Iran-aligned group rejects claim it targeted Mecca, while Organisation of Islamic Cooperation condemns attack
Saudi Arabia has claimed its air defences intercepted and destroyed a Houthi drone attempting to fly over the holy city of Mecca, as Saudi warplanes continued to pound Yemen, raising fears of the conflict spreading further across the Middle East.
The Saudi-led military coalition said the security of Mecca – home to Islam’s two holiest sites – was a “red line” and that it would take necessary measures against the Houthis.
Hiker Timothy Smith, 53, missing after late-August floods but officials decline to identify remains
Human remains have been discovered near Arizona’s Crystal Rapids, over two weeks after a flash flood tore through the Grand Canyon, leaving two people dead and one person missing.
National Park Service personnel recovered the remains, before transferring them to the Coconino county medical examiner’s office, the agency confirmed over email.
Intelligence services allegedly attempted to pay people to surveil and kill people perceived to be aligned with Ukraine
Russia’s intelligence services are plotting to carry out targeted killings in the United States and in European nations supporting Ukraine, federal authorities said Tuesday as they announced charges against five people who remain at large.
An indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court said a network of the intelligence services had paid and attempted to pay individuals in the United States and in other countries to surveil targets to be killed with plans to then kill them.
Fire threatens Kalimantan’s rainforests. On the peatland frontlines, a group of local mothers is defending their community. Words and Photography: Garry Lotulung
Irma puts on her heavy rubber boots as she prepares for a volunteer firefighting shift in her village of Sungai Putri, on the Indonesian side of Borneo island.
Dressed in full safety gear she heads into fire zones on her motorbike, the air thick with toxic smoke.
Powerful bombs prompted such concern about mass deaths in Gaza that Biden officials paused delivery two years ago
The Trump administration is planning to deliver powerful 2,000lb bombs to Israel as part of an upcoming arms deal, weapons that prompted such concerns about the possibility of mass casualties in Gaza that the Biden administration paused their delivery two years ago.
The $2.8bn package includes 40,000 bombs, made up of 20,000 MK-84s and 20,000 BLU-117s, according to two US officials and a person familiar with the plan who spoke on Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss the package, which is not yet final.
PC Mason O’Connor dismissed following Panorama film showing misogyny and racism at London police station
A 13th serving Metropolitan police officer has been dismissed in relation to an undercover BBC investigation into misogyny and racism at Charing Cross police station.
PC Mason O’Connor was found to have committed discreditable conduct and breached professional behaviour standards, linked to a comment he made towards a female colleague, according to the Met.
Nearly half of minority ethnic respondents in a poll say they have faced prejudice over the past year
Many Britons feel inequality is worsening and that discrimination has become more common, according to a thinktank study.
The report by British Future has found that people across ethnic groups believe racial equality is worsening in Britain. One in six people are from minority ethnic backgrounds.
Argentina will host Benin in October in Buenos Aires
AFA president invites Messi to enjoy ‘deserved farewell’
Lionel Messi has been called up by Argentina to make a farewell appearance in a home friendly in October following his international retirement, the Argentinian football association (AFA) has confirmed.
“We invited the best player in the world to play, the icon of our selection, our captain Lionel Andrés Messi, to have a deserved farewell on 6 October, here in Argentina,” the AFA president, Claudio Tapia, said on social media.
After the US supreme court halted Donald Trump’s efforts to make it significantly harder to vote by mail in the midterms, US election officials are redoubling their efforts to convince Americans it is safe to cast their ballots by mail.
The supreme court’s Monday ruling, which sent Trump into an angry froth on Truth Social, averted what election officials of both parties said would be an administrative disaster for this year’s elections. Trump’s order would have required states to comply with cumbersome new rules, including redesigning mail-in envelopes and uploading lists of voters to the USPS, that were not feasible to implement before ballots started going out. The effort was seen as a push by the government to change voting policy as well as one to weaken confidence in voting by mail.
