Keyword – Business
Trefwoorden – Food & drink industry, Fish, Food, UK news, Consumer affairs, Business, Supermarkets, Retail industry, Fishing industry
Title – Extra fishy: your tinned mackerel may not be what you think it is | Food & drink industry | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/zoewood
Link – Extra fishy: your tinned mackerel may not be what you think it is | Food & drink industry | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-09-11T15:59:37.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/sep/11/tinned-mackerel-jack-substitution

If you’ve recently opened a tin of mackerel and thought there was something fishy going on, you may have been right. An overfishing crisis means that instead of traditional mackerel, some now contain a different fish with a similar name, prompting concerns that shoppers are being short-changed.

Over the past year big brands such as Princes, as well as some supermarket own labels, have replaced traditional tinned mackerel fillets with jack mackerel fillets.

Although clearly labelled, food experts say jack mackerel is a poor replacement for the oily fish, because it is a different species with a different flavour and different nutritional values. They also say shoppers may not realise a product has changed until they get it home.

The new products are being sold at a similar price despite the fact that it is a much cheaper fish, leading the consumer group Which? to describe it as another example of “ skimpflation ”.

Tinned fish is an “affordable and convenient way for households to add important nutrients to their diets”, said Sue Davies, the head of food policy at Which?.

“While manufacturers face genuine supply chain pressures and sustainability challenges, they have a responsibility to shoppers to be completely upfront when they change a product’s recipe.

“Skimpflation can feel particularly sneaky as shoppers may not realise a product has changed until they get it home and eat it,” she said.

Lidl is the latest retailer to switch and, in a recent video by the viral canned seafood reviewer Marcus Ansell, he rates its original mackerel fillets eight out of 10 while the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)-certified replacement scores a lowly 3.5 out of 10.

“Jack mackerel is of significantly lower quality,” said Ansell. “It is quite a bad tinned fish really. I’ve had a lot of messages and some comments on my videos from people who thought they were buying real mackerel and were very disappointed when they tried it.”

Ansell added: “It’s not a substitute at all. . It’s a completely different species and is nothing like mackerel in its taste, texture, or smell … and there’s the health aspect, which is important to some people.”

Compared with traditional mackerel, jack mackerel has roughly half as much omega-3 , a fatty acid that it is recommended people have twice a week as part of a healthy balanced diet.

“So they’re scamming us on mackerel now,” said one poster under the review. “Can’t even get some tinned fish without being legged over.”

Chilean jack mackerel costs about a third of the price of Atlantic true mackerel, according to the Financial Times , which first reported the story.

Last year the labelling rules were changed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to allow the species to be marketed as “jack mackerel”. Previously it could only be sold as “horse mackerel”, “jack”, “scad” or “trevally”.

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) warned last year that mackerel stocks were at breaking point owing to overfishing. Its Good Fish Guide, which ranks choices using a traffic-light system, rates north-east Atlantic mackerel “red”, making it a “fish to avoid”.

Princes said it had taken the decision to move its branded range away from north-east Atlantic mackerel following years of concern over unsustainable catch levels.

It added that the “species is clearly identified on our products, and we would consider sourcing north-east Atlantic mackerel again if sustainable management is restored and MSC certification regained”.

Lidl said it was moving its tinned mackerel over to MSC-certified Chilean jack mackerel. “Before our next purchasing window for smoked mackerel, we will review if north-east Atlantic mackerel continues to comply with our sourcing policies and scientific advice.”

Earlier this year Waitrose suspended the sale of mackerel because of overfishing and instead directed its customers to buy herring and other species.

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – Yemen, Houthis, US-Israel war on Iran, Iran, Oil, Business, Saudi Arabia, Middle East and north Africa, World news
Title – Iran’s Houthi allies capture strategic island on vital oil shipping route | Yemen | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/patrickwintour
Link – Iran’s Houthi allies capture strategic island on vital oil shipping route | Yemen | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-09-11T15:55:32.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/11/iran-houthi-allies-capture-strategic-island-bab-al-mandab-strait

Yemen’s rampant Houthi forces have captured the strategic island of Perim in the Bab al-Mandab strait, expanding their control of the narrow waterway, one of the ​world’s vital shipping routes.

The Iran-aligned Houthis took control of the volcanic island after forces allied to the UN-backed, Aden-based government left in the latest of a dramatic series of reverses along Yemen’s west coast in recent days, including the loss of the port city of Mocha on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia, which supports and bankrolls the official Yemen government, mounted air raids on Houthi positions in Mocha on Friday.

The Bab al-Mandab strait links Asia to Europe via the Red Sea and Suez canal. Perim island, also known as Mayun, divides the waterway in two, close to its narrowest point. The United Arab Emirates, a former Saudi ally in the anti-Houthi coalition, had been building an airbase on the island before ending its active involvement in the conflict in January.

Saudi Arabia has increasingly relied on the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab to export its crude since Iran has been targeting vessels in the strait of Hormuz. About 12% of the world’s goods are typically shipped through the strait.

Full Houthi control of shipping in the strait, alongside Iranian control of the strait of Hormuz, would strengthen the chokeholds of anti-western forces over global energy shipments. Oil prices have risen to more than $100 a barrel as the fighting in Yemen has escalated.

Iran hailed the Houthi advances in an official statement on Friday, its first extended comment on the renewed fighting inside Yemen. Iran and the Houthis have been allied since the Houthis rose to power inside Yemen in 2014.

In a statement the Houthis hailed the expulsion of “Saudi enemy” troops from six districts in the Taiz and Hodeidah regions, the capture of 4,500 sq miles, the targeting of “seven military divisions of the Saudi enemy’s forces” and the “killing, capture, and wounding” of hundreds of soldiers. It also claimed to have released hundreds of prisoners “held by the Saudi enemy’s mercenaries for years”.

British diplomatic sources said they did not at present expect Donald Trump to sanction any US bombing of Houthi positions in Yemen, despite requests to do so from Saudi Arabia. The pace of the Houthi advance, and political divisions in the Yemen governorates not controlled by the Houthis, have left western capitals fearful that even the Yemen government capital, Aden, could fall to the Houthis. The UK effectively treated Yemen as a British protectorate until 1967.

The Houthi offensive has cost more than 500 lives and displaced about 46,000 people, the UN migration agency said on Friday.

The Houthi progress down the Red Sea coast from the port of Hodeidah also strengthens Iran’s hand in trying to reach an agreement with other Gulf states on future control of the strait of Hormuz, the central dispute between the US and Iran. Iran has reached an agreement on temporary approved routes with Oman, the country sharing the southern coast of the Hormuz strait. The proposed deal is supposed to be discussed at a meeting of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) foreign ministers in the Omani coastal city of Salalah on Monday.

