The Emily in Paris actor and writer of the Tony-nominated Slave Play remains in Japan while prosecutors investigate the alleged discovery of MDMA in his bag

The American playwright and Emily in Paris actor Jeremy O Harris has been released three weeks after his arrest in Japan on suspicion of drug smuggling while prosecutors investigate, police said Wednesday.

Japan has some of the world’s strictest drug laws, and possession of illegal narcotics can result in jail time. Prosecutors also have a very high conviction rate.

Kolahoi is one of many glaciers whose decline is disrupting whole ecosystems – water, wildlife and human life that it has supported for centuries

From the slopes above Pahalgam, the Kolahoi glacier is visible as a thinning, rumpled ribbon of ice stretching across the western Himalayas. Once a vast white artery feeding rivers, fields and forests, it is now retreating steadily, leaving bare rock, crevassed ice and newly exposed alpine meadows.

The glacier’s meltwater has sustained paddy fields, apple orchards, saffron fields and grazing pastures for centuries. Now, as its ice diminishes, the entire web of life it supported is shifting.

President sought to rehab image after criticism of being out of touch, but speech aimed at midterms took different turn

• Fact-checking Trump’s speech

Donald Trump has sought to reboot his ailing US presidency at a rally-style event with a blitz of false claims about the economy and xenophobic attacks on immigrants and “shithole countries”.

In the wake of Republican election defeats and criticism that he is out of touch with America’s affordability crisis, Trump’s speech at the Mount Pocono casino in north-eastern Pennsylvania on Tuesday was billed as an opportunity to reclaim the economic narrative.

Trump had further said Nicolás Maduro’s ‘days are numbered’ as military has targeted alleged drug boats

Two US fighter jets circled the Gulf of Venezuela on Tuesday, in what appeared to be an escalation of the Trump administration’s ongoing hostilities toward the South American country and its leftist leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Venezuelans and South American media followed the flights in real time using websites like FlightRadar24, which showed a pair of F/A-18 Super Hornets flying together into the narrow Gulf of Venezuela for about 40 minutes. The jets flew just north of Maracaibo, Venezuela’s most populous city.

Albanese says commencement of ban a ‘proud day’ for him as prime minister, while eSafety commissioner unconcerned by reports of children bypassing restrictions

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As Australia’s under-16s social media ban got under way on Wednesday, some platforms were still allowing accounts registered for 14-year-olds, while Anthony Albanese described it as a “proud day” to be prime minister.

Of the 10 platforms identified by the eSafety commissioner as needing to comply with the ban, Kick, Threads, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, and X would not allow accounts registered with a birth date of 11 January 2011.

Follow the latest updates live

• Social media ban: some platforms still allowing 14-year-olds as landmark ruling comes into force

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Inman Grant says getting ‘the most powerful, rich companies’ to comply was always going to be messy

Inman Grant said she expects kids to experience massive changes as the social media ban sticks around. The eSafety commissioner added that some social media companies were more difficult to work with than others during the rollout of the ban, telling ABC News:

To the extent that there are seven stages of grief, we have seen some be very accepting, some in denial, some are quite angry.

I guess that shows the character of the company and how they’re taking this. …

In stunning upset victory, Higgins also becomes first woman in post and first non-Hispanic candidate since 90s

Democrat Eileen Higgins was elected mayor of Miami on Tuesday night in a stunning upset victory that reversed a run of recent Republican successes in Florida.

The election of Higgins, 61, a former county commissioner, also added to a string of Democratic wins across the country that have served to highlight the growing level of resistance to Donald Trump in his second presidential term.

The PM won big by convincing us we could avoid the madness of Donald Trump’s new world order but Labor’s feeble AI plan embeds Australia deeply in its orbit

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I’m blaming Santa. As 2025 reaches its inevitable endgame, I can’t help thinking we have all become gullible children enthralled by the promise of tech cornucopia, refusing to see the folds in our logic because deep down we don’t want to break the magic.

While the federal government prepares to take the toys off the children with its world-first social media ban, it is hanging out the stockings for the self-same tech overlords to fill with new goodies via its light-touch National AI Plan.

Hostilities have flared in the contested border area after a Trump-brokered ceasefire deal has broken down

Stretching across more than 817km (508 miles), the shared land border between Thailand and Cambodia has been marred by conflict for more than a century. Sovereignty has been contested since France, which occupied Cambodia until 1953, first mapped the border in 1907.

