Keyword – Television & radio
Trefwoorden – Colin from Accounts, Television, Television & radio, Culture, TV comedy
Title – Colin from Accounts final season review – farewell to a blinding ray of TV sunshine | Colin from Accounts | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/rachel-aroesti
Link – Colin from Accounts final season review – farewell to a blinding ray of TV sunshine | Colin from Accounts | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-09-07T21:30:18.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/sep/07/colin-from-accounts-final-season-review-farewell-to-a-blinding-ray-of-tv-sunshine

T here are cliffhangers, and then there’s whatever happened at the end of Colin from Accounts’ second season. We had, by that point, witnessed protagonists Ashley and Gordon’s unconventional love story evolve from bizarre meet-cute – key stages: boob-flashing, car accident, injured dog – to soulmate-level relationship. But what starts with an exposed nipple can abruptly go tits up. On a heaving dancefloor at Ash’s best friend’s wedding, Gordon – drunk and buoyed up by the DJ dropping Slice of Heaven by Dave Dobbyn (the Oceanian equivalent of Come on Eileen, judging by the euphoric reaction) – decides to ask his girlfriend to marry him. Ash, humiliated by the circumstances, doesn’t respond. Everyone else films it and laughs. Gordon insists the whole thing was a joke and awkwardly boogies on. Then the credits roll.

If you had somehow managed to wipe this eye-watering faux pas from your mind’s eye, fear not: the Aussie rom-sitcom returns for its third and final series by replaying the agonising proposal in full. It gets worse. We discover the pair split soon after and haven’t seen each other for three years. In fact, they’ve both since found other (extremely attractive) partners: the kind but dim David and the hyper-capable and efficient Chelsea. As Ash later observes, they’ve “upgraded” – but you know their respective hearts don’t really belong to their nice new beaux.

Colin from Accounts – which is also the name of the dog the pair maim then adopt at the start of the show – is the sort of sitcom that runs almost entirely on charm. After all, there is no other way to convince an audience to watch two people fall in love, split up, get back together, split up again, then (I assume – the final two episodes weren’t available for review) reunite once more aside from cultivating a deep and lasting affection for them. This, however, is a mysterious art. The fact the pair are played by real-life couple and show co-creators Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer provides a frisson of autobiographical intrigue and obviously helps with the chemistry, but it’s hard to pin down what exactly it is about these characters that is so appealing: they’re both annoying, immature and petty, and far from morally upstanding (once they bump into each other again, it’s not long before they’ve betrayed David and Chelsea). Still, we desperately want them to find love, ideally with each other.

Think of it like Friends if it had just been about Ross and Rachel, with the other characters consigned to supporting eccentrics. Among the roster of weirdos here is Ash’s stunningly awful mother Lynelle and her alarmingly creepy husband Lee, who are now deeply entrenched in the men’s rights movement. Then there’s Gordon’s thoroughly unreconstructed brother Heavy (catnip for Lynelle, then), plus his brewery colleagues – the furious yet resoundingly cool Chiara and hulking sweetheart Brett – alongside Ash’s bestie Megan and her wife Rumi. The fact that three of the last four turn out to be sex party people does later serve to make Ash and Gordon seem like relatable nerds in comparison.

You probably wouldn’t describe Colin from Accounts as a hard comedy: its primary objective is to make us invest in its central will-they-won’t-they, and therefore prioritises well-drawn friendships, realistic romantic messiness and amusingly sour banter over non-stop jokes. That said, it can be laugh-out-loud funny when it wants to be. This series seems to have saved all its best material for its third episode, which involves a particularly grim morning for Ashley, now a qualified GP, thanks to an old man who has brought in his stool diary and samples. Blessedly, she is forced to cut his appointment short when she discovers Lynelle has posted a video about her own murder on Facebook (“take your shit! Get up – go, mate!”). Later, when Ash and Gordon meet at a fancy restaurant to discuss their adulterous kiss at the latter’s birthday party, a smug waiter pours wine in excessively long, urine-like streams from a traditional Spanish pitcher in what feels like a reprise of classic 1990s sitcom silliness.

Ultimately, though, this is an immensely comforting show: very sweet, very gentle, yet prevented from tipping into saccharine territory by a bass note of blokey and invariably profane Australian humour. The insults are particularly impressive – it’s difficult to choose a favourite from this series but I think I’ll go with the simple but effective “fucking cockhead” (credit: Lynelle’s ex Bernie discussing her current husband Lee). Cringe comedy – and what feels like a slightly misjudged subplot about child abduction – aside, Colin from Accounts has been like a ray of sunshine in the schedules. It’s been a huge hit across the world, and many will mourn its ending. I hope it turns out to be a happy one at least.

Colin from Accounts aired on BBC One and is on iPlayer now in the UK. In Australia, it is on Binge.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – Aston Villa, Unai Emery, Champions League, Football, Sport
Title – Emery ready to ignite Aston Villa’s season at Club Brugge after familiar slow start | Aston Villa | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/ben-fisher
Link – Emery ready to ignite Aston Villa’s season at Club Brugge after familiar slow start | Aston Villa | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-09-07T20:35:03.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/sep/07/emery-ready-to-ignite-aston-villas-season-at-club-brugge-after-familiar-slow-start

U nai Emery is not panicking. He may kick every ball on the touchline but, behind closed doors, Aston Villa’s players are used to him being the calmest person in the room, routinely more demanding after victory than defeat. John McGinn tells a story in which the Villa manager, early in his now almost four-year tenure, broke character and lost his cool during a half-time interval not owing to a lukewarm performance but because he witnessed his captain tearing into teammates. In Emery’s eyes, it was McGinn expending unnecessary energy rather than seeking solutions.

