The Old Vic, London
The suburban romp of envy and infidelity in two different homes comes bouncing back to life with a fizzing cast led by Roger Allam

Early in a career that reaches 92 plays with The Trial of Romeo Oscar at his Scarborough home base next month, Alan Ayckbourn often spins titles from expressions: Absurd Person Singular, Relatively Speaking, Joking Apart and How the Other Half Loves, his ninth play.

In How the Other Half Loves (1969), the pun is doubled. Two couples – the Phillipses and Featherstones – envy how the well-to-do Fosters, boss Frank and wife Fiona, live. But structurally, the Phillipses and Fosters occupy half the set each, actors blanking out characters in the other house even while making phone calls to each other side by side. In the second scene, when the Featherstones – unwittingly used as adultery alibis by Mr Phillips and Mrs Foster – simultaneously attend dinner parties on consecutive nights with the other couples, the two actors in both scenes swivel their heads at tables laid across each other.

The wait is over. From soap stars to athletes and Kim Kardashian’s hairdresser, we’ve rated this year’s celebrity hoofers in terms of likely glitterball success

No Tessbot. No Clauditorium. Three new presenters, five new professionals and a new-look “vodcast” It Takes Two sister show. Yes, the fast-approaching 24th series represents Strictly Come Dancing’s biggest ever shake-up. This has become a make-or-break year for the BBC’s ballroom behemoth.

Lineup announcements have been strung out over two months, like a boring byelection, but the Strictly class of 2026 is finally complete. There are the usual grumbles about a lack of household names, with theories that the casting department prioritised social media followings over mainstream fame. My personal feeling is they have smashed it with the women, who comfortably overshadow the far weaker lineup of men. This raises the pleasing possibility of the first back-to-back female champions since Abbey Clancy and Caroline Flack more than a decade ago.

When I moved to the town in 2022 I loved the beach walks, cheap drinks and panoramic coastal views. Now it feels like a never-ending circus

Clacton town centre is bustling, the beaches are packed and the pier’s raking in cash. We can credit the weather, but no doubt press coverage and Count Binface’s promotional videos have got us on radars too. The tourists look like they’re having a lovely time.

I moved to Clacton in 2022 and the first year was brilliant. It started with beach walks, cheap drinks and decorating a flat with panoramic sea views, and ended fat and happy from chips and ice-cream, a newborn baby in tow. Privileged with my health and stable income, albeit strained by a Truss-era mortgage, it was a place I loved, and was proud of.

Sarah Elizabeth Cox is a historian, and communications manager for a science charity

After a period of underachievement and upheaval for the Blues, the arrival of Xabi Alonso could signal a change in fortunes

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 3rd (NB: this is not necessarily Billy Munday’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 10th

It might seem an unlikely way to stop overheating, but many owners have found the tech a lifeline in hot weather

“If it is 35C outdoors, I can get the temperature down to 21C,” says Andrew Ingram of the sanctuary that his living room has provided this summer.

“On the nights I’ve slept in there, you have to put your thick pyjamas on,” jokes Ingram, who lives in Maidenhead, Berkshire, with his wife, Sue.

The climate crisis is hitting Europe hard in 2026, warming twice as fast as any other continent – and the consequences are deadly

The whole world is getting hotter as carbon pollution from fossil fuel burning traps ever more heat, but Europe is heating up twice as fast as other continents. The consequences are increasingly deadly, with tens of thousands of heatwave deaths so far this summer.

The Guardian’s climate forum 2026: On Tuesday 20 October, join Damian Carrington and our panel of experts, including Professor Andy Haines, Katie White MP, Asad Rehman, Shruti Suresh Gareth Thomas and Amy Fairman, for a hopeful and solutions-focused evening. Book tickets here or at guardian.live

Eclipse witnessed by tens of millions across western Europe as enthusiasts gather along path of totality

in Land’s End, Cornwall

The roads and car parks of west and north Cornwall are clogged as people gather to watch the solar eclipse.

Fellow pupils at his primary school have challenged Cambridge academic’s story, though others support it

The story of Jason Arday’s extraordinary rise to becoming the youngest black professor in the history of the University of Cambridge is all the more remarkable for one claim: that he did not learn to speak until just shy of his 12th birthday.

This claim was mentioned in a letter announcing his resignation last week, which came amid mounting questions about his academic work and statements he had made about his past.

Family, friends and colleagues attend service at Buckfast Abbey, which former MP described as her ‘safe haven’

About 100 family, friends and colleagues of Ann Widdecombe have attended a funeral service for the former Conservative minister, who was killed in her home in Devon last month.

Politicians and broadcasters were among the mourners at Buckfast Abbey in Buckfastleigh, a Catholic abbey in Devon where Widdecombe regularly worshipped and which she described as her “safe haven”.

Errors by police and prosecutors after first murder had left serial sex offender free to kill again

Simon Levy, the prolific sexual predator left free by police and prosecution errors to murder two women, will never leave prison after being sentenced to a rare whole-life tariff.

Judge Lucraft KC said Levy, 40, “ruthlessly” exploited women for his sexual pleasure, and had a proven history of sexual offending dating back to 2018.

US envoy had claimed Americans could be extracting crude by as early as next year

Greenland authorities have forced a US oil company connected to Donald Trump to postpone drilling wells in the Arctic territory, defying claims by the US president’s envoy that Americans could be extracting crude by next year.

Amid Trump’s imperialist threats, tensions have been rising on Greenland’s eastern coast after the oil company brought drilling equipment ashore in July without permission, drawing a “strong warning” from the government.

Kyaw Zwar Minn was ousted for declaring loyalty to Aung San Suu Kyi after 2021 coup but refused to leave his home

Myanmar’s ousted ambassador to the UK has gone on trial on trespassing charges for refusing to leave a diplomatic residence after being unceremoniously locked out of the embassy in 2021.

Shortly after Myanmar’s military seized power in 2021, triggering mass protests that spiralled into a civil war, Kyaw Zwar Minn was locked out of the embassy for declaring his loyalty to the deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

PM to look at imposing restriction on devices in public spaces, though campaigners fear it does not go far enough

The government will look at banning disposable barbecues as wildfires continue to rage across the UK, Andy Burnham has said.

Disposable barbecues have been the cause of a number of serious fires over the last few years, but campaigners were critical of the prime minister’s failure to link those fires more broadly to the climate crisis.

Aircraft carrier’s crew in ninth month at sea and has spent record 250 days consecutively without making land

Military families and Congress members are sounding the alarm about an intensifying mental health crisis onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, as its 5,000 sailors and marines endure a record-breaking deployment at sea tied to the war with Iran.

Two leading specialist military papers, the Navy Times and the Stars and Stripes, are reporting that there have been multiple attempts by sailors to jump overboard as poor conditions and mental stresses on the Lincoln reach breaking point. The crew is in its ninth month at sea, and has spent 250 days consecutively without making land – a record for an aircraft carrier in modern times.

Suit alleges subscription offer aims to sell privileged access to information generated in president’s official capacity

Donald Trump has been sued after a subscription service charging up to $100,000 a month for early access to his posts on his Truth Social platform sparked allegations of corruption.

The lawsuit, filed in the US district court for the southern district of New York, was brought by the Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation against Trump, two of his aides and the executive office of the president.

Amid doubling prices and fraying tempers, shoppers hunt for elusive eyewear to prepare for rare eclipse of sun

• Europe solar eclipse – latest updates

A secretive WhatsApp group was pinging with notifications throughout Wednesday, letting its members know where in London the latest “drop” would take place.

The group’s focus, rather than being for an illicit substance, was for the much-coveted eclipse glasses, which have prompted a frantic rush on shops before the celestial event.

Rejecting North Sea drilling licences and protecting nature are just some measures Andy Burnham must implement to ready country

From record-smashing temperatures, wildfires, hosepipe bans and thousands of premature deaths, the climate crisis has left its mark across the summer of 2026.

