MP for Warrington North shares her experience as a complainant in a rape trial where the man she accused was acquitted

Standing up in parliament last week, Charlotte Nichols MP waived her right to anonymity as a complainant of sexual offences.

“I care profoundly about rape victims facing intolerable delays for their day in court,” she said, in a debate about jury trials.

The Oscar-winning star of Bullets Over Broadway and Hannah and Her Sisters has three major movies coming up. To mark her 78th birthday, we cast an eye over an (almost) immaculate back catalogue

Every great performer should have at least one baffling movie on their CV, and this curio, produced by Ismail Merchant, is Dianne Wiest’s. The plot is bananas: she plays an opera singer leading her gay teenage son to believe that his father (Simon Callow) is dead, by taking the boy to visit a fake grave each year. Guess what? He’s alive! Not for long, though: he’s soon murdered by his own gay pickup, with his son witnessing it all from inside a wardrobe. Wiest flails around Paris in a turban and a tizzy, while Jane Birkin is a fake therapist under the illusion that she is Vanessa Redgrave. The real Redgrave pops up briefly, as does Jerry Hall, because why not?

Taking money from just about anyone is just the latest example of Reform’s leader following the Trump school of self-enrichment

Nigel Farage will say pretty much anything for money. Write him a script, stuff a coin in the slot and off he goes: the man who would be prime minister could be your personal mouthpiece for less than £100.

Or at least, that’s the obvious explanation for why – until he was exposed by the Guardian – the Reform UK leader has been churning out written-to-order video messages on request for (among others) Canadian white supremacists, a man jailed for throwing a bottle during the 2024 summer riots, and someone apparently keen to hear him talk about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “big naturals”, pornified slang describing the breasts of a woman who could be running for US president before long.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

Guardian Newsroom: Can Labour come back from the brink?
On Thursday 30 April, join Gaby Hinsliff, Zoe Williams, Polly Toynbee and Rafael Behr as they discuss how much of a threat Labour faces from the Green party and Reform UK – and whether Keir Starmer can survive as leader.
Book tickets here or at guardian.live

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.

A happiness researcher called prolonged eye contact ‘the best thing ever’, claiming it can bring couples closer. Does it really work?

In January, business professor and happiness researcher Arthur C Brooks appeared on the Modern Wisdom podcast to offer advice on optimizing morning and evening routines. His tips seemed reasonable – think exercising early and no alcohol before bed. Then, for couples, he made a kookier suggestion: every night before going to sleep, spend five minutes holding hands and staring into each other’s eyes.

“This is the best thing ever,” he enthuses, explaining that it can help with mood management and to strengthen your relationship.

A chatbot won’t fix your family drama, but it might help you hear what someone’s really trying to say

• Sign up for AI for the People, a six-week newsletter course, here

Last autumn, I was pacing my living room with my phone on speaker, trapped inside one of those looping conversations with my mother, the kind that starts politely and ends in static.

We were talking about land and legacy – what gets passed down, and what doesn’t – that familiar terrain where ideals and inheritance collide.

Josh Toussaint-Strauss discovers that great restaurants are disappearing on Google Maps, despite having lots of reviews and high ratings, so he sets out to get to the bottom of it and finds out that what Google Maps shows us isn't necessarily what we want to see. Josh discusses the issue with Lauren Leek, a social data scientist, who grew so frustrated with Google's results that she decided to build her own map of London's restaurants. You can check out Lauren's alternative map here

Foreign minister issues warning after Israeli attack on South Pars gasfield and as Qatar reels from retaliatory strike

• ‘Doomsday scenario’: a visual guide to the oil and gas site attacks in the Middle East

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Iran said on Thursday it would show “zero restraint” if its energy infrastructure was targeted again as Qatar revealed that almost a fifth of its liquefied natural gas export capacity had been knocked out in an Iranian strike that is likely to have a years-long impact.

The warning, delivered by the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, followed Israel’s attack on Iran’s massive South Pars gasfield – which it shares with Qatar – which triggered Iranian retaliatory strikes on Qatar’s Ras Laffan gas complex and other Gulf neighbours, sending stock markets tumbling globally and triggering sharp increases in gas prices.

Attacks on facilities by both sides in the conflict this week threaten grave consequences for the global economy

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The escalating attacks on key oil and gas projects in the Middle East are expected to fuel a new phase of the ongoing conflict, with profound consequences for the world’s energy supplies and the global economy.

The Iran regime has vowed to target a string of key energy infrastructure across the region after warning that an Israeli strike on a production facility for its largest gasfield at South Pars on Wednesday had ignited a “full-scale economic war”.

US defense secretary suggests Thursday will be ‘largest strike package yet … death and destruction from above’

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The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said on Thursday there is no “timeframe” for ending the US war against Iran and did not deny reports that the Pentagon could seek an extra $200bn in taxpayer funding.

The military US-Israeli offensive began three weeks ago and continues to widen. Donald Trump threatened on Wednesday to “massively blow up” the world’s biggest gasfield after Israeli strikes on the Iranian site prompted Tehran to escalate strikes on oil and gas facilities around the Gulf.

Now, the total is likely to have exceeded $18bn and counting. Where are America’s war dollars going, in a war that was never declared in the first place?

US president was meeting with Japanese PM when he said: ‘Who knows better about surprise than Japan?’

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It would be funny if it wasn’t so Trumpy.

Hosting the Japanese prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, in the Oval Office on Thursday, Donald Trump could not resist mocking Japan about its 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor during the second world war.

Reform party leader criticised for making comments after event held in London’s Trafalgar Square this week

Muslim leaders have condemned Nigel Farage’s call to ban public prayer by Muslims in the UK as bigoted and warned of a “growing tide of hate” after the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, questioned whether the events fitted “within the norms of British culture”.

Farage was speaking at the launch of Reform UK’s manifesto for the forthcoming Scottish parliament elections when he made the remarks.

After a 1,088-day wait, a jury acquitted the man Nichols accused. She describes her experience of the system as a complainant – and explains why she went public

• Warning: this article contains graphic testimony

• Charlotte Nichols on her rape trial ordeal – podcast

Sitting in the House of Commons, waiting for the speaker to call her name last week, the MP Charlotte Nichols was doing breathing exercises to try to keep calm. “I was just trying to get myself into the headspace where I could say what I wanted to say without either completely garbling it or just crying or bottling it at the last minute.”

She didn’t bottle it. She stood up, asked MPs to be gentle with her, and then went public with her biggest secret.

About a quarter of prison places are unsafe, Ministry of Justice admits

The government has reneged on a pledge to make all prison cells fire-safe or take them out of use by the end of next year, meaning tens of thousands of prisoners in England and Wales will remain at risk.

The Ministry of Justice has admitted it has known for almost two decades that about a quarter of prison places are unsafe, putting the people housed in affected cells at risk.

Exclusive: Hanne, 16, from Sussex, was not allowed to board flight to London after weekend in Copenhagen

A 16-year-old British schoolgirl has been left stranded in Denmark after she was not allowed to board a flight to London because of new UK border rules introduced on British dual nationals.

Hanne*, from Sussex, was stopped from boarding a flight home on 8 March after a weekend seeing her British father, who is an academic on a short work stint at a university in Copenhagen.

Has your child been refused board on a flight because of the new rules? If you want to share your story, email: lisa.ocarroll@theguardian.com

* Names have been changed.

Exclusive: At least four people have travelled back to the UK by lorry in the last two weeks

Asylum seekers who arrived in the UK in small boats and were forcibly returned to France under the controversial “one in, one out” deal have returned to the UK in lorries, the Guardian has learned.

When asked about the recent returnees, the Home Office said that people who came back to the UK after removal to France were detained and returned to France at the earliest opportunity. Amnesty International UK has called for “one in, one out” to be scrapped.

Conservative leader says debate not about freedom of religion, but its expression in shared public space

• UK politics live – latest updates

Kemi Badenoch has backed her shadow justice secretary, Nick Timothy, after he claimed that Islamic prayers taking place in public are intimidating and un-British, with Labour saying the Conservatives had embraced the “gutter” politics of prejudice.

The row began after Timothy posted images on social media of prayer at a Ramadan event in London’s Trafalgar Square, saying mass prayer in public places was “an act of domination” and “straight from the Islamist playbook”.

Anyone who was at Club Chemistry in Canterbury from 5 March to 15 March advised to get antibiotics and vaccination

The government has announced a major expansion in vaccination against meningitis in Kent after seven new cases of the disease were confirmed in the county, taking the total number of cases to 27.

On a visit to the University of Kent, the health secretary, Wes Streeting, said anyone who attended the Club Chemistry nightclub in Canterbury from 5 March until 15 March should come forward for antibiotics and vaccination.

Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Taylor Frankie Paul’s season of hit dating show won’t air as scheduled after newly leaked video

ABC has decided to pull the new season of hit dating franchise The Bachelorette after footage of its central star physically assaulting her former partner was leaked.

Taylor Frankie Paul, who gained fame on reality show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, had been cast as the central Bachelorette for the 22nd season, which was due to start on Sunday.

Discovery at Monte Verde puts north-to-south expansion theory back at centre of heated debate on continent’s human history

A groundbreaking new study may have once again upended our understanding of human prehistory in the Americas.

For years, the predominant theory of how humans arrived in the western hemisphere centred around the Clovis culture, which crossed the Beringia land bridge from Asia between 13,400 and 12,800 years ago, and spread south.

Day 2 of our Guardian analysis of more than a million Epstein emails exposes the child sex offender’s deep relationships with more high-profile figures

The Epstein files have led to intense scrutiny over links between the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the rich and powerful. But the vast trove of information has made it difficult to assess the extent of some of those connections.

In this second of a two-part series, The Guardian has focused on Epstein’s links to high-profile people in business and the arts – including the renowned economist and former US treasury secretary Larry Summers, the New York film director Woody Allen and Jes Staley, the former head of Barclays.

Donald Trump is threatening to ‘blow up’ a major Iranian energy facility, as attacks on gasfields across the Middle East send gas and oil prices skyrocketing again. The threat comes after Israeli strikes on the South Pars gasfield prompted Iran to retaliate with attacks on energy facilities across the region, including in Qatar. It marks a serious escalation in the war, which could cause long-term disruption to energy supplies. Lucy Hough speaks to senior international reporter Peter Beaumont

AI videos let young people adopt the guise of DFS agents, sparking debate over glorifying corruption and impunity

Young people in Mexico are taking to TikTok to imagine themselves as agents from the country’s 1970s secret police, the DFS – a force which was infamous for torturing, murdering or disappearing thousands during the country’s “dirty war”.

The trend, which has sparked condemnation by some users on the social media platform, has seen young people use AI to transform themselves into agents glorifying the “absolute impunity” afforded to the notoriously corrupt and brutally violent secret police.

On second anniversary of his sister ending her life at Dignitas, Tony Marra will protest outside parliament with other campaigners

Two years after Paola Marra, on the eve of her death, appealed to politicians to change the law on assisted dying, the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill is stuck in the House of Lords. For her brother, the second anniversary of her death will be spent protesting outside parliament.

Marra died aged 53 on 20 March 2024. She documented her solo journey from north London to Dignitas in Switzerland in photographs and a short film by the photographer Rankin, released posthumously, as well as in a powerful interview with the Guardian.

