Cranes hoisted statues from depths of submerged site that authorities say may be extension of ancient city of Canopus

Egypt has unveiled parts of a sunken city submerged beneath waters off the coast of Alexandria, including buildings, artefacts and an ancient dock that date back more than 2,000 years.

Egyptian authorities said the site, located in the waters of Abu Qir bay, may be an extension of the ancient city of Canopus, a prominent centre during the Ptolemaic dynasty, which ruled Egypt for nearly 300 years, and the Roman empire, which governed for about 600 years.

Eisenhüttenstadt offered spacious central flats rent-free for two weeks in effort to attract valuable professionals

An innovative contest by a city in formerly communist east Germany to curb depopulation by offering a fortnight of free housing has stunned local officials with its success.

The competition drew more than 1,700 applications from around the world to try living in Eisenhüttenstadt, a Soviet-style planned city on the Polish border, near Berlin, that was built around a steel plant in the aftermath of the second world war.

Exclusive: One NGO placed on an online hitlist had to temporarily close its office owing to harassing phone calls

Refugee support organisations have been forced to install safe rooms in their premises, relocate to less visible sites and in some cases close their offices in response to the threat of far-right violence.

Half of NGOs and charities supporting people seeking refuge have faced threats, a “hostile environment” of protest and safety concerns since the riots of 2024, according to research documents seen by the Guardian.

Who had an accent that could skin a corgi? Who was one of the greatest TV monsters of all time? And who did far too much flashing of their buttocks? We put television monarchs under the microscope

Rejoice! For the historical fiction stork has descended from on high with another bundle of monarchical joy. King and Conqueror (BBC) – a hugely entertaining depiction of the events that led to the Battle of Hastings – is the latest addition to that most stately of small-screen genres: the royal drama.

Heavy is the head that wears the crown, though! For the portrayal of any British royal – and here we have Harold II (James Norton) and Edward the Confessor (Eddie Marsan) – is subject to a set of unspoken rules, most of which apply to the circumference of the royal nostrils and vowels, all of which must expand to fill the space available and, where necessary, beyond.

Supporting Spurs means imagining the most embarrassing thing that could befall a club and knowing it’s going to happen

Earlier this month, my Spurs WhatsApp group was debating whether, if you could only have one, you’d sign Eberechi Eze or Savinho. Ever the ray of sunshine, I confessed that my “gut feeling” was that we wouldn’t get either. A few days later, I doubled down.

Despite reports suggesting Eze was practically on the 149 bus headed for N17, I had the nagging sense that Arsenal might gazump us at the last minute. The reason for such a grim forecast was that I’d seen this tragi-comic movie before. Spurs have “nearly” signed everyone from Jean-Pierre Papin to Eden Hazard to Rivaldo, who famously wrote to Glenn Hoddle outlining why he’d inexplicably chosen San Siro over White Hart Lane.

From starting new careers and reconstructing houses to keeping children’s rooms the same, these parents are navigating a ‘rollercoaster’

The term “empty nest” first emerged in the late 19th century, gaining traction in psychological and sociological discourse by the 1940s. Originally, it evoked a singular image: a mother alone in a quiet house, mourning the departure of her last child. But the reality, then and now, is far more nuanced. While the term was once gendered, today the emotional impact is felt across all parents, regardless of role or identity.

The empty nest is not a fixed state but a mutable one. For some, it arrives with a deep ache, a sense of disorientation or loss. For others, it marks a period of renewal, space reclaimed, silence embraced, autonomy rediscovered. The nest may stay quiet or grow noisy again with boomerang children, ageing parents or new partners. Some preserve their homes like time capsules; others transform them entirely, reimagining their lives within, claiming room for new identities, desires and rhythms.

Formed by the daughter of Iranian refugees, the UK trio are sampling the sound of Israeli bombs and championing women’s rights as they confront authoritarianism

Nina Saeidi is wearing a green, gold-encrusted robe and holding an antique knife above her head. After unsheathing the blade, she pokes it into her stomach, then makes a slitting motion across her throat. Although these may seem like the ritual actions of a priestess, Saeidi is actually performing on stage at Bristol festival ArcTanGent last weekend, singing with her metal outfit Lowen in a crammed tent.

“It’s a Turkish Ottoman dagger,” she tells me backstage later that day. “I got it in some very cool, obscure-looking vintage shop in Turkey last year. I’m really interested in historical items from that region – but, because I can’t go to Iran, I have to gather things from around the Silk Road and places like that.”

Drama co-starring Sean Bean and Samantha Morton sees triple Oscar-winner return to screen for first time since 2017’s Phantom Thread

The first trailer for forthcoming drama Anemone has been released, offering a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis’s screen comeback after eight years.

