Bahrain Mujagata is just 21 years old and balances taxi driving with university studies and acting classes

“I’ve got T-shirts older than you!” The joke draws laughter from a table of black-cab drivers gathered in the Astral cafe on Regency Place in Westminster. Around the table, cabbies swap stories accumulated over decades behind the wheel: picking up the England World Cup hero Geoff Hurst, ferrying senior politicians around London, and navigating the capital long before smartphones and satnavs existed.

At just 21, Bahrain Mujagata is an anomaly among them. In late 2025, he became London’s youngest licensed black-cab driver after completing the Knowledge – the notoriously demanding test of the capital’s streets – in just two years and five months. Most candidates take three to four years to qualify, according to Transport for London.

Milly Alcock’s Supergirl joins with Eve Ridley’s Ruthye to fight an evil intergalactic human trafficker

The sexual politics of perceived female maturity has always been a problem in this particular set of superhero films. Quite why Kara Zor-El gets to be a “supergirl” while Kal-El gets to be a “superman”, despite not being that much older, is not obvious. Even that notorious wokester Friedrich Nietzsche went with the non-gender term “Übermensch”. The issue is in fact pre-emptively raised here in an early scene, but the dialogue breaks off without the question being explicitly resolved. Maybe there is a copyright issue. If our heroine really did have a title exactly corresponding to “Superman”, the spirit of Shirley Conran would no doubt angrily barge on to the screen with a phalanx of lawyers and a bag of defiantly unstuffed mushrooms.

Well, after her brief walk-on in last year’s muddled and boring Superman reboot feature, Supergirl now gets a sprightlier and sparkier film of her own, with 26-year-old Australian actor Milly Alcock in the lead. Rising British comer Eve Ridley, as gutsy alien teen Ruthye Marye Knoll, joins forces with SG to avenge the death of her dad at the hands of the evil intergalactic human trafficker Krem of the Yellow Hills, an odious pirate who kidnaps women for breeding stock purposes, played with watchable relish by Matthias Schoenaerts. SG is after Krem, too, because he has taken her adorable dog Krypto, of all the appalling things (though sadly Krypto hasn’t yet got his own little cape). Meanwhile, Jason Momoa turns in a cheerfully cigar-smoking man-mountain performance as Lobo the bounty hunter, who is schooled by Ruthye in how to escape from prison – the movie’s one clear feminist moment.

Debate is raging back home about whether Neymar, Casemiro, Endrick – and others – should be in the World Cup team against the Tartan Army

The big stars have turned up for the 2026 World Cup. Lamine Yamal returned to the Spain team to help them to thump Saudi Arabia. Lionel Messi is the tournament’s top scorer, giving Argentina hope of pinning “la cuarta estrella” to their shirts. And Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and Cristiano Ronaldo are all vying for the Golden Boot as their teams look towards to the next stage.

However, the five-time champions Brazil are failing to convince. They finished fifth in the Conmebol qualifying table with 28 points from 18 games, their worst qualifying campaign. Being competitive in a 2-1 defeat against France in March, before wins against Croatia, Panama and Egypt in friendlies, perhaps gave false hope.

Update the classic outfit when you want to look slick and office-appropriate … in a low-key, faux-effortless kind of way

Jeans and a nice top is a tried-and-tested formula when it comes to dressing for an evening out. It is the little black dress of real life. A local dinner, an outing to the theatre or cinema, a birthday gathering in the pub: these do not require a cocktail dress. Still, you want to look nice. So you wear jeans and a nice top.

If jeans and a nice top is the real life LBD, then jeans and a jacket is the normcore power suit. It is the no-nonsense, I’ve-got-this formula you need for daytime. It is an outfit that comes together in seconds and keeps on looking good and feeling comfortable for hours. It is grown up but not stiff, alpha but not snooty. It is – and this is important in our capricious climate, and when your commute can take you straight from overheated train carriage to chiller-cabinet level air conditioning – pitched neither too warm nor too cold, and offers flexibility. (You are wearing something under the jacket, you see. We will get to that.)

The first portable fan from Dyson is stylish, easy to use and powerful. Did someone mention a 55mph top speed? Perhaps, but it’s so noisy you may not have heard them

• The best handheld fans

Two things will strike you when you pick up the Dyson HushJet Mini Cool fan for the first time. The first is that flesh-pink (stone/blush) is a bold colour choice for a product that already looks like it’s escaped from a certain NSFW section of the Filter.

However, once you’ve retrieved your mind from the gutter, you’ll notice that the different form of pleasure the HushJet Mini offers – impressively powerful wind speeds to keep you cool in heatwaves – comes at a price. This thing is loud with a capital L, and becomes even more so as you progress through its five settings. More “jet” than “hush”.

Climbing the career ladder may soon be a thing of the past, as workers prioritise their mental health and lifestyle. But job-dropping has its drawbacks …

Name: Job-dropping.

Age: About a month.

Temperature of 36.1C (97F) recorded in Hampshire, while two-thirds of Europe’s population experience temperatures above 30C

The UK has broken its all-time temperature record for June and France has recorded its hottest day ever for the second day running, as a heatwave affecting more than 90 million people sweeps across swathes of Europe.

As the UK and France registered record-breaking temperatures, the World Health Organization warned that the extreme temperatures are “putting lives at risk”.

Ockenden inquiry finds ‘bullying’ and ‘cruel’, dismissive attitude to women contributed to avoidable deaths

• Ockenden report – latest updates

• Key findings from maternity scandal report

• ‘Truly horrific’: five stories from the scandal

More than 500 mothers and babies came to harm or died as a result of inadequate care in Nottingham, an inquiry into the NHS’s biggest ever maternity scandal has revealed.

A total of 444 women and 76 newborn babies suffered “potentially avoidable” outcomes because they received substandard treatment over 13 years from Nottingham University hospitals NHS trust (NUH), a damning report led by the childbirth expert Donna Ockenden has found.

Appointment of James Purnell, former chief executive of Flint Global, described by one Labour MP as ‘very bad sign’

The advisory firm led by Andy Burnham’s incoming chief of staff counted BP, Amazon, Jaguar Land Rover and Uber among its clients, transparency records reveal.

Burnham is facing unease within Labour over the lobbying links of James Purnell, a longstanding friend and former cabinet minister who was most recently chief executive of Flint Global.

Refugee charities fear controversial changes, including on forced removals and age checks, are being rushed through

Shabana Mahmood’s controversial plans to increase the forced removal of people refused asylum, introduce stringent age checks for people claiming to be children and limit applications under human rights laws are scheduled to be placed before MPs within days.

The immigration and asylum bill is expected to be put before parliament next Tuesday and will face opposition from some Labour, Lib Dem and independent MPs. Andy Burnham’s team, widely expected to be in No 10 within weeks, is understood to be aware of the bill and its contents.

Husband arrested after Sylvie Yasmina, 54, and five children found at home in north-western province

Pakistan police say they have rescued a French woman and her five children after she told authorities she had been held captive by her husband for more than a decade and subjected to years of domestic abuse in the country’s north-west.

The woman, identified as 54-year-old Sylvie Yasmina, was rescued earlier this week from a mud-brick home in Bara, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border, the district police chief, Waqar Ahmad, said.

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“‘Switzerland and Canada have already qualified for the last 32 of the World Cup’,” writes Ric Arthur, throwing my words back at me. “Not according to the guide published this morning on these pages. I think you’re right, though. Which means they did not do their homework. But I can’t find a link to notify them of this.”

It’s true: mathematically, they haven’t qualified for the knockout stage. But they have.

Guillermo H2 Ochoa

Damp Burn

Rampamt Capitalisandro Martinez

Erictrolyte García

Jarell Quartah

Moistyouri Tielemans

Matheus Coolsya

Isotonick Woltemade

Siptor Gyökeres

Joe Irrigaetjens

Son Heung-Midity.”

Transcript of body-worn camera footage reveals moment officers realised handcuffed Nowak was seriously injured

Police officers who arrested Henry Nowak took about eight minutes to discover his stab wound, newly released evidence shows.

Vickrum Digwa, 23, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 21 years for Nowak’s murder after falsely claiming the 18-year-old had racially abused him in Southampton. Nowak was stabbed multiple times while walking back to his student accommodation alone after a night out.

James Desborough told team searching for missing men he enjoyed gory scenes in serial killer series, prosecution says

A fan of the television serial killer show Dexter murdered two men before dismembering and burning their bodies in Cornish woodland surrounding the cabin where he lived, a jury has heard.

James Desborough, 40, allegedly killed Claudio Aquilino and Daniel Coleman and hid their bodies in the dense undergrowth close to his cabin near St Austell.

Perseverance identifies organic carbon molecules in rocks on riverbed that carried water billions of years ago

Nasa’s Perseverance rover has detected complex carbon molecules in Martian rocks that are already in the spotlight for bearing potential signatures of ancient microbial life.

Measurements taken by the rover’s Sherloc instrument identified organic carbon in mudstones from the Bright Angel outcrop as it trundled along Neretva Vallis, a dried-up river that carried water into the planet’s Jezero crater billions of years ago.

A shocking report into the biggest ever maternity care scandal in the NHS has revealed more than 500 mothers and babies died or were harmed as a result of inadequate care in Nottingham. The review, led by senior midwife Donna Ockenden, found there was a dismissive attitude to women’s concerns, failures in maternity care, staff shortages, a toxic culture and racism at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust. Lucy Hough speaks to UK health and inequalities correspondent Tobi Thomas.

Keir Starmer has announced he will stand down as prime minister after months of intense pressure from Labour MPs. The Guardian's political correspondent Aletha Adu looks back at the highs and lows of his two-year premiership and what prompted his decision to step away, paving the way for the UK’s seventh prime minister in 10 years

• Keir Starmer to step down as prime minister two years after historic election victory

• Who is Andy Burnham, the ‘man of the people’ likely to be next UK prime minister?

• Keir Starmer has quit as prime minister – what will happen next in UK politics?

Previously hidden text revealed without unrolling scroll discusses stoic philosophy on ethics, art and human behaviour

The surviving part of an ancient scroll that was burnt to a crisp when Mount Vesuvius erupted nearly 2,000 years ago has been virtually unwrapped and read with help from artificial intelligence.

Researchers uncovered 20 columns of previously hidden text covering more than a metre of charred papyrus without physically unrolling the scroll. The work discusses stoic philosophy on ethics, art and human behaviour and dates to the second or late-third century BC.

Forward on the misunderstanding of his role and momentum the four-time champions have put together for a winning World Cup campaign after topping their group

Kai Havertz is recalling the cocktail of feelings that swirled around his head in Budapest three-and-a-half weeks ago. Arsenal could not have lost the Champions League final in more agonising circumstances but the only available option was to straighten up and start smiling. They were due to set off on a bus around Islington for the Premier League trophy parade at 2pm the following day. Was this really the moment to bathe in a million onlookers’ adulation?