Tackling the root cause – the burning of fossil fuels – and ending the crisis will take years. So will fixing the UK government’s calamitous failure to protect lives and livelihoods against the long-predicted affects of global heating.

Farage was elected to EU parliament five times before becoming Clacton MP, while Binface has been less successful – so far

Nigel Farage has been standing in British elections since 1994, when he narrowly beat Screaming Lord Sutch of the Monster Raving Loony party into fourth place in a Commons byelection. He was elected five times to the European parliament before achieving his goal of abolishing his seat.

Finally, after 30 years of trying, he was elected to the Commons as member for Clacton in 2024. He resigned that hard-won seat in July after a parliamentary inquiry was launched into a £5m gift he accepted from a Thailand-based businessman shortly before the general election, but is standing again in the resulting byelection on Thursday. The other major parties are not putting up candidates, so the chief contenders, according to the limited polling, are Farage and Count Binface.

At first, I worried that only historians would find A House Through Time compelling. But its appeal is so enduring that fans of the show stop me in the street to ask when they can watch more

Why is that some TV programmes find an audience, catch people’s imaginations and become not just watched but loved? Most of course do not. Having been making TV since my late 20s and been involved in a number of “first” series that ended up being the only series, I am painfully aware of that. If producers knew in advance which shows would be hits, there would be no flops, as the industry cliche goes.

Producers and presenters are lucky if, during our careers, we get to be involved in a single show that makes that rare transition from being part of the schedule to part of people’s lives. Almost a decade ago, while we were filming the first series of A House Through Time for BBC Two, I was not at all convinced that this was a show that had the potential to break through.

A House Through Time is on BBC Two on Thursday 13 August at 9pm

Thanks to the drought, these black-and-white beauties are struggling to catch worms in the rock-hard earth. But there’s still good foraging on well-watered fairways and greens

Name: Badgers.

Age: European badgers live for five to eight years in the wild. They have been in the UK, where this story is set, for half to three-quarters of a million years.

As millennials return to the games of their youth, remakes of Star Fox and Halo suggest there is still plenty to learn from the past

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As much as some people more or less cease to listen to new music in their 30s, I have noticed a retreat to safe, familiar gaming territory among some of my fellow millennial gamers.

Retro collections are started, or resumed; jewel-cases of PS1 classics or cardboard boxes with SNES or Mega Drive games have started to colonise the living-room shelves. People are replaying things from their university days, or sticking to comfort games such as Stardew Valley. Many of the friends I used to game with never bothered to pick up a PlayStation 5 at its launch, and now that current-generation consoles are becoming prohibitively expensive, they see no need. With thousands of great older games, why bother playing something new?

As London restaurants say wild birds are smaller and fewer this year, experts say countryside should not be ‘playground for bloodsports’

Every year on 12 August, fans of traditional British cuisine flock to plush restaurants in Mayfair to dine on grouse served with bread sauce and game chips. But those hoping to find the small wild birds, sourced from the UK’s moorlands, may be disappointed.

Wildfires have been raging on moors across the UK, burning habitats and incinerating wildlife, after record-breaking heat turned the landscape into a tinderbox.

The director of It Follows returns after the terrible Under the Silver Lake with a sub-Spielberg pastiche of big-lizard horror and domestic unrest

David Robert Mitchell is back with his first film in eight years, this time produced by JJ Abrams. It is initially amusing but oddly inert; contrived, derivative, commercially driven and weirdly inconsequential, a Spielbergian mashup about dinosaurs running amok in suburbia that doesn’t feel like homage so much as a pastiche produced by an AI Spielbergbot – except, I admit, for the moment we see two dinosaurs enjoy the full, physical flowering of romantic intimacy. That is not something Spielberg would feel comfortable showing – for dinosaurs nor, indeed, humans.

I was one of the frowning naysayers unconvinced by Mitchell’s madly indulgent LA fantasy-noir Under the Silver Lake, a giant disappointment compared with his breakthrough, the scary masterpiece It Follows. But at least Silver Lake had ambition and chutzpah. This feels as if Mitchell is going through the motions – someone else’s motions. We are in late-1980s small-town America; at one point, a character sits in a car listening to Steve Winwood’s Valerie. Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway are Greg and Denise Platt, an unhappy couple who live on Oak Street with their two kids, Brian (Christian Convery) and Audrey (Maisy Stella). Greg is ashamed of his failure as a breadwinner, having a humiliating side-job delivering pizzas. Denise is secretly writing an autobiographical novel about a woman planning to abandon her family.

Alterations that don’t cost a fortune can transform old trousers, jackets or shirts into bespoke pieces

When I started shopping in vintage stores, I fell into the trap of thinking that if something wasn’t in my size there was nothing to be done. I’d still buy beautiful shirts that were huge, but never end up wearing them. I persevered with trousers that were three sizes too big and just scrunched in the waist with a belt, but it didn’t look good. Now I know that a belt is an accessory, not a necessity; it’s there to heighten the garment, not hold it up. And that’s because I have finally understood the power of tailoring.

Tailoring seems out of reach for most people, but more often than not a dry cleaner will be able to take in a waist or do the hem, which would set you back £30 max. And I mean, how much would you pay for a perfectly fitting pair of trousers?

My child and I were bonding over our hit-and-miss approach to reaping crops. But with heatwaves pushing more of Britain into drought, it’s starting to feel like a luxury we can’t afford

For the first time in my life, I live in a home that has real outdoor space. What a concept! There are no downsides to a garden. Back in spring, I made grand plans – I watched all the TikToks, I bought seeds and trays and pots and grow bags, I ordered soil, a trowel and a watering can. I knew what I was after: super-tiny-scale subsistence farming with a side of Zen. A little fruit, a little veg, lots of flowers to attract pollinators. And I knew I wanted my elder child to gain an understanding of how things come to be and how to cope if and when they fail.

We love a tomato side salad, so that was the first thing we attempted. The seedlings flourished and then died in the first heatwave of the season. An omen, surely. The dahlias, ranunculus and freesias refused to grow, let alone bloom. My enthusiasm began to wane.

When I was younger, female biology was seen as something to be overcome. Now we can talk about the reality of living in our bodies

Have you got the “luteal uglies”? I’m not trying to insult you, merely deploying the latest hormonal buzz phrase on social media, which refers to the phase in a woman’s cycle, two or so weeks between ovulation and menstruation, when she apparently feels at her lowest and most unattractive due to a drop in oestrogen levels.

Women’s hormones have become trending topics and, as someone who only found out what a “luteal phase” is when she Googled it, mid-fertility panic, in her late 20s, I am somewhat in awe of the expertise with which younger women discuss their menstrual cycles now. They’re just so incredibly literate.

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist and the author of Female, Nude

From space to telecommunications, the US has a long history of fostering technology for the public good. These AI models could be aligned to democratic values, not corporate profits

OpenAI, and then Anthropic, were each formed by AI developers who feared unrestrained corporate AI development – specifically, that companies like Google and Meta would steer the technology towards deleterious, maybe even catastrophically unsafe, outcomes for society. Their founders proclaimed that their new labs, uniquely, could be trusted to develop the technology in humanity’s best interest. But each, in turn, were themselves co-opted by the same market incentives, themselves becoming corporate behemoths zealously guarding future investor value rather than the public interest.

It was only a few weeks ago, in June, when OpenAI and Anthropic each filed for their IPOs and were met with buzz about trillion-dollar valuations. The hype around their valuations is so extreme that many worry about their potential for concentrating wealth on a global scale. In an effort to leave something for the rest of us, some observers have proposed that the federal government seize a share of these companies’ stock to create a US sovereign wealth fund, or redistribute their revenues to produce a dividend for taxpayers.

