5 min: … nothing much. But that’s a decent couple of minutes for Scotland, who hadn’t had much of a sniff beforehand. Hopefully it’ll settle them.
4 min: McTominay takes a quick free kick in the middle of the park and sends McGinn skittering off down the left. The referee considers pulling play back – the ball was probably rolling when McTominay took the free kick – but decides against it, and McGinn wins a corner. That corner leads to another, which leads to …
Nothing happens quickly in these ceremonies, but we’re edging towards something of note actually occurring. It’s teeming with rain and the waterproofs are out in force.
England all out in 34 overs, Sri Lanka need 125 to win
There has been a distinct end-of-term feel about England in this Test match, an early loosening of the tie before the final school bell rings. And having gone into it hoping to secure what would be their first perfect home summer for 20 years with a sixth successive win, Sri Lanka are now poised to deny them full marks.
Things were certainly shaping up that way at the end of a white-knuckle third day in which 16 wickets fell and the pendulum swung the way of the tourists. Inspired by Vishwa Fernando’s left-arm swing and a four-wicket haul from the burly Lahiru Kumura, Sri Lanka turned a first innings deficit of 62 into a pursuit of 219 that was within striking distance by stumps.
Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic sealed a record-equalling fourth Vuelta a España title on Sunday after retaining his overall lead in the final stage of the race, a 24.6km individual time-trial in Madrid that was won by Stefan Küng.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Roglic reclaimed the red jersey from the Australian rider Ben O’Connor with a devastating solo attack on stage 19 on Friday and the Slovenian never looked back as he equalled the Spaniard Roberto Heras’s record of four Vuelta wins.
The Grammy-winning rapper, who spent this summer topping the charts, previously performed at the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show. But this will be his first Super Bowl as the headliner.
Dozens said to be considering abstaining from Tuesday’s vote over pensioners’ payments, as PM says dealing with dissent is ‘matter for chief whip’
As many as 50 Labour MPs could refuse to back the government’s controversial plan to cut the winter fuel allowance, despite Keir Starmer urging back benchers to get behind a measure he has conceded is “unpopular”.
While few on the government benches are expected to vote against the policy in Tuesday’s vote, dozens are believed to be considering abstaining or being absent – though rebels say the numbers in their ranks are very hard to predict.
‘We have to do everything possible to ensure that he’s not re-elected,’ ex-congresswoman says
The former congresswoman Liz Cheney called Donald Trump an “unrecoverable catastrophe” on Sunday and urged fellow Republicans to vote for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in November’s election.
“We see it on a daily basis – somebody who was willing to use violence in order to attempt to seize power, to stay in power, someone who represents unrecoverable catastrophe, frankly, in my view, and we have to do everything possible to ensure that he’s not re-elected,” Cheney said in an interview on ABC News This Week, a show on the network that is hosting Tuesday’s debate between Trump and Harris.
Toronto film festival: Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney and Ana de Armas fight for supremacy on a remote island in this 1930s-set true story that descends into tiresomely silly reversals
The films of Ron Howard – usually polite, Oscar-aiming true stories such as A Beautiful Mind or Apollo 13 or solidly made, anonymous IP blockbusters such as The Grinch or The Da Vinci Code – have not shown the director to be someone greatly interested in exploring or even showing much awareness of real, down-to-the-core darkness. His All-American persona, as a well-meaning aw shucks nice guy (who now claims shock upon hearing the subject of his 2020 film Hillbilly Elegy might actually not be such an inspiring figure after all) would not make him seem like the perfect match for a nasty and violent tale of the horrors we’re willing to inflict upon each other to get what we want.
For a while, taking charge of fact-based 1930s-set survival thriller Eden, he almost convinces us that maybe he’s the madman for the job, tightly steering us through a fun, frightening descent into hell. But the more his characters engage in very bad things, the more it becomes clear that perhaps Howard was indeed a very bad fit, the film drowning in the deep end.
