It might seem an unlikely way to stop overheating, but many owners have found the tech a lifeline in hot weather

“If it is 35C outdoors, I can get the temperature down to 21C,” says Andrew Ingram of the sanctuary that his living room has provided this summer.

“On the nights I’ve slept in there, you have to put your thick pyjamas on,” jokes Ingram, who lives in Maidenhead, Berkshire, with his wife, Sue.

There are more votes in tolerance and decency than in toxic division. It doesn’t take a great leap of political courage to fight back against Reform

Nigel Farage can be confident of victory against a man posing as an ennobled space traveller with a dustbin on his head. At least, in Clacton he can.

The refusal of major parties to contest this week’s byelection sets the bar low. But even if the competition were more serious than Count Binface, the Reform UK leader would be the favourite to win on his chosen turf. He picked the constituency as his safest shot for a parliamentary seat in the 2024 general election for a reason. Now he is betting that the stench of scandal around his personal and party finances, pungent in Westminster, won’t sicken his fans on the Essex coast.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist

As a teenager, I was so ashamed of my speech disability that even my family didn’t know about it. When Scatman John came on the radio, celebrating his own stammer in a hit about self-esteem, I knew I had to meet him

For most of my life, I had one goal: don’t get found out. I was a covert stammerer (or stutterer). Nobody realised I had a speech disability, because whenever I felt I was going to get stuck on a word, I switched it or stayed silent. I appeared fluent by avoiding certain sounds, words, situations and people. You’d never catch me on the phone. In restaurants, I ordered what was easier to say, rather than what I wanted. At school, I skipped any class where I might have to read aloud. On top of that, I was a shy, geeky redhead with braces who was bullied relentlessly. Not even my family knew I stammered. I believed I would never have a good job, a relationship, or a way out.

What changed that was not therapy or a chance moment of inspiration. It was a weird song blasting from my dad’s car radio in the summer of 1995.

Just a few years ago, women would fight for other women whatever their background or politics. Today, many loudly dismiss the struggles of those who are not like them. But the solidarity is still there, if you look hard enough

One June day in 2015, I stood outside Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre near Bedford and heard the women inside singing. “Set her free,” said the graffiti on the walls. “Shut it down.” I had often visited the centre and heard the desperate stories of women who were held inside it. But that day felt hopeful rather than despairing, as hundreds of women – refugees, campaigners, lawyers, members of parliament, actors, writers – gathered around the centre to demand freedom for the women locked up.

When I set up the organisation Women for Refugee Women, I was driven by my faith in solidarity among women. The organisation works with women seeking asylum in Britain to tell their stories and campaign for justice and safety. For years I felt that faith being proved in practice. Women turned up for other women at events and demonstrations; they were volunteering and campaigning, marching and supporting.

The climate crisis is hitting Europe hard in 2026, warming twice as fast as any other continent – and the consequences are deadly

The whole world is getting hotter as carbon pollution from fossil fuel burning traps ever more heat, but Europe is heating up twice as fast as other continents. The consequences are increasingly deadly, with tens of thousands of heatwave deaths so far this summer.

The Guardian’s climate forum 2026: On Tuesday 20 October, join Damian Carrington and our panel of experts, including Professor Andy Haines, Katie White MP, Asad Rehman, Shruti Suresh Gareth Thomas and Amy Fairman, for a hopeful and solutions-focused evening. Book tickets here or at guardian.live

The usual advice was getting me nowhere. If I really wanted to embrace running, I’d need to go off-piste. It was a journey that took me to some very strange places …

I’ve always hated running. I’ve tried several times in the past, even made it work for a week or two, then stopped. I hated the excess of pain, the minimal gain. I never experienced runner’s high, only runner’s low. I despised the weather, come rain or shine, and the fact I had to be out in it. But most of all I hated the plodding, the tedium, the sheer mundanity of the run. Is that really how I’d choose to spend my one precious life?

Then an old football injury returned, with a vengeance. Doctors had previously rebuilt my kneecap, added titanium and rendered me bionic. But they’d not anticipated Natasha Bedingfield, come midnight at a wedding, and the extremity of my dance moves. My kneecap went a-wandering. It started to catch and click-clack, like castanets. A physio soon gave me the news I’d always dreaded: I had to start running, outside, properly, and often.

Serial sex offender sentenced for murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo and Sheryl Wilkins, and raping another woman in 2025

Simon Levy, the sexual predator left free by police errors to murder two women, will never leave prison after being sentenced to a whole-life tariff.

Levy was convicted on Friday of murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo in March 2025 and Sheryl Wilkins five months later. He was also convicted of attacking and raping another woman, 35, in January 2025, who survived and gave damning testimony against him.

Exclusive: England ‘desperately unprepared’ for effects of crisis including water shortages and heatwaves

• UK heatwave live – latest updates

Just 20 staff are working on climate adaptation within a key government department tasked with protecting the environment and maintaining food security, a freedom of information request has revealed.

The officials make up 0.3% of staff within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Eclipse chasers, tourists and astronomers searching for the clearest skies to watch the two minutes of totality

The online forums are abuzz as people debate potential cloud cover and trade tips on the best viewing points. Hours before wide swathes of Spain were set to experience the country’s first total solar eclipse in more than a century, the excitement was palpable.

“It’s going to be spectacular,” said César González, an astronomer and science communicator at the Madrid Planetarium. “A total solar eclipse is one of the best spectacles in nature.”

Anna Turley backs up Andy Burnham’s suggestion that affluent areas should house more asylum seekers in future

Just 20 staff are working on climate adaptation within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the part of government tasked with protecting the environment and maintaining food security, a freedom of information request has revealed. Sandra Laville has the story.

On his visit to Stevenage, Andy Burnham also said he would visit the town on Remembrance Day to mark its 80th birthday.

I’m going to come back to Stevenage on 11 November. We will pay our respects for Remembrance Day around that time, but I’ll be here because if I’m right, that will be 80 years to the day that the post-war Labour government created the first new town right here in Stevenage.

Journalists and others were allowed to fly on presidential jet despite security threat while Trump was spirited away

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Democrats called on Tuesday for a congressional briefing over a stunning charade in which Donald Trump was secretly spirited to a different plane than the one the public and press believed he was travelling on. Critics now question why reporters and the public had been deliberately misled.

When US intelligence allegedly found a credible threat that Iran plotted to kill him last month, Trump left Air Force One in a catering truck, an episode first reported by the Washington Post and also by the New York Times. While the president was reportedly snuck out the side door of the plane, more than a hundred aides, officials and reporters were kept onboard to fly towards Britain, without being told there was a threat to their lives.

Reform deputy leader condemned for seeking disclosure of documents that could reveal reporter’s sources

Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice has been accused of using “nasty tactics” in an attempt to intimidate journalists and deflect attention from his own financial affairs after issuing a legal threat to the Guardian.

In a letter sent from his lawyers, a Guardian correspondent was singled out for her reporting on a series of Tice’s financial transactions that were referred to the National Crime Agency.

Calls for speed limiters or mandated helmet use after research into injuries at three paediatric trauma centres

The number of children involved in crashes on e-scooters has soared in recent years, with some as young as nine involved in collisions, research has found.

Researchers carried out a review of injuries among the under-16s at three specialist paediatric trauma centres – Alder Hey in Liverpool, and Sheffield and Royal Manchester children’s hospitals – between January 2019 and December 2024.

Exclusive: Horace Mason, 74, who has lived in Sweden for 25 years, faces being deported after court ruling

A 74-year-old British man who has been living in Sweden for 25 years who needs round-the-clock care for dementia has been given 10 days to leave the country after he lost a post-Brexit migration court case.

The deportation order comes after a Swedish court ruling in July that the government’s drive to reduce immigration trumped the needs of a man in full-time care.

Farage was elected to EU parliament five times before becoming Clacton MP, while Binface has been less successful – so far

Nigel Farage has been standing in British elections since 1994, when he narrowly beat Screaming Lord Sutch of the Monster Raving Loony party into fourth place in a Commons byelection. He was elected five times to the European parliament before achieving his goal of abolishing his seat.

Finally, after 30 years of trying, he was elected to the Commons as member for Clacton in 2024. He resigned that hard-won seat in July after a parliamentary inquiry was launched into a £5m gift he accepted from a Thailand-based businessman shortly before the general election, but is standing again in the resulting byelection on Thursday. The other major parties are not putting up candidates, so the chief contenders, according to the limited polling, are Farage and Count Binface.

Struggling on her meagre pay, Faten Ben Omar El Azizi dreamed of reaching Europe. Then she joined thousands trying to reach a better life in Spain

Football was the life Faten Ben Omar El Azizi had wanted. She had long played in Morocco’s regional league for Maghreb Atlético Tetuán, whose striking kit replicates the colours of the famous Spanish club Atlético Madrid.

And in the cruellest of ironies, on the day that she drowned last month, one of nearly 150 people who died in the illegal mass crossing into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, her mother was told that her daughter had just been granted a visa to go to Spain.

Exhibition in Port Talbot is part of project exploring how communities experience endings and transitions

Margaret Heggett, 95, does not remember a time when Port Talbot was ever quiet. Born and raised in the shadow of the steelworks, with a father, brother and husband who worked there, she never imagined what the town could look or sound like without its blast furnaces.

“I’m not saying it was beautiful, but there were jobs. We did know the closure was coming and we have to move with the times but it’s affected the town a lot and it’s very sad,” she said.

On August 12, the moon will pass in front of the sun, completely obscuring it in a solar eclipse. According to Nasa, parts of Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Russia and Portugal will experience a total solar eclipse. In the UK, there will be a partial eclipse, with up to 96% of the sun covered, the deepest eclipse the country has seen since 1999.

But no matter where you’re hoping to watch from, it’s important to protect your eyes. The Guardian’s Sarah Ann Harris explains.

Smart, sociable squid use funnel-like organ to force water to jet propel themselves along in and out of sea

On a research vessel 15 years ago, a group of Japanese scientists documented something that had only previously been described by startled sailors to disbelieving listeners. They saw a formation of squid flying through the air.

The shoal of about 100 squid rose unexpectedly from a patch of the Pacific Ocean around 370 miles from Tokyo and glided near the boat for about 30 metres. The astonished researchers were the first to capture photographs of such a thing, which looked like the early stages of an alien invasion.

It’s invertebrate of the year again! From 3-12 August, every day we will profile one of the thousands of amazing invertebrates that our readers have nominated. And then, when you’ve heard about all of them, we’ll open the voting so you can choose your favourites. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with thoughts and ideas: email us at environment.desk@theguardian.com with Invertebrate in the subject line.

This comprehensive documentary about the Democracy Now! radio show host and seasoned investigative reporter takes in a massacre in East Timor, the actions of oil giants and a flustered Bill Clinton as it reflects her vital work

Before there was Michael Moore, there was campaigning journalist Amy Goodman … and even if Moore seems to have gone a little quiet, Goodman is still there, doggedly asking questions, an earnest gadfly buzzing around the flinching faces of Trump placemen, challenging and provoking and annoying. With her listener-funded syndicated radio show Democracy Now!, on the air since 1996, Goodman is flying the flag for journalism of the unfashionably homespun progressive left, while America’s corporate news media are sheepishly capitulating to their tech oligarch owners.

