A countdown of the greatest literature published in English, as voted for by authors, critics and academics worldwide. How many have you read?

Only on Sunday, Starmer was talking about his 2029 manifesto. If a week is a long time in politics, this one already feels longer

A masterpiece new entry for the dictionary of political quotes, as a Labour MP told the Guardian yesterday of the party’s leadership options: “We have to face up to the fact that every single one of them is fucking useless.” Anyway, come on in and experience chaosmaxxing with the governing party! Let’s take a look at the runners, riders, loose horses and horse traders who just want Keir Starmer to go and live on a farm. This is a fast-moving situation, so please don’t worry if something different seems to have happened to him by the time you read this column. Apparently the van you saw is owned by a vet who had simply failed to repaint it. Although one thing we absolutely must insist on the death of in the hours/days/weeks ahead is the catchphrase “I get it”, or the observation of another hopeful that he or she “gets it”. At this rate, the only thing people will be interested in many of this lot getting is hantavirus.

The language in general is unconvincingly exquisite. Behold, people asking delicately for an “exit timetable” when what they really want to do is get the PM on the first train to Eff Off For Ever. Some cabinet ministers have reportedly discussed how Starmer could take “a responsible, dignified, orderly” approach to departure, to which the only answer now is: get a time machine, buddy.

Marina Hyde’s new book, What a Time to be Alive!, is out in September (Guardian Faber Publishing, £20). To support the Guardian, order your signed copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

Fresh out of wedlock and in the mood for some fun? Join your newly single sisters in the glow-up to end all glow-ups

‘Sorry babe I’m a divorced mum on a buffet of magnesium glycinate, ashwagandha, peptides, and sertraline, covering a mortgage alone during late stage capitalism, idgaf about your opinion anymore,” wrote Meghan McTavish, an Australian divorce-fluencer, who went viral a couple of years ago because, even after her split, her parents refused to take down her wedding photos.

This might be the core of hot divorcee energy: an unvarnished devil-may-care spirit that seems to have captured the cultural moment this summer. So, of course, you’re wondering how this differs from the brat, last year’s aspirational muse – who also, emphatically, did not care what the world thought (though if you’re still confused about the difference between that and 2024’s hot girl summer, I suggest you go back in time and take last year’s module again).

Two decades after it opened in a multi-storey in Peckham in London, the space has redrawn the map for how to present art – with rooftop cocktails and the pink staircase that launched a thousand selfies

It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when rooftop bars weren’t really a thing. A time before pop-ups and contemporary outdoor sculpture parks. A time even, if you can bear to think of it, before immersive art. Way back in 2007, there was none of that – the UK was an experiential art wasteland. And then Bold Tendencies showed up, chucked a whole load of sculptures in a multi-storey Peckham car park, painted a staircase bright pink, built a cocktail bar on the roof, and changed everything.

Now going into its 20th summer season, Bold Tendencies is celebrating two decades of sometimes sun-drenched, often windswept and drizzly arts programming. In that time, it has welcomed more than 3 million visitors into its concrete edifice behind Peckhamplex cinema, commissioned dozens of new artworks, hosted countless recitals and performances, built an auditorium and a concert hall, and drawn the roadmap for countless art experiences that have come in its wake.

The BYD factory being built in Szeged, Hungary, is facing scrutiny after reports of EU labour laws being violated among the Chinese migrant workforce

Multilingual signs in most airports in the EU opt for English, but in Hungary, there is also Chinese, making it easy for migrant workers flying in to staff China’s first electric car plant in Europe – due to open in 2027.

The third language was introduced in 2019 as the recently ousted leader Viktor Orbán embarked on a “comprehensive strategic partnership” with China, positioning himself as its most reliable friend in Europe.

After a series of deaths on the beaches of Brittany, one bereaved family set out to prove the foul-smelling bloom was to blame

When her phone rang at around 5pm on 8 September 2016, Rosy Auffray was still at work. It was one of her daughters, distressed, calling to tell her that their father, Jean-René, had not come back from his daily run. Only the family dog had returned, alone and exhausted. Rosy rushed back home.

When she arrived, Rosy noticed that the dog was behaving bizarrely: she refused to walk, then collapsed under a bush. Her fur stank of rotten eggs, of overflowing sewers. Rosy knew where that smell came from: the mudflats roughly three miles from the family home in Brittany, where seaweed had been accumulating and putrefying. The soggy, decomposing seaweed stretched for miles along the shore, sometimes as much as five feet thick, killing other plants and suffocating fish and small birds.

Alex Davies-Jones becomes third minister to step down, after Miatta Fahnbulleh and Jess Phillips earlier

• Starmer tells cabinet he will not quit without leadership challenge

Here are some pictures from No 10 this morning.

Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the PM, is now being interviewed on the Today programme. Nick Robinson, the presenter, is asking him if he knows whether Keir Starmer has decided how to respond to the pressure on him to resign. Jones is avoiding the question, as he did on Sky News earlier. (See 7.43am.)

Jess Phillips, Miatta Fahnbulleh and Alex Davies-Jones stand down after heavy election losses under PM

• UK politics live – latest updates

One of Keir Starmer’s most influential ministers, Jess Phillips, has resigned from the government, calling for Keir Starmer to quit and saying she has grown tired of seeing “opportunities for progress stalled and delayed”.

Three ministers quit on Tuesday and joined more than 80 MPs to have called for the prime minister to go. But Starmer told his cabinet earlier in the day that he would fight on as prime minister, saying the threshold for a leadership challenge had not been met.

Assurances being sought that Greater Manchester mayor could stand for byelection, though MP Marie Rimmer says she will not stand aside

• UK politics live – latest updates

• Neal Lawson: Burnham should be the next PM

• Who are the main threats to Starmer’s leadership?

Allies of Andy Burnham have warned against a “coronation” for Wes Streeting as the next prime minister and called on Labour’s ruling body to allow the mayor to stand for the leadership.

As Keir Starmer attempted to face down mounting calls for his resignation on Tuesday, sources close to Burnham demanded immediate assurances from Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) that he would not be blocked from contesting a parliamentary byelection.

Health secretary’s soft-right credentials put him at a disadvantage even with reduced membership under Starmer

• UK politics live – latest updates

“Country first, party second” is a mantra Keir Starmer and his cabinet have repeated since being in opposition, seeking to draw a dividing line between Labour and their Conservative predecessors’ inclination for self-destruction.

But party members do matter in politics – and a key problem for Wes Streeting, one of those with ambitions to succeed Keir Starmer, is that many of Labour’s do not like him.

UK bond yields hit highest since 1998 this morning, before easing back as some cabinet ministers voiced support for Keir Starmer

• Politics live: Keir Starmer tells cabinet he is not resigning amid growing pressure to stand down

• Starmer on the brink as cabinet ministers urge him to quit

Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at investing and trading platform IG, says:

There is no clear plan for what comes next, but markets are already pricing in a new PM who will open the floodgates on spending despite the UK’s dangerous fiscal situation.

Faced with hordes of Labour MPs worried about their re-election chances as Reform surges, a new PM will find it very hard to resist calls to spend more money in order to shore up their embattled party.

We could see a blowout in longer-dated gilts if this turns into a dogfight– political, fiscal and inflationary risks will rise.

Markets tend to dislike a lack of certainty over who runs a government; the fiscal position is already fragile and likely to become worse should a left-leaning ticket prioritise spending; and that this makes inflation stickier.

Decades-long campaign powered by patient perspectives results in switch from PCOS – a name that caused confusion and undue suffering – to PMOS

• What is PCOS, what are the symptoms and treatment, and why is it being renamed PMOS?
• ‘I still want to scream’: the loneliness and confusion of living with PMOS

After more than a decade of global consultation, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) – a condition that affects one in eight women – has been renamed.

The hormonal disorder, estimated to impact 170 million women worldwide, will now be known as polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS).

Reform UK leader has used the helicopter to attend rallies across the country, most recently on Friday

Nigel Farage is facing questions about why he did not declare his use of a donor’s helicopter to travel around Britain for rallies.

The helicopter, which was used by Farage as recently as Friday after local elections across Britain, is the property of a company owned by Lorenzo Zaccheo, a businessman who gave Reform £25,000 last year.

Pentagon chief appears before House to face grilling on Iran war expenditure and military operations

Iran has expanded its definition of the strait of Hormuz into a “vast operational area” far wider than before the war, according to a senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy in comments likely to anger the US.

The strait is no longer viewed as a narrow stretch around a handful of islands but instead has been greatly enlarged in scope and military significance, according to Mohammad Akbarzadeh, deputy political director of the IRGC Navy, the state-affiliated Fars news agency reported this morning.

Rajiv Menon KC was accused of breaching judge’s directions with his closing speech at trial of six activists

A leading human rights barrister has won an appeal against his referral for contempt of court over his closing speech during a trial of Palestine Action activists.

Rajiv Menon KC was accused of breaching the judge’s directions in the trial of six people for a 2024 direct action protest at an arms factory of the Israeli subsidiary Elbit Systems UK in Filton, near Bristol.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praises Spain’s ‘compassion and solidarity’ in evacuating virus-hit cruise ship

The head of the World Health Organization has told countries to prepare for more hantavirus cases after the outbreak onboard the MV Hondius, and thanked Spain for the “compassion and solidarity” it had shown by taking in the stricken cruise ship and evacuating its passengers and crew.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged authorities to follow the WHO’s advice and recommendations, which include a 42-day quarantine and constant monitoring of high-risk contacts.

As human rights advocate is treated in Tehran hospital after transfer from Zanjan prison, prize winners demand her freedom

More than 110 Nobel laureates have called for the immediate and unconditional release of Narges Mohammadi, the imprisoned Iranian human rights activist and Nobel peace prize laureate, after she was transferred to hospital amid concerns over her rapidly deteriorating health.

In a statement released on Tuesday, 112 Nobel laureates urged the Iranian authorities and the international community to act “without delay” to secure Mohammadi’s release and ensure her continued access to medical treatment.

Knesset approves plan for livestreamed trials in military court, drawing comparisons to 1962 Adolf Eichmann trial

Israeli lawmakers have approved setting up a livestreamed special tribunal with the power to sentence to death Palestinians convicted of taking part in the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 that triggered the war in Gaza.

The measure was passed by 93 votes to none in the 120-seat Knesset, Israel’s parliament, reflecting widespread support among Israel’s Jewish majority for punishing those found responsible for the deadliest single attack in Israel’s history. The remaining 27 lawmakers were absent or abstained from voting.

Deal was expected by end of month but talks hit buffers over cap on number of people entering UK and tuition fees

• UK politics live – latest updates

• Europe live – latest updates

Significant gaps remain in negotiations on the reset in relations between the UK and the EU despite Keir Starmer’s latest pledge to put Britain “at the heart of Europe” after last week’s election drubbing.

The UK wants to limit the number of young people from the EU who come into the country as part of a post-Brexit youth mobility scheme to below 50,000, it has emerged.

Horses seized and several people questioned after animal rights activist shares video of race along country roads

A video showing an illegal horse race in Sicily, with spectators firing pistols into the air and brandishing Kalashnikov rifles, has prompted a police investigation that has led to the seizure of the animals.

