CEOs earn 614 times more than workers at US’s 100 lowest-paying corporations

• Ten European countries have restored border checks, signaling a potential decline in European solidarity and the viability of the Schengen common area. • The tension escalated on August 26, 2026, after Italy imposed restrictions on travelers from Spain, prompting an immediate retaliatory response from Madrid.

• Russia has issued a formal warning to the United Kingdom regarding its ongoing production of drones. • Diplomatic efforts are reportedly making progress concerning the Strait of Hormuz, though the practical impact remains unclear.

Kremlin threatens retaliation after Burnham says UK will help Ukraine start producing long-range missilesUK politics live – latest updatesRussia has said it could retaliate against the UK for its support of Kyiv by striking military targets inside and outside Ukraine, amid reports that the director of the CIA warned the Kremlin against attacking Nato during a secretive visit this week.Andy Burnham, Britain’s prime minister, said on Monday the UK would allow Kyiv access to classified technology to start ⁠its own production of Storm Shadow ​long-range ​cruise missiles. Maria ⁠Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said on Thursday Britain and France were “playing ⁠with ​fire”. Continue reading...

Safety features including usage limits and night-time blocks to be set by default. Plus changes to famous French cheesesDon’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning. Meta has agreed to significant changes to its Instagram and Facebook apps in a settlement that ended a landmark lawsuit. The agreement curtails a major trial in California and will require the social media company to pay up to $18bn. Meta agreed to establish safeguards for teenage users, including daily usage limits and blocks on night-time use nationwide in the US.California and 28 other US states sued the $1.36tn (£1tn) company over allegations that Meta deliberately designed addictive products that hooked young people, leading to mental health issues, including anxiety, depression and suicide. As part of the settlement, the company denies wrongdoing.What will be changing in the apps? The biggest alteration is that Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, is now required to make many of its safety limitations the default setting for accounts created by teens, a pivot from its previous opt-in approach to child safety. Nick Robins-Early and Johana Bhuiyan explain more in this piece: six key takeaways from the end of the Meta trial.Will other companies be affected? Meta is putting the agreement forward as a precedent for other social media companies to follow. The company’s chief legal officer, CJ Mahoney, said: “Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industry-wide solution. We therefore call on our industry peers … to implement this new framework.” Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap face thousands more similar US lawsuits brought by families, individuals, school districts and other attorneys general.Are campaigners satisfied with the result? Arturo Béjar, an ex-Facebook employee and whistleblower, said the outcome “is not an all-clear to say the product is safe. The limitations that are in the agreement are the equivalent of saying: ‘Well, you can smoke as many cigarettes as you can in two hours a day’. It doesn’t make the cigarettes any safer.”How did it happen? As this visual guide explains, at 8.37am on Wednesday an enormous section ⁠of a glacier in the Himalayas sheared free and crashed on to the valley floor in Nepal’s Langtang national park, about 60km north of the capital Kathmandu, near the mountainous Nepal-Tibet border. Continue reading...

City residents had accused council of giving ‘free rein’ to campaign promoting England flags Birmingham city council is seeking an injunction to stop members of an anti-migrant group from erecting flags, including union jack and St George’s flags, on public infrastructure across the city.A nationwide campaign to give prominence to the England flag, which resulted in thousands of St George’s crosses being flown from lamp-posts, roundabouts and other public infrastructure, is believed to have started last summer in Birmingham. Continue reading...

Minister calls for Instagram owner to extend sweeping new safeguards for young users to BritainUK politics live – latest updatesBusiness live – latest updatesThe UK government expects the Instagram owner Meta to roll out the same protections for children in Britain as those it agreed in the US on Wednesday, as part of a court settlement that could cost the company up to $18bn (£13bn).Pat McFadden, Labour’s work and pensions secretary, said on Thursday that he did not want young people in the US to have “a higher rate of protection” than those in Britain, after Meta settled a lawsuit brought by dozens of US states accusing the company of harming children with dangerous products. Continue reading...

Number of Neets is 30,000 higher than a year ago but figures boost efforts to reverse rise in economic inactivity The number of young people not in education, employment or training (Neet) across the UK fell below 1 million in the latest three-month period. In a boost to the government’s efforts to reverse years of rising economic inactivity among people aged 16 to 24, the Office for National Statistics said its surveys showed there were an estimated 981,000 Neets in April to June, compared with 1,012,000 in January to March.On an annual basis, the number of Neets was 30,000 higher than a year ago, but the fall covering the most recent three-month period will give a lift to ministers concerned that, at 13%, the proportion of young people outside work, education and training remains among the highest in Europe. Continue reading...

Rescue teams are searching for nearly 1,500 missing people, mostly tourists, after floods kill at least 165Nepal-Tibet flash flood – latest updatesRescue teams in Nepal are searching for at least 33 British nationals who are among those missing after flash floods ravaged its border with Tibet, killing at least 165 people.Nearly 1,500 people are missing, the majority of them tourists, authorities have said, after a glacier collapse triggered devastating floods in Nepal and Tibet, roaring down valleys and razing entire villages. Continue reading...

People are becoming convinced AI chatbots have helped them make scientific breakthroughs, cure diseases or invent new technologies. What does this reveal about a technology used by more than a billion people? A new series from The Guardian Investigates, coming soon Continue reading...

As the US president struggles to end his Iran war, and approval ratings hit new lows, he leans on a familiar gambitDonald Trump knows the power of an image – of himself, with everyone from Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un to Kim Kardashian. How about George Washington?As the US president struggles to end his war with Iran, and with his approval ratings hitting the lowest levels of his second term, he has in recent weeks posted a series of AI-generated images of himself alongside key historical American figures. Continue reading...

Ryan Mackenzie, running for re-election, is accused of ‘fabricating’ a career in the real estate industryThe Republican congressman Ryan Mackenzie has been accused of embellishing his résumé with private sector experience in real estate sales amid an acrimonious showdown over his Pennsylvania seat.Mackenzie, who has previously been accused of lying about his age on Tinder, “was a real estate salesperson licensed in PA”, according to his LinkedIn profile, and biographies have consistently listed it has his former profession. Continue reading...