As England prepares to take on Mexico in the Fifa World Cup, another battle is playing out just beyond the Azteca Stadium. More than 130,000 people have been forcibly disappeared in Mexico as cartel violence surges, leaving thousands of families searching for answers. They say the authorities have failed them and are demanding justice. The Guardian follows two families as they confront the police and challenge the government, determined to use football's biggest tournament to expose Mexico's disappearance crisis.

Dear England, Ink, Sherwood … I owe my career to publicly funded art. Never downplay it: it’s how we speak to each other

• James Graham is a British playwright and television writer

It shouldn’t feel like a contentious image: a large cross of St George – England’s national flag – being unfurled and laid out on a raked stage. But at that time, in that place, and in this way, you could feel one of those unique, intake-of-breath moments that happen sometimes in the theatre.

The place in question was the Nottingham Theatre Royal in the East Midlands, one of my local theatres when I was growing up. The play – forgive the self-aggrandisement – was my own, Dear England, about Gareth Southgate’s tenure as England men’s football manager: the first production in the country to receive funding through Arts Council England’s incentivising touring scheme. And the time was the opening night of the play’s nationwide tour in September 2025.

As allegations of LLM use rock the literary and media worlds, linguists explain what really distinguishes human and machine language, while novelists including Jennifer Egan and Jeanette Winterson reflect on the future of fiction in an age of ChatGPT

Three paragraphs, from three different hotel reviews. Can you tell which, if any, were AI‑generated?

“The hotel is in a great location for everything. Lots of places to eat and drink. The hotel itself is always abuzz. The tavern located on the ground floor is definitely a must. Food, service, prices and atmosphere were great.”

Scholars will someday wonder how the richest country in history chose to throw it all away. But the crisis has been there since the beginning

The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence has arrived at a moment of some embarrassment for the Republic. The United States of America, established to overthrow a mad king, has elected, 250 years later, a mad king of its very own. America is setting itself on fire at its birthday party. It always had a dramatic streak.

In 30 or 40 years, scholars of history, if they exist, will want to know how the richest country in history, with the world’s most powerful alliance network, and a scientific and research capacity fuelled by the talent of the world, chose to throw it all away.

Labour has approved a wave of renewable energy projects, but turning plans into power remains slow. Why is that?

Labour has a race on its hands if it is to lock in its promise to achieve a virtually zero-carbon electricity system by 2030.

Britain’s next prime minister will have to move fast: the climate emergency is raging, high energy bills are driving up the cost of living and the reactionary right is threatening a fossil fuel push if it wins power.

The novelist on grief, being a terrible liar, and wanting to join the circus

Born in London, Esther Freud, 63, is the daughter of Bernardine Coverley and Lucian Freud. She trained as an actor and, in 1992, released her debut novel, Hideous Kinky, which was made into a film starring Kate Winslet in 1998. Freud’s work has been translated into 13 languages, and her 10th adult novel, My Sister and Other Lovers, is out in paperback. She has three children with the actor David Morrissey, and lives between Suffolk and London with her current partner.

What is your greatest fear?
Decline.

In a speech at Mount Rushmore, the US president claimed a resurgent ‘communist menace’ posed a severe threat to the country

Donald Trump has kicked off America’s 250th birthday weekend with an extraordinary partisan attack on the “communist menace” in America, framing its supporters as “the enemy of July 4th 1776”.

The US president spoke for half an hour on Friday night at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, the latest stop on his tour celebrating the milestone anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence from Britain.

Exclusive: Analysis finds lower reading fluency than children from other ethnic backgrounds and richer peers

A third of disadvantaged white pupils in England leave their primary school unable to read well enough to access the secondary curriculum, leading to disengagement and school absence, according to new research.

The findings were published days after an independent inquiry into white working-class educational outcomes concluded the current education system was “not set up to serve white working-class children and families”.

Prime minister holds no ‘personal animosity’ toward likely successor and stresses he has a platform to build on

Keir Starmer has said Labour “should go on to win the next election” under his likely successor, Andy Burnham, based on what the prime minister had already achieved.

In his first interview since he announced he would stand down, Starmer also said he held no “personal animosity” toward Burnham, who is expected to succeed him.

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Australia lost to Egypt on penalties in one of the more disastrous shootout cock ups. Changing goalkeepers is a bold move, especially when Mat Ryan made a right Shilton of himself.

Jonathan Wilson was there.

Boy who was allegedly thrown into the area at a Cambridgeshire zoo has undergone five surgeries

A three-year-old boy left seriously injured after being allegedly thrown into a crocodile enclosure has undergone five surgeries and faces a long “rehabilitation journey”.

His family, who provided the update, also thanked donors who had raised more than £25,000. His parents said they had been “living at the hospital” since the incident at Johnsons of Old Hurst farm and zoo, in Cambridgeshire, on 18 June.

Politicians brace for constitutional turmoil if Nigel Farage’s party end up in government – or even as a strong opposition

The rise of Nigel Farage has prompted political leaders across Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to game the unthinkable: the breakup of the United Kingdom.

Unionists who wish to save the union and nationalists who wish to end it are bracing for constitutional turmoil if Reform UK emerges triumphant – with Farage as prime minister or official leader of the opposition – after the next election.

Exclusive: £20bn of ‘potential’ £30bn AI investment touted by UK ministers appears to have been hypothetical

It was to be the biggest undertaking in Britain for OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Stargate UK – a multibillion-pound UK datacentre project – would represent “a major step forward in the US-UK technology partnership”.

But the plans were paused in April, with an OpenAI spokesperson citing concerns over regulation and high energy costs.

Thousands of police deployed to Erfurt in central Germany as AfD holds conference on key Nazi date

Riot police have clashed with opponents of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party on the streets of Erfurt in Germany, where thousands met to block roads and prevent AfD delegates from attending the party’s biennial national conference to elect its leadership.

Police reported 20,000 protesters were demonstrating in the eastern city, where Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla are expected to be re-elected as the party’s co-leaders in the run-up to crucial regional elections in which AfD could win power at state-level for the first time.

In coup for Dior, couple wear French haute couture designed by Northern Irish creative director, Jonathan Anderson

Your English teacher and your gym teacher wore Dior: Jonathan Anderson, the Northern Irish creative director of Dior, has been revealed as the designer of haute couture wedding looks for Taylor Swift and her new husband, Travis Kelce.

Photographs have not yet been released, with Swift’s team in charge of timing, but a Dior statement confirmed that Swift is the first bride for whom Anderson, who joined Dior last year, has created an haute couture gown.

Officers found the body of a 34-year-old man in a luxury rental home in the Pattaya area, local media says

A 21-year-old British woman has been arrested in Thailand after allegedly fatally stabbing her boyfriend, according to local media reports.

The Bangkok Post reported that on Thursday morning local time, officers found the body of a 34-year-old man, who operated a cannabis farm, in a luxury rental home in the Pattaya area, a beachside region two hours outside of Bangkok known for its large expat population and nightlife.

The gap between America and Britain has grown economically as Trump asserts ‘the UK is dying’. Culturally, however, it’s a different story

On 1 June 1785 John Adams travelled to London to become the first US ambassador to Britain, in which capacity he was to meet George III. By his own admission, Adams trembled at the encounter. After all, it had been less than a decade since he helped Thomas Jefferson write the Declaration of Independence denouncing the king as an absolute “tyrant” who had “plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people”.

A trepidatious Adams trudged through the London drizzle to St James’s Palace, where he presented his credentials to King George. He bowed three times, then declared he would be “the happiest of men if I can be instrumental in recommending my country more and more to your Majesty’s royal benevolence”.

El Obeid becomes key battleground in war between Sudan’s armed forces and their paramilitary enemies, the RSF

Fatima is losing count of the number of drone attacks on the besieged city of El Obeid in Sudan, but says the attacks this past weekend were the most violent so far.

The drones hit schools and fuel stations, killing more than 20 people, including students, she says. “Over the past few months, seeing 40 or 45 drones is the norm. You can literally count them,” said the aid volunteer, whose name has been changed for fear of retribution.

From the gold rush to civil rights, the moon landing to 9/11, the US has always understood, mythologised and sold itself through the power of the still image

The United States was founded in 1776, but did not begin to see itself until the autumn of 1839, when daguerreotypes, the first form of photograph, reached American cities. You could argue the US began again on the morning it could look at its own face.

At first photography seemed to answer the democratic promise of 1776. A portrait was no longer reserved for the rich; almost anyone could now leave a trace of their existence. The gold rush became one of the first great American dramas to find the camera: ordinary diggers squinting into the lens, looking beyond it for gold. A more emblematic American scene can scarcely be imagined: what would be called the American Dream, a lottery everyone plays and very few win. The myth was not that they all found gold – it was that the search itself made them American.

Jonathan met Sadie when she was dating his wife. Now the two women share him – but he insists that they are the ones in control

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

When he suggested we stop seeing each other because he developed feelings for me, I told him: ‘This is too special to give up’

Oasis tune has been sung from Texas to Massachusetts and soon in Mexico City – and the players have joined in too

It has become England’s World Cup anthem more three decades after it was first released, being belted out by fans from Texas to Massachusetts.

Wonderwall by Oasis will soon be heard in Mexico City too, where the Three Lions will face the tournament co-hosts Mexico on Sunday evening – or at 1am on Monday for fans singing along back home.

The southern Italian cheese has DOP status, but which brands are milking the title and which are leading the whey?

• The best (and worst) supermarket feta

Mozzarella di bufala Campana with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status is an incredible cheese from the marshy, volcanic regions of Campania in southern Italy.

Buffaloes are hardy creatures that are more suited than cows to these wetlands, and they produce a fatty, calcium-rich, protein-filled milk that gives the mozzarella its classic soft and creamy texture, porcelain-white colour and perfectly balanced, clean and flavoursome lactic tang. It’s minimally processed, too, being made with 100% buffalo milk and rennet that’s required to be made in the same micro-region to qualify as PDO (or DOP in Italian).

You’d think there was nothing new to learn about the glamour model-turned-tabloid sensation. You’d be wrong…

‘Boobs,” says Katie Price, expressionlessly. “I always wanted a boob job. Always wanted them bigger.” Price, 48, places her tiny, tanned hands on the mountainous upper region of her pastel pink sweatshirt, under which lurk the latest results of this glandular restlessness. “I never wanted natural. I wanted stuck-on,” she says. “I wanted fake.” And so it came to pass. Now, 17 or so operations later, here she is, fidgeting on a beige sofa as she discusses the surgeries (“the pain!”), the insatiable ambition, the breakdowns, the flammable thongs, the still-bewildered ex-husbands and all the other stuff that has helped turn her into one of Britain’s longest-running soap operas; every bit of self-generated drama catapulting us, speechless, into the next instalment.

