Political oppression in Tehran, a witch’s tale from France, a film-maker in Nazi Germany … we weigh up the contenders for the International Booker prize 2026

This year’s International Booker prize shortlisted titles are a diverse bunch, both geographically – from Brazil to Taiwan – and in style, from mainstream blockbuster to experimental jeu d’esprit. As in recent years, independent presses are rewarded for their efforts in promoting translated fiction, providing four of the six titles. And the campaign for proper recognition of translators is finally paying off: for the first time in the prize’s 10-year history, all six books name the translator on the front cover. Here’s our guide to the prospects for each, ahead of the winner announcement on 19 May.

German-Iranian novelist Shida Bazyar reminds us in her novel The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran (Scribe), translated by Ruth Martin, that the people of Iran are the victims of history many times over. The story comes from four members of an Iranian family over 30 years. In 1979, young Behzad greets the Islamic revolution that deposes the Shah, but his hopes for a communist utopia (“a new Cuba”) are thwarted. Instead, he’s surrounded by people who have been waiting for the chance to become bullies all their lives. He and his wife, Nahid, flee to Germany: she takes over the story in 1989, followed by their daughter, Laleh, in 1999.

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.

Daniel Sikkema is accused of hiring someone to kill his husband, Brent Sikkema, amid a divorce and alleged fights over money

In the early morning hours of 14 January 2024, a hitman slipped into the renowned New York City gallerist Brent Sikkema’s Rio de Janeiro townhouse.

The alleged assassin, Alejandro Triana Prevez, grabbed a kitchen knife and traveled to Sikkema’s upstairs bedroom. An altercation unfolded near the bedroom door. As Sikkema, 75, struggled for his life, Prevez stabbed him, a lawsuit filed in New York state civil court alleges.

Labour leadership contender Wes Streeting calls Brexit a ‘catastrophic mistake’ while Andy Burnham sees ‘long-term case’ for rejoining EU

Wes Streeting, who resigned as Britain’s health secretary last week and has said he will run in any contest to replace Keir Starmer as the Labour leader and prime minister, has described Brexit as a “catastrophic mistake” and said the UK should rejoin the EU.

Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, who will fight an upcoming byelection on a promise to challenge Starmer, has also said he saw a “long-term case” for rejoining – although he would not be advocating it immediately.

Four months after Trump’s surprise raid, a political thaw has descended – but mingled with hope is trepidation for what comes next

When Ángel Linares heard a strange buzz followed by an explosion, his first thought was that neighbours were setting off fireworks to celebrate the new year.

Then his windows shattered, the building’s walls shook and its facade was ripped off, sending him flying on to the ground of an apartment suddenly reduced to rubble. His 85-year-old mother, Jesucita, feared Venezuela’s northern coast had been devastated by an earthquake, like the one she remembers from 1967.

Facts can be expensive in a dangerous world. I have covered some brutal wars during my three decades at the Guardian, but journalists are now actively targeted in a way I have never seen

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It has never been so dangerous to be a journalist than now, and the threat keeps growing. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) recorded 129 deaths of reporters and other media workers in 2025, the most it has ever recorded, and five more than the previous record, which was last year.

I have worked for the Guardian for more than three decades and covered some brutal wars, but journalists are now in the crosshairs, actively targeted, in a way I have never seen before.

Reform, which won more than 50% of the local election vote, is likely to focus heavily on immigration and Brexit

Andy Burnham faces a perilous race to win the Makerfield seat, his allies have said, as he gears up to fight a byelection that could decide the long-term future of Labour and the country.

The Greater Manchester mayor is likely to be confirmed as Labour’s candidate for the north-west constituency later this week, but those close to him say he faces an uphill battle to beat Reform UK. Nigel Farage’s party won more than 50% of the vote at the local elections and polling suggests Burnham is only marginally ahead.

At least 80 deaths and more than 300 suspected cases in the DRC, while Uganda reports spread from travellers

• What is Ebola and why is WHO treating outbreak as global emergency?

An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda is a “public health emergency of international concern”, the World Health Organization has said.

The WHO made its declaration on Sunday after 88 deaths and more than 300 suspected cases linked to the outbreak of the Bundibugyo virus, prompting Africa’s top health official to say he was “on panic mode”.

Abu Dhabi denounces ‘dangerous escalation’ as Iran war ceasefire grows more precarious

The United Arab Emirates has blamed a fire near its nuclear power plant on a drone launched by Iran or one of its proxies in what the UAE called a “dangerous escalation”.

The fire was just outside the Barakah nuclear plant and caused no injuries or radiation alerts, with the emirate’s nuclear regulator saying there was no radioactive leak or risk to the public.

Officers were allegedly racially abused at Tommy Robinson march, which failed to draw huge numbers it was hoping for

Tommy Robinson’s “unite the kingdom” rally failed to get the huge numbers it wanted to march through London, with police confident that the crowd at his protest on Saturday was less than half the size of that at an event last year.

The far-right rally happened on the same day as a pro-Palestinian march, and the Metropolitan police said 43 arrests were made during the two events.

British Chambers of Commerce survey shows firms ‘are dealing with rising levels of theft, fraud and cyber-attacks’

UK business leaders have warned that crime is becoming an increasingly “serious barrier” to growing Britain’s economy amid a rise in shoplifting, fraud and cyber-attacks against companies.

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), which represents tens of thousands of businesses across the country, called on the government to provide “a step change in the support businesses can count on” as it said two-fifths of companies had experienced some form of crime in the past year.

Wave of almost 600 drones launched across 14 regions, after Moscow’s deadly three-day attack on Ukraine last week

One of Ukraine’s largest ever drone strikes against Russia’s regions, including Moscow, has killed at least four people and wounded a dozen more, the Russian authorities have said.

The wave of almost 600 Ukrainian drones struck overnight across 14 Russian regions, as well as the Crimean peninsula and the Black and Azov seas, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday, with the area around the capital among the worst-hit.

• France 28-43 England

• Kildunne and Breach score twice as Red Roses triumph

Dominant,invincible, indefatigable. There are so many words to describe this England team. No matter what you throw at them, they win matches and lift trophies. The Red Roses have an almost untouchable air as, despite experiencing the worst injury and unavailability crisis this team has had for a decade, they swept aside every opponent in the Women’s Six Nations to seal their eighth consecutive title and fifth grand slam in a row.

With a legacy already secured thanks to their 2025 World Cup win, England set out in this Six Nations to build a dynasty. They have certainly laid the foundations – their unbeaten streak now stands at 38 games across all competitions. The latest win came with the dismantling of France in a cauldron-like atmosphere in Bordeaux. England become the first team to win the tournament immediately after claiming the World Cup.

Actor otherwise has ‘no comment’ on Girls creator’s claims about his on-set behaviour as he speaks at Cannes film festival

For weeks, Adam Driver has avoided commenting on allegations made about his on-set behaviour by Lena Dunham in her hit new memoir, Famesick.

But at a press conference for Paper Tiger at the Cannes film festival on Sunday, the actor briefly broke his silence when asked by the Guardian about Dunham’s account. “I have no comment on any of that – I’m saving it all for my book,” he responded, provoking laughter in the room.

Excluding capital would be ‘missed opportunity’, says Sadiq Khan, given existing assets and ‘world-class infrastructure’

The mayor of London has criticised plans to explore a bid for the north of England to host the Olympics, saying that excluding London would be a “missed opportunity”.

Ministers have commissioned an assessment by UK Sport which could inform a bid for the international sporting event in the 2040s. If the campaign were successful, it would be the first time the Olympic Games and Paralympics were hosted in Britain since London 2012.

It is hardly a surprise that outbreaks can occur and experts say many of the factors involved are not easy to change

It was a voyage that promised such stuff as dreams are made of, yet within weeks the Atlantic expedition of the MV Hondius had become a nightmare, with three passengers dead from hantavirus and more showing symptoms.

Meanwhile, an outbreak of norovirus is under investigation on another cruise ship, while flu, E coli and varicella – the virus that causes chickenpox – have also caused problems in such settings. Perhaps most memorably, in 2020 the Diamond Princess became a breeding ground for Covid, with passengers and crew quarantined for two weeks off the coast of Japan and more than 700 of the 3,711 people onboard eventually testing positive.

British photographer collaborates with Dignity in Dying in run-up to private member’s ballot, after stalling of England and Wales bill in Lords

Just before Christmas 2023, the renowned British photographer and director Rankin set up a small pop-up studio in London’s Carnaby Street for a RankinLIVE event.

People could turn up to sit for a cover-style Rankin portrait: an image to mark a special occasion, perhaps, such as a birthday, or wedding vows renewal, or beating cancer.

Tom Steyer has built his campaign for governor of California around affordability – he’s not the only Democrat testing the party’s appetite for a populist from the 1%

Tom Steyer has built his campaign for governor of California around affordability – and taxing the uber-wealthy.

It is perhaps an unusual message for a candidate with an estimated net worth of $2.4bn. But the hedge fund founder-turned climate activist and liberal mega-donor is pitching himself as a different kind of billionaire: one who wants people like him to pay far more in taxes.

The Paralympic swimmer on being a teenage champion, seeking her birth mother, and the joy of retirement

Born in Walsall in 1994, Ellie Simmonds is a retired Paralympic swimmer and TV presenter. She moved to Swansea when she was 11 to train with the GB squad and at 13 was the youngest member of the British team at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics, winning two gold medals. She won two further golds at London 2012, breaking two world records, and a fifth gold at Rio 2016. Since retiring in 2021, she has presented for BBC Sport, and her documentaries include A World Without Dwarfism? and Finding My Secret Family. Along with Stephen Fry and Mo Farah, she takes part in Celebration Day on 25 May, to honour those who are no longer with us.

This is me in my grandma’s garden in Walsall. I have happy memories of being there – we would bake cakes or play outside all day. It’s a typical image of me aged four – energetic, non-stop and vibrant. Mum says I was never one to sit inside and watch TV, despite her efforts to occasionally get me to chill out on the sofa. Screen time wasn’t for me.

The second series of this cheery Welsh cosy crime is as gentle as a pillow – and if it feels dangerously close to a spoof, that’s all part of the fun

What a curious confection Death Valley is. It’s as cosy as crime drama gets and yet, thanks to its show-within-a-show concept, it manages to be oddly arch and knowing, too. Its body count challenges that of The Sopranos, but in its soothing episodic rhythms and Welsh valley quaintness, it remains as comfortable and predictable as Christmas.

As we return, everything and nothing has changed. Janie Mallowan (Gwyneth Keyworth) has been promoted to detective inspector and is wondering if her seniority means she can no longer call herself “J-Dog”. She remains charming but also goofy and tactless; at one point, she complains about a teabag being left in a cuppa made for her by the wife of a recent murder victim.

