Exclusive: Oxford’s Bodleian libraries to put archive items on display for first time, celebrating spy author’s ‘tradecraft’

The extent of John le Carré’s meticulous research and attention to detail are among insights into his working methods that will be revealed when the master of spy thrillers’ private archive goes on display for the first time this autumn.

His classic cold war-era espionage novels have sold tens of millions of copies worldwide and inspired acclaimed films and television adaptations.

John le Carré: Tradecraft opens at the Weston library, Bodleian libraries, on 1 October, running until 6 April 2026. An accompanying book, Tradecraft: Writers on John le Carré, will be released by Bodleian Library Publishing.

Sure Start was New Labour’s finest achievement, and the Tories destroyed it. Now it’s back with a mission to put children at the heart of everything

They hunt high and low for Labour’s missing message, vision, purpose or identity. Well, here it is, where it always was, in the future of children. It’s what Labour does best, what it is for: building a society where children come first and everything else falls into place. The foundations have now been laid by Bridget Phillipson by finally bringing back Sure Start to England – the most successful achievement of the last Labour government – now rebranded as Best Start family hubs.

It’s a pity about the new name, but young parents recognise “hubs”, whereas Sure Start is largely gone and forgotten. Its uprooting began the day Michael Gove arrived as education secretary in 2010. He entered the “Department for Children, Schools and Families” – a name chosen to reflect the awareness that children don’t learn without wraparound care for their whole lives – and replaced it with the Gradgrind “Department for Education”. Family stuff was flimflam, distracting from rote learning, and arts, music, drama and sports were expunged from his Ebacc’s core subjects.

An authentic alternative gazpacho with rustic appeal, a powerful flavour mix – and not a tomato in sight

Gazpacho has been part of Spanish kitchens for centuries. Long before tomatoes arrived from the Americas, it was made with bread, garlic, olive oil and almonds, which have always been part of our food culture. It began as field food, crushed by hand in mortars and eaten by workers under the sun with nothing but stale bread and whatever else they had to hand alongside. No blenders, no chill time, just instinct and hunger. This version, with courgette and basil, goes back to that idea: take what’s around you and make something good out of it. Simple roots, but full of life.

Legal expert anticipates a life sentence for Australian triple-murderer but her legal team has 28 days to decide if they are going to appeal

• Full report: Erin Patterson found guilty of murdering relatives

• Five key moments in the murder trial of Australia’s mushroom lunch cook Erin Patterson

After almost 11 weeks, a jury has found Erin Patterson guilty of murdering three relatives and attempting to murder a fourth by lacing a beef wellington lunch with poisonous mushrooms.

The guilty verdict read out in the Morwell court on Monday was swift. Yes, they said, guilty of murdering Don and Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson. Yes, they said – to the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, the pastor who had lost his wife.

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Frustrated with my life back in the US, I was captivated by the idea of a new home – and new life – for less than the price of an espresso. So I travelled to Italy to find out whether it was too good to be true

If you could move anywhere, where would it be? This used to be a question I’d ask myself or others at dinner parties, but two years ago, as new parents facing the unsustainable costs of Bay Area life and the looming threat of middle-age atrophy, my husband, Ben, and I took to the internet in earnest with the notion of reinventing our lives somewhere new.

We were, of course, part of a widespread trend: seeking adventure and greener pastures elsewhere in the era of globalisation. Even so, the notion felt thrilling. Where would we go? Our search had some parameters: affordability, a natural landscape (I dreamed of cicadas, cypress trees), a place with a language we either already spoke or could learn easily enough so that we could contribute to the community. We’d spent our careers working in schools and nonprofits with young immigrants, and, however different it might look in a new country, we had no intention of leaving a life of service behind. Above all, though, what we wanted was an environment in which we could spend a lot of time writing and afford to do it. But Ben had another non-negotiable of his own: proximity to surfing. This annoyed me, as it significantly limited our search, but I supposed it was reasonable enough to design a dream life according to one’s actual dreams.