The deal, including a temporary approved route for shipping largely under Iranian control, would – if agreed by the GCC – put pressure on the US to lift its highly effective blockade of Iranian oil ports, which is severely damaging the Iranian economy.

The US struck a surprise ceasefire deal with the Houthis in May 2025 after the cost of a bombing campaign escalated, and Houthis gave private assurances that they would not attack US shipping in the Red Sea. The Houthi leadership this week continued to give similar assurances to all shipping except Saudi Arabian oil tankers.

On 14 August Saudi Arabia assembled a 14-country international maritime naval coalition to protect freedom of navigation in the Bab al-Mandab strait and the Gulf of Aden. The coalition, including Bahrain, Pakistan, Somalia, Djibouti, Turkey and Egypt, has so far been invisible, though Riyadh would argue that such a coalition of the willing takes time to assemble.

Recriminations are under way over the fall of Mocha, with the role of Maj Gen Tareq Saleh, the leader of the National Resistance Forces that retreated from the city, under scrutiny. He said the retreat was necessary to regroup his forces.

On her Facebook page, the Yemeni 2011 Nobel peace prize winner, Tawakkol Karman, called on Yemen’s president, Rashad al-Alimi, to dismiss Saleh and to refer him for investigation and trial on charges of conspiracy and high treason.

Amr al-Bidh, the foreign affairs representative of the separatist political organisation the Southern Transitional Council (STC), said he had warned western diplomats repeatedly of the need for a comprehensive national regional and international strategy to defeat the Houthis, adding occasional airstrikes were not enough.

He accused the Saudis of strategic incompetence and of alienating the southern forces most needed to combat the Houthis.

“The position is now very serious,” he said. “The Houthis’ presence in the strait means they will be able to control the waterways without needing to use sophisticated weapons that as a result they can now use elsewhere. The advance is also likely to give them a new income through control of ports along the west coast of the Red Sea.” The Houthis are already offering concessionary rates to draw traffic from ports controlled by the Yemeni government in the Gulf of Aden.

The STC was the dominant political and military force in southern Yemen until this January, when Saudi Arabia bombed its troops, closed its political organisation down and detained as many as 20 of its leaders in Riyadh.

A Saudi promise of a dialogue about the southern question made in January has never been kept, al-Bidh said, adding that Human Rights Watch warned in a March report that some pro-STC protests in Aden were being repressed with undue violence.

“The betrayal of promises had left the southern population unwilling to leave their home territories to fight the Houthis in the north,” he said. “The Saudis for 10 years have been dependent on the people of the south to deter the Houthis, and the STC with as many as 80,000 troops at its disposal, has been the backbone of that force.”

Saudi Arabia is facing a familiar dilemma: whether to reach a negotiated settlement with the Houthis on the future of Yemen or to try to push the highly stretched Houthi forces back.

Although the Houthis operate independently of Tehran’s instructions, it is hugely to Iran’s advantage for them to be fighting Saudi Arabia, as the Saudis are more likely in turn to put pressure on Washington to relent over Iran.

There is also concern in western capitals about the use of western weaponry by the Saudis in Yemen, and whether their activity complies with international humanitarian law, including whether the Saudi strikes can truly be seen as acts of self-defence.

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – Yemen, Houthis, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Middle East and north Africa, World news, US foreign policy, US news
Title – The rapid Houthi advance in Yemen: why it matters and what’s at stake | Yemen | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/william-christou
Link – The rapid Houthi advance in Yemen: why it matters and what’s at stake | Yemen | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-09-11T15:49:23.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/10/violence-erupts-in-yemen-again-why-it-matters-globally-and-how-it-is-linked-to-the-us-iran-war

Violence has erupted again in Yemen, where a rapid advance by the Houthis in recent days is threatening another waterway critical to global shipping.

More than 1,000 people have been killed or wounded, and tens of thousands displaced by the most significant fighting between the Iran-aligned Houthis and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces in years.

Though the immediate catalyst for the fighting has been the US-Iran war, it stems from years of conflict in Yemen itself.

Who are the warring parties in Yemen’s civil war and who are their backers?

The two main parties fighting in Yemen’s civil war are the Yemeni government forces alongside their allies, and the Houthi movement. Yemen’s government controls the north-east of the country, and its southern port. The government is the internationally recognised authority in the country, but is chiefly backed by Saudi Arabia and a coalition of Arab countries which intervened on behalf of the government during Yemen’s civil war.

The Saudi-led coalition, in addition to supporting the Yemeni government forces, directly intervenes militarily in the country, mainly through airstrikes.

The government’s control of the country is contested by the Houthis, who hold the western part of the country, including its capital, Sana’a. The Shia group is broadly aligned with Iran and comprises part of the “axis of resistance”, a coalition of Iran-aligned armed groups in the Middle East, such as Hezbollah. But while the group is aligned ideologically with Iran, which supplies some arms shipments, the Houthis are considered an independent group with their own policies.

A variety of smaller armed groups are also active in the country.

What’s been happening in recent days?

Last week the Houthis launched a wide-ranging offensive to take parts of the western coast of Yemen and gain a more strategic position over Bab al-Mandab. Fighting then broke out across multiple fronts in Yemen as the Saudi-backed government forces tried to reconsolidate their position, with clashes starting in al-Jawf, al-Baydaa, Taiz and Hodeidah.

The Yemeni government forces then released a statement saying they were launching their own campaign to try to retake Sana’a from the Houthis.

The Houthis launched missile strikes on Saudi Arabia on Tuesday , injuring 73 people and causing huge fires at Saudi oil installations. Saudi Arabia then launched more than 50 airstrikes on Yemen in a 12-hour period on Wednesday. It was the most significant fighting in the country since the UN-brokered peace plan in 2022.

On Thursday and Friday, a rapid Houthi advance southwards along Yemen’s western coast resulted in the capture of the port city of Mocha and then the strategic island of Perim in the the Bab al-Mandab strait. Pending a counter-offensive from government forces, the group is now in a position to control shipping through the strait.

How significant is the strait?

Bab al-Mandab is a critical waterway for shipping, with about 10% of global maritime trade passing through the strait. It has become more important since the US started its war against Iran and the latter closed the strait of Hormuz.

The Red Sea, via Bab al-Mandab, has become a vital lifeline for Saudi Arabia to export its oil. If the Houthis gained full control over the strait, the group would be able to virtually close shipping through the waterway, or charge tolls. It would give Iran and its allies control over two key shipping lanes in the region.

