2 h. ago Reshuffle it how you like, Starmer’s ‘grownup’ Labour has the Tory whiff of spiteful incompetence | Nesrine Malik

Here we are again: constant rebooting, cruel rhetoric and crackdowns. And hurtling towards a Reform-shaped futureSign up for our new weekly newsletter Matters of Opinion, where our columnists and writers will reflect on what they’ve been debating, thinking about, reading and moreThere has been a familiar feeling in the air for a while, but not one I could identify until last week, when it finally settled. It is a sense that this Labour government is just as terminally dysfunctional and directionless as its predecessor. I am beginning to feel the same sense of frustration, confusion, anger and depletion that I carried through all those years of Conservative government.Here we are again, with the pettiness and authoritarianism, the performatively cruel rhetoric and crackdown on immigration, the ridiculous posturing on flags, the empty sloganeering – and with the constant rebooting in order to jumpstart a broken machine. The result is that government has been reduced to the same intrus...

Politics

6 h. ago Strictly's Dan Walker and Nadiya Bychkova 'cement their four

The pair met on the BBC show back in 2021, where they reached the quarter-finals, and have remained in contact ever since.

Politics

7 h. ago Fury over fundraiser for career criminal who brutally murdered Ukrainian on North Carolina train

An online fundraiser designed to support career criminal Decarlos Brown Jr,, 35, who is accused of brutally murdering Iryna Zarutska, 23, onboard a train in North Carolina has sparked fury online.

Events

8 h. ago Jade: That’s Showbiz Baby! review – former Little Mix star thrives in chaos on an idiosyncratic debut

(Sony)Jade Thirlwall offers a wild ride through electroclash, Eurovision drama and emotive synth-pop – albeit one she can’t quite maintain for a whole albumLast month, the indefatigable Vice magazine published a piece on the “summer of British chaos”, documenting a scene of deranged social media provocateurs existing at the crispiest fringes of our nation’s cooked identity. Writer Clive Martin defined these graven images of the algorithm as being regionally specific, lurid, rowdy, funny and hedonistic. As a former member of Little Mix, a girl band put together via public vote on The X Factor, Jade Thirlwall might not seem like the likeliest bedfellow of this unhinged movement. But the South Shields pop star’s debut solo single, last year’s Angel of My Dreams, dodged focus-grouped smoothness to present a sublimely whacked-out, thoroughly British pop vision that felt like spinning through someone else’s for you page and realising they exist in a markedly different universe from your o...

Events

11 h. ago Chloe Ferry reveals identity of new boyfriend as she admits she's found her 'forever'

Geordie Shore star Chloe Ferry has shown her social media followers her new man after months of teasing images and she said she feels she has now found her 'forever'

Politics

12 h. ago Cause of death of Brit, 59, whose body was finally identified a month after she vanished

Michele Bourda vanished from a sunbed on a beach in Kavala, Greece last month while her husband was asleep, but authorities tragically found her body weeks later

Events

14 h. ago The Guardian view on the ‘twin’ Vermeers: how to spot a masterpiece | Editorial

Two versions of the Guitar Player raise important questions of attribution. In our age of fake images, authenticity in art is more vital than ever“How do you know how much to pay if you don’t know what it is worth?” So ends Theft: A Love Story by the Australian novelist Peter Carey. This scabrous riff on the slipperiness of cultural value in the international art scene asks: is a copy so good that even experts mistake it for the original painting still a fake?Questions of authenticity and attribution are behind a new display by English Heritage at Kenwood House in London to mark the 350th anniversary of the death of Johannes Vermeer. For the first time in 300 years, two nearly identical paintings of the Guitar Player, one signed by the Dutch master, the other on loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and until recently believed to be a 17th- or 18th-century copy, will hang side by side. Experts have puzzled over the relationship between the two paintings for 100 years. Now visito...

Politics

16 h. ago Who is Matt Tebbutt, the 'safe pair of hands' replacing Gregg Wallace on MasterChef: The Professionals?

