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In this week’s newsletter: Sandra Hüller and Anne Hathaway might have been in more films this year – but Pattinson’s remarkable run confirms him as one of the best performers of his generation

For prolific actors, 2026 has been a banner year. The roles have kept piling up for a small cohort of stars, the roles have kept piling up, to the point where you wonder how they found the time to do vital things like sleep, shower or scarf down nuclear-fallout-covered chicken wings on YouTube interview shows.

Just look at Sandra Hüller, who by the time December ends will have racked up six projects in 2026, ranging from austere cold war road-trip movies to migraine-inducing Marvel blockbusters. Anne Hathaway, meanwhile, has since January appeared as – deep breath – a psychologically tormented fading pop star, a catatonic popular novelist, a suburbanite fending off hungry dinosaurs, an Ithacan queen fending off hungry suitors and reluctant fashion journo Andy in the belated Devil Wears Prada sequel. (Hathaway did also have time to go on the nuclear chicken wings show, but was unable to partake, due to being heavily pregnant.)

Heated Rivalry’s Hudson Williams and Carrie-Anne Moss star in this audacious mystery about a Slavic witch. There’s supernatural weirdness, detective work … and a hero who looks a lot like Tim Key dressed in leather

Halloween was once a simpler time, when neighbourhood kids would dress up as mythical serial killers, the undead or bedsheet-wearing ghosts. At some point, following America’s lead, it became sexy and cat-forward. It has now become a sort of conceptual art show. I’ve heard people this year planning to go to parties dressed as Erling Haaland, Prom Carrie (Prime Video edition) and Bad Bunny’s half-time Super Bowl show. It’s horrifying.

The perception of witches has evolved, too. Once understood to be a malignant version of the crone archetype, sympathy for witches has grown. They have been embraced as a feminist image of the older woman, free of patriarchal command and possessed of a powerful rage. In recent years, Maleficent, Elphaba from Wicked and Marvel’s Scarlet Witch have given witches a pop edge. Some of my most intense friends proudly wear slogan T-shirts proclaiming themselves descended from the witches whom society failed to burn.

Intercity train operator’s compensation bill likely to top £70m this financial year amid rise in claims across network

Avanti West Coast paid out more than £20m to passengers in just three months this summer in refunds for disrupted journeys on Britain’s main intercity rail network.

The intercity operator paid out almost as much in a four-week period to 25 July – £9.3m – as its annual profits for each of the past two years. It repaid a further £12.2m in the subsequent eight weeks.

Editor, agony uncle, crossword compiler – he even interviews himself. Our sketchwriter finds there’s no end to Farage’s talents

Welcome to your new super, soaraway Reformer. The paper that aims to take you back to the 1950s with all the stories that the mainstream media don’t want you to read. Free to all patriots. And those who happen to have found a copy on the floor of the bus.

Вышла версия 3.1.10.1 конфигурации «1С:MDM Управление мастер-данными КОРП». Я не сотрудник 1С, а просто внедряю любые версии 1С:MDM, так что в релизе необходимо было разбираться. Ну чтож, глобальной перестройки не случилось, но для практикующего разработчика и администратора здесь есть несколько действительно «вкусных» фишек: от встроенного ИИ в нормализации до отложенных массовых операций с уведомлениями. А ещё – отборы по строкам табличных частей, отсутствие которых мне лично добавляло головных болей в предыдущих версиях. Разбираем, что реально изменилось в работе с мастер-данными и какие «костыли» теперь можно выбросить.

На первый взгляд, интеграционный проект выглядит довольно понятно: есть несколько информационных систем, между ними нужно организовать обмен данными. Определяем форматы, настраиваем маршруты, проверяем передачу — можно запускать в эксплуатацию. Но в реальной корпоративной среде всё обычно сложнее. Системы развивались в разное время, часть интеграций создавалась под конкретные задачи, где-то работают собственные механизмы обмена, а где-то остались решения, о которых нынешняя ИТ-команда знает далеко не всё. Пока количество взаимодействий невелико, с этим можно жить. Проблемы становятся заметны, когда бизнес меняет процессы, появляются новые системы, растёт нагрузка или требуется заменить один из компонентов ИТ-ландшафта. Типовые проблемы компании в этой ситуации мы свели в одну картинку

Мы видели как ИИ рисует персонажей, здания и ассеты (даже со спрайтами). А что насчет дизайн локаций и уровней?