The new four-part series Katie Price: Nothing to Hide (Wednesday, 9pm, Sky Documentaries) promises several cliffhangers of its own. Here, it bugles, is a “revealing portrait” that will “go beyond the headlines”. Oh God, we think, as Price’s eyebrows disappear behind yet another nimbus of synthetic fog (the woman vapes like a furnace). Not again. We have read the unreadable memoirs, endured myriad “tell-all” documentaries and suffered any number of hand-wringing tabloid “exclusives”. Could there really be anything left to know about the woman who has, we are told, “sold every aspect of her life”? The answer is yes, actually, and it is, remarkably, as fascinating and exhausting as its subject.

(Polydor)
Continuing the rejuvenated sound of 2023’s Hackney Diamonds, there’s touching vulnerability from Keith Richards while Jagger confronts war and autocracy

Mick Jagger recently launched the Rolling Stones’s 25th album declaring, “The thing about this record is, the Stones are a rock band that also has the capacity to do ballads, country music or dance music. So we don’t get stuck in one kind of style.” The same could be said of numerous bands, but what the singer was probably driving at was that the Stones have always been able to do all this while sounding utterly like themselves. Nobody else has been able to assemble their quintessentially just-shaky Jenga tower of sound, which often sounds like it could fall to pieces at any moment but somehow never does.

They have certainly also made their share of albums that sounded like they’d been phoned in from the cricket, but Foreign Tongues continues the creative renaissance that began with 2023’s Hackney Diamonds, which at the time was their first album of original songs in 18 years. Once again, producer and occasional musician Andrew Watt captures the rejuvenated band’s joy of playing in a room together – and, as guitarist Keith Richards put it recently, kicks their asses when needed. Perhaps drummer Charlie Watts’ death five years ago has sharpened the founding pair’s awareness that their band may not last much longer, so they may as well go down blazing and have fun while they do so.

As this year’s invertebrate of the year competition launches, we join scientists studying last year’s winner

• Nominate your invertebrate of the year

Witek Morek is closely inspecting an old brick-and-flint wall on the Cambridgeshire campus of the Wellcome Sanger Institute.

“We are going to use a very advanced tool designed by bioengineers and evolved over millions of years – the human hand – and grab some moss, and put it in an envelope,” he says.

Seth Rogen brings an oddly sweet relationship comedy, and the facepainted kings of theatrical emo turn The Black Parade into a formidable live spectacle. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

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

The queen of pop returns with a new album of pristine dancefloor bangers, while the begoggled yellow munchkins indulge in a spot of time travel

Minions & Monsters
Out now
In this latest minions adventure, the yellow critters jump back in time to attempt to source some monsters so they can produce their own creature feature. As ever, the premise is largely an excuse to string a load of jokes together – and why not?

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

The oil giant’s sponsorship deal with Fifa has featured prominently at matches in Houston. But 100 miles away in another Texas city, residents say the firm’s refinery is exposing them to poisonous gases and long-term health problems

The street is wide, its grass verges thick and scruffy after a week of rainstorms. Jamal Johnson will walk home straight down the middle carrying his plastic shopping bag, a jot of motion through the stillness. He lives in one of the modest wood-panelled houses spaced out on each side, most lovingly kept and passed through at least two generations. There is nobody else in sight, but a freight train breaks the silence, grinding left to right along the line flanking the north-facing gardens. The west side of Port Arthur, Texas, could be any lower-income neighbourhood in the southern states if it were not for the looming menace on the other side of the track.

This is a sad, unsettling place. “I’ve got a load of friends and family who’ve had weird diseases,” says Johnson, his face contorting at the thought. He lists a grandfather and aunt who died of cancer, the latter at a young age after relocating here to care for other relatives. An uncle died with complications from ALS (motor neurone disease). “You know what I’m saying? Man, they’ve let off all these poisonous gases; it’s like that all the time. It’s fucked up.”

We assess the standing of the nations who played in the tournament’s last 32 before the next round of games begins

Les Bleus look unstoppable – all six of our judges ranked them No 1. Sweden did their best to cope with the French front four but were blown away by the slickest operation in town. Even when an opponent is feeling comfortable, Michael Olise or Kylian Mbappé can produce genius without notice, ripping apart the best-organised defences. “I did say that I wanted to enjoy this World Cup to the fullest,” Mbappé told reporters after the Sweden game. It is hard to imagine the fun stopping any time soon.

Azteca tie is one of those World Cup occasions that transcend sport – and Tuchel’s side face a challenge all about progress, not process

Nausea, cramps, shortness of breath. Time-lagged, unacclimatised, eyes bulging as the vertigo hits. Not to mention three times more likely to suffer unwanted swelling of the brain. Watching England play football at this World Cup has certainly been a physical trial at times. Not least for those back home hunkered around the screen, feeling the energy surge then sag again through the dead periods in Boston, New York and Atlanta.

And now we move on to the altitude of Mexico City, the Azteca, host nation energy and a beautifully pitched last-16 game, one of those occasions that seems to go beyond sport, to carry its own sense of something epic and gravitational, an emotional weather front about to break.

Rotterdam is home to 25,000 Cape Verdeans and 1,600 of them gathered in a beer garden to watch an unforgettable game against Argentina

Rotterdam knows how to script a football fairytale. Six players from the Cape Verde side who have lit up the World Cup were born here, nearly 5,000km from their parents’ islands. Five of them played against Argentina, the defending champions, in a bittersweet 3-2 defeat.

After last Saturday’sdraw with Saudi Arabia took Cape Verde into the last 32, the streets of Rotterdam were full of honking cars, flags streaming from the windows and people dancing. This is the city the locals call the 10th island of Cape Verde. The diasporas from Curaçao and Morocco have also set their own corners of Rotterdam alight during this tournament.

Egypt and Morocco are in the last 16 after shootouts but the continent’s pyramid appears to be getting broader rather than much higher

For Africa, this World Cup feels like one of those classic memes from the early days of social media. Is it a gold and white dress or a black and blue dress? Is it a duck or a rabbit? Has this been a good World Cup for Africa or one that underlines the ongoing problems of football on the continent? It probably depends where you’re standing.

For years the Confederation of African Football (Caf) had been arguing that five slots were not enough for its 54 members: only 9% of African sides were represented at a World Cup, while 50% of South America’s members were. To which the response was that South American nations had won the World Cup 10 times, whereas Africa hadn’t even had a semi-finalist until Morocco got to the last four in Qatar in 2022. Getting the balance right between representation and the maintenance of quality isn’t easy and, for all the flaws of a 48-team tournament, the fact that Africa could be given nine guaranteed slots, plus the possibility of an additional one through the intercontinental play-offs – which was claimed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – is a positive.

The need to devolve power and share prosperity is as strong as ever. Whatever the project is called, whoever is in No 10, the priority now is actual delivery

Andy Burnham has set out his vision for “good growth in every postcode”. It may seem like levelling up 2.0 – and if so, that’s very good news for the country. Because, unlike his Labour and Conservative predecessors, Burnham may well have a far better sense of how to deliver it.

Boris Johnson lifted the levelling up language from the Department for Education (DfE), deployed during my time there, but then downgraded what should have been a defining purpose for his government to little more than a towns fund. Keir Starmer rightly identified “breaking down barriers to opportunity” as a government mission, but in office he hiked up employers’ national insurance – literally taxing opportunity – in a way that was always going to hit early career, younger workers the most.

Justine Greening was the Conservative MP for Putney from 2005 to 2019

On paper, the US constitution is a thing of beauty. But the would-be emperor in Washington has revealed its great weakness

America’s big birthday has come at a bad time. On Saturday it will be a divided nation that marks 250 years since 13 North American colonies declared their independence from the Great Britain of George III. Many will be anxious that the republic they established that day is fragile – not least because of the would-be emperor in the White House.

Some will console themselves that hope and angst have always been intertwined in the American story. From the very start, confidence in a bright, exceptional US future was combined with foreboding and doubt. At the close of the 1787 constitutional convention, a woman approached one of the founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, to ask if the delegates had established a monarchy or a republic. Franklin’s answer: “A republic, if you can keep it.”

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

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

Instead of a UFC event and poorly attended state fair, how about ditching the electoral college and a new season of Game of Thrones?

I hate birthdays, especially my own, which is ominously arriving next month. I used to love them, back in those days when I had something tangible to look forward to: getting my first car, graduating high school, my first legal alcoholic drink, a new Star Wars film that’s actually good. That time is long gone. I can do all those things I listed, plus I haven’t seen a good Star Wars movie in more than 20 years. What am I even celebrating at 42? A slightly paunchier waistline? A larger bald spot? If the present you’re getting me isn’t a free Turkish hair transplant, I don’t want it. I don’t relish being 42, but imagine if I were 250?

America (the country, not the band) turns 250 this weekend, and we’re all meant to celebrate that fact on the Fourth of July. Millions of dollars have been poured into marking the occasion, though few of the events hold much appeal for me. I didn’t watch the UFC event; I have no desire to watch a bunch of cars driving around in circles, and the PragerU Freedom Truck hasn’t even come to my town. I couldn’t even get to finally see Vanilla Ice live in concert. Like every birthday, a lot of money has poured into a day where no one has any fun.

The congressman spent four months mysteriously away from work, but he doesn’t seem to think his constituents should get mandated sick days

The mystery of the missing congressman has finally been solved. Almost four months ago Tom Kean Jr, a Republican, vanished from public view. He missed more than 100 votes, all while continuing to collect his full taxpayer-funded salary of $174,000 along with excellent benefits. The only explanation given for his absence was a cryptic statement from his office in late April saying he was dealing with a “personal health matter”. Kean’s father, former New Jersey governor Tom Kean Sr, further told CNN in May that his son was battling a temporary illness and would be back to work soon.

This week, Kean finally resurfaced and explained that he’d been absent due to inpatient treatment for depression. Why hadn’t he said anything about this earlier? Kean said he was “private person by nature”. Which is great, but maybe don’t choose a job in public service in that case.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

From Albania to Portugal, privatisation of the coastline is bringing locals out on to the streets. For them, the economic benefits are few and far between

Few scenes better capture the essence of a European summer than the terminals of our airports in the early hours of the morning. Britons necking pints like a football match is on, German couples eagerly murmuring about their cycling tour across Croatia, and passengers sleeping peacefully on corridor floors. This holiday season, millions will embark on an annual pilgrimage to the hotspots of Mallorca, Corfu and Albufeira to enjoy a much-anticipated break in the sun.

But it’s increasingly likely that they will face some kind of hostility there. In Barcelona, demonstrators might spray them with water pistols or tape off the entrance to their hotel. In Tenerife, visitors might see “tourists go home” graffiti on the side of the road as they drive their rental car down to the beach.

Adam Almeida is a writer and researcher living in London

When I was 12, the antics of Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O and co were an invitation to jump out of trees. These days, I see something deeper in their refusal of filtered perfection

My name is Tom, and I am an idiot. I’ve been an idiot almost my entire life, ever since I was old enough to think it was funny and interesting to be one. So there was something sentimental for me in watching Jackass: Best and Last. It’s a final swansong for a 26-year project that is the finest document of idiocy and the Freudian death drive the modern world has seen.