“To be honest, it was tough,” says Havertz, whose early goal against Paris Saint-Germain had looked a possible winner for nearly an hour. “After the match, I initially thought we would call the whole thing off. By the next morning, things looked different.”

Remain voters recall how they dealt with division over 2016 referendum – and how they feel about their loved ones now

Ten years on from the EU referendum, we asked people how their voting experience had affected their relationships with friends and family.

Some spoke of painful family divisions that emerged between leave and remain voters, while others shared how, despite their political differences, they were able to move on with magnanimity.

Diaspora reporting has long connected struggles across borders. Our new editor asks: what can The Long Wave take from this?

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A couple of months ago, I was offered my dream job, editing the newsletter that you’re reading now. I came in clear-eyed about how I would help steer it: I wanted us to continue taking up the mantle of a long and rich tradition of diaspora journalism. Having watched the decline of a number of publications led by people of colour over the last decade, I felt the newsletter was filling a widening gap. In my first piece for The Long Wave, I delve into the past, present and potential future of diaspora and pan-African journalism.

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Before each game in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s World Cup adventure, Sarajevo has blossomed with primary colours – and two distinct flags.

One is the national flag dating to 1998: blue and yellow diagonal halves emblazoned with a slanting line of white stars. The other has golden lilies on a blue shield set against a white background, and has a far deeper history, steeped in centuries of complexity. Its striking resurgence as a national symbol, showcased during Bosnia’s

• England coach hopeful winger ‘is good to go’ on Saturday

• ‘It’s not the moment to shout for individual names’

Thomas Tuchel is hoping Bukayo Saka could start against Panama on Saturday but warned the Arsenal forward cannot solve England’s problems in attack on his own.

Saka made his second substitute appearance of the World Cup in the 0-0 draw with Ghana at Boston Stadium and added late impetus to England’s misfiring attack, although he could not find a breakthrough on a frustrating afternoon for Tuchel. The 24-year-old’s return from a nagging achilles injury has been managed carefully by Arsenal and England over recent weeks, with Saka saying last week that he was gambling on his fitness.

As Steve Clarke and his team prepare to take on Brazil and earn a place in the last 32, debate rages about their style

It may seem distinctly Scottish that the creation of football history could come with grumbling over the manner in which that was achieved. On Tuesday afternoon, the movable feast that is the best-third-place table at this World Cup had Scotland second and in a strong position to advance to the knockout phase for the first time. Heavy defeat against Brazil on Wednesday in Miami could damage that position but it remains perfectly feasible that the 1-0 win over Haiti and three points will take Scotland into uncharted territory. Denis Law did not emerge from a tournament group with Scotland. Neither did Kenny Dalglish. The 1974 World Cup team were unbeaten yet still on an early flight home. This has been a weight on the shoulders of Scotland teams for decades.

In a rare departure from sharp analysis, Rory McIlroy stated last week that Scotland had benefited from the expansion of the World Cup by means of qualification. In fact, they topped their section so would have participated regardless of size. What is undeniable, however, is that the path towards the last 32 can be almost laughably simple for some. Victory over Haiti was rightly expected, as was defeat by Morocco and – while not a certainty – so would be another loss to Brazil.

This tournament is shaping up to be the most prolific since 1970 – if Messi, Mbappé and co can keep up the pace

• Golden Boot: World Cup 2026 top goalscorers
• All-time World Cup goalscorers

The 2026 World Cup has begun in very entertaining fashion. On Wednesday we reached the point at which all 48 nations had played twice, with only four of the matches ending goalless.

Even then, three of the 0-0 draws delivered unexpected points for Cape Verde, Curaçao and Iran against Spain, Ecuador and Belgium respectively. There was a gripping tension and excitement to override the lack of goals each time. England also drew 0-0 with Ghana in a rather more boring match, but you can’t have everything.

With the group stage hurtling towards its end we look at who needs what to make the knockout phase

Teams level on points are separated, in order, by head-to-head points; head-to-head goal difference; head-to-head goals scored; overall goal difference; overall goals scored; disciplinary points; Fifa ranking.

It is customary to say something complimentary about a departing PM but the Tory leader couldn’t meet the moment

You learn a lot about a person at a time like this. Not so much about the prime minister, who has resigned. Keir Starmer has already revealed how he deals with a personal loss. But about the leader of the opposition. Here was a chance for Kemi Badenoch to show her human side. To give the world a rare sighting of her empathy gene. But Kemi just can’t go there. She can’t read a room. She has only one mode. All-out attack.

Other people’s moments of weakness are just material for her to use against them. Even now, she probably thinks she played a blinder at prime minister’s questions. A chance taken to humiliate Keir when he’s down. She has no idea how graceless she is. How charmless.

The warehouse landlord Segro has a bright future, not least with datacentres, so there’s no reason to roll over

• Segro rejects £12.6bn offer from US rival

Here we go (yet) again: another opportunistic takeover bid from the US for a UK company. The fun at easyJet isn’t even over yet, but the next target is Segro, the property firm known as Slough Estates until the branding merchants decided a slicker name was needed for a portfolio that these days extends well beyond Berkshire and deep into continental Europe.

Warehouses and logistics centres stir few sentimental or patriotic feelings but Segro is the biggest commercial landlord on the London stock market. If it eventually falls to Prologis of the US, we will be asking – not for the first time – whether the UK knows how to value what’s under its own nose.

The outgoing prime minister’s efforts to mobilise a healthier kind of patriotism fell flat. Andy Burnham may stand a better chance

Britain is not ungovernable, but the chalice of high office has been spiked with unusually fast-acting poison. Six prime ministers down in a decade. The spectacle of the lectern planted outside No 10 for a resignation speech has acquired the familiarity of ritual.

Since the Brexit referendum, the average tenure in Downing Street has been less than two years. That ballot isn’t directly responsible for ending Keir Starmer’s reign. He brought deficiencies to the job that have nothing to do with the EU. He took power without a clear sense of what he wanted it for and resented the expectation that he explain himself better. But those weaknesses were more cruelly exposed in our parched post-Brexit climate, a decade into the goodwill drought.

For those of us who can’t drive due to disabilities, the drawbacks of these vehicles are vastly outweighed by the possibilities they offer

The robotaxis are coming! The robotaxis are coming! Well, actually, they’re already here. Until now they’ve been the stuff of science fiction, but this summer London’s streets have seen Silicon Valley-based company Waymo testing out self-driving cars. It hasn’t been the smoothest of introductions – from cars getting stuck in a cul-de-sac and repeatedly waking up the residents of Shoreditch to one driving into a crime scene, after a double stabbing in Harlesden.

The automated vehicles (AVs) have so far had trained drivers waiting behind the wheel to take control if needed, but will soon be shedding their human minders. Waymo and British rival Wayve are hoping to launch driverless minicabs in the capital this year, subject to approval from the British government and Transport for London, among others. A subsidiary of Google parent Alphabet, Waymo currently operates ride-hailing services in 10 US cities, but London, with its narrow streets and densely populated centre, will serve as one of its biggest challenges yet.

Gabriel Stewart is a freelance writer and an intern on the Guardian’s positive action scheme

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.

Chris was my first tennis love, but it was Martina who broke my heart. What a joy to watch these legends still fighting on

You can look at house prices and hemlines, or prime ministers and presidents, but for my money, the quickest shortcut to evoking an era is its tennis players. I grew up in the age of Graf v Seles and Agassi v Sampras, but my earliest memories – those that yank me back to a primordial time – come from the period immediately before that. I haven’t even reached the end of the trailer for Chris & Martina: The Final Set, the new Netflix documentary following the lifelong rivalry and friendship of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, and I am already an absolute wreck.

Wimbledon starts next week and, in The Final Set, we are taken back to that pivotal moment in the late 1970s when Evert and Navratilova – “the most cold-hearted pursuers of greatness that you’ve ever met in your entire life”, as the documentary puts it – changed the women’s game. It was Rocky v Apollo Creed; Maverick v Iceman. There was Evert, blond, tiny, from Florida, versus Navratilova, who, in 1975, when she defected from what was then communist Czechoslovakia, was out of shape and unsure of herself. Over the next decade she transformed herself into a winning machine and while Evert, my first love, gave way to Monica Seles, my second love, and Steffi Graf, the tennis love of my life, it was Navratilova who would break all our hearts.

The Dialog society grades its attendees on a hidden scale, tackles issues from sex to world wars, and offers matchmaking

What would happen if roughly 200 members of the global elite gathered every year for a top secret retreat? What would they do? What would they talk about? Who would be on the guest list?

Well, data leaked by the Swiss hacktivist maia arson crimew (who also brought us the justice department’s no-fly list back in 2023) is shedding new light on Dialog, the private social club co-created by the former PayPal boss Peter Thiel and the angel investor Auren Hoffman.

Tayo Bero is a Guardian US columnist

Following a devastating heatwave in 2003 that killed 15,000, France has adopted four alert levels to help people cope with extreme temperatures

• Helen Massy-Beresford is a British journalist and editor who lives in Paris

Over the weekend, as evening fell on the hilly (and, crucially, shady) Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, one of Paris’s most popular green spaces, the joyfully chaotic Fête de la musique – a summer solstice celebration of music in all its forms – got under way, with competing DJs starting their sets in nearby cafes.

It was stiflingly hot and picnickers were cooling down with water, juice or alcohol-free beer – or at least, they should have been. The Paris authorities banned the consumption of alcohol in public spaces (apart from cafe terraces) during the festival, just one of the measures they can put in place to keep citizens safe once the city reaches vigilance rouge canicule – red heatwave alert.

Helen Massy-Beresford is a British journalist and editor who lives in Paris

As a podcast host, I speak daily to people on both sides of the breakup. A decade after the referendum, it’s clear who’s moved on

Let’s imagine you’ve been dumped by someone you were expecting to stay with for the rest of your life. The breakup is bitter. The logistics, exhausting. The two of you spend an eternity negotiating who gets to keep the dog, the flat, the friends; it’s hard to imagine that things will ever feel normal again. But the years have a way of softening these things. Some years later, a photo of your ex flashes up on your social media feed. And suddenly, you realise you feel no grudge. In fact, you barely feel anything at all.

This is how it feels to be an EU citizen a decade after Brexit. As the host of a podcast called The Europeans, I talk to people across Europe on a daily basis. Nobody I speak to bears the United Kingdom – the country I called home until my late 20s – any ill will. They enjoy our films and our pop music (even though it’s harder to actually see British artists live); sometimes they go on weekend trips to London and come back complaining about how expensive it was.