Emery, McGinn and Villa have been here before. Just last season, in fact; at this point, they were pointless in the Premier Leagueand still another 157 minutes from registering their first goal. So in one sense Villa, who shook off a slow start to qualify for the Champions League for the second time in three seasons, are ahead of schedule. Villa’s goalless draw at Hull on Saturday was not the most absorbing display but there were enough green shoots to trust Emery when he says he is confident they can again exceed expectations.

It is hard to disbelieve a man with Emery’s record, having overseen the most successful era in the club’s recent history. “When we started the project here, the ambition we had, it was [not even] in our highest expectations to be in Europe four years in a row,” the Villa manager says. “It was very difficult when we started working together but it was the ambition of the owner. We set our standards high with the players to be there and we are. Now is the moment to remember how we got here and the way we did. Now it is a different moment and chapter.”

In these moments, Emery tends to double down on his methods. Last season they did not taste victory until their seventh game of the season in all competitions, McGinn scoring the only goal in a Europa League win against Bologna. Before that game, players assembled around 11.30am for the kind of opposition analysis meeting to which they have grown accustomed, so much so McGinn says they now walk in like robots.

Emery lasers in on players’ positioning and tactical details. Jhon Durán, now on loan at Benfica from Al-Nassr after spells at Fenerbahce and Zenit St Petersburg, is famously the only player to have requested to leave mid-meeting.

Villa face Club Brugge on Tuesday for the fourth time in the past two years, hoping Europe will again ignite their season.

After that victory against Bologna last September, Villa embarked on an extraordinary run of 17 wins in 19 matches. Half of the 14 players involved in that game have departed but one of those who did feature, Emiliano Buendía, is hopeful that Emery’s new-look squad can put together a similar run. “It has not been the start we wanted, but we are trying to take the positive things from every match,” said the Argentinian, who has started all four Villa games this season. “We will try to change this momentum in terms of results and try to get our confidence back to perform well and [achieve] the results we want.”

Another Champions League campaign should not be taken for granted and returning to this stage, after winning the Europa League last season, is arguably Emery’s greatest feat. The strides made under Emery will surely occupy the minds of supporters as they wander the cobbled streets of Bruges and when they explore Barcelona in November, too.

Crucially, Emery is energised by the challenge, helped by the odd siesta at Villa’s Bodymoor Heath base. “Sometimes I need a good nap, after intensive work in the morning,” he said with a smile last week.

For now, George Hemmings’s 13th‑minute shot against Hull represents Villa’s sole effort on target this campaign. In the same game it was the 19-year-old, who joined from Nottingham Forest aged 16, who supplied Buendía for a golden chance. It is easy to focus on the shortcomings but it would also be remiss to overlook Villa’s encouraging performance in the Super Cup against, in Emery’s view, the best team on the planet; defeat against Paris Saint-Germain was less than a month ago and Villa have only strengthened since.

One of the most exciting of their 11 summer arrivals, the 18-year-old Ibrahim Mbaye, was an unused substitute for PSG in Salzburg. Another talent signed this summer, Johan Manzambi, continues to step up his fitness after a knee injury and could feature as early as Saturday against Nottingham Forest.

Only two of Villa’s new arrivals – Zion Suzuki and Nicolas Jackson – started at Hull last time out. Matteo Ruggeri, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Alejandro Garnacho arrived from the bench. Taylor Harwood-Bellis, a £25m buy omitted from Villa’s Champions League squad, had a watching brief in Yorkshire. João Gomes was sent off on debut. Leon Goretzka, who joined on a free after leaving Bayern Munich, will not feature until at least October after a knee injury setback.

Emery often takes time to integrate signings. Youri Tielemans had to wait four months for his first Villa start before embedding himself as one of Emery’s undroppables. He demands a lot of his players and even more of himself. “In football, if you are expecting transition, maybe you are not in the right way,” he said last month.

“We have to rebuild the team as fast as possible. I don’t know if we need time or not. We are progressing – still not enough because we are not getting good results – but tomorrow is a new test in Europe.”

Keyword – Sport
Trefwoorden – US Open Tennis 2026, Iga Swiatek, US Open tennis, Tennis, Sport
Title – Zheng Qinwen erases another 5-0 deficit to stun Swiatek and reach US Open quarter-finals | US Open Tennis 2026 | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/tumaini-carayol
Link – Zheng Qinwen erases another 5-0 deficit to stun Swiatek and reach US Open quarter-finals | US Open Tennis 2026 | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-09-07T20:10:27.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/sep/07/zheng-qinwen-erases-another-5-0-deficit-to-stun-swiatek-and-reach-us-open-quarter-finals

The most important takeaway from 12 days at the US Open is simple: do not, by any means, lead 5-0 against Zheng Qinwen. No scoreline is as hazardous. On Friday, the former Australian Open champion Madison Keys learned this lesson the hard way as she led Zheng 5-0 in the final set of an intense tussle before Zheng, the Olympic gold medallist, rolled through seven consecutive games to win the match.

Somehow, two days later, Zheng repeated the trick in her very next set against a greater opponent. Down 5-0 in the opening set of her fourth‑round match against the six-time grand slam title winner Iga Swiatek , Zheng again locked down her game and reeled off seven games in a row to take the set. Zheng refused to let it go as she pulled off one of the best wins of her career, reaching the US Open quarter‑finals with a 7-5, 6-3 victory.

This was a remarkable turn of events for a variety of reasons. A player winning seven games in a row from 0-5 down in consecutive sets against two different opponents is almost unheard of at the highest level; doing so against two grand slam title winners has never happened before.

“In one moment, I even forgot the score in the first set at 4-5,” Zheng said. “That shows how I am focused. I guess, to come back 0-5 [again] is not lucky, that’s [what] I can say.”

