Business leaders tout AI as a path to shorter weeks and better balance. But without power, workers are unlikely to share the gains

The front-page headline in a recent Washington Post was breathless: “These companies say AI is key to their four-day workweeks.” The subhead was euphoric: “Some companies are giving workers back more time as artificial intelligence takes over more tasks.”

As the Post explained: “more companies may move toward a shortened workweek, several executives and researchers predict, as workers, especially those in younger generations, continue to push for better work-life balance.”

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now

Redditors are thrilled by the Co-op on Ecclesall Road, where a magnificent drone is reminiscent of Brian Eno’s ambient music. We take a visit to the back aisles

There’s a new sound gripping Sheffield. You won’t find it at one of the city’s eclectic jazz nights; nor in any of its clubs or live music venues. You’ll find it in the back aisle of a Co-op supermarket on Ecclesall Road.

“Anyone noticed how nice the freezers sound in the eccy road co-op?” someone wrote on the Sheffield Reddit page in January. “It’s like all the fans have been carefully tuned to the calmest droning chord ever, it’s like being in an electrical gong bath.”

Cognitive shuffling is apparently the remedy for a spinning mind at 3am. But it made me question all my choices

A doctor has gone viral – which sounds like the beginning of a dad joke, but isn’t – with a hack for getting back to sleep if you wake at 3am. Cognitive shuffling is apparently the remedy for a spinning mind in the middle of the night. “Work, money, kids, planning, scheduling, problem solving. Your brain is too active to let you sleep – in fact the stress of all these thoughts tells the brain that it’s not safe to sleep, you have to stay on high alert,” says Bradford GP Amir Khan.

Cognitive shuffling interrupts this process, and invites your brain to go into sleep mode. Khan says to do it, choose a random word – like “bed”, or “dream” – then think of objects starting with each letter of it, while picturing them in your head. “Bed begins with b, so maybe bat, binoculars, baseball, banana,” he adds, helpfully, “Once I’ve exhausted the letter b I move on to e – emu, elephant, eyes. And so on.”

The loss of sacred spaces during the period of observance and the ongoing conflict reminds us of the importance of cherishing food

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Today starts the first week of Ramadan, and I have the great pleasure of digging into The Sudanese Kitchen by Omer Al Tijani. The war in Sudan has been going on for almost three years now, and Ramadan is a month that arrives with heightened feelings for those fasting in the middle of conflict and displacement. The cookbook, a first-of-its-kind collection of Sudanese recipes, is both a celebration of Sudan and a reminder of all that is at stake.

Al Tijani first realised he needed to learn how to make his own Sudanese food while he was a student at the University of Manchester in the early 2010s. The packages of treats his mother prepared never lasted long enough; he grew sick of student food and began looking for recipes, but there were few resources. Over 15 years, his passion for tracing and documenting Sudanese recipes took him all over Sudan, and his work became, as he told me, “bound” in Sudan’s political story. He gathered recipes and food culture on the ground during the revolution that overthrew president Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s dictator of 30 years.

Co-op Live, Manchester
Switching from noirish drama to funk stomps, neo-soul to showgirl glamour, this is a big, bold show from a singer who has entered her ‘dramatic era’

On the variety show-style poster for this tour, Raye pledged her gigs would contain everything from dramatic endings to a jazz cover via a nightclub segment, a brass band, and “musical medicine for those in need”.

She also promised new music. Ahead of her forthcoming album This Music May Contain Hope, she teases its contents from the off, with I Will Overcome. Raye is in a long fake fur coat, leather gloves and sunglasses, looking like the lead from a film noir with the song as its soundtrack: she begins with third-person narration but switches into singing as the character she’s created. When the curtain drops, it reveals a huge band that launches into the rousing and infectious funk stomp of Where Is My Husband!. Raye and her singers reappear in sparkling red dresses, creating an air of elegance and glamour reminiscent of old school Vegas, before thundering drums, brass and strings collide with the theatrical heft of a James Bond number. It’s a beginning so huge that it resembles a finale. “I’ve fully entered my dramatic era,” Raye declares.

It used to be fairly easy to get work that paid at or around the minimum wage. But with a shrinking number of positions come ever more hoops to jump through, from personality tests, to trial shifts, to towers constructed of marshmallows

It is 10.30am, and Zahra is sitting in a business centre in Preston, attaching marshmallows to sticks of uncooked spaghetti. There are 30 interview candidates in the grey-carpeted room, split into groups of five, competing to build food towers. Already today they have had to solve anagrams, complete quizzes and rank the importance of various kitchen items. Just to be shortlisted for this two-hour interview round, Zahra had to write an online application consisting of 10 paragraphs about her work experience. As she builds her spaghetti and marshmallow tower, she thinks: “What am I actually doing here? This doesn’t relate to the job at all.”

The job in question is not what Zahra, 20, plans to do for ever. It is as a crew member for Wingstop, a chicken shop chain, with a salary of £10.80 an hour – 80p an hour above minimum wage for her age range. During the interview, she says, “a woman with a notepad was staring at us, and all the shift managers were watching. It was so awkward.” A week or so later, Zahra received a short rejection email. “It felt like a waste of time,” she says. “What a joke.”

Government considering delay to equalising national minimum wage after jump in youth unemployment

• UK politics live – latest updates

Ministers are considering a slower rise in the minimum wage for younger workers, amid fears over rising youth unemployment.

Labour had promised in its manifesto to equalise national minimum wage rates by the time of the next election, saying it was unfair younger workers were paid less. Government sources said equalisation remained the aim but the rise could come more slowly.

Prosecutors drop charges over break-in at Israeli defence firm site after jury cleared six other defendants of offence

Prosecutors have dropped aggravated burglary charges against 18 defendants accused of a Palestine Action break-in at an Israeli defence firm’s UK site after a jury cleared six other defendants of the offence.

Charlotte Head, 29, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31, were all acquitted of aggravated burglary, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, with respect to the 6 August 2024 raid on the Elbit Systems factory in Filton, near Bristol.

Airline statement will reassure Britons abroad anxious about new immigration rules coming into effect next week

British dual nationals may be able to board Ryanair flights in Europe to the UK even if they do not have a current British passport when new immigration rules come into force next week, the airline has said.

The clarification comes as Abta, the trade organisation for tour operators and travel agents in the UK, called on the government to introduce a grace period during which British citizens with dual nationality could board flights back to the UK with alternative proof of being British.

Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick has announced party’s plans to cut welfare spending

Robert Jenrick, Reform UK’s Treasury spokesperson, is giving his speech now.

He has announced, or confirmed, three measures to cut welfare spending.

The number claiming disability benefits for an attention disorder has more than doubled since Covid. We all know a significant number of these claims are spurious …

We will stop those with mild anxiety, depression, and similar conditions from claiming disability benefits and instead encourage them into the dignity of work.

We will end the abuse of the Motability scheme, where expensive cars are handed out for conditions like tennis elbow, and paid for by working people who can’t afford them themselves.

Exclusive: Research uncovers programme to make centuries-old records legible to detect people’s ancestry

Large numbers of paper restorers and bookbinders were recruited by the Nazis and “contributed directly to genocide” during the second world war, according to research.

A British historian has uncovered a Europe-wide programme in the 1930s and 1940s in which restorers repaired and cleaned historic church and civil records, making them legible so that the Nazis could detect anyone with Jewish ancestry.

Unresolved ‘sensitive’ issues in peace talks are fate of occupied territories in east Ukraine and Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant

The peace talks ended abruptly today after about two hours, according to reports, in contrast with yesterday’s negotiations that apparently took place over six hours.

Neither side have offered any public sign of progress, but instead said the talks were “difficult” with Russian news agencies quoting sources describing the negotiations as “very tense”.

Exclusive: Pensthorpe was believed to be home to just one individual but pair have been filmed grooming each other

No one knows where they came from or how they ended up in Norfolk. But one thing is certain: now, there are two of them.

Until last week, experts believed there was only one wild beaver living in Pensthorpe nature reserve, about 20 miles outside Norwich. But just in time for Valentine’s Day, two were caught on camera going for a late-night swim together and grooming each other by the riverbank.

Consultancy’s prediction comes after Rachel Reeves said green subsidy costs would be removed from domestic bills

Household energy costs in Great Britain are expected to tumble by an average of £117 a year from April after Rachel Reeves announced in November’s budget that the cost of green subsidies would be removed from domestic bills.

The government’s quarterly cap on energy bills is forecast to fall after the chancellor’s decision to shift the levies used to support renewable energy projects into general taxation, and scrap a bill payer-funded energy efficiency scheme, according to Cornwall Insight, a leading energy consultancy.

• Medal table | Live scores and schedule | Results | Briefing

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Women’s aerials: the qualifying rounds of accelerating down a ramp and flying through the air. Hanna Huskova, gold medallist in 2018, does a triple somersault, or the “the kiss arse blaster” in the commentator’s words, but it is only enough to leave her seventh.

Women’s curling: Back to the brushes, where Rebecca Morrison posts the final stone of the sixth end into perfect position, Team GB take two and go into a 4-3 lead against the USA with four ends left.

Kimberly Prost and Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza vow US reprisals will not affect work of international criminal court

When the Canadian Kimberly Prost learned Donald Trump’s administration had imposed sanctions on her, it came as a shock.

For years, she has sat as a judge at the international criminal court, weighing accusations of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity; now she is on the same list as terrorists and those involved in organised crime. “It really was a moment of a bit of disbelief,” she said.

South Lakes Islamic Centre, which has been targeted by far right, will host nightly prayers before official opening in July

It is a cold night before Ramadan, and a group of men are completing health and safety checks inside Cumbria’s partly completed South Lakes Islamic Centre (SLIC).

The building is a mere shell, with exposed bricks, hanging wires and no fitted lights or heaters, but a large area has been cleared of construction materials to host nightly congregational prayers.

His gonzo argot of ‘mogging’ and ‘jestermaxxing’ masks a malign chauvinist philosophy, and his audience keeps growing

How’s your “jestermaxxing” game? Have you been “brutally frame-mogged” lately? If you’ve been finding this kind of online discourse even more impenetrable than usual, a 20-year-old content creator calling himself Clavicular is probably to blame.

Born Braden Peters, Clavicular is a manosphere-adjacent influencer who has recently broken containment for a string of high-profile controversies, including livestreaming himself apparently running over a pedestrian with his Tesla Cybertruck and being filmed chanting the lyrics to Kanye West’s Heil Hitler in a nightclub with the self-styled “misogynist influencer” Andrew Tate and the white nationalist commentator Nick Fuentes.

Reaction to Emerald Fennell’s movie adaptation of Emily Brontë’s novel starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi

My group of six English teachers – aged from 30 to 54 – saw the film on Friday. We are still processing our thoughts in a group chat. We agreed that the visuals were often delightfully shocking. We talked about the contrasts between the lavish costumes and the moor landscape, which we thought Fennell got right. We talked about the Charlie XCX music and how well it evoked the landscape and the spirit of the book.

This is the season when dressing is dictated by logistics – safety first and function-led. But don’t let that put you off adding the odd flourish

My very first girlcrush is still my ultimate winter style icon. Miss Bianca, star of the 1977 film The Rescuers, is Disney’s most underrated princess. As the Hungarian delegate to the Rescue Aid Society, an international humanitarian organisation run by mice with a secret headquarters in the walls of the UN building in New York City, Miss Bianca travels the world rescuing children in peril, and never allows being a mouse to stop her either from feats of bravery – commanding meetings of international delegates, rescuing children from flooded caves – or from rocking a look. She has a nice line in shawl-collar trapeze-line coats (think mid-century Balenciaga), but her real style signature is her glamorous scarves and hats. In a violet pillbox hat with a matching scarf tied in a bow, or dashing shades of mustard, Bianca makes cosy winter dressing look delicious. She might be a mouse, but she is never, ever mousey.