The clip, reportedly filmed last Friday, shows two jockeys driving horse-drawn carts at breakneck speed along country roads in the town of Palagonia, near Catania, in eastern Sicily. Behind them, dozens of people follow on scooters, firing shots into the air. The footage was posted on social media by an animal rights activist named Enrico Rizzi.

It is the most extracted solid material on Earth – but this extraction can threaten ecosystems and livelihoods

Malé is one of the world’s most overcrowded cities, but it faces double pressure. As well as a growing population, the capital of the Maldives is also threatened by rising sea levels. Owing to climate breakdown, its living space is shrinking.

So the justification for a land reclamation project seemed clear. Take sand from elsewhere in the archipelago and use it to build up the land available for Malé’s people. What could go wrong? After all, it’s only sand, right?

Prospect of flight cancellations and petrol shortages prompt people to switch from air and road to rail and bus

The Middle East crisis, now in its 11th week, has resulted in higher fuel prices for drivers and prompted fears of jet fuel shortages, rising air fares and cancelled flights.

Given the uncertain outlook, prospect of higher travel costs and potential disruption, we asked whether people had changed their holiday plans.

Keir Starmer’s plan for full state ownership marks latest chapter in Scunthorpe plant’s troubled history

• Full nationalisation of British Steel expected in king’s speech

• Nils Pratley: More questions than answers on the future

Four queens – blast furnaces named after Anne, Bess (Elizabeth), Victoria and Mary – loom over the British Steel works at Scunthorpe. Within days the queens could be under public ownership, after Keir Starmer on Monday promised legislation to nationalise the plant.

“Strong nations in a world like this need to make steel,” Starmer said on Monday in a speech. The prime minister was hoping decisive action would fend off challenges to his leadership.

At the German pavilion, the artist has re-created the housing estate where she grew up to tell the forgotten history of migrants, including her parents, hired under a socialist agreement between East Germany and Vietnam – then abandoned

An air of civilisational wipeout hangs over the Gehrenseestrasse complex, an abandoned housing estate on the north-eastern outskirts of Berlin, where the city still looks shabby without the chic. The insides of the nine prefabricated blocks have long been gutted; six floors of empty window frames stare hollow-eyed over multi-lane carriageways. In the courtyard, paintballers have left behind wooden barricades from when they played at World War III.

Yet in one of the second-floor rooms of Berlin’s largest ruin, artist Sung Tieu is waltzing across the concrete floor and reliving scenes from her childhood. “Here was the single bed I shared with my mother for three years,” she says, pointing into a corner of the small room. “Two metres by 90cm, can you believe it?” There in the corridor is where her neighbours used to make bánh bao dumplings on camping stoves, for lack of private kitchens. “I still remember the smell.” Here was the door through which she used to entertain her best friend when his mother locked him in during working hours. “We played cards through the gaps,” she recalls with glee.

Delivering much information about the scale of what’s coming, documentary also follows Gawdat’s campaign to get the programs with empathy

Another day, another warning about AI; vis-a-vis the reality we all know, this has roughly the same reassuring effect as a plane fuselage ripping off mid-flight. Starting off with familiar criticisms, such as putting the world out of work and handing over power to tech barons, Alex Holmes and Lina Zilinskaite’s film blasts an concentrated stream of AI concerns in its 83-minute runtime. By the time it is talking about current efforts to create computers out of human brain cells, potentially integrable into our own craniums, and implying this might be a good thing, it is (ironically) hard to know how to process all of this.

The Cassandra at the film’s centre is Mo Gawdat, former chief business officer at Google X, now a touring cautionary voice trying to get the world to listen about the perils of AI. Once overseeing advanced projects for the tech giants, his biggest moonshot lies ahead: to introduce a moral dimension into a tech race that looks increasingly like the frenzied season finale of late capitalism. He talks about feeling parental pride in watching Google’s AI-driven robotic arms learn to grasp objects, as children do. And he feels that humanity’s capacity for benevolence is exactly the training resource needed by neural networks in order to prevent the technology ushering in catastrophe.

After a lifetime of poverty, Évora found huge success aged 51 with 1992 album Miss Perfumado. As Cape Verdean singers celebrate her morna ballads on stage, those who knew her recall her power, pride and constant smoking

Cape Verde, an archipelago nearly 400 miles off the coast of Senegal, is home to around 800,000 people: about the same population as Leicester, and for decades the country’s music was very little known beyond its borders. Then, in 1992, Cape Verdean singer Cesária Évora released her album Miss Perfumado.

The album became a crossover hit across Europe, selling 500,000 copies in France alone, while in the US, Évora became the biggest selling African artist of the 20th century. Miss Perfumado showcased Évora’s sublime voice – smoky, weary, bruised yet seductive – singing Cape Verdean mornas: mournful ballads sung in the Kriolu language which blends old Portuguese with west African languages, with backings that have the same cross-cultural mix. A concert at London’s Barbican next month will celebrate Évora’s legacy with morna performed by rising Cape Verdean singers (Ceuzany, Elida Almeida, Lucibela, Teófilo Chantre) and Mayra Andrade, a celebrated vocalist who was mentored by her. “These concerts honouring her are important,” Andrade says. “She put Cape Verde on the map and we Cape Verdeans are determined to keep her name and music alive.”

Cockrow Bridge in Surrey will open in the coming weeks to provide wildlife, including lizards and insects, with the ability to move between fragmented habitats

When James Herd moved near to Wisley Common 17 years ago, the heathland nature reserve was teeming with wildlife. “I’d take the dog around the common in spring and summer, and every few hundred metres I’d hear the rustle of a lizard in the undergrowth – and I’d see adders,” he says.

But over the past decade, the Surrey Wildlife Trust’s director of reserves management, who oversees the internationally important habitat, has seen that wildlife become depleted.

Our cartoonist on the Premier League title potentially being decided by a lengthy VAR check after grappling

• Buy this cartoon here | His favourites from 2025

• And his latest book, Chaos in the Box: get it now

As senior cabinet ministers move against the PM, his words of defiance seem moot. I’m planning ahead – which is more than he has ever done

A news report last week described how growing instability means millions of Britons are building up a stash of cash, tinned food and torches at home. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always thought there is no better litmus test of how things are going for a country than whether the populace is stockpiling emergency rations.

Watching Keir Starmer stubbornly cling on to his leadership as members of his cabinet and MPs move against him, it seems only a matter of time before the PM himself is prepping. With the end moving closer, you half expect Starmer to barricade himself in Downing Street with a jumbo pack of baked beans and a carton of cigarettes.

Frances Ryan is a Guardian columnist

Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman offer experience and political craft, but to reap the benefits, the PM himself will have to change

There comes a time, in the dying days of a relationship, when you start to become irritated merely by the sound of your partner’s breathing. It’s not kind, and it’s not necessarily rational, but it is what it is. Nothing they can do is going to fix it, and nothing they say makes it better – even if they suddenly start promising to do all the things you’ve been begging them to do for years. It all just seems too little, too late. And that is roughly where the parliamentary Labour party now finds itself with Keir Starmer.

His response to the bloodbath of last week’s local elections, in which he brought back Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman as advisers while promising something bigger and bolder than the creeping caution of the 2024 manifesto, was a promise to change aimed squarely at the MPs threatening to oust him and yet somehow it seems only to have deepened the frustration. Most would love nothing better than to get closer to Europe, as he promised; many have been screaming for months that, as he acknowledged, people are crying out for change to come faster. And the back-to-the-future appointments of two more New Labour veterans, to a team already groaning with survivors from the more successful 1997 to 2010 Labour governments, at least shows an understanding of where the plumbing is blocked.

Put plainly, the Greater Manchester mayor is electoral gold dust. The Labour party machine must not stand in his way to becoming an MP

• Burnham allies warn against quick ‘coronation’ of Streeting if Starmer quits

• Neal Lawson is director of the cross-party campaign organisation Compass

The madness has to end. The progressive side of politics in the UK faces two crises. The first is the possible decimation of the Labour party after the next election. The second is a prospective Reform-led government – and a Trumpian future for the country.

The best-placed figure in Britain to lead Labour away from these twin disasters is the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham. The Labour party must now do what it takes to ensure that Burnham is available to be the next leader of the party and the country. This must start with an urgent statement from its ruling national executive committee (NEC) saying that if Burnham wanted to fight any direct vacancy then he would be allowed through for local members to decide whether they wanted him as their candidate, alongside a timetable that allows him to enter the contest.

Neal Lawson is director of the cross-party campaign organisation Compass

Nigel Farage’s ascent to power is not inevitable, and his party’s success in the May elections will expose its major weaknesses

There is no sugarcoating the fact that on the basis of last week’s elections, Reform UK is now the largest party in British politics, if only by vote share. It is still a long way from ever winning power at Westminster, but we don’t need to look far to see whether a Reform government would try to make good on its various threats – because Reform is our local version of an international wave of populist rightwing nationalism.

This loosely connected movement has declared its hostility to the checks and balances that prevent democracy from becoming a tyranny of the majority, or even of those with only a plurality of support. It can be chaotic and destructive, like Nigel Farage’s beloved Donald Trump, or slow and grinding like the recently departed Hungarian government of Viktor Orbán. But we can make a reasonable guess as to what life under a Reform government might look like – and I suspect it’s something that neither you nor I would welcome.

Friedrich Merz’s criticism of the US president was not a solo run. It was born of the realisation that US leverage has slipped

Friedrich Merz’s criticism of Donald Trump last month reflected more than a moment of personal candour or a split between Berlin and the White House. It pointed to a broader shift under way among European leaders. Increasingly they are willing to publicly confront the Trump administration on issues ranging from Iran to Ukraine and European sovereignty.

The Trump administration’s ever-more erratic policies and the belief that they necessitate a more forceful response partly explains this shift.

Mujtaba Rahman is the managing director for Europe at Eurasia Group, a political risk research and consulting firm

With my usual espressos off the menu, I was looking at a future of sluggishness and headaches. Then I embraced an alternative caffeine delivery system

For reasons purely related to vanity, I’ve had to give up coffee. It’s not for ever, unless it takes me for ever to get my teeth whitened, so I’m not minded to wean myself off caffeine entirely. But it’s not for a short enough time that I can simply stop whining and weather the low-level headache, the mental sluggishness and the frankly unbearable taste of water.

No problem, I thought: I will survive on energy drinks. What’s embarrassing about that? What could possibly be shameful about going into a Tesco, picking up a black and neon green can of Monster Energy, its name in a satanic font, at 8.05am? What could conceivably make anyone give me the fish eye, that I’m setting off the age-verification flashing light, and a dude is having to come over and attest that I am indeed over 16? All of that social opprobrium was before I’d even opened an energy drink and had to taste it.

A recent study showed millions are put off by early experiences of physical education. But sport can bring camaraderie and joy

There is a disconnect between the proliferation of reports recommending we should be more active and actual levels of activity, that are scarcely budging. Sports councils, health bodies, charities and thinktanks are piling up the evidence that sport and physical activity help us live healthier, happier lives, improve academic attainment at school and productivity at work, connect our communities and help prevent crime and reoffending. Why can’t we turn this into reality?

Reports often call for better coordination, including the recent House of Commons inquiry Game On: Community and School Sport. But sport and physical activity remains poorly linked among schools, sports clubs, community organisations, parks and playgrounds. In an era of superintelligence and rockets flying around the moon, surely we could do better?

