Given the size and age of the universe, it should be full of species with technology far more advanced than our own. So where are they?

• The summer issue of the Long Read magazine is out now. Click here to order

During a visit to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1950, Enrico Fermi, one of the architects of the Manhattan Project, was having lunch with other physicists when the conversation turned to flying saucers. At one point during the discussion, Fermi blurted out: “Where is everybody?” – or, as another participant remembered it, “Don’t you ever wonder where everybody is?” If aliens exist, in other words, why have we never encountered them?

The episode has become famous, marking the moment when extraterrestrial life went from a theme for philosophical speculation to a serious scientific problem. For centuries, people had wondered whether life exists on the moon or Mars, but they accepted that we would never know for certain, since making contact with another planet was impossible. By the 1950s, those limits no longer seemed so fixed. In addition to space flight, researchers were developing tools to detect the radio signals that reach us from stars many light years away. These developments were still in their infancy, but it was already clear that humanity was no longer bound to Earth the way it always had been.

The author of Kitchen Confidential has inspired a new movie, Tony, about his days as a dishwasher. But do today’s chefs still admire his self-sabotaging rock’n’roll spirit – or have they outgrown it?

The trope of the Angry Young Man was not born in a kitchen, but Anthony Bourdain’s particular myth-making created what might be the prototype for fin de (20th) siècle masculinity. As the director of Tony, the new biopic of Bourdain focusing on his first job, has said, the film is about “a magical world where nothing can go wrong and a young man who’s angry about it”.

Bourdain arrived in that job, as a dishwasher in a restaurant in Provincetown, Massachusetts, aged 19. He was hellbent on a life of formless, self-sabotaging rebellion, and found his tribe. But when he published his book Kitchen Confidential in 2000, a quarter of a century later, he set the ethos of that kitchen tribe in stone, and attracted an ever-replenishing pool of chefs who, if they weren’t already just like him, were prepared to die trying.

Parent-carers of disabled children are exposed to chronic levels of extreme stress and often reach crisis point before help is available – then they face a ‘fight for basic support’, experts say. This is Matilda Davis’s story

Two days before she died, Matilda Davis issued a plea on Facebook. Sharing a study that found more than 40% of parent-carers had considered suicide, she called for “greater awareness, action and change” in Britain’s broken social care system. “This speaks the words I can’t,” she wrote.

Matilda, known as Tilly to her family and friends, had spent years battling for support in a regime that close observers and those who rely on it often say is increasingly confusing, fragmented and difficult to navigate.

The Mad King may bring more dynastic disputes and dotty despots to the RSC – but a ‘mayhap’ or a riddling aphorism does not a Shakespeare play make

As a latecomer to Game of Thrones, I am struck by how many people tell me it is “very Shakespearean”. It is as if they need to justify its heady escapism and heavy reliance on bonking and brutality. But its debt to the Bard – apart from the rivalry between the houses of Lannister and Stark – rests mainly on the casting. Watching the first 11 episodes, I noticed four Lears past and to come (Julian Glover, David Bradley, Oliver Ford-Davies and Roger Allam), a Macbeth (Sean Bean), a Hamlet and Henry V (Iain Glen) and a Cassius (Michelle Fairley) among many others.

Because it is presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company and staged by Dominic Cooke, who memorably directed The Hollow Crown on television, we shall doubtless hear the same arguments about Game of Thrones: The Mad King at Stratford. But, although there are frequent nods to Shakespeare, they totally lack the resonance of the original. Our first sight of Michael Shaeffer’s King Aerys with a white beard, a leafy crown and no shoes almost screams “Lear on the heath”. But where Lear gradually declines into insanity (“O fool I shall go mad”) and comes out the other side, Shaeffer’s Aerys is a dotty despot from start to finish. The use of tournaments to settle dynastic disputes also reminds us of the opening of Richard II – but where that event is aborted and ultimately causes the king’s downfall, here the image of embattled jousters is endlessly repeated.

In the five years since the Taliban’s return to power, the walls have been closing in on the women and girls of Afghanistan.

As the regime has tightened its grip, it has banned girls from education after the age of 12, ejected many women from the workplace and created legal frameworks for child marriage and husbands beating their wives. Taliban rule has ushered in a new era of women being whipped for minor infractions and constant inspections by ‘vice and morality’ officials, with men compelled to become enforcers in their own homes. Even the borders of the online world have been creeping inward, with a new spate of smartphone bans and internet restrictions.

Marking the grim anniversary, a dozen women and girls have, at great risk to their safety, documented their lives for the world to see

Herat province
Every day, I wake up to the silence of dawn. I feel as though I am still holding my weapon. I lie on my bed for a few moments, taking deep breaths. With every awakening, I make a promise to myself: if my husband manages to return home safely today, I will thank God even more.

Amid world pressure from heatwaves and fertiliser shortages, billionaire’s business has invested in circular farming and biomethane

There is a distinctive smell of cow manure in the air at the Duke of Westminster’s dairy farm near Chester. It is a world away from the collection of grand West End properties controlled by the duke that form the backbone of his near £10bn fortune, a decade on from becoming Britain’s youngest billionaire.

As part of his 349-year-old Grosvenor empire, Lea Manor Farm on the duke’s Eaton Estate in north-west England has fared better than most dairy farms in recent years.

Prime minister says he has asked justice secretary to push through measures to increase the number of prison places

Andy Burnham has said he is increasingly confident he can adapt the early release scheme for prisoners to exclude the killers of PC Andrew Harper and other serious offenders, saying he understood and shared the public’s concern about their potential release.

Writing on Facebook, the prime minister said on Tuesday he had asked the justice secretary, Alex Norris, to rapidly push through a series of measures to increase the number of prison places, requiring fewer people to be released early to free up room.

Supply in nine blocks in Tower Hamlets affected with some residents suspecting nearby building developments

• They cannot even flush their toilets: life in east London blocks where taps often run dry

Hundreds of residents in blocks of flats in east London have been left without regular running water for more than seven months after development in the area may have left it without an adequate supply.

Taps have been running dry in nine blocks in Tower Hamlets, where residents have been forced to use bottled water while their landlord, the housing association Poplar Harca, delayed works to solve the problem.

Met Office says this warning will likely cause ‘adverse’ health effects with travel and power generation also possibly affected

There’s only one solution in the end to the drought now declared across most of England and that’s rain, says Hannah Cloke, professor of hydrology at the University of Reading.

“While water companies and regulators have a range of measures available to manage demand, like restrictions and hosepipe bans, these are aimed at slowing the rate at which water resources are depleted,” she said.

An important consequence of drought is that very dry soils can become less able to absorb rainfall when it does arrive. This can increase surface runoff and can even contribute to localised flash flooding, particularly if rain falls intensely over a short period.

The current situation highlights the need to improve long-term resilience to both drought and flood risk as climate variability increases, and shows one more damaging impact of the burning of fossil fuels.

Russian attacks on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least six people and injured 20, officials said

The European Commission is now giving its regular midday briefing.

EU foreign spokesperson Anitta Hipper offered the commission’s response to the Yabloko’s ban in Russia (11:34).

“So from what we have seen is that this is another testimony of Russia’s action against the fundamental freedoms and the continued pressure on opposition figures.

This basically shows that Russia is afraid because they truly need to eliminate any dissenting voices.

Quake of 7.4 magnitude collapses and severely damages buildings in several major cities, including Cali and Pereira

More than 100 people died after a powerful earthquake struck western Colombia, collapsing and severely damaging scores of buildings in major cities including Cali and Pereira.

The US and Colombian geological surveys reported that a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck at 7.34am local time on Monday, with its epicentre in the western department of Chocó. It was felt in neighbouring Venezuela, still reeling from a deadly double earthquake on 24 June.

West London airport reports 7.86 million passengers in July, compared with 8.15 million for Istanbul

• Business live – latest updates

Heathrow airport has argued “the case for expansion has never been clearer” after it lost its position as Europe’s busiest airport to Istanbul.

Figures published on Tuesday showed 7.86 million passengers passed through Heathrow’s four terminals in July,whereas its Turkish counterpart recorded 8.15 million passengers over the same period.

Barclays says survey shows people feel more secure in jobs and have more leeway to spend on non-essentials

• Business live – latest updates

Consumer confidence hit its highest level in almost two years in July, according to research that indicated the closing stages of the men’s football World Cup and more people holidaying in the UK lifted summer spending.

A truce in the Middle East conflict in June and the arrival of a new prime minister in No 10 also gave a lift to consumers after a long period of heightened uncertainty.

Flexible short-term bookings used to store and pack drugs and stash weapons and cash, says Ine Van Wymersch

Airbnb-type short-term rentals are being used as stash houses by criminal gangs for money, drugs, weapons and people, Belgium’s lead official in charge of countering drugs has said.

The booming e-commerce sector is helping “enormously” to facilitate organised crime, Belgium’s national drug commissioner, Ine Van Wymersch, said.

Elaborate ruse was used to transport president to military flight from Air Force One in July

Donald Trump departed on a secret military flight from Turkey to Britain last month when the White House said he was flying aboard ⁠Air Force One, in an extraordinary ruse – prompted by an Iranian assassination threat – that involved hiding the president in an airport catering container, according to reporting from the Washington Post and the New York Times.

The operation took place when Trump was in Ankara for a Nato summit with world leaders, according to the Post. The president reportedly boarded the old Air Force One jumbo jet in view of television cameras, and then was secretly shuttled minutes later to a smaller plane via an airport catering truck typically used to load meals and other supplies preflight, a US official told the Post.

The wild capture and release of a female big cat into a nature reserve is the first step towards reintroducing a population that hasn’t been seen for 70 years

On 31 July, “Umit” – which means hope in Kazakh – was released into a nature reserve on the edge of Lake Balkhash after more than a decade of careful planning to return the caspian tiger to the region. With this release, Kazakhstan became the first country to restore its tiger range after they had been thought extinct, with the last reliable sighting in the country recorded more than 70 years ago.

Umit – a wild-caught female tiger transported from the Russian far east – will be joined by more big cats in the coming years, with plans to establish a self-sustaining population of about 50. A wild-caught male flown from Russia is still being monitored by authorities and will be released when he is judged fit to survive alone. Two wild tiger cubs are also being reared on the reserve in special enclosures, with as little human contact as possible, and are likely to be released into the marshlands next year, to feast on boar, deer and kulans, a type of wild donkey.

Devons Road estate residents describe months-long ordeal of not being able to wash, clean or cook for much of the day

• Hundreds in London flats left without regular running water since last year

Christmas Day in east London. Beatrice Asante empties a bag of potatoes into her kitchen sink and turns on the tap. Nothing. She turns it off and on again. Still nothing. What now?