Conservation can be hard work. But not when it comes to helping these little orange and brown beauties

You’ve almost certainly seen gatekeeper butterflies, even if you don’t know them by name. The gatekeeper is, says naturalist and butterfly enthusiast Matthew Oates, “a charming butterfly; a charming meditation of soft oranges and browns”. Traditionally found in the “scrub edges” (the borders between grassland and woods) and at hedge margins, they are frequently seen in suburban and urban areas, near garden gates (hence their name) and at the base of shrubs. The gatekeeper is in no hurry, so you’ll get to enjoy it. “It doesn’t dash about at great speed,” says Oates. “It flops around; both males and females bask a lot.” As a bonus, Oates adds, gatekeeper males are “extremely polite to each other”, unlike lots of other butterflies, which are highly territorial. “They’re gentlemen.”

Jury Duty’s first season convinced a member of the public he was taking part in a documentary about how courts work – but it was really a reality show where everyone else was actors. Its company retreat-based sequel ups the stakes brilliantly

If ever there was a TV show that you’d think should be left at a single season, it would be Jury Duty.

The Amazon series became a slow-burning, word-of-mouth hit through 2023 for pulling off a frankly unbelievable stunt: successfully convincing one man, Ronald Gladden, that he was taking part in an LA courtroom documentary when, actually, everything about the process was staged and he was the only participant who was not an actor.

As she releases her new solo album, Play Me, the former Sonic Youth star answers your questions on acting for Kristen Stewart, doing Basquiat’s photocopying, and who really invented punk rock

Did you plan to change rock music for ever? Were you envisaging a decades-long career, or was it all a bit more haphazard? Nepthsolem
When Sonic Youth first started, there had been such a high bar set for music that achieved something that people hadn’t done before, it was difficult to know how to add to that. There was the Velvet Underground, who cast a huge shadow, and then all the no wave bands, and when you’re faced with all that coolness, and you feel like you don’t belong, how do you make something happen? You have to focus on the thrill of making something that is like nothing that existed before. It sounds pretentious to say, “We wanted to do something new”, but that was it, and then you have to see what happens. And that’s still my approach. Honestly, I had no intention of doing solo records – I’d been playing in an improv-based project with Bill Nace, Body/Head, but that was all. And it was this producer in LA, Justin Raisen, he kept bugging me to make a solo record. There was no plan; in the end, again, I was like, let’s see what happens.

Your memoir, Girl in a Band, is one of my favourites. It reads almost like a novel. Have you ever considered writing a novel? timwthornton
I’ve thought about it. I consider myself more as a visual artist who writes, rather than a writer. I won’t say I won’t ever try to write a novel, but writing is always a challenge, just the getting started part, and I’m such a procrastinator. But once I get into it, I really, really enjoy it. It’s the thinking I love. A lot of times I actually don’t know what I think about something until I start writing about it.

(Mom+Pop)
Performing, writing and producing everything herself, April Grey pares back her hyperpop electronics for an LP in thrall to 90s pop-R&B, with songs that big stars would die for

April Grey is a US bedroom producer beloved of an impressive range of other artists – experimental pop duo 100 Gecs are fans, so is rapper Danny Brown and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker – but thus far it’s been hard to accurately pin her down. It’s a challenge to sum up the sound of the first album she recorded under the name Underscores, 2021’s Fishmonger, or its follow-up, a concept album based around three young female inhabitants of a mythical Michigan town called Wallsocket: there really was an awful lot going on on both of them. But if you were forced to come up with a shorthand description, you might plump for hyperpop meets emo pop-punk, a sonic cocktail that, as you might imagine, occasionally proved a bit too flavoursome for its own good.

There was no getting around the heavily-caffeinated pop thrills provoked by her best work, but while Wallsocket was bombarding you with distorted guitars, stammering vocal samples, dive-bombing brostep basslines, honking rave electronics, nu-metal riffs, heaving shoegaze textures, gunshot sound effects, vintage video-game bleeps, drums that split the difference between dancefloor pulse and the double-time thunder of hardcore punk, and vocals alternately delivered in a bratty drawl or a full-throated, heavily distorted scream, there were definitely moments when you wished Grey might consider the wisdom of the old adage about less sometimes being more.

The Guardian’s Maanvi Singh has been on the frontline of the Trump administration’s brutal ICE crackdown. She answered your questions about what it’s been like to cover this stark moment in American history.

The unprecedented occupation of American cities by a bulked up Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has led to a series of shocking scenes over the past 12 months, including the killing of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal officials in Minneapolis. It has also led to an incredible community response as people banded together to protect their neighbours.

Guardian US immigration reporter Maanvi Singh has spent the past few months covering this story, including spending a week on the block where Alex Pretti was killed.

Across the US, polls suggest that support for the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics is slipping. In February, following the killing of two US citizens by immigration officers in Minneapolis, 65% of Americans said Immigration and Customs Enforcement has “gone too far”. That was an 11-point increase compared to the previous summer.

But of course, in cities that experienced these massive immigration raids directly, support is even lower. In Chicago, for example, about 33 per cent approve of Donald Trump’s overall job performance, while 35 per cent approve of his handling of immigration, according to a survey by polling firm GBAO this month.

Much of the Trump administration’s immigration agenda was outlined in Project 2025. For example, the document called for the mandatory detention of immigrants with pending cases – a departure from the previous administration when many such immigrants were released under supervision. The document also called for a major expansion of detention facilities. It called for the collapsing of several agencies within the Department of Homeland Security (such as ICE and Customs and Border Patrol) with staff focused on the unified goal of arresting and detaining immigrants. Although these agencies haven’t been officially combined – they have been increasingly working together, with Customs and Border Patrol increasingly working in cities such as Chicago, Minneapolis and Los Angeles.

And finally, Project 2025 called for limits on legal immigration – cutting off refugee admissions, scrutinizing student visas and winding down or reducing the number of H2-A and H2-B “low-skilled” seasonal work visas.

How close are we to the sci-fi vision of autonomous humanoid robots? I visited 11 companies in five Chinese cities to find out

Chen Liang, the founder of Guchi Robotics, an automation company headquartered in Shanghai, is a tall, heavy-set man in his mid-40s with square-rimmed glasses. His everyday manner is calm and understated, but when he is in his element – up close with the technology he builds, or in business meetings discussing the imminent replacement of human workers by robots – he wears an exuberant smile that brings to mind an intern on his first day at his dream job. Guchi makes the machines that install wheels, dashboards and windows for many of the top Chinese car brands, including BYD and Nio. He took the name from the Chinese word guzhi, “steadfast intelligence”, though the fact that it sounded like an Italian luxury brand was not entirely unwelcome.

For the better part of two decades, Chen has tried to solve what, to him, is an engineering problem: how to eliminate – or, in his view, liberate – as many workers in car factories as technologically possible. Late last year, I visited him at Guchi headquarters on the western outskirts of Shanghai. Next to the head office are several warehouses where Guchi’s engineers tinker with robots to fit the specifications of their customers. Chen, an engineer by training, founded Guchi in 2019 with the aim of tackling the hardest automation task in the car factory: “final assembly”, the last leg of production, when all the composite pieces – the dashboard, windows, wheels and seat cushions – come together. At present, his robots can mount wheels, dashboards and windows on to a car without any human intervention, but 80% of the final assembly, he estimates, has yet to be automated. That is what Chen has set his sights on.

This wasn’t just a mean-spirited version of Britain, it was also positively deranged

Abandon hope all ye who enter here. You’d have thought this would be the very definition of futility. An act of defiant nihilism. A few weeks ago Kemi Badenoch had declared that the Tory candidate for Gorton and Denton, Charlotte Cadden, had been the real winner despite getting under 2% of the vote and losing her deposit. Now Kemi was to launch the Conservatives’ local election campaign in the certain knowledge the end result would be electoral wipeout. Tory councillors falling on their swords en masse.

And yet … This was politics as looking-glass war. Where all the old certainties were gone. Where you couldn’t be sure that anything was real. Because inside the cafe at St John’s Smith Square in Westminster, the excitement was tangible. Most of the shadow cabinet were lined up in the front row behind the podium, their smiles more or less genuine. And behind them about a hundred Tory activists, chanting and waving banners and union jacks. You could even spot John Redwood lurking in the background. The night of the living dead.

From Venezuela to the Middle East, this is gangsterism fused with colonialism. It repudiates the moral language through which US power once justified itself

Gone are any pretences about saving the Iranian people. “They really are a nation of terror and hate,” Donald Trump says of Iran. Asked if he would like to help its people, he replied: “I’d like to, if they can behave, but they’ve been very menacing.” Perhaps even he sensed the counterproductive ugliness of this, hastily adding that they are “great people … smart, brilliant, energetic”.

It gets worse. Trump wrote on Truth Social that Iran had “plans of taking over the entire Middle East” and “completely obliterating Israel,” adding: “JUST LIKE IRAN ITSELF, THOSE PLANS ARE NOW DEAD!” Pronouncing the death of a nation hardly screams liberation.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

US leaders anticipated a walkover. Now they’re embroiled in a conflict that could hasten the end of US economic dominance

Nobody gave the Boers a prayer when the war in South Africa began in 1899. It was farmers ranged against the might of the British empire, and the expectation was that resistance would quickly crumble.

Eventually, might did prevail. Britain won the Boer war, but it was a hollow victory that took the best part of three years to achieve and came at a high cost. The blow to British prestige – coming at a time when its global hegemony was under threat from fast-growing countries such as the US – was severe. Far from highlighting the extent of Britain’s power, it exposed its limitations.

Oil has empowered capitalism, and some of the world’s most exploitative regimes. Move away from it and we can solve some of the key issues we face

I realise this is a serious breach of etiquette. But could we perhaps abandon good manners and contextualise Donald Trump’s attack on Iran? The intense western interest in the Middle East and west and central Asia, sustained for more than a century, and the endless attempts by foreign governments to shape and control these regions, are not random political tics. They are somewhat connected to certain fuel sources situated beneath the ground.

Trump’s war aims are typically incoherent: apparently incomprehensible even to himself. But Iran would not be treated as an “enemy of the west” were it not for what happened in 1953, when Winston Churchill’s government persuaded the CIA to launch a coup against the popular democratic government of Mohammad Mossadegh. The UK did so because Mossadegh sought to nationalise the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company: to stop a foreign power from stealing the nation’s wealth. The US, with UK support, tried twice to overthrow him, and succeeded on the second attempt, with the help of some opportunistic ayatollahs. It reinstated the shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In 1954, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company became British Petroleum, later BP.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

FTSE 100’s modest retreat suggests investors underestimating inflationary impact if energy prices remain elevated

Was it only at the new year that the fanfare was heard for the FTSE 100 index breaking through 10,000 for the first time? It was – on 2 January – and the index then added another 900 points by the end of February. On Thursday, the Footsie briefly fell below that round number as Iran struck Qatar’s enormous Ras Laffan complex, which normally supplies a fifth of the world’s liquefied natural gas, before closing at 10,063, down 2.3% on the day.

There are two ways to view that price action. One is to say the sharp reversal from the peak represents a necessarily severe reaction to the war on Iran. Another is to conclude that a flat year-to-date return, after a bountiful 20% gain in 2025, suggests stock markets have barely begun to take seriously the inflationary impact if the war lasts many more weeks, or even months, and keeps oil above $100 a barrel.

The feathered devils have been looking at me funny all year. And just when I thought my torment might be over, I went round to Mum’s and had a terrible shock

Pigeons are tormenting me, in ever weirder ways. Last year I wrote about how much I hated them when they got into a drainage channel on my roof. They’ve been looking at me funny ever since. OK, I might be imagining that, but what I didn’t imagine was the incident I also wrote about involving a peregrine falcon dropping half a dead pigeon on the pitch in the middle of a match at West Brom. I apologise for getting into the same subject area for a third time, but needs must. Things have taken an even darker turn.

That “pigeon stops play” incident came in our match against Derby County in September. Until that moment we’d been all over Derby, but thereafter we went to pot, and lost 1-0. The dropping of the falcon’s dinner felt to me like a portent of doom, and so it turned out. What I didn’t know then was that this was only the start of it.

