What’s it like to catch a gig so great it goes down in history? Our writers relive incredible performances by everyone from Amy Winehouse at the North Sea jazz festival to Kanye West at Glastonbury

Talking Heads, the Rock Garden, London, 13 May 1977

From the World Cup fan park in Manchester, supporters cheer through the night as England beat Mexico to advance to the quarter-finals

Manchester is up there with the greatest footballing cities in the world. But even here, the fans had hardly seen a game like it.

In the early hours of Monday morning, at Europe’s biggest World Cup fan park, as the final whistle blew after an agonising 11 minutes of injury time, the crowd cheered with a roar loud enough to wake anyone in Manchester still asleep.

Quite aside from all the convolutions, it’s clear the government is ignorant of the reality for young people like me hoping to get on the property ladder

I need to talk about money. Specifically my finances and trying to buy a house as a young person. I hope you’ll forgive me if I sound like I don’t know what I’m talking about, but that’s because I’m going to try to make sense of the government’s reforms to personal savings accounts, known as Isas.

These products have become significantly overcomplicated in recent years, with the government continually refreshing what were conceived of as simple tax-free savings accounts with new rules, allowances, products and age restrictions. I’m not alone in feeling overwhelmed and frustrated. As the deputy money editor of the i newspaper, Callum Mason, put it: “It’s hard enough to understand if you cover money for a living – I don’t know how the general public is supposed to do so.”

Jason Okundaye is a Guardian Opinion assistant editor

The actor spent almost a decade fighting monsters – and making friends – on the hit Netflix show. Then, last year, it all came to an end. How’s he adjusting?

Finn Wolfhard is remembering his first experience of celebrity. It was 2016 and he was 13. The first season of Stranger Things had aired that summer, and he returned to his high school in Vancouver as if nothing had changed. But things had changed. “People didn’t know how to treat me, especially the teachers. Kids that didn’t even look at me before were paying attention to me or wanting to hang out.” He remembers a girl in the year above who really wanted a photo with him. “And I was like: ‘Oh, I can’t really take photos at school.’ And she wasn’t listening to me and pulled me into, like, a side hug. I remember thinking: ‘Shit, man. I have no control over this. This seems crazy.’ So, it was definitely weird at first, and something I still haven’t totally grasped.”

How strange it must be to have spent such a large part of your life playing a character that half the world knows, and has watched grow up on screen, turning from a wide-eyed, gawky, nerdy kid to a sharp-cheekboned (but still quite gawky) action hero. Nobody could have predicted how huge Stranger Things would become or how long it would last, fuelled by popular demand, then stalled by the pandemic. It concluded a decade later, at the end of last year, having reached the point where it was no longer sustainable for twentysomethings like Wolfhard to pass as high schoolers.

Race to develop ‘embodied AI’ focuses on creating dextrous hands to transform humanoid robots from gimmicks into useful products

Human hands – nimble, nerve-filled appendages that are the most flexible part of the human skeleton – are exceptionally complex. Many tasks that most people can do largely without thinking, from tying a pair of shoelaces to buttoning up a shirt, in fact require a complex set of neurological instructions and precise choreography. In thousands of years of human history, no machine has been able to truly replicate human’s greatest tool.

But now, as artificial intelligence (AI) races forwards, some companies think they are close to surpassing this final but most difficult hurdle in robotics. Most of them are in China.

Little-known abroad, Andy Burnham has a chance to define a new era of US-UK relations. Should he seek to charm or bargain with the bully in the White House – or treat him ‘like a poorly informed constituent’?

If, as expected, Andy Burnham becomes the British prime minister later this month, one of his first telephone calls is likely to be with Donald Trump.

Trump’s mother was Scottish and he has a nostalgic fascination with Britain. But managing a relationship with the erratic, transactional and demanding US president has been a diplomatic minefield for Burnham’s predecessors.

File it as England’s finest World Cup knockout phase victory since 1966. There have not been a huge number of them; only nine previously, each a gripping drama in its own right. Yet it was the context of this one that set it apart.

England stepped into the mayhem of the Estadio Azteca, a venue that contains a very particular ghost for them, to face the full force of the Mexican nation. Plus a team that almost never lose here. Javier Aguirre’s men brought flawless form to the showpiece; four wins out of four so far at the tournament; their tournament. It was the co-hosts’ grand send-off from their own turf, arguably the biggest game in their history. An unofficial final for them.

Exclusive: Government and developers privately acknowledged Lanarkshire datacentre site had power provision ‘issue’

• ‘It’s smoke and mirrors’: hope turns to fear in Scottish village chosen for AI datacentre

• What are Britain’s AI growth zones and are the plans feasible or ‘complete bunk’?

A landmark AI development billed as delivering jobs and prosperity has misrepresented its plans to channel a nuclear reactor’s worth of power to a site in rural Scotland, a Guardian investigation has found.

When it was announced in January, the government promised that an £8.2bn AI datacentre complex in Lanarkshire – built by the US firm CoreWeave and the Scottish company DataVita – would be powered entirely from on-site renewables and built by 2030.

Reform UK leader claims he is victim of ‘hit job’ as parliamentary standards commissioner investigates £5m donation

Victims of rape and sexual assault across England and Wales who face having their cases dropped will have the right to ask for a review before a final decision is made, the Press Association reports. PA says:

The early victims’ right to review (VRR) is being expanded across the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) after successful pilot schemes, giving a “second chance at justice” where a case might otherwise be dropped.

The rollout means victims of sexual offences will be able to challenge proposals to halt a prosecution before an irreversible decision to offer no evidence is made.

US ambassador to Nato has called for all allies who are ‘lagging behind’ to step up immediately

Keir Starmer is likely to face a diplomatic row at his final major international summit this week after Washington’s ambassador to Nato called for alliance members who are “lagging behind” on defence spending to step up.

The prime minister is due to arrive in Ankara on Tuesday for the annual Nato summit, where the UK commitment will be under scrutiny following the release of the government’s defence investment plan (Dip) last week.

Crowds swelled through Tehran as mourners dressed in black carried flags proclaiming: ‘We will rise’

A crowd of millions assembled on Monday for the funeral procession of Iran’s assassinated supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.

The scale and depth of the march, however engineered, represents an extraordinary turnaround for a country that only seven months ago was gripped by street protests at which thousands of people were killed by government security forces. Many will say the assembly was a monument to a misconceived war launched on Iran by Donald Trump in February.

• Decision is ‘incomprehensible and unjustifiable’

• Belgium appeal striker’s availability for last-16 tie

Uefa has hit out at Fifa’s decision to lift USA striker Folarin Balogun’s suspension for Monday’s last-16 tie with Belgium, describing the move as “incomprehensible and unjustifiable” and accusing world football’s governing of crossing “a red line”.

Europe’s governing body made no bones over their opposition to the shock call, one Belgium have been granted an appeal against. There are no guarantees, however, over when that decision will be made or whether Fifa’s reasoning for lifting Balogun’s’ suspension will be made public.

Ukraine’s president makes plea ahead of summit this week in Ankara as strikes leave 117 injured in capital city

in Kyiv

Back to Ukraine, the country hopes to sign major defence deals with at least seven Nato countries by the end of the year, according to a top official, highlighting a new aspect of Kyiv’s foreign policy intended to show it can be a provider as well as a recipient of military hardware and expertise.

Tour de France spectator ban as country along with Spain, Portugal and Greece faces ‘powder keg’ after heatwave

• Europe live – latest updates

Wildfires raging across southern Europe have forced thousands to flee their homes and prompted officials to ban spectators from a stage of the Tour de France, amid warnings of “powder keg” conditions after a record-breaking early summer heatwave.

Hundreds of firefighters are tackling blazes that have burned through almost 20,000 hectares (49,500 acres) in Portugal, Spain, France and Greece. Strong winds are forecast to fan the flames and temperatures are expected to rise again this week.

Firm reportedly felt it was in public interest to test alibi offered by former duke after Virginia Giuffre accusation

Pizza Express held an internal inquiry to investigate Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s visit to its Woking branch, as he claimed he did on the day he was alleged to have had sex with a teenage victim of Jeffrey Epstein 20 miles away in central London, it has been reported.

According to sources who spoke to the BBC, senior management at the restaurant chain held the investigation because they felt it was in the public interest to test the alibi the former Duke of York had offered. The broadcaster reported that the company had found neither evidence he had been to the restaurant in Surrey, nor evidence to definitively say he had not.

Axel Springer boss has ‘bold vision’ for the media group, but identifying a gap is no guarantee of stateside success

As he addressed staff at the London headquarters of the Telegraph Media Group last week, Mathias Döpfner, the German chief executive of Axel Springer and latest proprietor of the most traditional of conservative British newspapers, referred to his company’s decades-long pursuit of the venerable titles.

As staff nibbled Axel Springer-embossed biscuits, Döpfner also exchanged some distinctly European ribbing with the Daily Telegraph’s editor, Chris Evans, about Germany’s World Cup exit. However, it was clear to all that Döpfner’s ambitions for the titles were focused on another country and another continent.

The men, who drugged and secretly filmed their victims, were members of an online gang targeting mainly women of Chinese heritage

Early last year, Ivy*, a Chinese student living in Germany, got a phone call from the police. At first, she thought it was a scam. An officer said they needed her help with an investigation involving someone she once knew. What followed turned her world upside down.

The police told her that her former boyfriend, identified in court documents as Tong Z, had been investigated for sexual assault and covert photography. Then came the tougher blow: police showed her a number of nude photos Tong Z had secretly taken of her while she was asleep. Ivy, now 27, recognised herself, though she had no memory of the moment.

Climate crisis and warming waters have attracted long-toothed pufferfish to new parts of the Mediterranean

From his deckchair, his arms thrown above his head, his feet sliding back and forth in the sand, Pavlos Beleyiannis watches his grandchildren bathe in his favourite bay. It’s an idyllic scene, infused with a serenity that the newly retired truck driver attributes squarely to a sense of security.

For the first time, a floating barrier has been installed across the bay. Ducking, splashing and larking about, the children have not ventured beyond it. “Thank god it’s there to protect them,” he says with evident relief. “There weren’t such dangers in these seas when I was a child.”

As the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum turns 50, an expansive exhibition celebrates how art has coincided with space

Wearing a shiny silver spacesuit, Alan Shepard clutches his helmet and looks like an archetypal blue-eyed American hero. The 1961 portrait by Bruce Stevenson paid tribute to the first US astronaut in space. It also planted a seed.

James Webb, the then administrator of Nasa, saw the painting and was inspired to start the space agency’s own art programme, believing that artists could bring a unique perspective to exploring the cosmos. From 1962 to 1974 it was led by James Dean, who then became the first art curator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington.

I used to think my phone helped me to relax. But setting strict limits on my usage has improved my mood and my relationships

I am a psychotherapist who works with frazzled, snappy parents, and spend my days writing about why we struggle to find calm. I also used to pick up my phone hundreds of times a day, failing to realise that it was making me a snappier, more irritable, less present mother.