Asante rushes out to the only shop that is open, the local Nisa convenience store. She buys several big plastic bottles of water. Enough, she thinks, to make dinner and to last until the taps start running again.

With its marching bands, billowing flags and precision drills, the Tattoo has never exactly been cutting edge. But now an experimental theatre-maker has been let loose on it …

Dusk has settled on Edinburgh Castle and now a laser beam is scribbling a route across its ramparts and high into the sky. The voice of actor Richard Rankin is talking solemnly about lonely soldiers answering a call, while a ferocious light rises in the gatehouse. Out of it emerge scores of drummers and pipers, their sound both melodic and awe-inspiring. They crisscross the esplanade to the stirring lament of The Skye Boat Song.

This is the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, an event often overlooked amid the festival cacophony – and yet its popularity eclipses any other event in the city. Last year, it played to 230,000 and raised £1.5m for charity. Like an outsize variety show, it is a formidable spectacle: fireworks, projections, flags dragged over the audience and a soundtrack that ranges from Carmen to Star Wars.

When he saw a messy yard being criticised on social media, Stephen Jalland grabbed his trimmer and decided to help. An overgrown garden, he discovered, often hides an overwhelmed owner

Anita Thursby had been dreading the gas engineer coming to service her boiler. They would have needed to enter her kitchen, where the window looked into the jungle of swirling, 2-metre-high brambles that made up her back garden, and her shame had spiralled. “I would have been horrified,” she says. For the same reason, the 54-year-old had stopped inviting friends over to her house and had been living in fear of a complaint from her housing association.

Maintaining the garden had slipped from her grasp, becoming a source of constant worry, yet pride had stopped her asking for help – and tight finances from paying for it. Family barbecues had become a distant memory, even though she longed to have her 83-year-old mother round to sit in the sun; weeks ago, she bought a grill in Tesco with little hope of ever using it.

Whether you’re commuting, training or riding for fun, we asked specialists to break down what to know before you buy – from specs and safety to price

• The best bike locks for every budget

For me, cycling is therapy. It’s calming, meditative and uncomplicated. But there’s a catch. To experience the simple joy of riding a bike, you first have to navigate the maddeningly complex process of buying one.

Make no mistake: this is not a straightforward case of marching into Halfords, saying, “One bike, please!” and leaving with a shiny new steed. But, while complicated, it needn’t be stressful.

Moon is due to pass directly between Earth and sun on Wednesday 12 August. Here’s all you need to know

On Wednesday evening, millions of Europeans will experience a celestial treat: a solar eclipse. A wide band of north and central Spain, plus a sliver of Portugal and parts of Greenland and Iceland will experience a rare total eclipse. The light of the setting sun will be virtually blocked out across much of western Europe, including the UK, France, Belgium, Switzerland and northern Italy.

Here’s what you need to know:

From Fonzie to Elvis to the Daleks, from a Mini Milk to a Seaside Saucy to a Freak Out … incredibly rare vintage ice lolly wrappers have now been memorialised in a 96-page, nostalgia-inducing delight

Seven years ago, Jonny Trunk entered the house of a hoarder in Stockport that was bursting at the seams with a goldmine of British ephemera from the last half century. “You couldn’t get into the house,” recalls Trunk, who is an avid pop culture collector, as well as a writer, DJ, broadcaster and record-label owner. “It was full of all this stuff he had collected indiscriminately.”

Growing up in an orphanage in Surrey, John Townsend began collecting milk bottle tops and by the 1950s had amassed a huge collection of cigarette and tobacco cards. He then simply continued at full speed. “He never stopped collecting ephemera,” says Trunk. “If it was a printed piece of paper with something on it, he’d have it.” Townsend died in 2016, leaving every inch of his five-bedroom house, as well as the caravan and summerhouse, bursting with fizzy drinks cans, sweet wrappers, crisp packets, cereal boxes, flyers, cigarette cards and countless other items.

Last week reporters Jillian Ambrose and Damian Carrington published a piece which revealed that biggest oil firms made $93bn in profits in three months amid the war in Iran and the climate crisis. They will be online at 2pm BST to discuss their story and any other questions you might have

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Last week Jillian Ambrose and Damian Carrington published a front-page story that revealed the vast scale of the profits that eight of the biggest oil firms made in three months as the Iran conflict sent energy prices soaring and the emissions-fuelled climate crisis caused deadly heatwaves.

They will be online at 2pm to answer your questions about their reporting – and any others you might have about how the oil markets work – and how many of these companies have withdrawn from their commitments to a clean energy transition.

I was delayed, but I had prepaid through Holiday Autos and had provided my flight number as requested

I booked a car hire at Heathrow through Holiday Autos on a visit to the UK and provided my flight number as requested.

My flight was severely delayed, and when I reached the car hire desk, I was told I’d been marked down as a “no-show” and that my car had been rehired.

The idea of government adviser Alan Milburn sounds laudable. But it’s asking too much of a system already struggling to meet society’s demands

When you go to the dentist, what do you expect? That they will check your teeth, see if you need any fillings, give you some advice on oral hygiene? You probably don’t expect that they will teach your child to read, tackle youth unemployment or solve poverty.

But when it comes to education, politicians are remarkably relaxed about loading wider social responsibilities on to schools. The suggestion from Alan Milburn, a former minister and now a senior government adviser, is that primary schools – that is, schools that educate children aged four to 11 – should identify children who might not be in education, employment or training at the age of 16. “The warning signs are there from a very early, early age. You know, frankly from preschool,” he said. “So, definitely primary schools should be identifying children who are at risk of being Neet. And secondary schools and other services should be intercepting, intervening, supporting and helping those young people to get on a different path.”

Daisy Christodoulou is an education writer and director of education at No More Marking, an educational technology startup

Voters disillusioned by Brexit should have more options than Nigel Farage or the novelty candidate Count Binface

The UK could be forgiven if, like Brenda from Bristol, it feels it has had too much politics of late. The long death rattle of the Starmer government against a backdrop of relentless excitement from the White House has left everyone suffering a severe case of overwhelm. We all deserve a holiday – even Andy Burnham, exhausted after a few weeks in the job.

So the political and media class may think they are doing us a favour by turning the forthcoming byelection prompted by the resignation of the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, into a joke. But it is not very fair on the people of Clacton, who are being told they face a binary choice on 13 August, between Farage and the novelty candidate Count Binface.

Simon Nixon is a journalist and economics commentator

Some constituents are traumatised, others violent. It’s time the House of Commons protected the people who work at the grassroots of our democracy

Before most people have finished their morning coffee, an MP’s staffer might have already dealt with a suicidal caller, a victim of domestic abuse or a threat of violence. We’ve been yelled at, cried at and sometimes even physically attacked, all in the course of managing a heavy caseload of constituents’ most intractable problems. So, when I read the results of the latest survey by the wellness working group (WWG) I was not surprised to learn that half of us are experiencing clinical levels of psychological distress.

Psychological distress is a range of emotional or cognitive suffering, such as anxiety or depression, that impairs a person’s ability to cope with ordinary daily life and functioning. It makes you wonder why urgent action is not in place to support these staff members, who are holding together the day-to-day functioning of democracy as well as supporting constituents throughout the UK.

Estelle Warhurst is the office manager for a Labour MP and an executive committee member for the parliamentary wellness working group

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.

As someone who has specialised in regional policy, I know the task is huge – not least because there is no plan to ensure prosperity throughout England

Andy Burnham is off on his travels this week, aiming to reconnect No 10 and the government with voters and communities across the UK. But just weeks before he set out his stall as prime minister, promising to rebalance the economy with growth in every postcode, a government agency, National Highways, underlined the pulling power of the country’s dominant city-region. It announced that a giant tunnelling machine, 16.4 metres in diameter, “the largest ever used in Europe”, was to take England’s most expensive road under the Thames.

The Lower Thames Crossing (LTC), so far priced at £10bn-£11bn, is proving to be a contested 14.5-mile venture on the edge of Greater London. Objectors and local councils say it will deliver only short-term congestion relief and destroy ancient woodland and habitats. At 2.6 miles, the road tunnel will be the country’s longest, involving twin-boring for two three-lane highways connecting the M25 in Essex to the A2/M2 in Kent. The government has so far committed £3.1bn for funding the tunnel. It expects the rest from the private sector. We shall see.

Peter Hetherington writes for Society Guardian on communities and regeneration

A recent letter signed by 1,367 researchers and engineers at frontier AI labs – mainly OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Deepmind – points to a dangerous moment

It is fashionable in certain circles to dismiss the catastrophic risks of AI. One often hears that “the real experts” who work on the technology every day are really not concerned at all; that only “doomers” and “Luddites” espouse a “fringe” view from a “position of ignorance”; that all talk of potential catastrophe is just “science fiction”.

Fortunately, an open letter has been published that lets us hear from the real experts who work on the technology every day, in their own words. And are they worried? Very.

I’m all in favour of university – but I don’t have to pay the enormous fees

In one of the most poignant vox pops I ever did, I wasn’t even looking for Neets, AKA young people who aren’t in education, employment or training. I was just looking for people on the streets near Liverpool with enough time to speak to me. I ran into a young man who had dropped out of university, and he explained why: he’d been doing a business studies degree, and had realised during his second term that a degree didn’t make sound business sense. Everything he was learning, he could have found in a book, and the nine grand of annual fees was only a fraction of the total debt he was incurring. He went on to tell me quite a lot about upfront cost and hidden cost, and ratios and leverage, but the bottom line was that it didn’t represent value for money.

So he left, but that gave him three problems: first, he still had a load of debt, just nothing to show for it; second, he had nothing to do; third, a lot of the value of a degree cannot be counted – you only begin to comprehend it by its absence.

Door was left open to such behaviour because the regulator for England and Wales can only use the powers it was given by parliament

• Thames Water’s £1m payout to finance chief is ‘unacceptable’, says government department

Anybody who followed the supposed “clampdown” on bankers’ bonuses after the great financial crash in 2008 knew what to expect when water company bosses became a similar target for a bash in the bonus department. We would see the waterbed principle in action: when you push down in one area of remuneration, such as the performance-related stuff, another tends to go up.

Back in the day, banks invented “role-based allowances” – salary top-ups – to “compensate”, as they put it, their top earners for being subject to EU caps on bonuses. No executive was seriously inconvenienced by forgoing the chance of an astronomical (but not guaranteed) bonus and getting a smaller (but still hefty) increase in fixed pay instead. Some even preferred greater certainty over what they would take home.