Musician Joy Crookes joins Grace to kick off a brand new season of Comfort Eating. Born and raised in south London, Joy’s rich, punchy and intimate songs means her music is everywhere. With Bangladeshi and Irish heritage, Joy writes music that’s rich in politics, identity and a lot of raw feeling. Her debut album, Skin, was an intimate patchwork of heartbreak, protest and pride, earning her not just accolades and a Brit award nomination, but a passionate and loyal fanbase. A rollercoaster of success was interrupted by her mental health struggles, which led to a hiatus. But she’s back with a new single out now and a big European tour getting underway later this year

New episodes of Comfort Eating with Grace Dent will be released every Tuesday

Agriculture is woven into Ukrainian culture, but daily attacks, a loss of workers and land contamination are tearing the industry apart

In a field outside the eastern Ukraine city of Sumy, Mykola Mondrayev, 55, is moving the wreckage of a Russian drone. A pickup truck stands nearby, mounted with a gun, the only defence against the deadly unmanned aerial devices.

Three days a week, Mondrayev serves with a territorial defence unit. The other days he works his fields.

Waders you could wear to a gallery opening, vests cropped weirdly short and laden with pockets. I tried the biggest trend in fashion to find out why so many non-fishers are wearing it

It was, in the end, a fashion trend awaiting better weather. Now that summer is here, the “fisherman aesthetic”, long heralded as one of the key looks for 2025, has finally arrived. Or has it? Standing on the beach at Hastings, with a stiff wind blowing into my face, I am adding one layer of fishing gear on top of another while holding my fisherman’s hat on my head, gently overheating under a hazy sky.

I’m not sure this is what Vogue had in mind when it predicted that “the menswear customer will take to water, embracing the ‘fisherman aesthetic’” earlier this year. I can’t see anyone else on the beach embracing it. Then again, I can’t see anyone else on the beach.

Children’s commissioner says any Labour strategy to tackle deprivation must scrap the two-child benefit cap

Children in England are living in “almost Dickensian levels of poverty” where deprivation has become normalised, the children’s commissioner has said, as she insisted the two-child benefit limit must be scrapped.

Young people said they had experienced not having enough water to shower, rats biting through their walls, and mouldy bedrooms, among a number of examples in a report on the “crisis of hardship” gripping the country.

Blaming migrants for the rise in anti-Jewish crimes shows a breathtaking lack of self-awareness

It could have been a Mitchell and Webb sketch – a man with a very German accent and a distinguished Nazi grandfather complaining: “These foreigners, coming over here, importing their antisemitism.” Only this was not a comedy. The man was Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and he was making his complaint last month in an interview with Fox news in the US, attributing rising antisemitism in Germany to “the big numbers of migrants we have within the last 10 years”. How did Merz manage to miss the joke – apart from by being German of course?

The chancellor is not the only German politician to have made the dubious connection between foreigners and antisemitism. Hubert Aiwanger, the deputy premier of Bavaria, made headlines in 2023 when an antisemitic leaflet he was alleged to have written at school – better known as the Auschwitz pamphlet – came to light. Aiwanger denied writing the leaflet. Then his brother joined the fray, claiming authorship, and hardly anybody mentioned it again. However, it didn’t stop Aiwanger from declaring later that year: “We have imported antisemitism to Germany.”

Mithu Sanyal is a novelist, academic, literary critic, columnist and broadcaster.

Woman in her 50s remains in hospital after incident on Sunday on the Darling Downs

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A Queensland zoo under investigation after a lion attack has reopened its doors, two days after the owner’s sister-in-law lost her arm.

The woman, in her 50s, remains in hospital in a stable condition after the attack, which took place on Sunday morning at Darling Downs zoo south of Toowoomba.

