Despite contamination at Malkins Bank in Cheshire, it is deemed suitable for golf … and now a children’s play area

One morning in Sandbach, a neighbour appeared at Graham Warner’s door with a large folder: a delivery, she said, from an unidentified source.

“I think you’ll find this very interesting. Happy reading,” she said.

The class politics of extreme heat are very real and very dangerous – but that doesn’t stop the billionaire press from peddling its agenda

Every time you think the idiocy has hit rock bottom, it discovers a new level. It turns out there’s an even deeper hole you can dig for yourself than climate-science denial: heat-stress denial. Across the billionaire press last week, columnists and leader writers minimised the health impacts of the heatwave, particularly in schools. Expect more of this next week, when temperatures are forecast to soar again.

An editorial in the Telegraph (which represents the newspaper’s view) titled “Hot weather alarmism treats the public like children” maintained that “unlike in the seventies, when people were largely trusted to look after themselves, officialdom now feels the need to lecture the public about the risks of hot weather at every opportunity”. Extreme heat warnings are issued and weather maps are “painted in an alarming red”. Outrageous! Instead of issuing warnings, the government should just trust people to “take the appropriate precautions”. We should all “learn to live” with it. Quite right too: whatever happened to the bulldog spirit of ignorance and needless death? Cricket, warm beer, excess mortality: these are the markers of national character.

From Rose Byrne in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You to Jodie Foster in A Private Life, an onscreen parade of psychoanalysts are unravelling before us, tapping into our worst fears

There is an old adage that “every therapist needs a therapist”. Even while the treatment was still in its infancy, Sigmund Freud said all psychoanalysts should “submit” themselves to being analysed. Recent cinema has been acutely aware of that painfully unbreakable cycle. In the likes of If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Mary Bronstein’s hallucinatory Rose Byrne vehicle in which she plays a therapist and floundering mother caught in a downward spiral, or 2022’s Smile, in which a psychiatrist (Sosie Bacon) is pursued by a malignant metaphor for her poor mental health, therapists are as much at the mercy of their traumas as anyone else.

Rather than being relegated to supporting character status, as they long have been in everything from Good Will Hunting (1997) to The Sopranos, film is finally giving therapists their moment on the couch. Within the space of a month in UK cinemas, two more trick cyclists are taking on lead roles. Backrooms sees Renate Reinsve totally unravel from a secure, calm and collected psychiatrist and self-help author (albeit one who lives alone and subsists on a diet of lacklustre ready meals) to a nervous wreck attempting to navigate the uncanny corridors of her own mind. Meanwhile in Rebecca Zlotowski’s A Private Life, a Francophone Jodie Foster takes on the role of shrink turned sleuth, deciding to investigate the death of a former client without realising she is trying to make up for her shortcomings as a spouse and parent.

It has hosted everything from Miss World to the Chemical Brothers. Now the vast London venue has become a city within a city boasting offices, hotels, a theatre, commanding views – and even a school

The money shot for the redevelopment of London’s Olympia exhibition centre is a bank of staircases and escalators soaring upwards, Aztec temple-style, to an elevated concourse sandwiched between the colossal barrel vaults of the original exhibition halls. In a modern homage to its historic predecessors, the concourse is also crowned by a glass vault, crimped like a fan, its origami pleats connoting sparkling, flashy newness, a tiara of cubic zirconia among the heritage diamonds.

Looming behind the tiara is what appears to be a cluster of cylindrical towers, but are actually the rounded ends of a steroidal stepped office block, with master-of-the-universe views over London, from Wembley to Crystal Palace. Already ensconced and enjoying those views are the staff of the Premier League’s media production arm, which has a brand-appropriate mini football pitch on its expansive terrace.

I thought I knew what it was to be a good citizen. But after seeing him scramble up a ditch, beaming with pride at his rubbish-filled bag, I realised what it actually involves

I’ve always thought of myself as a good person: a good citizen and a good member of my community – at least in the ethical sense of the word. I presumed being good required refraining from harming the world and the people within it. An example of this being that I never litter.

However, when I moved home to Staffordshire after graduating in the summer of 2025, my understanding of what it means to be a good citizen – what it means to be “good” altogether – changed significantly.

Birds of War is an award-winning docudrama in which its own directors fall in love while reporting the horrors in Syria. They explain why they needed a psychotherapist to complete it

The air is thick with smoke and dust, the ground littered with the twisted remains of burning vehicles. Children scream and sirens blare as activist and videographer Abd Alkader Habak rushes to help the injured after the bombing of an evacuee convoy in Aleppo at the height of Syria’s civil war in 2017. A voice note bubble pops up on Habak’s phone screen. “My bird are you OK?” says BBC journalist Janay Boulos. “Get away from there, run.”

For more than a year, Habak and Boulos have been working to document Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s atrocities against his own people, their connection deepening all the time despite the physical distance. But this exchange represents the moment the pair’s relationship shifts from colleagues to something more. “I don’t want footage,” Boulos says, fear clearly detectable in her voice as she tries to follow things from her desk in London. “I don’t want anything, just please take care. I am here whenever you want to talk.”

Prime minister says he will take no lectures from Tories after Kemi Badenoch says investment plan is insufficient

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Keir Starmer was forced on the defensive in the Commons over his long-delayed defence investment plan announced this week, which critics argue leaves his successor as prime minister, expected to be Andy Burnham, with an extra £4.7bn to find in his first budget.

Starmer defended his £298bn defence investment plan (Dip) at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday despite a growing backlash from insiders in Burnham’s team and from ministers and MPs resentful over cuts to key transport infrastructure projects to fund it.

IOPC to consider if race was a factor in response to student, whom officers initially handcuffed and treated as a suspect

Two police officers in the case of Henry Nowak have been placed under investigation for gross misconduct by the police watchdog.

Nowak, 18, died in December 2025 after being stabbed by Vickrum Digwa in Southampton. Digwa falsely told police he had been the victim of a racist attack, which led officers to handcuff Nowak and treat him as a suspect, despite him saying he had been stabbed and that he could not breathe.

Crypto ventures eclipse much of property portfolio, with revenue also coming from Trump-branded products

• US politics – live updates

Donald Trump has raked in more than $1bn from his crypto businesses since returning to the White House, according to financial disclosures, ringing alarm bells over a conflict of interest.

According to a 927-page document released on Tuesday by the US Office of Government Ethics, in all Trump made more than $2.2bn last year, benefiting from a vast global network of businesses and investments.

⚽️ Kick-off time: 12pm local/1pm EDT/5pm BST/1am AEST
⚽️ Player guide | Bracketology | Golden Boot | Mail Scott

Number four in the Fifa rankings plays number 41 … and then when you factor in the roll-call of talent England boast, they’re winning this game more often than not. But hold on! This round has already thrown up one shock, with Paraguay (world number 41 at the time) condemning Germany (number 10) to their first spot-kick defeat since the days of Antonín Panenka. DR Congo have already held Portugal (world number five at the time) to a draw at this World Cup, and given Colombia (number 11) a good game. And taking everything in the round, the Democratic Republic of the Congo are betting with house money today, kind of, because …

Whatever happens against Thomas Tuchel’s team, this World Cup has already been a success. Not just because the Leopards made it to the last 32. It is also because, for a few weeks, football reminded millions of people that, despite war, division, politics and history, they still belong to the same story: a shared DRC.

Report accuses paramilitary force of crimes including ethnic cleansing in systemic campaign against civilians

The Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during its campaign to capture El Fasher, Amnesty International has alleged.

Many of the crimes, including murder, torture, rape, enslavement and sexual slavery, were carried out as part of a widespread and systematic attack against civilians and amounted to crimes against humanity, the human rights organisation said in a report released on Wednesday.

Three-year-old remains in hospital after undergoing multiple surgeries but is now in a stable condition

The family of a three-year-old boy who was seriously injured in a crocodile attack at a zoo have thanked staff at the attraction in a new statement released through the police.

Last month, officers were called to Johnsons of Old Hurst zoo in Huntingdonshire over “reports of an incident involving a three-year-old boy, during which he ended up in the crocodile enclosure”.

Yorgen Fenech, who denies all charges, appears in court more than nine years after the journalist’s death

The businessman accused of ordering the murder of the Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia goes on trial on Wednesday, more than nine years after her death in a car-bomb attack that sent shockwaves through Europe.

Yorgen Fenech, the heir to a property empire worth hundreds of millions, is one of seven men prosecutors accused of involvement in the killing, and the last to face trial.

Group confirms it will stop opening new accounts under the name and move existing ones to Lloyds

Lloyds Banking Group has announced it is axing the Halifax brand, scrubbing the 173-year-old former building society’s name from UK high streets.

The group will stop opening new accounts under the Halifax brand and kickstart a process of shifting existing accounts to Lloyds branding over the coming days.

Tiny, quivering spheres designed to feed and multiply raise prospect of artificial organisms to make drugs, food and fuel

Researchers claim they are closer to creating life from scratch after building tiny, quivering blobs that use lab-made DNA to feed, grow and multiply in a dish.

The synthetic cells were made from chemical compounds and are believed to be the first to demonstrate the complete cell cycle of growth, genetic replication and splitting to produce the next generation.

In Sudan, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, 13 million have been displaced and 19 million are facing acute starvation.

Using satellite imagery, leaked documents and reports and on-the-ground footage, we trace how weapons are moving into Sudan through a covert supply chain linked to the UAE and how the UK is accused of being complicit in the atrocities, choosing its relationship with the UAE over its responsibility towards Sudanese civilians.

The UK minister for development, Jenny Chapman, said: 'Claims that the UK failed to act on warnings of mass atrocities are wrong.
'For many months, the UK led efforts at the United Nations and through direct diplomatic engagement to press all parties to de-escalate the violence.
'We have been clear and consistent: the atrocities committed by the RSF are abhorrent and must never be repeated. Both parties must comply with international humanitarian law, those responsible for violations must be held accountable, and all external support to armed actors fuelling this conflict must end immediately.'

The UAE has repeatedly denied it funds or arms the RSF

The elephant seal has been crushing fences, blocking traffic and bashing into parked cars, in what experts say is play-fighting behaviour

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Bollards, traffic cones, fences and LandCruisers stand little chance against a one-tonne giant known as Neil the seal, now a local legend in southern Tasmania.

Neil – a five-year-old elephant seal – has once again taken up residence in Tasmanian towns. He’s bypassing barricades, crushing fences, lying on roads and bashing into at least one parked car.

It’s got Europe’s largest Black population, the world’s second-biggest rap scene and a long literary history. But even as diasporic culture takes hold in Paris, some ask when commercial success will lead to structural change

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We often imagine Paris as a city of cafes, couture and impressionism. But some of its most dynamic cultural currents stem from the French-speaking Black diaspora.

This week, I spoke to Achille Tenkiang, a Cameroonian-American culture writer with a love for the city, and Liz Gomis, executive director of Maison des Mondes Africains (MansA), a cultural institution based in Paris. They told me how Black French culture has gained visibility in the capital and beyond.