Jackass debuted in 2000, when I was 12 years old. I was already obsessed with professional wrestling. I’d watch grainy VHS-quality videos of Mick Foley matches in awe, as he would jump headfirst into barbed wire, get repeatedly hit in the head with steel chairs or, famously, be thrown off a five-metre steel cage and through a table.

Tom Usher is a freelance writer

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

Andy Burnham needs the Treasury to serve devolution, raise living standards and renew the economy. The energy secretary meets that test

There are few things on which this column would agree with George Osborne. Voting to remain in the European Union was one. Backing Labour’s Ed Miliband to be the next chancellor is another.

Mr Osborne, whose austerity programme redistributed pain downwards while protecting privilege at the top, had only a week ago on his podcast, Political Currency, dismissed Mr Miliband as too difficult a sell to business and the press. He now recognises what should have been obvious: if Andy Burnham is serious about governing differently, he needs a chancellor with the authority, knowledge and political relationship with the prime minister to bend the Treasury to the project.

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

Transcription, the winner of the Orwell prize for political fiction, and Toy Story 5 show life before smartphones and screen time

In the opening pages of Ben Lerner’s novel Transcription, the unnamed narrator mentions his mobile phone more than 25 times. He is on a train to Providence in the US to visit a German intellectual called Thomas, who has just turned 90. The narrator worries that he will fail to record the interview on his phone; he texts his wife; the guard scans his ticket; he takes a photo; he FaceTimes his daughter; he uses Google Maps for directions to his hotel. He even dreams about his phone. Then he accidentally drops it in the sink.

The novel is set during Covid, but there is no mention of Donald Trump or Joe Biden. Last month Transcription was awarded the Orwell prize for political fiction. “The question of how certain forms of media flatten or monetise our attention – I do think that’s political territory,” the author said of his win. With its shiny black cover and stark white typeface, this slim novel is designed to remind to us that the book is also a handheld portable device. It invites us to consider the relationship between art and technology. The smartphone has rewired us. “I was glitching, craving my cellular phone on a cellular level,” the narrator confesses.

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

Readers respond to the profile of Iason Gabriel, a philosopher and research scientist at Google DeepMind

The Guardian’s profile of Google DeepMind’s philosopher was encouraging because it showed how seriously many of the people building AI are taking their ethical responsibilities (‘There’s this deep mystery of what, actually, is this thing?’: the philosopher inside Google DeepMind AI, 30 June). Yet it also left me wondering whether the most important decision has already been made.

The article asks whose moral compass should guide artificial intelligence. My concern is that the direction of travel may already have been set, not by philosophers or engineers, but by the incentives surrounding the technology. Hundreds of billions are now being invested because AI promises commercial returns and geopolitical advantage. Those pressures are understandable, but they are also quietly determining the future before society has consciously debated where it wants to go.

Readers respond to an editorial about the artist’s legacy and the impact of the Tate Modern’s blockbuster exhibition

In her own time, Frida Kahlo (Editorial, 26 June) did not enjoy the financial success that her so-called legacy does now. There’s a message there. Perhaps we should be rethinking how we invest in art and artists. The current Tate Modern exhibition hosts 30 Kahlo works and is padded out with more than 200 artworks by others.

Perhaps her spin-off has some good, but given that minimal visitors will know anything about Mexican art, to enable them to contextualise her canon, arguably we might ask if hosting Kahlo exhibitions ad nauseam (currently showing in London, New York and Italy) makes her legacy more significant or simply encourages more cushion covers to be printed.

One reader was surprised by how many people responding to Annalisa Barbieri’s advice column equate successful parenting with independence

Reading the comments below Annalisa Barbieri’s latest advice column online (I wish my son wanted to spend more time with me, 28 June), I was struck by how many people equated successful parenting with raising independent adult children.

But life isn’t always that straightforward. There is a largely invisible generation of midlife parents still caring for adult children who remain Neets – not in employment, education or training. Many are living with neurodivergence, severe mental illness, post-Covid syndrome or chronic ill health.

Dr Louise Lawson says heatwaves expose the inequalities in society, with low-income families and those with caring responsibilities bearing the brunt

Your report (‘We feel like the peasants’: women and low-income families bear brunt of heatwave, 26 June) highlights an overlooked dimension of climate inequality. Too often, discussions of extreme weather focus on infrastructure while neglecting the unequal social conditions that shape people’s ability to cope.

My research on women in multiple low-paid employment did not examine climate change directly, but it revealed how women juggle low-paid jobs and unpaid care with little capacity to absorb unexpected shocks.

All the latest news from Saturday’s live action at SW19
Sabalenka finds form on grass | Order of play | Mail Tanya

Away from the singles courts, there’s plenty to keep an eye on in the mixed doubles too. It’s not been a good morning for the British-Dutch fifth seeds Julian Cash and Demi Schuurs, already knocked out in straight sets by Brit-Canadian duo Joe Salisbury and Leyla Fernandez.

There’s a tough match coming up for Brits David Stevenson and Jodie Burrage who must face Italian top seeds Andrea Vavassori and Sara Errani on court 14.

All the latest news from Saturday’s action at Old Trafford
Raf Nicholson’s WT20 World Cup final preview | Mail Tim

Sooryavanshi is out there, waiting to face his first ball in international cricket … which may well be from Jofra Archer, his team-mate at the Rajasthan Royals. But it will be Abhishek Sharma who faces the first ball of the day.

Fun fact. Adil Rashid, England’s senior pro, was playing international cricket before Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was conceived. Rashid made his debut for England’s T20 team on 5 June 2009; Sooryavanshi was born on 27 March 2011.

• Australia 31-33 Ireland in rugby international in Sydney

• Ireland hang on as Ben Donaldson misses last-gasp kick

After the Socceroos’ deflating loss to Egypt earlier in the day, Australian sport needed a shot in the arm. And the underdog Wallabies, who had lost seven of their past eight Tests, almost delivered it in style at Allianz Stadium in Sydney, going within a few centimetres of upsetting the world’s third-ranked side. Instead, despite scoring five tries with exhilarating attack, the Wallabies fell to a cruel 33-31 defeat to Ireland right at the death.

Ireland had not played a Test since March and Australia November, but both teams shucked off the rust quickly, trading a flurry of tries in the opening quarter. Australia drew first blood, snaffling a loose lineout and hammering the Ireland line before Carter Gordon speared a long ball to Jock Campbell who caught it on his boot laces and passed to flying Wiradjuri winger Dylan Pietsch who dived into the corner.

• Mercedes driver passes Ferrari rival on lap eight of 17

• Norris takes third, edging out Russell and Verstappen

Mercedes’s Kimi Antonelli won the sprint race before the British Grand Prix after a feisty scrap with Lewis Hamilton who had led for the opening half of the short-form race here on Saturday. Lando Norris claimed third for McLaren with Antonelli’s Mercedes teammate, George Russell, in fourth.

In a frenetic and action-packed dash at the old airfield, Hamilton had led from pole as the crowd roared him round the track only for him to succumb to the superior pace of the Mercedes engine. He was powerless to resist when Antonelli came at him, but still put in a sterling effort to secure second place.

Teenage sensation is a fearless racer but taking on Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard is setting the bar very high

Paul Seixas may be the youngest Tour de France debutant since 1937, but he is not lacking in confidence. Reminded of the scale of the challenge facing him, in hoping to usurp the dominant four-time champion, Tadej Pogacar, he said calmly: “There are different ways to win a cycling race.”

Seixas fever is running high in Barcelona on the eve of the Tour, even if the 19-year-old says that he “won’t take risks for anything other than the general classification.”

• Confusion on Kempton future over bulldozing plans

• Aqueduct bids farewell after 132 years as NYC’s racetrack

We’re on to the second race already, and they’re starting to load for the big handicap. Indalo is favourite at 5-2, with Tribal Chief at 4-1 and Classic at 13-2. Indalo is my nap pick for the day, though he is a little shorter than expected in the betting.

Eclipse contender: Saddadd

Familiar Lord’s conditions could be key factor in defeating confident opposition, say Nat Sciver-Brunt and players

In February 2023, after Australia won their fourth consecutive world title, at Newlands, Beth Mooney was asked what advice she would give to a team who were trying to beat hers. She thought for a moment, then said: “Just don’t turn up. It’s too hard. Don’t bother going.” There can be no better summary of what England will be up against on Sunday when they face Australia in the final of the Women’s T20 World Cup at Lord’s.

Of course, other teams continued to turn up: South Africa triumphed over Australia in 2024’s semi-final, while India replicated the feat in the 50-over World Cup last year. But for a team with no silverware in their possession, Australia are pretty relaxed about life right now. On Thursday the team were spotted in the crowd at Wimbledon, Phoebe Litchfield leading an “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” chant. They will know very well that they are massive favourites to spoil England’s party on Sunday, after a flawless run in the group stages and a hammering of West Indies in Tuesday’s semi-final.

Up to 30 million people expected to attend delayed events for Ali Khamenei, killed at start of war with US and Israel

Huge crowds have gathered at the funeral of the former Iranian supreme leader after the gates of the sprawling Grand Mosalla mosque in central Tehran let in thousands of mourners who had been waiting through the night to enter the grounds.

Iran is staging mass funeral processions for Ali Khamenei – whose ⁠37-year reign was brought ⁠to an ​end in February by the first airstrike of the war launched by the US and Israel. By 5.30am, the Tehran streets surrounding the mosque were already filling up as Iranians, some travelling for hours and many carrying flags or posters of Khamenei, made their way to an event designed to emphasise the country’s sense of loss at the killing of the supreme leader and desire for revenge. Emotions filled the air as the crowds chanted Death to America and Israel.

Group, whose constituencies have derelict or at-risk pools, are campaigning to make outdoor swimming available for all

Cooling, blue expanses of water have been a lifesaver for many lucky enough to live near a lido during the recent UK heatwave.

Now, a group of 20 MPs, along with the Fabian Society, are calling for this relief to be made accessible for all by getting water companies to fund the reopening of the country’s lost lidos.

Exclusive: Anger at union’s decision to put 200 of its 600 staff in England at risk of redundancy

The British Medical Association is threatening to axe up to a third of its entire workforce to help it tackle a significant cash crisis.

The doctors’ union has placed 200 of its 600 staff in England at risk of redundancy. That has triggered anxiety and fury among staff, who have accused the BMA of appalling behaviour and “hypocrisy”.

Former worker at Metropolitan on Park Lane in London says he had to share tips with managers and other staff

A Mayfair casino is facing legal action from a former waiter who says he was not given a fair share of tips.

The former worker at the Metropolitan Mayfair – part of the Metropolitan Casinos group owned by the US investment firm Silver Point Capital, which operates seven casinos in the UK and four in Egypt – has filed a complaint with the employment tribunal in London over his share of cash tips given directly to him, which he says he was forced to share with managers and other staff.

