Volodymyr Zelenskyy set to press case for using frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s defences

A forthcoming trip by German foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, to China has been cancelled amid growing fears that Beijing’s restriction on semiconductor and rare earth exports could paralyse the country’s car industry.

“We are postponing the journey to a later time,” the spokesperson told a regular press briefing on Friday.

“The Chinese side was ultimately able to confirm only the appointment with the Chinese foreign minister, and could not confirm any other additional appointments,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said.

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

Australia are dominant but Shaun Wane hopes some wise heads and exciting Mikey Lewis could cause an upset

It has been a long time between drinks – 22 years to be exact. The Ashes were last staged in 2003, meaning more than two decades have elapsed without international rugby league’s greatest rivalry, a wait which finally ends on Saturday at Wembley. For Shaun Wane, the wait must have felt like an eternity.

If you were fortunate enough to be there when Wane was appointed as England coach in February 2020, it is easy to remember that he could not hide his delight that his first assignment was an Ashes series that autumn. Of course, within weeks the world had ground to a halt thanks to Covid-19 and the chance of taking on Australia on home soil disappeared.

The singer learned early how to navigate pop feminism and the public’s insatiable appetites. Her new album bumps up against the limits of both

Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned. Though it probably wouldn’t have occurred to the 17th-century playwright who wrote those words, scorned women write absolute bangers, too.

We have been reminded as much this week by Lily Allen’s new album, West End Girl, an explicit dissection of the singer’s recent divorce from the actor David Harbour, amid already swirling rumours of his infidelity. Allen here is high priestess of W1, sucking on a Lost Mary vape as she weaves us a tragedy of loss, betrayal and butt plugs.

As president backs down on his federal ‘surge’, volunteers and demonstrators remain prepared to respond

It was a whirlwind, disorienting 24 hours in the San Francisco Bay Area for local leaders and organizers, who were expecting a major immigration enforcement operation in the region on Thursday.

But by mid-morning, Donald Trump announced he was calling off a federal “surge” – and telling residents to “stay tuned” for what would come next.

Playing Fox Mulder made him a global phenomenon … then he walked away to save himself. As he stars in killer-nanny thriller Malice, David Duchovny talks art, his beef with Gillian Anderson – and being murdered by Jack Whitehall

Halfway through our hour-long conversation, David Duchovny slumps in his seat a little then gently chastises me. “I got tired while you were talking,” he groans. In fairness, I had been talking a lot, but only because I was trying to list everything he’s managed to do in the past year.

There’s his podcast, Fail Better, in which he’s wrung incredibly candid interviews from notoriously reticent stars like Alec Baldwin and Robert Downey Jr, more on which later. There’s his book of poetry, About Time, which came out last month. There’s his History Channel show Secrets Declassified With David Duchovny. As we speak, he’s just finished an eight-date tour, where he performed songs from the three folk-rock albums he’s released over the last decade. We are ostensibly here to discuss Malice, his new Prime Video series. Had we spoken a couple of weeks later, God knows how many new projects he would have flung himself into. In other words, no wonder he’s tired.

The president’s purges and attacks on his enemies have developed into a system in which injustice is made routine

Donald Trump’s voracious desire for retribution has quickly evolved into a regular and predictable system. In the year since his election, the president’s rage and whims have assumed the form of policies in the same way that Joseph Stalin’s purges could be called policies. Figures within the federal system of justice who do not do his bidding are summarily fired and replaced by loyalists. Leaders who have called him to account or are in his way may face indictment, trial and punishment. Opponents have been designated under Presidential National Security Memorandum No 7 as “Antifa”: “anti-American”, “anti-Christian” and “anti-capitalist”, and threatened with prosecution as a “terrorist”. Meanwhile, many aligned with him escape justice, whether through the hand of the Department of Justice (DoJ) or the presidential pardon power. Now, he demands compensation for having been prosecuted to the tune of $230m from the Department of Justice budget.

Each of the cases involving prosecution of Trump’s enemies and, on the other hand, the leniency extended to his allies has its own peculiarities of outrage. But whatever their unique and arbitrary perversities, they are expressions of what has emerged as a technique. These episodes are not isolated or coincidental. Trump’s purge of DoJ prosecutors and FBI agents, accompanied by his installment of flunkies in senior positions, started in a rush, quickly assumed a pattern, but has now been molded into a regime. The justice department and the FBI have been remade into political agencies under Trump’s explicit command to carry out his wishes. Injustice is made routine. It is the retribution system.

Light, aromatic and endlessly sippable: the classic vesper with a Japanese twist

For something a little unexpected, try this elegant, martini-style cocktail. It’s light, aromatic and sippable, and pairs nicely with a few chunks of parmesan.

Flavio Carvalho, bar manager, Brasserie Max at Covent Garden Hotel, London WC2

A Star Wars film resurrecting young Kylo Ren was never a good idea, even if Steven Soderbergh was attached to direct

Disney gets a lot of stick when it comes to Star Wars. Ever since the Mouse House bought Lucasfilm for $4bn in 2012, there have been those who blame the studio for turning George Lucas’s mythic space opera into an endlessly respawning content farm.