A cartoon mouse is an unusual place to begin an article about winter accessories. It is also an unusual point from which to draw a line to a former first lady of the US, but while pairing a tiny animated rodent with Michelle Obama as co-style icons is a mismatch on paper, it is not so in spirit. At the 2009 inauguration, Obama wore a lemongrass coat and dress by Isabel Toledo, offset by olive-green leather gloves. Her daughters, Malia and Sasha, were chicly bundled in scarf-and-glove sets chosen to contrast with their coats. Their clothes were elegant, but it was the accessories that made the look memorable. The family looked comfortable, relatable, and quietly joyful: no small feat on a freezing day dense with symbolism and expectation.

Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London
The Black Panther actor’s melding of social commentary and Shakespearean themes is sometimes opaque yet undeniably poetic

Chadwick Boseman was not only an accomplished actor and Marvel superhero before his untimely death in 2020. Perhaps best known as T’Challa in Black Panther, he was also a writer – and this 2005 play bares all the lost promise of his talents.

It is an ambitious, sprawling, music-filled story of a Black woman, Azure (Selina Jones), mourning her fiance, Deep (Jayden Elijah), who has been killed by a police officer. Inspired by the 2000 death of a university student, Prince Jones, it splices the theme of police violence in the US with a Shakespearean plot of jealousy, injustice, revenge and grief.

In 1999, Heather Preen contracted E coli on a Devon beach. Two weeks later she died. Now, as a new Channel 4 show dramatises the scandal, her mother, Julie Maughan, explains why she is still looking for someone to take responsibility

When Julie Maughan was invited to help with a factual drama that would focus on the illegal dumping of raw sewage by water companies, she had to think hard. In some ways, it felt 25 years too late. In 1999, Maughan’s eight-year-old daughter, Heather Preen, had contracted the pathogen E coli O157 on a Devon beach and died within a fortnight. Maughan’s marriage hadn’t survived the grief – she separated from Heather’s father, Mark Preen, a builder, who later took his own life. “I’ve always said it was like a bomb had gone off under our family,” says Maughan. “This little girl, just playing, doing her nutty stuff on an English beach. And that was the price.” Yet there had been no outrage, few questions raised and no clear answers. “Why weren’t people looking into this? It felt as if Heather didn’t matter. Over time, it felt as if she’d been forgotten.” All these years later, Maughan wasn’t sure if she could revisit it. “I didn’t know if I could go back into that world,” she says. “But I’m glad I have.”

The result, Dirty Business, a three-part Channel 4 factual drama, is aiming to spark the same anger over pollution that ITV’s Mr Bates Vs the Post Office did for the Horizon scandal. Jumping between timelines, using actors as well as “real people” and with actual footage of scummy rivers and beaches dotted with toilet paper, sanitary towels and dead fish, it shows how raw sewage dumps have become standard policy for England’s water companies. Jason Watkins and David Thewlis play “sewage sleuths” Peter Hammond and Ash Smith, Cotswolds neighbours who, over time, watched their local river turn from clear and teeming with nature to dense grey and devoid of life. Hammond is a retired professor of computational biology, Smith a retired detective, and together, they used hidden cameras, freedom of information requests and AI models to uncover sewage dumps on an industrial scale.

A Paris exhibition showcases how the Magnum agency founder documented not just battle but also victims of war

It is not often that you get to see a war photographer at work. Certainly not one who more or less defines our idea of the profession as it exists today, is widely considered to be its greatest practitioner and has been dead for more than 70 years.

But as part of its new retrospective, the Museum of the Liberation of Paris has produced a remarkable candid film of Robert Capa on the job. He is largely unaware he is being filmed and the cameramen mostly do not know they are filming him.

Rio de Janeiro’s carnival is full of contrasts: wealth brushes up against poverty, joyful abandon unfolds alongside hard labour. Its visual expression also explores notions of power. In a country with the largest Catholic population in the world, racy nun costumes are everywhere during the festival. Along with revellers dressing up in sexy police costumes, the Catholic cosplay reveals an element of carnival’s underlying subversive nature: authority figures softened, flipped, and reconsidered through street theatre and play

In the 2010s it described an insurgent rhetorical style; in the 2020s it is inadequate to account for the wildly diverging fates of the left and right

“Populism” may well have been the defining word of the previous decade: a shorthand for the insurgent parties that came to prominence in the 2010s, challenging the dominance of the liberal centre. But no sooner had it become the main rubric for discussing both the far left and far right than commentators began to question its validity: worrying that it was too vague, or too pejorative, or fuelling the forces to which it referred.

Now, with the fortunes of the two political poles heading in different directions – the right gaining ground across the west while much of the left struggles to rebound from serial defeats – the notion that this word could encompass such different players seems even less plausible. For a lucid account of these forces, we might have to shift our focus elsewhere: finding terms that can explain their unequal balance of power, so that we can in turn find the proper remedy.

Oliver Eagleton is managing editor at Phenomenal World

Labour promised ‘ambitious reforms’, but it was fixing things that were not broken. And the moral: focus on what matters and stop making stupid mistakes

What were they thinking? Labour inherited the worst of everything, including prisons beyond breaking point, court backlogs as bad as NHS waiting lists, children cast into exceptional destitution, the National Grid unable to cope with demand, reservoirs unbuilt while sewage poured into rivers, high debt, no money and deep public distrust in politics. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves were honest about what they found.

So what on earth can have seized them, within months of taking over, to decide this was a good time for a gigantic English council re-disorganisation? Angela Rayner, who was in charge of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government at the time, kicked it off in December 2024. But why, when councils are near-bankrupt and crippled by the ballooning costs of social care and provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities?

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

Guardian Newsroom: Can Labour come back from the brink?
On Monday 30 April, ahead of the May elections, join Gaby Hinsliff, Zoe Williams, Polly Toynbee and Rafael Behr as they discuss how much threat Labour faces from both the Green party and Reform, and whether Keir Starmer can survive as party leader
Book tickets here or at guardian.live

The fledgling ‘coalition of the willing’ assembled for Ukraine could form the basis for an urgent European security response

After a year of Donald Trump’s second term and two Munich Security Conferences, we now know that Europe will have to defend itself in future with less US support; probably with much less US support; and possibly – gulp – with no US support at all.

European leaders recognise that they need to reduce overdependence on the US. Yet many, including Keir Starmer and to an extent Friedrich Merz, are still clinging to the wreckage of the transatlantic relationship. They do so in hope, rather than certainty, that the US will come to Europe’s aid if Russia attacks Nato territory. Who truly believes that Trump, who prefers one-day displays of US power, would commit US forces to an open-ended war in Europe – with potential nuclear risks – if Vladimir Putin suddenly grabbed a Russian-speaking border town in Estonia, or the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Svalbard?

Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre

As the war enters its fifth terrible year, Ukrainian musicians continue to fight for freedom with music-making that is urgent and vital

It starts with a literal scream, a cry of pain from every player in the orchestra. The Ukrainian composer Anna Korsun’s piece Terricone is one of the most shattering creative acts of the war that began four years ago this month. Korsun was born in Donbas, where terricones, the slag heaps of the mining industry, bear witness to the way humankind has always reshaped the landscape. Her composition was premiered by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and its then chief conductor, the Ukrainian Kirill Karabits, at the start of 2023 – when news of the invasion brought worldwide shock and horror.

I’ll never forget being in Poole for that performance, as the vividness of it brought the fear and desolation of the emotional landscapes of the war to the audience. The Russian conductor Vladimir Jurowski – a vocal critic of Putin’s regime – brought the powerful piece to London last month, as part of a bold Ukrainian/Russian programme with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Mandelson, Trump, Send, political leadership: all need explanation with thought and clarity. We must end this obsession with ‘hot takes’

• Roger Mosey is a former head of BBC TV News

Almost everybody, including Keir Starmer, can see that the Peter Mandelson affair provoked a genuine political crisis. The media were right to make it headline news. But it also shows the febrile atmosphere in which politicians and the media conspire to turn every incident into an issue of confidence in leadership, and we are becoming a country where it is impossible to focus on the long term. Hyped-up hot takes are far more loved in Westminster than bringing the nation the sustained change that it needs.

There is nothing new in the obsession with political process. I was guilty of it myself when I was editor of the Today programme during John Major’s attempt to ratify the Maastricht treaty in the 1990s. We gleefully put on air rebels and loyalists as the government battled for survival, and our listeners had a far better briefing on the meltdown within the Conservative party than they did on what was in the treaty. This was part of a pattern in which, for decades, EU affairs were seen through a British party prism rather than explaining what was going on in Europe.

Civil rights leader, politician, campaigner; the Rev Jackson was a phenomenal orator, and a brilliant organiser. Writers reflect on his impact around the world

• Jesse Jackson – a life in pictures

• Jesse Jackson tributes – latest updates

Reform UK leader snaps at reporters as he tries to maintain control over announcement of shadow cabinet

Meet the Fockers. The shadow cabinet from hell. Rejects, losers and deadbeats. A freak show. A tribute act.

Reform have often been called a one-man band. The Nigel Farage party. So to counter this narrative, Nige took over Church House in Westminster and turned it into a tacky gameshow set. A remake of The Weakest Link. All to parade his new top team. The lucky men and women whose one job is to try not to fall out with one another in the next few years. No chance.

The Bonfire of the Insanities by John Crace (Guardian Faber Publishing, £16.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

More women in toxic relationships take their own lives than are killed by an abusive partner. Perpetrators of abuse must be properly held accountable

Hours before she hanged herself in 2023, Katie Madden spoke on the telephone with her abusive former partner, Jonathon Russell, who had been banned from contacting her after an alleged assault. After hearing testimony at the inquest into her death, the coroner cited Ms Madden’s long, toxic relationship with Mr Russell as a contributory factor in her suicide. But there has been no criminal investigation into her death.

As our reporting this week has highlighted, this is a tragic but far too familiar story. The Domestic Homicide Project, a programme led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council, recorded 98 such suspected suicides following domestic abuse in 2024, compared with 80 cases where victims were killed by their partners.

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.

Labour can justify local government reform. It cannot justify delaying elections. Tweaking maps won’t enrage voters; stagnant pay and broken services will

Being forced to abandon plans to delay local elections in England with fewer than three months’ notice is not just another policy U-turn by the government. It brings to a head issues of aptitude and judgment. The rationale seemed sound: avoid electing councillors to bodies that would be abolished under Labour’s reorganisation of local government. The political problem was that 21 of the 30 councils were Labour-led. That created a perception – fair or not – of democratic manipulation.

The elections should have gone ahead. The Electoral Commission last December warned of “unprecedented” uncertainty around them. The commission was clear: “Scheduled elections should as a rule go ahead as planned, and only be postponed in exceptional circumstances.” Changing course late in the day puts their smooth running at risk and piles pressure on staff. In defending their decision last month before retreating on Monday, ministers look unprepared and out of their depth. Even worse, Labour reverse-ferreted after a legal challenge from Nigel Farage. He has taken to the airwaves to crow.

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.

I have seen first-hand how rewarding fostering can be, and I highly recommend it, writes Dr Krish Kandiah

Re your editorial (The Guardian view on fostering: reform is welcome, but excess profits must be tackled, 10 February), I’ll never forget the midnight feast that nobody ate. Four children sat shellshocked in my lounge, having just been removed from their home. They didn’t know or trust us. We tried our best to make them feel comfortable with cookies, doughnuts and crisps, but it would take several days before they were ready to tuck into treats.

Fostering has been one of the biggest privileges for my wife and me over the past 20 years. Against the background of unimaginable trauma and being let down by those who should have been caring for them, we have seen how children receiving consistent and persistent love, support and compassion can begin to rebuild their lives.