How did the war in Yemen begin?

The civil war began in 2014 when fighting broke out between the Houthis and the Yemeni army after Houthi supporters were shot at during mass protests against fuel subsidy cuts in the capital, Sana’a. The Houthis promptly seized the capital, and by 2015 had toppled the government.

A coalition of mostly Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia, then intervened on behalf of the ousted government, with a mostly aerial campaign that was widely criticised for its deadly impact on the civilians of Yemen .

The Yemeni government declared the southern port city of Aden to be its temporary capital, while the Houthis continued to maintain their control over Sana’a and much of the rest of north-west Yemen.

The government-aligned side was made up of several groups that fractured over the course of the war, primarily along the lines of their two chief backers: Saudi Arabia, which backed the Yemeni government itself, and the United Arab Emirates, which mainly supported the Southern Transitional Council (STC) and the Joint Forces.

The country also fractured, with al-Qaida seizing territory in east Yemen, and separatist groups, such as the STC, pushing for division of the country. The Saudi-led coalition also brought foreign mercenaries into the conflict.

Frontlines hardened and the war entered a deadlock. The Saudi-led coalition’s intervention was becoming increasingly unpopular internationally and had not led to the defeat of the Houthis. Weary of fighting, warring parties agreed to a temporary UN-mediated truce in 2022. The truce was extended twice, and calm largely held across the country until this September.

Why did the UN-brokered peace plan break down?

The peace plan has been strained since the war in Gaza started on 7 October 2023. Israel launched the war in response to a Hamas-led attack in Israel that killed about 1,200 people. Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians and earned widespread condemnation for what a UN committee said was genocide, drew the axis of resistance into the fray.

The Houthis, in what they said was a move of solidarity with the people of Gaza, began targeting ships in the Red Sea that they said were heading for Israel. The western coast of Yemen occupies a strategic position for global shipping because it overlooks Bab al-Mandab, a strait that links the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.

The Houthi campaign brought about a US military intervention and strained the truce in Yemen. At the same time, its intervention brought the Houthis support regionally and within the territory they hold.

With the Houthis’ position strengthened, the group stopped seriously engaging in negotiations, frustrating Saudi Arabia.

In July, an Iranian plane landed in Sana’a airport, despite the protests of the Yemeni government, leading Saudi Arabia to strike the airport. The Houthis then declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea, a key route for Saudi oil since Iran closed the strait of Hormuz in March.

What has been the humanitarian impact of the war?

The war in Yemen, and the Saudi-led coalition aerial campaign in particular, has devastated the country’s population. At least 150,000 people have been killed since 2014 by fighting alone, while hundreds of thousands more have died from related causes, such as hunger and disease. About 4.5 million people have been displaced by fighting and more than 18.2 million are in dire need of humanitarian assistance, according to the UN.

The renewed fighting has further exacerbated humanitarian conditions. The World Health Organization said the latest clashes had killed or wounded more than 1,000 people and displaced tens of thousands.

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), Germany, Europe, World news, The far right
Title – AfD’s new state MPs include ex-Stasi officer, former porn actor, neopagans and neo-Nazis | Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/kateconnolly
Link – AfD’s new state MPs include ex-Stasi officer, former porn actor, neopagans and neo-Nazis | Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-09-11T15:43:01.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/11/afd-mps-scrutiny-ex-stasi-actor-neopagan-neo-nazi

The Alternative für Deutschland is facing scrutiny over the suitability of some of its prospective new MPs – including a former Stasi officer and a former pornography actor – just days after its historic win in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt .

Presented by the AfD’s lead candidate, Ulrich Siegmund, for a photocall in the state capital of Magdeburg on Thursday, some of the members-elect were revealed to have a range of questionable backgrounds, including criminal records, Stasi pasts and connections to far-right networks.

German media has revealed that among the 39 parliamentarians who will represent constituencies across Saxony-Anhalt in the state parliament, is a man alleged to have participated in pornography films and falsified academic qualifications; a former officer for the East German secret police, the Stasi; and several members under criminal investigation for their involvement in neo-Nazi organisations.

Two MPs are facing investigations into allegations they sought to continue the activities of the banned rightwing extremist organisation Artgemeinschaft, a neopagan group that has embraced nationalist and antisemitic ideas. The younger of the two is also alleged to have violated the law in relation to weapons, according to the public prosecutor’s office. Both reject the allegations.

The erstwhile pornography actor was convicted for stealing bedding in bulk from a hotel. A court confirmed he had been a pornography actor after he contested a local newspaper’s claims. He was expelled from a university after being found to have falsified his school leaving certificate, Die Zeit reported. The MP says he was readmitted after a legal challenge.

An ex-Stasi officer, aged 78, who won a direct mandate in his constituency, has admitted to having worked for the ministry for state security in the communist GDR, focused on East German citizens who wanted to permanently emigrate.

His role as an MP-elect has been criticised by campaign groups on behalf of victims of the former East German dictatorship.

Also, an investigation by the broadcaster ZDF revealed that some AfD ministers-elect who were also members of the previous parliamentary group, had ties to rightwing extremist groups. This included some having been members of the subsequently outlawed Homeland-Loyal German Youth group, HDJ. At one stage one of them had led the organisation, while an adviser to the AfD’s parliamentary group wrote a biography described as an “homage to national socialism”.

Among the prospective MPs are a number with pro-Kremlin links, as well as some who visited members of the Maga movement in Washington.

Asked to respond to the questionable biographies, in particular of the two MPs under criminal investigation, Siegmund, a former fragrance salesman who was unanimously re-elected as the AfD’s parliamentary group leader on Thursday, referred to the men in jest as “the bad guys” and said “we will await the results of the investigations and then discuss them”.

Siegmund himself triggered fierce criticism during the presentation of his new parliamentary group after linking the production of arms in Germany to the party’s planned deportation offensive.

In response to a journalist’s question about the planned opening of an Israeli arms company in the state, Siegmund said: “We do not categorically condemn the production of arms, because we will of course need equivalent resources for the future remigration and deportation offensive. This is also in the interest of internal security, our own instability and national defence.”

The statement was seized on by the party’s opponents. Katja Pähle, the chair of the Social Democrats (SPD) parliamentary group in Saxony-Anhalt, said Siegmund had issued a “political threat” by suggesting the use of “violence as a political tool”.

“This reveals the ugly face of a political system whose language and ideas are once again reminiscent of totalitarian models,” she said.