The migrant influx prompted recriminations and a tit-for-tat dispute between Italy and Spain. Putin, Erdoğan and others will have taken note

Within hours of the first pictures of tens of thousands of migrants swimming the short distance from Morocco to the Spanish north African enclave of Ceuta hitting social media on 30 July, 22 European Union leaders, the Trump administration and Israel had piled on to criticise Madrid.

The outbreak of hysteria and recrimination was a case study in 21st-century politics, driven by real-time images in a media echo chamber where populists set the agenda on migration, propagating fear, prejudice and demagogic proposals. Above all, the kneejerk reactions undermined trust between European allies and dealt a setback to EU efforts to jointly manage migration, counter people-smuggling and resist the weaponisation of migrants by non-EU countries.

Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre

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

There are more votes in tolerance and decency than in toxic division. It doesn’t take a great leap of political courage to fight back against Reform

Nigel Farage can be confident of victory against a man posing as an ennobled space traveller with a dustbin on his head. At least, in Clacton he can.

The refusal of major parties to contest this week’s byelection sets the bar low. But even if the competition were more serious than Count Binface, the Reform UK leader would be the favourite to win on his chosen turf. He picked the constituency as his safest shot for a parliamentary seat in the 2024 general election for a reason. Now he is betting that the stench of scandal around his personal and party finances, pungent in Westminster, won’t sicken his fans on the Essex coast.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist

38C is hot by anyone’s standards

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Too many shops are blighting too many communities. With the rule change I fought for now on the horizon, ordinary people can fight back

How much gambling do you want in your high street? Are you happy with all the betting shops, the problems they cause, the effect on your environment?

It’s worth asking because for years, local councils have been expected to say yes to new gambling venues, even when communities made clear they did not want them. Now, under new rules announced on Monday, that’s about to change. And about time.

Dawn Butler is the Labour MP for Brent East

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

A cheap currency helps finance the US tech boom. Washington is intervening because allies matter only when they are useful

Japan’s yen has slid back towards 160 to the dollar, despite last month’s extraordinary US-Japanese intervention. Traders are betting that its role as a cheap funding pipeline for global finance will continue. Earlier this month the Trump administration stepped in to help Tokyo stabilise its currency. “Japan’s been very good to us, with the exception, of course, of Pearl Harbor,” Donald Trump explained. More help is likely to be on its way.

But this is less a rescue of the yen than an attempt by Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, to preserve a cash spigot that benefits the US. Japan’s ultra-cheap money has become a global funding utility: bankers borrow yen, sell them for dollars and buy higher-returning US assets, notably tech shares. Rising American stock markets support collateral and investment. Japan’s “carry trade” is one of the reasons Wall Street can lever hundreds of billions into AI. Research suggests AI sucks up more than 1% of US GDP.

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

Empathy is a strength in a prime minister but there is a risk of letting emotional urgency obscure the strategic view in policymaking

There are no votes in leniency for criminals, which is why oppositions demand harsher penalties and ministers acquiesce. It is a policy ratchet that can keep turning as long as there are enough cells to accommodate those who are jailed.

But spending on new prisons, or for that matter improving conditions in the dilapidated, overcrowded ones already in use, is also not a vote-winner. Most people can think of more deserving beneficiaries of public money than prisoners.

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

An Oxford academic says teaching and teamwork matter just as much as a CV full of impressive research output

The Jason Arday case is in danger of becoming a red herring when it comes to quality control of university appointments. An anonymous letter-writer (7 August) commented that Arday “is well known for the kindness he promotes” – a rare exception within a slew of commentary that has had nothing to say about Arday’s actual job performance. As an academic at Oxford University, I would say that underqualified appointees are significantly less common or problematic than those whose research output is excellent but who, nonetheless, devote little energy to teaching, are administratively indolent, and/or lack a collegiate sensibility.

There are two main reasons for this. One is that appointment panels are excessively preoccupied by impressive publication records, and pay too little attention to applicants’ willingness to put time and energy into teaching, and to engage empathetically and constructively with both colleagues and institutional systems. Too often bad appointments occur because of, not despite, the “rigour” of our processes.

A reader couldn’t believe his ears on a journey from Runcorn to London Euston

Jimmy Cricket taking over the aeroplane’s intercom (Letters, 5 August) reminded me of a memorable train journey. In 2008 I travelled from Runcorn train station to a conference in London.

As we approached the first stop, Birmingham, to my and the other passengers’ surprise, Ozzy Osbourne came on the train intercom to make the announcements. Later in the journey, the former US president George W Bush gave the buffet car details, with Boris Johnson, then mayor of London, doing the honours for the platform details coming into Euston.

Gary Calder on the differences in names for mealtimes in Scandinavia. Plus Dr Paul Brown on the class division in dinnertimes on the Titanic

Confusion over the names of mealtimes (Letters, 2 August) also reigns in Scandinavia. Breakfast in Norway/Sweden is frokost/frukost, but morgenmad (morning food) in Denmark. Lunch in Norway/Sweden is lunsj/lunch, but frokost in Denmark. At least they can all agree on the main meal of the day, which is middag (midday/noon) but served in the early evening.

If attending a wedding party or function in Denmark, don’t be surprised to be served natmad (night food) around midnight. It is used as a friendly indication that the event has come to an end, hence its colloquial name of skrub af mad (fuck-off food).
Gary Calder
Chandler’s Ford, Hampshire

A teacher asks how would parents feel if their child’s teacher took time off during the school term to get a cheaper holiday. And Nick Coupland points to the evidence that absences for family holidays do not affect academic achievement

The broad consensus of your readers seems to be that fines for holidays in termtime are unpopular and ineffective (Letters, 5 August). So far, so true. However, one point that has not been raised is that teachers – I am one – have families too, and are likewise bound by the extortionate cost of holidays outside termtime. I wonder how readers would feel about their children’s teachers flouting the rules and taking a few days off during termtime for a cheaper holiday?
Name and address supplied

• I agree with Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett’s belief that “term-time holidays are clearly not the most urgent cause of poor educational outcomes” (Opinion, 2 August). Researchers at the universities of Strathclyde and Dundee found that, in contrast to overall absence, truancy, sickness and extraordinary family circumstances, absences for family holidays did not have an impact on academic achievement at the end of compulsory secondary schooling.
Nick Coupland
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

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PSG get the ball rolling. Or rather sailing, as they hoof it into the stand, rugby style, as is their wont. “I’m glad that Omar Artan will get a chance to do what he does best, after being denied entry to the GWC,” writes Peter Oh. “Never mind the ‘104 Super Bowls’, here comes the Super Cup!”

The teams are out! PSG in their first-choice blue and red, Villa in a very light blue that’s almost white, which, it says here, “pays rich tribute to the famous stadium’s Holte End, drawing inspiration from the iconic mosaic that greets loyal fans as they file into the stand.” We’ll be off in a minute!

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Hudson-Smith was second in his semi-final last night. I reckon he’ll pull it out of the bag tonight, though. Jonas Phijffers of the Netherlands was the victor.

There are four golds on offer this evening: women’s hammer, men’s 400m, women’s 400m hurdles, and the men’s 100m hurdles.

• ‘I don’t think they work,’ says returning Test captain

• Root takes charge for three-match Pakistan series

Joe Root has abolished the midnight curfew for his England Test side, telling his players to “be adults” after a string of late-night incidents.

A curfew was imposed on the ­England men’s teams after their Ashes defeat in the winter, when the on-field action was overshadowed by players’ behaviour off it. Most ­notably, there was Harry Brook’s altercation with a nightclub bouncer on the eve of a one-day international in Wellington, with the batter admitting he was fortunate to keep his position as white-ball captain.

• Messi’s father, ⁠Jorge, died last week at age of 68

• Argentinian suggests he may not play on much longer

Lionel Messi has hinted that the end of his career may be near after ­admitting to “quite a few doubts” about his football future following the death of his father.

