The writer who coined the word ‘enshittification’ tells us why AI will never deliver what it promises – and why it still appeals so much to those in power

A “centaur”, in automation theory, is a person assisted by a machine, and a “reverse centaur”, hero of Cory Doctorow’s new book, The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI, is a “human who is conscripted into acting as an assistant to a machine”. Every warehouse worker who ever had to urinate in a water bottle because they couldn’t otherwise meet the fulfilment targets set by an algorithm is a reverse centaur. Reaching into the future, everyone who has to sit in a self-driving truck to make sure it doesn’t crash, presumably on minimum rather than truck-driver wages, is a reverse centaur; as is every lawyer no longer on lawyer’s money checking Gemini’s command of precedent, every indie band scraping a living doing covers of AI-generated hits, and so on. That, anyway, is the promise: AI is coming for your job, and it is coming for your kids’ jobs, and there is no point fighting it because the future’s already here.

Wiping out the world of work, and with it our ability to sustain ourselves and live autonomous lives, is only the beginning, if you listen to AI’s architects. Elon Musk has called it the single greatest threat to human civilisation, Sam Altman has said it will “most likely lead to the end of the world” and Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, memorably forecast that AI would come to see us the way we see animals: cute to have around but ultimately a resource to be exploited. “AI people claim they’re about to create God, by teaching words to a word-guessing programme,” Doctorow says. “It’s grandiose.”

Extreme weather is affecting people in areas from schools and care homes to construction sites – with workers urging leaders to take problem seriously

• Europe heatwave live – latest updates

With temperatures in the UK approaching record levels for June, people are being advised to avoid exercise and unnecessary travel. So how do you work in this heat?

We look at how various sectors of the economy are coping with unprecedented temperatures, and how working practices will have to adapt to increasingly frequent heatwaves that are predicted to be longer and more intense owing to the global climate emergency.

Not all care facilities are created equal

I’m not sure how much longer we can keep dodging bullets

Cheesemakers, farmers, exporters and wine merchants say red tape, lack of vision and rising costs mean they have stopped trading, sold up or retired early

Out of pocket, out of business, retired early. These are the tales of the “sunlit uplands” experienced by small-to-medium-sized businesses across Britain after Brexit.

Between 16,000 to 20,000 businesses stopped exporting to the EU altogether, but others who soldiered on complain Boris Johnson’s government catered for the “blue chips”, not the small, everyday companies when they designed the hard Brexit for Britain.

Glamorous, fashion-forward, fun – wigs are everywhere you look, with celebrities leading the way. But should you go for something flamboyant, or a more natural style? Time to test-drive a few

‘I think it’s the word – ‘wig’!” says Melanie Burrell, scrunching up her nose. “I prefer ‘hairpiece’.” It’s part of the reason why, when she opened her wig business in Glasgow in 2010, she called it Parrucche – the Italian word for “wigs” being a little more discreet, especially when it came to signage.

But the stigma once associated with wig wearing is quickly diminishing. Outside of Black and queer communities, where using hairpieces has long been commonplace, wigs were once associated with attempts to conceal hair-loss, or for fancy dress. But in recent years, their appeal has broadened. According to data insights company Statista, the global wigs and hair extensions market is predicted to reach $13.28bn this year. For men, toupees, now more commonly known as “hair systems”, are part of this resurgence.

Fed up with expensive tickets and omnipresent branding, some festival fans are creating their own anarchic, ticketless events full of glitter and silliness. They explain how it’s done

Picture the scene: it’s July 2025 and I’m DJing at a festival called Loveshack. I’m not fretting about losing the crowd to a different stage because there isn’t one: we’re in a barn in the Welsh countryside. The dress-up theme is 90s icons, and below me Joanna Lumley is talking to Andre Agassi while a cop from the Beastie Boys’ Sabotage video looks on. People’s possessions are strewn around but no one seems worried, because the crowd is just 60 members of my extended friendship group and everyone is having possibly the best festival experience imaginable.

In a world of overpriced and overrated mainstream festivals, tiny events like this are becoming more common. It’s true that tickets still fly out for the big fests: with Glastonbury having a fallow year, its 200,000-odd punters have hungrily looked elsewhere, leading to festivals such as Mighty Hoopla and Green Man selling out in a day. But there is a definite sense that festivals have been losing their independent, renegade spirit. Lineups feel samey, and despite high ticket prices there are a depressing number of onsite “brand activations”, where a bus covered in the livery for a new smartphone, say, makes you feel like you’re walking around in a 3D advert. As John Rostron, who runs the Association of Independent Festivals, says: “Not everyone wants to go to a festival and see a Dyson-activated tent.”

Whether the money was a reward for Brexit or for personal security, media interest in it has intensifed as the Reform UK leader returns to the public eye

Having largely, and uncharacteristically, avoided media attention for much of the past couple of months – a period that has coincided with people asking some searching questions about the £5m given to him by a billionaire Reform backer – Nigel Farage returned to the airwaves on Tuesday.

If he had hoped broadcasters, and their listeners, had forgotten about the issue, he was sorely mistaken.

Donna Ockenden inquiry finds ‘bullying’ culture and ‘cruel’, dismissive attitude to women contributed to avoidable deaths

• Ockenden report – latest updates

• Key findings from maternity scandal report

• ‘Truly horrific’: five stories from the scandal

More than 500 mothers and babies came to harm or died as a result of inadequate care in Nottingham, an inquiry into the NHS’s biggest ever maternity scandal has revealed.

A total of 444 women and 76 newborn babies suffered “potentially avoidable” outcomes because they received substandard treatment over 13 years from Nottingham University hospitals NHS trust (NUH), a damning report led by the childbirth expert Donna Ockenden has found.

Prime minister claims he is handing over country in ‘better shape’ than he found it

Ben Quinn is a Guardian political correspondent.

Nigel Farage has made an explicit pitch for support from an international gathering of thousands of social conservatives and hard-right activists, likening “family breakdown” to “community breakdown” as populations grew more diverse.

The Reform UK leader was speaking a day after the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference, which is backed by influential right-wing funders including including donors to Donald Trump.

“I think family breakdown is pretty much the same as community breakdown,” Farage said in an interview on the event’s main stage with Philippa Stroud, the Tory peer who set up ARC with others including the controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson and Paul Marshall, one of the backers of GB News.

When people live together in the same communities and they all speak the same language and they all have something in common and they all know their neighbours’ christian names and they all take part in community events ... And when that starts to break down what happens? People become more individualised, more selfish.

They don’t know the names of their next door neighbours and I think downstream of that a similar thing has happened in families and I am not pretending that government can on its own wave a magic hand. But we can at least start to make the argument that living in a family, living in a genuine sense of community, is a better way of life and start unashamedly champion that.

UK issues rare red heat alert as 68,000 households lose electricity in northern France and Italy puts warnings in place for 16 cities

• France records hottest day ever as 40 people drown across country

• Tell us: how is the heatwave in the UK and across Europe affecting you?

Grahame Madge, a Met Office spokesperson, said the agency is forecasting 39C as a headline maximum temperature on Thursday in the UK, most likely for somewhere in London or the south-east.

“It is possible we could see temperatures higher than the 39C if the final values are at the upper end of our narrow range,” he said, according to the Press Association.

JFK’s grandson Jack Schlossberg fails to advance in election to replace Jerry Nadler in Manhattan district

Zohran Mamdani’s growing influence over the Democratic party was on show in New York City on Tuesday as three congressional candidates endorsed by New York’s democratic socialist mayor won closely watched primaries, while voters in Maryland, Utah and South Carolina cast ballots in primaries and runoffs.

Brad Lander, the former New York City comptroller who also ran for mayor last year before endorsing Mamdani, won his race comfortably, defeating the Democratic representative Dan Goldman.

Inquiry will compel individuals and institutions to explain what they did or did not do to protect children from sexual abuse

London, Oldham, Bradford and Keighley will be the first towns and cities investigated by an independent grooming gangs inquiry, it was announced on Wednesday.

The independent inquiry into grooming gangs has confirmed that its three-part hearings will investigate Whitehall departments and politicians alongside local councils, the NHS and national police institutions.

⚽ All the latest news on a day packed with six matches
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How do we feel about the penalty that wasn’t?

I don’t really see how you can’t give it. Fatawu was in and Konsa launches into him, getting nowhere near the ball with no chance of getting at the ball – which makes it a red card too.

Harriman, accused by Telegraph of sharing conspiracy after Golders Green attack, says he had decided ‘way before this madness’ to stand down

Misan Harriman will not seek another term as chair of the Southbank Centre and is to step down in autumn after a month of intense pressure caused by accusations he shared a conspiracy about the Golders Green attack.

Harriman, who has held the position since 2021, confirmed in a social media post that he would not continue as chair beyond autumn.

Analysis shows cars in Europe have grown longer, taller and wider every year since 2000

Cars have grown 1.2cm longer, 0.5cm taller and 0.5cm wider each year on average since 2000, analysis of new vehicles sold in Europe has found, in what green groups call “relentless carspreading”.

The increase in size, which leaves people more likely to be killed in a crash and increases emissions that hurt lungs and heat the planet, has progressed at a roughly steady rate for two and half decades even as family sizes have fallen, the campaign group Transport & Environment (T&E) found.

The glittering image, taken by the European Space Agency’s Euclid telescope, heralds a new age of planetary discovery

The dazzling sight of more than 60m stars at the heart of Earth’s galaxy has been captured by a space telescope designed to reveal the mysterious dark forces that shape the universe.

Astronomers used the European Space Agency’s Euclid telescope to capture the largest, most detailed image ever taken of the visible light pouring from the centre of the Milky Way. The telescope’s camera is rare in being sensitive enough to separate individual stars in the crowded region known as the galactic bulge.

Life is much easier if you look after your hips, knees, elbows and shoulders – especially as you get older. Rheumatologists and orthopaedic surgeons explain how to work out, what to eat and how to talk to your doctor

Our bodies are incredible machines, but we can take the mechanics for granted until something goes wrong. How can we maintain healthy joints throughout life and avoid surgery? Here, rheumatologists and orthopaedic surgeons give their tips …

Should I follow the man of my dreams to work in a club in Tehran? Or take up a place at an elite university? Thankfully, my dad gave me advice I’ve lived by ever since

My parents did not expect me to land a place at university. I was not considered academic enough. And anyway, I was a girl. Instead, I was being primed for marriage. My mother didn’t see anything wrong with this. Born in Britain between the two world wars, when the scarcity of men had made them precious commodities, she had left school at 14, part of a generation often brought up to believe that matrimony was the only guarantee of a secure social and financial future. While romance and indeed love were a bonus, the unwritten clause in a marital contract stipulated that a wife must play her supportive part at home while the husband went out to work. Without the necessary qualifications for the role, the entire agreement risked failure.