Gregg Wallace’s MasterChef replacement has finally been confirmed. So, who is Matt Tebbutt, and what can we expect from his move to MasterChef?

Politics

16 h. ago Villagers beg Viscount Falmouth not to sell his Cornish estate to developers

Residents in Playing Place, near Truro, say handing the land over would mean the area's 'unique cultural identity' could be 'lost forever'.

Politics

17 h. ago F1 standings after Italian GP as Lando Norris closes gap to Oscar Piastri

The McLaren pair are the top-two in the championship standings

Politics

17 h. ago The man and the mushroom kayak: can a boat made from mycellim change the future/

Sam Shoemaker’s record-setting voyage shows the promise – and limits – of fungi as a plastic alternativeOn a clear, still morning in early August, Sam Shoemaker launched his kayak into the waters off Catalina Island and began paddling. His goal: to traverse the open ocean to San Pedro, just south of Los Angeles, some 26.4 miles away.But upon a closer look, Shoemaker’s kayak was no ordinary kayak. Brown-ish yellow and bumpy in texture, it had been made – or rather, grown – entirely from mushrooms. His journey, if successful, would mark the world’s longest open-water journey in a kayak built from this unique material. Continue reading...

Politics

17 h. ago BREAKING: Emergency alert sounds across most of UK mobile phones

Alarming, siren-like tones sounded from millions of phones today in a test of the government's national alert service - which is designed to save lives in the event of an emergency

Events

17 h. ago What is a casement window? A complete guide to this classic design

Casement windows are the standard for most homes

Politics

17 h. ago California Schemin’ review – James McAvoy’s directorial debut is an unlikely rap tale

Toronto film festival: the actor makes for a hit-and-miss first time film-maker with the undeniably involving true story of Scottish rappers who pretended to be AmericanAt the start of the century, a struggling Scottish rap duo decided to overhaul their image in extreme fashion: they began posing as two Americans from California, and managed to secure themselves a record deal with a label in London. Eventually the hoax was revealed, and one of them released a memoir about the charade. That wild story has now been adapted into a film, California Schemin’, which marks the alternately confident and unsteady directorial debut of actor James McAvoy.McAvoy is a son of Scotland himself, and perhaps feels some kinship with rappers Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd, who found the cultural tastemakers of the south to be indifferent or even hostile to Scottish artists. Though McAvoy has fared just fine as an actor, Bain and Boyd – who would come to be known as Silibil N’ Brains – had a much tougher go...

Politics

17 h. ago F1 Italian GP LIVE: Race latest updates with Norris eyeing move on Verstappen in first place

Follow live F1 updates from Monza, as Verstappen leads ahead of the McLaren pair of Norris and Piastri

Politics

18 h. ago Lando Norris labels Max Verstappen an ‘idiot’ over controversial move at Italian Grand Prix

The McLaren driver was left angry at the world champion’s move during a lively start at Monza, with the Briton aiming to trim teammate Oscar Piastri’s world championship lead

Sport

18 h. ago Police arrest almost 900 at London protest supporting banned group Palestine Action

Police say they arrested almost 900 protesters outside Parliament in London for defying a ban on the group Palestine Action, which the government has labeled a terrorist organization

Events

19 h. ago Fossils show pair of baby pterosaurs ‘died in violent storm’

Stunning fossils from Germany reveal hatchlings were injured and drowned during tropical storm 150 million years ago

Events

19 h. ago Mass mortuaries, forensics and rare cooperation with Russia: The agonising task of identifying Ukraine’s war dead

Bryony Gooch speaks to a forensic specialist about the ongoing work to put names to bodies in Ukraine after Moscow agreed to return thousands of the fallen

Events

19 h. ago Donald Trump 'was FBI informant trying to take down Epstein' claims Republican pal

US president Donald Trump was working a secret FBI informant attempting to take down Jeffrey Epstein when the pair partied together throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, a Republican as alleged

Politics