Once dismissed as frivolous, spots are having the last laugh – popping up on celebs, catwalks and all over the algorithm

For years, stripes have been the thinking fashion person’s choice. The style equivalent of remembering to charge your phone overnight. Bracing like sea air, with a top note of French intellectualism. In stripes, you can captain a ship and feast on oysters.

Spots and dots are much less serious. From a distance, they could be smiley face emojis. Spots bounce and dance, whereas stripes are rigid. They are spontaneous and giddy, where stripes are rational. The polo scene in Pretty Woman, when Julia Roberts wears that chocolate polka dot dress, is an iconic fashion moment not just because it’s a great dress, but because the dress itself does so much storytelling. Those polka dots set Roberts apart as vivacious, adorable. The buttoned-up crowd around her does not stand a chance.

From essential equipment to “zoning” your coals, our expert guide will have you grilling like a seasoned pro

• Melissa Thompson’s summer barbecue recipes

You don’t need much to barbecue apart from a grill, fuel and a lighter. But today’s game is pretty advanced and there are endless tools to enhance and ease the pursuit. When it comes to choosing a barbecue, I’d recommend buying one that has the potential for different accessories. That means you can build up a collection over time to make your options for cooking endless.

Whether you’re walking the dog, puddle-jumping with kids or dancing in a soggy festival field, these are the wellington boots that topped our tests for comfort, support and grip

• The best men’s waterproof jackets
• The best women’s waterproof jackets

A good pair of wellies will keep your feet warm and dry, and give you a decent grip underfoot. They’ll also offer all-day comfort and support, alongside reliable waterproofing, so it’s worth investing in the very best wellies to see you through season after season.

But sizing, tread patterns, cushioning, warmth levels and even the materials they’re made from all vary, depending on the brand and style. I’ve put 15 of the best wellies from well-known names through their paces.

Best wellies overall:
Barbour Bede wellington boots

Best budget wellies:
Mountain Warehouse Mucker neoprene long boots

The former England prop talks about his concern for modern players, his style and how he deals with fame

By No Helmets Required

As England prepare for their first match in the Nations Championship against South Africa and The Celebrity Traitors returns to our screens, Joe Marler – recently central to both – joins us for a chat about player welfare, Stephen Fry’s slang and the importance of men looking out for each other.

How much did you plan your exit route from rugby? Did your post-rugby career just fall into place?
“I would say my post-rugby experiences have followed my rugby experiences in the sense that I winged it for 17 years and continue to wing it now. There’s a distinct lack of planning on my behalf. I’m just very fortunate that I’ve got some lovely people around me who are far more intelligent and attentive to detail, and navigate me in the right ways.”

Anfield Stadium, Liverpool
Adding eye-popping spectacle to this anniversary reprise of The Black Parade is fun, but what really stands out is the tremendous songcraft

My Chemical Romance take the stage to the strains of the Carpenters’ Yesterday Once More, its syrupy but heart-rending tones offering a reminder that MCR’s current tour is essentially about nostalgia: it celebrates the 20th anniversary of the release of the emo figureheads’ third album The Black Parade. An hour-long concept piece about a dying cancer patient, it was a band throwing everything they could think of at an album, apparently gripped by fear that the multi-platinum success of its predecessor, 2004’s Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, would prove fleeting. It variously sounded like pop punk, Queen, Britpop, glam, heavy metal, Pink Floyd circa The Wall and Kurt Weill, so wilfully overblown that when Liza Minnelli made a guest appearance on vocals, the listener scarcely raised an eyebrow.

The end result succeeded in catapulting the band to even greater fame and its reputation has only increased in subsequent years – in some quarters, it’s openly described as the Sgt Pepper of emo. A 2019 feature in the New York Times detected its influence not merely in the work of a host of subsequent emo bands, but in the oeuvres of pop and rap names such as Juice WRLD, Lil Uzi Vert, 100 Gecs, Billie Eilish, Melanie Martinez and Post Malone.

Hit shows like Beef, The Four Seasons, Avatar: The Last Airbender and A Man on the Inside have suffered giant drops for their follow-up seasons

If you haven’t seen the second season of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender, then at least you can console yourself that you’re not alone. Variety recently noted that, while season one debuted with 21.2m views in the first four days after its launch in 2024, season two has been viewed just 8.7m times. Which isn’t nothing, but it does mean that the show lost 59% of its audience between seasons.

And this would be fine if it was an isolated case, but it is starting to look as if Netflix is struggling across the board when it comes to getting viewers back to shows they once watched in droves. The first season of Tina Fey’s relationship comedy series The Four Seasons had 11.9m views, but the recent second outing only garnered 4.4m; a drop of 63%. The opening week of Beef’s second season gained 2.4m views, a 58% drop from season one. The second season of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder posted an 80% drop in viewership. And people are only able to estimate the drop in views for Ted Danson’s A Man on the Inside, because the second season didn’t even crack Netflix’s top 10.

The shadow of Iceland 2016 is all the warning England should need not to take for granted a winnable-looking first knockout game of the tournament

It was the 10th anniversary last Saturday of the Iceland debacle. Kolbeinn Sigthórsson’s winner sliding underneath Joe Hart’s dive, Wayne Rooney chugging away in midfield, Harry Kane taking corners, and Roy Hodgson being forced to conduct a sullen farewell press conference. It all feels like something from a fever dream but no, it did happen and that really was the state England were in when their Euro 2016 campaign came to an end.

Expectations could not have been lower before Gareth Southgate banished the fear. England had to take small steps before becoming contenders again, to the extent that beating Colombia on penalties in the last 16 of the 2018 World Cup and winning a knockout tie for the first time in 12 years was an achievement.

On the eve of their last-32 game with Austria, Spain’s unassuming midfielder explains their team spirit and about finding his rhythm after injury

At the Embassy Suites on Broad Street, downtown Chattanooga, the vans have pulled out for the last time. The day before departure, like every day, a small crowd of kids had climbed barriers and trees, trying to get a glimpse of Spain’s players.

A girl stood on a ladder and held a placard in each hand, raised above the fence. One said: “I’ve been here three weeks. I know you’ve seen me!” The other ran: “Please come out!” On Wednesday afternoon, Tennessee time, they did. They won’t be back.

• Three people have died from suffocation

• More than a million people gathered in Mexico City

Three people died ⁠from suffocation as thousands of fans crowded Mexico City streets during World Cup celebrations, the capital’s health secretariat ⁠said in the early ⁠hours ​of Wednesday.

The deaths occurred near the Angel of Independence landmark, where thousands of fans had gathered to ⁠celebrate Mexico’s 2-0 victory over Ecuador in the last 32.

Plus: World Cup teams stuck on nul points and teams who broke their duck with a drubbing

• Mail us with your all of your questions and answers

“Who has scored the most goals at a World Cup finals without winning the Golden Boot?” asks Sam Edwards.

With Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé already on six goals and leading an elite bunch in the 2026 race, we may well see the men’s record broken this summer. As it stands, Messi shares the record – as if he needs another one – with the Brazil great Jairzinho.

Didier Deschamps used to manage with an iron fist. This time, he’s letting his stars run the show – to Les Bleus’ benefit

When a cat has cornered a mouse and appears to be toying with its prey, it isn’t actually being cruel so much as it is planning and practicing all the ways in which it may finally kill it off.

We are, it almost goes without saying, speaking about France at the 2026 World Cup here. Les Bleus have scored at least three goals in their last four games and, each time, looked an awful lot like they might have run the score up further, if only they hadn’t run out of time, energy or interest.

Track record of Welsh Water shows public ownership is not the answer to all the woes in the utilities sector

Good news for Andy Burnham: one of the original 10 water privatisations from the Thatcher-era has returned to public ownership already. Thanks to a complicated turn-of-the-century corporate saga, Welsh Water, serving 3 million people, converted to not-for-profit status in 2001. It has no shareholders. Financial surpluses go “straight back into keeping bills down and looking after your water and beautiful environment”, as the website blurb puts it.

How’s it going? After a quarter of a century without dividend-hungry shareholders to feed, has the model proved its superiority? Not exactly. Welsh Water usually has high scores on customer trust metrics but its performance on bills and spills tends to be middle of the pack.

With her popularity flagging and a general election looming, the Italian PM sees a strategic advantage in the rupture

If Giorgia Meloni thought that she could put her April spat with Donald Trump over the pope’s criticism of the US war on Iran behind her, she had not banked on the US president’s capacity to bear a grudge.

Trump reignited tensions by telling an Italian TV journalist that the Italian PM had “begged” him for a picture at the recent G7 meeting in France. The Spanish newspaper El País suggested that Trump’s feathers had been ruffled by a video at the same meeting, showing Meloni appearing to scold him. In any case he doubled down on his tale in a Truth Social post, adding that Meloni wanted the photo to boost her flagging approval ratings, which he blamed on her failure to support the US in the Iran war.

Riccardo Alcaro is head of research at IAI, Istituto Affari Internazionali in Rome

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.

Although trekking is unusual for young women in Kashmir, I find strength and enjoy independence when I’m out in nature with my friends

Before sunrise, my two closest friends and I pack water bottles, food and biscuits into our backpacks. We put on whatever shoes we have, pull our hijabs tightly against the cold wind, and leave for the mountains above our village in Kargil, in Ladakh – part of Indian-administered Kashmir.

The things we usually hear on the trail are birdsong, flowing water and our own laughter echoing through the mountains.

The short answer is that there’s nothing to disclose. But that doesn’t mean we won’t make contact with extraterrestrial life

Even before Stephen Spielberg’s latest film, Disclosure Day, began unspooling at local multiplexes, the internet was debating whether we would ever experience a real-life disclosure day – when the US government admits that it’s aware of aliens here on Earth, a secret it has supposedly kept since the 1940s.

That would be dramatic news. But don’t hold your breath.

The United States of America is … so many things, horrific and magnificent, good and evil, promising and cursed

The United States of America is a truck that has driven into a ditch. The United States of America is a program that has been hacked. The United States of America is … so many things, horrific and magnificent, good and evil, promising and cursed, as it approaches its quarter-millennium mark. I say it as though the US was one thing, but it is a thousand things.

It is the masked ICE agent shooting Renee Good as she stood up for immigrants, but it is also Good herself and the immigrants, and the streets of Minneapolis and their Dakota and Ojibwe Indigenous past – and present and future. The US before 1865 was slaveowners, but it was also the enslaved and the abolitionists.

Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. Her newest book is The Beginning Comes After the End: Notes on a World of Change

The likely next prime minister would rather be in Warrington than Washington, but foreign policy will dominate his agenda more than he thinks

If Andy Burnham is lucky, he will get some time to adjust to the pace of life as prime minister before dealing with his first international crisis. It won’t be long.