In 1972, I was at college studying for my A-levels, but in the holidays my mother enlisted me on various “finishing” courses. Her intention was that I acquire the domestic skills to enhance my spousal eligibility, including how to cook, carve a roast and drive a Jeep to the shops, in case I landed a nice gentry farmer. Only now, almost 40 years after her death, do I realise how much she regretted the lack of educational and career opportunities open to her. Only now do I sympathise with her subconscious envy when they were offered to her daughter.

Wildlife photographer Mohammed Almuntasir had no idea what he had found until scientists started to get in touch

When wildlife photographer Mohammed Almuntasir uploaded 18 seconds of footage to YouTube, he thought little more about the small, pale cat seen digging a hollow in the sand in the remote dunes of south-west Libya.

The video, however, posted in 2017, turned out to be the first material evidence that the sand cat (Felis margarita), the world’s only felid adapted to true desert conditions, existed in the country.

When workers had cameras attached to them, they found it funny at first. But novelty soon turned to concern

The first time the factory supervisors handed garment worker Lalita* a head-mounted camera, she burst out laughing. “The way people mount a CCTV camera on a wall, they mounted one on us,” she says.

The 32-year-old had been working at the garment factory on the outskirts of Delhi for nearly a year when management asked workers on her line to strap small cameras to their foreheads before starting their shifts. Nobody explained why.

The UK sure loves speculation about prime ministers. So here’s some more! But who makes the finest – Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, Jane Horrocks or Alan B’Stard?

As the UK gets ready to have its seventh prime minister in 10 years, how long before a revolving door is installed at 10 Downing Street? As social media wags have pointed out, this is likely the first time in history that the UK has been looking for a new prime minister, James Bond and Time Lord at the same time.

With the tribute film Rik Mayall: Magnificent B’stard airing this week (Thursday at 9pm on Sky Documentaries) and Steven Moffat’s drama Number 10 coming soon to Channel 4, it’s time to conduct a poll on TV’s best fictional British PMs.

Photographs from across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas show communities gathering to watch the greatest show on earth

Viewing figures for the 2026 World Cup have been massive so far, with footy-mad audiences lapping up the coverage. England’s victory over Croatia had a peak audience of 15.4 million on ITV, but that was nothing compared to Brazil where more than 30 million people watched as the Seleçao beat Haiti. In Japan, the Samurai Blue drew a crowd of more than 20 million to Nippon TV for their match with Tunisia, while crowds watching the game on their phones flooded across Shibuya Crossing to celebrate a goal (pictured below). Of course, the real blockbuster games are still to come: the 2022 World Cup final between Argentina and France reached an average live audience of 571 million viewers globally, according to Fifa.

With the group stage hurtling towards its end we look at who needs what to make the knockout phase

Teams level on points are separated, in order, by head-to-head points; head-to-head goal difference; head-to-head goals scored; overall goal difference; overall goals scored; disciplinary points; Fifa ranking.

Inverted wingers were unable to adjust their game, even when they kept running down the same dead end street

After the high: the comedown. You could probably have seen this coming. If only that rush after half-time in Dallas, where England surged with such alluring creative energy, hadn’t been quite so much of a buzz.

It turns out, however, that this is still an England tournament team. Nothing comes easily. The world will not bend to you. We can’t have nice things. Or only some nice things sometimes. By the end watching England struggle in Boston against a gristly and indigestible Ghana was like having your will, hope, sense of fun slowly sucked out of your body through a surgical drainage catheter.

The Boston consensus appeared to be that the city centre hadn’t been so lively in years. Miami has its turn now

“It’s hot, too hot. Very, very hot,” says Clark from Dalkeith, who is standing on a sidewalk in Miami. “I want a wee Arctic blast for about half an hour to calm down.”

We’re outside the Auld Dubliner in downtown, where a number of Scots have gathered to watch the England game and apparently not for reasons of schadenfreude (at least not initially). The mood is upbeat, there are locals arriving to share the vibe, and nobody appears to have tired of drinking just yet.

Alex Freeman has impressed from right-back while Eli Just is catching the eye with his body swerves and goal threat

It is not difficult to see why this old head on young shoulders is destined for a big career. In a Morocco team conditioned to play first-time passes, he sets the tone with his instant decisions. Bouaddi is in essence the deepest of the midfield three and he not only plays quickly but often finds a colleague in a more forward position. Strong on the ball, he can intercept from his central position and looks to continue his involvement after playing a pass. Bouaddi can tackle and shield a ball and finds space naturally. With his height, at 6ft 1in, technique and football intelligence, he will not be a Lille player for much longer. When Bouaddi gets forward he should try to be more positive – to be a more complete player he will need to have a few goals on his CV – but he is a real talent.

Plus: is Dick Advocaat unique among coaches, long waits between World Cups and Dave Beasant revisionism

• Mail us with your all of your questions and answers

“Sweden’s Yasin Ayari has a Tunisian father and chose not to celebrate his first goal against Tunisia (he couldn’t resist celebrating when he scored later, though). Declan Rice did something similar after scoring against the Republic of Ireland in 2024, but what is the earliest example of a player not celebrating a goal at international level because of a connection to the opposition?” asks Michael Pilcher.

“I remember Breel Embolo, the Swiss international born in Cameroon, not celebrating after scoring against Cameroon at the 2022 World Cup,” replies Filippo Varanini.

The outgoing prime minister’s efforts to mobilise a healthier kind of patriotism fell flat. Andy Burnham may stand a better chance

Britain is not ungovernable, but the chalice of high office has been spiked with unusually fast-acting poison. Six prime ministers down in a decade. The spectacle of the lectern planted outside No 10 for a resignation speech has acquired the familiarity of ritual.

Since the Brexit referendum, the average tenure in Downing Street has been less than two years. That ballot isn’t directly responsible for ending Keir Starmer’s reign. He brought deficiencies to the job that have nothing to do with the EU. He took power without a clear sense of what he wanted it for and resented the expectation that he explain himself better. But those weaknesses were more cruelly exposed in our parched post-Brexit climate, a decade into the goodwill drought.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist

As a podcast host, I speak daily to people on both sides of the breakup. A decade after the referendum, it’s clear who’s moved on

Let’s imagine you’ve been dumped by someone you were expecting to stay with for the rest of your life. The breakup is bitter. The logistics, exhausting. The two of you spend an eternity negotiating who gets to keep the dog, the flat, the friends; it’s hard to imagine that things will ever feel normal again. But the years have a way of softening these things. Some years later, a photo of your ex flashes up on your social media feed. And suddenly, you realise you feel no grudge. In fact, you barely feel anything at all.

This is how it feels to be an EU citizen a decade after Brexit. As the host of a podcast called The Europeans, I talk to people across Europe on a daily basis. Nobody I speak to bears the United Kingdom – the country I called home until my late 20s – any ill will. They enjoy our films and our pop music (even though it’s harder to actually see British artists live); sometimes they go on weekend trips to London and come back complaining about how expensive it was.

Following a devastating heatwave in 2003 that killed 15,000, France has adopted four alert levels to help people cope with extreme temperatures

• Helen Massy-Beresford is a British journalist and editor who lives in Paris

Over the weekend, as evening fell on the hilly (and, crucially, shady) Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, one of Paris’s most popular green spaces, the joyfully chaotic Fête de la musique – a summer solstice celebration of music in all its forms – got under way, with competing DJs starting their sets in nearby cafes.

It was stiflingly hot and picnickers were cooling down with water, juice or alcohol-free beer – or at least, they should have been. The Paris authorities banned the consumption of alcohol in public spaces (apart from cafe terraces) during the festival, just one of the measures they can put in place to keep citizens safe once the city reaches vigilance rouge canicule – red heatwave alert.

Helen Massy-Beresford is a British journalist and editor who lives in Paris

According to Heidi Blake in the New Yorker, the Tate and Trump circles have overlapped at Mar-a-Lago. What does that mean?

Donald Trump has told many stories and denied many others about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. But those questions center on Epstein’s actions and crimes, which Trump says he denounces and wasn’t a part of. The White House has moved heaven, earth, the truth and much else to protect Trump from what the Epstein files might tell us about him. But there is a larger question about what Trump makes of Epstein’s values. Does he reject them, or does he endorse and embrace them? Looking to his administration’s ties to Andrew Tate may be instructive.

According to Heidi Blake’s thorough investigation of Tate in the New Yorker earlier this month, the Trump administration intervened last year to buffer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan from the consequences of their criminal charges in Romania. The Tate and Trump circles, she also reports, have overlapped at Mar-a-Lago.

Mace’s TRANS MICE Act is designed to end ‘radical transgender-related experiments on animals’. But is this all a stupid misunderstanding?

First they came for your children. As Donald Trump has claimed without evidence (because facts are woke), US schoolkids have been getting gender-reassignment surgery in between classes. “Can you imagine you’re a parent and … you say, ‘Jimmy, I love you so much. Go have a good day in school,’ and your son comes back with a brutal operation,” Trump said during a rally in 2024. “What the hell is wrong with our country?”

Now it seems the woke brigade has come for poor little mice. According to Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace, who once called herself “Trump in high heels”, American taxpayers are funding transgender rodents. Last week Mace, who is leaving politics next year after coming last in her state’s Republican primary for governor, promoted a new bill called the TRANS MICE Act, designed to “put an end to the use of taxpayer dollars for radical transgender-related experiments on animals”.

A court in Germany found that Google was responsible for what its chatbots say in search summaries. This is the accountability we need

Earlier this month, a German court ruled that Google is liable for its AI search summaries. Rejecting defenses like “users can check for themselves”, and that they generally know “that information generated with AI should not be blindly trusted”, the court held that the AI’s summaries are reflections of the company and “above all an expression of Google’s business activities”.

This is the latest skirmish in a decades-old battle over internet publishing. Historically, there were two different types of information distributors: carriers and publishers. A phone company is a carrier. It’ll transmit whatever you say, even discussions about committing a crime. Words are words, and the phone company does not know – nor is it liable for – the words you choose to speak. A newspaper, on the other hand, is a publisher. It decides the words it publishes, and what quotes to include in its articles. If those words or quotes are defamatory or otherwise illegal, it’s liable.

We’ve shown that rapid, measurable progress is achievable in our cities. Here’s how that can now be replicated worldwide

• Sadiq Khan is the mayor of London. Michael Bloomberg is a former mayor of New York City

Some public health threats make global headlines: Covid-19. Ebola. Famine. When these disasters hit, photographs and videos of people suffering and dying spur countries to respond, international bodies to cooperate and individuals to donate supplies and money. Yet one of the world’s deadliest threats gets almost no attention at all, because it is largely invisible to the public and mostly absent from media coverage: air pollution.

Every day, billions of people are inhaling air that is shortening their lives and making them sicker with every breath. Every year, air pollution kills more than 8 million people worldwide. That’s more deaths than HIV, malaria and tuberculosis combined. It hides in plain sight and strikes without mercy, leading to heart and lung disease, cancers and other deadly conditions.