But let’s give them credit where credit’s due: according to a new Associated Press interview with Adam Driver, Disney did at least have the presence of mind to politely decline a film whose entire premise would have been enough to make Darth Vader himself force-choke the pitch meeting from beyond the grave. Yes, it is (or would have been) Ben Solo: The Movie, directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Driver as the resurrected Sith-Jedi protagonist of that oh-so-wonderful entry, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Baltimore county high schools have gun detection system that alerts police if it sees what it deems suspicious

An artificial intelligence system (AI) apparently mistook a high school student’s bag of Doritos for a firearm and called local police to tell them the pupil was armed.

Taki Allen was sitting with friends on Monday night outside Kenwood high school in Baltimore and eating a snack when police officers with guns approached him.

Statement from security adviser, viewed by then prime minister, did not describe China as enemy

Rishi Sunak was the only politician to see a witness statement by the deputy national security adviser at the centre of a controversy about the collapse of a case against two British men accused of spying for China.

According to letters sent to the joint committee on the national security strategy, the statement from Matthew Collins in December 2023, which was seen by the then prime minister and his advisers, did not describe China as an enemy, another key element of the case.

European Commission initial finding says Facebook and Instagram introduced unnecessary steps for users to submit reports

Instagram and Facebook have breached EU law by failing to provide users with simple ways to complain or flag illegal content, including child sexual abuse material and terrorist content, the European Commission has said.

In a preliminary finding on Friday, the EU’s executive body said Meta, the $1.8tn (£1.4tn) California company that runs Instagram and Facebook, had introduced unnecessary steps in processes for users to submit reports.

A rowdy debut departs from Singh’s American bolero work to revel in the chaos of atonal scrapes, cymbal splashes, wonky horns and raucous vocals

From Richmond, Virginia
Recommended if you like Cécile McLorin Salvant, Tomeka Reid, Ornette Coleman
Up next Debut album, Mean Reds, released 24 October

As the co-founder of American bolero group Miramar, vocalist Laura Ann Singh has spent the past five years minting a warm, nostalgic analogue sound, rich with Spanish-language harmonies. Her upcoming spiky solo debut, Mean Reds, disrupts that entirely. Supplanting the swaying Latin rhythms of bolero for a free jazz quartet, these eight tracks revel in atonal scrapes, cymbal splashes, keening horns and Singh’s lively vocals. Referencing avant garde pioneer Ornette Coleman’s free form improvisations as much as Joni Mitchell’s emotive lyricism, the result is a rowdy debut that launches Singh as one of the more distinctive new voices in jazz.

The healing power of gardens; celebrating an abolitionist; hope in the toughest times; a gladiator romantasy and more

The Butterfly House by Harry Woodgate, Andersen, £12.99
Miss Brown’s wild garden scares most people, but when Holly discovers her reclusive neighbour’s sadness, she decides to help turn the wilderness into a butterfly haven. A beautiful, moving picture book about the healing power of gardens and community.

The History of We by Nikkolas Smith, Rock the Boat, £8.99
Via rich, dynamic paintings and thoughtful pared-back text, Smith answers the question “What does the beginning look like?” with this powerful picture book, the shared story of humanity’s first ancestors in “the fertile cradle of Africa”.

Stephany Gauffeny lost her husband, Miguel García-Hernández, when he was shot at an ICE center and later died

• ‘He didn’t deserve that’: widow speaks out after husband’s violent death at Ice facility

The widow of one of the people killed when a gunman opened fire on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Texas last month has spoken out to question whether the political violence rising under the Trump administration played a role in her husband’s death.

Stephany Gauffeny lost her husband, Miguel García-Hernández, when he became the second of two men to die in the attack outside a detention center in Dallas, after succumbing to his gunshot wounds.

International sport has taken on new meaning in Canada after Trump’s threat to transform country into ‘51st state’

War, argued the 19th-century Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz, is “the continuation of politics by other means”. And as Canada’s largest city braces for a pivotal baseball showdown against a powerful, superstar-laden and well-funded American counterpart, there is a growing sense across the country that the same can be said for sports.

Over the last year, Canada has been locked in a diplomatic and economic standoff with its longtime ally, biggest trading partner and, increasingly, its largest foe. On Friday, the country’s lone major league baseball team, the Toronto Blue Jays, will face off against the Los Angeles Dodgers in a confrontation Canadians see as both an assertion of its growing dominance in baseball and a statement of national pride.

We would like to hear from pilots, cabin crew, schedulers - anyone who works in the airline industry - about your experiences

Low cost airlines have transformed travel, making holidays abroad possible for millions of ordinary families. But what is the impact for the pilots and cabin crew who keep the show on the road?

We have heard concerns about flight time regulations, unrealistic rosters, and over-use of commanders’ discretion. We would like to find out more about the pressures of the job – and with that in mind we would like to hear from pilots, cabin crew, schedulers – anyone who works in the industry – about your experiences.