My phone was my office, my income, my means of communication. Every time I checked it, there was something to action, a notification of something new, something that told me I was useful and productive, giving me dopamine hits that motherhood didn’t offer. It had become my coping mechanism.

This new panel show from Romesh Ranganathan’s production company features comics airing their worst opinions – and it feels completely unnecessary

‘You know who we don’t see enough of on British TV? Romesh Ranganathan,” said no one ever. That’s not meant as a slight to the man – who this year has hosted programmes for the BBC, Amazon and Sky, recorded another run of Parents’ Evening for ITV and is to appear on The Celebrity Traitors – but he truly is inescapable. There is an obvious reason for his cameo on this new comedy panel show, which is that it is made for TLC by his production company Ranga Bee. And what an appearance it is. If you have ever wanted to see Ranganathan go full misanthrope and refuse to give an exhausted NHS midwife £500 because the royal family needs it more, then roll up: you’re in the right place.

Unacceptable is – for reasons that aren’t totally clear – a panel show in which comedians defend their worst opinions in front of a studio audience, who are unlikely to agree with their horrible (and horribly confected) views. Ed Gamble hosts, putting in a typically professional stint, but then again Gamble is as unflappable as Ranganathan is ubiquitous, a whirlwind of sarcastic ad libs and hairspray.

My daughter’s scruffy little pet would fall asleep with me on the sofa, stilling my racing mind. And then he changed my life in an even more significant way …

I never wanted a hamster. My eight-year-old daughter, Lily, on the other hand, had folders. Habitat drawings and wheel specifications – a case for ownership of such rigour it bowled me over. As a boy I’d had a hamster, Jerry, and remembered him as fine – but nothing more than that. So I went to a Cardiff pet shop on a cold January morning in 2021 with no plan whatsoever to fall in love.

At the back of the enclosure was a scruffy one nobody else wanted. Skinny. A bit unkempt. When the staff member lifted him out, he yawned and looked at Lily as if he’d been expecting her. She named him Popcorn Sushi and took him home in a pink carrier.

Yes, digesting food requires energy, but you need to do more than snack for a meaningful impact

It helps to understand what people mean when they talk about “metabolism”, says James Betts, professor of metabolic physiology at the University of Bath. Usually, they’re referring to metabolic rate; the amount of energy your body burns in a given time. This is largely determined by factors such as your size, age, sex and body composition.

Your daily energy expenditure comes from three main sources: your resting metabolism (the energy needed to keep your organs and tissues functioning), the calories burned processing food, and physical activity. Of those, exercise and movement are by far the most variable.

A reminder of Steven Spielberg’s prowess and speed in the latest in our series of writers highlighting their go-to comfort watches

Steven Spielberg was never much of a radical. While Francis Ford Coppola made Apocalypse Now and even George Lucas attacked the Vietnam war with Star Wars, the nervy new Hollywood hotshot was more interested in moviemaking’s toys than its politics. In Peter Biskind’s bestselling book of Tinseltown gossip, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, the actor Kit Carson remembers running into Spielberg at a party when the tumult of an eventful 1968 presidential campaign was at fever pitch. “Everybody was up,” Carson remembered. “The revolution was about to happen.” All the young director wanted to talk about was how to get a shot while throwing a camera off a roof.

In the end, it took him 40 years to produce his own broadside against the US foreign policy of his youth. In uncharacteristically political style, he spent most of it drawing parallels to the then current resident of the White House.

⚽️ World Cup news and reaction as the last 16 continues
⚽️ Mexico 2-3 England | Player guide | And email us

We haven’t even mentioned Balogun-gate yet. The Belgian FA, and you can assume a large proportion of the football world, has been left “astonished” by Fifa’s decision after lobbying by Donald Trump to reverse the suspension given to the striker for his red card in the team’s win over Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is now free to play in the last-16 game against Belgium.

Sources have told the Guardian that Trump made three calls to Fifa, starting from Wednesday, to ensure that the change was made.

• Unused substitute Henderson fell over advertising board

• Midfielder given oxygen and taken to hospital

A historic night for England as they beat Mexico 3-2 in their World Cup last-16 tie was soured by an injury suffered by Jordan Henderson from falling over an advertising board in the post-match celebrations. The former Liverpool captain, who was an unused substitute, has been taken to hospital with a wrist injury that puts his participation in the rest of the tournament at risk.

Shortly after the full-time whistle, as England’s players went to celebrate in front of their fans, medical staff were seen rushing to the vicinity. Henderson was given oxygen and carried off on a stretcher.

In pushing Fifa to reverse Folarin Balogun’s suspension, the president did the most American thing possible: assert unasked-for power to get his way

The story of Garrincha’s red card in the 1962 World Cup is the stuff of legend. The Brazilian great was sent off in the semifinals for lashing out at an opponent, but back then, Fifa had no automatic one-match suspension in place. So a disciplinary committee convened the next day to decide his fate for the final.

As the story goes, the assistant referee who had the best view of the offense was paid off and disappeared, and the president of Chile, the tournament’s host, put in a call to Fifa, urging them to decide against any additional suspension. He did so for the sake of keeping one of the tournament’s most entertaining players on the field. Garrincha emerged scot-free, and Brazil won their second World Cup days later.

• Coach calls it ‘greatest day’ in country’s football history

• Neymar appears to announce Brazil retirement

Ståle Solbakken called it “the greatest day in Norwegian football history” while Erling Haaland labelled it one of “the sickest”. One thing is for certain, however: Norway are through to the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time after deservedly beating Brazil.

A late double from Haaland decided the contest, with the final score 2-1, and immediately caused chaos back home. Tens of thousands took to the streets of Oslo in the early hours to celebrate, including an impromptu gathering at the royal palace, where fans were greeted by Crown Prince ‌Haakon, who was wearing a Norway scarf.

The 29-year-old forward always avoided attention, but his World Cup goals have dragged him into the centre of the conversation

We have to talk about Mikel Oyarzabal. When Spain scored their third goal against Austria in Los Angeles, cameras caught Lamine Yamal’s little brother celebrating, fists clenched and shouting “come on!”. The picture couldn’t have been more perfect, and not just because Keyne is impossibly cute. Even the apparent imperfection was just right. On the row below, clapping and half-hiding the three-year-old, was a woman in sunglasses, prompting a Spanish TV commentator to post: “The blonde in front has denied us the best sticker of all time.” To which the striker Borja Iglesias replied: “The blonde in front has given you two goals today, my friend.”

Turns out the blonde woman is Oyarzabal’s mum: her name is Dorleta and it was her son who had just scored his second goal of the game and his fourth of the tournament. Two days later, after the Selección had finished their first training session in Dallas, Marca asked Oyarzabal if he had seen the footage.

Andy Burnham’s rise has stoked talk of the terms for a future British return – but this is the wrong question

The question of the UK’s relationship with the EU has resurfaced with Keir Starmer’s premiership drawing to a close and Andy Burnham, his likely successor, preparing to enter No 10. Wes Streeting, until recently one of the contenders for the top job and now a possible future chancellor of the exchequer, went as far as to say recently that Britain should be back in the EU.

The “rejoin” debate in the UK has focused squarely and, parochially, on two things. The first is the cost imposed by Brexit on the UK economy, the second is the price of rejoining – in other words, whether the UK would be able to win back its previous opt-outs from the Euro and Schengen areas.

Mujtaba Rahman is the managing director for Europe at Eurasia Group, a political risk research and consulting firm

Mohammad was shot after going to play football – and we joined the 54 families in the occupied West Bank whose children were killed by Israel in 2025 alone

My name is Aliyah Abdel Majid al-Halaq. I am 33 years old, from the village of ar-Rihiya, south of Hebron, and the mother of five children. My eldest daughter, Mais, is 14. My youngest son, Elias, is five. Between them was my beloved nine-year-old son, Mohammad.

I always knew that life under occupation was built on violence, humiliation and fear. No Palestinian mother needs to be taught that. Still, I tried to protect my children from the full weight of that truth. I told myself that the poverty we lived in was the greatest hardship we had to endure; that patience would carry us through; that despite everything, our children could still grow up happy. On 16 October 2025, the day the Israeli army killed Mohammad, even that fragile belief was taken from me. I understood then that occupation does not only take land, freedom or dignity. It takes away something even more fundamental: a parent’s certainty that her child will come home. It turns every Palestinian mother into someone who lives in constant anticipation of loss.

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 a review highlights leadership deficiencies, we see the need for improvement. But being dragged into polarised debates doesn’t help

• Matt Jukes is deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan police

• ‘Nepotism and bias’ rife in England and Wales police leadership, report finds

It has become almost impossible to discuss policing today without someone trying to place it on one side of a political argument or another. Depending on who is speaking, policing is either “too woke” or not progressive enough. Police leaders are criticised for doing too much, then criticised for doing too little.

This can become a distraction from the question that really matters: are we building a police service capable of protecting the public, treating people fairly and keeping communities safe?

Matt Jukes is deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan police

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

I love gardening, hate cooking. After five years learning how to grow fruit and veg, I’m now stuck with, well, a load of fruit and veg. Can I get my own tradwife to make them edible?

I’ve spent much of the last week picking, then sorting through berries, making, straining and freezing various compotes and conserves, washing and batch-cooking chard and spinach, podding and shelling broad beans. I’m not having a granny summer, a Sydney Sweeney summer or a nun girl summer (all of which I’ve seen suggested as themes for 2026); I’m having a tradwife summer. It’s basically Ballerina Farm here, without the rosy-cheeked, tousle-haired children, raw milk or plane-company-heir husband – and my tomatoes aren’t even ripe yet.

It’s taken me five years as the genuinely grateful, happy guardian of a garden to fully appreciate the issue with growing fruit and vegetables: once you’ve done it, you have lots of fruit and vegetables. I understand that’s a privilege, not a problem – and indeed, the whole point of the enterprise. And some produce is pure, easy pleasure: strawberries and raspberries, mangetout and lettuce (at least if, like me, you accept the occasional surprise protein bonus in your salad, thanks to slapdash washing). But other stuff that thrives here requires prepping and cooking to be edible, and with my family and friends dodging my calls offering my various gluts, I find myself resignedly donning an apron and doing what I imagine my ancestors spent centuries wishing they could avoid.

The president has made dangerous inroads in his push toward autocracy. Yet the prospects for his success are dimming

How do we commemorate America’s democracy as Donald Trump undermines it? By embracing his opposition. The United States was founded by breaking from a monarchy. Trump wants to become king. An imperfect yet powerful system of checks and balances is being deployed to prevent him. The resistance is worth celebrating.

This is hardly the first challenge to US democracy. The early nation had no rights for Black people and no vote for women. It survived Jim Crow, the McCarthy era, and the “war on terror”. Yet there is no denying the seriousness of the threat posed by Trump.