Jorge Messi died last week at the age of 68 in Rosario, Argentina, after a long illness, with his health during this summer’s World Cup appearing to take a toll on Argentina’s 39-year-old captain.

• New Zealand-born Mitchell became UK national in July

• England ready for revamped WXV tournament

England women’s World Cup-winning coach, John Mitchell, has revealed he became a UK citizen in July after a six-year process. He said it would make representing the country on a sporting stage “very whole and meaningful”. Mitchell, who is from New Zealand and coached the All Blacks at the 2003 men’s World Cup, said he “belted out” the national anthem in his final citizenship test and that his time in English rugby was a motivation in his decision.

“I am very happy to be a British citizen,” he said. “More importantly, I am very happy to be an English citizen because rugby isn’t who I am, it’s what I do, but it does play a big part in my life.

The former Leicester player’s focus has moved from runner beans to running drills as the season approaches

With some parts of England gearing up for a fifth heatwave of 2026 the new Manchester United goalkeeper Janina Leitzig, a keen gardener, is sympathetic to the precarious health of this reporter’s tomato plants. “You’re not used to so little rain, are you?” she observes. For the time being, after her summer move to Manchester, the former Germany youth international does not have a garden of her own but she reveals that, during her three-and-a-half-year spell at her former club Leicester, homegrown vegetables were her pride and joy.

“I love to do some gardening. Back home, everyone has their own vegetables and it’s just better, it tastes better,” she tells the Guardian. “Being away from home and away from family, of course you have your football friends, but still it can be quite lonely sometimes if you come home from training, so it was really nice to have a garden and to spend time outside. It’s not too much effort, it’s just a nice hobby.”

This is an extract from our free email about women’s football, Moving the Goalposts. To get the full edition, visit this page and follow the instructions. Moving the Goalposts will be sent out once a week, on Wednesdays, in the close season but will be back on Tuesdays and Thursdays from September.

The body is the size of the entire solar system and glows with a brilliant red light billions of light years from Earth

Astronomers claim to have discovered a new kind of cosmic object, a black hole “star”, which is the size of the entire solar system and glows with a brilliant red light.

The international team made the breakthrough after focusing their attention on a mysterious red spot in images of the early solar system captured by Nasa’s James Webb space telescope.

Ángel Aguirre indicted in case that rocked Mexico and became symbol of its brutal cartel violence

The former governor of Guerrero state in Mexico has been formally charged over his alleged involvement in the disappearance of 43 students in 2014, a case that has become a symbol of the country’s brutal cartel violence and government impunity.

Ángel Aguirre, who was arrested last week, is accused of forced disappearance and obstruction of justice for ordering the destruction of surveillance tapes that may have shed light on what happened to the students from the Ayotzinapa teacher training college on the night of 26 September 2014.

Labour chair says Reform deputy leader is trying to harass journalists over reporting on his financial affairs

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Richard Tice has been accused by Labour’s Bridget Phillipson of mounting a “deeply chilling attempt to silence the free press” after he sent a legal threat to the Guardian over its reporting on his financial affairs.

Lawyers for Tice, the deputy leader of Reform UK, singled out a Guardian correspondent for her journalism about a series of Tice’s financial transactions that were referred to the National Crime Agency.

Organisers says new rule will ensure contest provides ‘safe and welcoming environment’ for participants

Broadcasters will no longer be eligible to host the Eurovision song contest if their state is involved in an “armed conflict” or “sensitive geopolitical situation”.

Eurovision is traditionally hosted by the previous year’s winner’s broadcaster, with next year’s show due to take place in Bulgaria after the singer Dara’s victory for the country in May.

Investigators believe Vikings and Hells Angels members involved in violence that preceded death of Brecon man

A man was killed in what is believed to have been a violent brawl between rival motorcycle gangs in the south Wales valleys, police have said.

Anthony “Tony” Jones, 56, of Brecon, died of his injuries in hospital after the violence in Pontnewynydd, near Pontypool, last Thursday evening, which reportedly involved knives and hammers.

Move by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is latest government rollback of climate science activity

The Trump administration has pulled its support for an annual report on the environmental changes across the Arctic, a region that is already heating up four times faster than the global average due to the climate crisis.

On Tuesday, Kim Doster, the communications director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), said the federal agency was withdrawing its support for the Arctic Report Card, which has provided environmental updates on the region to scientists and the public since 2006.

The gigantic aquatic acrobats are exciting Brazil’s tourists as numbers recover from whaling. But some marine biologists question how booming tourism and conservation can coexist

The anticipation is palpable onboard the Boaventura II as the yacht sets off from Rio de Janeiro at sunrise. Once beyond the Cagarras Islands, rocky outcrops just three miles off Ipanema beach, the group gathers at the bow and starts scanning the horizon.

They do not have to wait long. “Eleven o’clock!” someone calls out, as a pod of bottlenose dolphins appears, playfully diving in and out of the water. Then, two spouts of vapour hanging in the air signal the reason for the outing: a pair of humpback whales. The majestic mammals surface to breathe with an unhurried chuff, before revealing the underside of their fluke as they dive back underwater.

Exclusive: England ‘desperately unprepared’ for effects of crisis including water shortages and heatwaves

• UK heatwave live – latest updates

Just 20 staff are working on climate adaptation within a key government department tasked with protecting the environment and maintaining food security, a freedom of information request has revealed.

The officials make up 0.3% of staff within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Smart, sociable squid use funnel-like organ to force water to jet propel themselves along in and out of sea

• Revealed: the top 10 invertebrates of the year

• Vote for your favourite here

On a research vessel 15 years ago, a group of Japanese scientists documented something that had only previously been described by startled sailors to disbelieving listeners. They saw a formation of squid flying through the air.

The shoal of about 100 squid rose unexpectedly from a patch of the Pacific Ocean around 370 miles from Tokyo and glided near the boat for about 30 metres. The astonished researchers were the first to capture photographs of such a thing, which looked like the early stages of an alien invasion.

Voting is open from 12 August to midnight on 16 August; click here to vote for your favourite invertebrate and the winner will be announced on Tuesday 18 August

Sadiq Khan has indicated the technology will be deployed on London’s Oxford Street despite human rights concerns

The Metropolitan police are understood to be planning to use live facial recognition (LFR) technology on Britain’s busiest shopping street.

In June, the Met said it would introduce the technology in London’s West End by Christmas and into a further six areas next year. Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, has indicated that the newly pedestrianised Oxford Street will be included.

Exhibition in Port Talbot is part of project exploring how communities experience endings and transitions

Margaret Heggett, 95, does not remember a time when Port Talbot was ever quiet. Born and raised in the shadow of the steelworks, with a father, brother and husband who worked there, she never imagined what the town could look or sound like without its blast furnaces.

“I’m not saying it was beautiful, but there were jobs. We did know the closure was coming and we have to move with the times but it’s affected the town a lot and it’s very sad,” she said.

The singer said that he was ‘already feeling better’ but forthcoming dates on his mammoth farwell tour will not now go ahead

Rod Stewart has cancelled all coming dates on his farewell tour after undergoing a routine heart procedure.

On 9 August, Stewart, 81, pulled a performance in Ohio at the last minute. After the successful insertion of a coronary stent, he announced that all dates would be cancelled.

Exclusive: Horace Mason, 74, who has lived in Sweden for 25 years, faces being deported after court ruling

A 74-year-old British man who has been living in Sweden for 25 years who needs round-the-clock care for dementia has been given 10 days to leave the country after he lost a post-Brexit migration court case.

The deportation order comes after a Swedish court ruling in July that the government’s drive to reduce immigration trumped the needs of a man in full-time care.

Rumors of plea deal in federal case have been circulating since June for suspect accused of killing Brian Thompson

An unexpected hearing in the federal stalking case against Luigi Mangione has been scheduled, leading to speculation that the alleged United Healthcare CEO assassin was seeking a plea deal that would in turn end a murder prosecution due to go to trial in New York state court next month.