Readers respond to the billionaire Manchester United co-owner’s remark that ‘the UK is being colonised by immigrants’

In response to the billionaire industrialist and Manchester United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe’s historically, economically and culturally illiterate and deeply offensive remark that “the UK is being colonised by immigrants”, it was fitting that he should be rebuked, albeit only implicitly, in a statement issued by the football club amid a tsunami of condemnation from politicians, club supporters and anti-racist groups (Jim Ratcliffe apologises for ‘choice of language’ after saying immigrants ‘colonising’ UK, 12 February).

Quite rightly, Ratcliffe’s words are now being investigated by the Football Association. As a lifelong Manchester United fan, I have no doubt that Ratcliffe has brought the game into disrepute and sullied the club’s reputation. His vile comments constitute a failure of moral leadership and a betrayal of the club’s proud and pivotal role in the anti-racism work of Kick It Out, making him wholly unfit to be co-owner of a club with an unparalleled global fanbase, including in Africa and Asia.

Jon Reeds on low-density developments, plus a letter from Richard Eltringham

It is disappointing to see the huge urban sprawl at Gilston, north of Harlow, described as rejecting “car‑centric models” (A new town for the 21st century?, 9 February).

Big, ultra-low-density developments like this, far from rail-transit networks, are inevitably car-dependent, despite claims by their promoters. It takes more than building the primary schools necessitated by such schemes to get people out of their cars, especially as walks to school are extended by the very low densities secured by huge consumption of productive farmland.

Health-centred approaches that help individuals stay in or return to work are needed, says Nick Pahl

The alarming rise in economic inactivity highlighted in your report (UK sleepwalking into joblessness epidemic, Tesco boss warns, 10 February) underlines a public health issue as much as an economic one. It is increasingly clear that millions of working-age people are drifting out of the labour market not through choice but because of long-term health problems and inadequate support systems around them.

Tackling worklessness requires proactive, health-centred approaches that help individuals stay in or return to work. We also know that time out of work is corrosive. Good-quality work improves physical and mental wellbeing, providing income, social connection and purpose, and protects against social exclusion.

• American wins third gold overall and first since 2018

• Shiffrin over a second ahead of Rast in silver spot

With one last chance to break an Olympic hoodoo stretching back a remarkable eight years, Mikaela Shiffrin delivered in style. The 30-year-old American surged to victory in the women’s slalom on a sun-splashed Wednesday in the Dolomites with a two-run time of 1min 39.10sec, becoming the first US skier to win three Olympic gold medals.

Switzerland’s Camille Rast, the reigning world champion and only woman to have beaten Shiffrin in her signature discipline this season, came in a yawning 1.50sec behind for the silver – the largest winning margin in any Olympic alpine skiing event since 1998 – while Anna Swenn Larsson of Sweden took the bronze. After fourth-placed Wendy Holdener of Switzerland, the rest of the field trailed by at least two seconds, according to provisional results.

• Norwegian claims his fifth gold medal at Milano Cortina

• USA have to settle for silver in cross-country battle

Johannes Høsflot Klæbo led Norway to victory in the men’s cross-country team sprint on Wednesday to claim his fifth win at Milano Cortina Olympics and a record 10th Winter Olympic gold medal.

Alongside Einar Hedegart in the final, the duo saw off the United States, clocking 18min 28.9sec. Ben Ogden and Gus Schumacher were 1.4sec behind for the silver, while Italy’s Elia Barp and Federico Pellegrino took bronze, 3.3sec back.

• Six Russians and four Belarusians set for Milano Cortina

• All athletes will compete under their nation’s flags

Ukraine’s sports minister has condemned the decision to allow six Russians and four Belarusians to compete under their nation’s flags at next month’s Winter Paralympics as “disappointing and outrageous” and said Ukraine officials will not attend the opening ceremony or other official events as a result.

“The flags of Russia and Belarus have no place at international sporting events that stand for fairness, integrity, and respect,” said Matvii Bidnyi in response to the International Paralympic Committee’s decision on Monday. “These are the flags of regimes that have turned sport into a tool of war, lies and contempt. In Russia, Paralympic sport has been made a pillar for those whom Putin sent to Ukraine to kill – and who returned from Ukraine with injuries and disabilities,” he added.

Row between Sweden and Canada over accusation of double-touch continues to cast shadow over Winter Games

Well hell’s bells, who knew the ice could get so hot? The Olympic curling community is still all in a twist about everything that’s gone on in the sport since a row broke out between the Sweden and Canada sides on Friday. “The whole spirit of curling is dead,” Canada’s Marc Kennedy said on Monday night after his team’s 8-2 victory against Czech Republic, which felt like a bold take coming from the man who started this entire farrago by repeatedly telling his Swedish opponent Oskar Eriksson to “fuck off” after Eriksson accused him of making an illegal double‑touch.

On Tuesday, the Canadians were outplaying the British. They beat them handily, 9-5, which means Bruce Mouat’s team have to beat the USA team and hope other results go their way if they’re going to make the semi-finals.

Japan’s skaters stole the spotlight as the Americans largely struggled in their attempts to end a two-decade medal drought

Japanese teenager Ami Nakai was the surprise leader after the short program of the Olympic women’s figure skating competition on a night when her country’s skaters largely stole the spotlight from Team USA’s Blade Angels in their bid to end America’s two-decade medal drought.

Nakai delivered a clean, commanding skate on Tuesday, highlighted by a soaring triple axel for a personal-best score of 78.71, edging three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto (77.23) into second. Only Alysa Liu of the United States was able to break the Japanese hold on the top spots, scoring 76.59 to come in ahead of fourth-placed Mone Choba (74.00).

• Benfica manager strongly criticised by Kick It Out

• Uefa investigating Real Madrid player’s claims

The anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out has accused José Mourinho of gaslighting for his response to Vinícius Júnior’s allegations of racist abuse. Vinícius reported that he was racially abused by Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni during Real Madrid’s Champions League playoff first leg. On Wednesday, Uefa said it would “investigate allegations of discriminatory behaviour”.

Mourinho, the Benfica manager, has been heavily criticised for appearing to suggest Vinícius had provoked the abuse with his celebration after scoring the only goal early in the second half.

Longstanding owner Neil Hudgell has revived club and the Super League champions take on Brisbane Broncos with the world crown up for grabs

To appreciate the absolute highs, you perhaps have to first experience the ultimate lows: when Hull KR walk out for Thursday’s World Club Challenge, few will be better placed to say they have done that quite like their longstanding owner, Neil Hudgell.

The Super League champions will aim to be crowned the world’s best club rugby league side for the first time when they take on the NRL’s Brisbane Broncos. To satisfy the unprecedented demand, they have taken ownership of the venue of their great rivals, Hull FC, for one night only – with 25,000 supporters, double the capacity of their Craven Park home, buying tickets in record time.

Club admit they have concentrated on commercial development of Old Trafford, but Farington complex is part of the switch to cricket and facilities

The 2025 season for Lancashire’s men started full of cheerful high hopes. In the spring many, including a now bashful Spin, tipped them for immediate promotion back to Division One of the County Championship after being relegated in the last game of 2024 – as they had done in 2013, 2015 and 2019. It didn’t turn out like that.

Two months later, hope had turned to heavyweight disgruntlement after a run of hapless performances. By the end of May, they were the only team in either division not to have a win under their belt. An innings defeat against Leicestershire in less than three days was the final straw.

The Winslow pub closed last month after serving pints to Everton players, managers and fans for 140 years

By When Saturday Comes

On Saturday January 24, Duncan Ferguson walked into the Winslow Hotel pub on Goodison Road and handed licensee Dave Bond £1,000 to put behind the bar. Ferguson, the former Everton centre-forward, was there because the Winslow, 140 years old and standing in the shadow of Goodison Park’s towering Main Stand, was closing. Eight months after Everton’s men left Goodison, this was another farewell party and Ferguson had turned up to say goodbye. “It was a brilliant gesture,” said Bond.

Ferguson was not the only ex-Evertonian present. Former captain Alan Stubbs, 1995 FA Cup winners Graham Stuart and Joe Parkinson, and 1987 League champion Ian Snodin each had a turn on the mic. Kevin Sheedy, one of the heroes of Howard Kendall’s great mid-1980s team, made an appearance too.

In tandem with Game Day Vision, the Premier League club are improving the matchday experience for supporters with a variety of conditions

Thomas Clements’ eyes begin dancing as he recalls in vivid detail his first trip to Highbury. It was 1995 and Ian Wright was among the scorers as QPR were defeated. Clements – named after Mickey Thomas, scorer of Arsenal’s decisive second goal against Liverpool in their 1989 title win – points to his dad, Kevin, standing a metre away. “I was sat on his shoulders in the North Bank,” he says.

That is, in itself, not unusual for a child of the 1980s. However, whereas most regular match-goers might take for granted the seemingly small things – travel arrangements, the journey to the stadium, grabbing food and drink, meeting friends and family, entering and exiting the ground – for disabled supporters such as Clements, careful thought and planning go into all arrangements.

Plus: high-scoring symmetrical scorelines, Scottish two-club title winners and an almost-one-club manager

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Has a footballer ever been sent off but still won player of the match?” asked Jimmy Clark. The short answer is yes, quite a few. We’ll kick off with a couple of recent examples.

“In 2024 Anthony Gordon was shown a second yellow card for Newcastle against West Ham just as the TNT commentary team were declaring him the player of the match,” writes Tom Reed. You can see the moment in question in this video (around 2:50), as Gordon is dismissed after kicking the ball away. Perhaps the substitute Harvey Barnes, who scored twice in the 4-3 comeback win, would have been a better choice.

• Samir Sobha says Caf’s statutes are not being respected

• Véron Mosengo-Omba is past compulsory retirement age

A member of the Confederation of African football’s executive committee has said the general secretary, Véron Mosengo-Omba, is “occupying the seat illegally” and must be made to stand down.

Samir Sobha, the president of the Mauritius Football Association, said he would not accept Mosengo-Omba’s presence at Caf meetings because the 66-year-old Swiss-Congolese lawyer no longer holds the position legitimately.

Starting next year, MLS will align itself with big European leagues and become a summer-to-spring operation. Executives see the change as an opportunity

Few constants have endured from MLS’s 1996 debut to now. It’s still an operational soccer league, for one thing. There’s the name itself, although its initial logo was shelved in 2015 for its current shield-and-kickstand. Eight of the 10 teams that launched the league remain involved, though each one has changed their name, crest, or both over time.

Another rare constant will soon fade into the rearview: the league’s schedule. MLS has run spring-to-fall/winter since its launch, more specifically from late February to early December in recent years. Preseason kicks off at the start of each new year, three weeks or so after the previous season’s championship bout. It’s a pretty well-ironed routine, even as ancillary competitions like the Leagues Cup and Club World Cup shuffle the middle bits each year.

Steve Borthwick’s response to stinging defeat in Scotland is to hand a first start to English rugby’s young tyro

A week can be a long time in the Six Nations, never mind in politics. One minute England are contemplating title showdowns in Paris, the next they face a must-win game against Ireland to remain in contention. A swift riposte to the defeat in Scotland last weekend is required urgently and Steve Borthwick’s team selection reflects the management’s desire for a significant gear change.

It has clearly played straight into the hands of Henry Pollock, whose ambition to start for England is about to be realised after seven caps off the bench. His promotion reflects the need to re-energise all involved in the Murrayfield meltdown, as does the starting return of Tom Curry and Ollie Lawrence, Tommy Freeman’s shift back to the wing and Marcus Smith’s bench resurrection.

Exclusive: Five hospitals failed to spot Amisha Adhia had placenta accreta before one obstetrician intervened

After five hospitals failed to spot that she had a rare but potentially fatal complication of childbirth, Amisha Adhia is to launch a campaign urging the NHS to do more to diagnose the condition and save lives.

Pregnant women are at much greater risk of developing placenta accreta spectrum if they have already given birth by caesarean section or had IVF treatment.