Cannes film festival: Barnaby Thompson’s documentary on the great British director is an exhilarating delve into the ebb and flow of Lean’s peerless career and sometimes complex personal life – with a grand cast of talking heads

Barnaby Thompson’s thoroughly exhilarating and enjoyable documentary about movie director David Lean is proof of the old maxim – fortune favours the bold. Lean’s career feels like more than ever like a dashing military adventure; like Napoleon or the young Winston Churchill in Sudan or, indeed, TE Lawrence in his greatest film, Lawrence of Arabia. It involved brilliantly improvising strategy in hostile terrain and imperiously imposing his command over troops who had to be subdued by force of will, as well as a mastery of the theatre involved in leadership, displaying an almost hammy sense of one’s own skill in oratory and the eroticism of giving orders.

Watching this documentary, you can appreciate how Peter O’Toole’s Lawrence is in many ways a comic, absurd figure – dressed up in borrowed and culturally appropriated Arab robes – but one that no one would dare mock. Perhaps Lean, in his director’s robes, could see what his subordinates wouldn’t, or couldn’t; he could see his own faults, and suffer from impostor syndrome and secret doubts. The movie repeatedly tells us that he could be impossibly bad-tempered and dictatorial on set – but there is no film or audio record of this, just Lean himself in various interviews being endlessly charming and self-deprecating. (Although I suspect that patrician accent perhaps reverted a little, at times, to something a bit rougher under duress.)

Journalist Simone Stolzoff in a new book explores why modern life makes not knowing harder – and how to learn to live with it

Simone Stolzoff describes himself as “naturally an uncertain person” inclined to rumination and self-doubt. This tendency benefits him in his work as a journalist, but can otherwise be a double-edged sword.

While working for a magazine in New York, Stolzoff was approached about a job at a design firm in San Francisco. Now, he laughs at how tortured he felt “having to decide between two attractive career paths”.

Cannes film festival: The Son of Saul director’s dramatisation of Jean Moulin’s torture by Klaus Barbie both benefits and suffers from its mainstream approach

László Nemes made his Cannes debut 11 years ago with the terrifying, Oscar-winning Holocaust drama Son of Saul, and followed that up with Sunset, his elegant, mysterious drama of pre-first world war Budapest. His next film, Orphan, released in the UK last week, was a comparably enigmatic film set in post-second world war Hungary. But his new film in the Cannes competition is a basically pretty conventionally acted, conventionally directed, conventionally conceived wartime movie shot in the sepia-subdued colours of an old photograph, all about French resistance heroism and French resistance leader Jean Moulin, who went down in history for refusing to talk under torture.

The overall effect isn’t really like Jean-Pierre Melville’s film Army of Shadows; maybe closer to the 70s BBC TV show Secret Army. Nemes’s final scene is even rather sentimentally stirring, though the director then tries to cancel this sugary moment with a final premonition of the death camps. At all events, he undoubtedly brings impeccable craftsmanship, and the performances and production design are strong.

Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days

Bob Odenkirk’s a put-upon lawman in Ben Wheatley’s latest, and the SNL UK star is back out on tour

Normal
Out now
Ben Wheatley (Sightseers) returns with an action crime thriller starring Bob Odenkirk as a man serving as interim sheriff in the fictional little town of Normal, Minnesota, a place that turns out to have some unexpectedly big secrets involving the yakuza. Also starring Henry Winkler and Lena Headey.

Here’s how to follow along with our coverage – the finest writing and up-to-the-minute reports

Jilly Cooper’s over-the-top TV industry romp returns, and Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel make a bracing artistic double act. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

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Parish noticeboard. Shane Lowry finished his week as he started it, with a fine round of 68. He never really got over the top into the water at 17 on Friday; that Cognizant Classic collapse cuts deep. He’s +2 for his week’s work. Matt Wallace won’t become the first Englishman to win since Jim Barnes in 1919, but he ends his tournament with a 68 as well; he’s +2 too. A final round of 74 for last weekend’s nearly man at the Truist, Alex Fitzpatrick, who departs his maiden Stateside major at +8. And Europe’s Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald finishes a very respectable week in style, with a 69 that puts the 48-year-old veteran at +7.

While we’re on the subject of tournament records, let’s give fair measure to Kurt Kitayama. His round of 63 ties the lowest final-round score at any PGA Championship, set by Brad Faxon at Riviera in 1995. Faxon stays top of the list, however, on account of Riviera being a par 71, so his round was eight under par, compared to Kitayama’s seven. But we’re splitting hairs here. Kitayama deserves his flowers.

It was a decision that threatens to keep Nuno Espírito Santo awake for many nights to come. Why, oh why, West Ham’s manager will doubtless wonder, did he opt to start with a back three on Tyneside?

Instead of subduing Eddie Howe’s players it simply served to remind Nick Woltemade precisely why he is Newcastle’s record signing. By the 26th minute, when Nuno scrapped that configuration for a much more effective back four, West Ham were 2-0 down and had one foot in the Championship.

This is the new, serendipitous Michael Carrick Manchester United era, helped by confusing officiating to edge past Nottingham Forest, on the day Bruno Fernandes equalled the Premier League record for assists in a season. If it was not for a lack of obvious options four months ago, United and Carrick may not have been reunited, nor would they be guaranteed third in the Premier League and heading back to the Champions League.

It is, arguably, fortunate that Fernandes is still here after feeling United were keen to sell him a year ago but now he sits alongside Kevin De Bruyne and Thierry Henry at the top of the creative charts.

• Centre won 65 caps, with 51 alongside his brother Gavin

• Also selected for two British and Irish Lions tours

Scotland’s 1990 grand slam-winning centre Scott Hastings has died at the age of 61, his family have announced, four years after he revealed he had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Hastings won 65 caps for his country and played in two Tests on the victorious 1989 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia, as well as being in the squad that toured New Zealand in 1993. He made his international debut in January 1986 against France, alongside his elder brother, Gavin, the first of 51 Scotland games the centre and full-back pair played together.

Concern that England’s women are not being challenged fails to acknowledge what it takes for consistent excellence

There are a couple of reasons why England’s latest Six Nations grand slam is worthy of glowing appreciation. The first is that consistent excellence should always receive due recognition. And the second is that England had to do far more than simply show up and tick off the kind of routine runaway victory that leaves even their most loyal fans slightly underwhelmed.

A 15-point margin might not instantly suggest a full-blooded contest but France more than fulfilled their part of the bargain. The nagging concern within women’s rugby is that the Red Roses are not being sufficiently challenged. On this occasion no one could level that accusation at the determined hosts who had England’s golden girls pinned back for lengthy periods.

Beware the opponent with little to play for. Crystal Palace were supposed to be in preservation mode, their attention on more exotic occasions. The ideal opponent for Brentford’s chase for Europe. And yet. Adam Wharton scored his first goal in 94 Palace appearances, a first in the Premier League, his goal wreaking heavy damage. Dango Ouattara’s second goal, a late second equaliser, set up 10, chaotic minutes of stoppage time but Brentford could not find a winner.

The final whistle arrived with Brentford in eighth place, current permutations making that enough for next season’s Conference League but there is final-day drama, and other factors besides, to see out.

• World No 1 is first Italian to win title in 50 years

• 6-4, 6-4 victory completes set of ATP Masters 1000 titles

Jannik Sinner continued his reign of terror over men’s tennis on the clay courts of Europe as he effortlessly recovered from a slow start to overpower Casper Ruud, the 23rd seed, 6-4, 6-4 and become the first Italian man in 50 years to win the Italian Open in Rome.

It is difficult to overstate the historic nature of this triumph. Sinner is only the second man in history to win all nine ATP Masters 1000 titles. This feat, one of the most impressive in the sport, was first achieved by Novak Djokovic in 2018 at the age of 31. Sinner has completed his set at just 24 years old, still seemingly with so much more to achieve.

• Danish rider wins for second time in three days

• Eulálio clings on after summit finish at Corno alle Scale

Jonas Vingegaard triumphed for the second time in three days to win stage nine of the Giro d’Italia on Sunday, with the Dane going solo at the end of the climb to the finish, while Afonso Eulálio remains in the overall lead.

The Visma-Lease a Bike rider tracked race rival Felix Gall (Decathlon) when the Austrian attacked near the end of the 184km stage from Cervia to Corno alle Scale, but Vingegaard powered away in the closing kilometre, with his Visma teammate Davide Piganzoli coming in third.

Manchester City’s FA Cup hero started career with loans to Bath City and Newport and heads back to Bournemouth next

When it comes to Antoine Semenyo, it is almost impossible not to fixate on his career journey. Everybody loves a triumph over adversity, a rise from the lowest level to the very top, and the narrative arc with the Manchester City winger is practically perfect.

There were the relentless rejections by the clubs in every corner of London as he grew up, culminating in the one from Crystal Palace at 15 that led him to stop playing football for a year. The rebuild at the Wiltshire Sports Academy in Swindon and South Gloucestershire and Stroud College in Bristol, which led to the big break at Bristol City, and a first professional contract at 17.

People want my life with premenstrual dysphoric disorder to be told as a neat arc. But chronic illnesses are more like messy, looping spirals – and realising that gave me hope

There was a moment, deep in the throes of my illness, when I realised I was never getting better. There was no cure for me: only ways to manage. At that time I was not managing very well.

Of course, writing about my past self in this way gives the illusion that I was once in the throes of my illness and that it did get better. This is deceptive. I live with a chronic illness called premenstrual dysphoric disorder, or PMDD. It is a severe form of premenstrual illness that leads to depression, anger and even suicidal ideation. It rears its head in the week or two before menstruation then goes away. One week I’d be lying on my bedroom floor, unable to move, starting fights with my partner. Then my period would come and I’d be back at work, seemingly fine, and completely oblivious to the person I’d been mere days before. Notably, this illness is chronic and recurring. I am always in, or just out of, or about to enter the throes of my illness. It does not get better in any static sense.

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The challenge of how to look after an ageing population has been ducked by politicians for too long

If a new Labour leader wants to underline their determination to wrestle with Britain’s political challenges, it is hard to think of a better place to start than with the creaking social care settlement.

A new collection of essays, to be published by the Fabian Society soon, urges the government – whoever leads it – to crack on with creating a “national care service” more closely aligned to the NHS and ensure it is properly funded.

Plummeting approval ratings for these three poisonous comrades-in-arms show voters are demoralised and tiring of forever wars – the west could soon breathe again

Feeling depressed about the state of the world? Worried about the future? You’re not alone. Pessimism about politics is the new normal among the peoples of the west. Major conflicts in Europe and the Middle East and the harms caused by right-left extremism, stagnating economies, inequality, corruption, terrorism, racism, big tech, mass extinctions and the climate crisis make for shared nightmares.

Growing numbers of people simply refuse to personally engage with current events via the news media, finding them too anxiety-inducing (so they probably won’t be reading this). In a Reuters Institute survey last year, 40% of respondents in about 50 countries said they sometimes or often avoid the news altogether, a rise of 29% on 2017.

Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator

In an age in which the algorithm constantly guides us towards things we already like, I tried to stop being a control freak, imprisoned by my preferences. It wasn’t easy

How predictable is your life? I drink my coffee from the same Moomin mug every morning and run a tight roster of weekly meals. My Ocado order never varies. On weekends, we buy the same seeded sourdough loaf; do the same chores; see the same friends. That might sound stultifying, but it comforts me in a chaotic world.

Is it a coping mechanism, an expression of my control-freak tendencies? Probably, which is why I was gripped and horrified in equal measure by an extract from How Not to Know by Simone Stoltzoff in the Atlantic about Max Hawkins, a software engineer who, feeling “trapped by his optimised life”, decided to randomise radically. Hawkins built an algorithm for a “random ride generator” that took him to surprise locations: a hospital, a leather bar, a bowling alley. Then, enthused by those early experiences, he went further and let chance decide where he lived, what he wore and even his tattoos. “In choosing randomly,” he said, “I found freedom.”

When held with curiosity, beliefs can be productive, creative and alive, but they can also imprison us, closing down life itself

At a recent conference, I found myself in conversation with a fellow participant. We were exchanging ideas when I saw his expression shift. He began to speak at length about what it meant to be human on the spiritual path. As he spoke, I started to feel less like a collaborator and more like a one-person audience.

About 10 minutes in, I drifted. I wondered what they would offer us for lunch and whether I would make it home on the train.

Dr Nadine Levy is a senior lecturer at the Nan Tien Institute. She coordinates its health and social wellbeing program and the graduate certificate in applied mindfulness

Growing up in Gwynedd, I was made to feel ‘not Welsh enough’. But things have changed – and the Senedd victory shows the politics of exclusion has no answer

Plaid Cymru and its leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth, made political history this month: they won the Senedd. For the first time ever, Wales now has a progressive majority that is not dependent on Labour. Polls had put Plaid and Reform UK neck and neck. In the run-up to the election, some of my Welsh friends were panicking. They were relieved that Reform came second.

I was never convinced that Reform’s brand of essentially English ethno-nationalism was ever going to triumph in Wales. The party seemed to think it could transpose its tactics from next door and that they’d work in the same way. Yet unlike Plaid, Reform UK has no story to tell about what it means to be Welsh.

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist

He gets slammed as an entitled nepo baby, and just keeps doing what he enjoys, unruffled. Here are five things I’d do, if only I had his confidence

Nepo babies provoke a unique brand of ire. Fittingly, they seem to bring out the toddler in many of us; a foot-stamping tantrum sense of but that’s not fair. These privileged golden children are born into guaranteed luxury and opportunity they haven’t worked for, and – we are convinced, despite never having met them – do not deserve.

Some nepo babies attract fury by lazing around on constant holidays, or securing starring roles far beyond their skill set, others because they indulge in wild-eyed, consequence-free party lifestyles. Brooklyn Beckham does it by making sandwiches.

Jess Phillips’s frustration about online safety highlights the alarming reluctance to confront big tech

The £950,000 fine imposed by Ofcom on a US-based suicide forum that is implicated in over 160 UK deaths marks an intensification of the regulator’s efforts to make the internet safer. Campaigners against online harms, including relatives of people who have taken their own lives, are justifiably angry that it has taken so long to get to this point. Even now, Ofcom is giving the website’s operator the chance to address “concerns” and avoid a court order that would ban access to it.

But if enforcement remains a tortuous process, at least the principle is clear. It is illegal to encourage or assist a suicide in England and Wales (in Scotland, such actions could lead to prosecution as reckless endangerment or a range of other offences). A situation whereby behaviour is tolerated online, when it would carry criminal penalties if carried out in person, cannot be allowed.

Buoyed by his removal of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, the US president is intensifying an economic stranglehold and military menace

While the world watched the pomp of Donald Trump’s trip to Beijing, the US was turning up the pressure thousands of miles away. Its oil blockade has plunged Cuba into a humanitarian crisis, sparking nationwide blackouts that have prompted rare protests, closing schools and universities and leaving hospitals battling to treat patients. Surveillance flights are circling. US media reported this weekend that federal prosecutors are preparing an indictment for Raúl Castro, the 94-year-old former president and brother of Fidel. Mr Trump has casually observed, while bragging about the kidnapping of Venezuela’s then leader Nicolás Maduro in January, that “Cuba is next”.

A military assault on Havana would be vastly more fraught for the US – even without the war on Iran – and disastrous for Cubans. Washington hopes that threats and privation will be sufficient. UN experts warn that the blockade is unlawful, puts human rights at risk and may amount to collective punishment. The government admitted on Wednesday that fuel oil had run out. Tourism has collapsed. The Canadian mining company Sherritt pulled out of a joint venture and countries have axed their contracts for Cuban doctors – a vital source of income for the island, and trained medical staff for others. Havana may hope that it can stagger on. But Mr Trump is not patient.

Dr Lutz Oette and Anna Snowdon respond to an article by Nesrine Malik in which she calls out the primary sponsors of the calamity

Nesrine Malik’s article is timely, highlighting how evidence of the United Arab Emirates’ complicity in Sudan’s war has begun to prompt calls for action to be taken (The UAE tries hard to keep its reputation spotless. But with the war in Sudan, how can it?, 13 May). What is now needed is a concerted international response.

The UN and African fact-finding bodies have to date largely focused on the responsibility of Sudan’s warring parties for international law violations committed. It is time to complement this focus, by documenting and investigating the UAE’s involvement in the war with a view to establishing possible state and individual responsibility. This ranges from a failure to prevent both genocide in Darfur and international humanitarian law violations across the country to liability for the commission of international crimes.

Those who played live at the Wigan Casino included Edwin Starr, Junior Walker & The All-Stars, Jackie Wilson, and more, writes Jez Waterfield

Peter Bradshaw finishes his review of the film Northern Soul: Still Burning (Thumping celebration of the legendary underground club scene, 13 May) with a question: “What did the American acts themselves think of it [the Northern Soul scene of the 1970s]? Were they ever tempted (or invited) to play live at the Wigan Casino?”

Well, as someone who was thrilled to attend Wigan Casino all-nighters as a teenager, I’d say they fell in love with the scene, playing Wigan and other popular venues on the northern circuit (including Manchester’s Twisted Wheel, The Torch in Stoke-on-Trent and Cleethorpes Pier). A couple of these legends even came to settle down in the Midlands and north of England.

Building a habit early on means it is more likely to continue in later life, writes Ruth Daniels, although Jane Hall has far from fond memories of PE in her schooldays

Cath Bishop’s article captures perfectly the need for structural change and innovation to drive sustainable sport and activity for society (Too many of us were traumatised by sport at school – but it’s never too late to change, 12 May).

With multiple layers of evidence pointing to the benefits of an active and healthy nation, why do we struggle as a society to ensure that it is embedded in everyone’s day-to-day lives? Experiences in childhood shape so much: if we enjoy something or are encouraged to do it then we are more likely to continue. Preschool, school, parents, media and many other things shape what we do and what we become.

Participation rises sharply when contribution is the default position rather than requiring active enrolment, writes James Kyle

The finding that three-quarters of UK millionaires say they would be willing to pay more tax (Report, 13 May) is politically significant at a time when Labour faces growing pressure both to fund public services and to defend progressive policies against rising anti-tax populism. However, the crucial question is not what people say in surveys, but how policy converts stated willingness into actual revenue.

The Treasury’s standard response is that wealthy individuals can already make voluntary payments to HMRC. Yet the sums raised remain negligible. This is entirely predictable, because behavioural research repeatedly shows that opt-in systems produce dramatically lower participation than opt-out systems – the core principle behind so-called nudge theory. Successive UK governments have already relied heavily on the latter approach in areas ranging from pension auto-enrolment to organ donation frameworks.

Bulgaria’s first-ever win in European song contest delivers ray of hope at turbulent time after years of political instability

Bulgarians have rejoiced in their country’s first victory at the Eurovision song contest as fans welcomed home the singer whose party anthem Bangaranga proved an unexpected breakthrough hit.

“Dara is yet more proof that Bulgaria can win,” declared the new prime minister, Rumen Radev, of Darina Nikolaeva Yotova, known simply as Dara. He hailed “a young artist who, thanks to her talent and professionalism, has managed to rise above all the complexities and prejudices surrounding the [Eurovision] voting process”.

Canal+ head says he will not work with hundreds of actors and directors who signed protest against Vincent Bolloré’s political sway

The head of France’s biggest film producer, Canal+, has said the group will no longer work with hundreds of cinema figures who signed a petition voicing concern over the growing influence of the rightwing billionaire owner Vincent Bolloré.

The open letter, published earlier this week to coincide with the opening of the Cannes film festival, was signed by more than 600 figures, including the actor-director Juliette Binoche, the director and photographer Raymond Depardon, the French-Iranian film-maker Sepideh Farsi and the director Arthur Harari, who co-wrote the Oscar-winning Anatomy of a Fall and is premiering his film The Unknown in the main competition in Cannes.

Exclusive: Then-home secretary justified proscription of group in newspaper column despite advice it might unfairly impact trial of six activists

Yvette Cooper wrote a newspaper column about Palestine Action despite prosecutors warning it could prejudice criminal proceedings against six activists from the group, it can be revealed.

The then-home secretary wrote the column justifying Palestine Action’s proscription even though the Crown Prosecution Service advised it might unfairly impact a trial concerning a 2024 break-in at an Israeli arms manufacturer’s factory.

Paris police used teargas on Saturday and UK shops stayed shut on Sunday after rush for Royal Pop timepieces

Swatch closed its stores in the UK and in some cities in Europe and the US at the weekend after the launch of a limited-edition watch caused chaos.

Shoppers waited throughout the night, and in some cases for several days, hoping to buy the Royal Pop timepieces – made in collaboration with the luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet – on Saturday.

James Clyburn could now find his district dismantled after supreme court effectively gutted Voting Rights Act

South Carolina has had exactly one Black representative in Congress since 1897: James Clyburn. A proposal to redraw the state’s political map would dismantle the district he represents.

The state’s sixth congressional district starts on its southern border with Georgia, in the suburbs of Savannah, moving a hundred miles north to wind around the heart of Charleston, before cutting through Black belt farmland to the state capital of Columbia, another 115 miles away.

China is dominating the energy transition with astonishing result, while fossil fuel fascists in the US try to turn back the clock

“Farewell,” the flag-waving Chinese children chanted to Donald Trump as he strolled along the red carpet back to Air Force One at the end of his summit with Xi Jinping in Beijing.

The US leader claimed he was leaving with a cluster of “fantastic” trade deals to sell US oil, jets and soya beans to China. That has not been confirmed by his smiling host, but one thing was crystal clear from the two days of meetings: the global balance of power is shifting, from the declining petrostate in the west to the rising electrostate in the east.