The triple Oscar-winner retired from acting in 2017 after completing Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread which, he said, left him “overwhelmed by a sense of sadness” during filming.

Moscow backs away from accepting western security guarantees for Ukraine as US president appears to vent frustration in Truth Social post

Moscow threw Donald Trump’s Ukraine peace initiative into disarray on Thursday, insisting it must have a veto over any postwar support for the country as its forces carried out a large-scale overnight missile barrage.

In a series of hardline remarks, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said European proposals to deploy troops in Ukraine after a settlement would amount to “foreign intervention”, which he called absolutely unacceptable for Russia.

Trump was sued by New York over inflated financial statements used for favorable terms from lenders and insurers

An appeals court has thrown out the massive civil fraud penalty against Donald Trump, ruling on Thursday in New York state’s lawsuit accusing him of exaggerating his wealth.

The decision came seven months after the Republican returned to the White House. A panel of five judges in New York’s mid-level appellate division said the verdict, which stood to cost Trump more than $515m and rock his real estate empire, was “excessive”.

• Universidad de Chile v Independiente was abandoned

• Violent clashes resulted in injuries and more than 300 arrests

Violent clashes between fans at Wednesday’s Copa Sudamericana match between Independiente and Universidad de Chile in Buenos Aires resulted in the second leg of the last 16 tie being abandoned.

Players left the field in the second half as security concerns grew at the Estadio Libertadores de América. The tie was locked at 1-1 when the match was suspended, with the Chilean side leading 2-1 on aggregate.

Still in its torn packet, the cheese has evolved into something other than food. I refuse to imagine the meal when I finish it

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My father died suddenly and I’m still working my way through the half block of cheese that I rescued from his fridge. After a hastily organised funeral where I delivered a eulogy too long for the warm afternoon, he was cremated. My brother collected his ashes and his favourite T-shirt.

But his cheese lives on. Still in its torn packet, with one of Dad’s trademark purple elastic bands keeping it sealed, it has evolved into something other than food, and I refuse to imagine the meal when I finish it. My logic being that if it exists then so, somehow, does my dad.

Four music greats – Mick Harvey, Mick Turner, Adalita and Marty Brown – have created a genuine collaboration that leaves room for all their talents

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Occasionally the musical universe offers unexpected gifts that we might never have thought to ask for and had no right to expect. Strange Love, the debut album by new Melbourne supergroup Bleak Squad, is one such gift. The names who brought the band together speak for themselves: Adalita (Magic Dirt), Mick Harvey (the Bad Seeds, the Birthday Party), Mick Turner (Dirty Three) and Marty Brown (Art of Fighting, SodaStream, Claire Bowditch), who brought the band together.

Brown’s intuition that such a combination would go well together has proven inspired. Such things can easily end up sounding better on paper than in practice. Instead, Bleak Squad sound pretty much exactly as you’d expect, given their name and collective histories: the hour is late, the lights are low, the writing is sharp, the arrangements are tight – but the playing is expansive and open-ended, with songs designed to be stretched out in live performance.

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Researchers also suggest system could resolve problems with irregular and weather-dependent Earth-based supply

Solar panels in space could cut Europe’s terrestrial renewable energy needs by 80% by 2050, a study has found.

Using a detailed computer model of the continent’s future power grid, the researchers found that a system of space-based panels designed by Nasa could reduce the cost of the whole European power system by as much as 15%. It could also cut battery use by more than two-thirds.

Category 2 storm led to evacuation orders and road closures, with rip currents and high surf forecast on Friday

Hurricane Erin, a large category 2 storm with winds reaching 105mph, was slowly moving away from the North Carolina coast on Thursday morning after hitting the state’s Outer Banks with intense winds, large waves, storm surge and flooding.

While Erin is not expected to make landfall, weather officials warn that the storm’s effects are not over yet. Coastal communities up and down the east coast are bracing as storm conditions continue as life-threatening rip currents, flooding and dangerous surf, are forecast in some areas through Friday.

A look through history shows that the first day of the top-flight season can often be misleading

By WhoScored

It would not be a Premier League opening week without football-starved fans and pundits leaping to some kneejerk conclusions.

Sunderland, tipped by many to make a swift return to the Championship, caused the biggest upset of the weekend with a thumping 3-0 win over West Ham, marking their first Premier League success in the month of August since 2010. Suddenly Sunderland are being talked up as safe, West Ham as doomed, and Graham Potter already on borrowed time.

Actor Chris Addison narrates a deep dive into the creative partnership of Lennon and McCartney

Another book on the Beatles? It’s hard to imagine a writer shedding new light on the band given the mountain of literature already in existence. But there is a freshness of perspective in Ian Leslie’s book, which tells of Lennon and McCartney’s unique alchemy through the songs they wrote together. Leslie’s background in psychology serves him well in a study that jettisons the usual narrative of male rivalry; their partnership, Leslie suggests, was closer to a marriage.

