The Guardian News

Exclusive: Met police say 70 women’s accounts have hallmarks of trafficking, suggesting case numbers could rise

Almost half of the women who reported allegations of sexual abuse by Mohamed Al Fayed to the Metropolitan police are potential victims of human trafficking, MPs have been told.

In a briefing for the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for the survivors of Fayed and Harrods in July, senior Met officers said a review earlier this year found 70 survivors’ accounts bore the hallmarks of trafficking.

Lewis/BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/New
(Delos)
The young New Zealand violinist has chosen an all-American programme for her label debut, and impresses with works by Barber, Zorn and Glass

A former BBC New Generation Artist, violinist Geneva Lewis has chosen an all-American program for her Delos recording debut. She’s accompanied with palpable empathy by fellow New Zealander Gemma New conducting the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Samuel Barber’s concerto receives an airy, poetic reading with Lewis and New embracing the music’s lyrical pastoralism while pointing up the opening movement’s scotch snap. The ongoing Celtic motif is seized upon by the orchestra and pays off in a moto perpetuo conclusion that feels second cousin to a highland fling. Lewis’s tone is warm and full of feeling, aching in the allegro and andante, feisty and folkish in the finale.

Docufictional 1981 comedy captures the working-class ska-pop pranksters in their hungry years with an almost Loachian authenticity

Opting for the former is the best idea for this unexpectedly revealing, vividly atmospheric, often funny and alarming, docufictional comedy from 1981 about the rise of the baggy-trousered ska-pop national treasures Madness. It takes us from their beginnings in 1976 to their chart breakthrough: gormless, penniless blokes, obsessing about music and roaming north London’s gritty districts of Camden Town, Stoke Newington and Crouch End. (This elicits some droll dialogue: “They’re all the same, these streets” … “That’s why they put signs on them.”)

Our naughty, dodgy heroes play people’s parties, sign on the dole and do mortifying odd jobs, get told off by site foremen and office supervisors, drive to gigs in Arthur Daley vans, almost get into fights with skinheads and have calamitous arguments with the drummer during rehearsals. It could have carried on like that indefinitely, but the arrival of Graham “Suggs” McPherson as singer is the mysterious ingredient around which everything coalesces: his voice miraculously ups the band’s game, apparently curing their worrying propensity for playing flat. His vocals mesh with the reggae thump of the keyboards and sax and the rest of the band’s goofy jogging-on-the-spot stage energy.

A sushi master seeks bloody revenge in Anthony Bourdain’s hilariously gory dystopian animation, while Josh Hartnett’s Jaws-esque horror about a mystery sea creature terrorising a small town will keep you guessing all the way

Anthony Bourdain’s eccentric, epicurean spirit lives on through this animation, adapted from a graphic novel series he created with Joel Rose. It’s set in a lawless, near-future LA where food is the only non-digital pleasure left. No one is more important than chefs. Our hero, sushi master Jiro, languishes in the projects with only embattled mother Miyako and sharp knives for company. When he upsets some mobsters, a survival battle ensues. Cue a series of hilariously gory deaths (one man is executed using hollandaise sauce) and lavish celebrations of food culture. The story is hokey and the dialogue doesn’t always sing but Bourdain’s love of food as a sensory delight is greedily indulged.
HBO Max, from Sunday 4 October

From a neo-baronial country house with turrets in acres of grounds in Scotland to a modernist tower block in a bustling part of London

From cycling in Berlin and the Black Forest to world-class cocktail bars in Cologne and magical North Sea beaches, readers share their travel tips

• Tell us about a sunny autumn break – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

In an often overlooked corner of Germany, near the Dutch border, Münster is an absolute gem. Covered porticos will convince you you’re in northern Italy, gothic churches will remind you you’re in Mitteleuropa and the buns from Zeit für Brot will insist you’re in heaven. Nature-lovers can take in the Botanical Gardens and relax by the Münstersche Aa river. Those of a historical bent can peek into the room where the Treaty of Westphalia was signed in 1648 and mull the report card of nation states in the nearly 400 years since. But really, it’s a great place just to drop-anchor and lose a few days.
Jeremy

A twisting, beguiling investigation into the art of poetry that ends in a call to arms on behalf of the natural world

The poet Alice Oswald is no stranger to thinking in public about her art. She was Oxford professor of poetry until 2023, and her lectures are available online. But this is her first full-length book, and as such is something of an occasion.