However, tensions have worsened significantly in 2025. In May, clashes in the area that killed a Cambodian soldier sparked nationalist sentiment on both sides, and saw both governments retaliate. Thailand imposed harsh border restrictions, while Cambodia banned the broadcast of Thai films, and the import of Thai fruit, vegetables, gas and fuel.

A cable from Marco Rubio reportedly said cutting Calibri from official communication would ‘abolish yet another wasteful DEIA program’

US diplomats have been ordered to return to using Times New Roman font in official communications, with secretary of state Marco Rubio calling the Biden administration’s decision to adopt Calibri a “wasteful” diversity move, according to an internal department cable seen by Reuters.

The department under Rubio’s predecessor Antony Blinken switched to Calibri in 2023, claiming the modern sans-serif font was more accessible for people with disabilities because it did not have the decorative angular features and was the default in Microsoft products.

Does Australia’s social media ban mean kids aged under 16 will get in legal trouble for circumventing the ban? Will parents get in trouble for letting their kids use banned social media sites? There is a lot of misinformation about how the world-first ban will actually work. So whether you’re a parent of a child, or a child watching this on a VPN, Guardian Australia’s Matilda Boseley is here to clear up what the social media ban means

• Australian social media ban explained: everything you need to know

• How is Australia’s social media ban affecting you and your family?

The 71-year-old performer’s son Micah has been arrested on suspicion of murder, Santa Monica police said

Jubilant Sykes, the Grammy-nominated opera and gospel singer, has died aged 71 after being stabbed to death at his home in California.

His 31-year-old son, Micah Sykes, was arrested on suspicion of murder, authorities said on Tuesday.

If Amelia Vanderhorst is found guilty and penalised for allegedly sticking googly eyes on Mount Gambier landmark, it might be the first time such an act has been punished

On Mount Gambier’s Bay Road, the “Blue Blob” stands like a proud but paunchy echidna, its seamless coating restored to perfection after an alleged googly eye stunt that captured the world’s attention.

Amelia Vanderhorst, 20, from Mount Gambier in South Australia, was charged with damaging the town’s $136,000 Cast in Blue sculpture by sticking large novelty eyes on it on 13 September.

Exclusive: PM calls for members of European convention on human rights to allow tougher action to protect borders

• We must protect our borders to defend our democracies – here’s how

Keir Starmer has called on European leaders to urgently curb joint human rights laws so that member states can take tougher action to protect their borders and see off the rise of the populist right across the continent.

Before a crucial European summit on Wednesday, the prime minister urged fellow members to “go further” in modernising the interpretation of the European convention on human rights (ECHR) to prevent asylum seekers using it to avoid deportation.

Study cites case of otherwise fit and healthy man in his 50s who had a stroke after eight-drink-a-day habit

Heavy consumption of energy drinks may raise the risk of heart disease and pose a serious risk of stroke, doctors have warned.

Millions of people worldwide regularly drink the products, which are non-alcoholic and typically contain more than 150mg of caffeine per litre, very high glucose-based sugar content and varying quantities of other chemicals.

• Bayern beat Sporting to move level with Arsenal at top

• Atlético come from behind to burst PSV’s bubble

Jules Koundé’s two quickfire headers helped Barcelona to fight back and edge past Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1 in the Champions League at Camp Nou on Tuesday, marking a much-needed win for the Catalan side.

After a draw against Club Brugge and a defeat by Chelsea, Barcelona found their stride to climb to 14th in the standings, level on 10 points with several teams, as they aim for a top-eight finish to secure direct qualification for the last 16. Frankfurt are 30th with four points from six matches.

Civil rights coalition calls for immediate closure of camp, where more than 2,700 detainees are being held

Officers at the large immigration detention camp located at the Fort Bliss army base in Texas are allegedly mistreating detainees, with accusations including beatings, sexual abuse and clandestine deportations of non-Mexican nationals into Mexico, according to a coalition of local and national US civil rights organizations.

In a 19-page letter, addressed to senior government officials at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and Fort Bliss military command, the coalition accuses officers at the immigration detention facility on the base, called Camp East Montana, of being “in violation of agency policies and standards, as well as statutory and constitutional protections”.

