The brutal reality is that if you don't come from money, the best way to boost your finances is through a relationshipOn Sunday I took myself, with a slight hangover, to see a preview screening of Materialists, the long-awaited new film by Celine Song. Dakota Johnson plays Lucy, a matchmaker with a talent for pairing her exacting clients with someone who ticks most of their boxes and is also likely to accept them. She is less cupid, more market analyst - capable of seeing through her singletons' self-serving bluster and spin to appraise their actual worth - then matching it with someone of equivalent value.A thirtysomething woman of only average good looks, for instance, can't hope to land a unicorn" - a 6ft-tall high earner with his original hairline. Unicorns want to date twentysomethings - and they can get them, too.Elle Hunt is a freelance journalist

There's a reason these works have influenced great contemporary artists such as Jenny Saville. It just took me a while to truly see itThere is a painting that I think about often. The Madonna del Parto, a masterpiece painted by Piero della Francesca in about 1460, is housed in a dedicated museum in the Tuscan town of Monterchi. It depicts a heavily pregnant Virgin Mary flanked by two angels. To local women, this painting is considered a protector of fertility and the lives of pregnant women during birth. During the second world war, local women surrounded two men whom they had mistaken for Nazis intent on stealing it. In 1954, they led a protest against its proposed movement to Florence for an exhibition. I remember reading as a student that the women had lain down in the street to block its departure.I thought about those women again yesterday, as I walked around the Jenny Saville exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, tracing the influence of the Renaissance on her work. Saville's dialogue with great painters began when she was young and an art historian uncle took her to Venice. It has continued throughout her career, most notably in her motherhood pictures, which show her wrangling a baby, or both her babies, heavily influenced by Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. The ghosts of their Madonnas seem to linger in the sketch lines that swirl around Saville's mother figure. One of her most famous works, the stunning, sculptural, charcoal and pastel Pieta I, is a result of her study of Michelangelo's The Deposition. Continue reading...

Experts warn of destabilized trading relations after White House strikes deal with Nvidia to take a 15% cut of certain AI chip sales to Chinese companiesApple CEO Tim Cook visited the White House bearing an unusual gift. This box was made in California," Cook reassured his audience in the Oval Office this month, as he took off the lid.Inside was a glass plaque, engraved for its recipient, and a slab for the plaque to sit on. The base was made in Utah, and is 24-karat gold," said Cook. Continue reading...

South Carolina and Ohio join West Virginia in pledging troops, fueling protests that national guard should not be used for a political policing mission'Three states have moved to deploy hundreds of members of their national guard to the nation's capital as part of the Trump administration's effort to overhaul policing in Washington through a federal crackdown.

US president reportedly backs plan for Ukraine to cede unoccupied territory to Russia; West Virginia to deploy up to 400 troops to national capital - key US politics stories from Saturday 16 August at a glanceDonald Trump has told European leaders he believes a peace deal could be negotiated if the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, agrees to give up the Donbas region, which Russian invaders have not been able to seize in over three years of fighting, the New York Times reported on Saturday after his summit with Vladimir Putin.Two sources with direct knowledge of the talks in Alaska told the Guardian that Putin demanded Ukraine withdraw from Donbas, which is made up of the Donestk and Luhansk regions, as a condition for ending the war, but offered Trump a freeze along the remaining frontline. Continue reading...

Program providing key aid halted after complaints from Laura Loomer, the far-right influencer close to TrumpThe US state department announced on Saturday that it would stop issuing visas to children from Gaza in desperate need of medical care after an online pressure campaign from Laura Loomer, a far-right influencer close to Donald Trump who has described herself as a proud Islamophobe".All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days," the state department said in a message posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, from which Loomer was banned before it was purchased by Elon Musk. Continue reading...

Melania Trump's letter, obtained by Fox News, does not reference abducted Ukrainian children despite White House commentDonald Trump hand-delivered a personal letter from first lady Melania Trump to Russian leader Vladimir Putin raising the plight of Ukrainian and Russian children caught in the middle of the ongoing war between the two European countries, it was reported on Saturday.Trump administration officials told Reuters the letter mentioned the abductions of children following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Continue reading...

Multi-part series on ex-NFL player who protested racial injustice will not continue over creative differences'Director Spike Lee's multi-part documentary series for ESPN Films about former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who sparked a national debate when he protested racial injustice nearly a decade ago, will not be released, the filmmaker and ESPN said.ESPN, Colin Kaepernick and Spike Lee have collectively decided to no longer proceed with this project as a result of certain creative differences," ESPN said in a statement to Reuters on Saturday. Despite not reaching finality, we appreciate all the hard work and collaboration that went into this film." Continue reading...