As conflict escalates around the globe responding to security threats is a cost we must bear, but a Labour government will always find the means to stand up against disease and hunger

• Yvetter Cooper is secretary of state for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs

In my lifetime, there has never been a period when the scale of global instability and insecurity – and the impact here in the UK – has been so great. Regional conflict is gripping the Middle East; the Iranian regime is trying to hold the global economy hostage in the strait of Hormuz; and a fresh humanitarian disaster is escalating in Lebanon – all coming alongside the crises in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and elsewhere.

Britain’s fighter jets are in defensive operations in the Middle East; our carrier strike group has planned deployment to the North Atlantic and Arctic; and as our security services have warned, we are in a constant battle to protect our country, our people, and our economy from state threats and cyber-attacks.

From Brexit to fiscal rules to living costs, diagnoses multiply. Steel policy points to a missing link – the need for a strategy to rebuild

The government has raised tariffs to protect the steel industry. It also nationalised the UK’s remaining blast furnaces last year to keep them running. Both moves point to the same conclusion: the current economic model is not working. A series of interventions from Labour’s Sir Sadiq Khan and Angela Rayner as well as the Green party leader, Zack Polanski, this week suggests that an economic debate on the centre-left and left of politics is under way. The disagreement is no longer about whether there is a problem. It is where the problem lies.

Sir Sadiq, the London mayor, is right that Brexit has raised costs for businesses and households. Closer EU alignment would improve trade, investment and market access. That matters. But rejoining the EU won’t on its own rebuild the UK’s domestic capability. Ms Rayner points to a real institutional problem. If the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) understates the benefits of public investment, the state may be constraining itself unnecessarily. That matters too. However, changing the OBR model is not a strategy.

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

The US president wanted an easy win, but the conflict is spiralling following Israel’s attack on a gas field and Iranian retaliation across the region

Shortly after the US and Israel began their illegal assault on Iran, with the US president still preening himself over the kidnapping of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro the previous month, a state department official joked that Donald Trump had a new foreign policy credo: “Decapitate and delegate”. It was a reversal of Colin Powell’s invocation of the “Pottery Barn rule” ahead of the invasion of Iraq: you break it, you own it.

Gen Powell, then secretary of state, was warning that wars can escalate beyond expectation and are harder to exit than enter. It remains unclear what precisely the Trump administration expected from this conflict – perhaps not least to the White House itself – but it is certain that the president was not paying heed when people described the likely consequences.

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.

Responding to an article that asked whether the flagship Radio 4 news programme has lost its way, Francis Bown writes that it was ever thus

Since I went up to Cambridge in 1968, BBC’s Today programme has been the invariable way the wireless has kickstarted my brain for the coming day (Has Today had its day? BBC’s flagship Radio 4 show grapples with podcast age, 13 March).

Complaints about content, structure and presenters have always accompanied its broadcasts, being simply signs of the programme’s importance – just as was the telephone call to the studio from Margaret Thatcher, when the prime minister wanted to make a point live on air. Yet even its old fans must admit that Today has recently lost its way in two important respects. (Assessing the personalities I will leave to others: I am still mourning the departure of Jack de Manio.)

Dr Simon Williams says the UK is trying to build a quantum ecosystem while hollowing out the academic pipeline that produces the talent

Liz Kendall is right to warn that the UK must not let quantum computing talent slip through its fingers (UK must learn lessons from AI race and retain its quantum computing talent, says minister, 17 March).

However, UK Research and Innovation’s current funding decisions risk doing exactly that.

Readers offer suggestions on how to make the upper chamber more relevant, in response to an article by Polly Toynbee

A reformed Lords could give us the best of all worlds: a chamber that connects and legitimises the disparate parts of our higgledy-piggledy devolved constitution without challenging the primacy of the directly elected Commons (So long, hereditary peers – but the Lords is still full of absurd anachronisms, 13 March).

Three-quarters of its members could be indirectly elected by local councillors, with temporary seats reserved for the heads of the national governments and regional mayors. Party leaders not yet in the Commons – such as Zack Polanski – could also sit there. The remaining seats could be time‑limited appointments for experts such as retired civil servants and former ministers, perhaps with different voting rights. An independent commission could oversee appointments, vet eligibility and weed out dodgy donors.

Political repetition | Lakes v loughs | Weighty fruit | First fibs

One thing missing from most of the commentaries following the death of Jürgen Habermas (Editorial, 18 March) was his use of the expression “history as a learning process”. That he took the idea seriously was understandable, given that he was born in Germany in 1929, but the sad truth is that politicians keep making the same old mistakes even when the consequences of their actions are staring them in the face.
Dr Charles Turner
University of Warwick

• “Testing of water from Lough Neagh, which has a surface area 26 times bigger than Windermere” (Report, 14 March). I am in Ohio and I don’t know the size of Windermere. I reckon it is about 26 times smaller than Lough Neagh.
Mary Jo Hanlon
North Royalton, Ohio, US

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Progress to the quarter-finals of the competition that made Unai Emery’s reputation, the Europa League ­continues to offer ­sanctuary for Aston Villa. The second leg was completed without too much drama, via the ­welcome sight of John McGinn scoring a fine goal. Villa have sorely missed him, though the ­contributions of Emi Martínez, in making a save then launching an attack, and Jadon Sancho were crucial to clinching the tie.

Sancho, the player who neither Manchester United nor Chelsea could get to the bottom of his talent, may be the latest uncut gem that Emery has polished up. Another wildcard, Leon Bailey, scored Villa’s late second.

Well, it wasn’t supposed to be like this. For Nottingham Forest, this was anything but the meek surrender widely feared, Vítor Pereira’s side advancing to the Europa League quarter-finals after triumphing 3-0 on penalties at Midtjylland, who missed all three spot-kicks. Elias Ólafsson had celebrated his captain, Mads Bech Sørensen, winning the toss to decide penalties would be taken in front of the hosts’ most ardent supporters, but it counted for nothing and ultimately Midtjylland, who lost 2-1 on the night, were punished for being lulled into a false sense of security.

Forest stunned the Danish side by earning a 2-0 lead on the night, Nicolás Domínguez’s early header and then captain Ryan Yates’s superb strike from distance, before Martin Erlic’s goal sent the game to extra time. After 127 minutes, perfect spot-kicks by the substitutes Morgan Gibbs-White, who entered just after the hour, Ibrahim Sangaré and Neco Williams reignited Evangelos Marinakis’s hopes of Forest’s European glory. For now, Forest can fret about Sunday’s trip to Tottenham Hotspur on Friday afternoon’s flight back to East Midlands airport.

• Brit overcomes seven-time grand slam champion 7-5, 7-5

• 25-year-old secures first victory since January

In her first training session at the ATX Open in Austin last month, weeks after injury put an end to her Australian Open, Francesca Jones found herself in an unusual, delightful situation. Her training partner across the net was none other than Venus Williams, the most successful active female tennis player.

Being able to train with such a legendary player was a dream itself, but as of Thursday afternoon Jones can now say that she has also defeated one of the great legends of the game as she closed out a 7-5, 7-5 win over the 45-year-old seven-time grand slam champion in the first round of the Miami Open. The victory marks Jones’s first WTA 1000 match win in her career, breaking a four-match losing streak.

• ‘It’s been great. I couldn’t ask to be in a better position’

• Hodgkinson 800m favourite at World Indoors in Poland

Keely Hodgkinson believes she could not be in better shape to win a first world title this weekend having kicked on again after breaking the indoor 800m world record last month.

The Olympic champion is the overwhelming favourite for gold at the world indoor championships in Kujawy Pomorze, Poland, and sounded bullish when asked if she had pushed on in training after obliterating Jolanda Ceplak’s record by running 1min 54.87sec in Liévin in February.

Theories range from obvious mismatches to Premier League clubs not being able to defend from open play

There were 68 goals in the last 16 of the Champions League, which is not only a lot but goes against the trend of the previous four seasons. What’s going on? Has football suddenly become more attacking again? This surely can’t all be down to Premier League sides struggling to defend against teams who don’t just rely on corners but actually attack from open play, can it?

An average of 4.25 goals a game is highly unusual, particularly given the recent context. Before 2008-09 there was only one season when the knockout phase of the Champions League yielded more than three goals a game; between 2008-09 and 2019-20 there was only one season when goals per game dipped below three. There then followed four campaigns in which the average did not climb above 2.72 (and in 2022-23, it was as low as 2.34), before bouncing back to 3.29 last season (including the playoff round). The playoff round this season produced 3.94 goals per game – and there were no Premier League teams involved; this is not purely an English issue.

• Jones was vice-captain in Red Roses’ World Cup triumph

• Centre to lead team in Six Nations opener against Ireland

Meg Jones has been chosen to lead England’s world champions in 2026 after the regular Red Roses captain, Zoe Stratford, announced her pregnancy on Wednesday.

Jones, who was vice-captain when England beat Canada to lift the World Cup last September, will take over from Stratford for the upcoming Women’s Six Nations. England kick off their campaign against Ireland on 11 April at Twickenham when a tournament-record crowd of more than 60,000 will be in the stands.

• ‘There are clear similarities to football,’ says Norwegian

• Compatriot Magnus Carlsen, the world No 1, likely to play

Erling Haaland has become a significant investor in a new world chess championship tour that is expected to star his fellow Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, the Guardian can reveal.

The deal was agreed shortly before Manchester City played at West Ham last Saturday, with Haaland shown on Sky Sports wearing a Norway Chess cap as he entered the London Stadium – without anyone noticing.

• Wigan 23-22 York

• Wigan recover from half-time deficit to stay unbeaten

Wigan Warriors survived a major scare from newly promoted York Knights to maintain their position as Super League’s only unbeaten side at the start of the new season.

The Warriors, undoubtedly the standard-bearers in the opening month of 2026, were considered huge favourites against a York side making their first trip to Wigan in decades following promotion to Super League for the first time.

• Manchester United head coach admits to ‘aggressive’ feelings

• Holland defender De Ligt could miss remainder of the season

Michael Carrick has admitted to getting angry with his Manchester United players and said that was the emotion after the late defeat at Newcastle.

United lost 2-1 at St James’ Park this month after conceding a 90th-minute William Osula goal. This is the only defeat in Carrick’s nine matches in interim charge this season, his team recording seven wins and one draw to take 22 points from the 27 available.

Heather Hallett says ‘superhuman’ efforts of workers were at times the only reason health service survived

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The NHS “teetered on the brink of collapse” during the Covid pandemic and only managed to survive thanks to the “superhuman” efforts of healthcare workers, an official inquiry has concluded.

In a damning assessment of how the UK’s healthcare systems dealt with the unprecedented pressure of the pandemic, the Covid-19 inquiry chair, Heather Hallett, said the impact of the virus was “devastating” due to the NHS being in a “parlous state” before the outbreak.

The NHS entered the pandemic with low bed numbers, high numbers of staff vacancies and high bed occupancy, meaning it was already in a “precarious position” and ill-prepared to deal with a pandemic.

There was not enough PPE at the start of the pandemic, meaning healthcare workers had to put themselves and their families at risk to care for patients.

Infection control in the early stages of the pandemic was flawed as it assumed Covid-19 was spread by physical contact, rather than being airborne.

The “stay home, protect the NHS, save lives” public message may have inadvertently led to a decline in hospital attendance of life-threatening emergencies such as heart attacks.

80% of healthcare professionals said they acted in a way that conflicted with their values during the pandemic, with some saying they felt they were “playing God” as they were unable to give everyone the treatment they needed.