Zelenskyy says he would hold wartime elections within months given help from allies and Ukraine’s parliament

• Trump lambasts ‘weak’ and ‘decaying’ Europe and hints at walking away from Ukraine

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is ready to hold a wartime election within the next three months, if Ukraine’s parliament and foreign allies will allow it, after Donald Trump accused him of clinging on to power.

Zelenskyy, clearly irritated by Trump’s intervention, said that “this is a question for the people of Ukraine, not people from other states, with all due respect to our partners”.

First the Liverpool hierarchy protected Arne Slot’s authority by axing Mohamed Salah from a daunting Champions League assignment in Milan. The Liverpool team then followed suit by inflicting Inter’s first European home defeat since September 2022. A brooding superstar with a bruised ego watched from afar while Liverpool fans serenaded Slot at San Siro.

Salah might well have taken the decisive 88th-minute penalty had he not talked himself out of the trip to San Siro, another legend of the game that is showing its age. Instead it fell to Dominik Szoboszlai, the friend Salah had in effect argued should not be playing on the right ahead of him, to deliver a precious victory for Slot after Alessandro Bastoni had been penalised for pulling Florian Wirtz’s shirt in the box.

Son Heung-min was back at the club he served with such distinction for 10 years and the former Tottenham captain will perhaps conclude that finding meaning in much the new version of the Champions League has to offer before the knockout stages arrive is far from straightforward.

This was something of a non-event in terms of competitiveness, so much so that it would be a mistake to assume Tottenham are on their way to becoming a winning machine at home. They did not have to extend themselves to see off a moderate challenge from Slavia Prague and although Thomas Frank was pleased to send supporters away happy for the second time in four days he will know not to get carried away given this triumph came against opponents who looked as if they would have been better off in the Europa League.

• Frederick Green allegedly shot NFL player in abdomen

• Boyd was on night out with Jets teammates

A Bronx man has been charged with attempted murder in the shooting of New York Jets player Kris Boyd, police announced Tuesday.

The New York police department said Frederick Green, 20, was charged late Monday night. Police had revealed Monday that a “person of interest” was in custody but didn’t name them. It was not immediately clear if Green has an attorney. He also faces additional charges of assault and criminal possession of a weapon, police said.

Boyd was shot in the abdomen just after 2am on 16 November in midtown Manhattan. Boyd, his friend and two other Jets’ players, Irvin Charles and Jamien Sherwood, had left a club and were approached by a group of men who made fun of their clothing, police told reporters at a news briefing.

There were no answers to Chelsea’s search for consistency here. Instead they supplied more evidence that they lack the resilience for a Champions League tilt that may now have to be tackled the hard way. This damaging late defeat completed a grim week on the road and had implications for the longer-term picture. They are staring down the barrel of a February playoff that could stretch Enzo Maresca’s side, active almost year-round, to the very limit.

Atalanta twice punished weak defending and, crucially, preyed on their opponents’ inability to overcome setbacks. It is a problem Chelsea cannot quite shrug off and, at this level, such recidivism comes at a cost. When Charles De Ketelaere, the game’s outstanding player, blasted in a deflected winner after being invited to take aim they could hardly claim not to have been warned.

Arsenal qualified for the Champions League knockout phase after a narrow but industrious victory at Meadow Park, with Beth Mead’s early finish enough to overcome Twente.

Arsenal are guaranteed to come inside the top 12 of the 18-team league phase and may still have a chance to reach the top four and go straight into the quarter-finals depending on results on Wednesday and if they can then win their last game in Belgium against Leuven next week.

This squad aren’t just throwing away the series, they’re messing up the minds of the young cricketers I try to coach

The cracks are starting to show with this England team and with the narrative we’ve been fed for three years after another defeat. Their identity of always taking the aggressive option, of relentlessly putting pressure on their opponents, isn’t holding up to scrutiny. So far in this series they haven’t had the strength needed to achieve it, and they haven’t had the skills either.

I was confident that they could win the Ashes this time, mainly because I thought there was quality in the squad and that they had adapted their game to add intelligence and adaptability to their armoury. It’s becoming clear that neither of those beliefs were completely true. And meanwhile I’m seeing things at home that make me worry that this team aren’t just messing up this series, they’re messing up a whole generation of young cricketers.