Muslims in the UK, Europe and the US are increasingly fearful and frustrated as targeted attacks rise. Others must speak out

The chilling attacks that injured five men in Edinburgh at the weekend, including two who were struck as they left a mosque, have deepened the fear that many Muslims in Britain feel today. The case received remarkably little attention south of the border. A man has now been charged with five counts of attempted murder, allegedly “aggravated by reason of having a terrorist connection”. The facts of these attacks must now be examined in court in due course.

What is beyond doubt is the real and growing fear experienced by Muslim communities in the UK, Europe and elsewhere. The US president has said that “I think Islam hates us”. Increasingly open Islamophobic rhetoric from political figures, and a muted response from others, as well as violence towards Muslims, have left many feeling vulnerable and frustrated.

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.

Keir Starmer came to power without a strategic concept of post-Brexit Britain’s place in the world. His successor must not repeat that mistake

Sir Keir Starmer had years in opposition to prepare for government. His likely successor, Andy Burnham, has weeks. Unlike the outgoing prime minister, Mr Burnham will bring past ministerial experience to the top job as well as lessons learned as the mayor of Greater Manchester. But as every veteran of No 10 attests, the pressures in that building – the intensity and unpredictability of events – are like nothing else.

To take office without clear priorities or a sense of how to drive an agenda through the machinery of government is a recipe for drift and loss of control, bouncing from one crisis to the next. That was Sir Keir’s fate. His failure to use the run-up to power more fruitfully accounts in large part for the truncation of his tenure.

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

Readers react to the brutal heat conditions affecting Britain and Europe

Last summer, I wrote to you warning of the growing threat that extreme heat poses to both patients and the NHS, that the demand for healthcare would rise as temperatures climbed, that our hospitals were ill-equipped to cope and that investment in resilience was urgently needed (Letters, 21 July 2025).

A year on, the UK is set for another record-breaking heatwave, yet little has changed. The UK Health Security Agency has also taken the rare step of issuing a red heat alert in parts of England – signalling a serious threat to lives (Report, 22 June). This marks only the second time that a red alert has been issued. The last, in 2022, coincided with five waves of extreme heat that combined to cause an estimated 2,985 excess deaths in England alone.

Martin Luck and Vaughan Thomas respond to suggestions that Andy Burnham could reduce the use of whipping in parliament

You suggest Andy Burnham might reduce the extent of whipping of parliamentary votes (What will ‘change’ look like if Andy Burnham becomes prime minister? 19 June).

I have long thought that whipping should apply only to matters clearly spelled out in a party’s manifesto. After all, that is what non-independent candidates stood on when they were elected. Votes on other matters should be free, with the party free to persuade its MPs by appealing to strategy and force of argument.

The key to continued social and economic inclusion in later life is threefold, notes Alan Walker

Your summary of the demographic challenges facing the world thankfully avoided the usual negative economic narrative about the “burden of dependency” (Editorial, 16 June).

The Scandinavian experience demonstrates your point about family-friendly policies being welcome in their own right. Extensive public childcare provision was introduced to further gender equality in the labour market, not to boost the birthrate.

Carlo Ginzburg’s mother | Half Man Half Biscuit | Memory test | Andy Burnham | Roman emperors

It is lovely to see an appreciation in the Guardian of the historian Carlo Ginzburg, and you rightly alluded to the murder of his father, Leone, by the fascist regime (Editorial, 22 June). It was disappointing that you did not find space to mention his mother, Natalia, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century in Italian or any language. It was of course she who raised their children, first in internal exile in Abruzzo and later, following their father’s death, in Rome.
Liz Potter
Birmingham

• Mick Balfour is right to bring up the Half Man Half Biscuit song All I Want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit (Letters, 18 June), but he’s attributed it to the wrong LP. It was of course on their 1987 album Back Again in the DHSS, not their 1985 debut Back in the DHSS. An important distinction.
Peter Collins
London

• IOC sets up £106m fund for all athletes at Games

• Milano-Cortina competitors will be first to be paid

The International Olympic Committee has broken with 130 years of tradition by deciding to pay athletes to compete at the Olympic Games.

Starting with the recent Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, all competitors will be entitled to a $10,000 (£7,600) grant from the IOC regardless of whether they are NBA stars or on the poverty line.

Women’s World Cup updates from 6.30pm at Lord’s
Read the Spin | And mail Tanya

First strike for West Indies as Jones swings the bat in a pretty arc but outside edges to short third.

No Sciver-Brunt again today, as she continues to recuperate from that left calf strain she retwinged while batting against Ireland. Charlie Dean takes the reins.

It is the stroke that looks easy but can be a nightmare for some of the world’s top players – even Novak Djokovic has the Djokosmash

Elite players are often at their most comfortable when speaking about the fine technical details of their game, but last month at the French Open, a straightforward question about the overhead smash initially drew little more than a regretful shake of the head from Novak Djokovic. “You’re talking to the wrong person,” he said, laughing.

One of the pillars of Djokovic’s legendary career is his complete game. In a sport where most players have a weak point, the 24-time grand slam champion has mastered nearly every stroke.

• Middle East war uncertainty leads to delay for £80m deal

• November leg of new rugby tournament could feature branding

Qatar Airways has put its £80m sponsorship of rugby union’s new Nations Championship on hold due to the fallout from the war in the Middle East.

The Guardian has learned that while the state-owned airline remains committed to the deal, contracts have not been signed, and the inaugural edition of the new competition will kick off next week without a title sponsor.

So much has happened over the first two Tests it is easy to forget the result of this series could have a big effect on the future of English cricket

“This week there’s probably a lot more riding on it than it normally would be, going into the final game of a three-match series being 1-1,” Ben Stokes said on Wednesday. He was facing the media for the first time since the first Test concluded with victory at Lord’s when he spoke innocently about not being “really happy until I get to share a beer with the boys”. We all know how that went.

For England the story is of yet another reset, after the post-Ashes business-as-usual-only-different reset, which then led into a debutant-stuffed reset 2.0. The latter was forced by events in Chelsea’s Rex Rooms nightclub and the England and Wales Cricket Board’s reaction to them. And now, after a physically and morally sapping defeat at the Oval and the ECB’s conclusion that there was, to all intents and purposes, no incident at the Rex Rooms nightclub after all, England go again.

President was due to sign deal aimed at making life more affordable for Americans but shelved event to pressure Congress to pass restrictive voting bill

• Trump abruptly cancels signing of bill aimed at lowering housing cost

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A man or a movement? That was the question being asked when Zohran Mamdani gambled his political capital on Tuesday’s elections in New York.

The answer from voters was emphatic: they prefer Mamdani and his brand of democratic socialism to the Democratic party establishment and its lukewarm version of capitalism. America’s biggest city has swung even further to the left.

This is a battle between the establishment and this insurgency. And the roof is collapsing on the Democratic party establishment tonight … This is no longer a movement; this is a movement and a machine at the same time.

Plan warns climate crisis will lead to food price shocks and shortages but farmers say it fails to adequately fund response

The climate crisis will lead to food price shocks and shortages, the government has warned in its new plan for British farming.

But farmers criticised the plan, which outlines for the first time the government’s vision for the long-term direction of farming, for failing to adequately fund a response to this threat to the UK’s food security.

Defence minister says troops not withdrawing though Tehran sees end to war in Lebanon as part of deal with US

The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, has said that Israeli troops would not withdraw from southern Lebanon, further complicating Iran peace talks as fighting in Lebanon continues to be an obstacle to permanent peace.

Speaking on stage in an interview in Tel Aviv, Katz said Israeli troops would remain in south Lebanon – echoing sentiments from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Makerfield MP considering northern base for PM’s office among measures to devolve power away from London

Andy Burnham is planning to move parts of the No 10 operation to Manchester as part of measures to devolve power away from London.

The Makerfield MP will say next week he wants to transfer parts of the prime minister’s office to the north should he become prime minister later this year.

Deutsche Bahn widely criticised after hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded in operator’s latest setback

Germany’s rail network ground to a halt late on Tuesday as a result of maintenance work that went wrong, leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers unable to get home as the national operator faced widespread criticism over the chaos.

The Deutsche Bahn (DB) meltdown was initially thought to have been caused by a cyber-attack, but it later emerged that it was likely to have been triggered by a scheduled attempt to replace an ageing component in the railway’s internal communication network, without which the trains are unable to run.

Wildlife photographer Mohammed Almuntasir had no idea what he had found until scientists started to get in touch

When wildlife photographer Mohammed Almuntasir uploaded 18 seconds of footage to YouTube, he thought little more about the small, pale cat seen digging a hollow in the sand in the remote dunes of south-west Libya.

The video, however, posted in 2017, turned out to be the first material evidence that the sand cat (Felis margarita), the world’s only felid adapted to true desert conditions, existed in the country.

Readers remember the Sherwood Forest tree that has failed to produce leaves for the first time in 1,000 years

Kemi Badenoch, who joined US anti-abortion activists and European far-right parties at ARC, described energy secretary as a ‘villain’

Britain’s net zero policies and the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, have come under fire at a conference of conservatives, rightwing populists and wealthy US backers linked to Donald Trump.

The energy policies pursued by the British government were described as a “tragic mistake” by Trump’s energy secretary, one of a number of officials from the US administration attending the event.

Photographer Shane Hynan explores the tension between the central role peat bogs play in Irish life and their wider environmental impact

“You can read Ireland’s history in the boglands. They hold millennia in their layers,” says photographer Shane Hynan of his project, Beofhód (meaning Beneath in English).

The boglands, known as portachs in Irish, cover roughly 1.2m to 1.5m hectares or about 14% to 17% of the country’s total land area. The raised bogs of the Irish Midlands are made of peat that forms at a rate of 1mm a year (0.04in) in low-lying, poorly drained basins or former lakes. As the historical geographer Kevin Whelan observes in the Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape, “the bog has been etched as deeply into the human as into the physical record in Ireland – to an extent unrivalled elsewhere.”

Eddie and Con footing turf for domestic use, Knockirr Bog, County Kildare, 2022.

Interim report says other train it hit had halted on line because warning system wrongly caused it to brake

The train whose driver died in the Bedford rail crash passed a danger signal without stopping – while the train it hit had halted on the line because a fault in its warning system had caused it to brake, investigators believe.

An initial report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) into the crash, which also injured more than 100 people, said it was not yet clear whether the train’s automatic warning system (AWS) had alerted the driver of the southbound Luton airport express from Corby that he had passed a red signal.

Inquiry will compel individuals and institutions to explain what they did or did not do to protect children from sexual abuse

London, Oldham, Bradford and Keighley will be the first towns and cities investigated by an independent grooming gangs inquiry, it was announced on Wednesday.

The independent inquiry into grooming gangs has confirmed that its three-part hearings will investigate Whitehall departments and politicians alongside local councils, the NHS and national police institutions.

Rights activists call UK ambassador ‘morally compromised’ for accepting honour from Bahraini king in apparent breach of Foreign Office rules

The British ambassador to Bahrain has been accused of breaching government rules over accepting an award by the Gulf state’s king, a move critics suggest signals diplomats and civil servants are “up for grabs”.