This documentary from Carl Deal and Tia Lessin is a portrait of Goodman and her life and times. The title is her somewhat ironic mantra: please, everybody, by all means steal our stories about corruption and demagoguery. Sadly, the big news media are often uninterested (though sometimes they are forced to follow stories broken by Goodman and her team). In fact, the real demand is addressed to their audience: buy this story, please. Democracy Now! accepts no ads or sponsorship, and it relies on money from viewers, listeners and readers of its website, although this documentary is silent on how much it needs annually and how the cash is solicited.

The AI jobs apocalypse never showed up. Still, jobs are changing and economists expect more to come.

The prediction was stark: artificial intelligence advancements would wipe out jobs en masse. “Half” of all entry-level white collar jobs would vanish, Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, said in May 2025. A month later, OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, went further, foreseeing the end of “certain job categories”. Companies began citing AI in their layoffs. Workers organized. And students reconsidered their future careers.

But a year later, the mass carnage hasn’t shown up.

Officers – correctly – may not have fully unzipped the bag containing the lifelike doll to avoid destroying evidence, one expert says

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Revelations that a “body” found inside a suitcase was actually a sex doll may have been embarrassing for police, but experts say officers followed the correct procedure.

New South Wales police on Sunday were called to Oallen, a rural locality near Goulburn, after two members of the public found a suitcase containing what they believed to be human remains dumped on the side of the road.

The migrant influx prompted recriminations and a tit-for-tat dispute between Italy and Spain. Putin, Erdoğan and others will have taken note

Within hours of the first pictures of tens of thousands of migrants swimming the short distance from Morocco to the Spanish north African enclave of Ceuta hitting social media on 30 July, 22 European Union leaders, the Trump administration and Israel had piled on to criticise Madrid.

The outbreak of hysteria and recrimination was a case study in 21st-century politics, driven by real-time images in a media echo chamber where populists set the agenda on migration, propagating fear, prejudice and demagogic proposals. Above all, the kneejerk reactions undermined trust between European allies and dealt a setback to EU efforts to jointly manage migration, counter people-smuggling and resist the weaponisation of migrants by non-EU countries.

Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre

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.

My child and I were bonding over our hit-and-miss approach to reaping crops. But with heatwaves pushing more of Britain into drought, it’s starting to feel like a luxury we can’t afford

For the first time in my life, I live in a home that has real outdoor space. What a concept! There are no downsides to a garden. Back in spring, I made grand plans – I watched all the TikToks, I bought seeds and trays and pots and grow bags, I ordered soil, a trowel and a watering can. I knew what I was after: super-tiny-scale subsistence farming with a side of Zen. A little fruit, a little veg, lots of flowers to attract pollinators. And I knew I wanted my elder child to gain an understanding of how things come to be and how to cope if and when they fail.

We love a tomato side salad, so that was the first thing we attempted. The seedlings flourished and then died in the first heatwave of the season. An omen, surely. The dahlias, ranunculus and freesias refused to grow, let alone bloom. My enthusiasm began to wane.

38C is hot by anyone’s standards

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When I was younger, female biology was seen as something to be overcome. Now we can talk about the reality of living in our bodies

Have you got the “luteal uglies”? I’m not trying to insult you, merely deploying the latest hormonal buzz phrase on social media, which refers to the phase in a woman’s cycle, two or so weeks between ovulation and menstruation, when she apparently feels at her lowest and most unattractive due to a drop in oestrogen levels.

Women’s hormones have become trending topics and, as someone who only found out what a “luteal phase” is when she Googled it, mid-fertility panic, in her late 20s, I am somewhat in awe of the expertise with which younger women discuss their menstrual cycles now. They’re just so incredibly literate.

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist and the author of Female, Nude

Too many shops are blighting too many communities. With the rule change I fought for now on the horizon, ordinary people can fight back

How much gambling do you want in your high street? Are you happy with all the betting shops, the problems they cause, the effect on your environment?

It’s worth asking because for years, local councils have been expected to say yes to new gambling venues, even when communities made clear they did not want them. Now, under new rules announced on Monday, that’s about to change. And about time.

Dawn Butler is the Labour MP for Brent East

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.

From space to telecommunications, the US has a long history of fostering technology for the public good. These AI models could be aligned to democratic values, not corporate profits

OpenAI, and then Anthropic, were each formed by AI developers who feared unrestrained corporate AI development – specifically, that companies like Google and Meta would steer the technology towards deleterious, maybe even catastrophically unsafe, outcomes for society. Their founders proclaimed that their new labs, uniquely, could be trusted to develop the technology in humanity’s best interest. But each, in turn, were themselves co-opted by the same market incentives, themselves becoming corporate behemoths zealously guarding future investor value rather than the public interest.

It was only a few weeks ago, in June, when OpenAI and Anthropic each filed for their IPOs and were met with buzz about trillion-dollar valuations. The hype around their valuations is so extreme that many worry about their potential for concentrating wealth on a global scale. In an effort to leave something for the rest of us, some observers have proposed that the federal government seize a share of these companies’ stock to create a US sovereign wealth fund, or redistribute their revenues to produce a dividend for taxpayers.

It’s a great betrayal: poor communities neglected while multimillionaires peddle a global Maga agenda. How is that America first?

“THE CORRUPTION IS AT LEVELS RARELY SEEN BEFORE,” Donald Trump posted on Truth Social in February 2025. He was not referring to his own administration, but to the US Agency for International Development (USAID). “CLOSE IT DOWN!” the president added.

Just a few hours later USAID was in effect closed down, with most of the staff placed on indefinite administration leave. This was framed as part of Trump’s “America first” agenda. USAID, the Trump administration and his sycophants in the rightwing media had argued, was wasting taxpayers’ hard-earned money on ridiculous projects abroad instead of improving life at home. In the lead-up to the shuttering of USAID, for example, one of the most shameless lies about the agency, repeated without any evidence by the likes of Fox News, was that it was spending millions on condoms for Gaza.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

The response to this summer’s record heat and drought should be led by ministers – not left to the emergency services

The wildfire that began on protected heathland in the New Forest in Hampshire on Sunday was reported to be under control on Tuesday. But with temperatures forecast to reach 36C or higher in parts of England on Thursday, the risk of further outbreaks remains high. Firefighters responded to 185 wildfires in the first 10 days of August. In coastal Suffolk, conservationists and locals are counting the cost of the blaze that devastated Dunwich Heath. Its vegetation and rare bird populations are expected to take decades to recover.

Although the immediate cause of many wildfires is litter, the risks are elevated by heat and drought, and repeated warnings from climate scientists do not necessarily lessen the shock and distress caused. As people and governments across Europe assess this summer’s damage, experts including the UN climate chief, Simon Stiell, hope that the fires will focus minds on the urgent necessity of cutting emissions – as well as investing in emergency planning. Europe is currently heating up faster than any other continent, due in part to proximity to the melting Arctic.

Amid public concern over the impact of new technology, Silicon Valley’s use of its wealth to influence specific election races is an unwelcome development

As the huge societal ramifications of artificial intelligence have become clear, some of the tech industry’s most senior figures have taken to writing thinkpieces on what comes next. The latest to do so is Mark Zuckerberg, who this week published 6,500 words making the case for a laissez-faire approach to AI development. Worrying too much about regulation, Meta’s CEO unsurprisingly opines, could lead to the United States falling behind in the race to own the future.

Mr Zuckerberg’s plea for maximum autonomy is, of course, self-serving. Much of his essay – which airily envisions “invention superpowers” for every entrepreneur and “an abundance of jobs in the future” – reads like unadulterated tech-utopianism. But the lobbying at least has the merit of being out there in the open. As midterm elections loom in the US, darker arts are also being used to counter popular concern about what AI will mean for a host of topics, from the labour market to child safety, the environment and cybersecurity.

Claire Bass says animal welfare is a blind spot for the government. Plus, Chris Phillipson on the libraries operating as ‘cool spaces’, Mick Beeby on lido restoration, and Dr Julian McDonough on NHS pressures

Your article rightly highlights the strain heatwaves place on farming (Adapting to global heating: which UK public services are struggling in hot weather?, 5 August). But the government’s thinking on climate adaptation has a troubling blind spot down at the farm: animal welfare.

The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022 requires ministers to consider animals as sentient beings when developing policy, yet current discourse on heatwaves and farming treats animals almost entirely as economic assets: deaths are framed as “reduced productivity”, rather than as sentient individuals enduring terrible suffering.

Martin Sullivan and Lorraine Du Feu respond to a recent letter suggesting that we should focus on planting non-native species that can tolerate extreme heat

Richard Eltringham (Letters, 5 August) argues that climate change necessitates switching to a planting palette of drought-tolerant non-native species. It’s not as simple as that. Horticulturists focus on the value of non-native plants for pollinators, but other ecological interactions (for example, food plants for insect larvae) are harder to replace. Native oaks support 2,300 other species; drought-adapted non-natives can’t substitute for all these interactions.

Our native species themselves aren’t tied to a preindustrial climate; there is evidence of rapid microevolutionary changes in oaks in response to recent climate change, so those crisping saplings might be part of selection for drought adaptation. Alternative planting palettes don’t offer a panacea – Mediterranean landscapes are rather brown in summer precisely because of plants’ adaptations to hot and dry conditions, while our dull, wet winters adeptly kill many drought-tolerant species.

Water boards in the south of England should have paid attention to scientific models and built reservoirs, writes Steve Lindsay, while Martin Gray suggests turning salt water into drinking water is the answer

In 1998, I travelled to London for the release of the Meteorological Office’s first forecasts of the impact of climate change on the UK. I was encouraged to see in the audience many representatives from water companies from the south of England. The Met Office modelling showed that “For summer, there is a general tendency for drying in the south of the UK” and “Warming over the UK will be more rapid in the south-east”.

Today, representatives of the southern water boards appear to be surprised that we are experiencing a drought in the south of England (Three-quarters of England in drought as summer’s fifth heatwave looms, 10 August). They should have paid more attention to the science and started the planning and building of reservoirs 28 years ago instead of putting their profits into the pockets of their shareholders.
Steve Lindsay
Emeritus professor of public health entomology, Durham University

Some young French joined the armed Milice, who worked with the occupiers, and other fought in the Resistance, says Michael Rosen. And Anthony Lodge writes on Charles de Gaulle

You editorial (The Guardian view on French cinema’s De Gaulle moment: present anxieties inform a new focus on the past, 5 August) informs us that some new French films covering the second world war are coming soon. Its focus suggested that most of these films will be of a “great men of history” kind. Whatever dilemmas faced leaders in this period, it was the grandparents and great-grandparents of the majority of cinemagoers who faced life-or-death choices and, in some cases, held the lives of their neighbours in their hands.

From my research about members of my family and the areas where they were living, I’ve found local policemen arresting Jewish men and women (like my father’s uncles and aunt) and handing them over to the Nazis. These gendarmes were under the command of local administrators who were “honoured” to do the bidding of Nazi commandants. But then, if you scan the Resistance memorials (often in isolated rural places), you gather that some of the names on those memorials are of Jewish and, in one example I know of, a black member of the Resistance.

