Reveal

• The 2026 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival has announced its initial competition lineups and jury selections. • Featured world premieres include "Gæsten" (The Guest), a 99-minute Danish film directed by Mads Mengel, and "A Happy Family," a 120-minute Swiss production directed by Jan-Eric Mack. • These selections highlight the festival's commitment to showcasing new international cinema and diverse directorial voices from Europe.

Silenced, a documentary about violence against women, opened the Sydney Film Festival on WednesdayFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastBrittany Higgins says she decided not to change her name when she got married in 2024 because she is proud to be Brittany Higgins, the former Liberal staffer has revealed in Silenced, a documentary about violence against women which opened the Sydney Film Festival.“When I got married I had this opportunity to change my name but I didn’t because I’m really proud to be Brittany Higgins,” she said in a highly emotional interview in the film. “Hopefully, this is just a footnote in my story and it’s not the headliner any more.” Continue reading...

El Dorado blaze that burned 22,744 acres and claimed the life of a firefighter was ignited by an illegal deviceSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailNearly six years after a couple’s gender-reveal stunt sparked a deadly wildfire in southern California, the companies that sold the pyrotechnic device have agreed to a multimillion-dollar settlement.The Hubbard, Ohio-based Wholesale Fireworks Corp and its subsidiary American Fireworks Wholesale LLC have agreed to pay more than $4m, the US attorney’s office in the central district of California announced on Tuesday. A third company, the Miami-based Pink or Blue Gender Team Inc, agreed to pay $50,000. Continue reading...

New issue of the American Journal of Public Health focuses on parallels between marketing for cigarettes and UPFsThe new issue of the American Journal of Public Health focuses on ultra-processed foods, and reveals that big tobacco companies used strategies that helped them sell cigarettes to sell ultra-processed food products, including Lunchables, geared toward children.The parallels between ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and cigarettes include not only how UPF products were formulated and marketed to drive excess consumption, but also the growing body of evidence linking UPFs to a variety of health risks. For UPFs, these include cardiovascular diseases, certain cancers and cognitive health decline. Continue reading...

Members of Jalisco New Generation cartel used fake retail store in San Diego as a front for trafficking drugsFederal prosecutors have charged four suspects with trafficking more than one ton of cocaine for the Jalisco New Generation cartel using a fake retail store in San Diego as a front for a sophisticated tunnel that ran across the border to Tijuana, Mexico.The defendants include two Mexican nationals and two Americans charged with conspiring to traffic drugs across the US-Mexico border. The suspects, who range in age from 18 to 32, all face sentences that could land them in prison for life. One of them, Gregorio Epifanio Hernandez Lopez, also faces the charge of “constructing, financing or using unauthorized tunnels”. Continue reading...

Revealed: AIEF, a charitable affiliate of pro-Israel lobby Aipac, has spent millions on travel for lawmakers from both parties, even as voters’ support for Israel plummetsDozens of members of Congress and Capitol Hill staffers have enjoyed lavish gifted travel to Israel funded by an Aipac affiliate since 7 October 2023, amid Israel’s expanding wars on its neighbors and despite plummeting levels of support among Americans for the country’s policies, a Guardian analysis has found.Congressional ethics filings and other public records show the trips, led by the American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF), revolved around one-sided briefings on Middle East politics and Israeli domestic and foreign policy. Lawmakers and their staffers from both parties met Israeli officials, military contractors and civil society figures, including Benjamin Netanyahu and advocates for the annexation of the West Bank and the displacement of Palestinians from Jerusalem. Continue reading...

Nick Thomas-Symonds says messages between Pat McFadden and Peter Mandelson are ‘embarrassing’ UK politics live – latest updatesLabour MPs are not looking to raise taxes to fund more benefits, the cabinet minister Nick Thomas-Symonds has said.In messages between the work and pensions secretary, Pat McFadden, and Peter Mandelson released on Monday, McFadden wrote: “Every meeting I have is: ‘Who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others?’ They’re asking the wrong questions.” Continue reading...