Donald Trump is an engine of constant turmoil. Aftershocks from his recent military adventure in the Middle East will be felt for years. None of the declared war aims were achieved. The Iranian regime was not toppled. The terms agreed for a ceasefire promise Tehran more generous sanctions relief with fewer conditions than were imposed under the nuclear containment deal that Barack Obama signed in 2015. It is a worse arrangement than the one Trump discarded in his first term as “one of the worst deals ever”. Stocks of US munitions and credibility have been drained.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist

As Harry Dunn’s mother, I’ve demanded accountability. The Guardian’s discovery of other victims of US personnel shows how urgent that is

• David Lammy to ask US about case of woman strangled by US fighter in UK

When I read about the case of Sarah Steele, the woman strangled by an American pilot, I felt a familiar sickness in my stomach. It took me straight back to the day I lost my son Harry and to the months and years that followed, when the US authorities did everything they could to deny us justice. It is almost unbearable to think that another British family has now been put through the same ordeal. I thought those days were behind us following our high-profile case, and that the US military and British police had learned their lesson. Clearly not.

What happened to Sarah, as revealed by a Guardian investigation, should shame every institution that allowed her case to slip quietly into the shadows. A woman abused on British soil by an American officer. The man responsible was a guest in our country. Yet instead of a clear and confident assertion of British jurisdiction by Cambridgeshire police, the case was allowed to drift into the US system, where a male military jury acquitted him of the more serious charge. I do not know whether the outcome would have been different under our system. That is not the point. The point is that Sarah was entitled to the protection of the law of the country in which she lived.

Charlotte Charles MBE is the mother of Harry Dunn

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

A warning from Latin America about US money, platforms, data and paranoid politics should not be dismissed lightly

When Colombia’s leftwing presidential candidate, Iván Cepeda, conceded defeat last week, he did so with notable grace. His ally, the outgoing president, Gustavo Petro, was much less composed. In a series of social media posts, Mr Petro argued that Donald Trump had interfered in the contest that brought the far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella to power. The claim should not be taken as proof of a stolen election. But nor should it be dismissed as paranoia.

Mr Trump did publicly endorse Mr de la Espriella. His razor-thin win was in contrast to the scale of his alarmingly rightwing programme. He promises mega-prisons, a war on rebels, a shrunken state, renewed oil exploration, fracking and corporate tax cuts. This won’t be easy. Mr Petro’s Pacto Histórico is the largest party in the country’s congress. Unsurprisingly, Mr de la Espriella wants to govern through executive decree coupled with militarised state power. He aims to “disembowel” the left.

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.

Sir Keir Starmer cuts civilian investment while deepening reliance on American power. That doesn’t feel like national renewal

Since Brexit, Daphne du Maurier’s final novel, Rule Britannia, has been seen as a prescient warning about the UK cutting itself adrift from Europe. After joining and then leaving the EU’s predecessor, the Common Market, in a referendum, Du Maurier imagined the UK facing such economic instability that its prime minister submits to a US takeover. Britain is occupied by US forces, sparking an uprising that eventually forces them to leave. Sir Keir Starmer’s defence investment plan (Dip) would not belong in Du Maurier’s novel, but has the same nightmare logic: a Britain adrift from Europe told that fiscal necessity and national security require deeper incorporation into American power.

It shows the strain inside Sir Keir’s government that the plan took a year to move from strategic defence review to partial funding plan. John Healey, the former defence secretary, resigned after deciding that the Treasury’s offer could not fund the strategy. His successor, Dan Jarvis, told MPs that the plan was worth £298bn over four years, which is £15bn above last year’s spending review settlement. Mr Jarvis said that he had secured £1.5bn more than was on offer when he arrived. Against the defence ministry’s demands, that looks less like a breakthrough than proof of why Mr Healey walked.

Prof Anne‑Marie Kilday of the University of Northampton highlights the value of universities for individuals and communities

I was pleased to read that the evidence is still incredibly strong that most graduates earn more than those without a degree, as pointed out in your editorial (The Guardian view on universities: public confidence in degrees is wavering – ministers should shore it up, 28 June). But the debate on earnings often overlooks a crucial point – widening access is one of the most effective levers for improving regional productivity and strengthening the national economy.

At the University of Northampton, our most recent assessment shows that we generate £366m of “gross value added”, a measure of economic activity similar to GDP, locally, rising to £823m nationally – more than £4 returned for every £1 of income. With the higher-education sector generating £52.3bn of income, any large-scale losses would first and foremost hit the public purse as well as further compound this country’s significant productivity problem.

Google search activity shows Andy Burnham has not put any upward pressure on borrowing costs, says Prof Costas Milas

“Believe Westminster, and the bond vigilantes are the ever-present, always hovering threat to political stability,” writes Aditya Chakrabortty (It’s not the bond markets Andy Burnham should be afraid of. It’s his own MPs, 25 June).

Indeed, there is unnecessary scaremongering regarding how bond vigilantes are reacting or will react to Andy Burnham’s economic policies. It all boils down to the Athenian statesman and orator Demosthenes, who noted 2,400 years ago that a state’s reputation is key to driving down the cost of borrowing and that therefore we should “maintain our character of being trustworthy” in all events. In practice, however, there is no evidence that Burnham is agitating markets.

Andy Burnham has a short window to demonstrate that he will follow a new path, writes Benjamin Selwyn

Andy Beckett is right to identify Andy Burnham as a figure on to whom renewed hopes might be projected (Burnham has brought hope back to Labour – but he must understand how quickly it can be punctured, 26 June). But those hopes must be understood in the shadow of Keir Starmer’s rapid dissipation of the electoral mandate secured in 2024.

That victory was built on a promise – implicit if not explicit – of material improvement. Instead, policies such as maintaining the two‑child benefit cap, cutting the winter fuel allowance, and failing to confront price gouging by utilities and supermarkets deepened the cost of living crisis for millions.

Readers respond to Andy Burnham’s speech at the People’s History Museum in Manchester that laid out his vision for Britain

We are told that regional devolution is the key to the UK’s growth and prosperity (Burnham sets out vision to transform Britain and fix ‘broken’ system, 29 June). But what are “regions”? Like nations, they have an objective reality (generated by geography, communications and economic activity) while also acquiring subjective allegiances (the inhabitants’ sense of belonging). In both cases, those allegiances can serve positive, progressive causes, or they can be exploited for narrow political advantage. George Orwell contrasted wholesome patriotism with chauvinist nationalism.

Similarly, “regionalism” can connote enlightened programmes of reform and regeneration (eg Liverpool), or it can serve the interests of political opportunists and their cronies (eg Teesside). Either way, regionalism cannot buck basic socioeconomic trends that sweep across the whole country, affecting some parts more than others: deindustrialisation, low investment and productivity, and inadequate public services (notably health and education).

Updates from Wednesday’s action in SW19
Order of play | Joint ends Williams comeback | Mail Daniel

Yara El-Shaboury was watching on No 2 Court, and has this quick report:

Naomi Osaka cruised to a second-round 6-3, 6-2 win against the Russian qualifier Anastasia Gasanova. There was little worry for the four-time grand slam champion, whose serves and groundstrokes were stellar as she makes it to the third round at Wimbledon in back-to-back years.

There was a small moment of frustration in the second set, with Osaka stating “What the hell?” after hitting the ball out, which garnered some chuckles from the No 2 Court crowd. She then turned to her team to complain about Gasanova’s grunting but got on with business to win in straight sets.

The Japanese was candid in her on-court interview about her nerves, saying: “​I don’t rate my performance. I have to wait a bit to do that. My current emotion is that I am happy to win. I am glad to do it in straight sets.

“Tomorrow is my daughter’s birthday so I didn’t want to make her get on a plane on her birthday. I will practise a bit in the morning and then maybe take her to the park. She loves making new friends.”

• Player’s lawyer says his client ‘has never paid for sex’

• Part of inquiry into a company’s ‘all-inclusive’ nights

The Inter and Italy defender Alessandro Bastoni is under investigation over alleged underage prostitution as part of an inquiry into an events company that organised “all-inclusive” nights for VIP clients at clubs, Italian prosecutors said on Tuesday.

According to investigators, Bastoni allegedly had sex with a 17-year-old girl who had been recruited by a company organising luxury events and dinners for VIPs in Milan. Prosecutors allege the owners of the agency, who are also under investigation, made private apartments available to clients, where they could have sex with underage girls.

The son of two vicars, the smart-cookie Saints forward is eager to front up to South Africa after a chat with their skipper

The general view in South Africa is that England do not fully understand what they are up against. To be a Springbok is to represent the hopes and dreams of millions and feel a uniquely powerful force. Siya Kolisi must have been taken aback, consequently, to be approached after a Test at Twickenham by a young English opponent seeking to arrange a chat on the subject of racial unity.

The curious Englishman was the Northampton forward Alex Coles, a player far removed from the average rugby jock. The son of two Church of England vicars – his mum, Olivia, writes her sermons on a Friday so she can attend his Saturday matches – he is a similarly firm believer in having a purpose in life beyond the weekend’s result.

Root and Stokes have been friends since they were children – now England’s leading Test scorer must go on even as Bazball comes to its end

Joe Root and Ben Stokes are great mates; they’ve played with each other since they were children representing Yorkshire’s and Durham’s youth teams. Root even confessed this week in a moving dressing-room tribute that Stokes had taught him his first swearword. There’s something symbolic in that, it feels almost like Stokes has been doing the same to English cricket over the past four years.

“It’s been a hell of a ride mate, I’ve loved every minute of playing alongside you,” Root says in the speech. “I’m so grateful I got to spend the journey with you.” Stokes is clearly choked up listening to his comrade pay tribute, and also wonderfully uncomfortable in that particularly English way when someone is being earnest and speaking from the heart.

Partnerships with Aston Martin, Red Bull and Haas mean students have a rare chance to make it in F1 after graduation

Unnoticeable amid the spectacle and heaving crowds at the British Grand Prix this weekend, the school that overlooks the circuit is a definitive success story and will continue its contribution to Formula One well into the future after the roar of the engines has receded.

Kian Brown and Savannah Morgan both graduated last year from the Silverstone University Technical College that facilitates a fast-track into engineering, and they have gone on to take positions with F1 teams. Brown is now a composite machining apprentice at Mercedes and Morgan is an advanced digital machining apprentice at Cadillac.

Cumbria police and National Trust appeal for information after young tree taken from Wray parkland and castle

A sapling taken from the Sycamore Gap tree has been stolen from the grounds of a castle just months after it was planted.

The Sycamore Gap tree, on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, was one of the UK’s best-known and most loved trees. It was criminally felled for no apparent reason on a stormy night in September 2023.

Two-seat Cessna aircraft was carrying out short flight experience when it crashed in Ongar on Tuesday, police say

Two people have died after a light aircraft on a “short flight experience” crashed in a field near Ongar in Essex, police have said.

The two-seat Cessna plane crashed in a field off Mill Lane, Ongar, on Tuesday after taking off from North Weald airfield about seven miles west, Essex police said.