New analysis by the Guardian has revealed the disturbing extent of these firms’ influence in highly sensitive areas

Children’s homes and care placements are not ordinary commodities. Yet Britain has allowed some of its most sensitive public services to become assets in private equity portfolios: bought, loaded with debt, restructured and sold, while the state continues to fund the contracts and vulnerable people carry the risk when things go wrong.

Private equity’s role in public services is not notional. The year after Compass Community was sold by its owner, Graphite Capital, to another private equity group, Cap10, the poor state of some of its children’s homes was made plain by Ofsted reports. Inspectors who visited two homes in England – which had previously been rated good and outstanding – found “high levels of distress” and staff as well as children feeling unsafe. Cap10 denies that standards fell following the change of ownership.

Polling shows that the public supports this new technology, but the conversation must move beyond simple questions of safety

Ever since Crispr-Cas9 gene-editing technology emerged in the early 2010s, ethical questions around genetically altered humans, so-called designer babies, have become increasingly urgent. There is already a worldwide legal prohibition. No country currently allows human germline editing (meaning genetic changes to an embryo that could also be passed on to its children), and 70 have laws against it, including the UK. But a series of recent discoveries and a new poll suggest that scientists and the public believe gene-edited humans are likely – even desirable – in the near future.

Two new studies use base editing – a more precise next-generation Crispr tool – on human embryos to study early development or disease (this research is legal in the UK and US as long as the embryos are destroyed within 14 days). The lead author of one study, Dieter Egli, said that the technology wasn’t yet ready for the clinic, but the advances would “guide responsible research to achieve its ultimate safe and effective use”. This encapsulates the view of many scientists, who believe the regulated use of germline editing to eradicate hereditary conditions is inevitable, and the main objection is around safety.

Daughne Taylor and John Marriott respond to the prospective new prime minister’s 10-year proposal to cede more power to regions and communities

Andy Burnham’s flagship promise to devolve power to the local level will not apply to the NHS if the current health bill passes into law in its present form (Andy Burnham to pledge ‘good growth in every postcode’ in devolution plan, 28 June).

Currently, NHS foundation trusts have a statutory duty to have a council of governors. These are unpaid volunteers, democratically elected from the public and staff. They exist independent of NHS management to represent local views, and they hold the vital power to appoint the chair of the trust.

However, the current health bill will remove this requirement. Under these proposals, local trusts will effectively be allowed to “mark their own homework”, while trust chairs will be appointed centrally from Whitehall. This is the absolute antithesis of Burnham’s devolution proposals.

Instead of centralisation, all trusts should have a statutory council of governors. By moving to a locally selected model rather than an elected one, this system would be significantly cheaper to run. These bodies must remain independent of NHS management, represent the public and staff, be charged with appointing trust chairs, and hold a statutory right to speak “truth to power” at board meetings.

Implementing such legislation is not just about democracy – it is a safety measure that would help prevent local NHS disasters before they are allowed to escalate.
Daughne Taylor
Chair, National Lead Governors Association

• While wishing Andy Burnham well in his one-man odyssey to put our country right, I have to caution him on apparently seeking to devolve real power and money to individuals rather than democratically accountable organisations. If he is thinking of creating even more elected mayors, he had better make sure that these individuals are up to the task. The example of our local mayors is not encouraging. However, with current budgets of around £25m each, they can’t do that much damage.

If real money and power is at play, what he should be advocating is nothing short of a federal United Kingdom, on the lines of Germany. For this to work over here, the overwhelming economic power of England over Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland needs to be diluted by the creation of six or seven English directly elected regional assemblies. This would leave the federal parliament in London responsible for a narrow portfolio, including foreign affairs, defence and economic development, with a senate, drawing its members from the regions and nations of the UK, to scrutinise legislation.
John Marriott
North Hykeham, Lincolnshire

Questions of conscience | Perfect storm | Nice as pie | Council of despair

I feel validated by Zoe Williams saying “You must do the dirty work, but not get dirty” (They say Andy Burnham is ‘good at politics’ and Starmer was bad. That’s not trivial – it could be crucial, 2 July). I have been a political activist all my adult life. In earlier years I did duty for my party as a parliamentary candidate in hopeless northern seats, more latterly serving on Bradford city council. When others have told me that politics is a dirty business, my stock response has been: “That’s why I am in it.” The trick is not so much trying to keep my conscience clear in the face of all manner of contradictions as identifying others who have lived up to Zoe’s mantra. It’s called inspiration.
Geoff Reid
Worsbrough, South Yorkshire

• I’m fed up with inane use of the word “perfect” (Letters, 29 June). It’s usually the result of giving the person my name or address or order. Is my name actually perfect? Recently, before ordering our food at a restaurant, the waiter asked if there were any allergies. Yes, my friend said, severe nut allergy. To which the waiter replied: “Perfect!”
Dexter Rudling
Cheshunt, Hertfordshire

Solange Valdez-Symonds says the government must ensure people are aware of their citizenship rights

The US supreme court ruling on birthright citizenship throws much needed light on the UK, which replaced birthright citizenship on 1 January 1983 (US supreme court upholds birthright citizenship in blow to Trump agenda, 30 June).

Following proposals of successive governments and extensive parliamentary debate, the British Nationality Act 1981 nonetheless provided every child born here with the right to citizenship no later than their 10th birthday if the UK remains their home.

The world should be outraged about escalating violence in the West Bank, particularly against children, writes Dr Philip Goodwin of Unicef UK

Your report (How children in West Bank are being killed by Israel ‘without accountability’, 29 June) resonated deeply. As the chief executive of Unicef UK, I have just returned from meeting Palestinian families and children across the West Bank – many of whom carried Unicef backpacks just like Mohammad al-Halaq in your report – who spoke of the rising fear and violence that have become part of their daily lives.

I have worked in humanitarian development for more than two decades, but nothing could have prepared me for what I witnessed there. In Hebron’s militarised H2 area, movement is heavily restricted, children must pass checkpoints to get to school and their usual route is permanently closed. A group of mothers I met described routine humiliation and intimidation. The streets were empty, people afraid to be outside.

‍♂️ Official stage start time: 11.10am BST/12.10pm CET
‍♂️ Granollers to Les Angles (195.9km) | Stage two report
‍♂️ You can follow us on TikTok. And also email Andy

193km to go. Under a 35C Catalan sun, the bunch has taken a long time to pootle through the neutralised start after a puncture for Latvia’s Toms Skujins (Lidl-Trek). The racing is now on, with a Groupama-FDJ United chancing his arm with an attack.

I expect a lot of moves for the Côte de Saint Felieu de Codines, the third-category climb crossed after 17 kilometres. The road rises gradually for most of the stage’s first half before reaching the Pyrenees.

Updates from Monday’s play at the All England Club
Osaka stuns Sabalenka | Sinner through | Mail Daniel

Wotcha and welcome to Wimbledon 2026 – day eight!

It’s Manic Monday no more but, absorbing into the schedule of matches here to embrace us over the next 10 or so hours, it’s not difficult to find some replacement alliteration.

• Austrian left Crystal Palace at the end of last season

• He is Forest’s fifth head coach in less than a year

Oliver Glasner has outlined his desire to take Nottingham Forest to “the next level” after being confirmed the club’s new head coach.

The Austrian is Forest’s fifth head coach in less than a year and arrives in Nottingham following a superb stint at Crystal Palace. He led them to FA Cup glory in 2025, Palace’s first ever piece of major silverware, and followed that up with victory in May’s Conference League final. Glasner announced four months earlier that he would not renew his contract with the south London club.

• Captain broke down in tears after Australia defeat

• ‘I tried to do everything I could … I’m really proud’

England’s captain, Nat Sciver-Brunt, said she hoped this would not be her last World Cup, after England lost the T20 final by seven wickets at Lord’s on Sunday.

England were outplayed by a classy Australia side, led by a half-century from Beth Mooney, and an emotional Sciver-Brunt broke down in tears as she reflected on the match.

• Team strategy might have cost him second place

• Christian Horner makes return to F1 paddock

Lewis Hamilton was left frustrated by his Ferrari team’s late strategic decision that might have cost him second place at the British Grand Prix, after he admitted he had endured an afternoon when nothing had gone right.

Ferrari opted to pit Hamilton under the safety car late in the race, which was won by Hamilton’s teammate Charles Leclerc. Hamilton had been in second position at the time in front of the Mercedes of George Russell, who stayed out, giving him track position. When the race came to a finish still under the safety car, Hamilton had not had the chance to make the place back on track.

Rhinos beat Bradford 50-16 to maintain a four-point Super League lead, leaving the chasing pack to jostle for second

Magic Weekend’s move to a summer date was a chance not only for the competition to put itself in the spotlight on a big stage by the banks of the Mersey, but to double up as moving day for the business end of the campaign.

This year has passed by in the blink of an eye and, with 10 rounds remaining, the runners and riders are beginning to jostle for position. This record-breaking edition of Magic – with more than 80,000 fans attending the event across the weekend, more than 13,000 up on the previous best a decade earlier – had plenty of talking points and a real feeling of the sport finding a new home.

Defeat at the hands of the world champions is no shame, but where is the evidence that Steve Borthwick’s side is improving?

In many ways England should be grateful for small mercies. On an old‑style summer tour there would still be two more Tests to come against the formidable Springboks with scant prospect of a happy ending. As they prepare to regroup against Fiji this weekend, they have at least been spared a potentially grim 3-0 thrashing at the hands of the world’s strongest team.

Is it not reasonable, however, to expect the best resourced union in the world to be aiming significantly higher? On Saturday night there was hopeful talk of fine margins and South Africa being rattled in the second quarter. Given the final scoreline of 45-21 with England outclassed in many areas, it was not a conclusion universally shared back at home.

Elbit Systems supplied Tzayad digital army programme to map people, vehicles and other objects in real time

Israel identified about 1,000 potential targets a day during the first two years of the wars in Gaza and Lebanon with its command and control system, according to a presentation by the country’s largest arms supplier, Elbit Systems.

A total of 850,000 targets were detected in real time by the Israeli Tzayad digital army programme across all the military’s theatres of war between 7 October and the end of 2025, the company said at a military conference in London.

US telecom giant Comcast to snap up free-to-air TV channels and streaming platform to create UK’s biggest commercial broadcaster

Sky has announced a long awaited £1.6bn deal to buy ITV’s broadcasting and streaming arm to create the UK’s biggest commercial broadcaster.

Sky, which is owned by the US telecoms company Comcast, will pay £1.2bn in cash initially for ITV’s media and entertainment business, which include its free-to-air TV channels in the UK and ITVX streaming platform. It has agreed to pay a further potential £200m in the second half of 2028, depending on 2027 advertising revenues.