Sadiq Khan is the mayor of London. Michael Bloomberg is a former mayor of New York City

From Gaza to the Peter Mandelson row, his abandoned pledges to the ‘island of strangers’ claim, Starmer’s time at No 10 was truly dismal

Good riddance, Keir Starmer. No sooner had the toppled prime minister wiped away his tears than the solemn guff began. The Labour leader is “principled” and “driven by a deep sense of public service and duty to this country”, said deputy prime minister David Lammy. He showed “the great dignity and integrity that is the mark of the man”, said energy secretary Ed Miliband. “A devoted and dedicated public servant” said home secretary Shabana Mahmood.

No. This was not a decent man defeated by circumstance, a man of duty and integrity who was simply in the wrong job, a principled leader undone by events. This was an unprincipled politician who abandoned promises with as much enthusiasm as he trousered freebies from rich donors.

Record-breaking temperatures should focus minds on the UK’s lack of preparedness for the climate dangers ahead

As western Europe bakes under what scientists describe as a heat dome, or “atmospheric lid”, reports of dozens of drownings, and heat-linked deaths of children and elderly people in France, are a stark reminder of the threat to life from extreme heat – and the fact that some people face higher risks than others. The red alert covering most of southern England and Wales for Wednesday and Thursday is only the second such warning to be issued.

With the UK’s June record of 35.6C expected to be broken, hundreds of schools are closed. Network Rail has advised against non-essential travel. Temperatures in France and Spain are expected to be even higher, before the heat moves eastwards. But since the UK is less used to intense heat than its Mediterranean neighbours, it faces distinct challenges.

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.

The sentencing of Peter Murrell brings limited closure to a major scandal. But John Swinney’s government faces new challenges in a changing landscape

The Scottish National party (SNP) is accustomed to presenting Westminster dysfunction as a boost to its case for independence. But the political drama unfolding in London since May’s local elections, culminating on Monday in Sir Keir Starmer’s enforced resignation, has also been welcome for a more discomfiting reason. The glare of the spotlight on Labour’s internal revolution has allowed its own travails to play out in the shadows.

The five-year sentence handed down on Tuesday to the former SNP chief executive, Peter Murrell, brings a form of closure to one of the biggest political scandals in Britain for decades. Scotland’s first minister, John Swinney, has rejected calls for an inquiry into Murrell’s embezzlement of more than £400,000 from SNP funds over a 12-year period. But unanswered questions remain regarding how Murrell got away with stealing from the SNP for so long. The party’s financial probity is also under scrutiny over the use of more than £600,000 theoretically ringfenced for an independence referendum.

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.

Readers respond to an article on a campaign that is fighting to end the leasehold system in England and Wales

I read your article about the National Leasehold Campaign and the problems associated with owning a leasehold property (‘The developers got greedy’: the women who took on the leasehold scandal – and won, 16 June). I fully understand the financial costs of leasehold, be it ground rent, management fees or extending a leasehold. However, I would like to point out that there is another problem with owning a leasehold flat.

The freehold to our blocks was purchased by developers, who announced that they would be building new flats on top of our homes. Despite appealing against this, leaseholders were powerless to stop the development. Since May 2025, we have had restricted daylight due to scaffolding that was erected six months before work commenced; trespass above the flats due to poorly secured access; water ingress into flats caused by intruders trying to steal copper; work carrying on into evenings above flats as well as on bank holidays; and work vehicles blocking access. I could list a whole lot more. The work has affected residents with noise, dust and disruption.

Readers reflect on the 2016 referendum and its lasting impact

Winston Churchill once said: “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” The Brexit campaign was run by multimillionaires who loathed regulation, and they persuaded people who appeared to have not been educated about politics or economics at school, or received alternative views or information from trade unions, to vote leave (‘There’s no jobs’: struggle and regret in a Welsh town that backed Brexit, 21 June).

There was, and is, a lot wrong with the EU, but the lies told about what membership really meant were the biggest assault on facts and truth in British political history. That is continuing today under the Reform UK and Restore Britain banners, which have “normalised” the type of language that got Enoch Powell sacked by Ted Heath.
Philip Clayton
London

Prof Dave Phoenix says government policy should not focus on who can be excluded from higher education

The debate about minimum entry requirements for university risks asking the wrong question (Students could be required to pass GCSE English to access university loans, 17 June).

At a time of persistent skills shortages and productivity challenges, policy should focus not on who can be excluded from higher education, but on how more people can develop the higher-level skills the country needs through a more integrated education system.

Songs for our times | Italian emperors | Running through nettles | Tree loss | Tram destination

Never mind John Crace smuggling Bruce Springsteen song titles into his sketches (Letters, 21 June), I would hope that given Monday’s political developments we’ll be seeing the Grateful Dead’s He’s Gone getting an outing.
Gabriel Brodetsky
Marsden, West Yorkshire

• The Italians are still strong contenders for the record of rapid changes of leaders. In AD69 they had four emperors in a single year.
Chris Leyland
Marsden, Huddersfield

• Discover and buy more of Ben’s cartoons here

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• Teenage sensation to abide by safeguarding rules

• T20 series begins in Durham next Wednesday

India’s teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi will be required to use his own changing room for safeguarding reasons on his first international tour in England this summer.

The 15-year-old is expected to make history by becoming India’s youngest international cricketer on Friday in a T20 international against Ireland in Belfast, before playing in a five-match T20 series against England, which begins in Durham next Wednesday.

• England captain contrite on return after curfew breach

• Oval loss ‘hurt me, because I’m very close with Joe’

Ben Stokes has spoken for the first time about his exclusion from the second Test against New Zealand on disciplinary grounds, revealing he has apologised to his teammates and was “hurt” seeing Joe Root criticised as a stand-in captain.

The 35-year-old was stood down before the 253-run defeat at the Oval after he and Gus Atkinson broke the team’s curfew following victory in the first Test at Lord’s. It triggered a fortnight of acrimony in English cricket, with suggestions of a rift between Stokes and the team management, and a threat to retire.

• Maja Göthberg lost contract after disclosing pregnancy

• First successful Cas case under Fifa maternity regulations

Lazio Women unlawfully ended the Swedish footballer Maja Göthberg’s time at the club because of her pregnancy, the court of arbitration for sport (Cas) has ruled, ordering the Italian club to pay compensation.

The landmark case revolved around Fifa’s maternity regulations, which were enhanced in 2024. This was the first case in which Cas found a club unlawfully ended an employment relationship because of a player’s pregnancy and, significantly, the court found in the players’ favour even though she had not signed her proposed new contract at the time.

With one year to go on Wednesday, this week’s newsletter speaks to Aline Pellegrino and Angelina Constantino about their hopes for the tournament

We are 365 days away from the 2027 Women’s World Cup, which will take place in eight Brazilian cities between 24 June and 25 July next year. This will be the third major women’s football tournament held in the country in the past two decades, after the 2007 Pan American Games and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and preparations are in full swing.

Playing captain in 2007, the former defender Aline Pellegrino was appointed as executive director of legacy and stakeholder affairs for the 2027 tournament and will lead efforts to build the future of the women’s game after the tournament. The World Cup final, to be played at the Maracanã, will coincide with the 20th anniversary of Brazil’s Pan American football gold.

• Squad are due to arrive in Johannesburg on Thursday

• Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus praises Henry Pollock

Marcus Smith says England are flying south determined to make a fast and furious start to the new Nations Championship at South Africa’s expense next week. A 36-man squad will touch down in Johannesburg on Thursday and Smith says there is a shared desire to rise to the high-altitude challenge of upsetting the world champions in their backyard.

England have been training in oxygen masks in Bagshot to prepare themselves for the Highveld and, with games against Fiji and Argentina to follow, are conscious of the need to make an early impression against the Springboks. “It’s one shot,” said Smith, who has now played 50 Tests for his country. “We’ve spoken about leaving it all out there. It’s a hell of an opportunity. I don’t think England have been there since 2018 so we could create history, going down there to deliver a result.

Country is ‘militarily the strongest in Europe’, says Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who wants coalition ready in case US pulls troops

The US’s attitude to the defence of Europe has changed permanently and a European coalition of the willing, including Ukraine, should be established to defend the continent, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former Nato secretary general, has said.

A coalition of the willing compromising 45 states is already in theory poised to act as a reassurance and training force inside Ukraine in the event of a peace settlement with Russia.

Proposals including use of force on minors will cause ‘significant harm’, says England Children’s Commissioner

Shabana Mahmood has been told that her crackdown on refused asylum seekers, including the forcible removal of children from the UK, will cause “significant harm”, in an intervention by an independent watchdog.

Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England, said the home secretary’s plan under consultation to push families – including those with children receiving ongoing medical treatment – to leave the UK should not be implemented as proposed.

Leaked letter to PM and military demands action to stop violence against Palestinians in occupied West Bank

Dozens of Israelis from the country’s security, political and cultural elite have threatened legal action against their government over support for Jewish terrorism and an “ideology of ethnic cleansing” in the occupied West Bank, according to a leaked letter.

Two former prime ministers, former heads of all the Israeli security services, former judges, a Nobel laureate and the country’s most revered living novelist were among the signatories to a “final warning” over violence against Palestinians.

Controversial agreement under which UK can return people who arrive by small boat will reportedly not be extended

The “one in, one out” agreement on cross-Channel migration between the UK and France is due to end in October, according to French media reports.

Under the terms of the deal, asylum seekers who arrive in the UK in a small boat can be forcibly returned to France, in exchange for others in France who have not tried to cross the Channel being brought to the UK legally.

Growing number of cases involve police working as rideshare drivers while carrying government-issued guns

When the gap between his salary and his family’s basic expenses began widening dramatically, Diego – like many other Argentinians – started working as a rideshare driver on top of his day job. He usually does a few hours at the end of his 12-hour shift; and more on his days off.

It would be just another story from recession-ridden Argentina, but for the fact that Diego is a federal police officer.

Photographer Shane Hynan explores the tension between the central role peat bogs play in Irish life and their wider environmental impact

“You can read Ireland’s history in the boglands. They hold millennia in their layers,” says photographer Shane Hynan of his project, Beofhód (meaning Beneath in English).

The boglands, known as portachs in Irish, cover roughly 1.2m to 1.5m hectares or about 14% to 17% of the country’s total land area. The raised bogs of the Irish Midlands are made of peat that forms at a rate of 1mm a year (0.04in) in low-lying, poorly drained basins or former lakes. As the historical geographer Kevin Whelan observes in the Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape, “the bog has been etched as deeply into the human as into the physical record in Ireland – to an extent unrivalled elsewhere.”

Eddie and Con footing turf for domestic use, Knockirr Bog, County Kildare, 2022.