Musician who now plays in From the Jam has vowed to ‘keep going and play live for as long as I’m able to do it’

Bruce Foxton, the former bassist of the Jam, has announced he has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

Acknowledging recent speculation about his health, Foxton posted on Facebook, explaining that complications from a previous cancer treatment “caused some significant issues” for him, ultimately leading to the Parkinson’s diagnosis.

Bloc’s ‘made in Europe’ regulations risk shutting out British manufacturers in ‘most spectacular own goal in history’

The EU’s car industry has called for the UK to be fully included in new “made in Europe” rules that threaten to shut out British manufacturers from their biggest export market.

The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (Acea) on Wednesday urged Brussels to give the UK, Turkey and Morocco “justified, targeted exemptions” to the rules, which will require cars and parts to be made within the EU to qualify for subsidies or public procurement.

The co-writer of enduring hits such as YMCA and Macho Man, who struggled with drug use and legal issues for years, passed away after ‘short but aggressive illness’

Victor Willis, the lead singer of the Village People, has died age 74. The group shared the news in a statement: “Victor passed on Monday 30 June 2026 of a short but aggressive illness,” they said. “Privacy is requested.”

The writer of what were widely accepted as canonical gay anthems in YMCA and Macho Man – also performed in costumes of hyper-masculine male stereotypes – Willis refuted the idea that YMCA was a gay anthem and threatened to sue “each and every news organisation” that made the claim.

European scientists warn of consequences for weather patterns, the global climate and marine life

Temperatures on the ocean surface have hit a record high, raising fears of another burst of extreme heat this summer.

On 21 June, temperatures outside the polar regions exceeded the extraordinary highs observed at the same time in 2023 and 2024, the Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Wednesday.

After a recent study found New Orleans is at a ‘point of no return’ amid the climate crisis, some locals say they will ‘only leave if forced to’. But what would it take to stay?

When a study in May concluded that New Orleans has hit a “point of no return” due to the climate crisis that will require people to eventually retreat from their storied yet ultimately doomed city, the local reaction was swift and fiery.

The onward march of rising seas around a sinking city was unsettling, but the study is “more focused on generating publicity and clickbait headlines” than coming up with solutions, said Helena Moreno, New Orleans’ mayor. There is flooding in Miami, and wildfires and earthquakes near San Fransisco, Moreno pointed out, “yet no serious movement exists to declare those cities lost causes”.

For decades Vieques was a bombing range, leaving a legacy of cancer clusters and unexploded munitions. Now residents fear the US military wants to reopen its bases

When the ferry docks in Vieques, a small island about 6 miles (10km) off Puerto Rico, the first person many tourists see is José Belardo, known as “Gato”, a retired police chief who now drives a taxi.

Driving to Esperanza, a town on Vieques’s southern coast, he points to Sun Bay, a popular beach, and to large cleanup tents behind a barbed-wire fence. Gato notes the wildlife preserve, riddled with unexploded munitions, and the health centre, recently built but without doctors. He mentions a woman walking by, whose husband recently died of cancer.

Past and present leaders of wealthy nations such as UK and Germany have argued their actions are insignificant

On first hearing, it is a position that sounds reasonable. “When our share of global emissions is less than 1%,” Rishi Sunak argued when he was the UK prime minister in 2023, “how can it be right that British citizens are now being told to sacrifice even more than others?”

Sunak is not the only world leader to have cited such figures while delaying cuts to pollution. In 2019, Scott Morrison, Australia’s then prime minister, used his country’s 1.3% of global emissions to reject any suggestion Australia was not “doing our bit” on climate breakdown. In July, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, pointed to his country’s 2% share of global emissions while supporting loopholes in European climate targets. A few months later the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, followed suit, flagging the EU’s 6% share.

New name recognises the playwright’s huge impact on British theatre with producer Sonia Friedman saying he would be ‘tickled pink’

The Duke of York’s theatre in the West End is to become the Tom Stoppard theatre in honour of the playwright who died in November.

The theatre is currently presenting Carrie Cracknell’s revival of Stoppard’s 1993 masterpiece Arcadia and the same play was produced there in 2009. The playwright’s wife, Sabrina Stoppard, said: “Tom was in his element whenever he had a play on in the West End, so I am thrilled to bits that this theatre will be named after him. It means that his memory will live on, not just through his plays, but also through this building.”

Culture secretary Lisa Nandy launches consultation on first changes to system in more than two decades

The government is to review the future of the national lottery for the first time in more than 20 years as the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, promised to give the public a greater say in how billions of pounds raised by ticket sales is spent.

“The national lottery is played by millions of people every single week. It is not just public money, it is literally the public’s money and they must be in the driving seat of how it is spent,” said Nandy.

• All 650 UK parliamentary constituencies analysed

• Girls living in cities the least likely to be active

Teenage girls are facing a postcode lottery regarding their access to sport, with those in urban areas missing out on 100 minutes of exercise each week compared with boys, a gap that falls to 75 minutes in rural communities.

New research from the consultancy Public First published on Wednesday reveals stark inequalities in participation across the UK, with girls living in cities the least likely to be active. The analysis also found participation gaps are larger among girls from ethnic minority backgrounds.

David Lammy’s decision to increase minimum sentence for domestic murder victims follows years of tireless lobbying

David Lammy had gone quiet. Sitting in his ministerial office in the Palace of Westminster, the justice secretary had just been presented with pictures of women killed by their partners in their own homes, by their grieving mothers.

As she put the photographs in front of him, Carole Gould explained that her 17-year-old daughter, Ellie, was killed by fellow sixth-former Thomas Griffiths the day after she ended their relationship in 2019. Julie Devey, who was joining the call remotely, showed a photograph of her daughter, Poppy Devey Waterhouse, who was 24 when she was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, Joe Atkinson, on 14 December 2018.

Consecrations by Society of Saint Pius X bring automatic excommunication for bishops – and crisis for Pope Leo

A rebel group of ultra-conservative Catholics has defied Pope Leo by ordaining bishops without his consent, which they declared a “sacred duty” despite it causing their automatic excommunication.

In a ritual-filled ceremony on Wednesday, streamed live from the Swiss village of Ecône, the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) went ahead with the consecrations of four bishops, one from Switzerland, one from France and two from the US.

Ukrainian leader among guests in Dublin as Micheál Martin says ‘we will stand unswervingly by your people’

Pistorius talks about changes in the German military reserve system, with “the Bundeswehr building up.”

He talks about reforms needed to allow to mobilise reservists better and more efficiently.

Move follows supreme court refusal to hear Trump’s appeal of civil case verdict in sexual abuse and defamation case

The New York journalist E Jean Carroll asked a judge on Tuesday to mandate that Donald Trump pay her the $5m she is owed from a jury verdict that found the US president liable for sexually abusing her in the 1990s and defaming her after she publicly described in 2019 being attacked by him in a city department store.

Lawyers for Carroll filed papers in a federal court in Manhattan one day after the US supreme court refused to hear Trump’s appeal of the civil case verdict in 2023.

Day trippers face fines for entering Austrian city’s old town during July and August to curb ‘chaotic traffic situations’

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Salzburg has begun enforcing a summer ban on visitors driving into its historic centre, picking up a policy modelled by other car-choked European cities plagued by overtourism.

Authorities in Austria’s fourth largest municipal area said they hoped the “less traffic, more city” restrictions in July and August would reduce the number of vehicle entries by 1,000 a day.

Unions reject proposed below-inflation increase which comes as corporation prepares to cut thousands of jobs

BBC staff fear a strike is on the horizon at the broadcaster after anger over a below-inflation pay rise offer made amid plans to cut thousands of jobs.

There is widespread consternation among staff at the offer of a 1% increase, seen as derisory given that inflation is running at almost three times that level.

Average price of typical home little changed at £277,484 in June, says Nationwide, while housebuilder shares fall

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UK house price growth stalled for a second consecutive month in June as rising interest rates triggered by the war in Iran hurt homebuyer demand and agents warned of a summer slump.

The average price of a typical UK home edged down to £277,484 last month from £278,024 a month earlier, after a 0.6% month-on-month fall in May, according to the lender Nationwide. Economists had forecast a small monthly rise of 0.1% in June.

Acquisition by Axel Springer ends three years of uncertainty over ownership of 171-year-old titles

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The European media group Axel Springer has completed its £575m takeover of the Telegraph, ending three tumultuous years of uncertainty over the future ownership of the 171-year-old titles.

The Germany-headquartered company, which gazumped the owner of the Daily Mail by tabling a blockbuster offer at the 11th hour, said it had now received all regulatory approvals in the UK, Ireland and Austria to take full control of Telegraph Media Group (TMG).

AI company was forced last month to suspend access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models for all foreign nationals

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Anthropic has restored customer access to its powerful newest AI model, Fable, after a more than two-week blackout resulting from US government safety concerns that it could be abused to enable serious cyber-attacks.

The San Francisco company said export controls had been lifted, citing a social media post from the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, in which he said: “Over the past two weeks, we have worked closely with Anthropic to analyze and approve Fable 5 to ensure alignment across the US Government and strengthen America’s leadership in AI.”

Her shocking performances and stunning images made Mendieta the talk of the art world in the 1970s and 80s. Then she fell from a New York apartment block in 1985 – and her husband was charged with murder. As a major exhibition comes to London, her friends discuss her genius and their search for answers

In the summer of 1985, Ana Mendieta was playing with gunpowder and a chainsaw. Just 5ft tall, the Cuban American artist worked outside her studio in Rome, trying to figure out the scale of a new commission for MacArthur Park, Los Angeles. Her idea was to cut up trees and burn the gunpowder directly into them, creating a totem “grove” inspired by her recent trips to neolithic sites. It was a breakthrough of sorts – permanent, monumental work that built on her performance art – and in a photograph of her standing next to a test piece, Mendieta looks proud, excited.

She had arrived in Italy two years earlier, after winning the prestigious Prix de Rome and a residency at its American Academy. She alienated half the staff, but fell in love with the city, driving like a local (right hand on the wheel, left middle finger out the window). Mendieta admired Roman women, mailing her friend, the film critic B Ruby Rich, a newspaper clipping of a pro-choice demonstration. “She said, ‘Look, they’re not like American women,’” remembers Rich. “‘They’re showing women butchered and dead from botched abortions. Look how much fiercer they are.’”

The original star is behind this TV spin-off, and the casting of charismatic Lexi Minetree. Sadly, the tropey script and lack of campness mean it fails to really sparkle

It’s 25 years since you became a bona fide film star. In the intervening quarter of a century you have stayed a respected actor and become a powerhouse producer. An appetite grows for teen-led dramas that for reasons of nostalgia or muscled ice-hockey players appeal to the generation or two above. You are Reese Witherspoon. What do you do?

