Start in Perth: 10.20am local/1.20pm AEDT/2.20am GMT Ashes top 100 | Our predictions | The omens | Mail Martin Weather check: A typical day is forecast in Perth with a relatively cool morning – it is 20C at 7.30am AWST – and mostly sunny conditions expected on the way to a high of 28C. The wind will pick up in the afternoon. Though England players and onsite fans might be surprised to learn that the famed Fremantle Doctor – the sea breeze that rolls across the city most afternoons – has limited impact at Perth Stadium. A petition for a plaque at the Waca commemorating the best of the game’s swing bowlers starts here. Good morning, Australia. Good evening, England. Hello to everyone checking in from other parts of the globe. Because, finally, it is time to end the jibes and banter and contentious countdowns. To put the squad analysis and injury news and tasty press conference nuggets to one side. To give the rewritten histories space to evolve and fresh origin stories room to grow. To put the pre-series speculation out of sight and the bold predictions out of mind. For the phoney war has been declared a nil-all draw. The build up is all but done. And after 844 days without the oldest rivals in the game flinging a red sphere at each other across 22 yards, we have reached day one of the first Test of the 2025-26 Ashes. Continue reading...

Public health and autism specialists roundly condemn alteration to the ‘vaccine safety’ webpage A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website has been changed to reflect the belief of Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health and human services secretary, that there is a link between vaccines and autism, a view flatly contradicted by experts and scientifically validated studies. Public health and autism specialists roundly condemned the alteration to the CDC’s “vaccine safety” webpage, after it was changed to read: “The statement ‘Vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim.” Continue reading...

Exclusive: Clinical guidelines should change to avoid exposing young people to potentially harmful side-effects, researchers say Clinical guidelines should no longer recommend Prozac for children, according to experts, after research showed it had no clinical benefit for treating depression in children and adolescents. Globally one in seven 10-19 year olds have a mental health condition, according to the World Health Organization. In the UK, about a quarter of older teenagers and up to a fifth of younger children have anxiety, depression or other mental health problems. Continue reading...

Technology secretary fears digital frontier may be outpacing regulator, with AI chatbots a particular concern The UK’s internet regulator, Ofcom, is at risk of losing public trust if it fails to use its powers to tackle online harms, the technology secretary, Liz Kendall, has said. Kendall last week told Ofcom’s chief executive, Melanie Dawes, she was deeply disappointed at the pace of the regulator’s enforcement of parts of the Online Safety Act, which is intended to protect the public from harms caused by a wide range of online platforms, from social media to pornography websites. Continue reading...

The spoils were shared at Stamford Bridge between Chelsea and their Champions League torturers Barcelona, but it will be Sonia Bompastor’s side that will be the more frustrated of the two. It was a battling performance from the home team and Ellie Carpenter’s failure to add her second late on from close range will haunt them, as will the substitute Catarina Macario’s narrowest of offside efforts that had both looked sure to give the Blues all three points. Continue reading...

PM says he aims to secure investment to help deal with cost of living and shore up support for Ukraine Keir Starmer has defended his decision to travel to South Africa for the G20 summit days before the budget and despite the planned absence of Donald Trump. The prime minister will arrive in South Africa on Friday morning for two days of summit discussions and bilateral talks on topics including sustainability and economic growth. Continue reading...

The tale of Prof Sarah Blagden’s attempt to find a treatment that stops the disease is the rarest of things – TV that makes you dare to hope Cancer Detectives: Finding the Cures should come with a rare warning: may make you feel hopeful for humanity and marginally less convinced that we are all willingly leaping into a handcart and smoothing our own paths to hell. This is an hour that outlines the work being done to create vaccines against cancers. Lung cancer, specifically, at the moment – 50,000 cases of which are diagnosed each year in the UK and which is the most common cause of cancer-related death – but with the potential to prevent many more types in the future. Continue reading...

All the bleak tenderness from the musician’s novel makes it into this heartbreaking screen adaptation of a father-and-son road trip where the dad relentlessly pursues sex. It will undo you The travelling salesman used to be a stock figure – a centrepiece for jokes about man’s priapism, the untameable wanderlust of the peen once free of its domestic shackles. The Death of Bunny Munro, adapted from Nick Cave’s 2009 book of the same name by Pete Jackson and keeping all its bleak tenderness and unforgiving brutality, gives us the tragedy that lies the other side of any comic character worth its salt. Cosmetics salesman Bunny (Matt Smith, a brilliant and still underrated actor, plus the best Doctor of modern times, please send an SAE for my monograph on this subject) is out on the road, sampling another young lady’s wares, when we meet him. His wife, Libby (Sarah Greene, perfectly cast as a fierce, loving woman broken by depression and her husband’s choices) calls him. He dismisses her and returns to his sampling. When he returns the next day he finds that she has killed herself. They have a nine-year-old son, Bunny Jr, played by Rafael Mathé, who gives an absolutely wonderful, heartbreaking performance, treading the thinnest of lines between knowing everything and nothing about his father and about his own likely future. At first, Bunny Sr tries to palm him off on Libby’s mother (Lindsay Duncan), who, in a harrowing post-funeral scene, refuses. But when social services arrive to take the boy into care, Bunny’s pride or conscience is pricked. The pair light out of the window and head off on a road trip along the south coast, and a father-son bonding experience. Traditionally, these are good things. But Cave is not a traditional writer and this is not a traditional tale. Continue reading...