Eden is screening at the Toronto film festival and is seeking distribution
The government wants to act tough over the public finances. But ministers look mean, unjust and politically inept
Winter fuel payments for all pensioners were, according to Gordon Brown, one of the greatest achievements of the last Labour administration. It was the bitterly cold winter during the miners’ strike that brought home to him the disastrous effects that means testing had on elderly people. New Labour lifted more than a million pensioners out of relative poverty. It is odd that the next Labour prime minister seems intent on repudiating that legacy.
Sir Keir Starmer wants to do away with the “untargeted” payments – worth up to £300 – from 10 million pensioners, when energy bills rise by 10%, to save the Treasury £1.4bn. This is mean, unjust and politically inept. There is widespread disquiet in Labour, which traditionally argues that universalism matters for poverty prevention because it generates public support for welfare spending. An early day motion asking for the change to be reconsidered has been organised by newly elected centrist MPs. Others say that withdrawing winter fuel payments for those in fuel poverty will lead to excess deaths.
Offering everything from coding clubs to company, they are more essential than ever as other services vanish
When Liverpool’s Spellow Hub library was torched in this summer’s far-right riots, an appeal quickly raised more than £250,000 to restore the facility. That was testament to the community’s deep attachment, but also to the broader appreciation of the value that libraries bring to society.
Yet they are in crisis – again. Thirteen have closed in Merseyside. The UK has lost one in 20 since 2016, with 180 closed in that time, a BBC investigation has revealed. The most deprived areas are around four times more likely to lose a library than the richest. Overall, library spending has halved since 2010-11.
Onley second overall as Donovan misses out on podium
Superficially, the final stage of this year’s Tour of Britain into a windswept Felixstowe had a routine look, a chaotic bunch sprint won by the Slovenian Matevz Govekar, and Steve Williams of Wales straightforwardly sealing overall victory. But what preceded the sprint was 158 kilometres of anarchic racing, with a strong southerly splitting the peloton repeatedly amid a frantic series of attacks and chases.
The wind was at its most damaging between Framlingham, Aldeburgh and Wickham Market a couple of hours from the finish, blowing from the side and prompting the DSM team to increase the pace so violently that one of their number misjudged a corner in Framlingham and took to the pavement. With the peloton splitting in the crosswind, the first surge dislodged the triple stage winner Paul Magnier and – initially at least – the rider in fourth overall, Tom Donnenwirth; a second, prompted by Ineos’s Tobias Foss, saw off Julian Alaphilippe.
Toronto film festival: the superstar’s husband and documentarian RJ Cutler have assembled a documentary that benefits from access but provides a limited view
In November 2022, Elton John took the stage for a final rousing US performance at LA’s Dodgers Stadium. The show was part of the Candle in the Wind singer’s farewell tour, echoing his 1975 performance at the same venue when he sported the Dodgers uniform, but with sequins.
This time, John would wear a sequined Dodgers-style bathrobe as he said goodbye to a 50-year chart-topping career that hit the stratosphere in 1973 with the double album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, when John was living through the highs of incredible fame and success but the lows of addiction and physical abuse.
Elton John: Never Too Late is screening at the Toronto film festival and will be available on Disney+ on 13 December
Readers respond to an article by Nesrine Malik on society’s view of women without children
Thank you, Nesrine Malik, for your article (The right’s obsession with childless women isn’t just about ideology: it’s essential to the capitalist machine, 2 September). I have two points to add. First, some gentle sensitivity from people would help women to come to terms with their infertility. It is often not a choice. Blanket criticism of all women who don’t have the benefit of children is hurtful and harmful. Second, why do men not get the same level of intolerance if they choose not to procreate? Or, indeed, are themselves infertile? Catherine Colvin Watton, Norfolk
• Nesrine Malik makes many good points, of course, but she oversimplifies by stating that “a woman who does not bear children … is less likely to extend her caregiving to elderly relatives”. Much depends on the nature of individuals’ work and the geographic spread of a family, but sometimes the childless/free are seen as, and may genuinely be, more easily available. As the childless one of three adult siblings, I took the greater share of care commitments for our elderly mother in her later years.