Whether the AfD, which secured 44% of the seats, forms a state government, which would make it the first far-right party to gain power in Germany since the second world war, will depend on whether it can find other like-minded MPs who might defect, or a single party willing to support the AfD. So far, the mainstream parties have refused to enter a coalition with the AfD, which has just under half of the 83 seats in the state, three short of an absolute majority.

Protests against the AfD are planned in more than 20 cities across Germany this weekend in response to the party’s win last Sunday, and ahead of two crucial state elections on 20 September, in Berlin and in Mecklenburg Vorpommen, where the AfD are predicted to do well.

Keyword – Film
Trefwoorden – Toronto film festival 2026, Naomi Watts, Drama films, Toronto film festival, Festivals, Luke Evans, Culture, Film
Title – The Housewife review – Naomi Watts is a secret suburban Nazi in an overcooked melodrama | Toronto film festival 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/benjamin-lee-film
Link – The Housewife review – Naomi Watts is a secret suburban Nazi in an overcooked melodrama | Toronto film festival 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-09-11T15:39:40.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/sep/11/toronto-film-festival-housewife-review

T he first scene of the 60s-set drama The Housewife is a closeup of a whistling kettle, an early “wink, wink” sign that we’re watching a story where tensions are set to boil but also that we’re watching a film of minimal subtlety.

Perhaps if it had been pitched closer to its adjacently named cousin The Housemaid , as a silly, sensationalist thriller, such heavy-handed decision-making would feel more well-suited. But instead, while some scenes flirt with the idea of something juicier, this is a stuffy and stodgy slab of self-serious, old-school Oscar bait complete with all the shouting, crying, throwing and finger-pointing one would expect. Think overcooked rather than slow simmer.

It’s all awfully dry despite being based on a true story that is, at least on paper, anything but. The housewife is Austrian-born Hermine, played by Naomi Watts with a decent enough accent, now living in Queens, New York, with an American husband (Luke Evans) and a tirelessly well-kept house. She’s the picture of suburban perfectionism even if her less-than-perfect dialogue starts to suggest there’s something else under the surface (“There are always things we don’t know about other people,” she purrs). When ambitious New York Times journalist Joseph (Tye Sheridan) receives a tip that a Nazi is living in the city, the road leads all the way to the Maspeth neighborhood and into Hermine’s house. Joseph is intent on speaking to her husband but she starts to entertain him instead, the two developing a strange, strained friendship.

Strangely handled like a big first-act twist, by ensuring that we don’t hear the husband’s American accent for a convenient while and hoping we don’t spot the very clear signposting, we discover that Hermine is the Nazi and has been stringing Joseph along. She claims that her job was a mere nurse, saving rather than slaughtering, and that by associating her with misdeeds, Joseph is showing his ignorance of what the Holocaust was like to live through (“You do not know war in America,” she tells him). But a story is a story and, in Joseph’s mind, a Nazi is a Nazi especially when he finds new information on what really happened.

After flirting with what might have been an interestingly perverse domestic psycho-thriller (Hermine’s interest in Joseph briefly veers between maternal and sexual), it becomes a plodding procedural involving Michael Imperioli’s aggrieved immigration officer and then an overheated courtroom drama. Watts, who gave one of her finest performances in years as another sleek, strong-willed woman in the 60s in Feud: Capote vs the Swans , is notably less convincing here, a little unsteady as she struggles to find her way through Hermine’s various masks and deceptions. There’s never the underlying chill there that I wanted; it’s all a little too artificial and self-aware to affect. The obvious comparison here is The Reader, a film I care very little for, but there, Kate Winslet nails an unshakable oddness that is sadly out of reach for Watts.

First-time director Ben Shirinian has fun with some very effective period immersion (even if Montreal never quite works as a New York stand-in) but he’s lumbered with a dramatically inert and psychologically shallow script from Alyssa Hill. She lightly toys with interesting questions of complicity and forgiveness and citizenship (Hermine’s white friends tell her she’ll pass her test as she’s “the kind of people we want around here”) but she just can’t find a way to elevate any of it into something that isn’t just another Holocaust movie. Even in such an overpopulated subgenre, there are still so many new and impactful ways in (Lena Olin, who steals one of the film’s only mildly wrenching scenes as she gives grim testimony, even starred in one with Anthony Hopkins back at Toronto in 2023 ) but despite the spikier source material, there’s nothing new or noteworthy to see here. As explained in his introductory speech at the premiere, Shirinian clearly wanted to make something about how the very worst behaviour can often be found in the most familiar and unthreatening packaging but surely films about the banality of evil shouldn’t be quite this banal?

The Housewife is premiering at the Toronto film festival and is seeking distribution

Keyword – Film
Trefwoorden – Horror films, Film, Culture, Portugal, Festivals
Title – Gore, gimps and a potty-mouthed magpie: welcome to the Lisbon horror festival where nightmares are a dream | Horror films | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/philhoad
Link – Gore, gimps and a potty-mouthed magpie: welcome to the Lisbon horror festival where nightmares are a dream | Horror films | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-09-11T15:23:22.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/sep/11/motelx-lisbon-portugal-horror-film-festival

I f horror happens in the dark, the midnight movie showing was once the perfect way of gauging the genre’s health. But those days may be over. “When we were a film club, our first ever cinema screening was Takashi Miike’s Ichi the Killer in 2003, and it was full,” says Pedro Souto, co-director of Lisbon’s horror-centric MotelX festival . “But you don’t have that many people at midnight any more. I don’t know why.” He’s right: the midnight slot I attend – of the gore-bathed Indonesian kung fu flick Ikatan Darah – is only half full. Only a few appreciative chuckles when meat-cleavers plunge into craniums suggest the old midnight spirit still lives.

No need to panic, though: horror has simply embraced the light. With the genre exploding in the 2010s and 2020s, and blockbusting grosses this year for the likes of Obsession and Backrooms , MotelX is able to gorge itself on this cultural jugular. Now in its 20th edition, the festival has expanded to 11 days, with more than 170 films from 40 countries. Flashy branding – a howling gimp and the signature X, both in inflatable PVC – is dotted on around city billboards. At the opening ceremony, a gigantic birthday cake – the self-same gimp emerging from a lake of gelatine “blood” – is massacred by the punters within 20 minutes. Crowds seem abundant at most screenings, dominated by a heatwave look (dark singlets, shorts and sweaty tattoos) best described as “goth Decathlon”.

MotelX, the only purely horror festival in Portugal , grew out of a private film club catering to the country’s emerging love affair with the dark stuff in the 1990s. “Living in the suburbs, there was nothing much to do other than go to the movies,” says the festival’s other co-director, João Monteiro, sitting with Souto in the São Jorge cinema, the coffee-toned modernist palace where most screenings take place. “As well as the cinema, there were video clubs, so we spent the whole time renting horror movies like the seventh Friday the 13th. It was our initiation, like when kids in tribes become adults.”