Take down the Legally Blonde IP, dust it off and make a small-screen prequel to the box office hit that became a cult classic, of course! You maximise your chances of success by casting a charismatic mini-me (Lexi Minetree) who can capture all the sassiness and sweetness of the original protagonist, Elle Woods, and recreate the genius of your own performance by making her un-self-aware without being imbecilic.

All of these tales of murdered residents are horrifying. But the lack of attempt to really grapple with them makes this feel little other than filler TV

In Adventures in the Screen Trade, William Goldman’s account of his movie-writing career in Hollywood, Goldman remembers hearing a true story about a firefighter who went back in to save a baby he heard crying just as he was about to leave a burning building, escaping with the infant as it all started collapsing behind him. It was, Goldman says, an unbeatable tale of real-life heroism and someone, of course, tells him he should make a movie about it. The problem, Goldman notes, is that what this man did, in its astonishing entirety, is what the hero of a movie is expected to do before the opening credits even roll.

The same principle is true on the small screen. What is a legitimately huge, intensely dramatic and traumatic life-defining event for the people involved is easily flattened almost to nothingness by the demands of the medium. Such is the fatal flaw of second-tier true-life crime documentaries such as Worst Neighbor Ever. This four-part US-based addition to the genre tells four stories about ordinary people who had the terrible luck of finding themselves living alongside … well, the clue is in the title. And, in a country with questionable attitudes to gun control, it often ended in tragedy.

Channelling Bill and Ted, slacker buddies accidentally travel back to 2008, but open up a psychic wound which threatens their band’s existence

With its sheer goofball silliness, and unexpectedly great visual effects work, this ridiculous hellzapoppin’ spectacular from Canadian comic and director Matt Johnson will win you over. But if, like me, you’re coming to this from outside the existing fanbase for his web and TV comedy Nirvanna the Band the Show, you will need some time to catch up, and to acclimatise to the gags and the lo-fi klutz aesthetic. (Although, as I say, the downbeat indie look does cunningly coexist with some sensational digital trickery.)

Johnson had a breakthrough hit in 2023 with BlackBerry, about the once vital and then tragicomically obsolete handset device. Now he and his writing-performing partner Jay McCarrol give us a nerd comedy about time travel, inspired by Robert Zemeckis’s Back to the Future. But this comedy is not interested in BTTF’s Freudian observations about men’s relationship with women. In fact, women play zero role in this. It’s more in the infantilised male spirit of Mike Myers and Dana Carvey in Wayne’s World, or Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

Millie Bobby Brown returns, along with the creative team behind Adolescence, for an often thoughtful yet ultimately lesser threequel

Despite the ever-increasing size and dominance of Netflix, the streamer has continued to struggle with its most obvious aim. While viewers might flock there for smooth-brained dating shows, tawdry true crime, Harlan Coben thrillers and junky romcoms, the platform is yet to be known for creating original movie franchises, the bread and butter of most old-fashioned Hollywood studios, for better or worse.

The problem Netflix often faces is that to turn a big-budget bet into a cultural event, it requires more than a low-stakes click at home and a brief weekend’s worth of chatter. Big numbers might have met wannabe franchise-starters Red Notice and The Grey Man but a lack of real long-term interest has meant that sequels haven’t followed, while its most expensive film ever, the Chris Pratt vehicle The Electric State, sank with both audiences and critics. It’s why the success of last year’s KPop Demon Hunters, a genuine all-consuming juggernaut, was such an important win, even if the film technically started its life at Sony. A sequel is, of course, coming, although there always felt like something a little accidental about the first film’s transformation into pop culture phenomenon, as if no one quite knew just what they had on their hands.

As he prepares to play the UK, the 25-Grammy-winning musician (and Harvard law graduate) looks back on his astonishing journey from the barrios of Panama City to global stardom

“Well, I’ve been around,” says Rubén Blades, accurately. One of the most influential Latin musicians of the past half-century, the Panamanian singer-songwriter, 77, has been a defining force in salsa, collecting 25 Grammy awards – 13 Latin, 12 mainstream – and getting shout-outs from a new generation including Rosalía and Bad Bunny.

Blades has moved between music, law, politics and film as if they were all part of the same conversation. He has a Harvard law degree, made a presidential bid in Panama – he was also the country’s minister of tourism from 2004 to 2009 – and has had film roles alongside Jack Nicholson, Brad Pitt and Denzel Washington, all of which he sorted out on his own. “A manager would go crazy,” he laughs, his grey eyes crinkling on a video call from his home in New York City, ahead of a gig he’s playing in London.

‘Stevie Wonder and Prince played all the instruments on their albums, but in recording studios. I did it all in a back room at home – and then it won two Grammys’

I grew up as one of the YouTube generation, with the idea that you could create your own fanbase by making videos. So when I was about 17, I filmed myself in our family back room doing Stevie Wonder covers like Isn’t She Lovely, made up of six layered vocal parts sung by different versions of me, or Don’t You Worry ’Bout a Thing, where I played various instruments.

Glyndebourne, Sussex
This revival of Michael Grandage’s atmospheric production of Britten’s opera has numerous fine performances: Thomas Mole and Sam Carl are persuasive as Billy and Claggart, and Allan Clayton’s luminous Vere is a standout

Brutalist grey, its deck gently curved, HMS Indomitable looms over Michael Grandage’s production of Britten’s Billy Budd. Half-skeleton, half-cage, the ship is relentlessly claustrophobic, its hard edges softened only by coils of rope, hammocks and Paule Constable’s subtle, painterly lighting. No wonder the opera’s crowd of male bodies – clad here in spotless Napoleonic naval uniforms and grubby workwear – carries a palpable charge: visceral, violent, erotic. Thanks to the curved deck, those standing centre-stage of Christopher Oram’s set appear as if through a fish-eye lens or one of the officer’s telescopes. In this floating world at war, everyone is subject to scrutiny.

Premiered at Glyndebourne in 2010, Grandage’s production is now in the hands of revival director Ian Rutherford. The lines are firmly drawn between the goodness of the piece’s “angel” Billy Budd and the malevolence of its villain, John Claggart, whose “sexual discharge gone evil” (librettist EM Forster’s words) results in Budd’s death. Budd swings across the stage, lithe as a gymnast, unique in his physical ease. Claggart cowers and barks. The love “that could not speak its name” at the opera’s 1951 premiere has here found other ways to communicate; in one scene, Claggart bullies the terrified Novice in a chokehold that is simultaneously, unmistakably an embrace.

Nicky Woolf’s investigation into a rightwing YouTuber reveals much more than state interference in social media. Plus, why did a kid pretend to be Steven Spielberg’s nephew?

Lauren Southern tells journalist Nicky Woolf she feels as though she’s in a spy movie, “but the dumbest ever made, because I’m just a YouTuber”. Along with other members of the right-wing commentariat, the Canadian found herself linked with the Kremlin when a company she had worked for was revealed as a front for the Russian state. Her candour is striking, as Woolf’s investigation unfolds across six uneasy chapters. Hannah J Davies
Audible, all episodes out now

From classical painting to video games, this survey of the taboo and the twisted won’t let you look away

Museums are damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Ignore the problems of the past and they’re criticised for being problematic. Rewrite their labels according to changing politics and they’re called preachy and woke. The fact is, history is filled with immoral art. But how do we know it when we see it? And what, if anything, should we be doing about it?

In her timely and punchy new book, the philosopher Daisy Dixon explores some of the most controversial artworks ever produced. She’s interested in how an artist’s character can influence their creations, and the harmful effects those creations can have on the world.

Candice Carty-Williams, Patrick Freyne and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments

I just finished reading Wimmy Road Boyz by Sufiyaan Salam. I absolutely adored this book, a fantastic combination of violence and vulnerability set on Manchester’s Curry Mile. I became completely attached to the three main boys, and I loved all of the perspective shifts to different characters throughout the book. I fully weeped at the end – it was an unexpected but completely understandable ending. 10/10, everyone should read this.

Queenie Is Working on It is published on 2 July by Trapeze. To support the Guardian, order your copy from guardianbookshop.com.

Queenie’s ticking biological clock drives her chaotic misadventures in this sage and funny follow-up

A gynaecological examination is a good analogy for the kind of painful self-inspection at which Queenie Jenkins excels. The heroine of Candice Carty-Williams’s 2019 debut Queenie memorably begins that novel with a medical appointment for a mystery ailment that turns out to be a miscarriage. The sequel, Queenie Is Working on It, picks up the story eight years on, with the now 33-year-old Queenie back on the gurney, this time for a fertility checkup. “I didn’t realise they did condoms for anything other than … penises,” Queenie observes lamely as the unsmiling doctor sheaths a probe. Life has changed, but in many ways, Queenie has not.

Carty-Williams’s first novel about a stumbling Jamaican-British woman living in London, navigating romantic disaster and a mental health crisis, was a breakout bestseller. Reassuringly, her keen ear for female friendships – the deep affection, the stubborn solidarity, the ribald humour – endures, as does her understanding of how the particular experience of race suffuses the ordinary lives of Black women. These are the qualities that made Queenie feel unique and interesting in 2019. She remains so in 2026, but your patience for the new novel rather depends on your tolerance for her continued misadventures.

Robin Farquharson was a prize-winning game theorist, anti-apartheid activist and countercultural chaos merchant

Even as an undergraduate, Robin Farquharson was famous for being erratic. He provoked anxiety and goodwill in equal measure. His aim in life, according to an anonymous writer in an Oxford student newspaper, was “to become a contradiction in terms. Since last October, he has been cutting friends in the street; sleeping alternate nights in mysterious George Street garrets and obscure collegiate crypts.” The profile described his soul as “dogged, indomitable” and “fierce, incompatible”. Maybe. Later to become a prize-winning game theorist often hailed as a genius, he died aged just 42 in a squat fire on April Fools’ Day 1973. The poet Aidan Andrew Dun called him an “outsider among outsiders … a luminous ruin of a man”. For anti-psychiatrist RD Laing, he was “very intelligent and totally out of his fucking mind”.

Farquharson once joked he had been born a member of the master race in South Africa. He wasn’t entirely wrong. His father had founded a distinguished law firm in Pretoria; high-up politicians would regularly come over for dinner. He attended elite private schools – future pupils included the novelist Wilbur Smith and Elon Musk – and got himself a pilot’s licence even before, barely 16, he entered university. Later at Oxford he studied PPE, befriended Bertrand Russell and Rupert Murdoch (a self-declared Marxist at the time), and shared digs with future chancellor of the exchequer Nigel Lawson. Intellectually he was regarded as high-wattage but, about to land a starry All Souls College fellowship, he wrecked his chances by phoning the college warden to tell him he had a message from God he needed to share.

AI datacentres, memory scarcity and factory capacity are costing consumers –and console makers

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It was once a truth universally acknowledged that an ageing console in possession of good revenue must be in line for a price reduction. Those days may be over. In March, Sony announced a price increase of £90 for the PS5, while last month Microsoft informed gamers that it would be charging at least £75 more for the Xbox Series S and X consoles from August. All three were first released back in 2020. The Switch 2 will also be more expensive globally from September.