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Deaths as Kharkiv, Odesa and Zaporizhzhia come under attack; Ukraine hits Russian warhead plant. What we know on day 1,231

Exclusive: Amazon office workers in New York requested to donate time over to Fresh delivery process during firm’s busiest time

Corporate employees of Amazon were asked on Monday to volunteer their time to the company’s warehouses to assist with grocery delivery as it heads into its annual discount spree known as Prime Day.

In a Slack message reviewed by the Guardian that went to thousands of white-collar workers in the New York City area from engineers to marketers, an Amazon area manager called for corporate “volunteers to help us out with Prime Day to deliver to customers on our biggest days yet”. It is not clear how many took up the offer.

Two crew members are missing after drone attack on Greek-operated Eternity C; Yemen’s Houthi rebels say MV Magic Seas sank after Sunday raid

Two crew members of a Greek-managed vessel have been wounded and two are missing after a drone attack off Yemen on Monday, hours after Iran-aligned Houthi militants claimed an assault on another bulk carrier in the Red Sea, saying the ship had sunk.

Monday’s attack 50 nautical miles southwest of the port of Hodeidah was the second assault by the Houthis against merchant vessels in the vital shipping corridor since November 2024, said an official at the European Union’s Operation Aspides, assigned to help protect Red Sea shipping.

Girls summer camp Camp Mystic confirms 27 children and counsellors dead as more rain threatens to deluge region

• Texas floods – latest updates

By late afternoon on Monday the death toll from the flash floods that have wreaked devastation in Texas since Friday had exceeded 100 and is expected to rise further as more victims are found and more rain threatens to deluge the region.

Camp Mystic, the girls summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Texas, has confirmed that 27 children and counsellors died.

US president sets new 1 August deadline and warns Japan of 25% tariff, 30% for South Africa and others as high as 40%

Donald Trump revealed plans to step up his trade wars on Monday but delayed tariffs hikes on goods from key economies until next month, amid widespread confusion over his controversial economic strategy.

The US president announced countries including Japan, South Korea and South Africa will face tariffs of up to 40% as part of a fresh wave of levies to kick in on 1 August. No increases will take place on Wednesday, however, after he extended a previous pause.

Goods from Bangladesh: 35% US tariff

Bosnia and Herzegovina: 30%

Cambodia: 36%

Indonesia: 32%

Japan: 25%

Kazakhstan: 25%

Laos: 40%

Malaysia: 25%

Myanmar: 40%

Serbia: 35%

South Africa: 30%

South Korea: 25%

Thailand: 36%

Tunisia: 25%

There was drama in Geneva as Diana Gomes struck late to salvage Portugal’s European Championship hopes. In a breathtaking conclusion to the match, Cristiana Girelli thought she had sent Italy through to the quarter-finals. Francisco Neto’s side piled on the pressure in the final stages, however, and equalised in the 89th minute to ensure their dreams of progress remained alive.

“We were solid, we were brave,” said a delighted Neto. “We played high, pressed our opponents, and played like a team in the European Championship. We’re a team with personality and ambition. It’s not easy when you’re losing, then you score but it’s disallowed again, and then score again! I’m very proud.”

Glaring errors around Pavlyuchenkova’s match have not been an exception in first year of system’s use at SW19

When the Wimbledon organisers announced last year that electronic line-calling would replace line judges for the first time at the Championships this year, plenty of criticism could have been anticipated. Some people would take issue with the more sterile landscape on court and the lack of human touch, while the cull of around 300 linesmen and women would also surely be a sore point. It is difficult, however, to imagine they were prepared for the firestorm that has followed its long-awaited implementation at this tournament.

Electronic line-calling, or ELC, which uses automated ball-tracking technology has, after all, long been used in professional tennis tournaments, starting with the Next Gen ATP Finals in 2018. It has been four years since the Australian Open became the first grand slam to utilise the technology and this year, for the first time, the men’s tour, the ATP, is using ELC at all of its events. Although all other men’s clay-court events use ELC, the French Open is now the only grand slam that still employs human line judges.