Annie’s lawyers argue that prosecution was so badly executed it breached her human rights

At her kitchen table, in a village in southern England, Annie* sits with a blue folder stuffed with court documents, witness statements and correspondence relating to the trial of her stepfather, whom she had reported to police for alleged childhood abuse.

As she prepared to tell her story for the first time, she was flooded with emotion when a photograph fell from the folder. The square Polaroid showed a young girl standing in a field beside a pony, dressed in jodhpurs and a riding hat.

Cornell Lab for Ornithology plans data linkup between app and population monitoring on eBird platform

The Merlin bird ID app will allow users to feed real-time bird identifications into one of the world’s biggest citizen-science biodiversity projects in an update it is hoped will aid conservation of at-risk birds.

Since 2021, the free Merlin app, created by the Cornell Lab for Ornithology, has used machine learning to provide an almost instantaneous sound-identification service for birdsong, along with an image for each bird identified. In future, the detections of bird species recorded by people will be automatically collected on the global online database eBird, which contains more than 2bn bird observation records.

Public health authority says 2,025 excess deaths probably an underestimate and that it expects toll to rise further

The number of deaths recorded in France surged by nearly 30% during the hottest week of the record-breaking heatwave that scorched much of Europe last month, the public health authority has said, adding that it expected the toll to rise further.

Public Health France said on Friday there had been “an increase of 29.1%, corresponding to 2,025 additional deaths compared with the previous week”. It said the figure was probably an underestimate and “mortality will rise further”.

Guardian recreates audio landscape of past filled by loud morning symphony before 73m wild birds were lost

Imagine a deafening abundance of birdsong so loud it wakes your children at dawn; the chirrup of house sparrows, the chattering of starlings, the melody of the wren, and the clear high-pitched flute of blackbirds saturating the garden, reverberating around your local park, dominating your neighbourhood from early morning to evening twilight.

So loud is the song of the thrush that the naturalist and ornithologist WH Hudson wrote in 1919 that he was grateful when observing one that it was perched on a tree at a distance from his home, “so that when I woke at half past three or four o’clock, the shrill indefatigable voice came in at the open window, softened by distance and washed by the dewy atmosphere to greater purity”.

In this week’s newsletter: Activists are accusing the government of privatising the coastline to support the country’s thriving tourism industry, at the expense of locals

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Every year, millions of visitors from across the globe visit Jamaica to enjoy its gorgeous beaches, fuelling a multibillion dollar tourism industry. But, in recent years, its picture-perfect coastlines have become a battleground for access after successive governments privatised its shorelines to support the country’s thriving all-inclusive hotel industry.

The complex row, which has seen protesters clashing with police and campaigners tearing down barriers around privatised properties, is now playing out in the country’s courts. We take a closer look at each side’s case, and what’s at stake.

European heatwave is worst ever and impossible without climate crisis, scientists say

A sad inevitability’: after decades of climate warnings, why is Europe so unprepared for rising heat?

‘But we’re just 1% of emissions’: do smaller countries’ climate efforts matter?

Popular national pastimes of drinking and football will make post-Mexico Monday a day of sore heads and sleepy children

England are through to the round of 16 in the World Cup and, as is customary in the run-up to a major international footballing fixture, the country may be losing its mind.

Because piled on top of the 60 years of hurt for the men’s team, England fans have another obstacle to overcome with the forthcoming fixture: a gruelling kick-off time of 1am BST.

Half of county’s planning infringement notices target caravans in fields, fuelling eviction fears for vulnerable people

People living in caravans and horseboxes on farms in Cornwall because they can’t afford or find a house to rent are facing homelessness after a crackdown by the council.

Cornwall council recently announced that it was one of the top five authorities in England for enforcing infringements of planning regulations. Half of those notices, it said, were served on caravans in agricultural fields.

Avoiding traditional questions and stilted broadcast clips, PM-in-waiting has evolved his style of media management

He is due to become prime minister in just over a fortnight as parliament begins its six-week summer break. But at a marquee speech this week, he took precisely zero questions. So is Andy Burnham, as the opposition leader, Kemi Badenoch, claims, dodging scrutiny? His allies say no: he is simply going about it in his own way.

The former Greater Manchester mayor is very obviously a different type of communicator from Keir Starmer, and therefore always likely to convey his message in methods beyond Starmer’s traditional questions after a speech and the occasional stilted broadcast clip.

Zoe Watts and Amanda Stanhope launched network after being repeatedly assaulted by partners while unconscious

Two women who were drugged and raped by their partners while they were unconscious have said hundreds of people – including about 80 in the UK – have come forward to an international support group for victims of the crime.

Zoe Watts and Amanda Stanhope, who were both repeatedly assaulted by their partners while unconscious, are calling for tighter laws to stop men sharing images and videos of sexual assaults and rape online.

The programme, aimed at keeping 1m girls in school across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, withdrawn after aid cuts

A leading higher education programme, aimed at keeping 1 million girls in school across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, has been axed by the British government just two years after it was announced.

The scheme, Strengthening higher education for female empowerment (SHEFE), which was unveiled with some fanfare two years ago by the outgoing Conservative government, had a £45m budget to increase access to higher education for 1 million students worldwide. It has now had its tender withdrawn, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said.

The death of a Thai girl has highlighted the dangers of the country’s illegal but ‘normalised’ sex tourism trade

Sky Kanyarat was playing pool in the early hours of the morning in one of Thailand’s most famous red light districts when a middle-aged foreigner with a heavy gait approached her.

She had often seen him walking past the bar where she worked in Pattaya, a city about a two-hour drive from Bangkok. But this was the first time Kanyarat had seen him come in.

Investigative journalist had enemies in high places and accused, Yorgen Fenech, is establishment figure from powerful family

On the steps of the courts of justice in Valletta, there is a bronze statue of Malta’s late president. A bundle of papers in one hand, Guido de Marco stands on a plinth, looking out at passersby in the busy street below.

Every morning since Wednesday this week, his daughter has walked up the steps of the same courthouse, in dark glasses and smart clothes, a bundle of papers in her hand. A sought-after criminal lawyer, Giannella de Marco is representing the man accused of ordering the 2017 murder of the investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, in a case that continues to dominate public debate nearly nine years after the event.

German foreign ministry summons China’s ambassador and says anything that enables Russia to continue its war of aggression represents a ‘threat’ to Germany’s security. What we know on day 1,592

The Chinese ambassador in Berlin has been summoned for urgent talks about media reports that Russian soldiers were being trained in China, the German foreign ministry said on Friday. These “deeply disturbing” reports point to support for Russia from Chinese state actors, in particular the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, it said. “Anything that enables Russia to continue its war of aggression against Ukraine also represents a threat to our security,” the ministry said. On 20 May, the German daily Die Welt reported that the Chinese army had secretly trained several hundred Russian soldiers on its territory, some of whom had been deployed in Ukraine, citing classified documents from European intelligence services.

Russia’s ⁠Defence Ministry claimed ⁠on ⁠Friday its ​forces had “completely” taken ⁠control of Kostiantynivka in eastern Ukraine, ⁠whose capture Moscow ‌has long sought in its advance through Donetsk ‌region. The battle for this city, which had about 78,000 inhabitants before the war, has been taking place since late 2025 and now constitutes the main Russian effort on a front more than 1,000km long. “The city is now entirely under our control,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. There was no independent verification of the claim.

A massive Russian glide bomb strike on the centre of the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Friday has killed at least four people, including a ⁠child, ⁠and injured ​27, regional governor Oleh Hryhorov said. Other areas in the Sumy region and in southeastern Ukraine, closer to the frontlines, also came under Russian ⁠attack, killing a total of six people. After the attack, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for Ukraine’s allies to intensify pressure on Russia “so that the terror can be stopped”. Sumy region, under near-constant attacks by Russian forces, is on the Russian border and Moscow has been trying to expand what it describes as a buffer zone there.

Ukraine is looking ⁠for ways to lower tension ⁠with Warsaw, Poland’s ​prime minister Donald Tusk said on Friday, adding that Poland’s neighbour to the east should come to terms with its history in order to join the European Union. Diplomatic relations between the two countries ⁠deteriorated after Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Poland’s top honour because Zelenskyy had named an army unit after insurgents who massacred Poles in the second world war. Tusk, a political opponent of Nawrocki, has ​been trying to smooth tensions, and said he ‌had received positive signals from Friday’s meeting ‌between Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and his Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski in Warsaw. There are proposals for consultations between historians and talks between religious leaders from both nations, Tusk said.

Lithuania’s president said Friday his country wants to be integrated into western nuclear deterrence against Russia as it moves to end a ban on atomic weapons deployment. Speaking at a Berlin press conference, President Gitanas Nauseda said Lithuania was taking steps to remove the constitutional ban and added: “We would like to be the integral part of this nuclear deterrence.” “A few days ago, I initiated a constitutional amendment to remove the existing restriction on the possible deployment of nuclear weapons in Lithuania,” he added. Shortly afterwards, a group of 50 Lithuanian lawmakers submitted an amendment, which still has to be put before parliament.

The World Athletics Council on Friday reaffirmed its decision ⁠to exclude Russian and Belarusian athletes from international competition, four years ⁠after it ⁠initially ​imposed sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine. World Athletics voted to end its eight-year ⁠doping ban of the Russian Athletics Federation in 2023 but the separate ban over ⁠the invasion of Ukraine kept out their athletes. “We ​presented options for the ‌Council to ‌consider on this matter, however the original decision remains ‌on the sanctions that protect the integrity and fairness of our competitions, with no tangible movement towards peace negotiations having materialised,” World Athletics President Seb Coe said in a statement.

Increase to long-term incentive plan means James Jesic could significantly outearn predecessor Liv Garfield

Severn Trent has doubled the size of a long-term reward scheme for its new chief executive to as much as £3.1m and he could receive significantly more than his predecessor, despite anger over water bosses’ pay.

The FTSE 100 water company said its long-term incentive plan (LTIP) would increase from 200% of new chief executive James Jesic’s base salary to 400%, according to changes revealed in the company’s most recent annual report. Jesic could receive as much as £4.8m in a single year after salary, annual bonus, LTIP and benefits are counted.

Only 330 car club vehicles available for rent after big provider left British market, data reveals

The number of car club vehicles in London has fallen by a “catastrophic” 89% since Zipcar ended its service in late 2025, with former users being pushed to consider buying or leasing.

Car clubs allow drivers to use vehicles parked around a city, using apps to book and unlock them. Zipcar dominated London’s car club market before the US company’s shock decision to pull out in December 2025. That left a gap that has yet to be filled for Londoners without a car.

Reports of ‘stampede’ for stays near water amid concerns over cancelled flights, higher air fares and EU border delays

Summer bookings at Britain’s hotels and holiday parks have jumped, compared with last year, as fears about flight cancellations and long delays at EU borders have prompted many UK holidaymakers to stay closer to home this year.