This week, the ambassador, Alastair Long, received the Order of Bahrain from King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, in recognition of his diplomatic tenure, which human rights activists and politicians say is in “direct breach” of the Foreign Office’s rules on accepting foreign awards.

Woman posed as sex worker and drugged men in order to steal from them with accomplice

A woman posed as a sex worker and administered a deadly amount of sedative to two men so that she and an accomplice could steal from them.

Adina Mihai, 31, and Madalin Dumitru, 30, admitted the manslaughter of an 80-year-old Gloucestershire man and a 37-year-old from Oxfordshire.

Leftist Iván Cepeda conceded to far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella who won by razor-thin margin

The defeated leftwing candidate in Colombia’s presidential runoff has conceded to the far-right, Trump-admiring millionaire lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella.

Since Sunday night, the preliminary count had already pointed to a De la Espriella victory by a razor-thin margin of less than 1% of the vote.

Country is ‘militarily the strongest in Europe’, says Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who wants coalition ready in case US pulls troops

The US’s attitude to the defence of Europe has changed permanently and a European coalition of the willing, including Ukraine, should be established to defend the continent, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former Nato secretary general, has said.

A coalition of the willing comprising 45 states is already in theory poised to act as a reassurance and training force inside Ukraine in the event of a peace settlement with Russia.

Michelle Zajko, in jail since February 2025 on other charges, has been charged in 2022 Pennsylvania killings of parents

A member of the cultlike group known as Zizians, who has denied killing her parents in Pennsylvania in 2022, has been charged with murder, a prosecutor said on Wednesday.

Michelle Zajko, who has been jailed in Maryland on other charges since February 2025, has been charged with murder, burglary and conspiracy charges in the deaths of Rita and Richard Zajko, the Delaware county district attorney, Tanner Rouse, said at a news conference. The prosecutor said she did not act alone.

Woman detained at airport after allegedly making racist remarks directed at workers unloading baggage, police say

Brazil’s federal police have detained a Spanish citizen in São Paulo’s international Guarulhos airport for racism, in the latest of a series of high-profile arrests of foreign tourists on similar grounds.

Brazil has some of the strictest anti-racism laws in Latin America. Insulting a person on the basis of race carries a penalty of imprisonment from two to five years and a fine.

Loss came after decision to write off 8.7% equity stake in water company moving closer towards nationalisation

The BT pension scheme lost £300m after writing off its holding in Thames Water, the UK’s largest water company that is buckling under a £20bn debt pile.

The loss came after the telecoms company’s decision to write off its 8.7% equity stake in Thames in 2024, according to a presentation to analysts captured in a video, in news first reported by the Financial Times.

The man tipped for No 10 could also come under immediate pressure if his chancellor is deemed by bond markets to be too left-wing

Andy Burnham would enter Downing Street already “boxed in” by financial markets if he signals a rise in borrowing to pay for a more expansive policy agenda, bond investors have warned.

The newly elected MP for Makerfield, who is widely expected to be the next prime minister, could also quickly come under pressure if he chooses a chancellor who is seen to be too leftwing by bond markets.

Cheesemakers, farmers, exporters and wine merchants say red tape, lack of vision and rising costs mean they have stopped trading, sold up or retired early

Out of pocket, out of business, retired early. These are the tales of the “sunlit uplands” experienced by small-to-medium-sized businesses across Britain after Brexit.

Between 16,000 to 20,000 businesses stopped exporting to the EU altogether, but others who soldiered on complain Boris Johnson’s government catered for the “blue chips”, not the small, everyday companies when they designed the hard Brexit for Britain.

About 1,600 workers signed petition against tool that tracked staff keystrokes, mouse clicks and computer screen content

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has paused a program that tracked employees’ computer activity amid data privacy concerns and a staff backlash.

The owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp had introduced a tool that tracked staff keystrokes, mouse clicks and content displayed on computer screens in order to collect data for training its AI models.

Begun in 1982, the festival is now a magnet for Black Britons, who spill across Paris enjoying genres from amapiano to zouk. But can it resist commercialisation – and is it getting too big?

At 4.45pm in Châtelet, central Paris, a man leans out of his third-floor balcony, blasting EDM from his speakers. A makeshift cardboard sign is strapped to his decks, detailing his Instagram account in capital letters. On both sides of him, his friends hype him up from opened windows, and on the ground a crowd has started to gather. Completely spontaneous, slightly ridiculous and entirely alive, this is typical of Fête de la Musique.

Born in 1982 as a free, France-wide, government-sanctioned initiative to encourage citizens to pick up instruments and play for their neighbours, the Fête has long since outgrown its origins. Word of mouth, TikTok and the growing allure of French language music have propelled it to heights no arts ministry could have planned for, and Black Francophone culture has become the heartbeat of the weekend. Bouyon, shatta, zouk, French Afrobeats, trap, hip-hop and R&B are the sounds that have travelled farthest, enticing fresh crowds of Brits, predominantly Black, to Paris every June.

Fed up with expensive tickets and omnipresent branding, some festival fans are creating their own anarchic, ticketless events full of glitter and silliness. They explain how it’s done

Picture the scene: it’s July 2025 and I’m DJing at a festival called Loveshack. I’m not fretting about losing the crowd to a different stage because there isn’t one: we’re in a barn in the Welsh countryside. The dress-up theme is 90s icons, and below me Joanna Lumley is talking to Andre Agassi while a cop from the Beastie Boys’ Sabotage video looks on. People’s possessions are strewn around but no one seems worried, because the crowd is just 60 members of my extended friendship group and everyone is having possibly the best festival experience imaginable.

In a world of overpriced and overrated mainstream festivals, tiny events like this are becoming more common. It’s true that tickets still fly out for the big fests: with Glastonbury having a fallow year, its 200,000-odd punters have hungrily looked elsewhere, leading to festivals such as Mighty Hoopla and Green Man selling out in a day. But there is a definite sense that festivals have been losing their independent, renegade spirit. Lineups feel samey, and despite high ticket prices there are a depressing number of onsite “brand activations”, where a bus covered in the livery for a new smartphone, say, makes you feel like you’re walking around in a 3D advert. As John Rostron, who runs the Association of Independent Festivals, says: “Not everyone wants to go to a festival and see a Dyson-activated tent.”

The UK sure loves speculation about prime ministers. So here’s some more! But who makes the finest – Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, Jane Horrocks or Alan B’Stard?

As the UK gets ready to have its seventh prime minister in 10 years, how long before a revolving door is installed at 10 Downing Street? As social media wags have pointed out, this is likely the first time in history that the UK has been looking for a new prime minister, James Bond and Time Lord at the same time.

With the tribute film Rik Mayall: Magnificent B’stard airing this week (Thursday at 9pm on Sky Documentaries) and Steven Moffat’s drama Number 10 coming soon to Channel 4, it’s time to conduct a poll on TV’s best fictional British PMs.

Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, Mike Pence … the heavyweight politicians stack up in this sincere biopic of the United States. It’s so pointedly wholesome it’s like drinking a kale smoothie on a wellness retreat

The Netflix homepage describes The American Experiment to potential viewers unwilling to read more than four words as “Sincere. Informative. Documentary series”. Well, my goodness, is it ever that, that and that! The five, hour-plus episodes about the creation of the United States of America to mark its 250th anniversary are as sincere and informative as you could wish. Possibly, at times, too much so.

Ken Burns fans can probably sit this one out. This is not a time for flair and idiosyncrasy. This is a time for self-consciously milestone TV executive produced by Tom Hanks that is so carefully bipartisan, so cognisant of the stains on the country’s history, so balanced in every conceivable way, that it feels like the televisual equivalent of consuming a kale smoothie on a wellness retreat.

It’s groundbreaking TV that’s hugely important for young queer viewers. It fizzes with the excitement of young love … and yet it’s been axed. What a bittersweet watch this is

In March, it was announced that this second series of the queer dating show I Kissed a Girl would be its last. Sibling show I Kissed a Boy would also be axed, with the BBC citing “difficult choices in light of our funding challenges”. This would perhaps feel less momentous if the two shows were not groundbreaking – the first UK dating shows to feature exclusively gay casts of men and of women.

As well as being unprecedented, these shows have been a container for vital queer conversations that aren’t happening anywhere else on our screens, surely well within the remit of the national broadcaster. Plus, they are ridiculously fun. Watching series two of I Kissed a Girl knowing this is the last feels so entertaining, but so bittersweet.

Danish shaggy-dog story about a man with a dissociative disorder has a fun premise but wastes it on lots of goofy, humourless violence

Anders Thomas Jensen is an Oscar-winning screenwriter, director and veteran of the Dogme 95 years at Denmark’s Zentropa Studios. He now brings us this slapstick-violent black comedy and shaggy dog story of gruesome silliness. It is well acted but relentlessly and bizarrely unfunny. So unfunny as to be almost funny, but not really, in that the unfunniness approaches the condition of being itself a joke, though without really arriving. It could be that the spectre of Zentropa’s dark master of the prank, Lars von Trier, is hovering somewhere in the corner of the frame.

Mads Mikkelsen is cast against type as nerdy loser Manfred, an abuse survivor with learning disabilities whose tough-guy brother Anker (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) robs a bank. Before being arrested, Anker gives poor twitchy Manfred the key to the railway station locker where he has stashed the loot, and tells him to get the cash once the cops have gone and bury it in the woodland behind their old family home where their dad used to brutalise them.

Listeners in the 17th and 18th centuries experienced music in a startlingly vivid – and physical – way. A fascinating academic project is wondering if we should let ourselves be much more moved, and get moving. Plus: a prime minister’s musical legacy?

Professor Bettina Varwig wants to get us moving – and feeling, and listening, but primarily moving. The University of Cambridge academic says classical audiences today are “asked to leave our breathing, pulsing, feeling bodies at the door”. In concert halls we are told not to move or make a sound, subdue all the things that make us human. Whatever you do, don’t give in to the things your body is viscerally telling you when you experience a piece like Bach’s St John Passion, the way the music churns emotions and agitates your sinful heart. You have to listen passively, you can’t sigh or cry or clap in the wrong place, even if that’s what your whole being is telling you that you need to do to communicate the corporeal and spiritual pain the music is putting you through.

Varwig dreams of a different world. Her research focuses on how 17th and 18th-century listeners responded to music. “When you read about how music affected listeners in Bach’s time, their testimonies are striking in their bodily intensity,” she says. “Music contracted their innards and made their hearts leap. It could taste like vinegar in your throat. It could melt your earwax. It could draw your soul out of your body.”