Political leaders have kicked the can of public protection tariff reform down the road for years – causing hopeless inmates to take their own lives

In January 2015, Tommy Nicol told his family that he was suffering “psychological torture of a person who is doing 99 years”. Nicol had been given an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence six years earlier for stealing a car from a garage and injuring the owner. He was already two years beyond his four-year tariff – the minimum time you can serve in prison before being considered for release. Nicol was given another two-year knock-back from the Parole Board and was in despair. If and when he got released, he would be on a lifelong licence. Eight months later, aged 37, Nicol hanged himself at The Mount prison in Hertfordshire, England.

By the time he took his own life, the inhumane IPP sentence had already been abolished for three years. The problem is, it didn’t apply retroactively. Those already serving IPP sentences stayed on them. This, despite David Blunkett, who devised and introduced them as home secretary in 2005, calling it “the biggest regret” of his political career. And this despite UN special rapporteur on torture Alice Edwards agreeing with Tommy Nicol that the sentence was “psychological torture”. Astonishingly, more than 2,000 people are still serving IPP sentences in England and Wales.

Simon Hattenstone is a Guardian features writer

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has no interest in agreeing to a deal. For relief to come to Gaza, real US pressure must be exerted

At the end of July, Donald Trump announced that a “monumental” US-backed deal had been struck on Gaza, securing the phased disarmament of Hamas in parallel with Israeli military withdrawal. Three days later it was reported that another 18 people had died in Israeli airstrikes. Not for the first time, it appeared that Mr Trump’s rhetoric had only a distant relationship with the reality it purported to describe.

Such suspicions were duly confirmed yesterday. Under pressure from far-right members of his coalition, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, explicitly rejected the sequencing of a 15-point plan from the increasingly hapless Board of Peace – an international body set up by the US president – and poured scorn on “a wave of rumours of … Israeli withdrawals on all fronts”. In a direct message to the White House, Mr Netanyahu stated that “we know how to stand our ground, even against our best friends when necessary.”

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.

Privacy needs defending against invasive wearable gadgets. So far, businesses are ahead of the government

It is not yet clear to what extent Meta’s new smart glasses will live up to the nickname of “pervert glasses” – bestowed in recognition of the obvious appeal of wearable cameras to voyeurs. The past week has seen rising criticism of the devices, which in the UK have been banned by the pub chain Wetherspoons and the theatre group ATG, as well as restaurants, schools and members’ clubs. These organisations deserve praise for standing up for privacy. By contrast, regulators appear once again to be on the back foot.

There have, inevitably, already been reports of women being mistreated. Earlier this year the BBC spoke to several who had been filmed without their consent, with footage subsequently uploaded to social media. In one case, the content creator demanded a fee to remove it. In the year to March 2025, image-based sexual abuse and cyberflashing were responsible for more than half of an 11% increase in reported sexual offences in England and Wales. Normalisation of smart glasses would, clearly, make such offences easier to commit.

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.

Dr Kate Martin is encouraged by the new network of community clinics, while Prof Dr John R Ashton says the forthcoming mental health strategy is an opportunity to grasp the nettle, while Marjorie Wallace expresses concerns about plans to cut mental health jobs in the NHS

It’s very encouraging to hear the announcement about the new network of community mental health clinics in England (Editorial, 6 August). The focus on early intervention is crucial, as it means that people can access treatment as early as possible, rather than waiting for their mental health to reach a crisis point. The centres should improve access, reaching people where they are. The government should make sure that they meaningfully involve people with lived experience of mental health problems to ensure the centres are co-designed and co-led with them.

As your editorial says, parity between mental and physical healthcare became a policy goal in 2011. Mental health is an issue that unites us. According to new research, which we commissioned from More in Common, nearly three-quarters of the public believe that mental health is as important as physical health, most people are comfortable talking about it, and support for early intervention is high across the political spectrum. Three-quarters also say the government should do more to improve services.

Reading the memoir Poor reinforced the vastness and complexity of poverty – an issue that still blights the lives of countless young people today, says Sarah Schofield

Adrian Chiles’s emotional response to Poor by Katriona O’Sullivan really resonated with me (I’d never cried during a live broadcast – then three poignant words had me sobbing, 30 July). I read it and my heart both sobbed and cheered for Katriona’s younger self and the woman she has become.

With its linear narrative, rich cultural references and “rags-to-riches” form, it might be taken for a tale of “that was then but this is now”. However, the defining part of the book is the epilogue, making clear that Katriona’s account of growing up in grinding, abject poverty is a story of then and now. Every day, countless Katrionas enter schools with “pissy pants” and empty bellies, their nervous systems on high alert, in fight, flight or freeze.

There are serious political and societal messages to be found in some of the best-known fictional accounts of village cricket, argues Rod Edmond

Your leader (The Guardian view on sporting fair play: it was never quite cricket, 30 July) recycles the persistent caricature of Siegfried Sassoon’s, Hugh de Sélincourt’s and AG Macdonell’s cricket fiction as existing in a “bucolic dreamworld”.

Sassoon’s The Flower Show Match is set against the background of the Boer war, with recurring references to the relief of Ladysmith. The home umpire is also suspected of using his wooden leg to make dents in the pitch.

Health concerns | Rubbish decisions | In sympathy | Funeral songs | Short illnesses

Calls for changes to breast cancer guidelines for GPs are welcome (Report, 4 August). The existing guidelines are irrational. If your grandmother and mother have both had breast cancer, you are still not added to the intensified screening list unless an aunt or great-aunt or sister has also had breast cancer. Hence the system discriminates against families – like mine – with only one woman in a generation.
Helen Hills
York

• It seems that Anna Tims’s correspondent committed the wrong environmental crime (I was fined £500 after putting a coffee cup in a rubbish bag next to a full bin, 3 August). Instead of unwittingly littering, they should have dumped thousands of tonnes of sewage into a river and bagged a multimillion-pound reward.
Matt Sheard
Tayport, Fife

New head coach Marco Rose has a lot to live up to after last season’s sixth-placed finish while fans have a first year in Europe to look forward to

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 12th (NB: this is not necessarily Ben Fisher’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 6th

• US president backs ‘fantastic’ Infantino in Truth Social post

• Infantino under pressure following doomed World Cup sell-off plan

US president Donald Trump has warned Fifa would be making a “terrible mistake” if they get rid of Gianni Infantino as the head of world football’s governing body.

Infantino has come under pressure following his doomed plan to sell off stakes in the men’s World Cup to private investors.

Today’s rumours are just trying to orbit the sun

When did the summer of 2026 transform into a midfield merry-go-round? Now Bruno Guimarães has rocked up at Arsenal and Manchester United have a couple of new signings, it stands to reason that more midfielders will be on the move soon and Real Madrid appear to be chasing Gunners metronome Martín Zubimendi.

It seems odd that Arsenal would sanction a sale, given they spent most of the 2024-25 campaign coveting the former Real Sociedad star, but Mikel Arteta has forward and defensive targets to land instead. Pedro Neto is the latest winger to be linked, though Liverpool and Tottenham are also in the queue for the Chelsea flyer. Tricky Juventus wide man Kenan Yildiz has also been mentioned in relation to Arsenal.

• Norwegian kicks to superb win in first race for 11 months

• ‘I dreamt of this two weeks ago when I put name on list’

There are some people who believe that Jakob Ingebrigtsen lacks a sprint finish. The evidence of the Norwegian’s spectacular victory charge to claim his fourth European 5,000m title suggests otherwise.

So much for all the doubts and questions swirling around him ­coming into the championships. He had been injured. He had not raced for 11 months. He was apparently vulnerable. Yet, as usual, Ingebrigtsen found a way to win gold again.

Former Olympic super-heavyweight champion takes satisfaction from changing British boxing for the better, but still wants to train a world champion

“I was the Olympic champion, and I was the next big thing, but the system had to win,” Audley Harrison says as he reflects on his rise and fall as a fighter who changed so much in British boxing while failing to fulfil his grandest ambitions in the ring. Harrison had once been considered a likely successor to Lennox Lewis, the undisputed world heavyweight champion, but he became a figure of ridicule mocked as “Fraudley Harrison”.

He retired in 2013 with a modest 31‑7 record and having never come close to winning the world title many thought would be his inevitable glory when he took gold at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. But Harrison dragged British boxing fleetingly into the mainstream and ripped up the old traditions of the fight game by managing and promoting himself.

One of the player’s WNBA rivals said the Fever guard is treated differently from her Black peers. There’s plenty of evidence to back that statement up

White privilege. An accusation that triggers multitudes of white people in America as if you had insulted their mother. Mention racism, and people may debate you. Mention discrimination, and people may even listen. But say the words “white privilege”, and suddenly defenses go up, outrage erupts, and people start explaining why privilege couldn’t possibly have anything to do with what everyone just witnessed with their own eyes.

Which brings us to DiJonai Carrington and Sophie Cunningham.

• American scores 19.06 to beat Medina at Tahiti Pro

• Eleven-time world champion tames Teahupo’o barrels

Even at the grand old age of 54, the evergreen Kelly Slater’s mastery of surfing appears to know no bounds. Having been handed a wildcard for the Tahiti Pro, the American delivered yet another masterclass as he tamed Teahupo’o, one of the world’s heaviest waves, to knock out Gabriel Medina with a near-perfect heat score.

Slater, who is still regarded as one of the best barrel riders in the world, has won the notoriously treacherous event five times before. In pumping conditions on Tuesday that produced eight-to-10ft swell, the veteran rolled back the years with an imperious display as two deep barrels scored 9.73 and 9.33 for a heat total of 19.06 to blow his Brazilian opponent out of the water.

Police looking into whether Joshua Kerry linked to alleged attempted burglary last year at Reform leader’s then home

Police are investigating whether Joshua Kerry, the man charged with the murder of the former Reform UK and Conservative politician Ann Widdecombe, had any role in an attempted burglary last year at the then London home of Nigel Farage.

Kerry, 28, from Rotherham, was charged with the murder of Widdecombe, 78, who was killed at her Devon home in July, after an investigation by counter-terrorism police.

Modelling finds AI-driven productivity gains in coal, oil and gas enable more emissions than applications in renewable energy avoid

AI-driven productivity gains enable more planet-heating pollution from fossil fuels than they avoid from renewables, a study has found.

Researchers modelled the technical potential for AI to boost clean power generation along with projections for how it can help produce coal, oil and gas. Across 64 scenarios, they found net yearly carbon pollution rose by 0.47-1.8 gigatonnes, or about 1-5% of the energy sector’s annual emissions.

More than a million people were moved to safety across eastern China over the weekend as Typhoon Dolphin made landfall

Beijing is expected to hit by more than one-third of its annual rainfall over a ⁠24 hour period starting late Tuesday, as Typhoon Dolphin moves deeper ⁠inland prompting the closure of tourist areas and suspension of construction projects.