Prosecutors and Mangione’s lawyers filed a joint letter requesting the hearing at 11am on Friday in Manhattan federal court.

Emergency services, residents and environmental groups say military dropping flares to destroy forests and crops

Firefighters and residents of south Lebanon have accused the Israeli military of lighting wildfires in the region, as forested areas burned down in blazes sparked by Israeli bombing.

Environmental groups said the fires in recent weeks were part of a longstanding Israeli practice of targeting Lebanon’s natural environment.

Following Australia’s first reported automated hacking accident, experts warn deployers – and possibly developers – of AI agents could be held liable for the actions of their bots

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The law is clear, says Prof Jeannie Paterson. “If I deploy an AI agent and it causes harm to someone else, I am responsible for that harm.

“Even if I didn’t intend for that to happen, it was foreseeable, and I should be taking responsibility.”

Female staff alleged company failed to maintain safe workplace, after allegations of sexual assault against pilot

The Canadian airline WestJet has agreed to pay C$4.5m (£2.4m) to settle a decade-long sexual harassment class action lawsuit levelled by its female flight attendants, who alleged the company failed to maintain a safe workplace.

The suit followed allegations by Mandalena Lewis, a former flight attendant, that a pilot had sexually assaulted her and a colleague, but that WestJet kept the pilot flying, thereby putting other employees at risk.

Falling water levels linked to weather system are expected to limit number of slots to transit shipping lane

Commercial ships travelling through the Panama canal are facing a rise in costs amid disruption triggered by the Iran war and falling water levels linked to this year’s intense El Niño weather system.

Highlighting the fragility of global trade, a container ship reportedly paid about $4m (£3m) to jump a queue of vessels waiting to pass through the vital maritime choke point.

Verdant thinktank says cost could top £25bn a year by 2030 and calls for maximum temperature for working and urban redesign to cool down cities

Repeated debilitating heatwaves this summer are likely to have cost the UK economy more than £4bn in lost economic output by the end of July, new analysis shows.

Green thinktank Verdant had suggested June’s unseasonally hot weather had an economic cost of £2.36bn. Updating its assessment to include last month’s high temperatures, it finds a £4.4bn hit to output.

The AI jobs apocalypse never showed up. Still, jobs are changing and economists expect more to come

The prediction was stark: artificial intelligence advancements would wipe out jobs en masse. “Half” of all entry-level white collar jobs would vanish, Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, said in May 2025. A month later, OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, went further, foreseeing the end of “certain job categories”. Companies began citing AI in their layoffs. Workers organized. And students reconsidered their future careers.

But a year later, the mass carnage hasn’t shown up.

Music streaming platform creates ‘AI persona’ label that will appear on profiles and track listings in crackdown on fake performers

Spotify is to label AI artists and exclude them from algorithm recommendations as part of a crackdown on fake performers.

The world’s largest music streaming platform is creating a label for AI-generated artist identities called “AI personas” that will appear on the artist profile and on track listings on playlists.

After her defiant femininity outraged many in Brazil, she lived through a military dictatorship and was boycotted for years. But after more than 30 albums, she explains how she kept going

At 78, Joyce Moreno is one of Brazil’s musical icons, but for decades that status seemed far from assured: this headstrong singer, guitarist and composer was frequently viewed as a threat by her country’s establishment. Aged 19, the reaction to her song Me Disseram – which began “I was told my man didn’t love me” – almost torpedoed her career before it even started. “I’d often heard the expression ‘my man’ sung by Billie Holiday and Edith Piaf, so for me it was normal,” she says. “But I was a beach girl from Ipanema, writing and singing in the first person. People were shocked.”

Then, inspired by trailblazing actor Leila Diniz (“her liberal attitudes lost her jobs”), Moreno refused requests that she “dress like a sexy bimbo”, and endured male critics who thought her music “too good to have been written by a woman”. When, in 1980, she discovered that her label had given another female singer the blueprints for songs she had written, she “looked for a lawyer, of course” and successfully sued; in her memoir she claims she was then boycotted by Brazil’s major record companies for a decade.

In the heart of old Ljubljana, a mannequin with a bucket on its head welcomes visitors to a new and ambitious project – a museum focusing on the varied and sometimes antagonistic humour of the former Yugoslavia

On the main promenade along the river that runs through Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital, tourists stop to photograph a mannequin with a bucket on its head. Dressed in a pistachio jacket and red leggings, the figure sits at a table in front of one of the houses in the historic Old Town, staring at a spilled cup of Turkish coffee, popular with Slovenes and with the other Balkan and central European citizens with whom they shared a country, until it collapsed in the early 1990s. A large sign in the background reads: “Bullshit Museum: The world is off the rails, and so are we. Yebiga!”

Yebiga, which can be loosely translated as “fuck it”, or “screw it”, is the red thread running through the museum that was launched in May and consists of five small rooms filled with mannequins wearing odd accessories, AI-generated images of laughing characters and scenes accompanying some of the jokes, framed or displayed on cardboard screens. The word encompasses the heart of Balkan humour, says the museum’s founder, Borut Kokelj, who wears a T-shirt emblazoned with the words: “What part of yebiga don’t you understand?”

First time director Dylan Meyer’s female twist on the genre is let down by silly stereotypes and jokes that land with a thud

Want to feel old? Superbad turns 20 next year. It’s been decades since the stoner comedy ruled the box office. In fact, the genre’s best theatrically-released film of recent years – the hilarious buddy movie One Of Them Days – didn’t feature any weed smoking at all despite hitting all the usual outlandish beats of a stoner flick. If the streaming success of Hulu’s recent R-rated bong-ripper Pizza Movie is anything to go by, audiences would rather watch this particular strain of movie on the couch where they can spark up in peace.

The Wrong Girls aims to reverse that trend with a nationwide US theatrical roll-out by Neon, the arty distributor which propelled Parasite and Anora to Oscar glory. Best friends Molly (Alia Shawkat) and Frankie (Kristen Stewart) live in a PeeWee’s Playhouse coded stoner cave with macrame decor, a life-size cut-out of Céline Dion, multiple cat towers and a contraption called the bong-o-tron – a complex rig of tubes and bubbling conical flasks – that fills the entirety of their coffee table. Being high all the time gives them a daffy kind of magical thinking, as they drive around town belting out power ballads and imagine that they are under the ocean with all manner of friendly sea creatures.

Philippa Northeast is entertaining as Sybylla Melvyn in this adaptation of Miles Franklin’s 1901 novel that has more erotica and a more pronounced love triangle

It’s difficult to believe that Miles Franklin’s wonderfully lively and rebellious novel My Brilliant Career is 125 years old: its prose crackles with life and energy, and the words leap off the page. Notwithstanding some inevitably dated turns of phrase (though I, for one, feel it’s time to return “what the deuce!” to daily conversations), the book feels like it could have been written yesterday. The story is centred around Sybylla Melvyn, a bullheaded author determined to write her own story – literally and otherwise – in a deeply patriarchal world that would prefer her to settle down, shut up and take a man’s hand in marriage.

Whereas Gillian Armstrong’s 1979 film adaptation is a class act, elegant and stately, Netflix’s new six-part series is, perhaps predictably, steamier and more juiced up, with at times Mills & Boon-ish vibes. There’s more erotica, a wilder tone and a more pronounced love triangle for Sybylla, played by Philippa Northeast. Unfortunately, it’s also a tad syrupy and wishy-washy, particularly towards the end (this review encompasses every episode) – the show even deploys one of those cloying photo album-like montages of key moments: the visual equivalent of Green Day’s Good Riddance.