There has been a surge in last-minute bookings for UK holidays amid warnings that airlines will have to raise their fares because of higher jet fuel bills that have resulted from the war in the Middle East.

Retailer says sharp rise in fan sales over the latest heatwave weekend left stores scrambling to source stock

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The boss of Currys has said supplies of air conditioning and fans are “tight” ahead of another UK heatwave, expected next week, after a boom in sales sent retailers scrambling to source new stock.

Alex Baldock, chief executive of the electrical goods retailer, said cooling kit had been “flying off the shelves” during June’s record heat in England. Sales of fans were up nearly 3,000% over the most recent heatwave weekend compared with a week earlier, while air conditioning sales increased 330%.

It’s full of heart, humanity and such extreme competence it’s actually comforting to watch. No wonder it’s swept the boards at awards

‘Let’s go save some lives.” That’s the mantra of Noah Wyle’s A&E doctor at the start of every shift in The Pitt. The gritty US hospital drama seems an unlikely contender to be the most hopeful show on air. Yet despite the death, disease and pointed social commentary, The Pitt somehow pulls it off.

The smash HBO hit’s second season climaxed last night in a blaze of Fourth of July fireworks, group cuddles, cute babies and cathartic karaoke. A third season is about to enter production. For millions of devoted fans, it can’t be stretchered back on to our screens soon enough.

In this week’s newsletter: A tour through the moments when American celebrities crossed the ocean and landed somewhere entirely unexpected

Hurrah! Today is the Guide’s 250th instalment, an anniversary celebrated the world over, with concerts and ticker tape parades and 10-part documentaries about its historical significance. You’re probably already a bit exhausted by all the wall-to-wall coverage, in fact. Also tomorrow, the United States of America might be celebrating some birthday or other, though it doesn’t sound like anybody is terribly fussed about it.

To mark both anniversaries, this week’s Guide is a “special relationship” special, with 25 of the most unlikely US/UK pop-cultural crossovers – those moments where American celebrities find themselves rubbing their stardust, intentionally or otherwise, all over weird corners of British popular culture, or vice versa. Read on for tales of Orson Welles in Norwich and Matt Berry at the Oscars.

The summer’s most anticipated film will raise epic questions about culture wars, classics and the nature of film-making

In a plot twist worthy of the ancient bards themselves, the hottest movie of the summer isn’t a superhero flick, or an alien-invasion yarn, or a crinolines-and-bonnets period drama. Instead, it is an adaptation of a nearly 3,000-year-old epic poem, which film-maker Christopher Nolan is releasing as a follow-up to Oppenheimer, his grim, Oscar-winning study of the origins of nuclear war. Nolan, previously director of Memento, the Dark Knight trilogy and Dunkirk, has now turned his attention to the Odyssey, the classical Greek saga that, along with its companion epic the Iliad, is one of the foundational works of western civilisation.

Nolan’s adaptation is a big-budget affair, the largest of his career at an estimated $250m, and the director has peopled it with a cast ranging from established Hollywood stars such as Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway, newer teen-friendly faces including couple of the moment Zendaya and Spider-Man’s Tom Holland, and idiosyncratic choices such as Lupita Nyong’o, Mia Goth, Samantha Morton and fellow director Benny Safdie.

The hit riches-to-rags comedy comes to the BBC. Plus: celebrate Independence Day with Madonna, Beyoncé, Springsteen, Gaga and more. Here’s what to watch this evening

9.30pm, BBC Three

She’s been a soap icon, a Royle and even a zombie pensioner. Now the actor is starring in Ann Droid, Diane Morgan’s madcap comedy about an elderly woman and her cybernetic companion

Sue Johnston is the kind of actor who usually can’t stand seeing herself on screen, but for Ann Droid she made an exception. The new sitcom by Diane Morgan and Sarah Kendall stars the 82-year-old as a recent widow whose son hires a humanoid robot called Linda (played with delightful uncanniness by Morgan herself) to assist her after he moves out. The results are initially farcical: Linda is a dated – and therefore relatively cheap – model who lacks the intelligence of newer variants and attempts to cheer people up by blasting Cotton Eye Joe at them. Yet the pair soon become inseparable. Johnston describes the show as “rich with humour and love”. When she watched it back, she found it so absorbing that “I forgot it was me – I very rarely do that and I just enjoyed it.”

Ann Droid is worth raving about on its own terms – it’s rambunctiously funny and exceptionally poignant – but it is clear Johnston’s enthusiasm stems from somewhere else too. “I’m proud of Diane and I just want it to work for her,” she says with feeling. The pair met on the set of the Sky sitcom Rovers before Morgan made it big with Philomena Cunk and Motherland and kept in touch. “Which you don’t with everyone. We’re both silly about our dogs; we just made a connection.” She was thrilled to reunite. “There’s a lot about Diane that reminds me of Caroline Aherne. They’ve got that northern, straight-face, cut-through humour. And they’re geniuses.”

Now grown, three siblings search for clues as to why their parents left them at a Barcelona railway station in 1984 – and uncover a secret family history they could never have imagined

Did you know your surname when you were five years old? The more you think about it, the harder the question becomes to answer. Most of us will have been lucky enough for it not to matter – parents or guardians were always on hand to look after those details. But for Ramón, Elvira and Ricard, it was a very real issue. Their family name was a mystery. Over its four episodes, this gripping documentary series both shows and tells what that absence really means.

The three siblings were found by a station guard as they wandered around Barcelona’s Estació de França in 1984. They carried no luggage or ID. The oldest of them ( Ramón) was five. They had been driven there by a man they knew only as Denis. He had left, ostensibly to buy them sweets, and never returned. No adults came forward to claim them so they found themselves in the Spanish childcare system.

Abandoned is on Disney+

O2 Academy, Glasgow
In her first UK headline show in 16 years, Jett has a terrific knack for a cover version, though she’s a touch nonchalant – and there’s a real misstep

‘I’m not a very good storyteller,” shrugs Joan Jett, sporting black leather and trademark poker face. If you’ve come expecting something as sappy as sentimental anecdotes at this anniversary tour celebrating 45 years of her career-defining albums Bad Reputation and I Love Rock’n’Roll, you’d better jog on.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer isn’t here to chat, or pat herself on the back. This first UK headline show in 16 years delivers straight-shooting hard rock, from early cuts with the Runaways to her most recent releases with the Blackhearts. At 67, Jett’s voice is still deep and commanding – if time has added more gravel, it’s only for the better – and the Blackhearts’ current iteration as a simplified three-piece play hard and fast. It’s all real rock history, but it comes across more like history than it should: even the adrenalised teenage terror of Cherry Bomb is delivered with cool, even stiff, nonchalance.

The Irish fiddler brings pop exuberance to traditional songs that range from disco to haunting a cappella with a fearless sense of genre fluidity

From Carlow, Ireland
Recommended if you like The Mary Wallopers, Chappell Roan, Anohni
Up next SlutTrad EP out now, UK and Ireland tour starts in October

At a recent London show, SexyTadhg – real name Tadhg Griffin – appeared in a glittering pink corset, channelling high-camp cabaret. And then, they started playing the fiddle.

Digital artists from Maa-speaking peoples including the Maasai and Samburu are gaining popularity in Kenya with a blend of traditional and modern sounds

As the sun sets, a goat’s leg sizzles on the fire in Kenya’s Mau Forest, a bumpy three-hour drive from the nearest Tarmac road. “Nowadays, Maasai shoot with cameras, not spears,” the manager says as he watches a Maasai musician looking at himself on a smartphone screen.

Julius Kesier, alias Kamurar Maasai, a musician and influential community mentor, is being filmed at his manyatta settlement. The spear he carries is purely for show.

Shaham/Virginia Symphony Orchestra/Jacobsen
(Canary Classics)
The US violinist’s plush tone and laser-focused intonation enriches the solo line in these two violin concertos, with the Virginia Symphony light on its feet

Pairing Samuel Coleridge-Taylor with his musical idol Dvořák is a shrewd idea. The British composer, of Sierra Leonean heritage, usually finds his Violin Concerto coupled with a little-known English work. Here, juxtaposed with one of the 19th century’s most popular concertos, it more than holds its own.

Coleridge-Taylor’s concerto premiered in Connecticut in 1912 (despite the original parts going down with the Titanic). Although he doesn’t quote actual spirituals, the harmonies and melodic contours are reminiscent of African folk music. Gil Shaham has the measure of the work, his plush tone and laser-focused intonation enriching the solo line in a generally more sumptuous performance than most rival recordings. Eric Jacobsen and the excellent Virginia Symphony Orchestra ensure the accompaniments remain sufficiently light on their feet.

For Ross and Rachel Menzies, making peace with our smallness can help us navigate the challenges of human existence

Ross G Menzies is, by his own admission, “a very old man” by the standards of the human species. A century and a half ago the average life expectancy was in the 30s, “so how can I whinge if I develop something today and [get] told that I’ll be dead by Christmas?” he jokes.

“If I can see that I am just one of the 107 billion that have lived, and that I will go to dust like all those before me, it is easier to face the difficult times that we are in.” He pauses. “Diminishing the self is one of the most important things that we can do.”

This lavishly researched book shows that dots and dashes are an essential component of style, whether you’re a medieval monk or Donald Trump

How do you feel about exclamation marks? Otherwise known as gaspers, screamers, dog’s cocks, or shrieks. In his Modern English Usage, Fowler said that using too many betrays an “uneducated or unpractised writer”. Martin Amis called them “joke badges”, and Theodor Adorno “soundless cymbal-crashing”. The novelist Elmore Leonard specified that you were allowed only two or three every 100,000 words. He was being generous.

Florence Hazrat notes that the Nazis loved exclamation marks, with Goebbels pencilling in triplets of them into a speech for Hitler. The modern German linguist Konrad Ehlich is described here as believing that “slapping exclamation marks on to the end of statements turns all utterance into shouting, and all thinking into order”. At the same time she derides male scholars who have complained about previous editors inserting exclamation marks into the speech of Beowulf on the grounds that it feminises the hero.

Cafés by Holly Pester; The Acrobat by Wisława Szymborska; Volvelle by Rachael Boast; Tree of Knowledge by Victoria Chang; Talk a Blue Streak by Lila Matsumoto

Cafés by Holly Pester (Fitzcarraldo, £12.99)
Beginning with a sequence of prose poems in which the speaker embarks on an anti-epic quest to open her own cafe, Pester’s second collection builds into a meditation on the nature of desire and disappointment. Comic timing remains a strength, as does her linguistic flexibility, wielding language as a weapon in the face of exploitative working conditions, endless monthly direct debits (“Even my egg subscription is a disaster”) and an intensifying cost-of-living crisis. Juggling the demands of caring for an ageing parent, the excited desperation of a love affair, the “fudgy ordeal” of work and the possibility of parenthood, Pester’s speaker discovers solace in the third space of the cafe, both a meeting point and melting pot. “Here begins inspiration, here begins drama,” she suggests. “I order another coffee in honour of circumstantial life.” Ambitious and inviting, this confident collection confirms Fitzcarraldo’s entry in the arena of contemporary poetry.

