Many hoped that the march of technology would usher in an egalitarian utopia – but some foresaw the threat it would pose to liberal society. Why did nobody listen?

One of the stranger things about this dizzying, headlong moment in time is that it doesn’t have much of a past. Everything is about the future of this, the future of that: the future of work, the future of humanity, the future of the planet. It’s as if everyone is screaming (some ecstatically, most terror-stricken): robots are taking over the world! Meanwhile, you can’t put down your phone, unplug, delete your AI apps, tell Zoom to piss off; it feels as if you are racing toward something, and can’t stop, or look back, or think straight.

But of course this weird moment in history does have a past. It comes from somewhere. It wasn’t inevitable. Things could have turned out differently. They still can. And if you look back, one thing you’ll see is that a lot of people saw this all coming. They foresaw our present when it was still the future. They thought it might turn out fabulously, a computer utopia. And they worried it might turn out disastrously. Above all, they issued warning after warning about the rise of what I call the artificial state, the replacement of the liberal democratic nation-state, the consent of the governed, with the rule of people by machines. They warned of a future in which democratic deliberation would be replaced by prediction by calculation, the public sphere would be supplanted by data-driven commerce, and drones would take the place of the demos. Why didn’t anyone listen?

The new underworld is made up of innocent and well-intentioned people who work with slide rules and calculating machines and computers which can retain an almost infinite number of bits of information as well as sort, categorise, and reproduce this information at the press of a button. Most of these people are highly educated, many of them are PhDs, and none that I have met have malignant political designs on the American public. They may, however, radically reconstruct the American political system, build a new politics, and even modify revered and venerable American institutions – facts of which they are blissfully innocent.

A movement with safety, dignity and equality at its heart may now be blamed for the rightwing backlash. But within it were principles worth carrying forwards

Every once in a while, the discourse gods send a tablet down to the people, announcing that a previous era is dead and a new age is upon us. Recently, it was the “vibe shift” – a post-pandemic change in culture that encompassed everything from fashion to politics. The vibe shift consolidated with Donald Trump’s second election, a harbinger of the end of fragility and of movements for racial and gender equality – a rejection of the long 2010s with their hashtags and pink pussy hats and women’s marches and protests. The vibe shift has recently been followed by a calling of time on what has come to be known as “Woke 1.0” – a term that represents what is now seen as a culture of hysterical overreach triggered by the momentary breakthrough of movements such as #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. “Woke 1 was crazy,” said Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez this month, quoting a New York City councilman. And there we have it, time to walk back some things said and done in the giddy heat of those moments. It was crazy!

This rush to the future away from what some perceive to be an embarrassing past groups together various disparate phenomena. But I’m afraid it’s not that simple. Woke 1.0 (or “peak wokeness” – I wish the gods would use less trivialising ways to refer to roiling social tides, but there we are) was about politics and culture and also about the behaviours and trends it triggered. It was about concrete problems: policing of minority communities, the right of women not to be sexually harassed or violated, the systemic racism and sexism that damaged both. And it was about reforming the cultural structures that created and perpetuated those systems; asking university curricula to expand and diversify intellectual sources, recognising the long shadow of glorified imperial histories, and updating institutions – from the media to the academy – in order to enfranchise change. None of this is “crazy”.

Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist

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

Decades after being sexually abused, the author and doctor Frank Spinelli believed he had moved on emotionally. But alcohol destroyed his sense of security. He describes how he confronted his shame

Not so long ago, Frank Spinelli seemed to have sorted out his life. He was happily married, working as a doctor and had a sideline writing medical thrillers. He thought he had dealt with the sexual abuse he had suffered as a child – not only had he helped bring the man who groomed and abused him to justice, but also he had written a memoir about it. “I felt that I had closure,” he says. “I had the good fortune of working with some amazing therapists and I believed I had done the work and moved past it and I was a healed person.”

Little did he know that his recovery was fragile. The Covid pandemic took away his routine and structure: “All the external pillars that were tightly holding me together – the engagements at the office, the work trips.” Two years earlier, he and his husband had moved from Manhattan to a leafy suburb, from where he is speaking to me over a video call today. He was dealing with uncertainty and felt isolated. “We know one thing about shame: shame breeds in isolation.”

With abs like Olympians and skin like hide, pole dancers are besieging the Edinburgh fringe. We meet four high-flying, physics-defying acts tackling everything from New York’s underbelly to neurodiversity

If you tell someone in Edinburgh you’re going to see a pole dancing show, they might direct you towards the so-called Pubic Triangle, where the city’s strip clubs are. But there’s more to pole dance than that – and it’s popping up in theatre shows across the fringe this year. Not only do these acts show off amazing physical feats, they also tell stories that range from one woman’s HIV diagnosis, to the relationship between a neurodivergent mother and son.

Since the boom of the 1990s, when Zoe Ball famously had a pole in her living room, pole has been taught at dance studios, has become a competition sport – there’s a campaign to get it into the Olympics – and made its way from cabaret stages to theatres. It’s an impressive and fiendishly difficult art.

The PM’s net zero pragmatism may please some voters, but as parts of the country go up in flames, it’s an increasingly hard sell

When the siren sounded on Friday night, my first thought was fire.

Weeks of unrelenting sun in the normally soggy Peak District, where I was visiting my mum, have bleached green valleys a dangerously dry, crispy blond. One of her neighbours had earlier pointed out an ominous cloud of smoke on the horizon, coming from one of the wildfires raging all summer on the moor. When that harsh, discordant shriek blared from every mobile phone in the house, I was half-braced for an evacuation order, not what turned out to be a faintly melodramatic warning to the nation to lay off the barbecues. A false alarm, of sorts, but one that felt uneasily like a wake-up call.

Nearly a decade after fighting ended in northern Iraq, the climate crisis has brought extreme heat and a water shortage, making life almost impossible

The first thing that strikes visitors arriving in Faka, a small village in Sinjar district, northern Iraq, is the silence. No children play in the streets. No shops are open. Roofless houses stretch across the hillside, their walls pockmarked by shellfire, while weeds and wild grasses grow through collapsed living rooms.

A decade after Islamic State (IS) swept across the region, war remains visible everywhere. But according to the people who returned, another enemy has quietly taken its place.

Rajab Mohammed says the problem in his village of Faka is no longer Islamic State but water and jobs

Ministry of Defence rebuffs threats, saying UK ‘committed to providing equipment Ukraine needs to defend itself against Putin’s illegal invasion’

Moscow has threatened the UK with “consequences” after reports that British drones have been used to strike targets on Russia’s mainland for the first time.

Ukraine used drones made by two UK companies as part of a so-called deep-strike campaign, the Sunday Times reported.

Study finds older adults could face harmful heat stress at just 1.5C of warming above preindustrial levels

People aged 60 and over face dangers to their health from exposure to heat at much lower temperatures than previously thought, research has found.

Older adults will bear the brunt of increasingly frequent sustained spells of extreme heat globally as the world continues to warm up, according to a study in The Lancet Public Health.

Many buyers wait in hope of better deal, although there are hotspots in Scotland and northern England

Half of homes in Great Britain are taking longer to sell than last year as volatile conditions in the mortgage market amid the Iran war prompt buyers to “wait and see” if they can get a better deal, according to a report.

As the Middle East conflict continues to unfold, the property platform Zoopla said homes in 180 out of 363 local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales were taking longer to sell compared with a year ago.

Exclusive: Prison officers’ union strongly opposes HMP Millsike offering flexible work escorting prisoners amid staff shortages

Andy Burnham is under pressure to intervene in a privately run prison that is seeking to recruit custody officers on zero-hours contracts for the first time across England and Wales’ prison estate.

Managers at HMP Millsike, a category C prison for 1,500 prisoners near York operated by the outsourcing company Mitie, have signed off online adverts for £25-an-hour prisoner escort roles “on a flexible, task-based basis”.

Psychiatrists in Channel 4 documentary argue it is more a ‘social construct’ than a medical condition

People are increasingly seeking to an obtain an ADHD diagnosis without pursuing treatment, according to experts who have called for more research to understand why.

Some people now regard ADHD as “an identity, rather than a disorder”, with the result that many obtain assessments from poor quality private providers, which lead them to “believe they have a condition needing treatment”, said the psychiatrist Dr Marios Adamou, the founder of the UK Adult ADHD Network.

MPs, friends and campaigners gathered to remember former Cambridge professor after his death on Friday

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Trafalgar Square in London to remember and pay tribute to Jason Arday, the former Cambridge professor who died on Friday.

Stand Up to Racism, which organised the vigil, estimated that 30,000 mourners had gathered in the square to listen to emotional speeches from MPs, friends and campaigners on Arday’s life and legacy and join in a minute’s silence. Many were dressed in black and held flowers, which they were asked to leave beneath Nelson’s column. People also carried placards reading “rest in power”.

CNN says attack ‘beneath the office’ after Kristen Holmes asked president about Jon Ossoff’s comments on key aide

The White House launched a personal attack against a CNN reporter on Monday with a social media post that mentioned her children and accused her of asking a “disgusting and inhumane question”.

A White House post targeted Kristen Holmes, a senior White House correspondent for the network, after she asked Donald Trump to respond to a widely shared comment by Democratic senator Jon Ossoff in a speech on Sunday.

Rankings based on community life survey put two Devon districts in top five and Stoke and Ipswich near bottom

The Isles of Scilly have been named as the friendliest place in England as part of a major study into social division across Britain.

All 296 local authority areas have been ranked in a new index using government data from the community life survey, measuring how often people chat to neighbours, feelings of loneliness and belonging, local pride, and levels of participation in civic life.

Chain tells customers to ‘pipe down’ and use earphones instead, calling its venues ‘an oasis of tranquillity’

The pub chain Wetherspoons has banned customers from playing music or taking calls on speaker after growing complaints about the noise.

The company announced it had introduced the ban across its 792 pubs, saying sounds from smartphones and tablet computers had become an “increasing problem in recent years”.

The diplomatic spat continues to simmer as Moscow summons Tokyo’s ambassador after the Russian president’s trip to the disputed islands last week

The diplomatic spat between Japan and Russia following Vladimir Putin’s visit to an archipelago of disputed islands north of Hokkaido continues to escalate, after Moscow summoned the Japanese ambassador on Tuesday.

On Thursday Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s prime minister, called Putin’s actions “absolutely unacceptable” and Russia’s ambassador in Tokyo was immediately called in for a dressing down. Russia countered that it was Japan making unfounded claims on its territory.

From student organisers to a model-turned-activist, these women are risking their reputations – and sometimes their lives – to fight against injustice. Plus, actor Imran Khan recommends a classic film

There is much to be said for the extraordinary women living ordinary lives, who nonetheless shaped India. Women have changed public life in the country far more than their presence in formal politics would suggest.