She has won acclaim and countless awards for her body-tapping, raspberry-blowing music. Now she has spent 15 years making her boldest work yet – an epic about birth, infancy and adolescence

It took Camille 15 years to make her new album. The Sound of Milk is a triple record, each part documenting a distinct stage of the French musician’s experience raising two kids with composer Clément Ducol: Naissance is from 2015, Enfance 2020 and Adolescence 2025. She could have put each one out when it was complete, she says, but realised she wasn’t ready. Her son and daughter, now teenagers, “were too little, and I would have felt too exposed to talk about it because it’s about beauty, joy, it’s very deep,” says Camille, calling from her home in the French countryside. “I needed to be able to step back and look at the journey. I needed to feel grounded enough to release it in a world that does not respect children and mothers.”

On the surface, much of Camille’s sixth album may sound very sweet. Naissance features no real instruments – it’s essentially a field recording of raising babies, all gurgles and found sound. Known for her vocal experimentation – beatboxing, raspberries – Camille saw it as a manifesto freeing singing from how disembodied it can be in pop. “As a woman, music is about a way of living,” she says. “It’s about breathing, being with my kids, singing along with what’s going on around me in an open world.” She calls Enfance a “pocket musical”: similarly atmospheric, it’s full of the kinds of ditties parents make up when they’re teaching kids about stairs and the washing machine – raising everyday maternal expressions up as art, I suggest. “I like what you’re saying,” she says. “All families are pieces of art. We create our values, our worlds, a way of talking to each other.”

The Brazilian musician, who collaborates with Indigenous artists and puts millions into philanthropy, explains his mission – and defends his jetsetting

When Alok, the most successful Brazilian DJ of his generation, was brainstorming the concept for his new live show, he considered calling it Rave New World. “But when I asked a gen Z kid, the daughter of my creative director, she made me realise how pretentious my idea was,” he says. “The grownups trying to find an easy way out for all of our problems.” Instead, “I started figuring out that it’s not about a new world, it’s about this world. We need to ‘Rave the World’.”

That new title might still seem trite to some, or hypocritical, coming from someone at the heart of a dance music industry with a heavy carbon footprint from constant flying: when I meet Alok, he’s about to board another plane at a private airport outside São Paulo. But dance music has often had a utopian bent to it, and Alok – who champions Indigenous Brazilians in his work and has partnered with the UN on climate initiatives – is certainly making efforts to better the world.

Sorey/BBC Singers/Tines/Gibson/GBSR Duo
St Giles’ Cripplegate, London
The Pulitzer-winner’s sprawling amalgam of Morton Feldman and African American spiritual felt meandering, but the GBSR duo, the BBC Singers and Ruth Gibson’s viola were luminous and charismatic

Monochromatic Light (Afterlife) by Pulitzer-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey demands patience. Subtitled “A meditation on Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel”, the work uses a similar ensemble – percussion, keyboards, a viola, a choir, a solo voice – and a similarly abstract dialogue of rhythms and pitches to Feldman’s 1971 tribute to the US painter. But where Feldman’s meditative soundscape lasts half an hour, Monochromatic Light sprawls across 80 minutes and discloses only in its final bars a second vital anchoring in the African American spiritual Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.

Such a score is not ideally experienced from a hard pew in a hot church during a week of record-breaking temperatures. There were moments between its opening, barely detectible murmur of tubular bells and its closing revelation of the bass-baritone soloist’s single line of text (pieced together syllable by syllable over 50 minutes) when I struggled to hold on to a sense of musical architecture, when the pinpricks of dissonance and slow-motion scatterings of instrumental lines began to feel meandering. Other details offered more rapid gratification: elemental rumbling on bass drum and timpani using sticks with heads like candyfloss; a glistening sheen of bowed marimba on a rare, mill-pond calm octave unison from the choir; wild bass-baritone melismas plunging acrobatically across the voice.

Alex Murdaugh’s conviction for the murder of his wife and son was recently overturned. Where does the truth lie?

In March 2023, 54-year-old Alex Murdaugh received two life sentences for murdering his wife and younger son at the family’s hunting lodge in Colleton County, South Carolina. Since the early 20th century, three generations of his family had been elected as state prosecutors in the “Lowcountry”, a sprawling stretch of lush, rancid swampland on the southern eastern seaboard, marked by severe economic and social inequality. The Murdaughs were the people who could send you to jail or the electric chair, all the while maintaining a veneer of good ol’ southern gentility.

In parallel with these public duties, the family ran a large law firm, specialising in personal injury. In a land of chronic alcoholism and rusty farm equipment, the Murdaughs conducted a brisk business in multimillion-dollar settlements for those who had lost a limb, a parent or their cognitive faculties thanks to someone else’s carelessness. But instead of passing on these life-changing wins to vulnerable clients, Alex Murdaugh used them to fund a lavish lifestyle, featuring big cars, prostitutes, opioid pills and a military-grade private arsenal. For good measure, he also embezzled many millions from his legal partners.

One evoked a hellish trip from Delhi after passengers had drunk unsanitary water. Another conjoured up an era when planes were thick with cigarette smoke. And one man collected them all …

If, a few years ago, someone told me that I would spend most of my 2026 scanning hundreds of airline sick bags, I would have wondered what had gone wrong with my life. Especially if you also told me I’d become a keen enthusiast for the beauty of their designs. But, as it turns out, making my new book Sicko has been one of the most joyful projects I’ve ever done.

It all began in 2023, when I met Trevor Cunningham. Back then I was making a film about his support group called Ask Trev – a free advice and guidance service staffed entirely by people called Trevor (there’s an astonishing 140 of them contributing to what he calls “a Trevorlution”).

A revealing new book, eight years in the making, singles out rebellious women from US history whose stories have often been sidelined

Margaret Corbin was a hero of the American Revolution, the wife of an artilleryman killed at Fort Washington in New York who took over his gun to fight the British. Grievously wounded, she became the first woman to receive a US military pension. In 1926, 150 years after the battle, her supposed remains were exhumed in Highland Falls, up the Hudson from Manhattan, and buried at the US Military Academy.

“There was so much energy and wonderful intention behind doing this,” said Denise Kiernan, of what remains the only monument to a woman at West Point. “And then in 2016 they took a look and said, ‘Oh wait a minute, not only are the bones not hers, they’re not the bones of a woman.’”

From book club meet-cutes to shared English Literature lectures, romance has blossomed beyond the page for these bibliophiles

Dua Lipa and Callum Turner have been honeymooning in Italy, after throwing a star-studded wedding in Palermo earlier this month. But their relationship began with a book: running into each other at an LA restaurant, the pair realised that they were not only reading the same novel – Trust by Hernán Díaz – but had both just finished the first chapter. “So, we’re on the same page,” Turner said to Lipa. Here, four other couples share the literary sparks of their love stories.

As football fans revel in the real world tournament, its digital counterparts continue to stumble in capturing the ​hyped up ​atmosphere

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I come with a warning to all football fans: if you’ve been enjoying the World Cup enough to think, “I’d like to re-enact this on a football video game”, do not go to Netflix and play Fifa World Cup: Launch Edition, the officially licensed game of the tournament, which streams via your smart TV or computer. Developed by the virtually unknown Delphi Interactive, it’s a juddering, dated calamity, with sluggish controls (via your phone, once you’ve downloaded the app) and commentary courtesy of Clive Tyldesley that delivers all the excitement of a robotic train station announcement.

Until this, it was largely agreed that the worst World Cup football game in history was World Cup Carnival, the first official Fifa tie-in, which was released on various home computers in 1986. Publisher US Gold thought it had a deal with the Manchester studio Ocean Software to repurpose its acclaimed title Match Day, but the agreement fell through. With three months to go before Mexico 86, US Gold was forced to effectively rebadge a dire 1984 sim, World Cup Football, by the fading developer Artic. To add some value to the package, the game was released in a fancy big box complete with a fixtures chart, a World Cup facts poster and some flag stickers. Nobody was fooled – the World Cup Carnival was a critical and commercial disaster.

As phrases like easter eggs and looksmaxxing enter everyday language, what other words from the world of video games might soon be mainstream?

Twenty years ago, video games were seen as a niche hobby dominated by hardcore enthusiasts, tucked away in obscure online forums and gaming meet-ups. Back then, the idea that governments would use footage from Call of Duty and gaming terms such as “killstreaks” as war propaganda would have been absurd. Then the 2010s happened: nerd culture popularised, previously online-only spaces began to meld with the real world, and gaming went mainstream.

Now, gaming references have entered common parlance – at the end of 2024, video game terms including “cheat code” and “cutscene” were even added to the Oxford English Dictionary – and they increasingly crop up in politics, too. Earlier this year, the official White House X account posted footage of military strikes on Iran interspersed with footage from the video game Grand Theft Auto. Six days later, another video was posted, this time interspersing military footage with clips from Nintendo’s 2006 game Wii Sports. Video game references aren’t reserved for the political right, either: in February 2026, Democrat representative of New York Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quipped, “Why does this guy always talk like a World of Warcraft npc [non-player character]?” in response to a post on X by Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff.

When a company decided to shut down an online game’s servers, there wasn’t much the players who had bought that title could do – until a group called Stop Killing Games began lobbying for new consumer protection laws

You can never be sure how long an online video game will last. Developer BioWare shut off sci-fi shooter Anthem’s servers in January, after seven years. Electronic Arts discontinued access to The Sims Mobile the same month. Wildlight Entertainment shuttered its Highguard servers in March, mere months after the game’s release. Activision Blizzard took Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile offline in April. Dozens more games have had their servers shut down in the first six months of 2026, adding to an already long list of video games that are no longer playable.

There is little that players can do when a company decides to stop supporting online play. Communities work hard to keep their favourite games online, sometimes keeping dead games running on private servers, though that may not necessarily be entirely legal. Generally, though, when a game goes offline it is dead and it’s not coming back.

PlayStation 5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch 2, PC; Team Asano/Square Enix
Upbeat, charmingly retro RPG full of treasure-hunting, temple-roaming, monster-slaying and princess-saving is an absolute blast to play

You can’t help but wonder if developer Team Asano is in a private competition with itself to come up with the most ridiculous name for a video game. Following Project Triangle Strategy and Bravely Default: Flying Fairy we have this mouthful: The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales. It’s a playable love letter to the Zelda adventures of yesteryear rendered in the studio’s trademark glorious 2D-HD art style, melding evocative pixel sprites with modern visual effects.

From west Philabieldia, born and raised, our hero is adventurer Elliot. The antagonist making trouble in the neighbourhood is a king’s dastardly aide intent on summoning an ancient evil. The story is pure after-school-TV schlock, fully voice-acted but still unafraid to make you sit through reams and reams of text, and the action comprises treasure-hunting, temple-roaming and dispatching monsters. It’s part Chrono Trigger, part Oracle of Seasons as our almost obnoxiously upbeat hero journeys through the ages in order to solve puzzles, tip his fedora and of course, save a princess.