Leading US stock markets tumble less than 24 hours after strong results from chipmaker Nvidia sparked gains Fears of a growing bubble around the artificial intelligence frenzy resurfaced on Thursday as leading US stock markets fell, less than 24 hours after strong results from chipmaker Nvidia sparked a rally. Wall Street initially rose after Nvidia, the world’s largest public company, reassured investors of strong demand for its advanced data center chips. But the relief dissipated, and technology stocks at the heart of the AI boom came under pressure. Continue reading...

Event thrown into confusion after conference centre evacuated but UN says no one has been hurt Brazilian president will take fossil fuel phase-out plan to G20 summit Talks at the Cop30 climate summit in Brazil were disrupted on Thursday after a fire broke out in the venue, triggering an evacuation just as negotiators were hunkering down to try to land a deal to strengthen international efforts to address climate change. United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres, had appealed earlier in the day for a deal from the summit, welcoming calls from some for clarity on the hotly disputed subject of weaning the world off fossil fuels. Continue reading...

We’ve cut through the noise to find genuinely good early Black Friday 2025 discounts on Filter-recommended products across home, kitchen and beauty • Big savings – or big regrets? How to shop smart this Black Friday Like Christmas Day, Black Friday has long since ceased to be a mere “day”. Yuletide now seems to start roughly when Strictly does, and Black Friday kicked off around Halloween, judging by the landfill of exclamation-marked emails weighing down my inbox. Black Friday is a devil worth dancing with if you want to save money on products you’ve had your eye on – and it can pay to start dancing now. Some of the Filter’s favourite items are already floating around at prices clearly designed to make them sell out fast. Other deals won’t land until the big day itself on 28 November, or even until the daftly named Cyber Monday (1 December). Continue reading...

Trump called group of lawmakers ‘traitors’ over an X video of them urging military members to refuse illegal orders US politics live – latest updates Democrats expressed outrage after Donald Trump accused a group of Democratic lawmakers of being “traitors” and said that they should be arrested and punished “by death” after they posted a video in which they told active service members that they should refuse illegal orders. The video, which was released on Tuesday, features six Democratic lawmakers who have previously served in the military or in intelligence roles, including senators Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly, and representatives Maggie Goodlander, Chris Deluzio, Chrissy Houlahan and Jason Crow. Continue reading...

Senate majority leader, John Thune, and others push the attorney general to release Epstein records within 30 days US politics live – latest updates Within hours of Donald Trump signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law, Republican senators were on the ground to issue a pointed message to the US attorney general, Pam Bondi: don’t bury these documents. The bill’s passage marked a rare moment of bipartisan support in an otherwise ideologically fractured Congress as it now sets a 30-day deadline for the release of Department of Justice files related to the actions of convicted sex offender of minors and financier Jeffrey Epstein, dubbed by a judge “the most infamous pedophile in American history”. Continue reading...

Wright says ‘someone like Jude frightens these people’ ‘They cannot get to this guy. He’s a winner’ Former England striker Ian Wright has defended Jude Bellingham, insisting some people are not “ready for a black superstar”. Bellingham has come in for criticism in some quarters for his reaction to being substituted during England’s World Cup qualifying win in Albania on Sunday, amid some suggestions he is a disruptive influence in the squad. However, Wright says some people are “frightened” of Bellingham’s success. Continue reading...

Liz Kendall and Jo Stevens react after about 20 people claim they either witnessed or were victims of Reform leader’s abusive behaviour Cabinet ministers have described detailed and multiple allegations of teenage racism by Nigel Farage as “repulsive” and doubled down on the prime minister’s call for him to address the claims. Liz Kendall, the secretary for science and innovation and technology, said she was appalled by the descriptions reported by the Guardian. Continue reading...

Experts say chancellor should go further than rumoured plan to update value of homes in top three bands Rachel Reeves has been urged to “grasp the nettle” and kick off a wholesale revaluation of the nation’s homes for council tax in next week’s budget as she prepares to introduce a levy on the most expensive properties. Council tax is charged based on valuations carried out in 1991. The Treasury is understood to have drawn up plans to update the value of homes currently in the top three council tax bands – F to H. Continue reading...

⚽ WCL updates from Stamford Bridge; kick-off 8pm GMT ⚽ Scores | Table | Read Moving the Goalposts | Mail Sarah Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor said about Barcelona: “Every game against Barcelona is a big challenge, I don’t feel any different this season compared to previous seasons.” “They are a really good team, but I also trust the quality we have in our squad. We are expecting the game to be a top game, but we are ready for the challenge and we’ll focus also on ourselves.” Continue reading...