President says there are a ‘lot of reasons’ for extra funding without going into details about those reasons

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Answering a reporter’s question on Iran’s missile capabilities, considering the country has managed to strike numerous states in the Gulf, Gen Dan Caine, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, said Tehran retains “some capability” to attack American assets.

“They came into this fight with a lot of weapons.,” he said, adding that the US continues to be “as aggressive and assertive” in striking Iran.

NT coroner ends inquest into Murdoch’s death, which heard the outback killer refused to reveal where he hid Falconio’s body right up until his death

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Notorious outback killer Bradley John Murdoch yelled at police to “get out” as he lay dying in hospital, refusing to the last to reveal where he hid a backpacker he shot dead on a remote highway.

The Northern Territory coroner Elisabeth Armitage on Thursday wrapped up an inquest into the 66-year-old’s death from throat cancer on 16 July 2025 at the palliative care unit of Alice Springs hospital.

Daria Boyarskaya coordinating OSCE mission overseeing vote in which pro-Moscow Viktor Orbán could lose power

Hungarian rights groups have raised concerns over the appointment of Vladimir Putin’s former interpreter to a key role in an international election monitoring mission, amid fears of Russian interference ahead of Hungary’s crucial vote next month.

Daria Boyarskaya, who worked for many years for Russia’s foreign ministry and interpreted in numerous high-level meetings including one between Putin and Donald Trump, is now a senior adviser at the parliamentary assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE-PA), based in Vienna. She is coordinating the body’s mission to monitor next month’s parliamentary election in Hungary.

Lovehoney sponsors Aphrodite-themed ‘pleasure garden’ full of flowers associated with love and sex

It is one of the most prestigious events of the UK social calendar, but the great and good attending Chelsea flower show may be in for a shock this year as the Royal Horticultural Society unveils a sex-themed garden sponsored by a company that sells vibrators.

Lovehoney, a sex toy company, is sponsoring an Aphrodite-themed “pleasure garden” full of flowers and plants associated with love and sex.

Chelsea flower show will be held at the Royal Hospital Gardens from 19 to 23 May.

Lawsuit says rescission of endangerment finding – which ruled greenhouse gases threaten public health – was illegal

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A coalition of 24 states, alongside a dozen cities and counties, has sued the Trump administration over its decision to revoke the bedrock scientific determination underpinning virtually all US climate regulations.

The new lawsuit, filed in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Thursday, is being led by the states of Massachusetts, California, New York and Connecticut. It argues that the Environmental Protection Agency’s February rescission of the 2009 endangerment finding – which the White House described as the “single largest deregulatory action in US history” – was illegal.

Move will put national security and lives overseas at risk, critics say, as overall UK aid budget is slashed to 0.3% of gross national income

Climate aid to developing countries from the UK will be cut by about 14% to roughly £2bn a year under government plans, in a move critics said would put national security and lives overseas at risk.

The move follows bitter rows with the Treasury, which wanted deeper cuts owing to pressure on spending resulting from the war in Iran.

Unesco calls for action as lack of access and sanitation hit health, education and food security of women

Women and girls are bearing the brunt of water shortages and a lack of sanitation around the world, hindering the economic and social development of poorer countries, the UN has warned.

Women are responsible for collecting water in more than 70% of rural households that do not have access to mains water across the developing world. Women and girls collectively spend 250m hours a day collecting water globally.

Puffins, guillemots and razorbills are being washed up dead or dying on Europe’s Atlantic coast in what scientists call a ‘wreck’

Thousands of seabirds – mostly puffins, but also many guillemots and razorbills – are being washed up dead or dying on the Atlantic coasts of western Europe, in what scientists call a “wreck”.

This year’s events, the consequence of a series of severe storms during the late autumn and winter, are the worst since 2014, when as many as 54,000 birds were found stranded. Of these, well over half – between 30,000 and 34,000 – were puffins.

Landowner disputes, coastal erosion and disused ferry hindering completion of King Charles III England coast path

The longest managed coastal walking route in the world has been opened by the king at the Seven Sisters cliff walk.

However, large parts of the King Charles III England coast path are still closed to the public after objections from landowners, fears about coastal erosion and a disused ferry.

Academics discover black people ‘significantly more likely’ to be identified when compared with other ethnic groups

Essex police have paused the use of live facial recognition (LFR) technology after a study found cameras were significantly more likely to target black people than people of other ethnicities.

The move to suspend use of the AI-enabled systems was revealed by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which regulates the use of the technology deployed so far by at least 13 police forces in London, south and north Wales, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Hampshire, Bedfordshire, Suffolk, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Surrey and Sussex.

Taith programme, set up after UK’s post-Brexit withdrawal from Erasmus+, faces uncertain future over funding

A “life-changing” international learning programme set up in Wales after Brexit is at risk of being closed down.

Taith, which means “journey” in Welsh/Cymraeg, was established by the Senedd in 2022 after the UK pulled out of the Erasmus+ student exchange programme. Its reach is much wider: many participants get involved through schools, youth groups or adult education centres, and nearly half come from underrepresented backgrounds. Data suggests Taith has already funded approximately twice as many projects in Wales as Erasmus+ did, working with less money.

Close relatives of affected post office operators will be able to make claim over harm scandal caused families

Family members of post office operators affected by the Horizon IT scandal will be able to claim compensation under a new government scheme.

Campaigners have lobbied for compensation in relation to the harm the scandal has caused to the mental health and wellbeing of close relatives, who have not been eligible under the redress schemes being run by the Post Office and the government.

Amid Trump threats, Copenhagen also sent over explosives intended to blow up runways, according to Danish media

Denmark reportedly readied itself for potential attack from the US in January – flying bags of blood to Greenland and explosives to blow up runways in case of a battle with its former closest ally.

During the tense days when Donald Trump threatened to take over Greenland – a largely autonomous territory that is part of the Danish commonwealth – “the hard way”, Copenhagen was so shaken that it started preparing for US invasion, according to Danish public broadcaster DR.

Charities call display, which mimicked a sexual assault, ‘an act of public grooming’ that normalises sexual violence

Rape crisis charities in Ireland have condemned a St Patrick’s Day float that mimicked a sexual assault and featured signs saying “Epstein files”.

Rape Crisis Ireland called the display “an act of public grooming” that normalised sexual violence, while politicians labelled it a disgrace.

US Southern Command chief briefed senators amid Trump’s increasing use of force in the region and comments about taking Cuba

The US military is not rehearsing for an invasion of Cuba or actively preparing to militarily take over the island, the top general overseeing American forces in Latin America has told lawmakers.

But Gen Francis Donovan, head of US Southern Command, said the Pentagon stands ready to address any threats to the US embassy in Havana, defend its base at Guantánamo Bay and aid US government efforts to address any mass migration from the island, if needed.

Authorities warn of strong winds, heavy rain, flooding and coastal storm surge

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Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle had made landfall in far north Queensland as a “high-end” category four system, posing a severe threat to several remote communities.

Speaking to reporters at 7.40am AEST (8.40am AEDT), Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Matthew Callopy said Narelle was crossing the Cape York coast “as we speak” and that sheltering residents could expect forecast winds of over 250km/h

Carriers warn they cannot hold off passing on costs for long, while some airlines plan to increase flights via Asia

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Europe’s biggest airlines have said the rise in fuel prices caused by the war in the Middle East will drive up fares and are advising passengers to book early.

While carriers have partly hedged the price of jet fuel, bosses said they could not avoid passing on additional costs to passengers for long.

Decision comes as concerns mount over economic fallout from Iran war bringing inflation shock

• Analysis: BoE delivers message Britons don’t want to hear

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The Bank of England has kept interest rates on hold and signalled it could be forced to increase borrowing costs in the coming months as the US-Israel war on Iran threatens to drive inflation in the UK above 3%.

The Bank’s rate-setting monetary policy committee (MPC) voted unanimously to keep its base rate at 3.75% amid growing concern over the surge in energy prices triggered by the conflict.

Decision to hold interest rates is backed by gloomy assessment of economy as Iran war pushes up oil prices

• Bank of England holds interest rates at 3.75%

• Business live – latest updates

The US-Israel attack on Iran has already driven prices higher and not just at the petrol pumps, the Bank of England said on Thursday in a gloomy assessment of the UK’s economic outlook.

An inflation rate that was on track to fall from 3% to the Bank’s 2% target in the coming months is now expected to rise to 3.5%. That is one probable impact of the US and Israel’s war on Iran.

Iran war and its impact on energy and fertiliser costs is the main risk to the global economy, report says

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An extended period of high oil prices as a result of war in the Middle East could “crimp” the AI boom, the World Trade Organization’s chief economist has warned.

The war and its impact on energy and fertiliser costs is the main risk to the global economy identified in the WTO’s latest Global Trade Outlook.

From near-empty dancefloors to sold-out nights at Lisbon’s biggest club, the imprint has spent 15 years championing Afro-Portuguese beats, reshaping the city’s musical identity in the process

It’s just after 11.30pm on a Friday in early March, and the air at Lux Frágil is already thick with excitement. Groups of people are streaming in through the Lisbon club’s staircase, past a giant disco ball, and local DJ and producer Xexa is dazzling the crowd with a live set of vocal-sprinkled synthscapes. Soon, the downstairs disco will be heaving with sweaty dancers for scene heroes DJ Marfox, DJ Nervoso and Dariiofox, bodies bumping to the pulse-quickening batida.

Come the early hours of Saturday morning, the upstairs floor is bursting at the seams, with partygoers spilling on to the balcony overlooking the River Tejo, as they raise a 15th birthday toast to Príncipe, Portugal’s gamechanging dance music label, which has taken over the world-renowned nightspot for the first time.

After writing about a racist attack on his last album, the award-winning musician wanted his new work to be happier. Then life took him down a different path. He discusses stigma, shame and how he got help

The past five years have been punishing for Isaac Borquaye, AKA the British rapper Guvna B. In 2021, he was left without sight in one eye for several months after being targeted in an unprovoked racist attack at his local coffee shop in east London. It left him shaken, but also motivated him to write his searing 2023 album The Village Is on Fire, which questioned structural racism. The album’s cover featured a closeup image of his bloodied eye.

In the opening track, the 36-year-old musician intersperses his own words – “Coffee in his hand and he dashed it in my face / Five seconds later, right hook to my socket” – with voice notes his cousin, the actor and writer Michaela Coel, left him in the days after the attack. The record immediately became one of his most streamed, with listeners drawn not only to his frank recounting of the attack but also to his thoughts on youth violence and gentrification, and his grief at the death of his father in 2017. His new, equally confessional album – more on which shortly – tackles even more thorny themes.

Season two of this competition isn’t just enjoyably easy-going TV that leaves you helpless with laughter. It’s also a fascinating insight into comedy as an artform

It could easily have been a fluke. That such a simple, even lame-sounding format was responsible for three hours of the most transcendentally funny television of 2025 might well have been down to an alchemical accident. Spoiler: it wasn’t. Series two of the UK version of this Japanese reality-gameshow is very nearly as sidesplitting as the first.

The format is identical: 10 successful comedians spend six hours in a huge room trying not to laugh or smile. One lapse gets you a yellow card; another gets you ejected. Now you must commentate on the action in separate viewing quarters with the host, Jimmy Carr, and his sidekick Roisin Conaty (who somehow manages to make her ill-defined companion role not feel painfully awkward). Mostly, the comics just chat crap to each other in the hope of making somebody laugh, but there is also a steady stream of interventions. The majority will be called up at some stage to play their “joker”, a specially devised comedy set piece performed – largely – to silence. This tends to be an impressive showcase of their talent and completely excruciating to watch. Every now and then, Carr emerges to dish out conversational prompts and orchestrate head-to-head challenges. There are also a scattering of appearances from special guests, engineered – obviously – to turn those frowns upside down.

There’s even more screaming, running, swearing and exploding rich people in a follow-up to the 2019 sleeper hit that expands mythology we didn’t need expanded

To give 2019’s grating comedy horror Ready or Not some reluctant credit, it did arrive before Trump-era eat-the-rich became an entire, increasingly exhausting subgenre in itself. The film, about a woman finding out her new husband’s wealthy family members are game-playing devil-worshippers, was clearly indebted to/inspired by Get Out, but it landed before The Menu, Blink Twice, Triangle of Sadness, The Hunt, Knives Out, Infinity Pool, Opus and the many, many others, a medal for speed if not much else.

The follow-up has then taken a surprising amount of time, mostly due to the team behind it (directing duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett) being busy with the rebooted Scream franchise as well as toothless vampire dud Abigail, but also one imagines because of the difficulties in extending a film in which everyone, bar final girl, had spontaneously combusted at the end. In a world where both horror and superhero franchises have increasingly started to resemble daytime soaps in their absurd, no-rules-apply plotting (not dead, all a dream, different universe, etc), Ready or Not 2: Here I Come was still inevitable regardless of logic. What’s odd given the seven-year gap is that the second film takes place directly after the first, a la Halloween II, with heroine Grace, played by Samara Weaving, looking noticeably, understandably different.

Polly Findlay’s barnstorming drama about interpersonal and religious tumult in late middle age is a triumph, swerving any sense of sentimentalism

Movies about ageing empty-nesters going on a bittersweet holiday and unexpectedly having to confront something about their relationship are common enough. Roger Michell’s Le Week-End starred Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan as an oldster couple having a Eurostar break in Paris; and in Paolo Virzì’s sucrose The Leisure Seeker, Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren impulsively head off in a Winnebago. There is often something soft and fuzzy and depressing in the wrong way about these films’ lenient sunset-sentimentalism – but not so with Polly Findlay’s fiercely sad, spiky and wonderfully acted film, based on a novel by Bernard MacLaverty (the author of Cal).

Gerry and Stella, played by Ciarán Hinds and Lesley Manville, are a late-middle-aged couple from Northern Ireland who left for Scotland in the 1970s, traumatised by the Troubles, and are taking a restorative midwinter break in Amsterdam. They appear perfectly happy and affectionate, but Gerry has a drinking problem and Stella feels lonely because Gerry does not share her Catholic faith. In Amsterdam, Stella is struck with epiphanic rapture at the peaceful beauty of the Begijnhof, the city’s enclosed 14th-century courtyard that historically housed unmarried Catholic women who wanted to devote themselves to God.

The polymath French film-maker might be a pessimist, but his Oscar-nominated animated film is one of light and hope – even if he did have to fund it himself

There are grey clouds over Los Angeles, and the sky is spitting. “It never rains in LA,” says Ugo Bienvenu. “But every time I come here, it rains.” For the past eight months, the French animator has been on the campaign trail, in LA and elsewhere, with Arco, which was nominated for best animated feature at the Oscars on Sunday. It’s a gorgeous family animation, combining ET’s big heart with the artistry of Studio Ghibli. But travelling has meant being absent for long stretches from his home in Paris, where he lives with his wife and two small children.

This trip, Bienvenu’s family has flown out to LA with him for the first time, which explains why he’s speaking to me over a video call from a drizzly garden. “I’m outside, so they can make noise,” he says, lighting a cigarette. As he paces, I catch a glimpse through the patio doors of his four-year-old daughter kneeling at the coffee table, colouring.

Gemma Whelan and Stephen Mangan are among the cast in this multi-voiced tale of family tensions and trauma, set during the 1985 Live Aid charity concert

It is July 1985, two days before Live Aid, the historic charity concert taking place simultaneously in London and Philadelphia to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. Goth teenager Hanna Gordon has been asked by her mother, Lydia, to distribute invitations to their neighbours for a get-together at their house “in aid of the children”. Hanna suspects Lydia’s intentions may not be entirely charitable and that she wants to show off their new barbecue. Hanna’s longsuffering dad, Peter, isn’t keen, complaining “it’ll cost a fortune to feed the whole bloody street”.

Hanna, who is keeping a secret from her family, may be mortified at her mother’s party plans but she nonetheless does what she asks, delivering the invitations around their suburban cul-de-sac while only dimly aware of a mysterious figure lurking in the shadows. When Lydia spots the same figure a day later skulking in their garden, it is clear something is afoot on Delmont Close.

(Chandos)
Whately/Drake
Kitty Whately and Julius Drake perform the fervent, fun and intoxicating works of a British musician whose fresh assessment is richly deserved

Born in 1923, Madeleine Dring studied at the Royal College of Music, where her teachers included Herbert Howells and Vaughan Williams. An unconventional career, including stints in theatre, pantomime and cabaret, was cut short by her death from a brain aneurysm at 53. Already considered a maverick, the fact that much of her music remained unpublished until the late 1990s threatened to condemn her to obscurity.

Enter Kitty Whately and Julius Drake, whose wide-ranging survey puts paid to any idea that Dring was not a serious composer. Drawing on poets from Shakespeare and his Elizabethan colleagues to the composer’s contemporaries, Dring’s canny knack for word-setting proves as effective as her ability to find a distinctive new melody for an old chestnut such as It Was a Lover and His Lass.

In the seven years since their last album, the Scots have faced down dementia and cancer. Now they’re returning with a visceral new sound – and eager to get back to globetrotting with the Cure

To say that James Graham has been through it in the seven years since the last Twilight Sad album would be an understatement. He lost his mother to dementia, became a father, and his own mental health struggles led to the band cancelling a tour with the Cure. The day we talk about the Scottish band’s sixth album, It’s the Long Goodbye, turns out to be the anniversary of his mum’s death. “It’s all right,” says Graham. “It seems like a good day to talk about it.”

Speaking from his home in north-east Scotland on a dark, murky evening, Graham is unflinchingly open about his experiences, often moved to tears as he recounts the last few years. “I was so ill at some points while I was writing these songs that it’s all quite hazy,” he says. “But the moments are coming back to me – of why I wrote a certain song. When I listen to one, I can feel it, ‘Fuck, you were really in it.’”

It’s recently been accused of turning ‘woke’ – but the institution has been gay since the beginning, argues this deeply researched book

When it emerged that the National Trust had put vegan scones on the menu, it was seized on by some newspapers as a marmalade dropper – or strawberry jam dropper, perhaps – proof that the institution was woke. Wait until they hear about all the queer men and women who helped to make the Trust what it is today. The charity’s 5.4 million members and others visit its grand piles for a nice day out and a tea towel, unaware that they are surrounded by the ghosts of these figures. They are brought to life by Michael Hall, a former architecture editorof Country Life and author of books on Waddesdon Manor and the gothic revival in Britain.

Some of them, such as the buttoned-up Henry James, who lived at Lamb House, Rye, merely lent their lustre to properties that were later taken over by the trust. Others introduced features to the estates that continue to delight trippers to this day. They include Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, partners in a lavender marriage, who created the gardens at Sissinghurst, appropriately enough.

Where does it come from, this passion for an animal that isn’t even hers? An astonishing debut delves into deep truths about love, motherhood and care

Mare, Emily Haworth-Booth’s wonderful first novel for adults, is about a woman confronting three life-altering crises. The first is an early menopause that means that she can now never have a child. Second, after years of success as a children’s book writer, she finds herself bereft of ideas. The third should, by all rights, be the least important: a passion for a horse that isn’t even hers. She pays to ride, feed, groom and muck out for the animal a few times a week. Perverse though it seems, this horse soon becomes the centre of her life: her beloved.

In a sense, Mare is about childlessness. It opens with reflections on motherhood: “I knew a mother who said, You want to know what it’s like? Write a list of all the things you love doing and then cross them out, one by one.” But also: “I knew a mother who knew all the other mothers. As she walked through the park … this mother stopped every few strides to be greeted by other mothers, some with buggies, some pregnant. Other mothers stuck to this mother like burrs. Meanwhile I hung by her side, dragged along like a limp kite.” The narrator has decided against having a baby, not for things-you-love-doing reasons, but because the idea of her child’s future in this ailing world terrified her. Considering it, her mind filled with images of “abandoned landscapes hostile to life. Burning cities, flooded cities, desertified meadows.”

The author of Finding the Mother Tree is back with an inspiring call to the next generation of ecologists

It’s 2021, and Suzanne Simard is in a police vehicle, being escorted off a protest site in Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island, where activists are locked in a standoff with the Teal-Jones Group, an industrial logging company. She decides to give the apprehending officer a piece of her mind – in the way only an earnest Canadian forestry ecologist can. “It takes decades for clearcut forests to stop emitting more carbon than they sequester, and centuries more to recover the sink strength of the original stands,” she tells him. “We don’t have decades for these forests to recover from clearcutting. In the hundreds of years it takes for a forest to mature, our planet could warm upwards of five degrees celsius.”

The officer is unmoved. But if you were responsible for one of the nearly 6m views tallied on Simard’s 2016 TED talk, you’ll know it was worth a try: few people can speak about trees with quite as much conviction as Simard. One part Indiana Jones, one part Mister Rogers, she is a Canadian national treasure and global environmental icon. When she’s not getting taken away from protests by the authorities, she’s dodging the flames of forest fires in the Cariboo Mountains of British Columbia, exploring the Haida Gwaii archipelago (“Canada’s Galapagos”), or off learning Indigenous practices in the Amazon. In her TED talk, she describes once sprinting through the forest with a syringe filled with radioactive isotopes in each hand as she is chased by a grizzly bear.

Two women fall into and out of each other’s lives over decades, in a moving examination of love and choices

Given that novels are routinely touted as the new version of some previous chartbuster, Almost Life will doubtless be heralded as One Day meets Normal People for a sexually fluid generation. Featuring romantic indecisions spanning many years and an unironic take on the youthful psyche, it already reads as familiar.

The novel opens in Paris in 1978 with a moment of affinity on the steps of Sacré-Coeur when students Laure Boutin and Erica Parker first glimpse each other, and then teases the reader with more than 400 pages of will-they-won’t-they misunderstandings, ecstasies and sorrows. This is a tale of missed chances, of the choices we make, and of queer and bisexual love in different social climates.

The fates of two ostensibly similar online games released this year, Marathon and Highguard, prove that success is becoming close to unattainable

What does success look like for developers of online video games? In 2026, the answer could not be clearer: no one has a clue.

Consider Highguard, 2026’s first big flop. Signs were promising on its launch on 26 January, with a peak of 100,000 concurrent players on Steam – plus those enjoying the game on PlayStation and Xbox, which do not make player counts public. As a free-to-play game, the barrier to entry for Highguard was low. And thanks to a prime advertising placement at the end of December’s The Game Awards – a buzzy spot usually reserved for known hitmakers, not free-to-play upstarts – curiosity was high.

In this week’s newsletter: the creators of All Will Rise on standing up to the tech giant – and joining the No Games for Genocide movement

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Video games are in a funding crisis. Investor money flowed freely during the pandemic gaming boom, but now the well has run dry. It is increasingly difficult, for indie developers especially, to get the capital to make games. It is extremely unusual, then, to hear of a developer returning an investor’s money. Yet that is what Speculative Agency, developers of All Will Rise, have just done.

Last year, All Will Rise, a deck-building game about a team of activists fighting for the future of their oligarch-run city, received money from Microsoft as part of a developer acceleration programme. In late-2025, however, the team became aware of No Games for Genocide, a collective of developers, journalists, union organisers and others that came together as a result of Israeli assault on Gaza to protest against “material and commercial ties between the games industry and enabling genocide, war crimes, and the military industrial complex”.

Team Artichoke; PC/Mac
Ancient Greek gods, adorable raccoons and hypnotic puzzling from Olympus to the mortal realm and back

There’s been a trend for a while where familiar puzzle game genres are imbued with novel stories to give them depth and meaning beyond simply clearing a screen for points. Occult object sorter Strange Horticulture and historical romance card game Regency Solitaire are lovely examples, and now here’s Mythmatch, a match-three game in the style of Candy Crush or Bejeweled that’s also a warming tale of friendship and community set in a small town in ancient Greece. Interspersed with cerebral challenges are dialogue scenes with villagers and with gods which accentuate each other and give little clues that are picked up later, making this both puzzle game and communal oral drama.

You play as Artemis, the immortal daughter of Zeus, who is tired of getting overlooked for plum jobs in favour of her oafish brother Apollo (brilliantly portrayed as an insufferable proto-tech bro). When the role of God of the Hunt comes up, she applies, but finds she must first earn favour with a council of her elders on Mount Olympus, and they all have puzzle-based jobs for her. Hephaestus wants her to help make arrows and hammers in his foundry, while Apollo needs her to protect his collection of chimp soft toys (a not-so-subtle dig at NFTs). These mini-tasks take the form of match-three puzzles, though cleverly they also bring in elements of other puzzle games such as Plants vs Zombies and Overcooked.

Scientists in the US have uploaded a fruit fly to a computer simulation, while an Australian lab has taught neurons on a glass chip to play a 90s video game. How long before we are all living in a sci-fi movie?

It sounds like the opening of a sci-fi film, but US scientists recently uploaded a copy of the brain of a living fly into a simulation. In San Francisco, biotechnology company Eon Systems created a virtual insect that knew how to walk, fly, groom and feed in its virtual environment. Researchers in Australia, meanwhile, have taught a petri dish containing 200,000 human brain cells to play the iconic 90s shooter Doom. One experiment has pushed a brain into a computer; the other has plugged a computer into brain cells.

Both stories have been hailed as scientific breakthroughs, but have also sparked inevitable fears about the prospects of lab-grown humans and digital clones. Should we be concerned?

Royal Opera House, London
The Ukrainian dancer brings clarity and feeling to the role opposite a smart, subtle performance by Joseph Sissens

A dancer’s debut in one of ballet’s great leading roles is always an event, but it’s particularly notable when that dancer is a first artist – three ranks below principal in ballet’s hierarchy. Twenty-five-year-old Marianna Tsembenhoi is clearly being tipped as a future star and the Royal Ballet’s faith in her looks well placed on the basis of her first outing as tragic peasant girl Giselle.

From her first entrance, buoyant across the stage, the Ukrainian dancer (who came to train in the UK in 2017) impresses with her elevation, as if her weight is barely touching the ground. Tsembenhoi’s bright-eyed, girlish Giselle has the lightness of innocence and goodness. She’s technically a very tidy dancer, with long arms that sway like willow branches.

Sadler’s Wells East, London
Visual spectacle overwhelms the human drama in the choreographer’s tech-heavy double bill

Technology can sometimes seem to take on its own life and sideline the people it is nominally assisting. That tension, even conflict, is the subject of Mirror, a new duet by Alexander Whitley, who has good form with choreographic deployments of digital, generative and VR technologies.

In black and white leotards studded with motion-capture markers, Gabriel Ciulli and Daisy Dancer wind themselves into spirals and symmetries that veer from closeness to counter-pull and back again. This unstable yet interdependent dynamic is interrupted by an impersonal beam of light that scans the space, and gives rise to rectangles flickering on the front cloth, like so many screen frames – a portal for the appearance of luminous digital doppelgangers that first echo then upstage the dancers, who now turn their attention away from each other and towards their ghostly avatars.

Soho theatre, London
In Sarah Power’s impressive play, a new arrival makes a disturbing revelation to a team of oddballs working at a sleepy castle

Everyone is trying their best at the Pemfort Castle gift shop, where hundreds of years of history are smoothed down to plastic goblets and dragon slippers. Around designer Alys Whitehead’s carefully curated set of wooden swords and jars of jam, Sarah Power’s shattering new play uses a living history event to grapple with the stories we tell about – and to – ourselves, and question what happens when the past cannot be shaken off.

“Medical leeching demonstration” is pinned optimistically to the ideas board for the sleepy castle’s forthcoming event, which accuracy-oriented Glenn (a serious, wonderfully pernickety Ali Hadji-Heshmati) desperately wants to be a success. He is outraged at the suggestion by scatty Uma (Debra Gillett, oozing warmth) that they lump together the dark stories of the castle’s past, out of time and context, while Ria (a buoyant Lydia Larson) is happy to go along with it, her mind half on the local deer she is in the process of befriending.

At Soho theatre, London, until 18 April.

Olivier theatre, London
Writers Nina and Moses Raine add comedy and raunch to Maxim Gorky’s satire of the holidaying elite

In 1898, Maxim Gorky wrote a fan letter to Anton Chekhov. Gorky was just starting out, and the leading light in Russian theatre convinced him to try his hand at plays. Summerfolk was written a few years later as a response to The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov’s elegiac last play about the downfall of the ruling class.

It features languid members of the elite gathering for the summer at a dacha belonging to Sergei Bassov (Paul Ready) and his wife, Varvara (Sophie Rundle). This setting is stunningly designed by Peter McKintosh as the exoskeleton of a house, rather like the construction of a draughtsman’s sketch in the middle of the woods.

New work will be choreographed and directed by Benoit Swan Pouffer, artistic director of Rambert, with Davies and Pet Shop Boys serving as executive producers

It’s a Sin, the award-winning TV series about friendship during the 1980s Aids crisis, is to be adapted for the stage as a dance show. The new production is being developed by Rambert who had a hit in 2022 with its prequel to the TV series Peaky Blinders.

The creator of It’s a Sin, Russell T Davies, is executive producer on the new work which will be choreographed and directed by Benoit Swan Pouffer, Rambert’s artistic director. “Storytelling sits at the heart of Rambert’s mission,” said Pouffer on Thursday. “Collaborating with Russell – one of the most powerful storytellers of our time – is incredibly exciting. Together we’re exploring how dance and choreography can carry urgent, emotional narratives in a visceral way.”

Since 1892, a workshop in Brussels has taught aspiring painters the technique of trompe l’oeil. It’s brutal work, the artists say – so why do people travel from all around the world to master it?

One morning last February, in a chilly studio in Brussels, 28 people in white coats gathered to watch Sylvie Van der Kelen paint the sky. “The first touch of the brush is generally the best,” said Van der Kelen as light, pink-tinged clouds began to appear. “It is preferable not to make revisions.”

For a few days this winter I was allowed to sit in on classes at the École Van der Kelen-Logelain, a mythologised painting school in Brussels that is unlike any other arts education institution in the world. Run by the same family since it was founded in 1892, the Van der Kelen course takes place every winter underneath its glass and wrought iron roof, extending out of the back of a gothic brick townhouse.

In a new exhibition, the featured images reflect Britain’s attempts to classify and curb the subcontinent’s population, but they also demonstrate the nobility of their subjects – and the futility of the task

At first, and without the context, someone looking at this collection of 150-year-old photographs of Indian men and women might think they were looking at compelling portraits. The faces are of individuals with piercing eyes and a striking presence.

But context changes everything. The images were taken by British colonialists as part of a great project of photographic ethnography, intended to classify and categorise their subjects.

Untitled (Indian family in Singapore), late-19th century, GR Lambert & Co

London Camera Exchange has announced the winners of its competition. Nearly 14,500 entries were received, demonstrating the contest’s growing reputation as one of the UK’s leading competitions for photographers of all abilities and experience. The competition has 14 categories including the publicly voted ‘people’s choice’, and ‘emerging talent’ dedicated to photography students

Our expert puts the best power washers through their paces on the toughest – and muckiest – outdoor chores, from grimy paving slabs to dirty decking

• The best lawnmowers to keep your grass in check

The trouble with the great outdoors is that it gets a bit untidy. Your garden tools might do a good job of keeping your plot in check, but keeping your patio, decking and outdoor furniture spick and span can take hours, especially if you rely on a bucket of soapy water and a scrubbing brush.

That’s where the pressure washer comes in. These handy tools connect to your hose pipe and squirt water at any cleaning problem. Stubborn and unpleasant stains, from bird dirt to years of neglect, can be lifted from your garden’s hard-wearing surfaces in seconds. With the right attachments, you can also use your pressure washer to hose down cars, bikes and boats.

Best pressure washer overall:
Ava Go P40

Best budget pressure washer:
Kärcher K 2 Classic

They’re one of the most-hyped kitchen appliances of the last decade, but are these low-fat cookers worth the cost and counter space?

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I owned an air fryer long before they attained peak ubiquity, and I use it on a daily basis, so I’m surprised when people express zero interest in them. For my lifestyle, air fryers are brilliant: I’m usually multitasking, so being able to pop chicken, veggies or sausages in a drawer and walk away frees me up.

But if you’re thinking of buying one, it’s worth exploring whether it will work for how you live – and the food you cook – to avoid cluttering your kitchen counter with another underused gadget, and needlessly spending money.

Whether you want buildable or barely there, our beauty writer put 19 formulas through their paces – plus, makeup artists on how to apply it

• The best concealers for camouflaging blemishes and dark circles

As a makeup-loving teenager, I spent countless hours of my precious youth practising how to apply makeup, and spent more money than I dare to count buying products.

My cosmetics drawers quickly filled with fun mascaras, bronzers and eyeshadow palettes, but my choice of foundation was ruining the look of anything I applied on top. Whether it was oxidising and turning my skin orange, or mismatched formulation types causing the whole look to separate on the skin, getting a lasting natural finish seemed impossible. Had I spent a little more time picking out the best foundation for my skin type, I wouldn’t be haunted by so many embarrassing photos from my adolescence.

Best foundation overall:
Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Foundation

Best budget foundation:
L’Oréal True Match foundation

Our writer picks her favourite, tried-and-tested products for better sleep – from a bargain eye mask to a sustainable duvet

• The best mattresses – tested
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Just as spring emerges from its long, soggy lie-in, we’re going back to bed.

It may not seem the most obvious time of year for World Sleep Day (which was 13 March), but light evenings, early sunrises and the last cries of the fox mating season mean some of us need all the sleep help we can get.

Which supermarket Spanish omelette seems as if it’s served plump from the pan, and which is a soggy flop?

• The best supermarket free-range eggs

My second ever chef job was at Glastonbury in 1997, which is now famous as the “Year of the Mud”. We sliced hundreds of kilos of potatoes, peeled onions until we cried, and cracked and whisked untold dozens of eggs. Back then, you couldn’t buy tortilla in a shop, only from a tapas restaurant, but these days there’s an incredible selection in many supermarkets. I normally eat shop-bought tortilla straight from the packet, but during this taste test, I discovered just how nice it is when reheated in a pan. I tried all these tortillas hot and cold, and even the lower-scoring ones were quite enjoyable when eaten warm.

I judged them on taste and texture, which varied from a dense, firmly set egg to the soft and squidgy centre I love. All were relatively minimally processed, but all lacked transparency regarding the origin of their ingredients – though, thankfully, many were made with free-range eggs, which scored them an extra star. Some were made in the UK and others in Spain, but that didn’t always equate to a better product. While supermarket tortilla can’t quite replicate the fresh-from-the-pan experience, the best come surprisingly close.

From asparagus fritters and crab cakes to rhubarb tarts and barely dressed baby potatoes, now’s the time to embrace fresh, bright flavours

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After what felt like months and months of endless rain this winter, in the UK at least, the arrival of spring is more welcome than ever this year. It’s undeniable that a few days of sunshine and milder temperatures change everything: my mood, my palate, my dinner table (see below for my achilles heel: serveware).

And to mark the change in season, the Guardian is launching a new seasonal food magazine. This Saturday will see the arrival of the Guardian Food Quarterly, for which I have showcased crab – one of my favourite spring arrivals. I have written five recipes, including a speedy, spicy crab cake banh mi with quick pickles, and a hot cheesy crab and chive dip inspired by the American south. If you are in the camp that thinks that cheese and seafood are a no-no, then I hope you will trust me on this one. Just be sure to use that sweet, punchy brown meat in the mix, too, for maximum flavour.

From mezcal to sotól, the agave plant delivers a bounty of styles and flavours to explore

“We were amazed,” wrote the Spanish conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo as he beheld the extent of the Aztec empire in 1521. “Some of our soldiers even asked whether the things that we saw were not a dream.” I remember feeling a similar vertigo when I first saw the wall of agave spirits at the long-since-closed Los Angeles mezcaleria Petty Cash more than a decade ago. Agave spirits are distilled from the fermented heart (or piña) of the agave plant – not a cactus, but a succulent, like aloe vera or that thing dying on your windowsill.

Tequila, from Jalisco, is the most famous kind, but it’s far from the only one, much as burgundy is just one way the French make wine. And here was an entire continent to (respectfully) explore: not only refined tequilas, but hundreds of mezcals from wild, untamable agaves: madrecuixe, arroqueño, tobalá and pulquero, some of which take 25 years to reach maturity. Beyond these foothills were spirits that had barely penetrated European bartending consciousness: sotól and raicilla, bacanora and pox (“posh”) made from maize, as well as pechuga, whose ingredients include, yum, poultry breasts. And all this at a time when a lot of tequila sold in Britain came topped with red plastic sombreros.

Sweet and delicate crab is a taste of spring. Here are five dishes perfect for lighter, sunnier days

It’s hard not to be excited by the arrival of spring and all the produce that will soon be gracing our kitchens. Asparagus, spinach and new potatoes can’t come soon enough, but it’s not just fruit and vegetables that I count down the days for – there’s plenty of seafood to celebrate too, and in particular crab. Sweet and delicate, its freshness mirrors the arrival of brighter, sunnier days. If you’re lucky enough to pick through a fresh crab, then it needs very little in way of adornment – a squeeze of lemon perhaps, and warm bread and salty butter. Thankfully for the time-poor among us, you can also buy pots of it pre-cooked and picked, which is glorious lightly spiced in a dip or for folding through pasta. However you decide to enjoy crab, though, make sure it is allowed to sing.

Hidden depth and flavour can be found in mushrooms, while the cheese brings a silky texture to this simple supper

Before cooking something, it is never a bad idea to turn to the expert on the science of food and cooking, Harold McGee. This week, I had mushrooms, which, as he notes, are fruiting bodies, specialised structures that, encouraged by the parent body underground, force themselves up through the soil and open their umbrella-like cap so the gills or pores can release spores into passing air currents. The aim is the same as for all pushy parents: get the next generation into the world and hope they don’t get eaten in the process.

I am hoping that a few million spores got out before the white and chestnut mushrooms I bought at our local supermarket were picked and packed. Mushrooms are often described as smelling and tasting earthy, but, as with most things, McGee is right. After I’d brushed the actual earth off the base of the stems and wiped the caps with a bit of damp kitchen towel, the mushrooms in fact smelled faintly of waxy citrus peel, yeast, almond and chicken fat – which are the octanol molecules, apparently. ‘“Faintly” being the key word here, though that scent is enhanced by cooking, in particular the almond aspect, which is then joined by the meat-malt flavour that emerges when mushrooms meet heat in a frying pan, lose water and take on colour alongside butter and garlic.

Chantelle would like Hugo to show more affection when they are out. You decide who is being touchy
• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

Friends and family have noticed that we don’t hold hands and it’s become a running joke

I find holding hands annoying. Besides, I’m quite caring and I tell her I love her on a daily basis

As stories of men leaving their dates in ‘sketchy situations’ go viral, experts say these incidents could stem from big egos and poor communication

MJ calls what happened to her in Zion national park “small ‘T’ trauma”. She knows women have experienced worse from their partners. But she still feels the anger of being left behind on a hike by her now ex. “It brings up stuff in my body that maybe I have not cleared out yet,” she said.

Five years ago, MJ and a new partner – he was not exactly her boyfriend, and the pair were not exclusive – traveled from Los Angeles to Utah for an adventure getaway. MJ, who is 38 and works in PR, was looking forward to exploring Zion’s striking scenery; its vast sandstone canyon and pristine wading trails were on the list. But on the morning of their big hike, MJ was not feeling well. She could not shake the feeling that something was “off”; indeed, MJ would learn on this trip that her partner was seeing other women.

Drugs, defence, discrimination … we want to hear from people across the UK who hold different views on some of the more divisive issues of our time for our series Dining across the divide

Are flags hung from lamp-posts intimidating? Do we need to spend more on defence? Should we legalise drugs? Where do you stand on these or other issues – and could you persuade someone with a different view?

For the Guardian series Dining across the divide, we would like to hear from people living in the UK who have differing viewpoints about some of the most divisive issues that affect us now.

Our aim is to find out whether encountering someone with the opposite point of view can make a difference. We’re interested in hearing from adults from every part of the UK with an interest in meeting and discussing opposing views with another reader.

In a world teeming with social media and smart devices, there are many ways to upset people, whether you’re checking your watch notifications or sending a voice note without a text to explain the subject. Here’s how to navigate it all

In an age of smartphones, social media and instant communication, it has never been easier to connect … or to offend everyone around us. Many of today’s most common etiquette breaches stem not from malice but from convenience: a badly written message, a thoughtless post, a device that demands our attention. Yet good manners still hinge on the same old principle: consideration for others. From eschewing headphones on public transport to ghosting invitations and sharing thoughtlessly online, here are some of the most common modern etiquette mistakes, why they grate, and how they can be avoided.

To understand this you need to know about swap rates and the impact of the war in Iran

On 16 January, the average rate on a new two-year fixed-rate mortgage was 4.78%, according to the financial data company Moneyfacts. Two months later, it was 5.20%. Between those two dates, the Bank of England voted to keep the base rate at 3.75%. More significantly, though, the US and Israel carried out airstrikes on Iran and a conflict broke out.

The US air attacks on Iran have caused economic shocks across the world. Stock markets have tumbled, petrol and heating oil prices have gone up and there have been warnings of higher bills to come, for everything from food to holidays. All of this feeds into interest rate expectations, and from there into mortgage rates.

Whether it’s buying and selling clothes online or some freelance work on the side, plan ahead for potential tax issues

Since the start of 2024, online platforms such as Vinted, eBay and Airbnb have been required to share data with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for any users who sell more than 30 items a year or earn more than about £1,700 (the threshold is set at €2,000) a year. However, this does not necessarily mean that those users owe any additional income tax.

I was suddenly presented with a nearly £2,000 bill backdated to 2020 when it had mistakenly stopped collecting my direct debits

Thames Water has blindsided me with a bill for nearly £2,000, backdated to 2020. It turns out that it mistakenly stopped collecting my direct debits back then and has not sent any bills since.

It admitted its error and promised to write off charges older than 12 months, but now it is trying to recover almost the full amount.

Criminals exploiting Middle East crisis by targeting customers seeking help or refunds from affected carriers

Your flight has been delayed as a result of the Middle East crisis and you want to find out what’s happening, so you go online for an answer. You find a social media account run by the airline you are booked with and post a question, and get a reply offering help.

You’re asked to send a direct message with details, which seems reasonable. A conversation starts and you are told to give your phone number as you may be due compensation. This is where it all starts going wrong: instead of being given money, you have it taken. Although it looked official, the account that replied was a scam.

After years of hiding his substance abuse, Ken Rideout finally confessed to his wife. It was the start of a difficult and rewarding journey, which led to athletic success in his 50s

It started in 1998, with a pain in Ken Rideout’s ankle. A podiatrist gave him a prescription for seven Percocet, a drug containing the opioid oxycodone. Rideout was a high-flying commodity trader in New York, outwardly successful but racked with impostor syndrome. The Percocet dulled his foot pain – and also his anxiety. Rideout was used to alcohol and cocaine, but this was different. He felt happy, confident and optimistic.

He returned to the podiatrist for more pills. Then more. Soon he was altering the prescriptions manually, changing a seven into a two and adding a zero, before targeting smaller pharmacies that wouldn’t run verification checks.

A growing body of evidence suggests the vaccine may also lower risk of stroke and heart attack

One in three people in the US get shingles. Despite this, US vaccination rates remain low – about 35% of adults over 60, consistent with overall vaccination trends.

“We have a vaccine that works really well,” says Dr Andrew Wallach, ambulatory care chief medical officer at NYC Health + Hospitals. “But there is a lot of what I call vaccine fatigue right now.”

While it’s not effective as an antibiotic, some evidence suggests honey can help with wound healing – but good-quality research is lacking

• Read more in the Antiviral series

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Humans have been consuming honey for thousands of years. The ancient Egyptians and Greeks used it as a sweetener, but also a treatment for burns. Hippocrates, often referred to as the “father of medicine”, championed the sticky stuff – mistakenly – for purposes as varied as contraception and baldness.

Today, honey is often described as a superfood with a laundry list of promised benefits: a treatment for coughs, an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, a potential solution to combat drug-resistant superbugs. Antiviral has previously debunked claims about hay fever and honey, finding there is little evidence that raw honey can reduce symptoms of allergic rhinitis.

Donna Lu is an assistant editor, climate, environment and science at Guardian Australia

Antiviral is a fortnightly column that interrogates the evidence behind the health headlines and factchecks popular wellness claims

Grey-market injectable peptides – a category of substances with obscure, alphanumeric names such as BPC-157, GHK-Cu, or TB-500 – have developed a devoted following among biohackers and health optimisers. To understand how these unregulated substances have become mainstream and what they could be doing in our bodies, Madeleine Finlay hears from journalist Adrienne Matei and from Dr Anna Barnard, an associate professor at Imperial College London who researches peptides

‘People are turning themselves into lab rats’: the injectable peptides craze sweeping the US

Bold shades are all over the catwalks, but they can be tricky to wear. These tricks will make them work in the real world

You would think primary shades would be the easiest colours to wear. Red, yellow, blue: we can name these before we can tie our shoelaces. They are not sophisticated colours, such as Armani greige or Pantone favourite Mocha Mousse. They are not challenging-to-wear colours, like chartreuse or mustard. They are Mr Men colours. So wearing them must be child’s play, surely.

And yet they are weirdly tricky to wear. They can feel shouty and basic: the getting dressed equivalent of speaking loudly without saying anything particularly interesting, which is – to paint it in primary colours – not what any of us are aiming for.

I was 12 and it was the first makeup I had ever worn. While people’s responses ranged right up to genuine repulsion, they couldn’t quell my happiness

I wore makeup for the first time just after I turned 12: a tube of green mascara from a pound shop in my home town in south Wales. This was not a chic emerald or a flattering forest green. It was a frosted, mucous-tinted green – a colour that looked like the aftermath of a minor chemical incident involving Shrek. There was a reason it cost only a pound.

I slicked it on with no real understanding of beauty, but a clear instinct that I loved how it altered my face. The outside world was less enthused. People hated it. Teachers told me to take it off; I’d then reapply it in the toilets. Girls in my year looked at me with genuine repulsion. It wasn’t pretty, or cute – so nobody understood why I would want to look like that.

So-called rubber hose style is putting a smile on everyday products, even as some designers plead that it’s time to ‘stop putting arms and legs on everything’. What’s behind the ubiquity of this wholesome branding?

A bagel embodied as a human, with unexpected little arms and a sweet face. A sandwich giving the peace sign. A leather jacket-wearing fish brandishing a spatula. A chess board on the march. A rugby ball making a dash for it. A smiling pizza, tongue dangling, clambering from a box.

Perhaps you have seen such a character. Chiefly in the branding – and merch – of an independent pizza place or sandwich shop, in a natural wine bar or brew pub. Though its loose limbs now stretch far and wide; to podcasts, internet talk shows and even global fashion labels.

The first proper show since Valentino’s death is about the late designer, about beauty – and about Michele’s mother

Valentino Garavani wanted to make beautiful clothes for the women who could afford them. The perpetually tanned designer, whose vision of jet set glamour was matched only by his own yacht-and-pug lifestyle, died in January. So there was an obvious logic in taking the first proper catwalk show since his death off the fashion week schedule and back to Rome, where he lived, worked, and died. Milan and Paris may be the capitals of European style, but Rome looks better.

Garavani left his own brand almost 20 years ago. But his singular approach to beauty has not been without its obstacles for his most recent successor, Alessandro Michele, who took over the fashion house in 2024. “It’s a complicated DNA because beauty is always changing,” he said after the show, which took place in the 17th-century Palazzo Barberini. “This collection is about Valentino. It’s about beauty. But it’s [also] about the tension between me and the brand, a beauty I’m trying to translate.”

Ski accommodation can be prohibitively expensive, but a cosy youth hostel puts the Montafon resort and its glorious runs within reach for those on a budget

‘Want to come skiing in Austria at half-term?” I asked my 13-year-old son. “It’ll be just like one of those luxury chalet holidays, only we’ll make our own beds, cook our own dinners and carry our gear back to our accommodation ourselves.” Osian didn’t hear the caveats. “Sounds amazing,” he said, his eyes glazing to a cinematic sweep of white powder and the chance to perfect his 360.

For many families, the dream of a catered chalet – and its ready-lit fires, homemade strudels and chauffeured lift shuttles – remains just that. Apartments offer access to the slopes at less vertigo-inducing prices, but they tend to come with a minimum seven-night stay. If you only have a few days to spare, or a budget that won’t stretch to a full week’s lift pass, hotels fill the gap, but then you’re back navigating the moguls of cost.

The ruins of Tintern Abbey have inspired artists and poets. Now, the restoration of a historic inn has given visitors a perfect base for exploring this corner of Monmouthshire

Standing in Tintern Abbey, you can feel the magic that has given this small Monmouthshire village on the banks of the Wye and its famous ruin such an outsized place in culture. JMW Turner, Gainsborough and Samuel Palmer are just some of the artists who have captured this landscape, and Wordsworth and Tennyson famously wrote poems inspired by Tintern. But it was Allen Ginsberg’s Welsh Visitation and his “clouds passing through skeleton arches” that came to mind while I sheltered from a cloudburst in the abbey’s nave. It’s a vast and fascinating site, and seeing it through sheets of rain as the sun went down was really special.

Ginsberg was here in the 1960s, following in the footsteps of the Romantics. But Tintern’s fame came thanks to its inclusion in travel writer William Gilpin’s 1782 book Observations on the River Wye. Gilpin’s writing about the “picturesque” – landscapes that inspired art through their rugged beauty – was so popular in the late 18th century that the Wye Tour was created to meet tourist demand, one of the first package trips in British travel history.

Feted for its warm winters and famous lemons, the seaside border town has attracted artists and writers from around the world

‘It’s not France, it’s not Italy, it’s Menton.” The seaside town on the French-Italian border has changed identities many times in its history. It was the only town in France completely annexed by the Italians during the second world war, but has also belonged to the Grimaldis of Monaco, was part of the kingdom of Sardinia, and only became French after a public vote in 1860. Today, ignoring the colours of Il Tricolore and Le Tricolore, almost everything is painted in various shades of yellow, a celebration of the town’s reliance on its beloved lemon.

Mauro Colagreco, the chef at the spectacular Mirazur restaurant, a few steps from the border, takes me up into the hills to visit one of his lemon and citrus fruit suppliers. “You can eat the peel of a Menton lemon; it has a thick, sweet rind. You can eat the whole thing; it’s totally organic and very juicy.” Menton’s microclimate, its warm winters, terraced hills and sandy soil make it perfect for growing citrus fruit. “What’s particular to the Menton lemon is that it has a smile, a small curvy fold at one end,” says Colagreco, who uses them in his restaurant alongside exploring the possibilities of Star Ruby grapefruits, yuzu confit and kumquats.

From the Venetian lagoon to the sparkling Med, these island getaways offer a welcome change of pace just a short hop from the mainland

Connected to the German mainland by a single rail causeway, Sylt is just over three hours from Hamburg by direct train. The largest of the North Frisian islands, it slices through the North Sea and the Wadden Sea, with salt marshes and mudflats to the east and 25 miles of white sands sweeping along the western coast, grassy dunes buffering the bracing winds.

They like to keep things private, but the Hollywood stars keep dropping clues. Did they recently tie the knot – or is this all just promo?

Congratulations to Zendaya and Tom Holland, the widely liked gen Z power couple who recently got married after nearly a decade together. Or did they?

Weeks after Zendaya’s stylist, Law Roach, seemed to spill the news on the red carpet, rumours are still swirling, with neither (alleged) bride nor (purported) groom rushing to put them to rest.

Driverless ‘robotaxis’ will be accepting fares in Britain’s biggest city by the end of next year. Can they deal with London’s medieval roads, hordes of pedestrians and errant ebikers? I got in the passenger seat to find out

‘I’m really excited to show you this,” says Alex Kendall, the CEO of Wayve, as he gets behind the wheel of one of the company’s electric Ford Mustangs. Then he does … nothing. The car pulls up to a junction at a busy road in King’s Cross, London, all by itself. “You can see that it’s going to control the speed, steering, brake, indicators,” he says to me – I’m in the passenger seat. “It’s making decisions as it goes. Here we’ve got an unprotected turn, where we’ve got to wait for a gap in traffic …” The steering wheel spins by itself and the car pulls out smoothly.

Riding in a self-driving car for the first time is a little like your first flight in an aeroplane: borderline terrifying for a few seconds, then reassuringly unremarkable. At least, that is my experience. By the time I step out, 20 minutes later, I’m convinced Wayve is a better driver than most humans – better than me, anyway.

St Dominic, Tamar Valley: Our wooded enclave is alive again with bursting magnolia and questing bumblebees, while primroses amass on the lanes

Brilliant yellow daffodils and the pale foam of the first fruit tree blossom (cherry plum or myrobalan) draw attention from the lichens and mosses that have thrived in winter’s rain and mild gloom.

At home, in this steep orchard and encroaching woodland, the ground was used as a market garden until the 1950s. Hardy, old fashioned narcissi from those days still flower, many in their original rows and plots. Earliest to emerge are the yellows of double Van Sion (known locally as the Lent lily), Henry Irving with dainty trumpets on long stems, Princep, Helios and Carlton, already fading and past their best, succeeded by Victoria. A woodpecker has drummed for weeks and particularly cheering is the sound of a chiffchaff, returned to this partially wooded enclave.

Moss poles can end up looking tatty, but a sculptural stake is like a piece of art

The problem
Somewhere along the way, moss poles became mandatory for any climbing plant. In reality, most are plastic tubes wrapped in fibres that shed, go bald and drop bits all over the soil. The “living totem” promise is rarely fulfilled, especially if you aren’t misting it daily.

The hack
Swap the fake tree trunk for a proper plant stake. A simple metal or recycled plastic stake gives your climber something solid to lean on without pretending to be bark. The new sculptural stakes, such as the wavy pieces from Secateur Me Baby (pictured), transform a floppy vine into a line of living green wrapped around a piece of design.

Footage of women walking between bars and clubs in UK city centres, often filmed covertly, is proliferating online – attracting thousands of views and profits for those who post them. Can anything be done to stop the creepshots?

‘My friend just sent me this video, told me she’d found me in it,” read the text. “As I was looking for myself, I noticed you’re in it too. I didn’t know I was being filmed, guess you don’t either, just wanted to let you know …”

When Nancy Naylor Hayes received the message in November 2023, she felt a twinge of fear. It was from an acquaintance she hadn’t heard from in years. “I was panicking,” she says. The text pointed her to a Facebook link, which led to a montage of clips of women filmed on the streets of Manchester during nights out.

Emanuel Fabian says his routine report became focus of wager with $23m at stake on online prediction platform

An Israeli journalist received threatening messages from users of the online prediction platform Polymarket after one of his reports, on a minor missile strike near Jerusalem, suddenly became the focus of an unresolved bet about the Israel-Iran conflict.

“After you make us lose $900,000 we will invest no less than that to finish you,” said one message to the journalist, Emanuel Fabian.

As a child, the singer loved to start fires. As an adult, he was barely less chaotic. He discusses Bez, charisma, ADHD, his new memoir – and why making music is great, even if the record industry will always screw you over

There are thousands of pictures of Shaun Ryder and Bez in Happy Mondays, from the mid- to late 80s, that run the gamut from mashed to wrecked. They don’t always look that cheerful, but when they do, they look insanely fun. In Ryder’s new memoir, 24 Hour Party Person, he quotes a critic: “The poorly educated might just call [Bez] a dancer, but he’s the proprietor of good times.” What Bez did for the band, the band did for the era: just went way too far, in an absolutely magnetic way.

Ryder, in a Novotel hotel to the west of Manchester, explains what drew the whole band together. “When you are neurodiverse, you attract other people who are,” he says. “I would have said at the time we were all fucked-up loonies. I mean Bez [he launches into a spirited impression]: ‘I’m-not-fucking-neurodiverse’… it’s like, mate. You are. ‘I’m fucking not.’ Mate, you are. The same with all of them. None of them have been tested and gone through the thing, but they are. All of them.

Health officials, schools and a university in Kent are working to contain an outbreak. We want to hear from those living in the area

A meningitis outbreak in Kent has been linked to a strain that most young people are not routinely vaccinated against, with two people confirmed to have died and 11 more in hospital. Health officials have offered antibiotics to those at risk, as authorities work to contain the spread.

We want to hear from people living in Canterbury and the surrounding area whether the outbreak is being well managed by the authorities.

We would like to hear about the ways people have helped each other feel less isolated

Was someone there for you when you were feeling lonely? As part of the Guardian’s Well Actually series, we would like to hear about the ways people have helped each other feel less isolated. You can tell us your story below.

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We are looking to speak to lollipop people about their experiences on the job

Lollipop people in Suffolk have become the latest neon-clad, road patrollers to don body cams amid a rise in abuse. We are looking to speak to lollipop people about their experiences on the job.

The council has launched a six-week awareness campaign called “Lollipops Aren’t Just For Children” to remind drivers to slow down, be patient, and show respect at patrol points. The cameras have been used by school crossing patrols in Greater Manchester, Clacton and Basildon for similar reasons.

We are looking to speak to young people including university graduates, school leavers who didn’t go on to higher education, and those who took up apprenticeships

Are you under 25 and still looking for a job after a year of unemployment? If so, we would like to speak to you.

The latest official figures from the Office for National Statistics showed unemployment increased to 5.2% in the final quarter of 2025, the highest rate since the start of 2021. Young people have been bearing the brunt of this rise, with 16% of those aged 16-24 unemployed, nearly an 11-year-high.

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