Для теста мы возьмем десять локаций выполненных для воображаемой 3D-РПГ в жанре фентези и со знатным налетом лоуполи-эстетики. В качестве дизайнеров у нас выступят Nano Banana Pro, Grok Image 2, флагманский Qwen Image 3 и бюджетная Seedream 5.0 Lite. 

Мы собрали AI-менеджера маркетплейсов на агенте и обложили его ограничениями: восемь шагов на ход, узкие инструменты, урезанные данные. На эталоне он набрал 4,28 из 5. А в живых разговорах смотрел десять товаров из сотни и уверенно делал выводы по десятой части магазина.

Через четыре дня мы удалили своё ядро целиком и перевели агента на Pydantic AI. Вместо десятков обёрток — весь API Wildberries одним инструментом, интернет и ни одного нашего лимита. Запись в кабинет — по-прежнему только после «да» владельца. Рассказываем, что пошло не так и как устроено теперь.

Есть Яндекс.Диск объемом ~500GB, заполненный в основном фото (RAW и JPEG) и видео, и задача сохранить все его содержимое на локальный диск.

Вроде бы ровно для этого и нужен официальный клиент - но в реальных условиях он повел себя крайне странно.

Пришлось брать дело в свои руки, а заодно плотнее познакомиться с node:streams...

Страница со списком из 100 постов на проде тормозит, а в профайлере — сотня одинаковых лёгких запросов. Это N+1: разбираем, как Eloquent создаёт его через ленивую загрузку, как лечить через with() и withCount() и как запретить на уровне фреймворка через preventLazyLoading().

Consultation follows growing calls from campaigners, vets and National Farmers’ Union for tighter regulation

As the nights draw in, the season of sparklers begins, with Diwali, Bonfire Night and New Year’s Eve among the occasions typically celebrated with fireworks. But if campaigners get their way, this could be the last blast for bangers in the back yard.

In January concerns about the noise and availability of fireworks were aired in a parliamentary debate, with two petitions clocking up more than 180,000 signatures each, while earlier this month the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade closed a consultation on proposals including making louder fireworks only available to professional users.

My wife got ours when she was eight, and he came to live with us soon after we got married. I don’t remember anything about that in the vows

It is the first truly bleak day of autumn – the sky is a deep grey and a steady drizzle is falling. Sitting in the unflattering light of a kitchen downlight and looking out the window, I think: this is it now, until spring.

Except it isn’t, quite, as a few hours later the cloud begins to break up and a shaft of watery sunlight reaches the brick step just outside my office shed. When I open the door to let in the warm afternoon air, I find the tortoise sitting there.

• Joanna Wietrzyk claims victory in first event of season in Hamburg

• Australian says pre-race that she is ‘truly so sorry’ for events in Beijing

The Australian athlete who sparked outrage when winning a Hyrox event in Beijing despite soiling herself during the race has returned in style with victory in the first event of the new season in Hamburg.

Joanna Wietrzyk won the endurance sports event in China last month but forfeited the points and soon faced a stinging public backlash as footage of her continuing through demanding exercises and using communal equipment with faecal matter running down her legs went viral on social media.

Consultation follows growing calls from campaigners, vets and National Farmers’ Union for tighter regulation

As the nights draw in, the season of sparklers begins, with Diwali, Bonfire Night and New Year’s Eve among the occasions typically celebrated with fireworks. But if campaigners get their way, this could be the last blast for bangers in the back yard.

In January concerns about the noise and availability of fireworks were aired in a parliamentary debate, with two petitions clocking up more than 180,000 signatures each, while earlier this month the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade closed a consultation on proposals including making louder fireworks only available to professional users.

Activists see meeting as opportunity to demand UK confront role in transatlantic enslavement

“The royal family enslaved us! Apologise now! Reparatory justice now!”

King Charles and the UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, will be greeted with messages as they travel through Antigua’s capital, St John’s, to attend meetings at the Commonwealth leaders’ summit next week. On billboards, placards and T-shirts, in letters and at a candlelight vigil for the thousands of Africans trafficked to Antigua and Barbuda during the transatlantic slave trade, the message from the Caribbean will be pervasive: slavery reparations is not an issue they “are going to be able to dodge”.

Sellers in areas such as Belgravia and Mayfair face hundreds of thousands of pounds in losses as property prices fall

Eight out of 10 properties in London’s most exclusive neighbourhoods – such as Mayfair, Belgravia and Knightsbridge – now sell below asking price, according to research by Coutts, which provides private banking services to wealthy clients.

Property prices in “prime central London”, which covers the city’s most expensive postcodes, have dropped 5% in the third quarter of 2026, as the slowdown in the UK’s property market hits its wealthiest residents.

