City plans to triple system of underground pipes that distribute chilled river water, reducing need for individual cooling units

As heatwaves intensify across Europe, most cities are reaching for a familiar fix of more air conditioning. But in 1990s Paris, planning began for a different kind of solution: one of the world’s largest district cooling networks.

The system has 120kms (75-miles) of underground pipes distributing chilled water to museums, offices, hospitals, schools and other public buildings including the Louvre, the Grand Palais, and some luxury hotels and office districts. Instead of thousands of individual air-conditioning units, cooling is produced centrally and shared across the city like a utility.

The Makerfield MP’s surge towards No 10 is a seductive ad for the power of positive politics. How long that proves effective depends on his next moves

The creation of hope is a vital but risky part of democratic politics. Leaders or would-be leaders who arouse hope attract supporters, motivate activists, achieve momentum and win over voters – and then have a chance of holding together political parties, governments and societies in harder times. From Barack Obama to Clement Attlee, Salvador Allende to Zohran Mamdani, leaders from across the left in particular have heavily relied on hope to launch and sustain their ruling projects.

Meanwhile, an absence of hope has quickly doomed other left of centre governments. Keir Starmer’s decision, only eight weeks into his premiership, to summon the media to the Downing Street garden and tell them that “things will get worse before we get better” in the UK was a mistake from which his administration never recovered. In a society where most lives have been getting harder since the 2008 financial crisis, Starmer’s downbeat manner, however justified by the deep problems he inherited from the Tories, was not an emotional register that much of the electorate desired.

Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist

They were a big 00s buzz band – but looked in danger of fading out. Empowered by fatherhood and anger at war and AI, the New Yorkers explain why they ‘really showed up’ again

Suits. Gnomic poetry. Moody, insistent riffs. It used to be that you’d know what to expect from NYC rockers Interpol. The band’s first two albums, in the early 00s, were blockbuster successes, shifting half a million units each thanks to dramatic songs also fit for jerking around at an indie disco. Interpol duly jumped up to a major label, but then quickly fell back down again. Their talismanic bassist Carlos Dengler quit, and the band settled into a decade of solidly successful but pretty predictable albums. The most recent, 2022’s The Other Side of Make Believe, only reached No 178 on the US charts.

So it’s a bit unexpected that their upcoming eighth album, This Mirror Weighs a Ton, is their masterpiece. “We just all really showed up,” frontman-guitarist Paul Banks says of a band that has swelled to a quintet as two touring musicians, bassist Brad Truax and keyboardist Brandon Curtis, become full-time members. “The lyrics on the last record, it’s really hard for me to identify with what I was doing,” Banks continues. “I felt as if I made some mistakes.” What were they? “I don’t want to draw attention to them! I just didn’t want to walk away with that feeling again.”

Packed with fun memories from Ben Elton and Stephen Fry plus heartbreaking regret from his former partner, the Bottom star is so adored that this documentary risks descending into cringe – but his punky spirit shines through

Rik Mayall: Magnificent B’Stard is a homage to the man and an elegy for what you have to presume were the lost youths of most of the viewing audience. I don’t know what the current youth would make of it. I suppose they’re not watching television anyway, so the question’s moot.

Plus, of course, it doesn’t matter. This is 90 minutes of television for us – the generation that grew up with Mayall on screen as Rick the Poet (“This is my angriest poem – Theatre!”), then self-styled investigative reporter from and mostly in Redditch, Kevin Turvey, then in The Young Ones as anarchist sociology student Rick and on through its less wildly popular follow-up Filthy Rich & Catflap. Then there was his unforgettable turn as Lord Flashheart in Blackadder II (and as the horndog lord’s equally priapic descendant Squadron Commander Flashheart in Blackadder Goes Forth); the unexpected pivot towards a more restrained demonstration of his comic talents as oleaginous, ruthless, corrupt, entirely fictional Tory MP Alan B’Stard in Marks and Gran’s brilliant The New Statesman; a Hollywood punt as Drop Dead Fred; then the huge success of Bottom as a sitcom and a live show throughout the 90s until a terrible quad biking accident in 1998 trimmed his sails.

Luke spoke about how he irons his T-shirts and keeps a strict budget spreadsheet. I was hooked

The Dull Men’s Club popped up on my Facebook feed one day in late 2023. It’s now called Banana for Scale – a reference to a running joke in the group – as there were many clubs with similar names. It’s a place for people to celebrate the ordinary things in life. Every post had this dry sense of humour, which I’m drawn to.

One member regularly posts about his outings with his friend Nigel; others show off their collection of rocks.

(Dead Oceans)
The US singer took years away from public life after her silvery balladry reshaped pop. Her return is an ornate reinvention

Since her Boygenius supergroup with Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus went on hiatus in February 2024, Phoebe Bridgers has taken a wholehearted break from life in the public eye. Who could blame her? Bridgers became a figure of invasive parasocial behaviour from fans after her spooked, sad second album, 2020’s Punisher, resonated with life under lockdown and made her a superstar. In recent years, young women making introspective and ornate indie-rock songs have risen to startling, pop star levels of fame and scrutiny – and none more so than Bridgers and her peer Mitski. When Bridgers was rumoured to be engaged in 2022, fans possessed by her devastating music rued her happiness; when she started a new relationship, the gossip mill churned. In 2023, she castigated the so-called fans who aggressed her in an airport while on the way to her father’s funeral.

Even her recent analogue return has prompted reactions that might have a less self-possessed artist wondering why they bother. Last month, mysterious posters started appearing in small towns across the US advertising surprise $1 Bridgers shows in intimate venues later that night, before a concluding gig at New York’s gigantic Madison Square Garden. Phones were banned, along with any kind of recording device, including pen and paper, to stop audience members from writing down lyrics from her third album and sharing them online. The backlash to this – some fans accused her of ableism – prompted its own backlash, a tiresome Russian doll of discourse that’s still dragging on.

Study also finds high humidity means people in hundreds of cities are enduring their worst ever heat stress

The heatwave scorching western Europe is the most severe and widespread ever and is only possible due to the climate crisis driven by fossil fuel burning, scientists have said.

Almost half of Europe’s 850 largest cities are also enduring their worst ever heat stress, a combination of temperature and humidity, they found. Muggier conditions mean sweating is less effective at cooling the body, making heatwaves even more dangerous.

Sarah Steele waives anonymity to call for greater scrutiny of how US military courts are allowed to ‘rip apart’ vulnerable witnesses in the UK

• Why did a US fighter pilot avoid British trial after strangling a woman in England?

• Explainer: how the US bypasses British courts

A woman strangled by an American fighter pilot at his home in an English city has come forward to criticise the handling of his prosecution via a US court martial, a process she described as “military first, justice second”.

Sarah Steele, a British academic, has come forward to speak about the “distressing and degrading” experience she had with the US military justice system after she was assaulted by the airman in Cambridge.

US among countries sending help to search for survivors on north coast, where dozens of buildings flattened, as official death toll reaches 235

Rescue teams are racing to Venezuela’s shattered northern coast after almost simultaneous earthquakes reduced dozens of buildings to rubble, killing at least 235 people but with thousands more fatalities feared. Officials said at least 4,300 people were injured as rescue missions continue.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said the defence department would help search and rescue teams deploy to the affected region after Venezuela’s main gateway, the Simón Bolívar international airport, near the capital, Caracas, was badly damaged by 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes less than 40 seconds apart, late on Wednesday afternoon.

Emerging research suggests datacentres create a heat island effect, pushing up temperatures in the immediate vicinity by as much as 9C

The community living next to the largest datacentre park in Europe say the scorching summer heat has grown unbearable.

On days like Wednesday, said Nabeel Nawaz, the store manager of a Chaiiwala franchise in the centre of Slough, the heat is like something “pinching your body and burning your skin”.

Kremlin may attempt to test Nato cohesion as Russia comes under growing pressure from Ukraine, according to sources from two countries

Two countries on Nato’s eastern flank have warned that Russia is preparing a possible “provocation” in the Baltic states or Poland in an effort to test the cohesion of the western military alliance.

Western sources also fear there could be danger on the horizon because the Kremlin is coming under pressure from Ukraine’s campaign of long-range attacks on targets near Moscow and St Petersburg.

Charles and Camilla to remain at Clarence House and are said to want the public to have more access to ‘monarchy HQ’

• King Charles’s tax bill: what did we learn and what is still in the dark?

• Crown estate makes more than £1bn profit for third year running

King Charles and Queen Camilla will not move into Buckingham Palace when £369m of buildings works to update it finish next year, preferring to remain at Clarence House, their London home nearby.

The announcement came as it was revealed the king paid £12.9m in income and capital gains tax in 2024-25 on his personal income, known as the privy purse, making him among the country’s top 100 taxpayers. Prince William paid £7.76m for the same period.

Planning permission has been sought for three additional military sites

Home Office plans to use three more former military sites to house thousands of asylum seekers have been condemned as “arrogant”, “costly” and “a political fix” by refugee charities and local stakeholders.

Planning permission is being sought to build “basic” accommodation at MOD Bicester in Oxfordshire, RAF Barnham in Suffolk and RAF Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire, a statement said. These new sites could house 3,750 claimants, the government has claimed.

It was not a match of high distinction, but all the Socceroos needed was a pass against Paraguay, and their 0-0 draw in San Francisco Bay Area stadium booked a place in the World Cup knockout phase for the third time in their history.

A much-changed Australia side controlled large parts of the match, but with both teams knowing that a draw would be enough to qualify for the last 32, there were long stretches without impetus.

Conservationists emphasise importance of protecting nesting sites used by ‘strongly faithful’ red-listed species

Migratory swifts loyally return every year to their nests in buildings, according to a study, underlining the importance of providing the endangered birds with hollow nesting bricks if traditional nest sites are lost to renovations.

The swift, which is on the red list of conservation concern, is one of Britain’s most threatened species, having declined in number by 70% since 1995 because of the loss of nesting sites, often when old buildings are re-roofed or given better insulation. While Scotland this year made the installation of swift bricks – a simple hollow brick – a legal requirement in new buildings, the government in England has repeatedly refused to oblige builders to include a £35 swift brick in every new home.

Changes due to take effect next year for stocks and shares Isas have become become clearer, prompting concern

The way you can invest in Isas will change next April, and for under-65s that will means a reduced limit on the amount of money that can be saved tax-free in a cash Isa.

This week the new rules became clearer, sparking concern among investors that they may have to pay tax on some of their holdings.

Socialists marginalised under current PM are anxious about whether his replacement will again disappoint them

On 10 September 2024, Jon Trickett, a veteran leftwing MP, was preparing to vote against one of his own government’s most incendiary plans: to remove the winter fuel allowance from some retired people, a benefit long seen by many UK households as essential. Senior figures told Trickett he would be the only Labour member of parliament to do so. He said this week: “I said: ‘I don’t give a fuck. I’m going to do what I believe is the right thing.’ And I was right.”

That has since seen as a policy misstep from which Keir Starmer’s government never recovered. Trickett could, perhaps, be forgiven for indulging in a little schadenfreude after Starmer’s resignation this week, just two years after he won a landslide general election victory.

Now 84, the voice of Heat Wave and Jimmy Mack is releasing a new album. She answers your questions on Marvin Gaye, popularising the roundabout and why she hates cover versions of her songs

You were part of perhaps the richest and most exciting era of music since the German and Italian classics of the 19th century. How was it for you and what made it all tick? eamonmcc
William Stevenson discovered me after I had won an amateur contest. It was like a dream come true that a producer would come and approach me and say, “You have talent, come to Hitsville, USA.” I took his advice and showed up the next day unannounced and was immediately placed in a position as secretary [at Motown Records]. It felt real good that I was at the right place at the right time. It was magical to me and it’s all been just a glorious ride.

The Motown production line is sometimes compared to the production line of cars in Detroit. Is there anything to that, do you think? mesm
Motown and Ford are synonymous. My dad worked for Ford and [Motown founder] Berry Gordy worked there as an employee. It taught Berry Gordy the way to represent and how to manage and how to give people assignments. He called it Motown or Motortown. So, it’s all combined: Motor City, Detroit, manufacturing, making music as an assembly line.

Two chefs lift the lid on the expensive business of creating menus they love

You pay: £21
Restaurant profit: £1.65

Mohammad Tahir and his colleagues operate through bombing and blackouts in barely functional hospitals – but there are moments of relief amid the documentary’s tragedy and gore

What this documentary might lack in film-making finesse it makes up for with sheer visceral and emotional impact. British nerve surgeon Mohammad Tahir and his colleagues, who also work the cameras, toil in Gaza’s barely operational hospitals during some of the worst days and nights of the war in the winter of 2024-25. Supported by US-based charity FAJR Global, who provide medical care to the world’s most in need, Tahir operates through bombings and blackouts with a bare minimum of medical supplies, sometimes treating patients lying on the floor in puddles of blood because there are no gurneys. This is often hard to watch, and not just because of all the gore; many of the victims are children, out of whom Tahir and the others dig bullets as well as tiny tungsten cubes, new-fangled shrapnel designed to cause maximum damage.

With his matinee-star good looks, rock-steady composure and air of unruffled competence, Tahir makes an excellent guide to all this mayhem. For the most part he soldiers stoically on, but the cool melts when, for instance, he discusses how he had to remove a random jawbone embedded in a patient’s wound. Later on, he treats a little girl who has lost an arm in a bombing; he manages to reattach it after the family find the severed limb in the rubble of their home. The film could have easily started to feel like a numbing, endless procession of tragedy and bloodshed but the film-makers wisely offer a few moments of respite, such as a sequence where Tahir and his fellow medics enjoy a day out at the beach. Likewise, a scene where he teases a medical student bent over her textbooks briefly lightens the load of gloom.

Brollies are becoming year-round must-haves, as designers from Burberry to Blunt cater to people ducking out of the sun

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A bottle of water and a handheld fan are regularly deployed to keep cool while out and about in hot weather. With temperatures reaching record levels for June, though, a new heatwave accessory has emerged: the sunbrella.

On high streets around the country, people wielding umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun have become a common sight. On Thursday, as the Austrian Grand Prix declared a heat hazard, Lewis Hamilton was spotted in the paddock holding a Ferrari red umbrella that matched his race suit. And they’re popping up on catwalks, too. At the Dior show during Paris fashion week on Wednesday, guests including the actors James Marsden and Mike Faist were handed large cream umbrellas to help ease their discomfort as temperatures hit 38C.

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

⚽ Latest news from day 15 | Haaland v Mbappé in data
⚽ Third-place table | Player guide | Bracketology | Mail us

So yesterday’s results saw five more teams qualify for the knockout stage and you can catch up on all of the action across the reports:

Here is that piece for you now:

The US men’s national team have already made history this summer. They scored the most goals they ever have in a single World Cup game, won two straight games in the tournament for the first time in the modern era, and wrapped up top spot in an evenly-matched Group D with a game to spare.

On Thursday evening they faced a far more familiar foe: World Cup adversity. And in the key moments – the kind of spots where knockout games are won and lost – they wilted. Kaan Ayhan’s goal with the last kick of the game sealed a 3-2 win for Turkey, giving their disastrous tournament a positive ending. It also means the Americans go into last 32 – where they will play Bosnia and Herzegovina – with fresh questions.

The Oranje bus had better get a move on. A comfortable victory over Tunisia after being sent on their way by a record-equalling 12th own goal of the tournament and further strikes from Brian Brobbey and Jan Paul van Hecke sealed top spot in Group F for the Netherlands ahead of Japan.

Their prize is avoiding a meeting with Brazil in the last 32, with Ronald Koeman’s side now set for a mouthwatering showdown with Morocco in Monterrey instead. Having arrived in southern Texas almost a month ago and already taken in games in Dallas, Houston and Kansas City, the specially converted double decker that has become a fixture at recent major tournaments now faces a journey of more than 1,000 miles before Monday’s game in northern Mexico. It is a challenge that Koeman is clearly wary of.

Fans, players and coaches have voiced their indignation at the way the game is massively altered by the four-quarter structure

With 22 minutes gone on Tuesday night at Boston Stadium, and an injury delay in train, a clutch of England and Ghana players wandered to the side of the pitch and began taking drinks. This was the signal for a sudden spurt of refereeing indignation, the officials sprinting across in a state of apparently genuine outrage, appalled by the spectacle of unofficial hydration.

The first drinks break, Hydro-Quart-One, was only a minute away. Here we had players basically stealing hydration. Not to mention messing with the most vital part of the show – the advert timings. Guys, the director has not cued the break. David Beckham has the ice-cold faux beer halfway to his lips. Will Ferrell is making hyena-like vocal warm-up noises at the wheel of his crisp delivery lorry. We’re professionals. Hit your marks people.

A mess against Brazil, Steve Clarke’s side are in purgatory, hanging around as a faint hope of a place in the last 32 lives on

The sad thing is that in a matter of weeks, this will all have been ­forgotten. The intensely tribal nature of Scotland’s football domain means that a new domestic campaign will lead to scratching, swearing and ­howling that will dominate for months on end. Some may argue it will be wise to banish thoughts of Scotland’s participation in this World Cup. It should serve as a much-needed line in the sporting sand.

The psychological, societal and commercial benefits to Scotland have been borne out in recent weeks. Not only has the tournament captured hearts and minds in Scotland, but the Tartan Army has done likewise across the United States.

Britain has found itself looking for all three protagonists at once. Who gets to stand at the centre of the national story?

It’s been the refrain of the week. Why can’t the country hold on to a prime minister – and how can it be that Larry, the Downing Street cat, has managed to outlast six of them? Have we become ungovernable? Is it because one government after another has failed to halt the slide in living standards – or have online attention spans eroded our patience for change?

But Westminster isn’t the only dramatic platform casting for a new lead at the moment. Amid the political chaos this week, I was struck by a social media comment that this is the first time the UK has found itself looking for a new PM, a new James Bond and a new lead for Doctor Who, all at the same time.

Climate crisis is on show every day when sportspeople do their thing and the rest of us sweat on the sofa

Nothing sharpens the distinction between professional athletes and the rest of us like a week of truly hot weather. While we’re apologetically crying off long-in-the-diary engagements – so sorry, just can’t face it in this weather – elite sportspeople are blinking the rivulets of sweat out of their eyes while squinting under a hot-and-heavy helmet, then doing 22-yard sprints with a couple of kilos of padding strapped to their legs.

As one of nature’s non-athletes, I speak not just with admiration, but with genuine wonder. My experience of the past week has been working out how not to do things, or if forced, doing them half-heartedly because, you know, I haven’t slept. My friends and I message each other the latest innovations in fan strategy (“apparently putting a frozen bottle of water in front of it helps”) and talk about our journeys on public transport as if we’ve just survived the Somme.

Migration and cultural exchange have always been the norm between coastal European and African nations. We should celebrate this shared history

We are used to mapping the world by continents, dividing the globe into rigid geopolitical blocks. But to understand the complex reality behind each border, we are better off using a different, edible kind of cartography. For most of human existence, the Mediterranean has existed as an intercultural entity in its own right, where peoples and languages from different lands blur the lines that constitute modern frontiers. And nowhere is this shared regional identity more beautifully preserved than in Mediterranean kitchens.

Tracing the Italian Tyrrhenian coast, crossing the sea down to the shores of north Africa and then winding up to the Côte d’Azur, you will find a culinary pattern uniting diverse societies: an elemental batter of chickpea flour, water and olive oil. Baked in blazing wood ovens or deep‑fried in pans, it changes its name at every port, but its soul stays the same: a golden, sometimes crispy, sometimes soft proof that the peoples of the Mediterranean share a singular history that defies modern political boundaries.

Our schools are a dated mix of single glazing, dodgy pipes and atriums like Kew hothouses. They urgently need retrofitting for a changing climate

This week’s soaring summer temperatures have put a spotlight on our schools and their ability to cope, with one in Hertfordshire telling me that it recorded temperatures of more than 40C. So why are our schools struggling?

Modern schools often have too much glass, and not enough shading or ventilation to keep out the sun’s heat. During the 1950s, the focus on public health (after the creation of the NHS in 1948) meant that schools were designed to bring in more natural light. Windows often have built-in restrictors that stop them being opened too far, or at all, because of student safety concerns. Some schools have glass atriums, which were a common feature of those constructed during the government’s Building Schools for the Future programme in the early 2000s, but which now give the effect of walking into a Kew hothouse.

Harry Paticas is an architect and the founder of Retrofit Action for Tomorrow

The Ockenden report tells a terrible story of neglect. It’s a story that I – and far too many women I know – recognise

The findings of Donna Ockenden’s report on maternity services at Nottingham University hospitals NHS trust (NUH) are horrifying. Such is the scale of suffering on the part of mothers, babies and their loved ones that it is almost beyond contemplation. Harrowing details – a room filled with the smell of infection after a woman who was told to labour at home for six days was finally granted surgery; a student doctor being allowed to perform an emergency hysterectomy on a woman, and accidentally removing her bladder; a baby’s remains being disposed of as clinical waste – haunt you long after you finish reading. And then there are all those babies, who should now be exuberant, lovely children, who died because of poor care and neglect.

The victims and survivors, who campaigned long and hard for this review, don’t have the luxury of absorbing this information at their own pace, as I had to on Wednesday. They have lived with the brutal reality of it for many long years as they have fought for justice and accountability. These “mad grieving parents” – Sarah Hawkins’ description of how they were made to feel after the death of their daughter Harriet – did not give up in their quest for answers, and though they have been vindicated, I imagine there is a bitter aftertaste. Shamefully, nearly half of the senior members of staff at NUH refused to speak to Ockenden’s review.

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist

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

Trump gets to grips with ‘extremely liberal’ new kid who’s already roasting Kemi Badenoch on X

• UK politics live – latest updates

You know you’ve arrived as the prime minister-in-waiting when even Donald Trump has heard of you. Well, sort of. The name rings a vague bell. Call it a start in the new era of the not-so-special relationship.

On Sunday, the US president had the idea of announcing Keir Starmer’s resignation, long before the prime minister had got round to doing it himself. Trump likes to get ahead of the game. No time for losers, so best to dissociate himself from Keir as soon as possible. One day he might get round to dissociating from himself when he finally realises he lost the war with Iran.

He’s almost certain to become the UK’s seventh leader in a decade. And with the rightwing press and the algorithm against him, he’s basically a meat sacrifice

Current state of British democracy: the guy who puts out the resignation lectern in front of No 10 is now so familiar that he has become a meme. On the internet, they call him Hot Podium Guy. William Hague’s old line about the Tory party being “an autocracy moderated by regicide” is now basically true of the country as a whole.

And so out Keir Starmer strides to give a speech that, in the grand tradition of Starmer oratory, occupies the curious liminal space between the instantly forgettable and the barely existent. What might comprise a Davina-style supercut of Starmer’s best bits? The time he described us as an “island of strangers”, or blurted out that Israel had the right to starve Gaza of food and water? When your most memorable quotes were so poorly judged, perhaps it might be best for everyone if you put the microphone down for a while.
Not everyone is a natural public speaker, which on one level, of course, is fine. What Starmer craved above all was a task, a clear set of instructions and a solution. To him the British state was essentially an item of flatpack furniture: insert legislation A into complex social problem B, screw voter demographic C as tightly as possible, and if in doubt, call the handy 24-hour helpline to speak to Morgan.

Jonathan Liew is a Guardian columnist

Families are right to be angry about devastating care failures in Nottingham. Ministers must respond fast

The painful familiarity of key themes in Donna Ockenden’s review of maternity care failures must not detract from the urgency around this issue. The 400-page report published on Wednesday is a shocking catalogue of what went wrong at Nottingham university hospitals NHS trust. Its contents range from a excruciating case study of the errors leading to the death of baby Harriet Hawkins in 2016 – and the cover-up that followed – to trust-wide problems with staffing, culture and leadership. It also highlights flaws in the wider NHS, citing the finding of the 2022 Messenger review that political pressure can lead bosses “to look upwards to furnish the needs of the hierarchy rather than downwards to the needs of the service-user”.

Given its around 100 action points, implementation is a daunting prospect. Next week, Valerie Amos will add to these, and the more than 700 recommendations of earlier reports, with her own investigation of maternity care in England. Wes Streeting had pledged to chair a new taskforce and his resignation as health secretary alarmed campaigners. Whoever ends up in charge, a commitment to maternity care improvement must be non-negotiable, and firmly grounded in practicalities. The review points to a damaging split between strategy and operations in Nottingham. NHS England must avoid replicating this.

Five years after the fall of Kabul, European states are anxious to send migrants back – regardless of what it takes and what awaits them

Days after Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021, the EU’s top diplomat stressed the need to protect women and girls. “Cooperation with any future Afghan government will be conditioned on … respect for the fundamental rights of all Afghans,” Josep Borrell pledged. The regime’s attack on women’s rights began immediately, and has only intensified. The Taliban have barred girls from secondary school and university, legalised child marriage, prevented women from travelling without a male guardian and excluded them from jobs, parks and bathhouses. Women have been literally silenced: their voices are forbidden from being heard in public, even from within their own homes.

A new criminal code introduced last year permits men to beat their wives; even if women are able to prove the use of “obscene force”, a husband may still be sentenced to only 15 days in prison. (In contrast, harming an animal could mean five months in jail.) And restrictions on work, movement and contacts are not merely oppressive. They are often deadly in a country gripped by a humanitarian crisis. UN experts have said that this “widespread, systematic and all-encompassing” assault on women’s rights may amount to “gender apartheid”.

Bob Epton and Lily Bond take exception to a letter that suggested youngsters should become teachers if they were struggling to get any other job

I have been surprised that you’ve not published any letters in response to Ruth Brandon’s (18 June) suggesting that young people who can’t find jobs should go into teaching. The saying “Those that can, do; those that can’t, teach” has been poisonous, feeding the notion that a career in teaching is a last resort and requires few skills. It explains why teachers are so often despised. Compare that with other European countries where a teaching career requires high qualifications, is well paid and highly respected.

Teaching is an exceptionally difficult job that requires a multiplicity of skills on top of sound subject knowledge. We all want not just “good” but “inspirational” teachers for our children, not people who are incapable of anything else. How wonderful it would be if the first-choice career for our brightest and best graduates was teaching, with only those who couldn’t get a job elsewhere going into banking.
Bob Epton
Brigg, Lincolnshire

Readers respond to Owen Jones’s summing up of Starmer’s stint as prime minister

Owen Jones’s article is spot-on and provides an important corrective to the hand-wringing nonsense written by other media commentators (Look at Keir Starmer’s tenure as prime minister. This is no ‘decent man’ who got unlucky, 23 June). However, there is one point on which I disagree. Owen says Starmer believed in little other than his own advancement, but it seems to me that he was bent on making Labour permanently unelectable.

Whatever Jeremy Corbyn’s failings were as a leader (and there were several), his political agenda was extremely popular, at least when a hostile media bothered to report it. He very nearly won the 2017 election, reaping 40% of the vote, compared with Theresa May’s 42.3%, while Starmer got just 33.7% in his “landslide” victory. For the first time since the 70s, Corbyn gave people hope that a mainstream party could provide an electorally viable leftwing alternative to the neoliberal consensus. This could not be allowed.

Agencies that refuse to negotiate contract terms, or discourage legal review, are not acting in good faith, writes Catherine De Noire

As someone who has worked in the sex industry for 10 years, including running my own OnlyFans account, I receive agency approaches on a weekly basis (The malignant rise of OnlyFans managers: ‘It’s exploiting. It’s grooming. It’s predatory’, 18 June). The criminal behaviour you describe – violence, blackmail, intimidation – is rightly exposed. But I think the article missed an opportunity to give readers something equally valuable: the ability to spot these agencies before signing anything.

The recruitment tactics have become increasingly covert. Agencies no longer always approach creators directly. Instead, they manage accounts of existing creators and write to potential recruits pretending to be them. A woman with 200 followers suddenly receives a message from what appears to be a celebrity with 300,000 – telling her she’s beautiful, that she knows photographers who’d love to work with her, and asking if she’s considered OnlyFans. That “celebrity” is an agency employee. This is the first red flag most women never recognise as one.

Prof Christian Enemark reacts to Ukraine’s largest drone raid on Russia, calling on it to respect the innocence of all civilians

The main target of Ukraine’s largest-ever drone attack on Moscow was apparently an oil refinery on the city’s edge (Moscow oil refinery struck in Ukraine’s biggest air raid on city since start of war, 18 June). However, it also caused some civilian injuries and damage to private property. It is possible that this other damage was entirely unintended, but it is reasonable to suspect otherwise when the Ukrainian president speaks of bringing the war closer to ordinary Russians.

The desired effect of such action is to increase those civilians’ sense of insecurity and force the Russian president to quell popular discontent by ending the war he started. Unfortunately, though, a strategy of “morale bombing” a city’s residents is one that suffers from being inherently unjust. Thus, it has the potential to undermine the legitimacy of Ukraine’s self-defensive war effort.

Exactly three decades have passed since one of the most unforgettable nights in English tournament history

Des Lynam ended the BBC’s coverage of that European Championship semi-final between England and Germany on Wednesday 26 June 1996 by telling viewers that they “better remember where you were watching this tonight because in 30 years’ time somebody will probably ask you”. So, 30 years on, the Guardian asked six writers if they indeed remember where, and how, they watched the game. Fair to say it was an emotional trip down memory lane …

England’s main man did not look his ebullient, confident, tricksy self on a thankless day for bowlers

This all started at this same ground and against this same team. In June 2022, England were 93 for four, chasing 299 to win, and Ben Stokes told Jonny Bairstow to stop worrying and start hitting the ball for six. He did.

Four years, 48 Tests, 26 victories and 301 sixes later, Stokes and his team are fighting to keep it from all ending here. They are 361 runs behind New Zealand with six wickets to take and one batting collapse away from a first defeat in a three-match home series since South Africa in 2012, a loss that cost Andrew Strauss his job as captain.

• England midfielder eager to move to Etihad Stadium

• Forest eye Lucas Bergvall as potential replacement

Manchester City have agreed a deal with Nottingham Forest to sign Elliot Anderson for £116m, a record for a British player.

Forest’s owner, Evangelos Marinakis, had insisted any deal for Anderson would have to eclipse the £125m Liverpool paid to sign Alexander Isak from Newcastle last summer.

All-time greats have questions to answer in SW19 while Raducanu and Draper have to show they can stay fit

Serena Williams left it until the last minute to take the final available singles wildcard at Wimbledon and dramatically escalate her comeback from retirement. It is hard to imagine this was all part of her master plan. If she knew she was ready to compete against the best in the world from the beginning of the grass court season, Williams would have surely tested the waters at Queen’s Club or in Berlin, rather than playing doubles. But here she is, unable to resist the pull of Wimbledon, where she has won seven times in singles. Williams’s career has been filled with so many magical moments and at 44 years old, after four years of retirement, she is back at SW19 attempting to create a few more magical moments.

• Totoa Auvaa will not be disciplined for incident on 8 June

• ECB understood to be bemused at lack of action

The Saracens academy player who triggered the Ben Stokes captaincy crisis by throwing a punch at his England teammate Gus Atkinson has escaped without being ­disciplined. Totoa Auvaa, a 21-year-old Samoan back-row, will not face formal ­disciplinary action from Saracens or the Rugby Football Union.

Auvaa’s punch missed Atkinson and struck an ­England and Wales Cricket Board security guard, who required stitches, but opted not to report the matter to the police.

Mike Tapp wrote unauthorised article saying new settlement rules should not cover overseas care workers

Shabana Mahmood is locked in an extraordinary standoff with Keir Starmer after Downing Street refused to immediately sack her junior minister for breaching the ministerial code.

The home secretary has demanded that Mike Tapp, the immigration minister, should be sacked for writing an unauthorised article calling for overseas care workers to be exempt from hardline immigration changes.

International Maritime Organization says safety guarantees must be confirmed before ships can move again

A United Nations agency has paused the evacuation of ships through the strait of Hormuz after the British military said a vessel was hit by a projectile off the coast of Oman following the passage of several tankers that used a route backed by the UN.

The head of the UN’s International Maritime Organization said on Thursday that the plan to move stranded ships out of the Persian Gulf through the strait would be on hold until the agency could confirm safety guarantees for the ships on the evacuation list and in the region.

Fears hard-won gains in reducing child mortality over 20 years are at risk after end of USAID funding for nutrition programmes

Child malnutrition in Nepal has reached “alarming” levels, according to the largest ever survey of under-fives in the country.

The new figures came just over a year after USAID, the former US flagship agency closed by the Trump administration in 2025, stopped funding work on child nutrition in Nepal.

Vice-president declares admiration for 37th president and claims Nixon and Trump are targeted by ‘deep state’ forces

JD Vance does not think the era-defining Watergate scandal would have lasted more than a single news cycle in today’s fragmented, hyper-partisan political environment – and certainly would not have led to a president’s downfall.

Speaking at the Richard Nixon presidential library in Yorba Linda, California, on Thursday to promote his new book, Communion, Vance discussed his spiritual journey from atheist to Catholic convert before declaring his admiration for the 37th president.

Plans by Wolfgang Porsche to bore private 500-metre road link through Austrian hill caused anger among locals

Wolfgang Porsche, the Austrian-German automotive magnate, appears to have abandoned plans to build a private 500-metre tunnel for his cars through the Salzburg hills after a public uproar over the “tunnel for one”.

In 2020, Porsche bought a storied 17th-century villa on the outskirts of Salzburg for €8.4m (£7.2m), and last autumn he secured permission from the city authorities for an estimated €10m private access road through the rugged limestone hill.

Researchers find increases in toxic chemical in the air in some areas as people switch to cheaper wood burning

New research shows that the unreliability of fossil fuel supply chains and consequential price surges can lead to deterioration in air quality as people change their consumption behaviour.

The conflict in Ukraine has had well-documented impacts on the immediate environment. Fires from destroyed buildings and industry, movement of military vehicles and extensive wildfires have added to air pollution. The war also disrupted energy supplies and increased fossil gas prices in Europe, spreading the impacts far beyond the conflict zone.

Debate in Labour and union movement over climate commitments as many call for Burnham not to allow drilling in North Sea

• Analysis: ‘Act on the evidence outside the window’: Andy Burnham urged to stick to net zero targets if he becomes PM

Backsliding on climate action would drive the Labour party into political obscurity, Zack Polanski has warned, as trade union leaders said more drilling in the North Sea would not help UK workers.

The Green party leader, speaking to the Guardian as searing heat swept the country for the second time this year, urged Andy Burnham – widely expected to be the UK’s next prime minister – to be bold on climate justice. He said any move to water down the party’s commitments would have dire consequences at the ballot box.

Claims health of staff and children at risk as France struggles to adapt heat-trap school buildings

Teachers in France are risking their own and students’ health in overheated schools as a severe heatwave sets new record temperatures, education unions said, urging staff to strike over “unacceptable working conditions”.

Several teaching unions on Thursday issued a joint statement denouncing a “blatant lack of preparation” by the government, after teachers have had to work in classrooms where temperatures reached up to 40C.

LSE analysis highlights litigation linked to energy sources, water consumption and air pollution

The proliferation of datacentres and AI is increasingly at the forefront of environmental litigation around the world, from the US and UK to Chile to Ireland, a report has found.

In an analysis of about 3,600 climate-related lawsuits filed since 2015, the latest annual review of climate litigation by the London School of Economics (LSE) found a growing number of cases challenging the energy sources, water consumption and air pollution of datacentres, all of which have related climate implications.

Gwent police say accused will face court in Newport following arrest over discovery of teenage girl’s body in Duffryn Park area of Blaina

A 14-year-old boy has been charged with murder after the discovery of a missing 14-year-old girl’s body, Gwent police said.

The boy, from the Blaenau Gwent area, was arrested after the discovery of the body in the Duffryn Park area of Blaina in Wales on 22 June.

Exclusive: Head of trade union backs energy secretary to replace Rachel Reeves, but two other big unions are opposed

• UK politics live – latest updates

The boss of Britain’s biggest trade union has endorsed Ed Miliband for chancellor, as the race to take over the Treasury under a potential Andy Burnham government intensifies.

Andrea Egan, the general secretary of Unison, has backed the energy secretary, who is one of two frontrunners to replace Rachel Reeves in No 11, but who is being opposed by two other large unions – GMB and Unite.

Civil service high-flyer caught up in Mandelson vetting row thought to be discussing comeback with Burnham’s team

The Foreign Office chief who lost his job over the Peter Mandelson vetting scandal is in discussions with Andy Burnham’s team about taking on a security-related role under the likely new prime minister, the Guardian understands.

Olly Robbins has had “early exploratory talks” with senior advisers to the newly elected Makerfield MP over a post in his putative Downing Street operation, and insiders suggested he could be appointed national security adviser.

Reform MP appears to contradict party leader’s claim money from crypto billionaire is ‘none of your business’

Robert Jenrick has said it is “legitimate” for the media to ask questions about Nigel Farage’s £5m personal donation from a cryptocurrency billionaire, just days after the Reform UK leader told an interviewer it was “none of your business”.

Jenrick, who is Reform’s shadow chancellor, said voters on the doorstep were not asking about the money given to Farage by the Thailand-based British crypto investor Christopher Harborne.

China’s leader wants to promote his alternative to the current world order, and his efforts are being assisted by a capricious US

Xi Jinping meets Bangladesh’s new prime minister on Friday, the latest in a wave of world leaders to visit Beijing this year as the Chinese leader builds his influence and economic ties, and seeks to “shift the balance of power” away from the west.

Xi’s meeting with Tarique Rahman comes less than two weeks after the Chinese leader welcomed Myanmar’s military chief-turned-president, Min Aung Hlaing, in Beijing.

All branches of the military will be taught how to use technology that has become a ‘game changer on the battlefield’, says defence minister

All of South Korea’s military forces will be trained as drone operators in a sweeping overhaul of its warfare strategy, the defence minister has said.

“All soldiers should be able to use drones like a second personal firearm,” Ahn Gyu-back, who heads the defence ministry in Seoul, said on Friday.

Exclusive: Unknown hand covered up artist’s depiction of diverse crowd during influx of refugees to Leiden in 1620s

Layers of overpaint have been removed from a 17th-century painting, confirming that it was painted by Rembrandt and revealing that a turban on one of the figures had been replaced with a traditional Dutch soft cap.

A later anonymous hand had amended or sanitised Rembrandt’s original, apparently misunderstanding that its biblical theme – “Let the Little Children Come Unto Me” – is about tolerance, with Christ blessing children as well as adults. In the gospel of Saint Luke, Jesus rebukes his disciples for turning away parents who brought their children to him: “Suffer [allow] little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”

Accuser declines to testify in fourth trial after May mistrial with prosecutors citing her ‘extraordinarily taxing ordeal’

Manhattan prosecutors on Thursday moved to drop a third-degree rape ⁠charge against Harvey Weinstein after the woman accusing the disgraced movie mogul of assaulting her said she did not want to testify in ⁠what would have ⁠been ​a fourth trial.

Weinstein’s third trial in New York state court over an allegation that he raped ⁠aspiring actor Jessica Mann ended in a mistrial in May after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

Energy news (2): Britain’s electricity grid operator has warned that the power supply could be squeezed tonight, as the country continues to swelter.

The National Energy System Operator (Neso) has issued an Electricity Margin Notice (EMN) for this evening – a sign that it fears a power supply crunch, and wants producers to provide more energy.

This is due to the impact of extremely high temperatures affecting Great Britain and the continent.

“An Electricity Margin Notice (EMN) has been issued to the market. This is a routine tool, and means we are asking market participants to make any additional generation capacity they may have available.”

“Forty years after the country’s last pumped storage facility, this government is getting Britain building again.

“The lesson from the conflict in Iran is clear: Britain cannot afford to remain at the mercy of volatile fossil fuel markets and leave families exposed to the next price shock.

British Chambers of Commerce chief calls for ‘home bias’ on retirement savings to close funding gap for SMEs

Pension tax relief worth more than £50bn should only be offered to savers who are prepared to invest in Britain, according to Andy Haldane, the president of the British Chambers of Commerce.

There should be a “home bias” that directs retirement savings into UK businesses, closing a funding gap that hampers the growth of small- and medium-sized businesses, he said.

Duty on imports outside new quota will double in move echoing similar changes in EU limits

• Business live – latest updates

The UK government will halve the amount of tariff-free steel imports allowed in an attempt to counter a global oversupply of cheap Chinese metal and bolster its beleaguered local industry.

New “safeguards” will be introduced on 1 July and will coincide with similar new limits being introduced by the EU for the same purposes. The UK said it and the EU had agreed an approach that reflected each other’s “highly interconnected supply chains” after months of negotiations over retaining tariff-free access between the markets.

British carrier says it hopes to receive ‘more attractive proposal that better reflects’ its value

• Business live – latest updates

EasyJet has opened talks with Castlelake, despite rejecting a fourth takeover offer worth £4.9bn from the US investment firm, with the airline saying it would open its books in the hope of receiving a higher bid.

The British low-cost carrier unanimously rejected the latest proposal, of 650p a share, saying it still “substantially” undervalued the company while flagging “significant questions of deliverability”.

Madge returns to Koko in Camden, where she played her first UK gig. Plus: the 110th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. Here’s what to watch this evening

10.40pm, BBC One
In 1983, Madonna played her first ever UK show at Camden Palace (now Koko). It’s only right, then, that she returns to the venue for this world-exclusive interview to mark her big comeback with her new album, Confessions II. Superfan Graham Norton is the man for the job, as the intimate chat hears Madge reflect on the early days, her relationship with the UK and this next chapter. Hollie Richardson

Dorfman theatre, London
The director and writer of the hit 2014 film deliver a stage celebration of togetherness in the face of adversity

A group of 1980s LGBTQ+ activists begin fundraising for a south Wales pit village in the dark days of the miners’ strikes. It leads to an enduring friendship between the communities and a massive ripple effect beyond. This nugget of intersectional queer/mining history might sound like the unlikely trajectory of a feelgood Richard Curtis film – but it really happened.

There is, in fact, already a film. Pride, from 2014, was made with a bucket-load of national treasures including Imelda Staunton and Bill Nighy, created in the same “against-the-odds” mould as Billy Elliot and The Full Monty. This magnificent new musical reunites the screenwriter Stephen Beresford (book and lyrics) with director Matthew Warchus, who has developed the show as well as staged it.

There are flashes of low-rent fun to be had here but a busy script makes it feel like a limited series inelegantly cut down to movie length

Strung is a cautionary tale about following your gut. Directed by Malcolm D Lee – the under-heralded virtuoso behind Girls Trip, Barbershop and other fine franchises – the Peacock suspense thriller stars Chloe Bailey as Laila, a classical violinist with her sights set on a seat in the city philharmonic. A substitute music teaching gig leaves that dream feeling farther away than ever until Laila meets Lynn Whitfield’s Audra – who not only offers more stable and lucrative work as a private music tutor for her granddaughter, but also an inside track to the philharmonic.

Of course, Laila is too bright-eyed, too bubbly and too overwhelmed by the opulence she’s suddenly crossed into to see that it’s all too good to be true. Audra’s daughter, Imani (DC Titans’ Anna Diop), is icy and unmoved by this childcare lifeline, even as she’s well into her third trimester. The prized pupil, Zuri (Romy Woods), is a modern problem child: hyper-allergic, emotionally withdrawn and forever hiding behind a Dahomey warrior mask. The pupil’s antisocial behavior, and its eerie echoes of another young Black girl who looms large in Laila’s imagination (her sister, we later learn), is supposed to set Zuri up for the classic killer kid role. But Lee abandons that tension fairly quickly, and instead traces the girl’s quirks back to the murder of her rapper father. It isn’t until Imani’s husband, Marcus (Emily in Paris’s Lucien Laviscount), re-enters the picture – he and Laila hooked up before she was hired to tutor his stepchild in another coincidence, more inconvenient this time – that Strung really starts to get wooly.

It’s won all the awards and now it’s going out in a blaze of comedy. Everything that could possibly go wrong for the restaurant does … but who cares when the fusion of tragedy and laughter is this good?

It may not be a gastronomic reference many midwestern gourmands would appreciate, but the last episode of the last season of The Bear was Marmite TV. Set in the back yard of the titular Chicago restaurant – transformed over the course of the show from a sandwich shop to a fine dining establishment by its talented and troubled head chef Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) – the season four finale consisted of the cast shouting over each other about their respective grudges, oscillating between rage and misty-eyed sentimentality. A naturalistic exchange of complex emotional truths? A rare opportunity to flesh out TV characters’ psyches away from the demands of an actual narrative? Maybe. Or a plotless, unpleasantly cacophonous half-hour designed to entertain no one besides those unhealthily invested in the inner lives of Carmy, his protege Syd (Ayo Edebiri) and their ragtag bunch of fictional colleagues? Yeah, I didn’t love it.

Whatever your perspective, it’s hard to deny that The Bear is one of the shows that best encapsulates what was so great and not-so-great about peak streamer-era TV. The brainchild of writer-director Christopher Storer, the series always prioritised thematic richness and indie movie melancholy over focus-grouped crowd-pleasing or hoary screenwriting convention. As a result, it walked the line between uncompromising integrity and tedious self-indulgence – something only possible during a period, now passed, when platforms considered pouring money into auteurish shows a price worth paying for cultural clout.

Larry David is back with a typically cranky look at America’s first 250 years – and it could not be any more starry. Plus: a brave documentary about the chilling crimes of the prolific sex offender and children’s TV host

There’s starry, and then there’s getting Barack Obama to cold-open your new show. Still, while he has impressive friends these days, Larry David is still Larry David – as this irreverent response to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence proves. What unfolds is a sketch comedy – featuring Jon Hamm, Kathryn Hahn and Jerry Seinfeld – in which Larry brings the essence of Curb Your Enthusiasm to scenarios including Alexander Graham Bell’s first ever phone call and the horrors of trench warfare. Larry’s capacity for semi-innocent offence endures through the ages but one truth we surely all know is that sketch shows are patchy. This one is no exception.
HBO Max, out now

Apollo theatre, London
Stephen Mangan, Sarah Hadland, Ardal O’Hanlon and Janie Dee are seat-shakingly funny in this study of adultery

Alice and Michel must conceal their affair from possibly suspicious spouses Paul and Laurence, sometimes under detective level interrogation. Florian Zeller’s The Truth is a modern French farce that adds to the form’s physical comedy a metaphysical dimension about whether accuracy and veracity are possible or even sensible. Across seven scenes, each featuring two characters, alibis overlap and contradict. Lies may be a tactic to expose truth and vice versa until the plot twists into a double helix of deceit.

The Truth has an epigraph from Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, the guvnor of adultery dramas, and is consciously a Parisian gloss on the 1978 play’s London uncouplings. Michel and Paul, like Pinter’s Jerry and Robert, are more faithful to their friendship than their marriages and there are similar conversational slips over who knows what and from whom, although for Betrayal’s competitive metaphor of squash Zeller substitutes tennis – match scores becoming another dispute about reliable records.

(Rubicon)
The Indonesian musician impresses in his debut solo recording of Godowsky’s Java Suite and Stravinsky’s piano arrangement of Petrushka

“Who is not at heart a globetrotter?” asked the Lithuanian-born US piano virtuoso and composer Leopold Godowsky in the foreword to his Java Suite, published in 1925 and inspired by what he had heard and seen on a lengthy concert tour of south-east Asia. He intended this 50-minute travelogue to be the first of a series entitled Phonoramas – Tonal Journeys for the Pianoforte, and it’s shame he never got round to writing the others. It’s a fantastically demanding work and an impressive vehicle for the young Indonesian pianist Jonathan Kuo on this, his debut solo recording.

Kuo is an appealingly unflashy soloist, capturing the contradictions of a work that has Lisztian scope and yet somehow remains introspective, with a Debussian feeling for sonority. He takes a wide view, shaping the music into long, sweeping phrases, reinforcing the bass notes imperceptibly even while so much is happening higher up the keyboard. The first movement is inspired by the clangorous sounds and pentatonic harmonies of the gamelan; thereafter the episodes paint pictures of a moonlit Buddhist temple, perfumed botanic gardens, chattering monkeys and a surprisingly elegant puppet show. A bustling streetscape sends the music whirling irresistibly, and a portrayal of sunrise over the Mount Bromo volcano brings an exuberant emotional high point halfway through.

Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
This recreation of the final concert that the composer attended – only weeks before his death aged 63 – featured his fourth symphony, Dvorak’s Cello Concerto and Haydn’s symphony no 73.

Every period-instrument outfit has its shtick – its own version of what “historically informed performance” might mean. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment plays music from an increasingly generous historical tranche (Stravinsky beckons next season) but always on instruments dating from the same period as the works being performed. Except when they don’t.

This performance marking the OAE’s 40th anniversary was not about imagining what certain compositions might have sounded like to their first audiences. Instead, it reproduced the exact programme of a concert held in Vienna on 7 March 1897. The 19th-century concert was the latest instalment in a series run by the eminent conductor Hans Richter, which turned out to be the final concert ever attended by Johannes Brahms, who died aged 63 just under a month later. Today, in an alternative take on music-historical reenactment, we thus heard Brahms’s Fourth Symphony, Dvořák’s Cello Concerto and Haydn’s Symphony No 73, “La Chasse”, played in that order, with the auditorium lights still up, and on instruments all dating from Brahms’s time.

(Warner)
From Count Dracula organ to choirs crying in Latin, the Devon band are scenery-chewingly preposterous​ yet nuanced on this epic about extraterrestrial life

Barely three minutes of Muse’s 10th album has elapsed before a choir make an appearance: a choir that isn’t singing so much as chanting in Latin, like something you might hear on the soundtrack to an occult-themed horror film. “Sanctus!” they cry. “Dominus!” And, inevitably, “Lucifer!”

The choir are harder to hear than you might think, battling as they are against everything else that’s going on during The Wow! Signal’s opening track, The Dark Forest: a cantering electronic bassline not a million miles removed from those you used to get on the hi-NRG records that soundtracked mid-80s gay clubs; a string section sawing away as if their lives depended on it; a distorted electric guitar playing frantic prog-metal arpeggios; and frontman Matt Bellamy wildly emoting through a chanson-like vocal melody: “Stars extinguish themselves in fear!” he sings. “We will all beg for extinction!”

Narrator Rory Kinnear fully inhabits Klaus Kinski’s fury in this depiction of the irascible actor’s ill-fated performance in Berlin

In 1971, the German actor Klaus Kinski performed a theatrical monologue called Jesus Christ Saviour at the Deutschlandhalle arena in Berlin, but things didn’t quite go to plan. A controversial figure in his lifetime, Kinski was irascible, egomaniacal and prone to violent temper tantrums.

The film director Werner Herzog famously worked with Kinski on movies including Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo and later filmed a documentary about the actor’s unhinged antics called My Best Fiend. The antipathy went both ways: in his memoir, Kinski fantasised about Herzog dying of the plague or being eaten alive by ants.

The son of fugitive leaders of the militant Weather Underground recounts his chaotic, peripatetic upbringing

Every aspect of a family’s life will seem normal to the small children within it; only hindsight can bring what was abnormal into relief. Zayd Ayers Dohrn’s earliest years were spent on the run from the FBI; his parents were members of the revolutionary Weather Underground faction, a group dedicated to the overthrow of the US government.

By the age of three he had been coached by his parents on how to recognise plainclothes officers on the street. “It was a bit like playing a game – a grownup version of dress-up or make-believe,” he recalls. He has fond memories of long night-time drives between safehouses. As well as fellow revolutionaries, his family encountered gangsters, IRA members and abortion activists, along with countless undocumented migrant workers.

Ireland is trembling with nascent social unrest in this labyrinthine tale of one man’s homecoming

Irish author Keith Ridgway’s latest novel deals, both mischievously and menacingly, in ambivalence. The book’s epigraph is taken from a misty-eyed ballad pining for the “lofty” magnificence of the Cliffs of Dooneen. But these lines are appended with a footnote cautioning that “debate continues concerning the cliffs named in the song – whether they are in County Clare or County Kerry, or whether they exist at all …”

Place and knowledge continue to be wilfully unstable categories once the narrative begins. Bartholomew Port, known as Mew, says goodbye to his partner Mootie as he sets off on a trip from south London to his birthplace, Dublin. In the first of the novel’s Alice in Wonderland-style sleights of hand, Mew is transported to the Irish capital not by air or sea, but by slipping through bushes in Camberwell’s Burgess Park.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The blockbuster launch is expected to dwarf the box office takings of the year’s biggest movies with one industry analyst predicting it could make $1bn within an hour

It is, quite simply, the most anticipated piece of entertainment since the Star Wars prequels and now, at last, you can reserve a copy. At midnight last night, Rockstar opened preorders on Grand Theft Auto VI, the latest title in the epic open-world gangster adventure series, five months before its 19 November release date on PS5 and Xbox Series S/X.

Prices have also been confirmed, with the standard edition costing $80 in the US, £70 in the UK, and €80 in Europe. An Ultimate Edition (£90/€100/$100) will include exclusive in-game cars, clothes and weapons – the developer has confirmed that there will also be in-game stores that are only open to Ultimate owners. Anyone who pre-orders the game will get a Vintage Vice City pack filled with 80s apparel and other nostalgic items, which look to be straight out of Don Johnson’s Miami Vice wardrobe.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sadler’s Wells, London
Molina says she wants a show that never finishes – this one is endlessly thrilling and surprising

Rocío Molina has completely redefined what flamenco can be. Some purists say she’s not flamenco at all, and when, three quarters of the way through her latest piece, Calentamiento, she sits down at a drum kit and starts bashing out a 4/4 rock beat, maybe you would agree with them. But however crazy things get two hours in, everything is built on the pure craft of the flamenco dancer, and that’s where we start in this piece on the subject of beginnings.

Calentamiento means warming up, which is what Molina is doing on stage before the audience has even sat down. She begins a footwork drill, a 12-beat phrase, the same one she has done since she was seven years old, she tells us. At 140bpm, she likes to start slowly (!), she says. Heels and toes hammer out the dancer’s daily ritual, the same way even the most prima of ballerinas starts each day back at the barre with a plié; the constant discipline of beginning again.

Royal Opera House, London
In this London recital the Russian singer moved from Rachmaninov to Mozart and Strauss to Charpentier, showcasing in all her voice’s full range of plush, dark beauty and endless legato

‘I am the humble handmaid of the genius of art,” Anna Netrebko sings, eyes raised chastely heavenwards. But when you’re the most famous soprano of your generation, humility looks a little different. An “intimate recital” involves more than 2,000 fans, guest stars, the stage of the Royal Opera House and, at the centre of it all, Netrebko herself: a vision in silk and diamonds.

Protests may have greeted the Russian soprano’s controversial return to the Royal Opera in Tosca last autumn, but the streets were quiet and there were only cheers from a sold-out house to welcome her this time. No programme was announced in advance (Why bother when you can fill the seats with your name alone?) but there was something for everyone in this crowd-pleasing set – substantially toured in various versions over the past five years – whose two halves clustered loosely around themes of day and night.

A blooming new wave of musical theatre is exploring the plight of the planet with a playful and hopeful approach

Earth is a single woman with a lot to give; Humanity is a charismatic bad boy who turns out to be an inveterate taker. Their toxic relationship is told in Hot Mess, a musical created by Jack Godfrey and Ellie Coote, which works both as an eccentric romcom with broad commercial appeal and a serious analogy for our abuse of the once fecund, now depleted planet. A hot ticket at the Edinburgh fringe last summer and now on in London, it is at the vanguard of a newly blooming genre of musicals about the environmental crisis.

The RSC’s The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind uses exuberant song and dance for the true story of a teenager who builds a wind turbine from an old bicycle in drought-ridden Malawi. Bryony Kimmings’ Bog Witch is a one-woman show with music and standup about the plight of the planet, while in New York the folk-pop musical Dear Everything was a response to climate emergency co-written by V (formerly Eve Ensler) and narrated by Jane Fonda. Meanwhile, in the West End hit Hadestown, hell is strewn with empty oil drums.

Aldwych theatre, London
Frank swings into the West End with a swaggering turn from Joel Harper-Jackson and plenty of style yet the script is flat

Ol’ Blue Eyes is back: first staged in Birmingham three years ago and workshopped since, this Frank Sinatra bio-musical has now hit the West End with big band energy. Its intriguing premise is the star’s nadir, those messy years in the late 40s and early 50s when it seemed like an extraordinary talent might come to a wasteful, tragic end.

We begin at the Paramount theatre, when our heart-throb has everything going for him: screaming fans, a devoted spaghetti-cooking spouse, a movie about sailors with Gene Kelly that’s going to deal with the pesky accusations of draft-dodging. In the lead, Joel Harper-Jackson marries smooth vocal power to Sinatra’s signature swagger – the head wobble, the corner-of-the-mouth smirk. Our hero’s weakness for women is played as a comically charming character quirk, with a bed-hopping rendition of Come Fly With Me involving Lana Turner, Judy Garland and Marlene Dietrich.

‘Ambitious and welcoming’ venue that opened in 2020 praised for ‘reimagining what being a museum can mean’

The Box in Plymouth has won the prestigious Art Fund museum of the year award, the largest such prize in the world, for its “ambitious and welcoming approach”.

Awarding it the £120,000 prize, judges called the Box “a revelation in so many ways” and “a true jewel in the crown of the south-west”.

Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol’s (non-Cobain affiliated) movie feels like Jackass via Back to the Future. They talk about how the supreme silliness was stressful to film, and how times have changed since their ‘tasteless’ 2007 web series

If there is ever a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for fictional bands, the likes of Spın̈al Tap and the Rutles will be guaranteed a place. Less certain is the fate of the duo created by Toronto college friends Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol in Nirvana the Band the Show, a 2007-08 mockumentary web series that was later picked up for two seasons by Vice TV. Johnson and McCarrol play incorrigible no-hopers Nirvana the Band, nothing whatsoever to do with Kurt Cobain’s grunge pioneers, who pin everything on securing a gig at Toronto’s Rivoli club. Undaunted by a total lack of songs, they pull off one cockamamie stunt after another, many filmed among unwitting members of the public, to promote their as-yet-nonexistent show.

From smashing a display case in the Royal Ontario Museum and being pursued by security guards to jumping on to the tracks of the Toronto subway, they are willing to do anything – except simply ask the venue for a gig. Then again, common sense isn’t their strong suit. Receiving a cease-and-desist letter pertaining to their name, they are incredulous: “There’s already a band called the Band?”

I use a wheelchair and yearn to dance like I did when I was a kid. Could I possibly hold my own in a class led by inspirational disabled dance star Kate Stanforth?

From ballroom to hip-hop, I tried many different dance classes growing up, but nothing ever stuck for too long. My body never found its rhythm to any music, I quickly became exhausted from any physical exertion, and I concluded I must just not have been made for exercise.

My theory was confirmed when I was 13 – and I was diagnosed with Friedreich’s ataxia (FA), which is a rare, progressive neuromuscular disease that causes nerve damage, muscle weakness and mobility loss. Now, aged 29, I use a wheelchair and a lot of my coordination has been eroded. I still love to dance but it’s increasingly rare I get the chance.

After being dropped by her label, the vocalist became a courier to make ends meet. Now she’s back – with millions of fans of her pheromone-rich songwriting

Kwn has never been one to turn her nose up at a job. She has worked night shifts at Sainsbury’s and chopped vegetables with her dad, the head chef at the Ivy in London. But her first day as an Amazon delivery driver in 2024 was soul-crushing. Only two years before, the singer, who goes by K Wilson outside music, had signed a deal and released her debut EP, Episode Wn. Now, she had been dropped from her label and was broke. Sitting in her van at the end of the shift, Wilson burst into tears.

“Be nice to your delivery drivers,” says the 26-year-old, shaking her head in dismay. “It’s not for the weak. By the time I got home, I was shattered. I don’t want to make music. What the fuck am I even gonna write about? Delivering packages?” Wilson lasted five months. Then, after failed attempts to whip up industry interest in her music, she hatched a plan with her manager to sell her next single, Worst Behaviour, directly to fans for £1.99. Five hundred sales would generate about a grand – enough to keep them afloat temporarily. Within a week, they had exceeded their target tenfold. Within a few months, Wilson was in record label boardrooms, listening to music executives pitch her path to stardom.

From a London tower near reservoirs to a Plymouth townhouse close to a historic saltwater lido

Whether it’s a surprisingly roomy bag, cargo pants or a don’t-try-too-hard jacket, we’ve rounded up the festival wear for men and women that’s worthy of an encore

• The new rules of concert dressing

You never really know what you’re going to get when it comes to festivals. Veterans know to be prepared for anything, come rain or shine. So, planning your clothing choices is as important as planning your lineup for the day. Nothing kills the vibe like wearing flip-flops or white trainers when the ground resembles more of a swamp than a field.

There is a certain freedom that comes with festival dressing, too. Everyone is there for the same reason – to listen to music and have a good time. If you’re looking to experiment with something different, festivals are the place to do it.

Whether it’s Aquabeads or micro scooters, board games or storybooks, these are the toys that won over our writer and her merry band of testers

• The best gifts for five-year-olds

The good news about shopping for six-year-olds is that they’ll love almost anything you give them. The bad news? That makes it surprisingly hard to choose something really good. Between the plastic toys destined for landfill and the ones that hold their attention for all of five minutes, it can be tricky to find something that actually sticks.

At this age, children are usually in year 1 or 2 at school, able to read a little, full of curiosity, and starting to focus for longer (as long as you’ve got their attention). Play still matters hugely; it’s how they learn to share, problem-solve and build resilience – all without realising they’re learning anything at all.

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

• The best handheld fans

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best epilator overall:
Philips 8000

Best compact epilator:
Philips 4000

Apricot season is about to kick off in earnest, so make the most of that honeyed perfume with this soft, buttery cake

Late June is when apricots begin to appear in earnest, piled high on market stalls and often giving off that elusive, honeyed perfume that suggests they might actually taste as good as they smell. This simple traybake makes the most of them: the cake is soft and buttery, with soured cream lending tenderness and a gentle tang, while the apricots themselves slump slightly into the batter while they bake. The sugar, made fragrant with rosemary, orange zest and vanilla, forms a delicate crust on top.

Beat the heat with pistachio sammies, fruit lollies, mint chocolate semifreddo and green-tea ice-box cake

During a recent traffic jam, on a day so hot it felt stagnant and seemingly eternal, I found myself in a private reverie of superiority. My fellow drivers, slumped in their baking metal shells, were observers to my good fortune: a homemade blackcurrant and white peach ice lolly – sharp and fruity, with a delicate almond flavour (the result of having used slightly underripe peaches) – plucked from the freezer in a rare moment of foresight. I licked it with the conviction that it was the only object of desire between Elephant and Castle and Acton Central in London. Ice lollies are fab(!) You will need silicone moulds and some wooden sticks.

Kitty Travers is owner of La Grotta Ices in London, and author of La Grotta Ices, published by Vintage at £25. To order a copy, go to guardianbookshop.com.

Higher volumes are being produced, so prices are coming down, and there’s a now a whole range of exciting styles to choose from

As a fully signed-up member of the Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati, I’m not especially nationalistic, but I’m more than ready to champion our best food and drink traditions. We can bask in a long history of winemaking – it dates back certainly to the middle ages and probably even to the Romans – which is now being seriously scaled up: in March, the Food Standards Agency reported that 2025’s English wine production was up 55% on the previous year. That, and the exceptional quality of those examples I’ve tasted in the past 12 months, seems reason alone to celebrate this year’s English wine week.

