• Updates from the Wallabies’ clash with the Pumas in Townsville

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Now we see them, striding out past the delightfully kitsch Puma Trophy.

Ten minutes after the advertised start time, still no sign of either team on the Townsville turf.

Joe, 31, an office manager, meets Mabyn, 36, who works in costume for theatre

What were you hoping for?
To have a nice time and learn something new.

Pleasingly simple as curries go, this seasonal dish can be vegan if you choose dairy-free yoghurt and gluten-free if served with rice in place of chapatis

My grandmother, Narmada Lakhani, passed away earlier this year aged 92. Well, we think she was 92, but no one recorded her birth date, so we can only estimate. What we do know about her, though, is that she had a very cheeky laugh, and that she loved lager tops, penny slot machines and tucking £10 notes down her bra, ready to hand out to an unsuspecting grandchild as a gift. She never asked if I was happy, only if I’d eaten well, which I assume to her were the same thing. At this time of year, eating well for her meant tucking into sweetcorn, so, in her memory, I’m going to do the same.

Alliance of global autocrats has been accelerated by Donald Trump’s use of political and economic pressure against friends and foes alike

Waving beatifically over the crowd of 50,000 spectators assembled in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Wednesday, Xi Jinping exuded an aura of confidence that many leaders in the west could only envy. To his left stood North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader of an increasingly strident hermit kingdom. To his right was the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Xi’s “old friend” and China’s biggest ally in opposing the US-led world order. The last time that the leaders of these three countries were together in public was at the height of the cold war.

“Humanity once again faces the choice between peace or war, dialogue or confrontation,” the Chinese president told the gathered crowds. His insistence that China would “adhere to the path of peaceful development” was punctured somewhat by the country’s biggest ever military parade that marched through the square beneath his rostrum atop the Gate of Heavenly Peace, the entrance to the Forbidden City that has – on and off – been the seat of Chinese power since the 15th century.

The dog watches anxiously as my wife swims out to sea. At least someone can relate to my holiday state of mind

I am on holiday, standing on a coastal headland under a bright blue dome of sky, the wind light and warm, looking at the weather app on my phone. The forecast and the scene are in agreement: it’s a nice day.

I scroll through all the locations where I’ve previously felt the need to check the weather – Exeter, Marseille, York – until I get to London, where, it turns out, it’s also pretty nice.

New Delhi spent decades cosying up to the US. The truth is, Washington doesn’t have allies outside the west – it has clients

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When Donald Trump won his second term, India’s ruling elite must have been quietly pleased. Prime minister Narendra Modi’s performative courting of King Donald, both in and out of office, suggested a special chemistry between these two titans of the hard right.

As Trump set about remaking global trade and geopolitics by weaponising tariffs, India got into trade negotiations with the US early. New Delhi accepted that negotiations would be difficult, given its red lines on agricultural and dairy products. Yet it was optimistic about getting a deal commensurate with India’s economic heft – and strategic value to the US as a counterweight to China.

Mukul Kesavan is an Indian historian, novelist and political and social essayist

When the TV presenter was offered a free health screening, she thought it was pointless: she was ‘the healthiest woman you’ve ever met’. But then came the shocking diagnosis. Now fully recovered, she’s re‑evaluating everything

It all starts with the coil. Of course it does. This is Davina, and Davina McCall doesn’t do personal by halves. “I loved the coil, but people always used to go, ‘I’m not getting the coil, ugh.’ I always wondered why it wasn’t more popular.” So, it was June 2023 and McCall was getting her preferred method of contraception replaced – on TV, naturally, for a documentary. “I asked my children’s permission. ‘Can Mummy get her coil refitted on television?’ They all rolled their eyes, like: ‘God! Here she goes again.’”

Post-fitting, her friend Dame Lesley Regan, a gynaecologist, suggested that McCall have a health screening at the state-of-the-art women’s health clinic where she worked, in exchange for a talk she would give on menopause. To be honest, McCall says, she thought the idea ridiculous. “I was like: ‘Honestly, I don’t need that. I’m the healthiest woman you’ve ever met. I don’t go to the doctor, I have a good immune system, I eat well.’”