Inquiry co-chaired by David Blunkett uncovers loss of focus on fighting crime, plus low standards and need for reform

• Opinion: ‘Police are not woke or anti-woke, or fighting a culture war. We just strive to be fair’

Police leadership in England and Wales is plagued by “nepotism and bias” and too many chiefs have lost focus on fighting crime, a government-backed report has found.

The inquiry, co-chaired by former home secretary David Blunkett, found a reset was needed at all levels, with scores of top officers facing misconduct inquiries.

Study finds those who speak two languages have brains that appear around six years younger than those who speak one

Learning another language could slow ageing in the brain by up to 13 years, according to research.

People who speak more than one language seem to have younger brains and the more languages you speak and the earlier you speak them, the better, according to findings from a study being presented at the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies conference in Barcelona.

Prime minister picked pop singer in game of ‘shag, marry, date’ on comedy podcast

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Anthony Albanese has apologised “unequivocally” for his comments while playing a “shag, marry, date” game on a comedy podcast when he nominated Kylie Minogue for all three categories.

The prime minister issued a statement on Monday morning after receiving criticism at the weekend for his appearance on the Bush Deep podcast with the comedian Nikki Osborne.

Spain, Portugal, France and UK face spell of high temperatures, while Super Typhoon Bavi barrels through north-western Pacific

• Europe live – latest updates

Another surge of heat spread across western Europe at the weekend, with Spain, Portugal and France already sweltering and southern parts of the UK joining them on Monday.

Temperatures are once again forecast to climb to 10-15C above average, with highs approaching 40C (104F) in the hottest parts of France and Spain, while the UK is expected to reach the low- to mid-30s celsius.

Humans have long sought to geoengineer the Earth’s environment. Tim Flannery outlines a few of the wildest ideas from the 20th century

An increasing number of scientists think we have let the climate crisis fester for so long that our only hope to stave off ever-intensifying catastrophes is to use technological interventions. Cloud brightening, injecting sulphur into the atmosphere and the use of tiny mirrors in space – all of which might reduce the amount of sunlight reaching Earth’s surface – are among the concepts being promoted by entrepreneurs and governments alike. Geoengineering, they argue, is now inevitable.

Ever since the God of the Old Testament granted our species dominion over the Earth, ideas of remaking the world to better suit us have been a dominant thread in human thinking. We have for centuries toyed with grand ambitions to alter and re-form the climate and environment, many of which – in retrospect – seem doomed or absurd.

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As Britain reached its hottest June temperature on record, readers recall the summer when temperatures hit 36C

The recent heatwave in the UK broke the previous June record of 35.6C, recorded during the 1976 heatwave.

In Lingwood, Norfolk, a provisional temperature of 37.7C was recorded on Friday 26 June, breaking the previous record reached on 28 June 1976 and on 29 June 1957.

More than 20 states reported temperatures above 100F as heat dome sits over eastern US during holiday weekend

At least two dozen people have died amid the perilous climate crisis-driven heatwave that has scorched swaths of the US with record temperatures.

As a huge heat dome sits over the county’s eastern half, extreme heat gripped millions of people in the days leading up to the US’s semiquincentennial on Saturday – and beyond it. More than 20 states experienced stifling temperatures more than 100F (38C), marring celebrations. And more than 140 million people remained under active heat alerts across the US on Sunday.

Exclusive: Foreign secretary warns of combined risks of AI, climate crisis, irregular migration and foreign interference

Artificial intelligence poses a “Hiroshima”-style risk to humanity if governments do not agree to curb how it is developed, the foreign secretary has warned.

Yvette Cooper urged countries, including the US and China, to agree international rules for AI, telling the Guardian she believes the issue will dominate foreign policy over the next two years.

Campaign group calls on watchdog to investigate sector amid claims of anti-competitive practices elbowing out independents

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Big brewers are misleading drinkers about their products’ “craft” credentials and geographical origin, the ale enthusiasts’ club Camra has claimed, as it called on the consumer watchdog to investigate the beer market.

Camra asked the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) to launch a review of whether small breweries are being unfairly elbowed off the bar by larger rivals’ anti-competitive tactics.

Body of woman, 22, found in field in proximity of Langar airfield, where popular civilian skydiving centre operates

A 22-year-old skydiver has died after a parachuting incident near a Nottinghamshire airfield, police have confirmed.

Emergency services were called to Langar airfield, a former RAF base, at 12.13pm on Sunday and the woman was found in a nearby field, where she was pronounced dead at the scene, a police spokesperson said.

Exclusive: National Housing Federation says ending quotas for developers could cost 32,000 homes over 10 years

Half of all affordable housing supply in rural England could be under threat under plans being considered by ministers to relax regulations for private housing developers, according to analysis.

The government has proposed ending affordable housing quotas – known as section 106 agreements – for new developments of between 10 and 49 houses in an effort to jumpstart sluggish housebuilding rates. Ministers are due to make a final decision within weeks on whether developers should be allowed to make cash payments to local authorities instead.

Broadway star, who is performing on the vessel, expresses shock after authorities ban Scarlet Lady from docking in Kuşadası

A cruise ship carrying 2,000 LGBTQ+ passengers and the Broadway performer Patti LuPone has been blocked from entering Turkey after local authorities said their behaviour didn’t “align with the structure of our society and our moral values”.

Virgin Voyages’ Scarlet Lady set sail from Athens, Greece, on 5 July for what was billed as “an epic all-gay voyage” over 10 days run by Atlantis, a US company that puts on cruises and vacations for LGBTQ+ people.

Duterte – the daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte – has previously denied charges against her

The impeachment trial of Philippine vice-president Sara Duterte begins Monday, in a case that will determine whether she can run for the presidency in 2028, and which comes amid rising public anger over alleged government corruption.

Sara Duterte is the daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who is awaiting trial for alleged crimes against humanity at The Hague. She is facing allegations she misused public funds, amassed unexplained wealth, bribed officials and threatened the lives of the nation’s president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, and the first lady. She has previously denied the allegations.

Organisation says objects consistent with ‘debris from a foreign rocket body that recently re-entered the atmosphere’

The Australian Space Agency has said the six so-called “space balls” found in north Queensland were likely from a “foreign rocket body” that had recently re-entered the atmosphere after being in orbit.

The six mysterious objects were found by the public washed ashore in the Forrest Beach area, north of Townsville, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and were suspected of containing hazardous chemicals.

Launch comes just hours after Australia and Fiji sign defence agreement as expert says timing not a coincidence

China has conducted a long-range missile test in the South Pacific just hours after Australia signed a defence agreement with Fiji, sparking condemnation from Canberra and regional leaders.

The Australian foreign minister, Penny Wong, said the missile test was “destabilising” to the region, while her New Zealand counterpart, Winston Peters, described it as “deeply concerning”.

The firm’s share price has risen 80% under Allison Kirkby’s leadership – but pressure remains for her to deliver further growth

• Business live – latest updates

If timing is everything, then Allison Kirkby may have judged it perfectly.

Since becoming BT’s first female chief executive more than two years ago the company’s share price has climbed 80%, an investor-pleasing turnaround that has seen Kirkby well-rewarded with a pay and bonus package of £5.6m last year, the largest for a boss of the telecoms company in well over a decade. However, there are questions over how much credit Kirkby can take for the apparent revival of the business.

Growth in charge points falls markedly despite surge in number of rapid-charging units

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The UK’s rollout of electric vehicle chargers has slowed amid challenging cost pressures and uncertainty over government sales targets.

Charger companies installed 5,100 public charge points in the first half of 2026, pushing the total to 121,171, according to Zapmap, a data company. That was a 10% increase on the same point a year before – well below growth rates above 40% in 2024.

Online grocer says Tim Steiner will remain as CEO until December 2027 before taking on ‘founder role’ for a further year

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Ocado’s co-founder and chief executive, Tim Steiner, will stand down in 2028 after weeks of speculation over the online grocer’s leadership.

Steiner, who co-founded Ocado in 2000 with two other former Goldman Sachs bankers, will continue to serve as chief executive until the start of the 2028 financial year, which begins in December 2027, by which point the company hopes to have a successor in place.

Agreement in principle with Castlelake follows several rejected offers and means UK’s biggest low-cost carrier will be taken private

The airline easyJet has said it intends to accept a £5.5bn takeover offer by the US investment firm Castlelake that would take Britain’s biggest low-cost carrier private.

The companies announced an agreement in principle on Sunday evening in a statement, and requested an extension to a deadline to complete the deal formally. The agreement came after weeks of negotiations and several rejected offers.

Broadway, Catford
Justice Ezi tackles racism, belonging and the sometimes-shadowy business of sport in this well-paced and plotted drama with a genuinely nail-biting final shootout

Entering the small studio tasked with containing this ambitious livewire of a football drama, the action is already in full swing. Charlton Athletic’s Victory and Youssef, in Nigeria to try out for the last two spots on the country’s World Cup squad, are doing drills, while their coach (a buoyant Jerome Ngonadi) collars audience members to take penalties. I miss spectacularly; the production does quite the opposite.

Part of the Ryan Calais Cameron season – the Olivier-nominated playwright chose three early-career Black and Global Majority writers to receive financial backing and mentorship – its writer, Justice Ezi, is a clear talent, asking expansive questions about racism, belonging and the sometimes-shadowy business of sport through the experiences of three men and, in particular, their relationships to their Nigerian heritage.

Even though most of their instruments have been destroyed, teachers are restarting classes, using music to give relief to traumatised people

The three tents line a stretch of overcrowded, windswept sand, their windows open on to a view of the breaking waves of the Mediterranean. From inside comes the sound of singing, a strummed guitar, a violin and then a flute.

But if the music evokes calm and harmony, the surroundings do not: rows of crowded makeshift shelters swelter in Gaza’s summer heat, young children picking their way through rubble, battered cars and pony carts clogging a potholed road. Above, Israeli military drones hum and buzz.

She won the battle but can there ever be peace in House of the Dragon? Plus, it’s Kim Kardashian’s turn in Secrets of the Celebrity Sex Tapes. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, Sky Atlantic
With the thunderous warships v dragons Battle of the Gullet and its smouldering aftermath, season three of the Game of Thrones prequel has rapidly chalked up an impressive butcher’s bill of main cast casualties (plus hundreds of barbecued bystanders). Having sacrificed so much to claim the Iron Throne, Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) must now figure out what sort of ruler she wants to be at a time of kingdom-wide unrest. Graeme Virtue

Two couples start to fall apart during a midwinter break, involving a lot of shouty dialogue that’s neither realistic nor funny

The interesting premise in this laborious and dispiriting relationship dramedy sadly leads nowhere; all we get is strained shouty dialogue and mugging performances in a film which succeeds neither in being funny or realistic.