Ryan Louis Mosqueda fired dozens of rounds at federal agents, injuring a police officer before authorities shot him

A man with an assault rifle fired dozens of rounds at federal agents and a US border patrol facility in Texas on Monday, injuring a police officer, before authorities shot and killed him.

Authorities identified the shooter as Ryan Louis Mosqueda, believed to be 27, who they said shot at agents exiting the building, which is near the US-Mexico border. McAllen police chief, Victor Rodriguez, said Mosqueda had a “utility vest” in addition to the rifle when federal agents returned fire.

• Dimitrov forced to stop with 6-3, 7-5, 2-2 lead

• Ben Shelton wins to set up match with Sinner

If Jannik Sinner goes on to win his first Wimbledon title this weekend, he will look back on this moment as the time when his luck turned.

The world No 1 was trailing two sets to love – 6-3, 7-5, 2-2 – against an inspired Grigor Dimitrov, with a mountain to climb, when the ­Bul­garian hit an ace and then instantly fell to the ground clutching his pectoral muscle. He knew, there and then, that his Wimbledon was over and after a brief medical timeout, off the court, he returned in tears, before shaking Sinner’s hand.

• Head of FIA bats away criticism from Tim Mayer

• ‘Whatever I’ve been doing is good for the members’

The FIA president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, has denied accusations of a “reign of terror” and suggested the governing body’s member clubs are “smiling” about the prospect of him serving another four years.

Ben Sulayem’s controversial first term as head of the FIA will come to an end in December. The 63-year-old has confirmed he will stand for a second term and is poised to face off against Tim Mayer after the American announced his candidacy in the buildup to Sunday’s British Grand Prix.

Raynor Winn is claimed to have taken ‘around £64,000’ from a former employer and lied about being homeless – accusations that Winn calls ‘highly misleading’

It has been one of the films of the summer so far – the tale of Raynor Winn and her husband Moth, who embark on the 630-mile South West Coast Path walk after their house is repossessed and Moth is diagnosed with a terminal illness.

There has been almost universal praise for the life-affirming story of The Salt Path, which has won rave reviews from critics. Until now.

• Updates from the 8pm BST kick-off in Group B

• Player guide | David Squires’ wallchart | Email Will

4 mins: Neither side has managed to string a few passes together yet. All a bit scrappy.

Portugal do manage a break through Diana Silva, who sends it out to Marchao on the left but her cross drifts out for a goalkeeper.

Military ordered to turn ruins of Rafah into ‘humanitarian city’ but experts call the plan an internment camp for all Palestinians in Gaza

Israel’s defence minister has laid out plans to force all Palestinians in Gaza into a camp on the ruins of Rafah, in a scheme that legal experts and academics described as a blueprint for crimes against humanity.

Israel Katz said he has ordered Israel’s military to prepare for establishing a camp, which he called a “humanitarian city”, on the ruins of the city of Rafah, Haaretz newspaper reported.

President Lula rejects foreign ‘interference’ as Trump claims far-right former leader victim of ‘witch-hunt’

Donald Trump has issued his strongest defence to date of Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro, claiming the far-right leader is the victim of a “witch-hunt” in his home country.

Posting on his social media platform Truth Social on Monday, the US president claimed that Bolsonaro – often dubbed the “Trump of the Tropics” – is “not guilty of anything”, in an apparent reference to the legal cases Bolsonaro is facing in Brazil.

Forty-nine-year-old is 140th child found by Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who search for people ‘disappeared’ under 1976-83 dictatorship

A man taken from his mother as a newborn by Argentina’s military has been reunited with his relatives after almost 50 years.

The man, 49, whose identity was not disclosed for privacy reasons, was identified after he took a DNA test.

New signing made a bright Club World Cup debut and now eyes Fluminense, one of his former sides, on Tuesday

Estêvão Willian was not the only Brazilian attacker to offer a tantalising glimpse of the future during Chelsea’s win against Palmeiras in the quarter-finals of the Club World Cup. There was also a bright cameo from João Pedro, who came on for Liam Delap just after Estêvão’s equaliser early in the second half and proceeded to change the game with his brawn and intelligent link-up play.