The main culprit, of course, is AI, or more specifically the exploding demand for semiconductors and memory to power datacentres. Console manufacturers could once source these components cheaply, but now they’re in high demand and manufacturers can’t keep up, so deals are being struck. “Initially, the wave of price increases seen in gaming were driven by tariffs imposed by Donald Trump early last year,” says Andy Robinson, editor in chief of gaming news site VGC. “Then, in October, OpenAI announced a deal with Samsung and [Korean chip manufacturer] SK Hynix to acquire a huge portion of their DRAM output for datacentres, causing prices to increase by almost 200%. According to Xbox, those prices have since doubled again, and they’re not expected to come back down any time soon.”

A preview of the forthcoming sci-fi game from Gareth Damian Martin showcases their unmistakable talent for innovation and game design

Over the past decade, an impression has taken root among gamers that any real creativity and originality in the industry is to be found in the indie, rather than mainstream, sector. Gareth Damian Martin can claim some responsibility for that. Their first game, 2020’s In Other Waters, merged sci-fi and underwater xenobiology in a uniquely calming and thought-provoking manner, while Citizen Sleeper (2022) and Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector (2025) were full-blown sci-fi epics with ultraminimal aesthetics and a rare intelligence.

Martin has broken with tradition by unveiling their next game, Signet City, far in advance of its 2027 launch. Set in a dystopian monochrome city, it’s a narrative role-playing adventure with a curious first-person perspective. “You play as a parasite,” says Martin. “And it felt natural that it should be a game where you see the world through the eyes of your hosts, very literally. You wake up in the mind of a person called Sid at the same time as she’s waking up in the river of a city. You’re coming to understand what you are, why it is that you’re in the mind of this person who doesn’t know that you’re there, along with what your capabilities are, and what the world is, through Sid.”

Normal Golf Game takes a tiresomely easy genre and makes it infernally difficult. Which deserves a round of applause

I have always struggled playing golf. I wish I didn’t. It’s a beautiful game in concept. A leisurely walk in the sunshine, slapping a ball around, sandwiches and beer consumed during and after play. Sure, you have to dress like Huggy Bear from Starsky and Hutch, and getting membership of an actual club is more complex than joining the Freemasons (although many offer a two for one deal with this), but you don’t have to be fit, you don’t have to even run. It is the only outdoor sport where a fat dad can be the best in the world.

The premise couldn’t be simpler: get the ball in the hole. But there is nothing worse in sport than knowing what you have to do and not being able to do it. Just ask amateur parachutists.

The blockbuster launch is expected to dwarf the box office takings of the year’s biggest movies with one industry analyst predicting it could make $1bn within an hour

It is, quite simply, the most anticipated piece of entertainment since the Star Wars prequels and now, at last, you can reserve a copy. At midnight last night, Rockstar opened preorders on Grand Theft Auto VI, the latest title in the epic open-world gangster adventure series, five months before its 19 November release date on PS5 and Xbox Series S/X.

Prices have also been confirmed, with the standard edition costing $80 in the US, £70 in the UK, and €80 in Europe. An Ultimate Edition (£90/€100/$100) will include exclusive in-game cars, clothes and weapons – the developer has confirmed that there will also be in-game stores that are only open to Ultimate owners. Anyone who pre-orders the game will get a Vintage Vice City pack filled with 80s apparel and other nostalgic items, which look to be straight out of Don Johnson’s Miami Vice wardrobe.

Donmar Warehouse, London
Tovey plays a lone officer in a control room dragged into a mysterious case in this gripping drama directed by Punchdrunk’s Felix Barrett

The Donmar has had mixed results adapting leftfield films such as Force Majeure and The Fear of 13. But this production, based on the 2018 Danish movie Den Skyldige (by Gustav Möller and Emil Nygaard Albertsen), is a fantastically theatrical experience, part crime thriller and part ghost story.

At 70 minutes, it is shorter than the film but arguably more devastating, with the kind of razor suspense that fills you with dread and leaves you palpitating. As a critic who takes copious notes, I emerged at the end of the show with a near empty notebook as I was too absorbed to look away.

Utopia theatre, Sheffield
Mojisola Kareem’s excellent production makes no concessions to this 50-seat space, bringing grand historical scope to a story of Nigeria in transition

Utopia is the smallest of theatres, its 50-seat space made all the more intimate by the raffia ceiling and drape-lined walls. Yet this town-centre unit holds the biggest of characters on its stage, a wooden platform designed by Sarah Lewis-Cole that floats above the ground as if to evade the flood waters of the Niger Delta.

They are big, in part, because of Wole Soyinka, whose 1958 play, unseen in this country for more than 50 years, has an archetypal ferocity. In a single act, he summons elemental forces: the twin brothers who have abandoned the family home for the big city; the blind stranger who arrives unannounced and is slow to declare his intent; the venal holy man, exploiting his status for personal gain.

Soho theatre, London
The co-host of Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update delivers an expertly constructed set of jokes about her quest to live a more embodied life

After serving an eye-catching apprenticeship in live comedy, Ania Magliano’s profile has now surged as co-host of SNL UK’s Weekend Update, a spoof news bulletin recalling to viewers of my vintage the work of the great Two Ronnies. Would Messrs Corbett and Barker have capitalised on TV success with a standup show about learning to love their sex organs? They would not – but times have changed. Magliano’s new set about living a more embodied life has all the qualities – great jokes; open and endearing personality; and very expert construction – to woo to her stage work the new fans she’s secured by cracking wise on the small screen.

The issue for the 28-year-old is alienation from her own body and its experiences. In Peach Fuzz, she looks longingly at other cultures, so much more corporeal than our own. But then, living in the UK, are there any bodily sensations worth savouring? There’s one obvious answer – but Magliano is already in therapy for her ambivalence about that, which is suggested here by a marvellously British and uncomprehending routine about an online sex influencer claiming to have experienced 27 consecutive orgasms. A later scene finds Magliano prompted by her counsellor to commune with her own genitals via an artfully held hand-mirror – as I dare say Descartes did when first theorising the mind-body problem all those years ago.

At Soho theatre, London, until 4 July. At Monkey Barrel, Edinburgh, 7-22 August and touring until 7 May

National Gallery, London
He painted leaves, grass and even bark with the precision of a chef applying a micro-garnish with tweezers. The result? Looking at his work feels a lot like eating your greens

Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (1793-1865) is regarded as one of the most important figures in 19th-century Austrian art; an influential and admired teacher, and a somewhat radical figure regarding the established Viennese Academy. He worked during the Biedermeier movement which spanned the end of the Napoleonic wars until 1848 when various revolutions shook the ruling Habsburg empire and Austrian political elite. Biedermeier reflected the tastes and aspirations of a rising bourgeois society; terribly nice landscapes, genre scenes, floral and portrait pieces for the upwardly mobile drawing room. Within these genteel confines, Waldmüller intently focused on a more unflinching mode of depiction, concerned more with accuracy and integrity than the sentimentalising efforts of his peers, while also criticising the Academy’s teaching methods and eventually in 1857 even calling for the abolition of all academies.

If this collection of relatively small, minutely detailed landscapes is representative of an impassioned, radical painter tearing up the rule-book, it is far from obvious from their tightly controlled, rather unimposing visual appearance. Each shows a vista of a specific location – The Ruins of the Temple of Juno Lacinia near Agrigento (1846), View of the Dachstein from the Sophien-Doppelblick near Ischl (1835) – accompanied by captions which systematically list topographical details of note, followed by some light technical analysis: for the latter, “Waldmüller has distinguished the successive elements in the landscape with distinct changes in tonality, from the soft green of the valley to the blue-grey of the most distant mountains.” In the show’s only portrait, 1828’s Self Portrait as a Young Man, which incidentally dwarfs everything else here in scale, the caption draws attention to “his delicate fingers proclaiming his sensitivity and talent”: delicacy and sensitivity are the operative descriptors for the entire show.

After her death this week aged 86, colleagues of The Good Life actor remember a star who remained kind, funny and grounded despite her formidable stage presence

Actor and artistic director at Shakespeare’s Globe

Jamir Nazir’s The Serpent in the Grove, which critics allege has ‘obvious markers’ of AI use, was described as ‘original, poetic and deeply moving’ by the judging chair

A story widely accused on social media of being written using AI has gone on to win the overall Commonwealth short story prize.

Jamir Nazir’s story The Serpent in the Grove went viral after being named as a regional winner in mid-May, with critics on X and Bluesky claiming it showed “obvious markers” of AI use. The literary magazine Granta subsequently pulled out of its long-running agreement to publish the Commonwealth winners.

Egyptian photographer and curator Farida Mahdy was inspired to document her grandmother’s style after finding a collection of her photos

This image is a portrait of me and my grandmother, Ehsan Ouf, in her flat in Cairo. It is part of a project Grandma and the Fur Coat that I started in 2024. I lived with her for four years, while I was studying photography, and we spent a lot of time chatting and watching TV on that couch.

The dress I’m wearing is her engagement dress from 1971 – one of the very few items she wore as a young woman that she still has – and the fur coat she’s wearing was a gift from my late grandfather. I persuaded her not to sell it – and that is partly why I decided to start this project: to document how stylish she was. In the 70s and 80s she dressed like a celebrity, wearing brands such as Chanel and Dior. She had a collection of wigs, and even matched the colour of her cigarettes to her outfits.

For months I’ve been trying to receive my FIT payment, which should be more than £1,000

I moved into my new house 14 months ago, and soon afterwards applied to ScottishPower, with whom the solar panels are registered for a feed-in tariff (Fit), for transfer of ownership of the panels and the tariff.

After many emails back and forth, I got a response saying they had all the information required.

Always wondered what everyday stuff celebrities buy, where they shop for food and the basics they scrimp on? The skincare expert talks vinyl, McDonald’s tea and the body lotion she buys on repeat with the Filter

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Caroline Hirons started her career working at the Aveda counter in Harvey Nichols before launching her successful skincare blog in 2010, which has since amassed more than 160m views.

Her debut book, Skincare, was a Sunday Times bestseller. Caroline launched her skincare app, Skin Rocks, and her skincare brand of the same name in 2022.

Potion kits, walkie-talkies and interactive pets … here are our top picks for seven-year-olds (without a Labubu in sight)

• The best gifts for six-year-olds

There are seemingly endless gifts available for seven-year-olds, which can make the choice feel overwhelming. This probably stems from their growing individuality. At this age, most children are becoming more independent and confident and can play on their own or with friends, without full adult supervision.

“At seven, children start getting into things such as kits, puzzles, cooking and sports,” says Rachel Carrell, CEO of the childcare company Koru Kids. “The key here is to pick things that stretch patience and perseverance without feeling like homework.”

