A group set up by Nelson Mandela known as the Elders met in Kenya to model a health emergency – and found much still needs to be done, as the subsequent Ebola outbreak has shown

About a dozen people sat around a boardroom table at the emergency hub of the World Health Organization (WHO) just outside Nairobi last Thursday, their eyes glued to an animated presentation on a screen.

Health workers in eastern Chad have reported several deaths among patients with respiratory failure, they are told. Initial samples suggest a novel variant of bird flu, but confirmation requires sending samples to a foreign laboratory. International health regulations require notification within 24 hours of assessment, but Chad’s government is hesitant to notify the WHO, fearing economic repercussions and stigma.

Eccentric public art, strange ruins, eerie landscapes, follies … Britain has a rich store of curiosities. An enthusiast selects 10 of the quirkiest finds from his new book

One thing unites the British more than anything else. It stands there in plain sight but is rarely spoken about. We may try to hide it; we may not admit it to ourselves; but under the surface, deep down, in the nicest possible way, we are all a little odd. Not in a sinister way, just eccentric, weird, unpredictable and downright wonderful. As a nation we have an artistic and creative zest and boffin-like inventiveness. In fields of innovation, we led the tech world with some of our brave and crazy inventions. Even our landscapes are damn weird, with some of the oldest, most mysterious and diverse geological oddities in Europe, and plentiful legends too. I spent years exploring the enchanting strangeness of Britain, discovering follies, eccentric public art, strange buildings, mysterious ruins and eerie landscapes for my Weird Guide, which features about 300 of these curiosities. Here are some of my favourites.

Pensioners vote and young people don’t, so the truism goes. That’s no longer any reason to avoid dealing with the triple lock

Nothing makes you feel more like a de-developing nation than being reprimanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Rachel Reeves can take solace in trace amounts from the fact that the IMF advised her only to “stay the course” on spending limits – whatever energy or inflation crises are down the line, she shouldn’t cave to demands for government support. Basically, “when the facts change, do not change your mind” – the opposite of the economists’ classic, but then, haven’t we all had enough of classics?

It’s a milder rebuke than the one delivered to the then chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, in 2022, about which the BBC’s economics editor, Faisal Islam, admitted “even I was taken aback”, creating a ripple effect: other, lesser economy-watchers were taken aback at the abackness that had taken the unflappable Islam. But it still has a sting in its tail, enjoining Reeves to keep her focus on “controlling the rising welfare bill, as well as delivering further efficiency measures in public services, while protecting the most vulnerable”.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

Lund Point in east London was once ‘a beautiful community’, according to Tee Fabikun, who has lived there since 1997. Now just four flats are occupied. Why are Fabikun and her friends hanging on? And what happened to the long-promised redevelopment?

Tee Fabikun is sitting in an armchair in her cosy, homely flat, surrounded by her things – papers and letters, family photos, a few Nigerian handicrafts, a forest of houseplants by the window. She is telling me about her neighbours here on the fifth floor of Lund Point, a tower block on the Carpenters estate in Stratford, east London. Next door there’s “a grumpy old man”; well, she thought he was a grumpy old man, but then she saw him in the lift with his granddaughter and he was sweet with her, so maybe he’s not so bad. “There’s always two sides.”

In the next flat along is a young couple who met in the building, maybe in that lift. She was living on a higher floor, but moved down and in with him when they got married, and rented out her place. Then there’s a Bangladeshi family who only speak a little English. Fabikun’s first contact with them was when their daughter knocked on the door holding out an exercise book and just said “homework”; after that Fabikun would often help with her studies. And so on. And it’s not just her immediate neighbours on the fifth floor that Tee knows; she knows pretty much everyone in the 21-storey block.

As the much-loved Late Show host says his final goodnight, a look back at his finest and funniest moments

‘He had a unique ability to be human’: late-night TV says goodbye to Stephen Colbert

This week marks the end of two distinctive eras of network television, as CBS’s The Late Show With Stephen Colbert will air its final episode. The show was created in 1993 by David Letterman after his controversial exit from NBC, and he held the reins for 22 years before retiring and turning the show over to Colbert, who had risen to prominence on Comedy Central as a member of The Daily Show, and then later host of his own political talkshow, The Colbert Report.

Colbert’s run on the Late Show would last 11 years. Last July, CBS shocked everyone by announcing the show’s cancellation, with the final episode to air on 21 May. Although executives claimed the decision was purely financial – even with Late Show holding the best ratings for any late-night talkshow for nine years running – many saw it as a political gesture towards Donald Trump ahead of an $8bn merger between CBS’s parent company, Paramount, and Skydance.

Martin is happy to vacuum and cook but says Deidre’s mopping technique just spreads germs. You decide whose argument doesn’t scrub up

• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

What gets to me is that whenever I get the mop out, instead of helping, Martin criticises me

Chancellor says she will raise tax on global oil giants to help meet costs of plans and confirms freeze on fuel duty increases

• Business live – latest updates

Rachel Reeves will cut VAT to 5% on summer attractions such as theme parks and softplay centres during the school holidays, as she aims to ease the impact of the war in Iran on cash-strapped households.

The chancellor told MPs on Thursday she would also raise more tax from global oil firms operating in the UK, to help meet the costs of her plans.

Decline to 171,000 last year will encourage ministers in what is seen as a battleground issue against Reform

• UK politics live – latest updates

Net migration to the UK fell by nearly 50% to 171,000 last year, according to official figures released on Thursday, in what will be seen as a boost for Keir Starmer’s government.

Data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed the difference between the number of people moving to the UK and the number of people leaving was at its lowest level since 2021.

Exclusive: Scotland Yard had been in talks to use Palantir’s AI technology to automate intelligence analysis

A £50m Met police deal with the controversial US tech company Palantir has been blocked by the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, with City Hall citing a “clear and serious breach” of procurement rules.

Scotland Yard had been in talks, revealed by the Guardian last month, to use Palantir’s AI technology to automate intelligence analysis in criminal investigations. But Khan intervened on Thursday to stop the flagship contract, which would have been Palantir’s largest yet in British policing.

Documents released by government also show late queen was ‘very keen’ for her son to have prominent role

• UK politics live – latest updates

Formal security vetting and due diligence appears not to have been carried out before the appointment of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor as a trade envoy, the government has said, as it emerged that the late queen was “very keen” for her son to take up a prominent role in promoting Britain’s interests.

The first batch of documents relating to the appointment of the former prince as trade envoy by Tony Blair in 2001 includes a memo dated 25 February 2000 and addressed to Robin Cook, then the foreign secretary, in which the then chief executive of British Trade International, David Wright, said Queen Elizabeth II’s “wish” had been for Mountbatten-Windsor, then the Duke of York, to take on the role.

Labour’s Makerfield byelection candidate wants to make politics ‘less point-scoring, more problem-solving’

• UK politics live – latest updates

Andy Burnham has said he will back sweeping changes to the electoral system to make politics “less point-scoring, more problem-solving” if he becomes prime minister.

The Greater Manchester mayor has previously called for the introduction of proportional representation for UK general elections, handing more power to minority parties like the Greens.

Chancellor wins support from Conservative Mel Stride, while Nigel Farage says he would ‘like to buy man a pint’

• UK politics live – latest updates

Rachel Reeves surprised onlookers when she gave a stern rebuke to a foul-mouthed heckler who shouted at her from his van as she conducted a broadcast interview.

However, the chancellor has won support from unlikely sources, with Conservative politicians backing her response.

Authorities in Galicia declare two days of mourning after toddler dies during exceptionally high May temperatures

• Europe live – latest updates

A two-year-old girl has died of heatstroke in north-west Spain after being accidentally left in her father’s car during an unseasonably hot spell that could push temperatures in some areas to 38C (100F).

The child, who has not been named, went into cardiac arrest on Wednesday afternoon after spending several hours inside the vehicle in the Galician town of Brión after her father forgot to take her to nursery.

Disability rights campaigner Robin Millar reveals he is taking owners of music business he founded to a tribunal

The head of one of the UK’s biggest disability charities is planning a legal challenge against the owners of the music business he founded in a dispute over its alleged failure to provide him with proper workplace support after a major illness.

Legendary pop producer Robin Millar, who is blind, said he had been denied a request for a support worker to assist him in his work after he faced mobility challenges following cancer surgery.

Foreign Office denounces treatment of Gaza flotilla activists as outcry over Itamar Ben-Gvir’s video escalates

The UK has summoned Israel’s chargé d’affaires as international outrage escalates over a video posted by the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, in which he is seen taunting activists detained after a Gaza-bound flotilla was intercepted.

The global outcry continued as Israel began releasing hundreds of the activists who attempted to breach Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza. Authorities are in the process of deporting them, according to a legal organisation working with the flotilla.

The parliamentary rule that only English – and not Jamaican – is allowed has reignited debate about language, legitimacy, and postcolonial identity

When MP Nekeisha Burchell stood up to give her maiden speech, she was keenly aware of how much Jamaica’s parliament mirrored the Westminster version, thousands of miles away in London.

As in the UK, the session on 12 May had started with the arrival of the ceremonial mace – a five-and-a-half foot ornamented silver staff representing the British monarch’s authority over parliament – which now rested on a table between the government and the opposition. Despite the heat outside, debate was presided over by the speaker, dressed in a ceremonial robe.

Colombia is a global leader in climate activism. Could US influence drag country to a future of mining and fracking?

Several hours after dark in a quiet Caribbean neighbourhood, a cluster of environmental activists gather on plastic chairs between a mango tree and a courtyard wall emblazoned with the words “Colombia, respira!” (Breathe, Colombia).

So many people have turned up that some have to stand. That is because tonight’s speaker is Susana Muhamad, one of the most admired socio-environmental campaigners in the world, and this is a moment of profound historical significance.

The more we learn about the gut, the more we realise how central it is to health. Here are 16 ways to look after it, from making sure we get enough fibre to not taking phones to the loo

“Our gut is a complex machine,” says Dr Ajay Verma, a consultant gastroenterologist at Kettering general hospital in Northamptonshire. “It is constantly providing us with the nutrition we need, initially to grow and develop, and then for us to survive, thrive and repair from injury and illness.” How can we keep it functioning well? Put simply: “Make sure what you put into it is balanced, and that you clear out its waste products adequately,” says Verma.

Critics of Royal Horticultural Society turn hose on corporate sponsorship, peat-free compost and general ‘wokery’

There was King Charles and David Beckham as well as a nocturnal garden to support bats and a Viking-themed allotment full of edible plants in pots. The Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea flower show, which ends on Saturday, was as lovely and celebrity-glittered as ever, most agreed.

But dig a little deeper, say critics on the conservative wing of the RHS – including one spectacularly outspoken former contributor – and not everything is necessarily smelling of roses.

A retirement village Scooby gang of heroes take on a horrific creature in a series that is funny, tender, wise – and executive produced by the Duffer Brothers

I’m sure this isn’t the intended takeaway from The Boroughs, a supernatural murder-mystery set in a New Mexico retirement community, but I am transfixed by what is on offer to the ageing demographic across the pond. It’s like watching an episode of The White Lotus and vowing in your next life to come back as an affluent white American, but more realistic. God willing, we’ll all get old – and with a bit of careful planning, maybe we could stretch to a berth in one of the villages that a country with the space to house them provides for a reasonable sum?

