Toronto film festival: The four-time Oscar nominee is as strong as ever playing a teacher in a shocking situation, but the film can’t quite rise to her level

Though criminally underpaid and disrespected, teachers are nonetheless held to rigidly high standards of care, compassion and rectitude. They are to be exemplary stewards of our children, while unflinchingly enduring the battering of parents, administrators and outside agitators. Which is why it’s often so compelling, in a dark and squirmy way, to watch them break bad on film.

We have, of course, seen plenty of ill-advised (or illegal) sexual relationships between teacher and student, in myriad movies and TV programs. Beyond that hoary trope, though, we’ve observed with alarm the drug-addled overstepping of Ryan Gosling in Half Nelson; we’ve been guiltily thrilled by the obsessive opportunism of The Kindergarten Teacher; we’ve pried nosily into the shifty criminality of Hugh Jackman in Bad Education. These stories all present a grimly alluring vision: carefully maintained professionalism giving way to baser impulse.

Sightings of Phillips and his three children were rare over the years and mystery surrounded how they survived in the remote wilderness

• Tom Phillips shooting: latest updates

• Full report: Father on run with children for nearly four years, shot dead by NZ police in exchange of fire

In a tragic end to a case that has captivated New Zealand for nearly four years, fugitive father Tom Phillips was shot dead by police after a burglary on Monday. Phillips had been on the run with his three children since 2021. One of the children was with Phillips during the exchange of fire near Piopio on Monday, while authorities said they had serious concerns for the other two children, who remained missing.

The long-running mystery over Phillips and his children’s whereabouts has prompted multiple searches, offers of rewards, and pleas for information from family members and the police. New Zealand struggled to understand how, in a country of close-knit communities, Phillips could have evaded detection.

Pacific Islands Forum 2025 faces bumpy start with China, the US and Taiwan uninvited from discussions, as Pacific leaders gather in Solomon Islands

Climate change, rising seas and China’s push for influence are set to dominate talks at the Pacific Islands Forum in Solomon Islands this week, in a meeting already marked by geopolitical tensions.

The lead up to the forum has already been fraught with tensions after Solomon Islands prime minister Jeremiah Manele excluded external partners – including China, the US and Taiwan – from discussions.

• New No 1 dropped just one set on way to his sixth grand slam title

• ‘This tournament I saw that I can play really consistent,’ he says

Carlos Alcaraz described his US Open title run as the best tournament of his career after he defeated his rival Jannik Sinner 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in New York to win his sixth grand slam title.

Alcaraz’s victory caps off an incredible five-month run for the 22-year-old, who has reached the final of his last eight tournaments, winning six titles including the French Open and US Open. While many of Alcaraz’s previous triumphs included numerous five-set battles and dramatic comebacks – such as his recovery from triple match point down to defeat Sinner over five sets in Paris – this was by far the most efficient tournament of his career. Alcaraz dropped just one set in his seven matches and he lost his serve just three times in the entire tournament.

Triple murderer sentenced in Victorian supreme court after killing relatives with a beef wellington lunch laced with death cap mushrooms

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Erin Patterson has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 33 years after murdering three people and attempting to murder a fourth with a lunch laced with death cap mushrooms.

Justice Christopher Beale delivered the sentence during a live broadcast in the Victorian supreme court on Monday morning.

Ian Wilkinson thanked police, prosecutors and health services after Erin Patterson sentenced to life in prison with 33 years non-parole. Follow today’s news live

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Victoria’s supreme court will hand down the triple-murderer Erin Patterson’s sentence shortly. The state’s supreme court will allow a television camera inside the courtroom to broadcast the sentencing hearing – with a 10 second delay – for the first time.

Patterson, 50, faces the prospect of spending the rest of her life in prison. Justice Christopher Beale will deliver her sentence from 9.30am in a hearing expected to last about 30 minutes.

Fugitive father who has been on the run with his children for four years was shot by police after an attempted burglary of a building in Piopio. Police are now searching for two of his missing children

• Full report: Tom Phillips shot dead after attempted burglary, NZ police confirm

The mayor of Waitomo, John Robertson, told the Guardian this morning’s events were the worst possible outcome for the community.

“I’m shattered, to be honest, and there will be many in the community that are devastated that this was the outcome after three and a half, four years,” he said.

So it’s just devastating news. Really the worst outcome we could have expected.

No day that goes by that I don’t think about all four of them.

It hurts every time I see photos of the children and of you, and see some of your stuff that is still here, thinking what could have been if you had not gone away.

On this year’s Video Music awards red carpet, pop’s biggest stars opt for underwear as outerwear and a surprising amount of facial hair

President says ‘the Israelis have accepted my terms’ and urges release of hostages to secure peace agreement

Donald Trump on Sunday issued what he called his “last warning” to Hamas, urging the Palestinian militant group to accept a deal to release hostages from Gaza.

“The Israelis have accepted my Terms. It is time for Hamas to accept as well,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. “I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning, there will not be another one!”