Climate Change Committee chair Nigel Topping says U-turns damage investor confidence and disrupt businesses

Weakening the UK’s net zero policy would disrupt business and damage the economy, the UK’s chief climate adviser has warned.

Nigel Topping, chair of the Climate Change Committee (CCC), said: “The U-turns are really damaging to inward investor confidence. If we really want to grow the economy, then investing and getting good at building stuff is essential.”

Matriarchal groups in east and west exhibit distinct click patterns, used to form social structures

From “Howdy” to “G’day”, English – like other languages – is rich in dialects. Now researchers have found sperm whales on different sides of the Mediterranean show similar variations in their vocalisations.

Sperm whales communicate vocally using sequences of short clicks called codas. However, the rhythmic pattern of these clicks, known as the dialect, can differ between different matriarchal groups.

However, Imperial College team also find that pollution has worse health impact than previously understood

Deaths linked to air pollution fell by an estimated 40% in London over the five years from 2019, according to new analysis.

The city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, welcomed what he called “overwhelming evidence” that his ultra-low emission zone was saving lives.

Coastguard agency to stop paying volunteers after court ruled they were classified as workers

“Where would we be without them?” said Ray Wicks of his local coastguard volunteers in Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex. “If the coastguard weren’t in place, a lot of people would be in trouble.”

He was voicing the fears of some in coastal towns over the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s (MCA) decision to stop paying about £11 an hour for callouts, in response to a court ruling that the money was among the features classifying coastguard officers as workers – giving them benefits such as paid holiday.

Row over ‘landmark’ development in Stirchley has left people homeless and put businesses at risk, say locals

A housing development in Birmingham, touted as a model for community-owned housing in the UK, is at “serious risk of collapse” due to a dispute over construction costs.

The Stirchley Cooperative Development (SCD), which was founded by local residents and businesses in Birmingham in 2016, was meant to provide 39 affordable and landlord-free homes owned and run by the people who live and work there by 2024.

Report by Commons committee says government has failed to make concrete changes after recent security failures

Britain’s museums and galleries are being left vulnerable to thefts and cyber-attacks that could put priceless collections at risk, MPs have warned.

A report by the public accounts committee (PAC) said big security failures in recent years, including the theft of thousands of artefacts from the British Museum and a devastating cyber-attack on the British Library, had exposed serious weaknesses across the sector, but that the government had failed to take a strategic approach to preventing similar incidents.

If TG Jones’s aggressive restructuring is voted through, the charity Help for Heroes and other creditors will be out of pocket

Small suppliers including the charity Help for Heroes are to lose at least half the money owed to them by the former WH Smith high street chain if a planned restructure is voted through this week.

The books to paperclips retailer, which has 450 stores, was bought by the private equity firm Modella Capital last year and rebranded TG Jones. It has said it is likely that it will have to call in administrators if creditors, including shop landlords, do not approve an amended restructuring plan, seen by the Guardian, designed to cut costs in a vote on Wednesday.

Workers signed petition against tool that tracked staff keystrokes, mouse clicks and computer screen content

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has paused a program that tracked employees’ computer activity amid data privacy concerns and a staff backlash.

The owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp had introduced a tool that tracked staff keystrokes, mouse clicks and content displayed on computer screens in order to collect data for training its AI models.

Four Republicans joined Democrats to back a measure seeking to limit the US president’s military authority

The US Senate approved a war powers resolution preventing Donald Trump from continuing hostilities against Iran, delivering the president a significant but symbolic rebuke over a conflict that has proven unpopular with the American public.

The resolution passed by a 50-48 vote, with four Republicans – Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Rand Paul of Kentucky – breaking with their party to support its adoption. John Fetterman, of Pennsylvania, was the sole Democrat to vote against the resolution.

Rail bridge and power plant among latest infrastructure targeted by Kyiv in Crimea, where restrictions on public life have come to prevail. What we know on day 1,582

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as drops in SpaceX and Tesla’s shares eat into Musk’s wealth

Segro have confirmed they have “unequivocally” rejected a takeover proposal from US rival Prologis, saying the £12.6bn bid falls “a long way short” of its true value.

In a statement to the City, Segro say:

The Board of SEGRO considered the Proposal together with its advisers and believed that the Proposal was opportunistically timed and sought to take advantage of the clear dislocation between SEGRO’s current share price and its highly attractive underlying business and strong prospects. This has been accentuated by major geopolitical issues which have adversely impacted trading valuations across the UK and European real estate sectors relative to the US REIT sector.

SEGRO has a clear strategy, supported by a strong balance sheet and a proven operating platform. Momentum is building in SEGRO’s occupational markets and the Company has a large and attractive development pipeline, including an exceptional data centre platform, as well as a long track record of delivery.

FTSE 100 firm says Prologis all-share proposal turned down as it falls long way short of its own views on value

The UK warehouse landlord Segro is at the centre of the latest transatlantic takeover battle after rejecting a £12.6bn takeover approach from the US rival Prologis.

Prologis has gone public with its offer for the FTSE 100 company after it was “unequivocally rejected” by Segro’s board on Tuesday despite valuing the company at almost 25% more than its market value at that day’s close.

British disinfectant brand withdraws advert about a man’s efforts to find a ‘clean and untouched’ woman

The British hygiene brand Dettol has apologised after an advertisement released in China, which it said was intended to criticise “toxic men”, was widely condemned on social media as offensive to women.

The five-minute advert for a multipurpose disinfectant, released across many online platforms at the end of May, features a man comparing his girlfriend with his former partner. Learning that his former girlfriend previously lived with someone else, the man likens their relationship to a “secondhand service”. He then tells his friends that he intends to find a “clean and untouched” woman for whom he can be the first sexual partner.

Great Britain has paid at least six times the normal price for imported power as millions turn on air conditioning and windfarm output sags

The heatwave has prompted a sharp rise in electricity prices across European markets as millions turn to air conditioners and electric fans to battle record high temperatures, which have also caused a string of power plant outages across the continent.

Great Britain imported electricity from Europe at more than six times the normal price on Tuesday as the high-pressure heat dome has slowed wind speeds, hitting renewable energy generation, and led to outages at multiple gas plants across the country.

Young Vic theatre, London
Sophie Swithinbank’s urgent drama shimmers with spark and danger as an archive researcher finds herself trapped in modern-day misogyny

On the hottest day of the year, a conflagration. The Young Vic’s studio space fills with smoke as records of violence against women across the centuries are consumed by flames.

Even before the fire, Sophie Swithinbank’s urgent drama shimmers with spark and danger. Ash (an outstanding Adelle Leonce) barrels into her new job at an archive collecting historic material about women failed by justice. Ash is lairy, smart and cheeky – she bobs and bops around the files, disconcerting her boss Lily (Phoebe Ladenburg, in paisley skirt and pom-pom slippers). But the pair grow closer, through awkward silences and blurted confidences.

At the Young Vic, London, until 18 July

Alex Murdaugh’s conviction for the murder of his wife and son was recently overturned. Where does the truth lie?

In March 2023, 54-year-old Alex Murdaugh received two life sentences for murdering his wife and younger son at the family’s hunting lodge in Colleton County, South Carolina. Since the early 20th century, three generations of his family had been elected as state prosecutors in the “Lowcountry”, a sprawling stretch of lush, rancid swampland on the southern eastern seaboard, marked by severe economic and social inequality. The Murdaughs were the people who could send you to jail or the electric chair, all the while maintaining a veneer of good ol’ southern gentility.

In parallel with these public duties, the family ran a large law firm, specialising in personal injury. In a land of chronic alcoholism and rusty farm equipment, the Murdaughs conducted a brisk business in multimillion-dollar settlements for those who had lost a limb, a parent or their cognitive faculties thanks to someone else’s carelessness. But instead of passing on these life-changing wins to vulnerable clients, Alex Murdaugh used them to fund a lavish lifestyle, featuring big cars, prostitutes, opioid pills and a military-grade private arsenal. For good measure, he also embezzled many millions from his legal partners.

Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, Mike Pence … the heavyweight politicians stack up in this sincere biopic of the United States. It’s so pointedly wholesome it’s like drinking a kale smoothie on a wellness retreat

The Netflix homepage describes The American Experiment to potential viewers unwilling to read more than four words as “Sincere. Informative. Documentary series”. Well, my goodness, is it ever that, that and that! The five, hour-plus episodes about the creation of the United States of America to mark its 250th anniversary are as sincere and informative as you could wish. Possibly, at times, too much so.

Ken Burns fans can probably sit this one out. This is not a time for flair and idiosyncrasy. This is a time for self-consciously milestone TV executive produced by Tom Hanks that is so carefully bipartisan, so cognisant of the stains on the country’s history, so balanced in every conceivable way, that it feels like the televisual equivalent of consuming a kale smoothie on a wellness retreat.

It’s groundbreaking TV that’s hugely important for young queer viewers. It fizzes with the excitement of young love … and yet it’s been axed. What a bittersweet watch this is

In March, it was announced that this second series of the queer dating show I Kissed a Girl would be its last. Sibling show I Kissed a Boy would also be axed, with the BBC citing “difficult choices in light of our funding challenges”. This would perhaps feel less momentous if the two shows were not groundbreaking – the first UK dating shows to feature exclusively gay casts of men and of women.

As well as being unprecedented, these shows have been a container for vital queer conversations that aren’t happening anywhere else on our screens, surely well within the remit of the national broadcaster. Plus, they are ridiculously fun. Watching series two of I Kissed a Girl knowing this is the last feels so entertaining, but so bittersweet.

Danish shaggy-dog story about a man with a dissociative disorder has a fun premise but wastes it on lots of goofy, humourless violence

Anders Thomas Jensen is an Oscar-winning screenwriter, director and veteran of the Dogme 95 years at Denmark’s Zentropa Studios. He now brings us this slapstick-violent black comedy and shaggy dog story of gruesome silliness. It is well acted but relentlessly and bizarrely unfunny. So unfunny as to be almost funny, but not really, in that the unfunniness approaches the condition of being itself a joke, though without really arriving. It could be that the spectre of Zentropa’s dark master of the prank, Lars von Trier, is hovering somewhere in the corner of the frame.

Mads Mikkelsen is cast against type as nerdy loser Manfred, an abuse survivor with learning disabilities whose tough-guy brother Anker (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) robs a bank. Before being arrested, Anker gives poor twitchy Manfred the key to the railway station locker where he has stashed the loot, and tells him to get the cash once the cops have gone and bury it in the woodland behind their old family home where their dad used to brutalise them.