The so-called ‘March for Australia’ echoed the Cronulla race riots – and not by accident. Are we seeing history repeating, or the start of something worse?

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The text messages circulating around Sydney’s Sutherland shire in early December 2005 explained precisely the purpose of the gathering. “Just a reminder that Cronulla’s 1st wog bashing day is still on this Sunday,” one read. “Chinks bashing day is on the 27th and the Jews are booked in for early January.”

On Sunday 11 December, more than 5,000 people, mostly young men, swarmed Cronulla beach. They wore Australian flags as capes, they had drawn the Eureka flag on their bodies. They were drinking alcohol and they were chanting – and they were beating up anyone who wasn’t white.

• Sinner defeats Auger-Aliassime 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4

• Italian joins Laver, Federer, Djokovic with slam feat

• Alcaraz showdown will decide world No 1 ranking

Jannik Sinner will meet Carlos Alcaraz for the US Open title after the defending champion survived an injury scare to repel a spirited challenge from Félix Auger-Aliassime in four sets at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The world No 1 prevailed 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in three hours and 21 minutes on Friday night, booking a third consecutive grand slam final against the Spaniard and underlining a rivalry that has already reshaped the men’s game.

The win made Sinner only the fourth man in the Open era, after Rod Laver, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, to reach all four major finals in a single season, and at 24 the youngest to do so. His streak of 27 straight victories at the hard-court majors equalled Djokovic’s best, with only Federer’s 36 still ahead. He has now reached five consecutive major finals, lifting trophies in Melbourne and at Wimbledon and standing one point from victory at Roland Garros before Alcaraz turned the match around. The No 1 ranking will also be on the line in Sunday’s final.

Should your makeup be fragrance-free? Is it time to purge your kitchen of plastic? Are all food dyes dangerous? These are the everyday ingredients that could be harming your health

‘Far from being a rock or island … it turns out that the best metaphor to describe the human body is ‘sponge’. We’re permeable,” write Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie in their book Slow Death By Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things. While the permeability of our cells is key to being alive, it also means we absorb more potentially harmful substances than we realise.

Studies have found a number of chemical residues in human breast milk, urine and water systems. Many of them are endocrine disruptors, which can interfere with the body’s natural hormones. “They can mimic, block or otherwise disrupt normal hormone function, leading to adverse health effects,” says Dr Shanna Swan, professor of environmental medicine and reproductive health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York. We (often unknowingly) ingest, inhale or otherwise absorb them, and while toxicity depends on dosage, the reality is that a lot of us are exposed to them daily.

Flooding in northern India and Pakistan has destroyed homes – and hundreds of thousands of acres of crops

For days, farmers in the Indian state of Punjab watched the pounding monsoon rains fall and the rivers rise with mounting apprehension. By Wednesday, many woke to find their fears realised as the worst floods in more than three decades ravaged their farms and decimated their livelihoods.

Hundreds of thousands of acres of bright green rice paddies – due to be harvested imminently – as well as crops of cotton and sugar cane were left destroyed as they became fully submerged in more than five feet of muddy brown flood waters. The bodies of drowned cattle littered the ground.

Now 96, this week marks a milestone for our columnist, whose astonishing career has set a Guinness World Record

September 1955. The dying embers of one era, the dawning of another. It’s been five months since Sir Winston Churchill retired as prime minister. In another four Elvis Presley will release Heartbreak Hotel, his first worldwide hit. Food rationing is over. Frozen fish fingers, courtesy of Clarence Birdseye, have just arrived.

Change is also in the air at the Manchester Guardian. On 8 September a young chess master from Croydon, Leonard Barden, writes his first column. His subject is a Russian teenager, Boris Spassky, whose games, Barden notes, “all show the controlled aggression characteristic of a great master”.

Exclusive: Elbit Systems UK site in Bristol was subject of protest days before direct action group was proscribed

An Israeli arms manufacturer’s facility in Bristol which was repeatedly targeted by Palestine Action appears to have closed unexpectedly.