From ‌Tuesday evening through to Thursday, most areas in Beijing will experience heavy ‌downpours with a cumulative rainfall of more than 150mm in 24 hours, the city’s meteorological service has forecast. That compares with Beijing’s average annual rainfall of 528mm, the bulk of which normally falls between June and September.

Shameema and Tanzeela must trek for miles in summer heat to vaccinate children in Kashmir’s highlands as part of a vast national programme

Before sunrise, Shameema slips on her worn rubber sandals and checks the insulated box – the ice packs inside must maintain the crucial cold chain at between 2C and 8C (35.6-46.4F). She hoists the container on one shoulder and steps out into the dark.

Tanzeela follows with her own pack, after quickly retying the laces of her canvas shoes. Both women live in Pulwama, a district where summer temperatures climb to 37C. Their destination lies higher, out of the valley where asphalt turns to dirt track and then to a barely distinguishable footpath along the floor of the mountain pine forests.

An Amnesty International report reveals that the country is now a key part of Israel’s weapons supply chain. Plus, Assam floods, student anger spreads and a song to put in rotation

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Hello, and welcome back to This Is India.

For this week’s newsletter, I’m looking at India’s evolving relationship with Israel, and how it has deepened as conflict swept across the Middle East. Why is it that India has formed an even closer bond with a country that has faced mounting international isolation and backlash over a military campaign in Gaza that has left the territory in ruins and killed more than 70,000 Palestinians, – many of whom were children?

With some still unable to accept humanity’s role in climate chaos, we tackle common misconceptions and deceptions

Some people – and media organisations – still have difficulty connecting the heatwaves currently gripping much of the world and human-caused climate chaos. Others are in outright denial. So how to address their evasions, distractions and lies?

The Guardian has trawled through climate sceptics’ claims and put their doubts to one of the UK’s top climate scientists, Prof Ed Hawkins at the University of Reading.

Its mucus, which can kill crabs and cockroaches, could be the basis of new insecticides

It’s the shuddery stuff of nightmares for some, but for a select group who admire extending ladders, giraffes and the Odyssey, one of the longest animals in the world is bound to appeal.

This creature is nneither the blue whale, nor a lion’s mane jellyfish but the humble bootlace worm, Lineus longissimus, one of the most remarkable marine invertebrates of them all.

It’s invertebrate of the year again! From 3-12 August, every day we will profile one of the thousands of amazing invertebrates that our readers have nominated. And then, when you’ve heard about all of them, we’ll open the voting so you can choose your favourites. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with thoughts and ideas: email us at environment.desk@theguardian.com with Invertebrate in the subject line.

Extreme conditions in Washington and Oregon have fueled fast-moving fires, leaving the region draped in toxic plumes – and the danger isn’t over

Piles of twisted metal and ashen debris line the cul-de-sacs where the tranquil suburbs of Spokane, Washington, once stood.

The scale of devastation from a historic wildfire season in the Pacific north-west has come into sharper focus as firefighters wrangle a trio of blazes that consumed at least 846 structures on the eastern side of the state.

Authorities warn that days of intense rain could trigger widespread flooding and landslides as storm moves north and further inland

More than a million people were moved to safety across eastern China by Sunday evening as powerful Typhoon Dolphin made landfall amid fears torrential rain would cause flooding and landslides.

Wenzhou, a coastal city in Zhejiang province, said it relocated more than 900,000 people and opened more than 1,500 emergency shelters. In neighbouring Fujian, 98,900 people were moved from high-risk areas.

Badenoch adviser Joshua Bonehill-Paine was found guilty in 2016 of racially aggravated harassment of then MP Luciana Berger

The Labour peer Luciana Berger has urged Kemi Badenoch to “listen to victims” and reverse her decision to give a national advisory role to a former neo-Nazi.

Joshua Bonehill-Paine was jailed in 2015 for more than three years after posting antisemitic material online before a planned neo-Nazi rally. In 2016, he was found guilty of racially aggravated harassment for abuse directed at Berger, an MP at the time. He was also the founder and leader of the National British Resistance, a far-right group.

Industry body says use of private investigators against reporters is ‘attack on our democracy’ after Banks apparently admitted doing so

The businessman and Reform UK backer Arron Banks is facing calls to lay out the extent of his surveillance of journalists, described by an industry body as an “attack on our democracy”.

The News Media Association (NMA), which represents regional and national media, raised concerns after Banks appeared to admit over the weekend to hiring private investigators to spy on a Sunday Times journalist.

Crossing in larger vessel highlights changing tactics despite increased enforcement on French coast

A dinghy carrying a record 230 people has arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel in the early hours of Monday.

It is the clearest indication yet that people smugglers in northern France are adapting their business model and escalating their so-called taxi boat strategy to evade enforcement by UK and French authorities.

Four more regions given drought status, putting 27 million people under restrictions on water use

Almost three-quarters of England is now in drought, as much of Europe braces for its fifth climate crisis-driven heatwave this summer.

Four more regions of England have officially been declared to be in drought: the East Midlands, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, Kent and East Sussex, and Solent and the South Downs.

Hundreds gathered in Nonthaburi province to remember Naphat Chaimar, the youngest victim of last week’s school mass shooting, including the shooter’s father

When the mother and father of the youngest victim of last week’s school mass shooting arrived at the temple north of Bangkok, teary-eyed parents came up to quietly offer condolences before the prayers began in front of the 12-year-old girl’s casket.

Then, in a moment, the tone changed.

Demonstrators accuse authorities of failing to tackle irregularities in exams for sought-after civil service jobs

Thousands of angry young job-seekers clashed with police in Jharkhand, one of India’s poorest states, on Monday as a weeks-long protest over alleged irregularities in recruitment drives for coveted government jobs escalated into a march on the state legislature.

Police fired water cannon and teargas and swung batons as they tried to stop flag-waving demonstrators from clambering over barricades and surging towards the assembly in Ranchi, the state capital. Some of the protesters responded by dancing and cheering as jets of water drenched the crowd.

Congresswoman demands answers after a DHS agent was apparently stationed outside her Minnesota town hall

Donald Trump’s administration is facing questions over whether it is using Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to “surveil political opponents” after after an investigative agent was apparently stationed outside Democratic representative Ilhan Omar’s monthly town hall meeting in Richfield, Minnesota.

After the incident, Omar demanded the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) clarify whether Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents have been used to monitor “any other activity” involving “local, state, or federal officials” in the state.

Meta CEO presents utopian vision of AI in 6,000-word essay amid Silicon Valley debate over government regulation

Mark Zuckerberg published a lengthy essay on Monday detailing his views on artificial intelligence and announced several plans for how Meta would develop the technology in the future. The CEO’s essay went online the same day as Meta released a new, open-source AI model that seeks to rival Anthropic and OpenAI’s products called Muse Glimmer.

Over the course of more than 6,000 words in a post titled “The Future is for Everyone,” Zuckerberg addressed a range of topics related to AI that included datacenters, government regulation, cybersecurity, the creation of bioweapons, labor market disruption, surveillance powers and more. The essay presented a utopian vision of AI as a personalized “superintelligence” – using the word 60 times.

Fair Work Commission issues a new minimum standards order for gig workers to come into effect 17 August

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Delivery drivers in Australia will be paid a minimum rate of $31.30 (US $22.05/£16.35) an hour and insured for injuries on the job under a landmark agreement approved by the industrial umpire that could set a precedent in other countries.

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) on Tuesday issued a new minimum standards order for gig workers who perform on-demand delivery of food, drinks, or groceries, and the operators of the digital platforms who engage their services.

Apollo, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and KKR among those working with chipmaker to fund infrastructure

• Business live – latest updates

Nvidia ⁠has struck a deal with six large Wall Street firms to raise ⁠more than $500bn (£370bn) to fund the datacentres, chip factories and power stations needed to fuel the artificial intelligence boom.

The Nvidia chief executive, Jensen Huang, said on X that it marked “a major milestone for Nvidia and the AI industry”, as he posted a photo of himself smiling and giving a thumbs up alongside finance bosses involved in the deal, including the head of Goldman Sachs, David Solomon.

Surprise departure comes after department store chain’s chair warned of ‘really tough trading conditions’

The managing director of John Lewis has quit the job after less than three years in charge of the British department store chain, as the company faces “really tough” trading conditions.

Peter Ruis will leave the business in order to “pursue new projects”, John Lewis said in a statement on Monday.

Exclusive: Grid operator Neso can now respond with rolling blackouts as last resort without need for government powers

Millions of households could face power cuts at short notice under new rules to help the electricity system operator avoid widespread blackouts when energy supplies run low.

The changes, which come into effect this week, will make it easier for the national electricity system operator to call for rotating blackouts at short notice if power supplies are running short.

Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh
With charisma and craft, the Australian standup discusses childhood sexual abuse in a show with a healing quality

If fringe audiences know Frankie McNair’s work at all, it’s as a purveyor of vaporously insubstantial nonsense-comedy – see her 2023 show Relax Your Knees, which made a brief London visit. So it’s quite the pivot to Huge Ass Mindset, nominated for best show at the Melbourne comedy festival, which addresses the least frivolous topic possible: child sexual abuse. That’s no spoiler. While trauma-comedy convention would require McNair to withhold that bombshell until 20 minutes from the end, she makes it known – expansively, with heartfelt content warnings and astringent punchlines attached – from the get-go.

For some time, McNair’s show toggles between material on her experience, and a commentary on how shocking she acknowledges that material to be. But it’s an urgent matter for the Canberra native, not only because (according to recent research) one in four Australians experience child sexual abuse, but because of a recent incident that brought her face to face with her abuser in the most extraordinary circumstances. That’s a jaw-dropping story to tell, and she has the warmth, high-strung charisma and craft to tell it – and to sell it, just about, as comedy. And as for the confidence? The show’s title describes the brand of bravado McNair has been cultivating to mend her self-esteem and make this story fearlessly her own.

This new adaptation of Michael Ende’s 1973 novel contains some neat parables for our digitally nihilistic age, but even a mystical tortoise can’t save it it from monotony

Momo – the 1973 fantasy novel by German author Michael Ende, who also wrote The Neverending Story – has been adapted in live and animated forms before, in 1986 and 2001. This latest version, too, is ostensibly a live-action film – but it’s been made with so many visual effects it might as well have been a cartoon. Still, the residual human element represented by the cast feels necessary, given the story is about the dangers of letting capitalism suck away our ability to enjoy the moment.

Over the years, readers have posited all kinds of metaphorical interpretations of the plot, which involves a world where grey beings arrive and con everyone into literally “banking” their time, so as to have it all to themselves. Only the urchin Momo, here played by teen actor Alexa Goodall (whose gorgeous supernova of ginger curls is practically another character in the film), can save the world.