Roger Nichols saysteachers’ needs must also be recognised, while Frank Coffield says the new model of inspection must be collaborative. Plus a letter from Karen Lewton
The idea that schools could be rated using a single-word descriptor was always ridiculous, given the roles that teachers are called on to play (The Guardian view on one-word Ofsted reports: good riddanceEditorial, 2 September). As a deputy head and former acting head in a large high school, my functions when not in the classroom included ad hoc social worker, amateur sleuth, psychologist, paramedic, car park attendant, dispute arbitrator, health and safety guru, marriage guidance counsellor for parents, advocate, promoter, developer and, back home, married father of two.
At last we appear to be coming to grips with key issues, especially attendance and behaviour, both of which are fertilised by a climate of social decline, confusion and lack of vision. In the inspections through which I helped lead my school, I was repeatedly puzzled to find that nowhere was there a satisfactory channel through which to address the feelings, worries, perceptions and concerns of teachers themselves. My wife and I are both retired from education, but our two children are still teaching. Their frustration and low morale is something we recognise, all four of us having found ourselves depressed, threatened and frightened at different periods in our careers, with nowhere to turn for advice and support.
ParalympicsGB warned ‘not to take eyes off the ball’
Great Britain are celebrating another stellar performance at the Paralympic Games with as many medals as in Tokyo three years ago but more golds, amid a warning “not to take our eyes off the ball” as the global level of competition continues to rise.
Paris 2024 has raised the bar for disability sport both inside and outside of competition with organisers celebrating the “crazy” experience delivered by hordes of passionate French fans. For Britain there is contentment at once again finishing second in the medal table, behind only China, with eight more gold medals than three years ago, even as more nations joined the competition and a greater number of countries won medals than previously.
Big exhibition will reflect life and loves of artist, from his first professional print in 1904 to 1960s masterpieces
The British Museum is putting on a big exhibition of the print works of Pablo Picasso, one of the finest graphic artists of the 20th century, it will announce on Monday.
About 100 prints will reflect the life and loves of the artist with an extraordinary vision, best known for masterpieces include Guernica, one of the most powerful anti-war paintings.
Royal Albert Hall, London From Edwardian choral music to Handel’s Messiah via gospel standards across three versatile, astonishing performances
If proof were needed that Britain loves a good sing, this Proms Choral Day was it. Across three events, plus a free vocal workshop, the Royal Albert Hall went from decently filled to jam-packed.
The thousands who turned out at 10:30am on a Saturday were treated to an hour of Edwardian choral music. Not exactly top of the pops, but in the experienced hands of the Sixteen (by a syntactical sleight of hand, weighing in here at 26 singers), it showed British composers competing successfully with the progressive voices coming out of the continent. Parry’s I Was Glad was the vigorous opener, clarion voices glad indeed as valiant choir held its own against thundering organ.
Performing to over 70,000 fans, the mystique merchant put on a 27-song set showcasing new music as well as favourites
Whatever lingering mystery that surrounded the Weeknd’s globally streamed one-night-only concert on Saturday night was put to rest a few hours before showtime, when representatives officially presented the pre-order details of his upcoming album Hurry Up Tomorrow.
What came soon after was a riveting infomercial from the Canadian R&B-pop singer and mystique merchant – real name Abel Tesfaye – that held the more than 70,000 fans that packed into the 64-year-old home of São Paulo FC in his thrall and served as a proof of concept for the tour that’s surely to follow. The 34-year-old Toronto native managed to cram 27 songs into an hour-and-a-half-long set that featured a least a half-dozen new cuts, not confirmed but almost certainly from the upcoming record, roaming the huge stage that spanned the length of the pitch and clad in a black robe with gold trim, like a boxer making the lonely walk to the squared circle.
Dr. Frank Hoffman was appalled by the sheer numbers of cases of early-stage breast cancer that were being missed. Then he had an idea: What if "we were to specially train others to do it."
The report was damning, but change is happening too slowly. The contempt that killed our loved ones has killed before, and it will kill again
Now we finally have it, in black and white. Every single death at Grenfell Tower could, and should, have been avoided, and a long list of organisations, individuals and authorities failed us catastrophically.
We acknowledge that Sir Martin Moore-Bick and the inquiry team have produced a thorough report, following an incredibly detailed inquiry process. But while we are supportive of the report, we feel there are areas where Moore-Bick did not go far enough.
