News Atlas

GuardianSep 27Preview

Andy Burnham to fight next election with plan for NHS-style care service

PM says he is willing to expend political capital to bring in universal service for England funded by ‘everybody’Analysis: can Labour hang on to Burnham bounce?Andy Burnham will fight the next election with a pledge to finally fix the broken social care system, acknowledging he is willing to expend political capital by asking taxpayers to cover the cost.As Labour’s party conference began in Liverpool, he pledged to “rip the plaster off” to radically transform care, setting out a vision for a universal service that would be free at the point of use for everyone in England. Continue reading...

Pippa Crerar, Alexandra Topping and Kiran StaceyLabour conference 2026Andy Burnham

GuardianSep 27Preview

‘It’s hard to sell a house when it’s covered in baboon faeces’: Cape Town divided over plan to remove its monkeys

Two troops of chacma baboons are breaking into homes and shops but animal rights activists insist coexistence is the answerCape Town’s city council has said it will “imminently” round up two baboon troops coming into repeated conflict with residents. The animals will be sterilised and permanently moved to a newly constructed sanctuary. The plan has been fiercely criticised by animal rights activists, who say the monkeys should remain roaming freely, and that less destructive options have not been properly considered.Cape Town’s baboon problem has been brewing since the 2000s, after the city stopped culling troops in the late 1990s after pressure from the public. But in the past two years it has reached boiling point. A 2025 census found that the population had grown by a third since 2000, from 360 baboons to 493, now living in 12 managed troops. Continue reading...

Gloria DickieAnimal welfareSouth Africa

GuardianSep 27Preview

Tomi Adeyemi on the film of her hit novel Children of Blood and Bone: ‘I don’t plan to watch it’

Her debut earned a record-breaking YA book deal – then came her fallout with Hollywood. The author talks about the pressures of success and why she is pictured on the cover of her new novelThere is a photograph of Tomi Adeyemi staring out from the cover of her new novel, The Siren. It is an arresting image: her face fills the frame, unsoftened by a smile, her piercing gaze fixed directly on the viewer. “It’s terrifying – like the Mona Lisa, staring at you everywhere,” she says, laughing.Using an author portrait on the cover of a novel is highly unusual, and a decision that Adeyemi says is a statement of ownership. After 12 years spent inside the world of Children of Blood and Bone – the first book in the YA trilogy that made her a literary star and its film adaptation which has become a source of profound distress – Adeyemi wanted this book to belong unmistakably to her. Continue reading

Emma LoffhagenBooksYoung adult

NPRSep 26Preview

Trump calls Iranian plan to reopen Strait of Hormuz not 'acceptable'

President Trump said he was rejecting an Iranian plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian proposal is similar to a memorandum of understanding agreed upon by the U.S. and Iran back in June.(Image credit: Aaron Schwartz)

Ava Pukatch