Protagonist Sam Cooper (Alfred Molina) doesn’t know how lucky he is, any viewer native to these cramped isles might think, as his daughter and son-in-law drop him off at his new home in The Boroughs. There he will find like-aged neighbours, multiple shops, sports and exercise classes, a community centre and numerous other facilities, including a lavishly appointed care home (The Manor) for if and when the time comes. A skittering monster extracting a modicum of body fluids from you every now and again seems a small price to pay. But we’ll get to that.

Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London
Not only does this giant plastic bag make the intangible physical, it gains a bodily sense of weight and an unexpected emotional resonance

When he wasn’t busy wrapping buildings and bridges in vast reams of fabric, Christo was wrapping absolutely nothing. The Bulgarian artist made his name – alongside his partner Jeanne-Claude – with a wrapped Reichstag, a swaddled Arc de Triomphe and an enveloped Pont Neuf. They found a way of containing, embracing, protecting and smothering the whole world. But in the 1960s, he was trying to wrap air. Nothing more.

Christo (Jeanne-Claude hadn’t been given full joint credit at this point) wanted to contain the air within a room, but the original idea was limited by technical constraints. Now, 50 years after it was first proposed for the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, and six years after Christo’s death in 2020, he’s finally pulled it off. The opening room at Gagosian has been bisected horizontally, a huge polyethylene sack splitting the room in two, held to the ceiling by white ropes. It droops low, sinking into the middle of the space, forcing you to crouch to get under it. You’re forced into a physical relationship with the work, bullied into changing how you interact with the environment.

Christo: Air is at Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London, until 21 August

Flying from rooftops or grinding on car spoilers, the skaters at the spectacular birth of a UK subculture are captured in Neil Macdonald’s book Elsewhere

Mako Nishimura fought her way into the Japanese underworld, but drug addiction and the slow demise of organised crime gangs almost destroyed her

In almost 40 years, Mako Nishimura never lost a fight. She told me this as if it were as obvious as night following day. Nishimura is 5ft-nothing and slight of build. She is also probably the only woman ever to have been a full-fledged yakuza, a member of Japan’s feared and rule-bound criminal underworld. She must have defeated many male gangsters. How, I asked her, did she do it? “First the legs,” she said, hands clasped, maintaining the calm demeanour of a village priest. “You cut him down with a club or a plank of wood.” Then you get to work.

Nishimura’s relaxed attitude to violence – you suspect, speaking to her, that it’s a little more than that – is what first caught the attention of yakuza members in 1986, when she was a 19-year-old runaway and former juvenile-prison inmate living in Gifu, a city near Nagoya. One night that year, Nishimura received a phone call. A pregnant friend named Aya was in trouble. Nishimura grabbed a baseball bat, ran down the street and found Aya surrounded by five men. When one of them kicked Aya in the belly, Nishimura yelled for her friend to run, then went for the attackers with her bat.

The move against the boss of London’s Southbank Centre sends a forbidding message about who is and isn’t seen as fit to lead in UK culture

I met Tommy Robinson once. It was 10 years ago exactly, during one of his many failed attempts to mainstream Islamophobia in British politics with a new “movement” called Pegida UK – a copycat of Germany’s far-right Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West.

There was little memorable about this “launch”, which as a social affairs editor for Sky News I was sent to cover, only to discover a pitiful gathering of a few blokes at a pub near Luton. The thing that does stand out in my memory is what Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, said to me. “It’s the Muslims that are a problem,” he said. “But you’re all right. You speak English. You’re like us.”

A new model of central banking would weaken the power of bond vigilantes – and help progressive politicians pay for transformative change

• Daniela Gabor is professor of economics and macrofinance at Soas, University of London

A spectre is haunting British politics: the bond markets.

Defending Keir Starmer after the disastrous local election results earlier this month, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, warned that a leadership contest would trigger the wrath of those investors who lend the state money by buying and selling UK government bonds (also known as gilts). The prospect of Andy Burnham winning that contest prompted shriller warnings: the left-leaning contender, after all, had dared to suggest governments should stop “being in hock” to the bond markets.

Daniela Gabor is professor of economics at Soas, University of London

Apparently, nines are the hardest to grasp for primary school children. If only they’d learned how to cheat like me

Maths was never my thing. I quite enjoyed it at O-level, to the extent that I chose to do it at A-level. As early as the first week of the A-level course, however, it became abundantly clear that the subject was quite beyond me. I simply couldn’t make head or tail of what the teacher was on about.

Looking around at the rest of the class quietly getting on with it, I remember wondering if there had been some primer course over the summer that everyone but me had attended. I just didn’t get it. There didn’t seem to be any certainties any more, rarely anything so straightforward as a right or wrong answer. There were enough grey areas in my other subjects – English and history. From my maths I wanted certainty, objective truth, which as far as I could see wasn’t part of it any more.

The ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ is an extraordinary example of bald self-dealing

Donald Trump is stealing almost $2bn in taxpayer money and handing it out to his friends. That’s the upshot of the president’s recent agreement following a $10bn lawsuit he brought in his personal capacity against the IRS, an agency that he oversees. Trump brought the suit over leaks of some documents from his tax returns to the press. To resolve the suit, the justice department will create a fund of nearly $1.8bn – a wildly outsized figure compared with Trump’s somewhat flimsily alleged injuries – that can be doled out to Trump allies. The Guardian describes the fund as “loosely controlled and secretive”, but members of the Trump administration have not ruled out January 6 insurrectionists as possible awardees.

The so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund” will be administered by four commissioners appointed by Trump’s attorney general and one appointed “in consultation” with congressional leadership – Trump, who can fire the commissioners, will have ultimate control. It will have the authority to issue formal apologies for alleged mistreatment of conservative political actors by previous administrations – ie, those few who were prosecuted or sued during the Biden era. When Trump leaves office, any remaining money will not be available for his successor to use similarly, but will instead be distributed back to the federal government. But I doubt that there will be any remaining money. We may never know either way: there is no requirement that the fund’s work be made public, and required reports to the attorney general on its conduct are to be confidential. In addition to the creation of this massive slush fund, the agreement also requires that the IRS drop all audits of Trump and his family.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

While Canada may be clinging to fossil fuels, much of the world is moving on

Casual international observers would be forgiven for assuming Canada is in the comforting hands of a climate champ. After all, while climate policy rollbacks reign supreme in Donald Trump’s America, Canada is now led by a man who, while serving as governor of the Bank of England, delivered a celebrated 2015 speech, “Breaking the tragedy of the horizon”, warning the global investment community of the financial risks of climate change; who went on to serve as UN special envoy for climate action and finance; and whose 2022 book Value(s) had much to say about the “existential threat” of climate change. A man who recently dazzled the world with his Davos speech on how middle powers can stand up to global bullies.

Look, we get it. Next to the US president, Carney seems so debonair, thoughtful and calm – a lifeline of stability in a volatile new world.

Seth Klein is a Canadian climate writer and activist, author of the book A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency, and former team lead of the Climate Emergency Unit. His newsletter can be found here.

The PM’s socialist party was crushed in its former Andalusian stronghold. With a general election in 2027, time to turn things around is running out

Lately, I often meet people outside Spain who praise the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez. In Britain, Italy or the US, friends, acquaintances or random people who learn I am Spanish offer admiring words about his positions on Gaza and Iran. It’s understandable.

Sánchez spoke out against Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump earlier and more forcefully than most European leaders did, with a powerful message on international law. And the Spanish leader has been one of the clearest and most effective advocates for immigration in one of the fastest-growing countries in the west.

María Ramírez is a journalist and deputy managing editor of elDiario.es, a news outlet in Spain

Surveillance that misses a haemorrhagic fever or fails to consider endemic risks at a departure port will be blind to something far more dangerous

• Vaccine to tackle Ebola outbreak will take six to nine months, WHO says

Two rare disease outbreaks within two weeks – Andes hantavirus and Bundibugyo Ebola – have caused deaths and triggered costly international responses. Together they expose a gap not in our ability to respond, but in our willingness to anticipate, prevent and use precaution.

The hantavirus outbreak on a cruise expedition in the south Atlantic played out slowly. Three weeks passed between the death of one passenger on 11 April and the linkage to hantavirus on 2 May. In that time, passengers onboard the MV Hondius continued their itinerary, having been advised that the man had probably died of natural causes. They toured remote islands and ate together at the same tables. More than 30 passengers disembarked at St Helena and flew in different directions.

The world has changed dramatically since the Brexit referendum and politics needs to catch up

The spectacle of a prime minister clinging to power while his party grows increasingly desperate for a replacement is painfully familiar from the end of the last Tory government. British politics feels trapped in a loop. This condition is not wholly a result of Brexit, but the failure of that project is a significant part of it. None of the benefits promised in the referendum by the leave campaign have materialised. It is all downside, but political discussion of any significant rewriting of the terms of departure is taboo. Sir Keir Starmer’s “reset” of European relations is mostly tinkering at the margins.

Meanwhile, the strategic calculus has changed entirely since 2016. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine exposed European complacency about continental defence and energy security. Donald Trump’s aggressive contempt for old allies makes it clear that they cannot depend on the US for protection.

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

Conflict and aid cuts are hampering the fight against an outbreak of the deadly virus centred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has faced the deadly threat of Ebola 16 times since the virus was discovered there in 1976, with a 2018-20 outbreak killing almost 2,300 people. On Sunday, the World Health Organization declared the 17th outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern. So far, 139 suspected deaths and almost 600 suspected cases of the haemorrhagic fever virus have been identified, nearly all in the DRC’s north-eastern provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, with two cases in Uganda of people who had travelled from the DRC.

There is also anxiety about neighbouring South Sudan. The WHO fears the disease has been spreading for a couple of months and, given the highly mobile population, warns that it could take months more to bring it under control. While it judges the risk of global spread to be low, it thinks the regional risk is high.

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

Readers respond to an article by Dave Schilling in which he said he couldn’t think why anyone would choose to go on a cruise

I’d say to Dave Schilling that misfortune is part and parcel of life (The hantavirus debacle raises a key question: why would anyone go on a cruise?, 16 May). Is driving too much of a risk for him? Eating out? Boarding a plane? I fractured my left wrist in 2019, four days before embarkation on a cruise to Iceland. This entailed a 12-hour night shift of indescribable purgatory, along with hordes of other stricken souls at A&E. I joined endless queues, was shunted from pillar to post and eventually emerged the next morning, traumatised and with my wrist plastered. I cancelled the Icelandic cruise.

Fast-forward to 2025, and I board a ship to set sail to Iceland at last, Covid preventing it in the meantime. And guess what – I fall and break my left wrist, this time while admiring a geyser. I am ushered to the ship’s medical centre post-haste, and immediately examined by two charming doctors in naval uniforms, far more impressive than the NHS’s boring scrubs. X-rays confirm that my wrist is fractured, and I come to the conclusion that Iceland doesn’t want me there!

We should pay heed to the Nottingham killer’s mother, says a reader who struggled to get her son the treatment he needed

I write as the mother of a son who suffered with psychosis, and who had to battle with mental health services to have him receive the treatment he needed. I am impressed and astounded by Celeste Calocane (Mental health system is broken, says mother of Nottingham triple killer, 14 May). She insisted the system was broken, and her evidence clearly illustrated that.

On top of everything else she has gone through trying to navigate the system, fearing for the life of the son she loved when he was so unwell, and the terrible outcome that followed, she then had to experience the ordeal of being examined about her role in not preventing the outcome. It was horrible to watch, and she handled it so well and so strongly. She is an impressive and outstanding woman.