The Elbit Systems UK site in the Aztec West business park was the subject of dozens of protests by Palestine Action, including on 1 July, days before the direct action group was banned under the Terrorism Act.

Carlo Acutis, who died in 2006 and built websites to spread Catholic message, to become first millennial saint

In a see-through safe carved into a wall behind the altar of a chapel in northern Rome lies a collection of relics of Carlo Acutis. These include a splinter from his wooden bed, a fragment of a jumper and a piece of the sheet used to cover him after his death. Locks of his hair are on display in other churches in the Italian capital and beyond.

Acutis, the London-born Italian who on Sunday will become the Catholic church’s first millennial saint, built websites to spread Catholic teaching, earning him the nickname “God’s Influencer” after his death, aged 15, from leukaemia.

Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, known as the ‘Iron Lady of the Pacific’, likely to be replaced by leader of opposition Fast party

Samoa’s first female leader, Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, has failed to win a majority in the Pacific nation’s elections this week, capping months of political infighting.

Official results published by the electoral commission on Friday showed the opposition Fast party won 30 out of the 50 contested seats in parliament.

Beaches from Manly to Narrabeen closed after death of 57-year-old who leaves behind wife and child

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A man has died near Dee Why on Sydney’s northern beaches after being bitten by what is believed to be a large shark, in what police have called “a great tragedy”.

Shortly after 10am on Saturday, New South Wales emergency services were called to Long Reef beach following reports a man had suffered critical injuries.

• Spaniard aiming for third title in New York

• Trump to attend first Open match since 2015

Carlos Alcaraz said Donald Trump’s presence at the US Open final will be “great for tennis” as the US president prepares to attend his first match at Flushing Meadows in a decade.

The 22-year-old Spaniard reached Sunday’s final by beating Novak Djokovic in straight sets on Friday afternoon at Arthur Ashe Stadium. He will face defending champion Jannik Sinner for a sixth grand slam title and a third in New York.

Toronto film festival: The rising star makes for a convincing boxer inside the ring in David Michôd’s by-the-numbers drama but flounders when outside

Even before Sydney Sweeney became better known for being in the centre of an increasingly absurd culture war, the unavoidable campaign to make her Hollywood’s Next Big Thing was showing signs of fatigue. The Euphoria grad, who gave a resonant performance in Reality, scored a sleeper hit with glossed up romcom Anyone But You but audiences were more impressed than critics, including myself (I found her performance strangely stilted). There was little interest from either side in her nun horror Immaculate, and earlier this summer her incredulously plotted Apple movie Echo Valley went the way of many Apple movies (no one knows it exists).

Post-thinkpieces, two of her festival duds (Eden and Americana) disappeared at the box office and she now arrives at Toronto in need of a win. And what better way to achieve that by going for an old-fashioned awards play, taking on the role of alternately inspiring and tragic boxer Christy Martin. It’s a role that’s already been buzzed about for months (Sweeney has been busy laying the standard “gruelling physical routine” groundwork) and at a time when movies about female sport stars still remain thin on the ground despite a swell of interest in them off screen, it’s a needed push in the right direction. But, as perfectly timed as this narrative might be, Christy just isn’t nearly good enough, a by-the-numbers slog that fails to prove Sweeney’s status as a one to watch.

Christy is screening at the Toronto film festival and will be released later this year

(BMG)
Great 10th albums are rare – but that is exactly what the band’s killer riffs, eerie atmosphere and midlife reflections achieve

Suede’s fifth album since their 2013 reformation continues their creative resurgence. Singer Brett Anderson suggests that if 2022’s Autofiction – their best post-reunion album until now – was their punk album, Antidepressants is its post-punk sibling. Influences such as Magazine, Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees feed into edgier but otherwise trademark Suede guitar anthems. Helmed again by longtime producer Ed Buller, Richard Oakes’s killer riffs maraud and jostle, Anderson’s moods run the gamut from impassioned to reflective and the rhythm section brew up a right old stomp.