Assistant to hard-left parliamentarian among those held over fatal attack on 23-year-old Quentin Deranque

• Europe live – latest updates

Eleven suspects, including a parliamentary aide to France’s hard-left party, have been arrested in connection with the killing last week of a far-right activist in an incident that has shocked the country and laid bare its deep political divisions.

Quentin Deranque, 23, died on Saturday after sustaining a severe brain injury. The Lyon prosecutor, Thierry Dran, said he had been “thrown to the ground and beaten by at least six individuals” during an incident last week.

Government takes its first serious steps to crack down on dangerous driving but progress is slow

• Europe live – latest updates

The first time Lucian Mîndruță crashed his car, he swerved to avoid a village dog and hit another vehicle. The second time, he missed a right-of-way sign and was struck by a car at a junction. The third time, ice sent him skidding off the road and into two trees. Crashes four to eight, he said, were bumper-scratches in traffic too minor to mention.

That Mîndruță escaped those collisions with his life – and without having taken anyone else’s – is not a given in Romania. Home to the deadliest roads in the EU, its poor infrastructure, weak law enforcement and aggressive driving culture led to 78 people per million dying in traffic in 2024. Almost half of the 1,500 annual fatalities are vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists.

Report records 65 unprovoked attacks – but annual drowning deaths in US alone exceed 4,000

The number of people killed or bitten by sharks in unprovoked attacks globally increased significantly in 2025, a report published on Wednesday has found, while a single Florida county maintained its crown as the so-called shark bite capital of the world.

The International Shark Attack File, compiled by the Florida Program for Shark Research at the University of Florida, recorded 65 unprovoked attacks worldwide, up from 47 during 2024, and an increase on the five-year average of 61.

William tells radio panel that talking about emotions and mental health should become ‘second nature to us all’

Prince William has called the prevalence of male suicide in the UK a “national catastrophe” in a radio appearance in which he opened up about his approaches to dealing with difficult emotions.

William told a special episode of Radio 1’s Life Hacks that “we need more male role models” to talk about their mental health publicly, to help other men do the same and make open discussions “second nature to us all”.

With Trump blocking Venezuelan oil imports and old power plants breaking down, the island – with Chinese help – is turning to solar and wind to bolster its fragile energy system

Intense heat hangs over the sugarcane fields near Cuba’s eastern coast. In the village of Herradura, a blond-maned horse rests under a palm tree after spending all Saturday in the fields with its owner, Roberto, who cultivates maize and beans.

Roberto was among those worst affected by Hurricane Melissa, which hit eastern Cuba – the country’s poorest region – late last year. The storm affected 3.5 million people, damaging or destroying 90,000 homes and 100,000 hectares of crops.

Five countries responsible for 75% of world’s coffee supply record average of 57 extra days of coffee-harming heat a year

In Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, more than 4m households rely on coffee as their primary source of income. It contributes almost a third of the country’s export earnings, but for how much longer is uncertain.

“Coffee farmers in Ethiopia are already seeing the impact of extreme heat,” said Dejene Dadi, the general manager of Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperatives Union (OCFCU), a smallholder cooperative.

Lawsuit from health and environmental justice groups challenges the EPA’s rollback of the ‘endangerment finding’

More than a dozen health and environmental justice non-profits have sued the Environmental Protection Agency over its revocation of the legal determination that underpins US federal climate regulations.

Filed in Washington DC circuit court, the lawsuit challenges the EPA’s rollback of the “endangerment finding”, which states that the buildup of heat-trapping pollution in the atmosphere endangers public health and welfare and has allowed the EPA to limit those emissions from vehicles, power plants and other industrial sources since 2009. The rollback was widely seen as a major setback to US efforts to combat the climate crisis.

Less than a decade ago, the Balkan country had just one breeding pair of the eastern imperial species of raptor left. Now things are changing, thanks to the dogged work of conservationists

At the start of every spring, before the trees in northern Serbia begin to leaf out, ornithologists drive across the plains of Vojvodina. They check old nesting sites of eastern imperial eagles, scan solitary trees along field margins, and search for signs of new nests.

For years, the work of the Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia (BPSSS) has been getting more demanding – and more rewarding. In 2017, Serbia was down to a single breeding pair. Last year, BPSSS recorded 19 breeding pairs, 10 of which successfully raised young.

Figures from Aviva also show number of homes being built in risky areas is rising

One in nine new homes in England built between 2022 and 2024 were constructed in areas that could now be at risk of flooding, according to new data.

The figures show the number of homes being built in risky areas is on the rise – a previous analysis showed that between 2013 and 2022, one in 13 new homes were in potential flooding zones.

Politicians and experts say police should be better trained and move away from ‘tickbox approach’ to suicides

Politicians and experts have thrown their weight behind calls for suicides to be investigated as potential homicides in cases where a person who takes their own life has been affected by domestic abuse.

They also called for better training for police so that officers understand the full impact of domestic abuse, and move away from “a tickbox approach” to suicides.

In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 988 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org

Ad was part of campaign to encourage Londoners to intervene if they witness sexual harassment or hate crime

A Transport for London (TfL) ad featuring a black teenage boy verbally harassing a white girl has been banned for “perpetuating the negative racial stereotype about black men as perpetrators of threatening behaviour”.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the “irresponsible” ad – which was the subject of a complaint – featured a “harmful stereotype”.

Moves come after Gordon Brown’s claim that files show that US sex offender used Stansted airport in Essex to ‘fly in girls’

British police have expanded their interest in the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s links to Britain, by admitting for the first time they are looking at claims he used dozens of private flights into UK airports to traffic women.

It comes after former prime minister Gordon Brown said that documents about Epstein released in the US showed in “graphic detail” how the disgraced financier, with links to high-profile people including the former Prince Andrew, was able to use Stansted airport in Essex to “fly in girls from Latvia, Lithuania and Russia”.

Six rescued after backcountry group swept up near Castle Peak in California’s Sierra Nevada during severe storm

Nine skiers are still missing after an avalanche swept the Castle Peak area of the Sierra, Nevada, mountains in California. Authorities said six others, who had been stranded, have since been rescued.

The avalanche occurred about 10 miles north of Lake Tahoe at about 11.30am on Tuesday, engulfing a group of backcountry skiers – including four guides and 11 clients.

Alberto Castañeda Mondragón was hospitalized with eight skull fractures after being arrested by ICE agents in January

Minnesota and federal authorities are investigating the alleged beating of a Mexican citizen by immigration officers last month, seeking to identify what caused the eight skull fractures that landed the man in the intensive care unit of a Minneapolis hospital.

Investigators from the St Paul police department and FBI last week canvassed the shopping center parking lot where Alberto Castañeda Mondragón says Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents wrested him from a vehicle, threw him to the ground and repeatedly struck him in the head with a steel baton.

Death of Briton along with Polish citizen near La Grave comes four days after fatal avalanche at Val d’Isère

A third British man has been killed in an avalanche in the French Alps.

The man had been skiing with a group of four others when the avalanche struck near the resort town of La Grave on Tuesday morning, local media reported.

‘Shocking’ data shows the climate crisis and invasive mosquitos mean chikungunya could spread in 29 countries

An excruciatingly painful tropical disease called chikungunya can now be transmitted by mosquitoes across most of Europe, a study has found.

Higher temperatures due to the climate crisis mean infections are now possible for more than six months of the year in Spain, Greece and other southern European countries, and for two months a year in south-east England. Continuing global heating means it is only a matter of time before the disease expands further northwards, the scientists said.

Eye-catching martial arts performance at China gala had viewers and experts wondering what else humanoids can do

Dancing humanoid robots took centre stage on Monday during the annual China Media Group’s Spring Festival Gala, China’s most-watched official television broadcast. They lunged and backflipped (landing on their knees), they spun around and jumped. Not one fell over.

The display was impressive, but prompted some to wonder: if robots can now dance and perform martial arts, what else can they do?

FTSE 100 company reports 6% fall in annual profits weeks after collapse of $260bn merger with Rio Tinto

Glencore is to give $2bn (£1.47bn) to shareholders after a turbulent year in which profits slumped and talks collapsed over a blockbuster $260bn merger with the fellow mining company Rio Tinto.

The FTSE 100 company announced the payout on Wednesday despite reporting that annual profits slipped 6% on the previous year to $13.5bn.

Substances include chemicals that can cause cancer, neurodevelopmental problems and the feminisation of males

You wear them at work, you wear them at play, you wear them to relax. You may even get sweaty in them at the gym.

But an investigation into headphones has found every single pair tested contained substances hazardous to human health, including chemicals that can cause cancer, neurodevelopmental problems and the feminisation of males.

CEO of UK’s biggest defence company says delay is holding back industry investment as BAE posts record sales

The boss of Britain’s biggest defence company has urged ministers to publish a long-delayed blueprint for military spending as soon as possible, as it posted record sales driven by a global increase in demand after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Charles Woodburn, the chief executive of BAE Systems, said companies want clarity on how the money would be spent, adding that the defence investment plan (DIP) – due in late 2025 – was holding back investment.

Comedians, theatre-makers and actors including Rachel Weisz, Sally Phillips and Simon Munnery recall the late teacher’s alarming lessons

• Philippe Gaulier, clown guru, dies aged 82

Louise Brealey

This six-part extended brand advert follows the TV chef’s attempt to launch numerous eateries under one roof. It’s a lot of restaurant drama to have in your life

Six hours of advertising yourself on Netflix and – presumably – getting paid for providing streamer content at the same time? Nice work if you can get it, and Gordon Ramsay has got it. Being Gordon Ramsay, a six part – six part – documentary, follows the chef ’n’ TV personality as he embarks on his most ambitious venture yet. It’s “A huge undertaking”, “high risk, high reward”, a “once in a lifetime opportunity” and “one of my final stakes in the ground … If it fails, I’m fucked.” It is opening seven billion (five, but it feels like seven billion) restaurants on the top floors of 22 Bishopsgate at once. There is going to be a 60-seat rooftop garden place with retractable roof, a 250-seater Asian-inflected restaurant called Lucky Cat, a Bread Street Kitchen brasserie and a culinary school.

But we begin with a family scene. The youngest of Ramsay’s six children with wife of 30 years, Tana, are having pancakes. Gordon thinks they are too thick. They’re American-style, not the crepes he thinks they should have. “Darling,” says Tana, not for the first time even that morning, you suspect, “Could you just give it a rest?”

A tense return to the disaster foregrounds the heroism of the ‘Fukushima 50’ while raising questions about corporate secrecy and nuclear safety

The terrifying story of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear accident of 2011, caused by a cataclysmic tsunami, is retold by British film-maker James Jones and Japanese co-director Megumi Inman. It was a natural and human-made disaster that left 20,000 dead and a further 164,000 displaced from the area, some with no prospect of return. The earthquake damaged the cooling systems that prevent meltdowns and caused three near-apocalyptic explosions, bringing the nation close to a catastrophe that would have threatened its very existence. Incredibly, the ultimate calamity was finally staved off by nothing more hi-tech than a committed fire brigade spraying thousands of tons of water on the exposed fuel rods.

The film plunges us into the awful story moment-by-moment, accompanied by interviews with the chief players of the time – prominently nuclear plant employee Ikuo Izawa, a shift supervisor and de facto leader of the “Fukushima 50” (actually 69 people) who became legendary in Japan and beyond for their self-sacrificial courage, staying in a nightmarish reactor when everyone else had been evacuated.

Some of the tropes are familiar, but this brutally violent and gripping film sidesteps the cliches with committed acting and fierce storytelling punch

Rising stars David Jonsson and Tom Blyth bring A-game performances for this brutally violent, gripping British prison movie, as lethal and nasty as a sharpened toothbrush. Screenwriters Hunter Andrews and Eoin Doran and director Cal McMau are feature first-timers, creating a film that is a deserved Bafta nominee in the outstanding British debut category. Some of the tropes are familiar, but this film sidesteps the cliches with the committed acting and fierce storytelling punch.