Author of Natchez Burning trilogy had battled blood cancer for decades, according to his literary agentGreg Iles, the Mississippi author of the Natchez Burning trilogy and other works, has died. He was 65.Iles died on Friday after a decades-long battle with the blood cancer multiple myeloma, his literary agent, Dan Conaway, posted on Saturday on Facebook. Continue reading...

Details of post-summit call were leaked in which US president supports plan for Kyiv to give up Donbas regionDonald Trump will back a plan to cede unoccupied Ukrainian territory to Russia to secure an end to the war between the two countries, it was reported on Saturday, after details of his post-summit call with European leaders leaked out.Trump told European leaders that he believed a peace deal could be negotiated if the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, agreed to give up the Donbas region, which Russian invaders have not been able to seize in over three years of fighting, the New York Times reported, citing to two senior European officials. Continue reading...

Brazen daytime robbery involved four masked suspects taking diamonds, luxury watches and gold, police saySmash-and-grab thieves in Seattle made off with an estimated $2m in diamonds, luxury watches, gold and other items in a daring midday jewelry store robbery that took just about 90 seconds, police said on Friday.Video from the west Seattle store's surveillance cameras shows four masked suspects shattering the locked glass front door with hammers and then ransacking six display cases on Thursday. Continue reading...

HHS chief took to social media with deference to president after Trump's Rasputin' said he was plotting moveThe US health and human services (HHS) secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has fended off an attack by conservative firebrand and Donald Trump influencer Laura Loomer by issuing a statement of fealty to the president which calls it a flat-out lie" that he is running for the White House in 2028.Kennedy, 71, had been under pressure since Loomer, 32, expressed concern in a recent Politico interview that Stefanie Spear, a top aide of the HHS secretary, was trying to utilize her position to try to lay the groundwork for a 2028 RFK presidential run". Continue reading...

Corrections department review shows how Grant Hardin made fake guard uniform and details lax security at facilityA former police chief and convicted murderer known as the devil in the Ozarks" spent months planning his escape from an Arkansas prison, and he said lax security in the kitchen where he worked allowed him to gather the supplies he needed, according to an internal review by prison officials released on Friday.The state corrections department's critical incident review of Grant Hardin's 25 May escape from the Calico Rock prison provides the most detailed description so far of his planning - and the issues that allowed him to walk out of the facility. Continue reading...

Tom Artiom Alexandrovich was released and returned to Israel after being charged with luring a child for a sex actAn Israeli government cybersecurity official was reportedly arrested recently by Las Vegas police and other authorities in Nevada who were conducting an undercover investigation aimed at online users seeking to sexually prey on children.Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, 38, faces felony charges of luring a child with a computer for a sex act, alongside several other suspects who were apprehended during the two-week sting operation, the Las Vegas metropolitan police department said in a statement published on Friday. He has since evidently been released from custody and returned to Israel. Continue reading...

Dec My Dorm gives away sheet sets, pillows, shower caddies and other essentials at an annual summer eventWhen Ar'reiona Green was accepted to Sacramento State last year, she knew she would need books and school supplies. She didn't expect to need a toolbox. Or hangers. Or that her dorm room wouldn't come with a fan or a lamp.Like many first-year students, Green, who is headed into her sophomore year and plans to become a plastic surgeon, was excited about her future adventures. But coming up through the foster system in California, she didn't know anyone who had gone to college. While she felt ready for her classes, life as a college student was mostly mysterious except for what she'd seen online. Continue reading...

Hundreds of titles are being pulled from library and classroom shelves in the Republican-dominated stateA new wave of book bans has hit Florida school districts, with hundreds of titles being pulled from library and classroom shelves as the school year kicks off.The Republican-dominated state, which has already had the highest rate of book bans nationwide this year, is continuing to censor reading materials in schools, bowing to external pressures in an effort to avoid conflict and government retaliation. Continue reading...

Redistricting call a stereotypical power-play by Republican governor who has often bent state lawmakers to his willWith Gavin Newsom and Greg Abbott, the respective heavyweight governors of California and Texas, trading blows over plans to gerrymander the 2026 midterms, it was always kind of inevitable that Florida's Ron DeSantis would enter the chat.The Republican sees his state, the nation's third-largest by several metrics, not least its 28 congressional seats, as pivotal in the redistricting wars for control of the House. Continue reading...