He puts it this way because Portugal had virtually no tradition of horror cinema; it was frowned on by the Estado Novo regime, so there was no domestic output. “You could only do comedies, or films with a nationalistic take, all about Lisbon basically,” says Monteiro. Their research efforts only turned up about 25 films between 1910 and MotelX’s inaugural year in 2007 that could qualify as horror – where in neighbouring Spain, there was a mini-boom in the late Franco years. Foreign imports – Hammer films and the odd giallo – were often heavily censored.

MotelX is hoping to help fill that void, through its award for the best unproduced screenplay and by showcasing Portuguese work (the majority of which is still in the shorts category). And then there is the job of irrigating the local scene with horror cuts from around the world. This year, there’s at least one gem in the rough: Mohammad Reza Ardalan’s Poultry Farm, an ultra-grim Iranian film that Souto and Monteiro knew nothing about when they were offered it by a sales agent they had previously worked with. It turned out to be a richly characterised slow-burner about a young Iraqi-Kurd recruit working the chicken sheds at a farm, where secrets are lodged as obdurately as the rocks they prise from the ground. With its roots in Iranian social realism, it patrols the frontiers of noir and horror with great effectiveness, as it scrutinises this quasi-feudal society and the immigrants at its mercy.

US horror-comedy Drag was a fun opening film: an antidote to the sprinting-zombie movie in which an inept burglar (Lizzy Caplan) puts her back out helping herself to “rich people’s shampoo” and must be painstakingly hauled from the crime scene. With its knowing placement of excruciatingly painful obstacles, the film plays like a Wile E Coyote cartoon – until the sinister owner, John Stamos’s abstract-expressionist artist, turns up prematurely to dose us with musings on the male gaze.

The artists are the guests in Corrin Evans’s 1990s-set Corpus, in which a grungy photographer/small town dealer is invited to a party at an upstate New York mansion by his it-boy model ex-boyfriend. With her interminable hangout scenes, Evans – who was previously an intimacy coordinator for MaXXXine – is clearly besotted with the decade’s club scene. But she only moves past self-conscious hipsterdom and finds a natural rhythm during the film’s carnal second half, when sexual onlookers and objects fuse to suggest something intriguing about the nature of desire.

There were no English-language subtitles at the Cinemateca Portuguesa for 1968 Estonian witch-panic classic Libahunt (Werewolf). But no matter: the cinematography’s incantatory flair spoke for itself, and I now know the Portuguese for werewolf ( lobisomem ), if I’m ever caught here on a full moon. Such pagan dalliances are becoming played-out in modern horror, but the Basque-language portmanteau Gaua (Night) is a lush example with rich production design. Indulging the occultist audience with a full-on flying pandemonium to finish, it exists somewhere adjacent to the Robert Eggers-Ari Aster coven.

The Virgin of the Quarry Lake, Laura Casabé’s impressive, febrile, supernatural coming-of-age tale, is almost as damning about Argentina as Poultry Farm is about rural Iran. Taking place in 2001, in a Buenos Aires of blackouts and standpipes, Dolores Oliverio is moping, petulant and ruthless, fending off a worldly rival for her childhood sweetheart. You could pretend The Fox, directed by Dario Russo, is trying to say something equally profound about small town Australia. But as it cheerfully admits, there is nothing whatsoever to be learned – or maybe just a little, about daft human desire – from this droll cautionary relationship fable. Jilted hunter Nick (Jai Courtney), eager to bring his cheating partner (Emily Browning) to heel, ignores the Antichrist rule: never trust the weird talking fox (voiced here by Olivia Colman). Not that Sam Neill’s potty-mouthed magpie is much better.

My only complaint is not encountering anything truly frightening (though I only catch a three-day sliver of the festival). Souto says finding such nerve-shredders is MotelX’s holy grail. But Monteiro counters that, now Portugal is growing into the macabre, such work has become tougher: “I think we become adults today. We don’t fear horror films. We have no nightmares. I’m trying to find films that can still make me feel as I did in the beginning, like when I first saw Alien. Because right now, it’s impossible.”

MotelX runs until 13 September

Keyword – Sport
Trefwoorden – Formula One 2026, Formula One, George Russell, Motor sport, Sport
Title – Welcome to the Madring, a new, brutal and unforgiving F1 challenge for Spanish Grand Prix | Formula One 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/gilesrichards
Link – Welcome to the Madring, a new, brutal and unforgiving F1 challenge for Spanish Grand Prix | Formula One 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-09-11T15:20:04.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/sep/11/madring-f1-spanish-grand-prix-hybrid-street-circuit

In Madrid’s Puerta del Sol this week, Formula One fans were not shy in calling on the gods to look kindly on their favoured drivers on a newly built circuit that appears punishingly unforgiving.

Legend has it that rubbing the paws or backside of the bear in the famous El Oso y el Madroño statue at the square’s heart confers good luck. The drivers may well need it. Day one of action at the Madring track began with F2’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak careening into the barriers and his car catching fire, leaving the onlooking George Russell shocked before the F1 drivers took to the wheel.

Despite fears the Madring would not be ready, it is done and dusted. What sort of racing it will present for the Spanish Grand Prix is now the question. Billed as a street circuit, it is in fact a hybrid of roads and purpose-built track; narrow, with fast corners and walls looming for much of the lap, there is going to be virtually no margin for error.

This was demonstrated in F2 practice on Friday. Russell, who had previouslyhad described the Madring as the “most risky” on the calendar was watching F2 practice with some members of the media in the Mercedes motorhome when the Art Grand Prix driver’s crash happened.

“Oh wow,” he said. “This circuit is mental”. Inthraphuvasak, who leapt out in short order after his car burst into flames, had crashed rearward at high speed into the barriers after spinning at turn 19, and Russell observed the Madring was set to be an even sterner test than Monaco.

“I would put this as a circuit that has less margin, purely because of the speed,” he said. “In Monaco the walls are closer but because you’re going slower – if you make a mistake you’re not into the wall as quickly, and you can recover it sometimes. It’s more lock-up. Here, there’s less margin.”

The issue, explained Russell, was that the fast corners were combined with the angles of the barriers on exit. “You see at this barrier, it’s kind of like coming back on to the track,” he said, indicating where the smoking wreckage of Inthraphuvasak’s car was sitting. “So if you are to go wide and hit the wall, you’re not hitting it at the same angle as the car is going. The car is going towards the wall but the wall is sort of coming in.”