After disastrous elections, Labour MPs voice public doubts over whether the prime minister can politically survive at all

The clock is ticking on Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership of the Labour party. He had begun Monday morning with a speech designed to save his premiership after it was routed in local and devolved elections last week. In it he attempted a political synthesis by occupying Reform’s terrain of national pride without the xenophobia, adopting the left’s language of industrial revival without class antagonism and repositioning Labour as culturally pro-European without reopening the Brexit settlement. It did not succeed. By the afternoon, scores of MPs from across the party had publicly demanded that the prime minister leave office in an “orderly transition”. As the hours passed, the rhetoric crossed an important threshold: from criticism of strategy to questioning Sir Keir’s legitimacy as leader.

Labour MPs increasingly say that voters do not trust, or believe, Sir Keir. Nor do they see the change the Labour government promised to deliver. Backbenchers are clearly saying the prime minister’s leadership is the issue. The instinctively loyal MP Catherine McKinnell put it in stark terms. The message from voters, she said, was clear: “The Labour government has to change, or we will change the Labour government.”

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.

Fifa’s embrace of dynamic pricing and resale markets has led to sky-high costs and a speculative free-for-all, betraying the spirit of the beautiful game

In What Money Can’t Buy, his 2012 critique of a world where everything is for sale, Michael Sandel laments what he calls “the skyboxification of American life”. Price gouging and profiteering, Mr Sandel notes, can exclude millions from communal experiences that should unite people, rather than divide them according to the size of their wallets. That is “not good for democracy, nor is it a satisfying way to live”.

Ahead of the men’s World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico next month, millions of football fans would readily agree with the Harvard philosopher. Gianni Infantino, the president of the sport’s global governing body, Fifa, has predicted that this summer’s tournament will be the “greatest and most inclusive … ever”. But the lead-up has been overshadowed by a ticketing strategy that is almost surreally indifferent to the battered traditions of “the people’s game”.

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.

Michael Bursill highlights the work of the all-party parliamentary group for fair elections in response to an editorial on multiparty politics

Your editorial (The Guardian view on Britain’s multiparty politics: the Westminster voting system needs to catch up, 6 May) summarises the position perfectly. But what about a solution?

Fortunately, this has been thought of by the all-party parliamentary group for fair elections. This has been Westminster’s largest APPG since its formation a few months after the 2024 general election. More than half of its 159 members are Labour MPs, but it also includes Liberal Democrats, Greens, the SNP, Plaid Cymru, an independent and a Conservative vice-chair.

Andrew Wallis on the political will and investment needed to tackle record levels of exploitation

Your article (Modern slavery at record levels in UK and expected to worsen, report warns, 5 May)( reflects a deeply troubling reality also seen by the UK’s modern slavery helpline. Cases of exploitation climbed to their highest level on record with a 41% increase in 2025, according to a recent helpline report. As a consortium of leading anti-slavery organisations has warned, the UK is failing to keep pace with the scale of exploitation, leaving too many victims without protection and too many perpetrators beyond reach. The UK is increasingly becoming a low‑risk, high-reward environment for traffickers and exploiters.

A shared vision for the next decade sets out practical steps: stronger corporate accountability, a more effective criminal justice response, a survivor‑centred system and a coordinated national strategy to tackle child exploitation.

Under private or public ownership models, what really matters is the level of investment in a service, says Andrew Snelson

If Julian Coman is old enough to remember the privatisation of British Gas (Reversing Thatcher’s failed legacy of privatisation can be a Labour vote-winner. If you see Keir, tell him, 5 May), he’ll surely also remember the running national joke that was British Rail, or the six-month wait to have a landline installed by the publicly owned British Telecom.

His “private ownership bad, public ownership good” analysis overlooks the key point that, under either ownership model, what matters is the level of investment in the service.

Power of the mind | Scattering ashes | Bus travel | Refusing to age | A better Saturday with the long read

Nocebo awareness is nothing new (I made my husband ill with a few words – nobody is immune to the power of the nocebo effect, 8 May). Shakespeare knew of the syndrome more than 400 years ago. “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so” – Hamlet, act two, scene two.
Terence Adams
Birmingham

• Scattering my dad’s ashes in a river in Bannau Brycheiniog back in 2005 (Letters, 8 May), we had thought they would float gently away on the current. Instead, they sank straight to the bottom. My brother, in his surprise, lost his footing, fell in and emerged covered in the remains of the most wonderful father, who never did learn to swim.
Helen Ryan
Blandford Forum, Dorset

• BBC to add Giroud to regular panel, including Frank

• Postecoglou will join ITV, who show England opener

Former Tottenham managers Ange Postecoglou and Thomas Frank will go head to head in the TV studio this summer as rival World Cup pundits. The Guardian has learned that Frank has signed a deal with BBC Sport as one of their main analysts, with Postecoglou having agreed to work for ITV.

The BBC is also understood to have added former Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud to their regular punditry panel that includes Wayne Rooney, Joe Hart and Alan Shearer, with ITV recruiting Andros Townsend to join Gary Neville, Ian Wright and Roy Keane.

The two-time major champion has mused about life as a full-time streamer. But sport should be more than just a platform to grow an athlete’s brand

Golf: a feeder sport for aspiring YouTubers? When Bryson DeChambeau, faced with the expiry of his LIV Golf contract at the end of this year and the implosion, possibly even sooner, of the now Saudi-less LIV Golf, mused last week that he might give up life on tour to focus on his YouTube channel, most professional golf watchers scoffed. This was just a bluff, a move to gain leverage as DeChambeau, like every other LIV player, contemplates an uncertain future and negotiates the fraught path back to the PGA Tour.

“I think, from my perspective, I’d love to grow my YouTube channel three times, maybe even more,” DeChambeau said. “I’d love to do a bunch of dubbing in different languages, giving the world more reason to watch YouTube. And then I’d love to play tournaments that want me.”

• Former world champion stopped Paul in December fight

• Injuries from bout are still being monitored by doctors

Jake Paul has admitted the broken jaw he suffered during his loss to Anthony Joshua in December may have ended his boxing career.

The YouTuber turned boxer was stopped during December’s fight after a brutal shot from former world champion Joshua. Paul said the injury is still being monitored five months later.

• Endurance specialist won Olympic gold in Rio and Tokyo

• ‘I don’t know where I’ll get these feelings again’

Katie Archibald, the Scottish track cyclist who won gold medals at the Rio and Tokyo Olympics, has announced her retirement with immediate effect.

The decision means the 32-year-old, who also won multiple world, European and Commonwealth titles, will not compete in the summer’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

The Kenyan player has been recognised for his advocacy and grassroots work to tackle sport’s carbon footprint

“Most well-known people who talk about climate change are in North America and Europe,” says Kenyan rugby sevens star Kevin Wekesa, “but for us this is a very relevant conversation. It is not only about future tournaments or big international pledges. In Kenya, we see the effects in rising heat, cracked pitches and changing weather in communities where young athletes are growing up.”

A year before competing in his first Olympic Games at Paris 2024, Wekesa responded to Kenya’s relegation from the top tier of international sevens by offering free rugby coaching in schools across Kenya. After travelling to a school in Kirinyaga on the slopes of Mount Kenya, a wet and verdant region, Wekesa found an unplayable dry field and was forced to cancel the session. One of the students told Wekesa that conditions had been similar for two months, while another suggested the unfamiliar weather was because of climate change.

This is an extract from our newsletter, The Hotspot. To subscribe just visit this page and follow the instructions.

• Thunder beat Lakers 4-0 in Western Conference semis

• 41-year-old just finished his 23rd NBA season

• Cavaliers even series with Pistons at 2-2

LeBron James isn’t ready to make a decision about his NBA future in the wake of the Los Angeles Lakers’ season-ending loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday.

The visiting Thunder prevailed 115-110 to sweep the teams’ Western Conference semi-final series despite James registering 24 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

Northampton and Bath were well beaten over the weekend: will Leicester or Exeter force themselves into the top two?

There are small but significant moments in every league campaign. Until the weekend it was widely assumed that Northampton and Bath, the two frontrunners in the English Prem, were all but nailed on for home semi-finals and, by extension, would almost certainly meet in the grand final at Allianz Stadium in Twickenham on 20 June.

That could still happen but, suddenly, others are entering the chat. Not only did Saints and Bath lose at the weekend but both were well beaten, 41-17 by Leicester and 35-12 by Exeter respectively. Bath, including their Champions Cup semi-final in Bordeaux, have lost three games on the trot. Northampton were not so much batted aside by the Tigers as unceremoniously flattened.

• Saints ‘request time to complete process thoroughly’

• Playoff semi-final second leg at St Mary’s on Tuesday

Southampton have confirmed they have launched an internal review into allegations that one of their analysts spied on a Middlesbrough training session. Southampton, who host Boro in their playoff semi-final second leg on Tuesday, have asked for “the full context to be established before conclusions are drawn” after the English Football League charged the club with misconduct on the eve of their first-leg draw.

An independent disciplinary commission will determine any punishment, with potential sanctions ranging from a fine to expulsion from the playoffs. Boro, who believe they caught a member of Southampton’s backroom staff on their premises last Thursday, 48 hours before the first leg that finished 0-0, are adamant Saints should not receive a financial penalty in the event they are found guilty.

Seagulls are in their first Women’s FA Cup final but their coach, Dario Vidosic, is determined to keep aiming higher

As Brighton’s old song goes, “Hark to the merry bugles”, because there is something in the air in Sussex by the sea. A purpose-built women’s team stadium is in the offing, a second consecutive top-half Women’s Super League finish is on the cards and the women’s side are heading to Wembley for the first time. The fans have never had it this good.

It took something special for Brighton to overturn a two-goal deficit in Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final victory at Liverpool and they left it late – very late – as Nadine Noordam settled a classic, five-goal thriller with her 95th-minute winner, but reaching this final is something the club have been building towards. In 2022, Brighton set out a bold vision to become a “top-four WSL club” and last summer the head coach, Dario Vidosic, was unafraid to discuss even higher targets, speaking in a determined, bullish and unwaveringly ambitious tone during an interview with the Guardian.

Meeting comes amid tentative trade truce but Iran, Taiwan and tensions over global supply chains will be complicating factors

• Sign up for the Breaking News US email

US inflation jumped to 3.8% in April as conflict in the Middle East continued to drive energy prices and everyday costs for Americans.

Prices rose 3.8% over the last year, according to the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the highest jump since 2023.

At least one person killed as Moscow launches drone strikes on energy facilities and apartments

European culture editor

It was meant to be the crowning moment of a seemingly never-ending success story: the 70th anniversary of the world’s biggest and ever-expanding live music event, held in a city steeped in history both dramatic and musical.

Exclusive: Council of Europe to meet in Moldova on Friday, with human rights body expected to recognise countries’ right to control borders

• Europe live – latest updates

European ministers will this week discuss plans to send thousands of rejected asylum seekers to third-country hubs, the head of the continent’s human rights body has told the Guardian.

Alain Berset, the secretary general of the Council of Europe, said discussions about the removal of people who arrived in Europe by irregular routes would take place “at a multilateral level” at a meeting in Moldova on Friday.

Online marketplace takes into account uncertainty around US video games retailer’s financing proposal

• Business live – latest updates

The board of eBay has rejected the US video games retailer GameStop’s surprise $55.5bn bid (£41bn) for the online marketplace, describing the proposal as “neither credible nor attractive”.