The Acrobat by Wisława Szymborska, translated by Stanisław Barańczak and Clare Cavanagh (Faber, £12.99)
A slimline selection of Szymborska’s work, showcasing intimate and immediate poems that explore themes of endurance and astonishment. Reflecting the turbulent history of Poland in the 20th century, Szymborska describes life both during and after conflict, documenting the violence of war alongside moments of resilience and poignant domesticity. “After every war / somebody has to tidy up,” she reminds us. “Someone has to shove / the rubble to the roadsides / so the carts loaded with corpses / can get by.” With plainspoken wisdom and deadpan humour, these poems celebrate the ordinary in extraordinary times. Rooted in the pains and joys of everyday human experience, Szymborska’s poetry proves “The commonplace miracle: / that so many common miracles take place.” The book ends with her 1996 Nobel acceptance speech, in which she praises the inexhaustible wonder of the world: “It looks as though poets will always have their work cut out for them.”

Covering three generations, this tangled story of secrets, childhood, abandonment and care might be her best work yet

In 2018 Daisy Johnson was the youngest writer ever to be shortlisted for the Booker prize, for her debut novel Everything Under, a gender-fluid reimagining of the Oedipus myth involving canal boat communities and their complex family dynamics, plus a strange monster lurking in the depths. Before that, her short‑story collection Fen, with its blend of the uncanny and the workaday, was critically acclaimed. She has since written Sisters, a psychological horror that uses supernatural elements to explore sibling bonds and grief, and The Hotel, a series of seriously chilling interlinked ghost stories. Now comes Long Wave, which, while it shares some of these hallmarks, is in many ways finer and more subtle: perhaps her strongest work yet.

Long Wave is a story of three generations of mothers. As a small child Ori was found after being “abandoned” by her mother on a wild, uninhabited island somewhere off the coast of England. What happened to Ori’s mother, and why they fled to the island together, only for Ori to later be found and adopted by a scientist specialising in hares, is a question that returns to her with full force in adulthood when she finds herself newly postpartum and struggling to cope.

With players leaving EA’s series once life there felt like a grind beset by ethical concerns, this quirky new sim promises a better life elsewhere

For 26 years, the life-sims genre has been dominated by one series: The Sims. Originally designed by Will Wright, creator of Sim City, EA’s virtual dollhouse series has grown into a $5bn [£3.8bn] empire with the constant release of new games, expansion packs, and collaborations cementing its place among the bestselling video game franchises of all time. But things are beginning to change. New contenders are emerging and turning the heads of even loyal players in The Sims community.

The most recent, and promising, of these is Paralives, once the solo project of indie designer Alex Massé, who is now employing a small team of developers. Released on the PC games platform Steam in May 2026 as an early access title (meaning it’s technically unfinished and looking for user feedback), it sold 250,000 copies in just eight hours. On that first day, the concurrent player count hit 78,603 – not far off The Sims 4’s all-time peak of 96,328 in 2022. While Paralives is a small project, this success is understandable. Following the news of EA’s controversial acquisition by a Saudi-backed business consortium, some simmers are looking for what they see as a more ethical alternative. But this is only part of the game’s appeal. The real draw is the game’s focus on creativity over realism: the quirky details that made many fans fall in love with The Sims in the first place.

Nintendo/TNX; Nintendo Switch
A joyful collection of vibrant rhythm games includes catching veggies in mid-air, practising dance choreographies and speaking to an alien

It has been a strange decade for the rhythm game genre. The legendary progenitors Rock Band and Guitar Hero are seemingly gone, yet companies are manufacturing plastic guitars again. Tango Gameworks, a studio best known for delivering survival horror hauntings, made Hi-Fi Rush and it ruled, but Microsoft sold the studio. Indie titles such as Sayonara Wild Hearts and Rift of the NecroDancer have done well on the margins, but now Epic Games has swept in, adding a rhythm action mode to Fortnite so now its mainstream again. All these titles have reinforced the ideas laid out by their forefathers: rhythm can intersect with video games as much as it already intersects with our everyday lives.

Few series hold this ethos to heart as strongly as Rhythm Heaven. Dormant since 2015, a new entry, Rhythm Heaven Groove (known as Rhythm Paradise Groove in Pal territories), doubles down on the concept of offering bitesize, rhythm-based experiences where you follow auditive cues to perform all manner of increasingly exhilarating actions with just a few buttons. Whether you’re catching veggies in mid-air, practising dance choreographies, or speaking to an alien, each mini-game is intended to be a vibrant, micro cacophony with its own rules.

With the much-anticipated release of Grand Theft Auto VI only available as download, Sony is following suit

Sony said on Wednesday that it would stop releasing new video games for the PlayStation console on disc in January 2028 following a shift in consumer preferences.

“Following this date, new games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only,” the company said on its official PlayStation blog.

A preview of the forthcoming sci-fi game from Gareth Damian Martin showcases their unmistakable talent for innovation and game design

Over the past decade, an impression has taken root among gamers that any real creativity and originality in the industry is to be found in the indie, rather than mainstream, sector. Gareth Damian Martin can claim some responsibility for that. Their first game, 2020’s In Other Waters, merged sci-fi and underwater xenobiology in a uniquely calming and thought-provoking manner, while Citizen Sleeper (2022) and Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector (2025) were full-blown sci-fi epics with ultraminimal aesthetics and a rare intelligence.

Martin has broken with tradition by unveiling their next game, Signet City, far in advance of its 2027 launch. Set in a dystopian monochrome city, it’s a narrative role-playing adventure with a curious first-person perspective. “You play as a parasite,” says Martin. “And it felt natural that it should be a game where you see the world through the eyes of your hosts, very literally. You wake up in the mind of a person called Sid at the same time as she’s waking up in the river of a city. You’re coming to understand what you are, why it is that you’re in the mind of this person who doesn’t know that you’re there, along with what your capabilities are, and what the world is, through Sid.”

The first time I saw a show, I felt like I had discovered a new language. It’s since become one of my greatest pleasures

When I was a young girl living in suburban London in the early 1960s, I was looking for ways to find excitement. The first time my mother took me to see the London Festival Ballet (now the English National Ballet), I felt a sense of rapture as I realised that the body could say things words could not.

I was yearning for more, and that night at the Royal Festival Hall, I saw glimmers of the world out there waiting for me. Watching the dancers, I felt something shift in me. It was like discovering a new language, one that I immediately wanted to speak.

Baltic, Gateshead
Close to Home pairs the two artists’ contrasting visions of the pursuit of happiness in north-east England. There are many good things but they don’t add up

In Tish Murtha’s Youth Unemployment series, shot in Newcastle between 1979 and 1981, young men slouch and smile, cigarettes hanging from their fingertips as they study a hand of cards or share a private joke. Beside Murtha’s images in this show, a film by photographer Kuba Ryniewicz finds present-day residents of Newcastle and asks them what has made them happy today. The subjects talk about the sun, breakfast, connecting with friends and family. The answers are almost universal, and you could imagine the subjects of Murtha’s photographs responding in the same way.

Despite more than 40 years dividing these projects, they both capture the human pursuit of joy, no matter the circumstances, and the desire to seek comfort in the company of others. Both Ryniewicz and Murtha are celebrated for capturing their communities. Their ability to shoot raw, real, unflinching moments derives from the fact that they were there, living among it. It is this similar approach – and the fact that they both photograph residents of Newcastle – that has placed them together in an exhibition at the Baltic entitled Close to Home.

From Miles Davis to Count Basie and Etta James to Prince, Rotterdam’s North Sea jazz festival has hosted the biggest names in music. As the event turns 50, musicians and organisers share their favourite memories from past years – and tell us why jazz isn’t dead

For a weekend in July each year, a vast warehouse complex in the port city of Rotterdam becomes home to the biggest names in jazz. Under the banner of the North Sea jazz festival, the labyrinthine, windowless space has played host to performances from the likes of Miles Davis, free jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman, singer Etta James, saxophonist Wayne Shorter and even Prince.

“We’ve had every major figure in jazz play for us over the past five decades,” senior programme manager Sander Grande says. “It’s the place where all the musicians want to hang and where audiences come to see art that is true and beautiful.”

Siobhan Davies Studios, London
Watching a group of artists produce new work based on Davies’s 1977 classic Sphinx, which none of them know, makes for a rewarding evening

The project: five choreographers create new dances in response to Siobhan Davies’ 1977 solo Sphinx. A potential glitch: they’ve never actually seen Sphinx. The starting point for this year-long project (there will be 20 choreographers by the end) is not a gimmick, but typical of the ever-questioning Davies, now 75, who was one of the pioneers of contemporary dance in the UK.

Instead of showing them the dance, Davies talked to the group about her experiences making Sphinx nearly 50 years ago, and what that felt like (Davies was inhabiting her animal self in a very graceful solo, which you can see when the film is shown post-performance). Our attention is drawn to process, something often frustratingly hidden from an audience, who see just an iceberg’s tip of what goes into creating a dance and what a performer might be feeling inside their spine, their muscles, their organs, their imagination.

At Siobhan Davies Studios, London, until 3 July. The next chapter will take place in November

The Indian photographer dunked his iPhone underwater to get this shot of his pet

Rashid Sheriff’s fascination with photography and drawing originated in his school days, though “due to various limitations and circumstances, I couldn’t pursue those interests”, he says.

For the past 18 years, Sheriff, who is from Kerala, in south-west India, has been working in Qatar as an auto electrician. Smartphones, however, have allowed him to return to his passions once again.

A leading light of American TV comedy, directing sitcoms such as Friends, Frasier and almost every episode of Cheers

James Burrows, who has died aged 85, was one of the most influential figures in US television sitcoms for more than four decades. He was the co-creator and primary director of Cheers, one of America’s most beloved and successful sitcoms, which ran for 11 seasons between 1982 and 1993 and won 28 Primetime Emmy awards. Its final episode was second only to that of M*A*S*H as the most-watched of all time.

However, unlike producer/writers such as Nat Hiken, Norman Lear or Larry Gelbart, who had stamped their marks on previous generations, Burrows’ influence came entirely as a director. As such he was intimately involved in the creation of many shows, and enjoyed long runs on sitcoms such as the Cheers spin-off Frasier, Friends, and Will and Grace. For years he was the first-choice director of pilot episodes, used to sell programmes to the networks; he did almost 100 of them, including two versions of some, if the first produced only a lukewarm response.

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

(Warner)
After years spent chasing trends like trap and Latin pop, Madonna settles back​ nicely into​ old-school dance music to tell vivid vignettes of life in 80s New York

‘Ask yourself this – what are you doing it for? / Is it for you? Is it for them?” ponders Madonna during Bring Your Love, a collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter from Confessions II. It’s a question you could ask of her decision to release a follow-up to 2005’s Confessions on a Dance Floor 21 years on.