Even Reform MPs failed to show up to hear the home secretary talk about migration, their specialist subject Truly we are spoiled. Not one, but two Commons announcements on immigration from the home secretary. Both of them statements of intent. Foreigners, your time is up. Britain isn’t just full. It’s super-saturated with all the wrong kind of people. Theresa May must be shaking her head. She got labelled with creating a hostile environment just for sending vans round to areas with a large proportion of immigrants, saying: ‘Piss off home. You’re not wanted.’ I guess those were gentler, kinder times. Almost a welcome mat. Fair to say, Shabana Mahmood’s first statement on illegal immigration went down an absolute storm. With Reform. At Wednesday’s prime minister’s questions, Lee Anderson had been open-mouthed with admiration. “The government is guilty of dog whistle politics,” he said. From Reform, there is no higher praise. To out-Nigel Nigel is to live the dream. A thing of beauty. It was all Lee could do not to stand and applaud. Continue reading...

Drenched by floods and abandoned amid the ruins, people in Gaza can draw no comfort from US plans The declaration of a ceasefire in Gaza in October brought initial relief to its inhabitants. Yet officials there said Israeli strikes killed 33 people, including 12 children, on Wednesday; Israel said its troops had come under fire. Another five Palestinians were killed on Thursday. Hundreds have died since the ceasefire was declared. Even if the shelling stops, the destruction of Palestinian life will carry on as Israel continues to throttle aid, and the consequences of two years of war unfold. The World Health Organization warned last month that the health catastrophe would last for generations. Food remains in short supply. While displaced families shiver in flooded makeshift shelters, with many facing a third winter of homelessness, aid organisations say they cannot deliver stockpiles of tents and tarpaulins. Israel, which denies blocking aid, has designated tent poles as “dual-use” items that could potentially be used for a military purpose. Save the Children reports children sleeping on bare ground in sewage-soaked clothing. Continue reading...

Voters need to know if a party leader said racist things at school. Interviewers have a duty to keep pressing for fuller facts For one contemporary, it is the hectoring tone of today that evokes what it was like to be at school with Nigel Farage. “He would sidle up to me and growl: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘Gas them’,” Peter Ettedgui recalls when asked about life at fee-paying Dulwich College in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Later, he adds: “I’d hear him calling other students ‘Paki’ or ‘Wog’ and urging them to ‘go home’.” For others, including some in the college’s combined cadet force (CCF), what lingers is the image of the young Mr Farage in uniform and his renderings of a racist anthem titled “Gas ’em all”. Tim France, a CCF member from those years, remembered Mr Farage “regularly” giving the Nazi salute and strutting around the classroom. “It was habitual, you know, it happened all the time,” he recalls. Continue reading...

Big-name drivers and cutting out the middle man a vital part of the strategy with just over 100 days to go before the 2026 season opener Twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as Formula One’s newest entry for 2026. Building the team from scratch has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight. At the final race of the season to be staged in the United Statess, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day. Continue reading...

The changes could see funding boosts for Reform-led councils in the north with high levels of deprivation Deprived towns and cities in the midlands and the north of England are the big winners in a major shake-up of local authority funding that will redirect cash from affluent rural areas to urban councils hit hardest by austerity. Ministers said the changes put in place a fairer system that recognised the extra needs and weaker council tax raising powers of councils in so-called “left behind’ areas. It guarantees them real-terms funding increases for the next three years. Continue reading...

Senior Security Service officers told Commons speaker in private meeting they can tackle espionage risks MI5 officers told the House of Commons speaker at a private meeting that they can tackle the risks of a proposed Chinese super-embassy in London, opening the door to its approval. The Guardian understands that in a meeting held with Lindsay Hoyle in the summer, senior figures from the Security Service indicated they were “very relaxed” about the prospect of a 20,000 sq metre embassy being constructed at Royal Mint Court near Tower Bridge. Continue reading...

Stadium planned to feature 12 chimney-like towers Club chair Tom Wagner sees it as ‘beacon for excellence’ Birmingham City have unveiled designs of their striking new 62,000-capacity stadium, the Birmingham City Powerhouse, which the Championship club say will open for the 2030-31 season. The stadium, which features 12 chimney-like towers inspired by the city’s industrial heritage, will dominate the Birmingham skyline and be visible up to 40 miles away. One tower will include a lift to Birmingham’s highest bar, offering city-wide views. Continue reading...

(Berliner Philharmoniker) Brahms’s Tragic Overture leaps to life while there is much interest in a careful reading of the composer’s First Symphony in this new recording from the Berlin Philharmonic with their chief conductor The Berlin Philharmonic’s in-house label continues its mission to document chief conductor Kirill Petrenko’s considered interpretations of the classical canon. In this case, it’s Brahms’s First Symphony, captured live at the Philharmonie just two months ago, coupled with the Tragic Overture, recorded last year. For this performance, Petrenko examined Meiningen Court Orchestra scores marked up with specific directions given by the composer himself. The results may strike some as interventionist, however there’s an organic momentum here that is hard to resist with a pronounced flexibility that, according to the excellent booklet essay, clarifies Brahms’s “furious struggle against the bar line”. Balance is impeccable, although solos seem over spotlighted at times by the recording engineers. Continue reading...