Swiatek was one of the tournament favourites after winning her first title of the year at the Canadian Open in Toronto and she seemed to be on the way to rediscovering the confidence that has marked her as the greatest player of her generation. However, as soon as she lost control in the first set, Swiatek’s game unravelled in a stream of erratic unforced errors. While the Pole cited difficulties with anxiety and stress as reasons for her recent troubles, here she just could not feel the ball well enough.

“I wouldn’t say it had anything to do with mentality. It was more that I started making mistakes from easy balls and Qinwen stopped doing mistakes,” she said.

Most importantly, this is a transformative result for one of the biggest talents on the tour. Coming into this match, Zheng had defeated Swiatek just once in their eight meetings, but that was a devastating loss for the Pole as it came in the semi‑finals of the 2024 Paris Olympics at Roland Garros, where Swiatek had just won her third consecutive French Open.

Along with her Olympic gold medal, which instantly established her as one of the most famous athletes in China, Zheng reached the 2024 Australian Open final and rose to a career‑high ranking of No 4 last year. However, the 23-year-old underwent elbow surgery and tumbled down the rankings.

Things have been incredibly difficult since. Zheng fell as low as No 160 in June and has struggled to find rhythm. Coming here, her 2026 record was 11-13. Her US Open is testament to how quickly things can come together in tennis, and after starting off this tournament having to park her ego and drop down to compete in the qualifying draw, seven wins in New York have allowed Zheng to re-establish herself as a genuine contender.

Zheng will next face Elena Rybakina, the second seed, who moved to within one win of becoming world No 1 for the first time as she comfortably defeated Naomi Osaka 6-1, 6-4. Rybakina was nearly flawless in their 66 minutes on Louis Armstrong Stadium, firing down 29 winners and just 17 unforced errors while facing just one unconverted break point in the match. Osaka needed her top level just to compete with Rybakina, but the two-time US Open champion has been struggling with achilles pain and she did not serve well enough to be competitive.

The fifth seed and French Open champion, Mirra Andreeva, reached the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows for the first time with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 win against Austria’s Anastasia Potapova.

In the men’s draw, Alexander Blockx, the 28th seed, reached a grand slam quarter-final for the first time by defeating the 24th seed Francisco Cerundolo 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, 7-5.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – Football, Sport, Arsenal, Chelsea
Title – ‘Safety, security and service’: behind the scenes with police at Arsenal v Chelsea | Football | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/sam-dalling
Link – ‘Safety, security and service’: behind the scenes with police at Arsenal v Chelsea | Football | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-09-07T18:00:14.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/sep/07/safety-security-and-service-behind-the-scenes-with-police-at-arsenal-v-chelsea

T he concourses are silent when, deep in the Emirates Stadium’s bowels, Chief Inspector Pete Dearden’s briefing begins. Arsenal’s 4.30pm kick-off against Chelsea is still hours away but the fixture carries significance as a London derby and because the Premier League champions are hosting a realistic challenger.

Dearden is a senior officer in the Metropolitan police’s public order command and Sunday’s matchday commander. He is, to borrow football jargon, giving the pre-match team talk, running through intelligence and in-game tactics. “Set the right style and tone,” he says. After Dearden has finished, the police room becomes a pseudo-station for the afternoon, with all incidents triaged by the same crime officer. Football offences can be found in niche legislation, and the Met wants London’s matchdays to be, so far as possible, policed uniformly.

Matchday is the iceberg’s tip. The Met’s 17 dedicated football officers (DFOs) each work full-time on one club, planning each fixture with the matchday commander. All 500-plus games the Met covers per season are risk-graded using factors such as risk level of supporters, proximity, recent history and kick‑off time. Dearden labels Sunday’s game “medium medium”.

“Our mantra is safety, security and service,” Dearden says. “We appreciate that with 60,000 people in the stadium not everybody is going to behave, but we want to reduce the overall risk of the likelihood of disorder.”

Three police support units (PSUs), each containing an inspector, three sergeants and about 21 constables, have been assigned to the match. In addition, there are the senior team and 20 operational football officers, or “spotters”, on duty.

Clubs also have their own in-house safety teams, with, in effect, both parties doing their homework before collaborating. Arsenal’s operation involves about 1,000 stewards and response team members. They are the first responders to any incidents within Arsenal’s footprint. When a Chelsea fan overzealously reacts to his team’s early lead, the response team remove him.

Stadiums are not policed as standard, but clubs can request (and, if the request is accepted, pay for) special police services (SPS). Arsenal asked for one PSU to work within the Emirates for Chelsea’s visit but even then, police intervene only when required. Dearden estimates policing football costs the Met £23m a season, with approximately 10% recovered from clubs for SPS.

The Met is looking to close that gap, with aspects such as road closures and hostile vehicle mitigation now managed, and financed, by clubs. Dearden says his department is looking at “mitigation measures to reduce risk, which means that we don’t have to have as many police resources and we don’t compromise safety and security”.

Using spotters is one such measure. They work under the DFOs, are usually locally based for their day-to-day duties and operate consistently with one club. Dearden estimates that their expertise allows them to do the work of double the number of public order officers that would otherwise be needed. “They will go to pubs in the wider footprint where these people gather and try to identify what their plans are, get a good feeling for their mood and the numbers,” Dearden says.

Some Chelsea spotters are in Holborn and will follow when supporters journey to Arsenal by tube. Fans being unwilling to engage with spotters may indicate they are planning something. “You can get a good idea of whether they are potentially going to cause problems at a game because of that lack of engagement,” Dearden says. “It’s that communication approach again – even with some of the supporters that cause us problems, albeit a minority, there’s still engagement to be had. There are still opportunities to say: ‘Don’t do that.’”