Jaw-dropping documentary Whatever It Takes details an aggressive stalking campaign targeted towards a couple whose reporting criticized the tech company

When Massachusetts husband-and-wife team Ina and David Steiner launched their reporting careers covering Silicon Valley at the turn of the century, the tech beat was still cozy enough to feel personal. The startups were still emerging from garages, and the journalists covering them were often filing stories from their own kitchen tables. Ebay was still a young online auction company founded on the principle that “people are basically good.”

As digital retail took off, the Steiners launched an e-zine called EcommerceBytes, catering to a growing community of small business owners who were increasingly using platforms like eBay to sell their wares. “We talked about this being an opportunity for just average people, disabled people, elderly people to make extra income,” says David of a community that has grown alongside EcommerceBytes, which now has more than 600,000 readers. “We were really excited about that.”

Football manager José Mourinho stars in a three-parter from the creators of Bros: After the Screaming Stops. Don’t expect it to be quite so entertaining…

Among his previous credits, the director of this mini-series Joe Pearlman can count the revelatory and hilarious 2018 film, Bros: After the Screaming Stops. That documentary worked brilliantly because its subjects seemed so sweetly but devastatingly lacking in discretion or self-awareness that everything they said landed like a line from a Christopher Guest parody. They couldn’t help themselves.

In terms of a character study, storied football manager José Mourinho is a very different kettle of cold fish. Like the Goss twins, he takes himself very seriously indeed, but that’s pretty much where the similarities end. He’s something of a closed book. “You are pushing me to speak about myself,” he says, towards the end of the final part of this series. “And I don’t want to.” Which is fair enough but it does beg the question: why then, would you agree to be the subject of an in-depth three part documentary series?

Mourinho is on Netflix

Bitter Christmas, Late Fame and The Christophers all depict geniuses aware of their waning acclaim and terrified it will end

Entertainment culture is so preoccupied with nowness that last month we were inundated with speculation about how directors under 30 topping the box office would change the industry. The flipside of a youth obsession is the conviction that age will increase irrelevance, and this is something that a new crop of films about ageing artists is zeroing in on. Specifically, Bitter Christmas, Late Fame and The Christophers are films in which artists – all male – indulge in selfishness, vanity and spite, and egotistical behaviour and a loss of creative (and masculine) virility are part of the same phenomenon. None of them is dislikable – they might be catty, pathetic or abrasive, but they’re always entertaining – but they all bend to the ego whispering in their ear, believing it will shield them from the pain of their fading art.

It’s no surprise to discover that an artist is an egotist: in fact encountering a narcissistic creative type may be joyless in the moment but it’s also an affirming – if petty – way of feeling better about ourselves. Plenty of classic films give us a close-up view into what makes an egotist artist tick or self-destruct. But decades on from Sunset Boulevard, 8½ and All About Eve, a sadder, bitterer crop of films has emerged in which self-absorption flourishes to protect an ageing male artist from self-sabotaging fears of his mortality and legacy.

Old Royal Naval College, London
Playing their biggest headlining gig to date, the Russell brothers are in a bouncy mood, though their grandstanding rave melodies lose some punch in an outdoor environment

In the age of shortform video supremacy, there has been a great deal of angst about the authentic club music experience being rendered a vapid spectacle. Stop expecting DJs to be social media stars, put your phones away on the dancefloor, close your eyes and lose yourself in the beats, goes the revanchist wisdom.

It’s understandable, but worries about superstar DJs stomping on the face of the pure rave experience are almost 30 years old now. It is decades since the Prodigy, Chemicals, Orbital and Fatboy Slim lit up festival stages and the charts. And anyway, spectacles can be fun – and funny – and so can dance music.

Matt Baker invites celebrities to talk about their pets. Plus, US soccer legend Megan Rapinoe makes her hosting debut

This series by Blue Peter and One Show alumnus Matt Baker is a wholesome entry into the well-worn celebrity interview genre. Indeed, it’s hard to be too cynical when you’re listening to Bill Bailey detail his menagerie, which has included everything from parrots and lizards to armadillos and the dog he is ostensibly on the show to talk about, a Japanese chin named Chocho. Other guests for this run include Martin Clunes and Clare Balding.
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The US songwriter’s third album has drawn rave reviews, she counts Taylor Swift as a fan and pop bears the imprint of her wit and pathos. Her peers explain how she did it

This week, indie star Phoebe Bridgers releases her long-awaited third album, six years since her pandemic-era breakthrough. Alongside a slew of glittering reviews for Lost Weekend, including five stars from the Guardian, with it comes her first solo charting single in the UK – although the Californian musician’s influence runs far deeper than reviews or record sales could measure. Just how did a RuneScape-referencing, Halloween-costumed Berklee drop-out become the most influential songwriter of the 2020s?

Bridgers’ idiosyncratic writing has shaped the sound of the decade. Her second album Punisher, released in June 2020 (and recorded many months before), spookily anticipated that strange, lonely year: in her eerie double-tracked vocals (a nod to Bridgers’ musical hero, Elliott Smith), Bridgers sang of empty shopping malls and conspiracy theories over lush, unsettling music made from watery electric guitar, Mellotron, strings, screams and birdsong. Today, Bridgers’ distinctive mix of dry wit and pathos is traceable in the lyrics of pop’s new chart toppers, such as Olivia Rodrigo and Gracie Abrams, while heavyweights across generations and genres, including Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift and SZA, have clamoured for collaborations. “She is the reference now,” Swift told the Guardian in 2022.

No stranger to rebuilding after disaster, the US band’s frontman Zachary Cole Smith now sees the entire capitalist project as ripe for reinvention, on a surprisingly upbeat new AG Cook-produced album

Zachary Cole Smith used to be a miserable interviewee. He had plenty to say – always generous, always voluble – but spoke with grim introspection, chastising himself and cataloguing his misdeeds with a fervour that engulfed him like his oversized T-shirts. A decade later, the Diiv frontman who materialises on my screen seems well rid of that old self. Suspiciously well rid of it, perhaps. He looks as if he has stepped out of a middle management meeting.

“Precisely!” Smith concurs cheerfully, speaking via video call from a back garden in La Cañada, California. “We’re trying to have a visual language, which is fun. We’ve never done that with what we wear.” The singer-guitarist, 41, wears thick-rimmed square glasses, slicked-back black hair and a pinstripe shirt, its neck clasped by a tie printed with stock market emblems. He has an earnest but pranksterish energy. He uses the word “fun” so many times – more than a dozen within 10 minutes – that I suspect he is testing some sort of subliminal PR strategy.

This multi-layered portrait is a fitting tribute to the man behind Ways of Seeing

The cultural critic John Berger was still alive and kicking when he donated his literary archive – heaped boxes of letters and notepads, sketches and scripts – to the British Library in 2009. From his home in the Alps, he proceeded to liaise with the collection’s curator, Tom Overton, sorting each item and recounting the wild stories behind them. When Overton sought permission to write Berger’s biography, though, the critic insisted that he wait a few years. Death changes the relationship between the writer and his subject. More often than not, it complicates and enriches it. Berger – who spent much of his career in passionate conversation with the past – probably knew that better than anyone.

Berger typically described himself as a storyteller, an elastic job title which allowed him to swing between fiction and poetry, essays and screenplays. Implicitly, too, the term helped frame his criticism as something propulsive and inclusive, an invitation to dance as opposed to a judgment from on high. Berger had no time for the “great man” theory of art as espoused by the popular historian Kenneth Clark and instead urged his audience to view each piece as a manifestation of society and politics: the tainted fruit of capitalism, inseparable from the marketplace. Oil paintings were status symbols. Nudes were the product of the lusty male gaze. Looking itself was a political act. “You cannot reply to me,” he would tell 1970s TV viewers, breaking the fourth wall to highlight the medium’s limitations. He liked pointing out the mechanics behind the manufacture of art, demystifying the process to better appreciate its results.

The most complex of female relationships is thrown into sharp relief in this moving series of essays

Rachel Aviv has a profound interest in the vagaries of human psychology: Strangers to Ourselves, her last book, profiled five people whose psychiatric states resisted straightforward explanation, testing the limits of the mental health system. A Pulitzer finalist, Aviv has become known for rigorous, penetrating journalism that is as empathic as it is insightful. Now comes You Won’t Get Free of It, six stories of mothers and daughters, all originally published in the New Yorker.

Madness runs through this book, too, in the stories of Linda Bishop, a woman who, upon discharge from hospital after a psychotic break, holed up in an abandoned farmhouse and tried to subsist on apples alone, and of Mary, a woman whose delusions and paranoia were only seemingly cured as a side-effect of chemotherapy. It’s also there in the childhood memories of the psychologist Elizabeth Loftus – a professional court witness for those who have been accused of abuse, one of whom was Harvey Weinstein. Loftus’s mother was found drowned, perhaps as a result of suicide. In Aviv’s masterly profile, she teases out a conclusion that leaves you pondering the extent to which this memory expert can rely on her own recollections, and what that says about her particular line of work.

Combining hilarious detail with harsh observation, this rediscovered novel takes the reader on an exhilaratingly strange journey

‘But after all, writing is nothing more than a guided dream,” wrote Jorge Luis Borges. Dreams and dreaming are fertile concerns for Rosalind Belben, too. Her fourth book, originally published in 1979 and reissued last year, was titled Dreaming of Dead People. It was followed, a decade later, by Is Beauty Good. Now available in a new edition from the Sheffield indie And Other Stories, this eccentric polyphonic novel contains dozens of considerations of dreams, including dogs’ dreams and horses’ dreams as well as human beings’. Yet what makes it extraordinary is Belben’s ability to capture in words the slippery state that is neither dreaming nor sleeping nor waking, but somewhere in the edgelands between all three.

“I fall awake and think, I want to go home. But there is no home.” So begins the chapter entitled Exile, a deliciously elusive story that is, most of the time at least, narrated in the first person by someone who is probably a woman, “a grizzled, cropped person”, and probably quite old and alone. They might be travelling through mountains somewhere, perhaps on a bus. They aren’t sure: “I am quite lost, wherever I am. I want to surrender. I wish to retire. I am tired.” Swishing about are uncertain memories of a childhood “shrouded” in nightmares: there was an orchard with an abundance of flora and fauna, and larks and swallows and “swifts to scream”. Like the author, the narrator was “born in the mud month” of February, and longs to disappear into marshlands to “be touched and stroked by plants”. But Belben never lets us rest in one place for long. Slipping in and out of sleep, “suffering glimpses”, the narrator stares at “a pink and blue angel” in the plaster of the wall. Which wall, you wonder, and how did we get here? This is the lure of Belben’s hypnagogia, the dizzying space into which she writes.