Alexandra Daddario (from TV’s The White Lotus) is Debs, a book editor with dreams of being an author herself; her platonic best pal from college is Mitch (Josh Gad), a schlubby guy climbing the ladder in investment banking, and maybe nursing feelings for Debs he can never admit. They go to a cosy, picturesque woodland cabin for New Year’s with their respective partners; Debs is with hunky nature photographer Josh (Daveed Diggs) and Mitch is with Melanie (Ashley Park), uptight author of a bestselling cookbook called Emotional Eating (a good title, actually).

Misan Harriman was catapulted into a new career after turning his camera to anti-racist demonstrations – though the shadow of more recent criticism looms

This is a documentary portrait of the celebrated British-Nigerian photographer, film-maker and activist Misan Harriman, who has campaigned on Gaza and Black Lives Matter, that was completed before the row in May about some of his social media posts. These appeared to amplify anti-Zionist conspiracy theories about media coverage of the Golders Green attack, and inelegantly quoted Susan Sontag’s comments on the Holocaust in relation to Reform UK’s electoral successes. His supporters said this controversy was a smear campaign – and if the film had been made later, Harriman might have wanted to answer the criticisms levelled against him.

As it stands, Harriman emerges from this film as a talented, self-taught photographer: articulate, fluent and candid about his wealthy and privileged background, which allowed him to witness a certain kind of British overclass racism up close. He was making a good living in the financial world before his picture of an anti-racist demonstration went viral after being retweeted by Martin Luther King III (son of Martin Luther King Jr), an interviewee here. Harriman’s new career was born. His short film The After, starring David Oyelowo, was nominated for an Oscar in 2024 and might well have won, in my view, if Wes Anderson had not been included, somewhat against the newcomer spirit of the short film category.

Documentary intersperses pastel scenes of spotless tourist resorts with candid interviews with the asylum seekers who labour to keep them pristine

Every year, millions of tourists flock to the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean where the sun always shines. Through static shots resembling picture postcards, Mette Carla Albrechtsen’s pastel-hued documentary captures the leisure activities on offer: cerulean rooftop pools, pristine sandy beaches and raves that stretch into dawn. But as the resort asks its visitors to put their minds on hold, the film casts a critical gaze on the human labour that powers this luxury paradise. Interspersed with restful scenes of relaxation are candid interviews with on-site workers, whose stories reveal the trials and tribunals behind the glossy travel brochures.

Some simply come to the Canary Islands looking for an escape from routine. One long-time Danish resident laments the gloomy weather of his home country, but he finds it difficult to develop lasting relationships in the archipelago, a transitional space where few of his migrant friends set permanent roots. Others flee from more desperate circumstances – economic hardship and war. In one staggering juxtaposition, the film cuts from a popular nightclub to a sombre dock where social workers tend to a group of migrants rescued from dangerous sea journeys. Promised a safe passage to Spain by their traffickers, tens of thousands of asylum seekers are now left in a stateless limbo, all while contributing their labour to the various luxury resorts.

Norah Jones hosts the legendary rock stars as they return to the studio for a new album. Plus, mindfulness meditation with the Getty Museum

This official Rolling Stones podcast is hosted by Norah Jones and released across six weeks, with each chapter charting the making of the band’s upcoming studio album, Foreign Tongues. Unsurprisingly, it’s a polished exercise in PR for one of the world’s biggest acts. Its first episode is also something of a tribute, as it considers how Mick, Keith and Ronnie returned to the studio following the death of drummer Charlie Watt in 2021. Hannah J Davies
Widely available, episodes weekly

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Adams’ maximal minimalism was framed by Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man and Joan Tower’s parallel feminist statement, with Florence Price’s The Heart of A Woman adding a Broadway flourish

Orchestras have thrown themselves on this year’s anniversary of American Independence (or “Freedom 250” as the marketers are catchily dubbing it) with an eagerness born of a repertoire of big names and broad appeal. A year of Gershwin, Barber and Bernstein, Adams and Glass? Full halls all round. You can even throw in John Williams and Duke Ellington (just go easy on the Carter and Crumb) and you’re on to a winner. Just ask Kazuki Yamada and the audience of Friday night’s generously filled Symphony Hall.

Harmonium – John Adams’ 1980 landmark experiment in maximal minimalism – was the advertised centrepiece (and will travel down to the Proms with the CBSO later this month), but the framing was the curiosity here: conceived by Yamada as two facing musical panels.

The England and Arsenal player grew up with Enrique Iglesias on repeat, and knows the Bridget Jones soundtrack by heart. But what football song gives her goosebumps?

The first song I fell in love with
I used to have a cassette player with these fuzzy foam headphones, and only two cassettes: Hero by Enrique Iglesias and How Do I Live by LeAnn Rimes. I would play them over and over.

The first single I downloaded
Michaela Strachan by Scouting for Girls. I thought it was fascinating that they’d written a song about her, even though I wasn’t quite sure who she was until I saw her on telly.

O2 Academy, Glasgow
In her first UK headline show in 16 years, Jett has a terrific knack for a cover version, though she’s a touch nonchalant – and there’s a real misstep

‘I’m not a very good storyteller,” shrugs Joan Jett, sporting black leather and trademark poker face. If you’ve come expecting something as sappy as sentimental anecdotes at this anniversary tour celebrating 45 years of her career-defining albums Bad Reputation and I Love Rock’n’Roll, you’d better jog on.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer isn’t here to chat, or pat herself on the back. This first UK headline show in 16 years delivers straight-shooting hard rock, from early cuts with the Runaways to her most recent releases with the Blackhearts. At 67, Jett’s voice is still deep and commanding – if time has added more gravel, it’s only for the better – and the Blackhearts’ current iteration as a simplified three-piece play hard and fast. It’s all real rock history, but it comes across more like history than it should: even the adrenalised teenage terror of Cherry Bomb is delivered with cool, even stiff, nonchalance.

The story of a lifelong friendship between two art-world mavericks from the working-class midwest is disappointingly pious

Dave Eggers, the author of more than a dozen novels as well as a steady stream of children’s and nonfiction books, grew up wanting to be an artist.As a child he took lessons with a Japanese watercolourist, studied painting at college, worked as a magazine cartoonist and illustrator, even curated a New York show entitled Lots of Things Like This featuring pieces by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Marcel Duchamp. He is soon to open a project in San Francisco that he has been hatching for a decade – Art + Water, an amalgam of art school, affordable studios, exhibition galleries and local gathering point.

Cricket Dibb, the cloyingly named hero of Contrapposto, would love a place like Art + Water. He’s 10 years old, a working-class midwestern kid who passes raccoons and broken tractors on his way to school. His stepfather, Robert, thinks nothing of beating his mother, calling her “a gimpy whore”, stealing any money she’s saved. Cricket hates him, not least on aesthetic grounds – “his ugly gold watch, his mouth full of black fillings, his bony bald head, his pockmarked face, his tiny black eyes”. Cricket’s life is erratic, his future unpromising. His grandfather, though, spots him drawing: “You can produce beauty there in your notebooks, from scratch. And harmony. Chaos outside, order on your paper.”

Sedaris plays up the curmudgeonliness in a collection that nevertheless entertains

I’ll confess my heart sank slightly at the prospect of reading David Sedaris’s new volume of essays, some of them previously published in the New Yorker, and which, relative to his earlier output, strike me as increasingly shticky and reliant on anecdotes too thin for their weight. (From the essay Little America: “Few things drive me crazier than people who put their feet up on the furniture.”) After nine previous volumes, Sedaris would seem to be suffering from a problem that comes to all writers in the end, and memoir writers in particular, which is a dearth of useable material. What can there possibly be left in the Sedaris backstory that the writer hasn’t already mined?

Well, as it turns out, there is still lots of useable stuff, as well as some an editor could have put a red line through, although Sedaris, who has sold more than 16m books, may well consider himself part of the post-editing elite. (I was reminded while reading of a line from a profile of JK Rowling several years ago in which, referring to The Casual Vacancy, Ian Parker wrote: “Some sentences cause you to picture a Little, Brown editor starting to dial Rowling’s number, then slowly putting down the handset.”) And perhaps it doesn’t matter; as long as Sedaris’s superfans keep coming, both for the books and events, why mess with the formula? For less committed followers, however, reading Sedaris is a glitchier experience than it was.

One hundred years after Virginia Woolf explored the limitations of language in On Being Ill, the Piranesi author reflects on the power of storytelling to shape our experience of sickness

In October 2016 I was in hospital. I had been ill for 11 years with something I called chronic fatigue syndrome, but in the previous six weeks I had been overtaken by a strange, sudden crisis. I was unable to eat – a day when I managed a couple of biscuits was a good day; at times I trembled so violently that my voice shook; at night I was overwhelmed by dread.

In the hospital ward a consultant gastroenterologist appeared.

For Ross and Rachel Menzies, making peace with our smallness can help us navigate the challenges of human existence

Ross G Menzies is, by his own admission, “a very old man” by the standards of the human species. A century and a half ago the average life expectancy was in the 30s, “so how can I whinge if I develop something today and [get] told that I’ll be dead by Christmas?” he jokes.

“If I can see that I am just one of the 107 billion that have lived, and that I will go to dust like all those before me, it is easier to face the difficult times that we are in.” He pauses. “Diminishing the self is one of the most important things that we can do.”

With players leaving EA’s series once life there felt like a grind beset by ethical concerns, this quirky new sim promises a better life elsewhere

For 26 years, the life-sims genre has been dominated by one series: The Sims. Originally designed by Will Wright, creator of Sim City, EA’s virtual dollhouse series has grown into a $5bn [£3.8bn] empire with the constant release of new games, expansion packs, and collaborations cementing its place among the bestselling video game franchises of all time. But things are beginning to change. New contenders are emerging and turning the heads of even loyal players in The Sims community.

The most recent, and promising, of these is Paralives, once the solo project of indie designer Alex Massé, who is now employing a small team of developers. Released on the PC games platform Steam in May 2026 as an early access title (meaning it’s technically unfinished and looking for user feedback), it sold 250,000 copies in just eight hours. On that first day, the concurrent player count hit 78,603 – not far off The Sims 4’s all-time peak of 96,328 in 2022. While Paralives is a small project, this success is understandable. Following the news of EA’s controversial acquisition by a Saudi-backed business consortium, some simmers are looking for what they see as a more ethical alternative. But this is only part of the game’s appeal. The real draw is the game’s focus on creativity over realism: the quirky details that made many fans fall in love with The Sims in the first place.

Nintendo/TNX; Nintendo Switch
A joyful collection of vibrant rhythm games includes catching veggies in mid-air, practising dance choreographies and speaking to an alien

It has been a strange decade for the rhythm game genre. The legendary progenitors Rock Band and Guitar Hero are seemingly gone, yet companies are manufacturing plastic guitars again. Tango Gameworks, a studio best known for delivering survival horror hauntings, made Hi-Fi Rush and it ruled, but Microsoft sold the studio. Indie titles such as Sayonara Wild Hearts and Rift of the NecroDancer have done well on the margins, but now Epic Games has swept in, adding a rhythm action mode to Fortnite so now its mainstream again. All these titles have reinforced the ideas laid out by their forefathers: rhythm can intersect with video games as much as it already intersects with our everyday lives.