Director Lan Hongchun’s family saga feels like a good old-fashioned novel as it goes in search of a man who has disappeared in Thailand

With a story that ranges from the 1940s to the present and, although mostly set in Bangkok, revolving largely around Teochew-speaking Chinese from Guangdong, this generations-spanning drama feels like a good old-fashioned novel. A romantic beach read, perhaps, the kind in which coincidences and random accidents cause misunderstandings that last for decades until the truth is finally revealed. It’s sentimental in places, sure, but there’s also a fair bit of salty, bawdy humour to cut the sweetness, lashings of period colour, and impressively naturalistic performances from a mostly non-professional cast. All that has helped to make this an unexpectedly large box-office hit in the People’s Republic last month; and for non-Chinese or Thai rom-dram aficionados anywhere, it’s well worth looking out for.

As the story opens in the 21st century in the Chinese city of Shantou, octogenarian Shurou (Iap Sok-jiu) is celebrating her 87th birthday, surrounded by adoring friends, family and neighbours who revere the matriarch, not least for managing to raise three kids on her own in the 1940s and 50s. Her shifty grandson Xiaowei (Hiau-ui), however, is less of a solid citizen and, having got into debt, he decides to travel to Bangkok to find out if Shurou’s husband Zheng Musheng, not seen for decades, could help out since he’s reputed to have made a fortune out there, endowed schools all over Thailand, and had a second family after abandoning Shurou.

She has won acclaim and countless awards for her body-tapping, raspberry-blowing music. Now she has spent 15 years making her boldest work yet – an epic about birth, infancy and adolescence

It took Camille 15 years to make her new album. The Sound of Milk is a triple record, each part documenting a distinct stage of the French musician’s experience raising two kids with composer Clément Ducol: Naissance is from 2015, Enfance 2020 and Adolescence 2025. She could have put each one out when it was complete, she says, but realised she wasn’t ready. Her son and daughter, now teenagers, “were too little, and I would have felt too exposed to talk about it because it’s about beauty, joy, it’s very deep,” says Camille, calling from her home in the French countryside. “I needed to be able to step back and look at the journey. I needed to feel grounded enough to release it in a world that does not respect children and mothers.”

On the surface, much of Camille’s sixth album may sound very sweet. Naissance features no real instruments – it’s essentially a field recording of raising babies, all gurgles and found sound. Known for her vocal experimentation – beatboxing, raspberries – Camille saw it as a manifesto freeing singing from how disembodied it can be in pop. “As a woman, music is about a way of living,” she says. “It’s about breathing, being with my kids, singing along with what’s going on around me in an open world.” She calls Enfance a “pocket musical”: similarly atmospheric, it’s full of the kinds of ditties parents make up when they’re teaching kids about stairs and the washing machine – raising everyday maternal expressions up as art, I suggest. “I like what you’re saying,” she says. “All families are pieces of art. We create our values, our worlds, a way of talking to each other.”

The Brazilian musician, who collaborates with Indigenous artists and puts millions into philanthropy, explains his mission – and defends his jetsetting

When Alok, the most successful Brazilian DJ of his generation, was brainstorming the concept for his new live show, he considered calling it Rave New World. “But when I asked a gen Z kid, the daughter of my creative director, she made me realise how pretentious my idea was,” he says. “The grownups trying to find an easy way out for all of our problems.” Instead, “I started figuring out that it’s not about a new world, it’s about this world. We need to ‘Rave the World’.”

That new title might still seem trite to some, or hypocritical, coming from someone at the heart of a dance music industry with a heavy carbon footprint from constant flying: when I meet Alok, he’s about to board another plane at a private airport outside São Paulo. But dance music has often had a utopian bent to it, and Alok – who champions Indigenous Brazilians in his work and has partnered with the UN on climate initiatives – is certainly making efforts to better the world.

Sorey/BBC Singers/Tines/Gibson/GBSR Duo
St Giles’ Cripplegate, London
The Pulitzer-winner’s sprawling amalgam of Morton Feldman and African American spiritual felt meandering, but the GBSR duo, the BBC Singers and Ruth Gibson’s viola were luminous and charismatic

Monochromatic Light (Afterlife) by Pulitzer-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey demands patience. Subtitled “A meditation on Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel”, the work uses a similar ensemble – percussion, keyboards, a viola, a choir, a solo voice – and a similarly abstract dialogue of rhythms and pitches to Feldman’s 1971 tribute to the US painter. But where Feldman’s meditative soundscape lasts half an hour, Monochromatic Light sprawls across 80 minutes and discloses only in its final bars a second vital anchoring in the African American spiritual Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.

Such a score is not ideally experienced from a hard pew in a hot church during a week of record-breaking temperatures. There were moments between its opening, barely detectible murmur of tubular bells and its closing revelation of the bass-baritone soloist’s single line of text (pieced together syllable by syllable over 50 minutes) when I struggled to hold on to a sense of musical architecture, when the pinpricks of dissonance and slow-motion scatterings of instrumental lines began to feel meandering. Other details offered more rapid gratification: elemental rumbling on bass drum and timpani using sticks with heads like candyfloss; a glistening sheen of bowed marimba on a rare, mill-pond calm octave unison from the choir; wild bass-baritone melismas plunging acrobatically across the voice.

Three months after Bergen-Belsen was liberated, Britten and Yehudi Menuhin performed there. Survivor and cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch was ‘transfixed’ – as she told the composer when they played together decades later

In 1945, the violinist Yehudi Menuhin was on a short tour of Germany, offering recitals to survivors of the concentration camps. On Friday 27 July 1945 he reached Bergen-Belsen, liberated three months earlier, and gave two concerts, in the cinema at the camp. The experience had a profound impact. “I shall not forget that afternoon as long as I live,” said Menuhin. “After Belsen, Yehudi was never the same again,” his sister Yaltah Menuhin reported. Anita Lasker, a survivor of Belsen, was present at one of those concerts. Nineteen years old, and a cellist, as a child she had been at Auschwitz, where she played in the women’s orchestra, under the direction of Alma Rosé, the niece of Gustav Mahler.

Lasker wrote to her cousin about the concert. “Who would ever have believed that Belsen Camp would hear Yehudi Menuhin playing? A wonderful evening”, which included “the Bach/Kreisler Prelude and Fugue, the Kreutzer Sonata, Mendelssohn’s Concerto, something by Debussy and several smaller, unfamiliar items”.

One evoked a hellish trip from Delhi after passengers had drunk unsanitary water. Another conjoured up an era when planes were thick with cigarette smoke. And one man collected them all …

If, a few years ago, someone told me that I would spend most of my 2026 scanning hundreds of airline sick bags, I would have wondered what had gone wrong with my life. Especially if you also told me I’d become a keen enthusiast for the beauty of their designs. But, as it turns out, making my new book Sicko has been one of the most joyful projects I’ve ever done.

It all began in 2023, when I met Trevor Cunningham. Back then I was making a film about his support group called Ask Trev – a free advice and guidance service staffed entirely by people called Trevor (there’s an astonishing 140 of them contributing to what he calls “a Trevorlution”).

A revealing new book, eight years in the making, singles out rebellious women from US history whose stories have often been sidelined

Margaret Corbin was a hero of the American Revolution, the wife of an artilleryman killed at Fort Washington in New York who took over his gun to fight the British. Grievously wounded, she became the first woman to receive a US military pension. In 1926, 150 years after the battle, her supposed remains were exhumed in Highland Falls, up the Hudson from Manhattan, and buried at the US Military Academy.

“There was so much energy and wonderful intention behind doing this,” said Denise Kiernan, of what remains the only monument to a woman at West Point. “And then in 2016 they took a look and said, ‘Oh wait a minute, not only are the bones not hers, they’re not the bones of a woman.’”

From book club meet-cutes to shared English Literature lectures, romance has blossomed beyond the page for these bibliophiles

Dua Lipa and Callum Turner have been honeymooning in Italy, after throwing a star-studded wedding in Palermo earlier this month. But their relationship began with a book: running into each other at an LA restaurant, the pair realised that they were not only reading the same novel – Trust by Hernán Díaz – but had both just finished the first chapter. “So, we’re on the same page,” Turner said to Lipa. Here, four other couples share the literary sparks of their love stories.

Two friends, united by their missing mothers, come of age in segregation-era America, in a cautionary tale about the limits of love

Annie and Vernice (or Niecy, as Annie calls her) are “cradle friends”, brought up in their home town of Honeysuckle, Louisiana, in 1950s America. The protagonists are defined by their motherlessness and their diverging drives to escape their individual tragedies and pre-written destinies. In this haunting novel of motherhood and sisterhood, Tayari Jones writes into unknowability – how far we can know another person, or indeed oneself.

The pair, who speak in alternating chapters, are “not the same, but still the same”. Each is tended to by mother figures – grandmothers, aunts – and gives meaning to each other’s lonely, questioning existence: “When you don’t have your mother, you don’t really know who you are.” Annie’s mother has abandoned her but is apparently alive in Memphis, and she makes it her obsession to reconcile with her; Niecy’s, on the other hand, is lost for ever, murdered by Niecy’s father. Where the former is holding out hope, the latter has none; and herein lies the fork in their futures. While Niecy chooses the sensible, stable life path – college, a traditional marriage – Annie spirals from tragedy to tragedy, consumed by thoughts of her missing mother. Call it destiny, or a kind of grieving.

As phrases like easter eggs and looksmaxxing enter everyday language, what other words from the world of video games might soon be mainstream?

Twenty years ago, video games were seen as a niche hobby dominated by hardcore enthusiasts, tucked away in obscure online forums and gaming meet-ups. Back then, the idea that governments would use footage from Call of Duty and gaming terms such as “killstreaks” as war propaganda would have been absurd. Then the 2010s happened: nerd culture popularised, previously online-only spaces began to meld with the real world, and gaming went mainstream.

Now, gaming references have entered common parlance – at the end of 2024, video game terms including “cheat code” and “cutscene” were even added to the Oxford English Dictionary – and they increasingly crop up in politics, too. Earlier this year, the official White House X account posted footage of military strikes on Iran interspersed with footage from the video game Grand Theft Auto. Six days later, another video was posted, this time interspersing military footage with clips from Nintendo’s 2006 game Wii Sports. Video game references aren’t reserved for the political right, either: in February 2026, Democrat representative of New York Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quipped, “Why does this guy always talk like a World of Warcraft npc [non-player character]?” in response to a post on X by Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff.

When a company decided to shut down an online game’s servers, there wasn’t much the players who had bought that title could do – until a group called Stop Killing Games began lobbying for new consumer protection laws

You can never be sure how long an online video game will last. Developer BioWare shut off sci-fi shooter Anthem’s servers in January, after seven years. Electronic Arts discontinued access to The Sims Mobile the same month. Wildlight Entertainment shuttered its Highguard servers in March, mere months after the game’s release. Activision Blizzard took Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile offline in April. Dozens more games have had their servers shut down in the first six months of 2026, adding to an already long list of video games that are no longer playable.

There is little that players can do when a company decides to stop supporting online play. Communities work hard to keep their favourite games online, sometimes keeping dead games running on private servers, though that may not necessarily be entirely legal. Generally, though, when a game goes offline it is dead and it’s not coming back.

