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The GuardianScandalUAE
Khaldoon al-Mubarak: the tightrope walker who made rare misstep over City charges

Khaldoon al-Mubarak: the tightrope walker who made rare misstep over City charges

Manchester City’s chair is key to the project of making Abu Dhabi a secure world power but his next move may be the sale of the club No one better understands the precarious tightrope Abu Dhabi walks when it tries to balance its relationships with western Europe while weighing the complex geopolitics of the Gulf region than Manchester City’s chair, Khaldoon al-Mubarak. He was eight when his father, ambassador Khalifa Ahmed Abdel Aziz al-Mubarak, left the family Paris apartment for work on 9 February 1984 and was assassinated on the street in cold blood by a Palestinian terrorist. And no one outside the emirate’s royal family could be more wrapped up in the project of making and maintaining Abu Dhabi as a significant and secure world power and the dominant member of the United Arab Emirates, a nation state still only 55 years old. His paternal grandfather, Ahmad Bin Abdul Aziz al-Mubarak, was chair of Abu Dhabi’s Sharia judicial department and senior adviser to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, the founding president of the UAE. As such, Ahmad Bin Abdul Aziz was the James Madison of the UAE (the founding father, not the Spurs player) in that he crafted the Islamic legal framework of the new nation in the 1970s.

2h ago
The GuardianLifeCalifornia
Why Arturo Béjar left Meta – and blew the whistle: ‘I don’t recall Mark ever being empathetic’

Why Arturo Béjar left Meta – and blew the whistle: ‘I don’t recall Mark ever being empathetic’

Béjar’s daughter was 14 when she told him Instagram was failing to keep her safe. So when he became part of Meta’s ‘wellbeing team’, he knew he had to speak out – and his testimony cost it billions The Social Reckoning hits cinemas this Friday, but the real world has already been working on a sequel – or rather, a threequel. Directed by Aaron Sorkin, the movie is a follow-up to The Social Network, detailing the further misadventures of Mark Zuckerberg and his social media empire, and in particular Frances Haugen, the employee who in 2021 leaked internal documents that appeared to show Facebook was aware of the harms its products had inflicted. It’s no spoiler to reveal the film climaxes with Haugen’s testimony to the US Senate, on 5 October 2021. That very same day, Arturo Béjar, a consultant on the wellbeing team of Instagram (which is also owned by Facebook), hit send on a long-gestating email to Zuckerberg and other senior Facebook executives on a similar theme. “I wanted to bring to your attention what I believe is a critical gap in how we as a company approach harm, and how the people we serve experience it,” Béjar began, before laying out some shocking statistics from his team’s survey. For example: 24.4% of 13-15-year-olds on Instagram said they had received unwanted advances, and 21.8% said they had been the target of bullying on the platform in the past seven days. Furthermore, 51% of Instagram users said they had had a bad or harmful experience in the past seven days. Only 1% of them reported it, and of those, 2% had the content taken down – so just 0.02%. This was a far greater degree of harm than the company’s existing measurements suggested. Zuckerberg never replied.

6h ago
The GuardianScandalHudson Valley
Leon Botstein resigns from Bard roles as key Democrat demands investigation into Epstein links

Leon Botstein resigns from Bard roles as key Democrat demands investigation into Epstein links

Jamie Raskin says ‘startling’ email asked whether young woman was ‘for me, or are you keeping her for yourself’ A powerful Democratic lawmaker has called for a criminal investigation into former Bard College president Leon Botstein after congressional investigators uncovered an email from Botstein to accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein in which he says Botstein asked if a young woman was “for me, or are you keeping her for yourself”. The latest development appears to have triggered the immediate resignation of Botstein from all Bard-affiliated positions, including his professorship and roles in Bard’s music programs. Botstein had led the college for 50 years and only recently stepped down as president.

16h ago
BBCHumanityIndonesia
Teacher who sexually abused pupil back in Indonesia jail after BBC investigation

Teacher who sexually abused pupil back in Indonesia jail after BBC investigation

A former teacher who sexually assaulted a student has been returned to jail in Indonesia after a BBC investigation revealed he was secretly released early. Mochamad Subchi Azal Tsani, known as Bechi, was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2022 after being convicted of sexually assaulting a female student at his father's prominent Islamic boarding school in East Java, where he worked as a teacher.

