A record of what was published, when, and how it changed.

The decent way for countries to engage with the Taliban | Brief letters

By Guardian Staff

Afghan diplomacy | Weather words | Delightful weeds | Thomas Paine’s remains | Reform UK benefits cuts You report concerns over increased diplomatic contact with Afghanistan and the Taliban (15 August). If nations wish to establish contact with the country and improve human rights, especially for women, may I suggest that they only use women to negotiate and to staff diplomatic bases. They might also insist on only d

Premier League to allow audio of conversations between players and referees

By Exclusive by Matt Hughes

Audio to be used during live broadcasts for first time Move is part of an expansion of the RefCam system The Premier League will permit audio of on-field conversations between players and referees during live broadcasts for the first time this season. The use of audio by the Premier League’s domestic TV rights holders, Sky Sports and TNT Sports, is part of an expansion of the RefCam system, which became a permanent f

China’s economy showing signs that slowdown may be extending

By Richard Partington Senior economics correspondent

Industrial output and retail sales slump in July after one of the country’s weakest quarterly growth rates ever China’s economy is showing signs of extending a slowdown with a slump in industrial output and retail sales in July, adding to pressure on Beijing to intervene with measures to support activity. After the world’s second largest economy posted one of its lowest quarterly growth readings on record in the thre

‘She never forgot where she came from’: Bonnie Tyler mourners turn out for Swansea service

By Bethan McKernan Wales correspondent

Many in the crowd watching on screen outside minster have stories of meeting or knowing singer, who died in July Bonnie Tyler’s songs have echoed through her home town of Swansea in recent days in memory of the late singer, but on Monday the church bells stopped and wellwishers lining the streets fell silent as her coffin arrived for a service celebrating her life. As the white coffin, covered in bouquets of white ro

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Lara Ricote: Inkling review – this fizzy standup’s smart new set is her best yet

By Brian Logan

Monkey Barrel Comedy, Edinburgh A show about maturing and learning to listen to life’s signals doesn’t stint on tomfoolery and has some great gags What a rich and enjoyable show this is from Lara Ricote, a leap forwards from her already-excellent first two shows. It finds the Mexican-American comic in as endearing fettle as ever, her urge to communicate bubbling over in a show about divining the messages life puts yo

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What is Ebola and why is the outbreak in DRC causing so much concern?

By Denis Campbell and Rachel Savage

Strain of virus with no vaccine has potential to overrun response impeded by conflict and misinformation Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are losing their battle to contain the country’s deadliest Ebola outbreak. DRC’s health ministry declared an outbreak in Ituri province on 15 May, though sequencing shows it had begun in February. It has since spread to five other provinces and is on track

Nicola Jennings on the UK water industry and the drought – cartoon

By Nicola Jennings

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A job that changed me: After years of being a marriage celebrant, I became uneasy with the institution

By Jasper Peach

My favourite part was sitting with couples, talking about their lives and why they wanted to marry. But I’m equally happy to have left it behind Read more in this series here I was in my mid-20s in the mid-2000s when I became a professional yapper. I’d had to bow out of a career in Auslan (Australian sign language) interpreting due to injury, but could still talk under wet concrete. Studying to become a civil marriag

British Muslim student with valid visa refused entry to US after 23-hour detention

By Chris Osuh Community affairs correspondent

Laith Alani, who had booked week-long trip to visit theme parks and family, believes US border force profiled him on arrival in Orlando A British student who was detained and deported after flying to the US claims he was profiled for being Muslim. Laith Alani said he felt as if he had been kidnapped when he was interrogated for nine hours and detained in a holding cell for another 14 hours by US Customs and Border Pr

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Top album releases linked to rise in fatal crashes as ‘distracted’ drivers access music

By Nicola Davis Science correspondent

Harvard study finds traffic fatalities increase by 15% on release dates compared with similar days either side The release of a new album by Taylor Swift might be a cause for celebration among her fans, but such events have also been linked to a more sombre phenomenon: an increase in fatal car crashes. The team behind a new study say it sheds light on the impact of distracted driving. “You can’t randomise people into

Enzo Maresca’s Manchester City opener was startlingly bad

By Jonathan Wilson

The Community Shield isn’t always a sign of things to come, but City’s form in their defeat to Arsenal is concerning in the wake of Pep Guardiola’s departure Sign up for our free newsletter here There are caveats. It was only the Community Shield – and no side has gone on to win the league after lifting the Community Shield since 2018. It was against the league champions, whose pre-season has involved far less strenu

The Sinking City 2 review – Ukrainian cosmic horror, come hell or high water

By Nic Rueben

PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X, PC; Frogwares Frogwares’ Lovecraftian action-horror is full of grim tenacity and pulp paperback charm, despite a few frayed edges I’m standing in the prosthetics lab of a campy horror hospital, hunting for a preacher’s flayed face to wear so I can trick the world’s grisliest smart doorbell. Pinned to a board in the corner of the room are a dozen X-rays: shattered bones and metal splint

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We would like to hear from UK agriculture workers about how the heatwaves have affected their work

By Guardian community team

We would also like to speak to florists, groundskeepers, and professional gardeners about how they are planning for the future The heatwaves and drought conditions across parts of Britain this summer have brought a series of challenges for food producers and those working on the land. According to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, hot and dry weather has resulted in the earliest UK cereals harvest i