The 2022 World Cup failed to deliver on its environmental promises. From air travel emissions to heat-related dangers, the 2026 edition will be even worse

Soccer fans are increasingly watching preparations for the 2026 World Cup through their fingers. The most popular sporting event on the planet is awash in controversy, whether it’s the eye-watering ticket prices, the question of Iran’s participation while the president of one of the host countries threatens war crimes against it, or the role that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement may or may not play in policing the event. And yet, lost in the political pyrotechnics is a fiasco that carries as much long-term peril as any: the tournament’s staggering contribution to runaway climate change.

The 2026 World Cup is not only the most politically combustible tournament in modern history, but it is also on track to be the “most polluting” World Cup ever, with total greenhouse gas emissions hitting nearly two times the historical average. Scientists conservatively project that the tournament will generate around 9m tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Air travel comprises approximately 7.7m tons of this carbon budget, and more than four times that of the average for tournaments held between 2010 and 2022. The researchers note that the worst-case upper estimate for air transport is about 13.7m tons of CO2. That may sound bad, but that’s just because World Cup emissions have never been worse.

Despite the ban on disposables, waste professionals say the mountain of discarded devices is a £1bn-a-year issue

It is 2pm and Ana, 47, has just started the afternoon shift at the Suez recycling plant near Birmingham city centre, standing beneath a sign reading “Non-ferrous sorting station” with a bucket of vapes in front of her. Sorting and dismantling them is part of her job as a site operative.

Recycling them is not simple. Each bucket holds between 40 and 50 devices, and over the course of a shift, she gets through about half a bucket. Using a hammer, she has to smash each vape open, pry out the batteries and separate each component into a different container.

After record losses last year, beekeepers report a warm winter has led to bees ‘waking up earlier’ this year

After a series of record-breaking US heatwaves, the 2026 bee swarm season in North America has started 17 days earlier than last year, pushing beekeepers to adapt to a rapidly shifting season while raising new questions about how honeybees are responding to the climate crisis.

According to a new report published by Swarmed, a tracking network of more than 10,000 beekeepers, focused on safe and ethical honeybee relocation, this year’s unusually early swarm season follows several years of record colony declines worldwide.

Exclusive: Families of men facing death penalty join opposition to proposals to run courses for defence ministry

The families of two scholars facing the death penalty in Saudi Arabia have appealed to the University of Cambridge to drop proposals to run staff training courses for Riyadh’s defence ministry.

The Guardian revealed last week that Cambridge’s Judge business school has been authorised to offer “leadership development” and “innovation management” training for the Saudi defence ministry’s staff, despite internal opposition within the university over the kingdom’s record on human rights and academic freedom.

Unspecified number of officers from royalty and specialist protection team being investigated, force confirms

Police officers accused of being asleep when they were supposed to be protecting the royal family at Windsor Castle have been placed under investigation.

An unspecified number of officers from the Metropolitan police’s royalty and specialist protection team are being investigated after concerns were raised, the force confirmed. The Sun, which first reported the story, said up to 30 officers were involved.

Exhibition explores how artists mainly known for their paintings helped revive a skill that had fallen out of fashion

They may be best known for their vibrant oil paintings but an exhibition opening in the English West Country is focusing instead on the subtle printmaking skills of artists such as Édouard Manet, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin.

More than 50 prints created mainly by impressionists, post-impressionists and cubists are going on display at the Holburne Museum in Bath.

Comments come after Andy Burnham says he would renationalise water and other businesses as PM

Investors in Thames Water have told the Labour government that a temporary nationalisation of the embattled company would slow its turnaround, after calls from Andy Burnham to put key utilities under public control.

As Keir Starmer’s grip on power appeared to be fading, the Greater Manchester mayor suggested at the weekend that the renationalisation of water and energy would form part of his policy agenda should he become prime minister.

White House-backed event billed as ‘One Nation Under God’ criticized for blurring lines between church and state

Thousands of people streamed onto the National Mall for a daylong prayer rally on Sunday billed as a “rededication of our country as One Nation Under God”.

Against the backdrop of the Washington Monument, worship music blared from a stage that made clear the event’s Christian focus. Arched stained-glass windows, set underneath grand columns resembling a federal building, depicted the nation’s founders alongside a white cross.

Campaigners say symbolism of Magyar inauguration must translate into real change for Roma rights after years of Orbán discrimination

The clutch of young Roma boys in black bow ties were lined up beneath the ornate arches and royal frescoes of Hungary’s dazzling parliament. Moments after Péter Magyar was sworn in, bringing an end to Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power, the young musicians launched into the unofficial anthem of Roma in Hungary, leaving many MPs wiping away tears.

It was an extraordinary moment – one that fused the nationwide hope for change with the longstanding aspirations of the country’s most marginalised community. Roma rights campaigners have seized the moment, calling on the new government to ensure that the symbolism of last weekendtranslates into real change.

Experts say the unseasonably hot weather across south Asia shows the impact of the climate crisis

An intense and prolonged heatwave has been causing misery for millions across Pakistan and India.

In southern Pakistan throughout April and May, temperatures have risen far above seasonal norms. In Sindh, daytime temperatures have frequently crossed 44C to 46C, forcing residents indoors during peak afternoon hours and severely affecting outdoor labourers, transport workers and farming communities.

Humpback stranded on sandbank was unlikely to survive, experts had said, recommending it be left to die in peace

The German authorities have defended their decision to allow a risky rescue attempt of a stranded whale to go ahead, despite experts warning it was “inadvisable” because the animal was hurt and unlikely to survive.

The saga of the whale, known as Timmy, had gripped Germany since the beached humpback was spotted stranded on Timmendorfer beach, a sandbank in shallow waters near the coast, nearly two months ago.

A decade after Theresa May spoke of radical reform, the mutual faces a bid that is testing the limits of democracy

In July 2016, in a canalside conference centre in central Birmingham, Theresa May took the stage for a speech that would formally launch her Tory leadership bid.

The home secretary of six years was seen as a safe pair of hands, including by the business community still reeling from the shock result of the Brexit referendum. What business had not banked on, though, was a social reform platform that would see May pledge to rein in corporate Britain and give workers and consumers seats on company boards.

Carmakers aim to expand into UK defence sector, exploiting spending boom by Nato countries

Jaguar Land Rover and General Motors are considering an expansion into UK defence via a £900m military contract, as carmakers seek to exploit a spending boom by Nato countries racing to rearm.

The manufacturers are among a group of automotive firms vying to make thousands of 4x4s for the armed forces to replace an ageing fleet of Land Rovers that have been out of production since 2016.

Businesses are advised against paying – but many are prepared to deal to protect users’ privacy

After a week of outages, hundreds of millions of students’ data stolen, delayed assignment due dates and school login pages being defaced by hackers, the US tech firm Instructure – which operates the education platform Canvas, used by education providers worldwide – announced it had “reached an agreement with the unauthorised actor” behind the ransomware attack.

Experts read the careful language as a sign that a ransom has been paid. The company has not confirmed this.

With layoffs widely expected and editorial tensions deepening, correspondents await a post-season shakeup

At a time when viewers are fleeing traditional television shows, the CBS Sunday newsmagazine 60 Minutes remains in a class of its own. The 12 April episode, which featured Pope Leo and a story on great white sharks, drew an astounding 10.1 million total viewers. The show is trending as the most-watched news program for the current broadcast season. So, as the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, why fix it?

That’s what some CBS News employees and veterans are wondering, amid persistent rumors that the show’s 59th season will look very different than the 58th, which ends on 17 May.

Film-maker and longtime Corbyn ally says ‘poor behaviour’ squandered chance to unite the left in fight against far right

Ken Loach has accused Your Party of squandering an opportunity to unite the left in the fight against the far right after the upstart socialist movement founded by the former Labour figures Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana became mired in infighting.

“There was great hope when Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana joined forces; 800,000 people expressed interest – that’s three times the size of a political party,” he said. “But I’m afraid some of the behaviours were very poor and they lost a historic opportunity.”

He has made smash hit shows for Netflix and has adapted Harry Potter for the stage. Yet the in-demand writer’s latest show Falling is new territory for him – a love story

I hear Jack Thorne before I see him. We’re meeting in a quiet cafe in Hampstead, north London, to discuss his very first love story for TV, Falling. I catch snatches of him chatting with various waiters – “Thank you, good sir” and “Lovely, lovely” – before he appears in front of me, all smiles but a little nervous, too. Which is surprising given this is the writer who had a hand in hits such as Skins, Shameless and the This Is England trilogy, co-created a cluster of brilliant adaptations (His Dark Materials, Lord of the Flies, Enola Holmes) and is steadily building up a vast canon of work inspired by disturbing but fascinating real-life stories (National Treasure, Toxic Town, The Hack). Most notably, he also co-created the Netflix series Adolescence, winner of endless awards, including and viewed by 140 million people and counting.

The ridiculous thing is that Thorne’s theatre career is as illustrious as his TV work. There’s the small matter of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on stage (an experience that Thorne found rewarding but, with all eyes on him, “not always a lot of fun”); plus his takes on A Christmas Carol and the chilling Let the Right One In. He drew on his family’s own experiences with IVF for the screenplay to the movie Joy, and is currently co-writing Sam Mendes’s highly publicised but super-secret four-film series about the Beatles (“I’m not allowed to talk about that”).

Cannes film festival: The Marriage Story stars team up with Miles Teller for this sombre and impressive story of shady dealings in 80s New York

With this muscular, heartfelt and sombre new picture set in 1980s New York, James Gray again resurrects the spirit of Elia Kazan in a blue-collar tragedy of fraternal loyalty and betrayal; a movie about men and their horror of appearing weak and failing to protect their families. Paper Tiger has that distinctive Gray colour palette: a perpetual late-afternoon autumn of subdued ochres, reds and browns. And there are his keynote family supper scenes, the characteristic presence of the Russian community in New York, and the potent, tribal codes of the NYPD: part mob, part trade union, part masonic clan whose membership responsibilities and perks go on well after retirement.

Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller give weighted, intelligent performances at the film’s centre: all three characters, in their different ways, have Springsteenian hungry hearts. Teller is Irwin Pearl, a modest, working-class guy who is a qualified engineer in Queens, doing well at his trade but still concerned about paying for his teen sons’ – Scott (Gavin Goudey) and Benjamin (Roman Engel) – college education. He’s married to Hester, played with forthright authority by Johansson, sporting frizzy hair and glasses that make her look like one of the Golden Girls.

Cannes film festival: Succession of pointless AI-generated snippets does nothing for film about the artist’s final interview, which took place on the day of his murder

Coming just after his superb feature The Christophers, Steven Soderbergh has now made a surprisingly moderate documentary, dominated and frankly marred by uninteresting and pointless AI. It is about the inadvertently poignant final interview given by John Lennon and Yoko Ono on 8 December 1980 in New York’s Dakota apartment building, hours before his death.