It was an eye-catching performance from the forward given that his £60m move to Chelsea had been announced two days earlier. What had the 23‑year‑old been doing during his time off? Lifting logs and existing on a diet of raw steak, presumably. The aggression from João Pedro was startling. He was raring to go after a couple of training sessions with his new teammates and, while he was not involved in the winning goal, his bustling forward play was a vital part of Chelsea reasserting their dominance after Palmeiras pulled the score back to 1-1.

Sarina Wiegman must quickly find a way to make her midfield click – whether that’s with or without one of her brightest stars

There is no doubting that Lauren James is a generational talent. There is natural ability in abundance. She is also an example of what technically gifted women’s players can be when given elite-level coaching from a young age. She is an example of what is to come, an outlier among her peers, having benefited from her father, Nigel, being a Uefa-qualified coach with his own coaching programme that is, in his own words, “about pure ball mastery and delivery with panache, to ultimately create elite technicians of the game”.

James is effusive about her father’s input into her career, saying on the Nigel James Elite Coaching website that she is “grateful to my dad for all the time, effort and love that he has put into my football by coaching me in order to help me reach the very best level and fulfil my full potential”.

Spain, looking ominously ruthless, continued their rich goalscoring form to reach the knockout stages of the 2025 European Championship as they put six goals past Belgium on a rain-soaked evening in Thun.

The world champions were twice pegged back by equalisers, but Elísabet Gunnarsdóttir’s side were eventually overpowered and were eliminated by Portugal’s 1-1 draw with Italy on Monday night, a result that also ensured Spain’s place in the last eight.

• Manager describes 39-year-old as ‘extraordinary player’

• Allegri says Maignan and Leão seem willing to stay

Real Madrid’s captain, Luka Modric, will join Milan after the Club World Cup, the Serie A club’s manager, Massimiliano Allegri, confirmed on Monday.

The 39-year-old midfielder announced in May that he would be leaving Madrid after the tournament. Madrid face Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-finals on Wednesday, with the final scheduled for Sunday.

There were plenty of legally unproblematic options available to the club before their former midfielder was charged with rape

“We are courageous in the pursuit of progress.”

“We champion our community and each other.”

With their made-up scandal, combined with the pre-election editorial, the Times looks like it’s on a crusade against Mamdani

A recent New York Times news story immediately drew fire from readers – and for very good reason.

Headlined “Mamdani Identified as Asian and African American on College Application,” the article centered on Zohran Mamdani, the candidate for New York City mayor who drew national attention recently with his stunning win in the Democratic primary election.

Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture

From TV soaps to the supreme court to the top job, Christian fundamentalists are on a power-grab in the country. We meet the director of Apocalypse in the Tropics, a new film charting their rise

Petra Costa was rewatching footage of what has become a historic speech made in 2021 by Jair Bolsonaro, the then Brazilian president, when suddenly she noticed something that went largely unnoticed at the time. Addressing thousands of supporters in São Paulo, the far-right leader lashed out at a supreme court justice, and said he would only leave the presidency “in prison or dead”. This statement is now cited as evidence against Bolsonaro, who is currently on trial, accused of attempting a coup to overturn his 2022 election defeat to current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro denies these allegations.

But what caught Costa’s eye in the footage was Bolsonaro’s gaze. As he shouted into the microphone, the paratrooper-turned-populist repeatedly looked – seemingly seeking validation – at one particular man in his entourage: the televangelist Silas Malafaia. In response, the evangelical leader appeared to be lip-syncing along to the president’s every word. “I watched the scene many times,” says film-maker Costa, “and the only conclusion I can draw is that Malafaia wrote Bolsonaro’s speech. If not, how could he have known every word?”

