The Guardian — page 28

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Coverage, page 28

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Jean Nassif swears during Icac evidence and declares ‘no one can make me shut up’

Fugitive property developer beams in from Beirut bedroom to declare ‘I’m not corrupt’ and waves handwritten notes at counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Fugitive property developer Jean Nassif has declared he cannot be silenced as he ranted about “crook” politicians and proclaimed his innocence during an expletive-laden tirade at the New South Wales anti-corruption watchdog. Nassif, 58, on Tuesday dialled into the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s inquiry via video link from his Beirut bedroom. Continue reading...

The Guardian•Kat Wong15 Sept

Help-to-Buy scheme delivered ‘very high value for money,’ review finds

Exclusive: George Osborne’s programme to reduce costs for first-time buyers delivered £25bn in social value in UK last year George Osborne’s scheme to reduce costs for first-time buyers represented “very high value for money”, according to a government review, bolstering the case of senior government figures who have been arguing to resurrect the idea. An official audit of the Help-to-Buy programme has calculated it provided £25bn of social value to the UK in the last financial year, despite criticisms it was overly expensive and only served to inflate house prices. Continue reading...

The Guardian•Kiran Stacey, Policy editor15 Sept

Sky gave my father the hard sell even though he has dementia

He wanted to save money, but it insisted on selling costly packages and seemed not to accept ‘cancel’ as an option I was helping my father, who has dementia and Parkinson’s disease, reduce his £113.50 Sky TV bill. We explained to the Sky call centre agent that, as his eyesight and attention span have deteriorated, he wanted the cheapest available TV package to free up money for his care. Continue reading...

The Guardian•Anna Tims15 Sept

Premature review – sunny charm provides screwball energy for surprise-pregnancy comedy

First-time director Kevin Walls creates a film sweet-natured enough to cancel out some comedy misfires as flatmates Eilidh and Cameron prepare for parenthood The pram in the hallway is the enemy of good art, or so the famous quote goes . This sunny Scottish comedy, made on a minuscule budget, deals with the bit before the pram, when an art school dropout in her 20s gets unexpectedly up the duff. It’s directed by first-timer Kevin Walls, who gives his film the screwball-ish energy of things being skew-whiffly the wrong way round; a couple are going on their first date at three months pregnant, having a baby at an age most people are putting it off to establish their careers. It’s sweet-natured with just about enough charm to cancel out a couple of thunderously awful comedy moments. Elle Watson is artist Eilidh, who works as a barista in a museum cafe. She has a friends-with-benefits setup with her flatmate Cameron (James Rottger); he has a job in finance and, after two degrees, a mountain of student debt and years in a mind-numbing entry-level position, he’s finally lined up an interview for his dream job. It would be crazy to have the baby, but Eilidh doesn’t take the abortion tablets. She can’t give Cameron a coherent reason why not; fair enough, it’s her decision, a gut feeling. Walls sensibly doesn’t go anywhere near the pro-choice/anti-abortion debate. Continue reading...

The Guardian•Cath Clarke15 Sept

The Rouse by China Miéville review – a mighty achievement from the ‘new weird’ author

Twenty years in the writing, this paranormal epic of cold war espionage and family tragedy is a quantum leap in terms of ambition and moral seriousness China Miéville’s epic new novel is presented as being “20 years in the making”. It is quite a testament to how extravagant – even Stakhanovite – his imagination is that during that period he also produced six novels (including The City & the City and The Book of Elsewhere , co-written with Keanu Reeves), two novellas, two series of graphic novels, a children’s book, a volume of short stories and two works of nonfiction, on the October Revolution and the Communist Manifesto. It does not mean that these works were, as Graham Greene called The Third Man and Our Man in Havana, “entertainments” – Embassytown , to my mind, is the best translation of deconstructionist philosophy into science fiction – but certainly The Rouse is a quantum jump in terms of ambition, moral seriousness and stylistic bravado. It means that rather than classifying Miéville with “the new weird” or “speculative fantasy”, he ought to be compared to Roberto Bolaño or Mircea Cărtărescu. This new novel is equally maximalist, dense, disorienting and discomfiting, reflecting how surreal our reality seems to have become. Continue reading...