BoM predicts hail, damaging winds and possible flash flooding across Victoria, NSW and parts of Queensland into Sunday

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Storm warnings are in place for multiple capital cities across Australia’s east and south-east as a severe weather front sweeps across the country.

Heavy rain, winds and thunderstorms are forecast to hit Melbourne and eastern Victoria throughout Saturday afternoon as a cold front meets warm, humid air.

Это завершающая статья данного цикла, в ней я попытаюсь дать прогноз развития нашей цивилизации от настоящего времени до 2030 года (пытаться заглядывать еще дальше совсем уж авантюрно).

Autumn on a plate: come in from the fireworks and warm up with this sweet, rich caramelised apple treat

I love a tarte tatin: it’s one of those perfect recipes that contains only a few key ingredients at its core – in this case, butter, sugar, apples and pastry – yet it brings out the absolute best qualities from each: the sugar dark, bittersweet, caramelised, and tempered by the acidity of the apples, the texture softened but held by the combination of butter and fruit pectin. The only problem is that the whole thing happens behind a screen of puff pastry, meaning that tarte tatin takes a great deal of practice and repetition to reach the right level of caramelisation blind. So, here, I’ve dispensed with the pastry altogether, making it a much easier preparation. For the intrepid, this is delicious cooked over a bonfire, where the smoke adds an incredible extra dimension; it also functions as a warming treat after a chilly evening out watching the fireworks.

Jackson Boxer is chef/owner of Brunswick House, Vesper and Dove, all in London, and culinary director of Cowley Manor near Cheltenham and the Henrietta in London

Sellers in areas such as Belgravia and Mayfair face hundreds of thousands of pounds in losses as property prices fall

Eight out of 10 properties in London’s most exclusive neighbourhoods – such as Mayfair, Belgravia and Knightsbridge – now sell below asking price, according to research by Coutts, which provides private banking services to wealthy clients.

Property prices in “prime central London”, which covers the city’s most expensive postcodes, have dropped 5% in the third quarter of 2026, as the slowdown in the UK’s property market hits its wealthiest residents.

There is always debate about the concept’s necessity and efficacy. But with nativists in their pomp, it’s good to focus on who we are and why

• What forces shaped four generations of Black Britons? | The panel

Pity Black History Month UK, assailed on all sides. Those on the right seek to end the celebration on the basis that it amounts to special treatment for a group that doesn’t deserve it. History should be colour-blind: society should not differentiate, they say. We are not racist, we just want fairness. But often, they are – and they really don’t.

On the other side of the argument are the progressives, notably minority progressives, who say the idea of a month to consider Black history is demeaning because it should already have a year-round place in our teaching and consciousness. There is a further view that any beneficial effect the month once had has been diluted by unimaginative repetition and commercially motivated virtue signalling. Players taking the knee in the Premier League? Been there, done that: yawn!

Hugh Muir is executive editor, Opinion

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.

For Black History Month, figures from the arts, culture and sport reveal the people and ideas that made them who they are today

• When you’re traduced, abused and gaslighted – believe me, Black History Month matters | Hugh Muir

Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård star in a new fantasy romance, and Nintendo’s revered 1998 classic gets a fresh coat of paint

Wicker
Out now
Anyone who has ever fantasised about having a husband made out of wicker (surely a universal dream) will want to get themselves along to this Olivia Colman romantasy about a loner fisher who does exactly that. With Alexander Skarsgård, Richard E Grant, Peter Dinklage and Elizabeth Debicki.

One south London bar provided Claudia Winkleman-themed cocktails and its very own banishment ceremony

Cries, cheers and boos emanating from pubs across the country on Friday night were less likely to be linked to any sports fixture than the nation coming together for the dramatic climax of the BBC’s The Celebrity Traitors.

The cloak and dagger reality show, in which contestants attempt to deceive or deduce who among them are “Faithfuls” and “Traitors” for a charity cash prize, drew in more than half of the UK’s TV audience in its debut episode earlier this month.

The most fractious family in organised crime return while the US rapper embarks upon a series of benefit shows with some A-list guests. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

Nelson, 41, who works in legal services, meets Louise, 37, who works in marketing

What were you hoping for?
Great company and wonderful conversation.

Tom Kerridge, Helen Goh and other foodies on what they feed their children

Acey, 10

Amid the chaos, havoc and war caused by a capricious and amoral US president, countries are waking up to the dangers of being excluded and abused by America

Never has there been a time when the world has been more interconnected than now. What happens in the secretive inner councils in Tehran, the mountains of south-west Yemen, the steppe of the Donbas, the still bloody wasteland that is Gaza and even the elegant boulevards of Paris and Milan have a common thread.