Few series hold this ethos to heart as strongly as Rhythm Heaven. Dormant since 2015, a new entry, Rhythm Heaven Groove (known as Rhythm Paradise Groove in Pal territories), doubles down on the concept of offering bitesize, rhythm-based experiences where you follow auditive cues to perform all manner of increasingly exhilarating actions with just a few buttons. Whether you’re catching veggies in mid-air, practising dance choreographies, or speaking to an alien, each mini-game is intended to be a vibrant, micro cacophony with its own rules.

With the much-anticipated release of Grand Theft Auto VI only available as download, Sony is following suit

Sony said on Wednesday that it would stop releasing new video games for the PlayStation console on disc in January 2028 following a shift in consumer preferences.

“Following this date, new games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only,” the company said on its official PlayStation blog.

A preview of the forthcoming sci-fi game from Gareth Damian Martin showcases their unmistakable talent for innovation and game design

Over the past decade, an impression has taken root among gamers that any real creativity and originality in the industry is to be found in the indie, rather than mainstream, sector. Gareth Damian Martin can claim some responsibility for that. Their first game, 2020’s In Other Waters, merged sci-fi and underwater xenobiology in a uniquely calming and thought-provoking manner, while Citizen Sleeper (2022) and Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector (2025) were full-blown sci-fi epics with ultraminimal aesthetics and a rare intelligence.

Martin has broken with tradition by unveiling their next game, Signet City, far in advance of its 2027 launch. Set in a dystopian monochrome city, it’s a narrative role-playing adventure with a curious first-person perspective. “You play as a parasite,” says Martin. “And it felt natural that it should be a game where you see the world through the eyes of your hosts, very literally. You wake up in the mind of a person called Sid at the same time as she’s waking up in the river of a city. You’re coming to understand what you are, why it is that you’re in the mind of this person who doesn’t know that you’re there, along with what your capabilities are, and what the world is, through Sid.”

Fruit Market, Hull
Assigned roles as the unlucky inhabitants of a remote village audience members must avoid ending up on the pyre in this high-camp game of smut and survival

‘But is it theatre?” you might keep asking as you experience the latest offering from Silent Uproar. It’s theatrical; there’s a set and lighting design. There’s an atmospheric sound design by Eddi Pickard and a singular central performance. There’s a script and a director.

The question arises from the form: The Night of the Werewolves involves the audience playing a version of the game Mafia (or whatever you call the game on which the BBC’s The Traitors is based). The performance begins with Alex Mitchell welcoming us, setting parameters and talking a lot about consent; the game is rated 18+ and we’re encouraged to be as smutty as our imaginations allow. We’re each given a card with a character who lived in a village nearby. Among others there’s an innkeeper, butcher, a chandler and the brothel owner and we’re asked to name them. I was Chanandler Bong (candlestick maker).

Lowry, Salford
These lonely travellers overlap with Bowie’s Maj Tom, Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary or Spielberg’s Disclosure Day as they contemplate our place in the vastness of the void

From David Bowie’s Maj Tom and Elton John’s Rocketman via Capt Oates in Tom Stoppard’s Jumpers to this summer’s Ryan Gosling movie Project Hail Mary, the astronaut who may be unable to come home has been a recurrent cultural character since Yuri Gagarin orbited Earth in 1961.

Another lonely floater is the pivotal figure in Ransack Theatre’s Life Out There by Tim Foley, a regular writer in the Doctor Who universe. Cmdr Isaacs, one of five explorers on a mission to find an alternative Earth after the first one was destroyed in unspecified but guessable ways, has vanished on a solo shuttle flight. But he is still a presence in the main capsule as a voice (Jack Myers) that may be AI recreation, memory or ghost from the viewpoints of his four crew mates as they contemplate landing on galactic location SQ356, a candidate for humanity’s second Eden.

The first time I saw a show, I felt like I had discovered a new language. It’s since become one of my greatest pleasures

When I was a young girl living in suburban London in the early 1960s, I was looking for ways to find excitement. The first time my mother took me to see the London Festival Ballet (now the English National Ballet), I felt a sense of rapture as I realised that the body could say things words could not.

I was yearning for more, and that night at the Royal Festival Hall, I saw glimmers of the world out there waiting for me. Watching the dancers, I felt something shift in me. It was like discovering a new language, one that I immediately wanted to speak.

Baltic, Gateshead
Close to Home pairs the two artists’ contrasting visions of the pursuit of happiness in north-east England. There are many good things but they don’t add up

In Tish Murtha’s Youth Unemployment series, shot in Newcastle between 1979 and 1981, young men slouch and smile, cigarettes hanging from their fingertips as they study a hand of cards or share a private joke. Beside Murtha’s images in this show, a film by photographer Kuba Ryniewicz finds present-day residents of Newcastle and asks them what has made them happy today. The subjects talk about the sun, breakfast, connecting with friends and family. The answers are almost universal, and you could imagine the subjects of Murtha’s photographs responding in the same way.

Despite more than 40 years dividing these projects, they both capture the human pursuit of joy, no matter the circumstances, and the desire to seek comfort in the company of others. Both Ryniewicz and Murtha are celebrated for capturing their communities. Their ability to shoot raw, real, unflinching moments derives from the fact that they were there, living among it. It is this similar approach – and the fact that they both photograph residents of Newcastle – that has placed them together in an exhibition at the Baltic entitled Close to Home.

McCartney reportedly played Beatles No 1 hit at star-studded reception at Madison Square Garden

Paul McCartney performed the beloved Beatles No 1 hit I Want to Hold Your Hand for the first time in 60 years at Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding.

McCartney performed the number at the star-studded reception at Madison Square Garden in New York on Friday, People magazine reported. The track was the Beatles’ first American No 1 hit, sparking Beatlemania in the US and the wave of British bands’ success nicknamed “the British invasion”.

Digital publishers struggle to reinvent business model after algorithm is changed in favour of promoting creator content

‘When I look back at 15 years of growth, it is a tough pill to swallow and disappointing,” says Alexander “Solly” Solomou. The chief executive of the digital publisher behind popular brands including LadBible is bemoaning the City’s reaction to a sharp drop-off in traffic after algorithm changes made by the owner of Facebook and Instagram.

The change by Meta to more heavily promote creator content has sent a chill wind through digital publishers – from Solomou’s LBG Media to the owners of Marie Claire and the Daily Mail – which had relied on its platforms to promote clickable content and now face a scramble to reinvent business models that had flourished from relationships with Big Tech.

Whether you’re learning guitar or trying to get fit, short bursts of effort can work wonders

You could call it the tamest of mid-life crises, but as I turned 40 last year, I decided to devote myself to a long-neglected ambition – learning the guitar. I dutifully set myself the task of practising for 30 minutes a day, with the aim of strumming my way through the Bob Dylan songbook by my 41st birthday.

What stood in the way, of course, was life. With work and family commitments, I was lucky to find a free half-hour time more than once or twice a week. Each day that went by without practice left me feeling more demotivated, and the guitar soon started gathering dust next to my piano.

Juggling, trapeze and hula hoop classes for over-50s are taking off as people rediscover their inner child and tap into health benefits

Rumman Talukder’s favourite circus trick is called the Mermaid. Every Sunday, the 60-year-old IT consultant drives from his home in Stanmore to a circus school in Ware to practise it. Hanging from a trapeze by one arm, with his back arched and his legs wrapped around the rope, he says it makes him feel “strong and graceful”.

“My wife thinks I’m mad but in the run-up to turning 60, I decided I wanted to challenge myself; to find things not normally associated with people my age,” he says.

The island has a culinary tradition as old as its ancient olive trees. Our writer savours its family-run tavernas, village bakeries and local produce

As someone with Cypriot roots and distant Greek heritage, I’m often asked the question: which is the best island? People lean in, expecting a secret – some tiny, untouched haven, known only to locals. My answer is always the same: Crete. With its fiercely proud identity, warm communities and exceptional food, it feels both deeply Greek and entirely itself.

For our anniversary weekend, my husband and I head to Lassithi, in the island’s far eastern corner. As a chef and food writer, I’m drawn to the area’s reputation for exceptional produce: Sitia extra virgin olive oil, creamy xigalo cheese, mountain honey and an abundance of excellent tavernas.

Jesús Piñero grew up with the sound of gunfire, but thought he would be safe on the bus taking him to his home in Caracas. Then a mugger came for his phone …

As he rushed up the stairs from the Palo Verde metro station and jumped into the camioneta (small bus) for the five-minute ride to his home in Caracas, Jesús Piñero’s head buzzed with projects and ideas. It was 25 March 2016, and Venezuela was in meltdown, but the 22-year-old was upbeat. Exam results, parties and family awaited after a day with friends shaking a tin on the street for money to buy lightbulbs for the university history department where – in a first for his working-class family – he was a promising student.

His white Blu phone – only $80 (£60) but his most expensive and valued possession – did not stop pinging. His mother, Elisa, was worried. “When are you getting home?” She had been messaging all afternoon. A cake was ready for his brother and sister, who had birthdays that week. The family was gathering. It was getting dark. Street crime was horrendous.

Snack packs, swim fins, and a foundation brush for applying sun cream … we asked you for the one thing worth making suitcase space for

• The best suitcases – tested

Counting down until your next getaway? We thought so. It’s peak holiday season, so to help you get in the mood (and get a head start on packing), we asked you for the essentials that always make it into your suitcase.

From tried-and-tested luggage and day-to-night sandals to long-journey entertainment for kids, our reader recommendations and Filter favourites will provide lots of inspiration for your next trip.

Spacious enough to cook two pizzas at once and simple enough for beginners, Gozney’s gas-and-wood-fired oven is an impressive piece of kit – if you have the budget

• The best pizza ovens – tested

Whether you like yours thin-crust, deep-dish, simply margherita or loaded with extras, for pizza-lovers everywhere, there’s nothing more satisfying than making your own. And while a compact or mid-size pizza oven will more than suffice for a weekly family pizza night or casual entertaining, if you’re serious about pizza – and I mean super-serious about pizza – you’ll need a big oven, such as the Gozney Dome Gen 2.

Spacious inside, back-strainingly heavy, and complete with an all-singing, all-dancing display and control panel, the Gozney Dome will cook two 10in pizzas at once (or a single 16in one). Its size allows it to handle full meals, too: an included pair of meat probes means you can roast anything from a whole chicken or fish to lamb chops or a joint. More versatile than its first-gen gas-only predecessor, the Gozney Dome Gen 2 can cook with hybrid fuel. Add the optional wood-fire control kit (£174.99), as I did in my testing, and even smoky, authentic flavours are at your fingertips.