PlayStation 5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch 2, PC; Team Asano/Square Enix
Upbeat, charmingly retro RPG full of treasure-hunting, temple-roaming, monster-slaying and princess-saving is an absolute blast to play

You can’t help but wonder if developer Team Asano is in a private competition with itself to come up with the most ridiculous name for a video game. Following Project Triangle Strategy and Bravely Default: Flying Fairy we have this mouthful: The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales. It’s a playable love letter to the Zelda adventures of yesteryear rendered in the studio’s trademark glorious 2D-HD art style, melding evocative pixel sprites with modern visual effects.

From west Philabieldia, born and raised, our hero is adventurer Elliot. The antagonist making trouble in the neighbourhood is a king’s dastardly aide intent on summoning an ancient evil. The story is pure after-school-TV schlock, fully voice-acted but still unafraid to make you sit through reams and reams of text, and the action comprises treasure-hunting, temple-roaming and dispatching monsters. It’s part Chrono Trigger, part Oracle of Seasons as our almost obnoxiously upbeat hero journeys through the ages in order to solve puzzles, tip his fedora and of course, save a princess.

After the billion-dollar company’s leaders sent staff a memo saying the brand had ‘over-extended’, game studios may be in the firing line

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In March 2000, Bill Gates stood onstage at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and, to a packed crowd, officially announced the company’s long-anticipated video game console. “We want Xbox to be the platform of choice for the best and most creative game developers in the world,” he told attenders – and that was indeed the intention of the small, dedicated team who put together the blueprints of that first machine.

The Xbox landscape seems very different 25 years later. Last week, mere days after a bullish summer showcase full of Gears of War revivals and promises of a renewed focus on Xbox’s gaming strengths, new CEO, Asha Sharma, and chief content officer, Matt Booty, wrote a memo to Xbox staff inviting them to brace for “hard truths”. “Excluding Activision Blizzard King, over the past five years, we have spent over $20bn on ongoing investments in our content, platform and hardware subsidy, but our annual revenue has declined nearly half a billion during that time. Going forward, this cannot continue,” it read.

Opera Holland Park, London
A concert performance in an orchestral reduction of Puccini’s colossal final opera was stylishly led by conductor Naomi Woo with José de Eça’s Calaf heading a strong cast

It always lifts the spirits when the little company that could, does. Over the last 30 years, Puccini has been a mainstay of Opera Holland Park’s artistic vision with, in recent years, notable stagings of Le Villi and Edgar. Now it’s the turn of Turandot, the only one of the composer’s works to elude them thus far, with three concert stagings in the opera’s centenary year.

Calling for colossal forces, it’s not surprising smaller companies give it a miss. Nevertheless, Tony Burke’s orchestral reduction proved more than adequate to express the sonic grandeur of Puccini’s score. All the required exotic percussion was on display with sufficient brass lending punch and panache. Only the Mandarin’s opening xylophone and a feeble electric organ let things down, a minor quibble considering the classy performance of the City of London Sinfonia’s 41 players under the stylish baton of Naomi Woo. Her fluid interpretation packed the necessary punch while finding felicitous details sometimes buried in the full orchestration.

Lyttelton theatre, London
Martin Crimp’s heroic but imperfect modern-day version of the 17th-century classic is crammed full of debates about how we might live differently

Molière’s misanthrope here is a bestselling writer in a stylish trouser suit, gender-reversed as Alice and Americanised in the formidable form of Sandra Oh. When an aspiring novelist asks for literary advice, Alice tells her to always make her writing “seductive”.

Is that what playwright Martin Crimp has aspired to do here? His modern-day version is certainly as high-wire an endeavour as his beat-boxing reboot of Cyrano de Bergerac, a French canonical text which he turned into something new, dangerous and yes, extremely seductive.

From a mural in a baby’s bedroom to a sound sculpture designed to be played out of a convertible, top contemporary artists rose to the challenge of making work for one lucky community

In 1986, an exhibition called Chambres d’Amis took contemporary art beyond the confines of the museum setting and into the homes of 58 residents in Ghent. Forty years on, a similar experiment is taking place, but on a small street in Peckham, south-east London.

Rooms of Neighbours is the brainchild of curator Ben Broome, who came across Chambres d’Amis when he was between institutional jobs. With time on his hands and an urge to get to know his neighbours better, he began to wonder how he could apply the idea to his own community, but with a broader focus. Unlike the exhibition in Ghent, which mostly took place in the homes of art world friends and museum patrons, his own street – a mix of council and privately owned flats and houses – represented a wider demographic, with different age groups, social classes and diasporas. Few of the residents had any prior connection to the art world, he tells me: “The majority of people have never been to the Tate; they have never even been to the South London Gallery, which is a local institution. But that’s not to say some of the neighbours aren’t really creative.”

Is it an alien? A dinosaur? Is it going to kill us all? Our writer hits Ashdown Forest for the Big One Hundred celebrations – and finds its magic enchanting new generations

The rolling idyll of heath and forest, spinney and stream that gave us the Heffalump, the Woozle and, most famously of all, Winnie-the-Pooh, has a new fantastical resident. Creeping through the bracken, making strange cooing and purring noises, is a shapeshifting creature with a huge tubular nose and eyes inspired by adders. It shimmies with iridescent patches and the psychedelic purple of flowering heather in high summer.

Poppet, a puppet made by costume designer Jack Irving and brought to life by a team of 10 award-winning puppeteers, is performing for schoolchildren in Ashdown Forest, East Sussex. The primary school class squeal with delighted fear as the purple apparition transforms itself from caterpillar to bird to munching monster in sinuous moves.

Helen Hunt and Kristin Scott Thomas are leading revivals of the Russian classic whose blend of comedy and tragedy is baked into our own dramatic heritage

What kind of play is The Cherry Orchard? As a new production starring Helen Hunt and Kenneth Branagh beckons in Stratford, I am reminded that it is a question people have been asking since the play’s inception. Chekhov himself wrote that what had emerged in his play was “not a drama but a comedy, in places almost a farce”. Stanislavski, who directed the Moscow premiere in 1904, violently disagreed. “It is a tragedy,” he told Chekhov, “whatever prospect of a better life you hold out in the last act.”

While the debate continues, I hope we shall not be told by anyone involved in the new RSC production that they are at long last restoring the play’s comedy. It is a critical cliche that the British sentimentalise the play and treat it as a lament for the decline and fall of a pseudo-Edwardian aristocracy. In my experience of the play – and I have seen about 20 productions – this is simply untrue. We generally do The Cherry Orchard very well because its blend of styles and moods is something baked into our own dramatic heritage. Eschewing the academic formality of the French, for whom tragedy and comedy are rigidly defined genres, we are used to a glorious impurity in drama: a culture that can produce Twelfth Night should have no problem in comprehending The Cherry Orchard.

In the fourth of five quizzes, curators at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge set 10 fiendish questions to test your knowledge of their collections

Camille Farrah Lenain’s tender photo book Made of Smokeless Fire was inspired by grief for her gay uncle Farid. ‘He left without answering the questions I had for him,’ she says

Turner prize winner Helen Cammock withdraws piece after 50 peers criticise claim former PM ‘starved people’

An artwork by a Turner prize-winning artist has been removed from the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) after a row about the role Winston Churchill played in the 1943 Bengal famine.

The Persistence video installation by Helen Cammock was taken down on Monday after a week of criticism as pressure mounted on the gallery.

Avoiding Prime Day? Amazon isn’t the only retailer slashing prices this week – here are the best alternative deals on the products we love across home, beauty, fashion and more

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Prime Day is now in full swing to fill the summer-shaped gap in the bargain-hunter’s calendar. But what if you don’t want to fork out nearly a hundred quid a year for Amazon Prime, or indeed use Amazon at all? Plenty of other retailers have joined in by rolling out big mid-June reductions, and unlike Amazon, they don’t make you subscribe to a members-only club to get their best deals.

It takes more legwork to find deals across multiple retailers than to head straight to Amazon, of course, so we’ve done the research for you. As well as finding the lowest prices online, we’ve used price-checking tools such as Pricerunner and Idealo to scour price histories and check that these are real deals with genuinely new and notable discounts.

These ace shampoos gives my hair a deep clean without drying it out and aggravating my scalp

There’s an old trick used by backstage stylists to quickly and thoroughly rid models’ hair of the layers of stiff, sticky or flaky product buildup from the several previous catwalk shows that day: Fairy Liquid.

I have seen this in chaotic action and the squeaky cleanliness set my teeth on edge to the extent where I have been irrationally avoidant of “detox” and “clarifying” shampoos almost ever since.

As parts of the UK swelter, try these low-energy ways to cool down – from fly screens and no-cook meals to air coolers that use a fraction of the electricity of aircon

• The best cooling fans

Where I grew up, snow days were a foreign concept. Instead, children looked to the other end of the thermometer when hoping for a day off school. Playground rumour had it that when the temperature reached more than 40C, classes would be cancelled.

I finished primary school at the turn of the century, so never saw that theory tested. But as the climate crisis intensifies, throughout much of south-eastern Australia, we’ve come to expect at least one 40C day each summer. That means subsequent cohorts of Australian children are learning that temperature triggers for school closure were only ever an urban legend. Instead, in many schools, hot weather means staying indoors during break and lunch.

Whether it’s a casserole dish or art inspired by the city they studied in, these are the gifts recent graduates told us they loved the most

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There’s considerable pride to be taken from graduating, and it’s a moment friends and family are often eager to mark with a gift. But what presents best cement this major milestone? As leaving celebrations of all stripes approach, we asked recent graduates to tell us about what they loved receiving, from the sentimental to the practical.

“When I graduated from York, my parents treated me to a meal at a restaurant I’d had my eye on since starting my course,” says reader Toby Beer, a biology graduate. “It was a brilliant send-off to celebrate my time in Yorkshire.”

We’ve rounded up stylish and comfy summer footwear for every occasion, whether you want beach perfection or office-ready

• The best sunglasses for every budget

I’m over clunky shoes the minute there’s a glimmer of sunshine in the sky. And because flip-flops will only get you so far (literally and figuratively), a range of sandals is constantly in rotation for me during the summer months.

Sandals have also become an unlikely favourite for men’s event dressing, with Alexander Skarsgård stepping out in a pair of Valentino Rockstud flip-flops on the Sundance red carpet earlier this year. And while thong sandals aren’t for everyone, plenty of more reserved options offer additional coverage.

We’re well into strawberry season now, but which punnets are the pick of the crop and which hit a sour note?

• The best supermarket strawberry jams, tasted and rated

Back in 1994, I used to pick strawberries in Dorset to earn extra pocket money. It was gruelling but delicious work. We’d shuffle on our hands and knees down furrowed rows of plants, picking those beautiful, fat red berries and trying not to eat too many along the way. We were paid by the punnet, which at my picking speed amounted to less than £1 an hour, unlike the impressively fast seasonal workers who came to our village every summer.

