International delegates agree leap second no longer tenable, but first leap hour not likely to happen for thousands of years

After decades of discussion, quibbling and worrying about clocks in computer systems, the world’s official timekeepers have voted to replace what many viewed as a tiresome correction: the leap second. It’s time, they say, for the leap hour.

Delegates from 69 countries cast their votes on Thursday at a conference in France of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, which ensures the world sticks to the same standards of time, weight, distance and more.

How dare the channel reveal more racism and bigotry within Reform just as he was planning a press conference?

Sometimes the world can be very unfair. As though life is just one cruel joke. How else to make sense of everything? For when the history books come to be written, Nigel Farage will go down as one of the century’s unluckiest politicians.

Poor Nige. All he has ever wanted is a better Britain. A country united in a shared vision where everyone gets along with one another. Where people of all faiths and none look out for each other. Where men and women of all colours are treated as equals. Where Nige can teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.

Thinking about writing a book and doing it are two very different things – so how to get started and follow through?

At some point in their lives, many people are confronted with a big question: what if I wrote a book?

Writing a memoir, murder mystery or steamy romance is an accomplishment. Like running a marathon or successfully filing your taxes, it speaks to grit, determination and hours of research and effort.

How to start meditating

How to start weightlifting

How to start budgeting

How to start running

Country has not had an election in 33 years and has withdrawn cooperation with UK on migrant returns

Eritrea, the east African country embroiled in a row with the UK over its refusal to accept the return of rejected asylum seekers and criminals, is considered one of world’s most secretive and repressive states, with reports of arbitrary detention and severe restrictions on freedom of expression, opinion and religion.

Situated in the Horn of Africa and bordering Sudan, Ethiopia and Djibouti, it became a sovereign state after gaining independence from Ethiopia in 1993 following a 30-year war.

You’re Paul McCartney. So how come you’re still getting het up at a fictional version of you being marginally smaller than a fictional version of John Lennon?

There has been a lot of discourse and conjecture surrounding Sam Mendes’s forthcoming Beatles biopics. Some of this is logical (will people really turn out to see four near-identical films on the same day?), some creative (what animal did they have to shave to make John Lennon’s Abbey Road beard?). At every turn the film has been examined and factchecked and cross-referenced against testimonies from the band’s actual hairdresser.

But until now the remaining Beatles have managed to keep fairly quiet about the whole thing. Last year Ringo Starr mentioned that he’d sat down with Mendes to rework a scene he wasn’t happy with, and Paul McCartney has praised the guitar playing of Paul Mescal, but it appeared that no real red lines had been crossed. Until now.

Peru’s anchoveta have made up about a 10th of the entire global commercial fishing catch since 1970, more than any other fish. A combination of warming seas and decades-long overfishing spells disaster

On 10 June 2026, the government of Peru made a decision that it knew would hurt one of the world’s major fishing industries. It stopped all anchoveta fishing boats from going out to sea, suspending the fishing season. At first the order was temporary, but in mid-August, the suspension turned into a total closure. This was no easy call. For one thing, it was a brutal blow to the Peruvian economy.

Peruvian anchovies – the scientific name is Engraulis ringens – are not the salty, punch-packing little fillets in a puttanesca sauce or caesar salad dressing. That is a different species – Engraulis encrasicolus – which is smaller, tastier and found mostly in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Only a small part of Peru’s anchoveta catch is eaten in fish form. The rest – more than 90% – is immediately processed as fishmeal and fish oil, packed in sacks and barrels, and shipped to fish, shellfish and seaweed farms, factory farms and nutritional supplement producers around the world.

Exclusive: Chancellor to target sector in his first budget to help offset damage caused by Iran war on public finances

John Healey is poised to tax Britain’s banks in his 28 October budget to help offset the damage inflicted on the public finances by war in the Middle East, the Guardian understands.

The chancellor is in Bangkok, where the International Monetary Fund has praised the UK’s progress towards balancing the books, urging him to “stay the course”.

Soldier who killed 13 people in 2009 will still be executed, but president said ‘people would rather not watch him die’

Donald Trump has shelved a widely condemned plan to livestream the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people at a military base at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009.

In a social media post on Thursday, Trump argued that broadcasting such an execution “might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan” but said that “many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device”.

Home secretary says she will block all Eritreans from UK unless a returns deal is agreed for rejected asylum seekers and criminals

Shabana Mahmood has been accused of launching a “perfunctory political gimmick” by the Eritrean government in a row over the return of rejected asylum seekers and criminals.

After the home secretary threatened to block all Eritreans from entering the UK unless a returns deal was agreed, the country’s embassy claimed the UK had failed to engage in “meaningful and appropriate” dialogue.

Graham Brougham, 74, was one of a number of men invited to sexually assault victim while she was unconscious

A man from Cheshire has pleaded guilty to the rape of a woman whose husband drugged her and invited other men to sexually assault her while she was unconscious.

Graham Brougham, 74, pleaded guilty to rape at a hearing at Manchester Minshull Street crown court on Thursday afternoon.