For decades, English wine has been dogged by a reputation for being all mouth and no trousers: bougie pricing, underwhelming drinking. While there’s been well-deserved noise about our sparkling wine, some curmudgeons question whether it’s really worth champagne prices. Meanwhile, our still wines can be considered a squinty novelty: bracingly acidic, incongruously expensive, something to say you’ve tried before you head back to the continental Europe aisle. But I’m here to tell you that English wine is finally finding its trousers.

Peaches and apricots are ripe here, ripe now. They’re perfect for everything from sandwiches and salads to puddings

• Sign up here for our weekly food newsletter, Feast

The apricot orchards at Godshill Orchards on the Isle of Wight consist of 4,000 trees made up of six cultivars: sunnycot, tomcot, flavourcot, ladycot, perlecot and digat. Apricots like moderately cold winters, mild and relatively dry springs, and hot, dry summers. So, despite capricious weather, it looks as if it’s going to be an extremely productive year in the UK, and for peaches, too. The soft stone fruit season begins earlier in Italy (the name “apricot” probably comes from the Latin praecox, meaning precocious), and it has been a good year here, too, so much so that there is talk of a glut. But I am jumping ahead.

Of all the soft stone fruit, apricots are maybe the easiest to read: pale flesh with a greenish tint is a clear sign they are not ready; a deep, glowing orange one that they are – and the stronger the colour, the sweeter the fruit is the general rule. It is true, though, that the shade is no guarantee of sweetness or texture, and there is always a chance that the flesh will be woolly and bland (I have solutions), but the hope is for fragrant and luscious fruit.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How much do our genes determine about our lives, and could they influence traits like risk-taking, antisocial behaviour or even violence? Ian Sample talks to Kathryn Paige Harden, a behavioural geneticist and professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin who studies how genetic factors shape human behaviour. In her book Original Sin she explores how nature and nurture combine to influence our likelihood of committing crimes, and asks whether the ‘cause’ of our actions matters for how we think about culpability

Order Original Sin from the Guardian bookshop

Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod

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

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

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

Jenny Kleeman investigates ‘Biotech Barbie’ Cathy Tie, the controversial entrepreneur hoping to revolutionise human reproduction by letting parents edit their embryos

Meet Cathy Tie: serial entrepreneur, self-described “Biotech Barbie”, and the woman aiming to revolutionise reproduction by using Crispr to edit human embryos.

Beneath the tech-startup polish lies a provocative mission: to take the biological lottery out of the hands of nature and place it into the hands of parents.

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

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

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

How to start meditating

How to start weightlifting

How to start budgeting

How to start running

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

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

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

Influential designer of men’s clothes who was inspired by workwear, military kit and expeditionary gear

“I’m like a big giant sieve of history and I just turn it into the clothes,” said Nigel Cabourn of the inspiration for his decades of quietly influential designs for men’s clothes. To Cabourn, who has died aged 76, history meant war – his grandfather’s memories of trenches in the first world war, his father’s stories of Burma in the second, even his own awareness of the US M65 field jacket and other uniform novelties of the Vietnam war, as paired with jeans by students and protesters post-1968.

He was passionate about mountaineering and exploring too, especially Edmund Hillary’s conquest of Everest, and the Antarctic expeditions of Shackleton and Scott. He was also a football fan, thrilled sartorially by the dark-clad figure of Lev Yashin in goal for the Soviet Union in the 1958 World Cup.

Finding the weather too hot to handle? It will be a breeze with one of these soothing sprays

I wrote this from very sunny Corfu, while Britain enjoyed – or suffered, depending on your tolerance – a full-blown heatwave. Dyson’s new HushJet Mini Cool personal fan (£99.99) temporarily sold out (since restocked), and questions about Shark’s viral new ChillPill 3-in-1 Fan, Mist & InstaChill System (£129.99) were racking up in my DMs.

I happened to have the latter with me (so do many of you – it’s sold out in the prettier colours), and while it’s nice to look at and works well, it’s quite fiddly to switch the different heads.

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

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

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

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

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

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

From cliffside views of Lake Garda to post-hike saunas in Sweden, you share your most memorable walking trips

• Tell us about a cooler European coast – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

If you have a head for heights, then you can “walk with the gods” on the Sentiero degli Dei. It’s cut into the vertiginous hillside high above the Amalfi coast, offering heavenly views all the way to Capri and beyond. Ten breathtaking kilometres later, you’ll rejoin the earthly hordes of Instagrammers in the undeniably beautiful but crowded Positano. A super-convenient combined bus and ferry ticket from Travelmar takes you from any of the coastal towns to the start of the walk, in the lovely hamlet of Bomerano, in Agerola, and from Positano back to your base.
Brian

With Cambridge South about to welcome its first passengers, it’s an ideal time to explore some of the university city’s lesser-known treasures on foot or by public transport

Flat fields of poppies and ox-eye daisies stretch out to a wide horizon. There are butterflies, vetches, salad burnet. Skylarks sing overhead and a cuckoo calls from the trees near the river. Legend has it that the poet Lord Byron swam here as a Cambridge undergraduate and, 20 years later, Charles Darwin surveyed its beetles. Heading through flowering meadows towards a nature reserve known as Byron’s Pool, I’ve walked a mile from the new £250m Cambridge South station.

Opening to passengers on 28 June, Cambridge South will be the first Great British Railways-branded station. The towering Biomedical Campus next door is Europe’s biggest medical research facility, with about 40,000 visitors a day. The station itself, with its 1,000 cycle-parking spaces, living roof and solar panels, feels like a model for sustainable transport.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Annabel is embarrassed when she spots crumbs in Teddy’s facial hair, but he finds her nudges shaming. Who is being prickly? You decide

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

I don’t want to get his food on my face when I kiss him, and I don’t want him looking silly in public

Test yourself on topical news trivia, pop culture and general knowledge every Thursday. How will you fare?

Thursday quiz fans inundated our mailbox with at least two messages pointing out that John Oliver had opened his HBO show discussing the problem of feral hogs, of which there are significantly more than between 30 and 50 in the US. If he starts opening shows talking about Sparks, Kate Bush, Syldavia and Alan Shearer’s fixations on distances, we truly will know where he gets his material from, and the Thursday quiz lawyers are ready. In the meantime, here are 15 questions on topical news, general knowledge and pop culture to see you on towards the weekend. Let us know how you got on in the comments. Allons-y!

The Thursday news quiz, No 253

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

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

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

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

Name: Job-dropping.

Age: About a month.

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.

British apples grown at home are often more expensive than apples shipped from countries thousands of miles away. And it's not just apples. Bananas, which are virtually all imported from tropical countries, are consistently the cheapest fruit available per kilogram on UK supermarket shelves. Josh Toussaint-Strauss investigates the peculiar economics of supermarket fruit, and discovers there are many aspects of our food supply system that don’t appear to make much sense

Caricom Reparations Commission’s Hilary Beckles explains how it will help address the ‘residual legacy of slavery’

• Barbados prime minister announces manifesto for slavery reparations

One of the key outcomes of the recent reparations conference in Ghana was the launch of the Caribbean’s manifesto outlining the “moral, ethical and legal case for reparations” for the enslavement of African people.

The Caribbean Community Reparations Commission (CRC), which created the document, says it is a strengthening of an existing Caribbean Community (Caricom) 10-point plan for reparations from the UK and other former colonial powers, and a response to feedback from the public, organisations and political leaders.

In a chilling new book, theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli says we’re back on the brink – and this time, leaders chronically lack the nous of Kennedy and Khrushchev. So why is he against rearming?

Should European members of Nato be rearming in the face of the Russian threat? And if not, I ask Carlo Rovelli, why not? The Italian theoretical physicist seems a good person to answer these questions since his timely new book, 85 Seconds to Midnight, is subtitled A Physicist’s Argument against Rearmament.

Rovelli, 70, brown eyed, genial, with enviably luxuriant grey locks, removes his glasses before answering. “The idea of the Russian military being a threat to Europe is ridiculous. Russia can’t even get to Kyiv! A few years ago, Russia had 4% of the world’s military spending and Nato had 40%.”

We’d like to hear from people in the UK about their experiences of trying to buy or sell a flat in recent months. Have there been any issues?

Getting on the property ladder is an achievement in Britain but for some flat-owners the home-ownership dream has turned sour.

High service charges, fire safety issues, and onerous leasehold conditions are among the issues that have affected flat valuations over the past decade. There are reports of owners, particularly in London, currently selling at a loss.

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

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

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

Tell us about your favourite summer trip to a more temperate shoreline in Europe – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays break

As heatwaves become an increasingly common feature of European summers, more of us are looking to cooler, northern coastlines for our seaside holidays. From the traditional seaside towns of Germany, northern France and the Netherlands, to the long sandy beaches of the Baltic coast and the islands of Scandinavia, we’d love to hear about your favourite cooler coastal breaks in Europe.

The best tip of the week, chosen by Tom Hall of Lonely Planet, wins a £200 voucher to stay at a Coolstays property – the company has more than 3,000 worldwide. The best tips will appear in the Guardian Travel section and website.

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

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

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

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