Who are the Democrats running in the midterms, and where do they stand? Our US political reporters will be hosting a series of conversations on the critical issues ahead of November. First up: the state of the Democrats, the party’s moderate and leftwing candidates and key races to watch. Drop your questions and join us live at 12pm EDT (5pm BST) on 16 September
We’re less than two months from the midterm elections that could have an outsized impact on the future of the United States.
With the primaries wrapped, our reporting team is fanned out across the country to tell the stories behind the horse race, from Washington to the Midwest and along the West Coast.
Toronto film festival: A fictionalised version of the cantankerous crime author plots a murder with an ambitious editor in a story in need of a sharper edge
The restrictions of Covid led to an inevitable rise in safely contained chamber-piece movies, where a handful of characters find themselves in a usually remote house, dialogue taking obvious precedence over action. There were some highlights, such as Kevin Williamson’s timely slasher Sick, and some considerable low points, such as Sam Levinson’s vapid drama Malcolm & Marie, but while we had plenty of them, none of them rivalled some of the greatest and smartest pre-pandemic examples. The very best tended to be based on plays and quite often starred Michael Caine.
He was in Anthony Shaffer’s Sleuth, which went from Tony to Oscar success back in the 1970s, and then the arguably even better Deathtrap in the decade after, which Sidney Lumet adapted from Ira Levin’s deviously plotted play. In between there was also an under-seen TV movie called One of My Wives Is Missing, based on 60s play Trap for a Single Man, which was notably lesser but still delivered a similarly specific brand of twisty, talky thrills. There would be secrets, surprises, reversals and usually at least one dead body by the end of it, a subgenre entirely indebted to the work of Agatha Christie (who reportedly loved Sleuth on stage so much that she dedicated a picture of herself to be hung in the house used in the big screen adaptation). The bar is therefore held rather high, a puzzle that requires an ingenious level of writing that needs to be smart without smug and shocking without feeling cheap.
Four openers and live band for Sheeran’s tour depart after removal of Macklemore over ‘free Palestine’ comments
All four supporting acts for upcoming dates of Ed Sheeran’s Loop tour have withdrawn in solidarity with fellow opening act Macklemore, as backlash grows against his removal from the tour over onstage comments in support of Palestine.
Finneas, the singer who was scheduled to open for Sheeran on six South American dates in November, withdrew from the tour on Tuesday afternoon, hours after Sheeran posted his own lengthy statement to Instagram explaining pressure from venue owners to remove Macklemore for pro-Palestine comments made during two shows at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium.
Three-month-old Jabal was returned to Park Slope bodega after community rallied to rescue purloined kitty
The owner of a New York City bodega on Tuesday was reunited with the store’s cat after a couple passing by the establishment five days earlier appeared to abduct the feline in plain view of a surveillance camera and ignited an intense grassroots search effort.
The plight of three-month-old Jabal began on Thursday morning in Brooklyn, when he went just outside the Eighth Street Mini Market where he lives as it opened for the day. A man walking alongside a woman passed the Park Slope market then picked up Jabal, and the pair took off as the kitten visibly squirmed, according to store surveillance video which the bodega’s owner, Imad “Jimmy” Innab, reviewed after he noticed the cat had gone missing.
This article was updated on 15 September 2026 to reflect Jabal’s return to the bodega.
Analysis of 29 studies highlights potentially heightened danger from small particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide
Air pollution is associated with an increased risk of suicide and suicidal thoughts, according to research.
Environmental pollution is known to be associated with poorer mental health but its role in suicide risk is less well understood. Scientists at Queen’s University Belfast examined whether air, noise, light, and water pollution could influence the risk of death by suicide and suicidal behaviours.
The bad news for everyone else is that Arsenal’s next generation is already here. Two mesmerising goals and an assist in a man-of-the-match display from Max Dowman underlined why the 16-year-old has been compared to a certain Lionel Messi by his manager, Mikel Arteta, as Ipswich were swatted aside with ease. Almost as impressive was the performance of the 17-year-old Marli Salmon, who oozed class in central defence on only the second senior start of his career.
