Meanwhile, we are starting to look towards 10 Downing Street as the leaders should start arriving in the next hour. Last preparations are under way, and we have a live stream for you at the top of the page.
In the last few minutes, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has just landed in the UK, Sky News has reported.
Police chief says stepping down isn’t related to Trump’s addition of national guard to the city and her last day is expected to be 31 December, Axios reports
In a statement, Pamela Smith said she was “deeply humbled, grateful and deeply appreciative” of her time in her role, which she described as the “greatest honor” of her career. She gave thanks to the mayor for appointing her in 2023 and supporting her throughout her tenure, which she acknowledged had been both “challenging and rewarding”.
Smith adds that “tremendous progress” has been made but the city is not at “zero percent crime” yet.
I am confident that the department is in a strong position and that the great work will continue, moving in a positive trajectory to combat crime and enhance public safety. Washington, DC is an extraordinary place to live, visit, and work, and I remain inspired by the resilience and spirit of this community.
I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity to serve in this capacity as Chief of Police. It has been an honor to lead the men and women of the Metropolitan Police Department, and I will always carry with the me the pride of having served this city.
When Chief Smith stepped up to lead the Metropolitan Police Department, we had no time to waste. She came in at a very challenging time for our community, when there was significant urgency to reverse the crime trends our city was facing post pandemic. Within a year of her tenure, we opened the Real-Time Crime Center.
We deployed newer and better technology. We worked with the Council to pass comprehensive legislation that prioritizes accountability. And Chief Smith got all of this done while also navigating unprecedented challenges and attacks on our city’s autonomy.
At a time when the UK and other countries are finally taking bold steps for climate, Canada is preparing a new oil pipeline
Last week, the United Kingdom did something all too rare: it chose leadership by backing science and prioritizing public safety. The Labour government announced it would ban new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, strengthen a windfall tax and accelerate phasing out of fossil-fuel subsidies.
These are not symbolic gestures. They are an acknowledgment that the global energy system is shifting and that mature economies must shift with it.
Tzeporah Berman is a Canadian environmental activist, campaigner and writer
Mike Johnson’s denials of knowledge of presidential scandals strain credulity – but may be an effective tactic
The US House speaker, Mike Johnson, has developed a go-to response when asked about something controversial Donald Trump or members of his administration said or did.
It’s some version of “I don’t know anything about that.”
Benefit claimants having applications denied for being deemed too risky by housing associations, says Crisis
The poorest people in England are being denied access to social housing owing to their low income, in a “catch-22” situation that is pushing more people into homelessness, research has found.
A new report from Crisis said that an ever depleting supply of social homes meant that housing associations were using strict criteria to choose new tenants, and people on low incomes and in receipt of benefits were having applications denied due to being deemed too risky.
Finch defends her daring to practise the male profession of poetry using heroic couplets and subversive jokes
The Apology
’Tis true, I write; and tell me by what rule
I am alone forbid to play the fool,
To follow through the groves a wandering muse
And feigned ideas for my pleasures choose?
Why should it in my pen be held a fault,
Whilst Myra paints her face, to paint a thought?
Whilst Lamia to the manly bumper flies,
And borrowed spirits sparkle in her eyes,
Why should it be in me a thing so vain
To heat with poetry my colder brain?
As midlife audiences turn to digital media, the 55 to 64 age bracket is an increasingly important demographic
In 2022, Caroline Idiens was on holiday halfway up an Italian mountain when her brother called to tell her to check her Instagram account. “I said, ‘I haven’t got any wifi. And he said: ‘Every time you refresh, it’s adding 500 followers.’ So I had to try to get to the top of the hill with the phone to check for myself.”
A personal trainer from Berkshire who began posting her fitness classes online at the start of lockdown in 2020, Idiens, 53, had already built a respectable following.
Friday’s ceremony in Washington DC was cringe-inducing and craven enough to make football fans nostalgic for the reign of Sepp Blatter
Well, that was awful, wasn’t it? Donald Trump’s heroic victory over a field of one to claim the inaugural Fifa peace prize, on-stage banter so dead it was already fossilized, Gianni Infantino doing crowd work, and Wayne Gretzky struggling through the pronunciation of “Macedonia” and “Curaçao” in the draw’s linguistic group of death: even with the benefit of a few days’ distance it’s impossible to overstate how impressively bad the draw for the 2026 World Cup, held last Friday at the Trump-purged Kennedy Center in Washington DC, was.
“This is America, so we have to put on a show!” roared Fifa president Infantino, resembling a Sphinx cat in a borrowed suit, at the beginning of the ceremony. And put on a show Fifa did – just not one that anyone wanted to watch, least of all a desperately bored-looking Trump, who sat through Andrea Bocelli’s Nessun Dorma with the granitic joylessness that has become his default expression at each of the sporting events he’s ruined with his presence this year. Just let the man get back to the White House; he’s the president of the United States, for god’s sake, he has bathrooms to redesign.
