Toronto film festival: Director Guy Nattiv draws on personal experience for an 80s-set tale of a woman abandoning her family for a creepy commune

We remain fascinated and horrified by the hows and whys of cult narratives, how someone could be so seduced by something so unknown and why they would then risk everything for it. Oscar-winning writer-director Guy Nattiv has been personally affected by these questions for most of his life, his grandmother joining a cult when he was a child and never coming back.

His attempt to try to understand who she was and why she acted in such a way has led to unsettling drama The Liberation, a fictionalised tale that acts as a form of therapy for him and a mostly successful antidote to more sensationalist cult stories for us. Enough Netflix docuseries and schlocky horror movies have given us a more extreme and often violent idea of how cults infect and destroy vulnerable people but Nattiv opts for a more thoughtful slow-burn. He’s recruited a suitably thoughtful actor in Carrie Coon, no stranger to this particular psychology having broken out in The Leftovers, one of the more intelligent cult dramas in recent years.

The Liberation is screening at the Toronto film festival and will be released later this year

Seeing a pallid, washed-out face in the mirror? Prepare to be diagnosed …

Name: Ferritin face.

Age: The name is new, but the symptoms are old.

The first console I ever bought, it was hyped as a threat to the PlayStation, then mocked as a flop. But now, as it marks its 25th anniversary, it’s looked back on with misty-eyed reverence

This week marks the 25th anniversary of the Nintendo GameCube, the first console I ever bought with my own money. I vividly remember getting on the bus after school with a year’s worth of savings safely zipped into the pocket of my bag and going to a branch of Currys, where I dumped a bunch of notes, coins and vouchers on the counter to collect my pre-order. (It turned out that some of the vouchers from the previous Christmas had expired, but the guy at the checkout clearly felt so sorry for me that he redeemed them anyway. If you’re out there, Currys guy: thank you for taking pity on a desperate 13-year-old.)

If it hadn’t been for the ill-fated Wii U console, whose failure to take off in 2012 resulted in the first unprofitable periods in Nintendo’s game-making history, the GameCube would be remembered as the company’s biggest flop aside from the infamous Virtual Boy, from 1995. Released in Japan this week in 2001 (and in May 2002 in Europe), this surprisingly powerful purple cube sold much less than the Xbox and the PlayStation 2. With its squat, colourful form and unusual controller, arranged around a big traffic-light-green A button and small analogue sticks designed for small hands, it had a hint of Fisher-Price about it.

Rescue workers say search for dozens of people hampered by lack of heavy machinery

A building housing about 100 displaced Palestinian families has collapsed in Gaza City, killing at least 20 people, as rescuers search the rubble for dozens of people believed to be trapped, including children.

A rescue team from Gaza’s civil defence said they had recovered the bodies of five children among the victims, while 25 injured people were taken to hospital. Medical sources said rescuers could hear the voices of people trapped beneath the rubble as they tried to reach them.

Commission president says EU must ‘urgently reimagine our partnerships’ as she makes unprecedented offer

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Canada has been invited to become the first “associate member” of the EU by the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen.

In an unprecedented offer, von der Leyen said on Wednesday that the EU and Canada “see the world with the same eyes” through shared democratic values and common approaches to many big issues, from AI to climate breakdown, the Ukraine war and geopolitics.

Thaçi held criminally responsible for war crimes during the violent break from Serbia in the 1990s

Von der Leyen says “kickstarting Europe’s economy is our number one priority,” as Europe needs to tap into its huge market, world class industries and services.

She says its single market remains too fragmented and needs to reform further, with the aim of completing it by the end of next year.

“Do we want to rally around our European idea that together we can decide our own destiny? Or do we let our democracies be undermined by the proxies and puppets of authoritarians?

Whether it is the ultra nationalist or the anti-European, whether it’s Russian interference or disinformation, the names may be different, but their goal is the same.

PM responds to criticism from former Bank of England chief economist

Wes Streeting, the defence secretary, has posted this on social media ahead of Andy Burnham’s meeting with the Nato secretary general Mark Rutte later.

Today I am reminded of the words of my Labour predecessor Denis Healey:

“Once we cut defence expenditure to the extent where our security is imperilled, we have no houses, we have no hospitals, we have no schools. We have a heap of cinders.”

[Britain] is leading, along with Nato allies, the push back against Russia’s dangerous and reckless campaign against us.

Collectively we will continue to strengthen our ability to deter and defend all allies, against any threat. Nato will not be intimidated by Russia’s campaign of hostile actions. Russia wants to stop us helping Ukraine – but their actions will only lead us to do more for Ukraine. Russia’s actions are a sign of weakness, and a symptom of Putin’s failure in Ukraine.