So what exactly is it? For a work of prose it contains a lot of poetry, much translated or composed by Oswald herself. Shakespeare, Donne, Shelley and Ted Hughes also feature. Though nonfiction, the book is full of stories, particularly retellings of Homer and Aeschylus. It is billed as “genre-defying” and there is much formal experimentation. But at heart it is an exploration of the oral tradition, and the writer’s own subtitle is A Manifesto, which feels exciting and urgent, pointed at the contemporary world with its pressing realities.

Dominic West co-stars as the scheming tech-mogul husband in War on Sky Atlantic. Plus: Sly Stallone and Catherine Zeta-Jones join Graham Norton on the sofa. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, Sky Atlantic
“If they play dirty,” says Nina Sosanya’s lawyer, Beatrice Ubosi, “we will be total and utter filth.” Let’s hope that’s a promise – this slick, stylish divorce drama could get seriously nasty. Sienna Miller’s film star Carla has her beady eyes on the fortune of tech slimeball Morgan (Dominic West). But as befits an extremely rich man, he has a very expensive and ruthless legal team. Expect fireworks. Phil Harrison

Most of the betting industry is urging the chancellor not to double slot machine duty to raise up to £460m more a year

Gambling industry kingpins are fuming about reports that the chancellor, John Healey, is considering increasing taxes on high-street slot machines in his first budget.

The influential Social Market Foundation thinktank, the most vocal advocate for a rise in machine games duty (MGD), from 20% to 40%, thinks the measure could raise between £275m and £460m annually, on top of the roughly £610m collected last year.

Ease into outerwear season with a light extra layer that’s perfect for cool, dry autumnal days

Boys learn by watching how the men they respect treat their partners, female colleagues, women on the street. Now is the time for those men to step up

There were seven men in all, and it lasted almost seven hours.

What followed, according to the woman at the heart of the Cornell University case that has gripped student campuses around the world, was less a sexual encounter than a grim pack-bonding exercise fuelled by booze and ketamine, in which she was passed around like a blow-up doll.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

In the UK, the Rape Crisis national freephone helpline is on 0808 802 9999 (12-2.30pm and 7-9.30pm every day of the year). Rape Crisis also operate a live chat helpline, open Monday: 2pm-4.30pm, 6pm-9pm; Tuesday: 2-4.30pm, 6pm-9pm; Wednesday: 12pm-2.30pm, 6pm-9pm; Thursday: 12pm-2.30pm, 6pm-9pm; Friday: 9am-11.30am, 2pm-4.30pm. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. You can contact the mental health charity Mind by calling 0300 123 3393 or visiting mind.org.uk. The 24-hour freephone National Domestic Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge, is on 0808 2000 247. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

‘Day-to-day’ symptom of harmful emissions, which in turn can disrupt sleep, can be overlooked, say researchers

New research has found that increased air pollution is associated with more night-time coughing, leading to disturbed sleep.

Most air pollution research looks at symptoms that are severe enough for people to seek medical help, but day-to-day symptoms can be overlooked. Prof Cecilia Mascolo, who led the study from the University of Cambridge, said: “I come from an area in Italy with very high pollution and I am very aware of its not-talked-about effects.”

With a deep, caramel richness and a bitter undertone, this cake is an excellent addition to your home baking roster

There’s enough dark chocolate in this gluten-free cake to put it firmly in chocolate cake territory, but the hero flavour comes from the sweet, creamy nuttiness of walnuts, so it’s important to use very fresh ones, because stale walnuts can quickly turn bitter. The dates bring a deep, caramel richness, while the espresso pulls everything back from being overly sweet. Despite all that richness, the cake is wonderfully light in texture. Serve with creme fraiche and perhaps some poached pears, if you want to turn it into a full-blown dessert.