The Guardian•Stuart Kelly15 Sept

The pest I’ll never forget: the rat who jumped off the wardrobe and flew at my face

There was a rat army in my flatshare, gnawing through pipes, carpets and even a bedroom door. That’s not to mention the mice ... We should have known we were in trouble when we saw that the garden of our new place backed on to a Chinese restaurant in Hackney, London, with terrible reviews. Before long, the rats started coming in through the pipes. It was ratmageddon, and every day it got more harrowing. They trooped over our kitchen, like the world’s worst sequel to Ratatouille. They calmly walked into rooms while we were watching telly. They gnawed through all the carpets to try to get into our bedrooms. There was no stopping them. After sniffing out the remnants of an old snack in my housemate Simon’s bin, a pack of rats got to work one night gnawing through the wood at the bottom of his bedroom door. Like a rodent military exercise, they spent eight hours whittling a hole large enough to get through. I lay next door, 100% freaked out, panicking they’d try to get into my room next. I didn’t sleep a wink. Fairly soon after this, one of the rats died under the floorboards so we got a bottle-fly infestation to boot. Naturally, our landlord did nothing about any of this. Continue reading...

The Guardian•Kate Abbott15 Sept

Why unwanted fridges are piling up at recycling centres across England and Wales

Capacity has been overwhelmed by heatwaves that have pushed white goods to breaking point “In Oxfordshire, recycling centres are filling almost three articulated lorries with discarded fridges every week,” says Simon Perry of W&S Waste Management, which runs a recycling centre in Ardley. Together, those fridges would cover an area just under half the size of a football pitch. But the space to store them – in Oxfordshire and beyond – has become a growing problem after the Local Government Association (LGA) warned that a mountain of broken fridges was rising in waste centres across England and Wales, as this year’s heatwaves push more white goods to breaking point, and a trend for second/backup refrigeration products keeps growing. Continue reading...

The Guardian•Sarah Marsh Consumer affairs correspondent15 Sept

One in five black, Asian and minority ethnic NHS managers in England plan to quit amid racism, report finds

Health service faces exodus as almost four-fifths of BAME managers surveyed reported racism, exclusion and barriers to career progression The NHS in England is facing an exodus of minority ethnic managers who have suffered racism, exclusion and discrimination during their working lives, a report has found. Almost four-fifths of managers from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds have experienced racism, exclusion and obstacles to progressing in their careers, according to a survey carried out by the NHS Alliance. Continue reading...

The Guardian•Denis Campbell, Health policy editor15 Sept

Through the looking glass: female stereotypes examined – in pictures

Taking the women of the 1950s as her role models, Jo Ann Chaus shoots compelling self-portraits that exhibit both strength and vulnerability Continue reading...

The Guardian•Mee-Lai Stone15 Sept

Solo autumn walks for women in the UK and Europe: ‘it should be fun, not daunting’

Hiking alone in the countryside can be joyous, but for women it can sometimes feel unnerving. Here’s how to enjoy it safely, plus four stunning routes to walk solo I did my first solo hike during a sunny September, seven years ago. After a summer of feeding and ferrying four noisy teenagers (and their friends) around, I was exhausted. But despite being bone tired, I had barely moved. I yearned, above all, for time on my own, for the chance to walk without interruption (and at the pace I chose), and for the silence of some empty wilderness. But I was nervous. Not of being on my own, but of what might happen to me with no one around to help (breaking a bone, encountering a psychopath, being chased by a bull, getting fatally lost). I could have found a companion or joined a group, but my need for silence and solitude outweighed my fears. Continue reading...