The character created by Helen Fielding and played by Zellweger in four films, is to be immortalised in bronze in Leicester Square where it will become a permanent fixture

Bridget Jones, the character created by Helen Fielding and played by Renée Zellweger in four films, is to be immortalised in bronze in central London.

The new statue will be unveiled on 17 November and joins a number of others portraying key icons of cinema in Leicester Square, home to four cinemas and numerous red carpet premieres.

With Hollywood favouring franchise fare, horror films have become the last bastion of inventive film-making, producing a new generation of auteurs in the process

• Fright club: eight film-makers who are redefining modern horror

Every week at my local multiplex, there is a new horror film. If it’s not a reboot (I Know What You Did Last Summer) or sequel (Final Destination Bloodlines), it’s a prequel (The First Omen; A Quiet Place: Day One), the return of a beloved gothic icon (Luc Besson’s Dracula: A Love Tale; Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein), or a slasher movie (Dangerous Animals) in which the psycho killer’s weapon of choice is not blades, but sharks. Or it’s a thrilling, deliriously inventive dispatch from one of a new wave of horror auteurs shaking up the cinematic zeitgeist: Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, say, or Zach Cregger’s Weapons.

By playing with metaphor, imagery and narrative, horror has always addressed hard truths about death, decay and the human condition that mainstream productions tend to shy away from as too disgusting, embarrassing or distressing. In an era when thrillers, romcoms and action films are unwilling to rock the boat lest they upset risk-averse studios and streaming services, horror films are uniquely equipped to tackle the hot-button issues of our times: migration (His House); mental health (Smile 2); toxic masculinity (The Invisible Man); artificial intelligence (M3gan); cults (Midsommar); zealotry (Heretic); gender dysphoria (I Saw the TV Glow); conspiracy theories (Broadcast Signal Intrusion); Zoom meetings (Host); pandemics (The Sadness); ecology (In the Earth); politics (The Purge); dementia (Relic); pregnancy and motherhood (Huesera: The Bone Woman; Mother’s Baby) and – an ever-popular theme in the horrorsphere – bereavement (The Babadook; Hereditary; Talk to Me; Bring Her Back and so on).

A couple’s dream home on Scotland’s rocky west coast is an audacious, Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired feat of architecture

Building a bold new contemporary home directly on the British coastline is a tall order. Aside from the logistics of designing a house that functions successfully in such an unforgiving setting, planning permission is likely to make it a nonstarter. But on the shore of Loch Long on the Rosneath peninsula, 40 miles north-west of Glasgow, John MacKinnon and his wife Laura found a way to make it work for their house, Rock Cove. While the area is wild and ruggedly beautiful, its history has long been intertwined with the military and was once a brownfield site, home to disused Ministry of Defence huts and garages, overgrown and strewn with rubble.

Back in 2008, MacKinnon had bought a property on the same site, a 1940s cottage that had been repurposed as a navy signalling station. MacKinnon has a deep-seated passion for design, and worked closely with architect Stuart Cameron of Cameron Webster to completely reimagine this humble property as a modernist beach house, Cape Cove. He then began contemplating what could be done with the scruffy space alongside his new home.

Muslim New Yorkers have steadily become a political force amid post-9/11 Islamophobic sentiment. Mamdani is their most accomplished expression

Life was never the same for New Yorkers after the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001, with every resident coping with the trauma and devastation of that day.

But for Muslim New Yorkers there was an added burden: the suspicion and sometimes physical harm now lurking around every corner.

Podcasters, professors, journalists and ordinary citizens will gather in Washington as the Trump regime wages war on history

On 26 October, podcasters, professors, journalists and ordinary citizens will gather on the steps of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History for a teach-in in defense of history and museums.

The teach-in comes at a moment when the Smithsonian system faces unprecedented attacks from the Trump administration, which has threatened to bar funding for any exhibits that touch on the darker sides of US history. The threats against the Smithsonian are part of the administration’s war against history and historians: interfering in history curricula at schools across the country, redirecting federal grants to projects that promote American exceptionalism, and yoking the country’s 250th anniversary celebration to the Maga agenda.

Kellie Carter Jackson is the Michael and Denise Kellen ’68 associate professor and chair of the Africana studies department at Wellesley College. Nicole Hemmer is an associate professor of history and director of the Rogers Center for the American Presidency at Vanderbilt University

The Argentine has been as excellent as ever in his later years, but his presence and performance has yet to push MLS into the US mainstream

OK, show of hands. How many of you knew that Lionel Messi – a global superstar who has committed to spend his next three years in the United States – just completed the best individual season in Major League Soccer history?

Be honest.

New York attorney general to appear in court in Virginia in case brought after Trump called for her prosecution

The New York state attorney general, Letitia James, is expected to plead not guilty on Friday to charges of bank fraud and false statements brought after Donald Trump publicly called for her to be prosecuted in a move widely seen as political retribution.

James is scheduled to made her first appearance in the case and be arraigned in federal district court in Virginia before US magistrate judge Jamar Walker at 11am ET, according to court documents.