When F3 held a test here recently, there were 19 red flags and three cars suffered broken chassis. “They’re Formula 3 drivers, but it’s a track that kills cars,” was the assessment of Williams’ team principal James Vowles assessment. Russell said he was surprised it was only 19 red flags.

He was not alone in his concern, with Lewis Hamilton echoing his sentiments. “It’s a massively challenging circuit,” he said. “Of all the new tracks I’ve gone to, this one, maybe Saudi, are the two closest in terms of how difficult it was to get on top of the car and find the right lines.”

There was at least cause for optimism after first practice with the hour-long session proceeding without a stoppage and the walls receiving only some delicate glances at best. The drivers were up to speed with alacrity and no little composure, with Russell topping the timesheets for Mercedes, from his teammate, Kimi Antonelli, who leads Russell by 66 points in the world championship. In the second session, however, Britain’s Arvid Lindblad came a cropper, losing the rear of his Racing Bulls car in turn 13 and slewing sideways into the barriers in another heavy impact, but from which he emerged unhurt. The session was red-flagged but resumed, and completed with Antonelli on top from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Hamilton.

Certainly the sense of spectacle was delivered, as was surely the aim, with high speeds on a narrow track flanked by walls, and illustrated in its signature corner La Monumental, a 550-metre stretch of 13.5-degree banking, through which the cars are accelerating to great effect, compressing into the track amid an amphitheatre of grandstands before heading over a blind crest and barrelling downwards out of the corner. There is even a little history here too, with turn eight – “El Bunker” – named for La Mata Espesa , two bunkers built in 1936 by the Republican forces to protect Madrid from attack during the Spanish civil war. Their preservation was a condition of the track being built.

The circuit lacks the backdrop of Monaco of course, flanked only by the large, grey square boxes so beloved of convention centres situated in industrial estates. Some areas are still somewhat building site-esque too, but the bits that matter are in place and for the fans it is but a 20-minute subway ride from the city. Indeed, it is an achievement that might be considered no little feat given there were objections to it happening at all, relating to costs, the construction and complaints about sound levels exceeding legal levels.

The circuit, which sits around the Institución Ferial de Madrid convention centre area between the city centre and the airport, is perhaps exactly what F1 had in mind with its pursuit of “destination races” in cities. This means events that would be entertainment weekends, to rival the Superbowl and draw fans and finance to the host city.

But it also faces a further acid test to come. There remains concern, though, as to quite what sort of racing would be possible come Sunday. The drivers were largely in agreement that it would be a thrilling technical challenge of inch-perfect execution, but equally sceptical about whether overtaking would be possible. As the four-time world champion Max Verstappen noted, the main braking zones such as turns five, eight and 17 are angled, making passing all but impossible with drivers simply putting their car in the middle of the track.

“You can’t really go for an overtake because you’re braking but you’re steering either right or left, which is the worst thing you can do for creating an overtaking opportunity,” he said. This will put huge emphasis on qualifying but also raises the spectre of a procession on Sunday, potentially only interrupted by what many still consider will be inevitable red-flag stoppages. A long, hot train of cars circling in unchanging order is certainly not the hoped-for debut at F1’s newest circuit and a threat for which the promoters might too be hoping for some ursine intervention.

Keyword – Film
Trefwoorden – Film, NAZA, Venice film festival, Culture, Festivals, Gaza, Palestine, No Other Land
Title – ‘They know the house they are bombing is full of children’: NAZA’s directors on their devastating film about Israeli intelligence | Film | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/xanbrooks
Link – ‘They know the house they are bombing is full of children’: NAZA’s directors on their devastating film about Israeli intelligence | Film | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-09-11T15:18:52.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/sep/11/naza-directors-film-israeli-intelligence-rachel-szor-yuval-abraham-

O n a darkened rooftop in Tel Aviv, Israeli intelligence officers outline the details of their work. These men tell us how they helped develop an AI mapping tool that trawled for phone signals and recommended apartment buildings in Gaza to bomb. Indirectly, they admit, they are responsible for thousands of deaths, but they never spoke up because that wasn’t their place. “My role is technical,” says one. “I’m just a small cog,” says another.

NAZA – directed by the Israeli film-makers Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham and produced by the Guardian – is a chilling documentary about a mass slaughter that was authorised at the highest levels of government. But it is also, primarily, about the process, the system, the little links in the killing chain. Szor and Abraham build their film around the accounts of 24 anonymised military and intelligence insiders. NAZA , we learn, is an acronym used by the intelligence service to indicate how many civilians it expects to die in an airstrike on Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces prefer to target Hamas terrorists in their homes at night – and if they live with their family, or in heavily populated neighbourhoods, too bad. At one point, a source claims, approval was given to kill 500 NAZA for one Hamas member.

I meet Szor and Abraham at the Venice film festival, where NAZA is competing for the Golden Lion award. The pair won an Oscar for their previous documentary, 2024’s No Other Land (co-directed with Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal), which spotlighted Palestinian resistance in the occupied West Bank. “No Other Land documented horrible crimes,” Abraham says. “But at the same time it gave people … I don’t want to say hope, but some light to latch on to. It’s not a coincidence that this film is all in the dark. We are in a very dark place right now.”

The Gaza health ministry has reported more than 73,000 deaths in three years of Israeli bombardment, the vast majority of which have been civilian casualties. NAZA briefly shows us the rubble, grieving parents, dead children on the ground. Its main backdrop, though, is placid, normal Tel Aviv, just 44 miles to the north, where rush-hour traffic drifts dreamily on the street and the cinematheque is showing a Claude Lanzmann retrospective. Tellingly, the film was executive produced by Jonathan Glazer, the director of The Zone of Interest . It was Glazer, says Szor, who advised on the structure and creative approach, fostering the sense of a home that sits next door to a hell.

NAZA deliberately concerns itself with the system – the policy of mass surveillance, the industrial business of murder – more than the individual psychology of those involved. But presumably its sources must feel guilt and shame, otherwise they’d never have agreed to put their careers and liberty at risk.

Abraham is unconvinced. “Well, it depends which one,” he says. “There are many motivations for an individual to speak. Some people talk because they feel the opposite of shame. They feel pride in their accomplishment and expertise. Remember that these people serve in sensitive units. They are not often asked what they do. So there is an attraction to [our] curiosity that drives them to speak up.”

The film uncovers a system that is fiendishly efficient. Its series of disconnects appears designed to distance the perpetrators from the crime. Many of these men work remotely from Tel Aviv. AI selects the target and a drone drops the bomb. Even the language feels purposely euphemistic and obfuscatory. NAZA translates as collateral damage, which in turn translates to human beings.

