In HBO docuseries Bring Me the Beauties, a lesser-known, image-obsessed cult from the 80s is put under the spotlight

Documentary film-maker Chris Smith made the seminal 1999 film American Movie, about an indie director’s struggle to complete a horror film, which he hopes will then finance the completion of his dream project. More recently, he’s profiled well-known subjects in projects for Netflix about Jim Carrey and Andy Kaufman, the bands Devo and Wham!, and the disastrous Fyre festival, among others. His new HBO miniseries Bring Me the Beauties is similarly connected to popular culture, but through a story with far less immediately available background material: the rise and fall of Eternal Values, a cult started in the 80s by the eccentric Frederick von Mierers, consisting largely of models.

“What was odd about this story,” Smith said, “is that there was very little about it online.” He met Hoyt Richards, sometimes referred to as the first male supermodel and a former Eternal Values member, on another project, “and as we started talking, hours went by”, Smith said. “It was one of those situations where I just became more and more curious about his life.” Richards became the backbone of the series, sitting for many hours of interviews, but wasn’t sure if Smith and his collaborators would be able to coax anyone else into participation. As seen in the series, not everyone’s account of their experience with Von Mierers is the same; not everyone is even convinced they were involved with a cult in the first place.

Seasonal wardens and netted fences are helping protect the rare ground-nesting birds that arrive each spring on the UK’s shores

On Ross Sands in Northumberland, a little tern has caught sight of a group of people and is sprinting across the beach. “It wants us to follow it,” says Andrew Craggs, senior manager at Lindisfarne national nature reserve. “It’s a diversionary thing – it’s got a scrape and it wants to take us away because it thinks we’re predators.”

Craggs is no predator, and he’s not after the scrape – a small pit the ground-nesting bird has dug into the sand to lay its eggs. He is a guardian of these little birds, as well as more than 3,500 hectares (8,600 acres) of sand dunes, saltmarsh and mudflats that make up this tranquil nature reserve perched on the tip of England’s north-east coast.

Growing up in Dublin, I learned to navigate life in fight-or-flight mode. Yet even now, our leaders are ducking a vital conversation

• Seán Gallen is a Martinican-Irish writer and film-maker based in Berlin and Dublin

Watching the harrowing footage of what would become Yves Sakila’s final moments of consciousness, it is hard not to be reminded of the agonising death of George Floyd. Sakila was declared dead in a Dublin hospital on 15 May, a short time after being pinned to the ground by security guards outside Arnotts, a city centre department store.

Congolese-born Sakila had allegedly been suspected of shoplifting in the store and fled. If we have any knowledge of what subsequently happened in the busy pedestrianised street outside, it is because video footage was captured by passersby. In these deeply distressing images, the 35-year-old is being restrained by a group of security guards for nearly five minutes. He tries to protest but his shouts are muffled in the concrete when one of the men appears to put his knee on the back of Sakila’s neck. By the end of the video, Sakila has stopped moving.

‘Brash, disingenuous, lethal’: that’s how the 67-year-old actor describes his younger self. He lied to his partners, disrespected his audiences, betrayed his friends. Has this indiscreet, unreliable heartbreaker finally grown up and settled down?

Rupert Everett is struggling with the heatwave. It reminds him of the summer of 1976, when he was 17, basking in the sun, serene as a sloth, his future spread out ahead of him. It’s so different now. “When you were young, hot weather was nice. But when you’re chubby like me now, it’s not so nice,” he says.

“You’re not chubby,” says his publicist, with reassuring brio.

Exclusive: 25 years after race riots in north of England, Arooj Shah says extremist groups and lies about grooming scandal are poisoning Oldham

“Identity politics is tearing communities apart”, the former leader of Oldham council has warned, in the week marking the 25th anniversary of race riots across the north of England.

Arooj Shah quit as leader of the Greater Manchester borough earlier in May, after the local elections left the council with no group in overall control.

Endless swiping has left a generation of singles burned out. But get real: dating assistants and AI-aided chats will never recreate the friction of real romance

After years of shrinking usage and tumbling stock prices, the dating app Bumble is teasing a major change to its product. But in solving one problem, it might be walking right into another. The company told Axios this month that it’s getting rid of a dating app mainstay: the swipe. The feature made it easy for people to carelessly flick through photos, said CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, leading to a user experience with too many dead-end conversations. Going forward, Bumble will focus on features that make for deeper, more meaningful connections, she said. Namely, an AI assistant named “Bee”.

While it’s still unclear exactly what Bee will do, its responsibilities will include punching up users’ profiles by suggesting better options for their photos and personal blurbs. Bumble says it will also use AI to chat with people about their dating preferences and help them find others with similar “values”.

Tatum Hunter is a technology journalist based in Brooklyn. She writes on Substack at Bytatumhunter

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Sources predict ‘toe-curling’ revelations as more than 1,000 pages of documents relating to his appointment as US ambassador to be published

• Mandelson files show no mitigation of security concerns

At the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said the release of the Mandelson files today would be “an unprecedented piece of government transparency”.

He said that party political material would be included, despite precedent suggesting it should be included, and that some material had to be declassified to allow it to be published.

The broad scope of the [humble address motion – see 9.26am] has required the discovery, assessment, analysis and preparation of thousands of individual documents and messages.

This is a task that has involved every government department.

Yeah, I have changed what I would say. I wouldn’t say that phrase any more.

And I think that, you know, over the last few years, I think a lot of us, myself included, have thought about this question in quite some detail.

Thousands leave homes after Israeli military instructed to strike ‘terrorist targets’ in largest escalation of war since ceasefire

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed the Israeli military to bomb the southern suburbs of Beirut, the most serious escalation of Israel’s war in Lebanon since a supposed ceasefire was announced on 17 April.

The Israeli prime minister and his defence minister, Israel Katz, said on Monday they had given instructions to strike “terrorist targets” in the southern suburbs for what they called “repeated and ongoing violations of the ceasefire by Hezbollah”.

Annette Bramley says Holly’s Law would stop perpetrators acquiring pets and raise awareness of domestic abuse link

Annette Bramley fondly remembers her daughter Holly as being family-oriented and a lover of animals. “She adored anything small and furry, or even not. I mean, she thought orangutans were beautiful,” she said.

When Holly ended up in a controlling and abusive relationship, her husband, Nicholas Metson, was quick to use this passion against her. He bought Holly a puppy and then tried to kill it by putting it in a washing machine at their home in Lincoln. After it was rescued by Holly, he drowned it in a bath.

Home Office says presence of Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker in UK ‘may not be conducive to the public good’

Two prominent US political commentators who were due to speak at events in the UK this week have been banned from entering the country by the Home Office.

Cenk Uygur, the host of the Young Turks online political talkshow, and Hasan Piker, who runs his own hours-long stream each day, have been stopped from appearing at SXSW London, while the former said he had also been due to speak at an event run by University of Oxford students.

Children of those on care worker visas, who came legally before rule change, told to leave even if parents can stay

Children as young as five who are living legally in the UK are being told by the Home Office they must leave the country even if their parents have been given permission to remain.

The Guardian has seen five letters sent to children by the Home Office telling them they must leave the UK. A sixth letter has been sent to a woman who is six months pregnant and lives in the UK with her husband, telling her she must leave him and return to her country. The children have parents on care worker visas, which until March 2024 had allowed them to bring partners or children with them to the UK.

Girl, 13, pulled from River Wharfe on Sunday and boy, 11, remains missing from River Don as hot spell comes to an end

A 13-year-old girl has died after going into a river and a boy is missing as the water-related death toll reached at least 15 at the end of the UK heatwave.

The girl was pulled from the River Wharfe in Burnsall, near Skipton, North Yorkshire, on Sunday evening. She was airlifted to hospital where she was pronounced dead, North Yorkshire police said.

Nationwide finds typical price was £278,024 in May, as Savills says Iran war has ‘fundamentally changed’ outlook

• Business live – latest updates

House prices fell in the UK for the first time this year in May, as rising interest rates triggered by the war in Iran hurt homebuyer demand.

The price of the average UK home dropped 0.6% in May compared with the month before, according to the lender Nationwide.

Airline’s shares hit highest level in three months as investment group Castlelake says it is considering offer

• Business live – latest updates

EasyJet has called a potential £3bn bid by a US investment group “highly opportunistic” as shares in the airline shot up to their highest level in three months on news of the takeover interest.

The US private credit firm Castlelake said on Friday it was considering a takeover offer for the airline. On Monday, it said it had already bought a 2.14% stake in the business and its offer would value easyJet at least at 403p a share, or about £3bn overall.

Actor tells theatregoers she hoped message was ‘very important’ after final bows of Inter Alia performance

Rosamund Pike has criticised an audience member for texting during the climax of her West End performance, saying she hoped the message was “very important”.

After a performance of Inter Alia on Saturday, Pike returned to the stage after the final bows. She told the audience at Wyndham’s theatre in London: “I just wanted to say for anyone going to the theatre, it’s a huge thing that we’re trying to give you. I am trying to tell you a story, and I’m feeling you, and I hope you’re feeling me too.”

Conflicts over land and resources have deepened owing to climate breakdown, deforestation and population growth

Beneath the shade of the wide-spreading branches of a neem tree, five young gang members wearing camouflage and beanies and cradling AK47 rifles took refuge from the harsh midday sun. They passed around cold bottles of water and a popular energy drink called Fearless.

To their left, a dreadlocked teenager with his own rifle rested on one of three motorcycles parked on the sparse grass. To their right, another teenager sat with his back to the others, rolling a spliff.

Abu ‘Abu Radde’ Bello, the leader of a gang in Katsina state

Horrified by the recent murder of Kawthar al-Husayjawi, one of her female relatives describes what happened – and her fears for other women and girls forced into early marriage in Iraq

The men of my tribe [extended family] threw my relative Kawthar Bashar al-Husayjawi, 15, into a pit and put a little dirt over her body. They had killed her hours earlier with 10 bullets, and split her small head with an axe. My family then joined others in coming on to the streets to dance and celebrate her death.

Kawthar lived in al-Nahrawan, a district in the south-east of Baghdad. She had been taken out of school and at age 13 forced to marry an alcoholic years older than her.

For the star’s 100th anniversary, Lawrence Schiller relives the nude photoshoot that showed, far from being a ‘messy’ blond bombshell, Monroe was a shrewd controller of her image

A few days after doing a nude swimming pool shoot on the set of the 1962 comedy Something’s Got to Give, Marilyn Monroe jumped into her raven black T-Bird and drove her photographer, Lawrence Schiller, to Schwab’s Pharmacy on Sunset Boulevard. Schiller had brought his negatives, now ready to be turned into prints. And in her purse Monroe had brought her scissors, which she now reached for – and, under the glow of the now legendary Hollywood hangout’s streetlights, began to cut the colour film into pieces.