Richard Eltringham and Barbara Riddell point to the decline in general practice as the reason why people are turning to AI for health advice. Plus a letter from Dr Katie Baker

Your report (One in seven in UK prefer consulting AI chatbots to seeing doctor, study finds, 13 May) will no doubt be greeted with the usual hand‑wringing about the decline of human connection in healthcare. But the more honest explanation is far simpler: many of us no longer see our registered doctor in any meaningful sense.

Continuity of care has quietly evaporated. General practice has become a rotating cast of locums, telephone triage and “someone will call you back at some point between 8am and the heat death of the universe”. The idea of a named GP – someone who knows your history, your face – has become NHS folklore, spoken of wistfully but rarely encountered in the wild.

Zoe Anderson says the health service’s rigid working conditions forced her to leave. Plus Jill Whitehead on how a lack of nursing care contributed to her son’s death

The latest figures from the Royal College of Nursing paint a worrying if unsurprising picture (Two-thirds of NHS nurses believe lack of staff is putting patients at risk, survey finds, 18 May). But to achieve safer staffing levels, we must look beyond recruitment and listen to what those leaving the workforce are telling us needs to change.

For me, it was the complete incompatibility of a career in nursing with any semblance of normal family life. The rigid system of inflexible, inconsistent shift patterns, coupled with a complete lack of control over my schedule, made it feel impossible to balance my career with the realities of life outside work. Despite having spent three years training to achieve my registration, I left after just 12 months on the job.

Europa League glory kicked off scenes of royal ribbing, ski goggles on the team bus and knee slides with nephews

It was 1.43am in Istanbul when Aston Villa’s players began to make tracks for their hotel, over the road from the rubber ring-like Besiktas Park. Matty Cash walked into a windowless basement at the stadium, bottle of Efes in hand, and toasted a Europa League victory that will be etched in history, the club’s first trophy in three decades. “The king set the gameplan out for us,” he said of Unai Emery, who, if he was not there already, now has a god-like status among the fans.

Moments earlier, John McGinn joked that Prince William, who joined the players for beers amid the dressing-room celebrations, might “get his credit card out” and stump up for a free bar. Villa’s billionaire co-owners, Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens, were also in attendance, the former delighted that Emery had delivered on his promise to put another piece of silverware in a trophy cabinet that had been gathering dust. “It means a lot,” Sawiris said, wearing a Villa scarf. “I can’t express myself with words. Amazing. Very special. An eight-year ride and we saw today what hard work can do with Unai’s effort and the whole team.” Asked what’s next, there came a reminder of Villa’s ambition. “The sky’s the limit,” he replied.

Why are the Enhanced Games, taking place in Las Vegas this weekend, so contentious, and how have governing bodies have responded to the event?

Matthew Leutwyler’s film shows how the DRC fighter was inspired by trainer Kibomango after the death of her father

“Clarck Ntambwe originally turned to boxing and went to the gym to learn how to fight so she could kill the guys that murdered her dad,” Matthew Leutwyler says of the young woman whose life story provided the basis for the powerful and moving feature film he wrote and directed against the backdrop of tragic conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Fight Like a Girl is also inspired by the memory of Leutwyler’s close friend Balezi “Kibomango” Bagunda, a former child soldier turned boxing champion who trained women to fight in the ring.

Ntambwe became one of Kibomango’s star fighters at the women’s boxing club he founded in Goma – the city where the trainer was gunned down soon after the movie was completed. Kibomango was killed by M23 rebels while he was helping Leutwyler evacuate 41 children from a village under attack in eastern Congo.

• Clubs feel they may have grounds to claim compensation

• FA opens investigation and expected to bring charges

Millwall and Wrexham are considering their legal options after confirmation that Southampton have been expelled from Saturday’s Championship playoff final and replaced by the beaten semi-finalists Middlesbrough.

The aggrieved clubs will await publication of the written reasons for the decisions taken by the English Football League’s independent disciplinary panel, which were upheld by an appeal panel on Wednesday night, but are understood to believe they could have grounds to make a claim for compensation.

Arsenal won the title thanks to defensive excellence, relentless consistency and exploiting fine margins

By Opta Analyst

Arsenal have done it. Finally. After 22 years, they are champions of England once again. Manchester City’s 1-1 draw at Bournemouth on Tuesday night means Arsenal hold an unassailable lead at the top of the Premier League with one game remaining. It’s their 14th top-flight crown overall, their fourth Premier League title, and their first since the Invincibles campaign of 2003-04.

The defining number for that team was zero. Zero defeats across an entire league season. But what numbers best define this Arsenal side? Here are 10 that tell the story of their title-winning campaign.

Minchella on life as a treble winner, his club’s rivalry with Wigan and why playing at Wembley brings it all back

By No Helmets Required

Hull Kingston Rovers and Wigan play each other twice in the next 10 days in two games that will fully test their depth and resilience. After a slow start in Super League, the treble winners are climbing up the table and could go second if they beat Wigan at Craven Park on Thursday night. Their second meeting is at Wembley in the Challenge Cup ​final next Saturday. Rovers seem to be peaking at the right time. They have been punching out peak performances in recent weeks, the latest a tough win at Leigh.

This is a golden era for the club. After reaching the Challenge Cup ​final and Super League semi-finals in 2023, they played in their first Grand Final in 2024, finally won the title last year and were crowned world club champions in February. Willie Peters’ squad are entering their fourth year together. He will leave in October to take over new NRL franchise PNG Chiefs and, even though most of the club’s important players will stay, it feels like their time is now.

• Event ‘goes against everything Wada stands for’

• Inaugural competition is on Sunday in Las Vegas

The World Anti-Doping Agency says it is concerned that Enhanced Games’ athletes will tempt more young people into using performance-enhancing drugs.

The stark warning comes before the controversial $50m event in Las Vegas on Sunday, which allows competitors to take banned drugs – and offers huge prizes if they win races and break world records.

While there is no denying the magnitude of his achievements, his legacy is also tied up in politics, propaganda and hard power

Well, that’s that then. Put out more flags. Mount the iconic Jedi‑style woollen cardigan in the club museum. He really does seem to be done this time.

In the absence of formal denials, it now seems highly likely the scheduled final year of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City contract will be spent trawling the high-concept food ateliers of the Iberian peninsula, debating spatial architecture with a Slovenian Cluedo grandmaster over hummingbird martinis, and generally recharging after a decade of unceasing devotion to victory.

• Julian Nagelsmann includes 40-year-old in 26-man squad

• ‘We want to become world champions’, says head coach

Bayern Munich’s Manuel Neuer has come out of international retirement after being named on Thursday as the starting goalkeeper in Germany’s World Cup squad by head coach Julian Nagelsmann. Nagelsmann made the decision after having long labelled Hoffenheim’s Oliver Baumann as his first-choice keeper.

“Yes I plan with [Neuer as No 1],” Nagelsmann said on Thursday. “The main task was to nominate the best three keepers. So we decided that these three are part of that. We contacted Manuel and asked him if he wanted to play for the national team again.”

Verdict is latest legal milestone over France’s worst ever air disaster

A Paris appeals court has found Airbus and Air France guilty of corporate manslaughter over the 2009 Rio-Paris plane crash that killed 228 passengers and crew in France’s worst air disaster.

The verdict is the latest milestone in a legal marathon involving two of France’s most emblematic companies and families of the mainly French, Brazilian and German victims.

Climbers take advantage of clear weather after threat of ice fall on normal route delayed start of spring season

A record 274 climbers have reached the summit of Mount Everest from the Nepalese side in a single day after a spring season that started late because of the threat of ice fall on the normal tourist route.

The climbers took advantage of the clear weather on Wednesday, said Rishi Ram Bhandari, of the Expedition Operators Association Nepal.

A Buddhist building on Miyajima island in Japan has been destroyed by fire. Reikado Hall, part of Daishō-in temple complex, was home to an 'eternal flame' said to have been lit by the monk Kukai more than 1,200 years ago. Fire officials said the blaze was extinguished on Thursday by about 30 firefighters

Nottingham university hospitals trust says 11 members of staff dismissed and 14 others given written warnings

An NHS trust has sacked 11 staff members who illegally accessed the medical records of the victims of the Nottingham attacks.

Valdo Calocane killed two 19-year-old students, Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, and Ian Coates, a 65-year-old caretaker, and attempted to kill three other people in the city in June 2023.

Republican senators have queried the timing and lack of detail in secret service bid to add money to the Department for Homeland security bill

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In addition to the indictment of former Cuban leader Raul Castro and Trump’s comments about Cuba being a “failed nation,” US secretary of state Marco Rubio delivered a direct video address to the Cuban people in Spanish Wednesday.

“The real reason you don’t have electricity, fuel, or food is because those who control your country have plundered billions of dollars, but nothing has been used to help the people,” he said.

Without urgent intervention England faces water shortages of 5bn litres a day by 2055, peers tell government

Rainwater harvesting, the use of grey water in homes and an urgent campaign to reduce water usage across society are vital to prevent water shortages of 5bn litres a day by 2055, the government has been told.

Without intervention, England will face severe water shortages in the coming decades, as climate change-induced weather patterns, population growth and the expansion of industries such as water-intensive datacentres put excessive demand on supplies and endanger life, according to a House of Lords report published on Thursday.

Changes to building regulations to require new homes to achieve a maximum water usage of 105 litres a person a day and accelerated grey water reuse.

Nature-based solutions such as restoring peat bogs and reconnecting rivers to their natural flood plains to enhance water retention.

An urgent awareness campaign for the whole of society to reduce water usage.

A full environmental and economic assessment of drought to weigh the cost of inaction against the value of resilience.

The rolling out of nature-based solutions more widely in urban and rural settings.

The US, Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia – some of the highest oil-producing nations and major greenhouse gas emitters – opposed the measure

The UN has voted 141-8 to adopt a resolution backing a world court opinion that countries have a legal obligation to address climate change, with the US – which is the world’s biggest historical emitter – among the small group opposing it.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said Wednesday’s general assembly vote, in which 28 countries abstained, underscored that governments are responsible for protecting citizens from the “escalating climate crisis”.

Weirs, culverts and sluices among 602 barriers demolished in year in attempt to restore 15,500 miles of rivers by 2030

A few miles downstream from a lava field in western Iceland, the gargle of free-flowing water is unbroken for the first time in decades after hydraulic peckers chipped away at a dilapidated dam that once powered a farm. The structure on the River Melsá had continued to block fish migration long after falling into disrepair.

“It wasn’t providing any electricity; the old power house had sheep living in it,” said Hamish Moir, a river engineer from CBEC, a Scottish firm that provided technical support for the demolition in December. To see the river restored to its natural state was “really rewarding”, he said.

Flea treatment chemicals fipronil and imidacloprid also implicated in lower cognitive scores in children with autism

Toxic chemicals found in pet flea treatment are devastating wildlife in rivers, parks and special conservation areas and the government should take urgent action to limit their use, according to a study.

Chemicals that are banned for use as pesticides but still used in liquid flea treatments are causing potentially irreversible harm to aquatic life as well as decimating birds and pollinators, according to the study published on Thursday.

Guide retires award for eco-friendly practices – and says restaurants will no longer be able to advertise they have it

With rare bluefin tuna and red meat often on their menus, Michelin-starred restaurants have not always prioritised sustainability.

In an effort to consider the climate crisis, in 2020 Michelin began awarding green stars to chefs who cooked eco-friendly ingredients and reduced waste. But now the body has abruptly retired the prize and said chefs will no longer be able to advertise that they have it.