Excess rainfall has fueled disease and pest pressure in Ohio's soybean fields as a trade war with China puts farmers' biggest export market in doubtSeventh-generation farmer Brian Harbage grows corn, soybeans and grass, and runs a cattle operation across five counties in western Ohio. In the world of agriculture, his work makes up a large business.And still, the past two years have been immensely challenging amid the twin threats of the climate crisis and the Trump administration. Continue reading...

Officers who were attacked by the pro-Trump mob in 2021 are unimpressed by the crime crackdown: Whenever he says he's all for law and order, I have a bridge to sell you'As rioters beat and crushed him in a Capitol building tunnel on January 6, officer Aquilino Gonell kept thinking to himself: Where the fuck is the president? Why is the national guard not being deployed?"The bipartisan congressional committee that investigated the attack would later conclude that Donald Trump never ordered in the guard, which only arrived at the Capitol hours after the riot began, by the directive of the defense department. This week, the president showed far less hesitation to send national guard troops and federal agents on to the streets of Washington DC to respond to an out of control" crime wave that city leaders say is not actually happening. Continue reading...

Personalized intervention has transformed the former murder capital of the US - Trump's recent cuts have experts fearing a reboundThe end of violence in Baltimore is a litany of stories that weren't told in 90-second clips on the evening news, about shootings that didn't happen.The untold stories sound different, said Sean Wees: The guys had guns pointed at each other. We got in between." Continue reading...

Protests against redrawing of electoral maps in Texas and other states to take place in 34 US cities and towns SaturdayThousands are expected to gather in cities and towns across 34 states on Saturday for a national day of protest against Republican redistricting plans in Texas and elsewhere.Fight the Trump Takeover" will be anchored in Austin, Texas, with other sites spread nationwide. Continue reading...

This hypocrisy of western media has been laid bare by Israel's targeting of journalists since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attackFor nearly two years, Israel has been systemically targeting and killing Palestinian journalists in Gaza. On Sunday night, the Israeli military brazenly killed another six journalists, who had been sheltering in a tent housing media workers in Gaza City. Among them was the 28-year-old Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif and the rest of the network's team reporting from the besieged territory.Israel is able to kill Palestinian journalists with impunity not just because of the unconditional military and political support it receives from the US and other western powers, but also the failure of many western media organizations and journalists to stand up for their Palestinian colleagues. Western outlets are often willing to publicly criticize governments and campaign for journalists who are harassed or imprisoned by US adversaries like Russia, China or Iran. But these institutions are largely silent when it comes to Israel, a US ally. Continue reading...

As US cafes come under pressure, major coffee-producing countries like Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia are also bracing for disruptionThe Trump administration has targeted Brazil with steep US tariffs of 50%. Coffee shops in the heart of New York are bracing for impact.When the Trump administration announced another wave of sweeping tariffs, particularly on Brazil, Stone Street Cafe's managing partner was first confused. Then came fear. A cafe already runs on slim margins and extra costs passed on from tariffs could risk everything. Continue reading...

For those who feared the summit on Ukraine might resemble Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler in 1938, the reality was worseThat was the moment he knew it was true love.Donald Trump turned to gaze at Vladimir Putin as the Russian president publicly endorsed his view that, had Trump been president instead of Joe Biden, the war in Ukraine would never have happened. Continue reading...

US capital city's law enforcement will remain under control of its chief, Pamela SmithWhite House officials and attorneys for Washington DC have agreed to scale back the Trump administration's takeover of the city's police department.Under an agreement announced early Friday evening, the US capital city's Metropolitan police department will remain under the control of its chief, Pamela Smith, instead of Terry Cole, the top administrator for the Drug and Enforcement Administration (DEA), according to reports. Continue reading...

US president claims great progress' with Russian leader but ends press conference abruptly without taking questions

US president leaves more questions than answers after summit on ending Ukraine war with Vladimir Putin; White House agrees to scale back takeover of DC police department - key US politics stories from 15 August 2025Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin lavished praise on each other but offered no details of their nearly three-hour meeting in Alaska on Friday, with the US president saying great progress" but no deal had been made on ending Russia's war in Ukraine.There's no deal until there's a deal. I will call up Nato ... I'll of course call up [Ukraine's] President Zelenskyy and tell him about today's meeting," he said. Continue reading...

Legislation says special emergency conditions that would warrant federalization of DC police have not been metDemocratic lawmakers have introduced a joint resolution aimed at ending what they call Trump's unlawful and unprecedented move to federalize the Metropolitan police department (MPD) in Washington DC.Representative Jamie Raskin, the ranking member of the House judiciary committee; DC's non-voting House delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton; and representative Robert Garcia, ranking member of the House committee on oversight and government reform, introduced the resolution on Friday, invoking the District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed. For the latest on US politics, read more of our coverage here.Washington DC's only Home Depot was busy with contractors and customers on Thursday morning - but the Hispanic day laborers who usually gather and wait for work under the parking lot's sparse trees were nowhere to be found.Two days earlier, masked federal agents swarmed the area and made several arrests, which were photographed by bystanders and posted on social media. Juwan Brooks, a store employee who witnessed the raid, said the agents grabbed anyone who appeared Hispanic. Continue reading...

Grand jury charges LaToya Cantrell with using city property and resources for purported affairThe New Orleans mayor, LaToya Cantrell, was indicted by a federal grand jury Friday on corruption charges involving a purported romance with her former bodyguard.Cantrell, 53, thus became the first New Orleans mayor in the city's 307-year history to be charged by the US government with crimes while still in office. Continue reading...

Prosecutors says Solomon Pena showed no remorse for shootings on the homes of four Democratic officials in AlbuquerqueA failed political candidate in New Mexico has been sentenced to 80 years in federal prison for his convictions in a series of drive-by shootings at the homes of state and local lawmakers in the aftermath of the 2020 election.A jury convicted former Republican candidate Solomon Pena in March of conspiracy, weapons and other charges in the shootings in December 2022 and January 2023 on the homes of four Democratic officials in Albuquerque, including the current state house speaker. Continue reading...

Beautiful Girls singer and his mother were convicted in March of accruing luxury items through falsified paymentsSean Kingston has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison by a Florida court for a $1m wire fraud scheme, according to NBC South Florida.The 35-year-old singer, born Kisean Anderson, was found guilty in a South Florida court in March alongside his mother, Janice Turner, for accruing about $1m worth of luxury items through falsified payments that never cleared. Turner was sentenced in July to five years in prison with three years of probation. Continue reading...

Judge previously blocked president from laying off 1,500 employees at the Consumer Financial Protection BureauA federal appeals court set the stage for the Trump administration to resume firings at the top US consumer watchdog, ruling in a split decision that a lower court lacked jurisdiction in temporarily blocking the mass layoffs.The ruling will not take immediate effect, the court said on Friday, to allow lawyers representing workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and consumer groups to file for a review of the case by the full circuit court of appeals for the District of Columbia. Continue reading...

Jamie Marsicano's due process and constitutional rights were violated by the state's ongoing delays, judge saidA judge has dismissed domestic terrorism charges against a defendant in connection with vandalism against construction equipment at the future site of the police training center near Atlanta, Georgia, colloquially known as Cop City, in what is seen as a win for protesters.DeKalb superior court judge Gregory Adams ruled on Thursday that defendant Jamie Marsicano's due process and constitutional rights to a speedy trial were violated by the state's ongoing delays and failure to issue an indictment two and a half years after arresting them at a nearby music festival. Continue reading...

Wildfires all over Europe, aid airdrops in Gaza, the frontline in Ukraine and Palestine Action arrests in London: the past seven days as captured by the world's leading photojournalists

The president's war on Democratic-run cities will not stop with Washington DC - it could get much worse

Here in Tel Aviv, beaches and restaurants are packed. Amid that distraction, the PM is playing his power games and purging his generals

Governor Greg Abbott calls new special session immediately after directly adjourned its last one on Friday

The Polari first book prize claims to promote trans rights and trans voices. But when I saw the longlist, I had to actLast week, I withdrew my nomination from the longlist for the Polari first book prize. The awards had become mired in controversy due to the nomination of the Irish author John Boyne, best known for The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, for the main prize for his novel Earth. Four days before the longlist announcement, Boyne had written in the Irish Independent, celebrating JK Rowling as a fellow terf" and saying of women who had pilloried" her for her gender activism: For every Commander Waterford, there's a Serena Joy standing behind him, ready to pin a handmaiden down as her husband rapes her."I think such a viewpoint is abhorrent, but Boyne is free to hold whatever views he wants. What was unacceptable was a statement from the Polari prize addressing the backlash, emphasising its commitment to support trans rights and amplify trans voices", but defending Boyne's inclusion on the grounds that submissions are assessed purely on the merits of craft and content" and that within our community, we can at times hold radically different positions on substantive issues".Jason Okundaye is an assistant newsletter editor and writer at the Guardian. He edits The Long Wave newsletter and is the author of Revolutionary Acts: Love & Brotherhood in Black Gay BritainDo 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. Continue reading...

Sana Javeri Kadri built a successful spice company by sourcing directly from south Asian producers. But new tariffs threaten her business modelIn 2016, turmeric lattes were all the rage, but Sana Javeri Kadri thought the ones in San Francisco, where she lives, tasted nothing like the fresh spices she grew up with in India.A former line cook who was doing marketing for a Bay Area grocer, Javeri Kadri knew [her] way around spices", but was new to the industry. Still, she booked a ticket home to Mumbai, hoping that she could get richer flavors into US pantries. Continue reading...

Federal officers swept encampments across DC overnight, leaving many uncertain about where they will find shelter

US president's comment that Russian and Ukrainian leaders may have to divvy' things up likely to raise alarmDonald Trump has said he believes Vladimir Putin is ready to make a deal on the war in Ukraine as the two leaders prepare for their summit in Alaska on Friday, but his suggestion that the Russian leader and Volodymyr Zelenskyy could divvy things up" may alarm some in Kyiv.The US president, who left the White House on Friday at 7.30am, implied there was a 75% chance of the Alaska meeting succeeding, and that the threat of economic sanctions may have made Putin more willing to seek an end to the war. HIGH STAKES!!!" he posted on Truth Social as his motorcade idled outside the White House shortly after sunrise in Washington. Continue reading...

Republican redestricting move aims to win House majority in midterms. Plus, plastic pollution talks fail in Geneva

Groups of armed men are descending on the capital's neighborhoods - to actually see it first hand, I didn't like it'Washington DC's only Home Depot was busy with contractors and customers on Thursday morning - but the Hispanic day laborers who usually gather and wait for work under the parking lot's sparse trees were nowhere to be found.Two days earlier, masked federal agents swarmed the area and made several arrests, which were photographed by bystanders and posted on social media. Juwan Brooks, a store employee who witnessed the raid, said the agents grabbed anyone who appeared Hispanic. Continue reading...

Trump's plan to boost Republican House seats in the midterms through gerrymandering has provoked a reactionThe mid-decade redistricting war looming between Republicans and Democrats is exposing an idea that's corroding American democracy - voters may not matter that much in determining who controls the US House.After Texas Republicans unveiled a Donald Trump-fueled plan to pick up five additional US House seats last month, the California governor, Gavin Newsom, unveiled a plan on Thursday to throw out districts drawn by an independent commission and put in place new ones that would add five Democratic seats in response. Republicans are also expected to push ahead with plans to redraw maps in Ohio, Missouri, Florida and possibly Indiana, in their favor. Continue reading...

Local officials slam president's remarks and point to federal funding cuts as the real harm to public safety in their citiesWhen Donald Trump announced a federal takeover of the Metropolitan police department in Washington DC on Monday, he left room for the possibility of making a similar move in other cities across the US, alluding to their high crime rates.You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities that are very bad," Trump said. We're not going to let it happen, we're not going to lose our cities." Continue reading...

The 23-times gold medallist warns of drift and weak leadership. Governance failures, and a troubled safeguarding record, could cost the US more than podium places at LA 2028In three years' time, the swimming programme for the Los Angeles Olympics will unfold over nine days and nights on the grandest stage the sport has ever known. A purpose-built pool inside SoFi Stadium in Inglewood will be the centerpiece of a 38,000-capacity open-air natatorium, transforming the $5bn home of the NFL's Rams and Chargers into the largest swimming venue in modern history. For the United States, a rare Summer Games on home soil should be a coronation, a chance to showcase the depth of its talent in the country's most spectacular arena. Yet Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of them all, fears the US swimming program is in no shape to seize the moment.Phelps has launched a withering attack on USA Swimming's leadership, accusing it of weak" stewardship, poor operational controls" and presiding over years of organizational drift. The 23-times Olympic gold medalist said he would think twice about letting his own sons join the system in its current state. His concerns, he says, stretch back to his own competitive career, when athlete voices were too often brushed aside in the name of keeping the peace and presenting a united front. This isn't on the athletes," he wrote in a lengthy Instagram statement. This is on the leadership of USA Swimming." Continue reading...