Natasha Elcock is a survivor of the Grenfell Tower fire who lost her uncle on the night of 14 June 2017. She is the chair of Grenfell United, the survivors and bereaved family’s group
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Inspired by research for her role in Sex Education, the actor has collected a rich picture of modern women’s sexuality through clandestine contributions
Nancy Friday’s groundbreaking anthology My Secret Garden: Women’s Sexual Fantasies was first published in the US in 1973, though Gillian Anderson only read it for the first time when she took on the role of sex therapist Dr Jean Milburn in Sex Education. “Their unfiltered and painful honesty shook me,” she says of Friday’s letters and interviews in the introduction to Want, a new collection billed as the 21st-century update. Considering the issues raised by Friday’s book – what women want, and how that relates to the gender roles imposed on us – led Anderson to question how much might have changed in the intervening half-century, and to issue an appeal for answers.
Where Friday put an anonymous advertisement in a newspaper, the Dear Gillian project’s online portal had the potential to reach a global audience, and the responses amounted to nearly 1,000 pages. Anderson’s role has been to curate these into a more manageable selection, organised thematically: “Kink”, “Strangers” and “Power and Submission” are among the more obvious headings. Sceptical readers might be asking themselves what qualifies Anderson to edit a volume on this subject, beyond having played a sex therapist, but she is quick to offer a disclaimer. “I am not an expert and have no professional qualifications in this area,” she writes. “I am an actor by trade, and will therefore not be analysing these letters, or offering explanations on womanhood or sex in general.” What she does provide is a brief overview at the beginning of each section, occasionally including a personal anecdote that stops short of revealing anything truly intimate. But she has also hidden her own anonymous fantasy somewhere in the pages as a tease to the reader. ‘Would it match people’s assumptions about me?” she wonders.
About 1,000 of those affected work in London and 4,500 at the bank’s new Milton Keynes headquarters
Santander has joined the ranks of employers herding reluctant British workers back to the coalface, telling office staff they must turn up in person for at least three days a week on average.
While the bank’s back-office staff will still be able to work from home more regularly than before the pandemic, the minimum requirement now tips the balance in favour of the traditional workplace rather than home.
Wide receiver released after alleged driving violation
Team says 30-year-old will still play against Jaguars
Dolphins star Tyreek Hill was detained and then released for a driving violation on his way to Miami’s stadium for the team’s opening game of the season on Sunday.
Video posted to social media showed the 30-year-old being handcuffed as he lay on the floor face down next to his sports car. ESPN reported that Hill was initially stopped for speeding before arguing with law enforcement officials. He was also reportedly cited for reckless driving.
Exclusive: Europe’s biggest bank hopes to double UK arm of its wealth and private banking operations
HSBC is recruiting hundreds of bankers to serve rich clients in the UK as it looks to head off growing competition from British rivals and take a larger slice of the wealth management market.
Europe’s biggest bank is hoping to fortify the UK arm of its wealth and private banking operations by bulking up its team of relationship managers, who offer bespoke services and advice to rich clients in exchange for lucrative fees.
Fresh chance for ‘eligible’ fans to buy reunion tour tickets after many people’s transactions failed last Saturday
A select number of Oasis fans who missed out on tickets for the band’s reunion concerts in a disastrous sales launch last week have been invited to try their luck again in a second ballot.
The band said they would send invitations out to “eligible fans we have been able to identify”, including some of those who were signed in to the Ticketmaster website last Saturday but were unable to complete their transactions.
Jorge Martín’s bike swap backfires in damp conditions
Francesco Bagnaia finishes second, Enea Bastianini third
Marc Márquez won the San Marino Grand Prix ahead of Francesco Bagnaia on Sunday after championship leader Jorge Martín’s gamble to swap bikes when it rained briefly at the Misano circuit backfired when the weather cleared up.
Márquez’s masterclass in damp conditions gave him his second victory in as many races after he won the Aragon Grand Prix last weekend as he denied the Italian factory Ducati team a win on home turf, with Enea Bastianini finishing third.
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