A mother’s illness threatens to overshadow a stagestruck teen’s big break in a school production

Do you, like me, have a soft spot for both high-school angst and Broadway showtunes – and maybe Douglas Goodhart’s amusing Master It! Insta reels on how to make it in musical theatre? Then you might find yourself giving a pass to this sugary but heartfelt teen weepie from director and co-writer Julia Hart, co-produced by Adam Sandler and starring his daughter Sunny Sandler.

She plays Soph, the shy theatre kid who unexpectedly gets the lead in her school production of the musical Waitress. Her devoted mom Elizabeth (Melanie Lynskey) has cancer, and thinks she should maybe wait until after the run to tell Soph the awful truth, so as not to spoil her big moment. But will that be ... too late?

Famed for playing loners, cranks and wayward angels, the Hollywood star is now a wolfish 90 – but he still jogs daily. As he takes his latest film to Edinburgh, we meet the man Hitchcock called ‘the golden calf’

‘Can you take another story?” asks the veteran actor Bruce Dern towards the end of our talk, as though every tale is a drink and the landlord has called last orders. He doesn’t want to keep me and knows we’re running out of time. It’s just that one memory sparks another and these tales won’t tell themselves. He says that the next one is a doozy. “It’s about Marilyn Monroe.”

Throw out all the questions and turn the clocks to the wall. One does not interview Dern so much as say hello, hit record and sit back. The man began his career acting alongside Montgomery Clift and Mary Astor and has collaborated with everyone from John Wayne to Tom Hanks, Hitchcock to Tarantino. He’s the lawless survivor of American movies, blown in from the past, and talking 19 to the dozen. “I’m 90 fucking years old,” he tells me. “So I’m not going to be around to see all this AI shit or whatever. But I don’t consider myself old. I still walk and jog every day.”

Royal Albert Hall, London
Esa-Pekka Salonen led an orchestra of players from London’s Royal Academy of Music and New York’s Juilliard School through 20th-century classics with Vilde Frang the electrifying soloist in Berg’s Violin Concerto

Hot on the heels of the National Youth Orchestra’s Prom, here was another outstanding student ensemble: an orchestra recruited half-and-half from London’s Royal Academy of Music and New York’s Juilliard School, brought together by an exchange scheme funded by the RAM alumnus Elton John. Esa-Pekka Salonen took no prisoners as he whipped the players through three great 20th-century works.

They tore smartly into the start of Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements, an exacting work requiring pinpoint-precise playing, which it mostly received. It felt as though Salonen was working hard to maintain that precision, though, and the performance didn’t quite achieve the buoyancy that would have let the music dance. Here and elsewhere in the programme, some of the music’s bright colours felt a little muted. Perhaps, for all Salonen’s guidance, this is one area in which there is no substitute for years of experience – in the ability to play to a venue and, for the wind and brass principals in particular, to fill a hall of this size not only with the instrument’s sound but with its character.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This joyous book takes readers on a literary adventure across 300 years of fiction, from Defoe to Zadie Smith

In his opening paragraph, Philip Hensher declares that a novel not only “tells a good story” but is a good story in itself. We could extend that neat formula to include this book, which is not only a masterful account of fiction since 1719, when Daniel Defoe set Robinson Crusoe down on his desert island, but is itself a wonderful read. There is nothing dreary here; no sense of being back in the seminar room taking notes. Instead it is 600 pages of deep pleasure, an excuse to revisit old literary loves and be reminded of ones that have slipped from view.

Hensher is smart enough to know why his book works so well and vain enough to tell us. The usual methodology for a survey is to assemble a roster of academics and invite them to trot out a chapter on their specialism, whether that be “Thomas Hardy” or “High Modernism”. The result is a series of silos, with little sense of historical connection or intellectual unfolding. Hensher, by contrast, gives us a joined-up account of creative call and response. Equally crucial to this project’s success is Hensher’s own experience as a novelist. He brings a practitioner’s informed eye to such questions as why some chapters in Dickens’s Dombey and Son are in the present tense or how Henry James pulls off free indirect speech in What Maisie Knew.

A twentysomething Scottish couple care for their autistic son in the bleak follow-up to Only Here, Only Now

Frazer and Caitlin have been emotionally entwined since schooldays. Now in their mid-20s, and parents of a five-year-old, they live in a grotty flat in a Scottish new town – the faded posters read “Happiness, Here” – that has crumbled into decay. Jobs are scarce and unrewarding; little Jamie, who has autism, is silent; and the pressure is starting to tell.

Frazer’s adored Caitlin is “beautiful and driven”, fit, petite – and a rageaholic. At her mildest she’s irritated and unreasonable, at her worst violent and intimidating. She is incensed at Frazer’s refusal to move from their mould-infested block to the new council house they’ve been assigned. Apex Court is where he was brought up, filled with relics of his dead parents, and it’s the only home his son has ever known. “You’ve become the sad sack guardian of a bunch of shite that belonged to your parents, including their hovel of a flat,” Cait sneers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

After the success of space horror Mouthwashing, Swedish developer Wrong Organ has created a Battlefield-inspired co-op with a supernatural twist

‘Claustrophobic”, “oppressive”, “pretty depressing” – these are the words Jeffrey Tomec and Dave van Egdom volunteer when I ask them to reflect on their work as part of Swedish indie developer Wrong Organ. I’d add “nightmare-inducing”, too. Their last game, Mouthwashing, was an acclaimed work of horror storytelling set on a scuttled space freighter, in which players uncover the horrible things its desperate crew have done to each other.

When you’re planning a follow-up to something so pitilessly nasty, how do you raise the stakes? Well, you could set the entire game in the stifling crew compartment of a heavily armoured tank, a coffin-like interior you share with two other players as you co-operatively attempt to pilot your beleaguered war machine to safety through the crumbling remains of a city in enemy territory.

PlayStation 5, PC; Arc System Works/Sony Interactive Entertainment
With tremendous visuals and accessible controls, this superhero-themed fighter has the chops to inspire a new generation of champs

Arriving at the turn of the millennium and the twilight of the video arcade, Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes has long been a high-water mark for fighting games, with no heir apparent; its massive, colourful roster and frenetic, spectacular combos have lured newcomers and elite competitors alike. Developer Arc System Works, a fan-favourite studio famous for its hyper-fluid and extremely technical anime-style fighting games, has been on a long journey to usurp Capcom’s throne. With Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, it may have finally achieved this difficult task.

Marvel Tōkon is less an attempt to recreate a Marvel vs Capcom-esque phenomenon out of whole cloth, and more a thoughtful evolution of the developer’s previous riffs on the formula such as 2018’s BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle and Dragon Ball FighterZ, building on its low-floor, high-ceiling approach. Simplified inputs allow players to execute combos and finishers with a single button, which gives novices the confidence to keep playing and inspires them to study and improve – because when anyone can pull off a flashy ultimate skill or EX attack, strategy and mastery take on a premium. And Marvel Tōkon has great depths to plumb.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Barbican, London
The multi-platform phenomenon makes its way to the stage, with all the supernatural hijinks, J-horror tropes and emotional intensity intact

We know that people like to dress up for the theatre, but some of the crowd at Death Note: The Musical take it to a whole other level. Coiffured and corseted, bedecked in gauze or festooned with diamanté, it is a sight to behold, with an appreciable element going for full cosplay. This, for the uninitiated, is because the source material has emerged from the fan-cultivating world of Japanese manga, originating in 2003, and which has (in a characteristic manner) sold millions of copies in comic book and novel form, jumped to an animated TV series and feature film iterations, and even crossed over to a Hollywood treatment in 2017.

A live musical seems a bit of a sideways step, though; this kind of material doesn’t often find itself in theatres, but perhaps the success of the Barbican’s staging will see more given the go-ahead. (This is actually a second London appearance for Death Note, after a short run at the Palladium and Lyric in 2023.) You can certainly see the appeal. Shorn of the original’s convoluted digressions, and with a dilution of the original manga’s play for the teen-boy readership, this emerges as a smart, metaphysical whodunnit – or perhaps, more accurately, howdunnit – with a nice line in emotional intensity cranked up by its power-ballad musical score.