Immediately before the match one spotter performed CPR on a supporter. The intervention was life-saving.

O utside the Emirates, two blue vans contain officers monitoring the data from cameras scanning passersby as part of an intelligence‑led live facial recognition pilot. The trials were funded thanks to a multimillion-pound Premier League investment.

Passing the cameras is voluntary, with signs alerting pedestrians to their presence. Faces are biometrically scanned and compared with a watchlist containing the several thousand people subject to football banning orders (FBOs) and individuals wanted for more serious crimes.

“We are targeting high-harm offenders, sex offenders, those with FBOs, who, if they came to an event, could spoil it for others, commit crimes, or exploit opportunities such as crowded spaces,” Dearden says.

The two-hour pilot yields six interventions, one while Guardian Sport is present. Officers intervene to speak to the individual, who is with their family. They have an FBO, although are not restricted from being around the Emirates. They have also recently been released from prison for human trafficking and are wearing a tag.

Dearden feels half a dozen hits is proportional to what would be expected. “What we can’t measure is the deterrent effect,” he says.

Noticeable is the relative lack of police visibility compared with recent years. That is by design, not accident. A heavy police presence does not necessarily make an event feel safe. “We don’t work on a ‘just in case’ basis these days,” Dearden says. “We deal with known knowns.” Arsenal fans in Naples on Wednesday are likely to meet a vastly different approach.

Immediately before the match, the Guardian laps the ground with the day’s three-person violence against women and girls (VAWG) team. “We want to change the culture of what perhaps in the past was tolerated,” Dearden says, giving the example of staff being targeted with misogynistic abuse.

“We’ve had people at football matches come forward and say: ‘I’ve heard you talk three or four times now and I’m now confident enough to report that I think I’m a victim of domestic abuse and controlling behaviour.’”

The VAWG team are also watching for those who may target vulnerable individuals.

F or the match, Dearden heads to the command room with Arsenal’s safety team and the other emergency services. Proximity and open dialogue are vital. Because of the game’s risk level, there is a bronze commander, Inspector Rachel Duckett, at ground level. A half-time briefing allows all parties – including medical, the London fire brigade, the local authority, the Premier League, and British transport police – to compare notes and address issues. Dearden and Duckett then discuss the strategy for the game’s end.

For all the planning, much of what happens at football is result-driven. With Arsenal 2-1 up and time running out, a late Chelsea equaliser might have changed the mood. Home and away fans cross paths after, outside the 3,000-strong Chelsea end, where there is no cordon. Arsenal supporters gloat; some Chelsea fans react. A pair of Chelsea content creators try to record in the middle of the departing crowd and receive an expletive-laden reaction from passing Arsenal fans. They are advised to move on for their own safety.

Striking is the speed at which potential flashpoints are spotted and then defused. Officers are calm, not confrontational, and act as an external subconscious: “‘C’mon, think – do you really want to do that?’”

A n hour after the final whistle, the stadium is silent again, and Dearden and his senior team debrief pitchside. A dozen incidents occurred around the game, with two arrests made – one for assaulting a steward and another for racial abuse and assault. A further 10 people were reported for offences including drinking in view of the pitch, missile throwing, low-level assault of a steward, homophobic chanting and possession of drugs.

Dearden says the number is “slightly higher than we’d like” but points out that it demonstrates proactivity. For example, stewards are told not to tolerate pushes as simply part of the job. Outcomes will be proportionate and consistency is key. In the days and weeks ahead, everything will be analysed, assessed, fed into data. Incremental improvement will be sought and further action may be required for the reported incidents.

But, for a few hours at least, all involved can reflect on a matchday’s work completed well.

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – Germany, Friedrich Merz, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), Europe, The far right
Title – German chancellor vows to stay in office despite AfD triumph in state election | Germany | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/deborah-cole
Link – German chancellor vows to stay in office despite AfD triumph in state election | Germany | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-09-07T17:48:37.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/07/german-chancellor-friedrich-merz-cdu-afd-saxony-anhalt

A “shocked” and chastened Friedrich Merz has vowed to stay in office despite the far right’s triumph in a state election that has brought anti-immigrant, pro-Kremlin politicians within striking distance of power.

The German chancellor, appearing ashen-faced in front of reporters in Berlin, said on Monday that the landslide victory by the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in Saxony-Anhalt had shaken his conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) “to its very foundations”.

The unpopular Merz, who had pledged to halve the AfD’s support at the national level, has watched the nativist party rack up electoral gains, none as convincing as its utter rout of the CDU in the eastern region on Sunday with nearly 44% of the vote.

The AfD and its candidate Ulrich Siegmund fell short of an absolute majority but could yet create Germany’s first far-right state government since the Nazi period.

Merz appeared contrite and willing to work on his “communication” with voters. “This is the worst electoral defeat the [CDU] has suffered in years, in decades,” he said. “Of course this will have to have consequences.”

Exit polls indicated the state’s voters were driven by deep dissatisfaction with the political establishment and its stewardship of Europe’s biggest economy, with one showing that only 9% approved of Merz’s performance .

Siegmund, a media-savvy former fragrance salesman, was also able to tap into a sense of grievance in the former communist east, where complaints abound that voters there are treated as “second-class citizens” more than three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Siegmund, 35, mocked the 70-year-old Merz as “a very good campaigner” for the AfD.

Only 16 months in office, Merz conceded his own low poll ratings had played a role in his party’s loss. “I know that I personally was a constant topic in this election campaign,” he said. “We must try – myself included – to reach people more effectively, in the full range of their emotions.”

The CDU’s junior coalition partner, the Social Democrats, indicated a willingness to water down contentious measures to shore up the statutory healthcare and pension schemes .

However, Merz insisted: “My determination to continue on the path of reform is unbroken,” saying a sustainable system was essential for the sake of “our children and grandchildren”. He added: “Giving up is not an option for me.”

Merz said he wanted to assure Germany’s allies that “our institutions are resilient and stable” and its own vulnerable minorities that the country would stick to its values and constitution even if the AfD took power in Saxony-Anhalt. “We know that Germany carries special responsibility because of its history,” he said.

He also promised to stay the course on Ukraine, stressing he would “not budge a single millimetre from my fundamental conviction that we must defend our freedom against Russia as well”.

Merz said Moscow would cheer the AfD’s success in Saxony-Anhalt and accused it of lending support to the far right’s campaign, with another two German state elections still to come this month amid alleged Russian interference and sabotage .

Although the CDU rallied behind its chancellor and party leader, several influential commenters openly called for his immediate replacement – a complex step under German law.

Germany “needs a clean slate, a fresh start, and that starts with Friedrich Merz”, said the Der Spiegel editor-in-chief, Dirk Kurbjuweit . “He is evidently the wrong man for this office in these times.”

The AfD’s Saxony-Anhalt chapter is listed as “confirmed rightwing extremist” by the domestic intelligence service. It has pledged mass deportations of unwelcome immigrants and asylum seekers , which critics have said would be illegal, while promising massive boosts in social welfare spending with unclear financing.

The AfD has also taken aim at state support for public broadcasters and cultural institutions it deems “unpatriotic” , sparking fears of “cultural hegemony”.

The party did not win enough seats to elect Siegmund as state premier, but AfD leaders said they seek to pick off rebel lawmakers from other parties willing to play kingmaker. It is only three seats short of a majority.

The conservative-left populist BSW party , which also favours restoring ties with Russia and largely blocking immigration, signalled an openness to working with the AfD but before the election ruled out joining the state government.

In the 13 years of the AfD’s existence, the mainstream parties have maintained a “firewall” against the far right, refusing any formal cooperation that would allow it take power. The strategy meant to sideline the party has appeared to backfire, however, as the permanent “outsider” role appeals to legions of voters fed up with politics as usual.

The CDU state premier, Sven Schulze, acknowledged his party had “no mandate” to govern given its humiliating 17% result, even if it managed to cobble together an unwieldy coalition with all the other parties in the legislature.

Although Saxony-Anhalt forms part of the AfD heartland as a relatively poor, ex-communist region, the party has begun making inroads in the west as well amid alarming signs of decline in the steel, chemicals and automotive sectors.

Germany faces another two regional elections on 20 September, in Berlin and in another eastern state, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where the AfD is also strong.

The party co-leader Alice Weidel, beaming after Sunday’s vote, said the AfD was now targeting 40% at the next general election, due in 2029. It is polling at about 28%.

Keyword – Opinion
Trefwoorden – The far right, Immigration and asylum, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), UK news, Far right, Migration, Germany, Europe, Politics
Title – The Guardian view on the far right’s real weapon: it is the politics of powerlessness | Editorial | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/editorial
Link – The Guardian view on the far right’s real weapon: it is the politics of powerlessness | Editorial | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-09-07T17:48:01.000Z
Category – Opinion
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/07/the-guardian-view-on-the-far-rights-real-weapon-it-is-the-politics-of-powerlessness

W hat links the thuggish masked agitation in southern England this weekend and the far-right Alternative für Deutschland’s (AfD) best-ever result in a German state – where it more than doubled the 21% vote it received five years ago? Several hundred men in balaclavas blocking an A road are not the same as a party winning a landslide election. But both events draw on the idea that the political system has lost control. The extremists in Dover and Portsmouth dramatise this claim; the electoral result in Germany threatens to institutionalise it.

The prospect of Germany’s first far-right-led state government since the second world war carries real consequences. In Saxony-Anhalt it could see power handed to a party hostile to migrants, Islam, LGBTQ+ rights and climate policy. Alarmingly, it has senior figures linked to former neo-Nazi groups. About 170,000 foreign nationals live among 2 million people in Saxony-Anhalt – and roughly a fifth of the state’s doctors were born abroad. The grim paradox is that an AfD government could oversee the very state intelligence service that has classified the party as “ rightwing extremist ”.

In England, the “ Patriot Platform ” agitation is far-right vigilantism that claims it will “stop the boats” if the authorities won’t. The AfD is a political party which presents its success as a repudiation of established parties that, it claims, have failed – most notably on immigration. The intimidation seen in England and the AfD’s extremism are, however, two sides of the same coin: a broader politics in which migration is felt to embody a sense of powerlessness – not just over borders but over state institutions, economic change and national identity.

The AfD polls highest in Germany’s eastern states . These have a post-reunification history of population loss and high unemployment . Britain has its own political geography and history. The small boats are a live political issue. More than 33,000 people arrived by that route in the year to June 2026. Nearly all will claim asylum. But arrivals were 23% lower than the previous year. The street escalation is occurring as numbers are falling.

Across Europe, the far right keeps rising because immigration has become a test of whether states can still govern effectively. Cutting migrant numbers or asylum claims does not lessen the issue’s potency. Studies suggest that, in Germany, political alienation is more important to AfD support than deprivation. That is also why, in Britain, using facts alone – that crossings are falling, or that migrants aren’t responsible for NHS waiting lists or stagnant wages – may have little electoral effect. The reality answers the far right’s argument, but doesn’t dispel the deeper belief that the country is becoming ungovernable .

Borders, in that sense, are a symptom of a bigger problem: voters increasingly distrust democracy to make things happen for them. In Germany, politicians can point to the constitutional settlement and coalition arithmetic and say that their hands are tied. In Britain, they defer to the bond markets and the Bank of England. The language is different, but the message can sound the same: you can vote for change, but the government is limited in what it can achieve. The answer is not to pretend that inflation or legal constraints are irrelevant. It is to show that they do not amount to a permanent veto on democratic choice.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here .

Keyword – Opinion
Trefwoorden – Health, Cancer, NHS, Health policy, Society, Politics, Public services policy, UK news
Title – The Guardian view on skin cancer: fear the heat of the sun | Editorial | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/editorial
Link – The Guardian view on skin cancer: fear the heat of the sun | Editorial | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-09-07T17:47:42.000Z
Category – Opinion
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/07/the-guardian-view-on-skin-cancer-fear-the-heat-of-the-sun

N ew climate risks bring with them new health risks. An exceptionally warm and dry summer in Europe meant that outdoor workers, and those who choose to spend leisure time in the sun, were confronted more directly than usual by the need to protect their skin from ultraviolet (UV) radiation, as well as avoid dehydration and overheating. In the UK, the annual total of new melanoma cases was reported to have risen above 20,000 for the first time earlier this year (the two most common forms of skin cancer, basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma, are less dangerous).

As with other cancers, the increase in cases reflects an ageing and a growing population. A third of those diagnosed with cancer in the UK are over 75 . But with the NHS struggling to cope with the number of those seeking treatment, and melanoma the fifth most common cancer – after prostate, breast, lung and bowel (and excluding other skin cancers) – there are growing calls for behaviour change aligned to stronger public health measures. In May, a group of MPs proposed a ban on advertising sunbeds, which – along with sunburn and tanning – are linked with a raised risk of skin cancer. Last year, a group of experts advocated banning their commercial use altogether, as in Australia and Brazil.

There are lessons to be learned from other countries besides new laws. In Australia, melanoma is the third most common cancer, and strong public health warnings have been the norm for decades. In 1981, a cartoon seagull was the face of a “slip, slop, slap” campaign aimed at persuading people to slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen and slap on a hat. At school, children are expected to follow a “no hat, no play” rule (meaning no games in sunny outdoor spaces for those with bare heads). While some British nurseries and schools have adopted similar policies, awareness of the risks remains far lower. Many people still habitually welcome bright sunshine and high temperatures.

That is partly because these remain much rarer in the UK, especially in northern areas. For good reason, melanoma is less likely to be a priority for health authorities in Scotland than in south-east England. But with global temperatures predicted to keep rising, and given their commitment to shift towards prevention in healthcare, UK ministers and local health bosses should look again at the risks of UV radiation and the factors driving it (the National Cancer Plan has already committed officials in England to seek further evidence on sunbeds ). In Australia, doctors have objected to tanning apps promoted by influencers; in the UK there has been an increase in the popularity of tanning among young people, due in part to promotion on social media.

Personalised care for many cancers, in the form of immunotherapy, has led to the present being termed a “golden age” for oncology . Such advances deserve to be celebrated. But there are tensions between the desire to focus on innovation and the need to improve access to more established services, and invest in prevention and public health. Melanoma is one of many diseases in which behaviour has a role (cancers linked to obesity are others). After a tightening of the law on tobacco and vapes, and following this summer’s record high temperatures , there is a strong case for renewed efforts to communicate the risks associated with the sun as well as artificial UV light – in time for summer 2027.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here .

Keyword – Sport
Trefwoorden – Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One, Sport
Title – Bernie Ecclestone questioned after shotgun found on his private jet in Portugal | Bernie Ecclestone | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/miguel-dantas
Link – Bernie Ecclestone questioned after shotgun found on his private jet in Portugal | Bernie Ecclestone | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-09-07T17:45:35.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/sep/07/bernie-ecclestone-questioned-shotgun-portugal-formula-one

Bernie Ecclestone was detained in Portugal on Monday after customs authorities found him in possession of an undocumented shotgun. The Guardian has independently confirmed the incident with multiple authorities involved in the matter.

The detention of the 95‑year‑old took place at Tires Aerodrome in Cascais, shortly after the former Formula One chief’s private jet landed. After a routine inspection of the aircraft and its passengers, authorities reportedly discovered a shotgun in Ecclestone’s possession. He was stopped for questioning by Portuguese officials and said the gun was for use in clay pigeon shooting.

Under standard procedure in such cases, the firearm is seized and the person found carrying it is formally made a defendant in criminal proceedings. It is not yet known what the outcome of Ecclestone’s case will be.

Responding to reports he had been arrested, Ecclestone told the Press Association: “No. The police were very helpful and doing all they could to stop us from having to do what we had to do.”

Explaining the events, Ecclestone told PA: “I was going to take part in Portugal in a clay pigeon shooting competition, which I only knew about a few days ago because Fabiana [his wife] met someone when she was coming back from Brazil to Portugal. He said he was entering into a clay pigeon competition.

“So she called me and said: ‘There is something here you should go and look at. Why don’t you turn up and join?’ And I said: ‘Well, that wouldn’t be a bad idea.’ … As I have got guns already in Switzerland, which have been imported properly, because we do a bit of clay pigeon shooting there, I brought the gun in with me.

“I went through customs and the people know me very well. They said: ‘Anything to declare?’ I said: ‘No, nothing really, just all the usual personal things.’

“So I walked out and, as I got out, one of my people with me said: ‘The police have asked if you would go and see them.’ I went to see the police and said: ‘What can I do for you?’ And they said: ‘We would like some information on this gun you brought in.’

“I didn’t even unzip the case. I said: ‘Well, it is a shotgun and this is the reason.’ And they asked where is the blue book for the gun? And I said: ‘I don’t know, I have never heard about a blue book in my life.’

“They said: ‘Yes, well anyone with these guns should always have the book, it is like a passport. Incidentally, I want to look at your passport, too,’ which they took.

“I said I bought the gun in England and took it into Switzerland through all the normal channels. And they said: ‘Where is the blue book?’ And I said: ‘I just told you, I don’t know about the blue book.’

“There were about four police guys and they said: ‘What you have done is try to import a gun into the country.’ I said: ‘I have not tried to do that. I have come through customs, and here I am with you’.

“So all this nonsense went on. We went back to the customs, and the police had complained to customs, and the customs officer said: ‘You need to surrender the gun here in Lisbon and then we will look at it there, and do you want to import it? And if so, you will have to pay duty on it and ask for a temporary import, and we will deal with it like that.’ So I said: ‘Well we’d better do that.’”

This is not the first time Ecclestone has faced scrutiny from authorities over a firearm while travelling by air. In May 2022, the former F1 chief executive was arrested in Brazil for illegally possessing a gun while preparing to board a private plane bound for Switzerland.

On that occasion an X‑ray of Ecclestone’s luggage revealed an undeclared LW Seecamp .32‑calibre pistol. He admitted that he owned the firearm but said he was unaware that he was carrying it.

Ecclestone was taken to a facility at Viracopos Airport in Campinas, where he posted bail before being released to continue his journey.

Ecclestone’s wife, Fabiana Flosi, was linked to a property purchase about 15 miles west of Lisbon. The deal was reportedly the largest private sale of a house in Portugal, with the price said to be around £35m.

Ecclestone has been involved in Formula One since the 1950s, starting out as a driver and businessman before becoming a team owner and a key negotiator of the championship’s television rights.

He was the sport’s most influential commercial and political figure for decades, playing a central role in securing commercial partnerships, sponsorships and agreements with racing circuits around the world.

Ecclestone’s official involvement with F1 came to an end in 2017, when Liberty Media acquired the commercial rights to the championship. He has nevertheless remained an inescapable figure in the sport and is widely credited with transforming F1 into a global mass-market phenomenon.

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – The far right, Germany, Europe, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)
Title – Europe’s centre fears nationalist wave after AfD victory but only has itself to blame | The far right | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jonhenley
Link – Europe’s centre fears nationalist wave after AfD victory but only has itself to blame | The far right | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-09-07T16:13:05.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/07/afd-germany-far-right-saxony-anhalt-nationalist-wave-europe-analysis

The numbers speak for themselves: Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), a party that dabbles in Nazi imagery, distinguishes between “biological” and “passport” Germans, and is too extreme even for France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen, nearly doubled its score in Sunday’s state election in Saxony-Anhalt to 43.8% of the vote.

Meanwhile, the centre-right CDU of the chancellor, Friedrich Merz, collapsed to 17.2%, less than half its total in the same race five years ago, and the centre-left SPD – Germany’s other main party of government for the past 60-odd years – scraped 9.3%. The least that can be said is that the centre did not hold.

It is not yet clear whether the AfD, whose local branch in the east German state of Saxony-Anhalt is officially classified by the country’s domestic intelligence service as “confirmed rightwing extremist” , will be able to form a government: it has 39 lawmakers in the 83-member parliament, just short of an outright majority.

But the score is the party’s strongest-ever state result and puts it closer to governing a German state than any far-right party since the second world war. It has sent shock waves round Europe, with nationalists cheering a “historic win” that is “just the beginning” and mainstream leaders warning of a “grave moment” for Europe.

Sweden holds legislative elections next weekend. France faces a crunch presidential ballot next spring. Key parliamentary races will follow there, as well as in Italy, Spain and Poland, later in the year. Far-right parties are polling strongly in all of them, and Europe’s centre fears a continent-wide nationalist wave.

It would be wise not to read too much into one election result in one quite particular German state. Saxony-Anhalt, analysts note, is home to barely 1.8 million voters and has long been a far-right stronghold: in federal and state elections over the past decade, support for the AfD there has consistently been double the national average.

“A far-right party winning a regional election in Germany is not more scary than a far-right party winning a regional election in France, the UK or the Netherlands,” said Tarik Abou-Chadi , a professor of European politics at Oxford University. “Saxony-Anhalt should not be the basis for sweeping conclusions about the electoral sociology of the AfD.”

Nonetheless, the AfD leads in national polls. It is also ahead – although in a far tighter race, with the SPD – in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where state elections are due later this month, and it is lying second even in liberal Berlin. Its rise is part of a decade-long march by far-right parties across Europe.

Almost one in four voters in Europe now cast their ballot for far-right parties , according to research led by Matthijs Rooduijn , a political scientist at the University of Amsterdam, a proportion that has grown nearly fivefold since the mid-1990s and climbed particularly steeply over the past three years.

This analysis, by more than 150 political scientists in 31 countries , found that the proportion of Europeans voting for a far-right party in their country’s most recent national elections had risen in 2026 to more than 23%, from about 10% a decade ago and roughly 5% in 1995.

Far-right populist parties are now in government as part of ruling coalitions in Croatia, Czechia, Italy and Finland, propping up a rightwing minority government in Sweden, and leading in the polls in Austria, Belgium, France and Germany (and, until very recently, the UK).

They have also suffered recent defeats, including in the Netherlands, where Geert Wilders’s Freedom party (PVV) lost nearly a third of its seats to finish second last year , and Hungary, where Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz was comprehensively beaten by his centre-right rival in April.

But the trend seems clear. As Cas Mudde of the University of Georgia, a leading expert on Europe’s far right, put it after Orbán’s defeat : “The far right is here to stay, and many of its parties are as established as the (former) ‘mainstream’ parties. Like other parties, their electoral support fluctuates.”