The official line is, of course, that it’s for her. Confessions II was inspired by Madonna’s 2023 Celebration tour, a rampage through her back catalogue – with staging that recreated the videos for old hits including Don’t Tell Me and Human Nature – that apparently set the singer thinking about her past. Certainly, Confessions II is rich with references to Madonna’s history, and not only the album from which it borrows its title and its initial structure, a sequence of house-influenced tracks that segue into each other like a DJ mix. There’s also the trip-hop-inspired Madonna of Bedtime Stories (the album concludes with a suite of slower, more introspective material); the club-hopping, fame-hungry Madonna of her 1982 debut single Everybody, who keeps cropping up in the lyrics; and the maternal, spiritually inclined Madonna of Ray of Light. The Test, a duet with her daughter Lourdes, is an older, wiser sequel to that album’s lullaby-like Little Star, alluded to in its opening lines.

Lily, 26, a PhD student, meets Brodie, 24, a chef

What were you hoping for?
Love, passion … marriage. Failing that, some good craic and a free dinner.

From serums to hand soap, fragrances to hair stylers, here are the beauty buys that justify the price tag and the ones you can happily get on a budget

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Walk down any beauty aisle, and you’ll be told every product is essential, transformative and worth hocking a kidney for. For every £300 miracle cream that claims to somehow change your entire facial structure, however, there’s someone – usually on social media – insisting you can buy a perfect dupe of a cult luxury fragrance. It can feel bewildering.

After more than 15 years working in the industry – and testing hundreds of products a year – I can confirm that beauty is rarely as simple as luxury v high street. But there are a few insider realities about how beauty products are made, priced and marketed that are worth knowing before you decide which are worth the spend – and which ones aren’t.

Whether you’re walking the dog, puddle-jumping with kids or dancing in a soggy festival field, these are the wellington boots that topped our tests for comfort, support and grip

• The best men’s waterproof jackets
• The best women’s waterproof jackets

A good pair of wellies will keep your feet warm and dry, and give you a decent grip underfoot. They’ll also offer all-day comfort and support, alongside reliable waterproofing, so it’s worth investing in the very best wellies to see you through season after season.

But sizing, tread patterns, cushioning, warmth levels and even the materials they’re made from all vary, depending on the brand and style. I’ve put 15 of the best wellies from well-known names through their paces.

Best wellies overall:
Barbour Bede wellington boots

Best budget wellies:
Mountain Warehouse Mucker neoprene long boots

Always wondered what everyday stuff celebrities buy, where they shop for food and the basics they scrimp on? The skincare expert talks vinyl, McDonald’s tea and the body lotion she buys on repeat with the Filter

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Caroline Hirons started her career working at the Aveda counter in Harvey Nichols before launching her successful skincare blog in 2010, which has since amassed more than 160m views.

Her debut book, Skincare, was a Sunday Times bestseller. Caroline launched her skincare app, Skin Rocks, and her skincare brand of the same name in 2022.

Potion kits, walkie-talkies and interactive pets … here are our top picks for seven-year-olds (without a Labubu in sight)

• The best gifts for six-year-olds

There are seemingly endless gifts available for seven-year-olds, which can make the choice feel overwhelming. This probably stems from their growing individuality. At this age, most children are becoming more independent and confident and can play on their own or with friends, without full adult supervision.

“At seven, children start getting into things such as kits, puzzles, cooking and sports,” says Rachel Carrell, CEO of the childcare company Koru Kids. “The key here is to pick things that stretch patience and perseverance without feeling like homework.”

A spicy, umami-rich salad provides sweetness and crunch alongside these simple Chinese-style courgette pancakes

This week marks nine years since I started writing this column, and here’s something I’m excited by: that we’ve only just scratched the surface when it comes to our collective knowledge about Asian cuisine. When it comes to Chinese food, for example, we might know a fair bit about, for example, Cantonese or Sichuan food, but what about Fujian or Hunanese? There are still so many riches to discover and excellent meals to be had. Today’s offering is a small token in that vein: a simple vegetable pancake made with courgette, known as hutazi and straight from the homes of Beijing. I’ve taken the liberty of embellishing it with some hot and sweet cucumbers.

A rainbow assortment of sunshine quenchers that look lavish but can be dispensed in short order

Cynar is an artichoke amaro – unfashionably brown but incredibly delicious. It can be made into an ugly spritz, or you can embrace its hue and make this little number. My aperitivo of 2026.

Juicy stone fruit charred on a griddle, or on a barbecue for extra smokiness, is the inspiration for a dessert that’s as easy as it is delicious

Dessert is so often forgotten about once the barbecue comes out, and, as someone with a sweet tooth, I always notice. Grilled fruit is one of my go-tos, not least because it’s easy and delicious, and allows you to enjoy the likes of pineapples, peaches and bananas in a way you don’t often get to, with a smokiness that’s hard to achieve any other way. Here, I’ve gone for peaches, grilled until charred and drizzled with honey, and served them with some brioche, which is brushed generously with salty honey butter before being toasted on the barbecue.

A refreshing Mancunian twist on two classic British gin-based drinks, infused with elderflower liqueur and earl grey

This is a reimagining of two classic British drinks, the English garden and the London fog, but with a Mancunian twist. It brings together gin, earl grey, elderflower and honey in a refreshing, lightly floral cocktail that’s perfectly suited to drinking in the garden on a hot day. We like to champion local producers, so use Salford Distillery’s gin, but any well-balanced, citrus-forward dry gin will work.

Lucy Bryant, Society, Manchester

You don’t have to force passion about a role you find boring, writes Eleanor Gordon-Smith. And it could help by asking if work has to be meaningful at all

• Read more Leading questions

After six months of unemployment following redundancy, I am re-entering the workforce. Initially I set out to change my career completely but that hasn’t transpired. I have spent the last half a year being present with my kids, attending school activities, baking, exercising, reading and staying on top of household chores. At times I’ve felt bored, but ultimately having one parent home has made for a smoother, simpler life.

I’m heading back to work so we can keep finances flowing. But now that I’ve had my time out, it all feels so lacklustre. Reading LinkedIn makes me feel ill – the AI slop, the bombastic words. I keep thinking: do people really care about this?

Graham and Josephine were friends for years, but after their spouses died they discovered a mutual attraction – and a fondness for adventurous sex

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

Our sexual preferences cover everything from vanilla to being tied up and spanked

You say you don’t put him under pressure, but he seems to feel it. Could you be overcompensating for your initial reluctance to have children?

My husband and I have one son, in his late 20s. We’ve always been devoted to him, keep in touch on a weekly basis and see him about once a month (he has a busy job and has recently started a new relationship, which seems to be making him very happy).

I never really wanted children, possibly due to my traumatic childhood: an absent, mentally ill father; and a single, emotionally imbalanced mother who made me the centre of her life. When my husband talked about having children, I gave it careful consideration and decided in the end to give it a go. Once our son was born, I embraced motherhood fully. We both adore him.

Philip, 74, an antiquarian book dealer, meets Carol, 66, who is retired

What were you hoping for?
Reciprocated love at first sight (I don’t ask for much in this life). To meet a kindred spirit who might even become a partner.

‘Home fee’ qualification ends in 2028, leaving those hoping to study in UK not now eligible for British loans

British teenagers living in the EU could be priced out of UK universities in two years’ time as a Brexit rule change means they face the double whammy of paying costlier international fees, while losing access to student finance.

British passport holders living in the EU still qualify for “home fee” status at UK universities. But this will no longer be the case when the grace period ends in 2028, meaning the first wave to be affected are starting their A-levels, or equivalent, this autumn.

For months I’ve been trying to receive my FIT payment, which should be more than £1,000

I moved into my new house 14 months ago, and soon afterwards applied to ScottishPower, with whom the solar panels are registered for a feed-in tariff (Fit), for transfer of ownership of the panels and the tariff.

After many emails back and forth, I got a response saying they had all the information required.

Trusted by millions, the finance expert has seen his name and face used to mis-sell a string of fake investments. And yet, he says, it would be ‘very simple’ for the government to stop them

This month, an email from a consumer landed in Martin Lewis’s inbox. It was from an elderly woman with a disability who had been scammed when she invested in a scheme purportedly endorsed by Lewis – and lost her life savings. “THEY ARE BASTARDS!” Lewis wrote at the top of his social media post about it. Even though the personal finance expert is a veteran campaigner against fraud, he says he had “tears running down my face”. He still sounds upset. “I felt a mixture of frustration, anger and sadness.” Not only for the plight of the woman, but for the “constant, ongoing deluge of shit from the scammers”.

Lewis never advertises anything. To hammer home the point, his social media profile picture has the words “I don’t do ads” tattooed on his forehead. But still, people fall victim to deepfake videos and frauds that appear to show him offering investments. The scale of harm is great enough that MoneySavingExpert (MSE), the company Lewis founded in 2003 and sold in 2012 for up to £87m – he is now its executive chair – has someone full-time handling these cases.

The car lease company won’t rescind my contract because it says the vehicle is driveable. The only problem is, it won’t even charge

My brand new Peugeot EV stopped working within a fortnight of delivery.

The dealer postponed the repair appointment by a month because it was too busy. Peugeot Assist, operated by the RAC, eventually collected it for repair under warranty two weeks ago, but it never reached the dealer.

Cortisol is bad. Testosterone makes you aggressive. Melatonin helps you sleep. Experts bust common hormone myths

False The main puberty hormones are oestrogen and progesterone for girls and testosterone for boys. “They are active in the womb during foetal development and in infancy in a phase called mini-puberty,” says Sasha Howard, clinical reader and honorary consultant in paediatric endocrinology at Queen Mary, University of London and Barts Health NHS trust.

Differences in unhealthy cholesterol levels and blood pressure found to have ‘narrowed or disappeared’ in over-40s

Many adults living with obesity have “indistinguishable” cholesterol and blood pressure levels compared with those who are a healthy weight, largely because of the use of statins, according to a study.

In some cases, people with obesity were “better off” than those of a healthy weight, researchers added.

Polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome is underdiagnosed and inconsistently managed, according to Nice

Up to 4 million women with irregular periods should be investigated for polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, according to new NHS guidance.

PMOS, previously known as polycystic ovarian syndrome, is believed to affect up to 13% of reproductive age women, the World Health Organization estimates.

Holistic care for incurably ill people has to include discussions about death and dying – but getting there is hard

It could be her usual generosity or disquiet, subtly disguised, but she leads by asking about “the kids”. Mine, not hers.

The question from a patient who has known me for years is a reminder that goodwill in medicine goes both ways. I scroll to a photo of my daughter, flanked by her brothers.

Naomi Osaka leads way in making bold sartorial statements just before a tennis match – but she is not alone

At Wimbledon this week, Naomi Osaka walked on to court wearing frills, a bustle, outsized bows and extended sleeves. Based on Japan’s ceremonial dress, as well as Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, the pieces designed by Hana Yagi conformed to the all-white Wimbledon dress code but the first one was so high-fashion that it debuted on Vogue before it was seen near a tennis court.