1h ago
The GuardianClimateWorld
Q&A: ‘Are the warnings all hype?’ – our environment writers answered your El Niño questions

Q&A: ‘Are the warnings all hype?’ – our environment writers answered your El Niño questions

Guardian reporters Jonathan Watts and Gabrielle Canon answered your question climate and extreme weather, from what to expect this winter in the UK to the increasing risk of natural disasters funkymentalist asks: Unrelated to El Niño, what is the likelihood of the AMOC (Atlantic meridional overturning circulation) shutting down? Jon says: I don’t think these two things are unrelated. Everything is affected by climate breakdown. And both El Niño and the slowdown of AMOC are related to the staggeringly huge amounts (see this article on zettajoules which I also referred to above) of extra energy that the oceans are being forced to absorb as a result of greenhouse gas burning. Quick refresher for any readers who are unfamiliar with this topic: “Amoc, or the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, is a system of ocean currents that brings heat into the northern Atlantic. Warm surface water from the tropics flows north and releases its heat in the subpolar Atlantic, south of Greenland and west of Britain and Ireland. Then it cools and sinks to a depth of between 2,000m to 3,000 metres before returning south as a cold current. Amoc is one of our planet’s largest heat transport systems, moving the equivalent of 50 times the human energy use, and it has a particularly strong impact on the climate in Europe, affects the ocean’s CO2 uptake and oxygen supply, as well as rainfall patterns in the tropics.” Gaby says: The name “El Niño” actually harkens back to long before forecasters used the phenomenon to track global weather patterns. Fishermen off the coast of South America began to track unusually warm water that would show up every few years right around Christmas - thus “The Little Boy” referring to the Christ child in Spanish. Scientists adopted the name, and added “La Niña” as its counterpart (when sea surface temperatures cool), and together they became ENSO - the El Niño Southern Oscillation. This year, though, feel free to call it “El Monstruo Gordo!” It’s going to be a big one.

21h ago
The GuardianClimateCalifornia
Landslides, flash floods and raging seas: is California ready for the ravages of El Niño?

Landslides, flash floods and raging seas: is California ready for the ravages of El Niño?

A mix of natural disasters could all befall the state at once as it finds itself in the crosshairs of the climate phenomenon On a cloudless autumn afternoon, sunlight sparkled on the water that had quietly swallowed a busy intersection to the north of San Francisco, as the surrounding rush-hour traffic slowed to a painful crawl. There were no crashing waves or storm surges to blame for the flood. Marin county was one of many areas up and down the California coast affected by high tides last week, as parts of the Pacific swelled with excess warmth.

1d ago
The GuardianWar & ConflictUkraine
Russian attack on bus kills at least 30 people near Ukraine frontline

Russian attack on bus kills at least 30 people near Ukraine frontline

Governor says Kremlin ‘deliberately targeting civilians’ after strike in Kramatorsk, which also wounded 18 and set second bus on fire Europe live – latest updates A Russian missile strike on a bus in the eastern city of Kramatorsk has killed at least 30 people, officials said on Thursday, in one of the worst attacks by Moscow on Ukrainian civilians this year. The regional prosecutor’s office in the Donetsk region said the vehicle had been hit at 10am by an aerial bomb. “As of now, the death toll from this morning’s attack has risen to 30. Eighteen people were wounded,” it said, adding that all local public transport had been suspended.

3h ago
Irish IndependentWar & ConflictUkraine
Russian strike kills 33 on street in eastern Ukrainian city

Russian strike kills 33 on street in eastern Ukrainian city

BreakingRussian strike kills 33 on street in eastern Ukrainian city Smoke rises over the city during a Russian jet-powered drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, October 8, 2026. REUTERS/Anna Voitenko © REUTERSDan Peleschuk8 Oct 2026 11:30 AMShareA Russian bomb attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk killed at least 33 people, authorities have said, describing it as a targeted strike on civilians in the key stronghold sought by Moscow.Another 18 people were wounded in one of the largest single attacks this year, which took place on a street where police said two city buses were operating at the time of the strike.