A US invasion or attack on Venezuela could plunge South America into a Vietnam-style conflict, the chief foreign policy adviser to Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has warned.
In an interview with the Guardian, Celso Amorim called Donald Trump’s recent decision to order the closure of Venezuelan airspace “an act of war”, and voiced fears the crisis could intensify over the coming weeks.
Forward part of preparations for game against Inter
No guarantee he will play following outspoken attack
Mohamed Salah took part in a Liverpool training session on Monday afternoon as speculation continues to swirl around the Egyptian’s future following his outspoken attack on the club and Arne Slot at the weekend.
Salah was all smiles as he and his teammates began preparations for Tuesday evening’s Champions League fixture with Inter at the club’s AXA Training Centre, most eye-catchingly speaking and laughing with Dominik Szoboszlai. Slot, meanwhile, could be seen watching the open session in the presence of a couple of his coaches.
Flood and weather alerts in place across western half of region as parts of Iraq and Iran also face significant rain
Weather alerts are in effect across the Pacific north-west this week as a series of atmospheric rivers are forecast to deliver multiple rainfall events and heavy mountain snow from western British Columbia in Canada, to Washington and Oregon in the US.
More than 200mm (8ins) of rainfall is expected across the western half of Washington state and north-west Oregon by Friday, with between 100-150mm expected in cities such as Seattle and Portland. About 400mm are possible on the western side of the Cascades, while more than a foot of snow is expected above 1,800-2,100 metres.
Actor questions why male ‘method actors’ are held in such high regard, whereas female actors are just seen as ‘crazy’
Kristen Stewart has claimed that acting is “unmasculine” and “inherently submissive”, and that male actors developed “the method” to compensate.
In an interview with the New York Times, Stewart was asked about Marlon Brando’s performance in the 1978 film Superman, and after saying she hadn’t seen the movie said that his apparent inability to pronounce the word “Krypton” correctly was “painful”. She added: “Performance is inherently vulnerable and therefore quite embarrassing and unmasculine. There’s no bravado in suggesting that you’re a mouthpiece for someone else’s ideas. It’s inherently submissive. Have you ever heard of a female actor that was method?”
Head coach defends squad’s break before third Test
‘You have to be strong and get on with it’
Brendon McCullum has insisted that England have the quality and character to pick themselves off the canvas and fight their way back into the Ashes contest, and refused to accept the idea of players feeling sorry for themselves after starting the series with two savage defeats. “You come to this country and have a glass jaw, you have no chance,” he said. “You have to be strong, tough, and you have to get on with it.”
England travel to Noosa on Tuesday for a short break before moving to Adelaide to begin their preparations for the third Test, 2-0 down for the third Ashes series in succession. In 2020-21 Australia converted that lead into a 4-0 series win, but in 2023 England fought back to draw 2-2.
Exclusive: Congress urged to act against energy-hungry facilities blamed for increasing bills and worsening climate crisis
A coalition of more than 230 environmental groups has demanded a national moratorium on new data centers in the US, the latest salvo in a growing backlash to a booming artificial intelligence industry that has been blamed for escalating electricity bills and worsening the climate crisis.
The green groups, including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Food & Water Watch and dozens of local organizations, have urged members of Congress halt the proliferation of energy-hungry data centers, accusing them of causing planet-heating emissions, sucking up vast amounts of water and for exacerbating electricity bill increases that have hit Americans this year.
Co-conspirator receives two-year sentence in Seoul court
A woman has been sentenced in Seoul to four years in prison for blackmailing South Korean football star Son Heung-min.
The woman, identified only as Yang, was charged with extorting 300 million won (£153,000) from Son in 2024 after sending him an ultrasound photo of a baby that she claimed was his and demanding money to stay silent.
Patrick Mahomes has led his team to seven straight AFC Championship Games, winning three Super Bowls on the way. That run appears to be over
This is how great runs end. Not with a single catastrophic collapse, but with a slow drift towards the finish, looking old, tired and out of ideas. For the Chiefs, that sense of finality arrived on Sunday night, delivered by the Texans in a 20-10 defeat at home that felt more lopsided than the score.
For much of this season, there had been a gnawing sense of inevitability about the Chiefs. Whether judging by the eye test or the advanced data, this year’s group has been slightly better than the 15-win team who trudged through one-score victories last season, got hot in the playoffs and then were crushed by the Eagles in the Super Bowl. Even as the losses mounted this year, it felt like the Chiefs still had a run in them. If they could figure out their disjointed offense and find any juice on defense, they could sneak into the playoffs. And in a one-off game, with everything on the line, it would still be hard to look past the Andy Reid-Patrick Mahomes axis.
Seven-time world champion could not ‘wait to get away’
First year without podium for Brit in Ferrari debut season
A despondent Lewis Hamilton has said he could not wait to get away from Abu Dhabi after enduring what has been the worst season of his career. He finished in his lowest ever championship position of sixth place and is looking forward to the winter break and disconnecting from the sport as he attempts to reset and regroup.
