From AI aunties to long diaspora Uber phone calls, here is a selection of our favourite editions to celebrate our second anniversary

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The Long Wave is two! And over the past year, once again, it has surprised us with the breadth of stories and events in the diaspora.

The Long Wave has also evolved into a large community, with many readers getting in touch and sharing their thoughts, tips and sometimes their polite disagreements. We welcome and relish all of it. Here is the team’s selection of our favourite editions.

Ghana may soon come calling for Trinidad and Tobago’s former captain and manager, who is proud of his CV since his days as a Premier League striker

Dwight Yorke wants you to stop calling him a former player. “I’m not a kid trying to get into management for the first time,” he says from his home in Dubai. “I’ve done that and I want that message to come across clearly.”

The message has a deadline. Carlos Queiroz left his job as Ghana head coach on 1 October and the Ghana Football Association is searching for his successor. Yorke is among the names under consideration, along with Pape Thiaw, Aliou Cissé and Walid Regragui, the former Morocco head coach, according to Ghanaian media.

The president lobbed familiar attacks on Abdul El-Sayed, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib during rally for Republican senator Roger Marshall

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A new Washington Post-ABC poll shows that Donald Trump’s approval rating has reached a new low – 33%.

This comes, just over two weeks away from the November midterms, as the president continues crisscrossing the country as part of his campaign blitz for embattled Republicans.

Enslaved African people were seared with hot metal brands bearing the royal crown, according to research by historians who have documented the monarchy’s centuries-long involvement in Britain’s slave trade.

The kings and queens most heavily involved were those who ruled after the monarchy was restored in 1660. The Register of British Slave Traders is the most comprehensive research project into the investors in the country's trafficking of enslaved African people. Its publication will further inform calls for the king to finally acknowledge the monarchy’s deep involvement in the trade.

In response to the Guardian’s reporting of the new research relating to the monarchy, a spokesperson for King Charles said he was 'grateful to all those undertaking academic work in this area and thus contributing to the debate about how such issues might best be addressed'.

• The royal crown branded on enslaved Africans: Britain’s monarchy and the slave trade

Using tinted tips and undercuts, footballers are rewriting what ‘professional’ looks like in elite sport in the process

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At the World Cup this summer locs, or what are commonly known as “dreadlocks”, have become as ubiquitous as free kicks. Defenders pin theirs back for clear sight-lines; forwards loosen and shape theirs for the cameras.

Antoine Semenyo of Ghana paired his with a sharp undercut. Spain’s Nico Williams bleaches his tips. Belgium winger Jeremy Doku has a mix of blond tinted tips, cornrowed. England’s Eberechi Eze has a variant styled into cornrows, while his former Crystal Palace teammate (and soon to be similarly gutted opponent in Saturday’s third-place “bronze” play-off) France’s Michael Olise opts for a slickly styled taper fade, a technique that emphasises the volume of the locs on top. Manu Koné, also of Les Bleus, has sported braided locs, while Switzerland’s attacking midfielder Johan Manzambi has gone for jumbo locs in combination with rope-like, protective Senegalese twists.

Heat health alerts in place in most regions of England from Sunday to Saturday with mercury also rising in Wales

Another heatwave is on the way across parts of the UK with peak temperatures of 34C forecast.

Temperatures in the south of England could reach 28C on Saturday, according to the Met Office.

Prime minister holds no ‘personal animosity’ toward likely successor and stresses he has a platform to build on

Keir Starmer has said Labour “should go on to win the next election” under his likely successor, Andy Burnham, based on what the prime minister had already achieved.

In his first interview since he announced he would stand down, Starmer also said he held no “personal animosity” toward Burnham, who is expected to succeed him.

It’s got Europe’s largest Black population, the world’s second-biggest rap scene and a long literary history. But even as diasporic culture takes hold in Paris, some ask when commercial success will lead to structural change

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We often imagine Paris as a city of cafes, couture and impressionism. But some of its most dynamic cultural currents stem from the French-speaking Black diaspora.

This week, I spoke to Achille Tenkiang, a Cameroonian-American culture writer with a love for the city, and Liz Gomis, executive director of Maison des Mondes Africains (MansA), a cultural institution based in Paris. They told me how Black French culture has gained visibility in the capital and beyond.

Suspect detained under Mental Health Act, as police confirm counter-terrorism unit is leading investigation

A 14-year-old girl has been charged in connection with three stabbings at a school in north Manchester, police said.

The girl was charged with three charges of attempted murder and two charges of possessing a bladed article on school premises over the incident on Tuesday.

This episode feels symbolic of a World Cup where the global game has been sacrificed to Fifa’s cynical money-making – and Trumpian whim

Omar Abdulkadir Artan was supposed to make history this week, becoming the first Somali referee to officiate at a World Cup. Instead, he’s watching from outside the US, denied entry without explanation by the Trump administration. Welcome to the most inclusive World Cup ever.