From serums to hand soap, fragrances to hair stylers, here are the beauty buys that justify the price tag and the ones you can happily get on a budget

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Walk down any beauty aisle, and you’ll be told every product is essential, transformative and worth hocking a kidney for. For every £300 miracle cream that claims to somehow change your entire facial structure, however, there’s someone – usually on social media – insisting you can buy a perfect dupe of a cult luxury fragrance. It can feel bewildering.

After more than 15 years working in the industry – and testing hundreds of products a year – I can confirm that beauty is rarely as simple as luxury v high street. But there are a few insider realities about how beauty products are made, priced and marketed that are worth knowing before you decide which are worth the spend – and which ones aren’t.

Whether you’re walking the dog, puddle-jumping with kids or dancing in a soggy festival field, these are the wellington boots that topped our tests for comfort, support and grip

• The best men’s waterproof jackets
• The best women’s waterproof jackets

A good pair of wellies will keep your feet warm and dry, and give you a decent grip underfoot. They’ll also offer all-day comfort and support, alongside reliable waterproofing, so it’s worth investing in the very best wellies to see you through season after season.

But sizing, tread patterns, cushioning, warmth levels and even the materials they’re made from all vary, depending on the brand and style. I’ve put 15 of the best wellies from well-known names through their paces.

Best wellies overall:
Barbour Bede wellington boots

Best budget wellies:
Mountain Warehouse Mucker neoprene long boots

The distinct spices of their respective regions make these approaches to runner beans uniquely different, but equally flavourful

I always look forward to runner bean season, and especially to cooking them in stir-fries with Indian spices. Today’s recipes are very different from each other, not least because they hail from two very different regions, namely Rajasthan and Kerala, respectively, both of which have their own distinct spices and flavours.

This is no theme bar, and not remotely a joke: they really are doing proper Appalachian regional cooking on a side road near Old Street

Appalachia, newly opened near Old Street, London, is unlike anywhere else in town. It serves grits, pork rinds, collard greens, kilt salad, chow-chow relish and pot liquor. Ali Borer, formerly of Smoking Goat and Guy Ritchie’s Lore of the Land pub, and not remotely Appalachian himself, is cooking the food of yesteryear Scots-Irish mountain settlers who made their home in this sparse region of the eastern United States. Appalachians smoked, pickled and preserved just about any edible item they could get their hands on, because, well, needs must. London’s dining scene has ignored all this porky, liquory stuff until now, mainly because, let’s be frank, most British people’s understanding of Appalachia begins with the Burt Reynolds film Deliverance and ends with those guys from O Brother, Where Art Thou? stealing a chicken. Not only that but, just as many people would be unable to locate the Appalachian mountain region on a map, you might find it equally challenging to locate Nile Street, because it’s hidden away on the borders of Shoreditch, just around the back of Hackney.

The room itself is quite patentlya reclaimed old saloon bar, and you sit up at that bar watching Borer make your cornbread madeleines. And, holy heck, they’re good: cheddary, fiery, served hot with a nod to the cast-iron skillets of the mountain kitchen. The space isn’t terribly comfy and, much like Tollington’s Fish Bar and many other similarly hip indie spots, Appalachia feels more like a restaurant that’s simply making the best of its surroundings rather than truly inhabiting them. The downstairs space, meanwhile, has been turned into a whiskey and cocktail bar called Lowcountry, named after South Carolina’s coastal region, and each time you order a banana pudding sazerac made with brown butter-washed rye and absinthe, or a fat fashioned comprising bacon fat-washed bourbon and maple syrup, a server bearing a tray materialises from below, almost as if they’re ascending from a very well-stocked basement cupboard. The entire drinks list, by the way, is heaven for the non-drinker and for those who like to sway and wake with headaches. The former can enjoy Jörg Geiger’s fruit fermentations, Saicho sparkling teas and a really extraordinary olive lemonade; I also highly recommend the alcohol-free paloma, too.

Its origin story may be full of holes, but there’s no disputing this American classic’s status as a world beater when it comes to a tasty, satisfying salad

According to the US Institute for Culinary Education, the cobb salad is an embodiment of “the spirit of American ingenuity”, thanks to a strangely familiar creation myth involving a restaurateur (in this case, at Hollywood’s Brown Derby) throwing it together for a late-night snack. It’s also perfect game-day food: satisfying, flavour-packed and, crucially, easy to eat while all eyes are on the pitch.

Prep 30 min
Cook 30 min
Serves 4, and easily scaled up or down

A spicy, umami-rich salad provides sweetness and crunch alongside these simple Chinese-style courgette pancakes

This week marks nine years since I started writing this column, and here’s something I’m excited by: that we’ve only just scratched the surface when it comes to our collective knowledge about Asian cuisine. When it comes to Chinese food, for example, we might know a fair bit about, for example, Cantonese or Sichuan food, but what about Fujian or Hunanese? There are still so many riches to discover and excellent meals to be had. Today’s offering is a small token in that vein: a simple vegetable pancake made with courgette, known as hutazi and straight from the homes of Beijing. I’ve taken the liberty of embellishing it with some hot and sweet cucumbers.

An English Democrats voter and a retired university tutor had different ideas about whether it’s OK to fly flags, but could they find something to agree on?

• Want to meet someone from across the divide? Click here to find out how

David, 70, York

Occupation Retired modern foreign languages tutor at a university

One immediately called an ambulance, another went looking for my younger son. And I still remember the small face of the girl who held her arm around me

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

I was at the park with my two young boys, aged five and seven, riding scooters along a wide path that looped around the grass. My eldest has cerebral palsy, so my husband had modified a scooter with a large base so that we could ride it together. My son stood at the front and I stood behind him. It meant he could join in just like other kids, and he loved it.

When you have boys, you need to run them like dogs – the goal is to burn as much energy as possible every time you’re out of the house. So even though it had started to drizzle, we set off on another loop of the park on our scooters. But when we hit a puddle coming round the bend, the scooter slipped out from under me. We fell sideways, landing on the ground. I realised my son wasn’t conscious. In that moment all I felt was sheer terror.

You are dealing with a lot right now. Lean on loved ones, and try not to look too far ahead

My husband recently died. It was a protracted illness, but in the three weeks between him being very ill and him passing I did not get to speak to him about death. We had spoken about it earlier in our relationship and he wasn’t frightened. He was the sort of man who didn’t want a fuss and I never lingered by his bedside; I just did what was needed, had a chat and moved on to running the home. I have cried every day since he died.

I have so many recriminations on my part: feelings of not looking after him, not taking the time … We had planned to move in with my daughter part-time, in another part of the country, splitting our time between her house and ours. Now my husband has died, I will be doing this on my own. My dog, who has been such a companion since I lost my husband, died suddenly. He got me through the past six months. I am not equating the profound loss of my husband to my dog, but I feel overwhelmed with grief.

Rebecca ‘Darl’ Ritchie ticked all the boxes for musician Jack Ceriani. Then one morning his eye ruptured – and she was a calming force

• Find more stories from the moment I knew series

About eight years ago some mutual friends put Darl and me in touch, thinking we’d be a good match. We’d talked on the phone a bit, but hadn’t found the time to meet in person. I lived in Busselton, Western Australia, and she lived about a 30-minute drive away.

Then on St Paddy’s Day my mates and I invited some friends around to the Star hotel, which was what we called our share house at the time. It was a bit of a bachelor pad with a bar set-up, and I made some really bad mojitos. But when Darl arrived, they improved a lot – she knew what she was doing behind the bar.

My elderly parents’ home was left uninhabitable, and they are owed £3,300 for repairs they had to fund themselves

My elderly parents spent much of last year dealing with what should have been a straightforward insurance claim after a dishwasher installation by John Lewis caused a leak.

Instead, it became a year-long ordeal, marked by repeated failures and an almost total absence of accountability.

‘Home fee’ qualification ends in 2028, leaving those hoping to study in UK not now eligible for British loans

British teenagers living in the EU could be priced out of UK universities in two years’ time as a Brexit rule change means they face the double whammy of paying costlier international fees, while losing access to student finance.

British passport holders living in the EU still qualify for “home fee” status at UK universities. But this will no longer be the case when the grace period ends in 2028, meaning the first wave to be affected are starting their A-levels, or equivalent, this autumn.

For months I’ve been trying to receive my FIT payment, which should be more than £1,000

I moved into my new house 14 months ago, and soon afterwards applied to ScottishPower, with whom the solar panels are registered for a feed-in tariff (Fit), for transfer of ownership of the panels and the tariff.

After many emails back and forth, I got a response saying they had all the information required.

Trusted by millions, the finance expert has seen his name and face used to mis-sell a string of fake investments. And yet, he says, it would be ‘very simple’ for the government to stop them

This month, an email from a consumer landed in Martin Lewis’s inbox. It was from an elderly woman with a disability who had been scammed when she invested in a scheme purportedly endorsed by Lewis – and lost her life savings. “THEY ARE BASTARDS!” Lewis wrote at the top of his social media post about it. Even though the personal finance expert is a veteran campaigner against fraud, he says he had “tears running down my face”. He still sounds upset. “I felt a mixture of frustration, anger and sadness.” Not only for the plight of the woman, but for the “constant, ongoing deluge of shit from the scammers”.

Lewis never advertises anything. To hammer home the point, his social media profile picture has the words “I don’t do ads” tattooed on his forehead. But still, people fall victim to deepfake videos and frauds that appear to show him offering investments. The scale of harm is great enough that MoneySavingExpert (MSE), the company Lewis founded in 2003 and sold in 2012 for up to £87m – he is now its executive chair – has someone full-time handling these cases.

Sweat has important functions, including cooling you down when it’s hot outside. Here’s what science says about using antiperspirants and deodorants

Every day, 5 billion people around the world reach for deodorant. Many of us assume that managing, modifying and hiding sweat is an absolute necessity – and not just in your armpits.

Routine underarm antiperspirant and deodorant use are unlikely to cause harm. But do you know what sweat is actually for, and what these products actually do?

Cortisol is bad. Testosterone makes you aggressive. Melatonin helps you sleep. Experts bust common hormone myths

False The main puberty hormones are oestrogen and progesterone for girls and testosterone for boys. “They are active in the womb during foetal development and in infancy in a phase called mini-puberty,” says Sasha Howard, clinical reader and honorary consultant in paediatric endocrinology at Queen Mary, University of London and Barts Health NHS trust.

Differences in unhealthy cholesterol levels and blood pressure found to have ‘narrowed or disappeared’ in over-40s

Many adults living with obesity have “indistinguishable” cholesterol and blood pressure levels compared with those who are a healthy weight, largely because of the use of statins, according to a study.

In some cases, people with obesity were “better off” than those of a healthy weight, researchers added.

Polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome is underdiagnosed and inconsistently managed, according to Nice

Up to 4 million women with irregular periods should be investigated for polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, according to new NHS guidance.