Earlier this month, GameStop made an unsolicited bid for eBay, publishing a letter on its website outlining a half-cash, half-stock proposal.

Calbee to switch its brightly coloured packaging to black and white because war has disrupted supply of certain raw materials used in ink

Japan’s biggest snack maker has been forced to use black-and-white packaging for some flagship products because of ink ingredient shortages caused by the strait of Hormuz blockade.

Calbee, whose potato chip brands in particular are known for brightly coloured bag designs, said 14 of its products would switch to monochrome branding by the end of May.

Month was one of driest Aprils on record with rainfall 23% less than average, according to Met Office figures

One of the driest Aprils on record for central and southern England has left river levels below normal, raising fears of drought in some areas over the summer.

The latest UK hydrological survey – which tracks river and groundwater levels – suggests central and southern England and eastern Scotland will experience notably low river flows over the next three months, raising concerns about water shortages if dry weather persists.

Since his groundbreaking address to the Brazilian congress in 1987, the 72-year-old Indigenous leader has challenged assumptions and championed rights, urging us to ‘have the courage to change’

After 21 years of military dictatorship in Brazil, it was a pivotal moment. Wearing a suit and tie, Ailton Krenak, then an Indigenous leader in his 30s, stepped on to the rostrum in congress. It was 1987, a new constitution was being drafted for the re-established democracy – and Indigenous people were finally being heard in Brasília.

“I hope that my statement does not violate the protocol of this house,” he began, firmly but politely. As he spoke, he smeared his face with jenipapo, a fruit used for Indigenous bodypainting, until it was covered in black. “Indigenous blood has been spilt over every hectare of Brazil’s 8m square kilometres,” he told the constituent assembly. “You are witnesses of this.”

Move by largest donor to environment programme poses further uncertainty for already troubled negotiations

The largest donor to the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) has paused funding to the body before its revised budget on 12 May, triggering concern among member states and NGOs.

The news could carry significance for the already troubled plastic treaty negotiations being overseen by Unep. Since 2022 countries have been struggling to agree on how to deal with the volume of plastics being produced and used, a subject widely acknowledged to be one of the most serious environmental issues of the age, but despite six rounds of talks there has been no agreement in sight.

Levels of Pfas in northern gannet eggs in Canada fell up to 74% over 55-year period of study

Levels of some of the most dangerous Pfas compounds have dramatically fallen in Canadian seabird eggs, which the authors of a new peer-reviewed study say illustrates how regulations are effective.

Researchers looked at Pfas levels in the eggs of northern gannets in the St Lawrence Seaway basin over a 55-year period. Pfas levels shot up from the 1960s through the peak of the chemicals’ use in the late 1990s and early aughts, then fell.

Hundreds of four-year-olds among ‘extremely overweight’ patients at 39 specialist centres since 2021

More than 6,000 children living with obesity, including hundreds as young as four, have required treatment at specialist NHS weight-loss clinics, new figures reveal.

NHS England data, published for the first time, underlines the scale of the growing childhood obesity crisis.

Labour MP who served as a Northern Ireland minister in the run-up to the Good Friday agreement and was active on behalf of asbestos victims

The Labour MP Tony Worthington, who has died aged 84, served as a minister in the Northern Ireland Office at a crucial time – in the run-up to the Good Friday agreement – and won widespread respect for his campaigning on behalf of victims suffering from asbestos-related diseases.

Having been an opposition spokesperson under Mo Mowlam, he was appointed to her ministerial team when Labour came to power in 1997, with community relations as part of his portfolio. With a personality that exuded calm reasonableness, Worthington was well qualified to earn trust in that role.

Moses Edwards, 45, from Wanstead, to appear in court in connection with incident in Whitechapel last week

A 45-year-old man has been charged with arson with intent to endanger life after reports of a fire at a former synagogue in east London.

Moses Edwards, from Wanstead, will appear at Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday after the alleged arson attack on the building in Nelson Street, Whitechapel, on 5 May.

Party says leader has ‘immediately taken steps’ to pay any tax owed after ‘unintentional mistake’

The Green party leader, Zack Polanski, has admitted he may have failed to pay the correct council tax while living on a London houseboat.

Polanski had faced mounting questions over whether the houseboat, moored in east London, was his primary residence.

Former police chief Ronald dela Rosa spends night at senate office after another Duterte ally offers protective custody

The unusual pursuit was captured on CCTV cameras inside the Philippine senate. Ronald dela Rosa, a longtime ally of the former president Rodrigo Duterte, raced along the hallways of the upper house complex, stumbling on the staircase, as he fled government agents.

“They want to forcibly bring me to The Hague, to surrender me there,” Dela Rosa said later on a Facebook livestream, pleading for public support.

Rising cost of living such as high gas prices also a concern in election that will have record number of voters

Voters in the Bahamas head to the polls on Tuesday in a hotly contested general election featuring high-profile candidates such as the former basketball champion Rick Fox.

Voters in the Caribbean archipelago are divided over concerns about immigration, especially from neighbouring Haiti, and the rising cost of living, with significant spikes in gas prices caused by war in the Middle East.

The 32.3m surpasses those caused by disasters for the first time, as 82.2m people displaced in total around world

The number of internal displacements triggered by conflict or violence around the world reached a record high in 2025, surpassing the number of disaster-driven internal displacements for the first time.

A report published by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) shows that by the end of 2025 there were 32.3m conflict-driven internal displacements. That is 60% higher than those recorded the previous year, and – for the first time since data collection began in 2008 – above displacements driven by natural disasters, which reached 29.9m in 2025.

Sports carmaker extends lifespan of petrol-engined Emira, made in Norfolk, to continue to cater for US market

• Business live – latest updates

The boss of the luxury sports carmaker Lotus has called for government support for its UK factory as the Chinese-owned company insisted it will not abandon its British roots.

Lotus said it had extended the lifespan of the £80,000 Emira petrol-engined sports car, made by 900 employees in its factory in Norfolk, in order for the brand to continue to serve the US market.

Soft-left Tribune group issues thinly disguised attack on Keir Starmer, calling for bold policy renewal

• Business live – latest updates

• UK politics live – latest updates

An influential group of MPs has said Labour needs an urgent renewal of economic strategy to offer voters “more than better management of decline” before the next general election.

With Keir Starmer fighting to ward off a leadership challenge, the leading backbenchers from the soft-left Tribune group published a series of essays calling for bolder action to salvage the party’s remaining time in power.

Richard Adam, Zafar Khan and three others are also fined by Financial Reporting Council

• Business live – latest updates

Five former executives at the collapsed government contractor Carillion have been banned by the UK’s accountancy regulator, effectively ending the career of its former finance chief, after they “acted recklessly”.

Before Carillion collapsed into compulsory liquidation in January 2018 – one of the biggest corporate failures in UK history – it was a large multinational construction and facilities management services company and employed 43,000 people around the world.

Bond yields creep higher on concerns about potential for political instability and rising inflation

• Business live – latest updates

• UK politics live – latest updates

The cost of government borrowing has crept higher as Keir Starmer’s crucial speech failed to dispel investor “jitters” in the bond markets over political instability combined with fears of rising inflation.

The yield, effectively the interest rate, on the benchmark 10-year UK government bonds (known as gilts) rose eight basis points (or 0.08 of a percentage point) to 5% on Monday.

After his Kendrick Lamar feud, Drake alienated female fans. With new album Iceman, he’s aiming for the top of the charts again

Despite his A-list pop star status, there’s been a noticeable scrappiness to Drake’s rollout for his ninth album, Iceman. Last month, the rapper iced out his favorite court-side seats at the Toronto Raptors’ arena, with faux icicles dangling from the chairs. He followed that up with a more brazen stunt: a huge block of ice in downtown Toronto for the public to chip at until it thawed, revealing the album date. In early May, he debuted a quirky episodic series on YouTube featuring skits in an ice manufacturing plant and the rapper driving an Iceman-branded truck around Toronto. The mood seemed cheeky and defiant: good news for anyone who missed the memester of his 2016 viral hit Hotline Bling.

It has been an eventful and complicated time for Drake since his most recent solo studio album, 2023’s For All the Dogs. While he is still the highest streamed rapper artist in the world, he has been attacked by hip-hop. Two years ago, Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar and Drake engaged in a battle that no one came out of unscathed. There were accusations of intimate partner violence towards Lamar, a song about a possible daughter that Drake has hid, and Lamar’s Grammy-winning death blow – Not Like Us – about Drake being a hip-hop “colonizer” who chases after young women. Consensus has said that he lost the beef between him and Lamar, and the consensus is right, but the backlash against Drake was already starting to formulate before Lamar issued the first warning shot in 2024 diss track Like That.

Absence of big US films heralds renewed focus on international cinema that underpins festival’s reputation

For decades, Cannes has occupied a unique place in the cultural imagination – not just as the world’s most prestigious film festival, but as Hollywood’s most glamorous overseas outpost.

From Grace Kelly on the Croisette, Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman at the Pulp Fiction premiere, Julia Roberts walking barefoot up the red carpet, to Tom Cruise shutting down the Riviera with fighter jets overhead, Hollywood has made its mark on Cannes.

The last survivors of the blitz share their stories to mark 85 years since it ended. It is a hugely moving film that is all too relevant today – but what a privilege it is to witness

Over the decades since the second world war, the “blitz spirit” has been in danger of becoming a slightly trite article of national faith. Most recently invoked during the Covid-19 pandemic, it is used to imply a uniquely British pluck; the notion of stoicism as a resource that the UK can always call upon in times of adversity.

Inevitably, the “blitz spirit” is a phrase most commonly used by people who don’t remember the blitz. This is partly because anyone who can remember the blitz is now at least in their late 80s. But it’s also because, as a lived experience, the blitz was clearly not something that lent itself to sentimental homilies. This wonderful, moving film is, for both of those reasons, a hugely important piece of social history. The voices of these witnesses to the Luftwaffe’s “lightning war” are variously lyrical, wistful, resolute and deeply regretful. We see them as they play with grandchildren, visit old haunts, attend yoga classes. Their wartime experiences are clearly a backdrop to their lives but very present all the same. They are offered up not quite as a corrective to national myths, but certainly with a harder edge than is customary; as a sobering reminder that to evoke the blitz is to evoke deep trauma.

This affectionate portrait of chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa finds surprising emotional depth beneath the glossy surface of the Nobu brand – with a cameo from Robert De Niro

In Japan, the sushi bar where the chef chops fish for the clientele is a kind of stage. In which case all the world’s a sushi bar for Nobuyuki Matsuhisa, whose deluxe Nobu chain has taken root in dozens of cities across the globe. Matt Tyrnauer’s chirpy documentary charts the rise of this affable but restless pioneer, motivated since the start of his career to break out of insular Japan and shake up its cuisine. Signature dishes like his iconic black cod with miso – made with Alaskan sablefish – or Peruvian-influenced yellowtail sashimi with jalapeno veer well off the sushi-restaurant template. But don’t call it fusion, Tyrnauer’s film says early on; it’s still Japanese food, just open to foreign ingredients and techniques.