“Sure, it’s easier to kill people when you’re doing it on a screen,” Abraham says. “There is some truth in that, I guess. But equally it should be said that intelligence officers know the most. They listen to the cellphones. They know the house they are bombing is full of children. They can hear babies crying. They still order another strike.”

What is the status of these men now? Some discuss their work in the past tense. Others don’t, which suggests that they might still be at work, overseeing airstrikes each night. Abraham won’t say; he’s mindful of protecting his sources. “But you can imagine. We are dealing with 24 people, so there is a whole variety of statuses.”

NAZA prompts obvious questions about the creatures of darkness we see on screen. But it prompts intriguing ones, too, about Szor and Abraham, a pair of dissident investigative journalists from the country’s middle class. In the furious, febrile climate of post-7 October Israel, their work is liable to make them pariahs, if not enemies of the state.

Szor jokes that she just wields the camera and therefore keeps out of sight. “Nobody knows who I am, and I’m very happy about that. But some of my family – and some people I’m close to – don’t accept what I do. After the Oscars [last year] they were very ashamed, very angry. But this is a small price to pay.”

Abraham, by contrast, is more vocal and visible. After No Other Land’s premiere at the 2024 Berlin film festival, his family home was targeted by a rightwing mob. “For me, that was the worst moment of all,” he says. “My mum is hoping it doesn’t happen again.”

Even so, he adds quickly, let’s keep things in perspective. “We’re taking risks in a system that privileges us, that has Jewish-Israeli supremacy as its founding characteristic. So yeah, it was scary for my mum. But she went and slept at my sister’s and her house is still there. For so many Palestinians, it’s not a rightwing mob that’s coming to their home: it’s US-funded bulldozers and weapons. Imagine if a Palestinian journalist in Gaza tried to do what we did and called up senior Israeli officials. There is no comparison. They would most likely be murdered.”

Rooftops at night are a good location, says Szor. They lend themselves to contemplation and help people speak more freely. One soldier recalls the “insane fun” of shooting at people who ran towards a food distribution centre. Another remembers visiting Holocaust sites as a boy and wondering how the German people could have acted as they did. “I still see the Nazis as evil,” he says. “But what does that mean I am?”

After its Venice premiere, NAZA is greeted with a 25-minute ovation. Variety calls it a “devastating exposé” of systematic mass slaughter. The Hollywood Reporter claims that its “bombshell” revelations are likely to provoke outrage and disgust “on a profound level, for the current Israeli regime and its prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu”

(The Israeli military on Friday said it “categorically rejects” the allegations made in the documentary, and criticised the film’s use of anonymous testimonies, which it said “cannot be verified”. In its statement to the Guardian, the IDF said that it “makes unprecedented efforts to minimise harm to civilians” during its offensive in Gaza.)

At the official press conference, the film-makers are asked about parallels between the Holocaust and the killing in Gaza. Abraham points out that this connection was made by one of the soldiers in the film. But he takes the man’s point. “When we say ‘never again’ and that we have to learn from what happened in the Holocaust, the way to do that is to think about patterns that can be seen and observed in the present. I’m not saying [the situation is Gaza] is the same or identical. I don’t think it is. But what we should be doing is recognising these similar patterns of demonisation and killing.”

Who are these men who we can barely see on the screen? The polite data analysts. The soft-spoken officers. Almost all, it turns out, are products of Tel Aviv’s middle class: intelligent, educated and liberal, at least up to a point. Or to put it more bluntly, these are Szor and Abraham’s people. They come from the same neighbourhoods, share similar interests and probably have friends in common. It’s the ultimate paranoid horror trope: the call that comes from inside the house. It shows the extent of the rot and the film-makers’ own proximity to it.

NAZA asks how these men helped kill tens of thousands of civilians. That’s somehow simpler and less frightening than asking why. Abraham shakes his head. “And I have to say I don’t have a clear answer as to why so many people took part in this. And why so few people – in fact, I don’t know of any – refused in real time to do it. It’s scary what that says about the state of Israel. When people talk about genocide, they often speak about it as something that spreads across society, this general atmosphere that normalises death. When everyone else is doing it, it’s easier not to ask questions.”

Additional reporting by Lorenzo Tondo in Jerusalem

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – Europe, Sweden, Ukraine, Russia, World news
Title – Sweden’s PM channels Trump saying he wants to ‘make Sweden great again’ ahead of election – as it happened | Europe | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jakub-krupa,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/martin-belam,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/amy-hawkins,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jennifer-rankin
Link – Sweden’s PM channels Trump saying he wants to ‘make Sweden great again’ ahead of election – as it happened | Europe | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-09-11T15:16:13.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/sep/11/russia-strikes-ukraine-europe-nato-poland-latest-news-updates

Sweden’s PM channels Trump as he wants to ‘make Sweden great again’

Channeling his Donald Trump spirit, Sweden’s prime minister Ulf Kristersson told AFP that he hoped to secure a second term in this Sunday’s parliamentary election to “make Sweden great again.”

Kristersson has led a three-party centre-right coalition since 2022, which relies on outside support from the far-right Sweden Democrats. If the right bloc wins, the party is expected to join the government for the first time in history.

But polls suggest that a centre-left opposition bloc of former PM Magdalena Andersson is slightly ahead , with a combined 50.8% of vote share, compared to 47.6% for the centre-right and far-right parties.

The vote on Sunday is expected to be very close, and it may take weeks before we know who will form the next government as political talks are likely to be fraught and take time.

Closing summary

And, on that note, we will be closing the blog for today .

Sweden’s prime minister Ulf Kristersson told AFP that he hoped to secure a second term in this Sunday’s parliamentary election to “make Sweden great again,” as the country entered final hours of campaigning ( 14:23 ).

The latest polls ahead of the vote show narrowing gap between the two main blocs, potentially complicating the government-formation process after Sunday ( 15:34 , 17:01 ).

The leaders of the eight main political parties will tonight face off in the final televised debate, with the economy, education, climate, integration and healthcare among the topics on the table ( 14:57 ).

We will cover the Swedish election night on Europe Live on Sunday night, live from Stockholm.

Elsewhere,

At least two people were killed and 12 injured in Russian strikes on two petrol stations in Kyiv on Friday morning as the bombardment of Ukraine’s capital enters a new phase of intensity ( 9:48 , 11:17 , 13:47 , 16:09 ).

If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com.

I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

New Swedish poll shows margin between two blocs narrow ahead of election day

Back to Sweden , where the Social Democrat leader, Magdalena Andersson, told the Swedish broadcaster SVT that “the bloc differences will decrease as we approach election day, I have predicted that for a long time.”

She was responding to a yet another new poll showing the gap between the two groups narrowing, with just over 48 hours to go until the polls close.

SVT/Verian’s poll says Social Democrats will win with 27.6% of the vote, ahead of the far-right Sweden Democrats at 18.1% and the Moderates at 15.8%.

Russia targets Kyiv petrol stations for first time with jet-powered drones

in Kyiv

Petrol stations in Kyiv have been hit by jet-powered drones in a wave of targeted Russian attacks as the bombardment of Ukraine’s capital enters a new phase of intensity.

At least two people were killed and 12 injured in strikes on two petrol stations on Friday morning, according to the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko.

The rush-hour strikes follow a similar attack on a petrol station on Thursday, the first of its kind in the capital.

At the Ukrnafta petrol station in the Pochaina neighbourhood in northern Kyiv, bystanders said three people had been injured in Friday’s blast – the manager of a nearby car wash, his wife and the driver of a passing car. The blown-out vehicle was stranded by the side of the road, its windows shattered and seats spattered in blood.

Witnesses said they had heard two explosions, and local authorities later said Russia had carried out a double-tap attack on the facility.

“This is probably one of the most difficult periods of the war because life is just like on a rollercoaster,” said Anastasiia Demchenko, 30, who works at a delivery company opposite the petrol station. “It feels like life is on the edge.”

All three strikes targeted petrol stations operated by Ukrnafta, a state-owned oil and natural gas extraction company.

Sergiy Fedorenko, the acting head of Naftogaz, Ukrnafta’s parent company, said: “There is, and can be, no military objective behind such attacks. This is terror directed at the civilian population, at peaceful people.”

Let’s go back to Ukraine and get you the latest from our correspondent, Amy Hawkins, in Kyiv.

New Swedish election poll shows margin of just 0.3pp between blocs

Highlighting just how close the margins are likely to be on Sunday, the latest DN/Ipsos poll shows a difference of just… 0.3 percentage points between the centre-left and the centre-right to far-right blocs.

If confirmed, it would give the opposition 175 seats in the new parliament, just one more than the current government.

It will be really close.

Economy, education, climate, integration and healthcare to feature in final Swedish TV debate

Later tonight, the leaders of the eight main political parties will face off in the final televised debate ahead of Sunday’s vote.

The discussion will focus on the economy, education, climate, integration and healthcare, according to the Swedish public broadcaster SVT.

SVT somewhat proudly noted that it has a history in hosting the final debates in each race, going back to 1960.

While the Swedish campaign focused on a range of issues including Sweden’s welfare state, immigration and crime, there was no single dominant issue, experts said.

“Nothing has really stuck, it’s been sort of unsatisfactory in that ⁠sense,” Nicholas Aylott, an associate professor at Södertörn University, told Reuters.

The centre-left opposition looked set to win, albeit ​by a narrower margin than seen in polls during ​early summer, Aylott said.

Save the date for Sunday night as I will bring you everything – polls, analysis and what’s next – live from Stockholm on here, on Europe Live .

Sweden’s PM channels Trump as he wants to ‘make Sweden great again’

Channeling his Donald Trump spirit, Sweden’s prime minister Ulf Kristersson told AFP that he hoped to secure a second term in this Sunday’s parliamentary election to “make Sweden great again.”

Kristersson has led a three-party centre-right coalition since 2022, which relies on outside support from the far-right Sweden Democrats. If the right bloc wins, the party is expected to join the government for the first time in history.

But polls suggest that a centre-left opposition bloc of former PM Magdalena Andersson is slightly ahead , with a combined 50.8% of vote share, compared to 47.6% for the centre-right and far-right parties.

The vote on Sunday is expected to be very close, and it may take weeks before we know who will form the next government as political talks are likely to be fraught and take time.

Meanwhile, Kyiv mayor Klitschko said the number of people injured in today’s attacks on the capital has gone up to 12, including a child.

Seven people remain hospitalised, he said.

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – Thailand, Asia Pacific, Religion, World news, Buddhism
Title – Buddhist monk arrested in Thailand on suspicion of embezzling $2.8m | Thailand | The Guardian
Author – Agence France-Press in Bangkok
Link – Buddhist monk arrested in Thailand on suspicion of embezzling $2.8m | Thailand | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-09-11T15:01:36.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/11/thai-police-arrest-buddhist-abbot-suspicion-embezzling

Police in Thailand have arrested a senior Buddhist monk on suspicion of embezzling $2.8m intended for his monastery, alongside a suspected female accomplice he was filmed having sex with.

The case is the latest scandal to hit the clergy in the Buddhist-majority country, after a sex and extortion case involving senior monks last year prompted public outrage and calls for greater scrutiny of temple finances.

Phra Wachirayan Wi, the 66-year-old abbot of the 14th-century temple Wat Phutthaisawan in the ancient capital of Ayutthaya, was arrested on Thursday on charges including embezzlement and money laundering, according to the lead police investigator Pattanasak Bupphasuwan.

A 47-year-old woman accused of helping convert and conceal the money was also arrested.

Leaked CCTV footage of the pair having sex on a table in the monk’s residence was widely broadcast on Thai media.

In Thailand, Buddhist monks take a vow of celibacy and also renounce material possessions.

Police began investigating Phra Wachirayan in mid-July after receiving an anonymous tip alleging him of misconduct and misuse of temple funds.

Pattanasak, a commander of the police crime suppression division, said investigators identified two streams of money linked to donation receipts issued in the temple’s name.

About 89m baht ($2.7m or £2m) was donated for temple renovations, with another 2.8m baht in payments for Buddhist amulets and other sacred objects, he said.

“But the money from both streams did not enter the temple’s account – not a single baht,” Pattanasak told a news conference on Friday.

He said authorities had seized assets worth about 215m baht, including 16kg (35lb) of gold bars and jewellery and 28 land title deeds.

Police are investigating which are personal property and which belong to the temple.

“We will expand the investigation to identify other people involved and restore public confidence in Buddhism ,” said Nattasak Chaowanasai, the commissioner of Thailand’s Central Investigation Bureau.

Wat Phutthaisawan is a prominent royal monastery with a large following that includes government officials, businesspeople, police and military personnel.

The former abbot, also known as Luang Pho Atichot, was well known for making amulets, with the Thai prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, reported to be among those who wore his creations.

The abbot was defrocked shortly after his arrest.

Last year, police arrested a woman accused of blackmailing at least 11 monks she had sex with , extorting nearly $12m of monastery funds from them, in a case that shook Thailand.