The interviewers were Dave Sholin, Laurie Kaye and Ron Hummel from San Francisco’s KFRC radio station. On their way out of the building with the conversation on tape, they were accosted by a creepy stalker-fan; in attempt to calm the man down, Kaye gave him a brand new copy of John and Yoko’s new album Double Fantasy. This sinister man was Lennon’s future murderer who got him to sign an album – perhaps this very album – and later shot him dead. It is a chilling, stomach-turning twist of fate, although the film avoids emphasising the interview’s obviously macabre context, understandably preferring a positive emphasis. Inevitably, though, the unacknowledged irony flavours what we see and hear: a fundamentally happy, hopeful man looking forward to the future, behind whom a dark shadow is looming.

Cannes film festival: This tremendously alarming drama from Rodrigo Sorogoyen is a meditation on male auteurs entirely without sentimentality

Javier Bardem gives his scariest performance since No Country For Old Men in this disquieting new film about emotional abuse from Spanish director Rodrigo Sorogoyen, who made 2023 rural noir shocker The Beasts.

It’s a film about a film-shoot – often the occasion for whimsy or sentimentality or woozy rapture about the magic of cinema. Not here. And given this and Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, this year could be the Cannes of father-daughter dysfunction.

Quirky crime series Death Valley is back with its unlikely detective duo. Plus: Australian thriller The Family Next Door. Here’s what to watch this evening

8.15pm, BBC One

The Barbican, London
Mutter’s anniversary tour opened with a programme of Beethoven, André Previn and – ever a champion of new music – the European premiere of Aftab Darvishi’s Likoo, a rhapsodic lament for women under the Iranian regime

On 23 August, 1976, a 13-year-old violinist made her debut at the Lucerne festival – with her older brother Christoph at the piano. By the time the concert finished Anne-Sophie Mutter was the toast of the festival, invited to play for no less than Herbert von Karajan. It was the start of a career that has since yielded more than 50 albums, four Grammy awards, and works by a Who’s Who of 20th-century greats: Krzysztof Penderecki; Henri Dutilleux; Witold Lutosławski; Sofia Gubaidulina; John Williams.

So now, aged 62, Mutter is celebrating 50 years on the concert platform. And she’s doing it her way. If anyone was expecting the German star to launch her anniversary tour on Saturday night with a big concerto, they will have been disappointed. An only somewhat full Barbican Hall suggested fans may have voted with their feet. Those who risked it got Mutter in activist mode, using her platform not to revisit triumphs but to champion new music and young artists.

Kings Place, London
This was a virtuosic, witty performance of a mixed programme of works mostly by Benjamin Britten and Aaron Copland, who spent the summer of 1939 together in Woodstock

An internationally acclaimed composer from “the land without music”, the reviver of British opera and co-founder of the Aldeburgh festival: Benjamin Britten is firmly ensconced in our national cultural pantheon. The time when he and his soon to be life-partner, the tenor Peter Pears, boarded an ocean liner and travelled to North America in spring 1939 as “a vacation from the general European atmosphere” – not returning until mid-1942 – has proved harder to celebrate. But in a season marking the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death, the Britten Sinfonia have grasped the nettle.

The result is a programme split mainly between works by Britten and Aaron Copland, who spent the summer of 1939 together in Woodstock. Cue tennis, swimming and mutual admiration. But Britten was also hard at work – first on his Young Apollo, a fanfare commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and then on his song cycle Les Illuminations. Directing from the violin, Zoë Beyers launched a taut, witty performance of the former. Amid so much energetically engaged string playing, pianist Huw Watkins’ mercurial scales and delicate sweeps of glissando provoked audible giggles of delight from audience members behind me.

Johan Cruijff Arena, the Netherlands
Styles’ first stop in his Together, Together tour, which will see him perform lengthy residencies around the world, is a reminder of how talented he is

Midway through the opening night of his world tour, Harry Styles asks where the audience in the Johan Cruijff Arena have come from. To judge by their response, residents of Amsterdam are vastly outnumbered by those who have travelled vast distances to be here: further investigation on the part of the singer reveals audience members from Switzerland and Ireland.

It’s evidence of what – to use a modern term – a huge flex the Together, Together tour is. There are doubtless sound reasons for performing lengthy residencies at single venues rather than dutifully dragging yourself around the globe – Styles’ 10 shows in Amsterdam are the only gigs he’s playing in mainland Europe, followed by similarly lengthy sojourns at venues in London, São Paulo, Mexico City, New York City, Melbourne and Sydney – but it also helps underline the scale of the former One Direction star’s solo success. Twelve consecutive nights at Wembley is a feat not even Taylor Swift’s Eras tour could match. Here, it suggests, is a man who’s not only pulled off one of the hardest tricks in pop – the journey from manufactured boyband member to respected solo artist is a notoriously thorny one – but done it with an almost unparalleled degree of aplomb. You’d have to look back to George Michael’s post-Wham! career to find even a vague equivalent.

(OVO/Republic)
It’s possible that the world’s biggest rapper is using this epic content drop to get out of his record deal, but aside from some bright spots on Iceman, should the public really be subjected to it?

It is easy to over-estimate Drake’s fall from grace. True, he was unanimously declared the loser in the most high-profile rap beef of recent times, and is currently engaged in a protracted legal battle with his own record company over said rap battle that everyone except Drake and his lawyers seems to think smacks of the worst kind of bad loserdom. He is also fighting lawsuits alleging that he illegally misled viewers during gambling livestreams – pretending to bet his own money while actually using funds from an online casino he promotes – and that he furthermore channelled funds from said online casino into artificially inflating streaming figures (Drake has not commented on the allegations; Stake, the casino, described one of the lawsuits as “nonsense”). Also in the lawsuits is Adin Ross, a denizen of the manosphere who Drake has been palling around with, unbothered that the other guests on Ross’s stream have included Andrew Tate and Nick Fuentes.

Equally, Drake is still the most-streamed rapper in the world. Had all this really impacted on his mainstream popularity, his last album – Some Sexy Songs 4 U, 2025’s collaboration with PartyNextDoor – would have died at the box office, rather than entering the US charts at No 1 and going on to sell a million copies. If his public reputation is looking a little tarnished, well, we live in an era of short attention spans and shorter memories: it would probably only take one unequivocal banger – a One Dance or Hotline Bling 2.0 – for the slate to be wiped clean.

The top 100 novels of all time published in English, as voted for by authors, critics and academics worldwide. How many have you read?

The acclaimed author and poet talks about her new book, telling the true stories of patients at a derelict Victorian psychiatric hospital – a place in which she might have found herself at a different time

Doireann Ní Ghríofa wrote much of her first book of prose, A Ghost in the Throat, sitting in her car on the top floor of a multistorey car park, having dropped her children off at school in Cork city. Whatever works: her imaginative journey into the life and mind of 18th-century Irish poet Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill was so convincing and original that it captivated readers and won the James Tait Black biography prize and, in Ireland, the An Post book of the year award. Having published several well-regarded collections of poetry, it seemed as if this blend of biography, memoir and meditation had enlarged the way in which she could write about her abiding preoccupation: the ever-present past.

She returned to her car to work on her new book, Said the Dead. But this time, it was parked in front of a vast building high on a hill overlooking the river Lee, one half of it derelict and the other half transformed into apartments. Its history was long: originally referred to simply as the district asylum at the end of the 18th century, a grand gothic-revival building had been constructed during the 1840s, and named, after Ireland’s Lord Lieutenant, the Eglinton Lunatic Asylum; in the 20th century, it became the Cork District Mental Hospital and, in its last incarnation before closing in 1992, Our Lady’s Psychiatric Hospital. Many such institutions existed across Ireland, a patchwork of private and public mental health provision that operated against the backdrop of colonial rule, poverty and famine.

Innovative and award-winning science-fiction writer whose novels extended to horror, fantasy and the Warhammer franchise

The author Ian Watson, who has died aged 82 after suffering from oesophageal cancer, established his reputation as an exhilarating, intellectually adventurous writer of science fiction with his first novel, The Embedding (1973), winner of the Prix Apollo in France. It was followed by The Jonah Kit (1975), winner of the British Science Fiction Association award. Reviewing his third novel, The Martian Inca (1977), JG Ballard described the author as “the most interesting British SF writer of ideas – or, more accurately, the only British SF writer of ideas”.

Many of Ian’s novels dealt with dauntingly complex, even unanswerable, questions about communication, language, perception and consciousness (human, animal, even alien minds), but others were lighter. Though he was always identified with science fiction, his range as a writer expanded to include horror, fantasy and “the great, lurid, Gothic fun” of the Warhammer franchise books.

Honey by Imani Thompson; Quite Ugly One Evening by Chris Brookmyre; The Final Chapter by CB Everett; The Hollow Boys by Tariq Ashkanani; Shrink Solves Murder by Philippa Perry

Honey by Imani Thompson (Borough, £16.99)
Thompson’s smart and incisive debut centres on Yrsa, a young Black woman studying for a sociology PhD and teaching undergraduates at Cambridge. Irritated by her solipsistic, over-privileged students and tired of situationships, she’s fed up with life, and men in particular. Her first killing – that of a much older supervisor who reneges on his promise to leave his wife for a colleague, and steals her research in the process – is an accident, but Yrsa, who has catastrophically poor impulse control, enjoys the sensation and, more importantly, gets away with it. “It’s theory in action”: as victims pile up, her academic research provides a spurious rationale for justifiable anger, as with Hugh, who used her for bragging rights (“Black girl magic, 20 points”). But somebody is on to her, and things are starting to spin out of control … The best kind of campus novel, satirical and razor-sharp, crossed with a crime story: Thompson is an exciting new voice.

Quite Ugly One Evening by Chris Brookmyre (Abacus, £22)
Thirty years after Brookmyre’s debut, his latest novel to feature journalist Jack Parlabane makes a tonal return to his earlier, more irreverent style. Now 60, Jack feels increasingly like a “Boomer Ambassador” to the younger colleagues who are snapping at his heels. With his job on the line, he agrees to investigate a cold case: the death, 40 years earlier, of an MI5 operative. It’s thought to be connected to the Maskyn family, creators of much-loved but now contentious Thunderbirds-style TV series The Imaginators, and Parlabane finds himself on the transatlantic cruise liner hosting the 60th anniversary convention as “several hundred emotionally stunted fanboy incels alongside an over-remunerated family of nepo babies, trust fund pukes and outright fascists” duke it out over The Imaginators’ legacy. Masterfully plotted and scalpel-sharp, this is a riotously good read that uses a Golden Age set-up to take aim at the culture wars, while also providing a thoroughly satisfying mystery.