(Sony)
Jade Thirlwall offers a wild ride through electroclash, Eurovision drama and emotive synth-pop – albeit one she can’t quite maintain for a whole album

Last month, the indefatigable Vice magazine published a piece on the “summer of British chaos”, documenting a scene of deranged social media provocateurs existing at the crispiest fringes of our nation’s cooked identity. Writer Clive Martin defined these graven images of the algorithm as being regionally specific, lurid, rowdy, funny and hedonistic. As a former member of Little Mix, a girl band put together via public vote on The X Factor, Jade Thirlwall might not seem like the likeliest bedfellow of this unhinged movement. But the South Shields pop star’s debut solo single, last year’s Angel of My Dreams, dodged focus-grouped smoothness to present a sublimely whacked-out, thoroughly British pop vision that felt like spinning through someone else’s for you page and realising they exist in a markedly different universe from your own.

It started with a wound-up sample of Puppet on a String, exploded into a falsetto-spiked power ballad, then grinding electroclash paired with a withering rap, then sped through each mode again, variously at double and half speed. Its wild energy was fuelled by contradiction: Gucci glamour paired with lines such as “If I don’t win, I’m in the bin”. And while Jade dissed Syco and X Factor boss Simon Cowell (“selling my soul to a psycho”), the song’s vaulting soundclashes defying his bland vision of pop, Angel was also her love letter to the toxic paramour of fame: a status that might be easier to sustain with more conventional fare than whiplashing Sandie Shaw into growling synths. It was crackers and brilliant: no former boy- or girl-bander has come close to making such an arresting reintroduction since – and I mean this as the highest possible praise – Geri Halliwell burned bright through a short-lived fit of dadaist genius.

Operated by crime syndicates and fostered by the country’s military junta, the number of vast complexes such as KK Park on the Thai-Myanmar border has doubled since 2021

Five years ago, the land now home to KK Park – a vast, heavily guarded complex stretching for 210 hectares (520 acres) along the churning Moei River that forms Myanmar’s border with Thailand – was little more than empty fields.

Set against rugged mountains south of the town of Myawaddy, KK Park, with its on-site hospital, restaurants, bank and neat lines of villas with manicured lawns, looks more like the campus of a Silicon Valley tech company than what is really is: the frontline of a multibillion-dollar criminal fraud industry fuelled by human trafficking and brutal violence.

• Emilie Boulard and Joanna Grisez score two tries each

• Italy score 12 tries in one-sided win over Brazil

France enjoyed a 57-10 victory over South Africa at Franklin’s Gardens to take top spot in Women’s Rugby World Cup Pool D, scoring nine tries with two each for Emilie Boulard and Joanna Grisez. They will take on Ireland at Sandy Park in Exeter next Sunday in the last eight.

The scrum-half Pauline Bourdon Sansus earned a second straight player of the match award for orchestrating France’s highest score over the Springbok Women in front of a sellout crowd of 15,000.

A stunning strike from Isaac Price was not enough for Northern Ireland as second-half goals earned Germany a 3-1 World Cup qualifying win to ease the pressure on Julian Nagelsmann.

Price’s 34th-minute volley cancelled out an early goal from Serge Gnabry and gave Northern Ireland genuine hope of getting something out of the game, but quick-fire goals from the substitute Nadiem Amiri and Liverpool’s £116m man Florian Wirtz settled it midway through the second half.

• Spaniard wins final 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4

• Alcaraz new world No 1 after victory

When Carlos Alcaraz is fully focused and his impossibly complete game is in full flow, nothing in the world can stop him. As he has spent the early years of his career collecting major titles at a breathless pace, this has been clear for a long time. On the biggest stage in tennis, he reinforced the sentiment with a ­stupendous ­performance against his greatest rival, completely outplaying ­Jannik Sinner, the No 1 and defending ­champion, to lift his second US Open title with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 win.

At the end of his most ­spectacular summer, Alcaraz will replace ­Sinner as world No 1, returning to the top ranking for the first time in two years. The 22-year-old also continues to mark himself as one of the greatest ever young players: he is the second-youngest man in the Open era to earn six grand slam titles, trailing only Björn Borg. He is also already the fourth man to win multiple grand slam titles on all three surfaces.

Visible from Australia, across Asia, to western Europe, a blood moon has been captivating stargazers. This marvel is caused when the Earth shades the moon from direct solar light, causing the moon to appear red

• Aaron Rodgers wins on return to Jets with Steelers

• Daniel Jones stars in Colts debut as Dolphins crushed

Jordan Love threw a pair of touchdown passes and Micah Parsons produced a sack in his Green Bay debut as the Packers delivered an exceptional defensive performance in their victory over the Detroit Lions. The Packers won their 13th consecutive home opener. The Packers scored points on their first three drives to pull ahead for good. The Packers’ convincing win over the two-time defending NFC North champions represented a fresh start after they went 1-5 in divisional games last season.

Toronto film festival: The two stars do their share of heavy lifting in Derek Cianfrance’s intermittently effective comedy drama about a deceitful prison escapee

There’s considerable movie star charm powering Roofman, a mid-level comedy drama set in the mid-2000s and starring two actors who were stars around that time. It’s also reminiscent of a film that would have been released then too, a brief glimpse of a Blockbuster Video store making it easy to imagine picking this one up for a rainy afternoon rental.