4h ago
Irish IndependentWar & ConflictEastern Europe
Russian strike on buses kills 33 in eastern Ukraine

Russian strike on buses kills 33 in eastern Ukraine

BreakingRussian strike on buses kills 33 in eastern Ukraine Firefighters work at the site of a Russian air strike, where a bus was hit, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the city of Kramatorsk, in Donetsk region, Ukraine October 8, 2026. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Donetsk region/Handout via REUTERS © via REUTERSDan Peleschuk8 Oct 2026 11:30 AMShareA Russian bomb attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk killed at least 33 people, authorities have said, describing it as a targeted strike on civilians in the key stronghold sought by Moscow.Another 18 people were wounded in one of the largest single attacks this year, which took place on a street where police said two city buses were operating at the time of the strike.

4h ago
BBCScandalNew York City
New York court hears arguments in ongoing 9/11 families' lawsuit against Saudi Arabia

New York court hears arguments in ongoing 9/11 families' lawsuit against Saudi Arabia

The Court of Appeals in New York has heard arguments from both lawyers for families of 9/11 victims and the government of Saudi Arabia as it decides whether the families' long-running legal case against the Middle Eastern country can move to trial. Almost 3,000 people were killed on 11 September 2001 after hijackers seized four US passenger jets and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field, following resistance from passengers.

15h ago
The GuardianElectionsWyoming
Trump administration sued over plans to send election monitors to voting sites

Trump administration sued over plans to send election monitors to voting sites

NAACP files lawsuit after head of DoJ’s civil rights division says she hopes to send election monitors to polls The Trump administration has been sued over its plans to deploy “a historic number” of election monitors to polling stations during next month’s midterm elections. The bid “stands to jeopardize” the elections and could “interfere with the right of voters to participate in the election free from intimidation”, according to the NAACP, which filed a lawsuit against Harmeet Dhillon, head of the justice department’s civil rights division, who has said she hopes to send 1,000 monitors to midterm polling sites in November.

1d ago
The TelegraphEducationLondon
Investigate how Arday was promoted as Cambridge ‘success story’, say dons

Investigate how Arday was promoted as Cambridge ‘success story’, say dons

University of Cambridge academics have demanded that the Jason Arday review considers the university’s culpability in promoting him as “a success story”. In a letter to Chris Smith, Cambridge’s chancellor, more than 40 academics said the university’s decision to make the late professor “highly visible, presenting his race, age, disability and personal biography as part of a major institutional ‘success’ story”, was directly connected to the “racialised, ableist and disproportionate hounding” he received.

18h ago
The GuardianScandalUnited Kingdom
Senior academics set out key questions Cambridge must answer over Jason Arday’s death

Senior academics set out key questions Cambridge must answer over Jason Arday’s death

Letter from more than 40 signatories says university has backed away from promised thorough review of events before death Senior Cambridge academics have criticised the university’s plans to investigate Prof Jason Arday’s death as inadequate, and said those responsible for “serious failures of leadership” should face consequences. In a letter to Chris Smith, Cambridge’s chancellor, the academics said “it is not yet clear” how the proposed review will answer difficult questions about the university’s involvement in the events leading up to Arday’s death, including its handling of the criticism Arday suffered after his appointment as professor of sociology of education in 2023.

1d ago
The GuardianPoliticiansWest Midlands
‘People are scared of her, to be honest’: Kemi Badenoch remakes Tories in her image

‘People are scared of her, to be honest’: Kemi Badenoch remakes Tories in her image

At Conservative conference, some worry about becoming a one-woman party, while others say party should thank their lucky stars they have her UK politics live – latest updates Kemi Badenoch has long said that the Conservatives were “under new management”, but in a TV interview to mark the end of a party conference at which she has been front and centre of more or less everything, she took the analogy further. “Your viewers will know that sometimes you have a football team that’s disappointing,” the Tory leader told GB News. “There’s a new captain, there’s a new coach, there’s a new owner, effectively – which is all me.”

