A report by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China says the UK’s approach to China is beset by incoherence and lacks senior expertise. The Guardian reports that the audit says past engagement with Beijing exposed the UK to risks of interference without delivering promised opportunities.
A report from the Prosperity Institute thinktank calls for the government to freeze the minimum wage for five years, a proposal endorsed by shadow business minister Andrew Sharpe as a way to address low youth employment. The Guardian reports that the move could cost low-paid workers almost £9,000 over five years, while Labour called the idea tin-eared.
The Guardian reports a court sentenced Cockroach Janata party movement leaders Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das to five days in Delhi’s Tihar prison after they entered Jantar Mantar, where protests are banned, jumping police barricades, raising slogans and waving the Indian flag. The South China Morning Post’s headline says they were jailed over protests against alleged voter-roll manipulation.
The Guardian reports an escalating crackdown on LGBTQ+ people in Senegal following the toughening of a law criminalising homosexuality. Citing a Human Rights Watch report, it says more than 320 people have been arrested and detained since February on allegations of acts against nature, at least 84 of them charged with voluntary HIV transmission solely on the basis of their HIV status; the report also describes forced HIV testing and barriers to legal representation.
Joni Mitchell has become a U.S. citizen, The Guardian reports. The Canada-born singer-songwriter posted footage of her citizenship ceremony on Instagram and a photo beside an American flag, calling it a journey that began 62 years ago; she first moved to the U.S. in the mid-1960s and can now vote in U.S. elections, something she had complained she could not do. CBC also reports her citizenship and describes it as a journey that began 62 years ago.
The Guardian reports that Israel is refusing to let a US-led project to build a military outpost in Gaza for Donald Trump’s Board of Peace proceed. The project, intended to house 150 international troops as the vanguard of an international stabilization force, was contracted to Louisiana-based Arkel International in early August.
A fresh wave of protests by India's youth-led Cockroach movement has faced a crackdown by Narendra Modi's government and the closure of a historic protest site in Delhi, The Guardian reports. The Guardian says two movement leaders were imprisoned for five days for violating suppression measures, and protests that began over education and unemployment are now focused on voting rights. The government denies seeking to disenfranchise millions of voters; The Guardian says the treatment of protesters has drawn criticism from the UN and Amnesty International and raised concerns about autocracy. France 24 also describes the protests as defying the government.
An analysis links mines in the battery supply chains of Volkswagen, Ford and Tesla to deforestation in nickel-rich lands inhabited by the Tolaki people in Sulawesi, Indonesia. The Guardian reports that corporate disclosures and trade flows from the past two years show the mines are linked to the loss of primary rainforest; batteries from the carmakers may contain nickel from these areas.
US lawmakers unveiled a bill to hold Wall Street bosses described as Epstein-connected accountable for helping finance Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, The Guardian reports. CNBC reports that Democrats Elizabeth Warren and Robert Garcia are eyeing banks with ties to Epstein; the articles do not establish whether that effort is part of the bill. The Guardian also reports that Warren criticized Barclays over its response to questions about former boss Jes Staley’s ties to Epstein and the bank’s failure to vet him.
Young Americans are using food-delivery apps such as DoorDash and Uber Eats more habitually, while feeling guilty about paying extra fees for convenience, The Guardian reports. The article describes a 24-year-old nanny in Raleigh who says she orders delivery frequently and often feels bad about it.
Aardman, the British animation studio behind Wallace & Gromit, narrowed its annual loss to £1.1m but fell short of its aim to return to profit in 2025, according to its accounts. The employee-owned business had recorded losses for two consecutive years and was aiming for a small profit, but production delays and a challenging market in children’s content hindered its recovery.
The Guardian reports that a customer says BT billed them £32.99 a month for more than a year despite having no functioning landline. The customer says the line stopped working after BT switched it to Digital Voice in May 2025, and that engineers later found a severed wire but did not return to reconnect it.
Peru fully closed its anchoveta fishing season in mid-August after suspending fishing on June 10, The Guardian reports. The outlet describes the crisis as a perfect storm involving warming seas, decades of overfishing and a super El Niño; it says the closure dealt a blow to Peru’s economy and an industry that supplies fishmeal and fish oil worldwide.
The Guardian argues that voters’ opposition to the state of the economy remains a challenge for Donald Trump ahead of the midterm elections, despite his efforts to deflect criticism. It says political polarization has reduced and confused the influence of economic conditions on US elections, and reports that the share of Republicans who thought the economy was getting worse fell from 65% in September 2024 to 33% about six months later, as Trump launched tariffs.
In a Guardian opinion piece, Larry Elliott says the global economy is muddling through despite regional wars, an energy shock, rising inflation and US-China trade tensions, with their impact so far modest. He writes that finance ministers and central bank governors meeting for the IMF’s annual gathering in Bangkok know multilateral cooperation is needed to address the crises, but says there is little chance of it.
The Guardian reports that families in Allen, in Argentine Patagonia’s Vaca Muerta shale region, describe cancers, miscarriages, stillbirths and other illnesses, as well as pollution. Residents say the problems began 13 years ago, when a gas and oil well was drilled near their homes; their accounts do not establish that the drilling caused the illnesses.
The government has not said when the public will be able to freely access information about who owns large plots of land in England and Wales, The Guardian reports. Defra promised in March to work towards free access to data on large plots, after Emma Reynolds, the previous environment secretary, announced that the paywall protecting much of the Land Registry would be partly lifted.
The grid operator paid £47.9m on Wednesday to balance Great Britain's power grid, as windfarms were switched off in areas with excess electricity and gas plants turned on where supplies were tight. The Guardian reports that bottlenecks in transmitting power around the country contributed to the cost, which has risen to almost £50m a day.
The Guardian reports that Bybi, an urban beekeeping collective in Copenhagen, has built a community around honey production, much of which is given away. Staff and volunteers are involved in the project, whose founder, Oliver Maxwell, sees it as a response to concerns about the modern economic system and asks whether it could be replicated elsewhere.
A Guardian podcast reports that a Manchester City representative was present on a government trade trip to India and discusses accusations that Andy Burnham seriously misjudged his comments about meetings with the club’s owners. The Guardian had earlier reported that Manchester City staff were invited on the trip to promote UK tourism.