Fifa, the game’s governing body, is projecting revenues of $8.9bn (£6.7bn) from this tournament – almost double what the 2024 Olympics made. More teams: 48, up from 32. More matches: 104 over 39 days. More markets, just how they like it. This is good business.

Morgan Ofori is a reporter, blogger and subeditor for the Guardian’s The Long Wave

When the best referee in Africa is barred from working at the World Cup after being denied entry at the border, claims of this being an inclusive tournament ring hollow.

Omar Abdulkadir Artan was supposed to make history this week, becoming the first Somali referee to officiate at a World Cup, instead, he is watching from home.

In this video, Morgan Ofori digs into a historic year for African nations against the backdrop of US travel bans.

Hundreds of thousands of supporters travelled to north London to celebrate their team winning the Premier League. Here’s what they wore …

‘The only thing I haven’t got are the underpants. Everything else is Arsenal,” says Shane, a memorabilia and kit collector perched outside north London’s Clissold park with his daughter, Erin. Known online as Highbury Gunner JVC, the 47-year-old wore an Arsenal-buckled belt, a club tie in a player pattern and a club shirt with a red and white vintage-style duffel bag. The showstopper, though, was his bespoke jacket made from curtains by the designer Joe Brim, finished with an Arsenal medallion and watch, and yellow customised Dr Martens. A collector since the 1970s, he says: “I could complete a catalogue from the 90s; my house is like a museum.”

Favourite shirt … Liv Samuels in his Arsenal badge Hawaiian top

After two decades, long-suffering Gunners fans from across the diaspora have been rewarded with a Premier League win. So why has this sometimes beleaguered team earned such adulation?

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Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. As the resident Arsenal fan, I’m stepping in for Nesrine the week after my club lifted the Premier League trophy for the first time since 2004, prompting celebrations on a scale we rarely see, at home and across the globe.

Arsenal have a storied history with Black players, and its fanbase reflects that. A cursory look at the joy on Bukayo Saka and Eberechi Eze’s faces at Selhurst Park and the ensuing melee of supporters on the streets of London right through to Kampala is strong proof of that. I look at why a north London club has the love and dedication of so many in the Black diaspora – a flame that has remained lit through the good, the bad and indifferent.

President says ‘you don’t want to do it in Trump crowds’ as his speech to supporters in Rockland county, New York, disrupted twice by protesters

• US intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard leaving post after rocky tenure

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“There’s broad recognition there are going to be eventually less US troops in Europe than historically,” Rubio says

Rubio said he didn’t set the timeline for reducing the number of US troops in Europe, but “it has been an ongoing process that started from the first day of this administration.”

California governor calls efforts to dismantle majority-Black districts ‘Jim Crow 2.0’; Louisiana moves forward to eliminate one of two such districts

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Donald Trump will drive through a Chinese capital that is smoggier than it was on his last visit in 2017, when the authorities launched emergency measures to clear the skies of pollution days before his first state visit to Beijing.

Factories were ordered to halt production and heavily polluting cars were banned from the roads in the days ahead of the US president’s trip nearly a decade ago, an era in which China had declared war on air pollution and made special efforts to clear the skies ahead of important political events such as visiting dignitaries and the Beijing Olympics.

Rooted in colonialism, legislation backed by governments eager for popularity is obstructing real progress for queer minorities

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Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. It’s Morgan here, covering for Nesrine this week. There has been a recent rise in anti-LGBTQ legislation across a number of African countries that already have strict sexuality laws.

I spoke with LGBTQ+ people and activists fighting against the narrative that their identities are an imported “western” creation to better understand the impact of these new laws, why they are happening, and how foreign lobbying groups are pushing for more draconian laws.

Organisers claim half a million people are marching through central London, protesting against the rise of the far right

Some protesters have spoken to PA earmarking opposition to Reform UK, support for Palestine and anti-racism as drivers for their attendance.

Paige Horsford, 34, a media and English teacher from New Romney, Kent, said she joined the Together march because she has witnessed racist incidents at her school.

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More now on India slashing taxes on diesel and petrol amid the global disruption in energy supplies: finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the move would “provide protection to consumers from rise in prices”.

The country is one of the world’s largest crude oil importers and relies on foreign suppliers for more than 85% of its oil needs, with Russia being the biggest supplier.

Police say two people tried to enter Faslane base in Scotland, home to core of UK’s submarine fleet and Trident nuclear weapons

Two people have been charged, one of them Iranian, after they allegedly tried to enter HM Naval Base Clyde in Scotland, which houses the UK’s nuclear Trident submarines.

A 34-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman were charged after the incident at the base, which is known as Faslane. Police Scotland said inquiries were continuing and that the pair were due to appear at Dumbarton sheriff court on Monday.

Yvette Cooper says government wants swift resolution to war after two missiles directed at military base at Diego Garcia

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The foreign secretary has condemned Iran’s strikes on a joint US-UK military base on the island of Diego Garcia, while stressing the UK has “taken a different position from the US and Israel” on the conflict.

Yvette Cooper said ministers wanted to see a swift resolution to the war, adding the government was supporting defensive action against the “reckless Iranian threats”.