“Ziiiiiip – the ones she didn’t like,” says Schiller, animating the sound. “Ziiiiiip.” She destroyed them? “Oh yeah, but that came with the territory,” laughs the now 89-year-old, the last living photographer of Monroe, as he recalls his 25-year-old self bending down to pick up the debris and thinking: “Well, I would’ve killed that one, too.” In fact, he speaks of her editing with nothing but admiration: “There wasn’t a picture she destroyed that I would’ve published.”

After Sarah Geeson-Brown’s husband had three strokes, she began looking after him. Suddenly her world shrank and expanded in unexpected ways

When Sarah Geeson-Brown retired in 2022, she had a rough idea of how the next few years would go. She and her husband, Michael, planned to travel. But six months later, Michael had a stroke, then another. His third, after falling and breaking his hip, confined him to a wheelchair, and by the time he came out of hospital, Geeson-Brown was his full-time carer.

They had meant to be Interrailing, but now the end of the garden was far-flung, and even upstairs was out of bounds. Geeson-Brown, then 67, endlessly looped the ground floor of their home in Oxfordshire, England. “We both had to deal with a lot of grief,” she says. “There was lots of saying goodbye to things … Being out and about. And, of course, sharing a bed.”

Tell us: has your life taken a new direction after the age of 60?

At Pixelate, the music is as garish as the meme-referencing costumes. Is it internet ‘brainrot’ come to life – or a much-needed offline community?

‘It’s time to get … crazy!” DJ Compulsive Leia is yelling at us from the stage. Around me, clubbers in cat ears wave LED glow sticks and squeal in anticipation. Suddenly, an all too familiar sound: Crazy Frog’s much maligned version of Axel F, albeit remixed at an even giddier pitch and speed. “Ding, ding!”

Tonight, Vauxhall Arches in London is a hyperactive fever dream for Pixelate, a rave currently touring the UK and celebrating the 00s era of “internet cringe”. This edition is cat-themed, and a person in a giant bobble-headed Hello Kitty costume is dancing frantically on stage, soundtracked by high-octane versions of 00s memes, video games, cartoons and dancefloor hits.

Like many first-time pet owners, I was overprotective when we adopted her during the pandemic. But this affectionate creature showed me that love can mean letting go

In July 2021, after a few beers on a summer evening, my flatmate, Lew, answered an internet ad. By 5pm the next day, we had a kitten. She was a swirl of tortie-and-white fluff, with a small pink snoot, and huge ears that made her look more bat than cat. We called her Mush, pronounced like “smush”. From the moment the result of our drunken decision arrived and hid behind the sofa in our south London flat, we were in love.

Like many first-time parents in their 20s, Lew and I were fussy and overprotective. Neither of us had ever been responsible for a living creature before. When I held her tiny body against my chest, I felt anxious. Any little thing sent us running to the vet. A crusty eye. A single flea. Was she too small? Was she eating enough? “She’s in perfect physical condition,” the vet assured us during one of her many checkups.

2026 marks the 90th anniversary of the Francoist uprising and the beginning of the Spanish civil war. An estimated 120,000-150,000 people disappeared during Franco’s repression, their remains scattered across 2,567 mass graves. The far right’s entry into regional governments, as in Extremadura, is dismantling the historical memory laws that allow for reparations for victims of the disappearances. The photojournalist Roberto Palomo researched the life of his great-grandfather, the recovery of his remains and the effects of traumatic memory on the descendants

They took everything from my great-grandfather Silvestre Indias Carvajal and left us with nothing but his story, which was buried at the bottom of a 30-metre-deep well in south-west Spain for 87 years.

Silvestre worked as a municipal clerk in his small home town of Feria in Extremadura. He was given the job in recognition for his service in the war in Morocco, a conflict to which he was dispatched by lottery.

Feria is a small town in the south-eastern Spanish region of Extremadura, which sits atop a mountain range. It had barely 4,000 inhabitants in 1936 when it was occupied by Gen Franco’s rebel troops. The subsequent repression was swift and merciless and anyone deemed an enemy of the coup was eliminated. The estimated death toll in Feria is 97, making it one of the hardest-hit towns in the region.

Fans celebrated a first Premier League title in 22 years, having lost the Champions League final to PSG the night before

Underfunding, systemic failure and awful Tory policies bequeathed us a public and private sector housing crisis. As a priority, we will now fix that

Growing up, I remember how important our home was to my family. I know I get raised eyebrows now when I mention that pebble-dashed semi, but that doesn’t negate the point. Our house was not just a roof over our heads – it was our home. A place of security and a focal point for our family. A place to build out from and hope for a better future.

So it is simply shocking that under the long years of Tory rule, so many people across our country were left without a stable place to call their own. Children were left languishing in temporary accommodation, too often without proper places to play, eat and sleep. Families were left in limbo on waiting lists for years. Young care leavers were denied a permanent place to live. And, incredibly, domestic abuse survivors found themselves forced out of their homes because landlords lacked the powers to make their abuser the one who must leave.

Keir Starmer is the UK prime minister

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For ease and speed, we are degrading our ability to connect and to organise our societies. We must assert our trust in humans over machines

Here is a nightmare scenario for you. You are writing a book about how AI reshapes reality. You start using it as a research partner, confident that you are applying the right hygiene by not letting it actually write a sentence of the book. You think you’ll be careful, you will double check everything. And then your book comes out and it appears that it includes more than a half dozen misattributed or fake quotes. Steven Rosenbaum, the unfortunate writer, acknowledged that sometimes the output of AI was “staggeringly wrong”, but still, errors crept in.

There are others. A Commonwealth prize-winning short story became engulfed in claims that it carried the hallmarks of AI. And every time I see a story of a journalist caught out by fake AI quotes during research, I cross myself – there but for the grace of God go I. But to make sure it is not left up to grace alone, I never touch the thing. When AI results pop up as the default in a search engine, I reject them, rebuke them, as if they contained a dark sorcery that would through mere engagement creep into my synapses and take control.

Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist

From the start, feminists have fought for spaces that are less visible but which have special status: prisons, refuges, rape crisis centres, lesbian groups, women’s health centres and sports

• Susanna Rustin is the author of Sexed: A History of British Feminism

Thirteen months after the UK supreme court delivered its landmark ruling that sex in the Equality Act refers to biological sex, and 10 days after an updated draft “code of practice” from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) was laid before parliament, the UK is once again rowing about single-sex spaces, and particularly toilets. Once again, the purpose and value of those spaces for women are at risk of being eclipsed by complaints from people who would prefer that they didn’t exist in a way that complies with the current law. The code confirms that there is no legal way to open a single-sex service to people of the other sex, even if they are trans. Organisations are told to address the likely disadvantage to trans people by offering alternative, mixed-sex facilities. Associations (membership organisations with rules) can be trans-inclusive if they want, as long as they do not claim to be single-sex. Bridget Phillipson, the women and equalities minister, said that avoiding any new “burden on business” was one of the reasons why the revised guidance has taken more than a year to arrive.

The angry reaction from trans rights groups was expected. “Bathroom bans”, in the US phrase, are a totemic issue. Public toilets are the only single-sex space that most of us encounter on a daily basis. Trans campaigners see the guidance as a mandate to exclude them from ordinary life. But for entry to single-sex spaces, the criteria must be sex, and the code is clear that any checks – for example, if a trans man were to be mistaken for a biological man in a women’s health setting – must be made “sensitively” to avoid discrimination or harassment.

Susanna Rustin is a social affairs journalist and the author of Sexed: A History of British Feminism

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Physical and mental health aren’t easily separated, especially at our age. And the president is showing many concerning signs

I do not wish Trump ill. While he hasn’t shown a shred of compassion for anyone other than himself, this doesn’t justify any of us lacking compassion for him.

It’s also in the interest of the US and the world that he be physically and mentally able to discharge the duties of his office.

Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy. … I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA. He gets it, and Leo doesn’t! … Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician. It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church!

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now in the US and in the UK

Research out this month says you should aim for between 6.4 and 7.8 hours a night. But if you’re getting that granular about shut-eye, you’re overthinking it

How did you sleep last night? Did your smartring congratulate you on 8.5 sleepmaxxed hours in a cool, blackout-dark room after two hours’ withdrawal from blue light and “devices” and 480ml (per this month’s Vogue) of tart cherry juice? You follow all the advice and it works! Good for you, smuggo, but maybe you’re getting too much sleep.

Research published in Nature this month suggests we probably need fewer than eight hours, while excess shut-eye is associated with accelerated ageing of your organs, in the same way that getting too little is. Using data from the 500,000-strong volunteer UK Biobank, the study gets granular on how much sleep is optimal: between 6.4 and 7.8 hours. (Women need marginally more than men; maybe patriarchy makes us six minutes wearier.)

James Talarico got the opponent he – and the Democratic party – wanted, but flipping Texas blue means winning blue-collar voters, not blue-blooded donors

Texas could become the hottest battleground state in the country, if the results of both Republican and Democratic primaries are anything to go by.

Democrat James Talarico, a progressive Presbyterian seminarian, will face off against Trump’s favored candidate, the scandal-plagued attorney general, Ken Paxton. The matchup has liberals salivating. Paxton, dogged by corruption charges, impeachment hearings and an affair that left his marriage in tatters, is considered by some in his own party as “the worst possible top-of-the-ticket” candidate. Meanwhile, Talarico, a fresh-faced, clean-cut millennial, who quotes scripture to justify his progressive beliefs, seems like the perfect foil, at least according to Democratic party leaders.

Authoritarian states are increasingly shutting off or throttling access to the internet, creating separate spheres in a realm built on connection

China boasts of having the world’s largest population of internet users: 1.125 billion by the end of 2025, according to official figures. But as one joke has it, the Great Firewall – blocking not only politically sensitive material but also global tech firms such as Google and Meta – has produced what looks more like the world’s largest intranet.

Beijing is not an anomaly, but a pioneer. Its extraordinary investment in the apparatus of “cyber sovereignty” – others would call it censorship and repression – is guiding other authoritarian countries. A realm defined by connection is fragmenting not just from commercial greed and filter bubbles but due to state fiat, birthing the splinternet.

While Westminster’s attention is focused on Andy Burnham and Makerfield, another pivotal byelection is taking place in Scotland’s north-east

The coming byelection in Makerfield, from where Andy Burnham aspires to make rapid progress towards Downing Street, is perhaps the most consequential in British political history. But the decision by the Scottish National party’s former Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, to relocate to Holyrood means that another pivotal contest is taking place more than 350 miles to the north. If Makerfield is a test case for Mr Burnham and Labour’s ability to see off Reform UK, Mr Flynn’s old constituency of Aberdeen South is on the frontline of the increasingly fraught politics of North Sea oil.

Labour, despite finishing second in the 2024 general election thanks largely to anti-Tory tactical voting, will not be expecting much this time round. The ramifications of Donald Trump’s reckless war in Iran have exposed Britain’s ongoing vulnerability to fossil-fuel-related energy shocks, highlighting the practical benefits of moving to a green economy. But the knock-on effects of the closure of the strait of Hormuz have also been a gift for the Scottish Conservatives and Reform, who are framing the byelection as a local referendum on reviving oil and gas production beyond Westminster-imposed limits.

