What do the touchstones of the referendum debate tell us about the complex legacy of Britain leaving the EU?

Ten years ago the UK voted 52% to 48% to leave the European Union, triggering a long and tortuous political process.

It took until 1 January 2021 for the country to sever its links to the single market and customs union, but the fractures Brexit left in Britain’s body politic, international relations and economy remain.

Twenty years ago I briefly became the victim of a viral pile-on – all because of a silly YouTube video. But I’m glad I had the chance to embarrass myself and move on. Are today’s teens so fortunate?

As a teenager, I went kind of viral – and the most amazing thing about that is it had absolutely zero effect on my life. It was the summer holidays in 2006, and my friends Jessie, Emma and I decided to film ourselves singing along to our favourite song. We were overheated and hyperactive, jumping up and down and headbanging, stretching our arms to the heavens as we confessed to our mamas that we’d “just killed a maaaaaan” before asking Scaramouche if he’d do the fandango.

Later, I added a couple of captions to the video implying we were drunk, even though I was 14 and the closest I’d been to buzzed was the pure placebo of clutching a glass bottle of J2O. Then – for reasons that are now lost to me – I uploaded the video to YouTube a month later, on 19 September 2006, under the title “Bohemian Crap-sody”.

Having literally campaigned in poetry, the new Makerfield MP needs a summer of knuckling down to the small print

By the end, it had become less a byelection, more a mythical quest. Whoever could draw the sword from Makerfield’s stone – or more prosaically, beat Reform in a seat where it practically swept the board in last month’s local elections – would claim the divine right to rule the Labour party. And lo, on Friday morning, Andy Burnham became the chosen one.

He carries the magic shield of not being from Westminster – though that won’t last, obviously – plus the easy warmth with people that Keir Starmer lacks, and the rare ability to generate excitement in politics. Reform is beatable, and the sun shines brighter for knowing that. A third successive defeat for Nigel Farage in a winnable byelection, after losing Caerphilly to Plaid Cymru and Gorton and Denton to the Greens, suggests a trend, not a fluke.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

Serena Williams, Lewis Hamilton and Cristiano Ronaldo are among the stars benefiting from advances in sports science, equipment and facilities

When 40-year-old Luka Modrić lined up for Croatia against England on Wednesday evening, he embodied a growing trend in elite sport. A generation ago, a footballer competing at the highest level at 40 would have been a rarity, but the 2026 World Cup features a record eight players aged at least 40 – more than all previous tournaments combined.

It’s not just football. Lewis Hamilton is still competing in Formula One aged 41, while earlier this week Wimbledon granted Serena Williams, 44, and Venus Williams, 46, a wildcard into the women’s doubles draw.

In ‘middle Israel’ there are fears Iran could rebuild stronger – and there is particular ire for Donald Trump

In the Tree brasserie off Herzl Street in Rehovot, there was much that almost everyone agreed on. Few contested that the ceasefire deal concluded by Iran and the US a few days earlier was very bad for Israel. “We were betrayed by President Trump,” said Avi Perez, 55.

They believed, too, that Israel, more than ever, was surrounded by danger that it would have to confront alone. “It is strange. One day we were in the [bomb] shelters with our children … The next day, everything is supposed to be normal. But nothing has been resolved,” said Shaham Nowick, 35, as he studied the menu.

Czech’s audacious defiance of Sepp Maier in Belgrade has slipped into football folklore: ‘The only disadvantage is that I don’t get any royalties from it’

Antonin Panenka laughs like a bear might, a low rumble, suggesting mischief among the memories. He is sat in an office at Bohemians football club in Prague, recounting the story of his impudent, revolutionary penalty that not only won the 1976 European Championship for Czechoslovakia against West Germany but soured his relationship with the goalkeeper his spot-kick humiliated, Sepp Maier. “He went 35 years without uttering a single word to me,” he smiles.

But the feud went much deeper. “I read some articles that he even had a shooting target in his garage with my face on it that he used to fire darts at. We get on well enough now though.”

Ministers say PM faces being forced out by party if he does not act, with one calling his departure inevitable

• How quickly could Burnham become PM?

Cabinet ministers loyal to Keir Starmer have told him he faces being forced out of office by his party if he does not set a timetable for his departure by the end of the weekend.

Andy Burnham, who won a compelling majority in the Makerfield byelection overnight, is expected to travel to London on Monday to meet MPs in the expectation of becoming prime minister within weeks. One cabinet minister – who has not previously told the prime minister to go – said his departure was now inevitable.

Eleven people suffer ‘very serious’ injuries, with emergency services still at the scene into the night

A train driver has died and 89 people have been injured after two trains collided in the Bedford area, with emergency services working into the night.

Of those injured, 11 people suffered “very serious” injuries and 22 were seriously injured, East of England ambulance service said, while a further 56 people had minor injuries and were treated at the scene or taken to hospital.

New craft, called VC-25B Bridge, had provoked protest since $400m jet wildly exceeds limit on unsolicited gifts

Donald Trump unveiled the new, temporary Air Force One at a hangar at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Friday, a day after White House officials bid farewell to one of two Boeing 747s used to transport presidents for more than 30 years.

The new jet, designated VC-25B and decked out in a punchy red, white, dark blue and gold livery, was gifted to Trump by the Gulf emirate of Qatar, provoking howls of political protest since the $400m jet wildly exceeds the limit on unsolicited gifts of $50 in value in a single calendar year from the same source.

⚽ All the latest news from day nine of the tournament
⚽ Player guide | Bracketology | Golden Boot | Email us

A first dive into the old mailbag produces this, from Gerry Scott, with which I heartily concur:

If best placed third placed teams are going to be able to advance from the group then goal difference should be preferred to head to head as a way of ranking teams. Türkiye should at least have the prospect of beating the US and overtaking one of Paraguay or Australia rather than already being out of the tournament.

I’m sure Gianni will be on it soon.

Temperatures expected to climb to 30C over the weekend in southern England and south-east Wales

The Met Office has issued an amber extreme heat warning for much of southern England and south-east Wales over the coming days – the most extreme heat warning the weather forecaster has issued for four years.

Temperatures are expected to climb to about 30C (86F) over the weekend and peak on Monday and Tuesday at 34C, “though there remains a chance of this being exceeded in some spots”, the Met Office said.

Exclusive: Research suggests financial penalties necessary if number of large vehicles on roads is to be reduced

Drivers who are told about the safety risks posed by SUVs to cyclists and pedestrians are very unlikely to be deterred from buying one, a new study has found.

The findings indicate that if governments want to reduce the number of large, dangerous vehicles on the roads, it is likely to require financial penalties, according to the psychologists at Swansea University who led the research.

Exclusive: European Commission planning to rewrite key law to allow water-intensive mines in regions suffering from drought

The European Commission plans to rewrite the EU’s flagship water protection law to speed up the development of critical minerals mines, despite many being located in drying and water-stressed regions, analysis has found.

Mining is a water-intensive industry, requiring large volumes of water for ore processing, dust suppression, waste management and mine dewatering. While modern projects recycle water, they still require significant amounts, and in water-stressed regions those demands can add to pressure on already stretched rivers, aquifers and water supplies.

Officials expand safety measures as French capital prepares for huge annual street celebration

Paris is preparing for a street party of unprecedented scale on Sunday, as more than 2 million people are expected to gather for the Fête de la Musique amid a huge influx of music fans from the UK and warnings of record temperatures.

France’s annual free street music festival, which has been running for more than 40 years, has grown into the country’s largest cultural event. What was previously a nationwide showcase for local and amateur talent – from village choirs to classical ensembles and techno acts in the capital – has evolved into a vast international open-air celebration.

After partying into the early hours, supporters were back for the new Makerfield MP’s victory rally which ended with a madcap escape

There was plenty of the hopey, changey stuff from Andy Burnham at his victory rally on the morning after the night before – but it ended with the new MP for Makerfield doing a runner. “Are you going to become the new prime minister?” shouted Sky’s political editor, Beth Rigby, at the retreating Burnham. “Keir Starmer says he is not going to give way – what’s your message for Keir Starmer?”

Hemmed in by cameras, chairs, tables and a whole load of the giggling supporters who had been assembled around him on the turf at Ashton Town FC’s grounds, Burnham picked up the pace.

With its light scowl and dark attire, Stanley Chow’s creation has become visual shorthand for the politician’s anti-establishment sentiment

It was shortly after Andy Burnham’s famously rousing speech outside the Manchester Central Library in October 2020 that Stanley Chow decided to draw him. Or rather his wife did.

“It was the pandemic and we were all so down in the dumps at that point,” says the illustrator, speaking from his home in the city this week. But I remember looking around and he had just moved everyone.

From Restore and tactical voting to questions over that £5m gift, the Reform leader faces challenges on several fronts

As those around Nigel Farage are fond of pointing out, Reform UK has now led in more than 300 consecutive national polls. When it comes to byelections, though, it is fair to say the party’s results are more mixed.

Yes, Robert Kenyon came second in Makerfield to a popular regional mayor backed by a Labour campaign so relentless that the main risk was annoying voters by knocking too often on their doors. Kenyon also increased his and Reform’s share of the vote from the 2024 general election.

‘Borrowed’ supporters from across the political spectrum voted to trounce Reform

• How quickly could Burnham become PM?

The morning after Andy Burnham secured a landslide byelection victory in Makerfield, returning him to Westminster after nine years as Greater Manchester mayor, it is hard to avoid the large, red placards bearing his face.

But Burnham’s win was not just thanks to Labour loyalists. Instead, it appears that a coalition of voters from the left, centre and even the right united to back him at the ballot box.

Apart from effort to electrify, there were geopolitical tensions around climate science and the 1.5C goal at pre-Cop31 climate talks

Electrifying the world – with electric vehicles, electric heating and cooling, and modernised heavy industry – could be the next biggest step towards phasing out fossil fuels, replacing the 80% of global energy that still comes from hydrocarbons. As using electrical energy is much more efficient than combustion, the move would save billions of dollars for consumers and businesses – global energy demand could be halved, according to one estimate.

For decades, electrification has been a nerdish backwater of global climate action. But in the last two weeks, at preparatory talks in Bonn before the forthcoming UN Cop31 climate summit, the subject finally took centre stage.

While the SNP’s recent issues put off some voters, the Tories’ support for North Sea oil drilling proved more decisive

For the first time in 50 years, the Conservatives have won a byelection in Scotland, taking Aberdeen South from the Scottish National party and giving Kemi Badenoch one of her most significant achievements as party leader.

The win for Douglas Lumsden, which was secured with a 15% swing, giving the Tories a majority of 6,050, provides the party leader with an important piece of evidence that her decision to abandon the party’s commitment to net zero by 2050 is working.

Alex, 45, a product lead in tech, meets Ellie, 35, a TV producer

What were you hoping for?
To meet someone kind and have an enjoyable evening with someone I maybe wouldn’t ordinarily choose for myself.

The breakout success of her debut created a publishing scramble for Black writers, but has that appetite for diversity endured? Carty-Williams talks about wanting to quit the TV adaptation, why now is the perfect time for her sequel

One of the questions Candice Carty-Williams has spent the past few years batting away is whether she is Queenie. It is perhaps inevitable: her best­selling debut novel followed Queenie Jenkins, a twenty­something south London journalist navigating heartbreak, racism, terrible men and an escalating sense that her life was slipping beyond her control. Like Carty-Williams, Queenie is south London-born, Black and works in media.

It is a slightly predictable question, and one I avoid asking when we meet at her bright pink office in Peckham. But sitting opposite the 36-year-old, I can’t help but understand why it persists. Much like her most famous creation, she is instantly likable: warm, quick-witted and completely devoid of the self-seriousness that can sometimes come with literary success. She is disarmingly casual – her hair is wrapped up and under-eye patches are busy depuffing her face.

Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds are experiencing after-hours boom as a result of more lenient rules

London has the earliest council-mandated bedtime of any other city in the UK as a result of policies in nightlife districts that oppose any new bar or restaurant opening past 11pm.

These strict restrictions on pubs and bars are “killing off nightlife” in the capital, experts have said, while other cities including Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds are experiencing an after-hours boom because they have more lenient rules.

In a modern twist on It’s a Knockout, the comedian makes online stars do ludicrous tasks. The whole thing looks like it cost £420 to cobble together – and it will make you feel 100 years old

I felt 100 years old this week, watching a new gameshow on Prime Video which features 10 famous online stars, zero of whom I’ve heard of. To me, YouTubers always have names that sound like MSN Messenger handles, stuff like Fruit-Nut and Palzone and Kevin the Rotator. Anyway, lining up to compete in Would You Rather we have King Kenny, Bambino Becky, Stephen Tries, Elz the Witch and Chunkz, as well as some others I didn’t write down because I had to lie down.

The show’s full name is Would You Rather: Decide to Survive (Prime Video, from 26 June), which is misleadingly hardcore. I assumed it would be an offshoot of SAS: Who Dares Wins. I expected scaffolders shimmying down gym ropes, enhanced interrogation, people getting dysentery after drinking from rivers. And, well, it is a mostly physical elimination contest, hosted by Romesh Ranganathan. Two teams face off, but in ludicrous challenges inspired by a staple of leisurely conversation: Would you rather X or Y?

We’re trying to buy an electric car. But my bank and the showroom ‘manager’ have other ideas

It is a rainy Monday morning and my wife and I are in a car dealership about a mile from home, walking around a shiny new vehicle and peering into its windows.

“It looks bigger than our car,” she says.

Government’s temporary VAT cut aims to ease cost of living for families this summer – here’s what’s on offer

From Thursday families can enjoy a cut-price trip to Legoland or the cinema to watch Toy Story 5 as the government’s school holiday discount scheme Great British summer savings gets under way.

Billed by Rachel Reeves as a way to “support families with the little treats in life”, the temporary VAT cut will reduce ticket prices at family attractions such as zoos and theme parks as well as the cost of children’s cinema tickets and restaurant meals.

The vibrant port city offers a more relaxed and budget-friendly base for exploring this beautiful coastline by train and ferry

The ferry from Salerno to Amalfi town was set to take about 35 minutes, and we were debating whether to risk the windswept top deck, fearful our packed lunches might fly into the Tyrrhenian Sea. (My father and I were taking a pragmatic approach on our Italian holiday, opting for light midday meals to save space for the primo and secondo courses at dinner, and ample lemony desserts.)

As our ferry sped across glittering water, we admired the views as the Amalfi coast unfolded, incandescent with charm. But we could also see the crawling traffic on the narrow roads that cling to the cliffs. That could have been us, up there in one of those toy-sized rental cars, squeezed between a tourist coach and a fed-up local leaning on their horn. Thankfully, we were on a boat instead, sea breeze in hair and coffee in hand.

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

Pixar’s enduring animated favourites battle a rogue tablet, and Disney’s anxiety-inducing kitchen drama returns for a final series

Toy Story 5
Out now
The toys are back in town for a fifth instalment in Pixar’s long-running signature franchise, with people who were 10 when the first film came out now comfortably of an age to have 10-year-olds of their own. This time, the new toy on the block isn’t exactly a toy: LilyPad (Greta Lee) is a tablet targeted at kids. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen return as Woody and Buzz.

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

Steve Coogan drops in on the lovably daft Northern Irish comedy, and the alt-pop superstar teases some relationship mysteries. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

Scotland would have taken this outcome after 70 seconds. Ismael Saibiri had fired this highly-rated Moroccan team ahead. Men in kilts gulped under the blazing Massachusetts sun. Scotland may even privately have taken this outcome before a ball was kicked. Avoidance of a comprehensive defeat against Brazil will leave them with at least a fighting chance of becoming the first Scotland team to progress to the knockout phase of a major tournament.

Easier said than done, of course, but a scenario where history remains within the grasp of Steve Clarke and his players. Onwards to Miami, for what promises to be quite the spectacle. The value in beating Haiti by a goal or only losing this by the same will all be apparent by full-time on Wednesday. The Tartan Army need calculators in hand.

Tournament has completed its first week and while the logistics have sometimes been challenging, the people and the football have been good

It was quite a contrast touching down in sleepy Kansas City hours after having witnessed the bedlam on the streets of New York when the Knicks won the NBA Finals and Brazil drew with Morocco. But this is a World Cup full of contrasts, from Fifa’s never-ending quest to make a quick buck ($5 a pop for a bottle of water in the media centre) to the warmth shown by locals I’ve encountered in the Big Apple, Kansas City and Dallas. Then there’s the football. It’s been hard to keep up with the volume of matches, but the opening round served up some classics, with DR Congo’s draw against Portugal on the same day as England beat Croatia capping a thrilling first week of action. Let’s hope it continues. Ed Aarons

It took nearly the full opening round, but a US scene that is usually focused on other sports has fully turned its eyes to socc– sorry, I mean football, forgot to code-switch. Fitting, actually, because at times this state of affairs has been awkward, like when the standard “loud men yelling” sports talk shows are forced to reckon with international football being the No 1 talking point and employing nobody that knows the scene. But these are growing pains. The sport is on at bars and delis, it is being discussed at school pickups and on the rides home. It’s beautiful and exactly what so many of us here in the States have been fighting for. Alexander Abnos

• German official Felix Zwayer faces criticism for perceived injustices

• Tony Popovic encouraged by much improved second-half performance

Referee Felix Zwayer has come in for criticism from the Socceroos, who labelled the German’s performance a “stinker” after what they believed was a series of injustices in their 2-0 defeat to the USA in the World Cup match in Seattle.

The co-hosts’ second goal was awarded by the video referee, and it was contentious given what appeared to be an offside player in the proximity of goalkeeper Patrick Beach when he tried to recover from a misdirected shot.

Turkey arrived at their first World Cup in 24 years with great expectations and a host of rising stars but crashed ⁠out goalless and in tears ⁠after another shocking ​failure to convert against Paraguay.

Despite facing 10 men for more than a half, Turkey slumped to a 1-0 defeat against the spirited South Americans after racking up 32 goal ⁠attempts to be eliminated with a match to spare. It came after they amassed 30 fruitless attempts in a 2-0 opening defeat by Australia, a match in which they were similarly thwarted by poor ⁠finishing and a staunch opposition defence.

Nobody wants more stoppages in the game but it allows us, whether on TV or the touchline, to analyse what we see

In the NFL or NBA, a head coach can sometimes affect momentum in the game during a timeout. Even as a head coach in American football you get three timeouts per half. In most cases in soccer, players have to problem-solve and think on their feet.

I’m not a fan of the hydration breaks that have been introduced at this World Cup, but they’re here for now and it is fascinating from a coaching perspective because the momentum has swung straight after several hydration breaks. That could suggest coach involvement has helped teams to tweak things.

Muddy sound systems, pricey tickets and a strong chance of getting showered with someone’s stale beer – give me a nice sit-down in a cinema any time

A few years back I went to see one of my favourite rappers, Earl Sweatshirt, at a venue in north London. The sound was so muddy I couldn’t tell which song he was playing. The setlist lurched between his old and new stuff in a way that did justice to neither. The bloke in front of me filmed the entire thing on a phone he was holding above his head for an Instagram story that will be watched by no one. With 45 minutes remaining, I wished I could leave. With 15 minutes left, I decided that making it to the nearest kebab shop before the rush meant more to me than seeing the end of the set.

As a culture journalist, I’ve been to a lot of gigs. Most of them were endured rather than enjoyed, and I secretly think it’s only the most extroverted (or simply least self-conscious) among us who actually feel otherwise. This is the dirty secret of the music industry, which has tackled economic headwinds mainly by transitioning out of actually selling music and into live events. This feeling has occasionally caused professional embarrassment for me, since I am forever inventing reasons to turn down what is supposedly one of the main perks of the job: free tickets.

Sasha Mistlin is a commissioning editor on the Guardian’s Saturday magazine

Developments in Ukraine and Iran show that the military superpowers are not getting it all their own way

Our age of what Mark Carney called global rupture is also often described as following the “law of the jungle”, in which the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must, with international law shattered and multilateral organisations hollowed out. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, and the US and Israel’s attacks on Iran and Lebanon seem to confirm this bleak outlook. On closer inspection, however, these wars offer a different, and far brighter, clue to the way forward.

Russia, once seen as a formidable military power, was expected to overwhelm Ukraine, a much smaller and weaker country backed by a divided, fearful and hesitant west. Even after the war settled into a protracted stalemate, the prevailing belief was that Ukraine was doomed to lose. But the narrative has shifted.

Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian Europe 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.

The unstoppable Nigel Farage is looking increasingly stoppable in the wake of Makerfield. The actual prime minister, meanwhile, has gone into hiding

You’ll note Keir Starmer is in full bunker mode – and we’ll get to him – but after this Makerfield result, why isn’t Nigel Farage? Why isn’t Nigel ranting madly at his generals and refusing to admit that actually, everything that went wrong for Reform here flowed directly from his personal character, and is going to keep happening in one way or another because people don’t change. Nigel’s gonna Nigel.

Nobody fetishises plain speaking like Farage, so we owe it to him to honour that and observe that Reform really shat the bed. Makerfield is among the party’s top 10 target seats for a general election, and Reform strategists’ decision to field yet another inadequate liability, whose past social media activity they simply couldn’t be arsed checking, seems to have proved something of a turn-off – for example for women, who strangely didn’t feel minded to vote for someone who had said: “I’m sexist, sorry but I am.” Rob Kenyon will no doubt be back on his plumbing rounds next week. So, Makerfield ladies, make sure your husband’s home to be consulted as to whether you really want your sink unblocked. It’ll honestly be cheaper to replace it.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

Age verification means that the sector’s biggest players will now have access to information that will only make them richer and more powerful

This week, the UK announced a wide-ranging ban on social media that will soon block users from communicating or accessing information on apps such as X, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat unless they prove that they’re over the age of 16.

The prime minister, Keir Starmer, called the policy “a line in the sand”. “Tech giants had their chance and failed,” he said, “but we’re stepping in to protect children, back parents and set a new normal for future generations.” All internet users, especially children, should be protected from exploitative systems online, but this new law will only foster more harm and help the largest and most powerful tech companies consolidate power and influence over everyone’s lives.

Taylor Lorenz is a technology journalist who writes the newsletter User Mag and is the author of the bestselling book Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet

There would be no more sadness. No more despair. A change was a-coming – and he would work tirelessly to make it happen

In the end, it wasn’t even close, Andy Burnham taking well over 50% of the vote and Rob Kenyon departing the stage without a murmur, never to be heard of again. Rob will probably be happier that way. He never looked as if he was much enjoying the attention of being the candidate for Reform in Makerfield.

After a brief acceptance speech at the count, Burnham reappeared six hours later at Ashton Town FC for the celebration rally proper. Flanked by several MPs waving ‘Andy for Us’ placards, and one notable ex-MP in Josh Simons who had vacated the seat for the coronation, Andy was all smiles in the sunshine. He’d even swapped out the slightly too tight black T-shirt for a slightly too tight white polo shirt. This was him dressing up for the occasion. He can do formal when he tries.

A dynamic new strategy would allow the BBC to redefine what trusted news means, as it is still valued highly in this age of anxiety

Timing is all, and the timing of last week’s brutal job cuts at the BBC News could have been better. Not just because the director general Matt Brittin was reportedly on holiday, but because the announcement came straight after a new report showed social media platforms and AI chatbots had now overtaken traditional TV channels and websites as people’s first port of call for news.

