Film about five-year-old girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza leave much of audience and many journalists sobbing

A gut-wrenching new film about a five-year-old girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza last year received a 23-minute standing ovation after its premiere at the Venice film festival on Wednesday.

The Voice of Hind Rajab, directed by Tunisian film-maker Kaouther Ben Hania, had been described by critics as ‘‘the most powerful and urgent entry of this year’s festival”. It left much of the audience and many journalists sobbing as it was screened for the first time.

President laments accident on railway that carries passengers up and down a hillside in Portuguese capital

At least 15 people have been killed after Lisbon’s Gloria funicular railway car derailed and crashed, an emergency medical service spokesman has said.

Authorities would not identify the victims or disclose their nationalities, but said some foreign nationals were among the dead. At least 18 people were also injured.

• Kulusevski, Dragusin and Bissouma also omitted

• Uefa rules force Spurs to cut six non-homegrown players

Thomas Frank has left Mathys Tel out of his Tottenham squad for the league phase of the Champions League while he has been unable to find room in it for Dejan Kulusevski and Radu Dragusin – even though they could return from long-term injuries while there are still ties to play.

Frank has been in an impossible position because of how the profile of his players has jarred with Uefa’s regulations. Put simply, the head coach has too few homegrown squad members and too many who have come from elsewhere. He was always going to have to exclude six players from his 25-man “A” list.

Co-author says bill almost has signatures needed to bypass leadership as survivor says this legislation ‘really matters’

• US politics live – latest updates

Several survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse signaled their support on Wednesday for a bipartisan resolution to release all the files related to the convicted sex offender, who died in a Manhattan prison in 2019.

Speaking outside the US Capitol, Anouska De Georgiou, a survivor of both Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, said that while “every day of this journey toward healing has come at a profound cost to my mental health”, she had chosen to be there because this legislation “really matters”.

Fifth circuit says Alien Enemies Act can not justify removal of Venezuelans accused of gang ties in peacetime

A court ruling that blocked Donald Trump from invoking the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans he alleged were part of a criminal gang has been hailed as “a victory for the rule of law”.

In a 2-1 decision on Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the fifth US circuit court of appeals issued a preliminary injunction that prevents the Trump administration using the 1798 law to justify rapid deportations.

Antitrust lawsuit accuses the Murdoch-owned outlet of stifling competition in the rightwing TV news market

Newsmax, the conservative cable network run by Christopher Ruddy, has filed a lawsuit against Fox News, accusing the Rupert Murdoch-owned outlet of stifling competition in the rightwing television news market.

The antitrust lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in the US district court for the southern district of Florida, names both Fox News Network and its parent company, Fox Corp. It claims the broadcaster carried out “an exclusionary scheme to increase and maintain its dominance in the market for US right-leaning pay TV news”.

Study finds scrollers are more prone to piles than those who go to the lavatory without phones

People who take a mobile phone to the loo should keep to a two TikTok limit, according to doctors who found that toilet scrollers are more prone to haemorrhoids than phoneless lavatory-goers.

Those who sit on the throne with a phone spend far more time on the toilet than others, with longer stints linked to a greater risk of developing the bulging anal veins known as haemorrhoids or piles.

• 314-page judgment damning about lack of expert witness

• FA appeared ‘not certain what case it was presenting’

The Football Association has been strongly criticised by the regulatory commission that cleared Lucas Paquetá of spot-fixing charges over its failure to provide an independent assessment of the betting data on the West Ham player receiving yellow cards.

A 314-page report by the commission that heard Paquetá’s case was published on Wednesday and makes damning reading for the FA, with its evidence criticised for containing “an obvious flaw, namely the lack of an independent assessment of the data”.

Democrats accuse Reform leader of being a ‘Trump sycophant’ as he missed prime minister’s questions to give evidence before House committee

Nigel Farage has been accused of being a “Putin-loving free speech impostor” whose main motivation is ingratiating himself with Donald Trump and tech companies, during a sometimes difficult appearance before a US congressional hearing on censorship.

The Reform UK leader, who missed prime minister’s questions to appear as a witness before the House judiciary committee, was invited by its Republican leadership, who quizzed him about what Farage called the “awful authoritarian” situation for free speech in the UK.

Liz Truss fell not for borrowing, but for incompetence. Rachel Reeves mustn’t repeat the mistake with rules markets don’t demand

In 1995, Nick Leeson, a 28-year-old trader for Barings Bank, brought down the City’s oldest finance house by, among other things, betting that the Bank of Japan (BoJ) couldn’t keep rates low forever after its financial crash led to a borrowing spree. The devastating Kobe earthquake was the final blow. The BoJ cut rates, bond prices rose and his losses spiralled to $1.4bn. His bet that markets would beat Japan brought down the bank.

Barings’ collapse is perhaps a spectacular example of the “widowmaker” trade, where speculators think they can outsmart Japanese authorities. They’ve ended up with egg on their face as their gamble on Japan losing fiscal control proved misguided. Japan, with its own currency and a central bank working with the government, shows how the state shapes markets, not the other way round.

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On display in Beijing were nuclear weapons launched by air, sea and land, laser weapons and four-legged drones

It was hardly a subtle attempt to project power. China showed off air-, sea- and land-launched nuclear weapons in its parade on Wednesday, a triad intended to demonstrate that Beijing’s long-term aspiration is to match US military might.

Also on display were large underwater torpedo-like drones, intended to threaten western warships, as well as anti-drone lasers and four-legged “robot wolves”, all designed to be noticed, regardless of their actual military effectiveness.

• Europe’s players should learn from tennis star’s reactions

• ‘All we can do is control our reaction and our emotions’

Rory McIlroy believes Europe’s Ryder Cup team should follow the grand slam record title-holder Novak Djokovic’s example when it comes to dealing with American hostility in New York this month.

Djokovic, a keen golfer himself, delivered a pep talk to the team before their resounding victory in Rome two years ago, and last week McIlroy was pictured courtside watching the Serb at the US Open just hours after the Northern Irishman finished the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

Live footage of private conversation between Russian president and Chinese leader aired at Beijing military parade

The authoritarian strongmen Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have mused on how organ transplants might lead to immortality, during a brief exchange of small talk caught on a hot mic at a military parade.

The Russian president was in Beijing on Wednesday with the Chinese leader, who hosted allies for a ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war.

Jasveen Sangha changed her previous not guilty plea in the October 2023 overdose death of the Friends star

A woman who has come to be known as the “Ketamine Queen” pleaded guilty on Wednesday to selling Matthew Perry the drug that killed him.

Jasveen Sangha changed her previous not guilty plea at a federal court in Los Angeles and became the fifth and final defendant charged in the overdose death of the Friends star to plead guilty after a deal with prosecutors.

Those who have asylum claims rejected and do not leave within 14 days will face prison terms of two to five years

Greece has passed draconian legislation that could mean rejected asylum seekers receiving prison terms, fines and orders to wear ankle tags, in a move that reflects the centre-right government’s continued attempts to deter undocumented migrants from arriving on its soil.

The tough penalties usher in an unprecedented era of zero tolerance for people who remain in the country if their asylum claims are denied. As a frontier state, long viewed as a gateway to Europe, Greece has had a surge in migrant arrivals this year.

In an exclusive interview, the Manchester City striker talks about the horrific racist abuse she suffered last season, playing with Viv Miedema and her hopes for 2025-26

“It’s difficult,” says Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw. “Sometimes you have to take a step back and think about you and your mental health because if you’re not in a good place you won’t be able to perform. I wasn’t in a good place. It was about more than what happened in that match. There’s a lot that people didn’t and don’t know about.”

Shaw is speaking for the first time about her decision to withdraw from Manchester City’s League Cup semi-final against Arsenal in February, four days after she had suffered horrific racist abuse following a 4-3 loss against the same side in the Women’s Super League. Manchester City said they were “appalled” and reported the matter to the police.

Byron Waller, accompanied by instructor but doing all the flying, stops off in England on way round back to Australia

At 15 years and 10 months of age, Byron Waller can’t order a pint and has never driven a car, but on Wednesday afternoon he landed his small plane at an airport in Brighton, on England’s south coast. It was the 16th or so stop (he can’t quite remember) of a remarkable airborne odyssey that he hopes will make him the youngest supported pilot to fly around the world.

The adventure began at his home in Brisbane, Australia, four weeks ago and has taken the teenager across the Indian Ocean and through the Middle East to Europe, from where he will venture around the other half of the globe back home. Though he is accompanied by an instructor – global aviation rules not easily permitting children to fly around the world on their own – Byron does all the flying of their tiny single-engined Sling TSi aircraft.

Letter by senior Democrats asks state department to reveal details behind financing of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

Senior Democratic senators have called on the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, to reveal details behind the financing and oversight of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) amid concerns over rising death tolls near aid sites, the group’s apparent coordination with the Israeli army and its reported use of private military contractors linked to intelligence operations.

The letter, co-signed by senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen and Peter Welch, accuses the state department of an “inability to answer basic questions about GHF in a timely manner” and said that the department’s “overriding of internal protocol and staff warnings is particularly concerning given it is unlikely to be able to conduct basic oversight of the funds it provided to GHF”.

The franchise exits stage right with this final go around, in which our middle-aged exorcists take their time getting to the jump-cuts

The first Conjuring, released in 2013, was a profitable hangover from the previous decade’s Omen, Amityville and Exorcist retreads, goosing 21st-century audiences with things-going-bump-in-the-night tricks copped from comparable 1970s theatrical and TV movies. Yet despite sequels that went big (2016’s The Conjuring 2, converting the Enfield poltergeist saga into a 4DX-ready theme-park ride) and then sideways (2021’s true crime-adjacent The Devil Made Me Do It), the series’ underlying mechanics have proved stubbornly resistant to change. The current multifaceted horror renaissance makes this an apt moment for the franchise to exit stage right; facing these upstart punks, the generally sluggish Last Rites presents as something akin to dad-rock horror, doing with jump-scares what Status Quo used to do with power chords.

One selling point – that these films are character- rather than carnage-driven – now seems to be a liability. After a nicely cast prologue describing their days as young parents, Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) are reintroduced in 1986, when the film positions these middle-aged squares as yesterday’s exorcists, heckled by students who would rather talk Ghostbusters, in the way today’s cinemagoers will emerge discussing Weapons or Sinners. They head for a Pennsylvanian household whose antique mirror doubles as a portal to hell, but ithere are 75 minutes of beigey soap before the usual satanic hokey-cokey kicks off, forcing us to consider the threat Armageddon poses to the forthcoming nuptials of the Warrens’ daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson).

US military buildup and attack on alleged narco boat spark fears of protracted guerrilla war in South America

• Trump’s Venezuela gunboat diplomacy: sabre-rattling or prelude to invasion?

The White House’s former top Latin America official has said he fears the US could stumble into a protracted guerrilla war in Venezuela after Donald Trump ordered a military strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing 11 alleged drug traffickers.

Tuesday’s controversial strike off the Venezuelan coast – which was reportedly carried out by an attack helicopter or Reaper drone – came after the US president ordered a major naval deployment to the region, ostensibly to combat South American drug traffickers.

A new survey finds less than half of British people now carry a wallet – even though 80% own one

Name: The wallet.

Age: The word originates from the late 14th century, meaning something like knapsack. That’s how Shakespeare uses it in Troilus and Cressida, when Ulysses says: “Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back.”

• Dynamic pricing has drawn complaints in other areas

• Start of sales process for tournament will begin next week

Fifa has confirmed that it will employ dynamic pricing for tickets to the 2026 World Cup from the beginning of the sales process, which starts next week. The system was also used for this year’s Club World Cup and, in the UK, drew widespread complaints from fans buying tickets for Oasis’s comeback tour.

The use of dynamic pricing was one of a few new details Fifa officials discussed around ticketing for the World Cup one week before sales open, including the first collection of prices. The cheapest tickets will start at $60 (£44), with the most expensive, for a prime spot at the final, starting at $6,730 (£5,760). Fifa did not provide any price points in between those two.

Éric Lombard says he hopes François Bayrou will survive vote and dismisses talk of looming debt crisis

The French finance minister, Éric Lombard, has said the government would have to compromise on plans to cut the budget deficit if the prime minister, François Bayrou, is toppled in a confidence vote next week.

Lombard told the Financial Times that fresh negotiations would require the government to make concessions to the left to reduce the size of the fiscal package if the government falls.

• Allegation emerge that team circumvented salary cap

• Clippers and owner say claims are ‘provably false’

The Los Angeles Clippers and their owner, Steve Ballmer, have denied allegations the team’s star forward, Kawhi Leonard, was paid $28m for a job that doesn’t exist.

Journalist Pablo Torre laid out the allegations in his podcast on Wednesday. Torre, citing legal documents, claims Ballmer employed Leonard for a non-existent role in one of his companies to circumvent the NBA salary cap, which punishes teams for spending too much on player salaries.