DHS says it will target ‘criminal illegal aliens roaming free thanks to sanctuary policies’ as it announces action in latest Democratic-run city

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it had started its immigration enforcement operation in New Orleans today.

In a statement, the department said Operation Catahoula Crunch would target “criminal illegal aliens roaming free thanks to sanctuary policies”. New Orleans is the latest Democratic-run city (albeit in a Republican-led state) to see federal immigration agents on its streets. Most recently, the Trump administration targeted Charlotte, North Carolina, and touted the arrest of more than 300 undocumented immigrants.

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

As the Grand Theft Auto co-writer launches a new project, he reflects on his hugely successful open-world adventures and where game design might go next

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It is hard to think of a more modern entertainment format than the open-world video game. These sprawling technological endeavours, which mix narrative, social connectivity and the complete freedom to explore, are uniquely immersive and potentially endless. But do they represent a whole new idea of storytelling?

This week I met Dan Houser, the co-founder of Rockstar and lead writer on Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, who has been in London to talk about his new company, Absurd Ventures. He’s working on a range of intriguing projects, including the novel and podcast series A Better Paradise (about a vast online game that goes tragically wrong), and a comedy-adventure set in an online world named Absurdaverse. He told me that, 15 years ago, he was doing press interviews for the Grand Theft Auto IV expansion packs when he had something of a revelation about the series.

‘When I saw him leaning back on the floor, I said, “Donato, please don’t move!” Then I jumped on a ladder and shot him from above’

This image is part of a series commissioned by the Italian Paralympic Committee. They asked me to photograph the country’s leading athletes before the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. I probably covered 30 different people over three days – I’m a quick shooter. I started out photographing on film, which is still my preferred medium. Even when I’m shooting digitally, I’m very selective and take care with every click.

On a logistical level, it was much easier for me to work in a studio, though that was something I don’t usually choose to do. I’m more of an outside photographer: I like to go on location or shoot people in a park.

Starry cast, including Felicity Jones and Chloë Grace Moretz, can’t save misfiring cross between Home Alone and The Family Stone

If you’ve already over-indulged in Netflix’s brand of cheap and, overwhelmingly, cheerless Christmas movies this season, then Amazon has something a little meatier to add to your plate. Like Netflix, it also has more than enough tinnily made Hallmark ripoffs (step forward, Tyler Perry’s Finding Joy), but it’s also aiming a little higher with Oh. What. Fun. It’s a more robustly made attempt to recall something we used to see on the big rather than small screen with a cast to match, a starry cross between Home Alone and The Family Stone with an all-new soundtrack from some unusually upper-tier artists.

Given the low budget and even lower ambition of the genre, it’s easy to be blinded by the names attached. The film is directed by Michael Showalter, the trusted hand behind films like The Big Sick, Wet Hot American Summer and The Idea of You! It stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Felicity Jones, Jason Schwartzman, Danielle Brooks and Chloë Grace Moretz! There are new songs from Fleet Foxes, Gwen Stefani and Sharon Van Etten, among others! Enough experience might have shown us that even the most talented people do not tend to make the greatest films, but there’s something about the sheer effort being poured into this one that feels notable as others have seemingly given up trying. Could actual fun be on the Christmas cards?

Gerry McGovern reportedly removed from role of chief creative officer after 20 years with business

The Jaguar Land Rover design boss behind the Range Rover and the polarising Jaguar relaunch has abruptly departed the business just four months after its new chief executive took charge.

Gerry McGovern left the role of chief creative officer on Monday after 20 years at the business in which he oversaw the design of some of the company’s most successful cars as well as the launch of a new-look, pink electric Jaguar that drew the ire of Donald Trump.

Moscow is demanding Kyiv accept its ‘annexation’ of areas it occupies. After the latest round of talks between envoys of Putin and Trump ended without progress, we look at the territory Russia is seeking to absorb

Sources: Center for Strategic and International Studies, Institute for the Study of War, Yale Humanitarian Research Lab Ukraine Conflict Observatory, OpenStreetMap. Picture credits: Invasion trucks – Gettty; Sevastopol – Reuters; Yalta – Dennis Cox / Alamy; Donetsk steelworks – Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters.

Signs are encouraging for an improving squad to invoke the glory of 2003 with rivals facing trickier routes in Australia

As the Ashes have reminded us, it never pays to get too excited in advance about winning in Australia. But once the draw for the 2027 men’s Rugby World Cup had concluded and the various knockout permutations had been crunched there was a strong whiff of deja vu in the Sydney air. A World Cup down under and a decent draw for England? What could possibly go wrong?