The Guardian•Annabel Abbs15 Sept

Tuesday briefing: How to understand Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland’s joint call for change

In today’s newsletter: Plaid Cymru, the SNP and Sinn Féin have signed an agreement for greater powers, as pressure grows on Westminster over the UK’s future Good morning. Back in May, the shape of British politics shifted dramatically. I’ll forgive you if you were too preoccupied refreshing Andrew Sparrow’s live blog for the latest speculation about Keir Starmer to notice, but since 7 May, centre-left nationalist parties that ultimately aspire to leave the UK have been in government for the first time simultaneously in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This week sees the initial codification of that shift. In Cardiff yesterday, Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth, Scottish National party leader John Swinney and Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O’Neill (who shares power with the Democratic Unionist party) affirmed their countries’ right to seek independence from the UK. Along with the leader of the opposition in Ireland, Mary Lou McDonald, they signed a memorandum of understanding that called on Westminster “to prepare, plan and facilitate constitutional change in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland”. And they posed for a fair number of group photos too. Reform UK | Andy Burnham’s government could thwart Reform’s unprecedented £72m donations with retrospective restrictions on political donors that will include tough new residency requirements, ministers have announced. AI | Donald Trump has dismissed calls to increase controls on AI as a “sick conspiracy”, as stocks linked to the technology slumped after appeals from Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceX leaders on the weekend for the industry to slow down. Nato | Nato fighter jets shot down a drone over Lithuania after an alert was issued in the ‌capital and surrounding region, while Poland scrambled fighter jets less than a day after retrieving a suspected Russian drone adrift in its waters. Middle East | Yemen’s Houthi rebels have seized two strategic islands in the Red Sea, reinforcing the Iran-backed group’s ability to control a key shipping route, as concerns mount that the world is facing a new oil supply crisis. Lucy Letby | Two leading experts have quit Lucy Letby’s defence team over concerns about the “scientific credibility” of some of its evidence. Continue reading...

The Guardian•Libby Brooks15 Sept

Pauline Hanson says she’s sorry ‘if I offended people’ with Indigenous Australians remarks

One Nation leader had been condemned by figures from across the political spectrum over the newly resurfaced podcast comments Pauline Hanson has made a qualified apology after describing Indigenous Australians as the “most primitive race on Earth”, saying she did not intend to upset people and said she was sorry “if I offended people”. The One Nation leader has been under fire from all sides of the political spectrum after the comments from a podcast in September 2025 resurfaced. Continue reading...

The Guardian•Sarah Basford Canales15 Sept

Karl Stefanovic to buy out podcast partner Keshnee Ibrahim after ‘irreconcilable breakdown’, court hears

Stefanovic agrees to purchase shares from joint owner of 123 Podcast with fledgling show on hiatus since August after Tommy Robinson interview Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Former Today host Karl Stefanovic has cited an “irreconcilable breakdown” in dealings with his business partner as the New South Wales supreme court weighs how best to divvy up their holdings in a fledgling podcast. The relationship between the long-time face of Nine’s flagship Today program and the joint owner of podcast company 123 Podcast, Keshnee Ibrahim, has irretrievably broken down, the court heard on Tuesday. Continue reading...

The Guardian•Nick Visser with AAP15 Sept

TV tonight: it’s the final chapter of the landmark 7 Up series

Oscar-winner Asif Kapadia takes the reins for a last catchup with the 70-year-olds. Plus: a year in the life of Gemma Collins. Here’s what to watch this evening 9pm, ITV1 Asif Kapadia directs the final instalment of the long-running documentary (it first aired in 1964) and it does all its subjects – and their loyal viewers – proud. Meeting the now 70-year-olds again tugs at the existential heartstrings and some, such as cheeky dreamer Tony, have stayed close to their childhood selves, whereas the more mellow John worries about how he has been portrayed. Hannah Verdier Continue reading...

The Guardian•Hannah Verdier, Graeme Virtue, Hollie Richardson and Phil Harrison15 Sept

How enslavement became state-backed operation supported by Conservative and Lib Dem forerunners

Tory and Whig MPs were central to funding trafficking of enslaved people and many opposed abolition of the slave trade There is a British culture of celebrating the abolition of slavery without acknowledging that the country enslaved and trafficked millions of African people for centuries. The newly published Register of British Slave Traders , which documents the thousands of investors in Britain’s near 250-year trafficking of more than 3 million enslaved African people, shows that it was a state-backed operation, fully supported by both major political parties at the time, the Tories and Whigs – the forerunners of today’s Conservatives and Liberal Democrats respectively. Continue reading...