1d ago
The GuardianPoliticiansWest Midlands
Kemi Badenoch is the most rightwing leader in Tory history. Isn’t it time she got some actual scrutiny? | Owen Jones

Kemi Badenoch is the most rightwing leader in Tory history. Isn’t it time she got some actual scrutiny? | Owen Jones

Farage’s scandals have allowed Badenoch to get her party back in the race. But her programme would be no less ruinous for our country The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, will march on to the conference stage in Birmingham feeling buoyed. “Kemi’s soaring,” coos the Sun, and that sums up the prevailing wisdom. More than four in 10 Britons think she is doing well as Tory leader, compared with a third who think otherwise. As Nigel Farage’s stock has plummeted thanks to scandals over a £5m personal gift and donations from crypto billionaires, the polling suggests that the Conservatives could regain the mantle of Britain’s main rightwing force. Yet Badenoch has been the beneficiary of circumstance. Her tenure as opposition leader has been defined by Keir Starmer’s project imploding almost as soon as it gained power. When Reform UK enjoyed its seismic polling lead, the Tory plight was double-edged: they were starved of attention, but that inevitably resulted in a lack of scrutiny, too. It has been easy for Badenoch to appear formidable while her opponents have disintegrated. Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

1d ago
Daily PostDiplomacyBayern (Bavaria)
Ex-German spy chief arrested over alleged treason, espionage

Ex-German spy chief arrested over alleged treason, espionage

Former German intelligence chief, August Hanning has been arrested on suspicion of passing state secrets to a foreign intelligence service, Germany’s federal prosecutors have said. Hanning, 80, who headed the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) from December 1998 to November 2005, is accused of espionage, treason and obtaining classified information for a foreign power. According to […] Ex-German spy chief arrested over alleged treason, espionage

1d ago
The GuardianHumanityUnited Kingdom
As it happened: Israel condemns Green party passing ‘Zionism is racism’ as a ‘stain on history of UK’

As it happened: Israel condemns Green party passing ‘Zionism is racism’ as a ‘stain on history of UK’

Party formally adopts policy which equates Zionism with racism, as all Green party votes to adopt policy that equates Zionism with racism On Friday the Times revealed that Katie Lam, the communities secretary, told a meeting in private earlier this year that the state pension system needs a fundamental overhaul. Speaking in June, when she was a frontbencher but not yet in the shadow cabinet, Lam was asked at a meeting with activists if she thought the pensions triple lock was sustainable. She replied: Ultimately I think what we will need in the end is an entirely new pension system. I mean, a baby that is born today has a 20% chance of living to be 100 and I don’t think we can fund one in five people half of their lives, you know, for the first 20 and the last 30 years. But obviously if you are 90 you probably can’t go out and get a job right, so I think you have to be realistic about how you would taper that and bring that in across the population. The fact is, the triple lock and pensions are things that people have contributed to. Conservatives believe that if you have contributed, then you deserve to get your state pension.

3d ago
The GuardianWar & ConflictIsrael
Israel marks third anniversary of 7 October Hamas attacks | First Thing

Israel marks third anniversary of 7 October Hamas attacks | First Thing

Site of the Nova music festival near Re’im one of the locations where grieving relatives have gathered. Plus, the unlikely legal tussle over a ‘brain rot’ meme Don’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up here Good morning. Israel is holding ceremonies and gatherings to mark the third anniversary of the 7 October attack by Hamas, in which about 1,200 people were killed and another 251 taken captive to Gaza. Israeli communities shattered by the massacres, torn between rebuilding their lives and remembering lost friends and relatives, have spoken to Emma Graham-Harrison about their experiences of that day and the days since. The Guardian is marking the day with a live blog, featuring the latest images of events taking place in Israel and around the world. Israel’s government responded to the attack by launching a devastating war on Gaza, during which at least 74,243 people have been killed, according to the territory’s health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN. What is happening with the flydubai attack investigation? New Zealand authorities have launched their own investigation into the flydubai co-pilot who allegedly tried to hijack an Israel-bound plane, after police confirmed he underwent flight training there about a year after he abandoned a degree in Australia. Disaster was narrowly averted on 30 September when passengers and crew intervened to stop the alleged attempt to take control of a flight to Tel Aviv with 182 people onboard. What it is the latest settler violence? Armed Israeli settlers beat a photographer in the presence of Israeli soldiers, hospitalising him, as he covered worsening settler violence against olive farmers in the occupied West Bank. Jaafar Ashtiyeh, a 58-year-old veteran photographer for Agence France-Presse in Palestine, was beaten with the butts of rifles, despite him being marked as press, in view of about a dozen armed Israeli soldiers. Who is the latest person taking legal action against the administration’s immigration enforcement? Marimar Martinez, a US citizen who was shot one year ago by a Customs and Border Protection agent during a sweeping immigration crackdown in Chicago, has filed a lawsuit against the federal government, alleging the agent lied about the shooting and fired into her vehicle from behind. What has a whistleblower said about FBI investigations into LA anti-ICE protesters? Alex Padilla, a Democratic senator who represents California and serves on the Senate judiciary committee, said his office had received a copy of a complaint from a whistleblower that makes sweeping allegations about the Trump administration’s response to protests in LA in early 2025, claiming the president himself ordered the FBI to investigate protesters.