The superstar singer is being used in an argument about sex, pornography, the male gaze, female desire and blond hair that has been going on since before her grandmother was born. Meanwhile, her autonomy is overlooked

There are some hot takes on feminism that it’s better to bow out of when this isn’t your first rodeo. The reveal of Sabrina Carpenter’s album cover, which landed last month, was such an event. The photograph shows Carpenter on her hands and knees, with her hair being pulled by (presumably, as you couldn’t see his face) a man. The Daily Mail reported that “over-sexed Sabrina Carpenter” had been “roasted by fans” for her “highly sexualised and provocative album art”.

Could we prove that she wasn’t being criticised by people who hated her already, while her fans understood something different from “sexualisation” and were not provoked? Never mind. When you are in the business of slating young women, the onus isn’t upon you to explain what the problem is, or whether it’s you who has the problem, or indeed whether it’s some other constituency, be it 700 bots on X or real people who think. All you have to do is say what you see.

Exclusive: Experts call for stricter regulation as current rules set in 1989 require testing for only a few heavy metals

Millions of tonnes of treated sewage sludge is spread on farmland across the UK every year despite containing forever chemicals, microplastics and toxic waste, and experts say the outdated current regulations are not fit for purpose.

An investigation by the Guardian and Watershed has identified England’s sludge-spreading hotspots and shown where the practice could be damaging rivers.

Move after far-right protests is latest example of measures within EU that are straining passport-free Schengen zone

Poland has reintroduced temporary border controls with Germany and Lithuania in response to public concerns over irregular migration.

The measures came into force at midnight on Sunday and will last until 5 August, in the latest example of EU governments imposing measures that are straining the fabric of the bloc’s passport-free Schengen zone.

The administration has wiped over $2.7bn in climate grants, hitting underserved communities across the US the hardest

This story was originally published by Floodlight

Acre by acre, the village of Kipnuk is falling into the river.

The controversy around the state’s once-celebrated ethnic studies curriculum reveals deeper schisms afflicting public schools nationwide

It was celebrated at the time as a major milestone for progressive education. In 2021, California became the first state to make ethnic studies a graduation requirement, mandating all high schools teach the subject by fall 2025.

The idea, championed by California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, was to bring modern concepts into the classroom. At its core, ethnic studies, an academic discipline born on California campuses during the civil rights movement, elevates the experiences of historically marginalized groups. Its materials push students to question their biases, reimagine power structures, and think critically about the enduring legacies of colonialism. In California high schools, courses would bring to the fore the experiences of Chicano, Black and Indigenous communities in the state by diving into issues such as gentrification, the impact of pesticides on farm worker communities and the legacies of Indian boarding schools. Many school districts enthusiastically jumped on board.

Jason Hackett’s army of ‘muttonistas’ adore his beer reviews – in New York, the Guardian found, even star actors are fans

You might not be familiar with Prime Mutton. Maybe you haven’t heard his catchphrases – “absolute creamer”, “muttonista”, or the still-in-development “creamerisimo”.

If so, you’re missing out on a man who in the space of a year has created little short of a cult: an army of more than 160,000 social media fans, including celebrities, who cheer along online and in person as their leader – basically – reviews beer.

A century after André Breton invented Exquisite Corpse artists are using it to tap into something unexplored

Some time in the winter of 1925-1926, the French author André Breton and his comrades Yves Tanguy, Jacques Prévert and Marcel Duchamp invented an old-fashioned parlour game. You write a word on a piece of paper, then fold it over so the next person can’t see what you’ve written, and you end up with a strange sentence. The game is now known as Exquisite Corpse, after the result of their first go: Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau (The exquisite corpse will drink the new wine).

Exquisite Corpse gave Breton so much joy because it summed up the essence of the surrealist school of art he was trying to articulate at the time. In his first 1924 manifesto, he told budding surrealists to put themselves in “as passive, or receptive, a state of mind” as they can and write quickly. Forget about talent, about subject, about perception or punctuation. Simply trust, he writes, “in the inexhaustible nature of the murmur”.