The Guardian News

Team behind documentary push back against IDF attempt to discredit its exposure of military systems

The team behind the award-winning film NAZA, which details the Israeli military’s targeting policies in Gaza and its alleged acceptance of high numbers of civilian deaths, have revealed they spoke to more than 100 sources with knowledge of the military systems used in the war.

The disclosure came in response to an Israel Defense Forces statement seeking to discredit the documentary.

Italian designer imbues collection with signature flourishes and style rooted in the craft of the couture atelier

It was “the most personal show I have done here”, the designer Pierpaolo Piccioli said after his Balenciaga presentation at Paris fashion week on Thursday.

Piccioli, who always wears a coral necklace, placed a monumental sculpture of undersea coral crafted from fabric in the middle of the catwalk. Like Cristóbal Balenciaga, Piccioli is both a maximalist and a minimalist. He likes boldness but not fuss, each look one audacious idea executed cleanly. A floor-length ivory cape fastened with a simple gold clasp. A black suit with one bold slash of tangerine at the jacket hem. A gown covered from neck to ankle in bubbles of organza.

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More pre-match reading: Craig Bellamy said he didn’t recognise his Wales side in their poor defeat to Denmark. Ståle Solbakken, Norway’s head coach for the past six years, said “everything’s fine” with Haaland, who has scored three goals in his past two matches, and played down the idea that the City verdict has been a distraction.

Ødegaard is a doubt for the Wales game but we’ll have confirmed line-ups for tonight’s matches shortly.

Rebuilding a complex and broken system into one that’s fair for all, and in the face of steely opposition: that will be the PM’s real challenge

Here is rare clearcut proof of the power of political persuasion. Party conference speeches, the lifeblood of political obsessives, rarely reach the public beyond a brief news clip. But this time was different. Andy Burnham’s speech spun the dial on public opinion on several political hot potatoes, defining who he is.

The pensions triple lock, which guarantees that pensions rise faster than average incomes, has been a no-go electoral minefield despite a groundswell of economists (and even a Times leader) calling for reform to prevent pensions skyrocketing. Touching this live rail was an act of bravery – or recklessness.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

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.

• Golfer has spoken of gambling issues in past

• Six-time major winner has not played since March

Phil Mickelson sought treatment earlier this year for “family trauma and addiction”, his representatives confirmed to multiple outlets on Wednesday.

The 56-year-old golfer voluntarily entered a treatment facility and has since returned home. Mickelson’s representatives did not say when he sought treatment or how long he stayed at a facility.

Counter-terrorism police arrest 27-year-old in Westminster, while second man questioned under caution

Detectives have arrested a dual UK-Iranian national on suspicion of terrorism offences as part of an investigation into a suspected plot near RAF Fairford.

Counter-terrorism police said the 27-year-old man was arrested on Thursday in Westminster on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts under section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006.

No spoilers here – TV’s grand illusionist meets his match when he moves in with Theranos founder and her family

For anyone remotely near the worlds of documentary, comedy or medical fraud, there has been one thing on the mind for weeks now: a single-minute clip of Nathan Fielder, the absurdist comedian whose boundary-pushing HBO series The Rehearsal cemented his status as docu-reality’s premier auteur, staring into the deep blue eyes of Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of blood-testing startup Theranos. Unblinking, faces inches apart, the famously dry purveyor of harebrained business schemes and the convicted fraudster appeared locked in a battle of wills. “Are you being real right now?” Fielder asked her, in a classically meta bit – could Fielder really have spent years filming a secret documentary with one of Silicon Valley’s most notorious pariahs?

The prospect of TV’s grand illusionist versus emblematic girl-boss scammer seemed potentially too good to be true; buzz for You Can See Everything, Fielder’s furtive documentary co-directed with wunderkind du jour Lance Oppenheim (whose narrative feature debut, the Robert Pattinson-starring Primetime, premiered last month) was such that access to the film’s New York film festival premiere on Wednesday became this fall’s hottest ticket.

Rantzen was one of the most powerful women in British television. From making vegetable innuendos to changing lives and bestowing her own medals on brilliant people – here are her finest small-screen moments

• Dame Esther Rantzen obituary
• Esther Rantzen: one of the UK’s boldest, bravest ever campaigners – right to the very end

Esther Rantzen, who has died aged 86, revolutionised three areas of TV: consumer journalism, the visibility of presenters and viewer participation. Hers was a remarkable career full of landmarks – and here are some of the highlights.

Ministers discuss drawing down EU countries’ reserves after Donald Trump threatens to cut off US supplies

Britain is in talks with European allies over releasing emergency diesel stockpiles after Donald Trump threatened to cut off US supplies of the fuel.

Ministers held calls with counterparts from the European Commission, Germany, France, Italy and Ireland on Thursday to discuss whether to draw down reserves after the Trump administration told Germany and France to release their stockpiles to help ease soaring global energy prices or face a US export ban.

Tech company releases Gemini 4 Argon only to a vetted group of cybersecurity experts to avoid misuse by hackers

Google on Wednesday said it would withhold its most powerful artificial intelligence model from the public for now, releasing Gemini 4 Argon only to a vetted group of cybersecurity experts to avoid misuse by hackers.