Summerhall, Edinburgh
Actor Keron Day draws on his experiences of getting along, or not, with live-in carers to give a pithy account of a complex relationship

The stories told by Patch of Blue can be difficult to hear, but this vital theatre company is well aware of that. In the family drama Cassie and the Lights, at the fringe in 2022, one of the abandoned children kindly lent her froggy hat to an audience member to help them through an upsetting scene. In this new show – which shares that play’s mix of emotional veracity, easy humour and social purpose – the cast once more dip in and out of the story to guide us along.

You feel in safe hands – which is one of the play’s essential themes. It is inspired by disabled actor Keron Day, who also stars as himself, and gives his experiences with a line of personal assistants who provide live-in care. We are introduced to Keron, 22, as he meets PA Dani (Lauren Koster) in a sweary meet-cute – but it’s the friendship between the two, rather than any romance, that muddies the water.

At Summerhall, Edinburgh, until 29 August

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Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
The painter and his lover are played with real intensity by Alistair Hall and Peter Clements, in a visceral psychodrama of contained violence and sadness

The famously fraught relationship between the artist Francis Bacon and his lover-muse, George Dyer, has been much documented. So it is remarkable that this play by Alistair Hall makes the story so utterly fresh and arresting. Hall has drawn on documents and letters from the Francis Bacon estate, but if Buggers is anchored in research, it leads with physicality, charged with eroticism and contained violence.

Hall plays Bacon, and Peter Clements portrays Dyer, with absolute conviction. Clements’ performance as an initially swaggering man, who Bacon airily describes as his “delicious piece of rough trade” and who over the years succumbs to alcoholism, is especially astute and vulnerable.

Royal Albert Hall, London
The first of two evening proms began with the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s polished but polite Beethoven and intoxicating Adès. Later, the Fantasia orchestra’s bitty playlist-type programme only occasionally sparked into life.

This evening was, in a sense, a tale of two orchestras. On one hand, the international heavyweight, returning to the Proms for the first time in more than 20 years. On the other, the rapidly ascendant homegrown outfit founded while its members were still at school, already making its fourth Proms appearance.

Taking the early evening shift, the LA Phil and Gustavo Dudamel performed Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony in an ultra-polished hybrid of period-performance style and modern instruments. String textures were a deluxe fine-knit, individual notes lifted but phrase endings subtly elongated so that the music seemed to breathe. The woodwind solos were cool and bright, offering further oxygenation to an already limpid sound, where massed trills spoke as one and countermelodies usually buried under orchestral busyness suddenly became audible.

As social media shrinks and distorts the EU’s crises, the Venice film festival is delivering politically forthright epics from directors such as Sergei Loznitsa and Alex Gibney

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Europe is in an economic crisis that, unlike the eurozone downturn at the beginning of the millennium, cannot be measured in ratings downgrades and borrowing costs. For metrics, try engagement depth and consumer trust instead.

The unedifying spectacle of the European Union’s falling out over the Ceuta crisis looks like the latest symptom of Europe’s shrinking attention economy. When more than 70,000 people crossed over from Morocco to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta at the start of the month, Rome hastily reintroduced air and sea border checks with Spain for one month; Madrid retaliated with spot-checks on travellers to Italy.

‘On the day the youngest brother got married, they were out doing doughnuts and burnouts at eight in the morning’

As a Londoner with Punjabi roots, I’d say one of the best places to experience Punjabi culture is Southall, in west London, which has one of the UK’s largest Punjabi communities. This was taken there back in March 2021, when I was looking for people to feature in my short documentary, Zimmers of Southall. I like to capture everyday people doing something a little different, like these two brothers who fix cars. I had popped by to meet one of them and explain what I do, and take a few portraits for my broader work.

Rav, one of the brothers, had a dirt bike at the time and we were trying to photograph him doing a wheelie. The second brother, Inderjit, then joined and showed me his quad bike that he uses for off-road riding. Their father was at home and explained how his passion for bikes and cars was passed down to the boys. Their mother offered me tea and snacks, as often happens when visiting a Punjabi family home. It’s at that moment I suggested we get the whole family involved in a group photo – I knew it would make for something unique. Unfortunately, the third brother was not around, but their dad wheeled out his own bike to complete a beautiful family portrait. It felt natural and not forced at all – the energy was warm and welcoming. Ever since that day, I’ve stayed in touch with the family and try to visit when possible.

Chances to hear Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s choral masterpiece in concert are rare. Ahead of its belated Edinburgh festival premiere with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, we look at the epic work - and its epic baggage

The Song of Hiawatha, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s setting of Henry Longfellow’s poem, comes to the Edinburgh international festival next week. It’s the first time the work will be performed there, a very belated premiere for the three-part cantata that sealed the composer’s reputation nationally and internationally, inspiring Coleridge-Taylor societies in the US, and making him the world’s best-known Black classical composer of the Edwardian era, before his tragically early death at the age of just 37 in 1912.

The performance history of The Song of Hiawatha makes for an astounding story. In the early years of the 20th century the work quickly became a sensation, with hundreds of performances on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1924, and then every year from 1926 to 1939, the Royal Albert Hall housed a spectacular and vast staging that involved around 1,000 performers – 200 dancers and hundreds of singers of the Royal Choral Society – dressed up to play out a series of exoticised and racialised caricatures to be part of the pageant of Hiawatha, Minnehaha and their tribespeople. The Mohawk chief also performed in the shows, granting an apparent authenticity to The Song of Hiawatha’s dramaturgy.

The Texas-born photographer – and LensCulture critics’ choice award winner – talks us through her images exploring youth, identity and desire

Just a few years ago, women would fight for other women whatever their background or politics. Today, many loudly dismiss the struggles of those who are not like them. But the solidarity is still there, if you look hard enough

One June day in 2015, I stood outside Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre near Bedford and heard the women inside singing. “Set her free,” said the graffiti on the walls. “Shut it down.” I had often visited the centre and heard the desperate stories of women who were held inside it. But that day felt hopeful rather than despairing, as hundreds of women – refugees, campaigners, lawyers, members of parliament, actors, writers – gathered around the centre to demand freedom for the women locked up.

When I set up the organisation Women for Refugee Women, I was driven by my faith in solidarity among women. The organisation works with women seeking asylum in Britain to tell their stories and campaign for justice and safety. For years I felt that faith being proved in practice. Women turned up for other women at events and demonstrations; they were volunteering and campaigning, marching and supporting.

The usual advice was getting me nowhere. If I really wanted to embrace running, I’d need to go off-piste. It was a journey that took me to some very strange places …

I’ve always hated running. I’ve tried several times in the past, even made it work for a week or two, then stopped. I hated the excess of pain, the minimal gain. I never experienced runner’s high, only runner’s low. I despised the weather, come rain or shine, and the fact I had to be out in it. But most of all I hated the plodding, the tedium, the sheer mundanity of the run. Is that really how I’d choose to spend my one precious life?

Then an old football injury returned, with a vengeance. Doctors had previously rebuilt my kneecap, added titanium and rendered me bionic. But they’d not anticipated Natasha Bedingfield, come midnight at a wedding, and the extremity of my dance moves. My kneecap went a-wandering. It started to catch and click-clack, like castanets. A physio soon gave me the news I’d always dreaded: I had to start running, outside, properly, and often.

Always wondered what everyday stuff celebrities buy, where they shop for food and the basics they scrimp on? The maître d’ and TV presenter talks secateurs, splurging on wine and terrible sofas with the Filter

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Fred Sirieix shot to fame as the smooth maître d’ on the Channel 4 reality show First Dates. He has presented shows including Million Pound Menu, Gordon, Gino and Fred’s Road Trip, Remarkable Places to Eat, and the travelogue series Tour de Fred, and authored the books Seriously British, Wine Uncorked and First Dates: The Art of Love.