Scientists developing vaccines and anti-tick treatments amid growing concern over spread of disease

Cases of Lyme disease have risen more than 20% in England in the past year, public health experts have revealed, as pharmaceutical companies work to create new vaccines and drugs to tackle the tick-borne illness.

According to data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), published as part of its One Health vector-borne disease surveillance report, there were 1,168 laboratory-confirmed cases of Lyme disease in 2025, up from 959 in 2024 – an increase of 22%. However, the figure is similar to that recorded in 2023, when there were 1,151 confirmed cases.

Ban social media and reform education to tackle scandal of young people not in work or study, says Peter Hyman

Schools have become a “pipeline” to worklessness for a large cohort of young people in the UK, according to an influential former Labour adviser who has called for urgent action to help a “lost generation”.

Peter Hyman, a former adviser to Tony Blair and Keir Starmer, told the Guardian the government should ban social media and enact radical education reform to tackle the “national scandal” of young people who are not in education, employment or training (Neet).

Police say 64-year-old was attacked after confrontation near Battersea Bridge

A murder investigation has been launched after a bus driver died after an assault on Battersea Bridge in London, police said.

Sergei Krajev, 64, died in hospital on Tuesday after the incident in the early hours of Monday morning.

Gerry ‘the monk’ Hutch has won fans in north Dublin byelection campaign with anti-immigrant rhetoric

Elaine Roe, 61, a cafe worker, has no doubt what is the most important issue in this week’s byelection for Dublin’s north inner city. “The government is wrecking our country, they’re bringing in rapists and murderers and kidnappers. It’s a shame. I might vote Hutch, he seems a normal person.”

That would be Gerry “the monk” Hutch, a prominent gangland figure who is running as an independent in an election that is far from normal. The 63-year-old – who was jailed for robbery convictions in his youth – is a celebrity candidate in a contest for a parliamentary seat that has been dominated by xenophobia and immigration.

Nato chief delivers speech in Sweden as he hints at further changes to US military commitments to Europe

Just as Pavel was speaking in Prague, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was pursuing escalation of the conflict between the two countries.

It’s quite a claim given (checks notes) Russia’s continued and relentless invasion of Ukraine for years.

“Ukraine has demonstrated not only determination and heroism, but also unbelievable capacity to adjust, to innovate, to change.

It is something that we in Europe have lost through many regulatory measures that are necessary in peacetime, but of course in conflict you have to be … flexible and achieve the results in shortest possible time. …

Hundreds of cases reported in the DRC after USAID has been dismantled and key scientific research canceled

A previously undetected outbreak of Ebola is coursing through parts of central Africa, and the US appears to be doing little to help stop it, after massive cuts to global and domestic public health efforts.

There is no cure and no vaccine for the rare Bundibugyo variant of Ebola, which has caused two outbreaks in recent decades. Health leaders and scientists are now racing to understand where the virus is spreading and attempting to stop it – but the US is notably absent in these efforts.

The Rolling Stone will play a lighthouse keeper in Three Incestuous Sisters, joining a cast including Dakota Johnson, Jessie Buckley and Saoirse Ronan

Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger is playing a lighthouse keeper in the new film from Happy as Lazzaro director Alice Rohrwacher, which is currently filming on the Italian island of Stromboli.

According to reports in the Italian media, Jagger was photographed on arrival in Stromboli after flying in by helicopter to take a role in Three Incestuous Sisters, Rohrwacher’s adaptation of the 2005 “visual novel” by The Time Traveler’s Wife author Audrey Niffenegger.

Firms hit by ‘perfect storm’ of uncertainty about Labour leadership and impact of Iran war

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Companies in the UK’s dominant services sector have reported one of the sharpest declines in business activity in a decade, according to a closely watched index.

Businesses are grappling with a “perfect storm” of domestic political uncertainty around Keir Starmer’s leadership as prime minister and the growing impact of the Iran war, leading to soaring costs, supply shortages and job cuts, the report said.

Airline, which took £25m hit on jet fuel in March, says passengers are waiting later to book trips

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The airline easyJet has said its summer holiday bookings are lagging behind last year’s, as the Middle East conflict weighs on consumer confidence and passengers appear to be waiting later to book trips.

The carrier said it had to spend an unexpected extra £25m on jet fuel in March after the start of the US-Israel war on Iran.

Having shaken up UK clothes retail, the secondhand marketplace is pushing into phones and cameras – and even books

Once the preserve of jumble sales and charity shops, “preloved” fashion and homewares are now leading style and shopping trends in the UK. After the rapid growth of online retail, Britain is now witnessing “the normalisation of secondhand”, according to Adam Jay, the chief executive of Vinted’s main marketplace arm – a key driver of the trend in recent years.

The UK is at the forefront of an international revolution, jostling for position with France to be Vinted’s biggest market, and is also one of its fastest growing markets, as the online marketplace moves beyond just selling clothes and into everything from smartphones and books to rugs.

Jack Clark describes ‘vertiginous sense of progress’ and ‘profound changes’ to society alongside risks of technology

An AI system will work with humans to make a Nobel prize-winning discovery within 12 months and tradespeople will be helped by bipedal robots in two years, according to the co-founder of Anthropic.

Jack Clark described a “vertiginous sense of progress” in the technology and made a series of predictions, including that companies run solely by AIs would be generating millions of dollars in revenue within 18 months, and that by the end of 2028, AI systems would be able to design their own successors.

When her sibling died in an accident the singer-songwriter sought comfort in music. But after finding that the most celebrated records about loss were angry, loud and male, she set about creating something very different

In the months after her sister’s death, singer-songwriter Liz Lawrence couldn’t even listen to music, let alone play it. “I was very much, ‘That’s in the past and I don’t know what’s going to be asked of me now,’” she says. “I didn’t think about my work. I wasn’t interested. I didn’t have any appetite for it.” After slowly gravitating back to music via female vocalists such as Lisa O’Neill, Adrianne Lenker and Joanna Newsom, and as the time afforded to grieving was squeezed out by a life still ongoing, Lawrence realised she needed songs that allowed her to return to that “space of contemplation, reflection and sadness”.

She quickly searched out a Reddit thread of the best grief albums of all time, only to find a lengthy list of very specific rock and metal records chiefly made by men. “I was just looking for open and frank sadness,” she says, as opposed to the anger broiling within the suggested albums. That plain-speaking despair permeates Lawrence’s beautiful fifth album, Vespers, an unvarnished tribute to elder sister Jessie, who died suddenly in 2024 following an accident while on holiday with her partner and two small children in Ireland.

Who says hair can’t be art? We meet Taiba Akhuetie, who uses flowing human and synthetic locks to take brollies, tables, chairs, lampshades, handbags and more into a wild and wavy new dimension

Taiba Akhuetie’s art is uncomfortable to look at. This is mostly because you’re not sure whether you’re in the presence of something alive or dead. She uses hair as her medium, constructing mundane items out of synthetic and human locks. Handbags, mirrors, rocking chairs and umbrellas are adorned with long, chunky braids and loose, pin-straight strands. The result is that these inanimate objects take on the eerie quality of taxidermy.

Akhuetie, whose work is about to go on show at the Sarabande Foundation in London, has memories of being fascinated by hair in her childhood. “We used to go to my mum’s friend’s house …” She stops and quickly corrects herself. “My auntie’s – she would be called auntie, obviously.” Akhuetie would watch her “auntie” braiding her sister’s hair, taken aback by how quickly her fingers moved. She also remembers doing plaits for her friends at school in Kingston, Surrey, and feeling that she was naturally good at it.

A Mancunian singer-songwriter becomes a viral divisive figure while trying to track down a girl called Emily

Last week came the news that gen Z are big fans of going to the cinema. Now here’s a gen Z romcom from Working Title, the company behind Bridget Jones’s Diary and Notting Hill. Directed by Alicia MacDonald from a script by Rachel Hirons, Finding Emily shares DNA with Richard Curtis’s comedies – the same warm heart and charm, plus levels of cheesiness that some may find cringe. In the end I found it impossible to hate, though one or two performances felt a bit lacking in comic flair.

It’s set in Manchester, where indie singer-songwriter Owen (Spike Fearn) meets undergraduate Emily (Sadie Soverall) at the student union. They click, but when Emily taps her number into his phone, she misses out a digit. Is it a drunken error, or has she wrong-numbered him? Owen is convinced it’s a mistake and sticks up posters around campus to find her. After a tipoff, he waits outside a lecture hall for psychology student Emily (Angourie Rice). She’s American, and not his Emily, but she offers to help, suggesting Owen emails every Emily enrolled at the university – all 318 of them. Owen accidentally sends the email to all rather than BCCing, creating an email group of Emilies who are divided in their reactions. Is he some kind of creepy virgin “incel”? Or a diehard romantic? Owen becomes a meme: “email guy”.

Cannes film festival: Swann Arlaud is excellent as Henri Marre, the director’s great-grandfather, as he finagles his way into a job at the Vichy ministry of labour

This, oddly, is the second film in the Cannes competition about the Nazi occupation of France, and it is more interesting than László Nemes’s rather mainstream drama Moulin – a complex, ambiguous study of national humiliation from writer-director Emmanuel Marre. He has created an absorbingly intimate, novelistically detailed procedural about the day-to-day, moment-by-moment lives of the Vichy administrators after the fall of France, mostly shot conventionally, sometimes jolting into an anachronistic dreamlike scenario on video.

It is centred on the director’s own great-grandfather Henri Marre, who held a minor but important post in the Vichy ministry of labour. The film is in fact unsparing of this conceited, petty, but weirdly sensitive and vulnerable man: Swann Arlaud plays him as a sociopathic mixture of haughty idealist, salon intellectual and conman predator, a man who doesn’t really believe in anything but his own survival and has only the vaguest idea about what such survival could mean.

In a feat of cinematic mystery and skill György Pálfi coaxes a tour de force from his poultry cast in this parable of animal and human interrelations

Hungarian film director György Pálfi has long been a one-off talent: a surrealist-formalist of sorts who is equally comfortable making a romantic film comprised of hundreds of clips from other movies (Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen), a sick-puppy black comedy about a taxidermist who adores cats (Taxidermia), and a near-silent, portrait of sinister village life in which one character has permanent hiccups (Hukkle). By comparison, his latest, Hen is practically mainstream. That is really saying something given it’s a film whose main character is a black-brown hen (played by about eight poultry thespians and not CGI) who quizzically observes a world where humans treat each other like, well, animals. Comparisons have inevitably been made to a couple of recent features with animal protagonists, such as Andrea Arnold’s Cow and Jerzy Skolimowski’s donkey-centric EO, but Hen is lighter and more amusing, if one can say that of a film that features an extended subplot about human trafficking with deadly consequences.

How Pálfi manages to pull this off is a cinematic mystery, but it probably has to do with his light tonal touch and his ability to truly empathise with his avian heroine without resorting to anthropomorphic sentimentalism. This hen acts much like a real chicken in that she combines shrewd survival instincts and utter gormlessness to a winning degree. For example, after surviving the Greek battery farm where she hatches (a wee black speck in a sea of yellow chicks), she manages to escape the clutches of a trucker who plans to make dinner out of her. Just when you think she has found safety, a fox (amazingly well trained, and also not CGI as far as I can tell) starts stalking her, chasing her into a busy road where the chicken literally crosses the road with the blithe idiocy that makes chickens so adorable. The fox isn’t so lucky. Incidentally, the film does have a disclaimer at the end averring that no animals were harmed during the making of the movie, which is a relief.