“Safely releasing frontier capabilities at this level requires a phased approach,” wrote Koray Kavukcuoglu, Google’s chief AI architect, in a blogpost announcing the model.

Readers respond to George Monbiot’s article about how those with myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome, have been failed by the health system

George Monbiot (Abandoned, dismissed and gaslighted: there is no excuse for the way ME sufferers have been betrayed, 24 September) is right about one important thing: people with severe ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome) deserve much better care than many have received. But two different questions are being conflated: how patients have been treated, and what the evidence tells us about the causes and treatment of ME/CFS.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence no longer recommends the old form of graded exercise therapy, in which activity was increased according to a predetermined schedule regardless of symptoms.

David Andrews suggests a tram network could be the answer to London’s clogged streets, while V Narayanan says unused cycle lanes are a waste of valuable road space

Your analysis of slowing buses in global cities sets out the mechanism exactly, and the remedy follows from it (London buses in decline? Why public transport in global cities is slowing to a crawl – visualised, 23 September).

Transport for London’s own calculation that a 10% fall in speed costs 6% of demand and Imperial College London’s finding of the same decline across 15 cities show what happens to buses as the traffic thickens around them. Retiming the lights will not reverse it, and London is already trying. The phrase to notice in the article is one used by TfL: signals will give more buses priority “where possible”.

Responding to an editorial on Russian threats, Aneet Morar says companies that profit from spreading harmful content need to face real consequences

Your editorial (The Guardian view on Russian disinformation: a foreign threat that relies on UK complicity, 23 September) is right that Andy Burnham’s warning about the Kremlin only tells half the story. I would go further: disinformation is one symptom of a wider failure to regulate the platforms that now function as critical national infrastructure.

The harms are evident across a wide spectrum. We know that engagement-driven feeds are damaging young people’s mental health. The same amplification mechanics that carry foreign propaganda also accelerate far-right radicalisation at home, as your analysis of the disorder in Belfast and Southampton showed. The new generation of wearable devices, such as Meta’s smart glasses, makes recording people without their knowledge or consent a routine part of life.

Anna Bird says the decision by some NHS integrated care boards to impose a two-year minimum wait is harmful to young people and their families

Blocking assessments of children with neurodivergent conditions for over two years is cruel to children, deeply damaging to families and ultimately more costly to taxpayers (NHS bodies in England impose two-year minimum wait for ADHD and autism assessments, 25 September).

Imagine the long-term harm inflicted on a six-year-old child forced to wait two years for an assessment of a physical condition. Waiting for a diagnosis of autism or ADHD is no different. That’s a quarter of a child’s life, and ultimately their potential, put on hold by state bodies that should be supporting all children. It prevents young people receiving the medical and practical assistance they need to learn, make friends and achieve the ordinary things that other children can every day.

Jessica Watkins, the first Black woman to lead a crew to orbit, is making her second trip to the space station

Four astronauts rocketed into orbit on Thursday on a space station mission that will stretch until spring, among them a Canadian whose wife will give birth while he is away.

SpaceX launched commander Jessica Watkins and her crew for Nasa after a three-week delay to fix the capsule’s leaking fuel system. Thick clouds threatened all morning to halt the countdown but in the end, the skies cleared enough to allow for a safe liftoff.

Collaboration regarded as ‘really big thing’ for retailer in some quarters despite backlash around designer’s antisemitic remarks in 2011

A month after it was announced that a planned exhibition dedicated to fashion designer John Galliano at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art would not proceed, his debut collection for fast fashion company Zara has been released.

Called Re{form}, it was, according to a press release, “authored by the couturier John Galliano. Built from our memory. Made for now.”

West Ham co-owner and former pornographer lodges high court claim over episode, in which several women accused him of abusing power

David Sullivan is suing the BBC for £150m over multiple claims of sexual misconduct made in a documentary.

Lawyers acting for Sullivan, who remains West Ham United’s co-owner, have lodged a high court claim against the corporation over its Panorama investigation Predator: The Billionaire Football Boss, which was broadcast in June.

Reform UK leader tells supporters PM’s move has ‘opened up a huge flank to us’

• UK politics live – latest updates

Nigel Farage has claimed that Andy Burnham has given him “the biggest boost in my career” by reviving the Brexit debate, which the Reform UK leader said had reopened a “huge flank” to his party.

The prime minister’s pledges to the Labour conference and admission on Wednesday that rejoining the EU was among options the government would look at had put “put me back into the debate”, he said.

• Government said to be unhappy at lack of warning

• Burnham previously criticised league’s Everton sanction

Andy Burnham’s intervention in the Manchester City debate has revived tensions between the Premier League and the prime minister. Government officials are understood to be unhappy they were not given notice that the independent commission’s damning judgment of £900m of financial manipulation and “sham contracts” would be published this week and Burnham’s response has not gone down well with several Premier League clubs concerned by his relationship with City’s owners.

The Premier League published a redacted 40-page version of the commission’s report on Tuesday, not long after Burnham’s first keynote speech as leader at the Labour party conference.