Young Vic theatre, London
Sophie Swithinbank’s urgent drama shimmers with spark and danger as an archive researcher finds herself trapped in modern-day misogyny

On the hottest day of the year, a conflagration. The Young Vic’s studio space fills with smoke as records of violence against women across the centuries are consumed by flames.

Even before the fire, Sophie Swithinbank’s urgent drama shimmers with spark and danger. Ash (an outstanding Adelle Leonce) barrels into her new job at an archive collecting historic material about women failed by justice. Ash is lairy, smart and cheeky – she bobs and bops around the files, disconcerting her boss Lily (Phoebe Ladenburg, in paisley skirt and pom-pom slippers). But the pair grow closer, through awkward silences and blurted confidences.

At the Young Vic, London, until 18 July

The Pit, Barbican, London
Greg Doran directs Shakespeare’s timeless poem of seduction, told with Lyndie Wright’s gorgeous, masterfully manoeuvred miniatures

Love comes with strings attached in Greg Doran’s tragic romance. First performed 22 years ago, this enchanting production of Shakespeare’s great poem of unrequited love is now tenderly narrated by Simon Russell Beale. With masterful puppetry and a playful air of seduction, there’s no wonder this conjuring of Venus’s pursuit of the handsome Adonis has had so many lives. Like love – and heartbreak – its magic is timeless.

No breath is wasted with these cheeky puppets, wooden in material only, designed and created by Lyndie Wright. A raunchy Venus weeps and begs as the gorgeous, occasionally petulant Adonis rejects her advances, more interested in hunting than in love. Venus moves with such ease, you hardly see the team of puppeteers holding her arms as she hurls herself down at Adonis’s feet, or curling her legs as she wallows in self pity. The five puppeteers swim around their characters, handing over control of a head and taking up a hand with surgical skill. Marionettes, shadow, rod, Bunraku and other puppets are used to build this ethereal world of miniature beauty – plus the exquisite ugliness of one angry, snuffly boar.

Opera Holland Park, London
A concert performance in an orchestral reduction of Puccini’s colossal final opera was stylishly led by conductor Naomi Woo with José de Eça’s Calaf heading a strong cast

It always lifts the spirits when the little company that could, does. Over the last 30 years, Puccini has been a mainstay of Opera Holland Park’s artistic vision with, in recent years, notable stagings of Le Villi and Edgar. Now it’s the turn of Turandot, the only one of the composer’s works to elude them thus far, with three concert stagings in the opera’s centenary year.

Calling for colossal forces, it’s not surprising smaller companies give it a miss. Nevertheless, Tony Burke’s orchestral reduction proved more than adequate to express the sonic grandeur of Puccini’s score. All the required exotic percussion was on display with sufficient brass lending punch and panache. Only the Mandarin’s opening xylophone and a feeble electric organ let things down, a minor quibble considering the classy performance of the City of London Sinfonia’s 41 players under the stylish baton of Naomi Woo. Her fluid interpretation packed the necessary punch while finding felicitous details sometimes buried in the full orchestration.

Lyttelton theatre, London
Martin Crimp’s heroic but imperfect modern-day version of the 17th-century classic is crammed full of debates about how we might live differently

Molière’s misanthrope here is a bestselling writer in a stylish trouser suit, gender-reversed as Alice and Americanised in the formidable form of Sandra Oh. When an aspiring novelist asks for literary advice, Alice tells her to always make her writing “seductive”.

Is that what playwright Martin Crimp has aspired to do here? His modern-day version is certainly as high-wire an endeavour as his beat-boxing reboot of Cyrano de Bergerac, a French canonical text which he turned into something new, dangerous and yes, extremely seductive.

From trippy swirls to blood-soaked slabs, a new book mines gothic and renaissance art for the supernatural significance of the precious rock

When we think of marble, we think of it as a desirable commodity: of luxurious interior decoration, from deluxe kitchens to the most corporate of foyers – and of a roaring global market. Yet in the centuries prior to the enlightenment brought about by science and the birth of geology, marble captured the popular imagination as a mysterious, living structure with spiritual properties.

It is a way of thinking that’s alien from today’s knowledge, informed by the comfortable conclusions of empirical science: we know marble is a metamorphic rock created millions of years ago under extreme pressure and heat, deep below the Earth’s crust. In his new book, Divine Presence, creative director, author and one-time Wolfgang Tillmans muse Karl Kolbitz invites us to consider a pre-science mentality, when civilisations believed in the reality of miracles, dragons, astrology and the governance of an unknown but omnipresent divinity as a means of making sense of the world.

‘She was in Germany’s biggest battle since the second world war, but the army took years to recognise her PTSD. Annika now runs a farm with pigs and geese where struggling veterans come to stay’

Annika Schröder’s story is an amazing one. She was in the military here in Germany for almost 20 years. She joined when she was young, adventurous and needed to earn money – they let her do fun things like jump out of an aeroplane and drive a tank. But then she got deployed to Afghanistan, and within a month her unit got sent on a rescue mission, which is now infamous as the Good Friday Battle – the biggest German military battle since the second world war. She recovered two dead soldiers and one who was heavily wounded, but went on to develop severe post-traumatic stress disorder. It took the Bundeswehr (German army) over a decade to fully recognise that. Meanwhile she was discharged because they said she wasn’t fit to do her job any more. In 2025 there was a television documentary made about her life.

She now gets a full army pension that she can live off and has started what’s called a veteran farm outside Leipzig, where she keeps pigs and geese and two dogs. This image was taken in her kitchen there. Living self-sufficiently helps with her PTSD and while the dog in the picture isn’t an official support dog, it helps her feel calm.

Miranda and Eisa Davis’s concept album based on the 1979 film is to be realised for the stage, co-directed by Jenny Koons and Hamilton’s Andy Blankenbuehler

Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis’s concept album based on The Warriors, the cult novel and film about warring New York gangs, is to become a Broadway musical next year.

The album, Warriors, was released to critical acclaim in 2024 and followed the eponymous Coney Island clan’s odyssey back to the Bronx after being falsely accused of killing the leader of the city’s biggest gang. The original story was written by Sol Yurick, whose 1965 book was inspired by Xenophon’s ancient epic Anabasis, and it became a Walter Hill action film in 1979.

Helen Hunt and Kristin Scott Thomas are leading revivals of the Russian classic whose blend of comedy and tragedy is baked into our own dramatic heritage

What kind of play is The Cherry Orchard? As a new production starring Helen Hunt and Kenneth Branagh beckons in Stratford, I am reminded that it is a question people have been asking since the play’s inception. Chekhov himself wrote that what had emerged in his play was “not a drama but a comedy, in places almost a farce”. Stanislavski, who directed the Moscow premiere in 1904, violently disagreed. “It is a tragedy,” he told Chekhov, “whatever prospect of a better life you hold out in the last act.”

While the debate continues, I hope we shall not be told by anyone involved in the new RSC production that they are at long last restoring the play’s comedy. It is a critical cliche that the British sentimentalise the play and treat it as a lament for the decline and fall of a pseudo-Edwardian aristocracy. In my experience of the play – and I have seen about 20 productions – this is simply untrue. We generally do The Cherry Orchard very well because its blend of styles and moods is something baked into our own dramatic heritage. Eschewing the academic formality of the French, for whom tragedy and comedy are rigidly defined genres, we are used to a glorious impurity in drama: a culture that can produce Twelfth Night should have no problem in comprehending The Cherry Orchard.

Safety concerns, caregiving needs, and, of course, finances all come into play when considering aging-in-place at home

My mom is the model boomer. At 77 years old, she runs her interior design business, organizes a book club, plays pickleball and dominates in mahjong. She is the picture of health; good luck matching the pace on her 5 mile walks. As is the trend for her generation, mom and her 83-year-old husband have chosen to continue living right where they are at home.

Circumstances led her to make age-in-place plans well ahead of her peers. When my dad died unexpectedly 22 years ago, my mom found herself widowed at 55 and living alone in a two-story, four-bedroom home. Mom wanted to remain in her community, so she downsized into a smart townhouse with a first-floor bedroom and bath, and nearby shops.

The writer who coined the word ‘enshittification’ tells us why AI will never deliver what it promises – and why it still appeals so much to those in power

A “centaur”, in automation theory, is a person assisted by a machine, and a “reverse centaur”, hero of Cory Doctorow’s new book, The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI, is a “human who is conscripted into acting as an assistant to a machine”. Every warehouse worker who ever had to urinate in a water bottle because they couldn’t otherwise meet the fulfilment targets set by an algorithm is a reverse centaur. Reaching into the future, everyone who has to sit in a self-driving truck to make sure it doesn’t crash, presumably on minimum rather than truck-driver wages, is a reverse centaur; as is every lawyer no longer on lawyer’s money checking Gemini’s command of precedent, every indie band scraping a living doing covers of AI-generated hits, and so on. That, anyway, is the promise: AI is coming for your job, and it is coming for your kids’ jobs, and there is no point fighting it because the future’s already here.

Wiping out the world of work, and with it our ability to sustain ourselves and live autonomous lives, is only the beginning, if you listen to AI’s architects. Elon Musk has called it the single greatest threat to human civilisation, Sam Altman has said it will “most likely lead to the end of the world” and Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, memorably forecast that AI would come to see us the way we see animals: cute to have around but ultimately a resource to be exploited. “AI people claim they’re about to create God, by teaching words to a word-guessing programme,” Doctorow says. “It’s grandiose.”

Bored of shaving? Enjoy lasting smoothness with our expert’s pick of the best epilators for leg, underarm and face grooming

• The beauty treatments you can do at home – and the ones you shouldn’t

With summer in full swing and mini dresses back in style, if you want smooth legs and underarms without the mess of waxing – or the scrapes and nicks of shaving – an epilator may be a smart investment.

In simplest terms, an epilator is an electronic device that uses rotating discs to grip and pull out hairs from the root. This gives longer-lasting results than shaving or depilatory creams – up to four weeks, depending on how fast your body hair grows. Epilators are also better at catching shorter hairs than waxing. Best of all, once you’ve bought your epilator, you’re all set – there’s no need to stock up on razor blades or wax strips, and no last-minute emergency salon appointments.

Best epilator overall:
Philips 8000

Best compact epilator:
Philips 4000

Avoiding Prime Day? Amazon isn’t the only retailer slashing prices this week – here are the best alternative deals on the products we love across home, beauty, fashion and more

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Prime Day is now in full swing to fill the summer-shaped gap in the bargain-hunter’s calendar. But what if you don’t want to fork out nearly a hundred quid a year for Amazon Prime, or indeed use Amazon at all? Plenty of other retailers have joined in by rolling out big mid-June reductions, and unlike Amazon, they don’t make you subscribe to a members-only club to get their best deals.