The scene is an overcrowded jail (filmed in Shepton Mallet) whose ugly savagery and chaos we periodically see through the smartphone screen of someone gleefully filming it – the kind of jail which has forced the government’s policy of early prisoner release to take pressure off the system. Jonsson (from TV’s Industry) is Taylor, a shamblingly submissive and timid drug addict, who can hardly believe that this new arrangement means he is due for parole in a fortnight; he is pathetically excited at the thought of seeing his teenage son.

The drama about two startup innovators defeated by their egotistical overreach feels as if it presages these AI times

The crisis facing a couple of middle-aged Belgian tech bros in the 1990s might be better suited to a European streaming-TV drama – maybe with the two antiheroes’ travails confined to the first episode, setting up a lengthier intergenerational drama taking us to the present. Nonetheless, here it is: a feature film in the Berlin competition from screenwriter Angelo Tijssens and director Anke Blondé, handsomely produced and shot, and impeccably acted. But it’s also weirdly parochial, leaving you with the sense that it has not reached beyond its immediate concerns; and it’s not clear as to why, exactly, we need a fictionalised crisis from the 90s inspired by a real-life financial fraud scandal.

Well, perhaps the point is that very smallness and sadness: a pathetic tale of the first, almost-forgotten dotcom bust, which holds an omen for our AI-obsessed present. Arieh Worthalter and Jan Hammenecker play Geert and Luc, two balding guys who, in the late 90s, are Belgium’s pinup boys of tech innovation. Their startup company has gone public and made them both very rich, and all their local friends, family and businesses have plunged every cent of their savings into shares. Geert and Luc are now poised to turn the mud of Flanders into a European Silicon Valley.

My group, Swim Deep, plays to crowds of hundreds across the UK – but in China, we play to tens of thousands. And we’re not the only ones

When I joined the band Swim Deep 13 years ago, my dreams were much like those of any young musician: to play Glastonbury, to tour America and to hear our music on the radio – all of which we’ve managed to achieve. But what I hadn’t counted on was finding a fanbase in China. Despite us never having knowingly released our music there, Swim Deep recently returned triumphant from our fourth run of shows on Chinese soil in barely 10 years, and we’re not the only British indie band benefiting from this unexpected opportunity.

China has had an enthusiasm for British and Irish pop acts for years, long before its ¥500bn (£531m) music industry overtook France to become the world’s fifth largest in 2023. Jessie J became a phenomenon after winning the country’s premier singing competition in 2018, while Westlife have spent decades playing to thousands in Chinese arenas and stadiums. But less heralded is a growing interest in grassroots UK indie bands, for whom the unexpected demand – and promise of excellent pre-gig catering – presents a financial and spiritual lifeline as returns increasingly diminish on home soil.

Offsetting Charli xcx, Chaney’s take on 19th-century ballad Dark Eyed Sailor accompanies Margot Robbie on the moors – but it’s just a tiny part of her culture-crossing, history-vaulting musical catalogue

An hour into Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, Margot Robbie is in a gauzy wedding dress, gliding forlornly across the moors towards the man her character feels she has to marry. A lone female English voice appears to accompany her, high and pure against the buzzing drone of a harmonium, singing about a woman roaming alone, and a man who, for “seven years, left the land”, before his eventual return.

Long before Emerald Fennell found Olivia Chaney’s version of 19th-century ballad the Dark Eyed Sailor online, Chaney was preparing to sing it for a 2013 live session on Mark Radcliffe’s BBC Radio 2 folk show, in the midst of her own Brontë-esque love triangle. “I was at the beginning of my relationship with the man who is now my husband and the father of my two children – he nearly married someone else, and I nearly had kids with someone else.”

As Emerald Fennell’s new adaptation hits the screens, the historian Dominic Sandbrook takes a deep-dive into the novel’s dark themes. Plus, how to battle phone addiction

The latest release from Goalhanger hears historian Dominic Sandbrook in English teacher mode, as he dissects classic novels with producer Tabitha Syrett. Luckily, it doesn’t feel like homework: their first episode, on Wuthering Heights, revels in Emily Brontë’s dark themes, confusingly-named protagonists, and the author herself – from her tragically tiny coffin to the graveyard water that may have led to her premature death. Hannah J Davies
Widely available, episodes weekly

The journalist, presenter and author on catchy kids’ earworms, impromptu rap-off during BBC night shifts and the 90s pop banger that plays havoc with her ankles

The first song I fell in love with
I grew up in a house where music was played all the time. I watched Kylie on Neighbours, and so fell in love with I Should Be So Lucky. I love how you don’t need to know about her private life, you can still just love her. I went to see her recently and she was amazing.

The first album I bought
Hangin’ Tough by New Kids on the Block, on cassette, from Woolies in Middlesbrough, with some pick’n’mix. I don’t think you could ever go into Woolies and not come out with some pick’n’mix. I liked the underdog, so Donnie Wahlberg was my favourite member.

Serpell leaves no stone unturned in her deep and enriching portrait of the Nobel laureate’s oeuvre

I have waited years for this book. But before I tell you what it is, I had better tell you what it is not. On Morrison is not a biography. Except for scattered references, there is little here about Chloe Anthony Wofford’s birth and early life in Lorain, Ohio; her education at Howard and Cornell universities; her editorial work at Random House; or her phenomenal success as a novelist. Nor is this book for fans who turn to Toni Morrison for inspirational quotes or to score political points.

Instead, On Morrison offers readers who can tell their Soaphead Church from their Schoolteacher something they have long hoped for: a rigorous appraisal of the work. Despite her enormous contribution to American letters, Morrison’s novels are still too often read for what they have to say about black life, rather than how they say it. Song of Solomon and Jazz are more likely to be found on African American studies syllabi than creative writing ones. In her introduction to On Morrison, Namwali Serpell identifies the reason: “She is difficult to read. She is difficult to teach.”

Written from exile after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, this autofictional blend of memory and fable tracks a changing sense of self

M, a 50-year-old novelist living in an idyllic place by a lake, is travelling to a literary festival to give a talk. A sequence of events, mostly beyond her control, leaves her stranded in an unfamiliar town. It’s dead quiet, except for a travelling circus camped on the outskirts. M checks into a hotel, ignores her phone and wanders around, reminiscing about books read, films watched, museums visited. Some of these recollections are grounded in fable; others are vividly realistic. Among the latter are memories of her childhood and youth, spent in a “country that no longer exists apart from on old maps and in history books”.

M describes the country she comes from as a “beast” waging war against its neighbour. We can guess her meaning without turning to the author’s biographical note. Maria Stepanova – whose masterly In Memory of Memory combined family memoir, essay and fiction – left her native Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. We might also wonder how closely The Disappearing Act tracks her own life. But the novelist M is not here to discuss autofiction – she has more important things to reflect on.

Pelicot’s riveting account of her ordeal refuses to conform to any agenda but her own

It is a mark of the power and honesty of Gisèle Pelicot’s memoir, A Hymn to Life – a seemingly impossible writing project in which the author must reconcile herself with horrors of which she has no recollection – that in the first 40 pages, the person I felt most angry towards was Pelicot herself. Her ex-husband, Dominique, who will almost certainly be in jail for the rest of his life for drugging and raping his wife and recruiting 50 men over the internet to do likewise, takes his place among the monsters of our age. In his absence, the reader may experience a version of what happened in Gisèle Pelicot’s own family – namely, the misdirection of anger towards her.

I have read enough books by female survivors of male sexual violence to say with confidence that Hymn to Life is unique. Pelicot – she decided to keep her married name in the interests of giving those of her grandchildren who share it a way to be proud rather than ashamed – was 67 when her husband of almost 50 years was arrested in 2020 for upskirting women in a supermarket in Carpentras, a small town in the south-east of France near the couple’s retirement home in the village of Mazan. When the police investigation uncovered a cache of videos and photos in which an unconscious Pelicot was shown being sexually assaulted by scores of men, she entered a nightmare.

Three women, two real and one fictional, seek social justice in an ambitious novel that explores power in 1970s America

What kind of justice can we have in a world driven by power? The actor turned writer Sophie Ward likes to fuel her novels with philosophical conundrums and set herself complex writerly challenges. Her ingenious, Booker-longlisted Love and Other Thought Experiments was structured around philosophical thought experiments, from Pascal’s Wager to Descartes’ Demon, with a chapter narrated by an ant living inside a character’s brain. The Schoolhouse explored the ethics of self-directed schooling and of policing in a complicated cross-period procedural. Now she turns her attention to questions of justice, freedom and power in the 1970s United States, with a tripartite structure bringing together three women – two real and one imagined.

It’s 1971: the Manson Family have just been found guilty and hundreds of thousands are marching against the Vietnam war. In the Netherlands, 25-year-old Andrea Dworkin escapes her abusive husband and attends a debate between Chomsky and Foucault on justice and power. Back in the US, the poet Muriel Rukeyser throws herself into protesting once again, though her lover, the literary agent Monica McCall, tells her rightly that her health won’t stand it. The third character is loosely based on the family history of Ward’s own Korean-American wife. Phyllis Patterson welcomes her son home to rural Illinois from the army base in South Korea, and attempts to build a relationship with her new Korean daughter-in-law and grandchildren. All three women are testing their own capacity for justice in an unjust world.

Milano Cortina​ has cutting‑edge replays, chase‑cam drones and exuberant commentary ​bringing a wave of unexpected nostalgia for anyone who grew up on 90s extreme‑sports games

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As someone whose childhood holidays consisted of narrowboating along the Grand Union canal or wandering the harbour-side at Whitby looking for vampires, I have never been on a skiing break. The idea of plummeting down a hill on anything but a plastic sledge is totally alien to me. And yet, my wife and I have been gripped by the Winter Olympics, especially the snowboarding and freestyle skiing events. And I think I know why. Those events are really channelling the look and feel of the wintery sports sims I’ve always loved – especially those that arrived during a golden period in the mid-1990s.

This was the era in which snowboarding was exploding in popularity, especially among twentysomethings with disposable incomes and no responsibilities – which coincidentally was the games industry’s target market at the time. Perhaps the first title to take advantage of this trend was Namco’s 1996 arcade game Alpine Surfer, which challenged players to stand on a snowboard-shaped controller and swoop as quickly as possible down a mountainside – it was one of the most physically exhausting coin-ops I ever played. Later that year came the self-consciously hip PlayStation sim Cool Boarders, and then in 1998, my absolute favourite, 1080° Snowboarding on the N64, with it’s intuitive analog controls and incredibly authentic sound effects of boards cutting through deep, crisp snow.

We explore the cosy world-building spin-off with Game Freak’s Shigeru Ohmori and his fellow developers – and learn how it began with a Pokémon-hunting dream

Pokémon is celebrating its 30th anniversary this month, and everybody knows what to expect from these games by now. The concept is simple: head into a cartoonish paradise full of whimsical creatures, capture them in red-and-white balls and assemble a team of warriors from them, before battling other aspiring Pokémon masters. But the latest entry in the series is different – a game that’s more about building than battling.

In Pokopia, a refreshingly pacific twist on the series, players are dropped into a virtual world where Pokémon are freed from their spherical prisons and happily roam their natural habitats. There’s one minor caveat – you have to create those habitats by hand, building them from what you can find.

The YouTube gaming star’s weird and divisive adaptation of his obscure horror film is a game within a film about a game – and hints at new directions for storytelling

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Something weird struck me early on while watching the movie Iron Lung, which has so far taken $32m at the box office, despite being a grungy low-budget sci-fi thriller adapted from an independent video game few people outside of the horror gaming community have even heard of. Set after a galactic apocalypse, it follows a convict who must buy his freedom by piloting a rusty submarine through an ocean of human blood on a distant planet. Ostensibly, he’s looking for relics that may prove vital for scientific research, but what he finds is much more ghastly. So far, so strange.