In the final race of the season in he qualified in 16th place and finished in eighth, while the young British driver Lando Norris claimed his first world championship, the first Briton since Hamilton last did so in 2020.
When abuse occurs, the first instinct is too often containment. We know this pattern because we have seen it ourselves
For years, Jeffrey Epstein conjured a kind of grotesque fascination: the private island, the powerful friends, the whispered allegations. But focusing on the lurid details of his life and eventual death obscures the far more unsettling truth his case lays bare. Epstein’s story is not really about one man’s depravity. It is about a system – legal, cultural, and institutional – engineered to protect the powerful through silence. His crimes thrived not because they were hidden, but because the people who knew were coerced, encouraged, or more than willing to shut up.
Silence was not incidental to Epstein’s success. It was central to it. And in this, he was hardly unique.
Gretchen Carlson is a journalist, bestselling author and internationally recognized advocate for women’s rights. Julie Roginsky is a champion of women’s rights and political consultant. Carlson and Roginsky co-founded the nonprofit Lift Our Voices, dedicated to eliminating silencing mechanisms like forced arbitration and NDAs for toxic workplace issues
The US defense secretary’s belief that the military should not be held to account has been a defining factor in his career
Pete Hegseth’s office is located on the third floor of the Pentagon, in the E ring, room 3E880, facing the Potomac River with a scenic view of the monuments and the Capitol. He posted a video on 5 September showing a new bronze plaque being affixed to his door reading: “Pete Hegseth Secretary of War.”
His splendid new designation, not established by the Congress as required by law, was purely notional and performative, announced by Donald Trump in an executive order that carried no legal weight, but befitted Hegseth’s self-conceit as warrior-in-chief. He now had the title to go with the tattoos: the crusader cross; “Deus vult”, or “God wills it”, the crusader battle cry; the sniper rifle against the background of an American flag; and the cross and sword inspired by Matthew 10:34: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
Sidney Blumenthal, former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has published three books of a projected five-volume political life of Abraham Lincoln: A Self-Made Man, Wrestling With His Angel and All the Powers of Earth. He is a Guardian US columnist
Donald Trump has warned of potential competition problems over Netflix’s $83bn (£62bn) deal to buy Warner Brothers’ movie studio and streaming networks.
The US president, speaking at an event in Washington DC on Sunday, confirmed he would be involved in deciding whether the government approved the takeover.
The latest in our series of writers paying tribute to their most loved comfort films is an ode to the 2000 teen classic
The opening sequence of Bring It On is – in a word – unapologetic. A dozen cheerleaders scream “I’m sexy, I’m cute, I’m popular to boot” in synchronicity – and I have yet to meet anyone (and I have tried) who has the willpower to look away.
It’s certainly not an exaggeration to say I wanted to be one of them – that is, one of the Toros, Rancho Carne high school’s premier cheer squad. But, as a six-year-old watching in north London, I was a world away from the cornucopia of herkies, suggestive dance moves and hair flips of competitive cheerleading in San Diego.
The pain is visceral, but civil society, media and the creative community have been sent into retreat since the 2019 pro-democracy protests
Antony Dapiran is the author of two books on Hong Kong politics and protest
White flowers at makeshift shrines and messages of support posted in a public square. A rainbow of folded paper cranes. Boxes of donated goods for the those in need. Hongkongers’ responses to the Tai Po fire disaster – in which at least 159 people have died and 31 are still unaccounted for – have, on the surface, resembled similar community expressions of solidarity last seen during the 2019 protests. But beneath the surface, Hong Kong civil society is struggling to respond to this latest collective trauma in a city that has deeply changed in the past five years.
The cauterisation of Hong Kong’s civil society that has occurred under Beijing’s national security crackdown has meant that the types of grassroots activism that would traditionally have occurred in response to such a tragedy – as they would in any other open society – are no longer possible.
Antony Dapiran is the author of two books on Hong Kong politics and protest
Every year, 1bn tonnes of food are wasted. I value my meals and the work that has gone into them, so I am now always prepared and ready to take home delicious leftovers
I’ve always loved catching up with friends and family over a meal out. Not only is it a chance to find out the latest gossip and what everyone’s up to, but it’s also an opportunity to try out new foods and share that experience together.
But looking back, I’ve realised that I’ve been guilty of contributing to food waste by leaving meals unfinished. Sometimes, I didn’t realise how big portions would be or I’d get so focused on chatting to everyone that I would forget to eat everything until it was time to go.
First-century luxury vessel matches description by the Greek historian Strabo, who visited city around 29-25BC
An ancient Egyptian pleasure boat that matches a description by the first-century Greek historian Strabo has been discovered off the coast of Alexandria, to the excitement of archaeologists.
With its palaces, temples and the 130 metre-high Pharos lighthouse – one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – Alexandria had been one of the most magnificent cities in antiquity. The pleasure boat, which dates from the first half of the first century, was 35 metres long and constructed to hold a central pavilion with a luxuriously decorated cabin.
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