Ipswich won here the last time these two sides met in this competition, in 2011, but were beaten 3-0 in the second leg of the semi-final at the Emirates before Arsenal infamously lost to Birmingham in the final. Fifteen years on, Gary O’Neil’s heavily rotated side stood no chance against last year’s runners up after Dowman’s brilliant opening goal. Noni Madueke and the stand-in skipper Mikel Merino were also on target as Arsenal made it seven wins out of seven to start the new campaign. Having finally ended their long wait for silverware in style, this team are hungry for more and know they can now rely on one of the most exciting talents ever to have emerged from their Hale End academy.
Tottenham scored and Roberto De Zerbi eulogised the quality at his disposal, yet try telling Spurs’ suffering away support there was consolation to be found at Anfield. Liverpool toyed with De Zerbi by advancing into round four with a quality of finishing that he can only dream of.
While the Spurs head coach talked a good game and his players played a pretty one in harmless areas, Liverpool produced the only effective one. Alexis Mac Allister promoted his claims for a new contract for the second midweek in succession with an excellent strike and Cody Gakpo continued his fine early season form with a smart second plus an assist. But both were overshadowed by Dominik Szoboszlai’s stupendous 25-yard finish in stoppage time.
England captain hits unbeaten 114 off 49 balls in first T20
Sonny Baker claims three wickets in 119-run victory
As he nears the end of a hectic summer, Harry Brook was offered the chance to rest rather than play this series and how Sri Lanka must wish Pakistan’s red-ball side had extended him enough to force a layoff. As it turned out, the 27-year-old could hardly have looked fresher as he inspired his side to an overwhelming win over emphatically outclassed opponents, a brilliant century powering England to a 19th victory in 22 completed games since he took over the captaincy, secured by the margin of 119 runs.
Brook cavorted to triple figures off 42 balls, of which precisely a third were dispatched to the boundary, six of them beyond it, and ended unbeaten on 114 as England posted 254. But as much as his power his running impressed, using the size of the ground and manipulation of angles to maximum advantage, aided occasionally by the tourists’ imperfection in the field, as he scurried a succession of twos.
Texas star called clip of coach slapping reporter ‘hilarious’
Manning: ‘Nothing funny about it … I need to do better’
Rowe posts that she accepts apology, will move forward
Texas’s star quarterback, Arch Manning, has apologized after joking about an AI-generated video that depicted Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian slapping ESPN college football reporter Holly Rowe after last Saturday’s game.
Manning had been asked at a press conference on Monday about the social media reaction to the Longhorns’ 24-23 upset win over No 1 Ohio State. Rowe had attempted to ask Sarkisian a question for the standard postgame interview, but the coach interrupted her and yelled a pair of Texas slogans before walking off.
Toronto film festival: There’s a surprisingly tame quality to the gorehound’s contribution to the rough and ready franchise and a general aimlessness that frustrates
Abel Ferrera’s Bad Lieutenant, starring Harvey Keitel as the eponymous coke-addled cop stumbling into crime scenes and contributing to the injustices, felt like it had us rooting around the mouldy and corroded interior of a back-alley dumpster, searching for a soul. A Takashi Miike adaptation seemed an appealingly foul idea. The maestro behind Audition and Ichi The Killer is known for punishing audiences with J-horror violence but with a formal elegance that we couldn’t look away from. His Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo should have been the perfect marriage of moral degradation and corporal desecrations.
The movie lives up to its promise when those extremes are giddily on the same page. But more often than not Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo is a confounding and frustrating mess, a smorgasbord of good ideas (and some bad ones) at odds with each other, barely held together by Shun Oguri’s wily performance.
Scandal explodes as country’s election campaign peaks, with polls suggesting dead heat between candidates
Brazil’s supreme court has been thrust into what experts consider the greatest crisis since the return of democracy in the 1980s, as two rival judges lock horns on the eve of the presidential election with unpredictable consequences for Latin America’s largest democracy.
The politically charged dispute exploded into public view on Tuesday as judges traded insults and accusations during a heated supreme court hearing that was livestreamed into millions of Brazilian homes.
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