The film was also written, directed and financed by one person – the YouTube gaming superstar Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach – who also stars. But that’s not the weird part, either. The weird part is that watching the film Iron Lung feels like watching Fischbach play Iron Lung the game. Maybe it’s the fact that he spends most of the movie sitting at the sub’s controls, trying to figure out how to use them correctly – like a gamer would. Maybe it’s that, as the film progresses, he has to solve a series of environmental puzzles linked by various codes, computer read-outs and little injections of narrative – just like in a video game. Long periods of the movie involve Fischbach trying to decide what to do next, the camera close up on his confused face. This is incredibly similar to watching his YouTube videos about playing Iron Lung, an experience he often found bewildering. It was the most metatextual experience I’ve had in the cinema since The Truman Show – but I’m not sure this is what Fischbach intended.

PlayStation 5 (version tested), Xbox, PC; Grasshopper Manufacture/Marvelous Inc
After some dumb fun hacking at zombies, legendary developer Suda51’s first original game in a decade sadly only delivers a host of incoherent disappointments

Ever since he baffled GameCube owners with 2005’s Killer7, Japanese game director Suda51 has had a reputation for turning heads. From parodying the banality of open-world games with 2007’s No More Heroes to collaborating with James Gunn for 2012’s pulpy Lollipop Chainsaw, his games often offer a welcome reprieve from soulless, half-a-billion-dollar-budget gaming blockbusters. It was with considerable excitement that I fired up Suda’s first new game in 10 years.

The game kicks off with a slick cartoon that shows our hero, Romeo Stargazer, being eaten by a zombie. Hastily resurrected by his zany scientist grandfather, Romeo returns from the brink imbued with new powers – and then we’re off. Almost immediately I am bombarded by an impenetrable wall of proper-noun nonsense. It’s like this for the next 20 hours.

The Wicked star plays all 23 characters in a hi-tech London staging of Bram Stoker’s novel by Kip Williams. Here’s a bite-sized look at the critics’ verdicts

Dracula, the Ur-vampire and ultimate outsider of the literary canon, is played by Cynthia Erivo, along with every other character, in this deliciously wicked tale of the blood-sucking count. Except it’s not deliciously wicked in adapter-director Kip Williams’ stage reinvention. Williams has proven himself a Midas-touched spinner of old stories to new. His one-woman version of The Picture of Dorian Gray was deliriously original. His take on Jean Genet’s The Maids was punk inspired. What has happened here?

Arifa Akbar, the Guardian

As in the Australian director’s hit adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray (immaculately interpreted by the Succession star Sarah Snook), the stage is sometimes so crowded with camera operators and stage crew that it’s not always easy to see Erivo. The shallow rake in the stalls makes this theatre a less than ideal setting for Marg Horwell’s handsome scenic design: I spent at least half the evening watching the action on the large screen hanging overhead. Yet it becomes a hallucinatory experience all the same.

Erivo dons wigs and skirts and recalibrates her voice to play Harker’s fiancee Mina and her friend Lucy; then spectacles to play psychiatrist Dr Seward and comic Saruman tresses for a guttural Van Helsing. It’s to her credit, and Williams’, that one sometimes loses track of which character is being broadcast live and which is recorded. The integration is mostly seamless. Personifications of Irish and American characters are knowingly ridiculous, but Dracula always had a vein of camp.

It’s refreshing to see Erivo get to own her queerness on stage, licking her lips lasciviously as a lace-decked Lucy who’s in sexual thrall to an androgynous Dracula – or strutting confidently in a masculine vest with silver chains (a welcome escape from her feminine get-ups in Wicked). She unleashes her ethereal voice to haunting, vulpine effect in the final scenes, where she finally gets to embody Dracula’s power on a bare stage, unobscured by tech and crowds.

The multi-faceted approach speaks to the way that Stoker cut between first-person perspectives using a document-sharing and epistolary form. Equally, Williams’ boundary-breaking artistic toolkit brings out the thematic heart of the matter; it emphasises the way in which the predatory count stokes fears but also embodies deep-rooted desires.

Erivo seems ill at ease with the material. There’s a hesitancy about her performance, as if she were wrong-footed by the technology that surrounds her. A scattering of arch, self-conscious moments and sly humour are part of the deal in Williams’ interpretation, but nothing feels truly felt and, as she switches between characters, the individual voices are not always properly differentiated. The overall effect is slightly ramshackle, sluggish and, in the end, frustratingly short on dash and drama.

Erivo’s range is remarkable – alternately placid, pert, prowling and predatory. A Tony award-winning star of musical theatre in The Color Purple, she despatches one melancholy torch song by Clemence Williams with wistful nonchalance. Otherwise, her athletic efforts are magnified by a filmic soundtrack encompassing Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, Chopin, Björk and even a bit of electro-trance music. For truly this is a mind-bogglingly complex show, which goes beyond the kitchen sink in its attempts to create an audio-visual hallucination.

The effects, with Craig Wilkinson as video designer, are impressive: a vampire flying by, Dracula crawling down the wall. The camera operators, wig providers, stage managers and props assistants are all assiduous and wonderfully efficient. Marg Horwell’s design is effectively flexible, Nick Schlieper’s lighting and the sound design by Jessica Dunn suitably dramatic, though Clemence Williams’ score becomes increasingly over-emphatic.

Despite stumbling over the odd line, Erivo is charismatic, game, and essentially does her best as a cog in Williams’ elaborate machine. But if you agree to tie your big comeback to a very specific directorial vision, there’s not much even a superstar actor can do if that vision is faulty.

Noël Coward theatre, London
Deploying accents and wigs, the Wicked star takes on all Bram Stoker’s characters, but the atmosphere lacks the fever or diabolicism required

• Bloody brilliant or toothless? Cynthia Erivo’s Dracula – reviews roundup

Are people born wicked? asks Ariana Grande’s “good witch” Glinda in Wicked, the musical film co-starring Cynthia Erivo as the green-skinned outsider, Elphaba. Bram Stoker’s classic story of elemental evil knows the answer to that question. Dracula, the Ur-vampire and ultimate outsider of the literary canon, is played by Erivo, along with every other character in this deliciously wicked tale of the blood-sucking count.

Except it’s not deliciously wicked in adapter-director Kip Williams’ stage reinvention. Williams has proven himself a Midas-touched spinner of old stories to new. His one-woman version of The Picture of Dorian Gray was deliriously original. His take on Jean Genet’s The Maids was punk inspired. What has happened here?

The East German-born artist, who has died aged 41, came of age in a deeply dysfunctional landscape, using furniture to reveal schisms masked by unification

Mourning has many colours and many layers. One mourns people. But one can also mourn a state, a system, an ideology – even those that were deeply flawed. In 2019, the artist Henrike Naumann built an East German living room and rotated it by 90 degrees. The sofa, chairs and coffee table – all in the unmistakable aesthetic of the 1990s – climbed the wall. The carpet became vertical. Cabinets hovered near the floor alongside a CD rack, baseball badges and a flag bearing a slogan in Sütterlin script: “Beware of storm and wind and East Germans who are enraged.”

The installation – titled Ostalgie (a portmanteau of the German words for “east” and “nostalgia”) – made physical what many had felt but struggled to articulate: the collapse of the GDR and its aftermath for those who had lived through it and felt it on some level as a loss. That rupture was not abstract. It tilted the room. It unsettled the ground beneath your feet.

London Coliseum
Jamie Manton’s new production for English National Opera is sparky and substantial. Danielle de Niese brings star quality to tarty Jenny, and the chorus are consistently superb

What’s the worst crime in Mahagonny, the spider-web city built by three cons in order to extract a living out of sucker tourists? Not having any cash. ENO knows all too well how that particular predicament feels. Somehow, though, Jamie Manton’s new production of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s opera manages to make a virtue of thriftiness, yet still feels substantial.

For a start, it’s big. In Brechtian style, the whole breadth and depth of the Coliseum stage is open: it feels almost as if this should be an immersive production, with the audience up there in the performers’ midst. Milla Clarke’s set, centred on a huge container, reuses elements that ENO regulars will recognise from productions long past, and the costumes look like the spoils from a charity-shop sweep – which fits the trashy aesthetic.

His 1972 appearance showed Americans what a beloved community could look like, integrated and full of promise

In a 1972 episode of Sesame Street, Jesse Jackson, then 31, is standing against a stoop on the soundstage modelled after an urban neighborhood block. He’s wearing a purple, white, and black striped shirt, accented with a gold medallion featuring Martin Luther King Jr’s profile. The camera cuts to reveal a group of kids, the embodiment of Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition – children under the age of 10 from every ethnicity and racial group. He leads them in a call-and-response of his famous liberatory chant: “I am somebody.”

The adorable, cherub-cheeked kids light up the camera with their enthusiasm as they repeat the same words back to him. They are fidgety, giggly and powerful when they respond to Jackson in a cacophonous and slightly out-of-sync roar: I am somebody. The call-and-response is a wall of activating, energetic sound.

Guided by instinct, Curran Hatleberg travels the US looking for images that tell their own short stories – from a boat full of dead alligators to teenagers diving 40ft off a bridge

Singer with a powerful four-octave range whose hits with Three Dog Night included Joy to the World

In the early 1970s, the pop-rock group Three Dog Night were selling more records and concert tickets than any other artists in America, and scored 21 consecutive US Top 40 hits, including three No 1s. Chuck Negron, who has died aged 83 after suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart failure, was a founder member of the group, and his powerful voice and four-octave range made him a crucial component of their sound. His luxuriant moustache also became an unmistakable visual trademark.

The group divided up their songs between three lead vocalists, with Danny Hutton and Cory Wells alongside Negron, but it was Negron’s voice to the fore on such hits as One, Easy to Be Hard, Old Fashioned Love Song, The Show Must Go On and Joy to the World.

A new exhibition brings together new dye-transfer prints of the classically American photographer’s work

As a small child, Winston Eggleston was only vaguely aware that his father, William Eggleston, was a famous photographer. For all he knew other children also had parents who were friends with Dennis Hopper, or who spent hours tinkering on a piano between occasional, fevered photography sprees, or who had taken the world’s most iconic picture of a red ceiling.

“It’s all normal to you, because you don’t know anything different,” Winston recently recalled. “Looking back, I was lucky.”

It felt scary not to have ‘home’ to go back to. But it was also the start of something new: an experiment in multigenerational living and building a house with zero experience

Weekend breakfasts have always been big in our house. Usually a cereal course followed by a full English. It’s the execution that makes it special for me – the colourful tablecloth, the mix of bread and toast (so you can fold over a slice of your choice to make a mini bacon sandwich), the teapot, the ginger biscuits you dunk into your tea for “afters”.

When I’d visit home in Yorkshire from London, where I lived for 20 years, I treasured these breakfast moments, sitting around the table with Mum and Dad and enjoying the well-oiled ritual in the suburban three-bed semi where I’d grown up.

Whether it’s paraben-free detergent, refillable deodorant or sustainable toothbrush heads, try these simple swaps for a cleaner home and body

• 33 easy plastic-free kitchen swaps

When it comes to cleaning products, both for our bodies and our homes, convenience is a bit of a dirty word. While you may have a sparkling loo, the environment won’t thank you for multiple single-use plastic bottles of cleaning fluid and ingredients that go down the sink despite the small print warning of the harm to marine life.

UK households use 13bn plastic bottles every year, which take at least 450 years to decompose, while more than 212m toothbrush heads or manual toothbrushes are thrown away across the country annually.

Forecast ruining your plans? These rainy day ideas for kids will have you sorted. Plus, the best vacuum cleaners and Nussaibah Younis’s shopping secrets

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February gloom and drizzle will continue over the half-term break, which is bad news for all the children off school … and even worse news for their parents.