On those terms, it’s perfectly watchable, engaging enough to keep us from pressing stop, if not quite enough to make us want to press rewind once it’s over. It’s based on the stranger-than-fiction tale of Jeffrey Manchester, played by Channing Tatum, an ex-military father-of-three who just can’t quite find his place in the civilian world. His old army buddy Steve (Lakeith Stanfield) reminds him of his particular skill for observation, urging him to put it to good use. Instead, after disappointing his daughter once again with an underwhelming birthday present, he decides to use it for something less well-advised, robbing not one but 45 McDonald’s, going in through the roof and making enough to give his family the life they deserve.

Government to use tax breaks and other financial incentives to encourage people to have more children

Greece has announced drastic measures, including tax breaks and other financial incentives, to address a population decline that is on course to make it the oldest nation in Europe.

The prime minister said the €1.6bn (£1.4bn) relief package had been dictated by one of the biggest challenges facing the Mediterranean nation : a demographic crisis of unprecedented scale.

• Australian told to let Norris pass after pit-stop error

• Piastri has ‘no regrets’ after championship lead cut

Lando Norris bullishly dismissed criticism of McLaren for using team orders at the Italian Grand Prix, saying the team would continue to do what they felt was right “no matter what people say”. His teammate Oscar Piastri, who ceded his place to the British driver, also maintained he had no regrets in agreeing to do so.

The race was won by Max Verstappen for Red Bull, with the world champion enjoying enormous pace at Monza, while Norris and Piastri followed in second and third place. After Norris had held second almost the entire race, he dropped behind his teammate because of a slow pit stop caused by a wheel gun issue in the last laps and McLaren ordered the Australian to give the place back.

• World No 2 edges out Lagergren at third extra hole

• ‘I’m so lucky I get to do this in front of these people’

Rory McIlroy savoured “a pretty cool year” after adding a second Irish Open title to his Masters win. The world No 2 completed the career grand slam with his triumph at Augusta in April, and on Sunday he added to that by winning his home open for the second time with a thrilling playoff victory against Joakim Lagergren.

McIlroy had to eagle the 72nd hole just to take it to a playoff after Lagergren’s own stunning eagle at the 16th. After the first two extra holes were tied in birdie fours, Lagergren found the water hazard third time around to allow McIlroy to win it with two putts.

World No 1 has proved she can control her emotions to become one of the most consistent big tournament players

Aryna Sabalenka thought she had everything figured out. She believed she had done all the work necessary, harnessing successfully her once uncontrollable power into consistent excellence. After overcoming so many hurdles en route to becoming the best player in the world, she felt ready for anything. Sabalenka was convinced she could handle any challenge that came her way.

It was not until her excruciating French Open final defeat against Coco Gauff that Sabalenka understood this was not true. As she struggled with her nerves under such significant pressure and punishing windy conditions, the 27-year-old was outplayed by a tireless, gutsier opponent in Gauff who broke her down by forcing her to work hard for every single point.

Toronto film festival: the bombastic director’s second film about the music legend shows the singer at his most mesmerizing but the picture remains incomplete

Baz Luhrmann now has two Elvis movies under his bedazzled belt. The first is his epic biopic starring Austin Butler and now he has unleashed another called EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, remixing archival material with never-before-seen footage from the singer’s residency in Las Vegas. What’s remarkable about them both, apart from the director’s obvious affinity for his subject’s showmanship, is his refusal across so many hours of jiggling and swivelling to meaningfully hold Elvis to account.

Luhrmann’s Oscar-nominated 2022 film acknowledged Elvis’s cultural appropriation: how his phenomenal success owed so much to the R&B, gospel and rock he grew up around and the racist institutions that put him on a pedestal while holding down the Black artists that birthed and gave that music its soul. The movie also painted Elvis as a bleeding heart for the Black community, projecting so much torment on the crooner over the injustices he witnessed, despite his refusal to say anything publicly – for the community he benefitted from – during the civil rights era. It was all the craven and exploitative Colonel Tom Parker’s fault, according to Luhrmann’s Elvis, depicting the leery and controlling manager (played by Tom Hanks) as the reason for the singer’s strict silence, and the root of so many sins.

EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert is screening at the Toronto Film Festival and will be released at a later date

Justices rule state is legally obliged to ensure ‘basic level of existence’ and orders authorities to improve nutrition

Israel’s supreme court has ruled that the government has failed to provide Palestinian security prisoners with adequate food for basic subsistence and ordered authorities to improve their nutrition.

Sunday’s decision was a rare case in which the country’s highest court ruled against the government’s conduct during the nearly two-year war.

• Forward spares Ronald Koeman’s blushes with double

• Goals move him above Van Persie to top of all-time list

Memphis Depay set a new scoring record for the Netherlands as his double ensured they survived a scare in beating Lithuania 3-2 away in their World Cup qualifier on Sunday.

Two goals for the 31-year-old Depay took his national team tally to 52, going ahead of Robin van Persie’s previous record, and putting the Netherlands top of the Group G standings with 10 points from four games, three ahead of Poland, who are hosting Finland later on Sunday.