After a rocky start in life, in which a young Matsuhisa was placed on probation after reckless driving, he got “lost in sushi”. After stints in Peru and Alaska, it was setting up Matsuhisa restaurant on Los Angeles’ La Cienega Boulevard that made his name, introducing a sense of the unexpected and the lavish to the burgeoning western yen for sushi. Robert De Niro was one convert, making an offer to set up a New York branch that Matsuhisa refused; it was something he felt he wasn’t ready for. Several years on, they finally partnered to set up the first of the eponymous eateries. One of De Niro’s acquaintances questioned how Matsuhisa could be a master if he just had to chop raw fish. “Nobu wouldn’t like to hear you say that,” was the actor’s testy reply.

She sets bizarre challenges for comedians like Ed Gamble and Lou Sanders. Plus: what’s the link between Trump and wrestling? Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, U&Dave
Mel Giedroyc hosts this cheerful gameshow in which teams of comics are placed in themed rooms that, via physical and deductive tasks, they must race to escape. The contestants (who include Ed Gamble, Lou Sanders, Nish Kumar and Chloe Petts) get their sea legs with a fishing challenge, complete with pungent seaside smells and oysters to shuck. Their general ineptitude constitutes most of the fun. Phil Harrison

The game already feels like a relic – so I suspect the TV gameshow will be very annoying indeed. But perhaps this is what newspapers need to stay afloat

Anyone who has watched television knows that late-night talkshow hosts have a habit of pulling entertainment formats from the barest of inspirations. James Corden got Carpool Karaoke from the act of singing songs in the car. Jimmy Fallon got Lip Sync Battle from the act of mouthing along to songs in the mirror. And now Fallon has struck again. He’s making a Wordle gameshow. It’s based on Wordle, that puzzle you used to do while sitting on the toilet.

Fallon’s production company, Electric Hot Dog, has acquired the rights to Wordle and will turn it into a show where teams compete to solve puzzles for cash. The show will film in Manchester, England, this summer and debut on NBC next year.

Six decades ago, Munrow’s passionate and persuasive advocacy for early music opened audience’s eyes and ears – and took the rackett on to primetime TV. Fifty years after his early death, we look back at an inspirational and influential musician

In March 1968, a 25-year-old musician strode on to the stage of London’s Wigmore Hall with a collection of unusual instruments. He proceeded to entertain the audience with tongue-in-cheek descriptions of a shawm, a crumhorn and a rackett – the first time they’d ever been seen, let alone heard, on the Wigmore stage – and he played them with breathtaking virtuosity. That concert, the London debut of the Early Music Consort, was greeted with delight, which set the pattern of things to come. With all the bravura of the 1960s, David Munrow erupted into the world of early music and transformed what had been a minority interest into popular listening.

His flame burned brightly, but briefly: in May 1976 he took his own life at the age of 33. But his impact lives on in the music he rediscovered and popularised, and the innovative ways in which he presented and performed it. The Dufay Collective’s William Lyons has said that his own “programming ethos was very much influenced by that of Munrow: variety and information”. Recently, Skip Sempé, the director of Capriccio Stravagante, wrote that “Munrow … inspired all those who, however unconsciously, followed him with great professional and commercial success. To this day, I feel that every early musician in the UK owes their career to him.”

Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
The polka-dotted phenomenon land their spaceship in Leeds for an ecstatic show that balances supremely complex musicianship with ridiculous good fun

The proud tradition of bands performing in barmy masks ranges from the Residents’ giant papier-mache eyeballs to Slipknot’s scary gimp ensembles, but Quebec duo Angine de Poitrine’s polka dot outfits may just take the biscuit. Double necked guitarist/bassist Khn de Poitrine sports a giant upside down pyramid head with a Pinocchio-style long nose. Drummer Klek de Poitrine’s bonkers outsize head makes him look like Monty Python’s Black Knight, but has its own dangly proboscis which flails around as he plays, and a tiny gold pyramid on top. The stage, the drum kit, the merch stall and several of the fans are also swathed in polka dots. One particularly inspired group have even turned up sporting Klek’s gold pyramids.

If it looks like a phenomenon, that’s exactly what it is. Although the band formed in 2019 and have jammed together much longer, Angine de Poitrine went viral early this year when a US radio station published a video of the duo performing at a French festival. This first ever UK gig was completely sold out – as are several much bigger shows this autumn – and the madcap duo are greeted like conquering heroes before they play a note. Before they even come on stage, fans are taking photos of Khn’s complex pedal board setup.

An enthralling history of the record label that stuffed the charts with hits takes in everything from Bananarama to Bronski Beat. Plus, Suzi Ruffell serves up a lovely series of LGBTQIA+ chat and discussion

When my father collapsed suddenly, an episode of the US comedy in which Steve Carell does CPR to the tune of Stayin’ Alive sprung miraculously to mind

It was a boiling hot day last summer, four days after my dad’s 73rd birthday. Mum was plating up dinner and Dad was on the sofa complaining about how stifling it was. I was meant to head to work, for my job as a personal trainer, but decided to take the evening off. It was just as well: as I turned back to Mum, Dad collapsed backwards and suffered a massive cardiac arrest.

Mum was hysterical. She called the ambulance as I tried to stay calm but inside I felt mad with fear as she relayed what the 999 handler was saying. “Check if he’s breathing,” she told me. I put my hand on his chest but felt nothing. “Move him to the floor.” I laid him on the wood flooring.

An extraordinary exploration of wilderness and its meaning that takes us from the ocean floor to volcanic peaks

Off the coast of California, two miles down, there exist geothermal nurseries: gatherings of tens of thousands of small violet octopuses, each the size of a grapefruit. Known as pearl octopuses (Muusoctopus robustus), they congregate around hydrothermal springs which warm their eggs, allowing them to hatch in less than two years (in cold water it can take 10 years). When I want to calm my mind, I think of these gatherings, this factory of octopuses powered by the Earth’s energy that exists quietly away from our gaze, and might easily never have been discovered. How many more such worlds exist?

The seafloor is just one setting in Cal Flyn’s carnival of a book, The Savage Landscape, a wondrous personal journey to locate and understand wilderness. It’s a work of extraordinary physical and narrative movement that takes us from the depths of the ocean to volcanoes and icebergs, but is also a journey into our own psyches, and the stories we tell ourselves about “wild” landscapes. Above all, it is a reminder that the places we might conceive of as empty or barren are no such thing; that within wildernesses there is abundant life, both human and nonhuman.

A north London cafe is under siege in a state-of-the-nation satire that brings together the haves and have-nots

Britain, muses trainee barrister Xan, was getting “hotter, crueller and angrier”. Amanda Craig’s 10th novel watches as it boils over. Her setting is Prospect Park, a fictional north London suburb caught between gentrification and decline, on the 12th day of Christmas. Outside a hotel housing asylum seekers, protesters and counter-protesters have gathered. In a flat nearby, a man has been stabbed, and thugs go from shop to shop, searching for the teenage boy they think did it.

Locals look on anxiously. Jade from the beauty parlour and Daisy from the health food shop brave the central street to warn others of trouble. In the kebab shop, Mehmet locks up his doner meat and sharpens his knives. Places with shutters close them.

His first story collection, Reward System, was a cult hit. Now comes a novel that’s a bleakly funny appraisal of millennial relationships, technology and ennui. He talks about love, precarity and being called the ‘voice of a generation’

Jem Calder’s writing career had a fairytale start. Sally Rooney emailed him, impressed with a short story he’d submitted to the literary magazine she was editing soon after Conversations with Friends came out. It was the first story he’d ever completed. Calder was already “a huge fan” of Rooney’s, so the whole thing was surreal, he tells me. “I can’t really imagine what could top that, to be honest.”

That story ultimately ended up in Reward System, Calder’s 2022 collection of six interconnected tales following a cast of sad young things living in an unnamed city. It was hailed as a book of the year; a review in this paper placed Calder among “the most talented young writers of fiction at work today”. Now, his debut novel, I Want You to Be Happy, picks up some of the themes of the first book: the trials of modern love, millennial ennui, consumer culture, technology, political and ecological doom. And it’s already got some famous fans: David Szalay has sung its praises, while Andrew O’Hagan says Calder is his “new favourite writer”.

An erudite account of the foundation of the state and its subsequent moral and political decline

Israel’s attack on Iran is only the most recent example of its degeneration in recent decades, coming on top of its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories, ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, genocide in Gaza, invasion of Syria and relentless bombardment of Lebanon. The fact that the US joined in this illegal war confirmed to many in the region what they have long suspected: that the country is an outpost of western imperialism in the Middle East.

The state of Israel, which arose from the ashes of the Holocaust 77 years ago, has received an unprecedented degree of international sympathy and support ever since. This support was partly due to western guilt and partly due to the perception of the Jewish state as an island of democracy in a sea of authoritarianism. The country’s Declaration of Independence promised to uphold “the full social and political equality of all its citizens without distinction of race, creed or sex”. In the early years of statehood, Israel was seen in the west as an icon of liberal, progressive and egalitarian society.

Previously prohibited use of websites such as Omoggle that connect a streamer to a stranger’s video feed now allowed

Last week, at 4am, 19-year-old Sammy Amz was scrolling through X when something caught his eye: a popular Twitch streamer was competing in a 1v1 “mog-off” with a stranger, and losing.

The next day he opened the Omoggle gaming website and began to play. Quickly he matched with another user – green dots appeared on their faces onscreen, as the website began to compare their measurements: canthal tilt, palpebral fissure ratio, nose-to-face width ratio and so on.

PS5, Xbox, PC, Switch 2; Annapurna Interactive
The nostalgic antics of a trio of tenacious teens make for silly yet undeniably enjoyable gameplay, framed by a playlist of bona fide bangers

The older we get, the more we tend to romanticise our teenage years. As bills pile up, we yearn for the simple days of drinking cider in parks. We often tend to forget the bad parts: the frustrating lack of autonomy, the unrequited crushes and the doofuses you’re forced to tolerate in the playground. But after four hours spent hanging out with the pretentious teens in Mixtape, I felt pretty relieved to be in my 30s.

Set in a nondescript town in northern California, Mixtape follows the exploits of tenacious trio Rockford, Slater and Cassandra as they head to a legendary party on their last day of high school. With Rockford about to leave her friends to move to the big city, she wants to immortalise the gang’s time together in musical form. Every song on a carefully curated mixtape triggers a totally tubular flashback to one of their shared memories.

For anyone needing a break from binging The Pitt, you can always put in your own shifts as a hospital manager, surgeon, paramedic and of course as a demonic morgue assistant

Like the rest of the western world, our household is currently binging medical drama The Pitt, revelling in its visceral depiction of life in a modern emergency department. So far the series has yet to inspire a video game tie-in (though there has been an amusing parody), but fans wishing to try their hand at tense medical (mal)practice, should not despair. Here are eight of the best hospital games spanning more than 40 years of gruesome interactive surgery. Squirt some hand sanitiser and come this way.

Enchanting and a little eerie, Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth is the second great game in as many years based on the classic children’s books

Sleepy, happy-sad, and imbued with the mildest peril, Tove Jansson’s Moomin stories may seem an unlikely fit for the action-heavy medium of video games. Rather than embark on swashbuckling adventures, these milk-white, hippo-esque creatures prefer to potter about Moominvalley, only venturing further if the weather conditions are just right.