Readers respond to the release of Alan Milburn’s report into the rise of young people not in education, employment or training

In considering the release of Alan Milburn’s report, we need to take into account the support structures in the home nations of the UK (Number of young people out of work or training in UK could hit 1.25m by early 2030s, 27 May).

In the 1970s, 80s and 90s, UK governments had a effective tool to support young people to avoid unemployment: careers services run by local authorities. In the early 2000s, the New Labour government that Milburn was a part of replaced this with Connexions, a more generic advice service for youth in England, not exclusively focused on supporting work and learning.

Cllr Lucy Shaw says councils could take up many policies to help, including more support for rooftop solar installations

Your editorial is right that the government could be doing more to help with the cost of living (The Guardian view on Britain’s coming energy shock: mini-measures won’t suffice, 22 May). That extends to local government, too. Renewable energy projects, from the industrial scale right down to rooftops, can be scuppered locally even if there is national support. The wealthiest borough in the entire country, Kensington and Chelsea, has the nation’s lowest rooftop solar installation rate, at just 0.6% of households according to the MCS installer database. This is despite touting groundbreaking policies to make it easier to build solar in conservation areas.

There are so many local policies that would help. Coordinating solar installations by street could lead to material cost savings, as would simpler permitting rules, and installations on council-owned rooftops. When 80% of cars in the borough are parked on the street, cost-effective public charging is essential to ensure that drivers can make the switch, like offering discounted charging when grid power is cheapest. Partnering with housing associations, charities, and energy suppliers to help people access energy efficiency services and government capital grants, or negotiate payment plans for their bills could go a long way to making people feel more secure.

As a child born in 1949, I watched hedgehogs, foxes, rabbits, hares, butterflies and weasels, writes Anne Geraghty. I feel privileged but unutterably sad that this has gone

Amy-Jane Beer describes witnessing “a devastating demonstration of what we’ve lost” in Britain during her visit to Biebrza marshes, Poland, (Country diary, 26 May).

I was born in 1949 and remember a childhood full of moths flying around every streetlight, the dawn chorus waking us even in cities, sitting in fields full of wildflowers, watching hedgehogs, foxes, rabbits, hares, butterflies and weasels, walking through woods with beetles, ants and red squirrels all around us, listening to thrushes, blackbirds, blackcaps, woodpeckers and even nightingales singing in all directions.

Dr Richard Carter and Meirion Bowen respond to an editorial which argues that the musician still shapes modern music 100 years after his birth

Your editorial marking the centenary of Miles Davis’s birth rather understates his musical intelligence (The Guardian view on 100 years after Miles Davis’s birth: why he still shapes modern music, 24 May). Unable to play with the facility of dazzling trumpeters like Dizzy Gillespie and Fats Navarro, it was less a case of his preferring “restraint and precision” in his playing than accepting that he was technically not up to their level, and having the ability to adapt.

Listen, for example, to his earlier recordings with Charlie Parker where, following Parker’s blazing solos, Davis stumbles through the chord changes, to appreciate that instead he decided to concentrate on a gentler approach. This emerged in the collaborations with the arranger Gil Evans, foreshadowed in the Birth of the Cool recordings and later with the recordings of Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain, and subsequently his quintets with John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter, where his lack of technique became irrelevant when set beside his great lyricism.

The Basque made his Bournemouth superbly watchable, just what the Reds need after Arne Slot’s meek title defence

Bravery. It is the recurring theme in conversations with those who have worked with Andoni Iraola at close quarters and the thing, they say, that sets him apart. It was evident in the manner his Bournemouth side illuminated the Premier League.

Liverpool’s sporting director, Richard Hughes, has been here before. This time, though, rather than asking Iraola to replace Gary O’Neil and inherit a team that scrambled to safety, the challenge is to recondition one of the biggest clubs on the planet and help them rediscover the swagger that made them champions.

Thirst for renewal is strong and new players could help bridge the gap to PSG but there are no guarantees

The greatest lie ever told about penalty shootouts is that they are a lottery. This is a recognisable and trainable footballing skill, a test not just of ball-striking and placement but research, psychology, mettle under pressure. Eberechi Eze puts the ball wide, Gabriel Magalhães sends it in the direction of the Danube: this is failure on the most brutal and unforgiving terms. But it is failure nonetheless.

The second greatest lie ever told about penalties is that fortune plays no part. Any encounter decided by 10 kicks of a football will evidently be at the disproportionate mercy of random factors: the divot, the bad contact, the goalkeeper’s guesswork (and to all the preparation that goes into the process, it remains partly guesswork). That this sport – already a sport of low scores, narrow differentials and infinite variables – chooses to decide its biggest prizes on these smallest of morsels is one of its cruellest traits.

• Led two sides to Challenge Cup glory in long career

• ‘He was a true rugby league man through and through’

John Kear, the rugby league broadcaster and former Challenge Cup-winning coach, has died at the age of 71. The Rugby Football League announced that Kear died on Sunday on his return from covering Wigan’s Challenge Cup victory at Wembley for the BBC.

Kear led nine clubs in a coaching career lasting more than 700 matches, masterminding the shock Challenge Cup win for Sheffield Eagles in 1998 and then steering Hull FC to Challenge Cup glory in 2005.

Giro d’Italia triumph completes grand slam of Grand Tours although the Dane may still require a dip in from from his great rival to prevail in July

Jonas Vingegaard’s achievement in completing a grand slam of Grand Tours lifts him into a select club of champions that have recorded victories in the tours of Italy, France and Spain. The 29-year-old Dane joins Belgium’s Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Jacques Anquetil of France, Spain’s Alberto Contador, Italians Felice Gimondi and Vincenzo Nibali and Chris Froome, of Great Britain, as winners of all three Grand Tours.

It’s an accomplishment that has, to date, proven beyond his great rival, Tadej Pogacar, who, despite his multiple successes in other races, has yet to add the Vuelta a España to his wins in the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia. “It is a special day for me,” Vingegaard said, showing rare emotion as he paid tribute to the support of his family. “It’s way more than I could ever dream of when I was a kid.”

• Updates from Monday’s fourth-round matches

• Email Daniel | Jódar and Fonseca into last eight

Potapova, having lost five games in a row, makes advantage on the Kalinskaya serve, a pair of backhands, one cross then another down the line, seizing the break to trail 4-6 1-0. Neither player is really at it here, meaning the match is there for whichever of them can stay composed.

On Chatrier, Svajda is improving, surviving to break points for lead 2-1 in set two, having lost the first 6-2. If he can attack Cobolli’s second serve and backhand, he might yet make an impression in this match.

All you need to know about the 16 host stadiums in the US, Mexico and Canada

The 2026 World Cup is the largest tournament ever, and as such it involves more stadiums in more countries than ever before. A total of 16 venues will play host to this summer’s big games, and each has a story to tell about the past, present and future of sports in its city. Stadium names may look unfamiliar, as we are using the Fifa-approved names instead of the sponsored names that run afoul of the governing body’s clean venue rules.

Australia v Turkey, 13 June

Canada v Qatar, 18 June

New Zealand v Egypt, 21 June

Switzerland v Canada, 24 June

New Zealand v Belgium, 26 June

Round of 32, 2 July (1B v 3EFGIJ)

Round of 16, 7 July (W85 v W87)

In this extract from their forthcoming book on South America and the World Cup, Mark Biram and Tim Vickery describe la Seleçao’s strange buildup to the classic tournament

In January 1969, João Saldanha was appointed as Brazil’s coach. Saldanha was barely a coach – he had had a brief spell in charge of Botafogo more than a decade earlier. He was an immensely popular football journalist, who with typewriter or microphone had the fluent gift of communication, talking about the game in language that was both fresh and straightforward, easy to understand. And he was so much more. He was a charismatic powerhouse, who claimed to have popped up at many key moments in history, usually in the service of international communism. Because, yes, at the right-wing height of Brazil’s military dictatorship, a communist was appointed to coach the national football team.

João Havelange, the president of the Brazilian sports confederation, knew what he was doing. At a stroke, he had cut away all the intrigue and politicking which was surrounding the side. Saldanha’s opening move was to announce his starting lineup and his reserves. No argument, no discussion, no balancing off one region against the other. Just one man picking the team. And it worked. Brazil sailed through qualification for the 1970 World Cup.

Returning to the world stage after 12 years the 2023 African champions are ambitious and have plenty of options in attack

This article is part of the Guardian’s 2026 World Cup Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 48 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from three countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 11 June.

Tony Popovic has brought discipline and structure as the Socceroos target their first knockout win in a World Cup

This article is part of the Guardian’s 2026 World Cup Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 48 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from three countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 11 June.

For years the NBA has wondered what would happen if it had a giant who could do everything. The San Antonio Spurs star has given us an answer

The NBA season began with serious questions about Victor Wembanyama’s ability to last the distance in the playoffs. Could this brilliant ectomorph, a blend of rare height and even rarer skill, stand up to the rigors of a deep postseason run? Would his slim body snap under the intensity of professional basketball’s sternest tests? The results are in: Wembanyama will this week lead the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA finals. At just 22 years of age, basketball’s next superstar has arrived: slightly ahead of schedule, but with every part of his brilliance emphatically affirmed.

“Wemby” landed in America as the NBA’s No 1 overall draft pick in 2023, an alien in both stature (his official height is listed as 7ft 4in, though many claim he may be as tall as 7ft 6in), nationality (French), and foreign-language proficiency (fluent in English, despite never having lived outside his home country). Sure enough, “The Alien” quickly became his nickname. But the flood of tears with which he greeted his team’s defeat of Oklahoma City in Saturday night’s Game 7 of the Western Conference finals revealed a different side to this outlier of outliers: the human side. More than his freakish physique or the sheer absurdity of the spectacle he presents on court, towering over established giants of the game like some basketballing Burj Khalifa, it’s Wemby’s humanity that makes him such a compulsively interesting and watchable star. He is the alien who longs to be among us.

• Plymouth chief executive calls move ‘difficult decision’

• Players included in email will not have contract renewed

Plymouth Argyle have told the vast majority of their women’s first-team players their contracts will not be renewed this summer, the Guardian has learned, just weeks after they narrowly missed out on promotion to Women’s Super League 2.

In an email sent to almost all of the senior squad, Plymouth’s chief executive, Paul Berne, explained that the “difficult decision” to let the players go reflected “the direction of the squad for next season” and went on to thank them and offer them job references.

Fewer than 60,000 saw Wigan beat Hull KR in the Challenge Cup final and the sport needs to address its attendance problem

There was more Challenge Cup history under the Wembley arch on Saturday afternoon as Wigan Warriors secured a record-extending victory in rugby league’s most prestigious competition. But there was a slice of more sobering history too.

The Warriors’ demolition of Hull KR was watched by just 56,383 spectators; excluding the two Covid-affected finals of 2020 and 2021, that is the lowest figure for a Wembley Challenge Cup final since 1946. Granted, few sports obsess over attendance figures quite like rugby league but the reality is a statistic that stark is enough to merit a debate about where the sport goes next.