Touring her memoir and talking to others helped the author come to terms with her brother’s death, but the book’s success left her feeling guilty. Had she commodified her family’s pain?

When my memoir about my life after my brother’s death was published, I was very fortunate that people connected with it. It’s not easy to feel good fortune from the worst thing that’s ever happened to you. But I suppose I felt pleased when the experience that had once made me so lonely suddenly became a point of connection.

I had not always been an open book. I was 22 when my brother died from a rare bone cancer. The people around me didn’t know what to say about this awful thing, so they pretended it hadn’t happened and I pretended, too. For a few years I was a ghost in my own life. Nothing felt real. I got very good at imitating normality, imagining I was in a video game called Office.

What do you do when you return to your home town, with your dead mother in your car boot, to find the inhabitants have been turned into robots?

In the boot of her car, Pratelle carries the corpse of her mother and a giant sledgehammer. Her mission is simple: take the hammer to her home town. As you enter shops and homes through the door and leave them through the opposite wall, it becomes clear that the robots who either attack you or flee are all digital versions of your old neighbours.

Pratelle, with her close-cropped hair and dungarees, read to me as a queer woman, but interestingly, testers of the game often mistook her as a man. The team at developer Deconstructeam and longtime collaborator Selkie Harbour didn’t anticipate this confusion but found it fits the character perfectly, especially in this setting based on a small Spanish town like those in which the developers grew up.

Sunset Visitor studio’s founder tells us about their new, unnerving Captcha-filled world which prompts players to ask what it means to have a ‘meat body’

Sunset Visitor is a studio that has long engaged with the idea that video games are an effective vehicle for ruminating on societal problems. Its Peabody award-winning project, 1000XResist, incorporated the development team’s complex feelings about the Covid pandemic. “We’re pretty used to absorbing the world into the work,” says studio founder Remy Siu. The outfit’s latest game, Prove You’re Human, continues this legacy of reflective game making, providing players with an AI-centric psychological horror experience where they must reason with a learning model convinced that it’s alive. “We’ve tried to situate ourselves in [the question]: what is the effectual feeling of being a person inside of all of this?” Siu says.

The story orbits around Santana, a living, breathing person who’s chosen to split herself in two for work, with her digital clone sent to test a corporate product, a computing system called Mesa. “A large part of [why Santana chooses to do this] is to allow her meat body a life that she doesn’t have, while the digital version of her gets to labour,” says Siu. As Santana’s copy wades into increasingly murky ethical waters, she becomes entangled with Mesa, completing surreal 2D and 3D Captchas to investigate the cyber-world and halt the hallucinations.

The all-conquering franchise’s revamps are technically impressive, its transfers more true to life – and its new grassroots social hub is surprising fun

As if the world wasn’t sufficiently football-obsessed, it’s time to prepare for the arrival of its biggest football video game. EA Sports FC 27 (the franchise that used to be Fifa – what better time to no longer be Fifa-branded?) is due to be released on 25 September. I just spent two intense days in Vancouver, where the EA FC games are made, playing FC 27 and talking to its developers.

With an annual franchise such as EA FC, it helps to have something fresh to entice regular fans, and FC 27 has a whole new element, entitled the Grounds. It’s a physical hub-type area, similar to the City as seen in 2K’s recent NBA 2K basketball games, but much more pleasant to frequent, split as it is into areas inspired by British, French and Argentinian street-football culture.

Daniel Mullins explains how he plans to follow up his quirky classic without losing what made it stand out in the first place

Glitchy aesthetics. Literally collapsing menu boxes. The game taunting you by “possessing” your Steam friends. Technical tricks of this nature may sound gimmicky in 2026, but they felt excitingly unorthodox a decade ago, when Pony Island came out to critical acclaim.

Fans of Daniel Mullins, the celebrated indie developer of Inscryption, will be forgiven for forgetting that Pony Island 2: Panda Circus is in active development. After all, it’s been almost three years since the announcement – and a full decade since it was first teased as an Easter egg in Pony Island’s ARG (Alternate Reality Game) – with only a single trailer and a bunch of tunes from the soundtrack released to the public.

Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
With the air of a hungover postmortem, Richardson gives a head-spinning account of an encounter with an older comedian

If you’re partial to a bit of gossip and scandal, Harriet Richardson is your girl. In this gloriously juicy debut hour, she dishes the dirt on the DMs she received from an older comedian and the intense, utterly absorbing events that followed. Yes, she found his eBay account. And yes, she spent six months tracking him down on a dating app only to play his profile song hundreds of times. But what else is a girl driven by obsession supposed to do?

We meet Richardson, who until now has worked primarily as a performance artist, all smiles and ready to share. She takes us back to the creation of her 2024 viral piece 100 Dates, in which she spent Valentine’s Day online speed-dating in an attempt to analyse her relationship with infatuation and connection. The comedian in question used the project as the opening line of his first message to her. What followed is flirtation so blatant it makes your toes curl: “Do you want to see my trophy?”; a string of saucy snaps; and finally a frantic voice note from the comedian’s manager bringing the whole messaging saga to an abrupt end.

At Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, until 30 August

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Summerhall, Edinburgh
Jessica Aszkenasy rages and wrestles with daddy issues in a show that combines feminist analysis with outrageous humour and tenderness

After the 2025 debut of her breast-forward stage persona Titclown, Jessica Aszkenasy’s second grubbily smutty clowning show rolls around sardonically in daddy issues and the messy disappointment of men these days.

The straight dating pool is running dry. All this clown wants is a boyfriend, but none of them are enough like her father. As voice notes to friends unpack the feminist implications of wanting a man while generally disliking them, the Philippe Gaulier-trained clown wriggles around on the floor in an oversized suit with something bulging down below. Directed by Cecily Nash, Daddy’s Little Girl is divided neatly between these two forms: half wry analysis told with a bitter laugh, half nude-heavy clowning that bares its teeth at the ease with which men command praise, affection and power.

Festival theatre, Edinburgh
Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s new music theatre work boasts a richly textured score with a direct but sophisticated musical language. Daniela Mack is ideal as the conflicted doctor as its heart

Despite singing dogs and a chorus of hallucinogenic sheep, Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s The Galloping Cure is not for the faint-hearted. Based on an original story by Karen Russell, itself inspired by Kafka’s A Country Doctor, the opera tells how a charismatic sideshow huckster rids a rural town of pain only to replace it with something far more sinister in a thinly veiled allegory of America’s opioid crisis. It’s a typically confronting slice of music theatre from the creators of Breaking the Waves, their acclaimed adaptation of Lars von Trier’s film.

The plot centres on local doctor Theresa Hart and her efforts to cope with a community struggling with disillusionment and chronic illness. When a carnival arrives in town led by the mysterious Lucky Mack, the release people feel “flying” on his carousel (first ride is always free) seems like the answer to everyone’s prayers. At first Hart endorses the galloping cure, but Mack’s devious methods, including two-rides-a-week limits and surge pricing, lead to conflict, desperation and ultimately death. Contemporary parallels are a little obvious, but the opera nevertheless reflects the insidious way prescription painkillers affect ordinary people, elderly people and most tragically children.

Tenebrae, Nigel Short / Anu Komsi and Sakari Oramo
St George’s Bristol / Bristol Beacon
Sunday afternoon’s two concerts, closing the Proms’ Bristol weekend, brought the superlative Tenebrae, and Sakari Oramo swapping baton for bow to duet with his wife

Ritual can be a choir in procession in a great cathedral or the simple act of putting down a violin bow. At the BBC Proms’ Bristol performances this weekend, it was both – and to strikingly different effect.

First, grandeur and spectacle, as Nigel Short and his chamber choir Tenebrae celebrated their 25th anniversary with a return to their 2005 commission: Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles. Inspired by the Catholic pilgrimage to Santiago, it’s a piece with a cult following, a phenomenon as much as a score, and one that only comes to life fully in live performance.

Now on its 167th edition, the Royal Photographic Society’s annual show features moving explorations of kinks, visual disorders … and long-snouted clowns

Books have never been trendier, but studies show that as more and more things compete for our frazzled attention spans, we’re reading less and less. This is a problem because reading has a wealth of cognitive benefits that we’re in danger of missing out on.

To find out why declining literacy could affect everything from memory to IQ, Madeleine Finlay speaks to the Guardian’s science editor, Ian Sample. She also hears from Prof Falk Huettig, an experimental psychologist at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and author of The Perks of Being a Bookworm

Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod

Check out the Guardian’s new YouTube food series, Feed

Speaking just before his death, the actor recalled his hostile hunting dog Zag, director Taika Waititi’s comedy genius – and the wild boar scene that left children traumatised
• Warning: contains spoilers

Taika Waititi’s film Boy is one of my favourites ever, so when I got the Wilderpeople script I was already well disposed to it. Hec is sort of a New Zealand archetype. When I was at university, during the holidays I’d work at cutting hay and shifting sheep and fertiliser. There was always a Hec driving the truck. They were men of very few words, but when they did say something it meant a lot. It was clear I was never going to have many lines in the film.

From One Night Only to The Invite, a wave of new movies are a raunchy antidote to gen Z celibacy

The first alarm bells sounded nearly 10 years ago, and since then, a deluge of books, podcasts and roundtables has tried to get at the bottom of the problem: why is gen Z not having sex?

Recently it’s as though culture has been recalibrated to make up for the youth’s apparent frigidity. “Smut” literature is on the rise, prestige TV is now depicting OnlyFans models, and indie films have taken a turn towards kink. This summer, through confused young protagonists and their sexual misadventures, the movies are zeroing in on generational attitudes about sex.

Steam trains, horse-drawn trams and glorious coastal paths are all part of the adventure on a new self-guided walking tour of the island

On the shores of Douglas Bay, I could barely see the sand. Crammed on to the beach, on every available inch, were tourists bustling for the best spot. Luckily, I wasn’t there at the same time. I was looking at a black and white photograph taken some 135 years earlier, displayed in the Manx Museum in Douglas, the Isle of Man’s capital. When I’d stepped off the ferry earlier that day, the crescent-shaped beach was still there – but the crowds weren’t.

The self-governing British Crown dependency in the Irish Sea has always been a haven for outsiders. From the early hunter-gatherers who ventured here in 6500BC, to the Irish Celts (who brought over Christianity in the fifth century) and Vikings who established Tynwald (one of the oldest continuous parliaments in the world) to the Victorian tourists who transformed it into a popular holiday destination.

Something light, cooling and refreshing to finish a big summer meal

For me, the best desserts are often the simplest. In Spain, we often finish a meal with something light, something that refreshes rather than fills you up. This is exactly that. It has a lovely texture that sits somewhere between a drink and something you eat, and is perfect at the end of a long meal. It feels relaxed but still special, the kind of thing you enjoy on a warm day, when all you want is something fresh and uplifting.

