wants Meta to extend US teen safety restrictions to Europe

The EU is pressing Meta to introduce the same protections for under-18s in Europe that it agreed to in a landmark US settlement, including screen-time limits and stronger parental controls on Facebook and Instagram. Brussels is also demanding additional measures.

climateAugust 28, 2026France 24

El Niño, paired with climate change, 'just makes everything so much more dangerous'

Annette Young is pleased to welcome Gareth Redmond-King, Head of the International Programme at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit. He warns we are entering a period in which climate change is not only intensifying extreme weather but adding greater instability to the climate system itself. Natural phenomena such as El Niño will then amplify, and intensify, that disruption, effectively “fanning the flames of climate change” and making already dangerous extremes even more severe. For Europe, this means that the extreme heat, drought, water shortages, storms and flash flooding we are experiencing should no longer be regarded as exceptional. They are increasingly part of a new normal for which governments remain inadequately prepared.

worldAugust 28, 2026France 24

Nepal flash floods: 'Very challenging' for survivors who have lost their homes and their families

Alison Sargent is pleased to welcome Sunita Sharma, Head of Programs of Karuna-Shechen. While Nepal has considerable experience responding to natural disasters, the scale of the present devastation exposes a deeper challenge: Placing greater emphasis on preparedness. The immediate priorities are clear: finding those still missing and providing survivors with drinking water, food, shelter, clothing and medicine. But recovery cannot end there. Ultimately, they will need to rebuild confidence and entire communities. Given the scale of the destruction, that process could take years.

worldAugust 28, 2026France 24

China's lost children: Adoptees search for answers

At the height of China's controversial one-child policy, children were torn away from their birth families and put up for adoption. FRANCE 24's Yena Lee follows one adoptee, now an adult, who is on a quest to

worldAugust 28, 2026France 24

In Tibet and Nepal, 'the most pressing fear is that the death toll could rise'

At least 472 people have been killed and more than 1,500 remain missing after devastating flash floods hit the Himalayan border between Nepal and China, where over 3,250 people have already been evacuated by helicopter. As rescuers race to find survivors, one of the biggest fears is that the death toll will continue to rise, with authorities also warning that an overflowing lake upstream could trigger more flooding. FRANCE 24's Navodita Kumari has the latest.

healthAugust 28, 2026The Guardian

ADHD and autism costs in England ‘running out of control’, NHS leaders warn

Soaring demand for services has led to tenfold increase in spending in a year in some areas, says NHS Alliance NHS leaders have warned that the costs of meeting soaring demand for ADHD and autism services in England are “running out of control” and have become unsustainable, with spending in some areas rising by up to tenfold over the course of a year. The NHS Alliance, which represents health managers, said the rise in demand since the coronavirus pandemic was forcing some to close waiting lists and look at reining in other services they provide. One integrated care board (ICB) cited in a report said its monthly spend had risen from £146,000 in 2024/25 to £1.5m last year...