The same Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism report also noted higher levels of global uncertainty and anxiety – caused not just by geopolitical instability, economic and environmental fears, but by a loss of trust in institutions, and in the news itself.

Jane Martinson is an academic and Guardian columnist. She is a board member of the Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian Media Group, and writes in a personal capacity

Andy Burnham has shown Labour can beat Reform. He must show that his promise of change is a programme, not another slogan for power

Andy Burnham’s triumph in the Makerfield byelection leaves the prime minister with only two options: fight openly for the Labour leadership, or leave office cleanly. The former Greater Manchester mayor easily saw off Reform UK’s candidate – winning 55% of the vote to his rightwing rival’s 35%. He won largely because he changed the political meaning of voting Labour in Makerfield. With Mr Burnham, the party went from being the unpopular incumbent to being the vehicle for change.

The prime minister’s implicit claim that it was Starmerism that beat Reform is not credible. The polling by Persuasion UK in Makerfield shows that Labour won because of Mr Burnham’s personal brand, anti-Starmer signalling and leftwing economic message. Significantly, Mr Burnham’s victory rally speech on Friday connects with the data. He was offering, in rhetoric, economic security through a visible state. This is not just redistribution, but the state as buyer, planner and manager. That would be a welcome shift, but how would he deliver cheaper essentials, more public control, fiscal expansion, industrial renewal and fairer rules on housing, work and migration? Mr Burnham’s programme needs to be more than slogans.

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.

Over more than 50 years and 30 films, the composer-director duo have created some of the most memorable movie experiences of all time

Which living artist has been nominated most times for an Oscar? The answer isn’t Steven Spielberg (with 24 nominations), but his long-term collaborator composer John Williams, with a record 54. The Fabelmans, Spielberg’s most personal film, seemed a fitting finale for the duo in 2022. But Spielberg persuaded Williams, now 94, to write the music for his latest sci-fi blockbuster Disclosure Day, their 30th film together.

Williams has worked with other directors, creating scores for era-defining franchises from George Lucas’s Star Wars (who would Darth Vader be without The Imperial March?) to Harry Potter. But it is his partnership of more than 50 years with Spielberg that has changed cinema history, with hits including Jaws, E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List. “John Williams has been the single most significant contributor to my success as a film‑maker,” Spielberg has said.

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.

Harriet Gibson recalls an eye-opening encounter with the artist, while Andrew Keeley talks about the influence of California on his work, and Christine Hayes recalls his ‘letter’ to the Guardian about smoking

In 1963, I was a naive 17-year-old on a week’s introduction to “art” at the Royal Court theatre with a group of about 10 sixth formers. We had an acting workshop with John Dexter, went to a wrestling match and were taken to visit an up-and-coming artist in his studio in Notting Hill.

I remember a smallish room with paintings lining the walls. David Hockney (Obituary, 12 June) talked about his work, said he was about to leave for the States and showed us a work on the wall called My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean, which he explained was dedicated to his boyfriend who was in the States.

Dr Matthew Dryden praises an astute doctor and the value of teamwork across continents. Plus a letter from Dr Brian Jones

Devi Sridhar writes about some of the global public health responses to the outbreak of hantavirus centred on the MV Hondius, but her conclusions as to how the world avoided another global outbreak failed to recognise the real reason disaster was averted (Right now, we could be living through a hantavirus disaster. The world avoided that, and this is why, 15 June).

The UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs) programme funded by the Foreign Office and managed by the UK Health Security Agency supports health services in all UKOTs around the globe. These are small and vulnerable communities with very limited medical services in most cases. The key success of this lean but effective programme lies in close communication and strengthening the health services.

Dr Carole Gavin says if the government fails to act it will bear the responsibility for yet more avoidable deaths, while Sarah Brown describes her mother’s experience

The experience of working in A&E described by Sophie (Patients are dying in A&E corridors – but I’ve seen how things could be different, 11 June) will be familiar to every member of staff working in a UK emergency department. Not only are patients dying on our corridors with no privacy or dignity due to lack of space and hospital beds, but we know that many more will die later as a consequence of their prolonged emergency department stay (More than 1,300 deaths a month in England due to long A&E waits, figures suggest, 8 June).

I have been an emergency physician for more than 30 years during which time the advances in emergency medicine have been life changing, with acute interventions for once untreatable conditions such as stroke and heart attacks now routinely available. Unfortunately despite all of the advances in medical science, in England in 2026, we are now unable to provide even the most basic, humane emergency care. The government appears to be prepared to accept these deaths and when we repeatedly try to raise the alarm we are told NHS performance is improving as there are fewer patients waiting in A&E for more than four hours. However those are the well patients who will go home, while the seriously ill patients wait for up to 48 hours for admission to a bed – something that would have been unimaginable a few years ago. I am amazed on a daily basis by the resilience of the patients and staff in the face of this disaster, but fail to comprehend why this national crisis is allowed to continue.

Never make the mistake of conflating the actual people of a country with those who govern it, says Eric Jansson

The survey on which you report (Only one in 10 Europeans now see US as an ally, survey suggests, 10 June) is wonderfully in line with the view of US citizens themselves, given the recent poll finding that only 2% of them trust the US government “just about always”, and only 15% trust it “most of the time” – a shrivelled fraction of the 73% who in 1958 said they trusted it always or most of the time, according to the Pew Research Center. We can rest easy knowing that Europeans and Americans (never mind their governments) remain natural allies with plenty to agree about.

Never make the mistake of conflating the people of a country or civilisation with those who govern it. This goes for Washington, Brussels, London, Moscow, Beijing, Kinshasa, you name it.
Eric Jansson
Oxford

Former world No 4 backs best man at his wedding to reignite Raducanu and hopes to entice Jannik Sinner to join Team Europe at the O2

“Tennis is in a good place, but I think it could be better,” says Tim Henman when asked about the state of the sport that has consumed most of his life. He will soon outline ways tennis could be improved but, first, it helps to remember that the 51-year-old played in six grand slam semi-finals, including four at Wimbledon, won an Olympic silver medal and became No 4 in the world despite constant gripes from part-time tennis supporters who wrongly said he lacked the grit of an elite player.

Yet grit filters through Henman’s memories and explains why he loves tennis while always striving to reach a better place. We meet at the Queen’s Club and the elegance of the venue provides a stark contrast to the series of cheap B&Bs where Henman lived, down the road in Earl’s Court, for two years at the outset of his career. Money was tight then and sometimes four young players could share a single room.

• American’s revival continues after controversy 12 months ago

• Rory McIlroy still in contention despite ‘bit of a battle’ on back nine

Everyone was chasing one man on a windswept Friday in the Hamptons as Wyndham Clark continued his extraordinary revival, posting the lowest 36-hole score ever recorded in a US Open at Shinnecock and carrying a four-shot lead into the weekend.

The 2023 champion backed up his opening-round 64 with a one-under 69 to reach seven under par, breaking the previous halfway record of six under set by Phil Mickelson and Shigeki Maruyama in 2004. Clark’s total left him four strokes clear of Matt Fitzpatrick, Xander Schauffele, Sam Stevens and Tom Kim at three under, while Collin Morikawa hurled himself into contention with the day’s low score of 65 to sit alone at two under on a sun-splashed but blustery afternoon in Southampton.

• Tourists take 352-run lead into day four of second Test

• Fisher applauds ‘resilient’ Baker in 53-run partnership

After being left with a run mountain to climb if they are to take anything from the second Test, England have conceded they once again stumbled in the game’s key moments. Just as they did throughout the winter they have allowed their opponents to take control. The upshot is that New Zealand go into day four with a lead of 352 and seven second-innings wickets remaining.

Since the Ashes Brendon McCullum, the England head coach, has spoken of the need to “be slightly smarter in those significant moments”, and to “identify moments where games can be won or lost and win more of those than not”. But in dressing-room conversations he has admitted that ambition remains unfulfilled.

Despite finishing third in the regular season table Exeter Chiefs are confident they can cause an upset at Twickenham

Prem finals do not always unfold as anticipated. Six of the last seven editions have been settled by six points or fewer and favourites are not guaranteed to have it their own way. Remember Freddie Burns’ late drop-goal to edge Leicester past Saracens in 2022? Or Harlequins coming from behind against Exeter the previous year? In Twickenham’s summer heat – it’s uncanny how often the weather plays ball – the best of plans can easily go awol.

In 2024 Bath were undone after Beno Obano’s first-half red card and 12 months ago Michael Cheika’s Leicester came within a couple of points of causing a big upset. The common denominator? Finals can be unpredictable occasions and, under pressure, what looked a dead cert last week becomes as relevant as last year’s lottery numbers.

• Commonwealth Cup winner was bought for £250,000

• Ryan Moore steers Precise to Coronation Stakes triumph

Alexis Mac Allister for £7m. Just £4m for Moisés Caicedo. And £250,000 for Venetian Sun, a Group One winner here on Friday in the Commonwealth Cup. Has anyone ever had an eye for a sporting bargain quite as sharp as Tony Bloom’s?

There were some huge sums changing hands for yearlings at Tattersalls’ Book 1 sale in October 2024. The football super-agent Kia Joorabchian alone signed for £25m-worth of bloodstock, while Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai’s Godolphin operation was close behind with a £23m spend. Bloom, meanwhile, picked up a daughter of the young stallion Starman for just 240,000 guineas (£252,000), and she is now a Group One winner at both two and three with more than £800,000 banked in prize money alone.

• Chelsea demand compensation for former coach

• West London club insist Italian breached contract

Manchester City are close to reaching a financial settlement with Chelsea that will enable them to appoint Enzo Maresca as their new manager.

Chelsea are demanding compensation from City to release Maresca as they believe they have evidence that the Spaniard breached his contract at Stamford Bridge by talking to the club’s Premier League rivals when he was still their manager last season.

• 43-year-old led French side to Conference League semis

• Burnley pushing to bring in Craig Bellamy as head coach

Gary O’Neil is poised to become Ipswich’s new head coach, with the 43-year-old expected to return to England from Ligue 1 Strasbourg.

There are only minor details to sort with O’Neil primed to succeed Kieran McKenna, who announced his wish to depart Ipswich after leading them to the top flight for a second time.

Absent from England’s second Test against New Zealand, Ben Stokes bowled fast for Durham but ended 15 overs with a breakthrough

And now from the Finchale end, Ben Stokes… the first ball is a dot, the second flies down to fine leg off the thigh pad of Vasconcelos for four. Ball three: nothing. Ball four – ooops, a drop by Ben McKinney at leg slip. In and out, midnight sweats. Ball five: four through the covers in front of the watching groundsmen sitting on plastic chairs. Ball six – off the ankles to long leg for a couple. Ten from the over.

The Grace Road groundstaff have gone for a weird striped pitch today – beige ends and a grassy middle. It has been largely successful – Luxton and Whiteman both out, Yorkshire 40-2.

US president provokes outrage as PM says he ‘totally invented’ story in interview with Italian media

Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has said Donald Trump “totally invented” a story about her after the US president claimed she begged him to take a photo with her during the G7 summit.

The two former allies had appeared to be getting their relationship back on track by having several one-to-ones on the sidelines at the gathering in Évian after falling out in April over the US-Israeli war in Iran.

Exclusive: Tourism minister says another likely record year of visitor growth is not a worry amid move to welcome tourists out of season and market less frequented areas

Spain is redoubling its efforts to push its tourist appeal beyond the familiar “sun and sand and coast” model as it prepares for another record-breaking year in which the number of foreign visitors could reach 100 million for the first time, the country’s tourism minister has said.