To better highlight the whole field among Europe’s elite, we chose an XI that couldn’t feature more than one player from any one team

This year we are picking a team of the season with a difference: I am allowed only one player per team. Of course, as finalists Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal have players with claims to all of these positions, so apologies to Willian Pacho and Declan Rice, among others. But what this format does allow for is an overall view of the Champions League season that was.

***

President Macron says ship subject to sanctions and posts video of operation that took place with UK support

A suspected Russian oil tanker has been detained in the Atlantic, France has announced, in the latest seizure aimed at combatting Moscow’s “shadow fleet” of vessels contravening international sanctions.

The Tagor was detained on Sunday morning in international waters more than 400 nautical miles (740km) west of Brittany with the help of the UK and other partners, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said.

Exclusive: MP and campaigners say sensitive citizen and company data could be subject to US disclosure laws

The UK’s financial watchdog is being urged to prove its relationship with the US tech company Palantir will not provide the Trump administration with backdoor access to troves of sensitive citizen and commercial data.

A US law that can oblige tech companies to disclose information to American authorities may apply to Palantir’s deal to help the Financial Conduct Authority detect crime, Martin Wrigley MP, a member of the House of Commons science and technology select committee, has warned.

Firm says its RTX Spark PC chip for Microsoft Windows will let AI agents replace the mouse and keyboard

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A new front has opened up in the battle for dominance in AI chips, as Nvidia said its latest development could replace the mouse and keyboard in how people use computers.

The $5tn (£3.7tn) US semiconductor company has launched a “superchip” that puts AI capabilities into laptops and desktop computers, a move that will pit it against Intel, Apple, Qualcomm and AMD.

Research for Roundhouse in London shows 87% of 18- to 30-year-olds believe they have fewer artistic opportunities

Rising costs, the disappearance of third spaces and reduced access to artistic opportunities are causing young people to feel “disconnected, isolated and locked out of creativity”, according to research commissioned by a youth arts charity.

The Roundhouse, a multi-arts venue in north London that reopened in 2006 with a focus on running youth programmes, has released the findings to coincide with the publication of its 20-year impact report on Monday.

Scientific dating proves streaks on walls of Bacon Hole, near the Mumbles in south Wales, is Palaeolithic rock art

In 1912, the Guardian reported on the discovery of Palaeolithic rock art on the walls of Bacon Hole, a cave near the Mumbles in south Wales – only for the painted panel’s authenticity to be dismissed by 1928.

A series of horizontal bands in red pigment were subsequently deemed no more than a natural phenomenon and the newspaper added an updated statement: “It was later established that the red streaks … turned out to be red oxide mineral seeping through the rock and not prehistoric art.”

Study finds activity is not harmful or caused by stress of captivity – and is in fact more common in wild birds

An investigation into acts of self-pleasure among parrots and other birds has reached a climax, with the results providing welcome relief for vets and researchers, not to mention the birds themselves.

Bird keepers are often advised to discourage and even punish birds for masturbating, but the study found the activity was more common in the wild than in captivity, with researchers concluding it is part of a bird’s natural behaviour.

Powerful winds and rain expected in parts of Japan and Australia, while temperatures in Spain could hit 40C

A powerful tropical storm is forecast to track near Okinawa, Japan, on Monday before moving towards the south-east of the country. Typhoon Jangmi (also known as Typhoon No 6) has formed within the monsoonal gyre over the Philippine Sea.

A monsoonal gyre is a large, slow-rotating weather system that spawns typhoons through smaller vortices formed within it. This flow can intensify storms. Such typhoons are typically characterised by broad areas of low pressure and extensive wind fields, often without a distinct eye.

Chelsea, London: I find myself moved by this garden that highlights the ‘edgelands’, those unprotected and modest places where nature can thrive

Parakeets screech and planes rumble overhead, but my attention is on the plants at my feet: the tracery of herb robert, purple nibs of plantain, flailing bramble and bristly nettle. I’m sitting on a boulder in a clearing among hawthorn, privet and silver birch. It feels a quiet space, one you might stumble on in the woods or are drawn to when you feel low, but is in fact at the Chelsea flower show.

The name of this garden is On the Edge for it evokes the edgelands, the fringes of where we live. Unprotected, modest places – not grand landscapes but ones that are close by towns and cities. Designed by Sarah Eberle, the garden marks the centenary of the Campaign to Protect Rural England and the launch of the first interactive map of England’s countryside edges, a gathering of people’s stories and memories about place.

With no recorded sightings before 1885, noctilucent clouds have been linked to volcanoes, pollution or climate change

As summer arrives in the northern hemisphere, so do the noctilucent clouds – hopefully. These high-altitude formations are as enigmatic as they are beautiful. Their name derives from Latin, meaning “night shining”.

They appear during the summer months and glow with an electric-blue intensity against the darkening western sky. Look for them about half an hour after sunset.

Managing director of Guardian Media Group who was the first woman to hold such a senior post on a national newspaper

Caroline Marland, the former managing director of Guardian Media Group and the first woman to hold such a senior post on a national newspaper, who has died aged 80, was to a considerable extent the person who saved the Guardian financially in the 1980s.

It was largely Marland’s initiative to wrest much of the job advertising market from the Times and Telegraph during that decade. This led to the creation of the paper’s successful weekly supplements: media on Mondays, education on Tuesdays, society on Wednesdays, all supported by tens and eventually hundreds of pages of job adverts, which produced revenues for the hitherto precariously financed paper that ran into many tens of millions annually.

Fans estimated at hundreds of thousands fill north London streets to celebrate women’s and men’s teams’ triumphs

About 75 people had to be rescued from height and 16 people were arrested during Arsenal’s victory bus parade on Sunday, emergency services said.

What were estimated as hundreds of thousands of fans lined the streets around the Emirates stadium in north London to celebrate the Gunners winning the men’s Premier League for the first time since 2004 and the women’s team lifting the first ever Fifa Women’s Champions Cup.

Modernisation bill would require GPs and hospitals in England to share data, reducing errors and duplication

Sharing access to patients’ health data across NHS providers in England could result in 20,000 fewer A&E visits a year and save £20m annually, the government has claimed, before the second reading of the NHS modernisation bill on Monday.

The bill, which would also abolish NHS England, sets out measures including single patient records (SPR) for every person receiving health and social care in England, requiring GPs and hospitals to securely share data as part of the government’s 10-year health plan.

Exclusive: Experts say homelessness is primary driver of crisis that led to 77 ‘avoidable’ deaths in 2025

• Falling through the cracks: ex-prisoners who died within two weeks of release

The number of people who die within two weeks of being released from prison in England and Wales has reached a record high, a Guardian investigation has found.

Seventy-seven people died within 14 days of being released from prison in 2025, 28% higher than the 60 deaths recorded the previous year and the highest since records began in 2021.

People also encouraged to make parts of home phone-free after research showed impact of adult screen use on children

Sweden’s public health agency has urged parents to declare parts of the home phone-free and to put their mobile away when they are spending time with their children, after research showed the impact of adult screen use on children.

The agency began recommending two years ago that parents and guardians “reflect” on the amount of time they spent on their smartphones around children, but on Monday it issued new guidelines offering more concrete suggestions.

Oregon man with extensive criminal record fired at three officers while speeding away from a traffic stop in 2025

A man with the unusual name Loony Toon and a lengthy rap sheet has been given 20 years in prison after admitting that he shot at police officers in Oregon, according to authorities.

The 43-year-old whose name calls to mind the classic television cartoon franchise Looney Tunes – as well as a colloquial term some invoke when describing an eccentric or irrational person – fired a gun at three officers while speeding away from a 20 June 2025 traffic stop in the community of Milwaukie, local prosecutors said in a statement on Thursday.

Lawyer and Trump admirer has risen rapidly in the polls and will face Iván Cepeda in election runoff in three weeks

The far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella won the first round of Colombia’s presidential election on Sunday and will face senator Iván Cepeda, the candidate backed by leftwing president Gustavo Petro, in the runoff.

With 100% of ballots counted, the outsider and Donald Trump admirer Espriella secured 43.7% of the vote – just over 10.3m votes – compared with 40.9% (about 9.6m votes) for Cepeda, a philosopher and human rights activist who has served as a senator since 2014.

Sterling Nasa had tickets to see Justin Hurwitz’s La La Land in Concert. When the keyboardist suddenly fell ill, he found himself on stage performing

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La La Land is a much adored homage to Hollywood, where dreamers take chances and seize unexpected moments.

On Saturday night at the ICC’s Darling Harbour theatre, that idea became a reality for a 21-year-old university student who was thrust into the spotlight at a live performance of the movie’s score – and saved a concert from derailment.

Proposal requires Rene Haas to steer US-listed British company to ‘exceptional growth metrics’

The chief executive of Arm is in line for a pay package that would make him a billionaire if he hits targets to turn the microchip firm into the UK’s first trillion-dollar company.

Arm, which is listed in New York but retains its global headquarters in Cambridge, has proposed a pay scheme for Rene Haas in which he will receive generous annual share awards plus a maximum bonus of $800m if he can hit certain “exceptional growth metrics”.

Midos Management denies ties to property group accused of making millions from bogus prayer rooms

A property investor who sells temporary accommodation to local councils is part of a family accused of avoiding tax by hosting bogus prayer sessions, a Guardian investigation can reveal.

Publicly available records raise questions about the business interests of members of the Schreiber dynasty, who preside over a nationwide commercial property portfolio via a “family-owned” investment vehicle, Midos Group.

Survey finds frustration with connectivity to 4G or 5G, highlighting weaknesses in digital infrastructure

More than four in 10 people in the UK struggle to access 4G or 5G on their mobile devices for at least half the time they are on the move, according to a survey that highlights the poor state of the country’s digital infrastructure.

The poll of more than 2,000 users of digital devices found that 45% felt frustrated with mobile connectivity outside the home at least once a week. Among 18- to 24-year-olds, that figure rose to 57%.

People with coeliac disease say inflation and shrinking ranges are making food staples unaffordable

Gluten-free versions of everyday staples such as bread and biscuits are becoming a luxury, with shoppers complaining that a “decent” small loaf now costs nearly £4.

Consumers have always paid a premium for these specialist foods, making any price increases a source of concern, particularly for people who follow a gluten-free diet for medical reasons.

Set in the aftermath of the famine, the Hamnet author’s family saga folds in myth and folklore

‘His father was ever a man of few words,” begins Maggie O’Farrell’s 10th novel, a lengthy and ambitious story set in the aftermath of the Irish famine. Land opens in 1865 on a rainswept Irish peninsula and takes us to Dublin, Rome, Quebec and Kerala as it tells the story of two generations and gestures backwards and forwards at two more. The opening line came to O’Farrell on a train journey from Belfast to Dublin, and became the way in to a story based in part on that of her great-great-grandfather, who worked for the Ordnance Survey in Ireland not long after the great hunger. “What, I wondered, would it have been like to be revising the maps at that time,” she writes in a short introductory note; “to be recording and setting down the devastation that had occurred?”

In bitter weather, Tomás and his 10-year-old son Liam are mapping a peninsula – perhaps Dunmore Head in County Kerry, though O’Farrell doesn’t specify – using surveying poles and measuring chains. Tomás is in the pay of the English, who need him not only for his surveying ability and draughtsmanship, but for his language skills: they cannot easily find out from Irish speakers the names of places, or determine who owns what. It is Tomás’s job to untangle complex local legends and obscure toponyms to create a usable map, and he wants to ensure that the marks left by the famine – the empty houses and graveyards – are recorded on it, though the “redcoats” sign their names to his work. A famine survivor himself, scarred by unspeakable trauma, he tolerates this: as we later discover, assisting the surveyors and learning their trade was his route out of the workhouse. He might not have survived otherwise.

She had a passion for butterflies and would seek out rare ones, yet this was used against her by violent, money-grabbing husband. Now this pioneering naturalist’s story has been translated to today’s manosphere

‘There’s nothing wrong with having a hobby, or even what you might call in this case a hyperfocus,” psychiatrist Dr Godrick tells Eleanor Glanville in a claustrophobic therapy room.

Outside the Phoenix theatre in Hampshire, a summer heatwave is delivering perfect conditions for butterflies. Inside, a rather darker story is being rehearsed in air-conditioned gloom. Butterfly, a new play, shines a light on one woman’s passion for butterflies and how it is turned against her when she became trapped in an abusive relationship.

The latest in our series of writers highlighting their most rewatched comfort films is a personal tribute to the inspirational British drama

For me, feeling good isn’t about escape, it’s about confrontation. Staring the thing you truly care about in the eye and giving in to it. It’s about empowerment, courage, optimism. I’m a sucker for coming-of-age films, the idea of striving to be the person you want to be despite the circumstances around you, and no film hits home for me like Billy Elliot.

The low-budget drama danced its way through cinema projectors and on to the screen in September 2000, a few weeks after my fourth birthday. The film, set in County Durham in 1984, focuses on Billy (played by Jamie Bell), the younger brother of Tony, who is part of the miners’ strike, alongside his father, Jackie, who is a widower. Billy is 11 and a reluctant boxer who finds himself drawn toward Sandra (Julie Walters) and her ballet classes, which are taking place in the boxing gym as their studio is being used to feed the striking miners. He knows these dreams are not for young men like him, and is petrified of how his older brother and father will respond to his newfound passion, but the chain-smoking Sandra sees a natural aptitude (and above all determination) in Billy and helps him to audition for the Royal Ballet School in London.

This film may be making a point about the classical vis a vis the contemporary, but its visual collages and dense poetic texts render it inert

The title of this lyrical but frustrating docu-essay about director Rita Azevedo Gomes’s travels in Greece cuts both ways. Is it expressing impatience with the classical ideals she hopes to discover there; or, borrowed from street graffiti, is it actually critiquing the modern society that has betrayed ancient standards of beauty and harmony and, in the words of Albert Camus cited here, “has fed its despair on ugliness and convulsions”?

Nostalgic aspirations and the sobering here-and-now vie for supremacy in the texts recited by Gomes and others over travelogue images from Athens and the Cyclades beyond. As if echoing heroic voyagers past, she adds a layer of fictionalisation to her exploits, reading a poem written by João Miguel Fernandes Jorge based on a journey there in 2007; it becomes the story of Irma, who romances a young man, Ion, on the island of Delos, birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. But the affair founders – and there are other reality-checks, such as the incongruous Chinese cargo ships that now traverse the 21st-century Aegean.

Bonnie has two days to get from south London to her grandparents’ house in Cornwall before lockdown in this super low budget British comedy

No offence to any Clives reading, but the intentionally naff title of this film does not inspire confidence – and turns out to be indicative of the cheerful ridiculousness of this super low budget British comedy. It is about a trio of twentysomethings on a road trip to Cornwall at the start of one of the Covid lockdowns; from the outtakes and behind the scenes clips that run over the end credits, everyone involved clearly had a blast making it. But that enjoyment doesn’t spill on to the screen – and the whimsical songs accompanied by a ukulele wear thin in less than half a minute.

Eleanor May Blackburn is Bonnie, who has two days to get to her grandparents’ house in Cornwall from south London before lockdown. Just as she is about to hit the road, Bonnie meets homeless busker Clive (Michael Kodi Farrow) and offers to buy him a kebab. But when her credit card is declined at the till, she rushes out without paying, leaving Clive to perform a stickup with his ukulele case to the bemusement of the kebab shop owner.

There’s a rare chance to catch a Tony-nominated hit live from New York, plus blasts from the past including Rent, The Audience and Hugh Jackman as a singing cowboy

Livestreams of current Broadway hits remain incredibly rare – and this has been one of the hottest tickets of the season. In the 100th birthday revival of Noël Coward’s comedy, Rose Byrne and Kelli O’Hara knock back cocktails while they await the arrival of a mutual old flame. The stars are up against each other at this month’s Tony awards, for which the play has a total of five nominations. Available from BroadwayHD on 5 June.

The Leeds group arrived in a frenzy of post-punk energy, picking at the scabs of society – then started questioning their instant success. They talk about dodging ‘the megaband treadmill’ to make their surreal new album

It’s certainly a novel way to announce your comeback. On the opening song of Yard Act’s new album, over a cacophony of doomy piano chords and crashing drums, singer James Smith announces: “I’ve got absolutely nothing – absolutely nothing new to say!” And he’s not finished there. Later in the same track, Empty Pledges, Smith whips himself up into unhinged preacher mode only to declare: “Do you feel like an impostor for every new level you ascend to too? Do you have to bluff as much as I do?”

Is it refreshingly honest to begin a record by saying you haven’t got a clue what you’re doing – or an act of ludicrous self-sabotage? “Well, I don’t know if anyone has anything new to say really,” says Smith with a grin when I meet him and bassist Ryan Needham in a London bar to discuss You’re Gonna Need a Little Music, the band’s forthcoming third LP. “We’re in this age where everything has to be a manifesto and a statement, but it’s mainly just a one-way conversation. Nobody wants to explore the grey areas any more.”

The judgey pair swap views on everything from pop culture to fashion choices and workplace strife. Plus, what toxic masculinity looks like around the world

The freshly announced Strictly Come Dancing hosts have been generating huge online chatter, but this podcast will ensure that (half of) the judging panel isn’t totally overshadowed. Judgemental sees Anton Du Beke and Craig Revel Horwood prove they have strong opinions on more than just an ex-soap star’s pasodoble by trading verdicts on everything from pop culture to sartorial dilemmas to listeners’ workplace dramas. Rachel Aroesti
Widely available, episodes weekly from Tuesday 9 June

The Radiohead guitarist once serenaded a girl with the Smiths and thinks George Michael was a genius. But what is his favourite football song?

The first single I bought
Ally’s Tartan Army, the 1978 Scottish World Cup song, because England hadn’t qualified. I loved that Scottish team – Alan Rough, Martin Buchan, Gordon McQueen, Kenny Dalglish – and the 10-year-old me got completely swept up in World Cup fever.

The first song I fell in love with
When I was 17, I fell in love with a girl called Mary, who was this huge Smiths fan. I bought Hatful of Hollow so I could serenade her with William, It Was Really Nothing. I don’t think she adored me quite as much as she adored the Smiths.

In this week’s newsletter: Yes, it’s technically still spring, but with garage already pumping out and the 00s legends making a comeback, it’s time to celebrate the often-overlooked women who defined the genre

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Hello everyone. I’m Coco Khan, covering for Gwilym this week, and I’m officially calling it. Summer is here.

No, I’m not a meteorologist or an astronomer – rather, I rely on a measure I’ve developed over many summers: the UKG Index. The more UK garage you hear – through passing car windows, pumping out of festivals, or floating on the breeze from a nearby barbecue – the more likely the mercury is climbing. And this year the sound of summer has arrived early, and with some exciting news: a Mis-Teeq reunion.

It’s not enough to wish for growth; economic success requires a sense of purpose, according to this academic

When Keir Starmer won a landslide Labour majority promising to pursue five governing “missions”, the high-profile leftwing economist Mariana Mazzucato was credited as an inspiration. Two years on, her bracing new book helps shed light on why Labour in power has struggled to project the sense of direction that “mission-led government”, as Mazzucato calls it, requires. Synthesising and extending her earlier work, here she proposes “a new economics of collective action around the common good”.

From this perspective, the economy is not a concatenation of rapacious independent forces, to be contained and offset by public policy, but a project – or rather a series of projects – with direction and purpose. Finance should be turned to the benefit of these collective goals instead of chasing short-term returns, she argues, and the creativity of corporations channelled to the public good.

Usually, individuals don’t want to be angry. In a group, however, negative emotions can rile the tribe. On the streets of London, Ed Coper felt it first hand

Back before 9/11 and the wars it precipitated, the big global focus for protest was globalisation itself. Things came to a head in Seattle in November 1999 when 50,000 protesters crashed the World Trade Organization’s party. The ensuing “Battle of Seattle”, as it came to be known, brought unprecedented attention to the growing disquiet over the inequalities of unregulated free market excesses. That’s how, a few months later, I found myself smack bang in the middle of the next big anti-neoliberal flashpoint, the “MayDay 2K” protests in London.

My experience of protest throughout high school had been pretty tame, more likely to take the form of defiance than demonstration. Socks down, shirt untucked – take that, sir! But then again times were good, even for a ratbag. I didn’t have many grievances. At least, none that could be solved by collective protest against powerful institutions that weren’t my parents.

From The Twits to The Gruffalo and an angry bear in search of his hat… Quentin Blake, Cressida Cowell, Axel Sheffler, Lauren Child and more reveal how they bring children’s books to life

Spread across a sprawling 17th-century industrial complex in London’s Clerkenwell, the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, which opens next month, is being billed as the largest institution of its kind anywhere in the world: a permanent national home for an art form that shapes everything from children’s books and political cartoons to animation, fashion, advertising and digital culture. Part museum, part gallery and part creative laboratory, the centre represents an extraordinary attempt to drag illustration out of the margins and finally place it at the heart of British cultural life.

Eventually the centre will become home to Blake’s own enormous archive: 40,000 drawings created by one of the UK’s best-known and most immediately recognisable artists. Now 93, Blake has spent three-quarters of a century bringing the words of some of our most beloved authors to life. Roald Dahl is the big one, of course – it’s impossible to think of Dahl without seeing Blake’s energetic, dip-pen pictures – but the list also includes Michael Rosen, John Yeoman, Sylvia Plath and Voltaire, as well as Blake’s own books. In other words, it’s difficult to find anyone with the same authority.

The Women’s prize-shortlisted novelist on taking inspiration from John Steinbeck, Joan Didion and Jhumpa Lahiri, and weeping through Little Women in her 30s

My earliest reading memory
I’m not sure what we were reading – The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams or the poems in Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein – but I was undoubtedly with my sister, two years older, who set the example for me to be a reader. I picture us in the back of our family car or laying across our twin beds in the room we shared.

My favourite book growing up
I loved mysteries and fantasy worlds. I read so many of the Nancy Drew books, and The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner. And I loved the Narnia stories and The Wind in the Willows. I loved books about things that can’t exist. I suppose it’s all escapism – crimes solved by children, talking animals, time travel, people two inches tall. I always loved to slip into another, better world.

When Ben Elton didn’t distract from the pain of moving my body, I found the perfect solution – the interactive smartphone game Zombies, Run!

At 56, I am running my first marathon, an old, fat, bald dad surrounded by millennials in body-hugging Lycra and smiles that look AI-generated. But I am ahead of them. For they are only competing for positions and personal bests, and I am being chased by zombies.

The black dog of depression hit me around the time of my last birthday. I didn’t feel I had achieved anything of note for an eternity. I used to work out but, for years, work kept getting in the way. I decided to kill two circling, carcass-sniffing vultures with one stone and run my first marathon.

Infinity Ward’s new game in the storied shooter genre embraces change with a potentially controversial real-world setting

There was a time when Call of Duty (CoD) regularly courted controversy. In 2009, Modern Warfare 2’s infamous “No Russian” mission saw players (optionally) shooting screaming civilians in a Moscow airport. In 2022’s entry, a drone strike mission that drew chilling parallels to the real-world US assassination of Iranian general Qassem Suleimani two years earlier was featured. The series has not always been straightforwardly palatable.

In recent years, however, the world’s most popular shooter game has largely swapped grit for melodrama, following the misadventures of a troop of larger than life elite soldiers. For 2026’s Modern Warfare 4, however, Activision’s shooter series and its developer Infinity Ward are back in tabloid-baiting territory.

A gentle daily puzzle is quietly becoming the most joyful part of my morning routine​ and reminds me that not every win needs to be epic

There’s been some pretty big news in the last couple of weeks in video game world: the long-running space shooter Destiny 2 is winding up after almost nine years, PlayStation appears to have decided to stop releasing its flagship single-player games on PC, and Microsoft wants us to look like we’re shouting every time we type XBOX. But the biggest news for me is that I have found my new favourite word game. I am going to be so bold as to call it the new Wordle.

Ribbit is one of the varied suite of daily games on Puzzmo, an online puzzle platform. It launched at the beginning of January, but I only recently discovered it because I have been unwell, bored, and spending too much time on my phone. Puzzmo’s daily hits include a satisfying shape-arranging game, variations on chess that make me feel extremely stupid, and pleasing word games, which are my favourites. Circuits has you making connections between the beginnings and ends of phrases (eg “stone cold > cold medicine > medicine cabinet”) as fast as you can. Bongo gives you a bunch of letter tiles and asks you to arrange them for a maximum score.

PC, Xbox, PlayStation 5; IO Interactive
The stealth masters behind Hitman go loud for this game about Bond’s brilliant beginnings

Given that we’ve not had a great James Bond video game in decades – or any Bond film at all in five years – there’s a lot of pressure on 007 First Light to reinvigorate a British cinematic hero. But developer IO Interactive has been auditioning for this role for some time. It’s there in the globetrotting nature of its Hitman assassination games, starring a besuited hero who knows how to turn a soiree to his deadly purpose; then there’s the developer’s evident eye for corporate opulence and brutalist architecture. Even their in-house game engine, Glacier, sounds like a secret codename cooked up in a Bond villain’s lair. All it would take is a slight shift in Hitman’s moral compass – more old boys club, fewer old boys clubbed – to turn IO’s familiar series into a Bond game with minimal fuss.

007 First Light refuses that easy route. We join young Bond in his pre-00 days, as a petulant, belligerent rule-breaking trainee. Actor Patrick Gibson begins as a cookie-cutter insubordinate, but warms to the role once he’s bouncing off M (herself a green leader looking to make her mark), and an enjoyably urbane Q who drops the frustrated quartermaster routine and introduces Bond to the wonders of vinyl. A scene where he teaches our agent to tie a bow tie is a perfect bit of prequelcraft: arriving at an iconic look through a lovely character touch.

Early works show a less familiar side to the Scottish artist celebrated for her flower and cat paintings

She may be best known for accessible paintings of flowers and cats but a new exhibition of Elizabeth Blackadder’s work focuses instead on chilly landscapes and pared-back still life compositions.

The show in Hampshire, far from Blackadder’s Scottish home, presents a less familiar side of the artist, with most of the pieces exhibited for the first time.

Longborough Festival Opera, Moreton-in-Marsh
Sinéad O’Neill’s production is persuasive and Beth Taylor’s performace as Orlando is extraordinary in this tale of unrequited love, madness and magic

The woodland outside Longborough’s theatre, deep in the Cotswolds, sneaks inside and on to the stage for its season-opening production of Orlando. With a story that sometimes seems little more than an excuse for a series of showpiece arias, it’s not an obvious choice for the festival’s first Handel opera in a decade, but Sinéad O’Neill’s production has confidence in the work and is persuasive enough to lead us through.

The flimsy plot comes from Ariosto’s poem Orlando Furioso. High-ranking warrior Orlando loves princess Angelica, but she’s not interested; she loves Medoro. Low-ranking shepherdess Dorinda loves Medoro – but he loves Angelica, see above. The usual baroque-opera love triangles and noble self-sacrifice are absent, and what we have instead is the stuff of school lunch-queue gossip. Someone hears words that weren’t meant for them and jumps to conclusions; someone else has unwisely given away a special bracelet. Then Orlando cracks: he has an extended, musically arresting mad scene and then goes on a murderous rampage that’s cleared up by the presiding magician, Zoroastro, thus allowing for a happy ending.

Kings Place, London
The US singer Thomas Hampson paired with accordionist Ksenija Sidorova to perform highlights from Schubert’s Winterreise alongside Weill and Piazzolla. Alas much of this disappointing evening felt like a vanity project

Schubert’s Winterreise – the composer’s great psychodrama in song – ends devastatingly. Der Leiermann conjures a chilling vision of a hurdy-gurdy man. Alone beyond the village he plays his melancholy tune, luring the narrator to him – perhaps also to his death? The haunting song, with its anchoring drone, begs for colours the piano can only suggest. Presumably that was the seed for this unusual collaboration between veteran US baritone Thomas Hampson and Latvian accordionist Ksenija Sidorova.

You can see the logic that swaps piano for accordion and frames the Schubert with songs by Kurt Weill and a tango by Piazzolla: this is street music with its face washed and hair brushed, invited into the salon, the cabaret, the opera house.

British landscape painting from Gainsborough to Hepworth, Wendy McMurdo’s uncanny portraits and Jack White’s debut exhibition – all in your weekly dispatch

British Landscapes: A Sense of Place
The romance and mystery of Britain’s green and pleasant land, as captured by artists from Gainsborough to Hepworth.
• Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, from 30 May to 1 November

In the Nordic country, books covering subjects such as childbirth and sex have become bestsellers among younger readers – and an export hit. Behind their success lies a unique philosophy of childhood learning

‘I wasn’t aware that I am such a brave writer and illustrator,” says Anna Fiske, a softly spoken Swedish-born author living in Norway who received death threats for a book she wrote in 2019. “I just tell things as they are.”

Fiske doesn’t write political polemics but books for children: the title of the offending book is Hvordan Lager Man en Baby?, “How Do You Make a Baby” – and, yes, there are illustrations. Distributed in English-speaking territories through Fiske’s New Zealand publisher, it triggered threats from Canada and was banned from several school libraries in the US. “They said it was pornographic.”

Backrooms stunned industry observers by taking $81m in its first weekend, a record for studio A24

Kane Parsons has become the youngest film-maker to open a film at number one at the North American box office for his directing debut Backrooms.

Parsons, 20, is seven years younger than the previous record holder, Josh Trank, who was 27 when his debut Chronicle recorded a $22m opening in 2011. Backrooms stunned industry observers by taking $81m in its first weekend in North America – which was also a record for its studio, A24.

‘Innovative artist’, who was married to George Lucas until 1983 and worked on several Martin Scorsese films, has died from metastatic cancer

Marcia Lucas, who won an Oscar as editor of the 1977 film Star Wars and was part of a group of pioneering female editors who were essential to film’s New Hollywood era, has died aged 80.

Lucas, who was married to the Star Wars creator, George Lucas, from 1969 to 1983, died on Wednesday from metastatic cancer, her attorney Deidre Von Rock said in an email to the Associated Press.

Fed up with dragging your children out the door to visit famous artworks they’re too grumpy to appreciate? Channel your inner Miffy and you’ll find inspiration all around the house

There’s a book about Miffy – the little white rabbit created by Dutch author Dick Bruna – going to a gallery that I can recite by heart. A fellow art critic friend posted it to my son soon after he was born; back then its pages were pristine, now they’re crumpled and torn. Another Miffy book on our shelves (the bunny’s a firm favourite) follows her as she makes half a dozen pictures at home, and, at the end of the day, puts them up on the wall. “That looks wonderful, Miffy,” says Mother Bunny. “It’s your very own gallery.” Her very own gallery in her very own home.

We’ve been to museums and sculpture parks across the country. We’ve braved family drop-ins and an underground gallery dedicated to digital art. We’re lucky – so very lucky – that there’s great art on offer out there. But what about those days when it’s just easier to stay home? Days when it’s raining or the trains are cancelled or your child is refusing to put on their socks and shoes. Can we introduce small children to art without the faff of packing a changing bag, planning snacks and nap times and hopping in the car or on the tube?

Piòle are the Italian city’s working-class neighbourhood taverns. Of the few that survive, many have gone upmarket – but I was looking for the real deal and affordable home cooking

Turin is one of Italy’s most serious food cities, shaped by the culinary legacy of the House of Savoy and, more recently, the slow food movement – a reputation reflected in its historic cafes and restaurants, where meals can feel refined. But that’s only part of the picture. As a local, I’m drawn to something far less formal: the piòla.

Piòle were never quite restaurants. They were places for a glass of barbera (poured at the counter from a cylindrical, quarter-litre carafe, the tubo) in rooms worn smooth by decades of use. Regulars played cards, argued about football or politics, and lingered without ceremony. Food, if it appeared, was simple and to the point: anchovies in green sauce, hard-boiled eggs, cold cuts, perhaps a plate of agnolotti (stuffed pasta).

We left our car at the short-stay car park after paying £66 for a one-week ‘meet and greet’ service

I have ended up hundreds of pounds out of pocket after paying £66 for a week’s parking at Stansted airport.

I booked through the website compareairportparkings.co.uk for our car to be collected at the short-stay car park, parked off-site while we were away, and then returned to us at the short stay.

Whether you want a stick, a spray or a tinted cream, our expert’s favourite formulas can provide year-round sun protection

• The best face moisturisers for every budget

There’s nothing quite like the warmth of the sun on your face after a long, dreary winter. But before you bask in it, you should always apply an SPF. That’s especially true if you use vitamin C and retinol serums, which can increase your vulnerability to sun damage. If you’re not wearing an SPF every day, you might as well toss the rest of your skincare out of the window.

As well as the risk of sunburn, UV rays cause longer-lasting, deeper skin damage, resulting in age spots, pigmentation and premature ageing. But if the thought of slathering sticky sunscreens on your face every day makes you want to spend your life in perpetual shade, you’ve come to the right place.

Best face SPF overall:
Beauty of Joseon relief sun rice + probiotics

Best budget face SPF:
E45 Sensitive Sun face cream

Crisp 27in 5K Mac monitor is packed with features and some of the best HDR performance you can get for work or play

Apple’s new 27in Studio Display XDR is its best monitor yet, with an exceptionally bright and gorgeous 5K screen that wants to be the pro display for Mac-wielding content creators everywhere, with a price tag to match.

Built to be paired with the latest or high-end Macs, the Studio Display XDR costs from £2,599 (€3,099/$2,899/A$4,799), although it is a cool £3,000 if you want it with a stand. It sits above the standard £1,499 Studio Display and is £2,000 cheaper than the 2019 Apple Pro Display XDR it replaces.

Whether it’s giving florals a twist or wearing a rented number, here are our top tips for decoding the dress code

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The invitation thumps on to your doormat – or, as likely, into your inbox – and rather than feel excitement for the ensuing nuptials, you feel dread. What on earth to wear?

Weddings are full of sartorial pitfalls. If there’s no dress code, the limitless options can feel daunting; if there is, it can feel a different kind of daunting, but with a useful guide to prevent you from feeling overwhelmed.

As temperatures soar across the UK, chill your space – and avoid energy-guzzling aircon – with our pick of the best fans, from tower to desk to bladeless

• The best portable neck and handheld fans

Our world is getting hotter. Summer heatwaves are so frequent, they’re stretching the bounds of what we think of as summer. Hot-and-bothered home working and sweaty, sleepless nights are now alarmingly common.

Get a good fan and you can dodge the temptation of air conditioning. Aircon is incredibly effective, but it uses a lot of electricity … and burning fossil fuels is how we got into this mess in the first place. Save money and carbon by opting for a great fan instead.

Best quiet fan for the bedroom and best overall:
AirCraft Lume

Best fan for cooling:
Dreo TurboCool misting fan 765S

Fresh, light, vibrant vegetable dishes that capture the changing of the season and Scandinavia’s long summer days

Summer is a beautiful season in Scandinavia, and the word that embodies it is “abundance”. The midsummer night doesn’t really get dark, the light is beautiful and it is only the sound of the blackbirds singing that indicates the day is ending. In stark contrast to the dark winter months, summer is all about the light, so your temperament is different and you long for different things: to be outside, to eat lighter meals and to enjoy as many fresh vegetables as possible. These two recipes would make a perfect summer’s evening meal (beach house optional but recommended): cold cucumber soup followed by a fresh and tasty tart with raw tomatoes on top of a smooth cream and crusty pastry. Velbekomme!

These compulsively snacky salt-crusted spuds are a Canary Islands favourite – and an unusual but excellent way to cook our own early-summer crop

If you’ve ever visited the Canary Islands, you’ll be familiar with papas arrugadas – often translated, somewhat unappetisingly, as “wrinkly potatoes” – which pop up on every menu there. And not, generally, as a side dish, but as a standalone snack to be enjoyed with drinks. I do love a place that takes the spud seriously, and perhaps it’s not that much of a surprise, given that the first potatoes to reach Europe passed through the Canaries on their way from Peru, which, along with the similarity between the rocky soils of the Andes and the islands, probably accounts for the long history of cultivation.

Though many unusual early varieties are still grown for local sale, the Canaries imports both seed and fresh potatoes from the UK (king edward and arran banner have become quinegua and arambana). Once upon a time, ships would leave the islands laden with winter tomatoes for the British market, and return full of tubers. For this recipe, however, you’ll need new season potatoes with thin, delicate skins, and small enough to cook whole. Cooked in salty water until the salt crystals cling to them like frost, they’re served with a fiery dipping sauce that reflects the strong Portuguese and African influences on Canarian cuisine: an unusual but excellent way to celebrate our own early-summer crop.

The cuisine is booming in the UK, with more places than ever to try bibimbap, bulgogi or tteokbokki. Here’s what to eat – and where to find it

From sizzling bowls of comforting bibimbap to crispy, hot, sweet pancakes, Korean food is exploding in popularity in the UK. Demand is rising for the country’s bold and punchy flavours, which feature soy sauce, sesame oil, the tangy, fermented kick of kimchi, raw napa cabbage and gochujang, a sweet and spicy chilli paste that elevates dips and gives an umami boost to sauces.

Last year, Waitrose reported that sales of gochujang had increased by 71% since 2024. Jamie Oliver uses it to flavour his chicken burgers while Nigella Lawson adds it to her pasta sauce. In March, Korean fried chicken was named one of Just Eat’s top 10 takeaways of 2026, while there were long queues this month at Jung, a Korean food festival in London.

As a child, I didn’t understand the ancient food decaying in my grandmother’s cupboard. Now I’m beginning to

“This oregano is best before 1985!” my sister cries, adding it to the pile on the laminate bench. It’s Hervey Bay circa 1991. My family is staying in Gran’s retirement villa, my sisters and I on camp stretchers in the garage. A single pedestal fan brings short bursts of breeze, rotating relief from the December heat.

The town is not yet on the backpacker circuit. There aren’t any cafes, shops or streaming services, and there are only so many games of Scrabble we can take.

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It started as a hook-up, but before long they were parents. Now Sofia and León are finding new ways to be intimate

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

It just felt easy, like I’d already known him for a long time. I told León I loved him after two weeks

Would you want this to become sexual? If the answer is yes, then think about what might be holding you back

I don’t know whether I am in love with my friend or not. We hang out a lot, because we work together in the same university. My feelings developed over many months and it took us a long time to fit with each other as we do now. I don’t find him perfect; I sometimes don’t like his behaviour, especially when we are with other people. However, I want to be with him a lot: I imagine going on holiday with him and doing things together.

We do have physical contact sometimes – just things like touching arms. I appreciate that and have deep affection for him. So I wonder if this could be love or if I am mistaking great friendship with love just because he is a guy. I do not know whether he is a friend, almost like a brother, or more than that.

Ailsa, 31, a systems engineer, meets Mike, 35, a paralegal

What were you hoping for?
Good conversation with someone interesting.

Amy is worried about microplastics. Melanie says she can’t bin everything. Whose argument is toxic? You decide
• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

I want to live a healthier life too, but removing all plastics is unrealistic and unaffordable

Urgent renewal emails and huge discounts figures are used to pressure people to hand over their data

You have had McAfee antivirus software installed on your laptop for years after becoming fearful that your computer would be infected. So when an email arrives to say your protection is about to expire, you are not surprised. Better still, there is a “renewal discount” of 89% if you pay on the same day.

“Once the expiration date has passed, your computer becomes susceptible to many different virus threats,” the email warns.

Whether first-time buyers, in between homes or refixing, people tell of impact of higher mortgage rates on housing

Prospects of cuts in UK interest rates in 2026, which were widely expected at the start of the year, were rapidly extinguished when the Iran war started at the end of February. The renewed threat of inflation means the Bank of England is now expected to raise rates at least once this year, with mortgage costs staying higher for longer.

The boss of Britain’s largest housebuilder said on Thursday it was the most challenging time to be a first-time buyer since the 2008 financial crisis.

Barratt Redrow boss says rising interest rates, higher student debt and squeeze on wages hitting property dream

• Business live – latest updates

The boss of Britain’s largest housebuilder has said it is the most challenging time to be a first-time buyer since the financial crisis, as the dream of home ownership moves increasingly out of reach for many young people.

A combination of rising interest rates, higher levels of student debt and the squeeze on wages is making it “challenging, very, very difficult” for young people to get on the housing ladder, according to David Thomas, the departing chief executive of Barratt Redrow.

In this competitive market, gen Z has started to turn to untraditional ways to land a job – including dating apps

Sibusisiwe Khupe, 26, entered the job market once again in September after a wave of unexpected layoffs at London marketing agency Wieden+Kennedy.

She knew landing her next full-time role was not going to be easy. Young workers have been hit hard by the weakening UK job market as vacancies fall and unemployment climbs to a five-year high.

There is no evidence that ovulation affects muscle-building, but you may feel stronger at certain times

It’s an idea that’s been enthusiastically embraced on social media: women should sync their training to their menstrual cycle. That means lifting heavier weights around ovulation, then switching to gentler movement such as yoga in the second half of the cycle – because as their hormones fluctuate so does their strength.

But there’s not much proof that this is useful, says Dr Marianna Apicella, a researcher at the University of Leicester specialising in female physiology. “High-quality evidence supporting that is seriously lacking,” she says. “There’s not really much concrete evidence for it.”

Experts hail daraxonrasib as ‘gamechanger’ for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer

A daily pill can double survival time in patients with the world’s deadliest cancer, according to the results of a clinical trial that experts are saying is a “gamechanger” and one of the biggest breakthroughs in decades.

Currently, there are few treatments for pancreatic cancer, and most do little or nothing to help. For decades, scientists have worked relentlessly trying to find clever solutions for a form of cancer that is often found late. More than half of patients are only diagnosed after it has spread.

Whether it’s Hyrox or CrossFit, some of this century’s biggest exercise trends have one thing in common: combining cardio with strength training. Here’s how to do it

Tough Mudder. CrossFit. Hyrox. Some of this century’s biggest fitness trends have one thing in common: they require feats of both strength and endurance. People used to pick a side: either you used weights and resistance machines to build your muscles or you did cardio for the sake of your heart and lungs. Now everyone wants to be a “hybrid athlete”. So is this the best way to get fit – and where do you start if you’re a complete beginner?

A lack of confidence can prevent us from trying new things or going after what we want – but it’s never too late to change our beliefs

When I was in middle school, my father told me 80% of how people see you is how you see yourself. This was terrible news at the time, because I was deep in the depths of puberty, self-loathing and figuring out how to part my hair.

Though he pulled that number out of thin air, in the intervening years I’ve found he was on to something – projecting confidence can sometimes be the key to success, professionally and personally. But how does one actually cultivate confidence? And what if our understanding of what confidence is skewed?

Sorting, wearing and even reworking some of Mum’s wardrobe has given me a way to keep her close

Only my mum would insist on buying a designer swimsuit on her deathbed. She had always found emotional solace in clothes, but shopping for herself had become futile by that point. She was, after all, lying in a cancer hospital having been told there was no further treatment available for her relentless myeloma; she had exhausted all available options in the 11 years since her diagnosis. But my 37th birthday was coming up and there was no way terminal blood cancer was going to stop Rhona from buying me a present. She loved showering her family with gifts. I would reprimand her for spoiling us. “I can’t spend it when I’m dead, can I?” she used to respond.

Of course, there was only one thing I truly wanted that birthday, but I was being forced to come to terms with that being a deluded fantasy. Despite my protestations that I needed nothing, my mum insisted: “Something nice for your holidays, perhaps?”

Once associated with wealth and celebrity, cosmetic treatments to defy ageing have become more commonplace. What is it doing to beauty standards?

Mary Munson’s first non-surgical cosmetic treatment wasn’t the result of a plan, or a concrete decision. She describes it in terms of sating her curiosity. Munson, 41, was visiting a clinic to extend her lashes when a woman working there spoke to her about a procedure that she referred to as “baby Botox” – which was, in fact, Botox. Since deciding to try it, she hasn’t looked back.

“It was just a starter to see what it was like, and I realised that I enjoyed it. And to be honest I don’t feel like I see a huge change,” says Munson, who was 37 when she started treatments. While she thinks her Filipino and Scottish genes “give me good skin”, Munson started getting other treatments alongside regular Botox injections, including platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy (sometimes referred to as a vampire facial, in which platelets are drawn from a patient’s own blood), as well as platelet-rich fibrin (PRF), a similar treatment that stimulates collagen.

The New York mayor scored a range of responses attending Eid prayers in an outfit combining football and faith

Since Arsenal won the Premier League for the first time in 22 years this month, the visibility of the club’s shirts has soared, with celebrities including Romeo Beckham and the singer Mahalia wearing them.

One particularly notable fan moment occurred when Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York, wore a kurta made out of the team’s 2025-26 away kit to attend Eid al-Adha prayers in the Bronx.

From sardines and sprats to crabs, marine life-themed fashion and homewares are making a splash

Three years after declaring the death of florals, John Lewis has discovered a new print that is making a splash among shoppers. At the launch of its new high summer collection, the retailer said fish were quickly becoming its customers’ catch of the day.

From sardines and sprats to crustaceans including crabs, its latest haul across fashion and homeware is rich in fish prints and shapes. Sales of starfish-shaped earrings are up 300% month on month, while high demand for a silky blue skirt smothered in shoals of fish has resulted in a waiting list. In homeware, sales of a set of glass tumblers that stack together to form the shape of a fish are up 400%, while a “gluggle jug” – a ceramic pitcher shaped like a fish that makes a gurgling sound as the water is poured – is becoming an outdoor dining essential. Sales of versions from Wade Pottery are up 129% month on month.

The 2,700-mile route covering the entire English coastline is almost complete. We walked less trodden sections big on scenery and history

Day one Circular walk of Lindisfarne (4 miles)
Day two Budle Bay to Bamburgh to (5 miles)

From a vinyl-focused music exhibition to beloved record stores, ‘listening bars’ and clubs, the Victorian capital’s fondness for wax reverberates in every corner of the city

When the needle drops, Elias Rahbani’s 1972 album Mosaic of the Orient (Näi, Buzuk & Guitar) cascades out from a Technics SL-1300GE-K turntable and a colossal pair of Tasmanian-made Pitt & Giblin Superwax speakers. I’m in the Listening Room – a temple for audiophiles, and to the vinyl record – in Melbourne’s Acmi, as part of Rising festival’s new exhibition The Vinyl Factory: Reverb. The gear sounds extraordinary – and it is only one story in a room filled with countless more.

Rising music curator and Triple R host Yasmine Sharaf remembers the moment she spotted that rare Rahbani record, on a 47C day at a Cairo market. “Record shopping is really hard in Egypt. Everything usually has no cover and is covered in dust. It was sitting on the very top in complete sun. Somehow in perfect condition, not warped or melted. You’d think it would just be a puddle. I feel I was supposed to find it and save it.”

From the wilds of Galloway and spectacular Pembrokeshire to the cockle sheds of Southend, you share your favourite seaside walks
• Tell us about a European road trip – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

With an impressive mix of mountain and sea views, the 130-mile Anglesey Coastal Path is a must-do for those who love a good walk. But like most locals, my perennial favourite is the offshoot trail out to the tidal island Ynys Llanddwyn. Having grown up on Ynys Môn but now living in London, for me it has become something of an annual pilgrimage in the summer months. The mile-long walk along the main beach to the island is manageable and fun for grandparents and grandkids alike – with the white-washed lighthouses offering a rewarding end viewpoint. Pack a picnic, swim in the clear waters and relax – just make sure you’ve checked the tide times!
Lavinia Brydon

A guided walk in the primeval wildwood of Perućica, where wolves, chamois and the elusive brown bear roam

‘I know this bear. He knows me. We’ve met several times.” Our guide for the day points to a damaged sign in Sutjeska national park, at the beginning of the trail that descends to the forest of Perućica in south-east Bosnia. The wooden post is covered in scratches from large claws. “Bears are the sharks of the land, because they have the keenest sense of smell on the mountain. They are highly intelligent. I’m deeply persuaded that they know who is a friend and who is a foe. I come often to the forest, so this guy knows my smell. But there was one incident, a hunter who came here to kill, and a bear peeled off his face like an orange.”

With that image, Dejan Elez commands our full attention. A Bosnian Serb law graduate turned ranger and now mountain guide, he is a born storyteller and raconteur. My travel companion, Chris, and I are rapt as he describes the famous battle that was fought near here, when Yugoslav partisans broke through a German encirclement in 1943, taking the Wehrmacht by surprise under cover of a violent storm – “the wind was rising and the lightning was like a strobe” – but after that, Dejan’s narrative leads much further back in time, into the depths of one of Europe’s most ancient forests.

Many of those who love spending time in Britain’s green places say it is awe-inspiring, calming and therapeutic

As a recent study revealed almost half of UK adults now spend less than three hours a week in natural settings such as gardens, parks, fields or woods, we asked readers to tell us about what being outside means to them.

The replies – heartfelt and passionate – came flooding in, with some admitting they just did not have the words to say how important it is.

The comedian on coming out at 20, discovering she was funny, and the special moment she marked with a tattoo

Born in Portsmouth in 1986, comedian Suzi Ruffell trained at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in London and began her standup career in 2008. As well as touring and appearing on Live at the Apollo, she hosts a podcast, Out With Suzi Ruffell, and co-hosts another, Like Minded Friends, with Tom Allen. She has also written a bestselling memoir, Am I Having Fun Now? Anxiety, Applause and Life’s Big Questions, Answered. She tours her show The Juggle until September.

This was taken in the living room of the house I grew up in, in Portsmouth. All the curtains were heavily patterned, as were the carpets. I was 10 years old and deep in my Spice Girls era – especially Mel C, who was on the roster of my early crushes, along with Kate Winslet and Jennifer Aniston.

I heard the ambulance siren getting closer. And then a voice: ‘Where do you live? We’ll take your bike home for you’

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

I was coming down a mountain bike trail when I became aware of an odd ache in the middle of my chest. At the time I was working as a specialist anaesthetist, and also had a history of working in intensive care medicine, so I immediately knew the significance of such a sensation. Which is: I was having a heart attack halfway down a mountain, somewhere an ambulance wouldn’t be able to reach me.

I knew that to have any shot of making it out alive I had to get myself down to the car park, so I coasted on my bike to the bottom of the trail, all while gripped by central chest pain. I made it to my car, got my phone and called an ambulance.

The broadcaster documents living with this debilitating, lifelong disease in a bid to help other sufferers. Plus: the soothing return of Springwatch. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, BBC Two
“It’s like having a drill inside my stomach that is going down into my organs.” Broadcaster Emma Barnett lives with this extremely painful lifelong disease that affects one in 10 women – but about which medical experts still don’t know enough, largely because of the gender health gap. In this vital documentary, she is candid about her own story and hears from other women with the condition, as they demand more help. Hollie Richardson

A new belief set is uniting some of the wealthiest men in the world around a ‘transhuman’ future – actual humanity be damned

Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, took to the Internet a few years ago to propose that homo sapiens would be the first species “to design our own descendants”. In his best case scenario, the “merge” between humans and artificial intelligence occurs at some point over the next 50 years. The alternative, where we remain simply human and the machines follow their own path, is more ominous. “If two different species both want the same thing and only one can have it – in this case, to be the dominant species on the planet and beyond – they are going to have conflict,” he wrote.

More recently, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who at one point last year was granted the power to reconfigure the US federal government, argued on his social media platform, X, that “it increasingly appears that humanity is a biological bootloader for digital superintelligence” – our role in the history of the cosmos reduced to that of the low level code that boots up a computer before you can run sophisticated programs on it.

Andy Burnham and the Reform candidate lead the polls, but issues such as flooding and the state of the high street are main concerns locally

The roads that connect the collection of towns and villages that make up this constituency in England are studded with turquoise banners declaring: “Makerfield needs Reform.”

Once at the heart of Wigan’s coal-mining industry, and represented by a Labour MP continuously since the 1900s, Farage’s party has gained a foothold here, and with any other Labour candidate installed, this parliamentary seat would almost certainly fall to Reform.

The Guardian’s landmark poll of the greatest novels published in English required collaboration and innovation across multiple desks. This is the story of how it came together

Everyone was asking each other the same questions. How many have you read? Which ones are you going to read now? What must-reads do you think are missing?

Matt Freeman, a 46-year-old designer from London, resolved to finally get around to Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie: “I’ve had it on my shelf for years – a clothbound edition because I thought that if I invested in a really great copy, I’d read it. And now I’ll finally do so – it’ll mean I can tick another one off this list.”

We would like to hear from people who are facing water supply disruptions due to warm weather in the south east of England

Thousands of properties in the south east have been affected by water supply issues caused by the warm weather, according to South East Water (SEW).

After water outages for hundreds of homes across Kent and Sussex over the last three days during record temperatures, the firm has asked customers to only use water for essential purposes like drinking, washing and cooking.

We would like to hear your stories of nightmare holidays that wouldn’t be out of place on screen

With the release of Two Weeks in August, along with new series of Four Seasons and White Lotus, it seems we can’t get enough TV about holidays from hell.

With this in mind, we would like to hear your own stories of holiday mishaps. Do you have a nightmare holiday story that could have inspired a TV show? Tell us all about it below.

How has the search for work been for you? How many job applications have you made?

The number of young people not in work or education in Britain could rise to 1.25 million by the early 2030s without urgent government action, a landmark report has warned.

Alan Milburn, the leader of the review into why so many young people are economically inactive, said the UK risked opening up a “generational fault line” between young and old without urgent steps to overhaul schools, the health service, the welfare system and the jobs market.

If you’re a millennial aged between 31 and 45, how do you feel about growing old in the UK?

If you’re a millennial aged between 31 and 45, how do you feel about growing old in the UK? We would like to hear about your experiences of the UK healthcare system, housing and income, and your thoughts on the future.

Healthcare: In your experience, has healthcare been reliable and efficient? Have you ever experienced significant delays in A&E for procedures, operations, or referrals?

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