The third film in Tarik Saleh’s ‘Cairo trilogy’ is a about a washed-up movie star who is bullied into starring in government propaganda

Swedish-Egyptian film-maker Tarik Saleh has long been a brilliant satirist of the corruption and shabby political compromises and conspiracies of post-Mubarak Egypt. Now he brings us the third of his “Cairo trilogy”, after The Nile Hilton Incident in 2017 and Cairo Conspiracy in 2022. This new film is a seductive black-comic political thriller set in Egypt of the present day, showing us that everyone in the glamorous world of the movies, infatuated as they are with made-up stories acted out by narcissists believing in their own publicity, can so easily be pressed into the service of political propaganda.

The result is a rackety, despairing, funny film with something of Billy Wilder, or István Szabó’s Mephisto, or Bertolucci’s fascism parable The Conformist. For me, it also had echoes of Daniel Kehlmann’s novel The Director, about 1930s Austrian movie director GW Pabst, fatally tempted by the blandishments of Goebbels. Saleh’s lead is his longtime leading man Fares Fares, playing an ageing Egyptian movie star; this is pampered matinee idol George Fahmy, a man comfortable doing cheesy crowd-pleasing potboilers, now bullied into playing the lead in a sinister government-sponsored biopic of the president (with news footage of the current president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, cheekily cut in).

(Verve)
Sounding characteristically virtuosic but unbothered, Vile is more forward-thinking than ever on a record that surveys the bliss and bumps of life in his mid-40s

These days, Kurt Vile songs begin in the middle of the story. In the third decade of his career, the journeyman musician seems even more content than ever to ride his own wave, to let his laid-back koans sit in the air without explanation or context, waiting for a listener to find the right frequency to understand or absorb them in their own time. The Philadelphia guitarist and songwriter opens his 10th record – an auspicious number for any musician – in the least auspicious, most Vile of ways, mumbling his way through the moment: “Smoke on my lip / I wrote a song / Some people said / I was doin’ it wrong,” he sings, his plainspoken warble as familiar, at this point, as the taste of Coca-Cola, or the smell of a summer thunderstorm.

Philadelphia’s Been Good to Me relies on the fact that Vile, 46, is an elder statesman of indie rock at this point, and that it would be downright strange for him to put on any airs, or even for him to sound as if he was performing for any kind of audience. The album never labours its points or trades in anything so tacky as radical departures in sound or style. It is, emphatically, a Kurt Vile record – loose, lush, ambling, aimless, and totally, deeply poetic, bruh.

A new exhibition at Tate Britain includes canvases titled after symphonies and nocturnes, but the inspiration flows in both directions. Plus, how Felicity Lott led me to an epiphany

Comparisons between music, painting and sculpture have never quite rung true for me because you’re talking about fundamentally opposed ideas of what the experience of art is all about. A painting can be experienced in a second’s contemplation or an hour’s, but a piece of music, be it symphony or sonata, has to be journeyed through for just as long as the performance lasts.

And yet, the week the James McNeill Whistler exhibition opens at the Tate in London (here’s Jonathan Jones’s five-star review), I’m having to reconsider. Whistler was profoundly influenced by music, a connection that goes so deep that the results aren’t only aesthetic but visceral, in the fabric of the form and expression of his pictures and his philosophy of painting.

Crucible Playhouse, Sheffield
This fascinating and bold concert featured the works of the ‘word man’ and the ‘note man’, and their absurdist radio play Words and Music

A few months before he died, Morton Feldman told a radio interviewer that he considered Samuel Beckett to be “a word man, a fantastic word man” and that he, Feldman, always thought of himself as a note man. The two worked together twice, first on an opera and then, in 1987, on Words and Music, an absurdist radio play that Beckett repurposed with Feldman’s music. Their mutual sympathy was apparent in Sheffield Chamber Music festival’s affectionate staging of the latter, which occupied this concert’s second half.

Before that, however, the juxtaposition of a minimalist Beckett monologue with one of Feldman’s classic uncoordinated scores laid bare their deep artistic synergy. Rockaby, a desolate exploration of ageing and isolation, was the opener. Directed in the round by Vicky Featherstone, the rigid protagonist – a magnetic Siobhán McSweeney – revolved in her rocking chair, listening and occasionally responding to her own recorded voice. It was hard not to sense the heavy hand of dementia behind the singsong fragments and the fading woman’s desperate final quest for human connection.

Italy’s south has long been either romanticised or patronised. A Palermo collective has dived into historic archives to recover surreal rhymes and surprising songs that defy the island’s picture-postcard image

‘What do I do now that I no longer have my mother?” Lero Lero sing on Com’haiu a Fari, the opening track of their self-titled debut album. “If I still had my mother, I would not love you.” What may sound like the kind of honest self-reckoning a modern songwriter has dragged out of therapy sessions is actually a traditional Sicilian folk text once sung by a washerwoman, reimagined here through three voices modelled on Sicilian Settimana Santa polyphonies. For this Palermo collective, maternal loss is also metaphor: symbolic of Sicily’s ruptured cultural inheritance, which they recover through archival labour songs, carters’ cries and lullabies, then reshape through electronics and microtonal instrumentation.

In the Italian imagination, Sicily has long been more than the island at the country’s southern edge. It has functioned as a symbolic South, carrying fantasies of archaic beauty and rural authenticity alongside associations with poverty, criminality and backwardness. Its culture is often romanticised and patronised at once.

Packed with gossip and incident, this book is also a fascinating study in the gestation of genius

Among the many great pleasures of Daniel Okrent’s new biography of Stephen Sondheim – a book perfectly weighted between the gossipy and erudite – is its rendering of the milieu beyond its immediate subject. You come for the biography and stay for the world of mid-20th-century New York, in which Leonard Bernstein says terrible things about Sweeney Todd (“disgusting”), Sondheim says terrible things about Barbra Streisand (“doesn’t have one sincere moment left inside her”), and Arthur Laurents says terrible things about everyone. In the early 2000s, during a particularly poisonous exchange of letters between Laurents and Sondheim, the latter told his old collaborator, “you’re just good enough to know you’re mediocre”.

The entire book is sheer delight and Okrent, formerly an editor at the New York Times and a baseball fanatic who effectively invented the modern fantasy baseball league, does a terrific job of telling Sondheim’s life story alongside shrewd analysis of his body of work. We meet Sondheim’s mother, known as Foxy, whom the writer and composer made an elaborate play of hating his entire life and who Okrent brings to life in order to get behind that particular performance.

This vivid story of a Caribbean childhood in 1960s Bradford does not stint on accounts of poverty and systemic abuse, yet is pungent with wit and colour

‘I remember growing up and smelling lanolin everywhere and the wisps of wool just floating around,” debut novelist Marcia Hutchinson has said of her home city of Bradford, then a traditional Yorkshire mill town, where she was born to Jamaican parents in late 1962. From 1948, Bradford became a destination for several thousand Windrush migrants from the Caribbean, encouraged to come to the UK as part of postwar reconstruction. What they found was frequent racism and hostility as well as cold, damp weather and inadequate housing. Hutchinson has been open about using her own difficult childhood as the inspiration for The Mercy Step, a novel that does not stint on accounts of poverty, systemic abuse and violence, yet is pungent with wit and colour. For sheer vivacity and determination, it deserves its place on the shortlist of this year’s Women’s prize for fiction.

Hutchinson’s alter ego, Mercy Hanson, makes her stubborn, lively presence known “during the coldest winter of the 20th century”, speaking to us directly from her mother’s womb. “Mummy” is a God-fearing and often terrifyingly God-invoking character, “five foot nothing” with a tiny waist despite her many pregnancies. Four older children have been left “Back Home”, some adopted by other families. Mercy is the third girl to be born to Mummy and Daddy in England; another daughter and a longed for, spoiled only son soon follow.

A biography of the creative force behind Mrs Merton and The Royle Family focuses on the stories behind her work

From the 1990s until her tragically early death in 2016, Caroline Aherne was a fixture of British primetime television. This new study of her work reminds us of the punk spirit behind it all. Aherne was the deceptively vicious chatshow host Mrs Merton. She was the voice of Gogglebox, an expression of love for the medium she adored. She was the creator and star of The Royle Family, one of the most profound, realistic and beautiful sitcoms ever written for the British screen. She was one of the greats.

David Scott’s first book, Mancunians, offered a portrait of his city through its notable people, one of whom was Aherne. In it, Scott argued that her home city had not done nearly enough to celebrate her, and this, his second book, is an attempt to redress the balance. She is, Scott writes, his biggest influence (he is a poet and presenter) and his favourite Mancunian of all time. When the idea of writing a proper biography was put to him, he declined, repelled by the idea of “raking over someone’s private life”. This rakes over the work instead, representing a comprehensive record of her output from the perspective of a true devotee.

A professor of psychobiology argues that art – from painting to theatre – has a measurable impact on our health

After Daisy Fancourt’s daughter Daphne was born prematurely, she was confined to an incubator, fighting for her life against a series of infections. Unable to touch her baby or even properly enter the room, Fancourt kept vigil just inside the door, dressed head to toe in PPE, singing lullabies over the whir of instruments and alarms. The songs calmed her, and may have been crucial for Daphne too. Studies show that singing to babies in intensive care reduces their heart rate, improves their breathing, and encourages them to feed.

It was a moment when Fancourt’s professional and personal lives collided. A professor of psychobiology and epidemiology at University College London, she researches how social connections and behaviours affect our health. In Art Cure, her first book for a popular audience, she aims to make a scientific case that the arts – from playing music to theatre-going to painting – aren’t a merely aesthetic aspect of life. Instead, they are deeply entwined with our mental and physical wellbeing at every level – from the workings of our cells and molecules to cognition, memory and mood. In an era of shrinking arts funding and overstretched healthcare systems, her message is urgent. But how to compile rigorous evidence for something as holistic, indefinable – and, perhaps, resolutely unscientific – as art?

Driving sims were overtaken by open world fantasy adventures, but new upgrades show how much joy there is in the genre

I have spent the last week careening around Japan in a Porsche 911, seeing the sights, racing other cars and occasionally veering off the road to plummet through an ancient bamboo forest. You all know what’s coming next … this wasn’t in real life, folks – it was in Forza Horizon 6, the latest instalment in Microsoft’s series of open world driving games set in authentic-looking, real-world locations.

Reviewing this game (which is out now on Xbox and PC, and coming to PS5 later in the year) has reminded me of the sheer fun and exhilaration that driving games can provide. It’s easy to forget, but this was the biggest genre in town from the 1990s to the early 2000s. Consoles were sold on how good their racing games were: the original PlayStation had Ridge Racer, the Sega Saturn had Daytona USA. Later came the dirt-track thrills of Colin McRae Rally, the chaotic destruction of Burnout, the sophisticated realism of Gran Turismo. They were the bestsellers of the era, showcasing the future of real-time 3D visuals.

Why are Nintendo releasing a straight-up remake of the space-flight shooter – with many of its original limitations – rather than a fresh new take?

The Nintendo 64 was not my first video game console, but it was my formative one. Getting to grips with 3D movement in Super Mario 64 with that weird three-pronged controller is one of my most visceral childhood memories; the long, long wait for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was the background noise to a huge chunk of my youth. But back in the 1990s (in the UK at least), it felt as if nobody had an N64. When everybody had a PlayStation instead, I felt I was the only kid in my whole city who cared more about Banjo-Kazooie than Crash Bandicoot.

If even Zelda seemed comparatively niche in Europe in the 90s, Lylat Wars (known elsewhere as Star Fox 64) was a real deep cut. It’s a 1997 space-flight shooter starring Fox McCloud and his squad of animal pilots laser-blasting across different planets in nimble crafts called Arwings. I played this game to absolute death in 1998, when I got it for my birthday alongside the fabled Rumble Pak, which made your controller vibrate and shudder whenever something cool was happening on screen (fun fact: Lylat Wars was the first console game to feature controller rumble). But I really hadn’t thought about it much since. Then, last week, Nintendo announced a Switch 2 remake.

Microsoft; PC, Xbox Series X/S (PS5 due later)
Dreamy vistas of the country’s natural beauties are stunningly delivered – but won’t distract from thrilling high-end driving adventures

The Forza Horizon games have always been about drama. Not just the tension and excitement of racing, but also the sensory impact of the natural environment – the sun rising over a dense city, rain clouds hovering above a valley floor. There are moments in this game – perhaps after emerging from a dense forest, or coming up from an underpass – where Mount Fuji briefly appears in the distance, hazy yet majestic, the Platonic ideal of a volcano – and it almost takes your breath away. Fans of this series have been waiting years for Japan and now here it is, the whole country, reduced, remixed and repackaged as a driving paradise.

In many ways, Forza Horizon 6 is a continuation of what this series has always been about. You enter a festival-style driving competition then drive around a vast map splattered with various races and challenges, earning reputation by competing well and buying new vehicles for your extensive garage. There are slight changes this time – you start as a rookie not an established legend, so you have to qualify to enter the festival, and Playground has re-introduced the need to unlock successive levels of competition bringing back the sense of progression from the earliest titles in the series. You start out clattering about in slower C-class vehicles on easier circuits and have to work hard to start lining up against super cars such as the Ferrari J50 or Lamborghini Huracán.

Previously prohibited use of websites such as Omoggle that connect a streamer to a stranger’s video feed now allowed

Last week, at 4am, 19-year-old Sammy Amz was scrolling through X when something caught his eye: a popular Twitch streamer was competing in a 1v1 “mog-off” with a stranger, and losing.

The next day he opened the Omoggle gaming website and began to play. Quickly he matched with another user – green dots appeared on their faces onscreen, as the website began to compare their measurements: canthal tilt, palpebral fissure ratio, nose-to-face width ratio and so on.

Young Vic, London
Alexander Zeldin’s devastating play depicts the gruelling loneliness and confusion of life in a care home

Alexander Zeldin’s characters often inhabit the margins, from zero-hours workers to apparently unremarkable wives and mothers. Here is another community of the socially invisible presented by the writer-director: a cohort of elderly people in a care home.

Set in what seems like a locked dementia ward, this play is both an unwavering portrait of what it means to be old, and an indictment of a system that leads to such acute loneliness in this last leg of life. In the book Being Mortal, the writer-surgeon Atul Gawande asks: “Why, as you become older and sicker, should you give up your autonomy?” Zeldin explores this from the point of view of Joan (Linda Bassett, moving beyond measure), who thinks she has been admitted on a temporary basis.

The Mount Without, Bristol
Fame’s Antonia Franceschi delivers a double portrait of Krasner, with music by Claire van Kampen, plus there’s a superb solo from Edward Watson

Two notable women are the cornerstones of this evening of dance. First is its choreographer, Antonia Franceschi, still recognisable as the ballet dancer from the film Fame back when she was 19. Franceschi danced with George Balanchine’s New York City Ballet – this evening’s short opener, Excerpts from Kinderszenen, is a snapshot of neo-Balanchine – and has since choreographed in the UK and US (she’s artistic director at New York Theatre Ballet).

The second is the subject of the night’s meatiest, most intriguing work, Lee Krasner, the artist whose reputation is sometimes overshadowed by her also being the wife of Jackson Pollock. The piece Prophecy (still a work in progress) is a dance-theatre sketch of her life and her relationship with Pollock, made with writer and director Sara Joyce, with Krasner and Pollock’s words read in voiceover.

At the Mount Without, Bristol, until 22 May

Live theatre, Newcastle
In Shelagh Stephenson’s spiky comedy, Virginia Woolf and Mary Astell become celestial companions, discussing religion, science and independence

Mary Astell is not known for her knitting. If she is remembered at all, it is for being England’s first feminist. In 1694, she published A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, a treatise arguing for women’s education. Yet here she is with knitting needles and a handsome strip of pink wool. She is as surprised as anyone.

In Shelagh Stephenson’s spiky comedy, that only makes her more anxious. She is in some kind of afterlife: it cannot be purgatory because that would be too Catholic for this high Anglican, but it does not seem like heaven either. Rather, it appears to be a repository for women on the verge of being forgotten. The panelled walls of Amy Watts’s set taper ominously into oblivion. What difference whether she could knit or not if she is to be written out of history anyway?

At Live theatre, Newcastle, until 6 June

Leaves from Dolly Parton’s front garden, a Yellow Submarine cookie jar full of ashes, a branch from the tree Marc Bolan’s car hit … our writer explores Holy Pop, the exhibition where superfans are sacred

Alice Hawkins has a unique way of dealing with the unwanted attentions of Jehovah’s Witnesses seeking out converts door to door. “They come around here every Thursday,” says the photographer. “So I get my Dolly Parton book out and explain to them that Dolly is where I find my belonging, Dolly is where I find my belief.”

One presumes that does the trick, but it’s worth noting that Hawkins isn’t joking. Parton was always her favourite singer, but her obsession flowered in the wake of a friend’s suicide, which left Hawkins “a mess”. In an attempt to cheer her up, her husband suggested visiting Dollywood, the singer’s 150-acre theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. “I just felt like I’d found some kind of spiritual home, like my mecca,” says the photographer. “I found some solace. When we drove home, I said to my husband, ‘I’m going to go back there and start making work. I’m going to do a project.’ It just made me feel really alive.”

Actor who found fame with the stage and screen versions of The World of Suzie Wong and became a regular on TV

The Chinese Trinidadian actor Jacqueline Chan, who has died aged 91, became a regular on British television after making an impression in the 1960 film The World of Suzie Wong. As Gwennie Lee, she played one of the “Wan Chai girls” alongside Nancy Kwan in the starring role.

Chan had already acted Lily, a similar but smaller part, for the first year of its London stage run at the Prince of Wales theatre (1959-61) in the West End. In December 1959, she took over as the lead character, a Chinese sex worker in Hong Kong having a relationship with an English artist, after Tsai Chin, playing Suzie, fell ill with laryngitis.

‘The couple had been told the church was likely to be under water on their wedding day. But they were from an area of the Philippines prone to flooding – and stuck to their plan’

I’ve been working as a photographer for the Associated Press bureau in Metro Manila for nearly 30 years, and in that time floods in the Philippines have become increasingly common. One day last July, I returned to the office after a morning spent in my waders, photographing the after-effects of a monsoon that had flooded much of Manila and the surrounding areas.

While I was having lunch and drying out, I got a message from a photographer friend on assignment in Bulacan, the next province. She’d been shooting at Barásoain Church, a historic building that was flooded, and as she’d made to leave, someone had said: “Don’t you want to wait for the wedding?” It was hard to believe people were getting married in those conditions, but she told me the ceremony was due to start at three, which gave me an hour to get there. Even in ideal conditions it would have taken at least 40 minutes, but I jumped in a car with the AP driver and we made it to within a kilometre or two of the church, by which point the water was too deep to continue.

What would Trump think of Gilgamesh? And why are 19th-century classics so popular among young people? Writers on why we need the novel more than ever

Despite shortening attention spans, people are “still reading novels”, said the writer Elif Shafak at a panel event on the Guardian’s list of the 100 best novels ever published in English, which was unveiled last week.

“The faster this world spins, the deeper our need to slow down,” she continued. “We are so tired of this rush, of this bombardment of information.”

Director of Armageddon and Transformers to team up with Universal Pictures for drama based on recent events

Michael Bay is set to direct a military drama based on the recent rescue of two US crew members who crashed in Iran.

According to Deadline, the director of action films such as Armageddon and Transformers will work with Universal Pictures to bring the story to the screen. In April, two soldiers were rescued after their fighter jet was downed, something Donald Trump called “one of most daring search-and-rescue operations in US history”.

You don’t have to buy a ticket to enjoy decent festival food – here are a few ideas for bringing the party home

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This weekend, my social media was flooded with swoon-worthy shots from the Ballymaloe Festival of Food in Ireland, one of my favourite events in the food world’s social calendar. It really is exceptional, because of its range of stalls, personalities and demos, and because you also get a glimpse into the world of the ever-inspiring Allen family (I desperately want an outbuilding purely for fermenting and making sourdough, à la Darina).

Weekends such as this are becoming more and more popular, and they’re undoubtedly a fun and great way to try a range of cuisines, but you don’t have to go to a food festival to enjoy decent festival food. Almost all festivals have great culinary offerings now – I’ve had some highly memorable meals at the likes of Glastonbury, End of the Road and Latitude. Forget living off kebabs and chips after a day dancing in a field; some of my highlights have been meals such as Tibetan momos, vegan thali with sweet chai and Goan fish curry. While there is no Glasto this year, there are plenty of other places to get your fix – you could even bring the party home.

Whether it’s jigsaws, mud kitchens or electronic pets, four is a fun age to buy for. Here are 22 road-tested favourites

• The best toys and gifts for three-year-olds

Four is a magical age. Children are on their way out of the “threenager” stage, growing in confidence and independence but still needing help and support from parents and friends.

Four was the age at which many seasoned parents told me that “things get a little easier”, and I’ve found this is slightly true now that my daughters are almost four and seven.

Whether you want to improve your home’s security or simply know who’s at the door, the latest generation of smart doorbells will help put your mind at ease

• The best robot vacuums, tested

Doorbells have evolved. Today, they watch us as we approach, let the people inside the home know we’re coming sooner than our finger can hit the button, and give them a good look at our faces before they open the door. They’re essentially security cameras with a chime function.

If you haven’t already installed one of these handy tools, there’s a huge array available. Choosing the best video doorbell can be a bewildering task, with various factors to consider, including how much of your doorstep you want to see and whether you’re prepared to pay for a subscription. To help make the decision a little bit easier, I tested eight popular video doorbells to find the best.

Best video doorbell overall:
Google Nest Doorbell (battery)

Best budget video doorbell:
Blink smart video doorbell with Sync Module 2

Always wondered what everyday stuff celebrities buy, where they shop for food, and the basic they scrimp on? The interior designer talks cheesemongers, chore jackets and lost engagement rings with the Filter

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Australian-born interior designer Banjo Beale lives on the Isle of Ulva in the Scottish Hebrides with his husband, Ro. He won BBC’s Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr in 2022, and went on to front his own Bafta Scotland award-winning BBC TV series, Designing the Hebrides.

He has written two bestselling books, Wild Isle Style and A Place in Scotland, and is now renovating an abandoned mansion for his BBC series Banjo and Ro’s Grand Island Hotel, available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

You told us your camping must-haves, from portable pumps and blackout tents to a flask that keeps beer cold. Plus, women’s summer wardrobe updates and celeb booze, tested

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One thing we’ve discovered here on the Filter is that our readers are an outdoorsy bunch. Few topics have driven as many enthusiastic write-ins as when we asked for your best camping tips.

From a strap that turns your mattress into a chair to a super-smart peg-free washing line, here are your top tips and tricks. (And no, none of you has any commercial links to these companies or products – we always check.)

Fame, fantasy … and fish? Celebrity drinks put to the test

‘Don’t be fooled by fancy packaging’: the best (and worst) supermarket shortbread, tasted and rated

Ditch fabric softener and give jumpers a good steam: how to make your clothes last longer

Wobble boards, Duplo and screen-free stories: the top toys and gifts for three-year-olds

The best umbrellas for staying dry in the wind and rain – tested on a 517m hilltop

Versatile, aesthetically ambiguous and cultish in its appeal, chenin blanc is the Tilda Swinton of grapes

My wine consultant friend, Ruth Osborne, often wears a cap embroidered with the words “chenin blanc”. As someone who is proud to include hats from Toad bakery and Celine Dion’s 2017 UK tour in her collection, I know all about headwear as a signifier of personal brand, and Ruth isn’t the only person in the business to extol the virtues of chenin. But why?

Chenin blanc shape-shifts with soil and climate perhaps more than any other grape, and it is this chameleon quality that sets wine enthusiasts aflutter, as does the fact that it’s a late-ripening variety with good acidity, so lends itself to a whole spectrum of profiles, from dry to sweet. Versatile, aesthetically ambiguous and, as my friend’s hat testifies, cultish in its appeal, it is the Tilda Swinton of grapes.

Luscious, herby ricotta and breadcrumb balls, simmered in a rich tomato, basil and chilli sauce … that’s one weeknight dinner sorted

To begin with, the situation looks far from promising. Having given up its protein for cheese, the whey that has been returned to the huge pan is thin, opaque and not unlike cloudy washing-up water. The situation changes slightly when whole milk is added to the whey, along with rennet, and it’s then reheated, or re-cooked (ri-cotta). For a while, nothing happens. Then follows a slight, just perceptible wobbling, before, quite suddenly, like scudding clouds moving into view, scraggy clumps of coagulated protein, albumin and globulin appear on the surface. These are lifted out in the same way as foam from a pan of broth: scooped off with a large slotted spoon. At least that is how it is done by Filippo Privitera at Caseificio Privitare in Castellana Sicula in the province of Palermo. The coagulated protein, otherwise known as ricotta, is then dropped into perforated plastic tubes on a slanting surface so it can drain some more, before being eaten in many ways.

For the Feast newsletter a few weeks ago, I wrote about the many ways to eat ricotta. Like many, I have long known what a useful ingredient it is, but, going through decades of archives, I was reminded just how versatile ricotta is, moving with ease between savoury and sweet, and both straight from the pot and cooked. However, since writing that newsletter, things I forgot to mention have also scudded into my head: how good ricotta is in pastry (a roast pumpkin, mushroom and chestnut pie is especially good); that it can be whipped with coffee for Anna Del Conte’s quick pudding; mixed with flour for sweet fritters; or made into polpette di ricotta e pane (ricotta and breadcrumb balls), which can be deep-fried or simmered in a rich tomato, basil and chilli sauce.

Leftover new potatoes – if there are any – are a gift of the season. Try them in these samosas

As with asparagus, I get completely seduced by the arrival of new potato season and cook and eat them with wild abandon. Any leftover cooked potatoes, meanwhile, are a kitchen gift with infinite possibilities, from a simple crushed potato salad to these spicy, Punjabi-inspired samosas.

Chicken kebabs and Turkish rice: a perfect weeknight supper.

For these succulent kebabs, tavuk (chicken), marinated in yoghurt, olive oil and spices, is threaded on to şiş (skewers). Often served with pilav and roast vegetables, they are popular throughout Turkey. My father, Orhan, was a lawyer with the Turkish government’s transport department, which has an employees’ lokanta (restaurant) in Ortaköy, İstanbul, with mesmerising views of the Bosphorus. I have very fond memories of enjoying tavuk şiş with my family there.

She might look like a wolf, but Nya’s temperament is so sweet that she now helps people who have a fear of trains and travel

I got Nya, a German shepherd, when she was a puppy. She has such a good temperament – she’s really calm around people.

When she was five years old, I decided to register her with Pets As Therapy, an organisation that brings therapy pets into hospitals, care homes, schools and other places to befriend people, and help reduce stress and anxiety.

When Sousan Samadani saw a video about soil degradation, she suddenly knew she would commit everything she had to the cause. Soon she was travelling thousands of miles to raise awareness, skydiving, hitchhiking and cycling

Sousan Samadani was watching videos on YouTube one day when she came across a post about how the world’s soil was degrading so rapidly that it was in danger of extinction.

The video – posted by the Save Soil movement – “was like a shock for me”, Samadani says. “I thought: ‘How is it possible that the soil that gives us food is dying?’”

I walked faster, sure that someone was lurking somewhere. Then a taxi pulled up next to me with an older businessman in the back seat

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

The Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst was not a safe place in the 1980s. There was this jittery vibe when the next heroin batch was coming in and people were overdosing like mad. But the area was also home to a scene of people who were into making little films or art and just going to the clubs in great clothes and dancing our butts off. I was one of them – 23, quite pretty and a hip underground darling.

One night I was walking home from Oxford Street after clubbing. I was always wary of my surroundings, because you grew up very quickly living in that area. But it was a nice night for a walk so I went for it. I remember how dark it was; a slender moon offering little in the way of light.

For Evan Lewis and Dat Tien Lewis, a cycling odyssey was a test of their relationship. A quiet whisky session revealed how far they’d come

• Find more stories from the moment I knew series

I met Dat in San Francisco in 2015. I had left a tourism consulting role in China and moved to the US to start my own Mongolian vodka product. Dat was a specialised nurse. He loved being a nurse.

They say opposites attract and I think that rings true for us. He had this way of calming a room. Dat would arrive at a party and somehow the volume in the room would come down a little bit. He did the same with me. It was a very busy time trying to build my business but he was always there – very supportive and curious about what I was doing. We moved quite quickly into the relationship and spent a lot of time together.

Parents can can claim up to £2,000 a year for each child – but many are put off by the clunkiness of the scheme

Any parent who has ever used the UK government’s tax-free childcare system knows what a painful experience it is. Each month when I log into my account, I feel a sense of dread and frustration. Why is something that is such a lifeline for so many parents so difficult to use?

The scheme gives working parents an extra £2 for every £8 they spend on childcare. You can claim up to £2,000 a year for each child (or up to £4,000 a year for a disabled child).

Special anniversary edition of award-winning headphones are some of the best sounding you can buy, but cost far more than top Sony noise cancellers

Sony’s latest noise-cancelling headphones are a special anniversary set made to celebrate a decade of its prized 1000X series, designed to be plusher, slimmer, more comfortable and the best sounding yet.

The original 1000X launched in 2016, igniting a fierce rivalry with the dominant Bose and its QuietComfort line, which would push noise-cancelling technology dramatically forward as each tried to outdo the other with subsequent releases.

The bank’s interim chief executive says ‘this issue should never have happened’, but warns it may take time to process claims

National Savings and Investments bank will start to contact thousands of families affected by a missing savings scandal next week, as it confirmed how much they are owed.

In March, the chief executive of the state-backed bank was forced out after it emerged there had been long-running problems with the tracing of accounts belonging to customers who had died.

Experts warn that although prediction markets are not regulated as gambling platforms, they are just as addictive

When Kevin first heard about the prediction market Kalshi, he knew deep down it would be wise to stay away. Kalshi reminded him of a weakness of his: sports betting.

Kevin, who is 36 and works in law enforcement in Texas, has been a gambling addict for 18 years. It’s a problem that cost him his first marriage and forced him to file for bankruptcy.

UK scientists find tocilizumab, used for rheumatoid arthritis, may help antidepressant-resistant patients

Immunotherapy could be used to treat depression among patients who have not responded to conventional antidepressants, according to the results of an early clinical trial.

Researchers at the University of Bristol investigated whether tocilizumab, an anti-inflammatory drug commonly used for immune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, could improve symptoms of difficult-to-treat depression.

To HIV researchers, I am an ‘elite controller’ – someone whose immune system has enabled them to live for decades without symptoms or medication. I hope that one day science will understand this tiny but lucky minority

On 21 February 1986, I was diagnosed HIV positive. I was 22. It was the day of my sister’s 21st birthday. That solemn Friday afternoon, my life changed for ever. We had planned a surprise party later that night. My sister was already seven months pregnant with my eldest niece, and I had gone to central London to find a card featuring a Black mother and child. Failing to find anything culturally appropriate, I decided to pop into the STD clinic in Chelsea to pick up my test results. I knew nothing about HIV or Aids; I’d never even heard of the acronyms until a week or so earlier.

Unsurprisingly, I didn’t end up partying with my sister that night. Celebrating the promise of new life while contemplating my imminent death proved too much. I spent the next several days hiding away in a darkened room, crying uncontrollably.

From beans, lentils and tofu to chicken, pork, beef and fish, experts weigh the health benefits and potential drawbacks

Do you think you’re not getting enough protein? Debbie Fetter, an associate professor in nutrition at the University of California, Davis, likes to ask her students this same question. In a lecture hall of more than 500 people, “almost every hand shoots up”, she says.

Protein is top of mind for consumers. A 2024 survey of 3,000 Americans suggests most are trying to eat more of it, and research shows that foods labeled “more protein” are especially appealing to consumers.

Research appears to challenge previous studies but some experts call aspects of it ‘misguided’

People who are the least fit need to do 30-50 minutes more exercise a week than the fittest to get the same reduction in cardiovascular risk, according to research.

Researchers examined data from more than 17,000 British adults taking part in the UK Biobank study. They completed a cycle test to measure their baseline cardiorespiratory fitness (estimated VO₂ max) and wore a fitness tracker for a week to record typical exercise levels.

The latest character dressing trend may be a little silly but there’s an off-kilter pleasure in its mellow, vintage vibe

Welcome to the season of the Posh Grandpa, fashion’s newest main character. We’ve had Brat, we did Coastal Grandma, we loved Tomato Girl Summer. The world is pretty heavy right now, as you’ll have noticed, so any opportunity to lighten up is precious. The nonsense is the point.

Character dressing is style that makes you smile, but it’s not just that. There is infinitely more joy in these looks, however silly they are, than there is in aspiring to look rich and pretty, which is where the aesthetic centre of gravity of our culture swings back to again and again. The esoteric sides of fashion’s personality capture something important about style, which is that it needs a bit of friction to make it interesting. The pebble in the boot, the surprise to snag the eye. This is where the magic happens.

Nicolas Ghesquière’s latest collection pairs uptown elegance with downtown pop culture and street style

The allure of travelling in style helped make Louis Vuitton the biggest luxury house in the world, and no expense was spared for a trip to New York to showcase Nicolas Ghesquière’s latest collection.

The first model stepped on to the catwalk carrying a 100-year-old Louis Vuitton suitcase on which the artist Keith Haring had doodled several of his signature grooving stick figures in 1984. Prised from the Vuitton archives, the case heralded a collaboration with Haring’s estate that will include the classic LV Speedy handbag reissued with the artist’s dancing babies and barking dogs.

The influence of South Korea’s wildly popular milky toners – which focus on hydration and skin barrier protection – can be seen in a new crop of exfoliants

The words “acid exfoliant” scare the bejesus out of those with more sensitive skin, but they can be a godsend in making texture more even and makeup smoother and more long-lasting.

In fact, a liquid containing the right blend of dead-skin-sloughing alpha or beta hydroxy acids will be infinitely more gentle, effective and even than those gritty physical scrub exfoliants many still reach for.