The organisers had already stoked the narrative nicely by wheeling out Jonny Wilkinson in the promotional tournament video, essentially a mashup of Mad Max and Wacky Races roaring across a dusty outback. When every Australian wakes up on Thursday to discover it is 666 days until the 2027 edition kicks off, the nagging fear of nightmarish history repeating itself will further intensify.

New York venues aren’t required to give out water – but nightlife workers say it could make the difference between a safe evening out and an ER visit

When Brooklyn metal band Contract performs around New York, they expect a mosh pit: thrashing bodies shoving and jumping along to the music. They also want to make sure the amped-up, usually drunk crowd stays hydrated. Without water, a mosher might feel sick, faint or pass out. “You don’t want anyone to get injured or hurt,” frontman Pele Uriel said.

Most of the spaces Uriel plays or visits have water stations where customers can easily fill up. But some do not. The worst offenders sell bottles of water at astronomical prices, from $5 to $10. “There have been times when I asked for water, but they charged a lot, so I went to the store next door to buy some,” Uriel said.

Renny Martyn revealed in archdiocese bankruptcy proceedings that priest abused her at school when she was six years old

A woman who Big Brother fans might recognize as a contestant on an earlier season of the unscripted television competition has spoken out as a victim of New Orleans’ decades-old Catholic clergy abuse scandal.

Renny Martyn, 71, told her story toward the end of a Tuesday hearing in the federal courthouse where the Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans has been in bankruptcy protection proceedings since 2020 amid the financial fallout of the scandal.

The Ashes pink-ball Test at the Gabba may once again leave many in the sport wondering of the format has a future

In October 2012 the International Cricket Council formally green-lit the idea of day-night Tests, offering a new, potentially lucrative spin on the oldest format. “This is all about new audiences and doing all we could to make the game more accessible at every level,” said the ECB’s then chief executive, Tom Harrison, when he announced England’s first pink-ball game a few years later. James Sutherland, Cricket Australia’s chief executive, welcomed the change from a status quo in which “Test cricket is played at times when most people are at work or school. We limit ourselves by staging cricket’s premium format at times when fans often cannot watch.”

But since the day that decision was made just 24 of 554 Tests have been day-night games. Outside Australia, their most enthusiastic adopters, there have only been 11, out of a possible 486. Instead of turning on a new demographic to the joys of Test cricket, the idea has been a turn-off: England have only staged one, in 2017; South Africa’s only attempt came a few months later; West Indies, Pakistan and New Zealand have held two each and India three. Meanwhile this week’s second Test at the Gabba will be Australia’s 14th.

Store employee found masked bandit sleeping off a bender after invading booze store and tippling a tad too much

A liquor store employee in Virginia was startled on Saturday to discover smashed whisky bottles on the floor of the shop and, upon entering the bathroom, an apparently drunk, sleeping and spread-eagled raccoon.

“He fell through one of the ceiling tiles and went on a full-blown rampage, drinking everything,” Samantha Martin, an local animal control officer, told the Daily Mail.

Tech companies including Apple and Google made it clear they would not comply due to privacy concerns

India’s government has backtracked on an order for all smartphones to be pre-installed with a state-owned security app after a mass outcry over privacy concerns and refusal by technology companies to comply.

The department of telecommunications confirmed it had revoked its previous order for all technology companies to mandatorily install the government’s Sanchar Saathi cybersecurity app on to every smartphone in India within 90 days.

David Heyman has joined the French media company StudioCanal with plans to bring one of the bestselling children’s book series of all time to the screen

The film-makers behind the successful Paddington series are to embark on a feature film adaptation of another British family favourite, the Mr Men and Little Miss series of illustrated children’s books.

David Heyman, whose Heyday Films produced Paddington and Paddington 2 as well as the Harry Potter series, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and White Noise, is to join with the UK arm of French media company StudioCanal to make the film.

As the publisher celebrates an important milestone, we chart its journey from an ‘expensive hobby’ to an international household name

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Hello and welcome to the Long Wave. This week, I had the huge pleasure of an audience with Peepal Tree Press, which has been home to authors such as Bernardine Evaristo and Roger Robinson. Peepal Tree publishes books from the Caribbean and its diaspora, and has just celebrated its 40th anniversary. I spoke to its founder, Jeremy Poynting, and fiction editor Jacob Ross, and what ensued was a masterclass not only in publishing, but in diasporic art.

Injunction was sought by civil liberties groups in lawsuit against Department of Homeland Security

A federal judge late on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from making widespread immigration arrests in the nation’s capital without warrants or probable cause that the person would be an imminent flight risk.

The US district judge Beryl Howell in Washington granted a preliminary injunction sought by civil liberties and immigrant rights groups in a lawsuit against the US Department of Homeland Security.

