Doing full justice to the Homeric legend, Christopher Nolan amasses an epic cast to convey the true cost of war with film-making of thrilling ambition

• A classicist’s verdict: soulful hero flatters our times as women and nuance pushed overboard

Christopher Nolan reinvents the Homeric legend as a colossal origin-myth story of postwar disillusion, an epic ordeal of anguish witnessed by the dead and presided over by capricious deities who participate on almost equal terms with the humans. It speaks to the generational pain of PTSD; plenty of soldiers come home in person after any war promptly enough, but arriving back to their prewar state emotionally or spiritually can take years or decades and may never happen at all. The invisible odyssey of anguish is punctuated by flashback episodes, hallucinations, confrontations with the arbitrary gods of dysfunction. And all the time the spouses and children cannot move on with their lives.

This is a film with thrilling ambition, boldness, seriousness, generosity and flair. There are some broad-brush moments in the dialogue, yes, but even these are applied with a muscular flourish. It has gasp-inducing, Imax-sized landscapes of loneliness shot by cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema – who, incidentally, avoids the sea’s traditional cliched colour – and full-tilt battle sequences and fight scenes accompanied by the throbbing and thrumming of drums.

It wasn’t his performances on Wednesday lunchtimes that did for the ultimate mid-table PM – it was all the other stuff

Who would have thought it? Most of us would have put money on Kemi Badenoch failing to read the room for Keir Starmer’s last ever prime minister’s questions. Not a bit. From her opening tribute to Ann Widdecombe to her final gags, Kemi was the model of warmth, generosity and tenderness. Pitch perfect. Not a word out of place. So much so that you couldn’t help wondering if the real Kemi had been locked up in her office and her minders had sent a doppelganger out to the Commons. If so, it would be lovely if we could see more of her body double.

There were loud cheers from the Labour benches as Keir made his way past cabinet colleagues to his place on the frontbench. It’s one of life’s little tragedies that a prime minister’s popularity peaks when they are on their way out of the job. Suddenly, any misgivings that MPs might have over their leader’s management of the country are forgiven. It’s like falling for an ex all over again. Which, on balance, is something best avoided. Things tend to get messy quite quickly.

All the young people the Guardian spoke to disagreed with aspects of the government’s proposed block

Sixteen- and 17-year-olds in Britain are to be encouraged to observe a midnight to 6am social media curfew but will be able to opt out by changing their account settings.

From next spring, they will be urged to refrain from using certain apps, with the block being switched on by default. But the curfew will not be mandatory and can be overridden.

In my country, devolution has been the equivalent of giving someone a new electric car without the capacity to charge it. That can’t be the model for the whole UK

As a journalist, I have specialised in Wales, Welsh politics and devolution for the past 10 years. Devolution, in particular, could be considered a bit niche as subjects go. But suddenly, everyone wants to talk about it because Andy Burnham is making it front and centre of his offer as prime minister. MPs have been falling over themselves saying how great devolution is. I feel like a volcanologist after the Eyjafjallajökull eruption shut down air travel in 2010 – everyone is now talking about the thing I know about. But sudden interest among the general population does not necessarily equal expertise.

Further and more rationalised devolution is an incredible opportunity for the UK. It is the most fiscally centralised country in the G7 – twice as much as the next most centralised country, Italy. In an international context, it is bizarre that more than 90% of UK tax revenue is collected and controlled by the central government in Westminster. In the US, about half of government spending is by individual states. In the UK, the majority is by the central government. What is even stranger about the UK is that the prime minister is also the equivalent of the first minister of England. It’s like having the governor of Texas also be the US president.

Will Hayward is a Guardian columnist. He publishes a regular newsletter on Welsh politics

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.

We often call England v Argentina a grudge match – a simple story of mutual hatred. But the truth is far more complex, says the Guardian’s Jonathan Liew.

It began with British influence, raising Argentina as a ‘faithful son’ in their own image through polo, tea, and football. But decades of nationalist rejection, iconic World Cup clashes, and a war over the Falkland Islands turned them into ultimate footballing antagonists.

Yet, the two teams haven't played a match in over twenty years. Lionel Messi has never faced England. In an era of over-saturated, commercialised sport, this scarcity has kept the romance of their rivalry alive. Because underneath the bad blood, there is a deep, mutual fascination: two nations that probably revere each other far more than they’d ever care to admit.

• Love and hate collide: England v Argentina is not simply a grudge match

Politicians are claiming that a hit Netflix animation is Russian propaganda aimed at the ‘militarisation of children’. But it’s far from a recent problem – even the CIA has funded kids’ entertainment

When Liberal Democrat MP Tom Gordon spoke earlier this month in the commons of the “militarisation of children”, he wasn’t warning of a generation suddenly taking arms. He was talking about a cartoon bear. Gordon, along with a cross-party group of more than 50 MPs, had written a parliamentary letter urging that an animated children’s show be banned on the basis it is Russian propaganda.

The accused animation is Masha and the Bear, a Russian programme aimed at preschoolers. The show is one of the most popular series on YouTube, and is available in the UK on ITVX and Netflix. The programme follows the adventures of the young, pink-hooded Masha and her brown bear companion in a remote woodland. But MPs – as well as Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation and Estonia’s minister for foreign affairs – see Masha’s use of Soviet-era military costumes as a flex of Russian “soft power”.

• England hearts broken after turnaround in Atlanta

• In pictures: our pick of the best big-match images

England’s destiny is tournament heartbreak. The only question concerns when it comes and how the fates will contrive to make it as painful as possible. This was an implausibly brutal new low.

Thomas Tuchel’s team had fought fire with fire on an occasion that was overloaded with shredded nerves. The first half was a physical fight; it was gripping all the same. And the possibilities seemed endless for England when Anthony Gordon put them in front shortly after half-time. A first appearance in the World Cup final since 1966 looked on.

Politician spoke to senior figures in Reform in March 2024 about covering lost earnings, sources tell the Guardian

Nigel Farage told senior figures in Reform UK he would need “a million a year” to cover lost earnings if he stood for parliament in the 2024 general election, sources have told the Guardian, raising further questions about why he was given £5m by a crypto billionaire.

Sources say the discussion took place in March 2024 – shortly before the undeclared gift was made by Christopher Harborne on 5 April, according to the Thailand-based crypto billionaire’s lawyers.

Mykhailo Fedorov, credited with transforming the ministry, ousted in reshuffle after six months in post

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has dismissed Ukraine’s popular defence minister, despite pleas from foreign partners and civil society for him to keep his job, as part of wide-ranging government reshuffle.

In a post on Telegram Mykhailo Fedorov announced that he was leaving his position, saying it had been a “great honour” to serve the Ukrainian people. He was widely credited with transforming the defence ministry and reducing corruption.

Central Command says US aircraft fired missiles into oil tanker’s smokestack in strait of Hormuz as US strikes Iran for fourth consecutive day

• Trump again threatens to strike Iran’s power plants amid impasse over strait of Hormuz

For a second day in a row, US strikes targeted Iran’s southern port city of Bushehr, home to the country’s only civilian nuclear plant, according to the state news agency IRNA quoting a local official.

“In continuation of the brutality of the American enemy, three points in the city of Bushehr were attacked today,” Mohammad Mozaffari, the governor of Bushehr, was quoted as saying.

In the recent attacks on the southern part of the country, more than 30 civilians lost their lives. While expressing our condolences and sympathy to the bereaved families, we honour the memory of the fallen. The government will stand by the people with all its might. The south of Iran is the beating heart of this land. The south of Iran, the soul of Iran.”

In final PMQs, PM offers Burnham – and England team – full support and defends action on NHS waiting lists, child poverty and economy

• Politics live – latest updates

Keir Starmer has defended his record as prime minister in an often emotional final outing at prime minister’s questions, which largely avoided political jibes in favour of tributes and questions, many about the World Cup.

Answering the very last question, his voice breaking at times, Starmer paid tribute to those he had worked with over his two years in office, which will end on Monday when he hands over to Andy Burnham.

For one placement, black applicants had a less than 1 in 100 chance of being offered a place, NHS data shows

Black doctors in England are four times less likely to be offered a training place than their white counterparts, according to analysis.

As part of their medical training, doctors across the NHS are able to apply to placements within specific branches of practice such as psychiatry, obstetrics and gynaecology, and emergency medicine.

Global views appear to have flipped in Beijing’s favour, driven in part by tensions between the Trump administration and US allies, a new Pew survey shows

The world has largely viewed the US more favourably than China for years, but those opinions have flipped in Beijing’s favour this year, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, a remarkable shift driven in part by tensions between the Trump administration and US allies.

More people have favourable views of China than the US in 25 out of the 36 countries and territories that were surveyed, including Canada and Mexico. The poll was conducted from February to May, a period when the United States and Israel were engaged in a war against Iran.

Researchers in Canada say that UFPs could be ‘substantial and potentially preventable’ contributor to the disease

Thousands of people could avoid dying of heart disease by reducing ultra-processed foods (UPFs), experts have said, as a modelling study suggests junk food may be driving up to a third of cases.

Millions of people increasingly consume UPFs such as ready meals, breakfast cereals, protein bars, fizzy drinks and fast food.

Insects in study fared better in cold when given a probiotic and prebiotic mix alongside their usual sugar diet

Food supplements for honeybees could help the insects better withstand temperature stresses linked to a changing climate, early research suggests.

Scientists found that worker bees fed a mixture of probiotics and inulin, a plant-derived prebiotic, survived prolonged cold exposure better than bees given an ordinary sugar diet.

More than 8,000 packed into Castlefield Bowl, Manchester, hoping to witness England break a 60-year curse. But it was not to be

The stakes couldn’t be higher. Billed as the feistiest match of the tournament, it was England’s chance to defeat an infamous rival and break a 60-year curse to secure a men’s World Cup final.

But it was not to be. During a nail-biting second half, Argentina scored the two goals needed to take themselves to the final – and dash England’s World Cup dreams yet again.

Anna Liedtke files criminal complaint in Israel over alleged attack by female guards and says abuse was intended to silence campaigners

The third time Anna Liedtke was subjected to an illegal strip-search in Israeli detention, female prison guards forced her on to her knees, covered her mouth to stop her screaming and raped her, according to interviews and a criminal complaint filed in Israel.

She described hearing male guards laughing during the attack, which she believes they watched and may have filmed. It took place in an area separated from the prison hallway by a partially drawn curtain that her attackers had left open.

Pioneering American aviator who was the oldest woman to fly into space aged 82 in 2021

As an aviator, Wally Funk, who has died aged 87, was a trailblazing pioneer for women, breaking barriers for eight decades of a remarkable career. “Aviation has been my whole life; I eat and breathe it,” she said in her 2020 memoir, Higher, Faster, Longer (written with Loretta Hall).

She earned her pilot’s licence as a teenager, at 20 was the US military’s first female flight instructor, in 1971 became the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) first female flight inspector, and three years later was the first woman instructor for the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB). But hanging over these accomplishments was her unfulfilled dream of becoming an astronaut.

Fashion is getting braver with accessories again, so lean into it by embracing loud earrings and chunky pendants

This summer, I want jewellery that makes some noise. Real noise – earrings that swish, bangles that clatter – and visual noise as well. Stuff to wear when you want to be seen and heard. The total opposite, in other words, of the jewellery most of us have been wearing lately. Charming, delicate jewellery has become the default. Two necklaces of different lengths on fine chains. One has a heart pendant, the other an initial or a birth stone, am I right? Maybe a curated earlobe of tastefully small mismatched diamond hoops.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this look. It is really nice. In fact, this is exactly the problem.