I scored the strawberries below on sweetness first, using a Brix refractometer, which measures the sugar content of fruit and veg (each Brix point represents 1% sucrose in the juice by mass). Sweetness isn’t everything, however, and some of these berries had a lovely, complex, honeyed or floral flavour. Tartness is important, too, for bringing balance and a refreshing quality to the eating experience. As a general rule of thumb, go for fruit with a bright red body, fresh green leaves and a powerful but fresh aroma.

The classic Moroccan marinade works brilliantly with oily fish, and is made for lazy summer dining, especially if served with chilli potatoes alongside

On warmer days, I want to cook simpler yet bolder food. Meals become fresher, less heavy and more instinctive, using fewer ingredients but stronger flavours. Everything feels relaxed and generous, which is why I’m drawn to chermoula fish and batata harra, full of garlic, herbs, chilli, citrus, cumin and smoke. In other words, food that’s made for outdoors, slow afternoons and warm summer-night gatherings with loved ones.

The volume and choice of liquid is important, say our experts, as is turning up the heat – but, after that, you really can just flavour to taste

Why are my scones always dry and tough? And any fun flavour ideas?
Paul, by email
It mostly comes down to applying a light hand, so touch the dough only as much as is strictly necessary. “Also, although it sounds old-fashioned, always use a knife to cut in whatever fat you’re using,” says Verena Lochmuller, head of product development at Ottolenghi. “It’s OK to have a few lumps, too.” Though it might seem obvious, it’s worth checking your leavener as well: “If it’s old, get a new one,” says Lochmuller, who goes for baking powder plus baking soda or bicarb. “You’ll get more air bubbles from the bicarb, but you need something to react with it.” Her liquid of choice is buttermilk, kefir or soured cream let down with a little water.

Insufficient liquid is another possible culprit for Paul’s scone plight, says Anna Higham of London’s Quince bakery and the soon-to-open Clementine. “Depending on the weather and how old your flour is, it will absorb different amounts of liquid on different days,” she says, so it’s not a case of simply following a recipe: “It’s also about how the dough feels.” Generally speaking, the wetter it is, the better, Lochmuller says. “People think if it’s wet, it’s going to be heavy, but it’s actually the opposite.” But don’t be daft and pour all the liquid in at once – instead, go slow.

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

The cost of the traditional takeaway has doubled since 2019, and more outlets are trying to tempt customers with cheaper options such as coley, pollack and hake

In late April, visitors to Harbour Lights in Falmouth, Cornwall, may have raised an eyebrow. The fish and chip shop was in the midst of a “cod-free week”, its owners having removed cod from its menu entirely.

It was the second time owner Pete Fraser had undertaken the experiment, 15 years after the first. He also removed cod from his shops in Penzance and Helston, replacing it with coley, pollack, hake and hoki. The result was very different. “Some of the feedback we had, which certainly wasn’t what we got when we ran it years ago, is ‘Can you repeat this?’ Before, it was like, ‘Have you guys lost your head’?”

Rather than being relegated to side orders, vegetables take centre stage in everyday Korean cooking, as these pancake and noodle dishes show

Vegetables play a central role in Korean cuisine, and they form the backbone of everyday meals, rather than simply acting as side dishes. They provide balance, nutrition, colour and variety, often through preparations such as kimchi, namul and seasonal banchan. Our vegetable cooking focuses on simplicity and preserving natural flavour, often using techniques such as blanching, light sauteeing, fermenting and pickling, and typically seasoning with garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce and fermented pastes such as doenjang and gochujang. This approach reflects Korea’s long tradition of plant-focused cooking shaped by seasonality, resourcefulness and the need for preserved foods. Together, vegetables create harmony and contrast within a meal.

The standup and Bafta-winner on experiencing grief at a young age, his mischievous grandmother, and why he refuses to learn to drive

Born in Watford in 1993, Jack Rooke is a comedian, actor and writer. He studied journalism at the University of Westminster, and began his standup career in 2014. Rooke’s breakout show, Good Grief, was written with his grandmother, Sicely, and documented their experiences of bereavement following the death of Rooke’s father, Laurie, from cancer. His next show, Happy Hour, became the basis for his two-time Bafta-winning Channel 4 comedy, Big Boys. Rooke is taking an updated version of Good Grief on a UK tour, starting at the Roundhouse in London on 14 August. Rooke is an ambassador for the suicide prevention charity Calm.

I am three years old and being pushed by my nan on a swing. She’s in a lovely powder-blue two-piece while I am sporting an iconic all-in-one black-and-white striped mini boiler suit dungaree scenario. For reasons we will never know, I look rather unimpressed.

More locations are offering debt advice, health services, cafes, social activities and support under one roof

Shortly before lunchtime in a London community centre, older visitors are chatting over coffee and crosswords as young families drift in and out. Kitchen volunteers from the Real Junk Food Project are preparing lunch at a “pay as you feel” cafe, using food that would otherwise have ended up in the bin.

Conversations inside the Victorian building at the East Twickenham Neighbourhood Association (ETNA) community centre range from financial advice to digital support, via childcare and legal services. There are counselling drop-ins and self-help groups, while down the corridor yoga is about to start. Over the course of the day, it all builds a picture of what community hubs offer local people.

Puff Puff, AKA Puffy, came to us aged 13 with no teeth, a broken ear and a cold – but was always there in tough times

Three of our cats had died of old age, leaving my family heartbroken. So Brandy, my wife, looked at our local animal shelter website and saw it had a 13-year-old stray cat with no teeth, a broken ear and a cold. Betty, as the staff had named her, had one day left to live before the shelter was going to put her down.

Brandy sent me along to see her. The warden said no one had visited Betty, but as soon as they opened the cage a Himalayan cat catapulted out of her blanket straight at me. I picked her up and knew I had to take her home.

Meg was married to a man but had fantasised having sex with women for years. When she met Jess, her knees buckled

• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

I’d spent so many years visualising having sex with a woman

Treasury also promises a new first-time buyer Isa with no upper age limit, as the ‘age at which a first home is bought is rising’

Isa reforms announced on Tuesday promise a new first-time buyer account with no upper age limit, and a tax on interest on cash savings held in a stocks and shares wrapper.

Savers and investors can currently deposit up to £20,000 a year in Isas, which offer the chance to earn returns which are not subject to tax.

The Passport Office accepted applications for my two other children but refused the youngest with exactly the same documents

I am a Briton living in Switzerland and my three children are British and Swiss nationals.

When we found out via the Guardian that dual nationals, who live overseas, are now required to hold a British passport in order to enter the UK, we set about applying, so the children can continue to visit their English relatives.

We were charged the wrong amount, but because the bank says we have no evidence it won’t do a chargeback

I went to Paris to recover from the grief of losing my dog.

All was going well until I took a taxi from a rank outside Musée d’Orsay to my hotel near Notre Dame – a 12-minute journey.

Bank details at risk as criminals use AI to create fake sites and emails offering pre-release beta test version

Like millions of gamers around the world, you have been waiting years for Grand Theft Auto VI to be released. Now you have the opportunity to play the much-anticipated game before everyone else.

An email has arrived inviting you to play a pre-release “beta” version of the game so that you can alert the makers to any bugs before its official release later this year.

As a kid, I did my best to avoid exercise. As an adult, I endured it for the sake of my health. Then I set myself a clear goal – and motivation was no longer an issue

It’s fair to say I don’t come from a long line of athletes. When I was growing up in the 1990s, sport was something other people did; we were not a family who cycled, much less jogged. In PE I was the wheezing child hiding behind the bins, pretending I’d twisted an ankle. When I contemplated working out – not often – I had the vague idea it was supposed to turn my body into something other people might find attractive.

I evolved from an unsporty child into an unsporty adult. Occasionally, mostly in an attempt to lose weight without having to stop eating croissants, I would attempt something like Couch to 5K, which I’d either abandon after a couple of sessions or see through to the bitter end out of the perverse determination to prove I’d been right all along: exercise was a mug’s game and endorphins an invention of Big Wellness.

Mobility can’t be tracked on a leaderboard, but it can help you feel better and make daily tasks easier

Fitness is often measured through numbers: how much weight a person can lift, or how fast or far they can run. But one important metric is harder to quantify: mobility.

Mobility gets overlooked, because the relevant exercises do not “have the instant visual appeal of traditional workouts”, says Tyler McDonald, certified personal trainer and senior brand manager for the National Academy of Sports Medicine.

How to start meditating

How to start weightlifting

How to start budgeting

How to start running

90/90 hip switches: Sit on the floor with the front leg bent at a 90-degree angle (thigh out in front of you and calf perpendicular to you) and the back leg bent at a 90-degree angle (thigh out to the side, calf roughly parallel to you). Slowly rotate your knees to the opposite side without lifting your feet off the floor. “This is fantastic for opening tight hips,” McDonald says.

Cat-cow stretch. With your hands and knees on the ground, arch your back towards the ceiling, dropping your head between your arms. Then, slowly drop your back and raise your head and glutes towards the ceiling. This helps with spine mobility.

World’s greatest stretch. Yes, this stretch has quite the name, but for good reason. Start in a plank. Bring the right leg forward into a low lunge position. Stretch the right arm overhead towards the ceiling, twisting the upper body. Then, bring the right hand behind the head and attempt to touch the ground with the right elbow. “It hits your hips, hamstrings and upper back all at once, making it incredibly efficient,” says McDonald.

Fitness isn’t just about getting a six-pack or competing in a triathlon. These straightforward, low-intensity moves will improve your strength and mobility and make almost everything easier

There are lots of movements that make you stronger and more physically capable – press-ups, squats and kettlebell swings build strength and muscle that help in a huge variety of situations. But can you get more specific? Well, yes: there are exercises that target the challenges of everyday life, whether that’s playing on the floor with your kids or bringing in the big shop. Here are the moves you may want to consider, presented by a dozen movement coaches, personal trainers and strength specialists.

People assume that those with facial hair are more likely to harbour bacteria on their faces than the clean-shaven – but the truth is more tangled

The idea that beards are dirtier than clean-shaven faces has been floating around for decades, says John Tregoning, professor of vaccine immunology at Imperial College London. There is even research that shows people perceive bearded men as less hygienic: one study found restaurant customers rated waiters with facial hair as dirtier. Science doesn’t necessarily back that up, though.

One of the earliest studies on the subject, published in 1967, looked at how much bacteria could be recovered from men’s faces after being artificially sprayed on to their skin. Researchers compared washed and unwashed faces, both with and without beards. The dirtiest combination wasn’t with a beard: most bacteria was recovered from unwashed clean-shaven faces, followed by unwashed bearded faces, washed bearded faces and finally washed clean-shaven faces.

