It’s the first weekend after the end of the summer transfer window and once again the Premier League has seen a record amount of money change hands for star players. Spending among European football clubs reached startling levels this summer – Paris Saint-Germain’s £500m swoop for Neymar was just one of the mind-bogglingly lucrative deals signed over the past few months, thanks largely to the huge sums paid for TV rights. But PSG’s largesse masked a more fundamental shift in the market.

Anyone looking for a four-legged friend to join their family needs to be aware of the science that shows why puppy farm animals suffer in their early weeks and grow up to have more health and behavioural problems than rescue dogs. It is as good a reason as any to adopt a dog, not shop for a dog.

The “cradle of humanity” has long been thought to lie in Africa where the earliest-known human body fossils date back to around 7m years ago. But in a controversial new paper, scientists have reported the discovery of nearly 6m-year-old fossil footprints with human-like characteristics in Crete. One of the researchers writes here.

Harley Quinn first saw the light of day 25 years ago this month as a sidekick to Batman’s laughing adversary, The Joker. But now she’s one of DC Comics’ big stars in her own right and has even branched out onto the big screen. What is it about her that so many people find enthralling?

Elsewhere this week we’ve read about an otters’ Tupperware party, Rome’s ancient refugee policy, Scottish Labour’s shaky future and a new app to detect pancreatic cancer. Conversation editors in the US, meanwhile, have produced this great read about America’s vanishing architectural masterpieces.

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