Yet a small Norwegian video game studio, Hyper Games, is now on its second exquisitely charming Jansson adaptation. The first, 2024’s Snufkin: Melody of Moomin Valley, put players in control of the wily free spirit, Snufkin, as he dismantled overly ordered nature parks (and evaded authority-loving wardens). The latest, Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth, sees young Moomintroll wake up at night in the dead of winter. With his parents still hibernating, the creature is all alone, thrust into a cold and unfamiliar world.

Perth theatre
Aside from a brief pre-shoot ‘discussion’, this take on Billy Wilder’s classic 1950 film has little to offer – despite some fine performances

Over the past decade or so, Morag Fullarton has been developing a popular line in bijou Hollywood adaptations. With a camp flourish and a multitasking cast, the writer and director has boiled down favourites including Casablanca and It’s a Wonderful Life. She last had a crack at Sunset Boulevard, then billed as a “lunchtime cut”, in 2015 at Glasgow’s A Play, a Pie and a Pint, the company she went on to co-run for four years.

Now associate director at Perth, she has reunited the fine four-strong company who went down so well the first time around, worked in an extra 20 minutes of material and given it a handsome main-stage production. But for all its strengths of mimicry and its affection for Billy Wilder’s 1950 original, it is a show severely lacking in purpose.

At Perth theatre until 16 May

Brighton festival
Combining words devised for Shakespeare’s female characters with music from composers old and new this was a Bardic treat with teeth

The two groups behind me who (it emerged at the interval) were all expecting a greatest hits concert by 90s pop duo Shakespears Sister, might have been startled by what they got instead: a Shakespeare-themed song recital. But you can hardly move for lovers and their lasses hey-nonny-no-ing their way across the UK’s concert halls these days, and it takes something extra to set one apart.

Sophie Bevan and pianist Christopher Glynn found it by combining Shakespeare with speeches from actor Harriet Walter’s 2024 book She Speaks! Walter’s wry, often acerbic, occasionally dagger-wielding verse fills in the gaps where women – whether witches, wives, nurses or ingenues – should speak, but don’t. Paired with a brilliantly unexpected selection of Shakespeare songs, many by female composers, it made for more than a simply pretty recital.

Dudley Town Hall
With bits about Prince, Tiswas, his Jamaican family and his long career, the standup treads familiar ground and the home-town crowd love it

In this new standup show – his first tour since 2010 – Lenny Henry says he generally turns down reality TV offers. He said yes to Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters (no, me neither) because he wanted to pay for an extension.

At first one wonders what home improvements Still at Large might be funding: it is difficult to get a handle on its purpose. In a first half of pure standup, there is some new material but also old ground being re-trodden. He does a bit about his family discovering the signs for the Black Country when they arrived from Jamaica; many first heard the joke in 1989 in Live and Unleashed, when he told us that his father declared, “the queen has set aside some land for me already.”

Touring until 3 November

UEA Drama Studio, Norwich
A scientist sees the climate crisis in action when she returns to her mother’s flooded home, while the mum just fancies a trip to see the penguins

In these days of ever-encroaching climate crisis, we desperately want scientists to be the heroes. Alice, a glaciologist just back from Antarctica, knows that. After all, she wants it too: “To find the answer. Invent something. Discover something. Flick a switch and solve it all.”

Playwright Martha Loader, who won last year’s George Devine award for The Town, has spent two years interviewing Antarctic researchers not just on their work, but the impact it has had on their personal lives. In Albatross, the home Alice returns to is one where her mother Eve has been caring for her five-year-old daughter. And their tense middle-of-the-night reunion – made comically awkward by the presence of Eve’s new boyfriend, Martin – allows Loader to explore the moral dilemma of what each generation owes to the next, and whether the greater good outweighs personal, even maternal, obligations.

She played the world’s coolest dance teacher and has had big success as an actor, director and choreographer, winning a Golden Globe, Emmys and an Olivier. Now, she is back on Broadway. She discusses Trump, the Kennedy Center and where the US goes next

Debbie Allen once found herself judging the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City alongside a charismatic property developer named Donald Trump. He had just bought an 86-metre superyacht named Nabila and rebranded it the Trump Princess. Eager to flaunt his prize, he invited Allen, a dancer, choreographer, actor and director, and her sister, the actor Phylicia Rashad, aboard for a private tour.

The opulence of the vessel was astonishing, Allen recalls: there was a bathroom carved from lapis lazuli, a fully equipped nightclub and fine paintings hanging on the walls. “It was incredible. I remember him telling me: ‘Debbie, you can have a party on this.’ I said: ‘If I do it, honey, it’s going to be all Black people.’”

Premium editions of Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! cost up to $250 but some say signatures are unnaturally identical

Liza Minnelli fans who bought signed copies of her memoir are seeking refunds because they believe her signature is fake.

Copies of Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! by the American 80-year-old singer were marketed around the world as “hand-signed collectibles”, with premium editions costing up to $250 (£185).

Usually joyous song contest ‘a little bit sad’ this year, says one expert, with rows over Israel and costs to the fore

It was meant to be the crowning moment of a seemingly never-ending success story: the 70th anniversary of the world’s biggest and ever-expanding live music event, held in a city steeped in history both dramatic and musical.

But as Vienna gears up to host this year’s Eurovision song contest, which starts on Tuesday and culminates in Saturday’s grand final, euphoria will be hard to come by outside the power ballads performed onstage.

In a rare public appearance, Meta whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams warned of ‘networks of powerful elites’ using wealth and influence to silence dissenting voices

Meta whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams and the late Virginia Giuffre have jointly won the Freedom to Publish prize at this year’s British book awards, marking the first time the award has been shared.

Wynn-Williams, a former Facebook executive, was recognised for Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed and Lost Idealism, her bestselling memoir about her years inside Meta, formerly Facebook. The book makes allegations about the company’s internal culture and practices, including its approach to political influence, China and the wellbeing of teenagers. Meta has disputed the claims.

The island of Samsø offers tranquil walks, biking, birding, distillery and pottery tours, and locally sourced fare – including citrusy ants

‘We have lammerullepøllse – lamb rolled sausage – today,” says Daniel Hesseldal-Haines, chef at Det Lille Sommerhotel on the Danish island of Samsø. “It tastes better than the translation sounds. And,” he gestures towards a woman sitting by the window, “the lamb is from Camilla’s farm.”

Camilla gives us a friendly wave, and my eyes fix upon her sweater, featuring row upon row of colourful motifs. Think Fair Isle but less orderly: each stripe holds a different design. “Oh, I made this,” she says. “It’s hønsestrik – chicken knitting. You can use it to tell your story – so this one is about hiking,” she adds, pointing to each section: “These are my footprints, this is my tent, my coffee flask …”

We had booked a cruise for him and his carers, but we had a string of problems when we tried to change names

In November 2024, I booked a cruise for my wife, myself and our severely disabled son for this July. I’d booked well in advance to ensure an accessible cabin for my son. At home, he needs round-the-clock care from a rota of eight carers, so we made extra bookings for three to accompany him.

Because the care team has other commitments, I couldn’t confirm their names at the time of booking and was told to do so by this April, when the balance had to be paid.

Our writer has a wardrobe wake-up call. Plus, top tips for sustainable plants and Kim Cattrall’s shopping secrets

• Don’t get the Filter delivered to your inbox? Sign up here

How many pieces of clothing do you own? Dozens? Hundreds? The average UK adult’s wardrobe contains 118 items, including underwear, according to environmental charity Wrap. That shocked me until I started counting my own clothing mountain and reached number 237, at which point I had to stop and write this newsletter.

When the Filter asked me to spend March testing six ways to consume less, I didn’t expect fashion to feature much: I work from home wearing boys’ joggers from Asda (they’re cheap, and they fit my sub-5ft frame perfectly). But after auditing my belongings as part of the challenge, I have to ’fess up, not least to myself: I’ve been over-buying clothes for years.

Start small, pick perennials and go peat-free: how to buy plants sustainably

Busy boards, bath buddies and Tonies: the best toys and gifts for two-year-olds

The best face moisturisers for every budget, season and skin type, tested

Jess Cartner-Morley’s May style essentials: summer totes, chic shirts and the best shoes of the year so far

The best blenders for smoothies, soups and frozen desserts, tested

Whether you want floaty, floral, midi or maxi, the perfect summer dress should be versatile and easy to style. Here are 30 of our favourites this season

• Jess Cartner-Morley’s May style essentials

There’s a particular kind of optimism that comes with the first real day of summer sun; not the false start kind in April, all blue skies and betrayal, but when you can leave the house without a coat and not immediately regret your decision.

In theory, the summer dress is the easiest item in your wardrobe to style. One decision, one zip (or none) and done. However, this ease can be deceptive. Without the option of layering, a summer dress has to be versatile.

We spill the tea on the supermarket bags worth your cuppa – and which should be left to stew

• The best (and worst) supermarket coffee

My grandma would turn in her grave if she knew I tested these teabags by brewing them in a cup, but that’s how I drink tea mostly. Or at least I did until I met tea specialist Matt Ritson, who helped me test today’s teas with the industry-standard cupping process and, afterwards, introduced me to some mind-blowing whole-leaf teas. We studied the appearance and aroma of the wet leaves in an observation bowl, then the colour and clarity of the tea itself, before supping it from small bowls and aerating the tea to maximise its surface area.

The bags I tested ranged from 2p to 34p a pop, but when you think about the quality and sourcing of the higher-priced teas, even they are incredible value. We scored them on flavour, structure and balance, plus certification, trading standards and sourcing. I also awarded points to plastic-free bags – it seems the industry is finally responding to the uproar against microplastics, though some producers need to catch up and work without the polypropylene glue that’s still often used to seal teabags.

Whether it’s the Met Gala or the start of holiday dressing, May is big news in the fashion world

• The best wedding guest dresses for every budget

May starts with a bang, in fashion. The Met Gala, which happens on the first Monday in May every year, is the most outrageous, most high-concept red carpet of the year. The Met looks don’t offer much in the way of real-life style, but they are a nice reminder that fashion in the summer should be fun.

Bank holiday weekends are the perfect time to road test your holiday-season style, and longer evenings make a breezier kind of dressing up feel doable. There are some gems out there right now: read on for the Cos trousers that might just be your new wardrobe staple, and the high-street flats that I’ve had compliments on every time I’ve worn them.

The answer is probably more about absorption than quantity, say our panel of experts

I’ve been advised to increase the iron in my diet but, as a vegetarian preoccupied with getting sufficient protein, I’m at a loss.
June, by email
Last year, a study by Randox Health found that almost one in three women who attended its UK clinics have an iron deficiency, which is to say that June isn’t alone. Yes, there are good sources that vegetarians can tap into, but we first need to address a few key points: “The heme iron you get from animal sources – red meat and darker poultry, say – is in a form that’s slightly better absorbed than non-heme iron, which is found in the likes of beans, tofu and leafy greens,” says Dominique Ludwig, nutritionist and author of No-Nonsense Nutrition. This is where vitamin C is your friend: “When we eat non-heme iron and vitamin C together, it increases absorption, so it might be a case for having peppers or tomatoes with your tofu.” But there’s another potential hitch: “On a vegetarian diet, some of that iron can be blocked from absorption because of things such as phytates [a plant compound found in whole grains, legumes, etc], or tannins in tea and dairy,” Ludwig adds, so it’s not simply about how much iron you’re getting, but how good your absorption is.