Hayden Panettiere: an actor so magnetic that entire shows were rewritten for her

By Zoe Williams

She starred in her first soap opera at 4 – then the hit show Heroes was totally reworked to allow her character, Claire the regenerating cheerleader, to live on. We celebrate the star, who has died age 36 • Hayden Panettiere – a life in pictures • Hayden Panettiere obituary When Hayden Panettiere arrived as Claire Bennet in Heroes, in 2006, she was 17 but not a newcomer. She’d starred in Tiger Cruise, a Disney Channe

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‘You’ve got to see this girl!’ Tanita Tikaram on making Twist in My Sobriety

By Interviews by Dave Simpson

‘People tell me it helped them with their rehab. I have to explain: Sorry, it’s not about alcohol – I was just a kid singing about injustice’ I wrote the lyrics on the floor of my bedroom in Basingstoke when I was 16 or 17, as a way of decompressing from studying for my A-levels. I had the idea for “Twist in my …” something, but didn’t know what else to put in there. I tried “Twist in my gravity” before ending up wit

‘Champagne and a KFC’: how Hunt celebrated historic haul at European Championships

By Sean Ingle

British sprinter catapulted herself into the mainstream by winning four golds in Birmingham and celebrated her final golden night in style Long before Amy Hunt catapulted herself into the mainstream by winning an unprecedented four gold medals at the European Championships, she was remarkably upfront about her ambitions. There was no coyness. No equivocation. She wanted the quadruple in Birmingham. And having talked

Next year’s Eurovision host is Burgas, not Sofia. Some Bulgarians are baffled

By Eden Maclachlan in Sofia

Next year’s competition won’t take place in the country’s capital, an announcement that even surprised Bulgarian winner, Dara Ever since Bulgarian singer Dara was crowned winner of the Eurovision song contest this May, it has been clear that the Balkan nation would for the first time in its history have the opportunity to host Europe’s biggest party. So when Bulgarian officials announced last week that the world’s la

Finland halts deportation of Russian family who ‘risked everything’ to oppose Ukraine invasion

By Miranda Bryant Nordic correspondent

Mother and son Olga and Nikita Belov say they were facing jail and potential torture after asylum case was rejected A Russian family who were on the brink of being deported from Finland after repeatedly being denied asylum – despite the threat of arrest, imprisonment and torture for their pro-Ukrainian activism – have won a court appeal and will have their case reconsidered. Nikita Belov and his mother, Olga Belov, f

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I thought testing ice-cream makers would be fun – then came the milk-fuelled madness

By Danielle Amato

After three dozen eggs, 30 lemons and a concerning amount of unplanned butter, our tester learned the hard way how to make the perfect ice-cream. Plus, how to buy a bike • Don’t get the Filter delivered to your inbox? Sign up here You probably know that song about ice-cream, and it’s been playing in my head non-stop for the past month. But since I tested 13 ice-cream machines at once during the hottest days of the ye

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UK government ‘irresponsible’ for not publishing emergency drought plans

By Pippa Neill Environment reporter

Campaigners demand greater transparency into water companies’ plans not made public due to ‘security reasons’ The UK government has been accused of a lack of transparency and of acting irresponsibly for refusing to publish the emergency drought plans that are produced by water companies. Water firms are required to publish statutory drought plans every five years to detail the actions needed to ensure public water su

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Donald Trump threatens to bomb Oman if it ‘gets in the way’ of ending Iran war

By Joseph Gedeon and Andrew Roth in Washington

President issues threat to ‘bomb the shit out of them’ after previously threatening Gulf ally in May Donald Trump has again threatened to bomb Oman if it “gets in the way” of his effort to end the US-Israel war on Iran, as the two-month window to negotiate peace with Iran expired on Monday with no end to the conflict in sight. The latest threats against Oman, which is not a party to the war, have illustrated how Trum

US tourist dies after being struck by lightning on Italy’s Mount Etna

By Associated Press

Italian firefighters say a man, 29, was killed by a lightning strike on the Sicily volcano while hiking in a restricted area A tourist from the US was killed by a lightning strike on Sicily’s Mount Etna while hiking in an area that was closed to visitors due to recent volcanic activity, Italian firefighters said on Monday. The 29-year-old man from Kansas was rescued by helicopter after being struck Sunday evening in

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Sainsbury’s store pauses AI scanning after false shoplifting accusation

By Helena Horton

Supermarket chain says ‘human error’, not its Facewatch technology, to blame for ejecting a customer Sainsbury’s has paused the use of AI face scanning in one of its stores after a customer was wrongly identified as a shoplifter and ejected from the shop. “I was embarrassed, mortified even, and felt quite humiliated and powerless,” Matt Arnold, 46, said of his ordeal. Continue reading...

Beatles film recreates iconic Abbey Road album cover

By Andrew Pulver

Social media footage this weekend revealed the cast of Sam Mendes’ four-film band biopic on the zebra crossing near the studio, posing for the famous image The production team behind the forthcoming four-film Beatles biopic, directed by Sam Mendes, has been spotted filming outside Abbey Road studios in London. Inevitably, this includes a recreation of the celebrated Abbey Road album cover, for which the band was phot

As Ebola kills thousands in DRC, a perfect storm is making the virus hard to stop | Devi Sridhar

By Devi Sridhar

New species and regional instability are factors – but decisions made in the US and Britain are also costing lives Did you know that there is a major Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and it’s on track to be the deadliest ever? It is already the second-worst Ebola outbreak in history, with the fastest community transmission we have ever seen. It’s estimated that there have been at least 4,900 ca