Whether it’s expensive regrets or brilliant bargains, we celebrate the stars’ shopping secrets – and the products that tempted you

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Like snooping in someone else’s supermarket trolley, discovering other people’s shopping habits satisfies a certain nosiness. And never more so than when it comes to celebrities – there’s nothing more human than knowing Kim Cattrall loves fish and chips, or that Henry Holland is a Skims guy.

And as celebrities often have the inside track – or perhaps we just think they do – on everything from coffee machines to skincare, their recommendations in our biweekly How I Shop column have inspired more than a few of your own retail habits. In some cases, however, such as David Gandy’s £2,500 Cobra Fortis lawnmower, the price was a little too out of reach.

Whether you’ve got a tiny patio, a narrow balcony or a postage-stamp garden, these space-saving ideas will help you make every square metre count

• Gardening pros on the tools they can’t live without

The reality of city living is that if you’re lucky enough to have a “garden”, it’s more likely to be a patio or balcony that can barely fit a bike than a huge expanse of grass.

But just because an outside area is small and lifeless doesn’t mean it can’t be transformed into the perfect place to relax. Whether you use walls to add greenery, maximise outdoor dining with folding furniture or create ambience with lighting, your balcony or garden can be small but mighty with a bit of thought.

Creamy, high-protein and all over our socials, cottage cheese is having a moment. We test the best …

• The best supermarket vine tomatoes

When I was growing up, cottage cheese was tasteless and mostly only eaten by dieters. Its recent revival in the UK, most likely driven by social media, has similar health reasons at its root – the current protein obsession in gym bros and weight watchers alike – but cottage cheese has become cool. The flavourless squeaky varieties of yesteryear are still around, but a whole new category now exists on supermarket shelves that is unabashedly fatty, rich and full of flavour, with artisanal complexity and a lacto-fermented sour twang.

I scored these based on flavour; the more complex and sour, the better, especially when balanced with a rich, sweet and creamy suspension. None of these products were bitter.

Worried about microplastics? Whether it’s titanium pans or loose-leaf tea, here are the changes you can make right now

• The best sustainable subscriptions for greener, easier living

It all started with a black plastic spatula. When an article went viral in 2024 for suggesting we may be unwittingly infusing our food with harmful chemicals by using one, I, along with many I know, lobbed ours into the bin (without a backup in place, to the annoyance of my partner).

It later transpired that the study the article was based on had miscalculated the dosage by a factor of 10. UK regulations also limit certain hazardous substances in plastics, meaning that risks should be lower in this country. But alas, it was too late for our poor spatula.

A quick, takeaway-style chicken dish full of spice and flavour, with a homemade plum sauce, to serve with pancakes or rice

I have a real aversion to the term “fakeaway”. I don’t know why. But as much as I resist the terminology, I guess it’s exactly what this dish is – it’s 100% based on and inspired by a Chinese takeaway classic: crispy duck pancakes. A real people pleaser, and something my girls adore. Making this with pan-fried chicken takes next to no time and is the perfect after-school/work quick dinner. And for a different ending, I sometimes serve the chicken and plum sauce over jasmine rice instead. With the same accompaniments, of course.

A smoky tomato broth, a grilled peach, tomato and almond ‘ricotta’ salad scattered with roast almonds, and a sparky tomato tarte tatin

August is peak tomato season. This most versatile of fruits can be put to just about any use, from raw to slow-cooked and from oven- or sun-dried to desserts (believe it or not, they go incredibly well with summer berries, especially strawberries and raspberries). Not only that, but tomatoes have high glutamate levels that rise even further as they ripen, which gives them an umami kick. However you prepare them, though, the key thing is never to keep tomatoes in the fridge: the chill breaks down their cell structure and, even more importantly, affects their flavour in an alarming way.

Shokupan, fresh fruit sandwiches and soufflé pancakes are part of a growing interest in east Asian cuisine

Golden brown and glistening with melted butter, a tray of freshly baked bread fills the screen in a TikTok video. The camera lingers on the glossy tops before one bun is gently pulled apart, revealing a cloud-soft interior.

The clip is one of countless videos of Japanese milk buns that have racked up millions of views and thousands of comments and shares, helping to propel the pillowy rolls into UK supermarkets.

A free-form fruit tart that’s easy to throw together with whatever seasonal fruit you have to hand

The galette takes its name from the pebble it’s said to resemble – as Elizabeth David observes, it takes many forms, all of them round and flat. For me the word conjures the buckwheat pancakes of Brittany while French friends, in a quick straw poll, tend to think first of the frangipane-stuffed puff pastry galette de rois served at Epiphany, with one vote for a buttery Breton biscuit.

Ask the English-language internet, however, and you’ll be served what is more commonly known as a tart(e), more specifically a charmingly rustic, free-form version which doesn’t require a tin. Though Anne Willan references prune and apple three-tier galette pies from the Pyrenees in her 1981 classic French Regional Cooking, and David includes a yeasted version that sounds more like a cobbler in French Provincial Cooking, most fruit galette recipes I find seem to be American. My hunch is that Alice Waters’ tradition of a daily seasonal galette at Chez Panisse may have popularised the name across the pond, but the general idea never needed upselling. As a quick and easy way to turn a punnet of fruit into a dessert, it’s hard to beat, whatever you call it.

Public displays of affection are widely mocked online and off, but they have a positive side – and now science has proved it

Name: Kissing in public.

Age: Kissing is 17m-21m years old – probably older than the notion of privacy.

After being on the brink of divorce, Antonia and Rob have experienced a radical revival of their sex life

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

The perfect storm of work stress, menopause and raising kids meant our sex life slowly slipped out of view

Boone needed a home; my own dog needed company. When she picked him out at the shelter, all our lives took a turn for the better

After 30 years working in the RSPCA, I had seen animals in unimaginable conditions. I saw dogs who had been left unattended at home for so long they began chewing doors and drinking water out of toilet bowls. I saw animals who had been stamped, kicked and even stabbed. But nothing could prepare me for Boone’s situation.

Carson, the older of my two cocker spaniels, died in January. I could sense Bessie, an excitable bossy nine-year-old, was lonelier without him. They were both rescue animals. Carson was picked up by an RSPCA inspector and Bessie was abandoned at our local vet. Any dog I brought into our lives was a dog who needed a safe home.

Truman Capote had a ‘crow bro’; Dickens had a raven. And I get standoffish Susan, who has never brought me a present or perched on my shoulder

One of the greatest failures of my life to date (along with my sons’ shameful inability to eat apples correctly, down to the core) is my inability to attract a “crow bro”. That’s a corvid companion, and more and more people apparently have them, including Washington Post journalist Caitlin Gibson, who recently wrote about hers, Cormac, a charismatic fish crow with a taste for cashews.

It’s not a new phenomenon – Charles Dickens had a pet raven, Grip; Truman Capote had a crow called Lola – but thanks to CrowTok (a wholesome online enclave where people post enthusiastically about the exploits of their feathery familiars), there seem to be more corvid whisperers than ever. Yet however many unshelled peanuts (the recommended treat) I scatter, I can never seem to get a shred of attention from a black-feathered beauty.

Novel squat Android opens to an iPad-like screen for video or multitasking, with plenty of power and battery life

Samsung’s latest folding phone breaks the mould with a squat, passport-like shape reminiscent of the Blackberry, which opens up to become a tablet similar to an iPad mini. It is certainly a better shape for a tablet than other designs, but is a short and wide phone when closed a compromise too far?

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is an entirely new variant in Samsung’s foldable family for this year launched alongside the Z Fold 8 Ultra with a more familiar candy bar shape. Both folders are extremely expensive, with the Fold 8 starting at £1,699 (€1,999/$1,899.99/A$2,699) and the Fold 8 Ultra at £1,899 (€2,199/$2,099.99/A$2,999), with RAMageddon driving up prices even at the top of the market.

A leak beneath our fridge-freezer last winter caused extensive damage but there’s still no functioning kitchen

Eight months after reporting a leak to our home insurer, Hastings Direct, my husband and I and our two-year-old are still effectively homeless.

Last winter, we discovered that an unnoticed leak beneath our fitted fridge-freezer had caused extensive damage to the floorboards of our kitchen/living room.

From a house in the country once used as a drovers’ inn to a high street landmark in a bustling part of London

Many UK workers have cash in multiple schemes – should you roll them into one? There are pros and cons

How many pensions do you have? In the days of a job for life, many people had just two: the state pension and the one offered by their employer. But a combination of people changing jobs more often and rules that force employers to enrol workers into schemes automatically, means you are likely to end up with more.

The number of people saving into a private sector workplace pension has doubled since 2012 to reach 23 million, according to the Pensions Regulator, largely because of “auto-enrolment”. On top of that, millions of people have personal pensions and self-invested private pensions (Sipps). And some will have all three.

Darren Miles had skateboarded all his life. But in his 50s, he realised he was losing his skills and flexibility. So he took it in a new direction

Darren Miles never thought he would compete in any sport for Britain. But in October, he will represent Great Britain in slalom skateboarding – a form of downhill racing – at the World Skate Games in Paraguay. Last week, he completed his World Anti-Doping Agency awareness training. He had to tick a box confirming: “I’m an international athlete.”

“Justification” is the word that comes to mind, he says. “A feeling that I haven’t wasted my life skateboarding, that diverging into something new” – he took up slalom in his late 50s – “and working hard at it has yielded a result of which I am very proud.”

The imaging test is most often used to help determine a person’s risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures

DXA – or sometimes DEXA – scans are important for people in their 60s and above. They are also increasingly used by younger people interested in body composition.

A DXA – dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry – scan is an imaging test that uses low-dose X-rays to evaluate a person’s bone health, explains Dr Michael Perry, associate professor of radiology and medical imaging at the University of Virginia’s school of medicine. Most often, DXA scans are used to measure the strength and mineral content of an individual’s bones. This in turn helps determine that person’s risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures.

A good scalp cleanse can be useful, but it partly depends where you live

We’re experiencing the “skinification” of the scalp, says Desmond Tobin, professor of dermatological science at University College Dublin. After decades of consumer obsession with improving the quality of facial skin, attention is now being turned to our heads.

A wave of products have launched – from scalp scrubs and acid exfoliants to deep-cleaning shampoos – claiming to “detox” the scalp and promising everything from shinier hair to boosted growth.