Speaking to the Guardian, Jordi Hereu rejected suggestions that Spain was now saturated with tourists but said it had become clear that the “old formulas no longer work”, especially amid growing concerns about overtourism and the effects of the climate emergency.

Birds have been in the park since the Russian ambassador gave King Charles II two in 1664 – but none ever bred there

They arrived in the royal park shortly before the Great Fire of London, when the Russian ambassador presented a pair to King Charles II as a gift.

But although pelicans have been living in St James’s Park since 1664, none ever learned the art of courtship – until now, when for the first time in more than 360 years, chicks have been born.

Zelenskyy says a week should be enough time for Belarus to remove stations, calls for a stop to refined oil supplies to Russian army. What we know on day 1,578

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a week should be enough for the Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, to remove equipment from Belarus used by ⁠Russia in its attacks on ⁠Ukraine. “If he doesn’t do it, we’ll do it,” said the Ukrainian president, without elaborating. Zelenskyy said signal relay stations were located in two Belarusian regions bordering Ukraine that were used by Russian forces to help with attacks on Ukrainian civilians.

Ukraine has been beefing up its defences along its northern border after signs that Vladimir Putin may be trying to make greater use of Belarus in the conflict. Recent exchanges of threatening language between Kyiv and Minsk culminated in Lukashenko apologising to Zelenskyy for past remarks and saying Belarus wanted no part in the war. Zelenskyy said on Friday: “What’s the point of saying he [Lukashenko] doesn’t want to be in the war? Let him remove this equipment, let him switch it off. I think a week will be enough for him to do that.”

Zelenskyy also alluded to Belarus’s oil refining industry, saying it had become a major supplier ​for Moscow and that Lukashenko could put a stop to it. “Today he ‌is the main supplier, or one of ‌the main suppliers, for the Russian army. Specifically, Lukashenko, specifically Belarus,” he said. “Can this be stopped? I’m sure it’s within his power. And he’s the one controlling ‌it.” Ukraine has been intensifying its attacks on the Russian oil sector as part of efforts to put pressure on Russia’s war capability after more than four years of conflict.

EU chief António Costa on Friday defended diplomatic outreach by his office to the Kremlin, saying the bloc needed to “listen” to Moscow, despite pushback from some member states. “It is precisely because we need also to support Ukraine through diplomatic means that we need to have a direct diplomatic channel with Russia,” Costa said after a summit of EU leaders. However, he said there were so far no “credible signs” that Russia wanted to engage.

Russia ⁠said on Friday it was open to dialogue with European countries but would not accept ultimatums. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said common sense dictated the need for such contacts because of the “enormous number” of complex issues on the agenda, but he said the Europeans needed to change their approach to Russia.

Meanwhile, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, told reporters on Friday that Europeans would be at the table when and if there were peace talks about Ukraine, stressing they were not mediators, because they were firmly on Ukraine’s side. But he also said the question was not who would negotiate on behalf of the EU with Russia, but to clarify and define the bloc’s position first.

Poland’s president, Karol Nawrocki, said he would strip Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the country’s top honour after the Ukrainian president caused outrage by renaming an army unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) – nationalists who ⁠massacred Poles during the second world war. The decision ​could unleash a severe diplomatic crisis between the neighbours a few days ahead of a conference on Ukraine’s reconstruction in the Polish city of Gdansk. The Ukrainian foreign ⁠minister Andrii Sybiha said Poland had committed a “strategic” ⁠error that ‌ “only ​benefits ​Moscow”.

Russian shelling killed ⁠three civilians in Ukraine’s frontline city ⁠of Kramatorsk ⁠in ​the eastern Donetsk region, a local ⁠official said on Friday. Six ‌others had been injured in two attacks on the city, with strikes occurring ‌near a high-rise apartment building and a ​car park, said the governor ⁠of Donetsk region, ​Vadym Filashkin.

French authorities detained and charged a Belarus-born man on suspicion of spying for Russia on a French drone manufacturer, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. The 48-year-old was reportedly arrested on 3 June “while filming a drone prototype belonging to a company that supplies the French and Ukrainian armed forces”. France’s domestic intelligence agency found he “allegedly sent a video to a contact in Russia”.

Thomas, 43, a former military police officer, has whip suspended during investigation into the allegations

A Liberal Democrat MP suspended by the party has been arrested on suspicion of controlling and coercive behaviour and assault, the Guardian understands.

Cameron Thomas, the MP for Tewkesbury, was arrested by Gloucestershire police on Wednesday. The Liberal Democrats said the 43-year-old had had the whip and membership of the party suspended.

Experts cast doubt on conclusion of government-funded study of factory emitting forever chemicals near Blackpool

Questions have been raised about the conclusions drawn by a government-funded study into kidney cancer rates near a factory linked to forever chemicals near Blackpool.

Pfoa, a known carcinogenic forever chemical that was banned globally in 2020, was emitted from the AGC Chemicals Europe plant in Thornton-Cleveleys, near Blackpool, between the 1950s and 2012. An estimated 49 tonnes of Pfoa were emitted during that period. The factory, which AGC Chemicals Europe bought in 1999, stopped using Pfoa in 2012.

Veteran campaigner Robin Hanbury-Tenison is raising money for a research station near his home in Cornwall

Pedalling on water for more than a hundred miles in a heatwave, pushed back by east winds and having to navigate 31 locks would be a challenge for anybody. But when that body is 90 years old, with a bad knee, failing balance and malfunctioning arms and shoulders, it’s a herculean feat.

Rainforest campaigner Robin Hanbury-Tenison, 90, is pedalling 104 miles down the River Thames from Oxford to Richmond on a water-bike to raise money for a unique research station which is being built to study Britain’s temperate rainforest.

As demand soars, the country’s mangrove forests and the livelihoods of shellfish gatherers are under threat from encroaching farms and unchecked pollution

At low tide, Johana Carolina Cruz Potes steps into the mudflats around Isla Costa Rica, in Ecuador’s Jambelí Archipelago. Holding a bucket and a short metal hook, she probes the tangled roots of a mangrove patch, searching for concha negra, black-shelled cockles, buried beneath the sludge.

Cruz Potes has done this work since she was nine, when she first followed her father into the mud. But earning a living from shellfish gathering – often the only income for families here – has become harder as grounds shrink and catches decline.

Strong winds and heavy rain batter Slovenia, while France experiences atypical heatwave

Severe thunderstorms swept across the Balkans last week, bringing widespread destruction to parts of the region. The storms developed as unstable hot air lingered over the Adriatic Sea while a cold front plunged south-eastward.

The front began its journey on 10 June in Slovenia, where the Slovenian Environment Agency recorded 65mph gusts at Ljubljana airport. Heavy rain also fell widely across the region with 23mm reported in Kranj.

MI6 spy on the ‘Moscow watch’ who was involved in the audacious escape of the double agent Oleg Gordievsky

Meta Ramsay described herself in her latter years as an “international affairs consultant”, while her former career was summarily defined in Who’s Who as having been a member of HM Diplomatic Service. In reality, Ramsay, who has died aged 89, was the spy who perhaps should have been appointed the first woman “C”, the head of the Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6.

On retirement from MI6, as required at the age of 55 in 1991, she was the most high-ranking woman in the service, yet it would still be more than three decades until the first female “C”, with Blaise Metreweli securing that distinction only last year. Ramsay went on to play an active part in Labour politics when her old friend John Smith was leader, and subsequently in the House of Lords during Tony Blair’s government.

Cambridgeshire police say 30-year-old man arrested on suspicion of attempted murder is not fit to be interviewed

A man arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a three-year-old boy ended up in a crocodile enclosure has been released because he is not fit to be interviewed, police have said.

The 30-year-old man from Norfolk has been bailed while detectives from the major crimes unit conduct further inquiries, Cambridgeshire police said.

‘Suspicious package’ prompted partial evacuation of terminal building but flights were resuming after explosives disposal experts gave all-clear

Edinburgh airport reopened on Saturday morning after parts of the terminal building were evacuated on Friday night because of a security alert.

An explosive ordnance disposal team was sent to the airport to investigate what Police Scotland described as a “potentially suspicious package” discovered at about 6.50pm on Friday.

Police fear Waleed Saeed may have up to 70 more victims after campaign of entrapment, threat and extortion

A sexual predator who targeted mostly Muslim males online for blackmail has been jailed for 16 years, and detectives fear he may have up to 70 more victims.

Waleed Saeed’s campaign of entrapment, threat and extortion started in 2018 and left two victims feeling suicidal because of the humiliation they felt.

Simone Venturini says proposal aimed at discouraging arrivals in ‘periods of heightened tourist pressure’

Venice’s new mayor has said he hopes to raise a controversial entrance fee for day-trippers to the lagoon city to as much as €50 (£43).

Simone Venturini, the rightwing former tourism councillor who was elected as mayor in late May, said the proposal was aimed at further discouraging arrivals “during periods of heightened tourist pressure”.

Ensuring fair compensation for those affected by legacies of enslavement and measures to address debt burdens, part of 18-point strategic roadmap

More than money: the logic of slavery reparations

A global framework for reparatory justice has been adopted at a conference in Ghana.

Heads of state and government and other officials formally approved the strategy on Friday at a gathering in a hotel in the capital, Accra, which was the first major meeting since the adoption of the landmark United Nations (UN) resolution declaring the trafficking of enslaved Africans as the gravest crime against humanity.

‘We have come too far to turn around now,’ the monument on Alabama’s Montgomery Square reads

At the recently opened Montgomery Square in Alabama, bronze hands rise from the pavement, holding a placard against the sky. It reads 7053, the booking number displayed in Rosa Parks’s 1956 mugshot after she and other leaders of the Montgomery bus boycott were arrested.

Often with booking numbers and mugshots, the viewer is trained to see criminality before circumstance, guilt before resistance. But at Montgomery Square, a number meant to reduce Parks to an arrestee, has been remade into a monument to what her arrest exposed.

The web giant announced that Artificial, a biopic about the controversial tech executive, ‘will be better served if it were released by a different studio’

Artificial, Luca Guadagnino’s controversial Sam Altman biopic, which is poised for an awards run next year, has been dropped by its distributor, Amazon.

In a statement first reported by Puck, Amazon said that it believes “that Artificial will be better served if it were released by a different studio and are working closely with the film-making team to find the film a new home”.

Department for Transport analysis suggests tiny economic boost would be outweighed by up to £62.5bn in trade-offs

The economic boost from a Heathrow third runway could be a tiny fraction of previous estimates, government analysis shows, while the overall trade-off from the bigger airport could set the UK back by as much as £62.5bn.

As ministers promised to speed up expansion of the London airport in the name of economic growth, documents prepared by the Department for Transport said the runway was expected to boost GDP by only up to 0.05% – 90% less than the 0.5% previously stated.

Exclusive: Telegram urged to clarify how it detects illegal incitement after attacks were coordinated using app

Telegram is facing questions from Ofcom over how it detects and prevents illegal incitement after a Ukrainian man was found guilty of carrying out arson attacks on a car and property associated with Keir Starmer.

A spokesperson for the regulator said it had contacted the messaging app “to seek further clarification” because the arsonist had been directed on Telegram by a handler linked to Russia.

Guardian readers in the US share concerns about how the SpaceX IPO and AI boom affect their retirement accounts

Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire last week after SpaceX debuted on the stock market with a valuation of $1.77tn.

Millions of Americans could soon become indirect investors in SpaceX and other emerging AI-focused companies as US markets increasingly shift toward AI-driven investments.

Andrew Bailey says ‘inflationary pressure in pipeline’ despite US and Iran signing initial peace deal as interest rates kept on hold

The governor of the Bank of England has warned consumers to expect higher costs this year as a result of the conflict in the Middle East, despite falling oil prices as the US and Iran signing an initial peace deal.

Speaking after the Bank kept interest rates on hold at 3.75%, Andrew Bailey said there was “still some inflationary pressure in the pipeline” after the conflict pushed up energy prices.

Hearing their in-your-face banger was a turning point for me – and I’ve never looked back

At the end of 2011, party season was under way but I was in no mood for festivities. Two years into fertility treatment, my body was pumped full of synthetic hormones and felt like a pin cushion, while my head was filled with both the fragile hope of having a baby, and the exhaustion of failed clinical attempts to do so.

I was in my late 20s. I met my husband when I was 22; we got married when I was 25. “I want to have kids young,” I’d told him. It was a feeling I’d harboured since my teenage years. But I’d also had the nagging sense that it might not come easily to me. As it turned out, my intuition was right. Approaching 28, I was a regular on the infertility merry-go-round.

Pitlochry Festival theatre
Writer Douglas Maxwell’s playful conceit sparks a funny and superbly acted exploration of messy relationships

There is a clever conceit underlying Douglas Maxwell’s sparky romantic comedy. It imagines the possibility of a sexually charged relationship being sustained without physical contact. Played out on stage, this improbable idea hits home on two levels.

Meeting at a 21st birthday party in 1995, two students – one law, one media studies – agree to maintain the erotic anticipation of their first encounter by never touching each other. If they ever do, the relationship will be over.

A Last Big Story is a stirring exploration of the journalist’s condition and his news instincts. Plus, a wholesome telling of the story of Indigenous Australian tennis legend Evonne Goolagong. Here’s what to watch this evening

8pm, Channel 4
This documentary starts out as a meditation on the Channel 4 newsreader’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis – but the journalist in him hasn’t departed quite yet. While Jon and his wife Precious are on holiday in Victoria Falls, he stumbles upon a mining disaster that has had almost no coverage in the media. His determination to get the tragedy into the news is stirring and very moving. Phil Harrison

It turned its cast into global stars, triggered fashion crazes and even made an omelette go viral. As The Bear bows out, ‘cousin’ Ebon Moss-Bachrach talks obsessive fans, fork tattoos and why he’s ‘dumbly proud’

Ebon Moss-Bachrach is currently starring in an acclaimed Broadway production of Dog Day Afternoon, but after he takes his bow, there’s only one thing audience members want to talk about. “Every time I leave through the stage door, there’s a couple of hundred people yelling ‘Cousin!’” he laughs.

That’s his catchphrase as cranky maître d’ Richie Jerimovich in The Bear, of course. And now the culinary comedy-drama is back on the menu. One of the decade’s most influential TV shows is about to return for its fifth and final season. It seems the right time to reflect on how this scrappy creation became a surprise smash hit and cultural sensation.

From one hostile environment to another, the documentaries and dramas ranging from Nigeria and Syria to British immigration give vivid life to an experience that can feel very remote

As World Refugee Day approaches on Saturday, this year’s Refugee Week offers a multitude of events taking place across the UK, including a film festival that takes audiences from Ain el-Helweh – Lebanon’s largest refugee camp for Palestinians – in Mahdi Fleifel’s A World Not Ours and to an immigration removal centre in Dreamers, directed by Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor.

The UK’s asylum system is the focus of Allies in Exile, a first-person documentary from Syrian film-makers Hasan Kattan and Fadi al-Halabi that premiered on Tuesday at the BFI Southbank, which explores the labyrinth facing asylum seekers. Meanwhile, refugee charity Choose Love, in partnership with Tarot productions, curated a selection of four short films that together chronicle different stages in the search for asylum, from the difficulties of everyday life in a person’s home country through the perilous journeys made over land and sea, and arrival in a hostile environment marked by ostracism and ongoing trauma.The event, which took place on Thursday at Picturehouse Central, London, was entitled Fearless Stories and showcased films that “challenge division”.Josie Fernandez-Marelli, chief executive of Choose Love, says: “The UK wouldn’t be what it is today without all the incredible people and cultures that make it up. As division is growing, it’s more important than ever to work together to make sure that refugees are seen as human beings, with hopes, dreams and ambitions.”

Each episode of this PI drama’s second season is a half-hour haze suffused with melancholy and distressed urban beauty. It’s the kind of show that could only exist on Apple TV

Getting a TV show made isn’t easy. OK, so you’ve got an interesting idea and some good scripts – but a network or streaming platform will have many further questions. How much will it cost to make, which age/demographic will enjoy it, can it be distilled in a grabby one-line summary, could it recoup investment by running to multiple seasons? Nobody’s going to take a punt on your kooky pet project and risk losing money.

At least that’s the theory, but Apple TV seems happy to commission shows having ticked none of the above boxes. Pound for pound – that is, ignoring the overwhelming volume of Netflix shows – it’s probably the best streamer in the game, having gambled and won on Severance, Ted Lasso, Slow Horses, The Studio, For All Mankind and Widow’s Bay. But it also has a stable of oddball charmers that work in a moseying sort of way – Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed and Margo’s Got Money Troubles being two recent ones – and a slew of baffling misfires like Government Cheese and Hello Tomorrow! that have popped up, done a thing nobody understood and disappeared again. You don’t know what you’ll get with a new Apple show, but it’s likely to be something nobody else would green-light, and they’d often be right.

(Ibeyi)
Newly independent and proudly self-sufficient, Naomi and Lisa-Kaindé Diaz mix ancient lore with heavy bass, and harmonies with distortion, to incantatory effect

Having ceded creative control to numerous collaborators on 2022’s Spell 31 (veteran pop songwriter Eg White; rappers Pa Salieu and Berwyn), Naomi and Lisa-Kaindé Diaz return to first principles for their fourth album. Written mainly by the sisters themselves, Offering recentres Ibeyi in their own sonic universe: fusing the influences of their Cuban percussionist father and Parisian upbringing, the twins sing in multiple languages, summoning ancient lore over intricate beats, transcendent harmonies and brooding distortion.

Self-sufficiency crops up as a lyrical theme, too: “One thing is for sure, I’m who I was looking for,” goes the refrain of Baba, which matches incantatory vocals with an irresistibly grimy bassline. (Perhaps the fact this is being released on their own label rather than XL, the taste-making British indie they were previously signed to, is also relevant here.)

The Chinese-Danish artist wrote nine 10ths of Larsson’s breakout album then got a Grammy nod. It’s a fine springboard for her own revelatory pop

From Aarhus, Denmark
Recommended if you like Caroline Polachek, Zara Larsson, Grimes
Up next Debut project coming later this year

You could hardly make a better professional songwriting debut than co-writing nine 10ths of a moment-defining album – namely Zara Larsson’s Midnight Sun – then getting a Grammy nod for it. It’s an enviable springboard for the relaunch of Helena Gao’s solo career. Over the past few years, the Chinese-Danish artist has released a handful of singles and EPs – standout God’s Favourite split the difference between NewJeans and R&B, and comes with an excellent Sims-referencing video – but her new music feels like a real flourishing, sidelining her older sweetness for a freakier braid of heavy bass, stuttering trance and a pitch-bending falsetto to rival that of Caroline Polachek, singing in English and Mandarin.

(ECM)
Lovano and his spirited quartet make his instrument glow in all its pliable eloquence, with rattling originals amid the Charlie Haden and Wayne Shorter covers

The saxophone’s 19th-century inventor, the Belgian Adolphe Sax, imagined hybrid horns that could combine the speed and fluency of woodwinds with the volume and punch of brass. Sax’s career was almost derailed by a childhood of hair-raisingly frequent accident-proneness that led his mother to fear for his survival, but at 20 he patented a prototype contrabass clarinet, and then the first saxophone as its offspring. Sneered at by traditionalists for decades, the sax was sidelined to parade bands and purring strings mimicry in dance orchestras – until jazz musicians from Sidney Bechet in the 1920s to Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter and scores more contemporary originals, all the way to Joe Lovano today, put it centre stage as jazz’s radiantly expressive equivalent of the classical violin.

And Lovano’s Paramount Quartet glows with all the saxophone’s pliable eloquence in a master’s hands, alongside comparably free-spirited guitarist Julian Lage, bassist Asante Santi Debriano and sometime Living Colour drummer Will Calhoun. Lovano is a brilliant bebop player, but also an inspired free-improviser, creatively inhabiting the sound worlds of classic jazz, global music and more texture-based European approaches. He played Charlie Haden’s First Song with Bill Frisell long ago, and here it returns on a lyrical solo guitar intro from Lage and an exquisite sax theme, spinning into long improv over vaporous guitar chords and soft, sleek runs.

Gerhardt/WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln/Manze
(Hyperion)
Alban Gerhardt eschews the romantic, heart-on-sleeve interpretations of these famous concertos, and finds nobility and poetry even in the most turbulent music

Alban Gerhardt adopts a back-to-basics approach in these thoughtful readings of cello concertos by Elgar and Dvořák. Determined to counter ideas embedded in the collective musical psyche by the likes of Jacqueline du Pré and Mstislav Rostropovich, there is a straightforwardness here, and a refusal to luxuriate that may not please those used to more heart-on-sleeve interpretations. Nevertheless, by scrutinising the scores – and few composers were as pernickety with their markings as Elgar – he finds much that is refreshing as well as illuminating.

In the Dvořák, he’s less theatrical, more poetic than his Soviet-born predecessor, aided by Andrew Manze, who keeps the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln clipped and generally light on its feet. Gerhardt’s is a noble, cleanly articulated performance that yearns where others prefer to gush and keeps its feet firmly planted in the Bohemian countryside, even when the music is at its most turbulent.

This study of the struggle for rights includes incredible personal stories that we should all be more familiar with

You could take two outwardly contradictory lessons from the historian David Turner’s new book on disability in the UK. First, that alarmingly little has changed for disabled people since the beginning of the modern age (the book’s first few stories, of 17th-century men and women having to prove they were disabled enough to receive parish support to avoid starvation, will be familiar to anyone who has tried to claim the personal independence payment). And second, that absolutely everything has changed - from the closing of asylums to the advent of prosthetics to the eventual, belated enshrining of disability rights in law.

But the central argument of Disability helps to reconcile these two narratives into a coherent whole. Turner, a professor at Swansea University, shows that while public and political attitudes to disability have remained poor, disabled people have challenged them at every stage, wresting progress out of even the most unpromising circumstances. This is not a story of rights and dignity bestowed from on high, but of the people and communities clawing them into being.

The Pinnacle by Abir Mukherjee; A Violent Masterpiece by Jordan Harper; Murder on the Red River by Marcie R Rendon; The Devoted by Catherine Cho; The Repentants by Kate Foster

The Pinnacle by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill, £16.99)
In the eponymous Mumbai apartment block, the immensely rich and those who serve them exist side by side but worlds apart. Fading American actor George Abercrombie, married to superstar Sweety Sahota, finds himself advertising Indian whiskey while his younger wife’s acting career continues its stellar trajectory. Waking on the sofa with a hangover and only hazy memories of the night before, George discovers Sweety stabbed to death in the marital bed and one of his shirts, blood-stained, in the laundry basket. He knows he will be the prime suspect, but not only have Sweety’s phone and laptop disappeared, so has his assistant, Amit … Told from the points of view of George, Amit and Sweety’s put-upon PA Gemma – with Amit and Gemma both having secrets of their own – and laced with dry humour and social commentary, this is a tense, fast-paced tale of class, power and corruption.

In the latest autofictional instalment of his family saga, the French writer makes sense of his sibling’s violent homophobia and short life

At 33, the French writer Édouard Louis has already seen all seven of his slim novels translated into English. In his breakout debut, The End of Eddy (2017), and again in Change (2024), he wrote about being the promising child of a poor family, the bullied gay son who became a bestselling author. Several of his other books have offered sympathetic sociological portraits of his parents: a father destroyed by physical labour, a victim of French healthcare and housing subsidy cutbacks, and a mother who, after raising numerous children in poverty, fled first Louis’s father and then, in Monique Escapes, published earlier this year, his abusive successor. Now, in Collapse, translated by novelist Tash Aw, Louis describes his eldest brother’s death, at 38, from complications relating to alcoholism.

“I felt nothing at the announcement of the death of my brother,” he begins; “not sadness or despair or joy or pleasure.” The reasons for his coldness soon become clear. His brother was violently homophobic. His drinking at one point prevented Louis from sleeping ahead of a crucial exam. After The End of Eddy came out, his brother went looking for him with a baseball bat. So when Louis talks with his mother and sister about how to pay for his brother’s funeral and admits, “yes, I would have let him be buried like a dog”, we understand why.

Is Japan really full of centenarians? And what about ‘blue zones’? A brilliant skewering of ageing secrets and lies

There is a special place in hell reserved for doctors who trade on their authority, status and medical training to monetise public fear and gullibility. Every time I scroll past a qualified physician touting elixirs that promise youthful vigour, cellulite-free thighs or gut microbiome makeovers, I want to poke their fraudulent eyes out. At best, these charlatans have chosen lining their pockets over helping others. At worst, as in the case of the Covid deniers and anti-vaxxers, they are actively dangerous – something I witnessed first-hand on hospital wards in 2021 as unvaccinated patients succumbed to the disease.

Nowhere is human hope monetised more ruthlessly by medical grifters than in the anti-ageing industry. Our inescapable fate – decrepitude and death – makes us ripe for exploitation. Who doesn’t want to pop a pill or hook themselves up to an IV infusion that, for only £99.99 a month, will magically stave off the moment you turn into your grandparents? In Morbid, debut author Saul Justin Newman, a research fellow at the University of Oxford’s Institute of Population Ageing, sets out to topple the whole, sordid house of cards. His central argument is that our fear of frailty and dying has “created an opening for all manner of skullduggery in the science of ageing”, an area of research which is rife, he argues, with “misleading claims, mistaken assumptions, and outright chicanery. The world’s oldest man is a fake, hundreds of thousands of the world’s oldest people are actually dead, and five decades of research on human longevity is moot.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

After the billion-dollar company’s leaders sent staff a memo saying the brand had ‘over-extended’, game studios may be in the firing line

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In March 2000, Bill Gates stood onstage at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and, to a packed crowd, officially announced the company’s long-anticipated video game console. “We want Xbox to be the platform of choice for the best and most creative game developers in the world,” he told attenders – and that was indeed the intention of the small, dedicated team who put together the blueprints of that first machine.

The Xbox landscape seems very different 25 years later. Last week, mere days after a bullish summer showcase full of Gears of War revivals and promises of a renewed focus on Xbox’s gaming strengths, new CEO, Asha Sharma, and chief content officer, Matt Booty, wrote a memo to Xbox staff inviting them to brace for “hard truths”. “Excluding Activision Blizzard King, over the past five years, we have spent over $20bn on ongoing investments in our content, platform and hardware subsidy, but our annual revenue has declined nearly half a billion during that time. Going forward, this cannot continue,” it read.

PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S; EA Vancouver/Electronic Arts
Micromanaging your fighter is a little tedious, but the action is thrilling in this authentically detailed sporting simulation

Becoming a professional fighter takes years of repetition, drilling techniques and training footwork until everything is instinctual. Your body needs an automatic answer for every limb, from every angle. In MMA, which encompasses every martial art, it’s even harder.

EA Sports’ UFC 6 realistically captures the grind of this brutal discipline. Throw on Career Mode and you spend most of your time working on combos and techniques. It’s all about making the complex controls feel second nature, increasing the effectiveness of every strike thrown by your fighter. With simulated six-week-long training camps between bouts, you can sometimes spar 12 times before a fight that could be over in a matter of seconds.

Riverside Studios, London
Ted Walliker’s one-man play about a night gone spectacularly wrong is boldly ambitious but we need to know more about the man at the mic

Watching a comedian crumble onstage is hellish. In Ted Walliker’s new play, the performer’s breakdown is deliberate but the show’s wider ambitions miss their mark. Pitched as a standup set that swivels into an absurd faux-confessional, this first foray into co-production for Riverside Studios is a one-man tangent.

The trouble starts with how quickly the framing device of a standup show is shoved aside. When bumbling posh-boy comedian Tony (Walliker) fails to get the laughs he wants, he tries on a tougher persona and launches into a violent story of misadventure with Mike, his best friend, long-time crush and all-round scoundrel. A delirious pep enters Tony’s step as he outlines a gratuitously gruesome night of pulled-off faces and munched-up bones. Spiralling from a mistake in McDonald’s where we meet the titular character, we are hurled into an entirely different play, with only the occasional address to us “folks” to remind us this is supposed to be a comedy set.

Minerva theatre, Chichester
Memories of an ex-girlfriend are rekindled as a couple prepare to celebrate in this adaptation of the film

This story spans a week in the life of a couple approaching their 45th wedding anniversary. As Kate (Geraldine James) manages the preparations, Geoff (Gabriel Byrne) receives a letter about a formative ex-girlfriend who died falling into a crevasse on the Swiss Alps more than 50 years ago. Katya’s body has been found, preserved in ice. “She’s still there,” he says, and this frozen piece of his past threatens to cast the couple’s Norfolk village life together in a different, perhaps lesser, light.

David Constantine’s short story turned film is a quiet and delicate thing. So much of its emotion happens in the unspoken moments and silent revelations. What a tricky business to transpose this to the stage, so it is impressive that Hannah Patterson adapts with such spare, evocative economy.

Tony-winning choreographer Sonya Tayeh was ‘broken up’ when she heard about the Irish singer-songwriter’s death three years ago. Now she and a group of over-40s female dancers are paying homage: ‘People love her, people need her’

Sonya Tayeh remembers watching Saturday Night Live in October 1992, at home in Detroit, when a young, shaven-headed woman behind a microphone tore a picture of Pope John Paul II into pieces, while saying: “Fight the real enemy.”

“I felt like the entire world paused,” remembers Tayeh, still in wonder at Sinéad O’Connor’s protest against abuses in the Catholic church, and the defiance in “those eyes that just seep through your soul and burn … It was like I could feel the world vibrate under my feet. I was overcome,” she says, on our video call from New York. I can see Tayeh has one side of her head shaved – a long curtain of dark hair sweeps down the other.

Camden People’s theatre, London
Jonny Khan’s debut play, about an uncle and niece manning phones at a rescue service during racist attacks, is well acted yet lacks tension

This theatre’s address was once the headquarters of the Camden Monitoring Project, a volunteer-run organisation established to provide safe transport home for South Asian restaurant workers at a time of rampant racist attacks. Built on four years of research with the local Bengali community, actor Jonny Khan’s debut play turns that chapter of history into a fictional two-hander, which unfolds on a single evening in 1994.

Muhammad (Bhasker Patel) is a Bengali Londoner who spends his nights coordinating the understaffed rescue service. He and his mature-beyond-her-years teenage niece Alima (Nusrath Tapadar) have barricaded themselves into his dingy office where the phone won’t stop ringing. The murder of a white teenager has prompted a slew of verbal and physical attacks. Frightened callers plead for assistance on Muhammad’s helpline, knowing the police have turned a blind eye.

In this week’s newsletter: The last time they were a British screen staple was the mid-90s. Once a genuine cultural phenomenon, the Wombles could be successfully resurrected – or derided as woke

At the height of Womble-mania in the mid-70s, Elisabeth Beresford, creator of the snout-nosed, litter-collecting sensations, laid down three strict ground rules for anyone appearing in costume as her characters: no smoking; no drinking; and absolutely no taking your head off in public.

The latter was a real problem: in 1974 a cabaret club in Liverpool was forced to sack the entire cast of Wombles – the cast provided by theatre impresario and future Everton FC chairman Bill Kenwright, no less – after a disastrous opening night performance of their Christmas panto that featured inaudible singing, under-rehearsed dance routines, Wombles that looked “too thin” and, most unforgivably, one of the cast members removing their head in the theatre wings “in full view of the children”, according to the club’s director. Things got worse at another shambolic Wombles performance in Belfast, which was cut short after less than an hour, after booing, catcalls and furious mothers storming the stage, brandishing handbags and umbrellas.

Recent Van Gogh show was National Gallery’s most popular ever and British Museum gears up for arrival of Bayeux tapestry

When Tate Modern announced a major exhibition devoted to Frida Kahlo, few doubted it would be popular. The Mexican artist has become one of the most recognisable cultural figures in the world, with her image adorning everything from tote bags to T-shirts.

But even Tate was unprepared for the scale of demand. The gallery has said more than 41,000 tickets have already been sold for Frida: The Making of an Icon, which opens on 25 June, making it the highest pre-selling exhibition in Tate’s history, surpassing the previous record of 32,000 advance sales for David Hockney in 2017.

Ahead of the band’s first new album in 16 years, the hugely influential guitarist will be taking your questions for the Guardian Film & Music reader interview

At the end of July, the Durutti Column will release their first new music in 16 years: the stunningly beautiful Renascent. It’s a prime time for Vini Reilly, Bruce Mitchell and Keir Stewart to return as the Durutti influence is everywhere: sampled by Blood Orange on his latest album Essex Honey; cited by Harry Styles on his new LP Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally, as well as by Mark William Lewis and Yung Lean; played on The Bear.

Not that the group need the endorsements: since 1978, they have been one of the UK’s most distinctive acts, their dreamy instrumentals offering a sunlit alternative to the crags of post-punk, as last year’s reissue of their debut, The Return of the Durutti Column reminded us. The record’s deviation from the norms of the era, wrote Alexis Petridis in a five-star reappraisal, “ultimately worked in its favour: other than the sound of the primitive rhythm tracks, there’s nothing to tie the music here to a specific era, which means it hasn’t dated.”

Andy Serkis has picked the perfect actor for the next iteration of the Lord of the Rings franchise. But if Tolkien didn’t linger over this subplot, should we?

Let’s be honest: Anya Taylor-Joy would make a great elf. If any human being could flit from tree to tree as if woven from gossamer and starlight, or appear on a moonlit branch looking as though she had just been summoned by a haunted lute, it would be the star of The Queen’s Gambit, The Witch and Furiosa. She is perfect for Lord of the Rings, and it is no surprise whatsoever that she has been cast as the elf Seren in the forthcoming Andy Serkis-directed The Hunt for Gollum, as confirmed this week by the Hollywood Reporter.

You’ll probably have heard about the movie: Serkis is back as Gollum, Ian McKellen returns as Gandalf, and the whole thing is about a barely mentioned, if crucial, section of LotR in which Aragorn is charged with chasing down the snivelling, one-time owner of the One Ring before Sauron’s forces can get to him.

Sales of high-end barbecues are booming as hotter and longer summers increase appetite for alfresco dining

Burned sausages, limp salads and undercooked chicken legs you live to regret; the British barbecue has historically been a sorry affair. But a slew of fancy equipment the price of a secondhand car is revolutionising the grilling game.

Over the past few years, the £1,000-plus barbecue has soared in popularity. The Big Green Egg, a pioneer of the premium outdoor cooking movement, has recorded 1m visits to its UK website so far this year. Its classic model retails at £1,495.

From Dunbar and Shakespeare to Free the Weatherfield One, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 How many times does the sun rise each year at the north pole?
2 Which board game inspired the creation of QR codes?
3 Five of the six cataracts of the Nile are in which country?
4 In what decade did Germany print a 100-trillion Mark note?
5 Who warned of a “global heat trap” and “climate instability” in 1988?
6 Which rhythm section had the surnames Dunbar and Shakespeare?
7 Free the Weatherfield One was a campaign to liberate whom?
8 What was the main language of the Inca empire?
What links:
9 Barringer, US; Chicxulub, Mexico; Vredefort, South Africa; Wolfe Creek, Australia?
10 Smokin’ Joe; Fighting Marine; Neon Leon; Easton Assassin?
11 American Legion; Theodor Escherich; Daniel Salmon; staff; twisted berry?
12 Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr; Larry Bell, Dion DiMucci and Bob Dylan?
13 Bass beer; bleaching allowed; major seventh chord; youth hostel?
14 Cole Allen; Thomas Crooks; Ryan Routh?
15 1558 (25); 1689 (26); 1702 (37); 1837 (18); 1952 (25)?

Want to prolong the life of your TV? A wireless TV box could be the answer. Our expert put top devices – from Freely streamers to Sky and Amazon Fire – through their paces

• Do you really need a new TV? Simple ways to upgrade your current setup

TV is changing – and so is the way we watch it. Forget that dusty aerial or unsightly satellite dish, you can now stream mainstream channels such as the BBC, ITV and others via Freely, alongside premium services such as Sky Atlantic, over wifi – and it doesn’t need to cost the earth.

Freely comes from the creators of Freeview and Freesat. It’s backed by the UK’s main public service broadcasters and is supported by a growing list of TV providers. Scroll the Freely programme guide, and you’ll find familiar channels such as Dave, Yesterday and W. To watch them, you just need a wireless TV box and wifi.

Best Freely TV streamer:
Manhattan Aero

Best budget wireless TV stick:
Amazon Fire 4K Max

Our writer spent three months putting natural, recycled and bio-based leggings, sports bras and tops to the test

• How to make your clothes last longer

Most of us love to exercise in flattering, figure-hugging clothes, but they’re often unsustainable. Workout gear with stretch tends to be made from fossil-fuel-derived synthetics, which dominate global fibre production. They shed microplastics during every wash, have huge carbon footprints (polyester is the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in fibre production) and can take hundreds of years to decompose in landfills, releasing harmful gases in the process. However, it can be difficult to find good workout clothes made from alternative, less-polluting fabrics.

So I set out to find the best workout gear made from materials that have a lower environmental impact but also don’t compromise on performance. I put a range of pieces, from leggings to shorts, tank tops to base layers, to the test, wearing them for different types of exercise to find out how they felt, and if they retained their stretch. I looked at the environmental impact of each item, and I’ve noted any take-back and recycling schemes.

Whether you suffer from hay fever, damp rooms or just want to breathe cleaner air, here are the best purifiers from our expert’s test of 10

• The best dehumidifiers – tested

You may not have given much thought to air quality, nor to air purifiers, if you’re lucky enough never to have had hay fever or any of the many other health conditions connected to airborne particles.

But air pollution – including industrial emissions, exhaust fumes and dust – is one of the gravest environmental health risks in the UK. Densely populated and low-income areas feel the worst effects. It’s a global problem, explored in Beth Gardiner’s book Choked.

Best air purifier overall:
Blueair Blue Signature large

Best budget air purifier:
Levoit Core Mini LAP-C161-WUK

They claim to fix fine lines, blemishes and redness – but which stand up to scrutiny? We asked dermatologists and put them to the test to find out

• The best anti-ageing creams, serums and treatments

LED face masks are booming in popularity – despite being one of the most expensive at-home beauty products to hit the market. They claim to either reduce the appearance of fine lines, stop spots or calm redness, with some even combining different types of light to enhance the benefits.

However, it’s wise to be sceptical about new treatments that are costly and non-invasive, and to do your research before you buy. With this in mind, I interviewed doctors and dermatologists to find out whether these light therapy devices work.

Best LED face mask overall:
CurrentBody Series 2

Best budget LED face mask:
Silk’n LED face mask 100

This cool summer dish can be easily enhanced with a range of store-cupboard staples

What’s your favourite hot weather food? Mine’s gazpacho. I’m joking – gazpacho’s lovely, but cold noodles are my top pick because, in the summer, they meet me exactly where I am in both the cooking and the eating. They don’t need much by way of cooking, and they can be dressed and paired with many a store-cupboard ingredient – in today’s case, tahini, miso and sesame oil. Best of all, cooling the noodles shocks the starches, which makes them firmer and gorgeously “QQ”, a Taiwanese term used to describe food that’s delightfully bouncy and springy. Which personally, is how I’d like to feel all summer long.

Forget pineapple and use berries instead, with aromatic five-spice adding its warming fragrance to this darkly delicious take on the classic bake

I grew up thinking the only fruit that was allowed in an upside-down cake was tinned pineapple, so once I discovered that no such rule existed and that I had free rein, upside-down cakes became far more exciting. I’ve since used everything from plums and apples to blood oranges, but today I’ve gone for blueberries. And, thanks to how juicy they are, you don’t even need to make a caramel: just toss the berries in sugar. I always add a pinch of five-spice, too, for a warming fragrance that just works. Trust me!

Whether making a last-minute panic buy or you simply can’t be bothered to stray far from home, the dusty shelves of your local store often boast their share of trusted, dependable bottles

There was a time in my life when Campo Viejo Tempranillo was as essential as milk or bread; my flatmates and I designated it our “house wine”’. The year was 2011, we wore a lot of elasticated statement belts and lived opposite a corner shop by Brixton prison. Like us, the wine was young, fruity and there for a good time.

Campo Viejo remains one of the more obvious choices for a last-minute bottle of red. Even better is Muriel Tempranillo Rioja at the Co-op, which has all the dark red fruit and vanilla you might expect from young rioja. These days, I’d freshen up either of them with a blast in the fridge, or mix with lemonade for that emblematic Spanish summer cocktail, tinto de verano.

From flavoured porridge to omelette pancakes, these meals provide slow-release energy without weighing you down

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While I adore almost everything about June, there is a brief window, round about now, where I get flashbacks to my childhood PE lessons. That’s right, folks: it is sports day season. And while I love cheering on my own kids (and trying to calm my inner Julia from Motherland), as a kid I hated it with a passion. I was not remotely sporty, but I have tried to quieten those hangups and encourage my girls as best I can. And the one thing I can do, confidently, is give them a nutritious breakfast.

Which leads me on to one of the big food topics on everyone’s lips, whatever your age: what are we eating before we work out? If social media is anything to go by (and it really shouldn’t be, or with caution at least), we should all max out on protein. But what’s the workout rule of thumb: carbs before and protein after? And what is high-energy food anyway?

Penelope worries this will teach her children it’s OK to trespass; Spencer sees no harm in them hopping over. No sitting on the fence – you decide who’s in the wrong

• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

It doesn’t matter that it only takes five seconds. It’s a flagrant disregard for property rights

No harm was done to their garden. It’s just a lawn with a few shrubs. I don’t see the problem

I’d always wanted to represent my country at something, so when I learned about Mölkky, I got a team together

It was December 2023 and I was searching in the attic for Christmas decorations when my phone pinged. I pulled it out of my pocket and found a WhatsApp message from my son who was backpacking in Australia. The message read, simply: “You might want to take a look at this” – it was accompanied by a short video clip.

The footage was grainy – it was night-time somewhere in Queensland and the streetlights weren’t the brightest – but I could make out Louis and his travel companion Asher throwing what looked like a rolling pin at a collection of numbered wooden skittles.

Edward thinks of sex as playtime and has a vivid imagination, which Jane is happy to go along with despite being quite ‘vanilla’ herself

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

When I dreamed about Jane in a latex catsuit, we had one made

Brendan Maclean had never spoken with drag queen Karen from Finance in person, nor laid eyes on the man behind the makeup. Then came a chance encounter in Melbourne

• Find more stories from the moment I knew series

I’d had a big, sparkly pop career in my 20s but by 2024 I was beyond my twink era, and getting by hopping from one weird gig to the next. Covid had really done a number on the music industry and, while my friend Paul Mac had kept me making music, I found myself drifting through a strange, boozy few years in Sydney. I’d been single since 2020 and my best friend was my cat.

Throughout that hazy time, I was as terminally online as ever. At 38 I was posting like a 20-year-old. One day, for no particular reason, I posted a track from the Dissociatives’ self-titled album from the mid-noughties. Paul, who I call my gay uncle, and Daniel Johns of Silverchair fame, had made just one LP together, and the obscure track, Thinking in Reverse, was one of my favourites.

The rules have changed and more taxpayers are being pulled into the net, not only the wealthy

Less generous rules have turned capital gains tax into a “cash machine” for the government, with income from the levy soaring by almost 80% to £24bn in the last tax year – equivalent to well over £800 a household.

A series of changes to the way the charge works means more people are being pulled into the capital gains tax (CGT) net, and not only the wealthy. And, given the scale of the change, this week experts were reminding consumers of legitimate ways to reduce a CGT bill.

Katie Kendrick, Cath Williams and Jo Darbyshire were subject to tens of thousands of pounds of hidden costs as their new-build freeholds soared in value, making their homes unsellable. Their campaign could finally end the ‘feudal’ system in England and Wales

When a leaflet about leasehold injustice landed on Cath Williams’ doorstep in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, nearly a decade ago, she barely gave it a second thought, tossing it straight into the bin. Had she given it more than a cursory glance, she’d have read about how residents on her new-build estate had found out the leaseholds for their homes had been sold without their knowledge, which could cost them all thousands of pounds. “Sometimes you get things through the door and you go, ‘what are they on about?’” recalls the 69-year-old retired university lecturer. It was of no interest to her. Or so she thought.

Williams hadn’t realised her home was leasehold when she decided to buy it. It was never mentioned in any promotional material, she says, and the word “leasehold” was only later added to her paperwork in pencil by an estate agent four weeks before her move in date – by then she had already paid her deposit and it was too late to back out. Her unease about what this would mean built over time and it soon became clear it would be a huge headache for her: any alterations to her home would require paying the freeholder an ever-increasing permission fee, the property would decrease in value as the lease got shorter, and the ground rent could increase drastically over time. Ultimately, it could leave her trapped and unable to sell her home.

Wuva staff’s kindness and empathy means we are able to plan more trips away

My husband has motor neurone disease (MND). For us to continue going away, we decided to buy a refurbished mobile hoist, which helps to get out of a bed, from the online mobility equipment company, Wuva.

It arrived quickly, but had been damaged in transit and didn’t work. I contacted Wuva out of hours via WhatsApp, and within five minutes I received an extensive apology and advised an engineer would call me shortly.

After falling for a scam call, ‘The Tech Chap’ host Tom Honeyands realised he’d given away vital details in social media posts

When Tom Honeyands realised he had been defrauded out of £70,000 he was furious and embarrassed – and left wondering if he had given away too many details on his social media videos.

Honeyands was on a work trip to Tokyo when he got a call from someone claiming to be from Lloyds bank. The caller asked if he had made a recent transaction in Singapore and when he said no, the scammer said his account had been compromised and that security details needed to be reset.

More walking and standing in the workplace also associated with higher risk, according to Danish research

Bending forwards and walking a lot at work in the early stages of pregnancy may increase the risk of miscarriage, a study suggests.

Miscarriage affects about 15% of women. Risk factors include parental age, smoking, night shift work and exposure to air pollution and various chemical compounds.

From doing chores to staying away from exes, some adults are buying sticker charts to help stick to their goals

• Tell us: is it OK to date a friend’s ex? We want to hear from you

There is a sticker chart on the kitchen cupboard in the Gray family home in Birmingham, England – the two Gray children, aged four and 10, get excited when it’s time to add another gold star. But they aren’t being rewarded for brushing their teeth or learning their spellings; this is someone else’s chart entirely.

