Experts say the technology could help terrorists and nation states with production but that significant hurdles remain

In his annual speech on threats to the nation, Sir Ken McCallum, the head of the UK’s intelligence service, MI5, warned that AI had the potential to “change the stakes” on existing and even new bioweapons. Here we look at how AI might help in the development of bioweapons and the hurdles that remain.

Environmentalists of all political hues must find the language and ideas that turn passion for climate action into impetus

The future of Green politics is under constant discussion after the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, but a much heavier clash – in meaning, symbolism and portent – happened earlier this summer, in King’s Lynn and West Norfolk. The council declared a climate emergency in 2021, along with hundreds of others, and while it was under Conservative control. It is now controlled by independents, and a Reform UK councillor, Austen Moore, moved to scrap the declaration.

It was the end of June, and the meeting had to be called off, because of the extreme heat in the King’s Lynn council chamber. A lot of people paused to grimly remark on that irony, but not Moore, who simply rescheduled the motion for the following week, where it was voted down (by 33 to seven). A local scientist and member of Extinction Rebellion liveblogged that debate, adding helpful maps, such as how much of the county was already below the annual flood level – most of it, including King’s Lynn itself. If this all sounds like a cheerful take home, numerous other Reform-led councils have had the same debate and Reform has prevailed. Their arguments can be terrifyingly illiterate. In Kent, councillor Linden Kemkaran asserted that climate change is fine because the world was warmer in Roman times, and as “carbon dioxide … is a trace gas essential for life on Earth”, to try to cut carbon emissions would itself be dangerous.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

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The final season of the TV epic Babylon Berlin is taking us back to 1933. Our confidence is falling apart, but that’s where the parallels end

There is one experience we in Germany can all find mildly satisfying this autumn, as we watch the dark and terrifying final season of the hit TV series Babylon Berlin. We know everything those fearless (a few of them) or frightened (many more) and opportunistic (the majority) people on the screen do not. We know their future.

Made by the public broadcaster ARD, Babylon Berlin has run for over 10 years, brilliantly fictionalising how Germany sleepwalked into nazism and the second world war. The fifth and last season begins in January 1933 with Adolf Hitler appointed Reichskanzler.

Christopher Gardner, the author of Food Sense and director of nutrition studies at Stanford, says we have overcomplicated the question of what to eat

Finally, some good news: eating well is more straightforward than you think. “There’s a lot of good science out there, and it mostly agrees,” says Stanford University’s director of nutrition studies and professor of medicine Christopher Gardner from his office in Palo Alto – beaming, bronzed and the picture of health.

In the age of social media and wellness grift, we’ve overcomplicated the question of what to eat, he says.

Director of football is tarnished by recruitment record and Amorim stint but has received glowing review from above

Lisandro Martínez is not naive. At 28, he has experienced plenty in football and knows the causes of success and failure. He has a World Cup winner’s medal, whereas Jason Wilcox has overseen the latest period of mediocrity at Manchester United, during which the focus has fallen more on the team’s performances than the wider reasons behind it.

Martínez was not solely speaking for himself when, after United’s defeat at Atlético Madrid, he strongly criticised Wilcox. His views are shared by others at United frustrated by the output from above and who “expect” more from a director of football. Wilcox knows he is under pressure because the inadequate results cannot all be pinned on Michael Carrick, who is working with a squad unable to cope with the rigours of challenging at the top of the Premier League and facing Europe’s elite.

Recent polls show that American voters across the political spectrum are deeply dissatisfied with the Trump administration, and the upcoming midterm elections will provide them an opportunity to express how they feel. The Guardian's reporter Fabiola Cineas breaks down the four key issues that will drive voters to the polls

Comedian faces three charges of rape, three of sexual assault and one of indecent assault against six women

Russell Brand was a ruthless, calculated and manipulative sexual predator who boasted about wanting to have sex with 5,000 women, a court has heard.

The 51-year-old comedian is accused of having an “insatiable desire” to get what he wanted and treating women as a means to an end.

Party faces fresh crisis as three councillors quit after ITV undercover filming exposed violence, misogyny and racist views

Reform UK has been rocked by a fresh crisis after councillors and election candidates for the party were caught on film making graphic threats of extreme violence and expressing racist and misogynistic views.

Three councillors have already stood down from the party, which said it was conducting an investigation over the first revelations from an ITV undercover investigation that aired on Wednesday.

Exclusive: Greater Manchester mayor Bev Craig invited City representative on trade trip organised by business secretary

A club representative from Manchester City was invited on a government-backed trade delegation to India this week, despite the club being found guilty of 114 breaches of Premier League rules.

Andy Burnham’s successor as Manchester mayor Bev Craig took a representative from the club to Delhi and Mumbai on a trip organised by business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, where she and other northern mayors have been promoting British trade and tourism.

Jason O’Connell’s suspected use of the specs to aid his speech in Senedd reignites debate over AI-enabled devices

It was a flowing speech packed full of precise statistics – but Jason O’Connell, a Reform UK Senedd member, was not quite the gifted orator he had first appeared. The periodic flashing in his spectacles seemed to give the game away as he spoke for five minutes in the Senedd chamber without a glance at his notes.

“Cardiff reviewed 192 roads, following 933 requests, and only four routes have returned to 30mph,” he said as he led the party’s charge to abolish 20mph traffic zones. “£38.3m wasted to implement this policy and up to £8.9bn in an act of economic self-harm.”