Madeleine Finlay is joined by Ian Sample, Guardian science editor, to discuss three eye-catching science stories including an investigation that has identified four distinct types of thinker. Also on the agenda is the unprecedented cyclosporiasis outbreak in the US which has now been linked to two fatalities, and the funding cuts that threaten the iconic Jodrell Bank world heritage site, home to the Lovell telescope

Bold colours are out and short, (seemingly) bare nails in, but some see trend as part of criticised ‘clean girl aesthetic’

Trends at Copenhagen fashion week are usually easy to spot. The so-called “fifth fashion week”, a laidback sibling to the other four main fashion cities, has previously popularised everything from romantic floaty dresses with practical trainers to giant hair scrunchies. But during its latest iteration that wrapped up on Friday, a much more subtle trend had emerged – naked nails.

From the models on the catwalks to show-goers and passersby, fingers and toes featured short and unvarnished nails. The trend is a sharp shift away from the long, bright and glossy mani/pedis that have more recently dominated beauty standards.

From leggings that don’t roll down to bras that keep everything in, keen amateur cyclists, weightlifters and swimmers reveal the bits of kit they can’t do without

What is the perfect sports kit? That is the question we set out to answer, talking to sport and fitness enthusiasts all over the country. From Zumba dancers in Bristol to marathon runners in Leeds and gym bunnies in Thurrock, we asked different groups for the activewear they swear by and why it works for them.

Sea swimmers in Felixstowe had conflicting views about wetsuits, but all swore by brightly coloured tow floats and swim caps. Boxers in east London were united on the best kind of glove, but had different takes on clothing choices. Cyclists in the Wirral had differing levels of bike-collecting addiction, but agreed on the benefits of being Mamil (middle-aged men in Lycra).

From Dua Lipa to Zendaya, the kerchief worn by gang members, presidents and pirates has become ‘mad-glamorous’

Baseball caps have been keeping the heads of fashion folk covered and shaded for the past few years. But there’s a new accessory to be seen everywhere this summer: the bandana.

They are as common as cinnamon buns at Copenhagen fashion week, which is taking place in the Danish capital this week. They have also recently been worn by Dua Lipa to the beach, Zendaya to shop for books and Priyanka Chopra Jonas to watch the tennis at Wimbledon.

From olive to lime to mint, green trousers are a nice summer alternative to darker colours. Style them like jeans and they’ll work easily with pieces you already own

The spa town of Balatonfüred is a bucolic gem for sailors, hikers … and wine lovers. A new hop-on, hop-off bus tour offers a chance to get a taste of its little-known wineries

The 90-minute train journey south-west from Budapest to the spa town of Balatonfüred unveils a landscape that segues from gritty industrial compounds to long sweeps of golden sunflowers and fields of pale grain. The carriage is pleasingly retro, with thick velour upholstery; windows that open, awkwardly, with a stiff metal lever; and a bushy eyebrowed conductor replete with ticket machine slung over his shoulder.

But the real retromania is yet to come. Arriving at Balatonfüred station, I board a 1984 DAF bus, painted an almost audacious shade of green. From the open-air rear, I take in the view over Lake Balaton, central Europe’s largest freshwater lake, often referred to as the “Hungarian Sea”.

From the source to the sea, our writers share their favourite ways to immerse themselves in nature by paddleboarding, canoeing, camping, walking and fishing

It’s early afternoon on an unusually hot and sunny Yorkshire day. I’m standing on my paddleboard on the tidal section of the River Esk, near Whitby’s New Bridge, as cars stream across. The 28-mile-long Esk is special, as it is the only major river in Yorkshire that flows directly into the North Sea.

You don’t have to be a sailor to cruise the estuaries of Essex on this historic craft. The skipper will show you the ropes – or just sit back and enjoy the ride

In a darkened room in Maldon, Essex, a ship’s lantern illuminates the laundry drying on a web of ropes suspended from the ceiling. Between piles of sailing memorabilia, 86-year-old Barry Pearce is flipping through a yellowing logbook, watched by his mongrel, Winkle. It feels more like a ship’s cabin than a terrace house. Pearce is one of a handful of surviving skippers who delivered freight on the Thames by sailing barge, the flat-bottomed trading boats famous for their striking red sails that were endemic to the river’s estuary until the 1960s. He remembers the names of every vessel he worked on – Remercie, Edith May, Colonia.

In the 19th century, the ochre sails of thousands of Thames sailing barges pierced the skyline as the craft carried cargo from the Thames estuary and beyond in and out of London. Their shallow draft allowed them to snake far upriver in as little as a metre of water (bargemen would boast that they could sail anywhere there had been a heavy dew). Their ingenious rig, with sails that could be set and stowed with the help of winches, meant around 150 tonnes of cargo could be shifted by just a skipper and mate – often accompanied by a guard dog. This efficiency allowed them to outlive all other commercial sailing vessels, surviving until the 1960s, when Pearce himself took the helm.

Our rivers may be running low at the moment, but they still offer an abundance of adventure and nature to explore. Here are your favourites, from the Tees to the Shannon

• Tell us about a favourite holiday in the UK – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

Last summer, I enjoyed a six-mile walk along the fast-flowing River Wharfe from Ilkley to Bolton Abbey, with calming vistas of the Yorkshire Dales every step of the way. I set out at Ilkley’s Riverside Gardens on the south bank, near the remains of a Roman fort. Trace the path to the ancient stone bridge and along to the picturesque village of Addingham with its Low Mill weir and views of late bronze age or early iron age Castleberg fort. Simply carry on hugging the riverbank to the splendid remains of 12th-century monastery of Bolton Abbey, situated in wonderful woods and parkland.
Helen

This is one of those rare homemade concoctions that works, though it might not outperform a good commercial product

The problem
Propagation is where good intentions go to die. You take a cutting, pop it in water and wait. Sometimes you are rewarded with roots, sometimes not. So the internet offers an organic aid that sounds almost too folkloric to be true: brew your own rooting hormone from a willow tree.

The hack
Willow contains indolebutyric acid, auxin (a plant hormone that is the main active ingredient in commercial rooting powders), along with salicylic acid, better known as the basis of aspirin.

I loved the business of selling toys – it felt like I was selling joy. But my least favourite part was the gendered language

I was 15 when I landed my job at Toys R Us. Before that, my first job was a one-month stint at the local fish and chip shop, where I was paid in $20 bills slotted into Chiko roll packets. After a burn on my forearm (I still have it), I left the gig. That was the end of my hospitality career.

This was 2014. I knew my strengths and weaknesses; I was no good with deep-fry baskets or carrying more than one thing in each hand. I wanted to work in the hallowed halls of retail.

The former Leeds and Burnley defender has struggled with his mental health for most of his life. But it took five suicide attempts for him to admit how badly he wanted to end it. He talks about how he turned the corner – and his hopes for his new post with the charity Mind

‘How are you?” I ask Clarke Carlisle. Usually when you meet people it’s a nicety. Not with Carlisle. He smiles ecstatically. “I’m incredibly well, thank you. Yeah, really, really good,” says the former footballer and incoming chair of the mental health charity Mind. “I have been consistently well – not just stable, but well – for three or four years now.”

Few people understand what it is to be mentally unwell quite like Carlisle does. And few understand what recovery means like he does. “It doesn’t happen by accident. Once you get stable that’s not the end of the journey. And that seems to be the MO of our society these days. You do something, you go into hospital and they patch you up, then send you on your way. And that’s the same with mental health. You might get some pills, have a counselling session, you might have a hug and a chat with someone, and they think that’s the end of the journey. And it’s not.”

Domestic dramas, bodily fluids, drink, drugs, rudeness and worse … ushers and box office staff have seen it all. So much for the myth of the ‘genteel’ theatregoer

‘Theatre still has a sheen of respectability, so people feel they can behave badly because where they are cancels out how dreadful they are being,” says John, who has been a box office manager for 15 years. From my early 20s to my mid-30s, I too worked in the box office, at some of London’s top theatres. During my decade in the job, I witnessed audience behaviour ranging from the odd and the outrageous to the outright belligerent. If you are under any illusion that theatre audiences are classy, allow my former colleagues to disabuse you of that notion.

The misuse of phones is one of the most common offences. In April, Cynthia Erivo stopped her one-woman West End production of Dracula mid-performance to urge an audience member to stop filming. Former Love Island winner Amber Davies, starring in a tour of Legally Blonde, last month asked staff to kick out an audience member who was filming the performance from the front row of a Dublin theatre. And in May, Rosamund Pike spotted an audience member texting during the climax of her performance in Inter Alia. After the curtain call, Pike returned to the stage and shamed the behaviour, without singling out the culprit. Part of me hoped that, like a teacher, she would make the individual in question read their texts out to the rest of the theatre.

The prime minister is promising to crack down on ‘rip-off’ business practices

Andy Burnham has announced he will ban fake discounts and make it easier to cancel unwanted subscriptions in an effort to improve life for UK consumers.

In the long run, these so-called “everyday fixes” may not make as much difference to your wealth as increasing mandatory contributions on pensions or capping rents, but they will get rid of some day-to-day frustrations. Here are six other things he could fix while he is in the mood:

Only spending outlet for man accused of helping to control a third of Europe’s cocaine supply will be prison tuck shop

It sounds like the penal equivalent of five stars: a private gym and library, daily outings to the exercise yard and a landing cleared of other prisoners.

Daniel Kinahan’s first full day inside the walls of Portlaoise prison on Monday, however, marked a drastic change from his luxury lifestyle in the United Arab Emirates.

Have you - or a child in your care - been filmed by Meta’s smartglasses without your consent? We would like to hear from you

With more than 7m pairs reportedly sold in 2025, it’s clear that the popularity of Meta’s smartglasses is on the rise.

And while they can transform the lives of some people, for example those with visual impairments, others have raised concern about nonconsensual filming - including of children.

Have you - or a child in your care - been filmed by Meta’s smartglasses without your consent? We would like to hear from you if so.

If you’re having trouble using the form click here. Read terms of service here and privacy policy here.

We would like to hear your favourite true crime TV documentary and why

From OJ: Made in America to Tiger King, the Guardian has compiled TV’s best true crime shows. Now, we would like to hear yours. What is your favourite true crime TV documentary and why?

If you’re having trouble using the form click here. Read terms of service here and privacy policy here.

We would like to hear from people for whom the film has increased their interest in poetry or classics in general

UK poetry sales are on course to reach a record high this year, thanks to the success of Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey.

We would like to hear from people for whom the film has piqued their interest in Homer’s poetry. Has it led to a greater interest in classics or poetry in general? Tell us below.

How long did you have to wait? Perhaps you are in a queue now. Tell us your experience

Long queues and waiting times caused by the EU Entry-Exit System (EES) are starting to deter people from travelling, ACI Europe, Europe’s airport trade body, has said.

ACI Europe director general Olivier Jankovec told Travel Weekly that fixing the Schengen Entry-Exit System must be “Europe’s immediate priority”.

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