The colour-coordinated ‘clean girl’ athleisure aesthetic is dead. Now it’s all about mismatched outfits and vintage sportswear

At first, the goblins came for our downtime. Going “goblin mode” was a lifestyle confined to the home – to the bed, mostly. The “comforts of depravity” it brought (“watching 90 Day Fiancé on mute while scrolling endlessly through social media, pouring the end of a bag of chips in your mouth”, for example) weren’t compatible with doing anything productive.

Enter the gym goblin. The optics remain much the same – think ancient T-shirts, knackered socks, oversized cardigans – but the setting has changed, with goblincore devotees rising up from unmade beds, Diet Cokes in hand, to hit the treadmill. It’s Diana, Princess of Wales’s oversized college sweatshirts meets Josh O’Connor’s half-tracksuit look for the Disclosure Day press tour – and the polar opposite of the matcha-drinking, Lululemoned “clean girl” aesthetic that dominates fitness circles.

A man of modest tastes, the departing PM excelled in dad chic. His hair, however, had an Instagram account all of its own

It will be little consolation to Keir Starmer, who had loftier ambitions for his term of office, that he made a good fist of the tricky brief of prime ministerial style. “He had good hair” is not the legacy he hoped for. But we are where we are.

Starmer’s prime ministerial look was smart, but unpretentious and unflashy. He looks good in a dark suit, which is a bonus in this job. His suits – often bought from Charles Tyrwhitt, where a standard price tag comes in at a typically restrained, Starmer-esque £350 – were well fitted, although menswear pedants pointed out that the sleeves were a little long. (A jacket sleeve should expose a half inch of shirt cuff, leaving the hands visible.) No flashy Rolex, either: Starmer’s watch of choice is a sensible Tissot, which costs about £320.

Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons say Milan fashion week collection demonstrates rejection of ‘useless design’

Speaking backstage before the Prada show at Milan fashion week on Sunday, the co-designers Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons described their latest collection as “breaking the perception of what is perceived as typical luxury in high fashion right now”.

This was a purified version of Prada. The design duo called it a “rejection of experimental shapes, techniques and decoration” distilling the collection to pieces that are “intentional and meaningful”.

Move over Barbie, ‘electric fuchsia’ is now dominating football’s biggest stages. But why has the sport embraced the colour?

Any fashion-conscious England fan watching the World Cup this week would have appreciated the moment the attack reached the Croatian end – and not just for the potential goals.

It offered another glimpse of goalkeeper Dominik Livaković in hot pink, a shade fast becoming a visual signature this tournament. Forget Barbie pink – welcome to the World Cup’s hot pink summer.

This long-distance coastal trek takes in towering rock faces, isolated beaches and tasty pitstops

The fluorescent green gaiters seemed a ridiculous suggestion, but prove a godsend as we plod across the sand. “I bet you’re glad I told you to get a pair of these bad boys now, aren’t you?” my friend Luke jokes. We’re marching across a wide, crescent-shaped, honeyed beach. The sun is high in the sky and slivers of light flicker through a thick sea fog, as 6ft waves crash and fizz, their white foam licking the towering limestone cliffs.

I’m in Portugal, in the west Algarve, with two friends, hiking part of the Rota Vicentina, or Fishermen’s Trail, a 140-mile (226km) trek that runs from Lagos to São Torpes in Alentejo. Traversing cliffs that lead to wild, remote beaches like this one is part of the trail’s calling card. As the name suggests, it was originally carved out by fishers to reach otherwise inaccessible fishing spots along the Atlantic Ocean. Now it’s part of the Rota Vicentina, a hiking and cycling route spanning 466 miles across Portugal.

The creators of County Cork’s Sheep’s Head Way had to win over hundreds of landowners to complete the ambitious project, but the result is a gloriously unspoilt trail

The Sheep’s Head peninsula is clearly a good place to be a skylark. They seem to warble overhead at every turn, singing their little hearts out – and who could blame them? The hills here are high and heathery, the sea breeze is warmed by the Gulf Stream and the edge-of-the-world scenery is a realm of wild green slopes and endless blue Atlantic. If you had to choose a sky to lark in, the one that crowns this County Cork headland is a bona fide wing-quiverer.

The peninsula wows hikers, too. I’ve come to one of the south-westernmost points on the Irish mainland to trek the Sheep’s Head Way, a long-distance trail opened by the local community 30 years ago this summer. It took serious work to complete – more of which later – but it’s a delight. I’m walking the original 55-mile (88km) loop around the peninsula, although a longer, 63-mile option is now considered the official route. The way attracts a fraction of the numbers drawn to the Kerry Way and Dingle Peninsula trail further north, and thanks to its untrammelled paths and rampant, cliff-edged scenery, the rewards are grand, in every sense.

Come for the sun; stay for the seafood, jazz festival, galleries and coastal walking in this laid-back village within a city

South of the city centre, Le Mourillon is Toulon’s characterful and unpretentious seaside quarter. Once a fishing village, Le Mourillon is home to little shops selling Provençal produce such as huge garlic bulbs and tomatoes in vibrant shades, alongside lively bars and restaurants. It’s not as glamorous or polished as the likes of Antibes or Saint-Tropez – you won’t find designer brands – but it’s all the more charming for that.

From a waterfront palace in Greece to a nonna’s house in Italy, these stylish boutique hotels offer character and comfort at a budget-friendly price

Whether you have a few pots on a balcony or an expanse of greenery, here’s how to help everything thrive when the mercury spikes

After the two hottest May days on record in the UK last month, gardeners may be surveying the damage and dreading the summer months ahead. “Heatwaves early in the summer can result in scorched, brown leaves,” says Leigh Hunt, the principal horticultural adviser at the Royal Horticultural Society. “When temperatures climb over 35C, there are more extreme effects.” (Thermometers hit 35.1C in London on 26 May.)

But don’t put down your trowel in defeat just yet. “Plants were caught out by the sudden change in temperature,” says Hunt. “They are a bit more naturally resistant later in the summer.” Plus, there is plenty you can do to support them without wasting gallons of water or installing an inefficient sprinkler system – and the payoff is massive. “Plants provide shade and release moisture; they cool our towns and cities by 2C to 4C,” says Hunt. “Your little bit of greenery is part of a network of greenery doing its bit. It makes the places we live better and cooler.”

Generations of gardeners have added stones to their pots before topping up with compost, but does it really help?

The problem
Most old houseplant guides suggest adding a layer of gravel or stones to the bottom of the pot before adding compost. It is presented as basic good practice; the thing you do to stop soil from retaining water, which can cause root rot.

The hack
This layer of gravel is said to improve drainage by providing a place for excess water to collect below the root zone, keeping roots above the waterlogged area and allowing air to reach them from beneath.

The solutions to today’s puzzles – and the winner of the Anguish Languish contest

Earlier today I set these three puzzles about deception. Here they are again with solutions.

1. Super syllabus

For one day every June, South Africa’s searing racial inequality seems to melt away at Comrades race

In the early morning dark, thousands of runners waited, jostling with anticipation. South Africa’s national anthem rang out. Then the haunting swell of Shosholoza, first sung by Zimbabwean migrant workers in South Africa’s goldmines. Finally, that unmistakable, spine-tingling piano: Chariots of Fire.

Runners gather before the start of the marathon

Aiden is an unforgettable young caregiver in Walthamstow, east London, who has been looking after his mum for over half his life. Every few weeks, Aiden and other young carers get a rare night off thanks to tenacious council worker Satvinder, who fights to improve the recognition of young carers in her borough. This film joins them as they reclaim a few hours of their teenage lives back.

Is Mum OK? is released during Carers Week in the UK, a campaign that celebrates unpaid carers across the country and calls for better recognition and support for them. There are more than one million young carers in the UK – with an average age of 12 – which is the equivalent of two kids in every school class.

I believe that chatbots have no place in a decent society, and am repelled by the topic of AI in general. But could I be seduced?

I received a text message from my editor: “Um, is it unethical to ask you to get an AI bf?? You can prob say no.”

Resentment. Contempt! Sorrow. Unease. I love text messaging. I have text message exchanges with, let’s say, 15 people a day. If you want me to do something, you should ask via text message. My editor knows this. She also knows, though it’s more complicated, that I love boyfriends. An AI boyfriend is a boyfriend who always, only texts back, immediately.

I find it hard to express my emotions openly. (No.)

I thrive to develop healthier, more trusting relationships. (Yes, though I prefer to use “thrive” correctly.)

I want a partner who supports my life aspirations. (Crossbow?)

I worry about being judged for what I want in a relationship. (Yes.)

The latest decree from Afghanistan’s rulers makes it impossible for women and girls to leave unwanted or abusive relationships, even with family support

When Fatima arrived at a district court in northern Afghanistan in late 2025 with her parents, she hoped a judge would finally allow her to leave her calamitous marriage.

She had never met her husband before their arranged wedding in the summer of 2024. Each time her family asked to see him, they were told he was shy. It was only on the wedding day, relatives say, that Fatima understood what had been hidden from her: her husband had severe intellectual and physical disabilities and could not eat, wash or dress himself without help.

Leaving the EU was supposed to solve Britain’s border issues, slash bureaucracy, revitalise the health service, even supercharge vacuum cleaners. How much control did we really take back?

• UK marks 10 years since the Brexit referendum – Europe live

Ten long years have passed since that queasy morning of 24 June 2016, when Boris Johnson and Michael Gove addressed the cameras to hail the victory of the Vote Leave campaign, and a leap into the unknown for the UK.

In the no-holds-barred battle of Brexit that spring, many alluring promises were made to tempt voters to turn their backs on the European Union. A decade on, we take a look at which of them ended up being met.

How did you cope? What do you remember of that period of hot weather? Tell us and share your pictures

The record temperature for June set in Hampshire in 1976 is expected to be surpassed during this current UK heatwave.

The highest June temperature on record of 35.6C was set on 29 June 1957 in London. This was then equalled on 28 June 1976 in Southampton during that year’s heatwave.

We would like to hear from Cape Verdeans in the UK and across the globe on the team’s progress in the tournament

Cape Verde is enjoying a fairytale World Cup, with their performance becoming the story of the tournament.

There was the shock 0-0 draw with Spain in their tournament debut. Then on Sunday, there was another when they drew 2-2 with two-time champions Uruguay in Miami. This now puts them in serious contention for a place in the knockouts.

How has the shortage affected you? How are you coping?

Health leaders have warned Britons are facing some of the “most severe” shortages of NHS medicines on record, including common painkillers, epilepsy drugs and HRT.

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has warned that medicine shortages pose a “serious risk to patient safety”.

We would like to hear about the best film you have seen this year so far and why

The Guardian’s film writers have compiled their favourite films of the year so far – and we’d like to hear about yours, too.

Which films have captured your imagination this year? Are there any new releases from so far in 2025 that you would recommend watching?

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