It takes more legwork to find deals across multiple retailers than to head straight to Amazon, of course, so we’ve done the research for you. As well as finding the lowest prices online, we’ve used price-checking tools such as Pricerunner and Idealo to scour price histories and check that these are real deals with genuinely new and notable discounts.

As parts of the UK swelter, try these low-energy ways to cool down – from fly screens and no-cook meals to air coolers that use a fraction of the electricity of aircon

• The best cooling fans

Where I grew up, snow days were a foreign concept. Instead, children looked to the other end of the thermometer when hoping for a day off school. Playground rumour had it that when the temperature reached more than 40C, classes would be cancelled.

I finished primary school at the turn of the century, so never saw that theory tested. But as the climate crisis intensifies, throughout much of south-eastern Australia, we’ve come to expect at least one 40C day each summer. That means subsequent cohorts of Australian children are learning that temperature triggers for school closure were only ever an urban legend. Instead, in many schools, hot weather means staying indoors during break and lunch.

Whether it’s a casserole dish or art inspired by the city they studied in, these are the gifts recent graduates told us they loved the most

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There’s considerable pride to be taken from graduating, and it’s a moment friends and family are often eager to mark with a gift. But what presents best cement this major milestone? As leaving celebrations of all stripes approach, we asked recent graduates to tell us about what they loved receiving, from the sentimental to the practical.

“When I graduated from York, my parents treated me to a meal at a restaurant I’d had my eye on since starting my course,” says reader Toby Beer, a biology graduate. “It was a brilliant send-off to celebrate my time in Yorkshire.”

A tuck box of new delights and a bar of almost unimaginable smoothness have stolen my cocoa-covered heart

Aurosó took a break for a while but they’re back making super low-sugar, high-cocoa content chocolate and I loved the 90% cocoa Candied Orange Florins, an excellent chewy treat, like a very grownup chocolate coin. Grá and Corra were two new makes to me. If you know someone who loves peanuts then they’ll love the oozy crunchy 60% cocoa Corra Peanuts Crunchy bar. Grá is an Irish chocolatier that makes very pretty long lozenge-shaped filled chocolates. They were a tad too sweet for me, but my testers loved them.

MayHawk’s 63% Olive Oil and Welsh Sea Salt is a beautiful bar from any angle: amazing art work and the chocolate is of an almost unimaginable smoothness.

Two problems, one delicious and simple solution …

Over- and under-ripe strawberries have opposite problems but the same solution: roast them. This intensifies their flavour, and also allows you to add sugar to sweeten flavourless, under-ripe fruit, while at the same time cooking away any blemishes or unpleasant soft patches.

The classic Moroccan marinade works brilliantly with oily fish, and is made for lazy summer dining, especially if served with chilli potatoes alongside

On warmer days, I want to cook simpler yet bolder food. Meals become fresher, less heavy and more instinctive, using fewer ingredients but stronger flavours. Everything feels relaxed and generous, which is why I’m drawn to chermoula fish and batata harra, full of garlic, herbs, chilli, citrus, cumin and smoke. In other words, food that’s made for outdoors, slow afternoons and warm summer-night gatherings with loved ones.

The cost of the traditional takeaway has doubled since 2019, and more outlets are trying to tempt customers with cheaper options such as coley, pollack and hake

In late April, visitors to Harbour Lights in Falmouth, Cornwall, may have raised an eyebrow. The fish and chip shop was in the midst of a “cod-free week”, its owners having removed cod from its menu entirely.

It was the second time owner Pete Fraser had undertaken the experiment, 15 years after the first. He also removed cod from his shops in Penzance and Helston, replacing it with coley, pollack, hake and hoki. The result was very different. “Some of the feedback we had, which certainly wasn’t what we got when we ran it years ago, is ‘Can you repeat this?’ Before, it was like, ‘Have you guys lost your head’?”

The standup and Bafta-winner on experiencing grief at a young age, his mischievous grandmother, and why he refuses to learn to drive

Born in Watford in 1993, Jack Rooke is a comedian, actor and writer. He studied journalism at the University of Westminster, and began his standup career in 2014. Rooke’s breakout show, Good Grief, was written with his grandmother, Sicely, and documented their experiences of bereavement following the death of Rooke’s father, Laurie, from cancer. His next show, Happy Hour, became the basis for his two-time Bafta-winning Channel 4 comedy, Big Boys. Rooke is taking an updated version of Good Grief on a UK tour, starting at the Roundhouse in London on 14 August. Rooke is an ambassador for the suicide prevention charity Calm.

I am three years old and being pushed by my nan on a swing. She’s in a lovely powder-blue two-piece while I am sporting an iconic all-in-one black-and-white striped mini boiler suit dungaree scenario. For reasons we will never know, I look rather unimpressed.

More locations are offering debt advice, health services, cafes, social activities and support under one roof

Shortly before lunchtime in a London community centre, older visitors are chatting over coffee and crosswords as young families drift in and out. Kitchen volunteers from the Real Junk Food Project are preparing lunch at a “pay as you feel” cafe, using food that would otherwise have ended up in the bin.

Conversations inside the Victorian building at the East Twickenham Neighbourhood Association (ETNA) community centre range from financial advice to digital support, via childcare and legal services. There are counselling drop-ins and self-help groups, while down the corridor yoga is about to start. Over the course of the day, it all builds a picture of what community hubs offer local people.

Puff Puff, AKA Puffy, came to us aged 13 with no teeth, a broken ear and a cold – but was always there in tough times

Three of our cats had died of old age, leaving my family heartbroken. So Brandy, my wife, looked at our local animal shelter website and saw it had a 13-year-old stray cat with no teeth, a broken ear and a cold. Betty, as the staff had named her, had one day left to live before the shelter was going to put her down.

Brandy sent me along to see her. The warden said no one had visited Betty, but as soon as they opened the cage a Himalayan cat catapulted out of her blanket straight at me. I picked her up and knew I had to take her home.

Meg was married to a man but had fantasised having sex with women for years. When she met Jess, her knees buckled

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

I’d spent so many years visualising having sex with a woman

Treasury also promises a new first-time buyer Isa with no upper age limit, as the ‘age at which a first home is bought is rising’

Isa reforms announced on Tuesday promise a new first-time buyer account with no upper age limit, and a tax on interest on cash savings held in a stocks and shares wrapper.

Savers and investors can currently deposit up to £20,000 a year in Isas, which offer the chance to earn returns which are not subject to tax.

The Passport Office accepted applications for my two other children but refused the youngest with exactly the same documents

I am a Briton living in Switzerland and my three children are British and Swiss nationals.

When we found out via the Guardian that dual nationals, who live overseas, are now required to hold a British passport in order to enter the UK, we set about applying, so the children can continue to visit their English relatives.

We were charged the wrong amount, but because the bank says we have no evidence it won’t do a chargeback

I went to Paris to recover from the grief of losing my dog.

All was going well until I took a taxi from a rank outside Musée d’Orsay to my hotel near Notre Dame – a 12-minute journey.

Bank details at risk as criminals use AI to create fake sites and emails offering pre-release beta test version

Like millions of gamers around the world, you have been waiting years for Grand Theft Auto VI to be released. Now you have the opportunity to play the much-anticipated game before everyone else.

An email has arrived inviting you to play a pre-release “beta” version of the game so that you can alert the makers to any bugs before its official release later this year.

As a kid, I did my best to avoid exercise. As an adult, I endured it for the sake of my health. Then I set myself a clear goal – and motivation was no longer an issue

It’s fair to say I don’t come from a long line of athletes. When I was growing up in the 1990s, sport was something other people did; we were not a family who cycled, much less jogged. In PE I was the wheezing child hiding behind the bins, pretending I’d twisted an ankle. When I contemplated working out – not often – I had the vague idea it was supposed to turn my body into something other people might find attractive.

I evolved from an unsporty child into an unsporty adult. Occasionally, mostly in an attempt to lose weight without having to stop eating croissants, I would attempt something like Couch to 5K, which I’d either abandon after a couple of sessions or see through to the bitter end out of the perverse determination to prove I’d been right all along: exercise was a mug’s game and endorphins an invention of Big Wellness.

Mobility can’t be tracked on a leaderboard, but it can help you feel better and make daily tasks easier

Fitness is often measured through numbers: how much weight a person can lift, or how fast or far they can run. But one important metric is harder to quantify: mobility.

Mobility gets overlooked, because the relevant exercises do not “have the instant visual appeal of traditional workouts”, says Tyler McDonald, certified personal trainer and senior brand manager for the National Academy of Sports Medicine.

How to start meditating

How to start weightlifting

How to start budgeting

How to start running

90/90 hip switches: Sit on the floor with the front leg bent at a 90-degree angle (thigh out in front of you and calf perpendicular to you) and the back leg bent at a 90-degree angle (thigh out to the side, calf roughly parallel to you). Slowly rotate your knees to the opposite side without lifting your feet off the floor. “This is fantastic for opening tight hips,” McDonald says.

Cat-cow stretch. With your hands and knees on the ground, arch your back towards the ceiling, dropping your head between your arms. Then, slowly drop your back and raise your head and glutes towards the ceiling. This helps with spine mobility.

World’s greatest stretch. Yes, this stretch has quite the name, but for good reason. Start in a plank. Bring the right leg forward into a low lunge position. Stretch the right arm overhead towards the ceiling, twisting the upper body. Then, bring the right hand behind the head and attempt to touch the ground with the right elbow. “It hits your hips, hamstrings and upper back all at once, making it incredibly efficient,” says McDonald.

Fitness isn’t just about getting a six-pack or competing in a triathlon. These straightforward, low-intensity moves will improve your strength and mobility and make almost everything easier

There are lots of movements that make you stronger and more physically capable – press-ups, squats and kettlebell swings build strength and muscle that help in a huge variety of situations. But can you get more specific? Well, yes: there are exercises that target the challenges of everyday life, whether that’s playing on the floor with your kids or bringing in the big shop. Here are the moves you may want to consider, presented by a dozen movement coaches, personal trainers and strength specialists.

People assume that those with facial hair are more likely to harbour bacteria on their faces than the clean-shaven – but the truth is more tangled

The idea that beards are dirtier than clean-shaven faces has been floating around for decades, says John Tregoning, professor of vaccine immunology at Imperial College London. There is even research that shows people perceive bearded men as less hygienic: one study found restaurant customers rated waiters with facial hair as dirtier. Science doesn’t necessarily back that up, though.

One of the earliest studies on the subject, published in 1967, looked at how much bacteria could be recovered from men’s faces after being artificially sprayed on to their skin. Researchers compared washed and unwashed faces, both with and without beards. The dirtiest combination wasn’t with a beard: most bacteria was recovered from unwashed clean-shaven faces, followed by unwashed bearded faces, washed bearded faces and finally washed clean-shaven faces.

Glamorous, fashion-forward, fun – wigs are everywhere you look, with celebrities leading the way. But should you go for something flamboyant, or a more natural style? Time to test-drive a few

‘I think it’s the word – ‘wig’!” says Melanie Burrell, scrunching up her nose. “I prefer ‘hairpiece’.” It’s part of the reason why, when she opened her wig business in Glasgow in 2010, she called it Parrucche – the Italian word for “wigs” being a little more discreet, especially when it came to signage.

But the stigma once associated with wig wearing is quickly diminishing. Outside of Black and queer communities, where using hairpieces has long been commonplace, wigs were once associated with attempts to conceal hair-loss, or for fancy dress. But in recent years, their appeal has broadened. According to data insights company Statista, the global wigs and hair extensions market is predicted to reach $13.28bn this year. For men, toupees, now more commonly known as “hair systems”, are part of this resurgence.

Jonathan Anderson’s golden touch is on display in Paris with mix of metallics, brooches and ripped jeans

Fashion brands were tuned to the weather forecast in Paris in the run-up to the menswear shows this week – and aware temperatures would reach 40C on Wednesday. This weekend a decision was made – the Christian Dior show, originally scheduled for the afternoon, would be moved to 9am, to avoid the heat of the day.

The change in time certainly made the experience more palatable – as did (in possibly a fashion-week first) the cool towels handed to guests on arrival, umbrellas to block out the sun and personalised fans on seats. In the grounds of the grand Musée Nissim de Camondo, which is under renovation to reopen in 2030, those in the garden even had the benefit of the occasional breeze.

These ace shampoos gives my hair a deep clean without drying it out and aggravating my scalp

There’s an old trick used by backstage stylists to quickly and thoroughly rid models’ hair of the layers of stiff, sticky or flaky product buildup from the several previous catwalk shows that day: Fairy Liquid.

I have seen this in chaotic action and the squeaky cleanliness set my teeth on edge to the extent where I have been irrationally avoidant of “detox” and “clarifying” shampoos almost ever since.

The colour-coordinated ‘clean girl’ athleisure aesthetic is dead. Now it’s all about mismatched outfits and vintage sportswear

At first, the goblins came for our downtime. Going “goblin mode” was a lifestyle confined to the home – to the bed, mostly. The “comforts of depravity” it brought (“watching 90 Day Fiancé on mute while scrolling endlessly through social media, pouring the end of a bag of chips in your mouth”, for example) weren’t compatible with doing anything productive.

Enter the gym goblin. The optics remain much the same – think ancient T-shirts, knackered socks, oversized cardigans – but the setting has changed, with goblincore devotees rising up from unmade beds, Diet Cokes in hand, to hit the treadmill. It’s Diana, Princess of Wales’s oversized college sweatshirts meets Josh O’Connor’s half-tracksuit look for the Disclosure Day press tour – and the polar opposite of the matcha-drinking, Lululemoned “clean girl” aesthetic that dominates fitness circles.

This long-distance coastal trek takes in towering rock faces, isolated beaches and tasty pitstops

The fluorescent green gaiters seemed a ridiculous suggestion, but prove a godsend as we plod across the sand. “I bet you’re glad I told you to get a pair of these bad boys now, aren’t you?” my friend Luke jokes. We’re marching across a wide, crescent-shaped, honeyed beach. The sun is high in the sky and slivers of light flicker through a thick sea fog, as 6ft waves crash and fizz, their white foam licking the towering limestone cliffs.

I’m in Portugal, in the west Algarve, with two friends, hiking part of the Rota Vicentina, or Fishermen’s Trail, a 140-mile (226km) trek that runs from Lagos to São Torpes in Alentejo. Traversing cliffs that lead to wild, remote beaches like this one is part of the trail’s calling card. As the name suggests, it was originally carved out by fishers to reach otherwise inaccessible fishing spots along the Atlantic Ocean. Now it’s part of the Rota Vicentina, a hiking and cycling route spanning 466 miles across Portugal.

The creators of County Cork’s Sheep’s Head Way had to win over hundreds of landowners to complete the ambitious project, but the result is a gloriously unspoilt trail

The Sheep’s Head peninsula is clearly a good place to be a skylark. They seem to warble overhead at every turn, singing their little hearts out – and who could blame them? The hills here are high and heathery, the sea breeze is warmed by the Gulf Stream and the edge-of-the-world scenery is a realm of wild green slopes and endless blue Atlantic. If you had to choose a sky to lark in, the one that crowns this County Cork headland is a bona fide wing-quiverer.

The peninsula wows hikers, too. I’ve come to one of the south-westernmost points on the Irish mainland to trek the Sheep’s Head Way, a long-distance trail opened by the local community 30 years ago this summer. It took serious work to complete – more of which later – but it’s a delight. I’m walking the original 55-mile (88km) loop around the peninsula, although a longer, 63-mile option is now considered the official route. The way attracts a fraction of the numbers drawn to the Kerry Way and Dingle Peninsula trail further north, and thanks to its untrammelled paths and rampant, cliff-edged scenery, the rewards are grand, in every sense.

Come for the sun; stay for the seafood, jazz festival, galleries and coastal walking in this laid-back village within a city

South of the city centre, Le Mourillon is Toulon’s characterful and unpretentious seaside quarter. Once a fishing village, Le Mourillon is home to little shops selling Provençal produce such as huge garlic bulbs and tomatoes in vibrant shades, alongside lively bars and restaurants. It’s not as glamorous or polished as the likes of Antibes or Saint-Tropez – you won’t find designer brands – but it’s all the more charming for that.

From a waterfront palace in Greece to a nonna’s house in Italy, these stylish boutique hotels offer character and comfort at a budget-friendly price

Should I follow the man of my dreams to work in a club in Tehran? Or take up a place at an elite university? Thankfully, my dad gave me advice I’ve lived by ever since

My parents did not expect me to land a place at university. I was not considered academic enough. And anyway, I was a girl. Instead, I was being primed for marriage. My mother didn’t see anything wrong with this. Born in Britain between the two world wars, when the scarcity of men had made them precious commodities, she had left school at 14, part of a generation often brought up to believe that matrimony was the only guarantee of a secure social and financial future. While romance and indeed love were a bonus, the unwritten clause in a marital contract stipulated that a wife must play her supportive part at home while the husband went out to work. Without the necessary qualifications for the role, the entire agreement risked failure.

In 1972, I was at college studying for my A-levels, but in the holidays my mother enlisted me on various “finishing” courses. Her intention was that I acquire the domestic skills to enhance my spousal eligibility, including how to cook, carve a roast and drive a Jeep to the shops, in case I landed a nice gentry farmer. Only now, almost 40 years after her death, do I realise how much she regretted the lack of educational and career opportunities open to her. Only now do I sympathise with her subconscious envy when they were offered to her daughter.

Whether you have a few pots on a balcony or an expanse of greenery, here’s how to help everything thrive when the mercury spikes

After the two hottest May days on record in the UK last month, gardeners may be surveying the damage and dreading the summer months ahead. “Heatwaves early in the summer can result in scorched, brown leaves,” says Leigh Hunt, the principal horticultural adviser at the Royal Horticultural Society. “When temperatures climb over 35C, there are more extreme effects.” (Thermometers hit 35.1C in London on 26 May.)

But don’t put down your trowel in defeat just yet. “Plants were caught out by the sudden change in temperature,” says Hunt. “They are a bit more naturally resistant later in the summer.” Plus, there is plenty you can do to support them without wasting gallons of water or installing an inefficient sprinkler system – and the payoff is massive. “Plants provide shade and release moisture; they cool our towns and cities by 2C to 4C,” says Hunt. “Your little bit of greenery is part of a network of greenery doing its bit. It makes the places we live better and cooler.”

Generations of gardeners have added stones to their pots before topping up with compost, but does it really help?

The problem
Most old houseplant guides suggest adding a layer of gravel or stones to the bottom of the pot before adding compost. It is presented as basic good practice; the thing you do to stop soil from retaining water, which can cause root rot.

The hack
This layer of gravel is said to improve drainage by providing a place for excess water to collect below the root zone, keeping roots above the waterlogged area and allowing air to reach them from beneath.

The solutions to today’s puzzles – and the winner of the Anguish Languish contest

Earlier today I set these three puzzles about deception. Here they are again with solutions.

1. Super syllabus

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

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

Kent Kiehl convinced the US legal system he can find violence in prisoners’ brains. His theories have been since used by defense lawyers – with grave consequences for prisoners

I believe that chatbots have no place in a decent society, and am repelled by the topic of AI in general. But could I be seduced?

I received a text message from my editor: “Um, is it unethical to ask you to get an AI bf?? You can prob say no.”

Resentment. Contempt! Sorrow. Unease. I love text messaging. I have text message exchanges with, let’s say, 15 people a day. If you want me to do something, you should ask via text message. My editor knows this. She also knows, though it’s more complicated, that I love boyfriends. An AI boyfriend is a boyfriend who always, only texts back, immediately.

I find it hard to express my emotions openly. (No.)

I thrive to develop healthier, more trusting relationships. (Yes, though I prefer to use “thrive” correctly.)

I want a partner who supports my life aspirations. (Crossbow?)

I worry about being judged for what I want in a relationship. (Yes.)

The latest decree from Afghanistan’s rulers makes it impossible for women and girls to leave unwanted or abusive relationships, even with family support

When Fatima arrived at a district court in northern Afghanistan in late 2025 with her parents, she hoped a judge would finally allow her to leave her calamitous marriage.

She had never met her husband before their arranged wedding in the summer of 2024. Each time her family asked to see him, they were told he was shy. It was only on the wedding day, relatives say, that Fatima understood what had been hidden from her: her husband had severe intellectual and physical disabilities and could not eat, wash or dress himself without help.

How did you cope? What do you remember of that period of hot weather? Tell us and share your pictures

The record temperature for June set in Hampshire in 1976 is expected to be surpassed during this current UK heatwave.

The highest June temperature on record of 35.6C was set on 29 June 1957 in London. This was then equalled on 28 June 1976 in Southampton during that year’s heatwave.

We would like to hear from Cape Verdeans in the UK and across the globe on the team’s progress in the tournament

Cape Verde is enjoying a fairytale World Cup, with their performance becoming the story of the tournament.

There was the shock 0-0 draw with Spain in their tournament debut. Then on Sunday, there was another when they drew 2-2 with two-time champions Uruguay in Miami. This now puts them in serious contention for a place in the knockouts.

How has the shortage affected you? How are you coping?

Health leaders have warned Britons are facing some of the “most severe” shortages of NHS medicines on record, including common painkillers, epilepsy drugs and HRT.

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has warned that medicine shortages pose a “serious risk to patient safety”.

We would like to hear about the best film you have seen this year so far and why

The Guardian’s film writers have compiled their favourite films of the year so far – and we’d like to hear about yours, too.

Which films have captured your imagination this year? Are there any new releases from so far in 2025 that you would recommend watching?

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