While they do keep finding a way to win, blowing leads and a lack of ruthlessness are not signs of a successful season

The feeling of euphoria that comes with a late winner is addictive, as Liverpool have found out, but it is not a sustainable plan. Virgil van Dijk was the fifth player to settle a match in dramatic fashion in as many games for the Premier League champions this season but his 92nd-minute goal against Atlético Madrid was only the fourth-latest in the team’s series of extraordinary climaxes.

Jan Oblak was left helpless in the Atlético goal after his teammates had staged a glorious fightback from 2-0 down and shown a dogged determination to hold on. It had a familiar ring: Rio Ngumoha downed Newcastle in the 100th minute and Mohamed Salah slammed home a penalty in the 97th to break Burnley hearts, having scored in the 94th minute against Bournemouth to seal that 4-2 victory. The more crushing blow for Bournemouth had been delivered by Federico Chiesa in the 88th minute. A relatively early winner at home to Arsenal came in the 83rd minute. It indicates Liverpool are battle-hardened, fit and mentally strong. It is, however, not viable over what could be a 60-match season.

Up to 800,000 people are expected to march over budget cuts, public services and wages a week after Sébastien Lecornu’s appointment

• People in France: share your views on the strike

• Full report: France’s biggest strike in years under way amid political crisis

I am keeping an eye on the EU’s midday briefing just now, but there is no substantial update from the EU on the 19th package of sanctions against Russia.

The European Commission’s deputy chief spokesperson, Olof Gill, repeated that “we expect to present … [them] soon”, as he asked journalists to “please bear with us on that”, without offering more detail.

Stephen Joseph theatre, Scarborough
In our polarised times, this is a generous look at a friendship between an enigmatic young man and a grieving widower

Adrian Prosper is a no-nonsense kind of guy. A retired police officer, he has dealt with enough lowlifes to see the worst in everyone. Played with frightening humourlessness by Stuart Fox, he is all suspicion and mistrust. When his newly bereaved brother-in-law, Gerald (Russell Richardson), is befriended by Daniel (Iskandar Eaton), an enigmatic young man, he thinks only the worst of the relationship.

And he is not alone. In Alan Ayckbourn’s 91st play, he is joined in speculative plotting by Maxine (Liza Goddard), his misanthropic wife, as well as Gerald’s neighbours, the well-meaning Norah (Elizabeth Boag) and the online conspiracist Hugo (Hayden Wood). They are stoked by fear, small-mindedness and tribalism.

Two men and woman arrested in Grays have been bailed while investigation continues, say Metropolitan police

Two men and a woman have been arrested in Essex on suspicion of assisting Russian state intelligence, the Metropolitan police have said.

The Met said the two men, aged 41 and 46, and 35-year-old woman were arrested at two separate addresses in Grays on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service and taken to a police station in London.

Portrait of Dora Maar completed in Paris during war had been in private collection since being bought in 1944

• Europe live – latest updates

A newly discovered painting by Pablo Picasso of the French photographer and painter Dora Maar completed during the German occupation of Paris that has not been seen for 80 years, has been unveiled.

The work, Bust of a Woman in a Flowery Hat (Dora Maar), was finished towards the end of the couple’s turbulent nine-year relationship and shows Maar in a softer, more colourful light than Picasso’s previous portraits of his then lover.

Agreement reached with France allows for removal of asylum seekers who arrive on small boats

The UK has returned the first asylum seeker to France under a “one in, one out” agreement to remove people who arrive on small boats, the Home Office has confirmed.

Keir Starmer and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, agreed the pilot scheme, under which Britain will deport to France undocumented people who arrived in small boats in return for accepting an equal number of legitimate asylum seekers with British family connections.

Critics condemn reopening of ‘Camp J’ unit at Angola in service of Trump’s nationwide immigration crackdown, noting its history of brutality and violence

There were no hurricanes in the Gulf, as can be typical for Louisiana in late July – but Governor Jeff Landry quietly declared a state of emergency. The Louisiana state penitentiary at Angola – the largest maximum security prison in the country – was out of bed space for “violent offenders” who would be “transferred to its facilities”, he warned in an executive order.

The emergency declaration allowed for the rapid refurbishing of a notorious, shuttered housing unit at Angola formerly known as Camp J – commonly referred to by prisoners as “the dungeon” because it was once used to house men in extended solitary confinement, sometimes for years on end.

• Controversial start-up reaches out to British athletes

• Olympic swimmer Ben Proud became first Briton to join

British athletes across multiple sports are being targeted by the Enhanced Games after the US sprint star Fred Kerley became the biggest name yet to sign up for the controversial event.

Kerley, the world 100m champion in 2022, said he was joining the Enhanced Games, which allows athletes to take performance-enhancing drugs that are banned in official events, to become the fastest man ever.

Even in comparatively liberal spaces, such as my high school, girls who wince at locker room talk risk exclusion

Since Donald Trump returned to office, I have noticed a phenomenon at my high school that I call the “new chill girl”. A group of kids is talking casually about something. Seemingly out of the blue, one of the boys makes an off-handed joke. Maybe it’s racist or sexist or homophobic, but whatever the poison, they inject it and the group dynamic shifts ever so slightly. As a general rule, the boys continue as usual while the girls – who tend to be more politically progressive – face a choice: they can speak up, which usually results in them getting the reputation as annoying and unable to take a joke, or they can let it pass and be regarded as a chill girl who isn’t angry or woke. Since November 2024, the latter reaction has become far more common.

This kind of fearful silence is becoming more common outside of high schools, too. In December of 2024, Disney removed a transgender character from a new series. This April, the New York Times reported that a new Trump administration regulation bars government employees from adding pronouns to their email bios. Two days after that, Gannet, one of the US’s largest newspaper chains, cited Trump’s opposition to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion when announcing that it would no longer publish statistics on employee diversity.

Think Bill Gates is fixing the climate crisis? Not if you follow the money. While he funds green innovation and talks about cutting emissions, Gates also invests in dirty industries such as coal, oil and private jets. In this episode, Neelam Tailor exposes how one of the world’s most powerful climate voices is betting on both sides of the crisis – and making a lot of money in the process

• Full-back Kildunne returns after concussion

• England make four changes to starting XV

Ellie Kildunne returns to the England starting XV in one of four changes for their Rugby World Cup semi-final against France on Saturday.

Kildunne missed the Red Roses’ quarter-final win against Scotland as she went through concussion protocols with Helena Rowland stepping in at full-back.

Market value of drugmaker climbs by £6.5bn in early trading as trial shows ‘significant weight loss’ for pill version of Wegovy

• Business live – latest updates

The value of the drugmaker Novo Nordisk has shot up by more than £6.5bn after research showed its new anti-obesity pill resulted in almost as much weight loss as its Wegovy jab, as it races against its US rival Eli Lilly to get a tablet treatment to market.

Stock in the Danish company climbed by more than 4.5% on Thursday morning on hopes it could claw back market share lost to Eli Lilly and cheaper generic versions of GLP-1 drugs. Shares have fallen by nearly 60% in the past year as sales slowed.

Channel 4’s use of facts to correct almost everything the US President has said since taking office in January is a monumental flex. Sadly three hours of him speaking is deadeningly boring

If nothing else, you have to applaud their commitment to the bit. Broadly speaking, the British media responded to Donald Trump’s state visit with a series of cautious little inserts nestled within scheduled news programming. Then along came Channel 4, which decided to go big, junking off a full night’s schedule to deliver an unbroken almost three-hour, fact-based, point-by-point repudiation of almost every single thing that Trump has said since he retook office in January.

This sprawling extravaganza, entitled Trump v the Truth, formed the backbone of what effectively became Channel 4’s Trump Day on Wednesday. Preceding it was episode two of The Donald Trump Show, a weird hour that overlaid an arch Come Dine With Me narration over old Trump clips. And throughout the day, continuity announcers were replaced with a Trump impersonator who whined about the channel’s output. During Frasier at 10:40am, for instance, he complained about his intense dislike of tossed salads.

Still, Trump v the Truth was always the real pull; a monumental flex that few other broadcasters would have dared to attempt. Starting at 10pm and rolling on into the small hours, the show was billed as a rigorously sourced factcheck of more than 100 untruths that Trump has told during his second term so far, in speeches, interviews, statements and social media posts.

The president won’t prevail in court. But his cases against media companies have a potential chilling effect on criticism of the government

Donald Trump has sued the New York Times for, well, reporting on Trump.

Rather than charging the Times with any specific libelous act, Trump’s lawsuit is just another of his angry bloviations.

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now

When a mysterious object fell from the sky mid-game, I knew it was a portent of doom. The surprise was finding out who chucked it there

A funny thing happened at the football last Saturday, and not in a good way. My team, West Brom, were outplaying Derby County but, importantly, without managing to score a goal. Ordinarily, as the second half went on, I would have given in to pessimism, assuming that for all our dominance we’d not score, though Derby somehow would, and I’d go home miserable. But on this occasion, I really thought the match would be ours. Until this thing happened.

Play suddenly stopped, for reasons that were at first unclear. A few of the players were looking at something lying on the pitch. Gingerly, squeamishly, they edged closer to whatever it was. Bizarre. As opera glasses aren’t available on the backs of seats at football grounds, we couldn’t identify the object. Eventually a member of the ground staff appeared, wearing rubber gloves. He strode out to the middle of the pitch, picked the object up, and returned whence he came carrying half a pigeon – dead, obviously.

The Sky have consistently chased away talented players from the organization. Now they are doing it again with one of the best young players in the league

When the Chicago Sky selected Angel Reese, one of the most celebrated college players in years, with the No 7 overall pick last year, many believed she could be a turning point for the franchise. Yes, the Sky had won the NBA finals in 2021 but they have been a losing team for most of their history and Reese, in addition to her celebrity, would bring explosive athleticism and superb rebounding to the franchise. As a player, those lofty hopes have panned out: she is already a two-time All-Star and has led the league in rebounds in both her WNBA seasons.

As a teammate, things aren’t so smooth. The Sky were knocked out in the first round of the playoffs last season. This time around they finished with the joint-worst record in the entire WNBA, alongside the Dallas Wings.

US president is holding talks with Starmer before attending a business event and then appearing at a joint news conference with PM

President Trump is now leaving Windsor Castle. He will be flying to Chequers by helicopter.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, has thanked King Charles for what he said at the state banquet last night strongly supporting the Ukrainian cause.

I extend my deepest thanks to His Majesty King Charles III @RoyalFamily for his steadfast support. Ukraine greatly values the United Kingdom’s unwavering and principled stance.

When tyranny threatens Europe once again, we must all hold firm, and Britain continues to lead in defending freedom on many fronts. Together, we have achieved a lot, and with the support of freedom-loving nations—the UK, our European partners, and the US—we continue to defend values and protect lives. We are united in our efforts to make diplomacy work and secure lasting peace for the European continent.

Our countries have the closest defence, security and intelligence relationship ever known. In two world wars, we fought together to defeat the forces of tyranny.

Today, as tyranny once again threatens Europe, we and our allies stand together in support of Ukraine, to deter aggression and secure peace. And our Aukus submarine partnership, with Australia, sets the benchmark for innovative and vital collaboration.

• Latest updates from the track on night six in Tokyo

• Enhanced Games targets more GB stars | Mail Daniel

Back on the track, Yamamoto leads from Tanaka, with Battocletti of Italy third and Chebet fourth.

Oli Goldman reminds me that, when reminiscing about the 1991 worlds, I neglected to mention the GB 4x400m quarter changing up their order and Kriss Akabusi taking out Antonio Pettigrew, the individual champion, in the final few strides. I was actually looking for and failing to find photos of the t-shirts made thereafter, featuring Roger Black’s post-race line, “We kicked their butts”, then got distracted.

Michael Werner Gallery, London
Artists as varied as Sarah Lucas, Gwen John and Georg Baselitz are called upon by critic-curator Hilton Als to chime with the writer of Wide Sargasso Sea

Jean Rhys was a perpetual outsider. Born Welsh and Creole into largely black Dominican society in 1890, she was out of place everywhere – too foreign for Europe, too Caribbean for Britain, too white for Dominica, and much too female to be taken seriously as a writer for most of her lifetime.

But her literary influence continues to grow and resonate, especially with American critic and curator Hilton Als. His group show is a heady, passionate, experimental love letter to Jean Rhys – to her literature, her in-betweenness, her life of unbound creativity in a postcolonial world – in the vein of his previous exhibitions-as-portraits of Joan Didion and James Baldwin.

Aerospace firm Honeywell also subject of US lawsuit from families of four passengers, who allege negligence

The families of four passengers who died in the Air India crash in June have sued the aerospace manufacturers Boeing and Honeywell, blaming negligence and a faulty fuel cutoff switch for the disaster that killed 260 people.

Air India flight 171 crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad en route to London on 12 June.

Donald Trump wants drastic rate cuts – and his campaign to exert greater political control over the Fed continues apace

The time has come to ban the “revolving door” between the White House and the Federal Reserve, two academics argued last year. Doing so would be “critical to reducing the incentives for officials to act in the short-term political interests of the president”, they wrote.

Eight months ago, the two writers – Dan Katz and Stephen Miran – joined the Trump administration in senior roles. On Tuesday, Miran, the chair of the US Council of Economic Advisers, walked into the Fed as a governor.

Basic principles need to be enshrined to protect the sacred craft of storytelling from this automated onslaught

• Jonny Geller is a literary agent and CEO of The Curtis Brown Group

The single biggest threat to the livelihood of authors and, by extension, to our culture, is not short attention spans. It is AI.

The UK publishing industry – worth more than £11bn, part of the £126bn that our creative industries generate for the British economy – has sat by while big tech has “swept” copyrighted material from the internet in order to train their models. Recently, the AI startup Anthropic settled a $1.5bn copyright case over this issue, but the ship has undeniably left the harbour and big tech is sailing off with the goods.

Jonny Geller is CEO of The Curtis Brown Group

We’d like to hear from people across France about how they view Thursday’s strikes

Around 800,000 people are expected to join marches across France on Thursday.

French trade unions across many sectors from schools to transport have called for the nationwide strike to oppose unpopular budget plans.

• Tennis legend told diagnosis was ‘really, really bad’

• Borg also recalls drug use after early retirement

Björn Borg, the five-time Wimbledon tennis champion, has said he is taking life “day by day, year by year” after his “extremely aggressive” prostate cancer diagnosis.

The former world No 1, who won 11 grand slam titles before retiring aged 25, revealed the diagnosis in the final chapter of his autobiography, which will be published this week in the UK and next week in the US. The Swede is in remission, having had an operation in 2024, but described the diagnosis as “difficult psychologically”.

Read Bjorn Borg’s interview with Simon Hattenstone on theguardian.com from 4pm UK time on Thursday