“They know that mommy gets a gold star when she goes to the gym,” says Bek Gray, a 33-year-old healthcare professional who has been using sticker charts to motivate herself for one and a half years.

An increasing number of people are finding trail running relatively late in life – and they’re reaping the health benefits

Earlier this year, 62-year-old Karla Wagner placed second in the 100-mile division of the Grandmaster Ultras, an Arizona trail-running event designed for 50-and-over runners in the age group known as “grandmaster”.

For most of her adult life, Wagner, who is from Lander, Wyoming, avoided running because it triggered her asthma. But when asthma meds improved, she added trail running to her fitness mix and became completely hooked in her early fifties.

Many of us have reassured ourselves with the ‘five second rule’, but bacteria can transfer almost immediately – and sticks around for hours

You drop a piece of cucumber on the floor. Do you immediately throw it in the bin or reassure yourself of the age-old “five-second rule” and reckon it’s fine to pop it in your mouth after a quick rinse?

If you fall into the latter camp, John Tregoning, professor of vaccine immunology at Imperial College London, has some bad news. He refers to three studies into bacteria transfer that all point towards the rule being false.

Move over Barbie, ‘electric fuchsia’ is now dominating football’s biggest stages. But why has the sport embraced the colour?

Any fashion-conscious England fan watching the World Cup this week would have appreciated the moment the attack reached the Croatian end – and not just for the potential goals.

It offered another glimpse of goalkeeper Dominik Livaković in hot pink, a shade fast becoming a visual signature this tournament. Forget Barbie pink – welcome to the World Cup’s hot pink summer.

As some shops toy with the idea of removing changing rooms, what does it mean for the future of the high street?

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Is the changing room dead? According to the teenage fashion mecca, Brandy Melville, it is. The brand has closed all its fitting rooms across stores in the UK, US and Canada, with shoppers taking to social media lamenting the change.

“Why does Brandy hate [its] customers?” one TikTok user questioned. “How am I supposed to know if it’s cute on me???!” another exclaimed.

These tailored trousers are ideal for those sunny days when the forecast looks dodgy later on – or when there’s a heatwave but you still have to go to the office

I think we can probably agree that Audrey Hepburn would not have been seen dead in jorts. The baggy, grunge-adjacent knee-length denims that were everywhere last summer and are creeping back around are definitely cool. Totally a vibe. But elegant they are not.

The capri pant is an undeniably elegant solution to the problem of what to wear when jeans or tailored trousers are too hot and cumbersome, but you don’t want to wear shorts. For instance, when it is sunny while you are getting dressed, but you are going to be out all day and the forecast looks dodgy later on. Or when there is a heatwave but you still have to go to the office, so Daisy Dukes are not going to work.

Before choosing a stick to satisfy your Crayola makeup cravings, it’s wise to consider your skin type and tone

There’s something deeply satisfying about scribbling on your face with a makeup stick. Also, convenient. Solid sticks of foundation eliminate the risk of smashed or leaky bottles, are more compact and portable than liquids and creams, and can mostly be blended with fingertips, dispensing with brushes and sponges. They can be applied in a more localised way than other types of foundation and are particularly useful when someone – often with a deeper skin tone – benefits from two shades of foundation and doesn’t want them to merge into each other.

Sticks were all the rage for a few years, but fell from favour until Bobbi Brown’s excellent Skin Foundation Stick (£39) was practically the last one standing. Dior and Charlotte Tilbury recently revived the category and sticks are now enjoying a major comeback. Under the most scrutiny is Bobbi Brown herself, no longer a part of the eponymous brand, but helming the highly influential Jones Road. Her new Your Skin Foundation Stick (£36) is different from her groundbreaking Bobbi Brown formula, but exactly as I’ve come to expect from Jones Road – very moist, glowy and natural-looking. Although definitely not for everyone (including oily skins, and those who want full or matte coverage), it’s a sure-fire winner with devotees of Brown’s pared-back aesthetic. There are 30 shades in a selection of undertones. It spreads like butter, though if longevity is a priority, you’ll need a setting spray. But expect a comfortable ride and a pretty, non-caked finish.

This wetland south of Syracuse was saved from developers and preserved as an unspoilt haven for migratory birds

We rented Il Nido because we thought other people wouldn’t like it. Small and basic, without internet, the property was supposedly beside a beautiful national park famous for its coastline and migratory birds. The online picture suggested it was pressed up against one of those concrete pillars (common around Sicily) supporting a deserted and rotting motorway flyover. I was writing a thriller with mafia connections. My partner wanted to scrape off six months of fumes from her new job in London. Our daughter needed fun.

“This is a bomb,” said the hostess, opening a cupboard under the sink. “You turn it anticlockwise to go off.”

With Two Weeks in August and the return of The Four Seasons, TV dramas about nightmare getaways are having a moment. Here are Guardian readers’ tales of their own

In early 1969, my parents booked a holiday in Belfast for one week and a bed and breakfast in Dublin for one week. When we arrived at our Belfast destination, The Elsinore Hotel, there wasn’t another car in the parking lot and the hotel was empty except for the aged husband and wife owners. Being 12 years old, I didn’t think too much at the time about the quiet, empty place but the owners invited the whole family down to the dining room every evening and we enjoyed some great meals. Lots of pictures of JFK and the pope adorned many of the hotel walls and being a Catholic family ourselves, the hosts made a big fuss of us.

Britain’s Camping and Caravanning Club started as a cycle camping club 125 years ago. I cycle from its birthplace to one of its oldest campsites to see if its free-wheeling spirit survives

Skylarks call out a cascading trill as I pedal between the pink and white hawthorn blossoms that make my path look like a May Day parade. I’m on the outskirts of Oxford, a city I thought I knew well, yet as I follow the National Cycle Route 57 on the e-bike I’d picked up in Jericho, it feels as though I’ve discovered a secret passageway.

This year the Camping and Caravanning Club (CCC) turns 125 – and I’m celebrating with a 60-mile cycling and camping trip, leaving from the city where the organisation was born and heading to Walton-on-Thames to stay at one of the oldest campsites in the CCC network.

The French cities of Marseille, Aix, Avignon and Arles boast a wealth of museums and festivals showing work by contemporary artists. Here’s how to make the most of a dazzling cultural summer

My wife and I moved from London to Marseille a little over five years ago when our British passports still conferred “right to reside” in France. That first winter on the beach, in short sleeves, as our daughters played in the topaz-coloured Mediterranean and the sun set across an ever-clear blue sky, I understood why this part of southern France has always been popular with artists.

I was recently speaking about this with the painter Fanny Nushka and her sailor husband, Benoît Bouchet, on the terrace of Café la Muse in Marseille’s “coolest” neighbourhood. She said: “It took a long time to go back to blue. It’s like being in Paris and painting the Eiffel Tower. It’s dangerous to paint the Calanques [limestone coves] as an artist from here.”

Starting your crops where you will harvest them avoids transplant shock and can speed growth. Just beware of hungry animals!

I like to think of myself as a fairly laissez-faire food grower. I see the prescribed sowing windows as guidance mostly, and have been known to bung a healthy seedling in a bed alongside a different plant family even if it goes against my crop plan. But when sowing seeds, I am all about control. I’m a devoted user of modular seed trays, preferring to keep my seeds compartmentalised so that I can monitor their germination and growth before choosing the ideal moment to plant them out.

Yet some crops lend themselves to being sown directly in the spot where they’ll grow until harvested. Quite a few crops can be sown outdoors now, in early summer’s generally friendly weather.

From a one-room village school transformed into a five-bedroom rural pile to a flat in a grand Victorian building in London

‘Reading is having a moment,’ according to Tinder. But do its users actually appreciate books, or just talk about them to get dates?

Name: Booksmaxxing.

Age: The next big thing.

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.

Investigation: The entrepreneur was once the toast of London’s tech scene, a ‘global leader of tomorrow’ who starred on Dragons’ Den and promised untold riches for the startups she championed. But people she worked with in the last decade, from Malta to Switzerland, describe a very different reality

Julie Meyer is sitting in a starkly lit attic, surrounded by piles of £50 notes. A California blond in a crisp, white shirt, her long, stockinged legs crossed at the knee, she listens intently to the young man standing before her. As he talks, she sizes him up. Eventually, she tells him: “I’m going to make you an offer.” It could be a scene from a heist movie, but Meyer is in a BBC studio, shooting a 2009 episode of the TV show Dragons’ Den. A celebrated entrepreneur with a venture capital fund, she is ready to invest in whichever contestants catch her eye. For the viewers, she has some advice: “What is success? A lot of it is self-belief. Continuing on when most rational people would stop.”

This is an online spin-off from the original Dragons’ Den series, so the stakes are a little lower. But for Lex Deak, a 23-year-old with a big idea for a social media website, what happens in this room today could be make or break. He desperately wants to work with Meyer.

Amid UK government proposals for a ban, experts discuss what other activities might really serve children well

When a Lancashire schoolgirl was asked what she would do if the social media ban for under-16s came into effect, her answer hit a national nerve: “Stare at a wall,” she deadpanned. The clip went viral, not least because it distilled a question many parents have been asking themselves about the consequences of the government’s plan.

The answer, says Arran Wilson, of The Wildlife Trusts is not simply to tell children to go outside, read a book or join a club. “It’s not as simple as that,” Wilson says. “We need to think about the world we’ve been raising them in.”

He did every substance imaginable – and got punched by Chuck Berry – but Keef’s still going strong. As the Stones knock out another new album, he explains why he’s rejecting AI in favour of ‘the old ways’

Keith Richards has just become a great-grandfather. “This is true! This is true!” he enthuses, video-calling from somewhere in the depths of the Hit Factory, the New York studio first patronised by the Rolling Stones 46 years ago when they were making Emotional Rescue. “It’s been a couple of weeks. It’s a new thing for me. But I’m a fantastic grandad,” he confides. “Great-grandadding is … I try to let them hang with me for as long as humanly possible, then I hand ’em back. I’ve been doing a lot of grandfathering in the last year or so. I’ve got three or four new ones, you know. When I say new, I mean … two or three years old. Or four. Or one, or maybe five.”

Hang on, that seems a little vague. He shrugs and explodes in a wheezy chuckle. “I lose track, you know.”

A decade on, have you healed the rift, or is your relationship beyond repair?

With the 10th anniversary of the 2016 EU referendum result approaching, we would like to hear from people on how the vote affected their relationships with family and/or friends.

Perhaps you voted differently from a parent, child, sibling, partner, or friend, which caused tension and conflict. If so, a decade on, have you been able to heal the rift, move past your differences or has it damaged your relationship beyond repair? Tell us.

Our wildlife series Young Country Diary is looking for articles written by children, about their summer encounters with nature

Once again, the Young Country Diary series is open for submissions! Every three months we ask you to send us an article written by a child aged 8-14.

The article needs to be about a recent encounter they’ve had with nature – whether it’s a nesting bird, a beetle on the move, a field full of flowers.

Did you visit the famed tree? Did you take photos of it? Please share them with us

The Major oak, one of Europe’s oldest, largest and most celebrated ancient trees, which has grown in Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, England, for at least 1,000 years, has died.

The huge tree failed to produce any leaves this year, after becoming stressed by a series of hot, dry summers. Footfall from visitors admiring the oak and well-intentioned historical interventions have also not helped its longevity.

We’d like to hear from people in the UK about how their local bird populations are faring, and what they mean to them

We’d like to find out about your experience of wild native birds where you live and whether there have been any changes over time.

Do you notice the same number of birds or less? What type of birds do you come into contact with? How has the soundscape changed? Do you ever use apps like Merlin to identify birds?

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Ukrainian strikes on a Moscow oil refinery, protests at the G7 summit, wildfires in Spain and Messi at the World Cup – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Warning: this gallery contains images some readers may find distressing