The open world driving sim has roared through locations from Colorado to Australia, its authentic feel resting on exhaustive research. But, as the team explain, this was the toughest challenge yet

Since the arrival of the original Forza Horizon in 2012, a game that revolutionised open world driving sims by setting players loose in a virtual Colorado, British developer Playground Games has promised authenticity with its settings. For each instalment, design teams are sent out on location to take thousands of photos, hours of video, even detailed captures of the sky, before construction of a virtual copy begins. It’s a huge undertaking. But it seems that for much of the past decade, one country remained slightly out of reach – an intimidating prospect. “Japan has been on our shortlist for several games now,” says design director, Torben Ellert. “But we just didn’t feel like we were ready to take on the challenge of building it.”

It’s not just about the sheer variety of the country’s landscape. There’s something else going on. Most video game players hold an image of what it is like to explore Japan. It may be inspired by the fictitious rural town of Inaba in Persona 4, or the busy docks of Yokosuka in Shenmue, or perhaps the neon-drenched Kabukichō district of Tokyo, which forms a regular backdrop in the Yakuza series. For decades, gamers around the world have been bombarded with images of the country that are often highly stylised and fragmented, but nonetheless potent and persuasive. As art director Don Arceta puts it, “with Japan there’s such an expectation [of] what gamers want - it’s a certain version of Japan that they picture.”

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.

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.

PS5, Xbox, PC, Switch 2; Annapurna Interactive
The nostalgic antics of a trio of tenacious teens make for silly yet undeniably enjoyable gameplay, framed by a playlist of bona fide bangers

The older we get, the more we tend to romanticise our teenage years. As bills pile up, we yearn for the simple days of drinking cider in parks. We often tend to forget the bad parts: the frustrating lack of autonomy, the unrequited crushes and the doofuses you’re forced to tolerate in the playground. But after four hours spent hanging out with the pretentious teens in Mixtape, I felt pretty relieved to be in my 30s.

Set in a nondescript town in northern California, Mixtape follows the exploits of tenacious trio Rockford, Slater and Cassandra as they head to a legendary party on their last day of high school. With Rockford about to leave her friends to move to the big city, she wants to immortalise the gang’s time together in musical form. Every song on a carefully curated mixtape triggers a totally tubular flashback to one of their shared memories.

Southbank Centre, London
Between a sci-fi concert for eggs and an interview with a bee, the scarecrow broadcasters in Philippe Quesne’s oddball performance piece make the case for art as salvation and for farms as the lifeblood of humanity

Bump into one of these scarecrows at night and you’d be forgiven for running a mile. But stick around to listen to this hay-laden gang of crop-protector castaways, who no longer have crops to protect nor birds to scare thanks to the climate crisis, and you’ll see they have only good intentions.

The sensorily ambitious Farm Fatale joins five scarecrows with faces of melted plastic and voices of children swallowed by machines in the artificial studio of their pirate radio station. It is set in the near future, when the air is hard to breathe and birdsong is recorded. The only people getting by are the industrial farmers capitalising on the ruin of others. When the scarecrows interview a bee, with a microphone charmingly taped to a pitchfork, the little creature is described as one of the last in Europe.

Shakespeare’s Globe, London
Forgoing Brecht’s usual distanciation, Anna Jordan’s new translation and Michelle Terry’s lovable performance bring out the humanity of a woman doing what’s necessary to keep herself and her family alive

This production of Bertolt Brecht’s masterpiece seems to break the first rule of Brecht’s epic theatre, which requires emotional distance. It conjures Brecht’s upside down world, in which war denotes order and profit, while underlining all the losses that Mother Courage faces in spite of her relentless entrepreneurialism and attempts at profiteering – selling anything from burgers to ammunition and sex. But it is human, moving and funny. The distance closes and the production becomes devastating in its most savage moments, when Mother Courage loses her children, one by one.

Translator Anna Jordan justifies these moments by interpreting Brecht’s rule of verfremdungseffekt as making the drama “strange” rather than distanced. And in director Elle While’s powerful production, the emotional drama is tightly controlled, flaring up momentarily. In between flare ups, the narrator (Max Runham) pulls us away from the intimacies of this family to draw the bigger picture, summarising the gyrations of war and Courage’s travails over the years.

Hampstead theatre, London
A first love is rekindled on stage and off in Sarah Ruhl’s metatheatrical romance and farcical send-up of hammy old musicals

It doesn’t take long for the protagonists of Sarah Ruhl’s 2011-set romantic comedy – two actors who have been cast in a 1930s melodrama called The Last Kiss – to realise they’ve signed up for a theatrical flop in the making. The director is hopeless, all wafting hands and evasive “just trust your instincts”; the young supporting cast are as wooden as the boards they’re tentatively treading; and the bombastic script feels ludicrous to the pair’s naturalistically trained ears.

There is also a whopper of an art-imitating-life situation afoot: the pair, elusively named He and She, are portraying but also happen to be first loves, reuniting to crackling chemistry despite She and her character each being married with a grownup daughter.

Minerva theatre, Chichester
John Morton’s debut as a playwright is a finely crafted family drama with shades of Alan Ayckbourn

As a TV writer-director, John Morton specialises in the sort of English talk that either means nothing at all or something completely different from what was said. In the sitcoms Twenty Twelve, W1A and currently Twenty Twenty Six, the hesitations, repetitions and desperate metaphors – in conversations that sound improvised but are precisely written – reveal corporate conceit and deceit. But the stilted and stalled speech in Morton’s playwriting debut, Eclipse, represents unsaid and unsayable things among the gathered family of Edward, a late-stage cancer patient who has asked to die under “home hospice” care at an old rectory in Devon.

Edward, confined behind a door in the corner of the convincingly lived-in kitchen that dominates Simon Higlett’s set, is never seen or heard but feels completely real. That theatrical illusion recalls theatre’s genius of offstage characters, Alan Ayckbourn, as do many of those we see: bickering siblings Jonathan (Rupert Penry-Jones) and Sarah (Sarah Parish), diffident and assertive respectively, and the latter’s hapless, tactless husband, Graham (Paul Thornley). The pair of end-care nurses – gently attentive Karen (Selina Cadell) and self-consciously jolly Linda (Lizzie Hopley) – are also familiar English comedy types.

Actor says Ensemble 84 in Horden, employing local talent, is how a professional repertory company should be

It’s a chilly spring evening in what was once a Catholic church in a left-behind County Durham pit village, and Ian McKellen admits he is feeling emotional.

“This is the only company of actors in the United Kingdom and it’s in … Horden?” he says. “I’m feeling very emotional. This fulfils all my romantic dreams I’ve had ever since I discovered the joys of theatre-going and acting.”

Once Upon a Time in Harlem, completed by relatives of William Greaves after his death, showcased at Cannes

In 1969, the pioneering documentarian William Greaves wrote of his fury over the racially degrading stereotypes that white film producers threw up on American screens. “It became clear to me that unless we black people began to produce information for screen and television there would always be a distortion of the ‘black image,’” he said.

Three years later, Greaves began work on what he considered the most important footage he ever shot: a feature documentary gathering surviving figures of the Harlem Renaissance to reflect on the movement they had built half a century earlier.

The Photo London 2026 Student Award has been given to Akanksya Dahal of Ravensbourne University London from a shortlist of four artists nominated by tutors at UK universities. The three other nominees were Anna Bradshaw of Birmingham City University, Bo Fan of London College of Communication, and Madison Hafner of Falmouth University. The judging panel was Fiona Shields, the head of photography at the Guardian; Lisa Springer, the curator of photography at the V&A; the photographer Mimi Mollica; and Kimberly Hoang, the picture editor at the British Red Cross

• Photo London takes place at Olympia until 17 May

The Turkish photographer was enchanted by this scene of a flower seller and monks on a lake in Myanmar

Alahattin Kanlioğlu had worked in the faculty of communications at Ege University in Izmir, Turkey, for more than two decades before he took this image. A photography specialist, he first visited Myanmar in 2019, and was so captivated by the region that he returned in December 2025 to host a photography workshop. As part of the trip, the group of six visited Inle Lake, in the Shan Hills.

“The people of this region live in wooden houses built on tree stumps. Some surround the lake, but others are on the water, as if they’re floating,” Kanlioğlu says. “Agriculture and fishing are two of the main livelihoods here and, uniquely, the fishers use foot-controlled oars to steer the boat, keeping a hand free for their catch.”

For years, I polished the brass plaques in front of my apartment dedicated to a Jewish mother and daughter who were murdered by the Nazis. Then a message out of the blue connected me to a surviving child …

At the grand, biblical age of 102, Sonja Ibermann Cowan has zero interest in wasting her time. There are delicious great-grandbabies to be serenaded, uproarious meals to share with her three beloved daughters, and meaningful celebrations of the high holidays to mark with her Melbourne rabbi, who makes house calls. Five years ago, she decided to invest some of that precious time in what became a friendship with me, across the world in Berlin, her birthplace.

The boredom of the pandemic certainly played a part. Cooped up at home under much stricter Covid-19 restrictions than we had in Germany – Sonja joked about being “eingesperrt” (locked up) – she and her extended close-knit family started turning their attention to the past. Her grandson Benjamin Preiss, a journalist at the Australian newspaper The Age, embarked on an  ambitious research project to uncover the mysteries of Sonja’s life and her mother’s and sister’s murders in the Holocaust.

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.

Fed up with frizzy and dehydrated locks? Dyson’s latest travel model allows effortless styling on the go – but at a cost

• The best hair dryers – tested

With the summer holidays fast approaching, the usual anxieties might be taking hold: pickpockets and touts, lost passport, severe sunburn, holiday tummy, and – perhaps most pressingly – the horrors of the hotel hair dryer. That last one is not to be underestimated: an outdated dryer with one scorching heat setting is a fast track to frizzy, dehydrated, unfabulous hair – not something you want immortalised in your holiday photos.

Worry not, though: Dyson promises to fix that particular woe. The British engineering brand has shrunk its Supersonic into a smaller, lighter, travel-friendly dryer offering the same powerful airflow and heat-control technology as its full-size sibling. So does this admittedly very stylish compact dryer really justify its premium price?

Dunk, nibble or wolf them down: this classic biscuit is at its best when it’s just sugar, butter and flour, so be wary of those that stray from the rules

• The best extra-chocolatey biscuits

At its best and simplest, shortbread is made using a classic 1:2:3 ratio – one part sugar, two parts butter and three parts flour, by weight. Perhaps unsurprisingly, few supermarket shortbreads stick to that golden rule and include other ingredients such as cornflour and raising agents; they’re nothing to worry about – but some cut the butter (and costs) by using rapeseed oil, margarine or worse.

Unlike most manufactured products, however, the price of shortbread doesn’t always reflect the level of processing, and some of the cheapest are also the least processed. Look out for “all-butter” on the label, to make sure the shortbread doesn’t include oil and has that classic, buttery taste. And don’t be fooled by fancy packaging.