“Women aged 19-49 should aim for 14.8mg iron a day, but after menopause that drops to about 8.7mg, which falls in line with men’s requirements,” Ludwig says. “If you’re vegetarian, then, you can’t just be having pesto pasta, you need to be eating beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, soy products, and leafy greens, too.” Tofu can have 3-5mg iron per 100g, cooked lentils 3-4mg, chickpeas 2½-3mg, cashews 6-7mg and sesame seeds 14-15mg. So, much like getting dressed, layering is important.

Oats in the morning are a no-brainer: “A 40g serving will give you 2mg iron, so have them with milled flaxseed and berries for the vitamin C,” Ludwig advises. The same principle applies to the likes of a tofu scramble: “Throw in some kale and tomatoes [again, for the vitamin C] and serve it with wholemeal bread, and you’re looking at about 7mg iron,” Ludwig adds. In other words, your day is getting off to a good start.

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

Buttermilk-marinated lamb with fresh peas and broad beans, a classic Sicilian aubergine dish, and a vegetable-stuffed Roman spring stew

Spring is arguably the most exciting time for a chef, or cook. The long – really long – winter has come to an end and, as the shadows shorten, the list of ingredients lengthens: peas, broad beans, wild garlic, spring lamb … It is where nature comes into her own, because, as if by design, all of its bounty goes together in the most wonderful, natural and understated way.

Enjoy this 30-minute cheesy polenta for dinner, then chill the excess polenta and get an even quicker meal the next day

I love polenta, but very often forget about it in favour of pasta or rice. However, for those transitional spring evenings, it’s perfect comfort food: warm, filling, and cooks in under two minutes when you buy quick-cook. But the very best thing about making a pan of polenta is that with barely any extra effort, it’ll give you the basis for a meal the next day. Try pouring half of it into a tray – studded with olives, or with extra cheddar stirred through, perhaps – and chill overnight. The next day, cut it into squares, chips, or even star shapes, and fry until crisp – a cook once, eat twice win.

Roast chicken the Cornish way (with a splash of cider), for a simple, lighter Sunday lunch

Roasting a whole chicken seems to be one of those things that works all year, whether with salad in the summer or as a part of a heavy roast in the chillier months. This is a Cornish riff on the French classic petits pois à la française, and a really simple, lighter alternative to a traditional Sunday lunch. Plus, braising vegetables really unlocks another level of sweetness.

David Gingell is chef and co-founder of Primeur, Westerns Laundry and Jolene, all in London

A tiny bird with a giant ego, Crispin was a remarkable singer – especially if you told him how talented, intelligent and gracious he was

I was around four years old when my parents bought me Crispin, my first pet. A handsome yellow canary, Crispin was bad-tempered and behaved like an alpha male. He would spend hours preening. I thought he was enchanting.

A gentle female canary, Mariflor, arrived soon after. She became Crispin’s other half and the mother of their chicks, Maribel and Quintin. Having a canary family compensated for my lack of siblings and extended family. It gave me a sense of responsibility and filled my life with joy.

When Leah and I planned a family, we wanted to be as mutual as possible. Could reciprocal IVF – Leah carrying an embryo made from my egg – be the way forward?

Late last year, it became my friend’s favourite party trick. “Rosa’s going to have a baby next week,” she’d say to a group of people who didn’t know me. I’d watch their faces as they tried to inconspicuously scan my body, detecting no sign of a bump. “Congratulations!” they’d say, smiles tight, clearly wondering what other delusions I might have up my sleeve.

I was, however, about to have a baby. At daybreak on a warm October day, our beautiful, 6lb 10oz, 19.5in‑long baby girl was born; skin pink and taut, scream wet and bright. I held my wife’s hand and head as our daughter emerged from her body – a daughter who had initially come from me.

Ali used to want sex more than James, and feels guilty that she doesn’t enjoy it as much as she used to
• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

Any pressure to have sex doesn’t come from James – it comes from within, from a fear of complete loss

You must look after your own mental health. A therapist could provide a safe space to discuss your feelings

I feel torn between being a supportive wife and protecting my own mental health. My husband has recently had great success using drugs, diet and exercise to lose weight. He has struggled for a long time, and I am immensely proud of him, especially as he is now tapering off the medication and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The problem is that I have struggled with anorexia and bulimia my entire life. I’m not in therapy as I can never find the right therapist. I go through periods when it’s manageable, but sometimes it flares up.

My husband is well aware that I still struggle with these issues. However, our daily life since his weight loss has become a constant stream of calorie talk, workout updates and discussions about his shrinking clothes. I pretend I’m fine to avoid raining on his parade, and because he can be defensive when challenged, but beneath the surface I am drowning. I have stayed the same size throughout our relationship, yet find myself constantly comparing my body with his progress. I’m in my 40s and worry about getting older and being replaced. I am exhausted by trying to act as if I’m OK when I am actually deeply triggered.

If you are looking for a new account, there are some good rates around, but also pitfalls to watch out for

Earning as much as 7% on your savings sounds great – but what’s the catch? The top-paying accounts often come with strings attached, which could mean your money is not working as hard as you thought.

That’s important because there is a lot of cash sitting in fixed-rate savings accounts that are about to reach the end of their term. The total amount in accounts maturing between April and June is £90bn, according to the savings app Spring – and that money will need to find a new home.

Haringey council’s penalty seems extortionate – especially when other authorities charge lower amounts

I read your story about a man fined £500 for dropping a cigarette butt on the pavement.

I have been issued with a £500 fixed-penalty notice (FPN) by Haringey council for putting a butt in a refuse sack awaiting collection on the street.

Criminals exploit confusion or anxiety over new IHT rules by offering a ‘safe haven’ for savings pots

The caller pitches a great deal. Shift the moneysaved in your pension and reinvest it in a scheme overseas where you can avoid it being caught under next year’s changes to the UK’s inheritance tax (IHT) system.

From April next year, any money left in a defined contribution pension after your death, which is most workplace and all private pensions, will be pulled into the IHT net.

As fuel prices soar, millions of Britons could reduce their electricity costs by installing home storage

Consumers across the UK are bracing for the war in the Middle East to deliver a sharp rise in home energy bills from this summer.

The looming energy cost crisis has prompted a record number of households to investigate green home upgrades to try to keep bills down, including heat pumps, solar panels and electric vehicles.

Long considered an important milestone in one’s fitness journey, pull-ups build upper body strength and look impressive in the gym

The pull-up has long been seen as an important fitness metric. From 1966 to 2013, public middle and high school students in the US were required to do pull-ups as part of the presidential fitness test (an evaluation Donald Trump has considered reinstating). US Marine Corps members were long required to perform pull-ups as part of their regular physical fitness test, and prospective UK Royal Marines must complete a minimum of three to four pull-ups before they are eligible to join.

There is no definitive data on how many adults can perform a proper pull-up, but two things are clear: they are very difficult and look extremely cool.

Lat pulldowns.

Bent-over dumbbell rows.

Single-arm dumbbell rows.

Wide upright rows.

Shoulder shrugs.

Scientists are discovering more and more associations between poor oral health and everything from heart disease to dementia. But can flossing and brushing properly guarantee a longer life?

Isn’t it weird that dentistry and medicine have been kept largely separate? Why should our mouths be treated differently from the rest of our bodies? Going to the dentist often feels like more of a lifestyle and cosmetic add-on, especially for adults in the UK. And, even if you can find an NHS dentist, the service is not free at the point of use like medical doctors are.

The origin story for this rift is that dentistry began, in the middle ages, as a trade – with tooth extractions handled by “barber surgeons” and dentures crafted by jewellers and blacksmiths. Today, dentistry and medicine still have their own separate training routes, professional bodies and NHS setup. Generally speaking, medical doctors can’t act as dentists, and dentists aren’t medical doctors. But the tide is turning on this conceptual separation, because the links between oral health and systemic healthcare are becoming ever more apparent.

Social media influencers and booming men’s health companies are pushing the hormone as an answer to all ills. But is ‘low T’ really problematic – or something created to sell men a cure to a problem they don’t have?

A s a young man, Nick Dooley never thought about his hormones. He always considered himself “quite an outgoing, confident, chatty person”. Around the time he turned 30, however, Dooley began putting on weight and struggling with anxiety, “just slowly becoming a shell of my former self”, he says. By 38, he weighed 22st (140kg) and had a range of health issues. “I spent most of my life sat in front of a TV, doing nothing, with zero motivation, and from how I was in my 20s, that wasn’t me. I knew something wasn’t right.”

In 2024, Dooley had a private medical exam, which flagged he had fatty liver disease and was producing low levels of testosterone. “It wasn’t something I’d ever really heard of,” he says. “So I started down a Reddit rabbit hole.” An NHS doctor told him his blood testosterone levels, at 11.2 nmol a litre, were “within range” (although guidance differs between trusts, NHS England generally considers between 8 and 30 nmol/L normal) and offered him antidepressants. “I knew that wasn’t going to fix me,” he says. Instead, Dooley signed up with Manual, an online men’s health company. After two quick blood tests and a virtual consultation, Manual, which has since rebranded as Voy, started him on testosterone replacement therapy (TRT).

After embarking on a trial of CAR T-cell therapy, actor Sam Neill announced he is cancer-free. Researchers are enthusiastic the therapies could be a major weapon in the battle against cancer

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

“Game-changer.” That’s how Prof Misty Jenkins, an immunologist at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, describes CAR T-cell therapy, an emerging but still costly cancer treatment that supercharges the body’s immune system to fight disease.

Late last month, Jurassic Park actor Sam Neill put the treatment in the spotlight, revealing his stage three cancer was in remission after undergoing CAR T-cell therapy as part of a clinical trial in Sydney. He stopped short of describing his remission as a miracle – the success, he said, was “science at its best”.

PM’s wife, accompanying him to the polls, follows a long line of women to mobilise the jacket when stakes are high

Not a white flag but a cream blazer was what Victoria Starmer chose to wear to accompany her husband, the prime minister, to vote on Thursday morning. She follows in a long line of women who have mobilised the power blazer at high-stakes moments.

Starmer’s, which looks much like a £1,690 ivory Alexander McQueen crepe design, comes hot on the lapels of another. In episode one of the new series of Amandaland, Amanda wears a beige double-breasted iteration in a high-stakes fictional moment: to give a toe-curling talk about her (not shallow) lifestyle brand Senuous as part of careers week at her kid’s school. Earlier in the week, the Princess of Wales launched the Foundations for Life report wearing a creamy beige high-waisted Roland Mouret suit.

Duo Whitaker Malem worked with pop art sculptor Allen Jones and a car bodyshop in Kent to create gala’s biggest jolt

At Monday’s Met Gala, it inevitably fell to Kim Kardashian to deliver the evening’s biggest jolt. One of the few celebrities to straightforwardly interpret the “fashion is art” dress code – which focused on how the dressed and undressed human body is the through-line in most works of art – she decided to forgo her usual role as a walking billboard for a major fashion house and instead arrived in an orange fibreglass breastplate created by a small east London art duo and a car bodyshop in Kent.

“Good art should start conversation, and Kim did exactly that,” says 61-year-old Patrick Whitaker, half of the design practice Whitaker Malem, who made the breastplate just weeks before the gala. “She was very clear on wanting a breastplate, very clear on the car body finish. And I think she was nervous really. She understands the competition.”