New exhibition in Oslo connects artist’s 1922 public work with the history of cocoa, the labour movement and women’s emancipation

At first, to be among Edvard Munch’s Freia frieze is almost to be swept up by a dance. Across the 12 canvases on display at Oslo’s Munch museum, fruit pickers’ arms reach with balletic poise, water flows from watering cans in unison, farewells are dramatically bid and synchronised couples move across a beach arm in arm. Even Munch’s brushstrokes, dominated by blues and greens, cannot sit still.

But as you start to ponder why these scenes – commissioned in 1922 as public art to decorate the walls of the women’s canteen at the factory for renowned Norwegian chocolate company Freia – were created, the urge to move evaporates.

Wide-legged and flowing, they are causing a storm on social media, with people posting videos of the fabric getting caught in escalators and causing painful trips

Name: “Zara death pants.”

Appearance: Flowing, wide-legged, with a high waist, elastic waistband and front pockets.

Whitechapel Gallery, London
I feel bad for the artists whose work has been crowbarred into a wonky show about migration, protest, climate and identity

It’s rare that an exhibition is so bad you feel compelled to text a friend saying “you wouldn’t believe the garbage I just saw” as soon as you get out. And if you can walk around this badly explained, undercontextualised, barely linked, poorly thought through mess of a show without getting a migraine, you have a stronger constitution than me.

This is an exhibition about east London. Or maybe it’s about Britishness. Or migration. Or the climate crisis. Or music. Or global trade. Whitechapel Gallery doesn’t seem to really know, so what chance do the rest of us have of figuring it out? The gallery would argue it’s about all of these things; I’d say it manages to be about none of them.

The ubiquity of GLP-1s is wreaking new havoc on bridal designers who must scramble to accommodate rapid weight loss

In bridal stores across the world, solicitous sales assistants are being trained to ask a new, blunt question: “Are you planning on losing a drastic amount of weight?”

Wedding season’s new disruptor is semaglutide, now used by 10% of engaged couples, according to a survey by the wedding planning platform Zola. In the same survey, 42% of couples said the ubiquity of GLP-1s has made them feel they should “look a certain way” for their wedding.

As Christopher Nolan’s star-studded adaptation is released, Australian archaeologist and cyclist Sam Wood has recreated Odysseus’ journey on two wheels

Backpacking around Europe is a rite of passage for many young Australians but when Sam Wood proposed a trip with his two brothers in 2009, he had something a little more ambitious in mind.

An avid cyclist who studied classical archaeology at the University of Sydney and spent three years working at the British Museum, he suggested retracing the route that the Carthaginian general Hannibal took over the Alps with his war elephants in 218BC.

• Head coach has no regrets but admits he will be judged

• Bellingham appears to strike Argentina’s Barco on head

Thomas Tuchel shouldered the blame for England becoming far too passive after taking the lead as Argentina ended his team’s World Cup dream with a dramatic late comeback.

England were within minutes of a first men’s World Cup final on foreign soil after going ahead through Anthony Gordon early in the second half. But the reigning champions equalised through a piledriver from Enzo Fernández before the substitute Lautaro Martínez scored the decisive goal in the second minute of injury time to send Argentina through to Sunday’s final against Spain in New York.

While England shrank away in Atlanta, Argentina’s No 10 was not finished making his mark on the biggest stage

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. Well, not to this lot anyway. On a day of ceaseless rolling noise under Atlanta’s vast refrigerated dome, England reached the end of the road, the end of their own capacities at this World Cup, the end of the gears within this team. Mainly they ran into Lionel Messi, who wasn’t ready to be done just yet. Not like this anyway.

With 55 minutes gone England were actually winning this game, 1-0 up thanks to Anthony Gordon’s goal, the only real moment of clarity they produced all match. At which point they simply disappeared as an animate entity from the stage.

• Banner refers to Falkland Islands conflict in 1982

• Players celebrate on the pitch with the message

The Argentina players celebrated their World Cup win over England with a banner saying “Las Malvinas son Argentinas”, making reference to the 1982 Falklands war.

Argentina were 1-0 down with five minutes to go of the semi-final in Atlanta but rallied and scored twice in quick succession to reach a second straight World Cup final, where they will face Spain in New Jersey on Sunday.

• Governing body did not appear before court in Frankfurt

• Fifa gets 15% commission from both buyer and seller

Fifa has been hit with an injunction by a German court ordering it to stop “manipulative processes” in the sale of World Cup tickets. The Frankfurt regional court has granted a request for a preliminary injunction from Ticombo, an online ticket resale site based in Germany, which has instructed Fifa to be more transparent regarding its secondary ticketing sales by disclosing the identity and address of any commercial sellers.

The court has ordered Fifa “to cease facilitating ticket sales without informing buyers of the seller’s identity and address [specifically for sellers acting in a commercial capacity] in a timely manner prior to the buyer completing their purchase”.

Luis de la Fuente’s final-bound team have been fuelled by togetherness and a commitment to each other that goes back a long way

On the way out of the dressing room in Arlington, Luis de la Fuente gathered his “family” and delivered one last message before the World Cup semi-final against France. He had long known what he was going to say, if not exactly how – it’s what he has been saying for 50 days and more. “I’ll tell them that this is a unique stage, the kind of moment that may never be repeated again, and that we have to be ourselves,” he had suggested 18 hours earlier; now that idea crystallised in a line. “We’re facing one of the best lineups in the world,” the Spain coach told them, “but we’re the best team in the world.”

By the time they made their way back in again, a voice was heard above the shouts, another line to encapsulate it all, to define this. It belonged to Marc Cucurella and it said: “What a fucking recital!” A call came in to De la Fuente, King Felipe on the phone saying pretty much the same thing, if a little more politely. On went the music, Jamaican (Bam Bam) blasting out, pizza was passed around, and they bounced about. Some did, anyway. Some just sat there taking in what they had done. “It was written: we started in Atlanta and we end in New York,” Dani Olmo said, but a semi-final is not supposed to be like this.

A burst pipe left me high, dry and desperate to wash my hair. But around me, everyone seemed stoic and unsurprised - no rolling of eyes, tutting or, God forbid, speaking ill of the water company

On Monday morning, the water coming out of my tap was but a dribble. Disappointing. I checked the water company website and there was something about some problem somewhere that was being resolved. It was sorted. Then Tuesday evening, uh-oh, not even a dribble. Not again, surely. Back to the water company website which, in its own way, is rather helpful. But only in the same way that train companies have got better at owning their shortcomings with the efficiency of the Delay Repay system. Nice as this is, it would be nice if they were as good at stopping problems happening as they are at keeping you across how they are supposedly solving them or, in the case of rail companies anyway, bunging you some money to cheer you up.

Here’s what the website said: “Our specialist team have located a large burst water pipe causing no water, low pressure and flooding to the road …” It was the “specialist team” bit that irritated me, perhaps unreasonably. Specialist as opposed to what? Generalist? A couple of blokes who happened to be in the office and set off with some divining rods for a look around? Pardon my irritation but I’d had my hair cut in the afternoon and, you know how it is, you need a shower otherwise it’s a long, itchy night. My mood wasn’t improved by a couple of American students from South Dakota we had staying (long story) who had never been out of the US before. They were having a bit of a whine about the water, but soon gave up, obviously pitying us living in such an obviously backward country.

Building society rules need an overhaul if ballots on executive pay are non-binding and huge takeovers don’t require approval

In the end, the rebellion at Nationwide, the country’s biggest building society, was modest. James Sherwin-Smith, who was trying to become the first member-nominated director in almost 25 years, secured only 12% of votes cast – enough to count as unusual but a long way short of causing embarrassment for the board. Meanwhile, the society got its usual 95%-plus majorities on every other resolution, including the advisory one on directors’ pay.

There are two ways the directors could react to this result. The first is to conclude that everything is tickety-boo at the UK’s most important mutual. The society’s financial performance is undeniably strong, after all, and the scores for customer satisfaction remain streets ahead of those of the shareholder-owned banks. In operational terms, a lot is going right at Nationwide. That helps to explain why the members are not clamouring to register dissatisfaction, or, indeed, to register much at all: only about 600,000 out of 19 million voted at the annual meeting.

Fining errant corporations is welcome – but when consumers are also getting shaken down on their local high street, it’s time for a new and boisterous approach

It’s a story that warms the heart and lifts the soul: last week, Virgin Media was fined a record £28m by Ofcom for repeatedly preventing customers from cancelling their contracts. Its methods were insidious: deliberate call-dropping, unnecessary call transfers and constantly putting customers on hold. For anyone who has experienced the mental anguish of attempting to cancel a contract or subscription, only to be met with “cancellation friction”, their comeuppance conjures a feeling of economic justice.

“Rip-off Britain” has long been a popular narrative about our country, and feels ever more prescient in a time of stagnant living standards and cost of living pressures. Whether it’s extortionate energy and water bills, food prices, subscription traps, consumer scams, defective goods, unfair fines or hidden charges, it’s impossible to escape the feeling that you are being constantly shaken down. It’s an issue that unites us in frustration: little wonder that the money-saving expert Martin Lewis is the most trusted man in Britain. Reassuring people you’ll help protect their hard-earned money is one of the most surefire ways to make them feel you are on their side.

Jason Okundaye is a Guardian Opinion assistant editor

The next great climate divide will be between countries that have the resources to adapt and those that don’t

This summer, much of the media’s attention has focused on record temperatures across Europe and the United States. Television coverage has been filled with familiar images: heat maps shaded deep red, schools closing, rail lines slowing, wildfires spreading and emergency rooms treating growing numbers of people with heat-related illnesses.

Public officials have responded with equally familiar advice: stay indoors, drink plenty of water and, if possible, turn on the air conditioning.

Children’s worlds have been shrinking and it’s harming their mental health. It’s time for parents to be brave and allow them a little independence

In books and movies that pack a wallop you will usually find a “charged object” – an item crucial to the plot and freighted with emotion. The slipper in Cinderella. The apple in Adam and Eve. And today, in the story of what has gone wrong with childhood: the smartphone.

It’s not that phones aren’t a real problem. We have all seen it. Kids glued to their phones in a restaurant. Kids glued to their phones at the bus stop. The other day I saw a girl swinging on a swing – the classic summer pastime – glued to her phone. And oh, the content! This study alone will give you pause: ParentsTogether Action reports that children see sex and drug content every few minutes on Snapchat. If only we could take away their phones, a happy childhood would be restored – or so it can seem.

Lenore Skenazy is president of Let Grow, a nonprofit promoting childhood independence and resilience, and founder of the Free-Range Kids movement

Paid-for political access and threadbare regulations have helped to embed the US tech firm in the NHS – and beyond. But there is a way to free ourselves

Andy Burnham faces a lot of big decisions. But one of the incoming prime minister’s biggest early tests is what he does about the world’s “scariest company” – Palantir. The US defence and surveillance tech behemoth has a swathe of British public contracts, including, most controversially, a £330m deal with the NHS. It’s pretty clear what many of Burnham’s new parliamentary colleagues want him to do: the science, innovation and technology committee says the government should ditch Palantir and its “clear mismatch with UK values”.

Peter Thiel and Alex Karp’s company is not without British backers. The Times and the Telegraph have been enthusiastic supporters. In the Financial Times last month former Conservative party adviser Camilla Cavendish accused Palantir’s critics of putting politics over progress: “To me, what matters is what works.”

Peter Geoghegan runs the investigative website Democracy for Sale

The outgoing prime minister was on good form during his sometimes emotional last PMQs. But Labour MPs were right that change was needed

Mercifully for a prime minister whose defenestration was swift and brutal after Labour’s catastrophic local election results in May, Sir Keir Starmer’s valedictory week has offered several opportunities to point to what he got right. Sir Keir’s steadfast record in corralling international support for Ukraine – and ensuring Britain stayed out of Donald Trump’s illegal war on Iran – will be looked on favourably by history. A minute’s applause in Paris on Monday, from leaders of the “coalition of the willing” countries, was well deserved.

On Tuesday in the House of Commons, Andy Burnham paid tribute to the outgoing prime minister for his role in drafting the bill that finally became the Hillsborough law this week. On Wednesday, serendipitously, the England team’s World Cup exploits allowed Sir Keir to indulge his passion for football during his final prime minister’s questions.

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.

Obesity reflects prices, advertising and access, not simply weak willpower. Ministers must now act

Britain has spent the last three decades asking individuals to make healthier choices inside a market that makes those choices more expensive and less visible. It is no surprise then that the proportion of adults in England living with obesity nearly doubled in that time, to 30%. MPs on the health select committee have decided enough is enough. Preventing obesity in future generations, they say, must take precedence over the interests of the food and drink industry.

In a report to parliament, the cross-party committee argues that preventing obesity demands radical action to regulate food markets. To those who say “just wait for cheap Ozempic”, MPs offer a clear answer: off-patent GLP-1 drugs may transform treatment, but treatment is what becomes necessary when prevention has failed.

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.

Dr Alessandro Massazza says extreme heat is linked to poor mental health, but solutions do exist. Plus letters from Sean Smith and Woody Caan

The data published by Imperial College London on deaths caused by the May and June heatwaves is a stark reminder of how climate change is not only measured in degrees of temperatures but also in terms of lost lives (May and June heatwaves killed about 2,700 people in England and Wales, data suggests, 13 July).

While each death due to extreme heat is a preventable tragedy, mortality only represents the tip of the iceberg of how heat is impacting our health. Extreme heat also affects our mental health. Throughout the past weeks in the northern hemisphere, we have all experienced how it is making it harder for us to sleep, making us more irritable and reducing our ability to concentrate.

There is no majority support for use of gene editing on non-life-threatening conditions, writes Tom Lichy of the British Deaf Association

Your editorial (The Guardian view on gene-edited humans: darker uses must be acknowledged alongside medical ones, 5 July) offers welcome support to those expressing concern about the lack of public dialogue on gene-edited humans. These concerns are exacerbated when some scientists view the use of germline editing to eradicate hereditary conditions as inevitable.

The new polling for the Progress Educational Trust reported in your editorial indicates that the UK public agrees with the use of gene editing to correct life‑threatening genetic conditions. No such majority supports use for conditions such as deafness which are not remotely life-threatening.

Martin Bailey responds to a letter that said the word ‘welfare’ is American and has negative connotations

Ruth Lister is very much mistaken in her accusation that the word “welfare” is pejorative and American in origin (Letters, 13 July). William Beveridge refers to welfare 25 times in his report of 1942.

Moreover, the use of the word welfare in Britain has a long and positive history – it was the stated aim to improve the welfare of the British people by liberals, the labour and trade union movement, many Christians, friendly societies and other progressives throughout 19th-century Britain, much of this reaching political fruition in the reforms of the Lloyd George government and the acts of the 1945 Labour administration.

Carla Keen on the cultural signals we attach to how people speak, in response to a review on a documentary hosted by the inequality campaigner

Lucy Mangan’s description of Gary Stevenson as having an “adolescent bullishness” raises a wider question about how class shapes perceptions of authority (How to Get Filthy Rich With Gary Stevenson review – how did this end up such an embarrassment?, 8 July). I am an artist from a working-class background working in theatre, and I am very aware how often authority is often judged through presentation. Our media landscape still has a narrow idea of what expertise looks and sounds like. Research by the Sutton Trust has shown that around half of newspaper columnists and over a third of BBC executives were privately educated, despite private schools educating only a small minority of the population.

Stevenson is now wealthy, highly educated and professionally successful, but class is not only about income or occupation. It is also about the cultural signals that we attach to voice, manner and presentation.

The impact of a heatwave is laid bare by the Open venue’s scorched earth, making the competition for the Claret Jug even harder to gauge

A star was born in 1976 at Royal Birkdale. Seve Ballesteros was unable to press home his 54-hole advantage due to a combination of a Sunday 74 and Johnny Miller’s surge. Still, the swashbuckling style of the 19‑year‑old Spaniard captured hearts and minds. Ballesteros played golf – and successfully – from all parts of the famous links.

The 50th anniversary of Ballesteros’s emergence comes with an uncanny parallel: back at Birkdale, the grass is parched again. Firm, fiery, unpredictable Opens are the finest. Stand by, then, for a sporting feast over four days on the Sefton coast. Less green and pleasant land, more yellow brick road. Away from putting surfaces which have been lashed with water, the impact of a heatwave is laid bare.

• Alaphilippe gets in breakaway before being reeled in

• Pidcock’s rollercoaster ride continues on return to Tour

The records keep tumbling in the 2026 Tour de France. After race leader Tadej Pogacar shattered the record for the fastest climb of the Col du Tourmalet, Norwegian sprinter Søren Wærenskjold won the fastest-ever road stage, in a frenzied sprint into Nevers.

Pogacar revealed his stage had not been entirely straightforward. “I ran over a loose bottle with my front wheel and almost crashed,” he said. “I completely shat my pants there. Luckily, I managed to keep my handlebars upright. It’s nice to have days like this, but you still have to keep your focus throughout the stage.”

• West Ham winger available for right price after relegation

• Rashford has two years remaining on United contract

Manchester United will turn their attention towards Crysencio Summerville should Marcus Rashford leave this summer, with the West Ham winger’s potential fee around £30m. Summerville is viewed as having the right profile in regards to a left-sided forward to replace the England international.

Since relegation to the Championship, West Ham are open to selling the 24-year-old Dutchman providing they receive a suitable offer. Summerville, who was part of the Netherlands’ World Cup campaign, has three years remaining on his contract.

• Lionesses goalkeeper heading to Villa on a free transfer

• Millie Turner moves to Birmingham City for £100,000

Aston Villa have signed the former Everton goalkeeper Emily Ramsey on a free transfer.

The 25-year-old received a call-up by England in 2023 – as part of the squad that won that year’s invitational Arnold Clark Cup – and in 2021 for a training camp, but is yet to earn a senior cap. Ramsey was a regular in England youth international sides throughout the age groups and is highly admired by Villa.

• ICC reveals shape of expanded 2027 14-team tournament

• Only one of three lowest-ranked teams would advance

The men’s Cricket World Cup will undergo yet another revamp when it takes place in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia next year. A convoluted 14-team format has been officially confirmed by the International Cricket Council (ICC), albeit one that trims the competing nations to 12 almost immediately.

While at the last two World Cups the 10 teams played a round-robin league stage that produced four semi-finalists, the expanded 2027 edition will begin with the three lowest-ranked teams out of the 14 qualifiers playing what has been called a “Super Series”. Only one of these teams will progress through to the main event.

An unlikely match ‘like a World Cup final’ was for some first proof of Yorkshire immigrant community’s love of cricket

On 30 June 1986 the Yorkshire Post printed an invitation to a pre-match reception at the Majestic hotel. “Meet cricket club celebrities,” the invite read. “Auction, £10 (including buffet).” But these were not just any old cricket celebrities, this was India and Pakistan, led by Kapil Dev and Imran Khan, due to meet for only the second time on British soil at the genteel English town of Harrogate.

This unlikely match, a 40-over bish-bash fundraiser for Help the Aged, had been encouraged by the cricketing bigwigs of both nations. India were already in situ on an England tour, while the Pakistan ambassador, Ali Arshad, was in charge of pulling together a team, flying five players over specially.

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Northampton Saint is embracing a friendly rivalry with his headline-grabbing teammate when they take on the Pumas

It has been a long road for several of the players who went on the British & Irish Lions tour to Australia last year. They are putting on a professionally brave face, but for some the final weekend of the season cannot come soon enough. Factor in the travel, the training and associated other stresses and strains and the 2025-26 campaign has been relentless from a physical and a mental perspective.

Crunch the numbers before the last hurrah against Argentina on Saturday and it is a wonder many are still standing. Of the English Lions, Henry Pollock is about to participate in his 32nd competitive game while his Northampton teammate Tommy Freeman is poised to play his 29th. Ben Earl and Ellis Genge, assuming their involvement against the Pumas, will be in the same situation with Ollie Chessum one behind.

‘Documents of concern’ found at child’s home in the capital, with no other suspects sought

A 14-year-old boy from south London has been charged with an offence linked to “extreme rightwing terrorism” after a police search uncovered an alleged plot to target two mosques.

The boy was arrested on 9 July on suspicion of criminal damage to a vehicle, but officers dispatched to his address found “a number of documents of concern” during a search, according to the Metropolitan police.

Third round of arrests linked to independent bookstores after similar operations in March and June widely regarded as crackdowns on dissent

Hong Kong authorities have raided two bookstores and arrested five people on suspicion of selling allegedly seditious publications, according to local media reports, in the latest step targeting independent booksellers.

Videos and photos from multiple media outlets on Wednesday showed officers wearing vests marked with “police” seizing boxes from the building that houses Have A Nice Stay, a bookshop founded by former journalists. AFP reporters saw officers also lead away a woman in handcuffs to a van.

Former economy minister Chris Cardona and ex-chief of staff Keith Schembri named as being involved in 2017 murder of journalist

Two political figures who previously held powerful government roles in Malta were accused of plotting to kill the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia during court testimony on Wednesday.

The allegations, against a former economy minister and a former chief of staff to the prime minister, were made during a chaotic day at the courts of justice in Valletta, where the businessman Yorgen Fenech is on trial for ordering the assassination of Caruana Galizia in 2017.

The R&B singer was found guilty of racketeering, sex trafficking and producing child abuse images, with his lawyer lobbying the US president for more than a year

R Kelly has formally appealed to the US president, Donald Trump, for a reduction of his 31-year prison sentence for racketeering, sex trafficking and child abuse images, in a filing to the Department of Justice.

The 59-year-old R&B singer, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was found guilty in 2021 of leading a criminal enterprise that recruited women and underage girls for illegal sexual activity and pornography, for which he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. In 2022 he was found guilty on three counts of child abuse images and three counts of child enticement and sentenced to 20 years in prison, which he is serving nearly entirely concurrently but for one additional year.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organizations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

Government – which provides significant portion of charity’s funding – is understood to have demanded an explanation

The charity Save the Children has angered the government with a social media post marking Keir Starmer’s impending exit from Downing Street.

The organisation suggested on X that the outgoing prime minister was complicit in the deaths of thousands of civilians in the Israel-Gaza war.

Adaptation to frightening new normal and reducing emissions further and faster is critical, scientists warn

Dozens of people drowned, hundreds had to be rescued and thousands were displaced when floods struck the coasts of west Africa last month.

Now scientists have concluded that the rains that caused the floods were supercharged by climate breakdown. Global heating, they say, turned what should have been a routine weather event into a climate catastrophe.

Minister urges public to report cases of three or more sick or dead birds in a group after brown skua seabird tests positive for H5N1 on Wellington beach

The deadly H5N1 bird flu has been confirmed in New Zealand for the first time, sparking alarm that some of the country’s most beloved and vulnerable native birds could be wiped out if it spreads.

A single ocean-going seabird, a brown skua, returned a confirmed positive test on Wednesday, after it was found on Petone beach in Wellington on 10 July, said Andrew Hoggard, the biosecurity minister.

Environment Canada has issued health warnings after sky over city turns yellow

Smoke from more than 100 active wildfires in northern Ontario have made Toronto’s air quality the current worst in the world and caused yellow, smoky air in cities across the north-east US.

Environment Canada issued health warnings on Wednesday after the sky over country’s largest city turned a sickly yellow and was ranked the worst in the world according to IQAir, the Swiss technology company that racks global air quality.

As the rights of nature are increasingly being recognised, the Scottish Association for Marine Science is the latest organisation to make the ocean a trustee

In a boardroom in an office building in Oban, a picturesque town on the west coast of Scotland, trustees attending meetings have long been able to see the breaking waves of the Atlantic through the windows. But since last month, the ocean has also been present in the room, with an unusual new initiative ensuring that it now has a say on decisions shaping the future of the 140-year-old Scottish Association for Marine Science (Sams).

Sams was set up during the Scottish Enlightenment, a time of growing interest in oceanography when nature was seen as something to be dominated and exploited.

Mayor of London backs calls from unions to update health and safety rules in light of more frequent heatwaves

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is backing calls for a maximum workplace temperature as pressure grows on the government to protect workers from the impact of repeated heatwaves across the UK.

The extreme heat has left people struggling to cope as temperatures in some workplaces climb above 40C, causing thousands of schools to close and hospital and transport systems to break down.

Pubs code adjudicator says it has reasonable grounds to believe group has breached industry regulations

The owner of the Slug & Lettuce and Be At One chains is being investigated over concerns about possible “unfair” treatment of landlords who run more than 3,000 of its venues.

Stonegate Group, Britain’s biggest chain of bars and pubs, could be fined up to 1% of revenue, more than £16m, if it is found to have breached the “pubs code”, legislation governing how pub-owning companies treat their tenants.

Court of appeal rules Labour donor suffered ‘obvious injustice’ over use of his photo with headline referring to different man

The green energy entrepreneur and Labour donor Dale Vince is in line to receive damages from the publisher of the Daily Mail after claiming it used his picture to mislead millions of readers.

Vince, who has given more than £5m to Labour over several years, took legal action against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over an article, published in June 2023, headlined “Labour repays £100,000 to sex pest donor”.

Councillors pass motion that paves way to setting up drugs-consumption facility where users can be helped and treated

• UK politics live – latest updates

Bristol has been formally declared a “city of harm reduction”, with local politicians pledging to focus on helping and treating users of illegal drugs rather than punishing them.

Green councillors, who lead the city council, said the declaration was a clear signal that public health rather than criminal justice solutions were needed to tackle the UK’s growing drugs crisis.

Assailant allegedly sedated victims using sleeping tablets and alcohol after meeting them online

A Berlin man has been charged with nearly two dozen counts of raping unconscious women and filming the acts, while investigators believe based on video evidence that the suspect may have attacked up to 60 victims.

In the latest of a series of high-profile cases involving the serial rape of unwitting targets on camera, Berlin prosecutors said they have indicted the 68-year-old German national on 22 counts of sexual assault of 14 women. The man, an electrician, has been in police custody since March.

Journalists who had reported on security concerns around the new Air Force One, a gift from Qatar, received summons

The New York Times on Wednesday filed a motion to quash subpoenas the justice department served journalists who reported on security concerns involving the new Air Force One, a gift from Qatar, teeing up a significant court fight over press freedom and the government’s ability to force reporters to identify sources.

“As we set out in our motion, these subpoenas are brought in bad faith to punish the Times for its coverage. They violate the constitutional rights of the Times and its journalists. We are going to court to defend our journalists’ rights to report freely on the administration and to provide the public with stories that matter,” David McCraw, the newspaper’s senior vice-president and deputy general counsel, said in a statement.

State department says plan will provide funding to ‘address national sovereignty, migration, censorship and lawfare’

Friedrich Merz has warned Donald Trump’s administration against interfering in German elections after the US state department announced a scheme to fund Maga-aligned causes in Europe.

The German chancellor was responding to a new US initiative offering grants of up to $3m (£2.2m) for European charities, thinktanks and individuals.

Coin commemorating 250th anniversary will be released this fall and marks first time a living president appears on currency

The treasury department announced on Wednesday that the US Mint has started producing a new commemorative $1 coin featuring Donald Trump as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration.

The coin is scheduled for release this fall. Treasury officials said its final design was approved earlier this year by the US Commission of Fine Arts, whose members were appointed by Trump.

James Sherwin-Smith says he will launch fresh campaign for change at the building society after losing vote at AGM

A Nationwide customer has vowed to fight on after losing a historic attempt to join its board and is plotting a fresh campaign to boost democracy at the building society.

James Sherwin-Smith secured about 12.5% of the vote, representing support from 75,939 Nationwide members, at the mutual’s annual general meeting on Wednesday.

Proposal to protect vulnerable and stop money laundering could affect Premier League clubs and Formula One

• UK politics live – latest updates

Unlicensed casinos could be banned from sponsoring sports teams in the UK from next year, in a move that poses financial questions for Premier League football clubs such as Everton FC and sports including Formula One.

Plans for a ban, revealed by the Guardian on Sunday and confirmed by the government on Wednesday, are aimed at protecting vulnerable people and reducing the risk of sport being used by organised crime groups for money laundering.

Worse-than-expected figures for three months to June come amid concerns over lopsided economy

• Business live – latest updates

China has posted worse-than-expected growth figures for the three months to June as its economy expanded by just 4.3% – one of its lowest quarterly readings on record.

The rate, which came in under the government’s target of 4.5% to 5%, was one of the weakest since reporting on official quarterly GDP figures began in the early 1990s.

Lawsuit filed by dozens of employees says people who took maternity or disability leave were disproportionately selected for layoffs

Dozens of Meta employees have sued the social media company over claims that it used artificial intelligence tools to tag workers for mass layoffs. The workers allege that those AI tools targeted them after they asked for protected or maternity leave or disability accommodation.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in the northern district of California, points to Meta’s workforce reduction of about 8,000 employees earlier this year. Meta is the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The suit alleges that Meta used a “constellation of internal artificial intelligence systems”, including AI performance ratings and keystroke- and activity-monitoring data, to pinpoint who to lay off.

Five decades since punk bible Sniffin’ Glue, DIY magazines are in rude, rich health. Their creators talk fandom, community-building and resisting the algorithm

‘The most important part of the word ‘fanzine’ is ‘fan’,” says London-based zine-maker Jon Marsh. Existing outside mainstream media, free from the demands of release cycles and search engine optimisation, music fanzines are obsessions turned into tangible objects; self-published primarily for the maker’s own enjoyment, but with the potential of forging connections with like-minded people.

In the 1970s, punk zines such as Sniffin’ Glue, Alternative Ulster and Ripped & Torn allowed fans to share news and enthusiasm quickly and cheaply. Half a century on, music fanzines are enjoying a resurgence as a form of resistance to algorithm fatigue and the hyper-capitalist music industry. “Digital attention span is at an all-time low,” says hip-hop musician ExP, creator of the West Yorkshire Hip-Hop zine. “You’re almost definitely going to spend more time looking at a zine than anything you see scrolling. It’s more interesting and more real.” In the words of Stephen McRobbie, from indie-pop icons and fanzine regulars the Pastels: “It’s the long way round compared to other media, but the scenery is always better.”

The much-loved presenter had 10 years on This Morning before suddenly deciding she had to get out of there. She discusses sexual harassment, tabloid intrusion, Phillip Schofield and the power of forgiveness

On the daytime TV behemoth that is This Morning, Fern Britton always had an appealing mix of warmth, no-nonsense capability and a hint of danger, as if she could decide to blow it all up at any moment. And then she did.

On the day she resigned in 2009, Britton didn’t know she was going to do it, but amid rumours of a feud with co-host Phillip Schofield, she took the scorched-earth route and walked away from her high-profile, high-paying job with nothing to take its place. Was she not worried about what she would do next?

These two half-hour classics of stop-motion pack in nods to more earnest cinema but are never distracted from producing pristinely beguiling family entertainment

Nick Park’s stop-motion Wallace and Gromit animations have an amazing ability to deliver an entire action adventure feature film at just 30 minutes complete with romantic subplot and loads of great visual gags thrown in, and A Close Shave (★★★★★) from 1995 is just another example of it. The situation is that Wallace (voiced by Peter Sallis) is working on his latest invention in his cellar, a giant machine, like a bungalow-sized cauldron, that automatically shears sheep and knits the product into lovely woolly jumpers.

While they are waiting for this to become a success, Wallace and Gromit run a window-cleaning business, and it is in this capacity that they meet Wendolene Ramsbottom (voiced by Anne Reid) who owns a wool-selling business oddly unaffected by the wool shortage. Wallace falls for the comely Wendolene and their intensely English and shy romance forms an ironic counterpoint to the fact that Wendolene has been coerced by her sinister dog Preston into being complicit in this hateful canine’s sheep-rustling business – as a result of which a runaway sheep finds its way into Wallace and Gromit’s house.

The passionate allegory on Stalinism is outrageously reduced to happy-ending panto in this defanged animation featuring the voices of Seth Rogen, Laverne Cox and Glenn Close

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is not a sacred text. There’s no rule that says it can’t be changed in adaptation, especially if, say, you wanted to add some historical perspective from the world that came to exist after the book was published in 1945. But this unforgivably sugary animation from screenwriter Nicholas Stoller and director Andy Serkis, as well as having a pretty cheapo digital look, betrays Orwell by outrageously blandifying and defanging its classic allegory of Stalinism and failed revolution with a dumb happy ending in the Disney style.

The pivotal moment when the pigs and the humans look the same happens not at the end, but around the one-hour stage into a 94-minute film, signalling that a new third act is in the offing. I was initially intrigued, wondering if there would be some ingenious finale in which a wall on the farm is knocked down. But no. The evil pig Napoleon (voiced by Seth Rogen with many a yuk-yuk-yuk) has eliminated his rival Snowball (Laverne Cox), then gobbles up corrupt human money from a newly invented agribusiness corporate character from the human world called Pilkington (Glenn Close) and takes to addressing his followers with the aid of a Big Brother-style giant screen.

More candid confessions from the tabloid star and her exes. Plus: unflappable paramedics deal with the aftermath of a bonfire accident. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, Sky Documentaries
Part two of Katie Price’s rollercoaster life story. After an eye-popping account of her time in the Playboy mansion, Price recalls finding out she was going to become a single mum and the public judgment that came with it. Gareth Gates also sits down to speak about their fling – “I was on cloud nine!” – and what happened when Price later sold their story to the press. Then we reach the I’m a Celebrity stint, where Price met a pop star called Peter Andre. Hollie Richardson

This series about a conwoman fleeing for her life is packed with explosions and preposterous coincidences. It’s bunkum with bells on – but who can resist it in this heat?

Luciana “Lucky” Armstrong (Anya Taylor‑Joy) is on the run, scampering across the US in her fashionably rumpled sateen blouson and prompting much fist-shaking from the hapless feds on her tail. “Lucky!” they bellow, cheeks puffing in disbelief as the incorrigible grifter bounds across the roofs of parked lorries, wriggles out of an exploding car, scams a sobbing gran and sets fire to a goon’s cowboy boots. “Lucky?! Stop!” But, no, too late, she’s off again; capering, conning and smirking her way through the Apple TV crime thriller that bears her pointedly ambiguous nickname.

Based on Marissa Stapley’s bestselling novel, the story follows thus: after her boyfriend has made off with the proceeds of their multimillion-dollar heist, our penniless protagonist finds herself pursued by the FBI and a ruthless crime boss determined to relieve the duo of their ill-gotten spoils.

Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey

Ahead of her World Cup final performance, the singer’s Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran tour whips through exuberant hits

In the dark of a sold-out Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, a screen lights up on a desert. Around me are girls and their moms in concho shell belts and coined hip scarves, and there are Colombia soccer jerseys and the country’s traditional vueltiao hats as far as you can see. An uncanny CGI figure of Shakira shakes loose the sand. She looks to be covered in a silvery oil slick. I immediately recognize the Shakira of the La Tortura video I saw on MTV’s TRL in 2005, her stomach flickering in fluid, controlled movements. She pounds the sand, and a silver-sequined Shakira emerges, first on screen and then on the floor.

“There’s nothing like when a she-wolf reunites with her pack,” she howls.

After the Guardian’s music critics chose their best of the half-year, we asked you for your picks – from Brian Jackson and Arlo Parks to Maya Hawke, Flea and more

• The best albums of 2026 so far
• ‘I saw it seven times in the cinema’: readers’ favourite films of 2026 so far

The album is a fun, punchy dance record that will definitely be the soundtrack of my summer. It’s propulsive, full of queer joy, cheeky lyricism, and relatable insecurities as they ruminate on “being past their prime” as pop stars in their early 30s. It will undoubtedly be an amazing live show and is a testament to the importance of artists taking breaks, going out and living and resting before coming back with new things to say and experiences to detail. Jane Tytla, New England, US

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London
The veteran band may not have much new material to show for the past decade or so but this brutal, melodious mayhem still inspires catharsis

Since re-forming in 2010, System of a Down (SOAD) have existed in some weird limbo, playing numerous big-ticket tours but releasing only two new songs, with mooted further new material conspicuous by its absence amid grumbling of impasses and creative conflicts.

Tonight offers scant clues this deadlock has eased – certainly, there are no new songs – but SOAD don’t play like they’re retreading familiar material simply for filthy lucre. Viscerally heavy, they give everything a metal band should, including a guitar hero, Daron Malakian, who leads chants of: “Pull Oasis out of your ass!” and provokes a circle-pit that stretches from stage to exit; a bassist, Shavo Odadjian, gurning with unparalleled panache; and a frontman, Serj Tankian, who growls, croons, gets operatic and – at least once tonight – meows.

(Interscope)
Despite their goth-coded attempts at emotional turbulence, the saccharine songs of Abrams’ third album feel adolescent in their melodrama

Gracie Abrams’ third album is a full-blown crime scene. Across 16 songs, the US songwriter catalogues slip knots, blades, bullets, knives, more knives, ghosts, cages, drugs, car crashes, blood, burial, flaming tyres, choking, burning houses, sinking ships, drowning, more blood, bloody knees and even more knives. It’s called Daughter from Hell to acknowledge how much the 26-year-old frayed her parents’ nerves as a reckless teen, part of a wider theme about working out when to blame others for her pain, and when to accept responsibility. Clearly, there’s a lot of poetic licence involved in dramatising these mature revelations, but the dissonance between Abrams’ goth-coded emotional turbulence and the music’s insistent, quivering prettiness is the real uncrackable case on this bloodless record.

In one way, Abrams has had an outsized influence on pop. Her early bedroom songs inspired Olivia Rodrigo to write Drivers License, which kickstarted the former Disney star’s dazzlingly quick and continuing act of self-redefinition. Mostly, though, Abrams is the sum of her influences: you needn’t listen hard to clock Lorde’s vocal harmonies, Phoebe Bridgers’ intimacy or the tightly packed storytelling of Taylor Swift, who had Abrams support on the Eras tour. In Swift she also shares a producer in the National’s Aaron Dessner, a collaborator in Bon Iver (his jump-scare falsetto appears on two songs here, and he plays all over the record), and certainly a sound in Folklore’s pearlescent acoustics, injected with a whisper of stomp-clap vigour. That mix of melodrama and songs sung like secrets means Abrams’ audience skews young: her music carries the sensation of being the only person in the world grappling with huge emotions, as life often feels in adolescence. For anyone older, her music can feel a little starter pack.

In a new book, Isaac Butler goes back to the 1980s to trace how battles started against the arts, from Piss Christ to Mapplethorpe, and looks at what we can learn for today

Isaac Butler is limbering up for an event at Politics and Prose, an independent bookshop and venerable Washington institution, but still has time to explain his arm tattoos.

They variously depict: a logo from his grandparents’ company in the 1960s; a satellite that his father worked on at Nasa; a “jaunty crab” for his wife, who finds crabs “hilarious”; an iris by Japan’s Utagawa Hiroshige for Butler’s daughter, Iris; a drawing of a scene from a production of The Seagull by the Russian theatre maker Konstantin Stanislavski; and an artwork by the American painter and photographer David Wojnarowicz that shows a house on fire.

In the follow-up to the Booker-shortlisted Burnt Sugar, a woman seeks liberation from her controlling relationships

Avni Doshi’s second novel is narrated by an unnamed woman in the suburban US who is shocked to hear her husband announce that he is leaving her. She isn’t in love with him, exactly, but she sees their marriage as a structure or “container” for her existence. Formerly a novelist, her writing has stalled since having children. Her husband controls their finances, and won’t tell her why the credit card keeps failing. She suspects he’s been sleeping around.

In the aftermath of his departure she tries to isolate herself, not only from her ex, but also from her own family, whose well-meaning interference becomes another kind of domination. She’s a practising astrologist – the “first house” of the title refers both to the couple’s home and to the astrological division of the heavens that has a bearing on the body, physical appearance and early life experience: foundations for a self. This self is exposed by abandonment. The First House, as a whole, is the story of its excoriation: a harsh, occasionally bitterly funny rejection of the narrator’s personhood and relationships as they stand. Marriage, she states, requires “a terrible fear of consequences”; “if either person in a couple stopped being afraid, it would certainly break apart”. Her parents bully her. Her cousin tries to set her up with other men. Her daughter just wants a phone. Relationships, like devices, promise connection and deliver alienation. “The tight, airless room of a marriage only created the conditions for us to realise we were alone, always alone.”

From maggots to viruses, this gross-out compendium also manages to celebrate the awe and inventiveness of nature

When Craig Venter, one of the mappers of the human genome, set out on a sailboat cruise to map DNA in seawater all across the globe, he found that a teaspoon of seawater contained on average 50m viruses. While this doesn’t sound particularly reassuring, the bad news is mitigated by the fact that most of these are phages that infect marine bacteria and have no interest in us.

Viruses are parasites, and like all their parasitic kind, they get a free ride from living organisms. The whole point of multicellular life is to create a cosy environment for cells to live in, and evolution has invented all manner of stowaways that want this comfort and manage to get on board, either outside or sometimes inside the cells themselves. While it is not generally in the best interest of a parasite to kill its host and be forced to find a new home, some come dangerously close. Most diseases in the developing world are connected in some way or another to parasitic infections.

Skipping between London, Shanghai and Hong Kong, this tale of family migration, politics and food has plenty of flavour and fire

Amber Fan, the 22-year-old protagonist of Kit Fan’s heartfelt and elegiac second novel, is ready to say goodbye. Goodbye to her parents, who are booked on the midnight flight from London to Hong Kong, there to enjoy their sunset years having sold the family restaurant in London’s Chinatown. And goodbye to the old Chinatown that they and their generation of hard-working Hong Kong émigrés represent, the Chinatown of peking duck, red lanterns, rude waiters and sticky tables. She loves them both, in their way, but she has her own plans for the future.

The story begins in late 2001, not long after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, as Amber prepares to open her own restaurant – an east meets west “fine fusion restaurant” called Luna. It is, she notes, “the worst possible time to open a restaurant”. Global markets are in meltdown and the old Cantonese-style joints of Chinatown, often established by those who, like Amber’s parents, fled Hong Kong for Britain in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, are closing down and selling up, usually to cash-rich mainland Chinese investors. Everyone agrees that it is the end of an era.

As global anxieties multiply, ​v​ideo games from Resident Evil to Mouthwashing are providing rich source material to help decode society’s problems

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Horror is so hot right now. There’s Obsession, Evil Dead Burn and Hokum in the cinema, Widow’s Bay, From and Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen on TV, and, of course, a rotting smorgasbord of horror games including Resident Evil Requiem (pictured top) and Reanimal, soon to be joined by Silent Hill: Townfall, Silver Pines and Dreadmoor. We’re also seeing weird cross-pollinations, with horror movie studio Blumhouse making games, while games themselves become horror films and the whole backrooms genre infects every medium it touches.

So it was fascinating to attend last week’s horror and gaming conference at Falmouth University, in Cornwall: a gathering of students, researchers and lecturers, all engaged in the academic study of horror games. There were brilliant talks on zombies and posthumanism, the gothic in games, and the role of monstrous little girls in survival horror (there are a lot of them!). Subjects as diverse as masculine fragility, disability and ageing came up; Will Doyle, creative director at Supermassive Games, gave a great keynote on the art of creating horror in games using tools such as revulsion, spatial alienation and the human instinct of apophenia. I learned a lot about theorists such as Julia Kristeva and Mark Fisher, and about the technical similarities between indie horror games and film noir (for example, the use of darkness and creative camera techniques to “hide” budget restrictions). It was incredible fun.

PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2; Marimittu Games
A soft puzzle game makes a sharp point about the over-optimised future ahead

In the far future, on a planet that is not Earth, AI is in charge. This entity is no Skynet-esque killer robot but a machine that cares for humanity. Manifesting most visibly as cute droids, the technology is pervasive – embedded in everything from the design of the sleek architecture to the gorgeous, mostly sunny artificial weather. The so-called Optimization System has but one responsibility: ensuring the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.

In less skilled hands this game might have felt like an undergraduate seminar on the limits of utilitarianism. But Japanese studio Marumittu Games elegantly marries its philosophical concerns with smart design choices. You play as a young, unnamed Facilitator tasked with tending to both the city’s bots and its human residents. Each morning you wake up, sleepily loping off to the bathroom before sitting down for an exquisitely rendered breakfast, and then embark on your day’s work. Like everything else in this near-future scenario, labour is designed to cause as little frustration as possible, amounting to simple maths brain teasers on a grid – nothing too taxing, but enough to keep you engaged.

Introducing a new sadistic psychopath and a corrupt secret society of Gotham grandees would mean Harvey Dent takes a backseat to Victor Zsasz and the Court of Owls

Matt Reeves’ The Batman was a strange beast from the beginning. Perhaps not comic-book weird in the usual sense – no cosmic portals or rubber nipples here – but strange all the same. This was a Gotham where Bruce Wayne seemed to have been styled by the ghost of Kurt Cobain, the Riddler appeared to have escaped from a David Fincher evidence locker, and the whole city looked as if it had been left to soak overnight in rainwater and civic corruption. The expectation was that Reeves would begin rolling back the bizarre in part two, perhaps leaving us with a more orthodox Batverse populated with mobsters and corrupt lawyers. Sebastian Stan seemed central to this, with rumours suggesting he would portray Harvey Dent/Two-Face, perhaps alongside Scarlett Johansson as his wife, Gilda.

In the last week, however, there have been suggestions that the sequel might just be priming itself for something a fair bit freakier. Hollywood industry veteran Jeff Sneider is reporting that the main antagonist this time around could be the Court of Owls, a sinister secret society of Gotham grandees who look at first glance like a murder-bird upgrade on the League of Shadows, but are really something nastier: the city’s masked, devious ruling class, living out of secret rooms and exploiting a property portfolio that probably goes back to the Pilgrims.

PS5, PC, Xbox Series X/S; Ubisoft Singapore/Ubisoft
Ubisoft has removed all the boring parts of pirate life from its fantasy RPG, creating something more focused and fun

Edward Kenway isn’t your dad’s Assassin’s Creed protagonist. Neither sworn to ancient oaths nor given a noble destiny, he’s just a guy who likes coin, dislikes rules, and whose gold-chasing, rule-dodging lifestyle sees him embroiled in an ancient war between Templars and assassins quite by accident. After he’s shipwrecked with a man named Walpole who turns out to be a Templar, Edward assumes Walpole’s identity in the hopes of securing the bounty he mentioned.

Edward wears life lightly. The world around him is violent and chaotic, and those in his vicinity are more obsessed with double-crossings than a Mission:Impossible movie writers’ room. Ed just smiles, undeterred by it all, and gets on with plundering. It’s all just fun and games to him, and he is set on conquering the Caribbean on his own terms. He is a brilliant extension of the player, in that way, and that’s what this remake of the 2013 pirate-themed Assassin’s Creed does so well: the sense of freedom.

Soho theatre, London
Josh Radnor is a music executive whose life is upended by his wayward brother, in a play about masculinity, creativity, appropriation and trauma

On paper, writer Jonathan Caren’s Hit Machine has all the makings of a chart-topping smash. Featuring the London stage debuts of Josh Radnor (How I Met Your Mother) and Noah Galvin (Dear Evan Hansen), with direction from Daniel Bailey (Red Pitch) and music by Grammy-winning bluesman Ben Harper, the three-hander tackles the topics of masculinity, appropriation and buried family trauma through the prism of the creative process.

Set in the louche, soft-furnished home of music mogul Wes (Radnor), the play begins promisingly. Wayward younger brother Alex (Galvin) arrives and throws a plaid-shirted bomb into Wes’s carefully manicured and minimalist life. We begin to see how each sibling plays their role in the strained family dynamic: Wes the high-achiever on the hedonic treadmill always striving for more, and Alex the sprightly yet secretive youngster striving only for approval.

At Soho theatre, London, until 15 August

Committed to Bethlem hospital after killing his father in a psychotic episode, Dadd inspired Angela Carter and Queen. Now a new show is exploring his paintings with a more nuanced take on his mental illness

In the autumn of 1843, the influential journal Art-Union mourned “the late Richard Dadd”, an apparently kind and gentle man who a year or so earlier had been a rising star of London’s Royal Academy. Today, Dadd is known, if at all, for having murdered his father while in the grip of severe psychosis, for which he was committed to Bethlem hospital asylum where he passed his remaining 43 years. As Art-Union concluded: “although the grave has not actually closed over him, he must be classed among the dead.”

At Bethlem, Dadd began painting again. Scenes remembered from his trip around the Eastern Mediterranean – when he first began suffering mental distress – were followed by portraiture allegory, satire, biblical scenes and intricately detailed fantasies, among them the unfinished The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke, which he painted between 1855 and 1864. By now he was more patient than artist, and the prism of mental illness through which his work came to be understood has never fully shifted.

Edinburgh Castle
The AI-style backing videos are terrible and his accomplished band can be overly slick at times, but Taylor’s civility and grace cuts through it all

James Taylor, in summer twilight, plays the lovely fingerpicked intro to Fire and Rain, a song he has been performing for decades – and the crowd cheers in recognition of a classic. But does the 78-year-old still feel those old songs? He sings them beautifully in his lulling baritone, but perhaps they no longer lift and soothe his heart quite like they do ours. Is the man on stage in front of Edinburgh Castle now just a heritage act at a heritage site?

There is evidence for the prosecution. His live show has a slick professionalism that at times shades into tedium. The 11-piece backing band, including four backing vocalists, is packed with veteran sidemen whose smooth virtuosity can sound bloodless. As a result, the set’s better songs are generally those with spare instrumentation. Millworker has an austerity that suits its subject, the soul-crushing exploitation of labour. Taylor’s voice shines in its simple setting – a violin drone and martial beat.

Bridge theatre, London
Mary-Louise Parker gives a powerhouse performance in a three-part drama that cuts up Aeschylus’s chronology and adds shades of other plays

Although writer-director Simon Stone has named his play The Oresteia, the credits make clear that this is a drama “after Aeschylus and Others”. The Aeschylus is recognisable here, particularly in the most faithful, and supremely gripping, first of three parts. But the “others” are key too, with many shades of Greek tragedies thrown in, from Antigone to Medea, and maybe even Oedipus Rex.

Agamemnon’s sacrifice of his daughter, Iphigenia, followed by his murder at the hands of his wife, Clytemnestra, and subsequently hers by their avenging son, Orestes, is transposed into modern, metropolitan family life. There is Christopher (David Morrissey), who runs a tech company, his wife Montie (Mary-Louise Parker), an American alpha-type, and their children: Augie (Tom Glynn-Carney), offstage tearaway Isabel and her twin, Alice (Rosie Sheehy). They are so privileged that they speak of Bollinger as a cooking wine, and live in a house that has the corporate look of an upmarket hotel chain.

Exclusive: Prof Evelyn Welch, vice-chancellor of Bristol University, believes her daughter’s success shows value of arts education

One of Britain’s leading university vice-chancellors has described sweeping cuts to arts and humanities across the sector as “absolutely tragic”, citing her famous daughter as an example of the value of a creative arts education.

Prof Evelyn Welch, the vice-chancellor of Bristol University and incoming chair of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities, is the mother of Florence Welch, the singer-songwriter from Florence + the Machine.

Compilation entitled David Bowie: The Shel Talmy Recordings will be released in September, collating material from when he recorded as Davy Jones

Unheard 1965 recordings by David Bowie, from when he was starting out in swinging 60s London as Davy Jones, are finally to be released – some featuring a pre-Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page.

Before he broke through with 1969’s Space Oddity, and scaled up through The Man Who Sold the World and Hunky Dory towards the explosive impact of his Ziggy Stardust alter ego in 1972, Bowie started out as a very different kind of artist: sharp-suited and coiffured, playing the kind of forthright, blues-influenced, sometimes faintly psychedelic pop-rock that was the hallmark of mid-60s London, from the Beatles to the Small Faces and the Who.

‘Nowadays Jairzinho works with kids in the favelas of Rio where the unwritten rule is that visitors have to leave by 5pm. I asked for 10 more minutes and when I turned round, a guy had pulled a gun on my crew’

I’m not a mad football fan. What I most love about the game is its universal appeal – it’s all about a ball crossing a line, and a goal is a goal whether it involves two jerseys in a park or the one that determines the outcome of a World Cup. But when I realised in 2007 that only 58 people had ever scored a goal in a World Cup final and that only 34 of these men were still alive, I thought it would be a great idea to photograph them.

It quickly became apparent that book sales alone would never finance the project – there were only two English players, the rest were in Europe or South America. But a successful pitch to a film producer won me the opportunity to travel to 13 countries with a documentary crew. Over the course of four years, we interviewed every member of the exclusive World Cup club, and I made portraits of them all.

The world’s biggest classical music festival begins on Friday. Over eight weeks of sonic excursions and orchestral revelations there’s a huge range of premieres and contemporary music: here’s the concerts I won’t be missing

Three heatwaves in, but the summer hasn’t truly started until the Proms begin, and on Friday, Radio 3 and the BBC Symphony Orchestra light the blue touchpaper of eight weeks of music-making at the Royal Albert Hall and beyond. Like me, you might have been through the Proms guide marking up the concerts you most want to hear, but what’s always surprising as the summer of music unfolds are the concerts you couldn’t have predicted as being remarkable; the concerts that might look unexceptional on paper but in the flesh of performance find special resonance, be that the groups making their debuts, the brand new music and Proms premieres, or simply that alchemy that means that concerts that are days or weeks apart create musical and creative connections you’d never have thought possible.

Predicting surprises and revelations of a season that hasn’t even begun is of course a pointless and contradictory exercise, but of the new music on offer there are many works that should merit their own marker-pen tick. The First Night’s world premiere of Josephine Stephenson’s That the Sunrise Not Leave Us Unmoved, and Jessie Montgomery’s cello concerto for Abel Selaocoe, These Righteous Paths, on 20 July, should make a wonderfully contrasting pairing – Stephenson has written music of poetic refinement while Montgomery and Selaocoe’s concerto collaboration promises an experience of soul-searching power. “A living organism that gradually absorbs orchestra and audience alike into its breathing body” wrote Michelle Assay at the work’s North American premiere in Toronto.

The Filter’s authority on camping and the outdoors, Sian Lewis answered your questions on the best tents for all conditions, how to keep out wildlife, and meals to make your kids happy

ejtp19 asks: My six man Hi-Gear tent complete with zipped off sleeping area is on its last legs and I need to replace it. I’ve got the romantic urge to go for a teepee/bell tent ... but I’m worried I’m going for style over substance. How annoying is not having a zipped-off sleeping area? Is there a teepee/bell type tent with a separate bedroom and is it worth it?

Sian replies:

I have a bell tent and I absolutely love it for festivals, weddings and family camps, but they do have limited uses - they’re heavy, only have one room as you said, and take a while to erect and dismantle. I also paid to have mine cleaned after a few years of use as polycotton isn’t fully waterproof and can get mildewed if you don’t put it away fully dry.

You could look at something in between a bell tent and a tech-y tent - I rate Robens for quality and its Fairbanks Grande and Fairbanks Venturer are gorgeous, teepee styles that are easier to transport and erect (but with no sleeping areas). The only teepee-style tent with sleeping compartments I can find is Decathlon’s Teepee 5.2.

Firstly, camping alone as a woman is brilliant - once you get used to it. It can take a few camps to feel confident, and I’d recommend starting in a comfy campsite by yourself or even going for a solo glamping trip and seeing if you enjoy having some time alone under canvas. I’ve wild camped alone hundreds of times and always really enjoyed it. I’d suggest trying one night alone not far from your car - if you don’t like it you can always drive home and try another time.

If you fancy trying wild camping, firstly make sure you’re aware of where you can camp legally, and let someone know your plans and location. I like to take some creature comforts such as a good book or a podcast (not a true crime one, mind).. Remember that no-one knows who you are once you’re inside a tent. Pitch late and leave early and you’ll probably have your spot all to yourself.

Treasury says shoppers will get a ‘fairer deal’ as new rules for BNPL credit are introduced on Wednesday

Millions of shoppers will enjoy more rights and protections from Wednesday as new rules for “buy now, pay later” take effect in the UK.

The government said it was delivering on its commitment to end the buy now, pay later “wild west”.

Want to recreate the lustre of days spent in the sun with none of the damage? Try these expert-approved formulas

• The best IPL and laser hair removal devices tested

The wise among us would never forgo our safe-sun protocol, but there’s no denying that many of us feel happier and healthier with a tan. The irresistible lure of sunkissed skin has long been a summer staple – and from tanning waters to wipes, instant tans to gradual tanning moisturisers, there are now more ways than ever to get a faux glow.

There’s also been a growing demand for multitasking beauty products, so the newest fake tan formulas often add skincare benefits alongside the bronze. Self-tans infused with hyaluronic acid, niacinamide and vitamin C hydrate, nourish and protect, much like your usual body cream or facial serum.

Best fake tan overall:
Bare by Vogue Williams clear tan water

Best budget fake tan:
Dove Summer Revived Sunkissed Glow + Pro-Ceramides gradual tan lotion

They’re cheaper and greener than air conditioning, but which evaporative cooler impressed us most?

• The best fans to keep you cool, tested
• Dyson HushJet Mini Cool fan review

Air coolers should not be confused with air conditioning. An air cooler can lower your room temperature by a couple of degrees, while aircon can lower it by tens of degrees. So it’s important to manage your expectations. But air coolers are much more energy efficient: they use a fraction of the electricity of aircon.

Evaporative air coolers work by pulling warm air through water-soaked pads. The water evaporates, which uses energy, so the process cools the air. So while it’s not fridge-cold like aircon, the air is cooling – like a sea breeze taking the edge off summer heat.

Best air cooler overall:
Swan Nordic air cooler – currently out of stock

Best portable air cooler:
Morphy Richards Flexi Freeze

A lantern for night strolls, lace-free shoes and a microscope for mini beasts … parents on their top camping tips and must-pack gear, as well as what to leave at home

• The best camping mattresses

I have wholehearted respect for parents who recoil from any notion of family camping. Camping with kids is no picnic. In fact, it sets out from where a good picnic leaves off, venturing from the brevity and civility of a blanket on the grass into the uncertain – and certainly precarious – waters of soggy towels, tangled guyropes, cramped quarters and midnight meltdowns.

And yet a great many of us voyage these waters regardless, ardently asserting (to ourselves as much as others) that camping is good for the soul, for the imagination, and for instilling a foundational appreciation of the great outdoors.

There’s no getting away from it: these are all ultra-processed, but which sponges are the life of the party and which are too sweet for comfort?

• The best (and worst) supermarket dark chocolate

Some of these taste tests – for instance, the oven chips one from last summer – surprise me with their overall quality and minimal processing. But others, such as today’s party cakes, sit firmly in the ultra-processed category, and often make contradictory claims, “handmade” and “carefully selected high-quality ingredients” being just two.

I want my children to enjoy treats without food anxiety, but we also owe it both to ourselves and to them to know what we’re actually eating. Unusually, the price of today’s cakes didn’t reflect processing levels. While more expensive products are often less processed, even the premium cakes included an array of emulsifiers (including mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids, polyglycerol esters and sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate), preservatives, stabilisers, synthetic raising agents such as diphosphates, and glucose-fructose syrup, a heavily processed industrial sweetener linked to metabolic concerns. I’ve listed the number of additives in each product, excluding natural colours and flavourings, pectin, citric acid, carbonates and bicarbonate of soda, beeswax and glucose syrup. I also scored the cakes based on their appearance, taste, texture, value, certifications, animal welfare considerations and total sugar content (which varied greatly).

Use the whole pod – husks, beans and all – for a rustic, nutritious version of a seasonal favourite

Tom Norrington Davies is a friend, fellow chef and one of the best yoga teachers I know, so you can probably imagine my pleasure on recently coming across his recipe for broad bean and mint risotto, which he wrote for The Eagle Cookbook in 2009. Like many restaurants, this legendary gastropub pods their broad beans to reveal the beautiful green bean inside; this is my zero-waste interpretation.

Not a ‘cake person’? Loaded with fruit and whipped cream, these luxurious pastries are sure to hit your sweet spot

Strawberry, or any berry, shortcakes are the perfect dessert to make for those in your life who are not cake people. I’m married to a “not cake” person, so I would know. For me, the contrast between the salty, slightly warm shortcake (which is more like a biscuit), whipped cream and macerated fresh fruit is perfection, and hits enough of the sweet spots still to feel like a dessert without actually being cakey. But, first, the cardenal, a truly elegant, light-as-a-feather cake that’s made with alternating rings of genoise sponge and meringue all sandwiched with whipped cream. Though the building blocks are simple – meringue, sponge and cream – when combined, they turn into something really special.

This often underrated but hugely versatile vegetable can be cooked in copious delicious ways. Here are two of them

Courgettes are an early summer delight, when, such is their appeal and versatility, you often can’t move for them in my kitchen. Even so, I am not entirely sure they get the full recognition they deserve in the UK, not least because we grow some marvellous varieties here. I use courgettes in everything from raw salads (very thinly sliced courgettes tossed in salt and lemon) to slow-cooked, crisp-fried (the flowers are especially good stuffed with cheese or meat, then deep-fried) or lightly charred on a barbecue, which brings out a wonderful sweetness; you can even bake them into a deliciously moist cake. Can you show me a more versatile vegetable?

Jerk aubergines, lentil-stuffed courgette, griddled pineapple with maple syrup … Meat-free doesn’t need to mean treat-free when it comes to barbecue season

I’ve recently turned vegan. How do I have a great barbecue?
Nia, by email
Happily, most vegetables benefit from a bit of barbecue action, but the key is not to get too carried away, says Genevieve Taylor, author of How to BBQ: “There’s a real leaning for people to overdo barbecues, but you should approach it just as you would any meal, with one central star and a few sides. After all, there’s no other meal where you’d be expected to eat a chop, a sausage, a kebab and a chicken wing.” Not a meal you’d find Nia devouring, sure, but you get the general idea.

Shaun McAnuff, author of Original Flava: Easy Caribbean, would be inclined kick things off with tostones. “They’re a bit like crisps,” he says. “Boil green plantain, which are more dense and not as sweet as yellow ones, then peel and cut into thick circles.” Smash those flat with the bottom of a mug, then barbecue until nice and crisp and serve with guacamole or salsa. Alternatively, grab some aubergines, Taylor says: “They’re such a sponge for smoky flavours.” Slice lengthways, brush with oil, season and grill until soft. “Spread a filling, such as walnut paté with spices, herbs and pomegranate molasses, over the slices and roll up.” Those would be nice at room temperature, which also helps with getting ahead.

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

The Guardian’s Saturday magazine is interested in hearing from couples, partners and former lovers to talk about their sex lives

How often do you have sex? The Guardian is looking for couples to talk honestly – and completely anonymously – about what they get up to in the bedroom for the Saturday magazine’s much-loved This is How We Do It column.

The idea behind the column is to provide a counterpoint to the airbrushed, exaggerated stories about sex we see on TV and in the media. We want to publish un-sensationalised interviews with real couples, so we are particularly keen to hear from you if you have hit a roadblock in your sexual life. How do you navigate intimacy when your partner wants sex more than you do? Or after an affair? Or when you are not feeling spectacular about your body?

We’re looking for couples of all ages and sexualities. We would not publish your names or where you live.

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

Rick and Rachel are non-monogamous – but they both know this arrangement may not work forever

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

I’ve tried knowing and not knowing, and I find both difficult. In an ideal world, we’d go looking for sex together

You and your husband need to have a frank discussion and decide whether you want to negotiate the next stage of life together or apart

I’m 55 and, after being a dutiful wife for 30 years, my sex drive declined after a traumatic hysterectomy eight years ago. My husband was patient and kind throughout. I love him dearly, but sex was never really the same afterwards, which I attribute to the surgery.

I’ve now been through menopause and suddenly find my libido returning. However, my husband no longer desires me due to weight gain. He can’t maintain an erection for long, and is very critical of my sexual performance. He’s seen a doctor, but nothing came of it, and he refuses couples counselling.

From Hollywood movies to confessional memoirs, three-person relationships are everywhere. But is it really possible to keep everyone satisfied? Happy trios, bruised couples and rejected lovers tell all

Priscilla can pinpoint the moment she realised that her throuple was falling apart. Her fiancee, Kiara, had started kissing their shared girlfriend, Olivia, in a way that went on for just a little too long. One night, after the three of them had gone out for a romantic dinner in Savannah, Georgia, where they live, Olivia and Kiara started kissing in the front seats of the family car and it seemed as if they were never going to stop. About 10 minutes in, Priscilla tried to reach out and touch her fiancee’s shoulder, but her seat belt was buckled. Unbuckling and leaning forward felt intrusive. And, anyway, Kiara and Olivia seemed to have forgotten all about her. Watching the kiss unfold, squashed into the back with all the baby seats and toys, Priscilla thought about how by rights it was her turn to sit up front. She was always in the back seat. She felt a flicker of something competitive. “I worried, am I desired less than her?” she recalls now. “Will I be replaced?”

In the early days, Priscilla felt giddy with the excitement of being in a throuple. She and Kiara had been together for eight years, and adding a third person to their relationship felt like a way of exploring non‑monogamy without losing one another, because every new romantic experience would be shared. Olivia was an old friend, so Priscilla and Kiara’s children were comfortable with her. When the kids were in bed, they would walk to the beach holding hands as a three, to watch the sunset. At night, they would curl up to sleep together, and form a kind of cuddle chain. Priscilla would cuddle Olivia, and Olivia would cuddle Kiara.

In the UK, these scams have become an epidemic, rising 147% between January and March, compared with the same time last year. Why are they suddenly so common? And what can you do if you’re charged thousands for a quick, easy job?

Sarah was alone in her flat with her three-month-old baby when a man put a card machine in her face and demanded she pay £2,209. A few hours earlier Sarah, 30, had been for a walk with her daughter when it dawned on her that she had left her keys at home. She did what most people would do in the same situation: search Google for a nearby locksmith. “I had a screaming baby, so I needed someone to quickly let me in,” she says.

Sarah came across a seemingly legitimate company, near the top of the search results, which was sponsored. The company’s website said prices started at £45 and claimed they had received “4,500-plus five-star reviews and counting”, so she called them. When the locksmith arrived, Sarah says, he “seemed pleasant and relatively quiet” at first. After examining her lock, however, he told her it was a high-security one and the only way to get inside was to drill it open. He broke his way in and changed the lock before delivering another blow: he had accidentally damaged the internal mechanism, which also needed replacing. After Sarah got inside and placed her baby on a changing mat, the locksmith told her the price: £2,209.

We booked the £1,070-a-week retreat because of the facilities, but when we got there they were a round-trip away

Last month’s tale of a winter break spoiled because easyJet Holidays had neglected to state that the hotel’s heated pool and spa incurred hefty charges was discordant music to another reader’s ears. He writes:

We returned last month from an easyJet Holidays break at a “wellness retreat” with prominently advertised spa facilities, which turned out not to have any spa facilities whatsoever. We had booked a £1,070 week at the Vasia Sea Retreat in Sissi, Crete, because I wanted access to a gym at least twice a day as rehabilitation from a serious knee injury, and my wife was keen for pool and pilates classes.

Snappy performance, long battery life, great keyboard and excellent new haptic touchpad make the best of Windows 11

Microsoft’s Surface laptop for consumers is back, faster and with longer battery life and a hefty price increase because of the high cost of memory and chips.

The Surface Laptop 8 is a straight replacement for the seventh edition from 2024, which was the first of Microsoft’s new generation of ARM-based, Qualcomm-powered PCs designed to better rival Apple’s MacBook Air and other thin and light machines.

Only when Guardian Money contacted the company did it discover the cash was wages owed to its staff

In May, our supplier, Yorkshire Water, made a surprise payment of more than £3,500 into my partner’s bank account.

We assumed that it was an error and we would be told to repay it.

As a teenager I declined a painful operation to straighten my spinal curvature, and it was a decision I sometimes regretted. But through daily stretching and exercise, my relationship with my body was transformed

I was 13 when a spinal surgeon gave me unsolicited career advice. “Scoliosis won’t ruin your life,” he said, peering over his spectacles, “unless you want to do bikini modelling.” As a young teenager, I hadn’t thought much about job prospects, let alone modelling, but his words stung. It also curdled my situation into a lose-lose scenario: either have a painful operation to fuse metal rods with my spine, or endure a lifetime with an abnormally twisted back.

Until this point, I’d perceived my spinal curvature in terms of the inward experience: pain. Now, I became aware of an external dimension: a disfigurement. Something to be hidden. This did me no favours as a teenager in the age of Instagram. While I declined the operation due to the risks and the extended leave from school, the surgeon’s blithe remark burdened me with shame.

Analysis of 12 indicators including asthma, obesity and vaccination finds child health is ‘national embarrassment’

Children in the UK will grow up to be one of the unhealthiest generations in decades, with child health outcomes having declined or stalled completely across all areas, a group of leading paediatricians has said.

Reduced vaccination rates alongside rising hospital admissions for asthma and mental health disorders are all contributing factors to the UK’s record on children’s health, which should be seen as a “national embarrassment”, their analysis has found.

Doing a split may look impressive, but experts caution it should not be done without practice and it may not be for everyone

On Love Island USA’s recent eighth season, contestant Kenzie Annis quickly distinguished herself with her ability to perform the splits, abruptly deploying the maneuver in fits of both delight and rage.

Seeing the splits on TV shows such as Love Island and RuPaul’s Drag Race can make people “want to take on that challenge and to push themselves to new heights”, said Ramoni Overton, a yoga instructor and YouTuber based in Los Angeles.

Ministers consider bringing e-cigarette laws in line with tobacco as data shows 20% of teenagers have tried vaping

Vapes could be sold in plain packaging as part of a range of proposals to stop them being marketed to children.

The UK-wide plans also include limiting device colours to white, black or grey, and keeping vapes out of sight in shops, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.

Rapid scientific progress has given us the tools to stop time more convincingly than ever – but lurking behind these claims is the same fear of ageing

Andrea holds a PhD in literature and works for a non-profit in Dallas. She’s in her late 40s and tells me that the pressure to remain youthful in her city is palpable. Almost completely irresistible.

“You don’t know what it’s like here,” she said. “Everyone has a facelift if they can afford one and everyone has had some work done. I’m a feminist to the core, but if I had the money, I would get a deep-plane facelift in a heartbeat. I’m saving up to get my neck done.”

This nifty addition to your makeup bag will give the impression of a person with time, skill and polish – with every little effort

A liquid eyeshadow is the answer to all your eyeshadow misgivings, and I will die on this hill. One neutral, long-lasting shadow gives the impression, however false, of a person with time, skill and polish, when in fact its effort:effect ratio is a joke.

Just daub on to the middle of your lid from lash line to socket, avoiding the inner and outer corners in the first instance, then take a clean fluffy shadow-blending brush and buff in a windscreen wiper motion to spread across to the corners and soften any hard lines.

For many watching their team beat Norway at a south London nightclub the look was as important as the game

The Carpet Shop nightclub in Peckham, south London, is ordinarily packed with rowdy crowds at the weekend. But Saturday night’s liveliness was not congregated around the DJ on the dancefloor, the crowd was at the sold-out venue for England’s victorious quarter-final game at the 2026 World Cup, and the young spectators were there for the fashion as much as they were for the football.

Luke Grandon and Mattia Guarnera, both 27, are “massive” football fans, and their love for the game is expressed in their outfits. “I have a massive collection of vintage football shirts,” said Guarnera, wearing a white polo shirt with “LOVE” printed on the back from a limited-edition World Cup-themed collaboration between Lyle & Scott and the British artist Reuben Dangoor.

The discomfort is no reason to give up sun protection, and is not uncommon – not everyone tolerates every formula well

No good deed goes unpunished, as they say. For instance, when you responsibly apply sunscreen to your exposed skin, it sometimes stings.

“Complaints of sunscreen stinging are not uncommon,” says Dr Aditi Senthilnathan, board certified dermatologist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. “We also hear about sunscreen causing burning or stinging around the eyes after sweating.”

A catamaran service from Dover to Boulogne is the perfect start to a trip exploring the Pas-de-Calais and marshes of Saint-Omer by bike, boat and kayak

“It’s all about tuning into the culture of the sea,” helmsman Chris O’Brien tells me, scanning the rippling cobalt horizon from the wheel of a catamaran. “People find the water, and the meditative experience of sailing, healing.” Meditative isn’t a word that usually comes to mind when talking about cross-Channel ferries on a bank holiday weekend, but this is no ordinary ferry.

Launched last year, SailLink operates a largely wind-powered (engines are only used when necessary) service from Dover to Boulogne up to five times a week between April and mid-September, with a new Shoreham to Fécamp route due to start trials later this year.

Would walking buddies convince reluctant children that hiking can be fun? A group trip with an Enid Blyton vibe proved a hit with the whole family

“I’m not going to wake her up,” I hiss at my 12-year-old son who’s standing half naked in a dark corridor of a Victorian house. “Please, Mum. She said we could come at any time! I don’t want to get Lyme disease,” he begs.

This is not the kind of drama I was expecting when I signed up to a family walking holiday in Exmoor. A few meltdowns about an extra mile or a blister perhaps, but not a night mission to one of the guides to request a tick removal.

The warm, gentle conditions I was hoping for turned out to be ferociously windy. The anchor couldn’t hold our boat in place. And then my mum got trapped in the cabin …

It started so well. A catamaran full of loved ones floating into the azure, taking pics, feeling glam, anticipating the sun sinking over the yardarm. I’d been reunited with my sister and family, who live in Australia, for the first time in three years, after Covid. Her husband, a fearless Australian giant, had got into sailing and offered to take me and my then 77-year-old mum, along with their three teens, out in the south of France for my sister’s 50th birthday. I knew sailing could get rough – my dad capsized us at the mouth of the River Dart when I was little – but it’s not every day you get such a generous invitation. How could I resist?

It was October. I was manifesting warm, gentle conditions, but instead the wind blew ferociously and stubbornly the wrong way. Before we knew it, we were charging up mountainous waves, then crashing into the void beyond. Our captain calmly steered while I sat below, feeling as if I was in a disaster movie, at which point I realised I hadn’t even located the lifejackets.

Flights were cancelled and we were told we’d be staying in Iceland for the night. But the hotel had no idea we were coming and people started screaming when I fell down, hard, on the ice

A couple of days before I was due to take a trip to New York with my mum in February, the city was hit with the worst blizzard it had seen in years. Unsurprisingly, our flight was cancelled. Our travel agent managed to reschedule the holiday for later in the week – our journey out would now connect in Reykjavík, Iceland. The holiday was rescued … or so we thought.

The flight to Iceland went without a hitch until the final moments, when the pilot informed us that a mini-blizzard was passing over Keflavík international airport and we would have to redirect to a domestic airport 15 minutes away. We still had hope that we could make our connection, but after several hours on the tarmac that hope died.

When is it OK to go shirtless? What time can you start drinking on holiday? And can you ask a stranger to apply your sunscreen? Experts explain the behaviour that’s hot this summer – and what’s really, really not

Summer means a loosening of rules and norms. Eating with your fingers is suddenly encouraged, near-nakedness is everywhere and a 6am airport pint is unremarkable. It’s a hot, sticky recipe for social chaos and – if you share my view on showing off ungroomed feet – possibly the end times of human civilisation. Here, then, is everything you need to know about summer etiquette.

Easy to grow, hardy and charming, these once-maligned flowers are having a much-deserved comeback

You might not know the term Caryophyllaceae but I guarantee you’d be able to spot a carnation, which is part of this family. Garage forecourt carnations have been having a semi-ironic fashion moment as a cut flower for a while now, but I’m yet to see them making a garden comeback.

I’d always dismissed the whole family as fusty, old-fashioned bedding plants for fussy little gardens. But it turns out that whoever is in charge of the carnation comms is having a good run. I keep seeing them around. Rose campion, another Caryophyllaceae, has even turned up in my garden – or rather, it has survived there. I didn’t plant it, and a photo from last July shows a scorched wasteland (it’s now a haven for moths, grasshoppers and bees, which shows what not mowing can do). But they’re biennial (they take two seasons to get from seed to flower), so I guess it was biding its time. It’s bright pink with a soft grey leaf, and not the kind of thing I’d choose, but I’m enjoying it so much I’ll be encouraging it to self-seed in the wildflower patch.

It might sound brutal, but this is exactly the kind of damage plants are built to recover from – and thrive on

The problem
Trailing plants tend to grow long and bare. A pothos or tradescantia that started full and lush can become a few sad vines with all the leaves clustered at the ends, trailing toward the floor with nothing in the middle. The instinct is to leave the plant alone and hope it fills out on its own. It rarely does. Yet the fix – cutting off healthy growth – feels counterintuitive and slightly brutal.

The hack
Pinching out means removing the growing tip of a stem, just after a node. This redirects the plant’s energy, prompting it to activate and produce new shoots. The result, in theory, is a bushier, fuller plant rather than a few straggly vines.

As people yearn for connection, one-day choirs are popping up around the world - and spreading ‘collective effervescence’

We met in a former synagogue, a vast room with hardwood floors where the sound could echo freely. All were strangers, many former choir nerds, united by a love for group singing. Our goal was to learn and perform, in a single day, a classic of our time: a song from the Hannah Montana movie.

The event, near downtown Los Angeles, was a one-day choir hosted by the Gaia Music Collective – a three-hour gathering where more than 100 people rehearsed a choral arrangement of the song and sang it three times, with ourselves as the only audience.

Aiden is an unforgettable young caregiver in Walthamstow, east London, who has been looking after his mum for over half his life. Every few weeks, Aiden and other young carers get a rare night off thanks to tenacious council worker Satvinder, who fights to improve the recognition of young carers in her borough. This film joins them as they reclaim a few hours of their teenage lives back.

Is Mum OK? is released during Carers Week in the UK, a campaign that celebrates unpaid carers across the country and calls for better recognition and support for them. There are more than one million young carers in the UK – with an average age of 12 – which is the equivalent of two kids in every school class.

Peat bogs are essential to the environment, holding twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests. But in the UK, 80% are damaged, most of what is extracted is used in horticulture – and some campaigners fear the problem is getting worse

‘I don’t see how I can possibly do my job and eat mushrooms,” says Sally Nex, a campaign advocate for the Peat-Free Partnership. “An awful lot of the food you buy in the supermarket is grown in peat: field mushrooms and little button mushrooms, salads and many brassicas, herbs in pots … all of those have started in peat.”

I’m taken aback. I’ve bought peat-free compost for years, but I’d never considered “hidden” peat. “I would imagine that most people are buying peat-free compost at the moment – certainly, you only have to go into a garden centre to see the amount of peat-free options you now have,” says Nex. “But you may not realise that an awful lot – probably most – of the plants that are on sale in that garden centre are also grown in peat.”

He was elected mayor of Istanbul in 2019, and had announced his candidacy for the 2028 presidential elections. But Ekrem İmamoğlu is now behind bars, and his trial, on charges including fraud and organised crime, could take 12 years

• This piece first appeared in the Dial

There’s a Turkish saying, “Silivri soğuktur”: Silivri is cold. You’ll hear it from journalists, politicians and activists after they say something critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government. The kind of comments that could send them to the notorious prison complex in Silivri, where it would take months before they saw a judge.

For decades, Silivri was considered a “sayfiye yeri”, a place for cottages, country and summer houses. All around the complex are small family-run farms and villas with private pools, protected by watchdogs. Construction of the Marmara Prison complex began in 2005 and lasted three years. It contains eight closed correctional institutions and an open prison where the court is located. It is Europe’s largest prison complex.

Ahead of Andy Burnham taking over from Keir Starmer, we’d like to hear what qualities, values and priorities people want to see in the next prime minister

Andy Burnham is to become the next prime minister after winning the backing of 349 of the party’s MPs to replace Keir Starmer.

In a recent op-ed in The Times, Burnham wrote: “Doing politics differently means levelling with the public, engaging them in decisions and ensuring more social value in return for increased government spending.”

We want to hear from those working or living at sea, including maritime workers, sailors, port staff and family about how the situation is affecting their work

The conflict in the Middle East continues to disrupt shipping across the region, including in the strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s busiest maritime routes.

Donald Trump has once again threatened to take control of the strait of Hormuz, as he announced the reimposition of a naval blockade on Iran and demanded a 20% tariff on all cargoes shipped through the key maritime passage.

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

The EU has rejected calls to suspend its biometric border checks despite warnings from airports, airlines and ports that the system could lead to long queues and delays during the peak summer holiday season. MPs in the UK have also warned of potential disruption at the Port of Dover as holiday traffic builds.

We would like to speak to people who have been affected by the new system. Tell us about your experience – has the new system worked well or have you experienced delays? How long did you have to wait? What did you do to pass the time? Or maybe you are in a queue now? Tell us your experience.

Prediction markets have grown rapidly in popularity in recent years, particularly in the US. We’d like to hear confidentially from people in the UK who have used them

We’d like to find out more about how people in the UK are using prediction markets and what has attracted them to these platforms.

Prediction markets allow people to buy and sell contracts based on the outcome of future events, such as sporting tournaments, elections and financial markets. They have become increasingly popular in recent years, particularly in the US.

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