He begins with the pair’s early songwriting sessions, usually in McCartney’s front room, where rather than each taking ownership of songs, they worked in sync. Other fabled musical partnerships such as Leiber and Stoller, or Rodgers and Hammerstein, divided the labour between lyrics and melody, but Lennon and McCartney worked together on both. Pointing to their profound connection, Leslie notes how in the song If I Fell they performed “an intricate courtship dance, moving apart and close again as the song unfolds, like birds weaving in and out of each other’s flight path, alternately shielding and leading the other”.

California Democrats’ aim is to offset the Republican-drawn gerrymandered Texas map that nets five new US House seats for the GOP in 2026

• Texas Republicans pass gerrymandered congressional map

The government lost its bid to unseal grand jury transcripts in the sex-trafficking case against Jeffrey Epstein.

Richard Berman, a federal judge in New York, said the transcripts pale in comparison to the documents the government already has on Epstein and that disclosing them could harm victims.

It’s kind of bizarre that we have a bunch of old, primarily white people who are out there protesting the policies that keep people safe when they’ve never felt danger in their entire lives.

As the all-singing, all-conquering horror-schlocker celebrates its 50th birthday, the genuine one-off retains all its raucous, raunchy, riotous joy

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is now 50 years old, a B-picture horror-schlocker campfest extravaganza based on Richard O’Brien’s original stage musical from 1973; it has carried on as an international theatrical touring phenomenon ever since. That live show, with the vital element of regular audience participation and dress-up, may in fact now have a bit more energy and point than the movie itself, which (whisper it) perhaps suffers a few longueurs.

The undoubted star is the sonorous and feline Tim Curry playing Dr Frank-N-Furter, a vampirically queer alien sex god, proselytising here on Earth for borderless pleasure and describing himself as a “sweet transvestite transsexual from Transylvania”. Dr Furter toys with the affections of the many followers and servants at his giant castle in middle America, including his butler Riff-Raff (played by O’Brien) and tearaway Eddie (played by Meat Loaf). Dr Furter is actually focused on his Frankensteinian project of creating Rocky Horror (Peter Hinwood), the ideal hunky blond male to service his needs. Even Dr Frankenstein didn’t actually want to have sex with his monster.

Serhiy K is believed to have been onboard boat from where 2022 attack on gas pipelines was carried out

A Ukrainian man alleged to have been involved in the 2022 detonation of the Nord Stream pipelines carrying gas from Russia to Germanyhas been arrested in Italy, according to German authorities.

The man, identified only as Serhiy K, is believed to have been onboard the sailing boat from where the attack was allegedly carried out.

Peter Williams, 44, sentenced to almost 17 years after captaining boat that picked up packages off Cornish coast

A respected fisher who met King Charles and government representatives to discuss the future of the industry has been jailed for taking part in a sophisticated plot to smuggle £18m of cocaine into the UK.

Peter Williams, 44, was sentenced to 16 years and nine months for captaining a boat that went out to pick up packages of cocaine dropped into the sea off Cornwall by a “mother ship” transporting the drugs from South America.

Figures from classified IDF database listed 8,900 named fighters as dead or probably dead in May, as overall death toll reached 53,000

Figures from a classified Israeli military intelligence database indicate five out of six Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza have been civilians, an extreme rate of slaughter rarely matched in recent decades of warfare.

As of May, 19 months into the war, Israeli intelligence officials listed 8,900 named fighters from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as dead or “probably dead”, a joint investigation by the Guardian, the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call has found.

8,900
Named fighters listed as dead or ‘probably dead’ in Israeli database as of May 2025

Brazilian supreme court judge sets ultimatum after police claim far-right populist sought to flee to avoid punishment over failed coup

A supreme court judge has given Brazil’s ex-president, Jair Bolsonaro, 48 hours to explain police claims he was planning to flee to Argentina to avoid punishment for allegedly masterminding a failed coup after losing the 2022 election.

Bolsonaro’s trial for the alleged attempt to seize power is scheduled to conclude early next month. The far-right populist faces more than four decades in prison if found guilty.

Hospitality giant responded to Guardian story about Ice’s use of Sheraton hotel to hold families before deportation

Marriott, the hospitality giant, has not disputed recent revelations that a Louisiana hotel in its portfolio was used to detain migrant families before deportation, which contradicts a 2019 policy that it would not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). In a new statement to the Guardian, the company suggested that its “acceptance of business” did not mean it supported the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

The Guardian reported on Tuesday that a Sheraton hotel in the city of Alexandria, situated close to a major Ice deportation hub, has been used to hold family groups before they are removed from the US. The Sheraton brand is owned by Marriott International.