To stay transatlantic, Nato is becoming more European. A Nato with Europe, and Canada, spending more, producing more, and doing more for their security. This is the idea of Nato 3.0.

Building for the future. A stronger Europe, in a stronger Nato.

The 20-year-old forward was delighted with the faith put in him by Andoni Iraola for the Tottenham game and now wants to kick on

With a man of the match award in one hand and his phone in the other, Lewis Koumas made a very important call before stopping to speak to the media inside Anfield on Wednesday night. What it means to represent your boyhood club, and to shine for it, was apparent for all to see.

“That was my mum,” said the Liverpool forward, still beaming from the award that Cody Gakpo handed to him following the 3-1 Carabao Cup third round win over Tottenham. “She was here tonight with my nan, my granddad and my sister. They were all in the box. I rang them straight away to show them the trophy and they were buzzing.”

Andy Burnham will attend UN general assembly, where he is expected to try to drum up more support for Ukraine

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Andy Burnham is expected to meet Donald Trump for the first time in person at the UN general assembly next week in New York.

Last month the Guardian reported British officials had stepped up their preparations for a face-to-face meeting between Burnham and Trump after the prime minister said he hoped to attend the assembly of world leaders.

Global push will triple toxic e-waste annually in 25 years, filling enough shipping containers to circle globe six times

The ongoing campaign to build thousands of massive datacenters for AI will create a “tsunami” of discarded electronics, putting the world on a course to triple its annual generation of toxic e-waste in the next 25 years, a new report projects.

The electronic trash AI generates in the next 25 years could fill enough shipping containers to encircle the globe six times, it said. Yet, says the report by the non-profit environmental group Basel Action Network (BAN), there is no plan to deal with that waste – which typically contains toxics like lead, mercury, cadmium and forever chemicals, as well as valuable metals that are challenging to reclaim.

Tech CEOs banding together is an old ruse recycled from corporate America to get a pass from antitrust laws

Anthropic’s Dario Amodei is not the first corporate CEO to suggest that excessive competition is driving the world to some socially undesirable outcome.

The safety breach disclosed by OpenAI after a swarm of its agents coordinated to breach their supposedly secure sandbox, get on the Internet and hack AI platform Hugging Face, warrants urgent action. It demonstrated the ease with which the technology can evade human control and gave concrete form to the existential fears about what it could do to humanity if not securely leashed.

The 16-year-old Union star isn’t the first wunderkind to be feted by the American soccersphere

The trouble with trying not to hype up Cavan Sullivan is that he keeps on doing cool stuff. Like this past weekend, when he scampers along on a Philadelphia Union breakaway, loses his man by stopping so suddenly it’s as if he’s pulled a ripcord, back-heels the cutback behind his standing leg, watches it slowly kiss off the far post and in, and celebrated the goal by bowing and doffing an imaginary top hat to the crowd.

Like when he doubles the score by setting up an attack and finishing it himself with a left-footed lash through the goalkeeper’s legs form an acute angle. Like when he fashions yet another goal by holding up the play and then suddenly springs a teammate up the right flank.

Phil Heckels has turned his awful pet portraits into a full-time job. As a blueprint for success, embracing your lack of talent has obvious appeal

What do you get if you cross a complete lack of artistic talent with making lemonade out of life’s lemons? Phil Heckels, that’s what – or, rather, who. The former estate agent from West Sussex has turned being bad at drawing animals into a full-time job after posting a hilariously terrible portrait of his dog on social media. Friends started asking him to do awful pictures of their pets, word spread, and he’s now received more than 100,000 requests. His rules are that he only sees the photos immediately before he picks up his pen, he never restarts a drawing, and he doesn’t spend longer than 10 minutes on a creation. He also refuses to charge for his artworks – suggesting charity donations instead – but makes money through merchandise and books.

“I do get criticism sometimes that the portraits are getting too good,” Heckels said recently. “But people have been saying that since about my 12th portrait. You never have to wait too long for a real stinker to appear, though.”

Announcement of visa restrictions follows Trump’s false claims of ‘white genocide’ taking place in South Africa

The US has announced visa restrictions on some South Africans as Donald Trump’s administration continues to claim that South Africa’s government racially discriminates against white minority Afrikaners.

The announcement did not specify individuals who were barred from the US. Trump has spent his second term falsely claiming there is a “white genocide” in South Africa and railing against its affirmative action policies.

Poet in da Corner by Debris Stevenson revealed that acting in a theatre can have a lot in common with MCing in a club

By 2018 I was in my third or fourth year professionally as a grime MC and producer. I was 27 and didn’t have any aspirations in theatre. But Debris Stevenson, a good friend of mine, asked me to help her write one of the first drafts of a song in her play Poet in da Corner. I did that and then she invited me to a table reading session at the Royal Court to read the part of SS Vyper [a pirate radio DJ].

The theatre’s artistic director, Vicky Featherstone, said: “You read it so well you may as well be in the play!” I thought she was joking, but the next week I was in rehearsal.

for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, with music by Jammz, is at the Yard theatre, London, until 17 October

As told to Lindesay Irvine

US vice-president’s comments come as former Anthropic researcher revisits recent claim AI could destroy humanity

The US vice-president has dismissed calls for global regulation of AI safety risks, telling companies creating the most advanced models: “If you’re building Frankenstein, stop.”

In remarks addressed towards Dario Amodei, the co-founder of Anthropic who has called on Washington DC to coordinate control of AI systems, including with China, JD Vance said: “If you’re gonna create Frankenstein, don’t come to the government and say we need regulation.”

He risks his life for entertainment, but getting an anecdote out of him is a trickier matter. Happily, Cruise is no stranger to knuckling down and pulling off the impossible

By now, we’ve grown used to watching Tom Cruise excel at everything he does. Running in films? The best. Risking his life in action scenes so preposterously dangerous that audiences need to have their sphincters manually unclenched with a crowbar? Absolutely, none better. Singlehandedly ensuring that theatrical exhibition didn’t go extinct after Covid? The man deserves all the praise in the world for that.

But nobody is perfect. Live long enough and a few flaws will worm their way to the surface. This is as true for Tom Cruise as it is for anyone else. And while I realise that this might do me out of a cake this Christmas, the following really needs to be said: Tom Cruise isn’t very good at interviews.

The president’s assistant travelled with him to Ireland – which really shouldn’t be much of a story. But his comms team seems determined to make it one

Passport, money, emotional support human: Donald Trump had all the travel essentials on his recent trip to Ireland. The president flew into Dublin on Saturday morning to play golf, meet the country’s leaders and make provocative comments about unification. Melania didn’t accompany her husband on the trip (“Uh, she sends her regards,” Trump said), but his devoted aide Natalie Harp was obviously at his side.

You’ll know Harp: the 35-year-old assistant was headline news last month after Democratic senator Jon Ossoff quipped that Trump didn’t want to do his job; he just wanted to “build his ballroom and travel with Natalie”. That comment would have been quickly forgotten were it not for the Trump administration’s unhinged response (sample: “Jon Jackoff has to be the biggest cuck loser in politics”), which sparked a media frenzy. There was suddenly a spotlight on Harp, who is nicknamed the “human printer” because she trails the president with a portable printer, ready to hand him hard copies of flattering coverage. She appears to be disturbingly obsessed with her boss and he seems to appreciate the attention: it was recently revealed that Trump gave her (and two other female aides) a cash gift of $45,000 (£33,000) for a nice holiday.

Not only would the plan do vast economic damage – it assumes that Americans are easily bamboozled

Whenever Donald Trump gives a speech, it’s filled with so many lies and self-serving exaggerations that when he does utter something true, I see that as a sort of marvel. That’s what happened nearly an hour into Trump’s marathon speech last Wednesday at the Republican midterm convention, when he declared: “Only I can make this promise to you.” Trump said that just before he made a promise that was so shameless and irresponsible that what he said was indeed true: only Donald Trump could make such a preposterous promise.

Feeling very generous with other people’s money, Trump promised to give $5,000 to every American adult if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in November. It certainly looked and smelled like a bribe.

Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labor and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues

Hayao Miyazaki-scripted 90s teen romance sees an aspiring writer drawn to a potential soulmate thanks to library books and a curmudgeonly cat

While 2013’s The Wind Rises and 2023’s The Boy and the Heron saw Hayao Miyazaki break his wizard’s staff, artistically speaking, this lesser-known Studio Ghibli cut from 1995, based on his screenplay, shows he was dwelling on creative responsibilities from early on. Featuring a typical Ghibli protagonist on the brink of adulthood – aspiring schoolkid writer Shizuku (voiced by Yōko Honna) – this teen romance doubles up as an earnest pep talk on how to commit to the artistic life. It’s not quite as sophisticated, though, in its understanding of the interplay between imagination and reality as Miyazaki’s later masterpieces.

It also features highly inventive use of that 2010s soundtrack favourite: John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads. Shizuku shows off her fledgling penmanship for a school performance of the song devising hilarious Japanese lyrics that satirise Tokyo’s “concrete roads”. But while her writing shows promise, her love life remains in the fantasy realm. Mainlining library books, she realises that the same name, Seiji Amasawa, keeps appearing on the lists of previous borrowers. It feels like fate is pointing her towards a soulmate – especially when a curmudgeonly cat leads her “like in a story” to an intriguing curio shop near the library.