The 57-year-old singer has spoken about his keenness to not be seen as a heritage act and to attract younger audiences. Antidepressants is no throwback. It’s thoroughly postmodern. The eerie background noises and sonic atmospheres chime perfectly with Anderson’s lyrics about what he calls “tensions of modern life, the paranoia, the anxiety, the neurosis” as the band extol the virtues of connection in a dislocated world.

• Sinner wins 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 over Auger-Aliassime

• Alcaraz too strong as he beats Djokovic | Email Bryan

First set: Sinner 4-1 Auger-Aliassime* (*denotes next server)

Auger-Aliassime is playing quite well tonight but Sinner is just too good in the extended rallies. The Italian gets the better of him in a 19-shot exchange to open the fifth game, before Auger-Aliassime takes a couple of points for 15-30. Might it be a chance for the Canadian? Sinner responds with a commanding 125mph service winner down the middle, then another off a short rally for 40-30. He then mixes in his first double fault of the night for deuce. (Notably, his first-serve percentage is below 50% in these early stages.) Sinner gets to game point when Auger-Aliassime nets a backhand, but Auger-Aliassime outlasts the Italian in a 12-stroke rally for deuce. Auger-Aliassime is able to force a third deuce point, but Sinner fights him off from there with a couple of quick points, including his third ace, to pocket the hold and maintain his break advantage.

Anutin Charnvirakul’s hobbies, which include playing saxophone, flying planes and cooking, show a relaxed and casual yet shrewd politician

The man who will become Thailand’s next prime minister after securing the backing of the majority of lawmakers in parliament on Friday is a staunch royalist and conservative with an eclectic mix of passions and hobbies.

Among other things, Anutin Charnvirakul, 58, is an advocate for cannabis legalisation, a pilot who has used his private jets to deliver organs to transplant patients, a saxophonist and street food enthusiast.

Toronto film festival: adapted by Max Porter from his novella Shy and co-starring Little Simz, Emily Watson and Tracey Ullman this brutal but ultimately hopeful story is fiercely affecting

Producer-star Cillian Murphy and director Tim Mielants last collaborated on a superlative adaptation of Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These, and their new project together could hardly be more different: a drama suffused with gonzo energy and the death-metal chaos of emotional pain, cut with slashes of bizarre black humour. Max Porter has adapted his own 2023 novella Shy for the screen and Murphy himself gives one of his most uninhibited and demonstrative performances.

Murphy is Steve, a stressed, troubled but passionately committed headteacher with a secret alcohol and substance abuse problem, in charge of a residential reform school for delinquent teenage boys some time in the mid-90s. With his staff – deputy (Tracey Ullman), therapist-counsellor (Emily Watson) and a new teacher (Little Simz) – he has to somehow keep order in the permanent bedlam of fights and maybe even teach them something.

Toronto film festival: the actor is a reliably committed presence in this gentle Alan Bennett-scripted first world war tale which might have worked better on stage

There are simple Sunday afternoon pleasures to be had in the gentle comedy drama The Choral, the latest collaboration for Nicholas Hytner and Alan Bennett. Their last was 2015’s The Lady in the Van, a slight, mostly unmemorable film blessed by a spiky Maggie Smith performance but cursed with an uneven tone. Unlike that, and their previous two works together on screen, this wasn’t based on a play but it often feels like it and, at too many points, that it also maybe should have been one instead. There are moments of creaky comedy and some bluntly emotional dialogue that one can more easily picture in front of a specifically catered-to live audience.

On a big screen, The Choral is a little out of place, its only moments of pure cinema courtesy of the spectacular Yorkshire scenery. Well, that and those when star Ralph Fiennes fully takes command, an actor who adds not just weight and class but also one who gives a more studied and delicate performance than many of those around him. The star is having a bit of a moment after both Conclave and 28 Years Later and while this project is in a far lower register, and far less likely to be meme-friendly, it’s further proof of his remarkable flexibility. He plays Dr Guthrie, a choir master hired by desperate locals in 1916, a time of loss and confusion, with many already dead or missing and many others waiting to be conscripted. It’s meddled with the social order and allowed for some to find space they might not have otherwise occupied, shown in the new makeup of the choir, which Guthrie must craft and control.