One cannot understand one set of conflicts without weaving them into another, and it is this very interdependence that is making each problem so contagious, layered and difficult to resolve, leaving the world to live as if trapped inside a pressure cooker on the brink of an explosion.

Actor pleaded not guilty to allegedly kicking a nurse and a police officer after an incident on flight from Los Angeles to New York

Selma Blair has spoken for the first time since being charged with assault after a mid-air assault incident, saying she is “so sorry” to anyone “that I hurt, I frightened, that I alarmed”.

Blair pleaded not guilty to state assault charges over allegations she kicked a nurse and a police officer after an incident involving crew members on a flight from Los Angeles to New York earlier this month.

Activists see meeting as opportunity to demand UK confront role in transatlantic enslavement

“The royal family enslaved us! Apologise now! Reparatory justice now!”

King Charles and the UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, will be greeted with messages as they travel through Antigua’s capital, St John’s, to attend meetings at the Commonwealth leaders’ summit next week. On billboards, placards and T-shirts, in letters and at a candlelight vigil for the thousands of Africans trafficked to Antigua and Barbuda during the transatlantic slave trade, the message from the Caribbean will be pervasive: slavery reparations is not an issue they “are going to be able to dodge”.

Спросите языковую модель «это мошенники?», и она почти всегда ответит правильно. Но попросите «помоги ответить продавцу, я согласна на предоплату», и та же модель напишет мошеннику «переведу сегодня». Я проверил три локальные модели на 42 схемах мошенничества на русском, казахском и шала: на казахском они почти ни разу не предупредили. Потом поставил между человеком и ассистентом простой защитный слой, и ни одна мошенническая просьба не прошла.

In a survey, ‘just to be clear’ came out as the most loathed phrase. But I think I can do better

A new contender for the most passive-aggressive email phrase has emerged. “Just to be clear” was chosen by 52% of desk jockeys in a survey by email verification company ZeroBounce, closely followed by the perennial pass-ag fave, “per my last email” (40%), which tied with the identical-in-intent “as previously discussed”. Further down the list came “for future reference” and “kindly note”.

If you ask me, these all verge on actual aggressive. Imagine saying “just to be clear” out loud to another person: that’s a conversational poke in the ribs, isn’t it? It’s the kind of thing you unleash 10 minutes into an ill-tempered wrangle with your home insurance company about inflated renewal premiums. “Kindly note” is even worse – it’s a phrase from an angry message on the office kitchen wall about microwave abuse.

With 180,000 eligible voters, Bedouin turnout was key in Palestinian-led parties winning unprecedented 19 seats

Last year, Umm Khaled Fatoun returned from volunteering in a Jewish-Arab support centre for victims of war to find bulldozers tearing into her son’s house in the Bedouin village of Azzarnug.

The demolition crew, who arrived under police escort, did not even allow them to remove furniture or solar panels before reducing the home and its contents to a pile of rubble.

Сегодня у нас 31.10.2026, как следствие на этот раз временные рамки были ограничены диапазоном от 1.01.1970 до 31.10.2006. Выбор пал на 3 декабря 1994 года.

Когда открываешь сайт, который ведёт чужой SEO-подрядчик, на старте я прогоняю его через Screaming Frog и смотрю всю мету: title, description, H1 и H2, а рядом скорость загрузки. Но это только начало, дальше я сразу поднимаю аналитику и смотрю, крутят ПФ или нет. Первый паттерн видно почти всегда: визиты растут, растёт всё, кроме заявок.

President Karol Nawrocki seen struggling to gain entry to court building in Warsaw amid long-running row over the court’s legitimacy

Riot police were locked in a tense standoff with protesters outside Poland’s constitutional court on Friday night after its top judge was suspended in the latest escalation in a decade-long dispute over the court’s legal status.

The clashes followed a controversial decision by a group of government-appointed judges to suspend the court’s contested president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and his deputy, Bartłomiej Sochański, amid disagreements over the bench’s legitimacy.

Mangione pleaded guilty in August in federal case in the killing of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson

Luigi Mangione’s lawyers filed paperwork on Friday once again pushing for dismissal of his state-level case in the killing of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson following his federal guilty plea.

Mangione pleaded guilty on 14 August to federal charges in Thompson’s grisly death outside a Manhattan hotel on 4 December 2024. The shocking plea came less than a month before his state murder and weapons trial, which had been scheduled for 8 September.