PMOS, previously known as polycystic ovarian syndrome, is believed to affect up to 13% of reproductive age women, the World Health Organization estimates.

Naomi Osaka leads way in making bold sartorial statements just before a tennis match – but she is not alone

At Wimbledon this week, Naomi Osaka walked on to court wearing frills, a bustle, outsized bows and extended sleeves. Based on Japan’s ceremonial dress, as well as Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, the pieces designed by Hana Yagi conformed to the all-white Wimbledon dress code but the first one was so high-fashion that it debuted on Vogue before it was seen near a tennis court.

Osaka, who in January went viral at the Australian Open for wearing an outlandish design with mega-pleats based on the look of a jellyfish, is leading the way when it comes to experimental “walk-on fits”. But other players have also used the moment to make sartorial statements, not least Frances Tiafoe who did a surprise reveal – dramatically ripping off his trousers to show the shorts underneath.

With her kaftans and her headbands and even the odd paper hat, snobbish Margo stole every scene in the sitcom The Good Life. This was what colour TV was made for

Penelope Keith died this week at the age of 86. A formidable actor who came across in real life as grounded, humble and charming, she was known for playing brittle, status-obsessed characters on stage and screen. And none were more memorable than The Good Life’s Margo Leadbetter, whose command of a room depended as much on her diva-level wardrobe as on her pristine home counties vowels. Here was someone who refused to accept the concept of being overdressed, even when answering the hallway telephone. From the moment we first see Margo (in episode two – she is only heard off-screen in episode one), in a screamingly loud chiffon tangerine kaftan, it is obvious that she is the one to watch – first and foremost for her style.

In the 2025 documentary The Good Life: Inside Out, now on Apple TV, celebrating 50 years of the 1970s sitcom, Keith explains that most of the series’ costume budget went on Margo because of her frequent outfit changes: “And people couldn’t wait to see what Margo would wear next.” Keith used to spend Mondays – “my one day off” – in Harrods (“occasionally Harvey Nichols”) trying on pieces: “All those hours in there I spent, trying on those lovely floaty clothes …”. Here are a few of her best looks.

It’s been dubbed ‘an American royal wedding’, so who will win the bridal commission of the century? We’ve whittled it down to nine lucky contenders (including one for the groom)

Ever since Taylor Swift announced her engagement to NFL star Travis Kelce via an Instagram post last August, fans have been gripped by a near year-long frenzy of sleuthing and speculation over the wedding plans.

This week the couple will finally be tying the knot. With guests reportedly signing NDAs and dates flying around Reddit, the facts are scant – but it’s been reported that the couple have rented out Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden, an arena which can hold more than 19,000 people, for celebrations on July 2 and 3.

Once dismissed as frivolous, spots are having the last laugh – popping up on celebs, catwalks and all over the algorithm

For years, stripes have been the thinking fashion person’s choice. The style equivalent of remembering to charge your phone overnight. Bracing like sea air, with a top note of French intellectualism. In stripes, you can captain a ship and feast on oysters.

Spots and dots are much less serious. From a distance, they could be smiley face emojis. Spots bounce and dance, whereas stripes are rigid. They are spontaneous and giddy, where stripes are rational. The polo scene in Pretty Woman, when Julia Roberts wears that chocolate polka dot dress, is an iconic fashion moment not just because it’s a great dress, but because the dress itself does so much storytelling. Those polka dots set Roberts apart as vivacious, adorable. The buttoned-up crowd around her does not stand a chance.

Discover where supplicants consulted Apollo in Delphi, the infant Hermes hid stolen cattle and where Poseidon created a love nest for a sea nymph

Some stories never get old. The poems and songs from Greek mythology – tales of tragedy, love and loss, war and revenge, jealous gods, magic and monsters – have been retold through the ages for good reason. Like all stories that really resonate, they deal in the flawed nature of humankind.

To the ancients, though, they were far more than legends; they explained the universe. From the Earth’s origins and the stories of constellations to ideas of justice and morality, they shaped the arts and sciences, and carved a shared cultural identity. Visiting Greece today, it’s clear how deeply rooted the myths still are in modern culture. From the capital (named after wise Athena) and beyond, this is a country steeped in legends.

In his new book, Jack Thurston cycles the quieter roads and forgotten hill tracks of Scotland, exploring Britain’s most remote and rugged terrain

There aren’t many roads in Britain where you can pull over to cook breakfast and finish it without seeing a single car. While my friend Ben got the stove going, I wandered around the ruins of Dun Dornaigil, an iron age broch (stone roundhouse) more than 2,000 years old. Above us, low cloud drifted across the dark cliffs of Ben Hope. This was exactly the kind of lost lane we’d come to Sutherland to ride.

Our journey had begun the day before, in Lairg – the traditional “crossroads of the north”. With its Spar shop, hotel, train station and a population of about 800, Lairg is the largest inland settlement in one of the most sparsely populated regions of Europe. Sutherland – literally, the “southern land” of the Vikings, who held sway over the far north of Scotland from their stronghold on Orkney – tests life to its limits: bare mountains, impassable peat bogs and one of Britain’s wildest coastlines.

A quest for the settings that inspired Homer – and Hollywood’s latest blockbuster – turned into a personal voyage of discovery

Swimming ashore from the boat I can see a narrow shingle beach covered in driftwood. There are logs, bamboo canes and the sundried planks of an old shipwreck. The steep climb up the hill behind is not easy. I skirt thick clumps of thorn and abandoned ancient olive trees, scrambling over jagged outcrops of limestone. Every time I curl my fingers into a rocky niche I think about snakes. The only residents, however, are spiders. Their webs are strung between the trees, and so thick and strong that I grab a stick to slash through them. No one has been here for a long time.

Near the hilltop I stumble on a ruined stone building. Who lived here, I wonder? And where have they gone? A few steps further and the land abruptly ends in a vertical white cliff that plummets into an improbably blue sea. Far away, in the haze, there is a stack of Ionian islands and one of them, I know, must be Ithaca.

From a less-crowded camino and the Slovenian Alps to a stunning river trail and Ireland’s remote Beara peninsula

Distance up to 74 miles
Duration 3-9 days

Premium Bluetooth noise-cancelling cans combine comfort with extensive connectivity and a user-replaceable battery

Sennheiser’s latest Momentum Bluetooth headphones build on the German audio specialist’s renowned sound quality with improved noise cancelling, exceptional comfort and a user-replaceable battery to keep pace with rivals.

The Momentum 5s cost £330 (€400/$400/A$749) and directly replace their three-year-old predecessors, facing strong competition from Bose, Sony and Sonos.

A probability puzzle

Today’s puzzle imagines a TV game show.

The compere announces that at the end of the show two people will be chosen and each placed in a separate booth.

Humble seasoning thrust into food trend spotlight, as salty drinks gain popularity in Britain’s scorching summer

As Europe braces for another heatwave, some people are seeking relief from an unlikely source. The store cupboard is surpassing the freezer, with salt becoming a key ingredient in the battle to cool down.

Salty drinks are gaining popularity as thirst quenchers during this scorching summer. Commonly found in countries including India and Mexico, these traditional street corner drinks, which can be rehydrating, are being hailed as a salve in a heat-soaked UK. The trend is being driven by several factors, including a preference for savoury rather than sweet flavours alongside a growing interest in premium salts.

Perhaps I’ll learn to love our EV once it stops talking utter nonsense – and knows where it’s going

You don’t say goodbye to your old car when you get a new car – I mean, I’m presuming they’d let you if you made a fuss, but they make no provision for it. It just gets left there in the car park, awaiting its next owner. They’ve already taken the keys.

Instead, my wife and I are escorted through a different exit, where our new electric car awaits, still wet in places from a recent wash. The salesperson is leaning in the driver’s window, explaining the dashboard display and steering column toggles to me, but I’m not listening. After two long showroom visits, I’ve had enough of car buying.

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

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

Farage is under pressure over £5m gift, byelection losses and rise of rival Restore but allies say exit speculation is ‘wishful thinking’

“Of course he’s tired. He’s just done two months campaigning every day on the road, it would be weird if he wasn’t. But that doesn’t mean he’s going to quit,” says one friend of Nigel Farage who has spent time with him in recent weeks.

Westminster has been ablaze with rumours that Farage is growing weary in the job of leading Reform UK after the bruising scandal around his decision to accept a £5m gift from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. He is now also facing further questions about whether his lifestyle has been partly funded by George Cottrell, his close friend and a convicted fraudster.

A team from across the Guardian set out to investigate the full extent of private equity’s stake in Britain’s public and essential services. The scale and opacity posed many challenges

When Carmen Aguilar García began investigating the involvement of private equity firms in England’s childcare sector with her fellow data journalists three years ago, she didn’t imagine her efforts would one day be scaled up to examine private equity’s role in the entire UK economy. That ambitious undertaking by Carmen and colleagues from across the Guardian was published earlier this week.

“The initial investigation into the childcare sector in 2023 was already challenging and a big team effort,” says Carmen, a data projects editor at the Guardian. “Extrapolating it to the whole economy did not seem realistic back then.”

Where and how did you watch the match? If you had to stay up late, did you get any sleep and how will you cope with the tiredness today?

England have beaten Mexico in one of their finest World Cup knockout wins since 1966. Despite concerns about altitude and being reduced to 10 men when Jarell Quansah was sent off, England won 3-2 in Mexico City to book a quarter-final against Norway.

Did you stay up for the game? Where and how did you watch it? What are your thoughts on the performance? If the match was broadcast live very early in the morning where you are, did you get any sleep? Are you going to work? How will you get through the day? We would like to hear from you.

We’re asking people from around the world to nominate their favourite spineless species for our third Invertebrate of the Year competition

Step aside World Cup heroes, there’s a bigger global competition in town. The whistle has been blown to launch the third Invertebrate of the Year contest.

We want you to nominate your favourite spineless creature for the hugely popular annual Guardian jamboree which celebrates the wonder and importance of the world’s invertebrates.

We would like to hear about the animals who have attained star status where you live

Wildlife officials have warned people to give Neil the seal space during his visit to Tasmania, where he has been crushing fences, blocking traffic and bashing into parked cars, in what experts say is play-fighting behaviour.

Neil, a 1,000kg southern elephant seal, was born – unusually – in Tasmania in October 2020. Most of his kind live thousands of kilometres south on the subantarctic Macquarie and Heard islands.

We would like to hear how parents feel following guidance from the UK National Crime Agency about sharing photos of their children publicly online

The UK National Crime Agency has recommended parents should not put photos of their children on public display online as part of landmark guidance to tackle the rise of AI-generated sexual abuse material.

Advice issued by the NCA and the Internet Watch Foundation suggests parents and guardians make their social media accounts private or share pictures of their children through a “close friends” group.

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The Guardian’s Sarah Lee soaks up the atmosphere at the All England Club as the tennis championship enters its second week