And so, as India marked its 79th birthday over the weekend, I found myself reflecting on the multitude of people’s movements, big and small – as well as the women who helped shape them. During India’s struggle for freedom from British rule, women organised boycotts of British goods, made contraband salt and marched to confront the police, taking on roles usually dominated by men. In the 1970s Chipko movement, protesting deforestation, women put their bodies on the line, wrapping them around trees to stop them being felled, turning a local struggle into a national reckoning over environment and development. More recently, grandmothers in Shaheen Bagh sat to protest the citizenship law, which critics have denounced as discriminatory, creating space for dissent when many thought none existed.

A vivid and hopeful study of how culture endures in the midst of extreme violence

Towards the end of her subtly piercing book about art in wartime, Charlotte Higgins recounts an autumn visit to Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, in the north-east of the country, a short drive from the Russian border. In a tranquil park, she sees a man standing in a stream, making stones balance on top of each other in a teetering tower – “a metaphor of life in that city,” she writes, “that would have seemed too obvious for a novel”.

Still, as a good novelist would, Higgins doesn’t seem to beg telling details from a place so much as have them leap to her open eye and ear. The cartoons a boy is watching that fall silent in a power cut, allowing the distant boom of explosions on the frontline to be heard. A cityscape tattooed on a young poet’s arm that cuts off suddenly where skin from his leg was grafted after he was torn up by shrapnel. Cataracts of larkspur, as Higgins describes them, in a field in the frontline Donbas region, “pouring down the hill, pooling at the bottom into a great lake of blooms … Larkspur thrives on ground where there has been recent disturbance.”

Sign-up perks may capture the attention but should the focus be on the interest-free overdraft?

• The best student deals and discounts

• An insider’s tips on student money

In the scramble to sort out university accommodation, join freshers group chats and work out how a student loan payment is meant to stretch across a whole term, there is one big decision that is easy to put off but worth getting right: which student bank account to open.

Student accounts work like any other current account but come with two extras that don’t apply to the general public: an interest-free overdraft, and a lot of perks designed to hook you in as a customer for life.

Forget the vampire tales – the Eastern Carpathians deliver dramatic peaks, roaming bears and deep solitude

As the sun disappears behind the high tree line, our campfire spits and crackles. Four plump trout are sizzling on a flame-heated slab of rock, a cooking technique used by people in the Gurghiu mountains, part of Transylvania’s Eastern Carpathians, for centuries. Apart from gentle birdsong, it’s the only sound up here, 1,550 metres above sea level and far from any town or village.

“This area is very wild,” says Samir Teslovan, who drove us up through the densely forested peaks from his guesthouse in Toplița. “When I come here to the mountains, I charge my battery, charge my soul. I feel free, like the wind.”

Rick Baker helped define Hollywood’s creature features with his wild makeup effects skills. From Locarno, he talks Gremlins, his love of simians– and why AI will never replace expert design

When Rick Baker was 22 years old and laying the first bricks of what would become one of the great Hollywood careers, he travelled to Hatra in Iraq with director William Friedkin to assist with Max von Sydow’s makeup on The Exorcist. “Oh, he was definitely a lunatic,” Baker recalls of Friedkin, his signature goatee and ponytail still intact, if a little more salt than pepper these days. “But he made a great movie.” Friedkin had been travelling with a fake passport, and the production was plagued by extreme heat and dust storms – but the show went on. “I did von Sydow’s hands,” Baker says. “I pretty much just held a glue bottle.”

We are speaking in Locarno, Switzerland, during the film festival, where Baker has accepted a lifetime achievement award and introduced screenings of An American Werewolf in London and The Nutty Professor – the first and fourth of his seven Oscar wins. When he completed his last big production, Maleficent, in 2014, it ended a more than 40-year career in which he made some huge contributions to popular culture. The monsters in Michael Jackson’s Thriller video? They were Baker’s handiwork. The Mos Eisley cantina band in Star Wars? That was him, too. In 1999, he leaked a story to the press to stop the studio from simply painting Jim Carrey green instead of using his designs for How the Grinch Stole Christmas; he won the argument and a sixth Oscar followed.

From wacky versions of The ABC Song to Quentin Blake’s eccentric Mrs Armitage, these five shows offer fun for young audiences

Underbelly until 31 August

One of the UK’s best fossil collections has been sold overseas in what experts have called a loss to the nation. The collection, which is now on display at the Natural History Museum in Abu Dhabi, was gathered on Dorset’s Jurassic Coast. As dinosaur fossils sell to private collectors for increasingly large sums, scientists are worried that domestic museums are being priced out of the market, and in turn scientists are missing out on the opportunity to make new observations. To find out how fossils became big business and what it could mean for research, Madeleine Finlay hears from science correspondent Nicola Davis

One of UK’s best fossil collections sold overseas in ‘loss to the nation’

Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod

Using ‘equestrian embodiment’, photographer Ayana V Jackson celebrates Stage Coach Mary and other great riders who faced down prejudice
• The best of Arles 2026 – in pictures

The centrist coalition that traditionally shaped EU laws is now colluding with MEPs from the AfD and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally

The EU exists because its nations swore never to repeat the past. European integration is the insurance policy against the oldest temptation of power: that a majority, however large, decides who does not belong. So countries across the continent agreed to share power across borders, and to answer to laws that none of them individually controlled.

The European parliament is where that promise is meant to be kept. Directly elected by nearly 360 million citizens, it co-writes the EU’s laws, elects the president of the European Commission and can dismiss the closest thing Europe has to a government – the commission itself. For decades, a grand coalition of centre-right parties and socialists, later joined by liberals and greens, governed it on that premise. They were committed to closer cooperation, the rule of law and maintaining a firewall against the far right.

Alberto Alemanno is the Jean Monnet professor of EU law at HEC Paris and the founder of The Good Lobby

As men we’re often taught to chase lives defined by vanity and hollow expressions. But genuine decency lasts far longer than any name on a building

Occasionally, in our lives, there are markers that arrive with enough strength to hop us off the treadmill just long enough to remind ourselves that everyone’s race has a finish line, and none of us are getting out of this jolly for free.

One of these blots is often when someone we know passes away.

The untimely death of the Heroes and Scream star was a tragic ending to a life filled with darkness in an industry that still lets its younger stars down

• Hayden Panettiere: an actor so magnetic that entire shows were rewritten for her

• Hayden Panettiere – a life in pictures

• Hayden Panettiere obituary

For a little while, it looked as if maybe former child actors had shed the stigma, long understandably held, that Hollywood success at a young age would lead to tragedy later in life. Child stars from the 1970s and 1980s seemed particularly mistreated and/or self-destructive, whether born into dysfunctional Hollywood families, like Tatum O’Neal, or the result of more sui generis success, like Brad Renfro, River Phoenix, or Corey Haim. But as these cases became more notorious, they seemed to act as cautionary tales for a generation of stars that seemed – broadly speaking – to be receiving better guidance, whether from family, friends, or themselves.

Look at the astonishingly well-adjusted core cast of Harry Potter kids, who worked for a full decade, from their pre-teen years to young adulthood: among Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, there are more awards, charity work and seemingly happy relationships than genuine scandals. (The biggest malfeasance of anyone in the trio? Some mild tax problems for Grint.) Other awards-show fixtures like Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, and Kieran Culkin have come out the other side of child stardom with terrific careers and strong reputations closer to the Jodie Foster model. Even Lindsay Lohan, whose behavior in the 2000s and into the 2010s seemed to signal impending tragedy, seems to be doing well: sober, happily married, and back on the big screen last year with the hit sequel Freakier Friday. In terms of more recent young stars, a pop singer like Olivia Rodrigo appears to have much more autonomy than Britney Spears did, even in her early-2000s heyday.

My cherished first-born will soon be off to start a big new phase of his life, shiny saucepans in tow. ‘Empty nesting’ implies this is as nature intended, but it’s knocked me for six

My son sent me a picture of his university accommodation, which looked perfectly nice, but there was something off about it. It was a little bit too tidy, of course, and had the slightly dystopian atmosphere of a neutral colour palette, but the main problem was that places look weird without people in them. That’s why architects, when they’re trying to sell a development, always add the magic ingredients: a child with a balloon, a couple pushing a buggy and a gentleman with a bicycle.

So I squinted a bit and tried to imagine my son in that room, which is when it hit me: he’s actually serious about this. He truly intends, in one month’s time, to get all his stuff, put it in bags, take it to another city and live there. I can neither convey nor explain my surprise, which is bottomless. It’s not that I thought he wouldn’t get the grades; I’m not one of those harridan sceptic-parents. I just had “I’m going to university” filed as one of those cute, dumb things kids say, along with “I’m going to space”, “I’m changing my name to Unnamed Being” and “I’m an otter now”.

New species and regional instability are factors – but decisions made in the US and Britain are also costing lives

Did you know that there is a major Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and it’s on track to be the deadliest ever? It is already the second-worst Ebola outbreak in history, with the fastest community transmission we have ever seen. It’s estimated that there have been at least 4,900 cases and more than 2,300 deaths, giving a mortality rate close to 50%. The situation is bad. That’s the consensus among global health experts.

Yet this Ebola outbreak isn’t attracting much media or public attention. If I compare it with working on the 2014 Ebola outbreak, the current silence is astounding. That year, Ebola was one of the most Googled terms in the world, covered regularly on broadcast news in many countries outside the region, attracting newspaper headlines and magazine covers. Perhaps everyone is just tired of disease after the pandemic – Covid-19 fatigue, as it’s called. Trust me, no one wants to hear about infectious diseases.

Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh

I understand gen Z’s concerns about the cost of romance. But anything can be a date if you want it to be

A couple of months ago, I wrote a column imploring young people to keep trying to find love, to not become cynical about romance and avoid the temptation of the accursed “loneliness influencers” peddling antisocial behavior as some sort of newfangled experiment that no one had thought of before. I stand here today saying, hey, I can’t be right all the time. Maybe it is better to be alone, since it costs a hell of a lot less.

Apparently, young people across the country are forgoing dating because it’s too damn expensive. Or at least, I think they are, based on the multiple newspaper articles saying so that came out in the last two weeks. As the New York Times put it, the “prospect of a tab of $150 or more for two entrées, two drinks, an appetizer and tip” is too pricey for many gen Z singles. I say, only $150? Where are you going, Chili’s? I went on a date with (shameful brag incoming) a very famous political figure from the late 90s and spent twice that amount, sending my bank account into cardiac arrest. I practically begged her to get dessert, even though it was clear our decade of age difference and general lack of chemistry meant I was better off going home and journaling about it. I paid for the whole thing, and in return, I got an amazing story to tell at parties.

Legitimate scrutiny became entangled with a racial argument about merit and diversity. His death raises questions about how society treats black success and failure

The tragic death of Jason Arday raises serious questions about race, institutional authority and what happens to people in a society increasingly organised around public reputation. Arday, who resigned earlier this month as a professor at the University of Cambridge, was found dead at his home last week. He was 41. His family and friends have lost somebody they loved and cared for. Arday had publicly said that the scrutiny of allegations concerning his academic work and claims he had made about his life was taking a profound toll. That he then died amid an intense and continuing media examination of his life is deeply troubling.

The prime minister, Andy Burnham, was right to call this “a moment for reflection”. This does not mean suppressing difficult questions, ignoring why there remain a pitifully small number of black professors in British universities, or attacking legitimate journalism. But in a polarised world it should see the media ask how proper scrutiny can widen into something more encompassing; how race affects the meaning attached to an individual’s alleged failings; and whether separate valid stories can, via social media, have an overwhelming effect. In Arday’s case, alleged shortcomings in his record rapidly became weaponised by the right in an argument about diversity and black academic advancement.

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.

Amy Hunt’s record haul of four golds in Birmingham showcased the sport’s appeal. More can be done to ensure it gets its fair share of the limelight

To win one gold medal is impressive. To win two indicates a certain relentlessness. To win four in the space of one remarkable week of athletics may ensure further recognition for Amy Hunt as the BBC’s sports personality of the year. Ms Hunt’s record‑breaking achievement in winning the 100m, 200m, women’s relay and mixed relay at the first European championships to be held in Britain was an exhibition of world-class sprinting for the ages.

Her triumph capped a week which reminded us that there is more to sporting life than football. By winning an 11th medal, Dina Asher-Smith became the most successful athlete in the history of the competition. And on Friday, at a packed Alexander athletics stadium in Birmingham, the crowd savoured a contest and burgeoning rivalry that recalled the halcyon days of Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett. Audrey Werro, the young Swiss star, and Keely Hodgkinson, Team GB’s Olympic champion, produced a thrillingly intense women’s 800m final, which Werro won with a time that broke a European record set in 1982.

Readers respond to an article by Daisy Christodoulou on predicting which children are at risk of future unemployment

Daisy Christodoulou suggests that teachers identifying children at risk of ending up not in education, employment or training (Neets) is like dentists helping children to learn to read (Could you predict which children will be Neets? No – and it’s unfair to ask that of teachers, 11 August). But dentists often help children learn to read by stopping the toothache that can derail education. Alan Milburn is not asking teachers to fix teeth. He wants the whole system to act when teachers identify barriers to learning.

We conducted the research at the centre of this debate. Our study showed that children identified with developmental difficulties through the statutory early years foundation stage profile (EYFSP) school assessment are much more likely to become Neets in late adolescence. The EYFSP reveals the holistic educational needs of children – but teachers cannot diagnose autism, treat anxiety or fix housing. Milburn is not making teachers responsible for everything.

Readers respond to an article in which Ioan Marc Jones describes overcoming his hatred of running

I loved Ioan Marc Jones’s article because it’s an honest reflection of the struggle of getting into running when you need exercise but don’t necessarily want it (Nipple tape, pickle juice and dinosaurs: how I learned to love running, the unorthodox way, 12 August). For me, the gamechanger was joining a running club. I’m not a naturally social person and I felt so nervous on my first session, but it’s such a warm, nonjudgmental community. I run with people of all ages and it’s really improved my pace and enjoyment of running.

I think that’s true of a lot of the running community. I do parkrun here in Yorkshire, but recently ran it in Aviemore and Thurso in Scotland and received such a warm welcome. I always thought that running was about being elite and competitive, but this showed me another way.
Sarah Tolson
Baildon, West Yorkshire

Roger Cornwell says under government plans, councils will lose some planning powers, and Alan Knight says reducing high-street betting fuels illegal online gambling. Plus a letter from Katrina Kerr

In your report (Burnham to give councils more powers to block vape and betting shops, 10 August) Angela Rayner is quoted as saying: “We’re giving local leaders the power to say no to what doesn’t belong on their high street, and the tools to fix it themselves”. If only.

The national scheme of delegation, due to come into force on 31 October, will take away the ability from council leaders and planning committees to determine most planning applications, including the change of use proposed here. Instead, they will be delegated to officers. Elected members and parish councils will lose the power to call controversial planning applications to committee. It’s not too late to reverse this decision, which is contrary to the government’s newfound enthusiasm for delegating decisions to local communities.
Roger Cornwell
Durham

Afghan diplomacy | Weather words | Delightful weeds | Thomas Paine’s remains | Reform UK benefits cuts

You report concerns over increased diplomatic contact with Afghanistan and the Taliban (15 August). If nations wish to establish contact with the country and improve human rights, especially for women, may I suggest that they only use women to negotiate and to staff diplomatic bases. They might also insist on only dealing with women. If the Taliban desire legitimacy let them have it on decent terms.
Martin Cooper
Bromley, London

• To help us talk about the weather (How can we talk about this extreme weather now that it’s a battleground in the culture wars?, 14 August), my friend Nic Ford and I have coined the term apranxiety – a portmanteau of apricity (the warmth of the sun in winter) and anxiety. We are hoping it becomes common parlance.
Rachel Papworth
Brighton, East Sussex

• Kevin Lamour said Fifa administration was ‘deceived’

• Chief operating officer knew he could lose his job

The Fifa chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, has been sacked after openly criticising Gianni Infantino’s ill-fated plan to sell parts of the World Cup to private investors.

In a significant development at the pinnacle of world football’s deeply troubled governing body, Lamour has departed less than two years after joining from a previous role at Uefa. He had come out strongly against Infantino’s FFE scheme after it was revealed, saying Fifa’s administration had been “deceived” and that the president “believes he embodies Fifa when he is supposed to be at its service”.

Director Joe Pearlman says he expected Real Madrid manager to ‘try to manipulate us’ in making of Netflix series

Even in the hyperreal world of football, there are few characters more compelling, more polarising, or more everything than José Mourinho, the best and worst of public him on full display in a new three-part Netflix series. “It reminded me how good he was,” says Joe Pearlman, who directed Mourinho, and the actual Mourinho is, believe it or not, keen to communicate the same. As he puts it in the show: “I look, you look, I see more than you.”

Making documentaries, though, is often about taking people to the places they’re most skilled at avoiding. “I knew the interviews were going to be very intense,” says Pearlman, “and he was going to try and control the narrative and manipulate us. Everything bad is everyone else’s fault and everything he’s done is validated by winning. Because that’s all that’s important.”

• Former Test opener fined $1,500 after failing a breath-test at Easter

• Future work opportunities will be affected, says barrister

Australian cricket great David Warner has lamented global media attention about his drink-driving offence, suggesting it cost him valuable overseas commercial opportunities.

The 39-year-old was convicted and fined $1,500 on Tuesday for mid-range drink-driving after he tried to switch seats with a passenger when approaching a random breath-testing site on Easter Sunday.

After keeping Leeds up last season and reaching an FA Cup semi-final, Daniel Farke has good reason to expect further improvement at Elland Road

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 12th (NB: this is not necessarily Louise Taylor’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 14th

There will be some familiar faces involved in this week’s European qualifiers as a number of smaller clubs have a chance to make their mark

Fenerbahce v Lyon, Tuesday 8pm
Romelu Lukaku is the latest familiar face to rock up at Fenerbahce. The 33-year-old striker is, however, unlikely to be fit for Lyon’s visit to Istanbul on Tuesday – he sat out Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Genclerbirligi, the club his father played for in the 1990s. “This beautiful country is a second home to me,” Lukaku, who spent part of his childhood in Turkey, said last week. Fenerbahce have also added Mason Greenwood and Nathan Aké to a squad that includes Ederson, N’Golo Kanté and Marco Asensio. Failure to get past Lyon, who are aiming to qualify for the Champions League for the first time since reaching the semi-finals in 2019-20, would not be the best start to Ismail Kartal’s fourth spell as head coach.

• Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns beat American pair 6-2, 1-6, 10-8

• Serena and Venus enjoy ‘fun’ on-court reunion despite defeat

Just one game into the family reunion of the decade, Venus Williams launched herself inside the baseline in her single-minded pursuit of a puffball second serve. For a brief moment, grandstand stadium at the Cincinnati Open had been transported back 15 years. Williams pounded her forehand return directly at the right hip of her opponent Marta Kostyuk, instantly eliciting gasps from the audience as she snatched the point. Back when the Williams sisters spent their spare time racking up grand slam titles for fun, this is how they dealt with most adversaries.

In the end, Venus and Serena’s first doubles match in four years, and just their second in the past decade, ended in a rollercoaster 6-2, 1-6, 10-8 defeat to Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns, another wildcard pair and two formidable singles players. For once, the result did not seem to matter.

The unbeaten three-year-old’s showdown with Ombudsman promises a race for the ages but the Ebor Handicap remains the festival’s most compelling spectacle

For the moment at least, there is a Bow Echo-shaped hole in the remainder of the 2026 Flat season, after the news last week that George Boughey’s unbeaten colt has been retired to stud after suffering a training setback. The 2,000 Guineas winner exited the racing stage as the world’s top-rated three-year-old on a mark of 127, just 4lb behind the joint top-rated older horses, Ka Ying Rising and Ombudsman, and with the scope and untapped potential to match or exceed them before the end of the campaign.

A void, though, can also be a vacancy and Constitution River, the second-best three-year-old so far this year, will have an immediate opportunity to step into the breach when he lines up against Ombudsman, no less, in what promises to be a memorable renewal of the International Stakes on the opening afternoon of York’s Ebor festival on Wednesday.

Brent crude rises above $90 a barrel for the first time since 30 July after US president tells Tehran to surrender

• Business live – latest updates

Oil prices have risen again after the two-month window to negotiate a peace deal in the US-Israel war on Iran expired on Monday with no end to the conflict in sight.

Iran said on Monday that it would take a more aggressive stance if talks with the US failed, while Donald Trump demanded Tehran “put up the white flag of surrender” in an interview with Fox News.

Lee Jae Myung reiterates desire for full command back in Seoul’s hands after Donald Trump cuts joint exercises, citing warm ties with Kim Jong-un

• ‘Inane, haphazard decision’ by Trump to gut South Korea alliance

South Korea’s president ⁠has renewed his push to regain independent control of the military from the US in the event of war and urged faster progress in acquiring nuclear-powered submarines after Donald Trump’s order to cut joint drills.

On Sunday night, Trump instructed the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” this week’s joint military exercises with South Korea, saying the nuclear-armed North “has been unthreatening and respectful” and that the US president had a “very good relationship with Kim Jong-un”.

State attorneys general allege that tech company intentionally designed addictive products that harm young people

More than half of the states in the US have joined together in an unprecedented lawsuit against Meta that goes to trial on Tuesday, accusing the parent company of Instagram and Facebook of deliberately designing addictive products that lured in young people and caused them harm.

The jury trial is taking place in federal court in Oakland, California, and is expected to last between six and eight weeks. The jury is expected to hear from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri and employee turned whistleblower Arturo Béjar.

Man to appear in court after 55-year-old man was bitten by dog on footpath and later died in hospital

A 55-year-old man has been charged with manslaughter over the death of a man who was bitten by a dog on a footpath.

West Yorkshire police were called to reports of an altercation on the old train line footpath off Blacker Lane in the Calder Grove area of Wakefield on Saturday afternoon.

Open letter signed by 40 academics including Nobel winner Joseph Stiglitz and Kate Pickett, co-author of The Spirit Level

Forty prominent progressive academics are urging Andy Burnham’s government to join a new global push to tackle inequality.

The experts include Nobel winner Joseph Stiglitz, University College London professor Mariana Mazzucato, vice-chancellor of the London School of Economics Larry Kramer, and Kate Pickett, co-author of The Spirit Level.

Goyt Valley, Derbyshire: My patience into dusk is rewarded with a full display of unlikely calls and aerial prowess

The setting sun spread a last Iberian glow over the hills opposite before they were drained of colour and sound, and by nine, the world was in monochrome. In line with national increases in their numbers and range, nightjars have prospered here recently. It seems especially so with the clearance of conifers, which has left a mix of old Scots pine and open space perfectly suited to this crepuscular ground-nesting migrant.

You hear nightjars much more than see them. Churring is the name given to their vocalisation – a continuous unfurling throat song that is one-part stridulation, one-part deep earth rumble. It feels subterranean, but also flows weightlessly like mist. Intermittently the unseen bird will turn its head; the song shifts key, then resumes, but its location is barely more obvious.

Vegetable and grain growers call for urgent action, warning of ‘catastrophic’ harvests due to continent-wide drought

Successive intense heatwaves and an increasingly severe, continent-wide drought have left many of Europe’s farmers in an “unprecedented” crisis, with vegetable and grain growers in particular warning of “catastrophic” harvests.

French vegetable production is down by “a very significant extent” compared with previous years, French growers have said, with shortfalls put at 25% for courgettes, 35% for lettuces, 40% for peas, 60% for broccoli and 50% to 100% for artichokes.

Campaigners demand greater transparency into water companies’ plans not made public due to ‘security reasons’

The UK government has been accused of a lack of transparency and of acting irresponsibly for refusing to publish the emergency drought plans that are produced by water companies.

Water firms are required to publish statutory drought plans every five years to detail the actions needed to ensure public water supply is maintained and the environment is protected during drought.

As warming seas push native species to cooler waters farther north, once-rare visitors have become more common

‘It sounds silly but I thought it was a person in the water waving,” says Kurt Lander, skipper of the Yellowfin charter boat, based out of Brighton. But when he grabbed his binoculars, he realised the fluttering movement he had noticed in the middle of the Channel shipping lane was a pair of sunfish.

The huge fish were lying on their sides and flapping their fins. “Apparently, they do it as a visual attraction to birds,” he says. “They’re trying to get the birds to eat the parasites off them.”

Exclusive: Research also finds stark ethnic disparities, and 40% of deaths among group classed as avoidable

People living with severe intellectual disabilities are dying 24 years younger on average than the wider population, a study has found, with 40% of such deaths being avoidable.

The study also found that within this group, people from minority ethnic backgrounds were dying 14 years younger than their white counterparts.

Party wants to cut £50bn from UK welfare bill but charity says proposals would cause ‘horrific levels of destitution’

Hundreds of thousands of children would be tipped into poverty and destitution under plans unveiled by Reform UK to slash £50bn a year from the UK benefits bill, campaigners have warned.

The warnings came after Reform published plans to drastically reduce disability payments, ban non-UK citizens from claiming benefits and introduce compulsory 20 hours a week unpaid workfare for thousands of long-term unemployed people.

Southend East & Rochford’s Bayo Alaba has been suspended while inquiry looks at bounceback loans

A Labour MP has been suspended after being questioned about government Covid loans taken out by his businesses.

Bayo Alaba, the MP for Southend East & Rochford, has referred himself to the Labour party for investigation after the Times asked about a loan given to one of his businesses during the pandemic.

Laith Alani, who had booked week-long trip to visit theme parks and family, believes US border force profiled him on arrival in Orlando

A British student who was detained and deported after flying to the US claims he was profiled for being Muslim.

Laith Alani said he felt as if he had been kidnapped when he was interrogated for nine hours and detained in a holding cell for another 14 hours by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at Orlando international airport.

Prosecutors accuse Duane Davis of orchestrating 1996 shooting in retaliation for attack by rapper’s entourage

The trial of a former gang leader accused of orchestrating the 1996 killing of rap star Tupac Shakur began in a Las Vegas courtroom on Monday, featuring testimony from a witness to the shooting and a former police officer.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis is on trial for murder for his alleged role in the shooting of Shakur, who died after a drive-by shooting. Prosecutors allege Davis was the “on-the-ground, on-site commander of the effort to kill Tupac” and that he planned the shooting in retaliation for Shakur’s entourage attacking Davis’s nephew.

Country’s second fatal school shooting in two months took place in city of ⁠Zamboanga and video appeared to be live-streamed on social media

A student was shot dead at a high school in the southern Philippines before the alleged killer took his own life, the local mayor said, in the second school shooting in the South-east Asian nation in two months.

The shooting took ⁠place at a school attached to Ateneo de Zamboanga University in the southern city of ⁠Zamboanga, a Catholic private institution in western Mindanao.

Lawyers seek dismissal of state charges after Mangione pleaded guilty in federal case over Brian Thompson killing

A New York state ⁠judge on Monday ⁠effectively ​postponed Luigi Mangione’s trial on murder and weapons charges over ⁠the 2024 killing of a health insurance company CEO, after Mangione pleaded ⁠guilty last week to separate federal charges.

The ​trial had ‌previously been ‌scheduled to begin on September 8. Mangione ‌has pleaded not guilty to the state charges. Mangione’s lawyers on Friday asked New York state justice Gregory Carro, who is overseeing the state case, ‌to dismiss the charges.

Sisters argue they should retain concession in Ligurian town of Spotorno because it funds charitable activities

A group of Italian nuns is fighting back against local council plans to take their beach club away from them – the latest flashpoint in the long-running debate about the monopoly of private concessions along Italy’s coastline.

The dispute, described as “a holy war” by some local press, unfolded when a 50-metre stretch of sand at Bagni Gino Garrone, a beach resort in the Ligurian coastal town of Spotorno managed by nuns from the Suore di Carità di Santa Maria order, was designated for public bidding by authorities as they seek to comply with EU beach concession laws as well as regional regulations on free beach quotas.

Further 104 allegations not investigated due to ‘insufficient information or the wishes of the impacted person’, according to annual report

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More than 100 workers at BHP lost their jobs, or resigned, during the last financial year after sexually harassing colleagues, which included numerous instances of indecent touching, stalking and grooming.

The harassment cases, disclosed in the mining giant’s annual report on Tuesday, come during a period of heightened scrutiny of remote work sites, where female workers across the industry have raised allegations of systemic sexual harassment, violence and retaliation.

Fierce competition in some areas of London means landlord purchasers are making successful lowball offers

The average price of a home coming up for sale in Britain’s richest borough has dropped by almost £100,000 in a month as fierce competition among sellers in many areas prompts some to slash their price expectations, data shows.

The property website Rightmove said that for Britain as a whole, average newly listed asking prices for homes had fallen by 2% over the past month, the largest August price drop in eight years.

Industrial output and retail sales slump in July after one of the country’s weakest quarterly growth rates ever

China’s economy is showing signs of extending a slowdown with a slump in industrial output and retail sales in July, adding to pressure on Beijing to intervene with measures to support activity.

After the world’s second largest economy posted one of its lowest quarterly growth readings on record in the three months to June, the latest figures suggest it continued to falter in July.

Operator granted UK track access for as many as 20 daily return trains to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam from 2030

• Business live – latest updates

Virgin Trains has been granted track access by the rail regulator to enable it to run services between London and Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam from 2030, in a key step towards breaking Eurostar’s monopoly on the cross-Channel passenger route.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) said it had given approval for Richard Branson’s company to run as many as 20 daily return services using the High Speed 1 line that runs between London St Pancras and the Channel tunnel.

Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
Both outrageous and tender, this stellar follow-up to Main Character Energy gives new meaning to body language

Temi Wilkey serenades us, asks if we fancy her and wonders if the love of her life could be here right now. The G spot? Call it the T spot, says Temi, before popping the question: “Do you want to come inside my Infinity Pussy?”

It’s seductive stuff and, naturally, the room agrees to take things to the next level. Cue a conversation between Wilkey and, with a soundscape to make you blush and a quick change into a ruffled reddish peignoir, her forthright vagina.

At Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, until 30 August

All our Edinburgh festival reviews

She starred in her first soap opera at 4 – then the hit show Heroes was totally reworked to allow her character, Claire the regenerating cheerleader, to live on. We celebrate the star, who has died age 36

• Hayden Panettiere – a life in pictures
• Hayden Panettiere obituary

When Hayden Panettiere arrived as Claire Bennet in Heroes, in 2006, she was 17 but not a newcomer. She’d starred in Tiger Cruise, a Disney Channel movie, two years before and was the pin-perfect image of that teen-star world – blond, cute, perky, resourceful and all-American. Bennet the superhero was all those things, amped up to the point of fascinating distortion. She was a cheerleader who could endlessly regenerate. It was a topic of hot debate on fan sites whether or not she could feel pain, a question that was resolved piecemeal through the series. She could, but could instantly overcome it with her superpower – that fact partly informed the view of one academic, professor Olvido Andújar Molina, that Bennet was standing in for the American dream, its core components being strength, resilience and a sweet-natured homeliness.

In Tiger Cruise, Panettiere had filled a similar role, the cute-as-a-button daughter of a naval commander, producing this elemental, almost mournful Oz-like message: “Everything you long for is right here at home.” She was from a showbiz family, her mother, Lesley Vogel, was a soap actor, and her brother, Jansen, who also possessed those perfectly symmetrical features, co-starred in Tiger Cruise, and later, in 2011, in The Forger (better known as the last film Lauren Bacall ever made). Jansen also died horribly young, of complications from an engorged heart, in 2023 aged 28. Panettiere got her first soap opera gig, in One Life to Live, at the age of four, and went on to a recurring role into Guiding Light before she was 10. She was the voice of Dot in A Bug’s Life, and was nominated for a Grammy for her work on the film.

A young woman sacrifices everything to find the siblings she lost in the 1960s. Plus: Ricky Gervais jumps aboard the Magical Sitcom Tour. Here’s what to watch this evening

9pm, Sky Atlantic
A devastating drama about the “Sixties Scoop” – when Canadian authorities enabled a mass removal of Indigenous children from their families and put them into the welfare system. Twentysomething Esther Rosenblum is investigating how she came to be adopted as a five-year-old in Montreal and is looking for her estranged siblings. Flashbacks to 15 years earlier show what happened after the night they were taken from their parents. Hollie Richardson

Josephine Ahnelt’s gentle but truthful documentary has home-movie intimacy and some incredibly touching moments

As a piece of art depicting motherhood, Judith Rohrmoser’s self-portrait of breastfeeding sticks two fingers up at the tradition of the Madonna with child. In her painting, Rohrmoser’s baby feeds contentedly, chubby cheeked and sleepy under damp lashes. The artist is less serene, looking directly at us, headphones clamped over her ears, eyes filled with what might be a roar of grief, or possibly an overwhelming sense that everything has changed.

Rohrmoser is one of five women who agreed to be filmed at their most vulnerable in the first year of motherhood for this Austrian documentary. It’s a gentle but truthful look at new motherhood, making the point that – ignore the Renaissance artists – having a tiny baby does not put you in perpetual state of bliss. The reality is exhaustion, joy, boredom, wonder and a rush of other feelings. Director Josephine Ahnelt shoots in 16mm, her camera up close, filming with the intimacy of a home video, cutting off heads to at one point zero in on what interests her: a mother snipping her baby’s tiny fingernails.

The actor does a brilliant job of probing the alleged dumping of ‘forever chemicals’ in Wales. After grilling a stranger for two days, his investigation turns up horrible incidents – including potential links to cancer cases

You may scoff at celebrity-fronted documentaries, but there’s no need to moan about Buried With Michael Sheen, an investigation into how toxic “forever chemicals” were dumped in Welsh quarries in the middle of the 20th century. Much of our knowledge of the subject comes from a filmed interview given nearly 10 years ago by the environmental campaigner Douglas Gowan, who, after decades of trying to raise awareness, had only weeks to live and wanted to divulge all he had learned. The person behind the camera and asking the questions? Sheen.

The actor and director is a little coy about how or why he came to spend two days – two days! – grilling a stranger to create the most valuable document we have about an underappreciated injustice. He says something about stumbling across Gowan online during a career lull and wanting to know more. But however it happened, the fact is that the best qualified person to present this two-parter is the award-winning Hollywood star, so here he is.

Sure, it’s got evil extraterrestrials trying to detonate whole towns … but not even the almighty Green Lantern and his mesmerising protege can save this show from feeling a whole lot of meh

It is my personal belief that you are starting off on the back foot whenever you’re given a superhero who draws their powers from an extrinsic item. Captain America is nothing without his shield. Elon Musk could build a metal suit and proto-heart and become Iron Man, which tells you everything you need to know about the problem. And, most pertinently, as we’re about to discuss the latest iteration of the Green Lantern legend, there’s the Green Lantern and his big green ring. It grants the wearer mighty powers but periodically needs recharging from a big green power pack. Plus, Green Lanterns themselves are ultimately employees of Green Lantern Corps, a cosmic law enforcement agency run by the Guardians. They are a race of immortals who live on the planet Oa, but by that point there’s a lot of meh to cut your way through.

Lanterns, the new televisual venture into the DC Comics universe, keeps all of the above elements and adds a mentor-mentee buddy-cop spine that plays out across two timelines – 2016 and 2026. The ever-dependable Kyle Chandler plays Earth’s current Green Lantern, Hal Jordan. Rising star and mesmerising screen presence Aaron Pierre plays his trainee John Stewart (one of DC’s first African American superheroes, who made his debut in 1971). In 2016, Hal is weary and lazy when it comes to teaching John to be – as he sees it – his backup. He has no intention of retiring or being killed (which is an enormous amount of trust to place in a piece of jewellery that comes with a battery worse than your phone’s). The 2016 John, a well-disciplined son of a marine, and a former sniper and architect (and vegan), is a model of quiet endurance, retaining his poise and respecting the chain of command.

(Island)
Even a couple of bafflingly misguided social commentary songs can’t detract from the joys of Flowers’ classically full-throated commitment to the Nashville bit

Here are three immutable facts about Brandon Richard Flowers: he was born just outside Las Vegas, Nevada. He is 45 years old. And he never does anything by halves. When he and his band the Killers debuted in the early 2000s, as disaffected New York cool was on the rise, he was writing scream-along choruses sung in his upper register. When the Killers were searching for a sound even bigger and grander than the euphoric Springsteen pastiche of 2006’s Sam’s Town, they didn’t think twice before recruiting Stuart Price to produce the spangly 2008 disco-rock record Day & Age.

That’s how you get a record like Thrasher. Flowers’ third solo album finds Vegas’s chosen son decamping to Nashville for a full-throated exploration of country music – not subtle, trendy Americana, but rip-snorting, honky-tonking, Nudie suit-wearing country. In many ways, Thrasher is a stylistic follow-up to the Killers’ maudlin 2021 Pressure Machine, which saw Flowers explore windswept balladry and tasteful story-songs. But that record was as forgettable as Thrasher is a hoot; Flowers wilts when he doesn’t fully commit, as was the case on Pressure Machine, and he doesn’t make that mistake here. Thrasher features many of Nashville’s most revered country musicians, including pedal steel legend Bruce Bouton, 85-year-old harmonica player Charlie McCoy, Gillian Welch’s musical partner Dave Rawlings and lauded Americana musician Margo Price.

Royal Albert Hall, London
The ferociously dynamic SCO help Fröst drill down to the rhythmic essence of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony as well as works by contemporary composers

It’s a Sunday morning, and as the Royal Albert Hall darkens and the stage is suddenly back-lit, spotlighting a charismatic figure speaking sibilantly at its centre, you’d almost swear you’d wandered into an American megachurch. But the gospel preached by maverick clarinettist-conductor Martin Fröst is altogether more ancient and more primal: dance. What could be more fundamental, not just to music but life itself, he argues. And with the ferociously dynamic Swedish Chamber Orchestra helping him make his case, it’s hard to disagree.

Wagner famously declared Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony “the apotheosis of the dance”, and the SCO’s DNA project (“Dance Now Always”) transforms his description into a concert that drills down to the rhythmic essence of the symphony, seizing those cells and pulses that are its heartbeat and amplifying them into an ear-bending, time-warping sequence that suspends the work at the centre of its own musical genealogy – past and future.

Toni Collette heads a list of familiar voices playing out the village murder-mystery. Plus, Guz Khan and Kiell Smith-Bynoe go off on some rather wild tangents

Toni Collette is an eagle-eyed amateur sleuth in this big adaptation of Agatha Christie’s first Miss Marple novel. When Colonel Protheroe is found dead in sleepy St Mary Mead, suspects include his spouse, Anne, and daughter, Lettice. But as false confessions and red herrings stack up, can Marple crack the case? Kit Harington, Lolly Adefope and Vicki Pepperdine – who wrote the adaptation – are among the cast.
Widely available, episodes weekly

The Arctic Monkeys, Pet Shop Boys and Pulp collaborator was at the height of his powers as Britain’s most in-demand music producer when leukaemia struck. ‘I realised life is exceptionally fragile,’ he says

There was a moment outside the door of a recording studio in rural France, staring at a half-eaten apple that he believed possessed psychedelic properties, when James Ford knew things had really got out of hand. He was stood with Klaxons; all of the band members were hypnotised by this rotting fruit which throbbed on the floor with kaleidoscopic intensity. They were convinced that its blooming mould was in fact their spiritual guru.

The band had been riding the wave of their huge, scene-defining debut album, 2007’s Myths of the Near Future – which was produced by Ford – and were now trying to record the interminably difficult follow-up, aided by daily doses of a concoction they’d taken to calling “the five-star general”.

Set across three interwoven timelines, this absorbing tale of an abandoned mining town explores courage, cowardice and how history is recorded

Téa Obreht’s novels teem with conflicting narratives, treacherous landscapes and speculative fictions. Her 2010 prizewinning debut, The Tiger’s Wife, examined themes of death, miracles and outsider status in the midst of a fictional Balkan war. Her fourth novel, Sunrise, returns to a western frontier haunted by ghosts and stalked by outlaws, a territory Obreht first explored in her second book, Inland.

It is August 2024. Nina Terzic has just jumped – or was she pushed? – from a crash-landing Cessna into a lake somewhere in the mountains of Wyoming. She manages to swim to shore. There is no sign of her boyfriend Ben, who was in the plane with her, and her phone – though miraculously intact – has no signal. Nina, a postgraduate student, was supposed to be on holiday from her job as a live-in nanny in New York. We get the feeling that her relationship with Ben might have a darker underside.

This fictional memoir by Octavius’s right-hand man shows us bloodshed, betrayal and hectic jockeying for power

If you’re one of those people who thinks about the Roman empire several times a week, Robert Harris has you covered. He follows his trilogy of novels about the life of Cicero and his one-off about the unpleasantness in Pompeii with a narrative that takes us from civil war through the assassination of Julius Caesar, with all the bickering and bloodshed that follows, on to the decisive battle of Actium and Octavius’s apotheosis as Caesar Augustus. We meet Cicero, Fulvia, Lepidus, two Caesars and a burly Antony (“Imagine, if you will, a statue of Hercules with a club in one hand, a wineskin in the other”).

Here’s the clever bit: he narrates it all from the point of view of Octavius’s right-hand man, Agrippa, a much less well-remembered figure. Harris tells us he “left behind no speeches, few letters and only a couple of sentences of direct quotation”. Yet Agrippa was “effective co-ruler of the Roman world for many years” and “the greatest general of the period”. Octavius couldn’t have risen without him, but he seems to have done his best to write him out of the story afterwards, according him only two passing mentions in the Res Gestae Divi Augusti.

Polish war hero Kazimierz Moczarski spent 255 days sharing a cell with an SS general. Nearly 50 years after it was published, an uncensored version of his account is appearing in English for the first time

In 1949, Kazimierz Moczarski, a leading member of the Polish resistance, was in his fourth year of incarceration when he was moved into a cell with two Nazis at Warsaw’s Mokotów prison. One of them was Jürgen Stroop – a war criminal and SS general who had led the infamous destruction of the Warsaw ghetto and was responsible for the murder or capture of more than 56,000 Jews. They shared the same four walls for 255 consecutive days.

A celebrated figure in modern-day Poland, Moczarski was regarded as a threat to the power of the postwar communist regime in the country. Like other resistance members, he was accused of collaboration and arrested. But Moczarski, who spoke German, used his imprisonment with Stroop as an opportunity to investigate a question: what turned some Germans into mass murderers, seeking to impose their “Ordnung”, order, across the world? His book about the experience, Conversations with an Executioner, was published in 1977. An instant bestseller, it was performed as a play the same year, directed by Andrzej Wajda. It is finally being published in the UK this month, in its first uncensored translation into English by Sean Gasper Bye.

As wildfires rage across Europe and Britain swelters through its hottest summer on record, literary fiction has a vital role to play in capturing the severe consequences of climate crisis

Earlier this summer, I travelled through Europe on a book tour. Everywhere I went, the heat broke records. In Italy, Germany and Spain, I sought refuge from the afternoon sun in air-conditioned hotels. In normally temperate Zurich, it averaged 37 degrees. I jumped into the Limmat for relief. On my final day in Warsaw, Poland had never been hotter – one of 14 countries to hit a historic high. In June, when I left to return to the US, Europe was scorching. At the end of July, as I write this, it is burning.

Since the heatwaves began, there have been more than 10,000 excess deaths. Yet for many, myself included, the high temperatures brought nothing more than inconvenience – uncomfortable commutes, heat rash, less time outdoors. This seems to be a defining feature of today’s climate crisis; deadly for some, banal for others. Even when the world is on fire, it somehow doesn’t feel like an emergency for everyone.

PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X, PC; Frogwares
Frogwares’ Lovecraftian action-horror is full of grim tenacity and pulp paperback charm, despite a few frayed edges

I’m standing in the prosthetics lab of a campy horror hospital, hunting for a preacher’s flayed face to wear so I can trick the world’s grisliest smart doorbell. Pinned to a board in the corner of the room are a dozen X-rays: shattered bones and metal splints in sepia negative, each with a note attached. It’s a stark, clinical intrusion on the theatrical gore elsewhere. It takes a beat to realise that I’m reading the stories of injuries sustained by soldiers fighting for Frogwares’ native Ukraine. Fingers amputated after severe burns. Limbs lost in mine explosions. Toes torn off by shell fire.

Like so many of my favourite PS3-era seven-out-of-tens, The Sinking City 2 is a pulpy action horror. It’s fuelled by scrappy ambition, Lovecraft fan fiction and wonderfully unhinged scenario design. A puzzle that has you determine which talking jarred brain is telling porkies. A scavenger hunt to fix a crane to move a rotting whale carcass. A gunfight amid the grisly results of a siren pop star’s fan meet-up turned battle royale.

The latest game from ‘reality-inspired’ studio the Pixel Hunt sees you transporting precious human cargo – and deciding what to do with it

Ithaca has one hell of an opening: Penelope, a disillusioned environmental lawyer, stops her car at a petrol station. But upon returning, she discovers something shocking: the unconscious body of an oil company CEO in her boot, his hands hog-tied together, dangling limply towards the vehicle’s number plate.

This tantalising eco-thriller setup is a long way off the typical knights-and-castles fantasy fare of most role-playing games, more How To Blow Up a Pipeline than Dragon Quest. But road-trip RPG Ithaca arrives via refreshingly original developer the Pixel Hunt, a French outfit that specialises in what it calls “reality-inspired” games. The studio has made a number of arresting works in recent years. One was about a Syrian refugee couple making a perilous migrant journey across Europe; another tackled the life-shattering effects of child sexual abuse. The climate crisis was always in the back of Pixel Hunt founder and Ithaca writer Florent Maurin’s mind. After all, he says, it is the uber problem of our day, the problem that touches all others. It was just a case of when, and, more importantly: “What do we say about it?”

Creative Assembly could strike gold again with this follow-up to their fan-favourite, film-inspired game … if you’re brave enough to venture outdoors

Alien: Isolation redefined Alien games on its release in 2014, bringing the original taut, haunted house theme of the first movie to fans who had mostly been fed action-packed shooters. Cowering under desks and inside lockers wasn’t a new thing; being hunted by an intelligent and lethal xenomorph that could spring down from a duct at any moment was.

“I was thinking about what we could do for a sequel while we were still finishing the first game,” reveals Creative Assembly’s Alistair Hope, creative lead on Alien: Isolation and its sequel. “But we didn’t actually start the project until around the time of the 10th anniversary. We’ve seen the response grow over time, watching [Alien: Isolation] continue to find new players, even though it’s a relatively old game. And they’re surprised there isn’t a sequel.”

PC; Replicant D6
This GoldenEye 007-styled retro shooter is an agreeable set of straightahead shooting missions that hark back to a simpler time, with simpler controls

With 007 First Light, 2026 has already given us the best James Bond game in more than three decades, since the release of Rare’s N64 classic GoldenEye 007. But what about those players whose loyalties lie not with the super-spy himself but the particulars of that 90s interpretation of his adventures?

Enter Agent 64: Spies Never Die. Made almost entirely by a single developer (who goes by the very cloak-and-dagger alias Replicant D6), its production values couldn’t be much further from the blockbuster First Light. There’s no voice acting, with all dialogue instead delivered via subtitles, while each location on your globe-trotting adventure is depicted by a repeating texture wallpapered over scenery so blocky you can count the individual polygons.

Summerhall, Edinburgh
Connor Dariol, AKA Australian clown Conk, does exactly what he claims – and with such skill and relentless pep we are helpless to resist

When I saw the title to the Australian clown Conk’s show Man Sings the Same Song Over and Over Again for an Hour, I thought I knew what the trick would be. Yes, the terms of the show’s billing would be fulfilled, but (I imagined) by twisting whatever that song was into a diverting variety of new shapes – rather as the comedy trio Sheeps did when performing the same sketch repeatedly for an hour way back in 2014.

More fool me, for doubting that Conk – AKA Connor Dariol – would keep things as ruthlessly simple as his Ronseal title suggests. He really does sing the same song over and again, with the same backing track and surprisingly little embellishment, for 60 minutes – with a bloody great clock marking the limits of your endurance on an upstage screen. And wait until you hear what song it is! Its opening chords are greeted by an aghast laugh from the audience. Reader, this experience felt like an endurance test before that song had reached the end of its first cycle.

At Summerhall, Edinburgh, until 31 August

All our Edinburgh festival reviews

Monkey Barrel Comedy, Edinburgh
A show about maturing and learning to listen to life’s signals doesn’t stint on tomfoolery and has some great gags

What a rich and enjoyable show this is from Lara Ricote, a leap forwards from her already-excellent first two shows. It finds the Mexican-American comic in as endearing fettle as ever, her urge to communicate bubbling over in a show about divining the messages life puts your way, however indecipherable they (like this show) can sometimes appear.

It begins at the oracle at Delphi, with a hymn to belief over rationalism. “This is a show about mystery and messages,” says Ricote, and if we only understand 65% of it, that need be no bar to our appreciation. And there’s truth in that – I often felt I was chasing along in the show’s slipstream. It flits and fizzes between narrative strands, Ricote abstracting her voice into burbling, and blurting water over herself, for (at least at first) minimal apparent reason.

Underbelly, Edinburgh
The story of Henry ‘Box’ Brown, who succeeded in mailing himself out of bondage, is recounted rather than fully dramatised

Henry “Box” Brown is wrapped up in chains when he has an idea to claim his freedom. As inspiration hits him, actor Josiah Alpher flexes his muscles and, miraculously, the chains appear to pass through his neck. Magic!

It is a neat visual metaphor for a true story that seems miraculous in itself. In 1849, Brown made a break to flee slavery near Richmond, Virginia, by posting himself in a wooden crate to Philadelphia, a state where ownership of human beings had been phased out by the Gradual Abolition Act of 1780. Alpher describes a painful journey, squashed, upturned and knocked about, before Brown’s happy delivery.

Zoo Playground, Edinburgh
Dante Passarelli’s play, part of the São Paulo Showcase, is an atmospheric hour borrowing themes from Hamlet

This year’s fringe variously puts Hamlet in the Big Brother house with Lady Macbeth, makes him “Prince of Sweden” in an Italian two-hander and grinds the play into what Polonius might call a “tragical-comical” swipe at the meat industry. Dante Passarelli’s The Last Drop, part of the festival’s São Paulo Showcase, borrows the opening and closing lines of Shakespeare’s masterpiece and pursues similar themes of madness, revenge and surveillance in a story where everything, not just something, is rotten.

The opening tableau resembles a murder scene: has death-stare Cynthia (Fernanda Zancopé) done away with her husband, Gilberto (Ernani Sanchez), who lies sprawled on the floor? Apparently not: as he rises, and they resume their bickering, you realise wider crimes are at play in this densely packed city where new buildings rise around them and construction often involves corruption. Suspicion is rife: they have lived for years in this apartment block with its peeling wallpaper and hold their upstairs neighbour, so wasteful with water, responsible for the mouldy stain on their ceiling.

At Zoo Playground, Edinburgh, until 30 August

All our Edinburgh festival reviews

Commentary about the ‘so bad it’s good’ qualities of mother and son’s movie has driven people to see it at cinema

A crude, low-tech animation about a cow and a skylark has become a sleeper hit at China’s box office, sitting alongside blockbusters such as The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day in cinema revenue rankings.

Niu Lai, which translates to The Cow is Coming, is an 86-minute budget animation about a newborn calf and a skylark whose relationship develops over the course of an abstract dream sequence.

Many in the crowd watching on screen outside minster have stories of meeting or knowing singer, who died in July

Bonnie Tyler’s songs have echoed through her home town of Swansea in recent days in memory of the late singer, but on Monday the church bells stopped and wellwishers lining the streets fell silent as her coffin arrived for a service celebrating her life.

As the white coffin, covered in bouquets of white roses, was carried into the minster, shouts of “God bless you Bonnie” and “bye Bonnie” punctured the quiet. Those gathered to pay their respects burst into applause. Tyler’s If I Sing You a Love Song and It’s a Heartache played before the private service began, which mourners outside watched on a screen in nearby St David’s Square.

BBC apologises to actor after review upholds ‘some’ of her allegations against dance partner Giovanni Pernice

The actor Amanda Abbington has reached a five-figure settlement with the BBC over bullying allegations she made about her time on Strictly Come Dancing.

The programme was the subject of a review in 2024 after she alleged her professional partner, Giovanni Pernice, had bullied and harassed her.

Panettiere’s death was announced by her father, who called her ‘an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy’

• Hayden Panettiere – a life in pictures

• Hayden Panettiere: an actor so magnetic that entire shows were rewritten for her

• Hayden Panettiere obituary

Hayden Panettiere, the actor known for her roles in television shows such as Heroes and Nashville, has died at the age of 36.

Panettiere’s death was confirmed in a statement from her representative to the Guardian on Sunday night, after it was first reported on US network ABC News. No cause of death was given.

Two Café Cecilia stalwarts that are just the thing for the summer heat

Five years after Café Cecilia opened, a handful of dishes have become permanent fixtures, returning to the menu time and again – and this confit trout salad is definitely one of them. During the recent heatwaves, we’ve naturally shifted towards dishes that are best served at room temperature or slightly warm, and both of these recipes reflect that approach. They’re designed to serve two, but can just as easily be scaled up for a larger group. And almost everything can be prepared in advance, making them ideal for entertaining at home.

My favourite part was sitting with couples, talking about their lives and why they wanted to marry. But I’m equally happy to have left it behind

• Read more in this series here

I was in my mid-20s in the mid-2000s when I became a professional yapper. I’d had to bow out of a career in Auslan interpreting due to injury, but could still talk under wet concrete. Studying to become a civil marriage celebrant felt logical – I wanted to know what love was, and I knew it could show me.

Being appointed by the attorney general’s department involved a Certificate III and rigorous application process. I had to prove I was “of good standing” and “believed in the definition of marriage”. As a card-carrying homosexual, I wrote about my belief in all kinds of love, including marriage. It couldn’t take that long, I thought, for us to be recognised as having committed partnerships. Waiting a long, loathsome decade proved me wrong.

After three dozen eggs, 30 lemons and a concerning amount of unplanned butter, our tester learned the hard way how to make the perfect ice-cream. Plus, how to buy a bike

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

You probably know that song about ice-cream, and it’s been playing in my head non-stop for the past month. But since I tested 13 ice-cream machines at once during the hottest days of the year, it has taken on a slightly different meaning for me – particularly the screaming part.

Testing the best ice-cream makers for the Filter has deepened my appreciation for frozen desserts. After cracking more than three dozen eggs, zesting 30 lemons and running to the shops for several emergency pints of milk after an unplanned butter disaster, I feel as though I’ve finally mastered the art of making ice-cream at home.

Suri Core 1.0 electric toothbrush review: this new budget model is still sustainable – and the one I’d buy

The best electric toothbrushes for every budget – tested

How I Shop with Fred Sirieix: ‘It’s nice to buy stuff from people you know’

I spent 18 months testing the best video doorbells – here are my favourites

Do I really need air conditioning in the UK? Everything to know before you buy

‘The bar here is low’: the best (and worst) supermarket brioche burger buns, tasted and rated

Brioche buns make an indulgent, rich home for a burger, but which have the perfect fluffy texture and which come with a chemical-like plastic aroma?

• The best supermarket veggie burgers

Brioche is a fabulously luxurious dough enriched with eggs and copious amounts of butter (often 25% or more of the total dough). Supermarket brioche buns, however, are a little different: the best products contain about 6-11% butter at most and some, surprisingly, contained none at all, using replacements such as palm fat and rapeseed oil instead.

But all is not lost: even the most processed products were passable, and the best were quite delicious. I tested these straight from the packet, analysing the egg wash, type of crumb and texture. I scored on flavour, value, processing, sustainability (though most products lack standards and certifications) and animal welfare.

The bar here is pretty low, though, with most buns sitting firmly in UPF territory. Squishy, carotene-coloured and stored in plastic, they’re fabricated from a cocktail of fats, emulsifiers and preservatives, creating remarkable shelf life but unremarkable buns with little authenticity.

We put 31 electric toothbrushes to the test, from oscillating Oral-B models to sustainable brands like Suri, to find the best for cleaning power and value for money

• How to make your toothbrush last longer

If you grew up using a conventional toothbrush – essentially a stick with bristles on the end – you may be surprised to learn just how long the electric toothbrush has been around. The first was designed in the late 1930s, but that model was a long way from the sleek, feature-packed and Bluetooth-enabled beasts you can buy today.

There are now dozens of ultra-advanced versions on the market, but which ones are worth your cash? To help answer that question, my teeth have become figurative guinea pigs. Over the past 20 months, I’ve put 31 electric toothbrushes from the likes of Oral-B, Philips, Suri, Ordo, Silk’n and Foreo through their paces to separate the best from the rest. Here are my conclusions.

As hotter summers become the norm, home aircon can feel increasingly tempting. We put six units to the test for cooling power, noise and energy use – and explain what you need to know before buying

• How to sleep in a heatwave
• Can air conditioning be green?

Tell people you’re testing air conditioning, and the truth soon comes out: far more people have aircon than you’d ever imagine. It’s a guilty secret, the home improvement equivalent of Botox or weight loss jabs – everyone notices the results, but nobody admits to the method. Most portable aircons are in bedrooms, hidden away from visitors, so they’re easy to keep secret. And while friends with aircon don’t suddenly look younger or slimmer, they do look suspiciously well rested during a heatwave, while you’ve spent the night tossing and turning.

So if you’re using an aircon unit, why have it in the bedroom? Warm air rises, so upstairs bedrooms can be the hottest by the end of the day, making for restless nights. And if your bedroom is in a loft conversion, it’s even worse: the roof absorbs the sun’s heat all day before radiating it back into the room after dark.

Restaurant critic and award-winning food writer Jimi Famurewa travels from Belfast to Edinburgh and London to meet the inventive DIY chefs stretching US, Italian and British pizza styles to come up with delicious new flavour combos

Cucumber and avocado gazpacho and addictive carrots: when it’s too hot to cook, contrast, texture and seasoning bring dishes to life

Heat brings caramelisation, char, the slow collapse of ingredients into something rich and deep, but when it’s too hot to cook, flavour has to be built differently – through contrast, texture and a more deliberate hand with seasoning. Salt, in particular, becomes transformative: drawing out moisture, softening structure, shifting raw into something more yielding. That principle underpins this carrot salad, inspired by the Japanese yamitsuki (‘addictive’) method most commonly used on cabbage, while a chilled cucumber gazpacho offers clean, cooling clarity.

A sweet, tangy and spicy chicken dish that matches well with crisp fried potatoes and apricot-glazed spring onions

I use this exact cooking method to make every kind of traybaked chicken, and this one is a blend of store-cupboard staples with the addition of fresh lime to push the flavour. Then, I love hash browns, röstis and latkes – give me crispy fried potatoes of any description, and I’m a happy girl – but I won’t lie and tell you that I love frying, because, if I can avoid it, I do: it’s messy, greasy, smelly and uses a fair bit of oil, which is pretty costly. But how to produce a perfectly crispy latke by baking? Well, I’ve managed to do it, and I’m really happy with the results.

Home cooking, but in the most complimentary sense

Some developers would rip the soul out of a 1930s banking hall, but Kinz, a new all-day Lebanese brasserie housed in a former Lloyds Bank in Notting Hill, instead makes a feature of its chunky vault door. Where W11 residents once kept their cash, diners can now take a seat and sip Lebanese wine from the Bekaa valley. After all, what visit to the bank wouldn’t be improved by a cold glass of Chateau Musar Jeune?

This triple-height room with mezzanine seating is a very different proposition from all those tiny, homespun Lebanese restaurants typically anchored around Edgware Road since the 1970s. Kinz may offer kibbeh nayyeh (finely minced raw lamb and beef with bulgur, spices and pine nuts), shish barak (tiny lamb and herb dumplings in yoghurt sauce) and warak enab (lamb-stuffed vine leaves and baby courgettes), as do many places in pockets across west London, but there is something altogether more cinematic about this elegant setting.

Because I’d visited so often to print things, she made me feel that someone had witnessed the journey I was on, all the way through to its difficult conclusion

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

Mum’s disease progressed slowly at first, and then in a really big rush. After years of battling early onset Parkinson’s, in 2015 we were suddenly told she only had six months left.

I was living in Brisbane, Australia, and Mum was in a care home 600km away in Taree, so I began flying down every second weekend to visit. At the time, it was still common to print out your boarding pass – or at least, it was for me; I was a bit late to the tech game.

A trainee accountant and a company director had differing views on opportunities for young people, but could they find common ground on the new prime minister?

• Want to meet someone from across the divide? Click here to find out how

Margaret, 22, London

Occupation Trainee accountant and part-time arts producer

Pam and Mike couldn’t keep their hands off each other when they met. But as aging and biology have taken their toll, their sex life has suffered

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

We haven’t had sex in two years. Mike says it’s because his dick is dead

Do you really want to date, or do you just feel you should? Be kind to yourself, and maybe try real-world dating and avoid the apps for now

I haven’t been on a date in eight years and want to start next year. How can I prepare for the storm?

I want to love and care for someone. I long for a supportive, funny life partner. Should I say that to a man? And is that too much in a dating profile?

It said that was what I was due after I submitted a claim for £300 for energy exported through my solar panels

British Gas paid me more than £38,000 by mistake, then had no idea how to reclaim it. I receive quarterly feed-in tariff (Fit) payments for energy exported by my solar panels.

In May, I submitted a claim for £300, based on my meter reading, and I received an email stating that I was due £38,611.59.

Fraudsters use pictures posted on Instagram or Facebook to create emails seeking bank account details

You are on a short break in Porto and post some pictures of your family on Instagram or Facebook. With a small section of the Douro river in the background, you think it could have been taken anywhere.

A few days later, you get a text saying that your card was compromised. “We detected unusual activity while you were travelling in Porto – please verify immediately,” says the message.

You can save money at university, especially using schemes such as UNiDAYS, Student Beans or TOTUM

• ‘Watch your spending, use free perks’: an insider’s tips on student money

With rents on the up and food costing more, maintenance loans are stretched thinner than ever. Knowing how, and where, to get a discount can make a real difference.

A golden rule is to register with the big discount websites and apps – UNiDAYS, Student Beans and TOTUM – using your university email address as soon as you have one. Each has a slightly different roster of retailers, so it is worth signing up to all three.

The Guardian’s deputy editor of social platforms on the demand from high-profile people and brands for help in harnessing the power of TikTok

I didn’t want to work in social media. If you’d asked 15-year-old me my dream job, I might have said foreign correspondent, or maybe travel writer. So you can imagine my surprise to now find myself giving these very colleagues advice on how to get the best selfie angle or write the sharpest TikTok ‘hook’.

But taking a job as the Guardian’s deputy editor of social platforms may prove to be one of my smartest career moves if the current job market is to be believed.

In an era of transparency, people are detailing their financial struggles on the internet, breaking one of the last social taboos

Discussions regarding personal finances have traditionally been taboo. But gen Z and millennials in the US are finally normalizing conversations about money, openly sharing about salaries, rent and investment strategies, but also their (sometimes substantial) debt.

In recent years, financial influencers (finfluencers) – some licensed professionals, others not – have gained visibility, sharing advice on once-covert, perhaps unsexy topics such as Roth IRA contributions, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and maxing out 401(k)s. The most popular have a big audience: for instance, Humphrey Yang, a former financial adviser, has more than 2 million YouTube subscribers, and Erika Kullberg, an attorney and financial expert, has more than 20 million followers across social media.

The differences in body types does mean that, on average, women find the exercise more difficult – but that’s not the whole story

Pull-ups are a bodyweight exercise where you hang from an overhead bar, usually with an overhand grip, and pull yourself up until your chin clears the bar. “They’re a great upper-body exercise,” says Prof Leigh Breen, a specialist in muscle physiology at the University of Leicester. “They primarily work the muscles in the back, but also recruit the arms and the core.” They’re known for being tough – particularly for women. But is that true?

“If we take the population as a whole, doing a pull-up is typically more challenging for the average woman,” says Breen. There are a few reasons for this. First, women naturally tend to carry a smaller proportion of their muscle mass in their upper body than men – and these are the muscles relied upon for the exercise. Second, women generally have a slightly higher body fat percentage than men. Because a pull-up requires you to lift your entire bodyweight, having less upper-body muscle relative to the weight you’re moving can reduce what’s known as your strength-to-weight ratio.

Here’s what experts say about how sex and exercise are linked, and whether the type, timing and intensity of movement matter

Here’s a reason to put your sneakers on: exercise can improve your sex life.

It’s not necessarily about changing how your body looks, or being strong enough to swing from the chandelier. Regular movement improves smaller, less visible bodily functions that increase your desire and capacity for sex – like the release of arousal-promoting hormones and enhanced circulation in the nether regions. Perhaps just as critically, it gets your mind in the right frame to do it.

There are more than 70,000 hysteroscopies every year in England alone. The NHS calls them ‘low complexity’ – yet a shocking number of patients complain of inadequate pain relief and medical staff who refuse to take them seriously

In February this year, Beth Harris sat in the day surgery waiting room of her local hospital and tried to steady her nerves.

She was there for a hysteroscopy, in this case to remove a fibroid. A thin surgical instrument with a lens, a light, a blade and an irrigation system for pumping saline solution would be inserted through her vagina and cervix, into her womb. The saline solution would widen the womb and the fibroid would be shaved away. Her hospital had advised taking paracetamol or ibuprofen an hour before the appointment, which Harris had done. However, the appointment was for 1pm, and by 4pm, she was still waiting in her hospital gown, surrounded by other patients.

How does a rabbi choose her shoes? Why does a psychoanalyst like slogan tees? And why does a doctor avoid wearing scrubs at work? Seven striking dressers share their surprising style stories

Andrew Geldart, 65, retired engineer, Cornwall

Daniel’s boyfriend thinks his youthful complexion is down to fancy skincare, and Jessica’s nearest and dearest still don’t know she’s had a breast enhancement …

Jessica was at a spa with her friends of more than 20 years when she noticed one stare at her bikini, lock eyes with her and laugh, before asking: “Wait, have you …?” The game was up – eight months after she’d had a secret breast enhancement, she’d been rumbled. Fearing judgment from even her closest circle, she had only spoken to two people who’d had the procedure, for advice, and told a neighbour in case she was unwell after the surgery. “My family still don’t know – most people don’t,” the 42-year-old from London says, including her two children who live between her and her ex-husband. “I’m not alone; I’ve since learned winter is the most popular time for people to get things done, then they can just hide under jumpers while everything settles in, so no one notices.”

For years, celebrities have endured public speculation about their tweakments and surgeries – but as procedures become more commonplace, “civilian” patients are facing the same questions from family and friends. And many of them are choosing to go incognito; some surgeons estimate up to 70% of their clients aren’t telling others about their aesthetic procedures. But what are the practicalities of disguising everything from breast augmentation to filler to hair transplants from your closest circle? And why are so many people spending thousands of pounds to alter their appearance – only to hope that no one notices?

Vintage classics from WH Smith, M&S and Tesco are being bought online, perhaps as part of a nostalgic return to owning tangible items

When it comes to everyday objects, a supermarket carrier bag could be the ultimate one – a thing we’re more accustomed to squeezing into a drawer or using until it falls apart than giving any special treatment.

But these most mundane items are now enjoying something of a new life.

The latest craze on Instagram reveals how quickly personal expression can be absorbed into a homogenised feed and exploited by brands

For those looking for the defining social media trend of summer 2026, it’s time to call off the search party.

A new phrase is dominating algorithms and entering the English lexicon.

The Jura and Three Lakes region is often overlooked by visitors, but on a lake-hopping adventure I discovered its gentle beauty as well as great food and wine

The ferry cuts across the waters of Lake Biel, creating soft ripples, as if someone has taken a brushstroke to a blue canvas. To starboard, as we approach St Peter’s Island, are gentle mountains; to port side, lie golden fields. Straight ahead, the isle looks empty and Crusoe-esque.

On the jetty, Max Frey, a boatman, historian and guide, is waiting for me. He’s a man of dates and paperwork and pulls a handful from his satchel as he greets me, thrilled at the prospect of leading a tour; Switzerland’s Jura and Three Lakes region, this idyllic nook on the French border, is often overlooked by visitors.

From a 500-year-old inn in the Italian Dolomites to a log cabin in Finland’s lake district, these boltholes offer a tranquil and restorative getaway

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

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

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

Söderåsen national park is one of Europe’s largest protected broadleaf woods, offering wild swimming, spectacular hiking trails and an inspiring story of regeneration

From the bus window, the ridge looks like a giant slumbering beast stretched deep green across the flat farmland. “It feels alive,” I say to the woman beside me. “Yes,” she answers. “It is where you would run for safety, don’t you think?”

I am in southern Sweden to explore Söderåsen national park, established in 2001 to protect more than 1,600 hectares (4,000 acres) of the larger Söderåsen ridgeline. Shaped over millennia by immense geological collisions, fractures, volcanic eruptions and ice ages, today it is one of northern Europe’s largest continuous protected broadleaf forests, and only 90 minutes by car from Copenhagen or, in my case, two hours by public transport.

More and more people are posting footage of themselves touching sharks or even riding them. This is, of course, a terrible idea

Name: Shark selfies.

Age: The phrase seems to have emerged in summer 2014 and will hopefully be retired as soon as possible.

I’ve started writing to my sister, my mum, my friends … Not everyone writes back, but when we connect it’s on a deeper level than any group chat

Last January, I received a letter. Most of my post was predictably boring – a statement from the water company, my credit card bill, the occasional update about my pension contributions – but this letter was different. The envelope felt heavier than the run-of-the-mill ones I was used to. It was postmarked Paris, a place I had little connection to, and, most strikingly, it was addressed in messy handwriting – my own.

I had completely forgotten I’d written it until it turned up on my doorstep. On a trip to Paris the year before, I had visited a letter-writing cafe. The idea was simple: you wrote a letter (usually to yourself), the cafe kept it safe and sent it a year later. So, alongside trying escargots for the first time, I wrote a letter filled with questions about my not-so-distant future and addressed it to my home, in London. What will you be doing? Where will you be living? Do you have a boyfriend?

The solution to today’s puzzle

Earlier today I set you a new twist on the Monty Hall problem, which is (according to AI) the most discussed recreational maths puzzle in history.

The standard Monty Hall problem is as follows:

As parts of Beth Chatto’s visionary drought-tolerant gardens in Essex turn brown, the head gardener offers advice

Her debut book, in 1978, was titled The Dry Garden. Since then, the late Beth Chatto created a rich legacy with her expertise as a plantswoman and by setting up one of the oldest unwatered public gardens in England.

Once a car park but transformed in 1992 into an experiment to test what plants were drought-tolerant in Essex, the driest county in the UK, Chatto’s gravel gardens south of Clacton are being visibly tested this year.

Efforts of emergency services and military in Blaenavon appear to be working but there are fears for the future

More than three weeks after it began burning and two days after the military deployed to the area, there is hope that the huge wildfire on the hillside above the Eastern valley town of Blaenavon may finally be coming under control.

Emergency workers and soldiers described a gruelling battle against the deep-seated peat fire that has spread over 4,000 hectares (9,800 acres), putting lives, farmland and property at risk.

Force has seen busiest month in its history, with heatwaves putting added strain on criminal justice system

On England’s hottest day of the year so far, Ashton-under-Lyne in Greater Manchester was thronging with pedestrians, many clutching ice-creams or cold drinks as they passed through the town centre.

Officers from Greater Manchester police were also out in force, some in plainclothes, some stationed by a facial-recognition van, apprehending wanted suspects and stopping persons of interest. In total, officers made 54 arrests across the borough of Tameside as part of Operation Avro, GMP’s blitz on local crime which runs in a different district each month.

James Green’s oyster company owns a chunk of Whitstable’s shoreline but success has not brought affection from residents

The clink of glasses and the lapping of the tide was punctuated by giggling toddlers and the slurp of oysters at tables populated by people gently sizzling on a baking day on the Kent seaside.

But James Green, of the Whitstable Oyster Fishery Company, had the demeanour of a man who had found grit in his mollusc. “I don’t like to use the term but it is nimbyism,” he said. “Why did it become personal? I don’t know really. Because we’re a family business, it’s a relatively small town?”

We would like to hear from women who participate in the ‘looksmaxxing’ community

While “looksmaxxing” was once a predominantly male space, in recent years it has increasingly taken hold among women, with dedicated forums and apps where users have their individual features analysed and scored, with the aim of identifying areas for physical improvement.

If you’re a young woman who participates in the “looksmaxxing” community, and have been thinking about ways to optimise your appearance, we’d love to hear from you and learn more about your experience.

We would also like to speak to florists, groundskeepers, and professional gardeners about how they are planning for the future

The heatwaves and drought conditions across parts of Britain this summer have brought a series of challenges for food producers and those working on the land.

According to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, hot and dry weather has resulted in the earliest UK cereals harvest in at least 20 years.

We’re interested in hearing from people who have found themselves unexpectedly out of work in midlife and have struggled to get another job despite years of professional experience

For many people in their 50s and 60s, losing a job can be the start of a long and unexpected struggle to get back into work. Despite years – or even decades – of professional experience, some say they are applying for hundreds of roles without success, while others have had to take lower-paid work or claim benefits to make ends meet.

The number of people aged 50 to 64 receiving out-of-work benefits has reached 2.15 million, according to recent analysis by the Centre for Social Justice. We’d like to hear from people across the UK who have found it difficult to find work later in their careers.

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

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

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

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

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

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