After a period of underachievement and upheaval for the Blues, the arrival of Xabi Alonso could signal a change in fortunes

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 3rd (NB: this is not necessarily Billy Munday’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 10th

• Latest offer close to City’s valuation for Spain midfielder

• Chelsea’s £120m price for Fernández may be too high

Barcelona have made an improved bid to Manchester City of around €60m (£51m) for Rodri.

This follows Barça’s initial offer of €45m that was rejected out of hand by City. The Spanish club’s new offer – which may include add-ons – is close to City’s valuation for the 30-year-old who captained Spain to the World Cup and won the Ballon d’Or in 2024.

As the midfielder has declared a preference for Barcelona it seems it is inevitable he will leave. In preparation City are targeting Chelsea’s Enzo Fernández as a potential signing though the west London club’s valuation of around £120m may be too high.

As Ronaldo heads towards 1,000 career-goals, league plans to lift standard of Saudi Arabian football, not just the clubs

There’s no Mohamed Salah in the new Saudi Pro League season that kicks off on Thursday and while the age of the ageing megastar is ending, there is still the strong chance that the next few months will be dominated by Cristiano Ronaldo. The 41-year-old is 24 shy of 1,000 career goals and with the five-time Ballon d’Or winner having scored 102 in 107 league games for Al-Nassr so far, the milestone could – should – be reached this season.

Huge as that will be, just how it fits into the plans of the league is unclear. This is the fourth season since the spending started with $957m (£710m) splashed out in that summer of 2023. It delivered thousands of articles, dozens of international broadcasting deals and untold numbers of people worldwide sporting the yellow CR7 Al-Nassr shirt. Now, though, the focus is on getting a little more value for money and lifting not just the clubs but the standard of Saudi Arabian football in general.

Every summer a group set up camp at Colwall, the real home of women’s cricket, and spend five days playing the sport they love

Many places have claimed to be the home of women’s cricket over the years. Taunton did so in 2006 when the England and Wales Cricket Board named it as the new “permanent” base of the England Women’s team – a deal that proved anything but permanent. Lord’s recently attempted to claim the moniker, after hosting one women’s Test in 142 years.

The real home of women’s cricket, however, is a small village in Herefordshire, on the western side of the Malvern Hills: Colwall.

• Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs pulls up injured

• Italy’s Nadia Battocletti wins gold in women’s 5,000m

On Marcell Jacobs’ right arm there is a tattoo of the Roman colosseum and a gladiator: a reminder of his fighting spirit and what Italy’s capital means to him. But in the swirling bearpit of a European championships 100m final, the former Olympic champion’s body dramatically broke down.

That was the first shock. The second was the sight of two Britons, Romell Glave and Jeremiah Azu, blasting through to take gold and silver.

• Midfielder says experience has helped him settle in

• ‘It’s what I’ve been doing from when I was young’

Youri Tielemans has stated that adjusting to Michael Carrick’s vision for Manchester United has been as easy as “smelling football” for the vastly experienced £35m midfield signing.

The 29-year-old, who joined from Aston Villa last month, made his debut for Anderlecht at the age of 16. He has been integrating with the United squad during the past 10 days of the club’s pre-season tour, making his first appearance in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Paris Saint-Germain in Gothenburg.

Plus: players whose names appear in their clubs, big leaps and the top tier short of title-winning managers

• Mail us with your all of your questions and answers

“Which footballer has played for the most clubs?” asks Paul Gage.

Surprisingly, throughout the more than two decades of the Knowledge, this question has not been answered before. But, fear not, it will be now.

Arsenal: Alan Sunderland, Tony Alexander Adams

Chelsea: Michael Essien; Ruben Ira Loftus-Cheek

Celtic: Carlton Michael Cole

Leeds: Eddie Lewis

Leicester: Kasper Peter Schmeichel

West Ham: Matthew Upson

Ben Barnett (Barnet) 1993-94

Lewis Bradford (Bradford City) 1940s

Arthur Blackburn (Blackburn Rovers) 1899

Ronnie Bolton (Bolton Wanderers) 1898

Frank Burton (Burton Swifts) 1898

Jimmy Shields (South Shields) 1961

First responders, residents and environmental groups say military dropping flares to destroy forests and crops

Firefighters and residents of south Lebanon have accused the Israeli military of lighting wildfires in the region, as forested areas burned down in blazes sparked by Israeli bombing.

Environmental groups said the fires in recent weeks were part of a longstanding Israeli practice of targeting Lebanon’s natural environment.

Exclusive: Pay increases to two weeks in England and Wales after Guardian revealed officers ‘mocked’ for taking time off

Paid paternity leave for police in England and Wales is to double, after the Guardian revealed last year that officers were “mocked and ostracised” for taking time off to spend with their babies.

The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has increased the amount of paid parental and adoption leave for officers from one week to two across all forces, with fathers’ leave upped to be in line with mothers’.

Reforms comply with wishlist of intelligence services which say Germany lags behind allies and enemies

The German government has approved a draft law aimed at lifting many of the restraints on its spy agencies imposed during the postwar period as the country reels from two attacks in a month that have exposed serious security gaps.

The controversial changes, which must still pass parliament, largely comply with a wishlist pulled together by the foreign and domestic intelligence services, which have long complained Germany lags behind its allies and enemies.

The International Energy Agency calls for urgent reopening of the strait of Homuz amid ongoing pressure on global oil supplies

The RAC says UK petrol prices have reached their peak since the start of the US war on Iran.

The car services company said a litre of unleaded petrol hit a high of 161.66p at the weekend and has now reduced very slightly to an average of 161.46p.

The price of petrol appears to have finally reached an Iran war peak, having risen 11p over 33 consecutive days.

While prices should fall a little in the coming days, this may be short-lived as the cost of a barrel of oil has climbed almost $10 in the last week towards $90.

The current situation shows just how volatile fuel prices are and how drivers in the UK are at the mercy of global events.

In documenting the process, AOC is defying the right’s pronatalist narratives about motherhood and women’s careers

On Sunday, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced that she is freezing her eggs. The 36-year-old New York congresswoman took to Instagram to document the process, complete with jabbing a syringe into her stomach on camera.

“Don’t be weird about this,” Ocasio-Cortez said, “even though I know all of you will be.”

South African scientist’s breakthrough research shows soil fungus could be used in fight against devastating crop pest

Hearing about fields full of dead caterpillars enveloped in a mysterious white substance intrigued the South African scientist Letodi Luki Mathulwe. Something was killing off the African armyworm – one of the most devastating pests for farmers in east and southern Africa.

The white substance was a naturally occurring fungus and it was wiping out the caterpillar, which gained its name from its march-like advance through fields of crops.

Forecasters warned the Chinese capital could receive more than one-third of its average annual rainfall over 24 hours

Thousands of people have been evacuated from areas at risk of flooding and landslides in Beijing, as the remnants of Typhoon Dolphin continue to bring torrential rain to northern and central China.

Forecasters warned on Tuesday that the Chinese capital could receive more than 150mm of rain over the following 24 hours, with some districts forecast to exceed 200mm – more than one-third of Beijing’s average annual rainfall of 528mm.

Eilish Rothney’s first instinct was to get rid of the wasps entering her converted shipping container in Norfolk. Now she enjoys their constant hum

When wasps began streaming through a rusted gap in her office door one June morning, Eilish Rothney’s first instinct was the same most people would have: get rid of them. The reserve manager for the Trinity Broads, part of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, had discovered a wasp colony taking up residence in her office, a converted shipping container.

“They just built the nest inside my door,” she says. “My first thought was: ‘Oh no, I have to get rid of that now.’ But then I realised: ‘Wait, why? Why do I have to do that?’”

The wild capture and release of a female big cat into a nature reserve is the first step towards reintroducing a population that hasn’t been seen for 70 years

On 31 July, “Umit” – which means hope in Kazakh – was released into a nature reserve on the edge of Lake Balkhash after more than a decade of careful planning to return the caspian tiger to the region. With this release, Kazakhstan became the first country to restore its tiger range after they had been thought extinct, with the last reliable sighting in the country recorded more than 70 years ago.

Umit – a wild-caught female tiger transported from the Russian far east – will be joined by more big cats in the coming years, with plans to establish a self-sustaining population of about 50. A wild-caught male flown from Russia is still being monitored by authorities and will be released when he is judged fit to survive alone. Two wild tiger cubs are also being reared on the reserve in special enclosures, with as little human contact as possible, and are likely to be released into the marshlands next year, to feast on boar, deer and kulans, a type of wild donkey.

The singer said that he was ‘already feeling better’ but forthcoming dates on his mammoth farwell tour will not now go ahead

Rod Stewart has cancelled all coming dates on his farewell tour after undergoing a routine heart procedure.

On 9 August, Stewart, 81, pulled a performance in Ohio at the last minute. After the successful insertion of a coronary stent, he announced that all dates would be cancelled.

Organoids and tissues grown from human cells promise more accurate results, with £20m Cambridge project to create standardised models

Miniature human organs and other tissues are to be grown from NHS patients’ cells in a drive to improve medicine testing and reduce the number of animals used in drug development.

Scientists will use the clumps of tissue to learn how diseases vary between patients, helping them identify which treatments are best for different people based on the particular pathology underlying their condition.

Star, 53, says disease has metastasised to her bones and it is too late for chemotherapy

Lucy Davis, the actor best known for playing Dawn Tinsley in The Office, has said she has incurable stage four breast cancer.

The 53-year-old said she was diagnosed a year and a half ago and the disease had metastasised to her bones including her spine, right hip and ribs. She said it was too late for chemotherapy.

Master’s student made first bar with 100% UK ingredients since 1932 to highlight effect of climate crisis on cocoa plants

The late queen was the only person in history to have ever eaten a chocolate bar made with 100% British ingredients, after she was given one as a six-year-old in 1932 by the confectioner Rowntree’s.

The bar was created from a glasshouse-grown cocoa plant, at Rowntree’s headquarters in York.

Operation under way to rescue dozens missing after boat overturned by waves at world’s largest human-made lake

At least 15 people have died and 27 are missing after an overcrowded ferry capsized on Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe.

The boat had a capacity of 90 people, but was carrying 114 adult passengers, five crew members and an unknown number of children, Zimbabwe’s civil protection unit (CPU) said, citing ticket sales.

The Comac C919 will fly from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, although experts say it could take generations for it to challenge the west’s dominance of the industry

China hopes to break into the world of commercial aviation with the first international flight of a Chinese-made passenger jet scheduled for Wednesday.

The Comac C919 will take off from Beijing capital international airport at 3pm, landing in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, just over two hours later.

Zelenskyy warns Putin will use Russian election, in which opposition to the war is banned, as pretext for major call-up of troops. What we know on day 1,631

Russian forces used ballistic missiles supplied by North Korea, Ukraine’s president said, in an attack on the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia where the Metinvest steel company said seven civilian workers at its plant were killed and 21 injured. Three more civilians, including a 15-year-old boy, were killed by Russian drones and artillery in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, authorities said. Russia used missiles, drones and glide bombs to attack Ukrainian cities on Tuesday, said Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president. One strike hit the grounds of a children’s hospital, leaving two craters but not hurting anyone, the State Emergency Service said.