1d ago
The GuardianHumanityNashville
Christa Pike is conscious and speaking after botched execution attempt, lawyers say

Christa Pike is conscious and speaking after botched execution attempt, lawyers say

The prisoner received two doses of pentobarbital last Wednesday as authorities tried to put her to death Christa Pike, a Tennessee prisoner who survived the state’s attempt to execute her, is awake and speaking as she receives treatment at a hospital, her attorneys said on Tuesday. Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital as Tennessee officials attempted to put her to death in a case that shocked many in America and created headlines around the world. She was set to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

1d ago
The GuardianPoliticians
California to ‘actively monitor’ for possible threats after Trump said Iran could ‘take out’ LA and San Diego

California to ‘actively monitor’ for possible threats after Trump said Iran could ‘take out’ LA and San Diego

Gavin Newsom said state’s threat-assessment center would be on heightened alert after president’s remarks California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, on Tuesday directed the state’s emergency preparedness center to “actively monitor” possible threats to the state after Donald Trump suggested Iran could “take out” the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego. Trump has faced a chorus of condemnation from Democratic leaders in California after his comments at a rally in Nebraska on Monday night, which the White House has suggested were being taken out of context.

1d ago
The GuardianElectionsLondon
Labour figures rule out working with Greens after ‘Zionism is racism’ vote

Labour figures rule out working with Greens after ‘Zionism is racism’ vote

Minister says they could not see parties cooperating, while official says coalition should be formally ruled out Senior Labour party figures said it is very unlikely their party would cooperate with the Greens in the future after they adopted a policy treating Zionism as a form of racism. One Labour minister said they could not foresee how the two parties could work together, while a government official said Labour should formally rule out a future coalition or other arrangement.

1d ago
The GuardianWellnessToronto
Canada to indefinitely bar mental illness as sole reason for access to euthanasia

Canada to indefinitely bar mental illness as sole reason for access to euthanasia

Legislation is an effort by ruling Liberals to address growing clash over who has access to doctor-assisted death Canada’s federal government said Wednesday it would advance legislation to prevent people whose sole health condition is mental illness from accessing euthanasia, an effort by the ruling Liberal party to address a clash in the country over who has access to physician-assisted death. Under the current rules, people whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness have been barred from accessing medical assistance in dying (Maid) to end their lives. But that ban – due to be lifted in March – has divided lawmakers over whether to permit this expansion of the Maid program. In Canada, Crisis Services Canada can be contacted at any time on 1.833.456.4566, or via text on 45645 from 4pm-12am ET. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

20h ago
The TelegraphHumanity
From Yale to the Congo: The mathematician who became one of Africa’s most intrepid reporters

From Yale to the Congo: The mathematician who became one of Africa’s most intrepid reporters

In 2005, when the award winning journalist and author Anjan Sundaram was 22 and studying mathematics at Yale, he opened up the New York Times one day and noticed a small article on the bottom of a page about the Democratic Republic of Congo, which said that four million people had been killed there during the war. “And it just didn’t make sense to me that this wasn’t on the front page,” he says.

1h ago