So to help you survive the week and keep the kids entertained, we’ve rounded up the best ways to keep them busy on rainy days, get them outdoors (and keep them as dry as possible) and, if you’re going away, make long journeys run smoothly.

Which quiche egg-celled and which crumbled in the face of our rigorous taste test?

• The best supermarket extra-virgin olive oil

I learned to make quiche from one of the best chefs I know, Gill Meller, my old head chef at River Cottage HQ, about 20 years ago. His quiche is rich and creamy, with beautifully crumbly pastry, and my benchmark for these store-bought versions.

I tasted all of the quiches cooked according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Overall, the quality was lower than I’d hoped for, with many relying on ultra-processed ingredients, such as palm oil, emulsifiers and, often, caged-hen eggs. Free-range products didn’t always communicate this clearly on the packet, so it’s worth checking the ingredients list. Also, some described their pastry as “buttery” when they don’t contain any butter, and are instead made with vegetable shortening (palm and rapeseed oil). Encouragingly, however, a few gems emerged, with wonderfully simple ingredients, light and fluffy free-range custards, crisp all-butter pastry and generously filled.

Shark’s latest gadget claims to tackle everything from pore size to puffiness, but can an at-home hydrofacial really replace a trip to the salon?

• The best LED face masks, tested

The beauty tech market has boomed in the past few years, with countless brands launching products that promise clinic-quality results from home. After its LED face mask, the Cryoglow, made every beauty lover’s 2025 wishlist, Shark’s latest beauty launch, the FacialPro Glow, promises access to the sort of hydrofacial tech previously reserved for professional facialists.

If you’re familiar with hydrofacials (AKA hydradermabrasion), then you’ll be aware that they have impressive pore cleansing and hydrating powers when performed in a clinic by a trained facialist. However, I was intrigued to see whether a portable device could be powerful enough to rival a facial that costs more than £100 – and concerned it would be unwise to put such power in the hands of non-professionals.

You can make curd with almost any leftover fruit, as long as you add a little lemon juice for acidity and blend it to that familiarly special smooth texture

I love ingenious recipes like curd that have the superpower to turn a tired piece of fruit or a forgotten offcut into something utterly decadent. Lemon curd is the original and a classic, but you can make curd with almost any fruit, as long as you add a little lemon juice for acidity. Each version is intense, indulgent and dreamy. So, please approach with caution: this spread is deeply moreish, in the best possible way.

Citrus brings vibrancy and zing to savoury and sweet dishes alike

Citrus season brings an entirely new dimension of seasoning – a way to add vibrancy, nuance and brightness far beyond the standard squeeze of lemon. For me, citrus isn’t just acidity: it’s a complex alternative to sugar and vinegar, with varieties that offer bitterness, floral tones, sweetness and sharpness in equal measure. With more than a hundred types of lemons, clementines and limes now available, I find it easiest to think of them in two groups: sour citrus and sweet citrus. Once you know which you’re working with, you can explore each variety’s complexity and decide how best to use it.

Brines or rubs, spatchcocked or baked upside down, our expert panel picks apart the perfect bird

What’s the best way to roast a chicken?
Nicola, by email
“Fundamentally, people overcomplicate it,” says Ed Smith, who has, rather conveniently, written a new book all about chicken, Peckish. “Yes, you can cook it at a variety of temperatures, use different fats, wet brine or dry brine, etc etc, but, ultimately, if you put a good chicken in the oven and roast it, you will have a good meal.”

To elaborate on Smith’s nonchalance, he has three key rules: “One, start with a good chicken: free-range, ideally slow-reared and under the 2kg mark – small birds just roast better, I think.” Second, it doesn’t need as long in the oven as you might think. “Whatever it says on the packet will be too long,” says Smith, who roasts his chicken for about 50 minutes in a 210C (190C fan) oven. And, last, give it a rest: “Your chicken will be better for sitting for 15-20 minutes, and will still be steaming hot when you cut into it.”

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

This bold, traditional taste of Vietnam is a joy both by name and to eat

There’s something endearing and confident about a dish named after the feeling it gives you. Bánh khoái means “delight” or “joy” cake. This crisp, savoury pancake originates from Hue, the historic capital of Vietnam’s central region. Traditionally served with a rich hoisin dipping sauce, my take swaps that out for a lighter nước chấm with sesame seeds. It stays true to the spirit of the original, though, preserving its joyful texture and bold, satisfying flavours, while using more accessible ingredients.

This recipe is an edited extract from One Pan Vietnam, by Thuy Diem Pham, published by Quadrille at £22.

He didn’t look like a stereotypical ‘drug addict’, but when he fled to South Africa with all our savings it was obvious that is what he had become

When I tell people that a drug addiction nearly killed my dad, I know what most of them are thinking. Heroin. Crack. Maybe meth or ket. Those substances that steal your soul and slowly wreak havoc on your body. They’re imagining Trainspotting; too-skinny frames and protruding hip bones, the physical effects of addiction that are impossible to miss.

But that isn’t how it played out in my family.

Dan and Zoe met on a train and connected instantly. Twenty years and three kids later, they’re still trying out new things
• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

We have a cup of tea and a chat with the receptionist then go on to a leather-clad room

It’s possible this is a platonic relationship, but your concerns are valid and your husband isn’t providing any reassurance

My husband and I are in our 60s. We have been married for 40 years, some of it happily, some not so much. Our children are grown up and gone, and we have recently retired. Some of our tensions over the years have been around my husband’s tendency to be undermining and belittling. He claims not to understand why I might find certain things upsetting, yet refuses to engage with couples counselling (apparently I would tell lies). We have muddled through and mostly get on well now, though he dislikes most of my friends and siblings, and won’t socialise with them. To be fair, he is self-contained and doesn’t seem to need friends in the way I do – he has one friend.

A few months ago, an ex-colleague got in touch with my husband and asked to meet for coffee. They met, had a long lunch, and my husband mentioned a few weeks later that they were arranging to meet again as he had enjoyed the catchup. I was a bit thrown. I found it odd that she couldn’t confide in her partner or friends, but my husband exploded and we had one of our worst, most vicious arguments in years. He accused me of not wanting him to have friends (the opposite is true) and threw up the fact that I have platonic male friends; true, but my male friends and I go back 30-plus years and we don’t meet one-to-one. This just feels a bit out of character and potentially inappropriate.

There was a language barrier, a mother who burned their letters and a record label manager who disapproved. But Kerry Cox was madly in love

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In my early 20s I quit my job in New Zealand and moved to Sydney to study martial arts. In 1982, after competing in the World Pugilist championships in Hong Kong, I hitchhiked around Japan for a month or so, then headed for Korea via ferry in January 1983. I’d heard air fares were cheap from Korea. No internet back then!

While boarding, I was approached by a very attractive Japanese woman, with limited English, who told me that if I bought one box of bananas and a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black label, I could pay for most of my trip in Korea. These items were very much in demand back then.

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Spending on gear, travel and race fees can easily add up – here’s how to make getting to the start line affordable

Before you enter a race, it’s vital to think about whether you’re in shape to make it through the training. For a marathon, you’ll probably need to be a regular runner who has completed several 10ks or the half distance.

Its ‘fibre checker’ tool confirmed I could have a connection, but a month later it changed its mind

My internet provider informed me by email that full fibre broadband had become available for my property, confirmed by Openreach’s “fibre checker” tool.

After a month, Openreach declared the connection uneconomical due to blockages in the conduits below the road.

The charger firm claimed the site operated 24 hours a day, but the parking operator had different ideas

I charged my electric car at the 24-hour Mer EV charging station in my local B&Q car park.

I then received a £100 parking charge notice (PCN) from the car park operator, Ocean Parking. It said no parking is allowed on the site between 9pm and 6am.

Fraudsters use stolen personal details to send out products, then post a fake verified and positive online review

A package arrives but you can’t remember ordering anything.

When you open it, you find some cheap, flimsy jewellery.

With more than 200 possible symptoms, long Covid isn’t easy to treat and diagnose. Rolled-back federal funding has led longhaulers to ask: is this all in my head?

I am 30ft below the surface of the Blue Grotto, a crystalline diving hole in central Florida. Between the water’s embrace and the restriction of my wetsuit, my blood pressure finally stabilizes. The long, deep breaths I pull from my respirator keep my heart rate nice and low.

I feel lighter than I have since April 2022, when I first contracted long Covid. I feel childlike at the fact that I can do this at all – get scuba certified – when on land I’m often confined to a wheelchair or a walker.

The average person does not need to be adding anything to their water

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Attitudes towards hydration have become another faultline in the generational divide: while the giant “emotional support” water bottle is ubiquitous among gen Z, those of the writer Ian McEwan’s vintage find the modern obsession with hydration “deranged”. McEwan and his ilk will be even more perplexed then that even those guzzling from their Stanley Cups throughout the day are being told they are still not sufficiently hydrating themselves.

Influencers are telling their followers they “don’t understand what hydration is” if they’re not adding electrolytes such as sodium and chloride (salt) as well as magnesium and potassium to their water to help their cells “hold on to and use” it. Often spruiking the sachets wellness companies are selling, they claim these fancy salt formulations are essential to avoiding migraines and muscle cramps, anxiety and mood swings. Some TikTokers are adding sachets alongside other ingredients such as coloured ice cubes, edible glitter and fruit into the aforementioned massive cup in a trend known as “loaded water”.

The hit podcaster, author and former GP says a failure to regulate big tech is ‘failing a generation of children’. He explains why he quit the NHS and why he wants a ban on screen-based homework

A 16-year-old boy and his mum went to see their GP, Dr Rangan Chatterjee, on a busy Monday afternoon. That weekend, the boy had been at A&E after an attempt at self-harm, and in his notes the hospital doctor had recommended the teenager be prescribed antidepressants. “I thought: ‘Wait a minute, I can’t just start a 16-year-old on antidepressants,’” says Chatterjee. He wanted to understand what was going on in the boy’s life.

They talked for a while, and Chatterjee asked him about his screen use, which turned out to be high. “I said: ‘I think your screen use, particularly in the evenings, might be impacting your mental wellbeing.’” Chatterjee helped the boy and his mother set up a routine where digital devices and social media went off an hour before bed, gradually extending the screen-free period over six weeks. After two months, he says the boy stopped needing to see him. A few months after that, his mother wrote Chatterjee a note to say her son had been transformed – he was engaging with his friends and trying new activities. He was, she said, like a different boy from the one who had ended up in hospital.

Growing up in a turbulent household taught me to expect the worst. Then one day I found £20 in the street and shifted my thinking

Growing up, I was envious of one type of person. It was never the kids who were smarter, sportier or more popular. My awe was reserved for a rarer breed of people: optimists. I was hypersensitive to the ease with which they sailed through exams, social gatherings or teenage milestones with a sunny conviction that things would more or less work out. To me, they were the chosen people. “It’ll be fine,” one such friend would reassure me. “Or you could embarrass yourself,” my mind would purr like a villain. “Be rejected. Fail.”

I was a chronic worrier. A negative Nancy. I couldn’t fathom that people’s brains weren’t hardwired to compulsively fear things might go wrong. I grew up as the eldest daughter in a turbulent household where my father’s moods would plummet quickly and I walked on a knife-edge. Every morning, the second my eyes opened, I would force myself to accept it was going to be a bad day – an act of self-preservation so the rug could never get pulled from under my feet hoping for better. My thinking was that if you always expected the worst, things had a tendency to turn out better than you imagined.

No need to get in a lather – there are plenty of stylish-looking, premium-feeling options at a reasonable price

Please can we all admit that on occasion, when we’ve been gifted and subsequently drained a posh-looking hand wash, we unscrew the luxury cap and pour in something from Asda? And that those of us privileged enough to have a downstairs loo that visitors see, routinely leave the posh soap there while the resident family rely on a bumper dispenser of Carex? Surely no one is above such behaviour.