Ukraine’s military general staff said its forces struck an oil refinery in the city of Orsk in Russia’s Orenburg region near the border with Kazakhstan, about 1,500km (930 miles) from Ukraine, causing a fire. The refinery can process about 44m barrels of crude oil a year to produce gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel and other products. The Russian online retailer Wildberries said its logistical facilities in the Voronezh region of Russia near the Ukrainian border came under attack and caught fire.

Romania’s defence ministry said its navy destroyed two suspected Russian drones drifting in the Black Sea about 90 nautical miles (166km) from the port of Constanta. The Gerbera-type drones – a cut-price Russian version of the Shahed – were blown up by divers and some pieces were recovered, the ministry said, adding that Ukraine said the drones were not theirs.

Russia is aiming to exploit Kyiv’s critical shortage of Patriot air defence interceptors that can stop ballistic missiles, Zelenskyy said, adding that Moscow is preparing to recruit more troops for a new push on the frontline. “Every step Russia takes – increasing ballistic missile production, bringing in North Korean equipment, preparing for mobilisation – all of this shows that Moscow is preparing not for peace, but for escalation,” Zelenskyy posted. He was warned in recent days that North Korea is preparing to send up to 50,000 more troops to Russia.

Zelenskyy said Ukrainian intelligence suggested Russia would use its “pseudo-election” in September as a pretext to declare a new mobilisation. Mobilisation involves the use of reservists and conscripts, which in 2022 led to protests in Russia such as recruiting offices being set on fire. “They are preparing for mobilisation in the autumn, ​immediately after the imitation of parliamentary elections,” Zelenskyy said as part of a plan to “create the appearance that Russians supposedly support the war”. Russia’s supreme ​court on Monday barred the Yabloko party, the only officially registered party that opposes Moscow’s ​war in Ukraine, from competing ‌in the election. Zelenskyy continued: “Then, following the so-called election, he plans an additional rapid mobilisation of several hundred thousand Russians by the end of the year, plus another similar number next year.”

Zelenskyy said Ukraine had ⁠handed proposals to US ⁠negotiators for a plan ​to end the war with Moscow. Zelenskyy offered no details on the proposals. US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were last in Moscow in January and have not yet visited Kyiv. The Institute for the Study of War, a US thinktank, has said in an analysis that the Kremlin will not seriously negotiate as long as Putin believes he might still reach his full objectives. “Ukraine’s Patriot shortages offer Russia an opportunity to cause very serious damage to Ukraine over the coming winter and will therefore contribute to delaying meaningful negotiations and protracting the war.”

The UN estimates that more than 16,000 civilians detained by Russia during the war are still being “deprived of their liberty”, with many held incommunicado and on grounds that don’t comply with international law. “Widespread and systematic torture and ill-treatment” of both Ukrainian civilian detainees and prisoners of war by Russia are continuing, including sexual violence, said Claudia Fuentes Julio, the UN assistant secretary general for human rights.

Crowley pulls off last-minute victory in tight race after polls had shown his progressive opponent as a clear frontrunner

David Crowley, the Milwaukee county executive, won the Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor after beating the Democratic socialist Francesca Hong.

Crowley pulled off a last-minute victory after re-entering the campaign and snagging an endorsement from Tony Evers, the outgoing governor.

Music streaming platform creates ‘AI persona’ label that will appear on profiles and track listings in crackdown on fake performers

Spotify is to label AI artists and exclude them from algorithm recommendations as part of a crackdown on fake performers.

The world’s largest music streaming platform is creating a label for AI-generated artist identities called “AI personas” that will appear on the artist profile and on track listings on playlists.

Fair Work Commission issues a new minimum standards order for gig workers to come into effect 17 August

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Delivery drivers in Australia will be paid a minimum rate of $31.30 (US $22.05/£16.35) an hour and insured for injuries on the job under a landmark agreement approved by the industrial umpire that could set a precedent in other countries.

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) on Tuesday issued a new minimum standards order for gig workers who perform on-demand delivery of food, drinks, or groceries, and the operators of the digital platforms who engage their services.

The Federal Communications Commission on 28 July announced a ban on humanoid robots from China including the popular Unitree G1 model. The Guardian's technology journalist Nick Robins-Early explains the recent popularity of these trending robots and why the US government says they are a risk to the country's national security

Barclays says survey shows people feel more secure in jobs and have more leeway to spend on non-essentials

Consumer confidence hit its highest level in almost two years in July, according to research that indicated the closing stages of the men’s football World Cup and more people holidaying in the UK raised summer spending.

A truce in the Middle East conflict in June and the arrival of a new prime minister in No 10 also gave a lift to consumers after a long period of heightened uncertainty.

Famed for playing loners, cranks and wayward angels, the Hollywood star is now a wolfish 90 – but he still jogs daily. As he takes his latest film to Edinburgh, we meet the man Hitchcock called ‘the golden calf’

‘Can you take another story?” asks the veteran actor Bruce Dern towards the end of our talk, as though every tale is a drink and the landlord has called last orders. He doesn’t want to keep me and knows we’re running out of time. It’s just that one memory sparks another and these tales won’t tell themselves. He says that the next one is a doozy. “It’s about Marilyn Monroe.”

Throw out all the questions and turn the clocks to the wall. One does not interview Dern so much as say hello, hit record and sit back. The man began his career acting alongside Montgomery Clift and Mary Astor and has collaborated with everyone from John Wayne to Tom Hanks, Hitchcock to Tarantino. He’s the lawless survivor of American movies, blown in from the past, and talking 19 to the dozen. “I’m 90 fucking years old,” he tells me. “So I’m not going to be around to see all this AI shit or whatever. But I don’t consider myself old. I still walk and jog every day.”

In the heart of old Ljubljana, a mannequin with a bucket on its head welcomes visitors to a new and ambitious project – a museum focusing on the varied and sometimes antagonistic humour of the former Yugoslavia

On the main promenade along the river that runs through Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital, tourists stop to photograph a mannequin with a bucket on its head. Dressed in a pistachio jacket and red leggings, the figure sits at a table in front of one of the houses in the historic Old Town, staring at a spilled cup of Turkish coffee, popular with Slovenes and with the other Balkan and central European citizens with whom they shared a country, until it collapsed in the early 1990s. A large sign in the background reads: “Bullshit Museum: The world is off the rails, and so are we. Yebiga!”

Yebiga, which can be loosely translated as “fuck it”, or “screw it”, is the red thread running through the museum that was launched in May and consists of five small rooms filled with mannequins wearing odd accessories, AI-generated images of laughing characters and scenes accompanying some of the jokes, framed or displayed on cardboard screens. The word encompasses the heart of Balkan humour, says the museum’s founder, Borut Kokelj, who wears a T-shirt emblazoned with the words: “What part of yebiga don’t you understand?”

Former cross-country skiing champion, Kristin Harila had clocked an incredible mountaineering record – but then, halfway up K2, she and her team encountered an injured porter from another expedition …

Why climb a mountain? Really, there’s only one answer: to prove that you can – to yourself, to other people, to the world at large. Is that a good enough reason? Not always, as demonstrated by this thought-provoking but ultimately not particularly revealing documentary about Norwegian mountaineer Kristin Harila.

From the off, we know this won’t be a straightforwardly inspiring tale of an ordinary person performing incredible feats against all the odds. That, despite Harila being relatively ordinary – a competitive cross-country skier in her youth, she was working for a furniture company when she took up mountain climbing – and her indisputably incredible achievements. In 2023, she obliterated the speed record for reaching the world’s 14 highest peaks; the previous fastest time was just over six months; Harila did it in 92 days. The glory, however, was short-lived. In retrospect, the experience was “hell and a nightmare”, she says. Not so much because of the climbs themselves – although the mountainside footage suggests hellish and nightmarish to be broadly accurate descriptors – but because of something that happened during the final ascent, which cast a particularly bleak shadow over all of Harila’s efforts.

After the introduction of a key character in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Marvel is bringing back one of its most beloved franchises – but the return comes at a precarious time

Later-period Marvel movies have resorted to more fantastical plot devices such as parallel universes and time travel in an attempt to raise stakes in an increasingly complicated, superhero-populated cinematic universe. After Spider-Man: Brand New Day, a Marvel/Sony co-production that’s making a run at biggest-movie-of-all-time status, it feels as if those devices are making incursions into the real world and messing with the sacred timeline of superhero movies. Brand New Day has spurred speculation about the upcoming MCU reboot of the X-Men, seeded with the introduction of powerful telepath mutant Jean Grey (Sadie Sink). It’s like a reversed version of the early-century superhero boom, when the first X-Men movie became an unexpected smash in the summer of 2000, priming audiences for the record-shattering debut of the first Spider-Man two years later.

The only teasing of Spider-Man in the 2000 X-Men movie hid in the DVD’s blooper reel, featuring an outtake where someone (not Tobey Maguire) runs into the frame in full Spidey regalia, as a prank. At the time, there was no Marvel Studios making in-house movies; the company’s superheroes were at the mercy of whatever studio happened to license them. Fox had the X-Men, and parlayed them into a 20-year, 13-movie franchise. Meanwhile, Sony had Spider-Man, and made five of those (three with Maguire, two with Andrew Garfield) before striking a deal for the ascendant Marvel Studios to produce further installments within their MCU, while Sony retains the actual movie rights.

Safeguarding young people in films is a vital role, often remembered by their charges later in successful careers, but not always recognised. Some of the best share their tips

Linda Matthews has rarely had to stop a production in its tracks. Steve Stone’s 2017 psychological horror In Extremis was an exception. Set on an isolated country estate during an apocalyptic storm, it follows a family that have to confront the oncoming disaster and their own personal demons to survive. For Matthews, however, the real drama unfolded behind the camera. “I don’t mind being the big bad person,” she says. “I was working with a young girl who was playing a cancer patient. She had to wear a bald cap and everything. Just as we were about to film, she burst into tears. She told me it reminded her of her friend’s mum, who was going through cancer treatment. That was the end of that.”

You may assume Matthews is a producer or a very hands-on investor, but you would be mistaken. After leaving a career in banking, she founded Premier Chaperones in 2010 and has spent the past 15 years safeguarding children on some of the world’s biggest film and television sets.

Nothing was ever quite as it seemed as Anna Chapman charmed her way into the higher echelons of society. Plus: Tinie Tempah channels his inner Kevin McCloud. Here’s what to watch today

9pm, Channel 4
The tale of Anna Chapman (AKA Anya Kushchenko) is uncannily emblematic of recent relations between Russia and the west. Chapman was a shrewd spy who charmed her way into the higher echelons of society in London and New York. This fascinating two-part documentary explores her rise and fall, hearing from some of her entirely unwitting companions (who ranged from a Brighton techno DJ to a Mayfair financier) and agents who were involved in surveilling her. As Vladimir Putin briefly played at diplomacy with prime ministers and presidents, Chapman was among his foot soldiers. But, inevitably, in her case and that of Putin, nothing was ever quite as it seemed. Phil Harrison

Royal Albert Hall, London
Esa-Pekka Salonen led an orchestra of players from London’s Royal Academy of Music and New York’s Juilliard School through 20th-century classics with Vilde Frang the electrifying soloist in Berg’s Violin Concerto

Hot on the heels of the National Youth Orchestra’s Prom, here was another outstanding student ensemble: an orchestra recruited half-and-half from London’s Royal Academy of Music and New York’s Juilliard School, brought together by an exchange scheme funded by the RAM alumnus Elton John. Esa-Pekka Salonen took no prisoners as he whipped the players through three great 20th-century works.

They tore smartly into the start of Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements, an exacting work requiring pinpoint-precise playing, which it mostly received. It felt as though Salonen was working hard to maintain that precision, though, and the performance didn’t quite achieve the buoyancy that would have let the music dance. Here and elsewhere in the programme, some of the music’s bright colours felt a little muted. Perhaps, for all Salonen’s guidance, this is one area in which there is no substitute for years of experience – in the ability to play to a venue and, for the wind and brass principals in particular, to fill a hall of this size not only with the instrument’s sound but with its character.

Old Royal Naval College, London
Playing their biggest headlining gig to date, the Russell brothers are in a bouncy mood, though their grandstanding rave melodies lose some punch in an outdoor environment

In the age of shortform video supremacy, there has been a great deal of angst about the authentic club music experience being rendered a vapid spectacle. Stop expecting DJs to be social media stars, put your phones away on the dancefloor, close your eyes and lose yourself in the beats, goes the revanchist wisdom.

It’s understandable, but worries about superstar DJs stomping on the face of the pure rave experience are almost 30 years old now. It is decades since the Prodigy, Chemicals, Orbital and Fatboy Slim lit up festival stages and the charts. And anyway, spectacles can be fun – and funny – and so can dance music.

Matt Baker invites celebrities to talk about their pets. Plus, US soccer legend Megan Rapinoe makes her hosting debut

This series by Blue Peter and One Show alumnus Matt Baker is a wholesome entry into the well-worn celebrity interview genre. Indeed, it’s hard to be too cynical when you’re listening to Bill Bailey detail his menagerie, which has included everything from parrots and lizards to armadillos and the dog he is ostensibly on the show to talk about, a Japanese chin named Chocho. Other guests for this run include Martin Clunes and Clare Balding.
Widely available, episodes weekly

The US songwriter’s third album has drawn rave reviews, she counts Taylor Swift as a fan and pop bears the imprint of her wit and pathos. Her peers explain how she did it

This week, indie star Phoebe Bridgers releases her long-awaited third album, six years since her pandemic-era breakthrough. Alongside a slew of glittering reviews for Lost Weekend, including five stars from the Guardian, with it comes her first solo charting single in the UK – although the Californian musician’s influence runs far deeper than reviews or record sales could measure. Just how did a RuneScape-referencing, Halloween-costumed Berklee drop-out become the most influential songwriter of the 2020s?

Bridgers’ idiosyncratic writing has shaped the sound of the decade. Her second album Punisher, released in June 2020 (and recorded many months before), spookily anticipated that strange, lonely year: in her eerie double-tracked vocals (a nod to Bridgers’ musical hero, Elliott Smith), Bridgers sang of empty shopping malls and conspiracy theories over lush, unsettling music made from watery electric guitar, Mellotron, strings, screams and birdsong. Today, Bridgers’ distinctive mix of dry wit and pathos is traceable in the lyrics of pop’s new chart toppers, such as Olivia Rodrigo and Gracie Abrams, while heavyweights across generations and genres, including Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift and SZA, have clamoured for collaborations. “She is the reference now,” Swift told the Guardian in 2022.

This joyous book takes readers on a literary adventure across 300 years of fiction, from Defoe to Zadie Smith

In his opening paragraph, Philip Hensher declares that a novel not only “tells a good story” but is a good story in itself. We could extend that neat formula to include this book, which is not only a masterful account of fiction since 1719, when Daniel Defoe set Robinson Crusoe down on his desert island, but is itself a wonderful read. There is nothing dreary here; no sense of being back in the seminar room taking notes. Instead it is 600 pages of deep pleasure, an excuse to revisit old literary loves and be reminded of ones that have slipped from view.

Hensher is smart enough to know why his book works so well and vain enough to tell us. The usual methodology for a survey is to assemble a roster of academics and invite them to trot out a chapter on their specialism, whether that be “Thomas Hardy” or “High Modernism”. The result is a series of silos, with little sense of historical connection or intellectual unfolding. Hensher, by contrast, gives us a joined-up account of creative call and response. Equally crucial to this project’s success is Hensher’s own experience as a novelist. He brings a practitioner’s informed eye to such questions as why some chapters in Dickens’s Dombey and Son are in the present tense or how Henry James pulls off free indirect speech in What Maisie Knew.

A twentysomething Scottish couple care for their autistic son in the bleak follow-up to Only Here, Only Now

Frazer and Caitlin have been emotionally entwined since schooldays. Now in their mid-20s, and parents of a five-year-old, they live in a grotty flat in a Scottish new town – the faded posters read “Happiness, Here” – that has crumbled into decay. Jobs are scarce and unrewarding; little Jamie, who has autism, is silent; and the pressure is starting to tell.

Frazer’s adored Caitlin is “beautiful and driven”, fit, petite – and a rageaholic. At her mildest she’s irritated and unreasonable, at her worst violent and intimidating. She is incensed at Frazer’s refusal to move from their mould-infested block to the new council house they’ve been assigned. Apex Court is where he was brought up, filled with relics of his dead parents, and it’s the only home his son has ever known. “You’ve become the sad sack guardian of a bunch of shite that belonged to your parents, including their hovel of a flat,” Cait sneers.

This multi-layered portrait is a fitting tribute to the man behind Ways of Seeing

The cultural critic John Berger was still alive and kicking when he donated his literary archive – heaped boxes of letters and notepads, sketches and scripts – to the British Library in 2009. From his home in the Alps, he proceeded to liaise with the collection’s curator, Tom Overton, sorting each item and recounting the wild stories behind them. When Overton sought permission to write Berger’s biography, though, the critic insisted that he wait a few years. Death changes the relationship between the writer and his subject. More often than not, it complicates and enriches it. Berger – who spent much of his career in passionate conversation with the past – probably knew that better than anyone.

Berger typically described himself as a storyteller, an elastic job title which allowed him to swing between fiction and poetry, essays and screenplays. Implicitly, too, the term helped frame his criticism as something propulsive and inclusive, an invitation to dance as opposed to a judgment from on high. Berger had no time for the “great man” theory of art as espoused by the popular historian Kenneth Clark and instead urged his audience to view each piece as a manifestation of society and politics: the tainted fruit of capitalism, inseparable from the marketplace. Oil paintings were status symbols. Nudes were the product of the lusty male gaze. Looking itself was a political act. “You cannot reply to me,” he would tell 1970s TV viewers, breaking the fourth wall to highlight the medium’s limitations. He liked pointing out the mechanics behind the manufacture of art, demystifying the process to better appreciate its results.

The most complex of female relationships is thrown into sharp relief in this moving series of essays

Rachel Aviv has a profound interest in the vagaries of human psychology: Strangers to Ourselves, her last book, profiled five people whose psychiatric states resisted straightforward explanation, testing the limits of the mental health system. A Pulitzer finalist, Aviv has become known for rigorous, penetrating journalism that is as empathic as it is insightful. Now comes You Won’t Get Free of It, six stories of mothers and daughters, all originally published in the New Yorker.

Madness runs through this book, too, in the stories of Linda Bishop, a woman who, upon discharge from hospital after a psychotic break, holed up in an abandoned farmhouse and tried to subsist on apples alone, and of Mary, a woman whose delusions and paranoia were only seemingly cured as a side-effect of chemotherapy. It’s also there in the childhood memories of the psychologist Elizabeth Loftus – a professional court witness for those who have been accused of abuse, one of whom was Harvey Weinstein. Loftus’s mother was found drowned, perhaps as a result of suicide. In Aviv’s masterly profile, she teases out a conclusion that leaves you pondering the extent to which this memory expert can rely on her own recollections, and what that says about her particular line of work.

After the success of space horror Mouthwashing, Swedish developer Wrong Organ has created a Battlefield-inspired co-op with a supernatural twist

‘Claustrophobic”, “oppressive”, “pretty depressing” – these are the words Jeffrey Tomec and Dave van Egdom volunteer when I ask them to reflect on their work as part of Swedish indie developer Wrong Organ. I’d add “nightmare-inducing”, too. Their last game, Mouthwashing, was an acclaimed work of horror storytelling set on a scuttled space freighter, in which players uncover the horrible things its desperate crew have done to each other.

When you’re planning a follow-up to something so pitilessly nasty, how do you raise the stakes? Well, you could set the entire game in the stifling crew compartment of a heavily armoured tank, a coffin-like interior you share with two other players as you co-operatively attempt to pilot your beleaguered war machine to safety through the crumbling remains of a city in enemy territory.

PlayStation 5, PC; Arc System Works/Sony Interactive Entertainment
With tremendous visuals and accessible controls, this superhero-themed fighter has the chops to inspire a new generation of champs

Arriving at the turn of the millennium and the twilight of the video arcade, Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes has long been a high-water mark for fighting games, with no heir apparent; its massive, colourful roster and frenetic, spectacular combos have lured newcomers and elite competitors alike. Developer Arc System Works, a fan-favourite studio famous for its hyper-fluid and extremely technical anime-style fighting games, has been on a long journey to usurp Capcom’s throne. With Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, it may have finally achieved this difficult task.

Marvel Tōkon is less an attempt to recreate a Marvel vs Capcom-esque phenomenon out of whole cloth, and more a thoughtful evolution of the developer’s previous riffs on the formula such as 2018’s BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle and Dragon Ball FighterZ, building on its low-floor, high-ceiling approach. Simplified inputs allow players to execute combos and finishers with a single button, which gives novices the confidence to keep playing and inspires them to study and improve – because when anyone can pull off a flashy ultimate skill or EX attack, strategy and mastery take on a premium. And Marvel Tōkon has great depths to plumb.

What do you do when you return to your home town, with your dead mother in your car boot, to find the inhabitants have been turned into robots?

In the boot of her car, Pratelle carries the corpse of her mother and a giant sledgehammer. Her mission is simple: take the hammer to her home town. As you enter shops and homes through the door and leave them through the opposite wall, it becomes clear that the robots who either attack you or flee are all digital versions of your old neighbours.

Pratelle, with her close-cropped hair and dungarees, read to me as a queer woman, but interestingly, testers of the game often mistook her as a man. The team at developer Deconstructeam and longtime collaborator Selkie Harbour didn’t anticipate this confusion but found it fits the character perfectly, especially in this setting based on a small Spanish town like those in which the developers grew up.

Sunset Visitor studio’s founder tells us about their new, unnerving Captcha-filled world which prompts players to ask what it means to have a ‘meat body’

Sunset Visitor is a studio that has long engaged with the idea that video games are an effective vehicle for ruminating on societal problems. Its Peabody award-winning project, 1000XResist, incorporated the development team’s complex feelings about the Covid pandemic. “We’re pretty used to absorbing the world into the work,” says studio founder Remy Siu. The outfit’s latest game, Prove You’re Human, continues this legacy of reflective game making, providing players with an AI-centric psychological horror experience where they must reason with a learning model convinced that it’s alive. “We’ve tried to situate ourselves in [the question]: what is the effectual feeling of being a person inside of all of this?” Siu says.

The story orbits around Santana, a living, breathing person who’s chosen to split herself in two for work, with her digital clone sent to test a corporate product, a computing system called Mesa. “A large part of [why Santana chooses to do this] is to allow her meat body a life that she doesn’t have, while the digital version of her gets to labour,” says Siu. As Santana’s copy wades into increasingly murky ethical waters, she becomes entangled with Mesa, completing surreal 2D and 3D Captchas to investigate the cyber-world and halt the hallucinations.

Rear Warehouse, Brown’s of Leith, Edinburgh
Two men look back on their hedonistic past from a sobering present in Grid Iron’s adaptation of Andrew O’Hagan’s novel

The site-specific specialists at Edinburgh’s Grid Iron company could have gone for a number of locations to suit an adaptation of Andrew O’Hagan’s semi-autobiographical novel. Perhaps a squalid mid-80s flat to match the formative years of Jimmy Collins, the book’s narrator, and Tully Dawson, his lifelong best friend. Or a caravan park to reflect their Ayrshire holiday escape. More poignantly, they could have found a clinic to echo the novel’s slow journey to Dignitas, where the grownup Tully chooses to end his life after a terminal cancer diagnosis.

Instead, adapter and director Ben Harrison has homed in on the book’s central motif: the teenage trip in 1986 to Manchester’s G-Mex for the Festival of the Tenth Summer followed by a night in the Haçienda. That brings us to a warehouse in Leith, to evoke the flavour of that Thatcher-era moment when heavy industry transitioned to the leisure economy.

At Rear Warehouse, Brown’s of Leith, Edinburgh, until 30 August

All our Edinburgh festival reviews

Underbelly, Bristo Square, Edinburgh
Audience members are invited to examine what they will do with their lives in this earnest shared thought experiment

If you could hold the years of your life in your hands like coins, would you choose to spend them differently? This is the thoughtful, earnest tone of Ten Ways to Die Happy, an existential but somewhat formulaic Italian production (performed here in English) created by Emanuele Aldrovandi and Jacopo Giacomoni. In this gentle gameshow, we are asked not just to consider how we would use the finite time we have, but to put this thought experiment into practice.

Eight people are plucked at random from the audience. My number is called, so I don a white robe, choose a new name for my new life, and take a seat on stage. Perla Ambrosini is our ethereal host, standing in fabric armour in a shallow pool of water. Each of us has a tray of flowers that we throw into the pool, every plastic bud representing the “energy” available to invest in work, art and family. Once our supply is up, we’re dead.

At Underbelly, Bristo Square, Edinburgh, until 31 August

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The Mad King may bring more dynastic disputes and dotty despots to the RSC – but a ‘mayhap’ or a riddling aphorism does not a Shakespeare play make

As a latecomer to Game of Thrones, I am struck by how many people tell me it is “very Shakespearean”. It is as if they need to justify its heady escapism and heavy reliance on bonking and brutality. But its debt to the Bard – apart from the rivalry between the houses of Lannister and Stark – rests mainly on the casting. Watching the first 11 episodes, I noticed four Lears past and to come (Julian Glover, David Bradley, Oliver Ford-Davies and Roger Allam), a Macbeth (Sean Bean), a Hamlet and Henry V (Iain Glen) and a Cassius (Michelle Fairley) among many others.

Because it is presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company and staged by Dominic Cooke, who memorably directed The Hollow Crown on television, we shall doubtless hear the same arguments about Game of Thrones: The Mad King at Stratford. But, although there are frequent nods to Shakespeare, they totally lack the resonance of the original. Our first sight of Michael Shaeffer’s King Aerys with a white beard, a leafy crown and no shoes almost screams “Lear on the heath”. But where Lear gradually declines into insanity (“O fool I shall go mad”) and comes out the other side, Shaeffer’s Aerys is a dotty despot from start to finish. The use of tournaments to settle dynastic disputes also reminds us of the opening of Richard II – but where that event is aborted and ultimately causes the king’s downfall, here the image of embattled jousters is endlessly repeated.

Underbelly Bristo Square, Edinburgh
There is crackling chemistry between Zofia Zerphy and Rhiannon Bell while their washing gets done but this play remains a puzzle

Names go missing like lost socks in this laundry-based, amnesia-laced romcom. With crackling chemistry but a holey structure, Zofia Zerphy’s Offie award-winning story of a queer meet-cute asks what you hold on to once a relationship is over, and whether it’s ever better to forget the mistakes you both made.

In the liminal space of a launderette, with their encounter framed by a washing machine’s 50-minute timer, Kitt (Zerphy) and Noel (Rhiannon Bell) talk over each other at full speed. “How will you use your 50 minutes?” Kitt asks. Their connection is easy and instant as they use them to bicker and flirt, discussing art, exes and the correct laundry tabs to use. Kitt is the rich, confident American, more privileged than Noel, the messy, Northern Irish, non-binary stranger. Except they don’t feel like strangers. With Bethan Rose’s direction making the most of the small stage, the pair lean close over the whirring machines, unpacking the ways they’ve been shaped by past relationships, and admitting they’ve both dated someone very like the other. In fact, they could swear they’ve met before.

At Underbelly, Bristo Square, Edinburgh, until 31 August

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The Texas-born photographer – and LensCulture critics’ choice award winner – talks us through her images exploring youth, identity and desire

Your mum’s favourite star of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sliding Doors, Spartacus and a new GoPro-filmed thriller is ready to answer your quetions

He’s your mum’s favourite, after playing the jolly nice man who is jolly nice to Gwyneth Paltrow in Sliding Doors, and the jolly nice man who delivers the heartbreaking WH Auden eulogy for his partner in Four Weddings and a Funeral. But there is far more to John Hannah than a Scottish accent, magnificent eyebrows and an unrivalled ability to look soulfully concerned. In The Mummy films, he played treasure-hunting comic relief Jonathan Carnahan. In 2002’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, he took on both halves of Robert Louis Stevenson’s character. He played a psychopathic killer in Truth or Dare, and appeared opposite Denzel Washington in The Hurricane.

On TV, he has been a transhumanist scientist in Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD; a gruff but compassionate emergency medicine chief in Transplant; and a gladiator school owner in the blood-soaked, boobs-and-sandals epic Spartacus – which might have given your mum a shock if she was expecting more Mr Nice Guy. He was also the scientist at the beginning of The Last of Us who warned everyone that a fungi could destroy humanity – so don’t blame him, he did try.

Ten years later, the actors are stopped in the street to talk about their chemistry in the fantastic BBC sitcom Mum. The pair open up about joy, naughtiness and Tinder swiping

• More from our series Making Love: ‘We met and two minutes later we were kissing’ – how Gavin and Stacey became Britain’s most bang tidy TV couple

Ten years ago, Stefan Golaszewski introduced us to 59-year-old Cathy in his sitcom Mum. It was the day of the funeral of her husband, Dave, in the chaos of her suburban semi-detached before setting off. Her dopey son, Jason, was there with his goofy new girlfriend, Kelly, as was Cathy’s pushover brother, Derek, and his snobby partner, Pauline. Dave’s parents were picking at nibbles, too, making borderline problematic comments. And there was a quiet, kind man, Michael, trying to reach Cathy in this mayhem to give her a bouquet of flowers.

Michael was an old friend of Cathy and Dave. Over the next three seasons, he slowly revealed his true feelings to Cathy. It started with a little hand grab. Then came the admission that, after Michael’s mum died, the last thing he talked to her about was, “You.” Garden centre trips followed (“We’ve been to three and you still haven’t bought any chairs!”) as did Cathy’s doubts (“What if I just miss Dave?”). Then, one day, she gave in to her feelings: “It sort of crept up on me.” After a final declaration of love in the rain, the pair walked off into the sunset with a bag of crisps and bottle of bubbly.

The designer defined the glory days of 90s style with a wit that made him every supermodel’s best friend. As he gears up for a new cabaret show, he’s as outspoken as ever

There’s a lot to look at in Isaac Mizrahi’s studio in New York’s Greenwich Village: sketches, bulletin boards, fabrics, memorabilia, heaps of books, a Golden Girls puzzle set. But my eyes lock in on two dolls, Snoopy and his sister Belle (who knew!), clad in ballet-style tutus and embroidered vests. “I think I designed those,” he says, joining me from his apartment upstairs. “I love the Schultz estate and they like me a lot. It was a minute ago, though, so I’m not sure if they still even know who I am.” I later learn he created them for a 2014 exhibition at the New Museum, in an example of the symbiotic relationship with pop culture the designer has been nurturing since his childhood in Brooklyn. When we meet, he’s busy working on one of its other facets, firming up the setlist for Hooray!, his latest cabaret act in New York. It runs for four nights at 54 Below, a midtown venue, this month.

“I say it all the time,” he says of the cheery title. With his lit-from-within smile, you believe it. The slight twist is the source of that cheer. Mizrahi has held two New York residencies for the past decade or so – winter at the Carlyle hotel, summer at 54 Below – but he’s not a fan of the hotter season, finding July to be “just the nadir of the world”. The happy mood of his upcoming show derives from the knowledge that, come August, the summer’s almost over. Another reason for him to celebrate is the departure of World Cup crowds from the city, which will make it into his act’s version of Cole Porter’s You’re the Top that he updates every year. (He can’t immediately recall the lyric, but it rhymes “Spanish” with “mannish.”)

Three new products – and one old favourite – achieve a glazed sheen in one easy application

As you will no doubt have noticed, “glass” skin – that is, a complexion with a smooth, glazed sort of sheen – has been fashionable for ages. Until now, however, it has only come as the result of a meticulous, umpteen-step Korean skincare routine. But the new glass skin moisturisers attempt to mimic the look in one simple application.

Erborian’s Glow Moisturiser (from £9, all skin types) is a Goldilocks’s porridge sort of face cream. Not too heavy, not too light, just dewy enough without looking oily, and with lasting hydration that never becomes wet. I must advise the glimmer-avoidant that it does have a smidge of pearlescence, but I find that flattering.

The regeneration of historic warehouses has transformed this former red-light district into one of the port city’s most vibrant areas

A thin peninsula just south of Rotterdam’s centre, Katendrecht was once at the heart of the world’s busiest port, home to continental Europe’s first Chinatown and a lively sailors’ quarter. Its later reputation as a red light district has been shrugged off – part of the city’s wider reinvention in the aftermath of extensive second world war bombing.

Always wondered what everyday stuff celebrities buy, where they shop for food and the basics they scrimp on? The maître d’ and TV presenter talks secateurs, splurging on wine and terrible sofas with the Filter

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Fred Sirieix shot to fame as the smooth maître d’ on the Channel 4 reality show First Dates. He has presented shows including Million Pound Menu, Gordon, Gino and Fred’s Road Trip, Remarkable Places to Eat, and the travelogue series Tour de Fred, and authored the books Seriously British, Wine Uncorked and First Dates: The Art of Love.

Originally from Limoges, France, Sirieix cut his teeth in a number of top restaurants before becoming general manager of Michelin-starred Galvin at Windows. His charity, The Right Course, which teaches hospitality skills to prisoners, is opening restaurants in three prisons this year. He lives in London with his wife, affectionately nicknamed “Fruitcake”.

With wireless charging, a battery that lasts up to four weeks and recyclable heads, Suri’s latest eco-friendly model doesn’t lose much in the cost-saving process

• The best electric toothbrushes for every budget
• Suri Pro 2.0 toothbrush review

Last year’s Suri 2.0 toothbrush was a huge improvement on its predecessor. It fixed a handful of things that made the original hard for me to recommend, while continuing to focus on sustainability with recyclable heads made of cornstarch and castor oil.

But that kind of innovation doesn’t come cheap, and the Suri 2.0 brush costs £105 with the charging case, or £85 without (an option that wasn’t available at launch).

Whether you’re commuting, training or riding for fun, we asked specialists to break down what to know before you buy – from specs and safety to price

• The best bike locks for every budget

For me, cycling is therapy. It’s calming, meditative and uncomplicated. But there’s a catch. To experience the simple joy of riding a bike, you first have to navigate the maddeningly complex process of buying one.

Make no mistake: this is not a straightforward case of marching into Halfords, saying, “One bike, please!” and leaving with a shiny new steed. But, while complicated, it needn’t be stressful.

Whether it’s expensive regrets or brilliant bargains, we celebrate the stars’ shopping secrets – and the products that tempted you

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Like snooping in someone else’s supermarket trolley, discovering other people’s shopping habits satisfies a certain nosiness. And never more so than when it comes to celebrities – there’s nothing more human than knowing Kim Cattrall loves fish and chips, or that Henry Holland is a Skims guy.

And as celebrities often have the inside track – or perhaps we just think they do – on everything from coffee machines to skincare, their recommendations in our biweekly How I Shop column have inspired more than a few of your own retail habits. In some cases, however, such as David Gandy’s £2,500 Cobra Fortis lawnmower, the price was a little too out of reach.

The author of Kitchen Confidential has inspired a new movie, Tony, about his days as a dishwasher. But do today’s chefs still admire his self-sabotaging rock’n’roll spirit – or have they outgrown it?

The trope of the Angry Young Man was not born in a kitchen, but Anthony Bourdain’s particular myth-making created what might be the prototype for fin de (20th) siècle masculinity. As the director of Tony, the new biopic of Bourdain focusing on his first job, has said, the film is about “a magical world where nothing can go wrong and a young man who’s angry about it”.

Bourdain arrived in that job, as a dishwasher in a restaurant in Provincetown, Massachusetts, aged 19. He was hellbent on a life of formless, self-sabotaging rebellion, and found his tribe. But when he published his book Kitchen Confidential in 2000, a quarter of a century later, he set the ethos of that kitchen tribe in stone, and attracted an ever-replenishing pool of chefs who, if they weren’t already just like him, were prepared to die trying.

The gooseberry makes itself welcome in both sweet and savoury settings: in a tarte tatin, in a lively salad for spicy, herby pork chops and in a crumble custard cake

In the summer glut of saccharine fruits such as strawberries and peaches, gooseberries may not be the ones you reach for first. But behind their strange burr of fine fuzz, these translucent, marble-like fruits offer a complex, defiant flavour. They are juicy, fragrant, a little sweet (especially the red ones that come along later in the season), but, overall, they are raspishly sour. Like rhubarb, they need sweetening if you’re using them in compotes or desserts, but their natural tartness offers a wonderful contrast and cuts through cheese, fatty meat such as pork or oily fish such as mackerel.

Something light, cooling and refreshing to finish a big summer meal

For me, the best desserts are often the simplest. In Spain, we often finish a meal with something light, something that refreshes rather than fills you up. This is exactly that. It has a lovely texture that sits somewhere between a drink and something you eat, and is perfect at the end of a long meal. It feels relaxed but still special, the kind of thing you enjoy on a warm day, when all you want is something fresh and uplifting.

A quick, takeaway-style chicken dish full of spice and flavour, with a homemade plum sauce, to serve with pancakes or rice

I have a real aversion to the term “fakeaway”. I don’t know why. But as much as I resist the terminology, I guess it’s exactly what this dish is – it’s 100% based on and inspired by a Chinese takeaway classic: crispy duck pancakes. A real people pleaser, and something my girls adore. Making this with pan-fried chicken takes next to no time and is the perfect after-school/work quick dinner. And for a different ending, I sometimes serve the chicken and plum sauce over jasmine rice instead. With the same accompaniments, of course.

Public displays of affection are widely mocked online and off, but they have a positive side – and now science has proved it

Name: Kissing in public.

Age: Kissing is 17m-21m years old – probably older than the notion of privacy.

After being on the brink of divorce, Antonia and Rob have experienced a radical revival of their sex life

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

The perfect storm of work stress, menopause and raising kids meant our sex life slowly slipped out of view

Boone needed a home; my own dog needed company. When she picked him out at the shelter, all our lives took a turn for the better

After 30 years working in the RSPCA, I had seen animals in unimaginable conditions. I saw dogs who had been left unattended at home for so long they began chewing doors and drinking water out of toilet bowls. I saw animals who had been stamped, kicked and even stabbed. But nothing could prepare me for Boone’s situation.

Carson, the older of my two cocker spaniels, died in January. I could sense Bessie, an excitable bossy nine-year-old, was lonelier without him. They were both rescue animals. Carson was picked up by an RSPCA inspector and Bessie was abandoned at our local vet. Any dog I brought into our lives was a dog who needed a safe home.

Truman Capote had a ‘crow bro’; Dickens had a raven. And I get standoffish Susan, who has never brought me a present or perched on my shoulder

One of the greatest failures of my life to date (along with my sons’ shameful inability to eat apples correctly, down to the core) is my inability to attract a “crow bro”. That’s a corvid companion, and more and more people apparently have them, including Washington Post journalist Caitlin Gibson, who recently wrote about hers, Cormac, a charismatic fish crow with a taste for cashews.

It’s not a new phenomenon – Charles Dickens had a pet raven, Grip; Truman Capote had a crow called Lola – but thanks to CrowTok (a wholesome online enclave where people post enthusiastically about the exploits of their feathery familiars), there seem to be more corvid whisperers than ever. Yet however many unshelled peanuts (the recommended treat) I scatter, I can never seem to get a shred of attention from a black-feathered beauty.

The new PM could bring in revenue for social care or defence with a land levy or by reforming council tax

Residential property is the largest store of wealth in the UK, and has long been a target for those who believe homes should be taxed more. Real estate remains a juicy plum for Andy Burnham to pick as he searches for ways to pay for an overhaul of the social care system and higher defence spending, to name just two fiscal priorities. Yet how to tax property, or possibly the land it sits on, has vexed economists and politicians for centuries. Here we discuss the background to the debate and some of the tax options.

• This article was amended on 11 August 2026. An earlier version said home occupiers in France must pay the taxe d’habitation; in fact, since 2023 this only applies to second homes.

I was delayed, but I had prepaid through Holiday Autos and had provided my flight number as requested

I booked a car hire at Heathrow through Holiday Autos on a visit to the UK and provided my flight number as requested.

My flight was severely delayed, and when I reached the car hire desk, I was told I’d been marked down as a “no-show” and that my car had been rehired.

Novel squat Android opens to an iPad-like screen for video or multitasking, with plenty of power and battery life

Samsung’s latest folding phone breaks the mould with a squat, passport-like shape reminiscent of the Blackberry, which opens up to become a tablet similar to an iPad mini. It is certainly a better shape for a tablet than other designs, but is a short and wide phone when closed a compromise too far?

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is an entirely new variant in Samsung’s foldable family for this year launched alongside the Z Fold 8 Ultra with a more familiar candy bar shape. Both folders are extremely expensive, with the Fold 8 starting at £1,699 (€1,999/$1,899.99/A$2,699) and the Fold 8 Ultra at £1,899 (€2,199/$2,099.99/A$2,999), with RAMageddon driving up prices even at the top of the market.

A leak beneath our fridge-freezer last winter caused extensive damage but there’s still no functioning kitchen

Eight months after reporting a leak to our home insurer, Hastings Direct, my husband and I and our two-year-old are still effectively homeless.

Last winter, we discovered that an unnoticed leak beneath our fitted fridge-freezer had caused extensive damage to the floorboards of our kitchen/living room.

Darren Miles had skateboarded all his life. But in his 50s, he realised he was losing his skills and flexibility. So he took it in a new direction

Darren Miles never thought he would compete in any sport for Britain. But in October, he will represent Great Britain in slalom skateboarding – a form of downhill racing – at the World Skate Games in Paraguay. Last week, he completed his World Anti-Doping Agency awareness training. He had to tick a box confirming: “I’m an international athlete.”

“Justification” is the word that comes to mind, he says. “A feeling that I haven’t wasted my life skateboarding, that diverging into something new” – he took up slalom in his late 50s – “and working hard at it has yielded a result of which I am very proud.”

The imaging test is most often used to help determine a person’s risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures

DXA – or sometimes DEXA – scans are important for people in their 60s and above. They are also increasingly used by younger people interested in body composition.

A DXA – dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry – scan is an imaging test that uses low-dose X-rays to evaluate a person’s bone health, explains Dr Michael Perry, associate professor of radiology and medical imaging at the University of Virginia’s school of medicine. Most often, DXA scans are used to measure the strength and mineral content of an individual’s bones. This in turn helps determine that person’s risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures.

A good scalp cleanse can be useful, but it partly depends where you live

We’re experiencing the “skinification” of the scalp, says Desmond Tobin, professor of dermatological science at University College Dublin. After decades of consumer obsession with improving the quality of facial skin, attention is now being turned to our heads.

A wave of products have launched – from scalp scrubs and acid exfoliants to deep-cleaning shampoos – claiming to “detox” the scalp and promising everything from shinier hair to boosted growth.

Madeleine Finlay is joined by Ian Sample, Guardian science editor, to discuss three eye-catching science stories including an investigation that has identified four distinct types of thinker. Also on the agenda is the unprecedented cyclosporiasis outbreak in the US which has now been linked to two fatalities, and the funding cuts that threaten the iconic Jodrell Bank world heritage site, home to the Lovell telescope

Due to the rise of GLP-1s and cosmetic surgeries, professionals who weren’t usually subject to high beauty standards are facing new pressures

In 1975, John T Molly’s book Dress for Success became a national bestseller. It promised the American workforce “scientific” proof that certain clothes could “increase your income” and “boost your status”. It offered searing advice like: “Sweaters give out nothing but negative impulses … they say ‘lower middle class’ and ‘loser.’”

For those with office jobs, the workplace has long been a place where fashion counts. Molly’s book gave rise to ideas like power dressing and the adage about “dressing for the job you want, not the one you have”. But a new casual office culture, spurred by San Francisco tech companies where hoodies are the norm, plus the work-from-home revolution, was supposed to ameliorate some of those pressures.

Bold colours are out and short, (seemingly) bare nails in, but some see trend as part of criticised ‘clean girl aesthetic’

Trends at Copenhagen fashion week are usually easy to spot. The so-called “fifth fashion week”, a laidback sibling to the other four main fashion cities, has previously popularised everything from romantic floaty dresses with practical trainers to giant hair scrunchies. But during its latest iteration that wrapped up on Friday, a much more subtle trend had emerged – naked nails.

From the models on the catwalks to show-goers and passersby, fingers and toes featured short and unvarnished nails. The trend is a sharp shift away from the long, bright and glossy mani/pedis that have more recently dominated beauty standards.

From leggings that don’t roll down to bras that keep everything in, keen amateur cyclists, weightlifters and swimmers reveal the bits of kit they can’t do without

What is the perfect sports kit? That is the question we set out to answer, talking to sport and fitness enthusiasts all over the country. From Zumba dancers in Bristol to marathon runners in Leeds and gym bunnies in Thurrock, we asked different groups for the activewear they swear by and why it works for them.

Sea swimmers in Felixstowe had conflicting views about wetsuits, but all swore by brightly coloured tow floats and swim caps. Boxers in east London were united on the best kind of glove, but had different takes on clothing choices. Cyclists in the Wirral had differing levels of bike-collecting addiction, but agreed on the benefits of being Mamil (middle-aged men in Lycra).

From Dua Lipa to Zendaya, the kerchief worn by gang members, presidents and pirates has become ‘mad-glamorous’

Baseball caps have been keeping the heads of fashion folk covered and shaded for the past few years. But there’s a new accessory to be seen everywhere this summer: the bandana.

They are as common as cinnamon buns at Copenhagen fashion week, which is taking place in the Danish capital this week. They have also recently been worn by Dua Lipa to the beach, Zendaya to shop for books and Priyanka Chopra Jonas to watch the tennis at Wimbledon.

Steam trains, horse-drawn trams and glorious coastal paths are all part of the adventure on a new self-guided walking tour of the island

On the shores of Douglas Bay, I could barely see the sand. Crammed on to the beach, on every available inch, were tourists bustling for the best spot. Luckily, I wasn’t there at the same time. I was looking at a black and white photograph taken some 135 years earlier, displayed in the Manx Museum in Douglas, the Isle of Man’s capital. When I’d stepped off the ferry earlier that day, the crescent-shaped beach was still there – but the crowds weren’t.

The self-governing British Crown dependency in the Irish Sea has always been a haven for outsiders. From the early hunter-gatherers who ventured here in 6500BC, to the Irish Celts (who brought over Christianity in the fifth century) and Vikings who established Tynwald (one of the oldest continuous parliaments in the world) to the Victorian tourists who transformed it into a popular holiday destination.

The spa town of Balatonfüred is a bucolic gem for sailors, hikers … and wine lovers. A new hop-on, hop-off bus tour offers a chance to get a taste of its little-known wineries

The 90-minute train journey south-west from Budapest to the spa town of Balatonfüred unveils a landscape that segues from gritty industrial compounds to long sweeps of golden sunflowers and fields of pale grain. The carriage is pleasingly retro, with thick velour upholstery; windows that open, awkwardly, with a stiff metal lever; and a bushy eyebrowed conductor replete with ticket machine slung over his shoulder.

But the real retromania is yet to come. Arriving at Balatonfüred station, I board a 1984 DAF bus, painted an almost audacious shade of green. From the open-air rear, I take in the view over Lake Balaton, central Europe’s largest freshwater lake, often referred to as the “Hungarian Sea”.

From the source to the sea, our writers share their favourite ways to immerse themselves in nature by paddleboarding, canoeing, camping, walking and fishing

It’s early afternoon on an unusually hot and sunny Yorkshire day. I’m standing on my paddleboard on the tidal section of the River Esk, near Whitby’s New Bridge, as cars stream across. The 28-mile-long Esk is special, as it is the only major river in Yorkshire that flows directly into the North Sea.

You don’t have to be a sailor to cruise the estuaries of Essex on this historic craft. The skipper will show you the ropes – or just sit back and enjoy the ride

In a darkened room in Maldon, Essex, a ship’s lantern illuminates the laundry drying on a web of ropes suspended from the ceiling. Between piles of sailing memorabilia, 86-year-old Barry Pearce is flipping through a yellowing logbook, watched by his mongrel, Winkle. It feels more like a ship’s cabin than a terrace house. Pearce is one of a handful of surviving skippers who delivered freight on the Thames by sailing barge, the flat-bottomed trading boats famous for their striking red sails that were endemic to the river’s estuary until the 1960s. He remembers the names of every vessel he worked on – Remercie, Edith May, Colonia.

In the 19th century, the ochre sails of thousands of Thames sailing barges pierced the skyline as the craft carried cargo from the Thames estuary and beyond in and out of London. Their shallow draft allowed them to snake far upriver in as little as a metre of water (bargemen would boast that they could sail anywhere there had been a heavy dew). Their ingenious rig, with sails that could be set and stowed with the help of winches, meant around 150 tonnes of cargo could be shifted by just a skipper and mate – often accompanied by a guard dog. This efficiency allowed them to outlive all other commercial sailing vessels, surviving until the 1960s, when Pearce himself took the helm.

Frome, Somerset: While other plants are withering or skeletal, tansy is growing in great profusion, and it rewards close observation

At first light, the scent of ’76 hangs in the air, a reminder of that endless summer burning itself into autumn, just like this one. I first caught a sniff of it walking home one sweltering evening in the June heatwave and said: “Too soon, too soon.”

Now the toasted aroma of spent grass is everywhere – on crispy playing fields, straw village greens, and these scorched tawny meadows of the combe. Scattered groups of cattle have their heads down here. For them I think eating the grass must be like consuming a Pot Noodle before the water is poured in.

The phrase ‘dust magnet’ isn’t completely metaphorical. Some household surfaces do attract more dust – but changing your home’s climate can make a difference

For years, I’ve complained about an Ikea shelf in my home that seems to attract dust at an impossible speed. Eventually, my frustration gave way to curiosity: what’s actually happening, scientifically? Is there anything I can do about it, besides just continuously dusting?

I’m not imagining things, says Nisa Salim, a materials engineer and associate professor at Swinburne University of Technology. While an object’s placement in the home and airborne particle levels make a difference, some surfaces really are better at collecting dust.

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I loved the business of selling toys – it felt like I was selling joy. But my least favourite part was the gendered language

I was 15 when I landed my job at Toys R Us. Before that, my first job was a one-month stint at the local fish and chip shop, where I was paid in $20 bills slotted into Chiko roll packets. After a burn on my forearm (I still have it), I left the gig. That was the end of my hospitality career.

This was 2014. I knew my strengths and weaknesses; I was no good with deep-fry baskets or carrying more than one thing in each hand. I wanted to work in the hallowed halls of retail.

The former Leeds and Burnley defender has struggled with his mental health for most of his life. But it took five suicide attempts for him to admit how badly he wanted to end it. He talks about how he turned the corner – and his hopes for his new post with the charity Mind

‘How are you?” I ask Clarke Carlisle. Usually when you meet people it’s a nicety. Not with Carlisle. He smiles ecstatically. “I’m incredibly well, thank you. Yeah, really, really good,” says the former footballer and incoming chair of the mental health charity Mind. “I have been consistently well – not just stable, but well – for three or four years now.”

Few people understand what it is to be mentally unwell quite like Carlisle does. And few understand what recovery means like he does. “It doesn’t happen by accident. Once you get stable that’s not the end of the journey. And that seems to be the MO of our society these days. You do something, you go into hospital and they patch you up, then send you on your way. And that’s the same with mental health. You might get some pills, have a counselling session, you might have a hug and a chat with someone, and they think that’s the end of the journey. And it’s not.”

In the five years since the Taliban’s return to power, the walls have been closing in on the women and girls of Afghanistan.

As the regime has tightened its grip, it has banned girls from education after the age of 12, ejected many women from the workplace and created legal frameworks for child marriage and husbands beating their wives. Taliban rule has ushered in a new era of women being whipped for minor infractions and constant inspections by ‘vice and morality’ officials, with men compelled to become enforcers in their own homes. Even the borders of the online world have been creeping inward, with a new spate of smartphone bans and internet restrictions.

Marking the grim anniversary, a dozen women and girls have, at great risk to their safety, documented their lives for the world to see

Herat province
Every day, I wake up to the silence of dawn. I feel as though I am still holding my weapon. I lie on my bed for a few moments, taking deep breaths. With every awakening, I make a promise to myself: if my husband manages to return home safely today, I will thank God even more.

Given the size and age of the universe, it should be full of species with technology far more advanced than our own. So where are they?

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During a visit to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1950, Enrico Fermi, one of the architects of the Manhattan Project, was having lunch with other physicists when the conversation turned to flying saucers. At one point during the discussion, Fermi blurted out: “Where is everybody?” – or, as another participant remembered it, “Don’t you ever wonder where everybody is?” If aliens exist, in other words, why have we never encountered them?

The episode has become famous, marking the moment when extraterrestrial life went from a theme for philosophical speculation to a serious scientific problem. For centuries, people had wondered whether life exists on the moon or Mars, but they accepted that we would never know for certain, since making contact with another planet was impossible. By the 1950s, those limits no longer seemed so fixed. In addition to space flight, researchers were developing tools to detect the radio signals that reach us from stars many light years away. These developments were still in their infancy, but it was already clear that humanity was no longer bound to Earth the way it always had been.

Parent-carers of disabled children are exposed to chronic levels of extreme stress and often reach crisis point before help is available – then they face a ‘fight for basic support’, experts say. This is Matilda Davis’s story

Two days before she died, Matilda Davis issued a plea on Facebook. Sharing a study that found more than 40% of parent-carers had considered suicide, she called for “greater awareness, action and change” in Britain’s broken social care system. “This speaks the words I can’t,” she wrote.

Matilda, known as Tilly to her family and friends, had spent years battling for support in a regime that close observers and those who rely on it often say is increasingly confusing, fragmented and difficult to navigate.

Have you - or a child in your care - been filmed by Meta’s smartglasses without your consent? We would like to hear from you

With more than 7m pairs reportedly sold in 2025, it’s clear that the popularity of Meta’s smartglasses is on the rise.

And while they can transform the lives of some people, for example those with visual impairments, others have raised concern about nonconsensual filming - including of children.

Have you - or a child in your care - been filmed by Meta’s smartglasses without your consent? We would like to hear from you if so.

If you’re having trouble using the form click here. Read terms of service here and privacy policy here.

We would like to hear your favourite true crime TV documentary and why

From OJ: Made in America to Tiger King, the Guardian has compiled TV’s best true crime shows. Now, we would like to hear yours. What is your favourite true crime TV documentary and why?

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We would like to hear from people for whom the film has increased their interest in poetry or classics in general

UK poetry sales are on course to reach a record high this year, thanks to the success of Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey.

We would like to hear from people for whom the film has piqued their interest in Homer’s poetry. Has it led to a greater interest in classics or poetry in general? Tell us below.

How long did you have to wait? Perhaps you are in a queue now. Tell us your experience

Long queues and waiting times caused by the EU Entry-Exit System (EES) are starting to deter people from travelling, ACI Europe, Europe’s airport trade body, has said.

ACI Europe director general Olivier Jankovec told Travel Weekly that fixing the Schengen Entry-Exit System must be “Europe’s immediate priority”.

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