• Robbie Williams will also perform at Friday’s event

• Trump expected to receive Fifa’s new peace award

Robbie Williams, Andrea Bocelli and the Village People are to perform as part of a “world-class entertainment line-up” during Friday’s draw for the 2026 men’s football World Cup. The draw for next year’s tournament will take place at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, with model and TV personality Heidi Klum, comedian Kevin Hart and actor Danny Ramirez co-hosting the event.

The Village People will perform YMCA to cap off an event that promises have distinctly Trumpian overtones. The disco hit became a staple at Donald Trump’s campaign rallies and Mar-a-Lago fundraisers.

Chloe Kelly, Barbra Banda and Klara Bühl have made it between places 40 and 11 as we continue our countdown to the year’s best players

• Meet the judges | 2024 list | 2023 list | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

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The streamer’s annual charts are just another version of the tech that’s alienating us from our inner lives. Hold on to your musical memories and reclaim ownership of your taste

I like year-end list season. I like an opportunity to remember and reflect on the records that stuck with me over the course of a year – especially when there is a chance to recommend something that others may have overlooked. I like looking through friends’ favourites for albums that I missed completely, and making a big listening queue. I like following along as critics attempt to determine the year’s “best”, even when I end up yelling into a group chat about how wrong they all are. I like it because it all requires looking back, racking your brain and processing your year in listening. It requires thinking.

This year, as Spotify Wrapped takes over social media feeds again, I am struck by how the whole concept seems to discourage that critical practice for something more passive. It nudges listeners away from deep consideration and towards accepting a corporate-branded scorecard reflecting a very specific perspective on musical value. It encourages music fans to believe that the records they streamed the most must be the ones they liked the most, which is surely not always the case.

Women in Ireland and the UK linked to Free Birth Society among scores around world to have suffered loss or serious harm after births

• Full story: How the FBS is linked to baby deaths around the world

Over a weekend in late June 2024, Emilee Saldaya, the leader of the Free Birth Society, hosted a festival on her 21-hectare (53-acre) property in North Carolina. It was a celebratory gathering for FBS, a multimillion-dollar business that promotes a radical approach to giving birth without medical support.

Promotional footage from the Matriarch Rising festival shows Saldaya dancing beside her private lake, wearing a crown. That same weekend, more than 3,000 miles away, in Dundalk, a town on the east coast of Ireland, Naomi James, bled to death after freebirthing her son.

The Republican party is far from moving beyond Trump – but signals of his waning influence are everywhere

The sharks can smell blood in the water. After a decade in eerie command of the Republican party, with primary voters in his cult-like thrall and down-ballot elected officials feeling they have no choice – and often no inclination – to diverge from him, Donald Trump suddenly seems not quite in control of his own political machine.

Fractures have emerged in the Maga coalition; Trump’s approval is sinking; the Democrats, long anemic and risk-averse in the opposition, showed signs of life in elections last month; and the cumulative effect of a series of long-running scandals, most particularly the Epstein affair, seem to have alienated core components of the Trump faithful. Trump has faced some rebukes from a once largely compliant federal judiciary: his personal attorney, Alina Habba, was recently declared ineligible to serve in the US attorney role Trump had appointed her to, and his signature tariffs seem likely to be struck down by a conservative supreme court majority.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

Amid concerns over greenhouse gas emissions, the Trump administration has abolished climate-friendly farming incentives

This article was produced in partnership with Floodlight

For decades, corn has reigned over American agriculture. It sprawls across 90m acres – about the size of Montana – and goes into everything from livestock feed and processed foods to the ethanol blended into most of the nation’s gasoline.

Love ice-cream, don’t love Christmas pudding? This make-ahead semifreddo, jewelled with dried fruits, might just fit the bill …

Last Christmas we visited my in-laws in Cape Town, where, at over 30C, a traditional Christmas pudding just didn’t feel quite right. But my mother-in-law and her friend created the most delicious feast: a South African braai (barbecue) followed by an incredible ice-cream Christmas pudding made by mashing vanilla ice-cream with a mix of tutti frutti, candied peel, raisins and cherries. This semifreddo is a take on that dessert: a light frozen custard that still carries all the festive flavours.Tutti frutti semifreddo Christmas pudding

We stopped using clingfilm in our kitchen 15 years ago now, because it’s not easily recycled and because of health concerns about the possible transfer of microplastics into our food. Most semifreddo recipes tell you to line the freezer container with clingfilm, but I suggest using no liner at all, or silicone-free, unbleached baking paper instead.

Mark Rutte’s response comes after Vladimir Putin’s comment that Russia was ‘ready’ for war with Europe

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is now briefing the media after the commission’s weekly meeting, presenting the bloc’s plan to help fund Ukraine’s continuing fight against Russia.

I will bring you the key lines here.