Sustainability promised to change the industry. With Shein reportedly acquiring Everlane, and Allbirds pivotting from eco sneakers to AI, it seems that promise was mostly marketing

It was always about the money, wasn’t it? For a while there, it seemed like the execs opining sustainability is not a trend, it’s the future actually meant it. But when yet another global brand drops its net zero goals or stops talking about DEI, you do wonder. Recent headlines include Stella McCartney adulterating her eco gloss with a sustainable capsule collection for H&M – don’t worry, she’s just “infiltrating from within” – and Lululemon being investigated for Pfas. The letdowns keep coming.

Now the internet is reeling from a report that Shein plans to acquire Everlane, the San Francisco-based sustainable basics brand built on “radical transparency”. Shein is the Chinese ultra-fast fashion giant epitomising murky supply chains and crazy-cheap landfill fashion. They release up to 10,000 styles a day, and have been making headlines of their own over secrecy and alleged links to forced Uyghur labour.

The Yorkshire Dales Explorer is a little-known alternative to the Settle to Carlisle rail route, and takes you deep into wonderful walking country

Limestone stretches on all sides like an inland ocean – appropriately enough, since the shimmering white rock has its ancient origins in coral, shells and the skeletons of sea creatures. We advance carefully, stepping on clints (blocks of rock) and avoiding grykes (the deep fissures between them). It’s a warm, dry day and, even if it were not, limestone drains better than most types of terrain. For a long while, it’s broad, flat and hallucinatory and then, suddenly, the rocky sea collapses like a waterfall and we’re at the edge of a huge fault. The words Yorkshire Dales might evoke pretty villages and walled-in sheep fields, but this landscape is raw and wild, the kind of natural realm WH Auden celebrated in his poem In Praise of Limestone, and the kind that prompts geological speculation and inward ruminations. To cap it all, there are just three of us and nothing much and no one else all the way to the far horizons.

It’s my first decent yomp of the spring. I’ve come here with two walking pals on the egregiously under-promoted direct train that connects Rochdale and Manchester with the national park and Yorkshire’s Three Peaks. While the Leeds-Settle-Carlisle service – which recently celebrated its 150th birthday – is deservedly famous, the Yorkshire Dales Explorer, which started in June 2024, is much less celebrated. It’s also far less frequent. Trains travel between Leeds and Settle, continuing to Carlisle or Morecambe, 20 times a day Monday to Saturday, 11 times on Sundays. Trains between Manchester Victoria and Settle run on Saturdays only and just once in the morning each way and once in the late afternoon.

Wonderful walks, wholesome adventures and friendly farmyard animals await at this collection of cabins and cottages in Perthshire

On a January morning in 1938, Pitmiddle’s last resident, James Gillies, closed the door to his cottage for the final time and walked away through the snow. High on the south-facing slopes of the Sidlaw Hills in Perthshire, the village is now little more than a jumble of half-ruined walls gradually being reclaimed by the land.

My children pick around the overgrown stones like explorers discovering a lost civilisation, before scampering back through the gate and over the grass to our cabin in a neighbouring field. Called the Pitmiddle Hut, it’s the latest addition to Guardswell Farm, which spans 81 hectares (200 acres) of countryside halfway between Perth and Dundee (an hour and a half from Glasgow or Edinburgh). “People gradually moved away from Pitmiddle’s way of life,” says Anna Lamotte, who runs Guardswell with her husband, Digby Legge, often aided by their four-year-old daughter and a smiley 10-month-old in a vintage pram. “Villagers each had a pendicle, the small area they could farm, a system of outfields, infields and ‘kailyards’ – a Scots word for a kitchen garden.” Anna and Digby grew up on farms and small-holdings nearby, and today they rear cattle, sheep, goats and chickens and tend to the vegetable gardens, alongside welcoming guests to stay.

With state-of-the-art fitness and spa facilities onsite and everything from hiking to kayaking the beautiful Bay of Kotor, it’s a perfect base for an active break

I was lying on a bed with no trousers on. A young man helped me into some crotch-high boots and zipped them up. He turned the lights down low, put on some music, pressed a button and left the room. Argh! The boots started to slowly inflate from the toes up, like a giant blood-pressure cuff. As they clenched around my upper thighs, I started to panic. What if they just got tighter and tighter until my legs exploded? As I was about to shout for help, the pressure suddenly released, leaving my legs feeling deliciously light. I took a deep breath and submitted to another 19 minutes of this sweet torture.

I was at Siro Boka Place in Montenegro, having compression boot therapy, which is supposed to boost circulation and reduce swelling. “It’s especially effective on women over 35,” my youthful assistant had told me, helpfully. The hotel, which opened last year, is proud of its “state-of-the-art wellness facilities”. In most hotels that means a poky gym. At Siro the facilities are so good the Montenegrin Olympic team is training here ahead of Los Angeles 2028.

From a stylish retreat in Norfolk to a remote hideaway on a Scottish island, these boltholes will make for a truly memorable stay

Tourism experts are predicting a bumper year for “staycations” with more of us choosing to holiday in the UK due to continuing uncertainty around jet fuel prices and possible flight cancellations. Holidaymakers are spoilt for choice with more than 350,000 UK self-catering listings on booking platforms, from rustic barn conversions to seaside villas with all mod cons for large family gatherings.

We’ve done some of the leg work and whittled down a selection of cottages which all offer something special, whether it’s a stunning location, a breathtaking view or a level of comfort and style that wouldn’t be out of place in a boutique hotel.

Test yourself on topical news trivia, pop culture and general knowledge every Thursday. How will you fare?

Welcome to the Thursday news quiz, where once again, thanks to our winsome illustration by Anaïs Mims, you are being challenged by the swan of knowledge. Will you give the impression of serenely gliding through 15 questions on topical news, general knowledge and pop culture? Or will it charge out of the lake at you and break your arm? There are no prizes, but let us know how you got on in the comments. Allons-y!

The Thursday news quiz, No 248

From furniture with ‘skinny legs’ to making sure spaces work for multiple purposes, three experts who live in tiny homes share their best lessons

In 2010 Colin Chee picked up the keys to his 37 square metre off-the-plan apartment in Melbourne’s city centre. “It was only then that I realised how shit it was.”

With no design experience and a limited budget, his quest to find inspiration eventually led to the birth of Never Too Small, a YouTube channel showcasing clever designs for small spaces from around the world. Launched in 2017, it now has more than 3 million subscribers.

It smells like sunshine, blue skies and love and laughter, apparently. And it’s all in aid of her and Harry’s eight years together

Name: Anniversary candle.

Appearance: A “modern and elegant” candle, “housed in a beautiful ceramic vessel”.

Thought to have been introduced by Anglo-Indian officers in the Royal Navy in the 1800s, the dish has since spiralled into a national obsession

The sailors aboard the navy vessel Hashidate know what’s for lunch long before the telltale aromas escape from the galley.

Yosuke Oyama, the ship’s chef, has been up since dawn, softening onions and occasionally stirring a pot of chicken stock that has been simmering for several hours.

For 150 years, the Mease had been altered by human hands, which destroyed habitats. But in 2013, a restoration project began – and now its wetlands are abuzz with wildlife

‘A noisy river is a healthy river,” says Ruth Needham of the Trent Rivers Trust (TRT). The Mease in the Midlands must be in fine fettle, then, as it gurgles merrily along. Sunlight glints off riffles in the water and shoals of fry dart past. Needham whips out her phone to video the tiny fish: “My colleagues will be jumping for joy to see them!”

Needham has good reason to be buoyant. Last month, the Mease won the UK River prize 2026 – which was established by the River Restoration Centre in 2014 to acknowledge innovative projects – in recognition of the trust’s 13-year restoration campaign. “The prize has been a massive boost,” says Needham. “If we can get the Mease into better condition, we can improve other rivers, too.”

‘We wanted to get people to work together’ … Ruth Needham of the Trent Rivers Trust

Almost 50 years after he first got his hands on a computer, the Oxford professor still believes in the power of technology. Can his beloved game theory explain why Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurs consistently misuse it?

Michael Wooldridge is like the teacher you wish you’d had: approachable, able to explain difficult things in simple terms, neither dauntingly highbrow nor off-puttingly cool, and genuinely enthusiastic about what he does. “I love it when you see the light go on in somebody, when they understand something that they didn’t understand before,” he says. “I find that incredibly gratifying.”

He comes across a regular sort of guy, which, as an Oxford professor with more than 500 scientific articles and 10 books to his name, he clearly isn’t. Typically, his favourite work is his contribution to Ladybird’s Expert Books – an update of the classic children’s series – on artificial intelligence. “I’m very proud of this,” he says, as he hands me a copy from his bookshelf. We’re in his study in the University of Oxford’s somewhat municipal computing department on a sunny spring day. Maybe it’s the campus setting, but our discussion almost takes the form of a seminar.

Diplomats, businessmen and US marines mingle at the JW Marriott hotel in Caracas as deals are done and the country’s resources divvied up

Over breakfast in one of the swankiest hotels in Caracas, you can hear them mulling Venezuela’s past, present and future in sporadically hushed tones. As diners tuck in to plates of fried eggs, black beans and arepas, snatched fragments of conversation speak of election roadmaps, political fragmentation and oil-fuelled economic growth.

But the murmured discussions are not being conducted in Caribbean Spanish by Venezuelan officials pondering their country’s direction after the abduction of President Nicolás Maduro. The accents are North American and belong to the US officials, diplomats and spies now calling many of the shots here after Donald Trump’s controversial military intervention on 3 January. Neighbouring tables are occupied by huddles of musclebound US marines, tattoos covering their bulging calves, baseball caps covering their heads, and walkie-talkies strapped to their hips.

Campaigners warn the decline in childminders is making it harder for families to find flexible and affordable childcare. Share your experiences

The number of childminders in England has roughly halved over the past decade, with many citing rising costs, low pay and increasing paperwork as reasons for leaving the profession. Campaigners warn the decline is making it harder for families to find flexible and affordable childcare.

We want to hear from parents and carers whose childminder has recently closed their business, stopped accepting certain age groups such those over three-year-olds or reduced the number of children they look after.

The Pensions Commission said 15 million people were currently not saving adequately for their retirement

Fifteen million people are currently not saving enough for their retirement, according to the Pensions Commission, who have warned this could rise to as many as 19 million without action.

The independent group of experts warned as many as 45% of working-age adults were not saving into a pension at all, despite nearly half of them being in work.

We would like to hear from people who have emigrated - or are considering doing so – due to rising anti-migration sentiment or policies

The Unite the Kingdom march attracted tens of thousands of people to the capital on Saturday. While some insist it was a display of national pride, others see the Tommy Robinson rally as a hostile display of anti-migrant sentiment. US vice president JD Vance appeared to align himself with those who attended the march at a White House press briefing on Tuesday.

We would like to hear from people who have emigrated - or are considering doing so - because of anti-migration sentiment or government policy. Since the UK is just one country where anti-migration sentiment has flared, we’re keen to hear from people globally who have made life decisions because of the current climate.

As the UK approaches the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum, we’d like to hear how people feel about the decision now and whether your views have changed over the past decade

It’s been nearly ten years since the fateful Brexit referendum on 23 June 2016 when the UK voted to leave the EU.

We’d like to hear from people across the UK about how they voted at the time, how they feel about Brexit now and whether their views have changed over the past decade. Do you still feel the same way you did in 2016? Have your experiences since then changed your perspective in any way?

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