Redundancy process suggests home of Gavin and Stacey and Fleabag could go online-only again in £500m cuts push

The BBC has started a redundancy process in its TV and streaming division, heightening staff fears that Matt Brittin will announce the closure of the poorly performing BBC Three and BBC Scotland channels next week.

The corporation’s director general, who has repeatedly said that linear TV and radio services may have to shut as audiences move online, is expected to inform staff on Wednesday of the latest stage of a plan to save £500m and shed up to 2,000 jobs.

Returning for a 20th album of sumptuous synthpop, Andy Bell and Clarke open up about difficult recent years, being happily uncool and battling resurgent homophobia

Andy Bell is rabbiting away on multiple topics. There’s his farm in Mallorca, where he and his husband Stephen Moss have had a fine year harvesting pomegranates, kiwis and lemons. Then there’s the Erasure frontman’s fascination with clowns (“Would the makeup help you avoid facial recognition technology?”), memories of 90s nightclubbing (“You could do anything and get away with it!”) and a worry that he’s turning into “a fussy old grandpa”. Suddenly, he catches himself: “But what about you, Vince? You’re being very quiet!”

Bell’s bandmate, whose only contribution since joining the video chat from his San Diego home has been to say hello, smiles. “No, no, I just love listening to you, man. I’m really enjoying this.”

Gieß den Kiez app shows trees in critical need of watering and can be adopted by other heat-stressed cities around the world

Amanda Gläser-Bligh sometimes attracts puzzled looks when she goes to water the eight-year-old street tree she has adopted outside her door in Charlottenburg, Berlin.

“I named her Linda the linden,” she says. “Berliners are not always known for being super friendly but most people react really positively when they find out what I’m doing.”

My condition is severe, so I have to a keep close watch on my body temperature and can’t eat chilled foods

In 2012, when I was 37, I started noticing that my fingers would get swollen and red whenever I held an iced drink. I thought it was strange, but I didn’t know what was going on. Then the same thing would happen when I handled food from the fridge. My instinct was to put my hands under hot water, but that made it worse.

For a while, that’s all I experienced. I thought it was weird but not dangerous. I was busy with my three children, so didn’t worry.

Speculation that Flávio Bolsonaro will try to strip Our Lady of Aparecida of position could become deciding factor in run-up to Sunday

A row of Biblical proportions has erupted in the run-up to Brazil’s presidential election, with the country’s patron saint, Our Lady of Aparecida, emerging as an unlikely kingmaker in the deadlocked race.

Ahead of Sunday’s vote, the two frontrunners – the leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and his far-right challenger, Flávio Bolsonaro – are level in the polls.

We can’t count on tomorrow so it would be rational to own less. Yet we make our homes nicer, just to anchor ourselves in the here and now

I was standing in front of a locked basement door in a building in our neighbourhood, laughing, as Ukrainian air defence shot down drones directly above me. I had run into the first residential building I could reach, and I even took a photo of the locked door – a shelter, and the shelter locked – because I wanted to remember it. I was on my way to buy curtains.

I hadn’t checked whether there was an alert before I left home. I had simply set out for the shop, 20 minutes away through our residential district, on foot. But somewhere along the way, things started exploding in the sky above me – and I was suddenly walking through a city under attack because I had decided that my windows needed new curtains. What the fuck was I laughing at? I should have been terrified, and I was. It was just that I still wanted the curtains, and the absurdity was hilarious.

Diana Berg is a Ukrainian artist, writer and cultural manager from Mariupol, and the founder of Platform TU, an independent cultural initiative now operating in exile after Russia’s full-scale invasion

EU Copernicus report shows surface air temperatures from June to August were 2.5C above decadal average

The scorching heat that persistently baked western Europe this summer was the worst on record, a report has found, with more than half the continent seared by “very strong” heat stress that felt hotter than 38C.

Surface air temperatures in western Europe from June to August were 2.5C above the recent decadal average, according to an update from the EU’s Copernicus climate monitoring service on Friday, while milder but still deadly heat across the rest of the continent made the summer Europe’s third hottest on record.