An illicit bargain refill last autumn inspired a hunt for stylish-looking and luxury-feeling hand soaps that, while not weekly-shop cheap, feel at least like a justifiable luxury. I’ve rarely enjoyed my research more.

Given the average British woman may change dress size more than 30 times in adult life, flexibility is one route to feeling at home in a fluctuating body. But that’s not all it’s good for

I always think that the most stylish woman in a room is the one who looks the most comfortable. She might be nonchalant in a pair of wide trousers and a loose white shirt, or stroll in casually wearing the butter-soft leather loafers she’s had for years. It was a longing to be more like one of those women, as opposed to one who fell over regularly in public because I couldn’t balance in platforms, which made me give up wearing heels for good in 2012. So it was a natural progression, a decade later, to shunning another wardrobe constraint that was making me fidget in social situations: the waistband.

I’m about to turn 49 and in the past eight years I’ve been fluctuating between sizes 10 and 14, which is hardly surprising when you consider that the average British woman may change dress size a whopping 31 times in her adult life. I attribute my own yo-yo-ing partly to the hormonal changes that a body in its 40s inevitably goes through, but I should also acknowledge that during lockdown, I developed a taste for the elasticated tracksuit bottoms that working from home allowed, as well as a macaroni cheese, or two, each week.

Dry air indoors can cause an inflammatory reaction, yet so can cold, windy outdoor conditions – but turning down the heating and using a moisturising cream can help

‘This is kind of true,” says consultant dermatologist Dr Emma Craythorne. Human skin has evolved to retain water, thanks to a protective barrier on its surface. But that barrier isn’t totally watertight. Water is constantly moving across it, depending on the humidity of the surrounding air.

Skin tends to be most comfortable at a relative humidity of about 40%. When the air around us is drier than that, water is more likely to leave the skin. That matters because the process of water escaping across the skin barrier is mildly inflammatory.

Lego and Crocs have joined forces to create oversized Lego-shaped shoes. Are they as ridiculous as they sound? We sent our most podophilic writer to find out

Everyone knows that standing on Lego is the worst pain known to man, but standing in Lego Crocs – how bad can they be? And are they really worth £199? I got hold of a prototype pair to test how my feet would survive.

A century ago, the Serra da Estrela mountains were Portugal’s answer to the Swiss health resorts of St Moritz and Davos. Now, a historic sanatorium has been given a 21st-century makeover and is drawing people back to the hills

Navigating the high slopes of Portugal’s Serra da Estrela in midwinter requires serious negotiation with the elements, but my guide, João Pedro Sousa, makes it look simple. Angling his lean frame into the wind, he digs his plastic snow-shoes into a steep drift and pauses, scanning the white ridgeline. He’s looking for mariolas – small cairns of rocks, fused by ice, that will indicate our onward trail. “The landscape changes every day so you have to learn how to read it afresh,” he says, setting off again. “At this time of year, nature is a true artist.”

I plod inelegantly in his wake, still clumsy in the frames clipped to my boots to keep me from sinking into the powder. At a quartzite outcrop rippled with rose and amber, we pause and drink in the view. Below us, cupped in the glacial scar of the Zêzere valley, is the terracotta-roofed town of Manteigas – founded in the 12th century and today the modest hub for tourism in the region. Ahead, on the horizon, João Pedro points out mainland Portugal’s highest peak, the 1,993-metre Torre, home to a small ski resort suited to beginners. “This region is full of surprises,” he grins.

A cabin on a farm near Hawick, known for its whisky and woollens, offers wild seclusion – and a great base for exploring an overlooked region

The tiny, off-grid cabin looked almost unreal: made of repurposed oak it stood by a private lochan, with separate cedar sauna, cold outdoor shower, sunken hot tub, and a jetty with two hammocks and a pair of paddleboards. It screamed Finland or Sweden, not a sheep and deer farm in the Scottish Borders. It was the sort of isolated location that would set Ben Fogle’s heart racing in New Lives in the Wild. Two swans bugled my arrival. I felt a little embarrassed that all of it was mine.

Sometimes, we need to escape to a place where the phone coverage is bad enough to make you believe you’re somewhere truly wild. Tiny Home Borders, hidden in rippling foothills 10 miles east of Hawick, is such a place. Last August, owners David and Claire Mactaggart opened a second two-person cabin on their farmland (the first opened in 2022) and I jumped at the chance to stay, swim, soak, and – crucially – switch-off.

Mimosas and violets are already out in the south of France, making it the perfect time for a pre-spring road trip

As I take my seat in Galimard’s Studio des Fragrances, in the Provençal town of Grasse, I limber up my nostrils for the task ahead: to create my own scent from the 126 bottles in front of me. Together they represent a world of exotic aromas, from amber and musk to ginger and saffron. But given that I have left the grey British winter behind to come here, I am more interested in capturing the sunny essence of the Côte d’Azur.

Here in the hills north of Cannes, the colours pop: hillsides are full of bright yellow mimosa flowers, violets are peeping out of flowerbeds and oranges hang heavy on branches over garden walls, even though it’s not yet spring. It is the perfect antidote to the gloom back home, and the chance to bottle these very scents is a joy.

Writers from George Eliot to Goethe put this Lombardy town on the map, then it fell out of fashion. Today it makes a picture-perfect alternative to the Italian lakes

The ancient settlement of Chiavenna, in Lombardy, near Italy’s border with Switzerland, was once well known among travellers. “Lovely Chiavenna … mountain peaks, huge boulders, with rippling miniature torrents and lovely young flowers … and grassy heights with rich Spanish chestnuts,” wrote George Eliot in 1860.

Eliot wasn’t the only writer to rhapsodise about this charming town. Edith Wharton described it as “fantastically picturesque … an exuberance of rococo”. For Mary Shelley it was “paradise … glowing in rich and sunny vegetation”, while Goethe described it as “like a dream”.

Swanky eateries are attracting an influx of influencers - whereas those that produce less varied and photogenic fare are struggling

Name: Food porn.

Age: Entered common parlance around the 1980s – Rosalind Coward used the term in her 1984 book Female Desire (one of its earliest documented uses).

They are hardly essential, but can act as useful teachers

The problem
Lots of houseplants fail because they aren’t getting enough light. But what does “bright, indirect light” really mean in practice? Light meters and apps promise to turn guesswork into numbers, but are they useful, or just kit for professionals and plant nerds?

The hack
Light meters measure the amount of light hitting a spot. Some are dedicated devices; others are phone apps that use the camera sensor. Instead of guessing whether a corner is bright enough, you measure it and then find the right plant for that spot with more confidence.

To the local people feeding the growing flock every day, they are ‘perfect’ creatures with beautiful plumage. To others, they are creating a Hitchcockian nightmare – defecating, stealing and spreading disease. But who is right?

At nine o’clock on Saturday morning, Norwich market is only just stirring: shutters are still down and the aisles are quiet. In the nearby Memorial Gardens, however, a large crowd has already gathered: the market’s pigeons are waiting to be fed.

Jenny Coupland arrives on the scene a little later than her usual hour, with a backpack brimming with seed. As she begins doling it out, the birds descend from their perches and cover the ground, pecking furiously. The sun catches their bobbing heads, sending iridescent shimmers across their brown and grey feathers.

His charm and excitement helped us see the world as he did – full of kindness and joy

When we bought Otto, a golden retriever, a year after the death of our previous dog Bertie, we were sceptical that he could live up to our high expectations. What quickly became apparent, during the routine humiliation of our puppy training classes, was that Otto was a law unto himself.

“He’s not normal” quickly became a stock family phrase, as Otto demonstrated a series of wild, mischievous and outlandish behaviours. During classes, I remember being told euphemistically that he was “wilful” and shamefully resorted to hiding cocktail sausages in my pockets during the final exam to encourage a modicum of civility in him. It just about worked.

Exclusive: Expert analysis of images from one hospital suggests severe trauma to the face, chest and genitals was caused by metal birdshot and high-calibre bullets

Across the planes of Anahita’s* face, white dots shine like a constellation. Some gleam from inside the sockets of her eyes, others are scattered over the young woman’s chin, forehead, cheekbones. A few float over the dark expanse of her brain.

Each dot represents a metal sphere, about 2-5mm in size, fired from the barrel of a shotgun and revealed by the X-ray camera for a CT scan. Shot from a distance, the projectiles, known as “birdshot”, spray widely, losing some of their momentum. At close range, they can crack bone, blast through the soft tissue of the face, and easily pierce the eyeball’s delicate globe. Anahita, who is in her early 20s, has lost at least one eye, possibly both.

Category describes people who have little or no language, an IQ of less than 50 and require 24-hour supervision

When it comes to autism, few questions spark as much debate as how best to support autistic people with the greatest needs.

This prompted the Lancet medical journal to commission a group of international experts to propose a new category of “profound autism”.

How many children met the criteria for profound autism?

Were there behavioural features that set this group apart?

San Francisco’s AI startups are pushing workers to grind endlessly, hinting at pressures soon hitting other sectors

Not long after the terms “996” and “grindcore” entered the popular lexicon, people started telling me stories about what was happening at startups in San Francisco, ground zero for the artificial intelligence economy. There was the one about the founder who hadn’t taken a weekend off in more than six months. The woman who joked that she’d given up her social life to work at a prestigious AI company. Or the employees who had started taking their shoes off in the office because, well, if you were going to be there for at least 12 hours a day, six days a week, wouldn’t you rather be wearing slippers?

“If you go to a cafe on a Sunday, everyone is working,” says Sanju Lokuhitige, the co-founder of Mythril, a pre-seed-stage AI startup, who moved to San Francisco in November to be closer to the action. Lokuhitige says he works seven days a week, 12 hours a day, minus a few carefully selected social events each week where he can network with other people at startups. “Sometimes I’m coding the whole day,” he says. “I do not have work-life balance.”

As storms intensify and flooding becomes more frequent, many communities say infrastructure is struggling to cope. We want to hear how resilient your community feels to more extreme weather

Persistent rain and repeated flooding are testing the resilience of rural communities across the UK, impacting daily life, work and people’s livelihoods.

In recent years, repeated storms and long periods of rain have overwhelmed drainage systems, cut off villages, damaged roads and disrupted power and broadband services. Scientists warn that heavier winter rainfall is arriving earlier than expected, while councils and the Environment Agency face funding pressures and difficult decisions about where to prioritise protection.

Reform UK was voted into power in several English councils last May – we want to hear from residents about their experiences so far

Following the May 2025 English local elections, Reform UK won more than 600 seats and took control of 10 councils, including Kent and County Durham.

Reform campaigned on promises to cut waste, lower council tax and change how councils are run. Since taking office, it has said it is delivering savings and a new approach, while critics have questioned some of its claims and accused the party of breaking pledges not to raise council tax. The Reform-led Worcestershire county council is likely to issue England’s largest council tax rise this April.

Tell us about a memorable trip where you tried something new as a family – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays break

Have you had a memorable family adventure? A trip where you stepped outside your comfort zone and tried something new together? Whether it’s a family backpacking trip, completing a long-distance hike, bike or canoe trail, wild camping, youth hostelling or trying out a new activity, we’d love to hear from you.

The best tip of the week, chosen by Tom Hall of Lonely Planet wins a £200 voucher to stay at a Coolstays property – the company has more than 3,000 worldwide. The best tips will appear in the Guardian Travel section and website.

We would like to hear your tributes and memories of actor Robert Duvall – whether you met him, or appreciated his work

Robert Duvall, the veteran actor with many roles across film and TV including Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, M*A*S*H and To Kill a Mockingbird, has died aged 95.

We would like to hear your tributes and memories of Robert Duvall – whether you met him, or appreciated his work.

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