Originally from Limoges, France, Sirieix cut his teeth in a number of top restaurants before becoming general manager of Michelin-starred Galvin at Windows. His charity, The Right Course, which teaches hospitality skills to prisoners, is opening restaurants in three prisons this year. He lives in London with his wife, affectionately nicknamed “Fruitcake”.

With wireless charging, a battery that lasts up to four weeks and recyclable heads, Suri’s latest eco-friendly model doesn’t lose much in the cost-saving process

• The best electric toothbrushes for every budget
• Suri Pro 2.0 toothbrush review

Last year’s Suri 2.0 toothbrush was a huge improvement on its predecessor. It fixed a handful of things that made the original hard for me to recommend, while continuing to focus on sustainability with recyclable heads made of cornstarch and castor oil.

But that kind of innovation doesn’t come cheap, and the Suri 2.0 brush costs £105 with the charging case, or £85 without (an option that wasn’t available at launch).

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

• The best bike locks for every budget

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

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

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

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

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

The Australian-born cook and author shares her recipe for a thick, fragrant Japanese curry – with one secret ingredient

Japanese curry – kare raisu in Japanese – is unlike any “curry” you might know from south Asian countries. That is partly because of the nature of yoshoku (western-influenced) cuisine but also because it made a roundabout route to Japan, via the British Royal Navy during the Meiji Restoration, a period when India was under British colonial rule. It arrived in the form of British “C&B” curry powder, so it was considered western food, not Indian. Curry became a staple in the Japanese naval and army kitchens at the turn of the century and this in turn brought curry into homes and even into school lunches. Today, it is considered a national dish.

Japanese curry needed to be thick enough so that it could be easily eaten with rice, with the help of a spoon. This can be achieved with a French-style roux base of butter, flour and liquid, or it can be thickened in a more Japanese style using a potato starchy slurry right at the end of cooking, which is my preference. Then there is the spice mix. Today, Japanese S&B curry powder is one of the best known, which contains 17 spices such as turmeric, coriander, fenugreek, cumin, cinnamon, fennel, ginger and star anise.

Why waste the tastiest bit of the cheese?

Although parmesan rind is tough, it has just as much, if not more flavour than the cheese from inside the wheel itself. It can be used just as it is to flavour stock or risi e bisi (Venetian pea risotto), but grating it opens up a whole range of other uses, such as in my mac and cheese “rinds” and today’s parmesan rind pesto. The flavour is very powerful, though, so add it to taste: you may find that you need a lot less than you think you do.

Master’s student made first bar with 100% UK ingredients since 1932 to highlight effect of climate crisis on cocoa plants

The late queen was the only person in history to have ever eaten a chocolate bar made with 100% British ingredients, after she was given one as a six-year-old in 1932 by the confectioner Rowntree’s.

The bar was created from a glasshouse-grown cocoa plant, at Rowntree’s headquarters in York.

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

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

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

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

Name: Kissing in public.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The new PM could bring in revenue for social care or defence with a land levy or by reforming council tax

Residential property is the largest store of wealth in the UK, and has long been a target for those who believe homes should be taxed more. Real estate remains a juicy plum for Andy Burnham to pick as he searches for ways to pay for an overhaul of the social care system and higher defence spending, to name just two fiscal priorities. Yet how to tax property, or possibly the land it sits on, has vexed economists and politicians for centuries. Here we discuss the background to the debate and some of the tax options.

• This article was amended on 11 August 2026. An earlier version said home occupiers in France must pay the taxe d’habitation; in fact, since 2023 this only applies to second homes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Three new products – and one old favourite – achieve a glazed sheen in one easy application

As you will no doubt have noticed, “glass” skin – that is, a complexion with a smooth, glazed sort of sheen – has been fashionable for ages. Until now, however, it has only come as the result of a meticulous, umpteen-step Korean skincare routine. But the new glass skin moisturisers attempt to mimic the look in one simple application.

Erborian’s Glow Moisturiser (from £9, all skin types) is a Goldilocks’s porridge sort of face cream. Not too heavy, not too light, just dewy enough without looking oily, and with lasting hydration that never becomes wet. I must advise the glimmer-avoidant that it does have a smidge of pearlescence, but I find that flattering.

Due to the rise of GLP-1s and cosmetic surgeries, professionals who weren’t usually subject to high beauty standards are facing new pressures

In 1975, John T Molly’s book Dress for Success became a national bestseller. It promised the American workforce “scientific” proof that certain clothes could “increase your income” and “boost your status”. It offered searing advice like: “Sweaters give out nothing but negative impulses … they say ‘lower middle class’ and ‘loser.’”

For those with office jobs, the workplace has long been a place where fashion counts. Molly’s book gave rise to ideas like power dressing and the adage about “dressing for the job you want, not the one you have”. But a new casual office culture, spurred by San Francisco tech companies where hoodies are the norm, plus the work-from-home revolution, was supposed to ameliorate some of those pressures.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The regeneration of historic warehouses has transformed this former red-light district into one of the port city’s most vibrant areas

A thin peninsula just south of Rotterdam’s centre, Katendrecht was once at the heart of the world’s busiest port, home to continental Europe’s first Chinatown and a lively sailors’ quarter. Its later reputation as a red light district has been shrugged off – part of the city’s wider reinvention in the aftermath of extensive second world war bombing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Frome, Somerset: While other plants are withering or skeletal, tansy is growing in great profusion, and it rewards close observation

At first light, the scent of ’76 hangs in the air, a reminder of that endless summer burning itself into autumn, just like this one. I first caught a sniff of it walking home one sweltering evening in the June heatwave and said: “Too soon, too soon.”

Now the toasted aroma of spent grass is everywhere – on crispy playing fields, straw village greens, and these scorched tawny meadows of the combe. Scattered groups of cattle have their heads down here. For them I think eating the grass must be like consuming a Pot Noodle before the water is poured in.

The phrase ‘dust magnet’ isn’t completely metaphorical. Some household surfaces do attract more dust – but changing your home’s climate can make a difference

For years, I’ve complained about an Ikea shelf in my home that seems to attract dust at an impossible speed. Eventually, my frustration gave way to curiosity: what’s actually happening, scientifically? Is there anything I can do about it, besides just continuously dusting?

I’m not imagining things, says Nisa Salim, a materials engineer and associate professor at Swinburne University of Technology. While an object’s placement in the home and airborne particle levels make a difference, some surfaces really are better at collecting dust.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Struggling on her meagre pay, Faten Ben Omar El Azizi dreamed of reaching Europe. Then she joined thousands trying to reach a better life in Spain

Football was the life Faten Ben Omar El Azizi had wanted. She had long played in Morocco’s regional league for Moghreb Atlético Tetuán, whose striking kit replicates the colours of the famous Spanish club Atlético Madrid.

And in the cruellest of ironies, on the day that she drowned last month, one of nearly 150 people who died in the illegal mass crossing into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, her mother was told that her daughter had just been granted a visa to go to Spain.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Perhaps you are travelling to see the celestial rarity? Or maybe you are making an event of it at home?

• How to safely watch the solar eclipse

On Wednesday evening, millions of Europeans will experience a solar eclipse.

A wide band of north and central Spain, plus some of Portugal and parts of Greenland and Iceland will experience a rare total eclipse.

We would like to hear from women who participate in the ‘looksmaxxing’ community

While “looksmaxxing” was once a predominantly male space, in recent years it has increasingly taken hold among women, with dedicated forums and apps where users have their individual features analysed and scored, with the aim of identifying areas for physical improvement.

If you’re a young woman who participates in the “looksmaxxing” community, and have been thinking about ways to optimise your appearance, we’d love to hear from you and learn more about your experience.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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