That steady electoral advance has been achieved despite a refusal by mainstream parties in countries such as France and Germany to collaborate with far-right parties, prompting some commentators to argue that the “ cordon sanitaire ” or “firewall” has now failed , or even been counterproductive.

By keeping the AfD out, they argue, Germany’s mainstream parties have actually boosted it: the party has been protected from the compromises and failures inherent in government. At the same time, the centre has been “hollowed-out”: forced into uncomfortable, unstable alliances that agree on and – vitally – accomplish little, further frustrating voters and driving support for the extremes.

“There’s a self-reinforcing political dynamic that feeds the AfD’s rise,” said Mujtaba Rahman , of the Eurasia Group risk consultancy. “The weaker the election results, the less common ground in the coalition, the fewer the policy results. The fewer results, the bigger the frustration in the electorate, the bigger the AfD’s share of the vote.”

Many political scientists, however, say blaming the firewall is an excuse, and data suggests far-right parties do not in any case get weaker when they are in government, but become stronger: one recent study of more than 1,300 different governments in 57 countries found far-right parties that entered government averaged a score six percentage points higher come the next election.

Besides the persistent inability of mainstream governments to deliver for disillusioned voters hit by a spiralling cost of living crisis, it is above all the gradual mainstreaming and normalisation of the far right’s ideas that has driven – and continues to drive – its steady advance, political scientists argue.

Research suggests voter attitudes towards core far-right themes such as immigration have not changed significantly over time, but have become much more significant in their voting decisions: normalisation by the media and by mainstream parties that readily embrace far-right framing have legitimised far-right views.

“The entire debate about whether the cordon sanitaire is ‘successful’ or contributes to strengthening the far right completely misses the point,” said Gabriela Greilinger , an Austrian-Hungarian political scientist. “Far-right politics and policies already constantly take centre stage, whether or not the far right is in power. There is no cordon around their ideas.”

Keyword – Music
Trefwoorden – Céline Dion, Music, France, Culture, Europe
Title – ‘She’ll outdo herself’: Céline Dion fans camp out for glimpse of star before sold-out Paris comeback | Céline Dion | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/angeliquechrisafis
Link – ‘She’ll outdo herself’: Céline Dion fans camp out for glimpse of star before sold-out Paris comeback | Céline Dion | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-09-07T15:36:28.000Z
Category – Culture
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/sep/07/celine-dion-fans-camp-out-sold-out-paris-comeback

N oëlla Lamy, 52, who described herself as one of Céline Dion ’s biggest fans, was preparing to spend all night on a Paris pavement without a tent but wearing a sweatshirt printed with the singer’s face for comfort.

“Céline Dion is a force of bravery and an inspiration,” she said.

Lamy, who works in catering for a private clinic, had travelled from her village near Amiens in northern France to wait for 36 hours behind a metal barrier outside the Canadian star’s Paris hotel to get a glimpse of her.

Hundreds of Dion fans have been gathering each day to catch sight of the singer, as she rehearses for a long-awaited return to the stage in a series of sold-out Paris shows that begin this weekend.

Dion, 58, announced in 2022 that she had been diagnosed with the rare and incurable autoimmune disorder, stiff-person syndrome . She took a break from performing, later describing how the condition meant she had suffered muscle spasms so strong that her ribs were broken as a result. In the 2024 documentary I Am: Céline Dion she provided insight into the severity of her pain from the condition, including having a seizure.

“She is resilient, humane and humble,” said Lamy, who had seen Dion perform several times in the US and France and has tickets for a Paris show. “I’m happy she’s back on stage and I hope it’s a gentle comeback for her. I know it won’t necessarily be the same type of shows she put on before, because of her health, but I know she’ll outdo herself and it will still be very grand.

“I feel like she’s been there for me for every challenge in my life. I lost my husband around the same time she lost her husband, and her songs really helped me through. I first watched her singing on a French TV chatshow when she was 14 years old and I was eight and I’ve been a fan since then.”

Dion, who grew up the youngest of 14 children in a small town near Montréal in French-speaking Quebec, has a massive fanbase in France. Although she is famous worldwide for her 1997 song My Heart Will Go On , which featured in the Oscar-winning film Titanic and became the second-bestselling single by a woman in music history, in France she is known for her many French-language songs. Her 1995 album D’eux became the biggest-selling Francophone album of all time. In 2024, she sang an Edith Piaf song from the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony .

Dion has made a point of greeting fans outside her Paris hotel, often dancing for them and chatting to them as they wait for her to come and go from evening rehearsals. She told fans a few days after arriving at the hotel that she was not going out in Paris except to rehearse because: “I’m trying to conserve my energy to give the best of myself.”

The pavement outside Dion’s hotel has become a gathering place that often resembles a street party, with office workers in the next-door building putting speakers on their balcony to blast her hits while the crowd dances along.

Marina, 31, a chemist for a cosmetics company, who has tickets for one of Dion’s Paris shows, said: “I thought I just have to get down here to her hotel as the mood seemed so good outside. My mother had all her CDs when I was a child and I also watched Titanic when I was small. Even if you don’t specifically listen to Céline Dion, you’re constantly surrounded by her music in France. It’s really positive that she showed her health condition so honestly. Lots of stars clearly feel they mustn’t show any difficult moments, but they’re human like us. I think it made her more real and close to her fans.”

Sylvie Lugans, a retired cafe worker, had been a fan since Dion won Eurovision in 1988 representing Switzerland. “She’s a wonderful diva on stage, but in real life, she’s so down to earth,” Lugans said.

Augustin, 21, who worked in the last remaining wallpaper factory in France, had also travelled from northern France to stand outside the hotel and had seen Dion wave at the crowd as she left.

“She’s brave enough to speak about the hardest moments of her life, and that’s very moving,” he said.