Whether it’s Palantir selling a $239 chore coat, Anthropic taking over a coffee shop or executives walking the red carpet at the Met Gala, tech’s biggest players are pivoting to fashion to sell their brands – and attempt to appear cooler in the process

Last week, the US spy tech and data firm Palantir launched its latest “merch drop”, including a denim chore coat. “Rugged utility, enduring style” reads the website’s description of the $239 (£175) jacket, which is branded with the company’s logo on the chest pocket and comes in blue or black.

Eliano Younes, the head of strategic engagement at Palantir, told the New York Times that it was part of the company’s commitment to “re-industrializing America” – the jacket is made in Montana and recalls workwear of a previous era. “It’s not political,” he added. “It’s about people who love Palantir and are aligned with our mission.”

The key lesson from Carolyn Bessette Kennedy’s style is to keep the messaging simple

Carolyn Bessette Kennedy has been an insider style icon for ever, but this year she has flipped from under-the-radar reference to global phenomenon. Ryan Murphy’s Love Story, a glossy dramatisation of her doomed romance with JFK Jr, gave us nine delicious hours of lingering closeups of her white tank tops and jeans, her simple black dresses, perfect black oval sunglasses and tortoiseshell headbands. If you didn’t know you wanted to dress like CBK before you started watching, you did by the end.

Carole Radziwill, who was friends with Carolyn, has pointed out that copying CBK’s style is pretty much the least CBK thing you could do. Her friend, she told the Deuxmoi podcast, “pulled her hair back in a headband because she didn’t want to wash it every day. She did what felt natural to her and she dressed in things that made her feel comfortable and most like herself. Mostly jeans and button-downs and T-shirts. The takeaway is not to mimic her style, but to do and wear what feels most authentic to you. Be yourself. She was very much herself.”

From B&Bs and cabins to fincas and family hotels, these rural boltholes make ideal bases for exploring the region’s mountains, trails and historic towns and villages

For centuries, outsiders have been lured to the radiant hills and valleys of Andalucía, not least the Moors of north Africa who left such an impact on the land and culture. More recently, an influx of northern European aficionados has fostered a string of seductive, small-scale guesthouses to join some idiosyncratic Spanish-owned properties. These are idyllic, tranquil settings in which to de-stress and recharge, hike, ride, cycle, cook, swim or simply stargaze – the rural skies here are blissfully free of light pollution. Nor are cultural highlights ever far away, whether in Granada, Córdoba or Seville.

It took 10 years for Naseby to achieve its DarkSky International certification. Now, a night out in the tiny Otago town is like ‘a tour through the history of the universe’

As the last strip of pink on the horizon fades to indigo on the Maniototo Plain in Otago, every word I speak arrives in a puff of condensation. Six hundred metres above sea level, in winter the temperature here can drop to -15C. Spring isn’t much warmer. But the chill is worth it. Standing in the dark in what feels like the middle of nowhere, I’ve come to a paddock not far from the historic mining town of Naseby to stargaze.

Even in a country where there’s about 20km of space per person, the Maniototo Plain is sparsely populated. During the 1860s gold rush about 20,000 fortune seekers descended on Otago, but when they eventually moved on, towns like Naseby were left to a sleepy future. Now home to just 140 people, it’s not even a place you drive through. “We’re not on the way to anywhere,” says local Jill Wolff. “You’ve got to choose to go to Naseby.”

Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

From the breezy dunes of Normandy to the dreamy lagoons of the Algarve, our writers choose their favourite places to eat and drink by the sea

You share your favourite spots for sand, seafood and sundowners from the Kent coast to the Greek islands
• Tell us about your favourite railway trip in Europe – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

Dungeness is a place of wild beauty, a stretch of coast that knows fierce winds. Artist and gardener Derek Jarman’s cottage roof blew off at least once and the wind regularly wreaked havoc with his planting. Stubborn plants survive on this vast shingle beach and just as stubborn is the Snack Shack, with its opening times dependent on the weather, as its website says. On fair weather days it’s an ideal place to have lunch as you explore the peninsula. If you’re in luck they will not have run out of lobster rolls among other freshly caught seafood delights. Paying homage to Jarman and eating outdoors here replenishes the soul.
Charlotte

The answers to today’s pronunciation puzzles

Earlier today I set you these two word puzzles. Here they are again with solutions.

1: Pronounced the same, spelt differently.

(Second option) (Switch back and forth)

(Suitable) (Commandeer)

(Satisfied) (Components)

(Conference attendee) (Assign)

(Price reduction) (Disregard)

(Way in) (Enrapture)

(Incorrect) (Disabled)

(60 seconds) (Tiny)

(In attendance) (Give)

(Fruit and vegetables) (Generate)

(Deny) (Rubbish)

(Distress) (Surprise victory)

Alternate

Appropriate

Content

Delegate

Discount

Entrance

Invalid

Minute

Present

Produce

Refuse

Upset

A big shot earned a triumphant snare drum roll with a resolving crash. My timing was often slightly late, occasionally wildly inappropriate

Music came to me very early on. I’m told that as a baby I would fall asleep to opera – arias would stop me crying. By age six I was enrolled at the local conservatory of music in Athens, learning classical guitar and moving, quite seriously, through music theory and the fundamentals. By my teens, I was in a band with friends, covering everything from Avril Lavigne to Muse, aiming for precision over hours of rehearsal. My music practice was very disciplined and far removed from anything resembling “entertainment”.

Sport, on the other hand, barely registered for me.

Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

In some places, a half-birthday allows you to learn to drive or join the army. But for others, it’s a way to embrace the midpoint of each year of life

Six months after Lorraine C Ladish turned 59, she began to get emails – from fashion stores, the supermarket, the opticians – offering her a discount. Her half-birthday was coming up, the emails said. She used one of the offers to buy a magenta leather jacket and posted her celebration on TikTok. Ladish is a digital content creator who says she makes “a living out of sharing my age online”. But what really appealed to her about marking the midpoint between birthdays was the chance to “squeeze every second, every month, out of my late 50s”.

Ladish is not alone. Half-birthdays are having a moment. Or, at least, a fraction of a moment. On TikTok there are half-cake designs, half-birthday banners, half-birthday cards – sometimes, they are whole ones brutally sheared – and half-candles. One French brand even released a comma candle for cake decorators wishing to celebrate a half-birthday decimally.

Allendale, Northumberland: Once again, wildlife has made a home here, in part because they feel safe

A big moon is cresting the Scots pine as I sit at an upstairs window looking down on to the garden. Awaiting the dusk emergence of a female tawny owl has become an evening ritual. After a day spent in the confines of a nest box in our sycamore tree, her departure shifts back by a few minutes every night. Completely silent, she drops towards the woodland border and skims the plants, each time on the same trajectory, a grey shadow in the gloaming.

Another movement on the path below catches my eye: a woodcock slinking along, using the box hedge to disguise her passage. If I hadn’t been watching for the owl I would never have known that she too is nesting somewhere in the garden’s thick leafiness. In July 2023, I wrote about a woodcock nesting in a flower border a few metres from the house, four chicks successfully hatching from four eggs. Last year, another attempt was disturbed by a cat captured on trailcam. This may be the same bird returned for a third time. Woodcocks are extremely secretive birds, their close proximity to a house very unusual.

More than 1.2 million people have been forced to flee their homes amid bombings, evacuation orders and demolitions

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Israel’s destruction in southern Lebanon happened in phases. Hours after Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel on 2 March, the Israeli military issued forced evacuation orders for more than 100 villages close to the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Bombing quickly followed. Tens of thousands of residents of south Lebanon began heading north, taking shelter in cities such as Tyre, Sidon and Beirut. Many people outside the formal evacuation zones also fled their homes, recalling the autumn 2024 war in which Israel bombed wide swathes of south Lebanon without warning.

The annual gathering at Koovagam is rooted in an ancient poem. Five trans attendees talk about what the event means to them in light of a controversial change to the country’s gender recognition law

The summer air is thick with dust, sweat and the scent of jasmine. In Koovagam, in southern Tamil Nadu, more than 100,000 people have gathered for one of India’s most distinctive festivals. Transgender women from across India, arrive in bright silk saris and gold temple jewellery, their hair oiled and braided with flowers.

For nearly 18 days, the little town swells into a city of devotion, culminating in rituals that blur the boundaries between myth and reality.

The Koovagam festival pageant winner displays her rings

London mayor talks up coalition-building, highlights his environmental record, and worries national Labour party is on the wrong track

When Sadiq Khan was first elected as mayor of London 10 years ago, Barack Obama was US president, the UK was still in the European Union and Leicester City had just been crowned the unlikely champions of the English Premier League.

In the intervening decade, Donald Trump has gone from reality TV star to two-time US president, the UK has had six different prime ministers, and Brexit has convulsed the country. London has been rocked by tragedies ranging from terror attacks to the Grenfell Tower fire.

Find out how we compiled our list of the 100 best novels published in English – and nominate your favourites

• See 100-81 on the list here

This week, we reveal our list of the 100 greatest novels published in English, as voted for by authors and critics around the world. We polled 172 authors, critics and academics for their top 10 novels of all time, published in English, and asked them to rank their choices in order of preference. We scored the titles according to how often they were voted for, and then added a weighting based on individual rankings to produce the overall list of 100 greatest books.

What would be at the top of your list? Which authors do you think should be there? What are your favourite novels of all time?

If you have been affected by the hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship, we would like to hear from you

Twenty Britons from a cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak continue to be offered practical and emotional support as they isolate at a UK hospital.

Along with the 20 British nationals, a German who is a UK resident, and a Japanese passenger, were taken to Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral on Sunday after the MV Hondius docked in Tenerife.

We’d like to hear how you’re adapting your expenditure as the cost of living rises amid the conflict in the Middle East

Rising prices and economic uncertainty linked to the conflict in the Middle East are putting pressure on household budgets across the world.

The International Monetary Fund has warned the conflict is pushing up the cost of energy and food, increasing borrowing costs and weighing on economic growth. Surveys suggest millions of households are already making changes to cope – cutting back, dipping into savings or taking on debt.

How has this affected you? Have you been able to make alternative plans?

People could see their travel plans upended as airlines cancel or consolidate flights to conserve jet fuel as the war in the Middle East disrupts supplies.

Airlines are reviewing their timetables to see which flights can be cancelled in advance and cause the least delays.

Wake up to the top stories and what they mean – free to your inbox every weekday morning at 7am

Scroll less, understand more: sign up to receive our news email each weekday for clarity on the top stories in the UK and across the world.

Explore all our newsletters: whether you love film, football, fashion or food, we’ve got something for you

Get smart, sustainable shopping advice from the Filter team straight to your inbox, every Sunday

The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link.

A weekly email from our star chefs featuring the latest recipes and seasonal eating ideas

Each week we’ll send you an exclusive newsletter from our star food writers. We’ll also send you the latest recipes from our star chefs, stand-out food features and seasonal eating inspiration, plus restaurant reviews from Grace Dent.

Sign up below to start receiving the best of our culinary journalism in one mouth-watering weekly email.

Upgrade your space today, with eight emails packed with tips to brighten up your home - whatever your budget

Embrace your space: the Guardian’s House to Home newsletter is bursting with tips and tricks to help you boost your bedroom and give your living room some love.

Sign up any time, and get eight emails direct to your inbox every Sunday morning.

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world