Osaka, who in January went viral at the Australian Open for wearing an outlandish design with mega-pleats based on the look of a jellyfish, is leading the way when it comes to experimental “walk-on fits”. But other players have also used the moment to make sartorial statements, not least Frances Tiafoe who did a surprise reveal – dramatically ripping off his trousers to show the shorts underneath.

With her kaftans and her headbands and even the odd paper hat, snobbish Margo stole every scene in the sitcom The Good Life. This was what colour TV was made for

Penelope Keith died this week at the age of 86. A formidable actor who came across in real life as grounded, humble and charming, she was known for playing brittle, status-obsessed characters on stage and screen. And none were more memorable than The Good Life’s Margo Leadbetter, whose command of a room depended as much on her diva-level wardrobe as on her pristine home counties vowels. Here was someone who refused to accept the concept of being overdressed, even when answering the hallway telephone. From the moment we first see Margo (in episode two – she is only heard off-screen in episode one), in a screamingly loud chiffon tangerine kaftan, it is obvious that she is the one to watch – first and foremost for her style.

In the 2025 documentary The Good Life: Inside Out, now on Apple TV, celebrating 50 years of the 1970s sitcom, Keith explains that most of the series’ costume budget went on Margo because of her frequent outfit changes: “And people couldn’t wait to see what Margo would wear next.” Keith used to spend Mondays – “my one day off” – in Harrods (“occasionally Harvey Nichols”) trying on pieces: “All those hours in there I spent, trying on those lovely floaty clothes …”. Here are a few of her best looks.

It’s been dubbed ‘an American royal wedding’, so who will win the bridal commission of the century? We’ve whittled it down to nine lucky contenders (including one for the groom)

Ever since Taylor Swift announced her engagement to NFL star Travis Kelce via an Instagram post last August, fans have been gripped by a near year-long frenzy of sleuthing and speculation over the wedding plans.

This week the couple will finally be tying the knot. With guests reportedly signing NDAs and dates flying around Reddit, the facts are scant – but it’s been reported that the couple have rented out Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden, an arena which can hold more than 19,000 people, for celebrations on July 2 and 3.

Once dismissed as frivolous, spots are having the last laugh – popping up on celebs, catwalks and all over the algorithm

For years, stripes have been the thinking fashion person’s choice. The style equivalent of remembering to charge your phone overnight. Bracing like sea air, with a top note of French intellectualism. In stripes, you can captain a ship and feast on oysters.

Spots and dots are much less serious. From a distance, they could be smiley face emojis. Spots bounce and dance, whereas stripes are rigid. They are spontaneous and giddy, where stripes are rational. The polo scene in Pretty Woman, when Julia Roberts wears that chocolate polka dot dress, is an iconic fashion moment not just because it’s a great dress, but because the dress itself does so much storytelling. Those polka dots set Roberts apart as vivacious, adorable. The buttoned-up crowd around her does not stand a chance.

A quest for the settings that inspired Homer – and Hollywood’s latest blockbuster – turned into a personal voyage of discovery

Swimming ashore from the boat I can see a narrow shingle beach covered in driftwood. There are logs, bamboo canes and the sundried planks of an old shipwreck. The steep climb up the hill behind is not easy. I skirt thick clumps of thorn and abandoned ancient olive trees, scrambling over jagged outcrops of limestone. Every time I curl my fingers into a rocky niche I think about snakes. The only residents, however, are spiders. Their webs are strung between the trees, and so thick and strong that I grab a stick to slash through them. No one has been here for a long time.

Near the hilltop I stumble on a ruined stone building. Who lived here, I wonder? And where have they gone? A few steps further and the land abruptly ends in a vertical white cliff that plummets into an improbably blue sea. Far away, in the haze, there is a stack of Ionian islands and one of them, I know, must be Ithaca.

Beach-hopping, gorge hikes and awesome archaeological sites feature in your best memories of Greece

• Tell us about a family day out in the UK – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

We first noticed Milos as we travelled home from Crete, flying directly above it and deciding that was where we must go next. It didn’t disappoint. The island was calm, peaceful and strikingly beautiful. Milos isn’t well known, but it should be; the true home of the Aphrodite of Melos, displayed in the Louvre, Paris as the Venus de Milo. The northern coast was spectacular, shaped by volcanic activity and particularly picturesque. Sarakiniko is the perfect stop for photographs with its white rock. Truly an unforgettable trip.
Chris Rimell

In his new book, Jack Thurston cycles the quieter roads and forgotten hill tracks of Scotland, exploring Britain’s most remote and rugged terrain

There aren’t many roads in Britain where you can pull over to cook breakfast and finish it without seeing a single car. While my friend Ben got the stove going, I wandered around the ruins of Dun Dornaigil, an iron age broch (stone roundhouse) more than 2,000 years old. Above us, low cloud drifted across the dark cliffs of Ben Hope. This was exactly the kind of lost lane we’d come to Sutherland to ride.

Our journey had begun the day before, in Lairg – the traditional “crossroads of the north”. With its Spar shop, hotel, train station and a population of about 800, Lairg is the largest inland settlement in one of the most sparsely populated regions of Europe. Sutherland – literally, the “southern land” of the Vikings, who held sway over the far north of Scotland from their stronghold on Orkney – tests life to its limits: bare mountains, impassable peat bogs and one of Britain’s wildest coastlines.

From a less-crowded camino and the Slovenian Alps to a stunning river trail and Ireland’s remote Beara peninsula

Distance up to 74 miles
Duration 3-9 days

Perhaps I’ll learn love our EV once it stops talking utter nonsense – and knows where it’s going

You don’t say goodbye to your old car when you get a new car – I mean, I’m presuming they’d let you if you made a fuss, but they make no provision for it. It just gets left there in the car park, awaiting its next owner. They’ve already taken the keys.

Instead, my wife and I are escorted through a different exit, where our new electric car awaits, still wet in places from a recent wash. The salesperson is leaning in the driver’s window, explaining the dashboard display and steering column toggles to me, but I’m not listening. After two long showroom visits, I’ve had enough of car buying.

From Countdown and Five Go Mad in Dorset to Barbie and White Noise, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 What is the UK’s single most dispensed medicine?
2 Fólkvangr was the alternative destination to where?
3 In June 2026, which pottery firm ended production after 217 years?
4 Which religion’s calendar is determined by moon sighting committees?
5 The Filipino Efren Reyes is considered the GOAT of what indoor game?
6 Which awards were founded by the late Kanya King?
7 Which Cossack inspired works by Byron, Pushkin, Liszt and Tchaikovsky?
8 Which US state is said to have been ruled by six flags?
What links:
9 Black-footed; Fishing; Geoffroy’s; Pallas’s; Sand?
10 Countdown; The Body Show; Brookside; Walter; Five Go Mad in Dorset?
11 Hjalmar Schacht (minister of economics); Franz von Papen (vice-chancellor); Hans Fritzsche (propagandist)?
12 Murchison Promontory, Nunavut; Cape Nordkinn, Finnmark; Cape Chelyuskin, Siberia?
13 Little Miss Sunshine; Barbie and White Noise; The Hurt Locker and Titanic?
14 Adversary; Agent; Garden; History; Pilgrim?
15 Rome, 390BC; Ballantine’s warehouse, Dumbarton; São Pedro de Alcântara prison, Brazil?

Five multiple-choice questions – set by children – to test your knowledge, and a chance to submit your own junior brainteasers for future quizzes

• ​Submit a question

Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun, a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book, as well as her new title, Everything Under the Sun: All Around the World.

Tebay, Cumbria: We’ve never had it among our cattle here before, but the risk is always there

“It’s not looking good, guys,” said the vet, reaching for his callipers, and our summer plans for the farm suddenly came tumbling down. We were going to sell 17 two‑year-old bullocks, two pedigree breeding Galloway cows and one heifer the following day, but needed to test them for TB first – a legal requirement as someone within 3km of our land had a confirmed TB outbreak.

Four days earlier, the vet had injected the cattle with two separate injections that elicit an immune response to bovine and avian tuberculin. One of our nine-month-old calves reacted to the test, so we were given paperwork about TB restrictions and effectively shut down – unable to buy or sell any breeding or store cattle.

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

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

Birthright citizenship ruling only a surface-level setback, with the court granting president’s multiple power grabs

The symbolic and high-profile defeats cannot obscure a more uncomfortable truth.

The US supreme court – a vital cog in the US constitutional framers’ vision of an intricate system of checks and balances aimed at reining in an excessively assertive president – has made Donald Trump stronger than ever, and shows little inclination to stop.

Women from minority backgrounds are less likely to receive adequate pain relief during childbirth

• Women from minority backgrounds in UK less likely to get epidurals, study finds

• How the ethnicity pain gap follows people from birth to death

Julie Hammond, a 35-year-old mother of three from Kent, believes that the “excruciating” pain she experienced during the birth of her second child was not well managed by the medical professionals caring for her.

“It’s difficult to put into words just how traumatic it was,” Hammond says. “I could just feel myself panicking throughout the whole procedure, while also trying to tell myself to calm down.”

We’re asking people from around the world to nominate their favourite spineless species for our third Invertebrate of the Year competition

Step aside World Cup heroes, there’s a bigger global competition in town. The whistle has been blown to launch the third Invertebrate of the Year contest.

We want you to nominate your favourite spineless creature for the hugely popular annual Guardian jamboree which celebrates the wonder and importance of the world’s invertebrates.

Do you have a burning question for Guardian columnist Marina Hyde? Now’s your chance to ask it

Ahead of the publication of Marina Hyde’s new book, What A Time To Be Alive! Scenes From A Strange Age, this autumn, we’re giving readers the chance to ask Marina anything.

Whether you have a burning question for our columnist or want her take on one of the biggest stories of the moment, send it our way and we’ll put it to her. What would you like Marina’s view on? From politics to pop culture, celebrity scandals to the state of the world, no topic is off limits.

We would like to hear about the animals who have attained star status where you live

Wildlife officials have warned people to give Neil the seal space during his visit to Tasmania, where he has been crushing fences, blocking traffic and bashing into parked cars, in what experts say is play-fighting behaviour.

Neil, a 1,000kg southern elephant seal, was born – unusually – in Tasmania in October 2020. Most of his kind live thousands of kilometres south on the subantarctic Macquarie and Heard islands.

We’re interested in hearing from people who have bought gold coins, bars or other precious metals through specialist dealers or online brokers

The Guardian is interested in hearing from people who have bought gold or other precious metals through specialist online dealers or brokers, including gold coins, bullion or investment products.

We would like to hear from people about what prompted you to invest and how was the buying process? Was your experience what you expected?

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Russian airstrikes on Kyiv, the aftermath of the earthquakes in Venezuela, a brutal heatwave in Europe and Harry Kane at the World Cup – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists