Susan Monarez was director of the Centers for Disease Control before she was fired in August
Donald Trump has claimed his administration has reached a deal with China to keep TikTok operating in the US, amid uncertainty over what shape the final agreement will take, with suggestions from the Chinese side that Beijing would retain control of the algorithm that powers the site’s video feed.
“We have a deal on TikTok ... We have a group of very big companies that want to buy it,” Trump said on Tuesday, without providing further details.
Fahad Ansari launches legal action against UK home secretary after his phone is seized at Holyhead port
A lawyer who filed Hamas’s challenge to proscription claims he was unlawfully detained under the Terrorism Act, with his phone containing legally privileged information examined because of his client.
Fahad Ansari, who issued legal proceedings on Wednesday against the home secretary and the chief constable of north Wales police, was stopped by officers at the port of Holyhead on 6 August as he returned from a family holiday in Ireland with his wife and four children.
‘When I stopped to let him out, he was looking down. I didn’t know what he was doing. Turned out he was writing a poem about me. I still have it’
I drove a cab in New York for three decades. Riding around, I would meet poets, drag queens and other people who were inspiring. It made me feel good. I started taking their portraits, sometimes with me in the picture. I had several cameras and would often have my strobe hooked on to my visor with a rubber band.
This particular evening, in 1990, I had been informed by a friend that there was a book event going on so I went to take a look. It was jam-packed inside. I spotted Allen Ginsberg, so I went over and talked to him a little. He was pretty intense, kind of stressed, so I had to lay back a little but I asked him if he could write an introduction to my book In My Taxi. But he had too much going on.
Italian preparing to face Napoli, whom his mother supports
De Bruyne, McTominay and Højlund could face City
Gianluigi Donnarumma has said he believes Pep Guardiola will help improve his ball-playing skills and that Manchester City were interested in signing him before the summer.
Donnarumma joined from Paris Saint-Germain for about £30m (€35m) on transfer deadline day. The move caused surprise because of the view that the 26-year-old is not as accomplished with his feet as Ederson, who left for Fenerbahce, or James Trafford, the £27m signing from Burnley in July.
From famous Street Fighter lines to quips from 90s classics, these are the quotes we hear again and again – and even incorporate into our own lives
Some snippets of video game dialogue, like classic movie quotes, are immediately recognisable to a swathe of fans. From Street Fighter’s “hadouken!” to Call of Duty’s “remember, no Russian” to BioShock’s “would you kindly?”, there are phrases so creepy, clever or cool they have slipped imperceptibly into the gaming lexicon, ensuring that whenever they’re memed on social media, almost everyone gets the reference.
But there are also odd little phrases, sometimes from obscure games, that stick with us for seemingly no reason. I recall most of the vocal barks from the second world war strategy game Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines, even though I haven’t played it for 20 years. Why is it that I’ll lose my headphones, wallet and phone on a daily basis, but I have absolute recall when it comes to the utterances of burly soldier Samuel Brooklyn? Why am I doomed to “Finally, some action”, “Consider it done, boss” and the immortal “okey dokey” echoing through my head? What is wrong with me?
34-year-old also won Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021
Sandi Morris wins silver at worlds for fourth time
USA’s Katie Moon leapt to gold in Tokyo on Wednesday in a thrilling final to become the first woman to win three successive pole vault titles at the World Athletics Championships.
Moon has fond memories of Japan – she won gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. This time she edged out compatriot Sandi Morris with a final successful leap at a season’s best 4.90m.
Attorney general during Trump’s first term made comments to House oversight committee, transcript shows
The former US attorney general William Barr has repeated his finding that Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 death in prison was “undoubtedly suicide” to a panel of lawmakers looking into the disgraced financier’s crimes and connections.
Barr, the top prosecutor in Donald Trump’s first term when the justice department brought sex trafficking charges against Epstein, made the comments to the House oversight committee late Monday, according to an interview transcript.
Silver medal for GB but injured Josh Kerr finishes last
Just 0.02sec second separates first from second
We have seen some extraordinary men’s 1500m finals in recent years. Put Tokyo down as another stone-cold classic. Most expected a shootout between Britain’s Josh Kerr and the young Dutch superstar Niels Laros. Instead the Portuguese Isaac Nader swooped from the gods and ripped up the script.
For much of the final 200m it looked as though Britain’s Jake Wightman was about to repeat his gold medal victory in Eugene in 2022. That would have been some story, given he has missed much of the past three years since because of a succession of injuries, starting with a fractured foot while doing plyometrics.
The UN commission of inquiry’s report makes it almost impossible for Israel – and its allies – to maintain the narrative that criticism of it is part of an antisemitic plot
The conclusion of a UN commission of inquiry that Israel has committed genocide in the war in Gaza, and that its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other Israeli leaders are responsible for inciting that genocide, changes little in legal terms. The international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague has yet to issue its final ruling in the genocide case that South Africa brought against Israel last year.
Politically, however, this latest report (officially a “conference room paper”, intended to aid discussion of the themes) may prove to be one of the final nails in the coffin of the shameless but still-continuing narrative from Netanyahu and his allies that any talk of Israeli crimes is part of an antisemitic plot – or, to use Netanyahu’s favourite phrase, “a blood libel”.
British No 1 beats Jaqueline Cristian 6-3, 6-4 amid delays
Captain Keothavong called withdrawal ‘disappointing’
Emma Raducanu overcame the frustration of lengthy weather-related delays to beat Jaqueline Cristian in the opening round of the Korea Open.
The contest had been scheduled for Tuesday but was postponed because of rain, and more wet weather then caused another substantial delay on Wednesday. But Raducanu and Cristian were finally able to take to the court and it was the British No 1 who came out on top 6-3, 6-4 after a tussle lasting two hours and two minutes.
Jensen Huang says UK is ‘too humble’ as he announces equity stake in British cloud computing firm NScale
Jensen Huang, the co-founder and chief executive of the US AI chipmaker Nvidia, has predicted “the UK is going to be an AI superpower” as he announced a new £500m investment in a British firm.
Huang, who is due to join Donald Trump at Wednesday night’s state banquet with the king, said he was taking an equity stake in NScale, a UK cloud computing company, and predicted it would earn revenues of up to £50bn over the next six years.
Study shines light on growing numbers of vulnerable people being placed in solitary confinement in migrant jails
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) put more than 10,500 people in solitary confinement between April 2024 and May 2025, and use of the practice has quickly increased under Donald Trump’s administration, according to new research.
A report from Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), the Peeler Immigration Lab, and Harvard Law School experts, published on Wednesday, sheds light on what’s happening inside US immigrant detention facilities and how increasing numbers of vulnerable people are being subjected to solitary confinement for longer periods of time.
Thousands of dodos could return within a decade according to Colossal Biosciences, a ‘de-extinction’ company – but experts warn of ‘moral hazard’
Since its demise in the 17th century, the dodo has long been synonymous with extinction. But thousands of dodos could soon again populate Mauritius, the species’ former home, according to a “de-extinction” company that has announced a major breakthrough in its quest to resurrect the flightless bird.
Colossal Biosciences said on Wednesday it has succeeded in growing pigeon primordial germ cells, precursor cells to sperm and eggs, for the first time. This is a “pivotal step” in bringing back the dodo, which was a type of pigeon, for the first time in more than 300 years, according to Colossal.
This is a powerful month for fashion, and an ideal time to try a waistcoat, wider trousers, a shorter skirt or a splash of saturated colour
‘Every day is all there is”, as Joan Didion put it, rather elegantly. The words are so smoothly balanced you can turn them over in your mind like a pebble, and the phrase popped into my head the other day when I was thinking about why September is such a powerful month for fashion. September, the saying goes, is January for fashion people. This is sunrise for new trends, high noon for shopping, peak season for glossy magazines packed with breathless style instruction. It is the point in the calendar when an update of what you wear suddenly feels urgent.
This seems, on the surface, like odd timing. After all, once you get to be an adult, nothing much happens in September. It’s not much of a season for parties, or for family holidays. Just the muscle memory of school days makes this the moment to lock back into the routine, the nine-to-five, the tea-bath-bed. But that’s the point. September is all about the everyday.
Israeli troops have been trying to force more people out of their Gaza City homes as part of a ground offensive that is destroying large parts of Gaza’s biggest urban centre.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Wednesday they had carried out 150 air and artillery strikes before the ground operation that began early on Tuesday morning. Two army divisions are working their way slowly towards the city centre and are expected to be joined by a third in the coming days.
CEO praises performance ‘during such a challenging year’
£36.6m exceptional items include paying off Erik ten Hag
Manchester United have revealed record revenues of £666.5m for last season but still reported a loss of £33m for the financial year. The club were without Champions League football in 2024-25 and finished 15th in the Premier League but their revenue marginally increased by 0.7%.
Accounts for the year ending 30 June 2025 show United’s operating loss fell from £69.3m to £18.4m compared with the previous 12 months. Overall losses dropped from £113.2m to £33m after the co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe oversaw wide-ranging, and often unpopular, changes at a club he claimed in March had “gone one off the rails” as a business. The British billionaire warned United would have gone “bust at Christmas” if they had not taken “really tough decisions”.
The electroacoustic pioneer scored dozens of pictures – and communist propaganda. Too successful to be persecuted by the politburo but largely forgotten when he died, his music is being revived by a new archival series
Zdeněk Liška became one of the eastern bloc’s pioneers of electroacoustic music by accident. After breaking through making music for ads and animations, the revolutionary film-makers of the 1960s Czechoslovak new wave asked him to soundtrack their movies, which he took as his greatest inspirations. With the help of radio engineering enthusiasts at Czechoslovakia’s film powerhouse, Barrandov Studios, he could imitate the whoosh of a spaceship or birds chirping. He composed underwater electroacoustic symphonies and music to be played on typewriters. Despite his innovations, he famously proclaimed: “I only write music under the pictures.”
Liška was as productive as he was innovative: from the late 1950s to the late 1970s, he would score eight feature films a year, as well as numerous shorts and TV series. He could go camp or avant garde, channel Disney-like beauty and loved a waltz. His peers recall him composing on the night train or sketching the next cue while the orchestra was still recording the last one. Czechs from across the generations can whistle some of his melodies, such as the carnival-style theme from crime series The Sinful People of Prague.
Determined to get a good spot on Whitehall, the woman from Liverpool had woken her nieces at 3am to travel to London. Her dedication paid off. By the time the march reached her on Saturday afternoon, she was sitting on a wall outside Downing Street, the little girls in camping chairs at her feet, engrossed in their iPads.
She had unfurled two banners. One said “Keir Starmer is a wanker” and the other read: “We’re not far right, we are England’s mothers and we will not stay silent. Stop the rape of our children, mothers across Britain are taking a stand.”
Helen Pidd is a presenter of Today in Focus, the Guardian’s award-winning daily podcast
Donald Henson allegedly drove at high speed toward main entrance gate of Pittsburgh field office
A search is under way for a man with a history of mental health issues who allegedly rammed his car into a metal gate at an FBI field office in Pittsburgh early Wednesday in what the agency said it is treating as “an act of terror against the FBI”.
Donald Henson, of Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, allegedly drove at high speed toward the main entrance gate at about 2.40am, said the FBI special agent in charge of the investigation, Christopher Giordano.
1st over: Ireland 7-0 (Stirling 5, Adair 1) Luke Wood takes a couple of deliveries to get going. His first ball is a wide; his first legal delivery is larruped to the cover boundary by Stirling.
The rest of the over is better. An inswinging yorker is well defended by Stirling, who then inside edges past the stumps.
Chronology of Axel Rudakubana’s engagement with Camhs published and inquiry hears statement from killer’s brother
Axel Rudakubana was discharged from mental health services six days before he murdered three young girls and stabbed several others at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in Southport, it has emerged.
The inquiry into the atrocity was told on Wednesday that a risk assessment was undertaken on Rudakubana, then 17, a week before the attack in July last year. Its findings have not been disclosed.
I met Bob in 1984 after he finished Out of Africa through a mutual friend in Malibu, and subsequently began to work for him and became friends. At that time he was establishing Sundance and distancing himself from Hollywood. He was a dolphin among sharks. He was the most kind and wise person one could ever know in this life. Lex, Joshua Tree, CA
Royal Academy, London Kidnappings, enslavement, cops and squad cars, golfers, picnics, croquet-players, interstellar travellers … the US artist’s largest ever European show takes in an extraordinary range of experience in a breathtaking show
Biting, funny, astonishing, difficult, surprising, erudite and hugely ambitious, Kerry James Marshall’s The Histories is the largest show of the black American’s work ever held in Europe. Its effects are cumulative. The Histories charts the 69-year-old painter’s intellectual as well as practical development, his themes, his switches of media and of focus and attention. Everything is here for a reason.
How engaging Marshall’s art is, from the first. He takes us from the bar to the bedroom, to the Middle Passage, from the studio to the academy, from the beauty parlour to the dancehall. He paints scenes of kidnappings and of enslavement in Africa and of a black cop sitting on the hood of his squad car – I love the jagged stylised flare of the streetlights in the background. Marshall knows that everything is contended and complex and that there are no innocent images. Pustules of paint, like litter between the blocks, decorate the spaces between the housing projects, like flowers blooming in a riot. On an idyllic day in the park, black folks picnic, practise a golf swing, play croquet, water-ski on the lake and listen to the Temptations, the lyrics floating up like ticker tape from radios on a sunny afternoon. It is an absurd, impossible image. The humour in Marshall’s art is not to be underestimated. In a series devoted to the Middle Passage a Baptist flounders. There are water slides and swimming pools, ocean liners and toy boats and a woman about to dive from a board. The water is filled with drowned maps of Africa and carefully rendered fish, and there’s an exhortation to plunge.