Most swimwear relies on synthetic fibres, but some brands are taking steps to reduce their impact. We’ve rounded up the best bikinis, swimsuits and men’s trunks made from recycled and alternative materials

• The best sunglasses with UV protection

If your summer holiday is beckoning, you may have swimwear on your mind. And if you want to get some new gear with your responsible hat on, you may feel out of your depth. Swimwear needs to work hard, stretching to fit us and our movements, while withstanding tough environments like salt water, sunlight and chlorine. This generally means our bathers will be made from a human-made, petroleum-based fibre like nylon or polyester, but are there more environmentally friendly options out there?

“Better [swimwear] should first and foremost mean longer lasting and higher quality,” says Helen Lofts, a circular economy advocate and founder of the swimwear brand Davy J. “Nylon and polyester fibres are incredibly hard-wearing and robust but the elastane they’re woven with to form a stretch fabric is often not. The quality and density of the fibre weave within the fabric will determine how robust they are.” This means cheap, thinner swimsuits will start to go see-through and degrade much quicker than those with quality lining and a tighter weave.

From frozen hot-water bottles to a frizzy hair hack – our fashion team share their wisdom

• The best summer sandals for men and women

On a typical day in high summer you’ll come across two types of people: those who suffer and those who revel. Perhaps you’re a bit of both – you love beaches, but hate hay fever. Or perhaps you burn in the sun, but live for the longer nights sipping pink gin outside.

Believe it or not, there are elements of summer that even the Guardian’s fashion desk struggles with, which is why we’ve compiled this summer survival guide.

Essential new titles for your kitchen shelf – plus a classic to rediscover

Istanbul
Özlem Warren (Quadrille, £28)

Transform double cream that’s on the turn into a tangy, luxurious addition to both sweet and savoury dishes

Homemade mascarpone is one of life’s true pleasures: thick, creamy and unctuous, with a classic, tart finish, it’s perfect for everything from desserts such as tiramisu, cheesecake or whipped mascarpone cream to savoury dishes such as pasta, risotto or soup. Mascarpone is a simple cream cheese that’s made by heating, acidulating and straining double cream, and it’s quick and easy to make at home; it’s also a great way to extend the shelf life of leftover cream, while at the same time turning it into a real treat. Even a small batch of 100-200ml cream will produce just enough mascarpone to make many a savoury dish sing, for instance in my pea pod risotto or salad bag soup, or to serve alongside my root vegetable latkes.

Whether you’re firing up midweek or taking your time with a weekend feast, try these five fabulous recipes to get you started cooking over the coals

• Get barbecue-ready with Melissa Thompson’s guide

I dabbled in barbecue for years before I got my first proper grill with a lid and vents. It was a gamechanger; I could control the airflow (to make it hotter or cooler), and the lid transformed the grill into a sort-of oven, enabling slower cooks (rather than only fast grilling). No longer was I starting chicken in my indoor oven before finishing it over the coals – I could do the whole thing outside.

I found myself lighting the grill more and more, seeking that flavour that only comes with fire and smoke, but also relishing the fact it took me outside. Nowadays, I cook everything over fire, from fish and shellfish to vegetables, beans, meat, even desserts. Fire cooking feels both instinctive and exciting because no two cooks are ever the same. People tell me they find barbecuing scary, and I understand because I once felt like this, too. But with a few basic tips, such as “zoning” your barbecue, anyone can become a pro. I truly believe that by starting to barbecue we’re not learning a skill, but re-learning something we’ve forgotten.

Long before becoming TikTok’s latest main character, food cultures around the world have been soaking and stewing beans to delicious effect. And yes, you can tone down the side-effects

For months, TikTok home cooks have been spilling the beans on the nutritional power of soaking and simmering pots of cannellini, borlotti and black beans. There are more than 13,000 TikTok videos under the hashtag #beantok, with cooks claiming the humble legumes have alleviated their anxiety, perimenopause and inflammation. Pair that with “fibremaxxing”, and the bean has found itself recast from back-of-the-pantry afterthought to wellness main character.

But for many cooks and chefs, none of this is new. Many beans we eat today are native to the Americas and arrived in Europe by the 16th century, and were so readily adopted into Mediterranean cooking that it’s now hard to imagine those cuisines without them. “The Tuscans are even known as ‘mangiafagioli’: bean eaters,” says food writer Emiko Davies, who points out that beans were once the everyday nutrition of a largely peasant population.

Graham and Josephine were friends for years, but after their spouses died they discovered a mutual attraction – and a fondness for adventurous sex

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

Our sexual preferences cover everything from vanilla to being tied up and spanked

You say you don’t put him under pressure, but he seems to feel it. Could you be overcompensating for your initial reluctance to have children?

My husband and I have one son, in his late 20s. We’ve always been devoted to him, keep in touch on a weekly basis and see him about once a month (he has a busy job and has recently started a new relationship, which seems to be making him very happy).

I never really wanted children, possibly due to my traumatic childhood: an absent, mentally ill father; and a single, emotionally imbalanced mother who made me the centre of her life. When my husband talked about having children, I gave it careful consideration and decided in the end to give it a go. Once our son was born, I embraced motherhood fully. We both adore him.

Philip, 74, an antiquarian book dealer, meets Carol, 66, who is retired

What were you hoping for?
Reciprocated love at first sight (I don’t ask for much in this life). To meet a kindred spirit who might even become a partner.

First Liza Shaw and Rohan were housemates, then they had a casual relationship. But a protest at Woomera would deepen their emotional connection

• Find more stories from the moment I knew series

I met Rohan in 1998 in Lismore, New South Wales, where we were both going to university. Before that, I’d noticed him around town in his sarong and peacock feather earrings. He was distinctive and slightly dandyish, sometimes wearing dresses on campus. I had another partner at the time but our mutual friend introduced us, and Rohan and I became housemates.

We bonded living together and hosting dinner parties, where we’d talk about life and politics well into the night. I was intrigued by his friends. One time Rohan invited a member of the Black Panthers to come and stay at our house.

Trusted by millions, the finance expert has seen his name and face used to mis-sell a string of fake investments. And yet, he says, it would be ‘very simple’ for the government to stop them

This month, an email from a consumer landed in Martin Lewis’s inbox. It was from an elderly woman with a disability who had been scammed when she invested in a scheme purportedly endorsed by Lewis – and lost her life savings. “THEY ARE BASTARDS!” Lewis wrote at the top of his social media post about it. Even though the personal finance expert is a veteran campaigner against fraud, he says he had “tears running down my face”. He still sounds upset. “I felt a mixture of frustration, anger and sadness.” Not only for the plight of the woman, but for the “constant, ongoing deluge of shit from the scammers”.

Lewis never advertises anything. To hammer home the point, his social media profile picture has the words “I don’t do ads” tattooed on his forehead. But still, people fall victim to deepfake videos and frauds that appear to show him offering investments. The scale of harm is great enough that MoneySavingExpert (MSE), the company Lewis founded in 2003 and sold in 2012 for up to £87m – he is now its executive chair – has someone full-time handling these cases.

The car lease company won’t rescind my contract because it says the vehicle is driveable. The only problem is, it won’t even charge

My brand new Peugeot EV stopped working within a fortnight of delivery.

The dealer postponed the repair appointment by a month because it was too busy. Peugeot Assist, operated by the RAC, eventually collected it for repair under warranty two weeks ago, but it never reached the dealer.

Research suggests travel scams are on rise as experts advise doing some detective work to make sure holidays are real

Holidaymakers have been advised to carry out amateur detective work to ensure they do not book into fake accommodation this summer, as research showed a third of travellers had seen an increase in potential travel scams on social media.

Consumer experts have urged holidaymakers to do a reverse image search on photographs of holiday homes and check their locations on an online map to verify they are real.

Designed to mirror the stock market, they are an easy and cheap way to save. Here’s how to start investing in them

Tracker funds have been around for about half a century, providing investors with access to a range of assets without them having to make difficult and risky decisions.

Built to follow the fortunes of a given financial market index, trackers do not need management teams, which means they generally come with low charges. If you have a workplace pension, you probably already invested in one without realising it. If you want to start investing, you are likely to be directed towards a tracker fund.

Polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome is underdiagnosed and inconsistently managed, according to Nice

Up to 4 million women with irregular periods should be investigated for polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, according to new NHS guidance.

PMOS, previously known as polycystic ovarian syndrome, is believed to affect up to 13% of reproductive age women, the World Health Organization estimates.

Holistic care for incurably ill people has to include discussions about death and dying – but getting there is hard

It could be her usual generosity or disquiet, subtly disguised, but she leads by asking about “the kids”. Mine, not hers.

The question from a patient who has known me for years is a reminder that goodwill in medicine goes both ways. I scroll to a photo of my daughter, flanked by her brothers.

British-born, older men among those most likely to have disease found only postmortem, say researchers

One person a week dies with undiagnosed and therefore untreated tuberculosis in England, a study has found.

British-born, older men were among those most likely to have TB diagnosed only after death, researchers said, suggesting healthcare workers could be overlooking the possibility of the disease in these patients.

The hotter it gets, the faster our bodies lose water. Obviously, we need to replace it – but is anything better than plain H₂O? And does timing matter? Here’s what the science says

Hydration is important. In temperatures like those we’re increasingly seeing in much of the world, sweating can be the only way for our bodies to cool down, and our thirst isn’t always the best indicator of how much water we’ve lost or need. The consequences of not being sufficiently hydrated as temperatures creep towards the 40s can be severe, and can kick in much faster than most people realise. The good news is that remembering to drink plenty of water at regular intervals throughout the day will be enough for most people to avoid the worst. But if you’d like to understand why dehydration is so dangerous, whether you really need extra electrolytes, or if a cup of tea really can cool you down, read on.

To start with, it’s helpful to understand that our bodies are producing heat – and therefore losing water – all the time. “All the cells in our body are constantly using fuel for energy for various different processes, whether that’s movement or just staying alive,” says Dr Lewis James, a lecturer in sport, exercise and health sciences at Loughborough University. “About 75 to 80% of the energy that we use appears as heat.” If we didn’t have any way of dissipating this heat, then even lying on the couch would see your body temperature rise about 1.3C in a single hour (already enough to make you noticeably feverish) – but of course, we do. Normally, we lose a decent amount of heat through a combination of convection and radiation: the blood vessels in our skin dilate, allowing the blood to be cooled by the outside air. The problem is that when the external temperature goes up, this process becomes less effective and eventually stops working altogether. At this point, our main way of losing heat is through sweating: our bodies produce tiny droplets of warm water mixed with trace minerals, which (usually) evaporate on contact with the air, drawing heat away from the skin in the process. And as we rely more on sweating, it’s increasingly important to replace the fluids our bodies are losing.

This antioxidant may enhance the protection sunscreens provide, but it is no substitute for them

Sunscreen does two important jobs. It is largely used for its UVB protection benefits – blocking the rays that cause sunburn and are a major contributor to the development of skin cancer. But it also blocks UVA radiation, filtering out the rays that lead to signs of ageing.