Whether it’s sandals comfy enough for walking, linen trousers or timeless sunnies, the secret to great summer style is all about keeping things simple

Don’t overthink it. That’s the key to summer style. The best looks are the ones you reach for when you aren’t thinking about clothes, but about the sunny weather, the long evenings, the good times.

You’ll already have your summer anchors, the pieces you come back to every year. The sundress that always works. Denim shorts that only get better with age. A breezy linen shirt you can wear open over swimwear or tucked into just about anything. These are your personal treasures, the pieces that never let you down. But it wouldn’t be summer without a bit of personality thrown in. Suddenly there’s room for pieces that might have felt a bit “extra” a few months ago. Stripes, florals, a pop of red – they all work when the sun’s out.

There’s a perfect perch for every camper. Here are our favourites, from ultralight models to inflatable pods

• The best tents for camping: 10 expert picks for every outdoor adventure

Ready to carry on camping this summer? I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that a good collapsible camping chair can change your life. If you’ve never used one before, you’ll be astonished at how comfy a folding chair is, letting you sit off the cold ground when you’re cooking, eating or just chilling out around the fire, and making every evening at camp a social occasion.

There’s a folding camping chair out there to suit everyone, including wild campers who only carry the essentials, glampers and campervan fans who like a bit of luxury. I’ve tested 15 of the best folding camping chairs, from tiny portable stools that collapse to the size of a baguette to cushioned monster chairs that wouldn’t look out of place in your sitting room, at prices to suit all budgets and starting from just £15.

Best camping chair overall:
Montbell Base Camp chair

Best budget camping chair:
Mountain Warehouse folding chair

Light enough for spring lunch, hearty enough to satisfy as dinner on a chilly night, and as good a starter as it is a main

I cannot preface this recipe better than Skye McAlpine, who writes that, “as the name suggests, this risotto is a celebration of spring and all the glorious, verdant produce the season brings with it”. Verdant, certainly, but also pleasingly dense – this is a dish that champions the abundance of this time of year, while also acknowledging that it can still be bloody chilly once the sun goes down, both here in the UK and in north-east Italy, where risotto originates. It’s also a dish that’s versatile enough to incorporate whatever looks good in your local area over the coming weeks, as well as one that can be served in smaller portions as primi piatti or in more generous ones as a main course.

As is the peril with most small plates restaurants, this meal is more a collection of loose ideas than a coherent dinner

Auguste, a brand spanking new Italian restaurant in Hackney, east London, is named, loosely, after a clown. The Edward Hopper painting Soir Bleu hangs on the wall, depicting a tragic sort in a whiteface mask sitting forlornly in a cafe surrounded by hipsters. The clown’s light veneer of calm, it seems, masks his bare tolerance of both his life and his fellow customers. Hopper painted it in 1914, and now, more than a century later, this same sad clown feels more than a little symbolic of all those who have chosen a life in hospitality at this time. Paint on a smile! Get out there! Make the crowds happy! If only business rates could be paid with a bucketload of glitter …

Auguste’s owners, chef Mike Bagnall and general manager Dylan Walters, have taken over the 32-seater premises formerly known as Papi, which recently upped sticks and moved on to a much larger site at The Golden Tooth in Newington Green. The space has been transformed from its Papi days as an extremely hip, European-influenced, irreverent, small plates, low-intervention wine and hyper-cool spot, to its new incarnation as, well, an extremely hip, Abruzzo-influenced, irreverent, small plates, low-intervention wine and hyper-cool spot. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose, you might be thinking, but pas exactement! The room now has white tablecloths and the big draw on Auguste’s menu are its skewers or, to be precise, arrosticini. Think tiny mini kebabs with the meat cut into 1cm cubes, then grilled over something called a furnacella. The live-fire craze among London hospitality’s menfolk shows no signs of abating. Man make fire. Fire good.

A lighter risotto made with whizzed cauliflower as well as rice, but with a reassuringly rich cheese sauce

In series eight of Peep Show, Mark (David Mitchell) is working as a salesman in a bathroom shop when a customer asks him for a “modern but traditional” bathroom. Aghast, he tells the customer that these opposing styles can’t be married when his boss, Super Hans, swoops in to say they can: “Fancy taps but a rainforest shower head?” I was reminded of this silliness because here I’ve tried to create a risotto of opposing styles: lighter than a traditional one, because I’m using some blitzed cauliflower, while maintaining that richness you get from a cauliflower cheese. I think it works, but I’ll let you be the judge.

Viral recipes and fibre awareness boost demand for sweet fruit amid shift towards healthier alternatives

Instead of a customary biscuit or a chocolate bar to combat the 4pm slump, people are reaching for a more natural sweet alternative: dates.

The sweet fruit has been thrust into the snacking spotlight by a combination of viral recipes on social media, growing awareness about fibre intake and increasing demand for alternatives to ultra-processed foods.

They were surprised to agree on some topics. But could the scientist and the lawyer see eye to eye on the future of the monarchy?

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

Keith, 48, Leeds

Occupation University lecturer in medical microbiology

A casual arrangement became something more substantial for Shani and Can, who are happy living in the moment
• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

I was used to telling people that I could only offer them adventure, but with Shani that wasn’t true

Your mother expects to be taken on holiday and your siblings aren’t pulling their weight, so you’re right to be angry as things clearly aren’t fair

For years, it has fallen to me and my sister to take my mother on holiday. Now, she has a big birthday coming up and wants me to arrange a trip abroad. I have three other siblings, who have never taken her on holiday, so to prod them into action I spoke with one of my brothers, who expressed disbelief at my mum’s request and told me I was a fool for going along with it.

I can’t decide if he’s being mean (our father died a few years ago and she doesn’t have friends to go with) or if I am the fool in the family. I have young kids and a tight budget, but our holiday has to be arranged to suit “Granny”, so it ends up being a less adventurous, more expensive trip than my siblings take with their kids.

Frances, 77, a retired marketing manager, meets Eddie, 86, an activist

What were you hoping for?
A lovely evening with pleasant company.

Some cheap fakes contain toxic chemicals that make pets seriously unwell – and leave you with a big bill

You want to save money whenever you can so when you see the usual brand of flea treatment for your cat listed at half the normal price, you click “buy”.

It arrives and you apply it to your pet, but they fall ill and you have to rush to the vet for treatment.

A student could lose hundreds after the UK changed travel advice – others face flight cancellations due to fuel shortages

In February, when Lottie Cornwall booked a summer trip to Lebanon, she was excited at the prospect of introducing her boyfriend to her Lebanese extended family.

“My mum’s whole side of the family live there,” she says. “I last saw my grandmother and cousins in 2022. My heritage means everything to me, and this was a chance for my boyfriend to meet my family, and to show him where I come from and why I’m so in love with it.”

We had booked a cruise for him and his carers, but we had a string of problems when we tried to change names

In November 2024, I booked a cruise for my wife, myself and our severely disabled son for this July. I’d booked well in advance to ensure an accessible cabin for my son. At home, he needs round-the-clock care from a rota of eight carers, so we made extra bookings for three to accompany him.

Because the care team has other commitments, I couldn’t confirm their names at the time of booking and was told to do so by this April, when the balance had to be paid.

If you are looking for a new account, there are some good rates around, but also pitfalls to watch out for

Earning as much as 7% on your savings sounds great – but what’s the catch? The top-paying accounts often come with strings attached, which could mean your money is not working as hard as you thought.

That’s important because there is a lot of cash sitting in fixed-rate savings accounts that are about to reach the end of their term. The total amount in accounts maturing between April and June is £90bn, according to the savings app Spring – and that money will need to find a new home.

From an elevated heart rate to weakened immunity, experts explain the hidden physical costs of chronic stress – and why our bodies aren’t built to stay on high alert

You wake up later than planned, so it’s a rush to get everything sorted out ahead of the school run. While you’re waiting for the toaster, idiotically, you check your phone. Something has happened, and your timeline is a scalding-hot mess of the worst takes imaginable. One of your children has left their shoes somewhere unfathomable, and there’s an envelope on your doormat scolding you for driving in a bus lane.

You’re undeniably stressed, and your body’s likely to respond by ramping up the same biological systems that evolved to deal with inter-tribe disputes and mammoth attacks. But is there a downside to being stressed – and having these systems switched on – all the time? Take a calming breath, and let’s dig into the science.

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

• This week’s question: You’re supposed to be quiet in the cinema. So why are the snacks so loud?

I was recently beset by a plague of clothes moths. After hours of research, I discovered the miracle that is the parasitic wasp, or Trichogramma evanescens – near-microscopic beasts that you can order online (in sachets of 2,000 wasps!), the life’s calling of which is to destroy clothes moth eggs.

It made me wonder: is there anything else in our daily lives that is so beneficial to us, but which few of us have heard of – or realise is there? John Forward, Brixton

Researchers say risk comes from ‘other factors, including genetic predisposition to mental health conditions’

Taking antidepressants during pregnancy does not increase the risk of children going on to develop autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to an analysis of more than half a million pregnancies.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Hong Kong and published in the Lancet Psychiatry, analysed data from 37 existing studies that included 600,000 pregnant women who had taken antidepressants, and 25 million women who had no antidepressant use during their pregnancies.

Rather than bribery, or hiding carrots under ketchup, the key may be to expose foetuses to healthy flavours

It is an age-old battle with small children that most parents will recognise: please, please, eat your vegetables.

Some will read them books with titles such as The Boy Who Loved Broccoli. Others have been known to smother veg in tomato ketchup, or mix avocado and fruit with Greek yoghurt and call it icecream. Or resort to plain bribery.

The style on the Croisette is off to a strong start

Joan Collins, Catherine Deneuve, Isabella Rossellini and Jane Fonda among those representing wider age diversity on red carpet

The Cannes red carpet is, without question, a home of glamour. But in 2026 that glamour has a different spin. The women gaining the most headlines for style are, for once, over 70.

Joan Collins, 92, walked the red carpet this week in a white sculptural strapless gown by Stéphane Rolland. Jane Fonda, 88, wore a floor-length sequined Gucci dress. Isabella Rossellini, 73, has been seen wearing a striking patterned two-piece, while Catherine Deneuve, 82, was chic in forest-green satin and hoop earrings.

From Nike Mind, with its pre-game benefits, to recovery shoes from Hoka, bulbous sporty footwear is moving into fashionable circles. Will we see it beyond the jogging track this summer?

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When the much-hyped Nike Mind shoes were released in January, I bought a pair. I was grabbed by the idea that the orange nodules on the sole could, supposedly, focus the mind. The futuristic look of the shoe also appeals. If walking on knobbly things took a bit of getting used to, it was worth it – if only for that irresistible fashion smugness of having something rare. In the last week, I have been stopped in the street and asked where I got the shoes. It turns out they are now out of stock and have sold for over £300 on resale site Goat.