The Guardian•David Conn Investigations correspondent; Illustration by Palesa Monareng15 Sept

Kane on target, Barcelona stay perfect and Ballon d’Or debate – Football Weekly

Max Rushden is joined by Philippe Auclair , Sid Lowe , Nicky Bandini and Mark Langdon to discuss the weekend’s action around Europe Max Rushden is joined by Philippe Auclair , Sid Lowe , Nicky Bandini and Mark Langdon to discuss the weekend’s action around Europe. On the podcast today: Harry Kane scored his 150th goal for Bayern Munich against Bundesliga newcomers Elversberg, while Ballon d’Or rivals Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappé both scored doubles in La Liga. Continue reading...

The Guardian•Presented by Max Rushden with Nicky Bandini, Philippe Auclair, Sid Lowe and Mark Langdon. Produced by Rory Symonand the executive producer is Tayo Popoola15 Sept

Career focus and a community campus: how the University of Birmingham got its mojo back

The university is one of the big success stories in higher education, with soaring student satisfaction levels and exam results. What’s the secret of its success? The Covid pandemic upended almost every corner of British life, and universities were no exception. But for the University of Birmingham, the turmoil became a turning point. The pandemic made the university think long and hard about the type of education it was delivering for its students, says Deborah Longworth, Birmingham’s pro-vice-chancellor for education. This sparked an overhaul of its teaching and curriculum – which has been rewarded with impressive results. Continue reading...

The Guardian•Richard Adams15 Sept

The incoming ‘super’ El Niño will create chaos around the world. And we are far from ready for it | Bill McGuire

One of the biggest upheavals in a millennium is on its way, strengthened by the climate crisis. We need leaders who make things better not worse If you think you have heard enough about the growing “super” El Niño, trust me, you are going to hear a lot more. What is happening in the equatorial Pacific is jaw-dropping and could well mark one of the biggest global weather upheavals in a millennium. It will spawn a string of weather catastrophes around our world in what remains of this year and in 2027, and there is no reason to think the UK will be immune. To recap briefly, El Niño involves a heating of the central and eastern equatorial Pacific ocean. It happens every few years and is part of a natural cycle termed the El Niño southern oscillation, which switches between warm (El Niño) and cool (La Niña) phases. El Niños that see heating reach or exceed 2C are defined as “super” but this one, which is forecast to top-out at an astonishing 4C later this year, is so much bigger, the term “hyper” might be more appropriate. Bill McGuire is professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL. His latest book is The Fate of the World: A History and Future of the Climate Crisis Continue reading...

The Guardian•Bill McGuire15 Sept

They’re the sopranos of the forest, so what’s silencing the gibbons’ morning chorus?

As human development and roads increasingly fragment their habitats, a study suggests traffic noise could be altering the animals’ wake-up call Dawn has broken, and the air is cool and still. It’s at about this time that gibbons usually erupt into song, wa-oo-ing and wa-ing from the highest branches and filling the tree tops with rich melodies. But in this corner of Malaysian forest, bordered by housing and roads, the resident white-handed gibbons are quiet. All that can be heard is the hum of traffic from a nearby highway. This isn’t a rare occurrence for this group of gibbons, according to research, which found these particular gibbons, named Mambang and Walinong, appeared to be producing far fewer morning songs than others that are not exposed to the same level of traffic noise. Continue reading...

The Guardian•Rebecca Ratcliffe15 Sept

Rukmiini Iyer’s recipe for mozzarella in carozza – and the leftover crusts | Cook once, eat twice

The love child of a cheese toastie and eggy bread, this fried sandwich makes for an elevated snack or kids’ tea – and the leftover crusts give you ‘bread rosti’ the next day For an exceptionally luxe snack or kids’ tea, mozzarella in carrozza is your girl. It’s the love child of a cheese toastie and eggy bread – instead of toasting it, you dip the cheese sandwich in egg and fry it. In other words, it’s mozzarella in a fancy carriage. I like to use a combination of mozzarella and mature cheddar for flavour, and while it’s best eaten piping hot from the pan, it’s a good (and filling) lunchbox option for children, too. Continue reading...

The Guardian•Rukmini Iyer15 Sept