Vitamin C does neither of these things, says Rosalind Simpson, a professor of dermatology at the University of Nottingham. That said, it is thought to help prevent sun damage in a different way.

Callum Turner wore one for three-day wedding to Dua Lipa, but the perennial favourite has never really gone away

If Dua Lipa’s Chanel wedding dress was among the most anticipated fashion moments this summer, her new husband Callum Turner’s wardrobe is proving just as influential. But forget the bespoke Louis Vuitton morning suit – it’s all about his polo shirts, which he wore in Palermo during the couple’s lengthy nuptials this month.

Turner’s polo of choice is a £75 terrycloth version by the French brand Octobre Editions, but he is far from the first to champion the preppy top that spans celebrity, sport and politics alike. During England’s first game at the World Cup against Croatia, the team’s manager, Thomas Tuchel, wore a merino wool polo shirt from Marks & Spencer. Pundits watching World Cup games – including Gary Neville and Patrick Vieira – were also wearing polos. For their post-match assessment of the Netherlands v Japan match, Roy Keane, Ange Postecoglou and Neville each wore a polo shirt in mint green, cream and beige respectively. And just last weekend, Andy Burnham appeared shortly after his Makerfield byelection win wearing a blue polo shirt with jeans and Birkenstocks.

As Andy Burnham stuck to his ‘cool dad’ look while the UK sweltered, many in the Paris fashion pack did the same

For many, dressing for an extreme heatwave means wearing as little as possible. But for some men, not even record-breaking temperatures can dissuade them from pulling on their favourite pair of jeans.

This week as temperatures in the UK rose sharply on the back of the climate crisis, Andy Burnham stuck to his tried and tested “cool dad” combination of dark jeans with a dark blue (not black as he pointed out to Kemi Badenoch) T-shirt as he made his way to London to be sworn in as MP for Makerfield.

Brollies are becoming year-round must-haves, as designers from Burberry to Blunt cater to people ducking out of the sun

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A bottle of water and a handheld fan are regularly deployed to keep cool while out and about in hot weather. With temperatures reaching record levels for June, though, a new heatwave accessory has emerged: the sunbrella.

On high streets around the country, people wielding umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun have become a common sight. On Thursday, as the Austrian Grand Prix declared a heat hazard, Lewis Hamilton was spotted in the paddock holding a Ferrari red umbrella that matched his race suit. And they’re popping up on catwalks, too. At the Dior show during Paris fashion week on Wednesday, guests including the actors James Marsden and Mike Faist were handed large cream umbrellas to help ease their discomfort as temperatures hit 38C.

With the British Museum’s blockbuster Bayeux tapestry exhibition opening soon, we follow in the footsteps of William the Conqueror and King Harold’s armies around Battle and Rye

‘Uh oh, look at these!” I call to my friends, Annie and Mike. “Ominous,” remarks Annie. Mike raises an eyebrow. We’re hiking the Pevensey Levels, marshland first drained in 772, home now to sheep and cattle, but also water spiders, living underwater in air-filled webs. The ground is pocked with endless impressions of horseshoes.

“It’s almost as if an army came this way,” I say.

From a less-crowded camino and the Slovenian Alps to a stunning river trail and Ireland’s remote Beara peninsula

Distance up to 74 miles
Duration 3-9 days

A landscape of forbidding peaks west of Bilbao plays host to an improbable world full of wild flowers, animals and resilient cheesemakers

Halfway across the first glacial depression, I leave the footpath to stand on a snow patch, disturbing a spider that runs off across the frozen crystals. A few yards farther along, the mountainside is awash with colour: tiny Alpine flowers alive with bees and crickets in a world surrounded by jagged peaks. A pair of chamois watch from a crag, then clatter off up an almost vertical face. Having stopped walking, I’m cooling down fast and put on a jacket. I am in Spain, I tell myself, during a European heatwave.

When I tear myself away from the wildlife, my hiking group are distant dots on a path that is snaking up a wall of rock. This is the Picos de Europa mountain range in northern Spain, a cluster of peaks rising to more than 2,500m and famed for the steepness of its slopes. I set off in pursuit, catching up with the group as they scramble over a ridge to find an unexpected view: a gun turret from a second world war aircraft carrier that is now a mountain refuge hut. (Cabin Verónica was cut from the USS Pulau in 1961 at a Bilbao breakers’ yard and dragged up here by mule.)

These traditional restaurants are the culinary backbone of this gastronomic capital, but finding the real deal means tackling offal – and red wine – for breakfast

I first went to a bouchon as a 20-year-old Erasmus student. I’d accidentally ended up spending a semester of my year abroad in the Auvergne countryside, which meant every weekend I’d thumb a ride to the nearest big city – Lyon. I didn’t know much about Lyon, except that it was famous for its food – in particular the hearty fare served up at these traditional restaurants with their red gingham tablecloths and chalkboard menus. So when I found myself eating stringy, overpriced beef muscle that cost more than my night at a hostel, I wondered what the hype was about.

But after nearly five years living in the city, I’ve now learned how to avoid the tourist traps (which largely line Vieux Lyon between souvenir shops selling fridge magnets and sweet shops). Historically, most bouchons weren’t in Lyon’s old town anyway, writes Yves Rouèche in Histoire(s) De La Gastronomie Lyonnaise, but in the neighbourhoods of Vaise, Croix-Rousse and La Guillotière, the gateways to the city in the Renaissance period where merchants and travellers stopped for the night.

Slimmer, longer lasting and much easier to live with, new Oura sets a very high new bar for health-tracking wearables

Oura’s new Ring 5 is a massive upgrade for smart rings, dramatically shrinking in size and weight to bring them right into line with standard wedding bands and other jewellery. It is finally a smart ring you can genuinely forget you’re wearing.

The Ring 5 is a straight replacement for the popular Ring 4 and costs from £399 (€399/$399/$A649), though it requires a £5.99 (€5.99/$5.99/A$9.99) a month subscription to access anything but basic daily metrics. An Oura is not a cheap proposition.

Got a stick in a pot that you’re tempted to bin? All it needs is this little-known signal to flower again …

The problem
Most of us have bought an orchid, enjoyed its flowers, then been left with a couple of leaves and a bare spike. Many assume the show is over and bin it or leave it on the sill out of guilt, watering it occasionally while expecting nothing. There it sits, dormant, waiting for a signal most people never think to give.

The hack
Phalaenopsis orchids rebloom in response to a temperature drop. In their natural habitat, a cooler spell signals the change of season and triggers the plant to produce a new flower spike. Recreating that shift is the prompt most orchids are waiting for, and it’s simpler to do than you might think.

If you both agree on a date when you will either commit to one another or move on, you can avoid a drawn-out breakup or years of loveless coupledom – in theory

Name: The sunset stipulation.

Age: About six months.

She was the friendliest dog you can imagine – with an insatiable appetite for jeans, table legs and steering wheels. I will always miss that floppy-eared destroyer

Holly, my hyperactive mad hatter of a beagle, was a gift from my well-meaning sister. She was born into a beagle pack who were kennelled in a dog food factory in the Irish town of Edgeworthstown in County Longford. She bounded into my life one sunny evening, a bouncing, dribbling, velvet-eared bundle of puppy energy.

From the moment I laid eyes on her, it felt as if we were meant for each other. She quickly figured out that I was a softie, with an abundance of patience and access to her food.

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

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

Shannon LaNier, Jefferson’s sixth great-grandson, reflects on his lineage and the role of African Americans in the nation’s founding

When the US turns 250 years old on Saturday, Shannon LaNier will be reckoning with a fundamental contradiction in its origin story – and his own.

LaNier is the sixth great-grandson of Thomas Jefferson, the founding father who wrote the Declaration of Independence and became the third president.

It feels as if we are being abandoned to our fate by those in power, with further extreme heat expected next week

In the summer of 2019, I had a “fun” idea for a piece. Paris was due to experience its hottest day in history, and I proposed travelling around the city trying out its various cooling-off strategies to see if they would help. Reader, it was not fun and they did not help.

Last week, Paris experienced its worst period of catastrophic heat on record, worse than that day in 2019, and worse than in 2003, when a sustained heatwave killed nearly 15,000 people. I now live in a neighbourhood in Seine-Saint-Denis, the poorest département in mainland France and one of the most exposed to extreme heat, and, to add to the complications, am seven months pregnant. So how did my week go this time?

Since 2017, Iason Gabriel has worked at the tech giant, trying to anticipate – and think through – the impact of AI. But as commercial and geopolitical pressures escalate, can ethicists make any difference?

In 2017, a 33-year-old political philosopher named Iason Gabriel was told by a friend that he ought to apply for a job at DeepMind, the London-based subsidiary of Google where much of its AI research was concentrated. The suggestion was not an obvious one.

Gabriel was a cheerful but intense junior academic with a passion for Vipassana meditation and what his brother calls “enthusiastic” rock climbing. The eldest son of a Greek management professor and a British documentary maker, Gabriel split his time between teaching and international development work. At the University of Oxford, where he was a fellow at St John’s College, Gabriel taught courses on political theory and wrote papers on the moral contortions of “yuppie ethics” and the ethical blind spots of effective altruism. When he wasn’t there, he did crisis work for the United Nations Development Programme in Sudan and Lebanon.

We’re interested in hearing from people who have bought gold coins, bars or other precious metals through specialist dealers or online brokers

The Guardian is interested in hearing from people who have bought gold or other precious metals through specialist online dealers or brokers, including gold coins, bullion or investment products.

We would like to hear from people about what prompted you to invest and how was the buying process? Was your experience what you expected?

Do you have a burning question for Guardian columnist Marina Hyde? Now’s your chance to ask it

Ahead of the publication of Marina Hyde’s new book, What A Time To Be Alive! Scenes From A Strange Age, this autumn, we’re giving readers the chance to ask Marina anything.

Whether you have a burning question for our columnist or want her take on one of the biggest stories of the moment, send it our way and we’ll put it to her. What would you like Marina’s view on? From politics to pop culture, celebrity scandals to the state of the world, no topic is off limits.

Burnham announced that as UK prime minister he would set up a ‘No 10 North’ in Manchester to oversee a devolution of power and resources across the UK

Andy Burnham’s tenure as mayor of Manchester has come to an end after nine years. But after his Makerfield byelection victory, the PM-in-waiting plans to maintain his links with the city by setting up a “No 10 North” in Manchester to oversee a devolution of power and resources across the UK.

Burnham has asked Caroline Simpson, the chief executive of the Greater Manchester combined authority, to lead the new No 10 North and help put his vision of “Manchesterism” into practice.

We would like to hear from Cape Verdeans in the UK and across the globe on the team’s progress in the tournament

Cape Verde is enjoying a fairytale World Cup, with their performance becoming the story of the tournament.

There was the shock 0-0 draw with Spain in their tournament debut. Then on Sunday, there was another when they drew 2-2 with two-time champions Uruguay in Miami. After drawing 0-0 with Saudi Arabia in Houston, they have reached the round of 32.

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