The Mind is part of a wider trend in “exercise slides”, a pre-game shoe designed to ground you ahead of your chosen activity. Nike claim that the 22 nodules on the sole stimulate the mechanoreceptors on your feet, engaging the sensory area of your brain, meaning focus is heightened. Meanwhile, recovery slides made by brands such as Hoka and Oofos use cushioned soles and a shape that cradles the foot to helpfight foot fatigue after a lot of exercise. The Mind are worn by footballers including Erling Haaland and Reece James, runner Keely Hodgkinson and basketball players Victor Wembanyama and A’ja Wilson, while ballerina Francesca Hayward namechecks Hoka’s slides as part of her daily routine.

Designer suggests decision to stage show in Los Angeles is part of strategy to deepen label’s cinema presence

Like Christian Dior, the founder of the house he now leads, fashion designer Jonathan Anderson’s ambition is to be not just a Parisian couturier but a Hollywood power player. “We think of Dior as this romantic character, but he was also a very savvy businessman,” said Anderson before a blockbuster catwalk show in Los Angeles. Stage Fright, the Hitchcock caper-noir for which Dior dressed Marlene Dietrich, was the show’s origin story. “There is all this amazing correspondence between Dior, Dietrich and Hitchcock, which shows how he navigated the money that it cost to make that film. I think we underestimate how much negotiation Dior did with studio executives. He was very smart in that way.”

Anderson, 41, who was born in Northern Ireland but since being appointed to Dior splits his time between London and Paris, has his own Hollywood side hustle as the costume designer for Luca Guadagnino’s films, and is set on reinvigorating Dior’s relationship with the film industry.

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.

From Hadrian’s Wall to the locations of Happy Valley and Hot Fuzz, readers share their top discoveries

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

“So this is where Officer Nick Angel [Simon Pegg] chased that swan.” As a fan of Hot Fuzz, I was excited to explore the cathedral city of Wells in Somerset, where much of the film was shot. This charming, compact and walkable city is awash with medieval architecture and magnificent buildings, such as the gothic cathedral, with one of the oldest working clocks in the UK (late 14th century) and the Bishop’s Palace and Gardens. Within easy reach of the Mendip Hills, Cheddar Gorge and the Wookey Hole Caves, Wells makes for a low-key alternative to tourist-soaked Bath.
Alison

There are few places where history can be felt more powerfully than these pathways, walked by explorer, author and TV presenter Nicholas Crane

How often do you look down and wonder who created the path your feet are following? Or ask the cause of its curves and dips? Formed over thousands of years, paths form an “internet of feet” – a web of bridleways and hollow ways, drove roads and ridgeways, coffin tracks, pilgrimage trails and city pavements. Whether you’re hiking a National Trail or pottering along a National Trust footpath, there’s a good chance you’re following ancestral steps.

It’s thoughts like these that led me on a journey to track the evolution of British paths for my book, The Path More Travelled. Eleven thousand years ago ice age hunter-gatherers arrived from Europe’s heartlands, moving through the wilderness along broad “routeways”, that later widened to tracks when horses and then wheels were adopted in the bronze age. For more than 2,000 years, traffic moved no faster than the speed of a horse, until the internal combustion engine drove pedestrians off the road just over a century ago.

Improve your mountain skills by day and party by night at the Arc’teryx Alpine Academy in Chamonix

After a day spent hiking across the Col d’Entrèves glacier, a sugar hit is required. I descend on the cable car and join the queue at the ice-cream counter. Above me, surrounded by jagged peaks, looms the huge white figure of Mont Blanc, serene and pure against a brilliant blue sky. Although it’s late afternoon, people are still heading up the mountain, and there are two clear groups. On one side are the tourists, who are about to be lifted into unfamiliar frozen realms at 3,375 metres (11,072ft), hoping to grab a picture and return. Mixed among them are the weathered faces of mountain experts: hikers confidently heading for a high-altitude hut, or climbers with coils of rope.

How many of those tourists, I wonder, are wishing they could be mountaineers, secretly regretting the twists of fate that kept them away from that path? But all is not lost. The aspiring adventurer, no matter what age or background, can begin the journey to competence in the mountains. The annual mountain festival I am attending aims to facilitate that by offering the chance to gain hands-on experience with experts.

A foreign face is often thought to add prestige to a product or business – what’s behind this unregulated economy?

Piers had been in China for all of two days in 2009 when he was used as a “white monkey” for the first time. He had travelled to a village in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, to attend a friend’s wedding and had stopped in the village to try a special crab dish at a small restaurant. Weeks later, a Chinese guest who had been at the wedding told him the restaurant had had an uptick in business because the locals had heard that a laowai, a foreigner, had been seen dining there, so people had assumed this restaurant must be good. Piers realised the boss had deliberately seated him in a way to attract attention: “I knew we were sitting outside in a premium spot, but I didn’t pick up on what was going on.”

When foreigners in China are used this way, they are called a baihouzi, a white monkey. They’re hired to help Chinese businesses appear more desirable, the foreigner association conveying prestige and a sense that your product is universally regarded. The industry is unregulated in China, operating in a legal grey area. White monkey positions are advertised on job boards and can fall into different categories, from acting and modelling for Chinese films and products to pretending to be the foreign CEO of a Chinese company to lend it credibility. They might be seat warmers or go-go dancers in Chinese nightclubs to draw in customers, or English teachers in language centres to make Chinese parents feel their children are being taught by legitimate native English speakers (even if a Chinese person is actually a better qualified teacher). These businesses believe that having the “foreign look” will give them an edge over other Chinese companies offering the same service. The phenomenon of recruiting foreigners for this performative purpose can be traced to the concept of mianzi, having “face” in Chinese society, which denotes bestowing and receiving respect for each other.

While there are still days the Thames is so dirty even dogs avoid it, steps are being taken to restore public waterways

Some people think we are odd for swimming in the Thames. “Isn’t it cold?” they ask with a shiver, like they are the ones who just took the plunge. Er, yes, that’s the whole point. Cold water ignites the central nervous system and reboots the mind.

“Isn’t it dirty?” they ask. Yes, sometimes, particularly when it’s rained. Then we don’t get in the Thames, we get in a rage instead, taking contamination measurements and signing petitions challenging the behaviour of the water company that spews sewage into the river.

The Rivals actor on his very skinny ankles, swearing like a sailor, and his enduring love for Marlon Brando

Born in Essex, Alex Hassell, 45, trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. He co-founded an experimental theatre group and was noticed by the RSC where he went on to star in Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, Henry V and Death of a Salesman. On TV, he appeared in His Dark Materials and Rivals. He reprises the role of Rupert Campbell-Black in season 2 on Disney+. He is married to actor Emma King and lives in London.

What is your greatest fear?
Loneliness.

We have to drag the bins through the house because the garden door is jammed. Until a scary encounter with my old enemy, that is …

It’s still light out when my wife comes to me with bad news.

“It’s bin day,” she says.

May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak, and now perhaps Starmer: each one was brought low for a reason. But what if the deeper problem is the office itself?

They were times in which prime ministers seemed to be on their way out as soon as they’d arrived. The big strategic decisions the country faced were ducked or postponed. The public finances repeatedly wobbled, yet efforts to rationalise the tax system faltered in the face of vested interests, including farmers. Reforms to social security were trumpeted before being diluted. The whole business of politics was animated by rancour and rivalry, rather than practical action. All the while, populists waited in the wings.

This is not a sneak peak into a future history book about today’s Britain, but a description of the French fourth republic, which staggered after a difficult birth in 1946 until 1958, when the exhausted regime ceded the authority to create a new order to Gen Charles de Gaulle, effectively putting itself out of its misery.

Labour’s sometime safest seat in the UK, birthplace of Aneurin Bevan and Neil Kinnock, last week sent no Labour delegates to the new Senedd

Reminders of the Labour movement’s roots are inescapable in Tredegar, south Wales: murals pay tribute to party giants Aneurin Bevan and Neil Kinnock, both of whom were born here.

The Workmen’s Hall Library is long gone, replaced by a car park, but the Cambrian Inn, which hosted early trade unions and Chartist groups, survives. The Tredegar Medical Aid Society, which Bevan used as a model for the NHS, was across the road; today it is a heritage centre paying tribute to the public health pioneers and the area’s coal-mining and steel-making past.

What does defending press freedom mean in practice? We asked people across the Guardian to tell us something they have done to protect it this past year. The range of responses will likely surprise you

• Support independent journalism today

It sounds like a fundamental principle. A tenet. But, in reality, press freedom is more of a practical and relentless daily struggle.

I’ve been asking colleagues from across the Guardian to tell me about one of the things they have done to protect press freedom this past year – from our international correspondents and investigative reporters to our visual journalists and commercial and technology departments.

Find out how we compiled our list of the 100 best novels published in English – and nominate your favourites

• See the list here

This week, we reveal our list of the 100 greatest novels published in English, as voted for by authors and critics around the world. We polled 172 authors, critics and academics for their top 10 novels of all time, published in English, and asked them to rank their choices in order of preference. We scored the titles according to how often they were voted for, and then added a weighting based on individual rankings to produce the overall list of 100 greatest books.

What would be at the top of your list? Which authors do you think should be there? What are your favourite novels of all time?

Tim Allen, Joan Cusack and Greta Lee join Hanks to answer your enquiries about the forthcoming animation and its previous instalments

Is there a more eagerly anticipated movie this year than Toy Story 5? For many people (with and without children), you can keep your Odysseys and Minotaurs and Place in Hells, because the return of Woody, Buzz and friends is what cinema is really all about. The series so far has made $3.3bn, and last year’s teaser trailer had 142m views in 24 hours – of which only 140m were my son pressing refresh.

The new film, which is released worldwide on 19 June, sees Jessie the Cowgirl (voiced by Joan Cusack) leading the gang in eight-year-old Bonnie’s room, with Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) her second-in-command, after the departure of Woody (Tom Hanks) at the end of Toy Story 4 to help abandoned toys find their owners.

As more childminders are quitting the profession amid concerns over costs, we’d like to hear why and from parents who’ve been affected

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. Childcare organisations have also warned that upcoming tax changes could push more childminders out of the sector.

Campaigners say the decline is making it harder for families to find flexible and affordable childcare, particularly in areas already struggling with shortages.

We’d like to hear how you’re adapting your expenditure as the cost of living rises amid the conflict in the Middle East

Rising prices and economic uncertainty linked to the conflict in the Middle East are putting pressure on household budgets across the world.

The International Monetary Fund has warned the conflict is pushing up the cost of energy and food, increasing borrowing costs and weighing on economic growth. Surveys suggest millions of households are already making changes to cope – cutting back, dipping into savings or taking on debt.

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Russian drone attacks on Kyiv, Israeli strikes in Lebanon, Trump in Beijing and a mural of Lamine Yamal – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists